Latest theme park-themed post, this one featuring aborted rides and attractions

'Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Disney's Imagineers worked on many concepts to ease guests' disappointment about the shuttering of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage at the Magic Kingdom. One of these was Fire Mountain, which was to headline a new sub-land in Adventureland to be known as Volcania. It was to be a roller coaster based around a mock mountain - hardly an original concept for Disney. However, the actual ride system was to be truly revolutionary. Riders would start in a traditional steel coaster, sitting in a car with the track beneath them. Suddenly, halfway through, the ride would transform into a "flying" coaster, with the track above the rider's headers and "lava" burning beneath their feet. By the time they reached the end of the attraction, the track would have switched once again, so that waiting riders would have no idea what to expect. Ultimately, the costs of achieving this trick were deemed to be too high, and Fire Mountain was reimagined as a simple flying coaster. But it never got the green light.'-- Theme Park Tourist





'The Eiffel Tower Bullet was a fun ride proposed in 1891 in which people would sit inside a giant bullet and freefall from the top of the Eiffel Tower into a pool of water. M.Carron’s bullet capsule would be released from the top of the interior of the Tower, about 1000 feet high, and released to fall into an excavated pool 150’ across and 200’ deep. The idea was that in addition to the springs inside the capsule, the water would act as a “shock absorber”, and so “the shock felt by the occupants on landing will be in no way unpleasant”. The thing would have hit at 178mph or so, and, assuming that the whole thing didn’t get completely crushed on impact, I’m not so sure that 200’ of depth is very much wiggle room for the thing to come to a halt (if it didn’t deform). Also it would have to not have any wind deflection so as to not veer off its perfect entry into the water. And so on. Calculating the force of impact is difficult without knowing how far down the bullet would go, but hitting the water at 80 m/s and stopping at 30 meters would yield something like 28,600,000 KE and 1,274,000 N. There are lots of problems. The thing that made this so appealing is that for the 20-francs that got a person a seat in the bullet, they would each have gotten to go twice as fast as any human had ever traveled before ( 65 miles per hour was about the speed of the fastest train constructed).'-- collaged






'During the early 1980’s, Bally was developing an interactive Ghostbusters-themed ride called The Hauntington Hotel, for Six Flags theme parks. The modern movie-branded take on Disney’s classic Haunted Mansion attraction would have been the first interactive video game/theme park ride. Six Flags guests would climb into a “Ghostmobile”, a track-set ride vehicle with a drop down lap bar with ghost-busting guns mounted on it. Recruited by the Ghostbusters Agency, park guests would be sent on their first job, to take care of the ghosts in a creepy hotel called The Hauntington Hotel. The ride was expected to last two and a half minutes and would feature a variety of high-tech and low-tech gags for the scenes. Every target would react to being hit, and guests would get to find out their score when exiting the attraction. The whole thing was created, designed, engineered, and prototyped at Sente, and the ride system was in the hands of a prominent roller coaster engineering company, Intamin. But before it could be rolled out in the Six Flags parks (1st one was slated for Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California), Bally sold the Six Flags division in 1987, and the project fell into a corporate black hole, never to be seen again, which is too bad, as it was really pretty cool, even by today’s standards.'-- Slash Film










'The Orlando, Florida project Hurricane World was supposed to be both a serious hurricane research center, and a tourist attraction featuring giant simulated storms complete with 100 mph winds. The developers wanted to build this $5 million tourist attraction on U.S. Highway 192 in Osceola County next door to Walt Disney World.'-- collaged





