To all who come to this place of possibility: welcome. Possibilityland is your land. Or… It could’ve been!
Today, we’re going to do something we’ve never done before: We’re going to step into Disneyland as it might have been. We’ll walk through themed lands of Disneyland that look quite different from the ones you know and examine the attractions that were cut just before they came to life. In Possibilityland, we can find attractions, areas, and even full lands that simply never came to pass. Think about it: if someone had said “Yes!” instead of saying “No!” (or vice versa), this could be the Happiest Place on Earth!
First, we’ll step into this park of could-bes and see what visitors to a “Possibilityland” would find. Then, on the final page, we’ll explore how these projects collapsed and see if it’s true that “good ideas never die at Disney.” Quite a few of these forgotten projects have re-appeared with their stories living on elsewhere, and more could reappear at any time. Put on your walking shoes! We’re on our way…
MAIN STREET, U.S.A.
Ah, Main Street, U.S.A. It feels a bit like home, doesn’t it? And that’s precisely what Walt planned. In fact, you probably already know that this particular “Main Street” is based on Walt’s childhood memories of the town where he grew up – Marceline, Missouri. More than a historical recreation, Main Street is instead a romanticized vision of simple, Midwestern life viewed through the eyes of a child: perfect.
Walt believed that Main Street captured a snapshot of a very unique time in American history: the brief period where the gas lamp and the electric lightbulb co-existed; with horse-drawn carriages and “horseless” carriages both making their way from Town Square. It’s unlikely that Disneyland’s Main Street will ever depart from this tried-and-true formula, but here in Possibilityland, there’s a major change in this grand entry – two new lands radiating off from Main Street…
Liberty Street
Opening Date: 1958
Status: A full land connected to Main Street
It’s hard to say which Walt loved more – the past or the future – but his love for the former is on display along Liberty Street. The park’s Main Street, U.S.A. may be set at the turn of the 20th century, but Liberty Street departs from that time period and instead recreates the most important moments of the American story: the Revolutionary War, when American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain and created the United States in 1776.
Liberty Street appears just past the Opera House, jutting northeast off of the park’s Town Square. From the avenue’s entry, the first thing you might notice are the soaring masts of a sailing ship, docked directly ahead at Griffin’s Wharf. As you start to walk toward it, you’ll notice that the electric conveniences and Victorian storefronts of Main Street vanish, replaced with the colonial dressings of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston in the 1700s.
Thirteen buildings make up Liberty Street, representing the thirteen American colonies. Just as Main Street offers authentic goods and services faithful to its era, Liberty Street is lined by an apothecary, a print shop, a glassblowing studio, and a blacksmith barn, each staffed by real craftsmen practicing their skills.
However, the land’s real signature attractions reside in Liberty Square, the quaint cul-de-sac at the far end of the street with the beautiful, lantern-lit Liberty Tree in the center. It’s there that you’ll find an exhibit of the U.S. Capitol in Miniature, originally completed in 1935.
Across the square is the Hall of the Declaration of Independence, a stirring and patriotic attraction featuring paintings that depict the dramatic story of America’s birth, culminating in a face-to-face encounter with a faithful recreation of the Declaration of Independence itself.
Finally, beyond the gorgeous brick façade of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the park plays host to The Hall of Presidents, an emotional tribute to the nation’s brave leaders, each recreated as wax figures. The lantern-and-candle lit land is a sight to behold each night, and a captivating reminder of ‘the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America.’ Liberty Street isn’t the only new land along the park’s entry, though.
Edison Square
Image: Disney
Opening Date: 1959
Status: A full land connected to Main Street
Walking right down the middle of Main Street, U.S.A., much about Possibilityland looks familiar. But when you reach the park’s Central Hub, you’ve got a new option. Standing in the Hub and facing Sleeping Beauty Castle, a new path has appeared to the Southeast. In fact, the horse-drawn carriages from Main Street make a sharp right and proceed into this new land. If you follow one, you’ll find yourself standing before a wrought iron arch supported by redbrick columns. This is Edison Square.
If Main Street immortalizes “Anytown, USA” and its reaction to electricity, then Edison Square more succinctly examines progress and innovation in our lives. Stepping into this land, you’ll notice yourself surrounded in Chicago’s suburban graystones, New York’s storied brownstones, wooden San Francisco, and the colonial brick streets of Boston, now all strung up with electric lightbulbs. Pressing further into the land, you’ll see a town square with a small, gated park in the center. That park is built around a statue of Thomas Edison with his right finger pointed skyward.
Make no mistake: Edison (with his 1,093 U.S. patents) has earned a land at Disneyland. To his credit are the inventions of the electric light bulb, of course, but also power utilities, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the founding of General Electric. Fittingly, General Electric sponsors this land and its signature attraction: Harnessing the Light, a walkthrough show chronicling the advance of American society thanks to the spark Edison.
