What’s free, colorful, useful, and a souvenir that you could keep for years to come? If you answered “a Disney World Park Map” — you’d be…correct!
While you might ordinarily bypass the paper maps and use your phone to navigate the parks, a paper map can still be great to pick up since it serves as a sort of time capsule, showcasing what was important and available at the park at the time. And looking back at those old maps can give you some serious nostalgia! So join us today as we take a trip down memory lane and check out some amazing old park map designs that might just make you feel like you’ve hopped into a time machine!
Retro Animal Kingdom
We begin our journey with a very retro map design for Disney’s Animal Kingdom park! And when we say retro, we REALLY mean it. Just check out how “empty” this map is compared to a more recent version. There’s no Pandora: The World of Avatar and no Expedition Everest.
Instead, on this map design, you’ll find things like Camp Minnie-Mickey and Colors of the Wind (anyone remember that show?!). Oh and the entire Asia section of the park? It’s still a section that says it’s coming in 1999.
The park really has changed a LOT over the last 25 years. We’ll be interested to see what the next 25 have in store.
Disney-MGM Studios
Oh yeah, we’re throwing it WAY back to the time when Disney’s Hollywood Studios was known as Disney-MGM Studios (that may be the name your parents or YOU still use to this day, and we really get it).
The map below will really tug at your nostalgic heartstrings with its mention of the backstage studio tour (we still miss you!).
This is another park where change has been the name of the game. Toy Story Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and even things like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway have dramatically changed this park over the last few years. Gone is The Great Movie Ride, the Monster Sound Show, and the Magic of Disney Animation.
But at least you can still get heckled at 50s Prime Time Cafe!
The Disney World That Never Came to Be
While some maps may make you feel nostalgic for things you once enjoyed that no longer exist, others may make you feel a different sense of longing for things that were planned but never came to be!
Disney previously shared an old map design that once decorated the rooms of those staying at the Contemporary Resort and Polynesian Village Resort in Disney’s early days.
While there are many things on this map that you may recognize and are still able to enjoy today, there are others that might totally confuse you. For example, what’s that hotel to the back-right of Magic Kingdom?! And wait a minute, there are some other hotels around the area that also don’t look familiar!
Well, this map actually displays 3 “future” hotels that never came to be — the Asian, Venetian, and Persian. These were announced to the public in 1969 but never became a reality.
Eventually, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa took the place of the Asian Resort. What do you think about the older hotel designs versus some of the newer ones in Disney? Which would you rather see? Tell us in the comments!
Click here to learn some of the history of the unbuilt hotels of Disney World
THE HAT
Disney also shared another map design in 2013 that was “newer” at the time but has since become quite the retro reference. One thing that really sticks out to us on this map is Disney’s Hollywood Studios which was still designated with its controversial icon — THE giant sorcerer hat!
C’mon, y’all, love it or hate it, you have to admit that huge hat was ICONIC. For many years, you may have taken dozens of photos in front of the hat with your family and friends. And maybe you even bought a pin or two from the merchandise spot underneath the hat.
The hat was introduced on September 28th, 2001, and ended up being removed in 2015. Fun fact — did you know that other versions of the hat were considered, including one that would have been TWICE the size of the hat they ultimately made and another that would have made Mickey’s ears working ferris wheels?! Well, now you know!
Sadly, you can’t ride Mickey’s ears in Disney World — but who knows what the future might bring! 😂
The Great Movie Ride
This next map is one that we know will hit some people strongly in the feels, so bear with us. This map is a Hollywood Studios map from 2017 (and this particular map design was for guests with disabilities).
One part of the map talks about delivering your merchandise conveniently to the front of the park or your Disney World hotel, a service that went away during the COVID-19 pandemic and still has not returned.
But what might really make you cry is (1) the map’s reference to FastPass+ (now replaced by Genie+), and (2) the fact that ride #1 on the map is…The Great Movie Ride. CUE THE TEARS. That ride’s departure certainly caused a lot of pain for many Disney fans out there that loved its tribute to old Hollywood and the interactivity between the ride and Cast Members.
Other interesting things you’ll notice on this map that are no longer available include Star Wars: Path of the Jedi (the short film) and Hey Howdy Hey Take Away.
And don’t even get us started on the fact that PizzeRizzo is marked as “new” on this map — yes, we feel so incredibly old, and yes we remember when Pizza Planet was a thing. Alright, we’ll grab a tissue and get moving on from this whole experience.
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Deja Vu
One old park map design had us feeling some serious deja vu. The Magic Kingdom map (again specifically the guide for guests with disabilities) from 2017 had a cover that seems oddly familiar.
Is that…Happily Ever After? It is! The fireworks show first debuted in Magic Kingdom in 2017 and was replaced by Enchanted for a brief period of time, but 2023 marked its RETURN to the parks once again! So it’s true that good ideas never really die at Disney.
The rest of the map is a bit of a time warp too. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is still #3 on the map and that game has since been discontinued. The Pirate’s League is also still on the map here (that’s where kiddos could go to transform into a pirate). Plus, the map still has a spot for Splash Mountain (soon to be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure), and Stitch’s Great Escape (now closed).
While many Magic Kingdom rides are staples that may not change much over the years, even small alternations have made this park look very different in just a few years.
Ellen’s Energy Adventure and SO MUCH MORE
Oooooy boy do we have a good one for you. EPCOT has been undergoing a massive transformation and just in case you forget how many things are different now, this old map from 2017 is here to remind you!
For starters, the cover highlights Frozen Ever After, which isn’t all that strange since the ride continues to be incredibly popular, but it did open in EPCOT in 2016 so it makes sense why it was highlighted in this map. But perhaps even more important is the EPCOT logo on the map which is the old design! Nowadays, you’ll find the more modern (yet also retro) EPCOT logo basically everywhere in the park.
But the nostalgia doesn’t end there. The inside of the map is full of little treasures to make you remember the time when Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Innoventions, the Electric Umbrella, and Mouse Gear all existed in a space called “Future World East” (now World Discovery).
And there’s MORE — remember The Circle of Life film or Fountain View? And where are Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind? Oh, that’s right — they haven’t been created yet!
And that’s only the beginning. There’s still so much more to come to EPCOT including Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana, the new parts of World Celebration, and a new fireworks show. Things really are changing in this Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
Remember When Flight of Passage Was “NEW”? Us Too
And finally, we’re throwing it back to Animal Kingdom in 2017 when Pandora: The World of Avatar was still “NEW” as the map so beautifully points out. Alright, we officially feel as old as the dinosaurs in that park now.
The map definitely highlights the fact that Na’vi River Journey, Avatar Flight of Passage, Pongu Pongu, and that whole area is NEW! And can you spot what else is marked as “NEW!”? Yup, it’s Rivers of Light, the nighttime show that only lasted from 2017 to 2020. Plus, Primeval Whirl is still on here — a ride that has now been demolished — talk about a change!
And that’s a look at some of the old Disney park map designs that might make you feel a bit nostalgic (and old, very, very ancient — and we didn’t even really delve back into the maps from the 80s or 90s!).
For more about Disney park maps, click here to see the latest changes that have hit the park maps at Animal Kingdom, or click here to see the new maps from Disney’s Hollywood Studios. And stay tuned for more news!
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What’s your favorite Disney park map design? Tell us in the comments!
I miss the hat at “MGM…”. I miss the Colors of the Wind. I miss the old Kilamanjaro Safari. I never got to see Rivers of light. But most of all I miss Fastpass. Cue tears.