'Geyser Mountain was an attraction developed for Disneyland Paris to be on the Tower of Terror ride system, but it was run in reverse ... descending deep into the ground, then exploded upward, riding atop a powerful thermal geyser. After entering the mine building guests would queue through exhibits and displays that set up our elevator journey deep into the tunnels and caverns below. ( Such an elevator exists at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico ). The elevators would first descend into the mine tunnels where various mining operations would be observed as the elevator doors open onto different levels. Then the car descends deeper into the fabled "Rainbow Caverns" where the doors reveal a breathtaking sight. The elevator operator is then given "safety clearance" to continue down to the deepest caverns where "thermal activity" sometimes makes visits impossible ... but today of course we are "lucky" ... we get to go!" As we descend, ominous rumblings increase and guests are able to briefly see the glowing heat-fed fissures before massive thermal eruptions force the cabin back upward and all the way to the top of the mine shaft tower. The elevator cab thrusts upward and slips back downward…the ever increasing thermal geyser belching out steam beneath the cab (like the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth). We break free of the earth and bob precariously at the top of the tower…steam escaping from all around below the cabin. Then like a cartoon ... the geyser stops with the cab motionless for an instant. Then we fall back downward landing deep in the earth on a pillowy cushion of receding steam. The operator is able to regain control of the cab, and brings the elevator back up to the entry level on the side of the mountain. The reason it was never built was largely technical: much of the attraction was housed underground as it would be impossible to disguise a 13 story tower in the existing Paris Disneyland Frontierland. Thus all the mine scenes and caverns were created in basement structure, leaving the ultimate height only about 70 feet (20 feet lower than the nearby Big Thunder Roller Coaster). The problem ended up being that of capacity. Tower of Terror has 4 to 6 elevator entries and it would have been very difficult to create a scene that looked believable and made room for all those mine elements.'-- Disneyandmore







'Kong: Skull Island, the close to billion dollar upcoming ride at Universal Studios's Islands of Adventure Park, is scheduled to open late in 2015. However, one of the most innovative and anticipated aspects of this ride has recently been cancelled after testing proved the idea was too dangerous as well far too technically complex and expensive. Until the cancellation, the ride's vehicle, an off-road safari truck (originally a topless truck for the best viewing), would have featured a female driver who, like the old Jaws and Kongfrontation attractions, would also have served as the narrator for your journey. The tech involved here would have had to be flawless to make this work, but the finale Kong figure would have been able to reach out and GRAB your driver from the truck and off with her. Your truck would then have rolled slowly to a stop in the next room, where crew members would have met up and evacuated you out of the temple, and then sent the empty truck on to the loading room for the next group of guests. I'm just not quite sure how this would have worked, but it certainly would have been an amazing finale unlike any other if Universal had been able to pull this off.'-- Screamscape







'Disneyland has, at various times in its history, focused strongly on unique gifts. In the 1950s and 1960s, doing your Christmas shopping at Disneyland was quite the thing in LA (in those days, there was a separate, low charge for admission, and ride tickets were extra, so it was very cheap to pass through the gates in order to shop). But Walt's vision for what the company at one point called "merchantainment" was more ambitious than anything yet realized inside the berm. Page one boasts of a "mail order catalogue" that will offer everything for sale at Disneyland. This catalogue was to feature actual livestock, including "a real pony or a miniature donkey thirty inches high." Once we get to True-Life Adventureland, we learn of even cooler living merchandise: "magnificently plumed birds and fantastic fish from all over the world...which may be purchased and shipped anywhere in the U.S. if you so desire." The park's original prospectus promised "slidewalks," robotic open kitchens, and kids were promised that they would return home with "scientific toys, chemical sets and model kits, and space-helmets." Tomorrowland promised the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame (a giant tin telescope, a tin pig, and exhibits about the role of aluminum in American industry); a Dairy of the Future that featured models of cows with IVs in their hocks gazing at videos of pastures; the Dutch Boy Color Gallery (exploring the future through paint mixing), and a big-top tent housing the special-effects kraken from the film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; it was to be staffed by a little person who hid inside it all day, making the tentacles wave. Finally, the prospectus makes a big deal out of a fifth Land that was never realized. It would have been a miniature walk-through land, Lilliputian Land, where "mechanical people nine inches high sing and dance and talk to you."'-- BoingBoing






