Rides Disney Almost Built But Didn’t (And Why They Never Happened)

The Disney Imagineers put a lot of thought and creativity into their vision for the Disney Parks. We’re continuously informed about removals, re-themes, and new additions that are coming to the parks as part of their new ideas and concepts.

While there are many rides that we hate to see go, and even more that we can’t wait to experience, there are quite a few rides that never made it past the drawing board.

Today, I’m going to take you through a number of Disney rides that never came into existence. Many of these rides sound absolutely fantastic and it’s heartbreaking that they were never brought to the parks.

Geyser Mountain

In the late 1990’s, Disney Imagineers needed to come up with an E-Ticket attraction for Disneyland Park. Since Disney’s California Adventure Park was expected to be extremely popular, the Imagineers wanted something in place at Disneyland that would help keep Guests interested in the park.

Since The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was doing so well over at Walt Disney World, it was decided that a ride would be created at Disneyland with a similar ride system. The ride that was designed was Geyser Mountain. This ride, which was intended for Frontierland, would place Guests inside of a drilling rig. After drilling into a geyser, it would “erupt”, which would quickly send Guests flying upwards.

Contrary to hopeful expectations, Disney’s California Adventure Park did not perform well. Because of this, work did not need to be done to Disneyland Park to keep Guests interested. Instead, California Adventure was the park in need. The plans for Geyser Mountain were scrapped and the budget was put towards California Adventure. What was built? The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The East Coast got its own version of the ride after all, even though Geyser Mountain never came to be.

The Enchanted Snow Palace

In the late 1970’s, Disney Imagineer Marc Davis put his imaginative thoughts to paper and created brilliant visuals for an attraction called Enchanted Snow Palace. This attraction, which was intended for Fantasyland at Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom, was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Snow Queen.

On this attraction, Guests would journey through the icy and whimsical kingdom of the Snow Queen. While traveling along to delightful music, Guests would be able to enjoy a variety of frosty scenes. 

Within Marc’s concept art sketches, we can see different characters that were envisioned as part of the ride. During their chilling adventure, Guests would have seen snowball men, penguins, a very small abominable snowman, and even ice fairies!

Even though Enchanted Snow Palace was never built, Marc’s visionary sketches are kept at the Walt Disney Imagineering Art Library. We can also see quite a few connections from this ride to a ride that takes us through an ice queen’s kingdom in EPCOT – Frozen Ever After.

Green Army Men Parachute Drop

Before Pixar Pier, we had Paradise Pier. One of the original attractions on the pier was the Maliboomer. Maliboomer was a space shot-style ride that launched Guests up a 180’ tall tower. The ride was styled to look like a strongman striker game, complete with numbers going up the side of the tower and a bell at the top.

When California Adventure underwent a $1.1 billion expansion, Maliboomer didn’t make the cut, closing in September 2010. One ride that was proposed to take its place was the Green Army Men Parachute Drop. This Toy Story-themed ride would have fit in perfectly with today’s Pixar Pier.

Ultimately, the ride never was never constructed at California Adventure. Instead, the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind was built. While the Green Army Men Parachute Drop doesn’t exist in the States, a version of this ride does exist at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.  However, the name was changed to Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop.

Animal Carousel

Can you imagine walking into Animal Kingdom and seeing anything other than the Tree of Life? At one point, there were plans of having a grand attraction serve as the park’s main focal point. Rather than having a physical tree of life, the attraction would have represented the different animals that make up the tree of life.

The proposed attraction was a three-tier carousel. The top portion of the attraction would be a spinner-style ride with ride vehicles that featured different creatures of flight, such as birds and insects. The mid-portion would be a standard carousel with land animals such as zebras, lions, elephants, and rhinos. On the bottom, there would be a mote with a water carousel. These ride vehicles would be water animals, such as fish, dolphins, sharks, and turtles.

Unfortunately, the animal carousel never left the planning stages. Even if it didn’t serve as the icon of the park, it would have been a fantastic addition. While this attraction was never brought to life, there are new plans for a carousel to be brought to Animal Kingdom. The Esperanza Carousel , which will feature characters such as Nigel, Timon, Pumbaa, and Hei Hei, will be part of Animal Kingdom’s new Tropical Americas land.

