Abandoned - Disney World's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

A long time ago I came across this photo of an

abandoned

Disney World animatronic that used to be inside an underwater ride at Magic Kingdom. The photo itself is very creepy and the concept probably unlocks a submechanophobia that I never knew I had, but the real thing. The story behind it is actually quite interesting: it comes from an attraction called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, an attraction that was once highly regarded on the park's opening day and which eventually closed in the '90s and mysteriously sat

abandoned

for years. , so today let's take both a metaphorical and literal look at the history of this highly sought-after topic here from a cast member who actually worked on the attraction and find out why it was ultimately abandoned.

This episode is sponsored by Incog. Use the code Bright Sun at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off. From an annual plan, the concept of an underwater attraction at a Disney park or any park began in the late 1950s with Disneyland's new Tomorrowland expansion and continued with the theme of exciting new technology submarines, being one Of these the one was called the Submarine Voyage and was basically a series of 38 half submerged guest ride vehicles that would have port holes looking underwater for each guest. The underwater vehicles would follow a 1,300-foot underwater track where they would travel through a maze of underwater props and effects. a very popular attraction at Disneyland, so when the company began planning its new park in Florida, a version of this attraction was a must;

In fact, Walt Disney World's underwater attraction could be seen in early master planning concepts for the park. However, it was not until 1969 that the attraction was finally announced, a now expanded concept of the Disneyland version now with a new theme. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as its name suggests, was based on Jules Vern's classic novel of the same name. tells the story of Captain Nemo and his adventures aboard the Nautilus traveling 20,000 Leagues across the oceans. It was also a story that was adapted for the big screen in the 1954 film of the same name produced by Walt Disney.

The iconography of said film is would translate to this the new attraction first, the submarines were commissioned by a yacht builder on the west coast of Florida and were eventually trucked across the state to the park, which at the time was being prepared for the grand opening. Its construction amounts to around $67 million, regardless of whether it would open more or less with the rest of the park on October 10, 1971, immediately from opening day, the attraction was very popular, as was the system of attractions based on Disneyland, these two would follow an underwater track and discover various environments around the tank after simulated diving bubbles covered the guest.

Portholes, the submarines would pass underwater arrays of aquatic plants, animals and even divers, after another bubble sequence simulating an even greater descent, the submarines would enter the covered performance building there. Guests would pass shipwrecks and deep oceans filled with black-lit creatures. Guests would then encounter the lost city of Atlantis along with mystical creatures such as mermaids, a snake, and a giant squid attacking the Nautilus. This whole attraction was great and it's no wonder why. It was so popular with visitors that overall it was a very impressive and practical journey through a jewel version adventure. It was also a time when Disney sold ticket stubs and people paid per attraction. 20,000 Leagues was considered an EET attraction, the highest category Disney would sell and was also among some of the highest-attended attractions in the park.

It benefited from having a decent capacity of around 2,400 people per hour because it was an EET attraction. It also generated decent sales of around $10 million worth a year's worth adjusted for inflation; however, despite that. It was also the lowest-profit attraction in the E ticket category, its operating expenses dwarfing every other attraction in the park at an inflation-adjusted $7.4 million a year in comparison. Haunted Mansion, a huge Omni Move ride that had a much larger capacity, only cost about $4.4. inflation-adjusted million a year, so Des, as popular as 20K was, consumed a lot of operating money just to keep it running even this early, so as time went on that problem would only increase regardless of whether 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea continued to operate.

Over the next few decades it remained a major attraction at Magic Kingdom and continued to be a fan favorite, this was due in part to the approximately 20 cast members per shift who worked on the attraction, one of them being Chris Cooper, who worked at K. between 1991 and 1994, I know one of the most special moments for me in my 3 years working there was one day I was working on the dock and this kid who was about 10 years old got off the boat and said it was amazing . Yeah, so I think at a certain age, where you're still at, you can still focus on the magic, so yeah, it was a very magical experience.

I just like to think that maybe someone got off that ride and decided they wanted to be one. a marine biologist or some kind of engineer, you know, we can do that, man can do that, but I know that in my time there, in the early '90s, there were so many people who got off the submarine and said, "Oh , that's so fake you can see the wires blah blah blah so as the 90's progressed the attraction was still suffering from high operating costs, maybe still the highest in the entire park, the attraction now had 20 years and the older it got, the more it took to keep it running with air conditioning and general wear and tear had plagued the attraction throughout its history and internally it was well known that park operations were pushing for the sun to go down, Although the attraction was certainly not falling apart and many aspects were still working well the political atmosphere within the park was changing however and this led to rumors about the idea that the attraction might be closing.

Curiously, it was omitted from the VHS promotional material for Magic. Kingdom in 1983, but without any cause for concern on September 5, 1994, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would be published casually. closed for maintenance, the Orlando Sentinel noted this and asked a Disney spokesperson, who said, "it will return at an undetermined date and may include enhanced effects." It sounds like a very vague promise for a massive EET attraction, but okay, sure now internally the attraction was scheduled to be back in service on December 16 of the same year as time went on, however, there had been no No work or announcement was made, instead the lagoon was left untouched with the submarines parked in a staggered configuration around the runway, but word finally came with Disney.

