Tag: Disney's Animal Kingdom

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Rides of the Multiverse: A Glimpse Into Disney Parks Classics As They ALMOST Were…

It only takes two words to tear open the multiverse of Imagineering: “What if…?” After all, the archives of WDI are overflowing with concepts that almost came to be. Here at Park Lore, our Possibilityland collection is filled with in-depth stories detailing never-built, could-be classics from the Western River Expedition to the Enchanted Snow Palace; WESTCOT to Muppet Studios; Tomorrowland 2055 to Beastly Kingdom, and even full walkthroughs of alternate-reality versions of Walt Disney World parks…

But not every unbuilt idea is scrapped. Sometimes, concepts merely evolve. So as we glimpse through the veil into the multiverse of possibilities, imagine if these nine Disney “classics” had looked a whole lot different. How might each have changed the parks forever? We’ll leave you to decide…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Ticket to Paradise: Disney Parks Prices from 1955 to 2024

Our world moves in cycles; predictable patterns of ebbs and flows, beginnings and endings, life and death… like the phases of the moon, some things can just be counted upon as tried, true, and sure. And so it is with annual price hikes at Disney’s two resorts in the United States. Truly a tale as old as time, you can bet your bottom dollar that come hell, highwater, war, recession, or pandemic, somehow and some way, the cost of a day at Disneyland or Walt Disney World will rise.

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Good Movie, “Bad” Ride: 8 Iconic Films Whose Spirits Were Lost in Translation to Theme Parks

Whether you like it or not, Disney and Universal Parks have evolved. Since at least the 1990s, theme parks M.O.s have been shifting from places to “Ride the Movies” aboard Modern Marvels: Star Tours, Indiana Jones Adventure, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to today’s immersive lands where you can “Live the Movies” by stepping into Hogsmeade, Pandora, Springfield, Radiator Springs, Batuu, or Avengers Campus. 

Both Disney and Universal tend to be pretty picky about the films that are afforded permanent, expensive attractions inside their parks… No one wants a ride themed to a box office bomb, after all… However, just because you pick a good, revered, classic, or award-winning movie, you’re not guaranteed a good, revered, classic, or award-winning ride will come out the other end. Here’s our short collection of eight really good movies that somehow got lost in translation, turning into rides that just don’t live up to the film’s legacy.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Potter… Nintendo… Star Wars… WHAT’S LEFT?! 12 Untapped IPs Perfect for Theme Park Lands

For at least the last few decades, multimedia companies like Disney, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia have been engaged in an all-out war. The goal? Purchasing, licensing, conglomerating, trading, and protecting the most precious resource of the 21st century: intellectual property. In fact, one of Park Lore’s recent Extra Features took a look at 9 surprising IPs that are now officially Disney’s thanks to its acquisition of 20th Century Fox!

But away from the studio, one battlefront in the ongoing IP War has been Disney and Universal’s respective theme parks, where a new era of “Living Lands” has plucked places right from the highest-earning franchises in history like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney Princesses to go head-to-head in billion-dollar theme park projects.

A few years ago – after so many major acquisitions – we might’ve wondered aloud, “What’s left?!” Then came Nintendo. How had we missed it?! Nintendo was the kind of integenerational, widely-recognized, timeless brand and character catalogue few movies can match. It’s perfect for creating an immersive world. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that between Mario and Donkey Kong alone, Nintendo’s top two franchises have amassed $40 billion in revenue (more than the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe)…

The surprising coup of Nintendo has left lots of theme park fans wondering aloud, “What else have we missed?” and more importantly…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Disney Parks Quiz: How Long Has It Been Since Each of These Theme Parks Had an IP-FREE Headliner?

“The year is 2021. The Intellectual Property Wars have been waging for decades…” What might sound like the beginning of a post-apocalyptic young adult novel is all too real for theme park fans today. As their respective parent companies race to create, borrow, or outright buy the hottest brands they can get their hands on, Disney and Comcast’s theme parks have become a pop culture battleground.

We spent an entire Special Feature here on Park Lore examining the age of the “Disney+ Park” – an era of increasing interchangeability and diminishing themes as IP floods into theme parks. And why not? With nearly $100 billion in acquisitions over the last two decades (and many unexpected IPs en route to Disney+ and Disney Parks), wouldn’t it be downright irresponsible for Disney to waste time with original mythologies, original worlds, or original characters? Wouldn’t it be a disservice to shareholders to build Mystic Manor instead of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure?

