From gliding through the skies to churning beneath the waves; off-roading troop transports to effortless Doom Buggies; spinning SCOOPS to flying benches… we celebrated the most spectacular ride systems ever developed in our special Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World feature…
But in all the decades of innovation that have created new ways to whisk guests away into haunted mansions, ancient temples, comic book cityscapes, and underwater caves, there are still spectacular attractions scattered around Disney and Universal parks using a much simpler mode of transportation: your own two feet.
Walkthrough attractions have been around for more than a century, from early laff-in-the-dark Bill Tracy Whacky Shacks to esteemed and historic Noah’s Arks. In fact, Walt originally envisioned both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion as walkthrough experiences until emerging ride technologies offered higher-capacity ways to cycle guests through experiences. Still, walkthroughs remain across Disney and Universal parks, from sweet asides to special effects spectaculars. Here are some of our favorites…
1. Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Location: Disneyland
Open: 1957 – 2001; 2008 – present
Sleeping Beauty Castle has been the icon of Disneyland since 1955 – four years before Sleeping Beauty would debut in theaters! Still, the castle was one of the first areas where Walt himself saw lost potential. A smaller upper level inside the petite, forced-perspective castle had been used as storage when Walt challenged his designers to find a better use for the space. Before the park’s second birthday, a walkthrough opened there, inviting guests to step through highly artistic dioramas retelling the tale of Sleeping Beauty in a style reflecting that of the film’s production designer, Eyvind Earle.
The dioramas were redesigned in 1977 (though fans criticized the ’77 move away from Earle’s style and toward dioramas better fit for the windows of the Emporium), but the entire display closed on October 1, 2001 – some said, as a precautionary measure after the attacks on New York a month earlier. In truth, a mix of safety, operations costs, and accessibility issues probably played a role. In a surprise to fans, the walkthrough re-opened in 2008, with entirely new displays again reflecting Earle’s style, but infused with 21st century technology. The walkthrough remains a charming “hidden gem” of Disneyland.
2. Les Mystères du Nautilus
Image: Disney
Location: Disneyland Paris
Open: 1992 – Present
Given that a stark white Tomorrowland echoing the American Space Age would be of little interest to Europeans, designers of Disneyland Paris went back to basics… literally. There, Discoveryland is a golden sea-and-space port inspired by classic 19th century literature. With a Victorian steampunk style reflecting the future as envisioned from the past, the land includes multiple allusions to Jules Verne (once including the Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre a la Lune). In the bubbling geothermal lagoon outside Space Mountain is docked the Nautilus, Nemo’s fabled ship from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Descending down a spiral staircase, guests appear to cross under the lagoon and into the Nautilus, open for a full walk-through tour that includes the Ballasts Compartment, the Charts Room, the Diving Chamber, the Engine Room, and – most legendary of all – the Grand Salon where a massive shutter porthole opens occasionally to reveal an attack by an Audio-Animatronic giant squid, repelled at the last moment by an electrical charge.
3. Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour
Image: Disney
Location: Tokyo Disneyland
Open: 1986 – 2006
There’s perhaps no stranger Disney Parks attraction to have ever been built than Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, located in Tokyo Disneyland’s copy of Magic Kingdom’s iconic castle. A guided walkthrough led by a Cast Member, the tour initially promised views into the castle’s ballrooms, towers, and galleries until a villanous interruption by the Magic Mirror leads to a spooky descent into the castle’s dark corridors and dungeons.
Guests are guided through the Wicked Witch’s dark magic laboratory, past shivering suits of armor and ancient torture devices, reanimated skeletons, ghouls from Maleficent’s army, and – oddest of all – a finale built around 1985’s The Black Cauldron (the film now synonymous with almost killing Disney animation entirely) and its absolutely terrifying villain, the Horned King. The whole experience was expertly chronicled by our friends at Defunctland.
