One of the great things about all Disney Parks is their commitment to never being finished. There is no such thing as a “complete” Disney theme park, because they are always meant to grow and change as technology and our culture evolves.
Yes, sometimes, that means beloved rides like Horizons at Epcot or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom leave us far too soon. But, even when that happens, it means we get new and exciting rides in their place. The Disney Parks are not museums, nor should they be.
But, Disney sometimes disappoints us in other ways. Instead of taking out an aging attraction and replacing it with something shiny or new — and, instead of giving an old attraction a nice refurbishment — Disney will opt to simply rip something out of one of its parks without a planned replacement.
Some of these depressing wastes of space have had either been replaced or have had announced plans to replace them — from the defunct River Country to the dying-on-the-vine Innoventions. But others are still vacant, with no real replacement imminent.
Here are just a few:
Shark Reef
Image: Jack Miller, Flickr (license)
When it opened, the Shark Reef at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon was one of the most unique attractions ever created for a theme park. Themed to a small shallow cove with a capsized-tanker serving as the home to a vibrant ecosystem of reef-bound life, this area allowed guests to borrow snorkeling equipment from the park to complete a short swim. While in the area, guests could see fish, rays, and even small sharks — up close and personal.
The attraction suffered slightly due to the fact that the water in the cove wasn’t warmed like the rest of the park’s water — making it more suitable to the life living inside it, but a bit less pleasant for vacationing guests hoping to have a fun day at all times of year.
Disney opted to close this attraction in 2016, filling in the cove with sand and closing up the ancillary areas — turning it into more seating for guests. As of this writing, there are no plans to put anything new into the area, making it simply a reminder of the creative and adventurous attraction that used to live there.
Discovery River Boats
Image: aloha75, Flickr (license)
The rivers around Discovery Island in Disney’s Animal Kingdom were, originally, not only decorative. In the park’s first year of operating, they found themselves home to the Discovery River Boats — a short cruise ride around the park, showing off the new themed lands and a giving a bit of a different perspective to the wildlife inhabitants.
There was just one problem: There wasn’t really anything to see. Guests could board the one-way trip to see … the Tree of Life … or the Africa area … or the other side of the Tree of Life. Disney augmented this with some on-board wildlife and expert spieling cast members, but it didn’t really do much — guests still mostly were left bored in a park that famously lacked much to do in its early days.
A rebrand to the Radio Disney Cruise didn’t quite land either, leading Disney to simply shutter the ride less than a year after the park opened. The waterways have remained empty ever since. Yes, the company retrofitted the wider lake-sized section near Expedition Everest to accommodate the nighttime Rivers of Light show, but the rivers themselves remain somewhat underutilized space in such a gorgeous park.
The ABC Sound Studio
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a fascinating history. It began as, principally, a functioning motion picture studio with sound stages, backlots, and an entire animation division. The park really only featured a handful of rides, the most important of which were studio tours of both the live action and animation production facilities.
But, the front side of the park did have a handful of smaller entertaining diversions, including a stage show honoring iconic television programs called Superstar Television. One show, located just next door, was called the Monster Sound Show — an interactive performance where guests would be invited on stage to help create the foley art for a monster movie. Its post-show area featured small booths demonstrating a new technology called 3D-sound, using stereo recording and audio playback to make you think actors are really surrounding you.
This diversion proved very popular. So, as Disney’s Hollywood Studios changed, the Monster Sound Show was replaced with a larger-scale 3D sound adventure film called Sounds Dangerous, featuring Drew Carey. It ran from 1999 to 2012, before eventually making way for the space to be used for a handful of small-scale film presentations.
There is still no full-time attraction calling the space home — at least, none with a scope that would make it seem like a real attraction. That’s a shame.
Discovery Island
Image: aloha75, Flickr (license)
No, not the main hub of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This Discovery Island is much more famous as one of the first urban exploration destinations to go viral on the internet.
Originally opened in 1974, just a few years after Walt Disney World itself first opened, Discovery Island was the first place on the property to really show guests living exotic animals — a prototype for what would eventually become the Animal Kingdom park. It operated for nearly three decades as a hard-ticket attraction that could only be reached by boat from a Magic Kingdom resort hotel.
When Animal Kingdom finally opened just before the turn of the Millennium, Disney realized it didn’t need two zoological parks and moved to shut down Discovery Island — moving some of its animals to the new park while passing others to zoos around the country. It closed to the public officially on April 8, 1999 — 25 years to the day after it first opened.
And then … it just sat there. Disney, rather famously, didn’t demolish any of its structures or even clean out the desks of the employees who’d since moved on. Intrepid urban explorers eventually realized that the island was close enough to the shores of Fort Wilderness that it would theoretically be possible to swim across undetected. Photos and videos of what they found, from abandoned buildings to creepy exhibits, were passed around Disney fan circles before eventually making their way online — giving Disney a reason to start more aggressively patrolling its waters and to think about actually demolishing some of those structures.
But, here we are, 20 years after Discovery Island closed to the public and … there hasn’t yet been anything to replace it.
Galaxy Palace Theater
Image: Disney
Disney’s history with live stage performances in the Magic Kingdom is quite eccentric. When the park first opened, it featured a stage in Tomorrowland that played host to a series of strange shows that, today, might sound almost fake. One, called Disney World is Your World, featured a musical medley of songs inspired by each of the park’s themed lands — including songs like “I’m Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street USA” that guests might remember but not know where from.
As the park changed, so too did the shows at the theater — renamed the Galaxy Place Theater. One long running show was a parody of Star Search, featuring the best talent in the “galaxy.” Others were, simply, performances by school bands and cheerleading teams. The theater itself was hastily constructed and was nearly always plagued with rumors of its removal due to a weak structure and low-turnout.
In 2009, the inevitable came and the theater closed down. Ever since, the Disney rumor mill has run rampant with speculation on a replacement, from rollercoasters to dark rides to … another stage. What have we seen thus far?
A parking lot.
The Nighttime Parade
Image: aloha75, Flickr (license)
When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, the company wanted to make sure that it was an event from sunup to sundown. The very last thing many guests saw that fateful opening day was an armada of illuminated floats out in the Seven Seas Lagoon. This became known as the Electrical Water Pageant, and can still be seen today.
It was so beloved, it made guests out in Disneyland envious — prompting the invention of a land-based version of the pageant utilizing Disneyland’s smaller footprint. It was called the Main Street Electrical Parade.
Of course, jealousy goes both ways so, in 1977, the Main Street Electrical Parade made its way to Orlando — illuminating Main Street USA on a nightly basis.
In 1991, the Magic Kingdom got a new parade known as SpectroMagic, featuring new floats, new music, and a whole new concept. It was nearly instantly beloved, both for its whimsical message and iconic visual imagery. It alternated with the Main Street Electrical Parade a couple of times before its official final performance in 2010. With the parade floats decommissioned, the Main Street Electrical Parade took back over — running until October 9, 2016.
Since then, there has been no nighttime parade at the Magic Kingdom, outside of special party events.
More than any other removal, this is the most frustrating. The nighttime parade down Main Street USA is among the most iconic images in American life. The two parades to operate in such a fashion are both beloved by the Disney fan community and single-time guests. After a full day of adventure in one of the most-visited tourist destinations on the planet, a beautiful parade in the dark is the kind of storybook ending the Disney Parks are all about. Disney knows this, which is why Disneyland has had a nighttime parade this entire time.
Moreover, there are no rumors that we might see a parade return in the near future. You would think a remastered version of SpectroMagic might be a good fit for the 50th anniversary of the park in 2021.
Alas, for now, we must keep on waiting for a replacement.