The clever showcase – concealed behind the cul-de-sac of the land – was a triumph. Guests can step into a prologue exhibit about progress and Edison’s discoveries, milling about until the automatic doors open inward, and guests pass into a tiered standing theatre viewing a typical American home as it appeared in 1898 – just before electricity made its way into living rooms. The lovable Wilbur K. Watt narrates the show from his rocking chair, explaining how the stove, icebox, and phonograph are all marvels of innovation, though they’re all human-powered. Wilbur, for his part, is an electro-mechanical figure (the precursor to Animatronics). Even if he can’t do more than simple, repetitive motions (think Jungle Cruise animals), he is a marvel himself, and a sign of what’s to come. After his three-minute presentation, doors open to the left as guests pass into the next room – the same home in 1918 as bundles of strung wires power water heaters, lights, refrigerators, and other appliances, for another three minutes.
The same continues in 1958 (the present when the attraction opened, showcasing the marvels of climate-control, television, microwave ovens, and more) and finally in a fourth scene representing the home of the future: luminous walls, prototype personal computers (or as close as the designers in the 1950s could get), space scanners, and more. In this final scene, you’re invited up into the stage to explore the wonders yourself! …But only until your three minutes are up. Then, you’re guided away and into a final epilogue, inviting you to explore the wonders of General Electric products at work.
In Possibilityland, Main Street looks a lot different after all, with two new auxiliary lands built off of its eastern side. But that’s only the beginning!
ADVENTURELAND
Passing into Adventureland, the DNA of Walt’s original creation remains: towering jungles, exotic waterfalls, and a “main street” that purposefully juxtaposes civilization on one side and uncharted wilderness on the other. But something has changed here. For one thing, Michael Eisner arrived at Disney in the 1980s, fresh from a stint as CEO of Paramount Pictures. If Eisner knew anything, it was movies. It was Eisner’s controversial assertion that Disneyland could be a place where you could ride the movies and – even more startlingly – that they didn’t necessarily have to be Disney movies.
Possibilityland proves the grand, cinematic scale that Eisner envisioned, particularly here in Adventureland. Designers saw a chance to fundamentally change Adventureland. Here in Possibilityland, that vision became reality… big time.
Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition
Opening Date: 1989
Status: A mini-land within Adventureland containing two rides
So sure, Adventureland might have the same basic underlying look, but something here has changed. A wave of continuity has swept through the land, uniting every attraction, store, restaurant, and prop into a single time period and a single overarching story that unites them all. As you enter under the iconic Adventureland bridge, you begin to notice a hazy mist raining down from the trees overhead.
Those trees are tangled up with wires and excavation lamps that seem to dim and flash in sync with a churning power generator. Tattered canvas awnings, collapsed Indian ruins, and rusted excavation materials make it clear that Adventureland has changed from a would-be accurate representation of today’s jungles to a cinematic adventure set long ago. In fact, it’s the late 1930s. The sensationalized black-and-white news media of the day has drawn the nouveau-riche of European high society (that’s us) to this remote jungle outpost with promises that we can leave our hum-drum lives behind and find what we really crave: adventure.
Phonographs playing jazz standards off in the distance signal that we’ve arrived just in time. This outpost is centered around a massive archaeological project looming ahead beyond the trees: a stunning Southeast Asian temple right on the banks of a misty, forgotten river, with waterfalls tumbling from all around it. This waterlogged River Temple contains a land-within-Adventureland: Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition.
Winding through the overgrown bamboo and through an archaeological camp, you’ll find a rusty motor pool for Indiana Jones Expedition. This off-roading dark ride begins outdoors, sending guests aboard troop transports along the river’s edge, across a shaky suspension bridge, through the ancient jungles, and into the collapsing temple of the water’s edge. There, riders encounter an ancient altar, darts, and (of course) a rolling boulder before making their way into the heart of the temple: a volcanic chasm sending guests teetering along canyons and across bridges above molten hot lava.
But here’s the real kicker: the Lost Expedition has even more. Passing the motor pool and proceeding further into the jungle toward the towering cliff backdrops (which cleverly disguise the huge showbuilding), guests can instead board the Ore Car Coaster and descend into the temple in a style more familiar to fans of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The swaying, tilting mine car coaster would take place in that same volcanic chasm, spiraling along the lava, roaring down drops, and racing head on toward the jeeps navigating the same chamber as the two rides interact.
If that’s not enough, you have another way to see the massive scale of the Lost Expedition. Since the construction of the massive project would necessitate re-routing of the Jungle Cruise, Disney has decided to plus the attraction big time. For one thing, the dainty, peppermint-striped canopies of the Jungle Cruise ships have disappeared. To fit with the new 1930s Indiana Jones storyline, Jungle Cruise received tattered canvas canopies, a good rusting of their hulls, and an elaborate new boathouse queue.
But it gets better. The massive River Temple façade would replace the African Veldt scene (which is, admittedly, fitting, since the entire land would now take place in India), but rather than just allowing the Jungle Cruise to sail around the exterior, guests become part of the story as a collapsed temple tower diverts the boats into the River Temple along a cooled lava vent as even the Jungle Cruise boats emerge in the temple’s volcanic heart with the ore carts flying by and Jeeps sputtering on below.
