Which Walt Disney World Rides Will Close Next?

all signs point to Disney World changing rather significantly over the next several years with many new rides and attractions seemingly coming on the horizon with constant pressure from Universal Orlando who continues to gain market share and will only continue to Doo with the addition of their third theme park in Orlando with epic Universe Disney's committing $60 billion over the next decade towards their parks and cruises division with surely quite a lot of that making its way to Wal Disney World and with new rides and attractions coming to the resort historically speaking that means some rides are likely going to close permanently though Disney has done their fair share of expansions over the last decade or so with rides like Remy's roui adventure and Tron being expansions and even Pandora the world of Avatar which yes did replace Camp mini Mickey but that was just a collection of meat and greets putting a fully-fledged land with two new rides in its place effectively worked out like an exp expion however in the grand scheme of what Disney has done over the last decade this actually ends up being less than half of all the new attractions that were built the rest of them actually replaced something at the Disney World Resort so even if Disney commits more to expansions as opposed to Replacements going forward which would be great because you know we could use some more capacity in some of these Parks almost certainly rides will still get replaced and some rides will ultimately bite the dust and keep in mind even if a major expansion like they rumored Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion at Magic Kingdom were to happen even then Disney would almost certainly invest in Replacements rather than expansions at other places in the Parks simply because expansions cost Disney a lot more money it increases your operating cost by having more attractions operating at said parks and increases the Staffing cost as of course you need to put more people on the payroll in order to operate those attractions and when you consider that the Disney Parks division is literally what's keeping the entire Disney Company financially stable at the moment since it is its only major revenue and profit driver Disney is going to have zero interest in prioritizing expansions over Replacements as it would ultimately hurt their bottom line not only for the parks division but for the entire company as a whole now it's important to note is Disney's criteria for closing attractions when we're talking about Universal the name of the game is age yes there are plenty of other deciding factors but at the end of the day once you reach 20 years old at Universal you're kind of on the chopping block at least historically speaking however when it comes to Disney as we all know the name of the game is Nostalgia we're not touching these old rides right we're keeping around for as long as we can so long as those rides are popular that is really the main driving factor in Disney's decisionmaking here if the ride is still getting high ridership if it's still is highly rated by guess at the end of their trip if people are making their trips more or less solely because they want to experience that attraction then those rides stick around and if Disney has to put the money in to give them a massive refurbisher they will gladly do so and if you're looking for proof of this just look at some of the attractions that we have seen Clos in recent memory Ellen's Energy eventure nobody was riding that before it got replaced by Guardians of the Galaxy The Great Movie Ride listen I'll sit up here and preach about how great it was all day but let's be honest in its last few years nobody was riding that thing so unfortunately by Disney's own criteria it was ultimately in the line of fire and though yes Disney will commit to closing unpopular tractions keep in mind that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to replace them Stitch's Great Escape closed how many years ago honestly I don't even know it's been so long that that theater has sat empty and vacant Disney does not know what to do with the space so they've just closed the attraction and left it closed because the ride was not particularly popular it was not particularly well liked and even though they didn't have a replacement lined up and still still don't to this day they were plenty okay with closing it so keep that in mind as well so with that piece of information in mind let's go ahead and jump right into it and hop on over to Animal Kingdom to discuss what attractions could be closing there over the coming years and listen folks I'm not going to beat around the bush I'm not going to kid you we pretty much know what's going on here Disney has made their intentions very clear when it comes to Animal Kingdom over the last couple years as far as what they want to do with this park they want to close dinolan USA which means that dinosaur and Triceratop spin would ultimately bite the dust and they're also interested in closing it's tough to be a bug and they also have ideas in place for what they want to do with this base with d and USA they want to put in a tropical America's land with an Indiana Jones attraction and in kto attraction and even potentially a Coco attraction with tough be a bug they want to replace that with a zootopia attraction now of course these are all still very early concept very early ideas they could easily ditch them but that's the plan right now and even if they don't go forward with that I think it's pretty safe to say that once Disney does eventually get around to touching Animal Kingdom these are going to be the two places they turn to but once those attractions are replaced what is Disney going to set their eyes on next to be honest you got to keep in mind this park is the youngest theme park in the Disney World chain and thus has one of the youngest ride lineups in the Disney World chain only maybe being beat by Hollywood Studios these attractions are relatively popular fairly high quality and don't at all feel outdated like it's tough to be a bug or Dine USA simply put these attractions are not giving Disney any good reason to replace them and when you think about Animal Kingdom what's the number one problem with it right now a lack of things to do so once Disney is finished with these Replacements I think almost certainly they will turn their attention towards an expansion at Animal Kingdom when will this expansion happen who knows but I think almost certainly once this lwh hanging fruit attractions are out of the