'The Harry Potter Quidditch Match Coaster was conceived and seriously considered in the early stages of development for Universal Orlando's Harry Potter park. It was to be a part coaster part shoot-em up thrill ride. As you rode what seemed like a coaster, you entered a quidditch match only to end up in a interactive ride play through of a quidditch match.'-- Season Pass





'Here, this project imagine vertically stacked theme park in the middle of the city. With the minimum footprint on the ground, this Vertical Theme Park will itself become skyscraper. Theme park is the place where somebody can experience extraordinary altitude, speed and unexpected events. When people are tired of conventional suburban setting of the theme park, we may have to place our theme park in the urban setting.-for example, in the middle of Manhattan. “Density” of the existing urban conditions will make theme park more exciting place. At the same time, “Height” of the vertically stacked theme park will also help to enhance theme park experiences to the visitors. The classic rides, such as the Ferris Wheel, rollercoaster, and carousel are all re-imagined for a vertical experience. The park is distinguished into five major areas that comprises Vertigo World (carousel and observation deck), Fast Land (flume ride, rollercoaster), 360 World (Ferris Wheel, sky promenade), Abyss City (deep city diver), and the Elsewhere Universe (space exploration, science center). As the Vertical Theme Park will be open 24 hours, many businessmen can come join, after office hours, the Urban Bungee Jumping with their suits and ties to relieve the stressful workdays. Deep in the night, the scattered lights from the other tall buildings will shine like the stars.'-- Ju-Hyun Kim











'Islands of Adventure was originally envisioned as a "Cartoon World" theme park that would've included areas for DC Superheroes, Looney Toons, and Dr. Seuss characters (the latter being the one that came to be). At one point, the DC Comics area was going to be just about Batman and Gotham City. On Batman Island, a five-story statue of Batman would tower over the entrance, with a flowing cape straggling out behind him. The headline ride would be the Batcar Interactive Dark Ride. Yes, the cars were referred to as Batcars, and not Batmobiles. These would zoom around the city and through the Axis Chemicals plant seen in 1989's movie version of Batman - the one where Jack Napier became the evil Joker. Another major attraction was to be the Batjets, a roller coaster that would circle the entire Gotham City area. Riders would board via a station located in City Hall, which was also host some dark ride elements. Nearby, the Gotham Opera House was to host a show starring Batman and Robin. Various themed shops and restaurants were also to be included, along with one very unique feature: a Bat Signal, shining high in the sky.'-- TV Tropes





'In 1960, Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz and a devout Christian, teamed with Donald Duncan of Duncan Yo-Yo's. Together they planned to build a new theme park in Cucamonga, one that would rival Disney in its ambition. They even hired two former Disneyland designers, Nat Winecoff and Bruce Bushman. Bible Storyland was their dream. "They wanted to create it in a heart shape," says Jordan, "which supposedly represents God's love of humanity. And the park was going to be divided into 6 different lands. You'd be in the Garden of Eden, then Rome, then Egypt, then Israel, and Babylon. And each place would have rides relating to the Bible. "Take Noah's Ark, a double carousel. It would be a typical carousel, but built inside a large ark and filled with zebras and camels going around the carousel. That's a very biblical theme, of course. But to the left of it is the Carousel of Mythical Beasts. You see this girl riding on a half horse, half mermaid, with dragon feet. The mythical beasts! I never found that in the bible myself." And neither did the local clergy. Todd Pierce, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo professor who's currently working on a book about early theme parks, says the designers didn't really put much thought into what their audience would think. "They hired people with minimal contact with religious communities," says Pierce, "to create a theme park for Protestants and Catholics. Nat Winecoff talked about the trip to hell, and he would get so animated and excited about seeing Satan and the sulfur baths and fire fountains. And then you could go to Circus Maximus and see a recreation of the lions and the Christians played out on stage, and then afterwards you could eat lion burgers. So there was this type of cavalier attitude, this junkiness to it, that smacked of religious profiteering." There was the the Garden of Eden Boat Ride, which looks a lot like Disneyland's jungle cruise, with scenes of Adam and Eve standing side by side with cavemen and dinosaurs. And there was a ride into King Tut's Tomb, which has nothing to do with the Bible at all. "It was supposed to open on Easter 1961," says Pierce. "In the summer of 1960, the Catholic clergy were organizing to picket the construction of Bible Storyland while earth movers were out there grading the land and getting ready to build." The project was called off.'-- scpr.org













