Defunct Disney Rides and Lands

Over the course of their 65-year history, Disney's parks have hosted a lot of rides—including many that didn't last. Here are a few defunct rides and lands you should know about, adapted from an episode of The List Show on YouTube.

1. Superstar Limo

Did you know that Jackie Chan, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cher were once featured in a Disney ride? It sounds fun, but Disney visitors were not a fan of Superstar Limo, which didn’t even make it a single year at California Adventure in the early 2000s. It was a slow ride through Los Angeles featuring audio animatronics of those celebrities and others. Maybe it would have been more successful as one of the later ideas for the ride: Miss Piggy’s Limo Service.

2. ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

Walt Disney World once had an attraction inspired by the movie Alien. During ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, guests were terrorized in the dark by an escaped alien. It was frightening enough that only people over the age of 12 were recommended to experience the Encounter. While the attraction was in early stages, it was going to be called Alien Encounter and feature a Xenomorph from the Alien movies. But the park’s Imagineers objected to building a ride around R-rated fare in Tomorrowland, which was meant to have an optimistic vision of the future. As a result, the creature ended up just becoming a generic—but still very scary!—alien. It did have another cool Hollywood connection, though: George Lucas was one of the designers. ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter lived in the Magic Kingdom from 1995 to 2003, when it was replaced with a Lilo and Stitch attraction (which was itself dismantled in 2018).

3. Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour

This ride in Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1986 and was operational for 20 years. A tour guide took groups on a journey involving confrontations with Disney villains from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia, and Pinocchio. These were done the way that Disney does best: a combination of video and animatronics. The big finale featured the Horned King from the film The Black Cauldron. It involved him saying that the guests were now trapped and would be sacrificed to the cauldron. One person who was given a sword earlier on the tour pointed it at the Horned King and "destroyed" him (there was a flash of light, then he disappeared).

4. Submarine Voyage

For almost 40 years, Disneyland maintained the Submarine Voyage ride. Riders would enter a submarine that was on a track. The submarine then looked like it was being submerged in water and proceeded to move slowly past various creatures, like turtles, fish, and mermaids. When the ride opened in 1959, the submarines were gray and named after actual U.S. navy submarines. In the ‘80s, they were painted yellow and given exploration-related names like "Explorer" and "Seeker." In 2007, the ride reopened at Disneyland with a Finding Nemo theme. At that time, more sub names in line with the explorer theme were added, like "Seafarer" and "Voyager." A Walt Disney World version similar to the original lasted from 1971 through 1994.

5. and 6. Rainbow Mountain Stagecoach Ride and Rainbow Caverns Mine Train

Two of the earliest rides at Disneyland were the Rainbow Mountain Stagecoach Ride and the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train, which were part of Frontierland. The Stagecoach Ride had actual stagecoaches led by actual horses going through a desert. It opened in the mid-’50s and closed in 1959.

The Mine Train journeyed through illuminated caverns, and would later turn into Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. In 1979, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad took over the spot. But if you ride that roller coaster, you can still see evidence of the Mine Train. In the queue for Big Thunder Mountain, there are pieces from a town that were part of the old ride. The same queue leads you through a Ventilation Service Room where there’s a map with a section labeled “Rainbow Caverns.”

7. Flying Saucers

Flying Saucers existed for five years in the early 1960s at Disneyland. They looked like bumper cars, but they were slightly lifted above the ground thanks to air vents beneath the ride. Like air hockey, but with flying saucers. According to the site Yesterland, Flying Saucers used technology that was developed and patented especially for the ride. When it opened, the Los Angeles Times reported, “The Flying Saucer ride cost $400,000 to build, Each saucer is ‘blown’ 8 inches off the ground and is under constant control of its pilot,” a.k.a., a park guest, who moved the saucer by shifting their body in the direction they wanted to go. Part of the problem was that only people within a specific weight range could do that effectively. Flying Saucers was ultimately closed for a redesign of Tomorrowland.

8. If You Had Wings

Disney is really into flying. Between 1972 and 1987, Walt Disney World had a ride sponsored by Eastern Airlines called If You Had Wings. Passengers got on an omnimover—that line of cars that you can, in theory, board without them ever stopping—which “flew” them around the world (the world being animatronic scenes of places like Mexico, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico).

