It’s easy to assume that all of the best attractions in Disney parks history have all been rides. After all, who doesn’t love an incredible themed coaster like Expedition: Everest, an immersive flight into other worlds like Soarin’ or Avatar: Flight of Passage, or classics of nostalgia like Space Mountain or Star Tours? When you think of Disney, you think of iconic attractions like these.
While these rides are all amazing, for as long as Disney parks have existed, some of Disney’s other most magical experiences have all held one thing in common…
Hands-on play.
While rides tend to rely on immersion, cutting edge technology, and a thrilling spectator experience, Disney’s hands-on play areas thrived on something different: guest curiosity. Over the years, Disney has taken the concept of the playground and stretched it every direction possible, from ultra-immersive exploration zones to themed interactivity-“sandboxes”. While it could be argued that Disney has lost some of its focus on this time-honored element of “edutainment”, not all of these attractions are gone. Indeed, some of these super-play zones have stood the test of time even to this day…
1. Tom Sawyer Island (Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland)
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
It’s no secret we love Tom Sawyer Island here at Theme Park Tourist. It’s amazing how an attraction that holds such an iconic place in Disney history can be so easily missed, even by guests who have been visiting for years. Adults often assume that Tom Sawyer Island is just a kid’s playground, when in fact, it can be one of the most relaxing places in the park. For kids, the island offers an unexpected (and much-needed) invitation to put down the smartphone or video games and just be a kid— running energy off, exploring hidden tunnels, and playing pretend.
In all of its forms, the island doesn’t hold a single ride, yet guests with a penchant for exploration are quickly captivated by its hidden wonders. Kids can cut loose on the island’s play areas or in Fort Langhorn. The barrel bridge will test the equilibrium of even stalwart guests (particularly in Florida), and we can’t go on enough about the disproportionately creepy fun to be found in the island’s caves. Seriously, we stand by the fact that on a non-busy day, Injun Joe’s claustrophobic muuuuurder cave really might be the most delightfully terrifying place in Walt Disney World. Have fun!
2. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure (Disney’s Hollywood Studios, 1990-2016)
Not all of Disney’s best hands-on play zones withstood the test of time. If you grew up a Disney kid any time between 1990 and 2016, you hopefully knew the joy of getting lost in one of Disney’s coolest playgrounds ever.
The Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure may have been an intriguing novelty to adults, but for kids, it was the ultimate Neverland—a larger than life dreamscape primed for adventure. This enormous movie set painstakingly recreated the world of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with giant blades of grass, a giant slide made from an old school film canister, a giant oatmeal cookie, a life-sized replica of Ant-y, and more. I was a fairly shy kid, but I recall many spontaneous play-friendships forming during visits to this incredible fun zone. Kids who didn’t even know each other became co-explorers, and the fun usually went on so long that parents could barely pull their little ones away. The Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure was hands-on Disney magic both at its simplest and its very best.
3. Grizzly Peak’s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (Disney’s California Adventure)
Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)
Across the country, at Disney’s California Adventure, many guests aren’t even aware of one of the best play attractions in Disney’s American parks. The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at Grizzly Peak is a next level two-acre exploration area complete with towers, rope bridges, rock climbing walls, ranger outlooks, and even a not-as-spooky-as-it-sounds spirit cave—oh, and a zip-line for kids! The trail was partially rethemed after the release of the movie Brother Bear, but it remains a tried and tested fun zone for kids to run off energy and their respective adults to have some fun exploring with them.
All too often, it feels like theme park playgrounds are just amped up versions of the same type of “meh” play spaces you’d find at a McDonalds. The Redwood Creek Challenge trail doesn’t fall into this trap. It’s almost like the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse on steroids. The multiple levels add a fun element of thrills, and there’s so much to discover. There are plenty of cool design details and Easter eggs adults can appreciate while kids can get truly hands on making up their own stories of exploration and survival in the California wilds.
4. Mickey’s Toontown (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and formerly Magic Kingdom)
Image: Harshlight, Wikimedia Commons (license)
It’s hard not to talk about Mickey’s Toontown without evoking nostalgia. It both was and remains much beloved by longtime Disney fans. While the location at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom was closed in 2011 (elements of it were rethemed into the Storybook Circus zone of New Fantasyland), this insane homage to Disney’s classic character gang can still be visited at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland.
While Mickey’s Toontown has hosted a few rides in all of its incarnations (the Disneyland location will be the home to a mirror of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad, for example), the primary allure of Toontown came from its myriad hands-on play elements. The laws of physics are cast to the wind here, and wacky homages to Disney toons abound. The land brims with potential for exploration and play, from a trip to a rubber-barred town jail, to a Donald Duck water fun zone, to dozens of interactive props and displays hidden throughout the land’s many familiar toon houses. In Tokyo Disneyland, in particular, Goofy’s Paint n’ Playhouse is a Disney-Quest-like projection attraction where guests can shoot virtual paintballs to “decorate” Goofy’s house. Pretty cool!