The Mystery Tour was replaced by the much more sedate Cinderella’s Fairytale Hall walkthrough, melding dioramas, interactive props, and photo opportunities somewhat like Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty version. However, Tokyo’s benefits from taking place in and around the grand space in the castle where Florida guests would expect Cinderella’s Royal Table restaurant to be.
4. Boudin Bakery Tour
Location: Disney California Adventure
Open: 2001 – Present
When the Declassified Disaster: Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, executives hoped to position the park as the “grown-up” alternative to Disneyland, keeping the park low on rides and Disney characters, and instead emphasizing pop culture, food, wine, and beer. Take the Pacific Wharf area, themed after San Fransisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row. From day one, the park offered a a replica of Boudin’s sourdough bread factory (as well as a Mission Tortilla Factory tour) inviting guests to literally step along the factory process from mother dough to finished product. The real, actual bread is then used in bread bowls and sandwiches at the Pacific Wharf Cafe!
The Bakery Tour survived California Adventure’s 2012 reopening, and even managed to keep its most beloved feature: free samples on sourdough bread for each guest as they enter! Another holdover from two decades ago? The tour is “hosted” by Colin Mochre and Rosie O’Donnell – C-list stars on ABC at the time the park opened.
5. Tom Sawyer Island
Image: Disney
Location: Disneyland
Open: 1956 – Present
Opened just a year after Disneyland itself, Tom Sawyer Island is today a hallmark of any visit to the parks in Anaheim, Orlando, or Tokyo. And in keeping with the decades-old traditions, the island is packed with imaginative play experiences like floating barrel bridges, spooky caves to explore, docks, climbable forts, and more.
Though fans groan when the extra-cautious Disney occasionally removes some of the islands’ “wilder” features (like see-saws, merry-go-rounds, ladders, or treehouses), it’s nothing if not astounding that Disney continues to expend precious real estate in the top three most well-attended theme parks on Earth for open-play islands that lack merchandising, are accessible only by cast-operated raft, and that look… well… pretty much how they did in Walt’s time.
That said, Disneyland’s island became “Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island” in 2007 – excused away as “Tom and Huck playing an imaginary game of pirates,” but really a ham-fisted attempt to add Pirates of the Caribbean experiences to the island (which actually did enhance the experience with new interactives). Since both Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland set their Adventurelands in the spot normally reserved for Frontierland, they both have explorable islands too, featuring Swiss Family Robinson and Tarzan’s Treehouses respectively, but their “Adventure Isles” are connected to the park via bridges, not rafts.
6. Fortress Explorations
Image: Disney
Location: Tokyo DisneySea
Open: 2001 – Present
There’s perhaps no more spectacular story in all of Disney Parks canon than that of S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers. The legend of S.E.A. is a subtle, cross-continental frame story that unites multiple Disney rides, shows, and even restaurants into a massive “extended universe” connecting characters you might never expect. And it all started at Fortress Explorations – the “headquarters” of the Renaissance-era chapters of S.E.A.
The Fortress itself is a massive, multi-story palace set into the cooled lava flows of Tokyo DisneySea’s iconic Mount Prometheus. Guests can climb the ramparts and towers, dark across bridges, and explore the rooftops as they desire. What’s coolest, though, is that the fortress is essentially a science museum within a theme park, offering a Navigation Room of remote-controlled ships sailing across an ancient world map, a three-story Foucault Pendulum, galleries of artwork and illusions, a real, working camera obscura, a geological monitoring station embedded in the volcano, and – in the central golden dome – a massive Planetarium where guests can move the planetary models with wooden cranks and gears.
7. Poseidon’s Fury: Escape from the Lost City
Image: Universal
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Open: 1999 – Present
When Islands of Adventure opened in 1999, it was billed as “the world’s most technologically advanced theme park.” And believe it or not, the Declassified Disaster: Poseidon’s Fury was one of the most advertised (and talked-about) attractions to help it earn that title. Drawn into waterlogged ruins of the Lost City, guests found themselves caught in an ancient battle between the evil Poseidon (whose massive toppled statue outside serves as the attraction’s iconic entry) and the righteous Zeus.