'In the early 1980s Universal Studios Hollywood developed a concept for a dark ride based on Casper the Friendly Ghost. This would have seen guests riding on four-poster beds, and able to steer their path using a candelabra located at the foot of the bed.'-- Theme Park Tourist





'An addition to the Casey Jr. Train Ride in Fantasyland, Candy Mountain was supposed to be a mountain, that looked like it was made out of rock candy (and other various types of candy, such as licorice, lollipops, and candy canes), with a glossy, translucent appearance. Planned for the 1957 season, Candy Mountain would have been the first mountain attraction in Disneyland, years before the Matterhorn had been dreamed up. The planned Rainbow Road To Oz attraction, was supposed to go underneath the mountain, and the ride would be inside it. It was cancelled due to Walt Disney being concerned about how they would be able to maintain and clean the mountain "because of all the smog" that came from around Anaheim, California.' -- collaged









'Featuring scenes from several of Stephen King's stories, including The Shining and It, this never officially titled but planned dark ride for Universal Studios theme park in Florida would have featured a false ending. Riders would approach an unload platform and hear a spiel, then the lights would flicker, and a river of blood would pour from the doors at "unload" platform (a la The Shining). Pennywise the Dancing Clown would then emerge from the control booth to attack the riders, who would narrowly escape as their vehicle lunged forward.'-- Theme Park Insider





'The Haunted Forest was to be the perfect place for Teens and Young Adults; the ultimate “thrill ride” and “scary place” for those who look for that kind of thing. Strange sounds emanate from the forest at all hours, mixing in with the screams and shouts of those brave enough to ride with the Winged Monkeys or to traverse the River of Doom. The idea was that the entire forest was always dark and scary. The continual darkness was due to the fact that were going to place an immense and very high “shade roof” (or series of roofs) over the entire land so that sunlight would not penetrate. Since you are journeying “deep into the forest” we would stage the trees in front to hide the roof top above, while having the trees get thicker and thicker, blocking any view of the roof as you journey into the Land of the Wicked Witch. Ahead, as you started the journey, was the Witches Castle built in forced perspective. You would lose sight of it once you were in the forest itself of course, so that by the time you arrived in the courtyard, the scale would match what you imagined it would when you first caught glimpse of it at the forest’s edge. Along the way there would interactive experiences as well – most of them smaller mini-events, but little show areas one could discover if you went a bit “off the beaten path.” If you followed the signs that say “THIS WAY” and “THAT WAY” all of them take you into a short circuitous route that leads you back to where you started. THE WINGED MONKEY ride departed from this upper level in the Castle, where each guest would appear inside the LARGE CRYSTAL BALL that the Wicked Witch observes as she sends her Flying Monkeys (and you) out on the mission to find Dorothy and her companions. After launching from the Chamber of the Wicked Witch, riders would shoot high into the air, following projected images of seemingly hundreds of Winged Monkeys as they are taking flight. THE WINGED MONKEY Hanging Coaster would depart from the Witches Castle at a higher level, and proceed up even higher before rushing headlong into the Haunted Forest where it would whip through trees, fly over the River of Doom, and cascade through and above the higher walls and turrets of the Castle.'-- The Goddard Group









'The original plan for the DinoLand U.S.A. area of Disney's Animal Kingdom included a major thrill ride themed around a former sand and gravel pit. The site would feature an enormous piece of leftover machinery: The Excavator. This ore car circuit was to form the basis for a huge, heavily-themed, mine cart-style roller coaster that would be one of Disney's Animal Kingdom's headline thrill rides. The storyline would be that paleontology students had once again restarted the Excavator, using it to transport dinosaur fossils. The Excavator was dropped from Animal Kingdom's opening day line-up due to the spiralling costs of building the park's zoo attractions.'-- Theme Park Tourist







