Most of us have very fond memories of extinct rides from Disney Word’s past like The Great Movie Ride, Maelstrom, etc., but there are other rides that you may have COMPLETELY forgotten about!
The Rainbow Corridor!
Let’s take a trip down memory lane at some of the RIDES that are sadly no longer at Disney World, and that you may have totally forgot once existed!
Body Wars and Cranium Command (1989-2007)
Way back when EPCOT first opened, each section of Future World was broken down into pavilions focused on a specific subject matter. We still see remnants of this in the Land Pavilion and the Seas Pavilion (formerly the Living Seas Pavilion). The Wonders of Life Pavilion, focusing on the human body, featured two attractions you might not remember– Body Wars and Cranium Command.
Body Wars was a motion-based simulator ride where you were strapped into a car with rows of seats and moved around rapidly while a video played at the front of the vehicle. You got to take a trip through the human body! It was one of the key factors in what made the attraction Star Tours possible. This attraction seemed like it existed a LONG time ago, but it actually closed in 2007 — much more recent than you may think!
Wonders of Life becoming Play! Pavilion
Cranium Command was a show held in a theater inside the pavilion that took you through a day in the life of a brain controlling the body of a teenage boy. You can guess things don’t go very smoothly! You were led by an animatronic figure at the front of the stage, Buzzy, that talked to the audience throughout the show as worked with other organs in the body to help steer the boy through his day.
Buzzy ©D23
The Wonders of Life Pavilion was used on and off for several years as additional space for EPCOT Festival activities, seminars, etc., but soon it will be transformed into the new Play! Pavilion.
Click here to learn more about the upcoming Play! Pavilion at EPCOT!
Horizons (1983-1994, 1995-1999)
When we say “Horizons,” we bet you either start humming the theme song or imagining smelling oranges, huh? 🙂 Or maybe you just think “Huh, what ride was THAT?” Horizons opened on EPCOT’s first anniversary as part of “Phase II” of the park’s operations. This dark ride used an Omnimover-style ride system that showed guests visions of the future. It was even considered by some to be a sequel to the Carousel of Progress over at Magic Kingdom!
©Disney
Horizons originally closed in 1994 after General Electric ended its sponsorship of the attraction, but would reopen one year later a month prior to the closure of another popular EPCOT attraction, World of Motion (more on that later!). The former location of Horizons would eventually be replaced by Mission: SPACE. To this day, Horizons remains one of the most beloved extinct rides with a respectable cult following.
Click here to learn about where some of your favorite ride pre-show actors are now!
Delta Dreamflight (1989-1998)
Delta Dreamflight was, as the name implies, sponsored by Delta Airlines. It was located in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom for roughly ten years, and used an Omnimover-style ride system that educated guests on the history of flight and eventually air travel.
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin Line
This ride replaced a similar ride with a different name as well as a different airline sponsor: If You Could Fly, sponsored by Eastern Air Lines. Currently, the former location of Delta Dreamflight is where you can find Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.
What historical Disney Parks event happened the year YOU were born? Find out here!
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage (1971-1994)
This next attraction was inspired by Submarine Voyage in Disneyland, which still exists to this day as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was located in Magic Kingdom and was very similar in style to its Disneyland counterpart.
Guests would board submarines and sit back to back, each facing a porthole. They’d then take a slow-moving tour around the giant lagoon, exploring underwater creations, venturing to the “North Pole” and ultimately battling the film’s famed Giant Squid. The ride was notoriously difficult to maintain and had a very low load capacity (if you’ve been on the Nemo version in Disneyland, you know this ride loads and unloads SLOWLY!).
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
This unique ride was an opening day attraction for Magic Kingdom, and it closed abruptly in 1994. Many of the Nautilus submarines were destroyed but one can actually be seen today — sort of. It was sunken at Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line’s private island. Guests can snorkel over the famous sub on their vacation!
The ride would later be replaced as a character meet and greet known as Ariel’s Grotto, but these days the location is where you can ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid. Fun fact — Imagineers saved some of the lagoon water from the original attraction and added it to the water at Under the Sea when it opened!
Click here to learn even more Disney World ride secrets!
World of Motion (1982-1996)
World of Motion was the initial inhabitant of what was at the time the Transportation Pavilion at EPCOT, more commonly known just as the World of Motion Pavilion. Sponsored by General Motors, the omnimover ride served as a way of showing guests the history of and achievements in transportation, starting with the invention of the wheel and moving up to what was present day. Anyone else remember the “way more fun looking than it actually was” spiral ramp up into the ride from outside?
World of Motion
The ride closed in 1996 but the GM sponsorship remained. The ride was soon replaced by Test Track, whose original deign was meant to take guests through a General Motors testing facility.
Step into our DFB time machine and check out these photos from EPCOT in the 1980’s!
Discovery River Boats (1998-1999)
The Discovery River Boats were, of course, located in Animal Kingdom. This leisurely boat ride, as you would expect, took guests around the waterways surrounding Discovery Island, where the Tree of Life is located.