Guided by an old man called the Keeper, guests would advance through the temple’s chambers, learning of the ancient myth of Poseidon and Zeus until ultimately reaching the attraction’s epic crescendo: a walk through a 40-foot long, 18-foot wide “vortex” of water spinning around guests, leading them to the ruins of Atlantis deep underwater and to a special-effects filled final battle between the animated gods and their control over water and fire. A surprising finale even had guests apparently be magically transported out of the collapsing city and back to a room they’d been in previously.
Image: Universal
Soon after opening, the attraction underwent a major redesign. Poseidon became the hero against an evil high priest, Lord Darkenon – both played by live actors on screen rather than animated characters, and neither matching the collapsed statue outside. The tour guide became a young archaeologist, Taylor, and a major re-write recast the final “teleportation” effect. The point was to make Poseidon’s Fury’s story clearer, and while it probably succeeded, it’s hard to argue that one version is altogether better than the other.
The Lost Continent was one of just two “islands” at Islands of Adventure to be entirely original. Sadly, Poseidon’s Fury is all that’s left of the land (the Merlinwood area became Hogsmeade and the Sinbad’s Bazaar area recently had its long-running stunt show shut down), so it’s a real shame that Universal hasn’t found a way to make this special effects show the headliner it really could be. Still, it’s an impressive and decidedly different kind of attraction we’d like to see Universal try more of.
8. Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin
Image: Disney
Location: Disneyland Paris
Open: 1992 – Present
Disneyland Paris’ Adventureland is perhaps the most unusual of any Disney Parks’. For Magic Kingdom guests, the easiest way to understand it is that Paris’ Adventureland is essentially placed where you’d expect Frontierland and Liberty Square. It’s comprised of “neighborhoods” stretching around Le Mer de Bretteurs (a Rivers of America equivalent) including Caribbean Plaza, a colonial Indiana Jones-themed area, the Swiss-Family-Robinson and pirate-themed Adventure Isle (rather than Tom Sawyer Island) and the Bazaar – an area dedicated to Aladdin.
Aladdin’s Enchanted Passage is only the first walkthrough from Disneyland Paris to make our list, with small vignette scenes celebrating Aladdin – a film that opened in theaters seven months after Disneyland Paris. While it’s a saturated cartoon walkthrough of fun displays, it does suffer from looking more like Emporium window displays than authentic Arabian-influenced retellings of the tale. And ultimately, it only goes to further our amazement that Aladdin has never gotten a full, classic dark ride of its own yet. Still, for adding to Paris’ list of hidden gems, we have to give it credit!
9. If I Ran the Zoo
Image: Universal
Location: Universal’s Islands of Adventure
Open: 1999 – Present
When Universal set out to build a second theme park in Orlando, their “Islands of Adventure” concept promised to prove that they, too, could build Disney-style lands… not just studio soundstages. In acquiring the rights to Marvel and Jay Ward’s “Sunday funnies” as well as the original Lost Continent and Jurassic Park, they had almost everything they needed. But for the park’s Fantasyland equivalent, they went big. No one had yet acquired the rights to build attractions based on the beloved stories of Dr. Seuss. That’s thanks to the (rightfully) protective requirements of Seuss’s widow, Audrey Geisel. Her insistance on the textures, colors, details, and quality of any “Seuss” product created Seuss Landing – a nautical port of Seuss stories.
“If I Ran the Zoo” is – like so many attractions on this list – a mere aside that many guests probably walk right past. What is it? Well, it’s a playground, walkthrough, and splash park in one. Guests can climb and slide through the attraction where whimsical Seussian creatures abound, activating Toontown-style gags and reading Seussian rhymes at each stop. One of the most fun, for example, positions water sprayers around a creature submerged in a bath tub. Spray it, and it will rise up from the water… and begin to spin, showering guests in water! It’s exactly the sort of out-of-the-way walkthrough that adds life and energy to a park.
