The Untold Story Of Cancelled Disneyland Attractions

The Untold Stories Behind Disneylands Canceled Attractions

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're taking a look back at the untold stories behind Disneyland’s canceled attractions.
For this video, we’ll be looking at the planned Disney theme park rides, lands, and entire parks that, for one reason or another, never became a reality.
Over the decades there have been dozens of unrealized Disney attractions. Let us know which concepts we didn’t mention you most wanted to see realized in the comments below!
1967 saw the opening of the now classic Disneyland dark water ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Located in the themed land of New Orleans’ Square the ride took Californians on an unforgettable journey. Just four years later, when Walt Disney World opened, a number of rides were cloned for the new park. However, Imagineers figured some of the novelty would be missing with another Pirates ride, as they felt Floridians consumed enough of those sorts of stories. Instead, they planned to use the same basic mechanics and switch up the theme to something more foreign to them: the old west. Thus the idea for the Western River Expedition was born.

The ride would have featured grand vistas, caverns, singing cacti, a western town, a fake night sky, cowboys, robbers, and grand finale rushing down a waterfall. It was all set to be one of the costliest and most complicated rides built to that point. However it turns out that folks were more than willing to have a Pirates ride and were growing impatient. They got their wish in 1973 at the expense of WRE.

That wasn’t the last time that a great idea for a western ride would fail to materialize. The 1990s were dubbed “The Disney Decade”, with new parks under construction and huge improvements to existing ones planned. One of these projects was set to be Geyser Mountain, a ride that would drop folks down a mine shaft and shoot them back up as if propelled by an exploding geyser.

Construction was meant to accomplish two things. First, it would revitalize the aging Frontierland. Second, it would help keep Disneyland relevant when the resort’s second park, California Adventure opened. However, when DCA debuted and vastly underperformed, keeping up with it was the least of Disney’s concerns, and Geyser Mountain was axed.

But at least California Adventure had a coaster when it opened; the same couldn’t be said for EPCOT. There once were plans to build one however, and in true Disney fashion, it would’ve been a mountain. Like the Matterhorn in Disneyland, EPCOT’s coaster would have been based on a real summit, Mount Fuji. Plans were in motion for the construction of Fuji with a bullet train-themed coaster to be housed in the Japan Pavilion.

So what killed the ride? It seems like it was camera company politics. At the time, Kodak was a big-time sponsor at Disney. A ride that shared a name with their chief rival, Fujifilm, allegedly drew the sponsor’s ire, so it was never built. EPCOT would astoundingly not get a roller coaster until Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened in 2022. Luckily the idea for a mountain ride would get a second life with Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom.

When Everest arrived however, Animal Kingdom was somewhat different than had been originally imagined. At first, the park was meant to include a section dedicated to animals from our imaginations. It would have been called Beastly Kingdom, and featured things like an interactive maze called Quest for the Unicorn and a Fantasia ride. The land’s pièce de resistance would’ve been Dragon Tower.

Concept art showed suspended riders soaring by a fire spewing dragon in bat-like carts. Then the arrival of Euro Disney happened. The Paris park underperformed, which led to cost-cutting measures being enacted. Then-CEO Michael Eisner postponed and eventually abandoned plans for the ride and Beastly Kingdom altogether. The coaster would come to be in a way, just not at Disney. Some Imagineers eventually took their concepts across town to Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

Eventually, the area set aside for Beastly Kingdom became the land of Pandora. Similarly, the area that became Galaxy’s Edge in the original Disneyland was once earmarked for a much different and more original land, known as Discovery Bay. As pictured by then up-and-coming and now legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter, it would have been set in a retro-futuristic 1800s San Francisco along the Rivers of America.

The Bay was going to draw inspiration from the works of authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Steampunk aesthetics would’ve defined the area with airships and submarines pulled right out of famous novels. Even eventual expansions had been planned out. Ultimately, the land never quite came together. It was likely a victim of its own ambition. The fact that the movie it was partially inspired by, “The Island at the Top of the World,” largely flopped, didn’t help.

Of course Discovery Bay wasn’t the only nautical-themed attraction that never came to be. In fact, for a brief time there were plans to make an entire floating theme park. The S.S. Disney would’ve been able to take in thousands of guests per day and hold just under 20 attractions. Some of these would’ve been exports of existing rides like It’s a Small World and Star Tours. There also would’ve been completely new ones specifically for the ship, such as a “The Little Mermaid” dark ride, a sizable Ferris Wheel, and an “Indiana Jones” roller coaster.

A model revealed a glass encased hub that would stretch across the ship’s central area. The park would travel the world, staying in each port for a few months before relocating, stopping everywhere, including in continents that didn’t have their own Disneyland. Tragically, the untimely death of Frank Wells, Disney president and major supporter of the project, along with budgetary concerns sank the plans.

Meanwhile, plans for the Disney Decade also included expanding the Disneyland Resort in California into a multi-park, multi-hotel experience. The first plan for a second park in the state was to be DisneySea, part of a larger Long Beach resort called Port Disney. Port Disney would’ve notably included hotels, stores, a marina, the Queen Mary ship (which the company already owned,) and a cruise ship port. The park itself was going to be built right on the water and was meant to be highly themed to fit its environment. One highlight would’ve been a futuristic aquarium. Lands would’ve included areas based on Atlantis, characters from the “Odyssey” and other stories, a throwback to Long Beach’s historic The Pike amusement park, and more.

Disney made press announcements and sent out mailers when unveiling their plans, but failed to gain public support. Resistance from locals and a number of other factors caused them to instead focus on another idea. This plan would have essentially seen a copy of EPCOT, nicknamed WestCOT, built on the old Disneyland Parking lot in Anaheim. This was canceled in 1995. These two projects were estimated to cost almost $3 billion each, and became more casualties of the financial failure in Paris. Ultimately, the parking lot was developed into the much cheaper California Adventure.

There’s one more piece of the Disney Decade that we’ve neglected to mention: Disney’s America. The project wouldn’t be another park in an already occupied area, but an entirely new one with a rather unique theme. It was meant to spotlight American history, and the place of choice was Virginia. Thus, Disney began buying up the land they wished to develop.

Plans were conceived and lands based on different time periods and settings of Americana were devised. There would’ve even been a roller coaster named Industrial Revolution. The company announced their intentions in 1993, and despite getting some support in the beginning, they faced an uphill battle. Locals and historians opposed the project, notably arguing that it commercialized or glossed over some of the darker periods of US history.

These complaints, along with concerns about the park being built miles away from the historic site of Manassas, caused Disney to give relocation a shot. Things stalled until Knott’s Berry Farm, located close to Disneyland, became available to purchase, opening the door for the company. But the owners didn’t want to do business with them, and Disney’s America died its final death.

These projects, and so many others, were never realized, yet much of their DNA can be felt in Disney Parks today. The Western River Expedition inspired the popular coaster Big Thunder Mountain. The ride system from Geyser Mountain was used for Tower of Terror. Tony Baxter’s plans for Discovery Bay were incorporated into Paris’ Discoveryland. While there’s no floating theme park, Disney now has a fleet of cruise ships. Even some planned rides from Disney’s America were tweaked and made their way into California Adventure. And finally, in 2001, Tokyo Disney Resort opened Tokyo DisneySea. Drawing a number of inspirations from the originally planned park, it’s considered by many to be among the best attractions in the world.