Dragon's Tower

Dragon Tower is an attraction that was designed for the Animal Kingdom land that never came to be – Beastly Kingdom. Beastly Kingdom was a land that would feature dragons and other mythical creatures such as unicorns. Due to budgeting, Beastly Kingdom was never built. However, traces of the lost land can still be seen at the park. On the left-hand side of the Animal Kingdom ticketing booth is a golden statue of a dragon head. Also, in the center of the line of animals on the Animal Kingdom logo is a dragon!

Dragon Tower would have been an amazing part of Beastly Kingdom. This attraction, which was an indoor hanging roller coaster, took place in a dark, worn down castle. Outside of the castle, Guests would be greeted by broken and battered pieces of armor, presumably worn by brave knights who attempted to battle the dragon. They would then make their way into the castle through a broken portion of the wall. After walking through cobweb-filled, dingy halls, the Guests would come across some talking bats. The bats would explain that they’ll be carrying cauldrons through the castle while on the hunt for treasure. These cauldrons were the ride vehicles that Guests would sit in.

As the bats traveled through the castle, with riders in tow, they eventually made it to the Treasure Room. Here, Guests would come face to face with a 30-foot sleeping dragon. The intrusion would wake the dragon, who would then breathe fire towards the bats and riders. The coaster would then speed up and break through the castle walls, escaping the dragon.

Unlike others, Dragon Tower wasn’t a ride that was specifically singled out and scrapped. Instead, the ride never came to be simply because the land that it was intended for was never built.

Mary Poppins Attraction

In 2019, it was announced that a Mary Poppins expansion would be taking place in the UK Pavilion at EPCOT. This would not only include an attraction, but an entire neighborhood themed to Cherry Tree Lane. As Guests strolled down Cherry Tree Lane, they would be able to walk past Admiral Boom’s house and head right into the Banks Family home.

Prior to this announcement it was rumored that the UK Pavilion would be receiving a Mary Poppins-themed flat ride, specifically a flat spinner ride. While it was never officially announced what type of attraction would be part of the Mary Poppins expansion, leaked concept art from a former Imagineer revealed that an indoor teacup-style ride was in the works.

Surprisingly, after the 2019 announcement, there was no news to follow. Years went by without any further announcements and no expansion in sight. In 2022, it was announced that the project had been postponed as a result of Disney’s Covid-19 recovery process.

Today, there is still no news of this project resuming. Many assume that the Mary Poppins expansion is another idea that will eventually be completely scrapped.

Villains Funhouse Roller Coaster

As I previously mentioned, Disney anticipated that California Adventure would be much more successful than it actually was. Due to its unpredicted flop, there were multiple discussions in regard to what could be done to revive the park. One idea that was pitched involved adding villains to Paradise Pier. The reimagining included a villain-themed attraction.

The attraction was called the Villains Funhouse Roller Coaster and was essentially a rethemed version of California Screamin’ (known today as Incredicoaster). Guests would enter the attraction by walking through a giant Cruella de Vil entrance. Inside the queue, Guests would have the opportunity to play carnival-style games. One of these games involved sliding pieces of coal into the mouths of Pain and Panic.

The ride, itself, was meant to be a cross between a carnival funhouse and thrilling roller coaster. Guests would loan into ride trains, which were also styled after villains. One known idea was a Hades-themed train. Guests would be sent on their way by the “ride operator”, which was an animatronic of the Old Hag. The coaster would then take off through the mouth of Chernabog. As the ride continued, Guests would also come across Jafar in his snake form. The snake’s body replaced one of the scream tunnels that were previously part of California Screamin’.

Atlantis Expedition

Before Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, there was an attraction that was simply called Submarine Voyage. Submarine Voyage took Guests on an undersea adventure. As the journey progressed, the subs would “dive” deeper and deeper. Each depth brought new and exciting experiences and views. At one point, you could even see live mermaids swimming in the waters! Eventually, Submarine Voyage was shut down due to its age, the amount of money that was needed in order to keep up with its maintenance, and its dwindling popularity.

Around the same time of the closure, Disney Animation was creating Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Since the film included a journey to the lost city of Atlantis, it was thought that it would be a perfect re-theme and just what the attraction needed to keep it afloat. Actually, it wasn’t envisioned as just a retheming. It was actually going to be an expansion. The Atlantis Expansion was going to include a giant volcano in the center of the lagoon, which the monorail would have passed through. Guests traveling on the monorail would have been able to be dropped off at Atlantis, making this multiple attractions in one.