10. La Tanière du Dragon
Image: Disney
Location: Disneyland Paris
Open: 1992 – Present
Yet another spectacular walkthrough at Disneyland Paris is one of the park’s most talked-about hidden gems. Guests who happen to wander into the caverns carved into the hillside beneath the park’s Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant will encounter a misty, cool dungeon of stalactites and steam. And there, sleeping in the water, is a dragon – one of the rare opportunities to see an Animatronic OUTSIDE of a ride. Like a sleeping cat, the dragon’s massive claw twitches and expands, resting in a pool of water as it occasionally shuffles and settles.
Every few minutes, the dragon awakes, lifting its massive head and blinking as it recognizes the guests staring at it. Its nose may smoke as it growls and shuffles, the chains holding it to the floor rattling. As if remembering that it’s hopelessly trapped, the dragon eventually relents and goes back to sleep. Still, the face-to-face encounter is so fascinating and so spectacular, it’s become one of Disneyland Paris’ most beloved features… in fact, the dragon made it to our list of the 25 Best Audio-Animatronics on Earth. Imagineering fans could spend an hour just watching the dragon’s subtle yet complex routine.
11. Alice’s Curious Labyrinth
Image: Disney
Location: Disneyland Paris
Open: 1992 – Present
Free-exploration attractions are rare at Disney Parks (where things like capacity and throughput matter a great deal), but Alice’s Curious Labyrinth at Disneyland Paris is a spectacular exception. Divided into a simpler “Tugley Wood” first half and a more complex “Queen of Hearts’ Maze” second half, the attraction includes whimsical touches like leaping fountains, mis-matched directional signs, oversized props, and character encounters. In expected Disney fashion, every path leads somewhere – even if it’s to a dead-end with props and interactives. Guests who make it to maze’s center may climb the Queen’s castle, providing a lookout opportunity over Fantasyland.
A similar attraction debuted at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, albeit themed to the live action Alice in Wonderland film series from the 2010s rather than the 1951 animated original.
12. Knockturn Alley
Location: Universal Studios Florida
Open: 2014 – Present
The dark-and-sinister counterpart to the jolly and whimsical Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley at Universal Studios Florida is a bit of a hidden aside tucked away down a nondescript side street branching from the main avenue. But guests who do wander down the darkened side street with little more than a small wooden sign pointing the way find themselves in the surprisingly expansive Alley under cloudy night skies…
Eerie effects abound along the street, including chances to see the moving “Wanted” posters of some of the film’s more legendary Death Eaters, encounters with windows overcome by spiders, and the unique opportunity to encounter another animatronic outside an attraction – in this case, speaking Parseltongue with a snake in a shop window who follows you as you move. Knockturn Alley also has the Borgin & Burkes shop (the de facto suppliers of “dark magic” and pro-pure-blood memorobilia). As with the rest of Diagon Alley, though, the highlight must be opportunities (tucked away from crushing crowds) to use interactive wands to light a candle that has an effect on a caged bird, to animate a skeleton that mirrors your movements, and to make a window of shrunken heads sing.
13. Maharajah Jungle Trek
Image: Disney
Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Open: 1998 – Present
It’s become the norm for zoos to evolve from standalone animal exhibits or even grouped-by-country enclosures into more naturalistic “walkthrough” attractions of their own, setting animal enclosures among themed spaces and seemingly-borderless habitats. But of course, Disney’s are perhaps among the best, with both Animal Kingdom’s Africa and Asia featuring new-age wildlife walkthrough paths. In Asia, it’s the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Animal lovers will delight in seeing gibbons, flying foxes, komodo dragons, and deer, as well as an aviary with over 50 species of exotic birds.
But even better, the scenic storytelling of Disney Imagineers creates an entire story for the attraction for those who care to look, explaining how the nearby village of Anandapur was once a stopover for the kingdom’s Maharajah, who used the ruins outside of town as his own personal hunting ground… before being killed in a karmic hunting accident himself…
Evidence throughout signals that the land came under colonial British rule for a time before returning to the ownership of the villagers, who restored the royal hunting grounds into a nature preserve, leading to the hallowed tomb of the founder of the Kingdom of Anadapur. (You pass his sarcophagus at the entrance to the aviary.) As with so many things, it means that there’s more than meets the eye with the “simple” animal enclosures, creating a sort of mythology and legend that extends to the whole land… for those who know to look for it.