5. The Boneyard (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)
No one does hands-on play better than kids. One of Disney’s best playground exploration areas still stands strong at Disney’s Animal Kingdom—the Boneyard at Dinoland USA. What was once basically a giant sandpit has become one of parents’ favorite play zones on Walt Disney World property. This half-acre kids’ space includes plenty of tunnels, slides, rope bridges, and crevices for kids to get “lost” in. Little paleontologists can unearth hidden dinosaur bones (molded from real ones!) from beneath delightfully non-sticky Texas grit and hop into the seat of a full sized (non-operational) Jeep. The ground is soft and spongy to reduce risk of injuries, and the area even includes a splash zone for kids to cool off. Definitely make sure you and they drink lots of water since this area can get hot!
6. Wonders of Life (Epcot, 1989-2007)
Video: YouTube, TPRErik
Epcot’s Wonders of Life pavilion presented a different sort of playground from anything we’ve explored so far. It was a very easy place to spend hours if you loved hands-on exploring and learning. While it did house a few traditional attractions—Body Wars and Cranium Command come to mind—one of the most fun elements of this lost pavilion was its interactive exhibits—especially the Sensory Funhouse.
The Sensory Funhouse was a section of the Wonders of Life completely dedicated to exploring the mysteries of our senses—particularly how our senses can be tricked by illusions. At one station, guests could experience the oddity of touching a pipe that felt both hot and cold at the same time. At another, they had to reach into shielded boxes and try to guess what was inside using nothing but touch. A literal house of illusion played with guest perspective by showing how two people standing on a slanted floor could be made to look different sizes.
In other areas of the pavilion, guests could get tips on how to swing a baseball bat properly, take on exercise challenges, and even “ride” stationary exercise bikes through Disney parks or locations throughout the world (via a screen attached to the bike). It was a great experience, but dwindling sponsorship amidst other reasons ultimately led to the pavilion’s demise. It is currently being re-imagined as the new Disney Play Pavilion, set to open in 2021.
7. Camp Discovery (Shanghai Disneyland)
Video: YouTube, Theme Park Family Worldwide
For fans who have only visited Disney’s North American parks, it’s easy to not realize the insane scale of Disney’s Asian parks. Some of the best Disney attractions in the world are found overseas, and that definitely applies in the area of hands-on fun. If you think the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is cool, you may want to add a trip Camp Discovery at Shanghai Disneyland to your bucket list!
Camp Discovery in the Adventure Isle section of the park is an expansive exploration zone that includes adventure challenges, a kid’s relic excavation zone (similar to The Boneyard), and—get this– a full-on high ropes course. The scope of these three courses alone is absolutely bonkers. One traverses a gem-lined cavern, even passing behind a waterfall. Another follows an underground river gorge, while the third explores archaeological ruins. In a style vaguely reminiscent of many obstacle courses, each of the challenge trails include obstacles of easy, medium, and high difficulty included rope ladders, suspension bridges, and more! Time to conquer that fear of heights!
8. ElecTRONica (Disney’s California Adventure, 2010-2012)
Video: YouTube, Inside the Magic
Hands on play isn’t just for kids. ElecTRONica was a limited-time night event at Disney’s California Adventure with primary appeal for adults and teens. It almost didn’t make our list since many categorized it as a dance party, but anyone who visited ElecTRONica during its 2010 to 2012 tenure would agree—while this stunning recreation of the world of TRON included plenty of blaring dubstep and dancing as well as a pretty cool show, by and large it felt like a hands-on exploration zone. Sentients of the Grid tossed light frisbees with visiting guests, and the zone’s replica of Flynn’s arcade made for plenty of uber-nostalgic fun. It was easily one of the most beloved limited time events in the park’s recent history, and we can only hope that perhaps the arrival of the TRON: Lightcycle Power Run at Walt Disney World might usher in a return of this otherworldly free-exploration experience.
9. Fortress Explorations (Tokyo DisneySea)
Video: YouTube, Keith Lapinig
Once again, Disney’s Asian parks hop onto the list with a present attraction famous for its interactivity. Similar to Camp Discovery, Fortress Explorations is another enormous free-exploration zone for guests of all ages. The setting, as the name implies, is a mysterious fortress perched beneath the island’s volcano. The inside feels like something out of a giant escape game carrying strong renaissance / Da Vinci / steampunk themes. A visit here is like getting to try your hand at the sort of puzzles that show up in every popular adventure video game ever (think Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, or Uncharted). You can even take part in a Leonardo challenge that leads you on an adventure throughout the fortress or several scavenger hunts.
