Disney, I know you’re building a whole lot of brand-new rides, but we’ve gotta talk!
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Now, we’re excited for the 8 new rides coming to Disney World, but how is it that you have the blueprint for the perfect ride, for decades at this point, but you still won’t give us this ONE? Like we said, let’s talk!
We’re not trying to be ungrateful. Somehow we blinked earlier this year and we got the announcement for new ride after new ride. We love it and can’t wait to hop on them, but how is it that after having the ultimate ride blueprint for decades, we’re still not any closer to getting this one ride built? We’re talking about an Aladdin’s Magic Carpet roller coaster in the Cave of Wonders.
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The Perfect Roller Coaster Already Exists
Take a second to think back to the movie. There’s that scene where Aladdin hops onto the magic carpet, dodging lava explosions, zooming through narrow tunnels, and barely escaping with his life as the entire cave collapses around him. It’s thrilling, it’s visually stunning, and it’s basically already storyboarded for an epic ride.
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I mean, Disney has tried to dabble in magic carpet attractions like the kiddie spinner ride in Magic Kingdom, but it’s time to graduate from playground vibes to full-on adrenaline rush.
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Can you imagine a dark coaster ride where you’re “sitting” on a magic carpet, surrounded by dazzling gemstones and molten gold? The carpet speeds up as the booming voice of the Cave of Wonders warns, “Touch nothing but the lamp!” Suddenly, the floor beneath you collapses into molten lava as you zip around fiery corners and burst out of the cave into the cool night air.
What Are They Building Instead?
Okay, fine. Disney is building some pretty cool stuff over the course of the next couple years. Here’s the lineup of eight rides they’re working on:
- Test Track 3.0 in EPCOT
- An Indiana Jones Ride at Animal Kingdom
- Encanto-themed ride with the family Madrigal inside the enchanted Casita at Animal Kingdom
- Two Cars-Themed Rides in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom
- Two Villains Land Attractions at Magic Kingdom
- A Monsters, Inc. Coaster at Hollywood Studios
To be sure, these sound awesome, But NONE of them capture the same high-stakes adventure and jaw-dropping visuals as a magic carpet ride through the Cave of Wonders would.
Disney, Why Are You Like This?
Here’s the real kicker: Disney loves giving us nostalgic throwbacks to classic movies, but when it comes to turning one of the most iconic moments from one of our most beloved films into a ride, they’re just not interested? Why?
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The technology is there. They’ve done dark coasters (Space Mountain, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, TRON Lightcycle / Run, the list goes on). They’ve consistently nailed immersive storytelling. And who knows, they might even be able to fit a new ride seamlessly into Adventureland while they’re already doing a bunch of construction at the park.
Our One Wish
Disney, you’re the home of dreams come true. So here’s a dream we would love you to fulfill: give us the Aladdin magic carpet roller coaster we’ve been waiting for. We don’t need another re-theme or a teacup-style spinner ride. We need to soar through the Cave of Wonders, clutching our metaphorical lamps, screaming with joy as we escape fiery doom.
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While I kind of see your point, when people think of Disney based roller coasters, people don’t think of the magic carpet ride, they think of one thing.
Pull the lever Kronk. Not that LEVER!!!!!
Smh I just wish Disney along with most people would learn the difference between expanding and repurposing. If the put all these things in a new Park area this would be incredible but to just change rides and different areas of an already established park is sadly cheap 😔
The cave of wonders would be PERFECT if they used a ride system like harry potter and the forbidden journey.
I wonder if, instead of a coaster, it could be like Flight of Passage in Pandora? Even more immersive than a coaster (in my experience) but would need to be physically pretty massive – like FoP – to move enough Guests through to make it work. Imagine the different areas/phases of the line – like the immersion of FoP begins even as the guest walks through the glowing ‘jungle’ of Pandora, into caves with ancient paintings of the Navi’i, then we’re fully inside and moving through the ‘ruins’ of the mining base, then -sort of magically – into a not-ruined laboratory where we begin to focus less on the ‘world’ we are in and more on what our experience there will be. Then there’s the somewhat less inspiring long, concrete corridors of people:line sorting before we go into the next phase of prepping us for our mind meld and flying an Ikram/Banshee. By the time we get to the room with the actual ride mechanisms, we’re fully briefed on the world we’re in and what will happen… except the actual experience is so surprising and amazing, we walk away thrilled and ready to do it 1,000,000 more times in a row (or, maybe I’m speaking for myself, lol). I think an Aladdin carpet ride would be GREAT for this template!
Interesting. About 28 years ago, my family was visiting Epcot, and I was chosen to “ride” a 3D prototype for a new ride based on Disney’s 1992 Aladdin. Cast members (Imagineers?) had me and three others each mount a device that could well have been an early inspiration for Flight of Passage, except it didn’t move. We wore enormous, heavy 3D “goggles”, were given instructions on how to work the controls (like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, only you had to work left, right, up, down all at the same time), and we flew over an Arabian city in search of the Magic lamp. The visuals were great, but the experience of swooping up and down and side to side on what was a stationary ride vehicle made me very dizzy and I remained that way for at least an hour. I learned later that when what you see doesn’t match the movement your body feels, it causes dizziness, seasickness, etc. Now that Disney has greatly improved their 3D rides, I think an Aladdin ride similar to FoP would be spectacular.
An Aladdin or Kronk coaster would definitely make an awesome addition to Animal Kingdom instead of that stupid Casita idea. Encanto isn’t going to age well over time – not a “classic” Disney movie by any standard.
They had the virtual reality Aladdin ride in Disney Quest in the old Downtown Disney, Orlando. You rode face down on a magic carpet in a race with the other riders. It was a blast. All of the rides in Disney Quest were great. It was sad to see it close. Now that virtual reality is back with Meta Disney should take some of their seldom used stores or spaces and open some VR rides like Aladdin again.