If that doesn’t help you appreciate the grand scale of this one-of-a-kind attraction, consider that even the Disneyland Railroad chugs through the temple on a shaky wooden trestle positioned high above the roiling lava. Lost Expedition may very well be the most dynamic and epically sized project Disney has ever brought to life, with four rides taking place in the chamber. Click and expand the photo above for a much larger view.
As you can see, Possibilityland is packed with unimaginable wonders. But there’s even more to see as we take the path from Adventureland to a Frontierland reborn…
FRONTIERLAND
When Disneyland opened in 1955, Frontierland was a coup. Americans were downright in love with stories of the American frontier, the romances of the Old West, Davy Crockett, The Lone Ranger, and stories of cowboys and Indians. Just as the exotic jungle rivers of the world would always be an exciting place in the minds of Americans, it seemed that the stories of the Old West would be forever adored and celebrated.
Problem is, it didn’t quite work out that way. In the years following the parks opening, the concept of the Old West simply faded from pop culture and arguably hasn’t returned since. By the 1970s, Disney was aware that Frontierland was a little too slow for modern audiences. In 1976, Disney announced an aggressive expansion plan that would rename the land Westernland and equip it with what it needed to capture the hearts of modern audiences.
One piece of that growth – Big Thunder Mountain – came online in 1979. The runaway mine train roller coaster through red rock bluffs gave new energy and excitement to the sleepy 1860s setting. But in Possibilityland, the rest of the story becomes clear.
Discovery Bay
Opened: 1979
Status: A full land, continuing the Frontierland story and bridging the gap to Fantasyland
As you walk pass Big Thunder Mountain with the Rivers of America to your left, you might imagine that the story of Frontierland represents a piece of America’s story; the “Westward Ho!” movement when Americans were promised that it was their right – nay, their destiny! – to expand westward to the sea. En route, the Gold Rush attracted settlers to mining towns like Frontierland where the promise of limitless riches hiding in mystical mountains seemed to capture their enthusiasm.
In that way, Big Thunder Mountain filled an important role that had been missing from Frontierland. It answered the question, “What did those settlers find when they eventually made it to the sweeping vistas of the old west?” They found an active gold mine, a runaway mine train, exotic desert wildlife, and the promise of fortune and glory, right? But that was only part of the story.
As you continue to walk along the banks of the Rivers of America, you might wonder to yourself: “Once those settlers found the gold buried deep inside of Big Thunder Mountain… what would they do with it?” Would they settle down in the sleepy mining town of Rainbow Ridge? Of course not. Those miners-turned-millionaires would continue west! They would travel until they reached the ocean, where they would build San Francisco. But in this alternate timeline, the port city they built was a little different from the San Francisco we know today.
Coming into view along the northern edge of Tom Sawyer Island is something unbelievable: a towering lighthouse built into a rocky outcropping. This visual icon serves to draw guests from both Frontierland and Fantasyland to the new Discovery Bay land, which – fittingly – unites them both. Big Thunder Mountain is an intersection between the three lands, operating brilliantly in each. But as you draw closer and closer to the lighthouse out in the Rivers of America, the sights of Discovery Bay come into view.
First, you’ll notice that Discovery Bay is not quite like the San Francisco we know. Instead, it’s set in the 1880s as a fantasy fiction harbor where the works of Jules Verne might feel right at home – Victorian buildings, crystal towers, time machines, submarines, and dormant volcanoes cascading with water. Discovery Bay’s placement along the Rivers of America (with Critter Country, New Orleans Square, and Frontierland) signals that it’s an important piece of the American story, even if this one isn’t rooted in fact.
The first district of Discovery Bay you step into is the Waterfront, a kinetic and exciting harbor where we see evidence of the arrival of great thinkers, writers, adventurers, and explorers as they flock to this intellectual mecca. The Waterfront docks – Explorers Landing – offers the chance for young adventurers to climb, slide, jump, and play in an elaborate playground of boxes, cargo nets, crates, and more. You can also climb up the gangplank and explore the docked Sailing Ship Columbia. Nearby, partially submerged in the water is The Nautilus, the famous submarine of Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. On board, you’ll find a simulator ride and a Grand Salon restaurant with stunning underwater views.
Perhaps the most unique attraction at the Waterfront takes place in Chinatown behind the unassuming façade of The Fireworks Factory. Within is an interactive dark ride through an assembly line where you can set off sparklers, pinwheels, and fireworks to create a beautiful sight.
Inland, you’ll find intricate, twisting streets and alleys akin to New Orleans Square, all through the land’s fine Victorian libraries and oddities stores. Professor Marvel’s Gallery of Wonders is a musical, rotating theatre show somewhere between Journey into Imagination, Carousel of Progress, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. The land’s signature ride, though, is housed in a massive zephyr hanger home to the Hyperion balloon: The Island at the Top of the World. So complex and compelling is the story behind Discovery Bay that it inspired its own stand-alone feature here, well worth reading.