way for sure Disney will look to expand that Park so moving on to a theme park that has a bit more potential clients for closure in the coming years let's head over to Epcot and when you think of rides that should close at Epcot probably one of the first ones that comes to mind is journey into imagination with figment this attraction has basically been in shambles ever since the original version of the attraction was replaced and then that version was subsequently replaced with the version we currently have today Disney die hards have pretty much always had a bit of ill will held against this attraction simply because it doesn't come anywhere close to living up to the Quality that the original attraction had and it's not just Disney die hards who don't think attraction is particularly good even the general public seems relatively disinterested in it as this has become one of the most unpopular attractions at Epcot if not straight up the most unpopular attraction at the whole entire theme park the ridership is incredibly low and it seems like it checks all the boxes for replacement under Disney's criteria so I think it's a shire thing it's going to go at some point the question is what does it get replaced by I mean keep in mind figman is basically the mascot of Epcot he's all over the place right Disney die hards are big fans of him if you get rid of his attraction and subsequently remove him from the park that would be a pretty big loss and would likely be met with a lot of backlash so I think most would assume that you're going to replace it with an upgraded version of journey into imagination once again however this time you bring it back more to its roots you bring back dreamfinder and basically becomes a plused up version of the original attraction and that would be an easy slam dunk win with Disney die hards it would have them coming out in droves they've already proven over the years that Disney loyalists have a big affinity for figment they love them they'll line up down the street for figment merch and for popcorn buckets if you answered the Disney fans prayers and upgraded this attraction they would love you forever and that's a big deal for Disney because over the last few years with Genie plus and taking away a lot of things and adding cost and all sort stuff they've actually lost a lot of their di hard fans over the last few years when we thought that previously wasn't possible so doing something like this that actually pleases the Die Hard fans would go a long way for helping Disney however Disney's CEO Bob Iger made a statement recently that said that going forward the Disney parks would only make rides based on IP so noig attractions no pirates of the Caribbeans no haunted mansions stuff like that and when you think about it this shouldn't be particularly surprising I mean Disney hasn't built an original attraction in over a decade however it did get me thinking about journeying to imagination because though yeah it wouldn't necessarily be an original attraction because you're basing it off of an old attraction but it wouldn't be based on a movie or TV show that Disney currently owns so it's not really the type of IP that Bob iger's probably talking about so it does make me a little worried that perhaps under current Disney leadership that if they were to get rid of Journey to imagination which like I said I think in the coming years is almost a Surefire thing that maybe they wouldn't just simply remake journey into imagination and perhaps this would be an allnew attraction that maybe yes still features figment but would actually be mainly based on a more popular intellectual property that Disney owns perhaps an inside out which was a rumor quite a number of years ago so there certainly is a question mark out there as to what is going to replace his attraction but what I don't think is in question is the fact that this ride will be closing in the relative near future now that being said I'm not putting any sort of date or time on that because let's be honest I don't even think Disney knows what they're doing past the next three years let's be honest they're clueless right now so I'm not going to put any sort of number on anything because who knows what they're doing who knows who's going to be in charge it's a whole mess there's no grand scheme for Disney at the moment so I'm just going to say yeah it's likely in the cards when they do it when they get around to it we'll see now though of course figment is the big fish to fry at Epcot there are other notable attractions that could be in line for closure at this park as well one of them being mission space a ride that right from day one already proved to be relatively unpopular being too intense for many guests though they've alleviated this issue with a mild version of the attraction it Still Remains one of the Lesser popular attractions at the whole park and though they did just add a new restaurant in space 220 to go along with the theme of mission space that by no means makes mission space safe being unpopular outdated and not based on a Disney IP is certainly going to put it in the line of fire for replacement and I don't think Disney's going to have any issue filling in that spot with another space themed attraction that could fill in the Gap next to space 220 another attraction to note is Grand Fiesta tour of course not the most popular attraction not the most notable attraction but let's be honest this has been easy picking for years now ever since Coco came out Disney has had the opportunity to rethe this attraction or simply just gut it and replace it with a Coco attraction for the Mexico Pavilion for years now and theyve simply have chosen not to do it and with Coco rumored to come to dinand USA's replacement I don't really see any reason Reon why Koko would come here now and replace Grand Fiesta tour when that has been on the table for years if that was going to happen it would have already happened at this point so I don't really see gr Fiesta tour going anywhere at this moment in time another attraction in Epcot that is not particularly popular and maybe has overstated its welcome is the se's with Nemo and friends and before any of you the se's fans get upset with me for saying this ride is not good let me just tell you you have nothing to worry about because it's not going anywhere Disney's apparently already committing to more Finding Nemo movies going forward wow fantastic that's great yay and even though the attraction itself is not particularly good it's the best IP Disney has to match with the se's Pavilion so I just don't see any reason