Which brings us back to 2024… Today, we’ll look back in the archives to discover… What was the most recent IP-free headlining ride at U.S. Disney and Universal Parks? How many years has it been since each debuted a truly original major attraction without a blockbuster movie, character, or brand as its reason for being? You might be surprised…  

Continue reading “Disney Parks Quiz: How Long Has It Been Since Each of These Theme Parks Had an IP-FREE Headliner?”
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COUNTDOWN: The “Worst” Rides of the Century (So Far)

If you’ve already scoured Park Lore’s Extra Features collection, you may have stumbled on our list of the Best Rides of the Century (So Far) – a just-for-fun, totally-opinionated countdown of Imagineering’s greatest achievements of the millennium. But… not every ride can be a classic. If you’ve read any entries in our in-depth Declassified Disaster series, you know full well that the story of Disney Parks is one filled with collosal failures, unbelievable flops, and attractions that just turn out to be bad decisions born of a specific time, mindset, or leadership.

More often than not, the difference between a ride fans love and one they loathe is just what a ride replaced, what was lost from sketch to reality, or – worst of all – how it doesn’t live up to fans’ expectations. And frankly, there’s just something interesting about things going wrong… It’s interesting when an attraction fails to find the audience Disney’s designers had hoped… and often, how they own up to the mistake by updating, changing, replacing, or outright closing projects that don’t find their footing.

Today, we’ve collected seven of the “worst” Disney attractions of the century (so far) to share our thoughts on why these projects just didn’t land. Now, granted, this list is – by necessity – merely an opinion piece! And it’s so important to remember that each was worked on by highly-skilled artists, designers, and writers whose work we don’t discount… More to the point, whatever your least favorite ride might be, millions upon millions of people love it, care about it, and have spectacular memories on it. So take our opinions for a grain of salt, and share your own 21st century disaster condenters in the comments below or when you share this feature with friends and family!

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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COUNTDOWN: The “Best” Rides of the Century (So Far)

The story of theme parks in the 21st century is about to be a weird one… We may only be 20% of the way through the first century of the 2000s, but we’ve already lived through some of the wildest swings of the pendulum in themed entertainment design ever. Theme parks began in a lowly position as the tail end of Eisner’s budget-conscious ’90s and early 2000s lead to an era of underbuilt, abandoned, and low-budget plans, made all the worse by the 2001 obliteration of tourism in the wake of September 11th and, further, the financial crisis of 2008. Budgets were slashed. Theme parks cancelled. Projects downsized. 

Arguably, that trend was reversed only by the opening of the Wizarding World in 2009, propelling Universal (and by extension, Disney) into the modern age of “living lands,” big-budget investment, per-capita spending records, and theme parks as corporate revenue-generators… Who would’ve foreseen an era where E-Tickets weren’t enough? Where competitors battled over blockbuster IPs? Where guests would queue for hours not for rides, but for food and shops? Where Disney and Universal would drop a billion dollars on a single land? Of course, this golden age of investment is itself coming to an unceremonious end thanks to the catastrophic fallout of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the results of which will no doubt be felt in the parks for decades. 

Image: Disney

So now, today, we find ourselves in an unusual position: half celebrational, half mournful, 2020 seems like a good time to look back at what may have represented the height of Imagineering; the pinnacle of theme park spending; the biggest $200 million E-Tickets we’ll see for a while. So today, let’s take a look at some of the best to come out of Disney (and Universal) Parks so far in the 21st century – that is, opening in the year 2000 or later. (So no, Indiana Jones Adventure, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror won’t be on this list… though you can read up on each in our Modern Marvels collection!)

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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From Dining with the Dead to Picnics on Pandora, Just Imagine Eating at These In-Ride Restaurants

“Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” And while you’re in them, you’ve got to eat, right? From the very beginning, dining at Disney Parks has been more than just part of the experience; it’s been part of the story. When you eat hand-pulled taffy on Main Street, indulge in a Dole Whip beneath the torches of Adventureland, pop a beignet and mint julep on the wrought iron patios of New Orleans Square, or saddle up for some barbecue in Frontierland, you’re seeing Disney’s culinary imagination at work. 

