FantasyLand Extinct Attractions

[thunderman04-07]

I need a DL Anaheim trip aparrently....

[J&J]

shame so many nice rides are no longewr.

[Duchess99]

Hands down, Mr. Toad...what a great attraction!

Motormania is not a crime!!

[T Morrows Child]

Just came back from DL a week ago. My daughter picked Mr. Toad for her "last ride" before leaving Anaheim. It's really great. (Though I still live the MK Pooh ride . . .)

[Dragonrider1227]

I dont miss toad at all. the demon scene haunted me for years. i immediatly became a better christian. *sobs in despair"

Me neither. That ride TOTALLY ****ed me up as a child. I was screaming and crying the whole time. In fact, my sister says I was screaming so hard, she could hear me from the other track XD
To be honest, the ride messed me up so badly, I can't believe so many people miss it o_O

[JNota0005DakMC]

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Joe/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.png[/IMG]Below is a photo of the old time Fantasyland... wow what an image... the skyway, you can kinda see Mr. Toad and the image of 20000 is spectacular... Fantasyland in its heyday...



[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Joe/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Joe/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Joe/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-6.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Joe/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-7.png[/IMG]
Care of waltdatedworld.com

waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id40.htm

[MMDGP]

Definitely the Skyway - I loved that ride - the elevated view of the Kingdom was great! And, as others said, it loaded and unloaded quickly, so there was usually minimal waiting. I think I even remember it being a D-coupon ride!

One time, the ride broke down while we were halfway along, and my parents and I were stuck up there for 15-20 minutes. But what a great view of the Kingdom!

[JNota0005DakMC]

do ppl remember the type of backlashes that went with most of these...


the terrible story about why 20,000 leagues closed... the hatred over that closing...

the Toad ins" that ppl had in response to hearing that pooh would replace Mr. Toad...

This is why nowadays things close, and we end going... "really... thats gone... but why... and when i didnt hear about it..." after these two Disney does not want bad publicity so they close things extremely quietly...

but even that didnt work for 20,000... ppl found out!

[supernova]

Miss that Skyway ride. Outside of the WED-Way/TTA, it was the most relaxing ride in the park. Plus, it was a fantastic way to get away from people and avoid the dopey crowds, if only for a few minutes.

[mrwdwfan]

My favorite had to be 20,000 leaugues under the sea. I loved that ride so much!

[DopeyDancer87]

No contest Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...I can still remember how I felt having the train pass over me in the very beginning!

[DopeyDancer87]

do ppl remember the type of backlashes that went with most of these...


the terrible story about why 20,000 leagues closed... the hatred over that closing...

the Toad ins" that ppl had in response to hearing that pooh would replace Mr. Toad...

This is why nowadays things close, and we end going... "really... thats gone... but why... and when i didnt hear about it..." after these two Disney does not want bad publicity so they close things extremely quietly...

but even that didnt work for 20,000... ppl found out!

Remind me again why they closed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? I was pretty young when it closed and I don't remember hearing why they got rid of it.

[JNota0005DakMC]

here is one person's idea....

Brought to you by 20kride.com

So - when Disney's CEO Michael Eisner put out the word out in the summer of 1994 that the theme parks really had to start toeing the line, cost-wise - WDW ops staff finally saw their chance. By shutting down this single Fantasyland attraction, they could automatically save the company beaucoup bucks (as well as shine in Team Disney Burbank's eyes for moving so quickly to honor Eisner's wishes), not to mention putting an end to their enormous annual maintenance headache forever.

What these WDW ops guys hadn't counted on was that the public would get so upset when they found out that "20K" had quickly and quietly been closed back in September 1994. Within weeks of the attraction's closure, calls and letters began pouring in to company headquarters in Burbank - insisting that Disney immediately re-open this Fantasyland favorite.

Of course, the news of this uproar didn't sit well with WDW ops staff. Here they had finally found a way to close "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and they intended to keep this Fantasyland ride closed. No matter what they had to do.

So they were ready in early 1995 - when then-president of the Walt Disney Company Michael Ovitz came through the Walt Disney World resort on a corporate familiarization trip. Of course, while Ovitz was touring the Magic Kingdom, he brought up all the guests' complaints about "20K" being closed. In response to this, the ops staff insisted that they had only shut down this Fantasyland attraction because the ride was in such awful shape. Not to mention being unsafe.

Ovitz then said "Well, I'd still like to personally take a look at the attraction. Judge for myself whether or not the ride can be repaired and then re-opened." The WDW ops staff said "Well - okay, Mr. Ovitz. But we'll have to do this early tomorrow morning before the other guests enter the Magic Kingdom."

Which is why the following morning at 7 a.m. Mike Ovitz found himself standing in the queue at "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" as a sub that was loudly belching smoke came rumbling up to the dock. The Disney Company President then climbed down the stairs and found a quarter inch of water sloshing around in the bottom of the boat. When Mike pointed this out, the WDW ops staff said "Well, you have to understand that a lot of our subs are over 20 years old, Mr. Ovitz. So many of them have developed small pinhole leaks over time."

The sub then lurched away from the dock and took Ovitz & the ops crew on a somewhat jerky trip around the "20K" ride track, with the attraction's soundtrack barely audible through the ship's crackling loudspeakers. As you might imagine, once the boat pulled up to the dock, Michael quickly climbed out of the mildewed interior. He then turned to WDW's ops staff and told them that they had made the right decision. That - given the shape that "20K" was currently in - the safest and smartest thing to do with this Fantasyland attraction was keep it closed. Permanently.

Now I don't have to tell you smart people that WDW's ops staff had sandbagged Ovitz. That they had deliberately picked out the "20K" sub that was in the worst possible mechanical shape for him to ride in. That they recruited a ride operator that they could trust to give Michael the roughest ride imaginable. That they had even thrown a few buckets of water down into the bottom of the boat to simulate a pinhole leak. All in an effort to leave Ovitz with the impression that WDW's subs were beyond salvaging.


I would not be surprised if this was the truth... apparently the Disney maintenance crew hated this attraction... upkeep, and such... so they made Ovitz think the ride was "beyond repair" and he made the decision to bag it.


and then 10 months or so later... he was booted by Eisner... arent you happy to know that the ride was shut down by the "worst" president in Disney's history... and Eisner did not want his name on it...

[WDWBurghGooner]

I loved Mr. Toads Wild Ride the best. This was my favorite b/c I love the cartoon and the "merilly..." song.

[JNota0005DakMC]

i loved that Toad had 2 separate tracks...