Geyser Mountain
Opening Date: 2003
Status: A ride within Frontierland
If you step out of Discovery Bay and back toward Big Thunder Mountain, you’ll find the quaint, quiet Big Thunder Trail, a peaceful and calm path connecting Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Discovery Bay. This quiet corner of Possibilityland is also home to one of the more unique attractions the park has to offer. Along Big Thunder Trail directly north of Big Thunder Mountain, a path breaks off to the north as it twists through thick forests, towering pines, carved red rock arches, and fanciful “hoodoo” eroded rock formations typical of Bryce Canyon in Utah. As you progress further and further down this winding path, bubbling hot springs and mud pots appear in the forest, eventually giving way to steaming, small geysers that burst from rocky steppes.
The increasing geothermal activity seems to be centered on a craggily, rumbling mountain peak directly ahead. Geyser Mountain appears as an imposing stone peak with cascading water falls tumbling from holes that appear to have been drilled into the mountainside. Entering into the frontier-style barn nestled at the mountain’s peak, you pass through a detailed queue documenting that the fella responsible for boring those holes is a wild and kindly inventor who was mapping out the mountain’s interior for finding a geothermal power source. His detailed maps point out one particularly powerful geyser at the mountain’s core (totally unpredictable, of course) that may be worth exploring, if only he could nail down its schedule of eruption.
Geyser Mountain is a clever evolution of the technology behind The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Here, the old mining elevator that the inventor has rigged up deep inside of the peak can allow us to see the wonders of Geyser Mountain up close – a stop at glittering, seemingly endless crystals; a view of dripping stalactites and roaring underground waterfalls… Of course, in one final breathtaking show scene, a rumbling deep in the mountain’s core signals the awakening of the peak’s most powerful geyser, which catches the elevator and blasts it sky high. The rest of the ride is spent bouncing atop the geyser before being safely returned to the inventor’s cabin.
Not only did Geyser Mountain bring the Tower of Terror technology to the West Coast, but it flipped it around. Instead of focusing on a faster-than-gravity freefall from a broken elevator, it’s the sky-high launch of Geyser Mountain that elicits shrieks from guests. And most importantly, Geyser Mountain’s 2003 opening was a purposeful ploy to draw guests away from the brand new Disney’s California Adventure. Executives imagined that the new park would be so crowded – even two years after its 2001 opening – that Disneyland would need a new E-ticket to bring guests back to the original park.
As you exit back onto the calm Big Thunder Trail, you’re likely to notice the hot air balloons floating silently and gracefully overhead. Those balloons are from The Western Balloon Ascent, a Skyway-style attraction departing from a grassy hillside in Discovery Bay. Those drifting balloons are heading to our next destination and another land you’ll only find in Possibilityland…
FANTASYLAND
Here in Possibilityland, the hamlet of Fantasyland stands in the courtyard beyond Snow White’s Castle. Walt’s original, classic dark rides still exist here, but there’s more than ever to see.
Dumbo’s Circusland
Opened: 1979
Status: A mini-land within Fantasyland
Soaring high above the dense pine forests of Frontierland in a hot air balloon, you may wonder where on Earth your journey could end. The answer becomes clear as the trees give way to a bright plaza nestled up against the Disneyland Railroad just north of Fantasyland. This is Dumbo’s Circusland, an entirely new, miniature themed land of striped awnings, circus posters with classic Disney animated characters, festive banners, popcorn lighting, and more. Located on 5-acres, Circusland is like a mini-land within Fantasyland, even if it’s set aside from the European village proper.
Designed by Tony Baxter as a balance to Discovery Bay, Dumbo’s Circusland is provides a home for the Disney characters who are a little too whacky to fit into Fantasyland. At the land’s center is none other than Dumbo the Flying Elephant; the iconic aerial carousel ride now propped up high above the land on a platform, not unlike the Rocket Jets in Tomorrowland. The Casey Jr. Circus Train would also be relocated to Dumbo’s Circusland as a much more natural fit.
But that’s not all! Circusland would contain three original dark rides all on its own, giving a home to the Disney characters who fit better in this timeless trolley park than in the more romantic, elegant, and fairytale-oriented Fantasyland. First, there’s Mickey’s Mad House, seemingly contained within a festive cartoon theatre. In fact, this dark ride propels guests into classic black-and-white Mickey Mouse shorts from the 1930s to the sounds of ragtime music – its an old-fashioned Fantasyland style dark ride, but with light, sound, projection, and more to bring the world to life.