Like other attractions, while the concept had been put together, construction never started. Three years passed and no work was done to transform the closed Submarine Voyage into Atlantis Expedition. After Atlantis: The Lost Empire hit theaters in September 2001 and failed miserably, the project was officially scrapped. Atlantis did somewhat take up this area for some period of time when it became a meet and greet spot for Milo and Kida. However, it never became more than that.

The Excavator

Initially, Dinoland USA was meant to have two thrill attractions: Countdown to Extinction (now known as DINOSAUR) and The Excavator. While Countdown to Extinction was built as planned, The Excavator never came to light.

The concept was that The Excavator would be a wooden roller coaster that was an extension of The Boneyard play area. The track of the coaster was meant to be the ore car track that was used prior to the fossil discoveries. After sitting abandoned, the students of the Dino Institute decided to use the old ore car system as a way to transport fossils and as a way to pass the time.

During the ride, the coaster would wind through dinosaur skeletons. Guests would also find themselves in close contact with mechanical dinosaurs that the students built.

The Excavator was another ride that was scrapped due to budgeting issues. While The Excavator sounds like it would have been a fun ride, had it been around today, we would have been saying goodbye to it soon, due to the upcoming extinction of Dinoland USA.

Toontown Transit

With the popularity of the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Disney had plans of creating an entire land themed around the movie. While the idea of the land was considered for both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios, the land was never built at either location.

Appropriately named Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood, the land was going to serve as a real-life Toontown, where everything would look exaggerated and animated. Guests could expect to see Roger-shaped holes in the walls, grand pianos hanging over the sidewalks, and boxes of TNT placed throughout, just like in animated cartoons. Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood would have an eatery as well as multiple rides. One of these rides was Toontown Transit.

Toontown Transit was a 4-D motion simulator ride that took Guests on a journey through Toontown. The attraction featured a new character, a city transport vehicle named Gus the Bus. When Gus, who had big dreams of becoming an actor, finds out that the studio is holding auditions, he takes a shortcut to get there as quickly as possible.

The ride was planned to have a full wraparound screen. This way, Guests would be fully surrounded by animation at all times, keeping with the theme of Toowntown.

Baby Herman's Runaway Baby Buggy

Another ride that was supposed to be a part of Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood was Baby Herman’s Runaway Baby Buggy. This ride was based off of the short Tummy Trouble. The experience starts with Guests finding themselves on the set of a Baby Herman short.

While there, they end up becoming stunt doubles for an action-packed sequence that Baby Herman couldn’t bear to shoot himself. After getting inside the necessary baby buggies, they swoop through the halls of Saint Nowhere Hospital.

Unfortunately this ride, along with the rest of Roger Rabbit’s Hollywood, were never brought to life due to an argument. Disney and Amblin Entertainment (the co-financing company of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) had a disagreement in regard to the rights of Roger. Because of this, no new films were made and the interest in Roger Rabbit attractions dwindled.

Western River Expedition

Due to the great success of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland Park, Disney wanted to create a similar ride for Walt Disney World. However, since Walt Disney World is located in Florida, where real piracy occurred, it was decided that it would be better to theme the new ride around cowboys instead of pirates. Thus the idea for the Western River Expedition was born.

The Western River Expedition was envisioned to be a flume-style ride that would take Guests on a journey through the Wild West. At the beginning of the ride, Guests would travel through the wilderness where they would see buffalo, prairie dogs, and singing cacti. As Guests continued their journey, they’d come across cowboys, bandits, and a variety of unsavory situations. The attraction featured a stage-coach robbery, bank-robbery, jailbreak, a gunslinger, and shootouts.

The adventure continued as the boats started to ascend up a hill. Just as trouble approached, the boats would go backwards down a waterfall, where the Guests would find themselves in safety again.

However, when it was found out that Walt Disney World wouldn’t be getting its own version of Pirates of the Caribbean, many Guests were displeased. Eventually, the idea for the Western River Expedition was scrapped. The land where it was supposed to go is now home to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Walt Disney World did get its Pirates of the Caribbean, even though it’s a shortened version of the ride.

One can’t help but think that the cancellation of Western River Expedition also led to the creation of Splash Mountain  (now known as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure), since the concept for the two rides sounds very similar.

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