'When Islands of Adventure opened twelve years ago some rides envisioned for the Jurassic Park Island were unfortunately cancelled. One of them was the Jeep Safari Ride which would have been great as you will see on the renderings below from artist and former WDI Imagineer Scott Scherman. You can see jeeps entering a Jurassic Park camp before they move inside the land where the AA dinosaurs are. Things become serious as the jeeps would have gone right under a giant Brontosaur. Before moving under the Brontosaur the jeep would have enter the land through the famous Jurassic Park gates and moving under a kind of giant net where probably others effects or animals would have await the guests. Then you can see clearly a jeep being attacked by what seems to be Velociraptors. The arrows on the drawing indicate for sure other kind of effects and i wish i could tell which one, if i only knew... What i know is that others renderings exist and that in another scene a T-Rex would have "stepped on" the guests jeep and spun it in a way similar to the scene in the movie! Apparently this ride was planned for the area behind Thunder Falls and was scrapped for its similarity to the River Adventure raft ride.'-- Disneyandmore







'The early concept of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction had it designed as a walk-through instead of a flume-ride.'-- Disneyandmore








'In the late '90s, the theme park attraction design company Sally Corporation produced a dark ride concept based on the original Ghostbusters animated series, billing it as the "greatest dark ride never built." The vehicles would've turned to allow for riders to shoot at the many ghosts that were attacking New York City. There was a themed pre-show room. There would have been huge New York sets filled with shootable targets. The ride's story appeared to have spanned much of the affected New York City including Central Park. Riders even would have had a close encounter with multiple slimers!'-- Theme Park Review









In the late 1960s, the Knotts Berry Farm amusement park in Southern California briefly toyed with competing with nearby Disneyland by offering even more innovative attractions. One attraction on the drawing board was a very early simulator attraction that would take guests into a swirling hurricane. A model was built for testing, during which the capsule in which riders would sit was continually destroyed, and the ride was abandoned for being technically impossible to realize.'-- Progress City







'Mini Land 2: A massive, heavily detailed theme park. Multiple coasters, rides, attractions, and more.'-- dvn225