Here you’d also find Pinocchio’s Daring Journey housed in Stromboli’s Puppet Theater where queuing guests can watch real marionette shows. The final and most unique of the land’s three dark rides would be Circus Disney, sending guests careening through scenes populated by Audio Animatronics as they encounter the circus’ wild animal menagerie (featuring King Louie and Shere Khan from The Jungle Book), through a circus midway (past The Amazing Flying Dumbo, a six-bear pyramid [made of Winnie the Pooh, Little John, Br’er Bear, Baloo, Lululbelle, and Bongo Bear] and Clown Alley) and finally into the Big Top where guests find themselves on-stage with characters’ daredevil acts like The Flying Goofys! If it sounds like a frantic and wild dark ride through a cartoon world, then it sounds accurate – a stunning reminder of classic Disney characters and a rare bit of nonsense thrown in to boot!
Rock Candy Mountain
Opened: 1975
Status: A ride within Fantasyland
Could this be the sweetest ride Disney ever designed? Almost certainly. Looming over the Storybookland portion of Fantasyland stands Candy Mountain – made up of gum drop hills, taffy valleys, chocolate rivers, marshmallow puffs, and licorice ribbon waterfalls – would be an icon of the park’s most fanciful elements.
Guests looking for an up-close view are in luck. A ride on Casey Jr. Circus Train brings guests up close and personal with the sugary peak, chugging along the peppermint ridges and around the sweet gumdrop acres. For an even closer look, Storybookland Canal Boats make a special trip into the mountain as the ride’s grand finale. After drifting past storybook miniatures, it makes sense that the interior of Candy Mountain should provide for a phenomenal finale, and it does! Inside of the mountain are a dozen scale models based on the Wizard of Oz books and stories.
The Enchanted Snow Palace
Opened: 1975
Status: A ride within Fantasyland
Marc Davis – Disney Legend – might be most well known for his magna opera: Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and the Haunted Mansion. Indeed, it seems Davis specialized in character-driven, detail-packed dark rides of unmatchable caliber. The fourth of Davis’ legendary dark rides resides in Fantasyland. While it shares some of its DNA with his earlier works, The Enchanted Snow Palace is its own creature entirely.
Disguised behind a massive, glacial wall of ice effortlessly carved into an elegant fortress, the massive ride places us into Pirates-style boats and set adrift into a gorgeous Arctic world to the tune of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite. Past polar bears, frolicking penguins, graceful timberwolves, and playful walruses, the boats float on. There are seagulls, jumping fish, and ice-skating deer; tumbling snowmen skidding and sliding down hills; orchestras of Arctic wildlife…
The musical, hypnotic, relaxing ride is a thing of beauty; a living painting.
Under the Aurora borealis, a cavern appears ahead. Inside, you float beneath massive, gargantuan snow giants all distracted by icy frost fairies. As the boats draw closer and closer to a looming ice palace, you see the hand maidens of the Icicle Princess, each dressed in an icy crown and accompanied by pure white rabbits, foxes, and owls.
Finally, we drift past the Icicle Princess herself, who gracefully welcomes you and – with a snap of her fingers – creates real snow for the boat to drift through.
While it may not feature the astounding, active storytelling of Pirates or the transportive properties of Haunted Mansion, this gorgeous ride is without-a-doubt one of the most beautiful experiences Disney has ever created, and a thoughtful reprieve from the summer sun.
Possibilities are endless, especially in the worlds of fantasy and future. Read on…
TOMORROWLAND
From Disneyland’s earliest days, Tomorrowland has been a bit of a headache for Imagineers. From the beginning, Imagineers were dedicated to bringing real scientific advancement and cutting-edge technology to Tomorrowland. The problem is, trying to keep up with actual, accurate scientific progress is a time-consuming and costly endeavor, necessitating regular and frequent re-investment in Tomorrowland.
In the 1990s, Imagineers set out with a brave mission: to design New Tomorrowlands for each Disney Park on Earth. But these New Tomorrowlands would be different because they would never need updating; they’d be timeless, long-lasting Tomorrowlands that would not even try to guess what the real future could hold, and thus would never fall out of date!
In Possibilityland, no expense was spared when a New Tomorrowland was crafted for Disneyland.
Tomorrowland 2055
Opened: 1993
Status: A full-land renovation to the 1967 Tomorrowland
If you ever see photos taken by your parents at Disneyland (or if you yourself recall it), Tomorrowland prior to 1993 was a bit of a relic. It was a white, geometric land full of clean walls, simple shapes, open concrete expanses, white and red rockets, and bright pops of color thanks to the Peoplemover soaring overhead, the Monorail whizzing through the sky, and the Submarine Voyage below. That clean, white, simple view of the future was all the rage when Tomorrowland was redesigned in 1967, but the 1980s and ’90s have certainly changed popular culture’s view of tomorrow.
To catch up, Tomorrowland has changed, too. In 1993, the land had a grand re-opening as Tomorrowland 2055, supposedly set in Disneyland’s 100th anniversary year. Just as Frontierland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland all feel like real, habitable worlds, Tomorrowland does now, too! It’s a galactic spaceport where aliens stop over in their interstellar journeys set in a science-fiction timeline where a trip to Mars is as easy as a trip up the street. This wild, intergalactic Tomorrowland features a few stunning rides. Sure, Star Tours and Space Mountain are staples, sure to be here forever. And of course the Peoplemover is still zooming around overhead (now cast a “real” transportation system in the “real” spaceport city) with a redesigned sci-fi Rocket Jets ride revolving three stories above the land’s central plaza.