why it would go anywhere Even If eventually this ride does become the worst ride in all of Epcot it wouldn't matter because it just fits too perfectly with the entire Pavilion so now with Epcot out of the way let's turn our attention to Disney's Hollywood Studios and let's just get the scary ride out of the way the scariest thought that we could possibly have which that Tower Terror could possibly be replaced I shudder at the thought but Disney's already proven over in California that they are not afraid to get rid of this attraction though of course Tower Terror is still immensely popular it is not based on a Disney media franchise which until eventually inevitably they make a Tower Terror movie is always going to put it in the line of fire oh what what's that they already did that and it and it failed oh we're screwed okay guys it's over Tower teror is going no I'm kidding but it might it actually might I mean Disney is proven that they are willing to pull a plug on this thing if the right opportunity presents itself but we'll see hopefully it stays for the Long Haul here at Hollywood Studios the next two attractions on The Chopping Block kind of go in tandem because really these two attractions are in a Mexican standoff it's one or the other it's you or me one simply must go and it's either Muppet Vision 3D or Star Tours though both attractions certainly have their dieh hard fans I'm on the Muppet Vision side as I found out from my Hollywood Studios video apparently there are a lot of people on the star tour side that I didn't know about either way both of these attractions are incredibly outdated and are also incredibly unpopular they don't really get a whole lot of throughput they don't really get a whole lot of ridership throughout the day at Hollywood Studios now the reason why it's one or the other and not both is because really there's two sort of thoughts about this if they decide to get rid of Muppets the idea would be that the entire Muppets Courtyard section would be swallowed up by Star Wars Galaxy Edge and it would basically amount to an expansion to that land thus connecting Galaxy's Edge to Star Tours having a continuous lineup of all your Star Wars attractions in the park except for Star Wars launch bay which yeah I mean not an attraction really but if we want to count as attraction oh my goodness please get rid of it please I'm hoping that they use this base for something actually good potentially a mini land potentially a new ride but regardless of that little offshoot there is still incentive for Disney to get rid of the Muppets and just have this whole entire section of the park be Star Wars themed on the flip side of this Disney may say you know what we don't need to replace Muppets in order to expand Galaxy's Edge instead we expand it into the parking lot because we don't really have any interest in keeping Star Tours and instead they get rid of Star Tours if they're going into the parking lot to expand Galaxy's Edge and presumably maybe even build a new land back out there they would probably also think about getting rid of Star Tours to open up a pathway into that parking lot area but even if they don't have any plans to expand Hollywood Studios into the parking lot or any plans to expand Galaxy's Edge in general then they might still look to get rid of Star Tours any ways because there's already a ride very similar to it now in Hollywood Studios in Smuggler run I know some people want to argue that smuggers run is tremendously different from Star Tours just cuz it's interactive but they're both still standstill motion simulators themed of Star Wars having you flying a spaceship in space it's the same exact concept so even if you don't think star tour is a bad ride even if you love Star Tours doesn't change the fact that it is in a redundant State thanks to the existence of Smugglers Run so it makes it Prime real estate for replacement at Hollywood Studios now speaking of a potential parking lot expansion you also got to keep in mind that if they do decide to keep Star Tours there is another attraction they could get rid of to help open up that pathway into the parking lot and that would be Indiana Jones see this attraction takes up a shocking amount of space for being just a show so not only does its location work out well for being a potential Gateway into that parking lot expansion but even if they don't decide to expand the park in that direction it would still be a massive plot of land that dney could do quite a lot with and could put a high level attraction if not two smaller scale attractions in that space so something certainly to think about another traction Hollywood Studios that seemed like it was in a very safe space that is all of a sudden just in the last couple years put itself on the radar is rock and roller coaster this attraction has faced substantial downtime over the last 2 years and has had two massive refurbishments that have had to be done to the attraction if these issues persist and Disney can't get this ride back in an operational State well simply put it probably is going to bite the dust and disy is going to have to push forward a replacement for this attraction before they were really prepared to do so and as a result of that if Disney did decide to close this attraction permanently and ultimately replace it chances are this attraction would sit vacant for a bit while Disney comes up with a new plan to replace it because chances are they're going to be caught a bit off guard by it which is exactly what Hollywood cosos needs right now another attraction closed and more capacity lost from the park that's just great news now you might think that I've already talked about way too many attractions potentially closing at Highwood stos since they've already poured so much money to this park very recently they wouldn't necessarily turn to this park for investment in the near future here but they're still still are a lot of fish to fry as you can tell and another one that I'm just going to throw on top of the pile is the Disney Junior show which let's be honest should have been gone yesterday this show is fine for what it is it's good for young kids but I mean it's not a very high quality show you could do better I think that if you do replace launch bay you Loop it in with that replacement and you build something a little more significant there you could still have something for young children but just don't have it be uh this piece of garbage sorry so moving on to our final Disney World theme park the King of the Hill Magic Kingdom now despite the