Five Lost Disneyland Rides: Flying Saucers Anyone? (VIDEO)

AOL Travel News:

Opened in 1955, Disneyland in Anaheim, California has delighted visitors for decades with its eight themed "lands" of rides, shows and attractions. It just isn't possible to forget a first spin on Dumbo, rocketing through darkness on Space Mountain or singing along with those musical pirates before Johnny Depp stole their fame. The skallywag! But with the park constantly updating through the years, some of those classic rides exist only as memories today.

Read the whole story: AOL Travel News

Comments

[davesf]

07:59 PM on 03/16/2011

The flying saucers rocked. And even though the sub was barely beneath the surface, for a little kid fascinated by that sort of stuff, it was amazing. And Monsanto..."Now, you're smaller than a snowflake!"...and the house of the future...all electric kitchen, supposedly running on "clean, safe nuclear power."

Very cool stuff indeed. Glad I was old enough to do that.

[JScott]

04:16 PM on 03/16/2011

Wow it's been ages since I've been to the D-land in Anaheim, I didn't know the skyway was gone,
I do remember the flying saucers one and I 've never heard of the one that replaced the people mover.

I remember the skyway went thru the just finished Matterhorn and the insides weren't done-it was all hollow with all the construction stuff stored there.

While not exactly a 'ride' anyone remember the Monsanto 'all plastic' house of the future, when the future caught up with it they couldn't use a wrecking ball to demo it, it bounced off, so they had to cut it up. Wonder why they didn't replace it with the house and other venues from the Incredibles.

[otop016]

12:08 PM on 03/16/2011

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was replaced in Disneyworld by Winnie the Pooh -- although I believe it still exists at Disneyland. There's a grave site at the Haunted Mansion in remembrance of Mr. Toad...

[kornbluthwasright]

12:39 PM on 03/16/2011

otop016,

Don't know about what's happened over the last few months, but when my husband, my sister, and I visited Disney*land* (never been to Walt Disney World) back in October for a combined birthday/anniversary celebration, Mr. Toad was definitely still there, as wild as ever. In fact, we would have liked to take a ride with that crazy ol' amphibian, but the lines were too long. :-)

BTW, regarding your great (though grisly) avatar: Townshend Rocks!

[kornbluthwasright]

11:32 AM on 03/16/2011

Other now-extinct rides or attractions not mentioned in the article include:

The Indian Village (purportedly removed because the real-life Native Americans had the nerve to request a living wage)
Burro Rides (removed possibly because too many riders were getting hurt, or because care for the critters got too expensive)
Motorboats (sorta like an aquatic Autopia--I don't know why this attraction was removed, but it went through various incarnations, the last of which, I believe, was "Boats to Gummi Glen" during the all-too-brief, pre-Mickey's Toontown era of Afternoon Avenue, inspired by the delightful cartoons in the Disney Afternoon)
Fantasyland Theatre (replaced by Pinocchio's Daring Adventures--or whatever it's called--this provided a venue for cartoons and promos too "modern" to suit the Main St. Cinema)

There are others, but it's depressing me too much to list them. Of the rides listed in the article, I most miss the Flying Saucers. Now *that* was an attraction worthy of Tomorrowland.

[AZLibDem]

10:32 AM on 03/16/2011

Tomorrow land used to be about showcasing the possibilities of the future; now it's just another section of movie-promoting rides and shops.

[JonnyTruant]

03:22 PM on 03/16/2011

It makes an old Disneyland fan sad. =(

[Zenith1959]

10:17 AM on 03/16/2011

One of my earliest memories is being on the Dumbo ride.

[El Chupa Cabras]

10:13 AM on 03/16/2011

I remember the submarine ride in Magic Kingdom, such a shame they removed it.
Also I like the PoTC much better before all the dumb changes and the intruduction from the characters from the new movies

[tonewheel]

09:30 AM on 03/16/2011

Now THAT was Disneyland. Today, it takes a lot of effort to visit either of these theme parks....expensive, crowded, hardly special, expensive, long lines, etc.

[Quasi Libertarian]

06:46 AM on 03/16/2011

They could lose "It's a small world" ride IMO.,...That song has been seared into my mind for 25 years and I still cannot get rid of it

[kornbluthwasright]

12:24 PM on 03/16/2011

So true--you know what, maybe this article should have a companion piece: "Five [or maybe more] Disneyland Rides You'd Like Them to Lose". "Small World" would definitely be one of my top contenders for bye-byes.

How about it, HP?

[cordyc]

05:18 AM on 03/16/2011

The flying saucers were the best ride ever! Floating along on a cushion of air you could crash your personal saucer into your friends. Better than any bumper car since it was a big intertube with a sear. Weeee!

[Ptama]

04:30 AM on 03/16/2011

I miss 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disney world. The ride was terminated and the Subs sold off several years ago.

[JScott]

04:17 PM on 03/16/2011

Now it's finding Nemo I think.

[No War With Iran]

03:53 AM on 03/16/2011

I loved the submarine ride, but I don't really know why. One ride that is horribly dated is It's a Small World (at least it was still horribly dated 15 years ago when I was there last).

In Fantasyland we were brainwashed by Monsanto, but a big thrill for me was going into a big booth and using the speakerphone to call home and talk to my grandmother as though it was uber high tech.

Politics aside, I loved D-land as a kid.

[JonnyTruant]

03:14 AM on 03/16/2011

Edit: not that you wrote it or anything, but it saddens me that this ride is always overlooked when people do Disneyland retrospectives.

[kornbluthwasright]

12:19 PM on 03/16/2011

Jonny Truant,

First, thanks for providing that great link--our whole family loved that ride. We even used to quote lines from the narration, so sonorously pronounced by the one-and-only Paul Frees: "And still I continue to shrink! What mysterious force draws me onward?" As one of the posters at the YouTube site declared, this virtual experience is like taking the ride without even having to stand in line. :-D

Now, as to why the Mighty Microscope is overlooked in retrospectives, I have one word of explanation: Monsanto. From around the '80s on (or maybe even earlier; my knowledge of this area is somewhat vague), Monsanto acquired an unsavory reputation among many environmentalists and some other social activists. Even though the Mighty Microscope was (I believe) eventually disassociated from the huge conglomerate that Monsanto had become, the taint remained, providing the higher-ups at Disney a good excuse for removing that particular ride.

It's a shame that the drive toward revisionism has meant that the very existence of this ride has been all but forgotten.

[JonnyTruant]

03:20 PM on 03/16/2011

Yeah that makes sense. I got a little turn in my stomach when seeing the name in the virtual ride and the little ads they had at the end.

[JonnyTruant]

03:00 AM on 03/16/2011

Make it six, please! My favorite ride as a child was Disneyland's Adventure Through Inner Space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3uFkF1A9o

[trekbette]

11:44 PM on 03/16/2011

When I saw the headline, Inner Space was the first ride I thought of. I loved that ride!