But this living, breathing city has a few new additions. For one thing, The Timekeeper has taken over the old Circlevision 360 theatre, conducting drone-lead tours of the past. The old spinning Carousel Theater (once home to the Carousel of Progress, then to America Sings before its Animatronics were repurposed for Splash Mountain) is now home to Plectu’s Intergalactic Revue, a musical extravaganza on five rotating stages.
Perhaps the land’s biggest draw now is a mysterious attraction called Alien Encounter, housed in an ominous Interplanetary Convention Center. The ornate carved exterior displays exhausted humans acting as living columns holding up all-powerful beings from the stars. Sort of an odd entry to a simple demonstration of interstellar teleportation, isn’t it?
But as we know, Alien Encounter is a terrifying, no-holds-barred simulator that sets an insectoid alien loose with you on the menu. There’s no doubt that Alien Encounter is the scariest attraction Disney has ever designed, and we chronicled the terrifying true story of this one-of-a-kind attraction in its own extraTERRORestrial feature.
Submarine Voyage: Atlantis Expedition
Opened: 2001
Status: A ride within Tomorrowland and Fantasyland
In 1959, Walt Disney himself oversaw the opening of the Submarine Voyage, the park’s first E-ticket attraction (alongside Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Monorail). The attraction was later duplicated and expanded at Magic Kingdom as the fantastical 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage. But both attractions proved expensive to operate and maintain, and with a pitiful hourly capacity for a world-class theme park. They both closed in the late 1990s, and fans imagined that their futures were sunk.
The good news for Disneyland guests is that Submarine Voyage was not gone… it was only being improved. The ride re-opened in 2001 as Submarine Voyage: Atlantis Expedition based on the 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
In so doing, the ride dropped its would-be futuristic styling (a remnant from its 1950s opening) and instead adapted the fantastical look of the Ulysses submarine from the film, and a storyline more in touch with the imagination: a quest for the ancient sunken city of Atlantis.
You can imagine that the redeveloped ride sees guests examine shipwreck graveyards, come face-to-face with the dreaded Leviathan guardian from the animated film, explore the waterlogged, sunken passageways of the city, find Atlanteans with their glowing blue crystal necklaces, and finally discover the city, prospering deep beneath the waves thanks to massive guardian statues.
Even if many lifelong fans would prefer to see the original Submarine Voyage with its entertaining, informative, and classic journey, the switch to Atlantis Expedition has at least given the ride a new lease on life and an exciting new cast of animatronics and scenes.
The Real Story
A walk through Possibilityland brings to light just how different Disneyland could be today if just some of the proposed projects had actually come to light. In many cases, multiple projects have been planned for the same plots of land in different decades, giving us the unique opportunity here to choose which we would see come to life in our Possibilityland. One thing is for sure: these projects did not arrive. Why? On the last page, we’ll revisit these would-be attractions and explain where each disappeared, and where its DNA ended up.
The Real Story
Before we say goodbye, let’s return to these major projects and examine why they were abandoned. And as we often say, good ideas never die at Disney, so we’ll make the connections you’ve likely noticed and explore where the ideas have resurfaced in one form or another. Luckily, our extensive collection of in-depth features and write-ups can provide all the information you could possibly want, so we’ll link to other features here, as well (all of which will open in a new tab, so read away!)
Main Street USA
Neither Liberty Street nor Edison Square came to pass, sadly. Both simply came about at a time when Disneyland’s itinerary was packed. Both were officially announced in 1957 when the park was brand new. Put simply, they were overshadowed by the work Disney Imagineers were doing on Tomorrowland. In 1959 – right about the time that the Main Street extensions were due – Disney opened the Monorail, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Submarine Voyage, all on the same day. Those three E-tickets (the first rides ever to gain that designation) were so grand, the park was rededicated at their opening. A few low-key exhibits couldn’t compete, and time passed on.
Liberty Street obviously got a second lease on life. While the Hall of Presidents envisioned for Disneyland was filled with wax figures of the commanders-in-chief, the advent of Audio Animatronics technology in 1960 (The Enchanted Tiki Room) and expansion in 1964 (Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln) doubtlessly made Imagineers glad they’d waited. Mr. Lincoln was relocated to Disneyland after the 1964 – 65 World’s Fair in New York, finding a permanent home in the Opera House on Main Street. When Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, it expanded the concept of Liberty Street and placed a themed land called Liberty Square along the Rivers of America, leaving New Orleans Square out entirely. Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square is a colonial harbor that very closely resembled the elements of Disneyland’s Liberty Street, including the Hall of Presidents, featuring Animatronics and not wax figures.