Discovery Island
The River Boats reign as one of the shortest-lived rides on our list. It was an opening day ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, first welcoming guests on April 22nd, 1998. By August of the following year, less than a year and a half after it first opened, the ride was closed permanently due to low popularity with guests.
Click here to see how Disney has been using the waterways around Discovery Island since reopening Animal Kingdom!
El Rio del Tiempo (1982-2007)
El Rio del Tiempo was an opening day attraction at EPCOT. Located inside the Mexico Pavilion, this calm dark boat ride took guests through various scenes of Mexico’s history. The attraction was replaced by another boat ride that’s still operational, the Gran Fiesta Tour, starring Donald Duck and the Three Cabelleros.
Gran Fiesta Tour
The ride now is less about the country’s history and more about the cultural heritage of Mexico, as Panchito and José search for Donald Duck all across the country. The current ride uses many of the set pieces and decorations from El Rio del Tiempo, making this one of the few extinct attractions you can still catch several glimpses of to this day!
Click here to read about a recent incident with José on Gran Fiesta Tour!
Mike Fink Keel Boats/River Rogue Keel Boats (1971-2001)
Our final extinct ride you may not remember could be found along the Rivers of America in Liberty Square, located in Magic Kingdom. The Mike Fink Keel Boats, also known as the River Rogue Keel Boats, were free-floating boats that were inspired by two episodes of the Davy Crockett mini series that aired on ABC in 1954 and 1955. A Disneyland version of the boats had been in operation since opening in 1955, and it became one of the opening day attractions for Magic Kingdom.
Rivers of America
Guests would sit on benches located inside cabins that were placed on the rafts, or they would sit on the roofs of the cabins. The Disneyland version of the ride closed in 1997 after one of the boats capsized, leaving several guests with minor injuries. The Magic Kingdom version would close four years later in 2001. To this day, guests can take a look at a nonfunctioning Mike Fink Keel Boat in Magic Kingdom on Tom Sawyer Island.
Click here to see recent photos and videos of a DRAINED Rivers of America!
We hope this list took some of you down memory lane, and if you aren’t quite old enough to remember or have experienced these rides, we hope you learned something new about Disney World’s past! Walt once said that Disneyland “will never be complete,” and the same sentiment can be applied to Disney World, too! While that unfortunately means we sometimes have to say goodbye to our favorite rides and attractions, one ride’s closure means the opportunity for something new, different, and exciting!
Click here to look through the DFB family photo album and time travel to Disney World’s past!
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. Sad sigh….
You forgot the Swan Boats that navigated the moat waterway in front of Cinderella Castle that all the way over to the Jungle Cruise past the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. It was a seasonal opening day attraction at MK along with the Omnibus and the horse drawn street car. So much of the original park features are nothing but fond memories. I believe the Eastern Airlines sponsored attraction in Tomorrow Land was called “The Wings of Man” that is now the Buzz Lightyear attraction, and the Laff Floor at Monsters Inc., was originally called Circle-vision 360 Sponsored by Monsanto which became the Robin Williams Narrated/Jules Verne inspired show that required you to use the infamous lean rails… I do not recall the name of that but I loved the adventure I Time l and then there was ‘Mission to the Moon” which ended up becoming the Stitch trilogy of failures. Lots of great attractions that were groundbreaking in there day. I miss them all…
We LOVED World of Motion! The scenes had so much humor, as well as being informative about the history of transportation. The theme song, “It’s Fun to Be Free”, was extremely catchy.
Another extinct attraction, sort of, was the pre-show for the 3-D show Magic Journeys, which was where the Pixar shorts are now being shown. It had another very catchy theme song, “Making Memories”. And the film itself was charming, but a little slow and thoughtful for current audiences.
I’d be here all day, but to name a few:
CIRCLE OF LIFE- loved seeing the show in EPCOT’s harvest theatre, great message with fun characters.
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE AUDIENCE – excellent 3D show in the Imagination pavilion.
CAMP MICKEY-MINNE and MICKEY’S TOONTOWN FAIR – that was the essence of my childhood.
The Swan Boats, “if you had wings”, the gondolas between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
Ken— thank goodness you remember the swan boats. No one ever remembers them and I can’t find pictures of them anywhere. I was beginning to think I dreamed them up. Does anyone remember the characters symphony ? I was only 5 my first trip in 1972 but what fond memories. My dad worked for Eastern and there was a lounge for employees in the MK way back then.
I miss all of them!! I still have a picture of the Swans. {If DFB wants a copy just let me know}
Although I do enjoy most of the new rides, there was more magic then. Some updates are necessary as old prejudices fade (upgrade of Splash Mountain is great). But bigger is not always better. And certainly, different is not necessarily better. Sad to see the more adult focus, and further deviation from Walt’s dream to corporate demands – like alcohol in the parks. I am most sorry children of today will not have the same parks to visit. Increasing cost means it has become less “family vacation” and more of “only the rich can afford it”. 😥
Sold my Disney stock and went on a Disney vacation just before the pandemic hit. And things have gotten worse. Really wanted to go for the 50th anniversary. Corporate greed with all the new regulations canceled that.
Still waiting to go on the Wish.