14. Garden of Wonders
Image: The Travel Intern
Location: Hong Kong Disneyland
Open: 2013 – Present
Remember S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers? One of its members at the turn of the last century was Lord Henry Mystic, a bon vivant world traveler and all-around nice-guy who ventured across the globe with his pet monkey, Albert. Once retired, Henry and Albert retired to an eclectic manorhome deep in the jungles of Paupau New Gineau – Mystic Point. All Imagineering fans gush over their starring E-Ticket ride, the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor, wherein guests are caught in the chaos when an ancient music box brings Mystic’s international collection to life.
But outside of Mystic Manor is another spectacular sight – the Garden of Wonders. Here, in the dense rainforest, Mystic has set out the pieces too large to fit into the mansion. Massive sculptures, tilework, and tablets dot the multi-level area near the Mystic Freight Depot. These ancient relics are a sight in and of themselves. But even better, they’re interactive illusions… photo opportunities that play with perspective and proportion. Sure, no one is rope-dropping the Garden of Wonders. But it adds to the land’s realism and experience! And as with all these walkthroughs, that’s the point!
15. Camp Discovery
Image: Disney
Location: Shanghai Disneyland
Open: 2016 – Present
Shanghai Disneyland was a massive reinvention for Imagineers, who essentially dispensed with the tried-and-true layout and lands of Disney’s “castle parks” and started from scratch. Gone is Adventureland, replaced with Adventure Isle – an “immersive” land where guests join the League of Adventurers (note: neither S.E.A, the Adventurer’s Club, or the Explorer’s Society) who have discovered the tropical island home of the native Arbori people. The peaceful relationship between the groups has allowed the League to set up Camp Discovery – a home base for exploring the island’s mystical features.
As if taking Disney California Adventure’s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and upping the ante, Camp Discovery is a you’d-never-see-that-in-America attraction using real high ropes course elements. Passing over river gorges and along sheer cliffs, guests strap in to tackle teetering steps, leap over open chasms, climb ropes, and inch along literal chasms. You literally have to see it to believe it (skip to 7:52!).
Image: Disney
Three different trials each reveal more of the island’s backstory:
- The Hidden Falls Chamber course, journeying behind a waterfall and deep into the jungle to a mystical cavern, home to the glittering gem-encrusted Temple of the Milky Way.
- The Echo Cavern course, winding along a perilous river gorge to discover magnificent rock carvings and cave paintings, and hear for yourself how Echo Canyon got its name.
- The House of the Ancients course, with guests trekking to the site of an in-progress excavation, where League of Adventurers archeologists are unearthing an ancient Arbori trading center.
16. Swiss Family Treehouse
Image: Disney
Location: Magic Kingdom
Open: 1971 – Present
There can be no sweeter walkthrough for Disney Parks history buffs than another all-time classic, the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Initially opened at Disneyland in 1962 (and based on the 1960 Swiss Family Robinson film about a shipwrecked family building an island home), Magic Kingdom’s opening day version of the attraction is 70 feet tall and 80 feet wide. Guests climb 116 steps up and down as they navigate through the tree’s branches, gazing in at rooms the family has managed to construct in the canopy and the famous water system that carries clean water to the tree’s height.
The Swiss Family Treehouse can be found at Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland. In 1999, the Disneyland original was reimagined as Tarzan’s Treehouse, which also opened alongside Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005. In hindsight, Tarzan wasn’t quite evergreen enough to warrant the reimagining of such a Walt original classic, even if the overlay was needed at the time to convince executives not to remove the attraction entirely. Not that Swiss Family Robinson is any more well-known… In fact, it’s almost certain that many times more people have walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse than have seen the film it’s based on…