Edison Square didn’t come about, either, though its DNA lived on, too. At the same 1964 – 65 World’s Fair where Mr. Lincoln debuted, General Electric finally got to sponsor a Disney attraction: the Carousel of Progress. The revolutionary rotating theater offered a more efficient and attractive way to move guests through time, and the Audio Animatronic family therein was much more inspiring than the simple Wilbur K. Watt would’ve been. Ultimately, this is another example of a lucky miss. The Carousel of Progress is almost certainly better than “Harnessing the Light” would’ve been, if only because (as both shows agree) progress simply makes things easier to do.
Adventureland
Eisner’s insistence that the movies settle into Disneyland was controversial, but the openings of Captain EO and Star Tours (in 1986 and 1987, respectively) proved that Disney and George Lucas could work wonders together. An Imagineering team was hard at work on Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition, well into the scale-model building phase when another project caught Eisner’s eye: the ability to re-use the cast of a hundred Audio Animatronics animals from the shuttered America Sings carousel show for a project called Zip-a-Dee River Run. Eisner liked the project on the caveat that it be renamed to promote Disney’s 1984 film Splash.
Obviously, the rest is history. Splash Mountain went forward and the Lost Expedition stayed lost. About five years later, though, advancing technologies did allow Tony Baxter and his Imagineering team to bring at least one portion of the Lost Expedition – the EMV Jeep ride – to life. When it did, it necessitated the re-routing of the Jungle Cruise and the aging and rusting of the ride, as the whole land was cast in a 1930s storyline and a single, overarching continuity just as Lost Expedition had called for.
Even if the entire Lost Expedition project didn’t surface, the ride Disneyland did get – Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye – is often renowned as the best modern dark ride in the world. Its scale doesn’t match that envisioned by the Lost Expedition, but its hard to imagine that the Lost Expedition ride could’ve had a more stunning and unique story than Forbidden Eye does. And Temple of the Forbidden Eye did try to emulate one piece of the Lost Expedition: a major portion of the ride takes place in a massive, single room teetering along rocky cliffs and wooden suspension bridges over pits of lava.
Frontierland
Disney really did come to terms with the weakening of Frontierland, which appeared dry, boring, and slow to audiences of the 1970s. The massive expansion and world building that would’ve included Discovery Bay and Big Thunder Mountain was announced in 1976 with an official opening date in 1979. The reasons for the land’s eventual cancellation are complex and chronicled quite fully in our in-depth feature on the land that could’ve been, but suffice it to say that the land’s cornerstone ride just happened to be based on a film that tanked at the box office, which thereby shifted Hollywood’s attitude toward fantasy for decades. The one piece of the project that did sneak through was Big Thunder Mountain, which opened alone in 1979. Though it’s still a favorite, we can’t help but think that it somehow is more complete when put in the Discovery Bay context. Ah well.
Disney fans still clamored for Discovery Bay to become reality, arguing (convincingly) that if people still want the land more than 40 years later, then it must be timeless… and that’s a pretty convincing argument for its eventual construction. So far, the ingredients of the land have made their way into Disney Parks across the globe (primarily in a very unique Tomorrowland built in Paris) but never at Disneyland. Fans held out hope for a long time, but in 2016, the land earmarked for Discovery Bay 40 years earlier was flattened to become a Star Wars themed land that it seems may change Disneyland forever.
As for Geyser Mountain, the project was designed almost exclusively as an excuse to bring a version of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror technology to Disneyland. Giving it a Western overlay and placing it in Frontierland had the double-sided benefit of propping up Frontierland and drawing guests back to Disneyland from the ultra-crowded Disney’s California Adventure.
Problem is, Disney’s California Adventure wasn’t crowded at all. The park was Disney’s first certifiable theme park failure as visitors adamantly rejected the entire park. We wrote an entire in-depth feature on the disastrous mess that California Adventure was when it opened that’s well worth a read, but suffice it to say that it turned out that California Adventure needed a boost more than Disneyland did.
Geyser Mountain was due to open in 2003. Instead, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened at California Adventure in 2004, more or less eliminating the possibility of Geyser Mountain ever being built in Disneyland.
When it was cancelled in California, Disneyland Paris considered the ride for their own Frontierland, just using a massive steel tower instead of a rocky peak (above). But ultimately their second park, Walt Disney Studios, needed an even bigger boost than California Adventure, so it got a clone of Tower of Terror, too. Perhaps someday, either the mountainous version from California or the steel version from Paris could end up in Hong Kong Disneyland’s Grizzly Gulch, since that park doesn’t have a Tower of Terror or any appropriate place to put it.
Fantasyland
Dumbo’s Circusland was part of the Discovery Bay package, so when Discovery Bay was cancelled, so was the little mini-land based on classic cartoon characters. That meant that Dumbo and Casey Jr. stayed where they are in Fantasyland. Neither the Mickey Mouse nor Circus Disney dark rides were ever built. Pinocchio’s Daring Journey was, though, when Fantasyland received a complete floor-to-ceiling overhaul in 1983.