Some of the exhibits inside Fortress Explorations include a pendulum that stretches from the upper story to the lower ones, an illusion room, a navigation chamber where guests can control explorer ships in a miniaturized sea (complete with trippy painted sea monsters that appear out of the water), and even a giant planetarium where guests can turn cranks to align and control individual planets. Outside of the fortress you can also visit the docked ship Renaissance, which sometimes hosts character meet-and-greets (apparently Jack Sparrow has been to Tokyo as well as Singapore). This expansive attraction brings to mind a far more advanced version of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom or even the Unicorn Maze side of the Beastly Kingdom land that never came to be at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
10. Imageworks (in its glory days)
Journey Into Imagination has one of the most complicated histories of any of Epcot’s attractions. While the original attraction was extremely beloved, later incarnations are often ranked among Disney’s most loathed failures. While the ImageWorks “What If” Labs still remains active outside of the current attraction, many don’t realize that its current form is a shadow of its former self.
ImageWorks used to be far more expansive, filling the upper story of the Journey Into Imagination building. For kids, no visit to Epcot was complete without a stop at this incredible celebration of the imagination. While the “stepping tones” feature from the original still remains in the current labs, other activities included a rainbow corridor (which gained particular fame after Michael Jackson took photos here), giant kaleidoscopes, a collaborative electronic philharmonic orchestra game, bubble projectors, a huge pin table, and a coloring book attraction where guests could paint figment using paintbrush guns.
Video: YouTube, Lee davidt
One of the coolest features, one that seemed mind-blowing for its time, was Dreamfinder’s School of Drama. In this experience, guests (mostly kids) would stand in front of a bluescreen and participate in a film directed by Dreamfinder himself. The film themes included science fiction, a Western, or a fantasy film. You could even pay to get a video copy of the film you were in to take home as a souvenir. While bluescreen is pretty common these days, being able to step into a movie was an unique experience for guests at the time, especially for kids.
When Journey Into Imagination was refurbished, ImageWorks was officially moved downstairs and renamed the What If labs. Most of the area’s best features were lost for good. Kodak stepping away as a sponsor confirmed the doom of this once incredible play zone. The upstairs space lingered in Disney oblivion for a time but has since been converted to a DVC lounge. An eagle-eyed guest managed to catch a glimpse of the old rainbow tunnel through a vent, revealing that sadly, it has finally been dismantled. Supposedly, it has reappeared as part of the meet and greet area with Wreck It Ralph.
11. DisneyQuest (Disney Springs, 1998-2017)
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
Similar to ElecTRONica, we almost didn’t include DisneyQuest on this list, but the truth is, any exploration of hands-on Disney magic wouldn’t be complete without a nod to Disney’s incredible attempt at a multi-story digital theme park.
It is true that DisneyQuest wasn’t located in a Disney park proper. Indeed, it was technically considered a park-like experience in and of itself. It also relied heavily on virtual reality and video games for its interactivity elements. However, there is no doubt that at its inception, DisneyQuest was one of the most ambitious projects of its time for hands-on play.
You didn’t just go to DisneyQuest to play video games—you went for larger than life experiences you could see, feel, and touch. A rafting journey down the Jungle Cruise river was just as jostling and exhausting as you’d expect it to be. A Pirates of the Caribbean digital experience teamed guests together to control cannons and the ship’s helm in a physical mini-pirate ship. Guests could design a freaky toy in Sid’s Workshop then take that little monster home. The Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam turned guests into human joysticks to control a giant pinball game, and even the hilariously cheesy Into The Comix virtual reality experience stood as a spiritual predecessor to popular lightsaber-reenactment games like The Force Unleashed and Jedi Challenges. These were just the tip of the iceberg of the dozens of hands-on activities DisneyQuest had to offer.
Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)
To top it all, DisneyQuest’s most ambitious attraction took the familiar concept of roller coasters and put the design entirely in guest’s hands. CyberSpace Mountain allowed guests to design their own digital roller coaster—as tame or utterly bonkers as they liked—and then ride it in a simulator. The possibilities included elements of insanity totally impossible in a real coaster, like flying off the tracks or literally blasting through space and time. The simulator was extremely fun and made for some next-level hilarious reaction videos (since your family could watch your face on a video screen through the entire simulation). It was the ultimate marriage of a classic attraction and guest interactivity.
There are so many honorable mentions we could add to this list, like the amazing play spaces for kids at Splash Mountain and Mission: Space or the play-zone queues for Dumbo or The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. How many kids found a secret getaway in the fun mazes of The Polynesian’s Neverland Club (while mom and dad had a much-needed date!) or loved getting lost trying new technology at Innoventions (heavy-handed sponsorships or not)? The lifeblood of Disney magic isn’t just to see wonders but to get to explore and experience them with all our senses.
These are just a few of Disney’s best interactive attractions and hands-on play areas. What are some of your favorites?