9. and 10. If You Could Fly and Delta Dreamflight

If You Had Wings briefly became known as If You Could Fly, and in 1989 turned into Delta Dreamflight. That’s right: a new sponsor. The idea was similar, but it was now an homage to airplanes. Passengers got a glimpse of aviation’s history and potential future. Buzz LightYear’s Space Ranger Spin is now where If You Had Wings and Delta Dreamflight once were.

11. Horizons

From the mid-1980s through the late-'90s, Horizons was a hugely popular ride at Epcot. Guests rode through 24 animatronic, futuristic sets. (According to Disney, the future holds robot butlers, robot chefs, and domesticated seals.) At the end of the ride, the car would let you vote on how you wanted to be returned home—through a space, desert, or ocean scene. Nowadays, Mission: SPACE sits in Horizon’s place.

12. Rocket Rods

Rocket Rods only lasted about three years. It was a high-speed thrill ride that used an old track that had belonged to the much slower People Mover ride—which ended up being its demise. The coaster broke down too often and permanently closed in 2001.

13. Adventure Thru Inner Space

Starting in 1967, for almost two decades, Disneyland guests could experience what it was like to be microscopic while riding Adventure Thru Inner Space. People waiting in line would watch as passengers sat in pods, went through a 37-foot-long microscope and were "shrunk" (in reality, they were replaced by 8-inch tall replicas on screen). While on the ride, they’d go through scenes of becoming smaller than a snowflake, mostly by watching videos.

14. Body Wars

On Body Wars—which was located at Epcot’s Wonders of Life Pavilion and operated from 1989 until January 1, 2007—40 riders took a journey through the human body. They were jostled around, causing motion sickness for many, as they watched a video of their dramatic chase. Fun fact: The video was directed by Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. Even funner fact: The other famous Wonders of Life pavilion attraction was The Making of Me, where Martin Short learned how he was conceived. (Apparently they had a disclaimer about all the sexy stuff at the entrance to the attraction.)

15. Maelstrom

Maelstrom lasted a bit longer at Epcot, between 1988 and 2014, before it was replaced by a Frozen ride. It was a boat journey through the “history” of Norway, though that history involved some embellishment ... like an animatronic three-headed troll.

16. The Great Movie Ride

The Great Movie Ride was at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios from 1989 through 2017. Guests entered a building that looked like the famous Grauman’s (now TCL) Chinese Theatre, boarded a car, and traveled through scenes from 12 movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Singin’ in the Rain, and The Wizard of Oz, as well as a montage of a bunch more classic films. Drama ensued when a live actor hijacked the ride. It closed in 2017.

17. and 18. Rocket to the Moon and Mission to Mars

In 1955, Disneyland had a simulation called Rocket to the Moon that showed patrons what it would be like to, well, travel to the moon. It closed in 1966, and a year later was replaced by Flight to the Moon, which became way less exciting when Apollo 11 actually landed on the moon in 1969. The area became Mission to Mars in 1975. That ride closed in 1993, and later, the space became … ExtraTerrorestrial!

19. Holidayland

Holidayland, part of Disneyland between 1957 and 1961, was actually a 9-acre area just outside of Disneyland. It was less ride-oriented and instead contained picnic spots, sports fields, and a large tent for performances.

20. Camp Minnie-Mickey and Beastly Kingdom

In the early days of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, the company wanted to include a Beastly Kingdom in homage to fake creatures like dragons and unicorns. While prepping for that, Camp Minnie-Mickey went up in 1998, intended to be a temporary placeholder until Beastly Kingdom was ready to be built. Well, now we don’t have either; Beastly Kingdom never came to be and the camp-themed section closed in 2014.

21. Lilliputian Land

Finally, one land that never became a land: Lilliputian Land. We know that Walt Disney wanted part of Disneyland to be based on a section of the book Gulliver’s Travels thanks to a map drawn in 1953. With everything in that area made to look tiny, like fake people, guests would feel like giants. It’s thought that some of the DNA of Lilliputian Land can still be seen on the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

Home / LISTS