The concept behind Circusland lived on in a few ways. First of all, it almost certainly was the direct inspiration for Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland. Magic Kingdom in Florida wanted a Toontown of their own, and built Mickey’s Toontown Fair, a county fair style “summer home” for the characters that was even closer to Circusland in terms of style.
It all came to a head when Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland opened in 2012. New Fantasyland skillfully redesigned and redressed the cartoony, cheap-looking remains of Mickey’s Toontown Fair into a reverent, thoughtful, and detailed sub-land within Fantasyland called Storybook Circus. The mini-land includes a relocated Dumbo the Flying Elephant, a Casey Jr. water playground, and a turn-of-the-century trolley park circus style that is no doubt an evolution of the Circusland concept.
Candy Mountain was abandoned when Walt and his early Imagineers simply agreed that there was something strange and unappealing about the ride… something a little sickly and off-putting. Allegedly, they tried to make a model out of real candy, and when it melted, they all saw the error of their ways. Matterhorn Bobsleds was built in its stead. A model of Candy Mountain is on display in the window of the Candy Shop on Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure – one of the delightful details that earns such praise for the reborn park and its thoughtful entry.
The Enchanted Snow Palace designed by Marc Davis – of Pirates and Haunted Mansion fame – never materialized at Disneyland for a number of different reasons. For one, it was envisioned in 1975, right as the steel roller coaster began to dominate theme parks. Disneyland rushed Space Mountain (1977) and Big Thunder Mountain (1979) into production. For another thing, the Snow Palace simply didn’t have a very strong story to stand on. While it was beautiful, it lacked the humor or compelling cast of Pirates or Haunted Mansion, and simply didn’t seem like a must-have at the time, and it melted away. Now, any Snow Queen attraction will likely take a very different form…
As for Submarine Voyage: Atlantis Expedition, the Submarine Voyage closed in 1998 – shortly after the “grand” opening of the abysmal New Tomorrowland (some celebration to close a headlining ride!). But when Atlantis: The Lost Empire opened in 2001, it failed to make an impression. To be fair, Disney hadn’t done anything to the lagoon in the three years between, so it might’ve just been an excuse to close the low-capacity, high-operational-cost ride. It was rescued by park president Matt Ouimet and re-opened as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in 2007. You can read the water-logged story of the Submarine Voyage rides in California and Florida here.
Tomorrowland
As long as Disney Parks have been around, so too have Imagineers been trying to decide how to build a future they can’t seen yet. In the 1990s, Imagineers were challenged to create timeless Tomorrowlands for each Disney Park that would never need updated. Their answer in California was the ambitious Tomorrowland 2055 that we dissected in our own in-depth feature.
Truthfully, an objective eye can probably see that if it had been built, Tomorrowland 2055 would look pretty tired today… even a “timeless” Tomorrowland devoid of real science is a pawn to the whims of pop culture, and a gritty industrial alien spaceport with a Chuck E. Cheese style Plectu’s Intergalactic Revue is pretty concretely of the 1990s… It’s a moot point anyway, because after the financial fall of Disneyland Paris, Michael Eisner became wary of any and all large-scale projects, and called for Tomorrowland 2055 to be scaled back – to find a cheaper, less risky way to make a Tomorrowland that would last forever.
The Imagineering team who’d been hard at work building Alien Encounter was told that their attraction would not debut at Disneyland as they’d planned, but instead would go into the New Tomorrowland already under construction at Magic Kingdom. We chronicled the terrifying true story of Alien Encounter in this in-depth feature, but long story short, the attraction was far too violent for the fairytale park, where it closed in 2003 to be replaced by what many consider the most flubbed attraction ever.
Fans still imagine that if it had opened at Disneyland where it was meant to, Alien Encounter would still be around, as it’s a fine fit with Disneyland’s more PG-13 rides like Indiana Jones Adventure and Star Tours, which are absent from the G-rated Magic Kingdom.
The theatre that had been prepped for the attraction at Disneyland was instead turned into a pizza restaurant. That’s just one of the gut-wrenching mistakes that went into Tomorrowland 1998, a disastrous and shocking low-budget renovation that we singlehandedly blame for the fall of Walt’s Tomorrowland, as chronicled in that in-depth look at the closing of the Peoplemover and the gradual faltering of Tomorrowland over time.
The Ideas Live On
As you can see dozens of times on this page alone, it probably is true that good ideas never die at Disney. They always re-appear where you least expect them. If our walk through Possibilityland has inspired any thoughts in you, we hope it’s the opportunity to look objectively at how very different Disneyland could look but for a choice here and a decision there. Perhaps some of the possible projects are better off left behind, while others may be missed opportunities that would’ve made the park stronger even today.
Now it’s your turn. Let us know! Which of these concepts are you glad we missed? Which would you still love to see come to life? And let us know: are there any other Disney Parks you think would look very different if their Possibilities came to life? We sure think so. The Possibilities are endless.
