For the most part, Disney knocks it out of the park with their attractions. From classics such as Peter Pan’s Flight and Dumbo to new state-of-the-art thrillers like Avatar Flight of Passage, Disney sure knows how to dazzle their guests.
Sadly though, not everything is a winner. Here are three attractions we think Disney should close, or completely reimagine, to make way for something amazing.
1. Fossil Fun Games
Located in Chester & Hester’s Dino-rama, the Fossil Fun Games are carnival style games such as Fossil Fueler, a water-squirt game, and Bronto-score, a basketball shooting game. While these are mildly entertaining, did you really come to Disney World to play carnival games? Additionally, they cost extra and while the winner does get a plush — it’s not even a Disney plush! Just a generic dinosaur. While we totally understand and love the backstory of Chester & Hester’s Dino-rama, we think these games could be updated and made less generic. At the very minimum, can we at least get better, Disney-related prizes?
2. Gran Fiesta Tour
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Gran Fiesta Tour. But I LOVE Coco. The Gran Fiesta Tour is good but not great, so why not make it great by adding in Miguel, Dante, Hector, and Mama Coco?! As it stands, the Gran Fiesta Tour is cute, but not very popular — there’s hardly ever a queue. This would be a fabulous way to plus-up the attraction, by adding new state-of-the-art animatronics (like the Shaman in the Na’vi River Journey) and the music from the film. Coco is a ground-breaking, incredibly popular movie, with bright colors and beautiful animation, and it would be a perfect match for the attraction.
3. Stitch’s Great Escape
I know it’s temporarily closed (with no official reopen date), but until it’s officially closed forever, it earns a spot on this list. While it’s understandable that the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter wasn’t the best fit for a family park such as the Magic Kingdom, Stitch’s Great Escape was a let-down of a replacement. The Stitch animatronic is pretty incredible, and that’s about the nicest thing we can say. Disney replaced fear with gross-out gags — at one point Stitch burps on you and it smells like chili-cheese fries — and it falls flat. The set-up of the theater is very interesting, and the Stitch is so great, we’d love to see them re-theme this experience with some newer technology, a funnier show, and no burping.
So there you have it — three attractions we think Disney should close or dramatically reimagine! What attractions do you think need to go? Let us know in the comments!
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Fossil fun games. I’m going to commit the worst offense when it comes to the Disney parks, “What would Walt have done?” I don’t believe he would have stood with it. This is why Disneyland was created and built. Not only did he want attractions to be for the family as a whole he didn’t like that Carny attitude or feel. Carnies of the time were viewed as low brow, dirty, boozers and druggies with little or no concern for the people that attended carnivals. I’ve been to Animal Kingdom and experienced the game operators, they sure did live up to the carny archetype mainly the rudeness. I walked up to one of the games to see how to pay. The person snarled and pointed at a ticket machine. Disneyland opened with this type of people. They had no choice at the time but to hire just anyone for the opening. Walt had heard plenty of complaints about the rudeness. He talked to people he knew in the hospitality industry and observed great customer service. Traditions, the company wide orientation for parks and resorts was born from that. He hired people in the hospitality field to train new hires to replace the ride and food service employees that found themselves fired. Through a lot of planning customers became Guests, employees became Cast Members, areas for the guests was onstage, behind the scenes was off stage. Uniforms were designed to fit the attractions and restaurants themes and were Costumes. Cast members were also addressed as hosts and hostesses. And the Guests were the stars of the show. The pavement entering Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom was dug up and new red tinted pavement was laid down as if the guests were walking red carpet. Okay, I just went down a rabbit trail.
Dinoland USA was done on the cheap because it needed to be on the cheap. Disney was trying to keep Disneyland Paris above water and was about to open California Adventures which Paradise Pier was way worse than cheaply executed.
Dinosaur! It’s a well produced attraction but it’s time should be over. They only rethemed it to advertise their movie Dinosaur.
Dinoland USA needs to go and an expansion of the Asian area should be done. The walkthrough attraction in Asia is hardly good exhibition space for the animals. Too small of space. Asian or Indian elephants need a good habitat especially since just outside Ocala Ringling Bros. Has their elephant refuge and housing for the elephants that were retired from the Ringling shows. Disney could transport and take care of a small herd.
Stitch’s Great Escape has officially permanently closed.
GOOD RIDDANCE!
I thought for sure that Muppetvision 3D would be on this list. I go to Disney 5 or 6 times a year and haven’t visited this attraction in years. Also, the preshow is so boring, IMHO.
EPCOT is the Expermental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It needs to be the one character free safe zone left at WDW. Those who feel the need to see movie cartoon characters on every corner of every park every day at all times have the other 3 parks. Would it kill you to educate your kids a little while at WDW?