In many regards, considering dining as part of the story was fantastically realized in 1967, when Pirates of the Caribbean opened at Disneyland. There, as guests cast off from Lafitte’s Landing, they encounter one of the ride’s most ingenious moments. Drifting at first beneath the cloudless night sky and alongside firefly-lit marshes, guests suddenly find the swamp’s still waters illuminated by the reflection of paper lanterns strung up over the waterside patio of a stately, remote plantation house on the bayou’s edge. It’s alive with classy jazz music… and waterfront diners. But they aren’t Audio-Animatronics; the hustle and bustle of the ongoing evening dinner party is real thanks to diners at Disneyland’s most exclusive public restaurant, The Blue Bayou.

Image: Disney, by Herb Ryman

The Blue Bayou gave guests the opportunity to dine inside a ride. It wasn’t just novel; it was magical both for riders and diners. Arguably, Disney’s never topped that initial, perfect fusion of ride-and-restaurant (though both Paris and Shanghai’s Pirate rides have followed the formula). Hints of the concept have popped up, like in Magic Kingdom’s Village Haus (overlooking “it’s a small world’s” boarding) and, at Epcot, The Land’s Good Turn Restaurant (with views of Listen to the Land), the San Angel Inn (which closely mirrored the Blue Bayou but with Mexico’s El Rio Del Tiempo waterway), and The Seas’ Coral Reef Restaurant.

But the idea of truly placing a restaurant within (or at least, in proximity to) a ride hasn’t really happened in quite a while… Which is why we’ve cooked up some ideas for ride-restaurant pairs that would be amazing to dine in. Are these spatially possible? Practical? Of course not! Consider this more of a conceptually exercise than a concrete one. But if you can join us in temporarily forgetting space constraints, ignoring blueprints, and thinking Blue Sky, consider how great these dining experiences would be…

Continue reading “From Dining with the Dead to Picnics on Pandora, Just Imagine Eating at These In-Ride Restaurants”
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From Tourist to Trainee: 6 Iconic, Archetypal “Roles” You’ve Stepped Into in Disney & Universal Parks

Whether you’ve rocketed through the boundless cosmos on Space Mountain, been an adventurer uncovering the mysteries of the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, trekked through the lantern-lit forests of Grizzly Peak, or explored the snow-capped village of Hogsmeade, you’ve been a part of one of the most essential cornerstones of themed entertainment design: story.

When you spend a day at a Disney or Universal Park, you truly do “leave today” and step into new worlds, new adventures… and new roles. From archaeologists to time-travelers, students to tourists, reporters to escape artists, a day at the parks is truly a day on-stage, trying on an assortment of once-in-a-lifetime roles.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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EDITORIAL: 20 Years Later, Dinoland Still Doesn’t Work. Here’s Why, and What Could Be.

Look – it wouldn’t be the first time dinosaurs went extinct. 

Since 1998, Disney’s Animal Kingdom has played host to an entire land dedicated to the ancient reptiles that once walked the earth. From day one, Dinoland, U.S.A. has been an oddity – a meticulously designed in-joke philosophically exploring humanity’s relationship with creatures we’ve only encountered through fossil evidence and feature films. But arguably, Dinoland has always fallen a bit flat… Anchored by a swing-and-a-miss attempt to relive the glory of one of Disney’s best rides ever, then accentuated by a fan-frustrating carnival, Dinoland has never truly entered the pantheon of great Disney projects.

And now, things are changing once again. With the recent news that one of the land’s few attractions will never open again, Dinoland’s looking more desolate than ever. So what if Disney were drawing up plans to replace Dinoland entirely? Today, we’ll take the trek through the history of Dinoland and toward the conclusion many Imagineering fans have already drawn (sometimes literally)… Could Animal Kingdom’s land of ancient animals become a land of ancient adventures? Here’s our in-depth assessment of how we got here… 

This in-depth article is just one entry in Park Lore’s one-of-a-kind Special Features collection, where we explore the threads that connect between rides, parks, and pop culture! From Imagineering’s secret Society of Explorers and Adventurers, to the history of Chuck E. Cheese; from Disney and Universal’s AVENGERS: “Custody War” to the two-part tale of animation’s rebirth in the generation-defining ’90s Disney Renaissance!

Special Features are typically available exclusively for those who support this evolving theme park history project with a monthly Membership. It’s been unlocked for a limited time, but if you enjoy what you read, consider becoming a Park Lore Member for as little as $2 / month!

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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