potential Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion that we discussed earlier it still is possible for magican to have some attractions closed in fact there's likely going to be some attractions that do close alongside this expansion two of those attractions that could potentially close with this expansion would be Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty belt Riverboat both certainly iconic Disney World attractions in their own right but let's be honest are not by any means Popular by any stretch of the imagination and with a potential Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion it could also come alongside the rivers of America being filled in and connecting the tomur island with the rest of the Magic Kingdom park and being looped in with that expansion plot which would of course spell the end of tomser Island but but would also spell the end of the Liberty Bell River boat as it wouldn't have a river to run in but this is all really dependent on one if that expansion happens and two just how far Disney's willing to go with it something that could go regardless of any potential expansions or other plans is the Tomorrowland Speedway again not a particularly popular attraction but it's still well-liked it's relatively iconic but there is always the question around the fact they are gas powerered and in an age where we are moving toward W electric vehicles and being green and all this stuff like that Disney's already committed in Disneyland to moving their autopia which is their version of tomorrowand Speedway to become Electric in the near future so is Disney World going to follow suit would they go with an electric version of this traction or would they just bulldo it and replace it all together it does take up quite a lot of space in Disneyland it was a little more of a tricky situation especially saying there's so many things layered on top of it and near it in Disney world it's a little more Open Season so they could just straight up bulldoze it flatten it and you have a lot of space to work with there to build a new attraction so that's something to keep in mind in the coming years but with the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion looming I just don't really think that Disney is going to look to replace a whole lot of attractions in Magic Kingdom however one that I think you actually need to keep in mind it might not be anytime soon but I think it's just something to keep in the back of your head is the Hall of Presidents this is obviously not a particularly popular attraction by any means it might be the most unpopular attraction in all of Magic Kingdom if not even potentially all of Disney World not even kidding but of course not only does this attraction hold some historical significance but it also gives Disney free press every 4 to8 years when they add the new president to the attraction and though this level of promotion might have been important to Disney in the past uh nowadays that it's the most visited theme par destination on the planet I don't really think that having that level of promotion is going to help them in any way shape or form I don't think be like oh my goodness they have a Joe Biden animatronic what I got to make a trip to Disney right now now you might be saying though what's the big deal I mean yeah sure the attraction is unpopular but it's not an expensive attraction to operate whatsoever however the expense for this attraction is only going to get higher and higher as the generations go on because you have every single president featured you're just going to be adding more and more animatronics to this attraction and every single time there's a new president elected you have to build a new one the expense just keeps rolling for this attraction it's not just the operating expense it's also the expense of building this animatronic and then adding that onto your operating expense exponentially for the coming years as more presents get added on So eventually thisne is going to reach a breaking point where they're like okay the operating expense for this attraction and the expense to build a new animatronic for this attraction they just don't make sense to do anymore to just get that little level of promotion now given the space that this attraction takes up it's probably not very likely that Disney would actually replace this attraction with anything but I think what they likely would turn it into is just like a little Museum and instead of having a show operating here perhaps you just have statues of the president instead of animatronics for each one and having a show that runs on a day daily basis I think that this breaking point is going to come at some point the question is when is that point is it in 5 years from now is it in 10 years from now is it in several decades from now I don't know but it's just something to kind of think about because eventually this attraction is going to become too expensive to operate and to keep making these new animatronics to the point where Disney just won't see the value of it anymore so something to keep in mind now though of course there are other attractions that Disney might have on plate that they might want to go after that might have something terrible happened to them that would cause them to close prematurely these are really the ones that are going to be on Disney's radar but with Disney not really having any sort of Clear Vision for the future Beyond just the next couple of years it's really hard to say what exactly is going to close and what's going to be replaced in a timely manner so all we cly says here's the plate here's the Entre available the question is what will Disney choose we'll have to see and wait and find out anyways let me know you guys think in the comments and if you're interested in hearing about what rides could close at Universal going forward click on the video in the middle your screen right now but with that being said I'll see youall next time peace

Channel: Attraction Ideas

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Keywords: Attraction Ideas, Amusement Park, Theme Park, epic universe, epic universe orlando, universal epic universe, disney world, walt disney world, disney, walt disney, disney world orlando, disney world rides, animal kingdom, animal kingdom rides, disney animal kingdom, walt disney world 2024, disney world 2024, walt disney world rides, disney rides, magic kingdom, epcot, disney hollywood studios, disney hollywood studios rides, magic kingdom rides, epcot rides

Id: yikXxh0UcTU

Length: 24min 11sec (1451 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2024