I have to disagree with the Coco layover. I know it’s in keeping with turning all of the rides in Epcot into character rides but, Coco definitely wasn’t a smash hit like Frozen. I don’t really even get the Ratatuille (I’m not looking that up) ride other than it’s in France because that wasn’t a smash either. It fits better in Disneyland Paris. While I love the idea of a ride in every country, I would much rather see something cultural like the Rio de Tiempo used to be.
Stitch is gone. You can find pictures of the stripped out animatronics online. I mean the space deserves more than a meet and greet, but that show is not opening again.
The Grand Fiesta Tour is fab. As people have already said, it’s cool & fairly quiet, so after having been on your feet all day, it’s nice to sit down for entertainment & the sing is so much better than Small world. My teenagers insisted on going on it several times a day.
As for Stitch. We love Stitch! You only have to see the amount of merch sold to see that the world loves Stitch. I’m 46 & happily queued for close to an hour to meet him.
I’d like to see a complete makeover of the Mexico pavilion theme to Coco, probably expanding into the Odyssey building. Make the whole pavilion the village of Santa Cecilia. With an expansion into the Odyssey space, build an amphitheater for a show in which Miguel and Hector’s ghost host the Dia de los Muertos mariachi competition. Redo the boat ride as a tour of the land of the dead as shown in the movie. Re-theme the San Angel Inn as a family-style restaurant to match the feeling of the dinner table scene early in the movie. Add the Rivera shoe factory and store (find a shoe company partner). The main marketplace would still fit the theme.
Couldn’t agree more about those games. Disney is not a state fair and because of the reputation of those kinds of games are there just to rip off people for their money, they need to be long gone.
A CoCoa layover seems to be an obvious one for Mexico, but the movie didn’t do quite as well as they had hoped. Not sure if that would ever happen, but it still may. It’s a rumor that has been going around for a while.
The Stitch show was just a bandaid anyway because of the flood of complaints got about Extra TERRORestrial Alien Encounter being unexpectedly intense for Disney. It’s what they could do for the fastest and the cheapest. The only reason it hasn’t closed yet is they really haven’t come up with a good new idea on what to do with that space, and peak times it does at least suck up some people. It is first on the list to go in the MK.
I have to disagree about Grand Fiesta Tour. We ride it multiple times every trip. The kids love it
Yes! Not every ride needs to have a long line. Our kid rides the ride multiple times while we’re in the Mexico pavilion. I like Coco as much as anyone (and don’t care if I ever ride Gran Fiesta again) – we’re all different. Lets keep that variety going as much as possible.
I love the Gran Fiesta Tour so I cannot support that being eliminated.
Agreed that there’s no need to eliminate it. Honestly, I can’t even tell you who Coco is, but the ride is relaxing and low-key entertainment. Just my opinion, but there’s no need to change it.
The problem with Mexico isn’t necessarily the 3 Caballeros…it is that it is a distraction from the backgrounds behind them rather than an enhancement.
The original film (and Saludos that preceded it) were tourist guides, introducing the American audience to this vivid culture. Grand Fiesta had that intention. Adding Donald and his two native friends, had it been done in the spirit of the original film, would have been wonderful…and is very much what I expected.
Instead, “story story story” – the curse of Imagineering in the Eisner age, that everything needed to have a story…and the #1 story theme they kept going back to over and over again is “where’s blank”. It took over Dinosaur, which turned from an escape into a “find the missing iguanadon” bit. It took over several others as well, a theme they just couldn’t escape from.
So here, instead of the birds teaching us the wonders of the images behind them, they are distracting us with their constant “WHERE’S DONALD? WHERE’S DONALD” over and over again, room by room. Totally out of character from the original film as well as breaking the spirit of what EPCOT was meant to be.
Could Coco’s characters and plussing the images help? Maybe. But Coco really only shows one or two aspects of Mexican culture in the film – Caballeros is a showcase of many different aspects of the variety of cultures that exist, showing that Mexico (at least, at the time) was as culturally diverse as America is. Some of that may get lost if the focus remains mostly on Mexico City and the character’s home town in (presumably by the terrain) the north west.
Stitch deserves much better. A ride where you are searching for other experiments or riding through space along the same as Toy Story Mania. Something where you get to explore Hawaii with Lilo and Stich. Surely Disney can think of better things than I can!
Agree on the three attractions listed needing some help. After 20+ WDW trips in past 20 years, I have never used the Fossil Fun Games, expect maybe for a popcorn purchase once. We always ride the Grand Fiesta Tour even if it is lame, it’s a break from the crowd and cool (A/C). I LOVED the ET Alien Encounter!! It was one of my favorites in that area, other than Space Mountain and People Mover. The lights out and alien breathing on your neck, and harness bars moving up down to give illusion of being pushed was amazing! Stitch was a HUGE disappointment. Since the refurb, we have rode it once. Didn’t have the desire to wait in line for it ever again. Sort of down there with our Tiki Birds or Swiss Family Robison list. Would be nice to see some of these get a make over.