Walt Disney was a firm believer that his parks would never be completed; that they would continue to change and grow and evolve for the rest of their lives. But that didn’t just mean building new attractions and closing old ones. Walt spoke of “plussing” rides in his park – making simple (or not-so-simple) changes that would go a long way to improve the overall experience.
“PLUS IT!” The Top 10 Best Results from Imagineers “Plussing” Modern Rides
Walt Disney believed that his parks would never be complete so long as there was imagination left in the world. That didn’t just apply to new additions. Walt reportedly would walk through Disneyland Park telling Cast Members to “plus it!” What he meant was that there are always changes – big and small – that could drastically improve an attraction for guests.
25 Years Ago, All of These Disney Parks Projects Were Cancelled. Here’s What Could’ve Been.
“We had a very big investment in Europe, and it’s difficult to deal with. I don’t know whether a private company can ever spend this kind of money.”
These words, spoken by Disney’s then-CEO Michael Eisner to the LA Times in January 1994, signaled the beginning of the end. Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris) had opened to a resounding financial thud in 1992; overbuilt and undervalued by locals, hemmoraging money and embroiled in cultural controversy. After a period of growth, innovation, and sincere progress at Disney Parks across the globe, the outright financial failure of the Parisian park shook Eisner to his core. From that moment on, he systematically downsized or outright dropped any large-scale expansions happening at Disney Parks.
Across the world, budgets were slashed, maintenance was cut, and Eisner surrounded himself with penny-pinching executives who shaped Disney Parks, presiding over what many argue is the worst period in the parks’ history.
Wild Sightings: 10 Places to Spot Disney and Universal Animatronics “In the Wild” and Outside of Rides
In an era of screens, special effects, and projection mapping, there may still be nothing more sensational for theme park fans than an encounter with a good, old-fashioned animatronic. Since the technology’s debut in 1963, Audio-Animatronics have become industry-standard storytelling tools, bringing to life everything from pirates to princesses; dinosaurs to dragons. That’s why our must-read Countdown: 25 Best Animatronics on Earth feature is one of the most-read Extras here at Park Lore, celebrating the most astounding animatronic encounters on E-Ticket attractions the world over.
But for those who prefer to keep their feet on the ground, a number of well-known animatronic figures are scattered across theme park paths, simply there to expand the worlds of “yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy” and present one-of-a-kind encounters outside of the parks’ rides and attractions.
If You Love To Wait in Line, You’ll Love These 10 Disney Rides with OUTRAGEOUSLY Low Capacity
Do you love to wait in line? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Whether you know it or not, there’s one number that will make or break your day at any Disney Park: capacity. Tens of thousands of people visit each Disney Park, every day… and at some point, it will feel like most of them are in line ahead of you. That’s when capacity matters most. That’s when you’ll want to be in line for a Disney attraction with OUTRAGEOUSLY high capacity – “people-eaters” that can handle massive crowds with ease. Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin…
Disney’s 10 Most Outrageously High-Capacity Rides
Safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. Any Disney Cast Member can recite these Four Keys to exceptional guest service… And while the first three are deeply tied to Disney’s identity, the last – efficiency – is certainly not least. An estimated 60,000 people per day visit Magic Kingdom, and at some point, you’re likely to end up at the back of a line behind many of them. That’s when a very important number – capacity – matters.
6 Pairs of “Cloned” Disney Attractions You May Never Have Noticed Are Nearly Identical!
If you think cloning is a divisive topic in the fields of genetics and biology, you haven’t broached the subject with theme park fans! In fact, what theme park enthusiasts call “cloning” has a long and storied past with Disney Parks, at least dating back to the design of Magic Kingdom. There, many of Disneyland’s classics were merely “copied and pasted,” albeit in entirely new contexts and often with the kinds of minor (and sometimes major) changes dictated by hindsight and budgets.
Today, cloning is a touchy subject because – by and large – Imagineering fans are torn between two extremes. In short, everyone wants “their” resort to keep its coolest rides exclusive, but to get the coolest rides from every other resort! It’s why Disneyland fans bristle at the thought of Cars Land being “soullessly copied” to Florida, but relish in recieving Runaway Railway; why Disney World loyalists would sooner die than see Pandora plopped down in California, but really, really want Indiana Jones Adventure.
For today’s Imagineers, “cloning” takes many forms. Often, it involves multiple parks sharing research and development costs to set functionally-identical rides down into several resorts at once. Even then, by the way, they may still be presented very differently, attuned to their location in each park. (Look at Toy Story Mania, STAR TOURS, Web-Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, and Little Mermaid dark rides.)
Sometimes, cloning is kicked off when a ride is a surprise hit, spreading one-by-one to other resorts who want a piece of the pie. (See, Big Thunder Mountain, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Soarin’, or Frozen Ever After).
Adding to the confusion, sometimes rides that are clones aren’t really clones at all (like how almost every Disneyland-style park has a Buzz Lightyear dark ride and a Winnie the Pooh dark ride, but none are actually identical to each other).
And even when attractions are “cloned,” they’re very rarely clones at all (though maybe it’s a little too nuanced to point out how Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was painted entirely differently in Orlando to compensate for Floridian sun.)
In other words, all “cloning” is not equal. But one of the strangest “clone” relationships you’ll find in Disney Parks are clones that most guests – even those who’ve ridden both – would never think are duplicates. Below are six pairs of attractions that are practically identical on the inside but so different on the outside, you may not even notice it. Though these rides technically are (more or less) bolt-for-bolt duplicates of one another, their dressings make these clones disguised in plain sight…
Disney Parks Quiz: Which Resort is MISSING Each of These 8 Classic Rides?
For most Disney Parks and Imagineering fans, explaining the differences between Disney’s resorts is like an art. Disneyland is quaint and charming and reassuring; Walt Disney World is grand and sprawling and organized; Disneyland Paris is elegant and rich and romantic…
Yet despite the nuances that fans lucky enough to travel the world can identify, the truth is that Disney Resorts do have a lot in common – not only because all have “castle parks” that are (to varying degrees) recreations of the original Disneyland, but also because many ‘classic’ attractions are today viewed as must-haves. What Disney resort could exist without Peter Pan’s Flight? A haunted house? Rocket jets? Would you believe some do? Today we’re quizzing you on which resorts are MISSING some “classic must-have” attractions…! Think you can get all 8?
The Best Walkthrough Attractions at Theme Parks Around the Globe
From gliding through the skies to churning beneath the waves; off-roading troop transports to effortless Doom Buggies; spinning SCOOPS to flying benches… we celebrated the most spectacular ride systems ever developed in our special Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World feature…
But in all the decades of innovation that have created new ways to whisk guests away into haunted mansions, ancient temples, comic book cityscapes, and underwater caves, there are still spectacular attractions scattered around Disney and Universal parks using a much simpler mode of transportation: your own two feet.
Classic Rides That Would FOR SURE Have Character Overlays If They Were Built Today
In more than 60 years of Disney Parks history, the only thing to stay the same has been change. From the blacklight cut-out classics of the ’50s to the epic and cinematic dark rides of the ’60s; the ’70s thrill rides to the “ride the movies” favorites of the ’80s and ’90s. Today, it’s IP that powers…