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p.s. Hey. ** Keaton, Hi. Wow, super good gif, man. Hat tip. Everyone, via Keaton: 'It seems upon my return to the castle the Emo Scientist Slave boys in the lab discovered something horribly shocking analyzing an early portrait of the God of Love...' Yeah, Mr, Butler. That was fun and cool of him. I'm only into magic in the 'magic trick' way. The magician/entertainer way. I'm pretty into that. But not the mystical stuff, although it's interesting, obviously. I love manufacturing fictional subtext. I like those dreams. They have that dream zigzagging trajectory thing that's my favorite thing about dreams. Not sure about that poem, though. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, thanks, how did I miss that? Oh, wait, it's been taken down. That was fast. Bud Cort and Mickey Cottrell as brothers, ha ha. ** Sypha, Hey. Well, err, as a very non-mainstream writer who has always gotten published one ay or another, there's always a way, albeit not an easy or dreamed of way. ** Bill, 'Harold and Maude' was my mother's favorite movie, which always seemed rather strange to me. Oh, early Egoyan, right, no problem. Thanks! 'Family Viewing', no, I haven't. It's been on my list for yonks. Things that grind are eventually turned into dust, right? Isn't that physics or something? A 'little project'? Yes, more, please, when more is possible. ** Bernard Welt, Hi, B! Yeah, I was reading that and thinking, That story sounds so familiar but with some other co-star'. Donald, yes. I think I do remember that story exiting Donald's mouth, or least David's on Donald's behalf? Theoretically, I would think Billy would love to be infiltrated, or rather ... you know. You know him, right? Cool films in your cool class. I've seen both, weirdly. Well, not 'Our Modern Maidens', which I don't believe I've ever heard of before. Mm, Thai. I want Thai. There's a great vegetarian Thai restaurant not so far beyond the canal near the big R, should you get that residency. What happened with that app., by the way? ** Steevee, Yeah, right? It drives me nuts. If I spent more time there, I would be defriending people all over the place. I sort of totally agree with you about Cronenberg. I have a small fondness for his small film 'Spider' for some reason, even though I can hardly remember the film now. ** Schlix, Hi! The fog is always different. The pattern in which it's released and the timing of the fog storm is precise, but what happens always depends on the temperature in the theater. Best case scenario is when it goes out over/into the audience, but that doesn't always happen. The idea situation is when there's a particular set of conditions, which is very rare, and, in that case, the fog builds up heavily onstage and then suddenly breaks free of the stage and rolls out across the audience in this visible wave. Very few of the books I like a lot and prop here are translated into French. Very, very, very few. Yeah, I'm super excited about my four books coming out in Germany. I need to check to see when that's happening and in what order. Best to you, U! ** Misanthrope, So are you finishing 'TTD' because you're one of those 'must finish what I start' kind of guys? 'Cos it seems theoretically like it wouldn't take all that many pages to get the gist. Which AFoS guy is Paul Reynolds, and why in the world do you know his name? ** Cal Graves, Hi. That's cool, I'm swamped too. Swampy high five. Film is in final, crunch mode, and all is well. Theater piece is being worked heavily on by Gisele at the moment in Germany, and I will join her and start doing the same next Tuesday. My book? My novel? It's still sitting there waiting for me to have time go back and work on it and finish it. Not 'til next month, I fear. Your question, ... Well, I would immediately say Robert Pollard, my music god, but he already wrote a song that was a response to one of my novels called 'Subspace Biographies', so asking for two would be greedy. So, ... how about ... David Bowie. That would be trippy. And you? Paranormally, me. ** James, Hi! Oh, my honor on the mention. I always try to have a new novel in the works, or at least at the beginning of the works, before a novel of mine gets published, and mostly I've managed to do that. It helps take the edge off of the hell of having a book come out because having a book come out is always hellish for the most part, for me at least. I'm very happy with our film, yeah. Very. Well, I'll believe that the producers actually like our film when we get to Berlin and see them face to face. But we're confident enough now to gently tell them to fuck off if they want changes. Happy to weaken your bookshelves, man. Love back to you. ** Kier, Hi, hi! A net of blue rope is really pretty. Blue netting. Is that common? It's pretty. Yikes about your dream. Uh, no, I can't remember my last dream. Really, maybe once in six months I remember a dream. I don't know why. I obviously wake up wrong for some reason. Yesterday did not turn out to be very different from the previous days. I didn't go look at art or anything as planned 'cos Zac had something else he needed to do. There was a bunch of 'ZHH' stuff yesterday. Blake's interview with me on VICE set off a big second wind of big interest in the thing, and now I'm being interview by the big French newspaper Liberation about it, and by a couple of radio stations, and a bunch of other stuff about it is suddenly in the works. So, that's cool. Otherwise, I did more post-production prep. There's a lot we need to do today because we need to send a hard-drive with all the footage and stuff, which is a ton, to Berlin for the post- guy to start preparing, and we need to make any last changes before then, and so on, so that'll be the day today, I think. I mostly spent yesterday transporting old blog posts into their rerun spots, and I conferred with Gisele, who's already in Germany working on the new theater piece, and I helped Yury move a bunch of fabrics related to his clothing line from one atelier to another, and not much else. Damn, but, hey, I'll try to make today sparkle more, if I can. How did you spend your inherently sparkly Friday? ** Jonathan, Hey, man! I got your text, but I was swamped with stuff yesterday. I'll text or call you a little later. I know of Patisserie Ciel, but I've never actually been there. It sounds awesome. Let's go, if you can bear another visit. Later, buddy. ** Right. Okay, you're all extremely used to my amusement park fetish by now, and I broke down and did another post about it hoping to winnow out my fellow fetishists out there. That's it. See you tomorrow.