Park president Al Wise stated that the attraction would return for the summer of 1996 and said that visitors should expect the same attraction, specifically saying "we're going to overhaul, do some rehab and add some surprises, but shortly after this, the renovation apparently sucked." Internally it was thought to have been too complicated and expensive to make, although that's a bit strange because the entire attraction received a major rehab just 6 years earlier. Again, a Disney spokesperson said they would weigh their options and leave the future of the attractions open. finished, but semi-permanent changes were already being made first, noting cleaning up the Switchback tail area and using the cargo deck as a meet-and-greet area called Fantasy Land Character Festival, Nautilus submarines too Fake foliage had been hung over the rock entrances to the show building, while to the west of the Ariel Lagoon Grotto another meet-and-greet area had been opened that It also featured a splash zone and a waterfall-shaped rock formation that flowed into part of the 20K Lagoon.

The water fountain statue part of Ariel's Grotto had also been erected in the water. By now it was pretty clear that the attraction wouldn't be returning anytime soon and these semi-permanent installations were proof that Disney was abandoning their attraction to drive suspicion even further home. The vehicles were then completely removed from the attraction and placed in the Boneyard, which is actually the site along Bay Lake where the canceled Persian resort was to be the only official Disney recognition that arrived in 1998 and the Designer of the show simply stated that it was a very valuable property, he went on to say that the next big attraction to occupy the site would take years of development and that is exactly what would happen, as both the submarines and the physical attraction would continue for years to come. incredibly. the massive lagoon filled with the 112 million gallons of treated water plus all of its theme would remain in place completely intact with the track clearly visible underwater and the charging station still in place; only the overgrown vegetation and lack of submarines were an indication of the attraction's strange limbo state, in fact, it would remain that way for almost a decade. 9 and a half years of the 4 acre attraction, practically a quarter of the fantasy land, all abandoned during this time and in the background there were some rumors about what could be replacing it, perhaps the most developed was a mountain that in Some iterations took the name Fire Mountain, but nothing was ever really concrete and the location of this concept would change and ultimately never reached green lands.

I remember hearing things like, uh, it could be replaced by a Little Mermaid attraction or some kind of ride tour and the thing was Fire Mountain. I remember hearing about these things, maybe last summer I was working there in '94, it was probably due to the high cost of demolishing the attraction. that was preventing Disney from moving forward and for a company and corporate position that was more fragile than ever, Parks was struggling to find the budget to replace or even eliminate it. Finally, in early 2004, demolition would finally come first with the drainage of the entire site revealing sun and corroded fixtures in the main lagoon which then began to be torn out;

However, inside the show building, things were much more disturbing since 1994, all the fixtures that were previously underwater had remained in place, they were also corroded and now in the process of being removed in the dark, at a height quite low down the St ing exhibit building from the wooden service walkways, cast members Demolition and Salvage Crews took some really cool photos of the old attraction with about a foot or two of Black Water underneath All the pieces from the show They were now exposed in a way that a guest would never have seen outside of the water.

They also showed how dilapidated everything had become with these scenes from the show just sitting idly in the water, presumably without any maintenance for almost a decade, the sediment having settled. In much of the fiberglass rock work, while the water line is a clear indication of the amount of fading, perhaps the creepiest section is Atlantis, the decapitated stone heads along with all the other stone structures they feel like that. Lial and both animatronic snakes are really scary sitting there, about a foot of dark water in a pitch black room, along with both giant disintegrating squids, they are nightmare fuel and it's quite strange to think that all of this was just sitting there. here inside the most visited theme park on Earth, but that wouldn't be long, as shortly after these photos were taken in mid-2004, props and scenes from the show were ripped out.

The front-end loaders took away everything else that had now turned into brown debris, while the lagoon outside also received the same treatment. In the fall of 2004, demolition was completed and crews brought in dirt to level the land. During this site infill, only a fraction of the land would be used for something that would be a very small children's play area called Poo's play place, the rest. The perimeter of the previous attraction was just leveled with a decently high berm that had dense landscaping surrounding it with this Transformation Magic Kingdom lost not only an attraction e tiet but also a few acres of visitor capacity, which, honestly, It's pretty weird for the park while all this was happening.

Thesubmarines in Disney's Boneyard would continue to rot. They had been here since the 90's and were clearly in poor condition. They proceeded to sell many of those disassembled parts on eBay, the submarines would remain there for a little while longer until they were buried in place in late 2005. Of the 12 ride vehicles that were built, only two were completely saved. and both received treatment. pollutants and shipped on a barge to Disney's private Castaway K island, sometimes in the year 2000, then deliberately sunk in the lagoon for snorkeling, allowing guests to swim to them, although I'm honestly not sure of what happened to the second one, as there really is no conclusive answer as to where it went, as I understand it, only one remains submerged in the snorkeling area to this day, although many of the distinguishing features of the design have been broken and only the central body remains on the Magic Kingdom continent in the meantime. was preparing to finally reuse all of this cleared land in 2009, they announced a new Fantasy Land, a massive expansion that was going to utilize every square inch of the old attraction site, this new area would feature a ton of new meet and greets. a large sit-down restaurant, a Dumbo relocation and expansion along with a Little Mermaid attraction;

However, this plan was modified slightly in 2011, replacing the central meet and greet area with a family roller coaster called Seven Dwarf's M Train, ultimately Poo's Playground and Ariel's Grotto would close. In 2002, 10 to make way for construction, they would almost immediately begin transforming the site into the massive expansion of Fantasy Land, which marked the end of the opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in 2014, in addition to Disney employees marked the opening of the Little Mermaid attraction by pouring into it the ancient 20,000 Leagues of Water plus a little nod to the Nautilus and the rock, there really isn't much of a trace of the previous attraction, its entire footprint has been fully developed , while there is only one attraction vehicle, although underwater.

I guess the other attraction vehicles technically still exist, but they're buried under Disney property, so until Disney digs them up. That's it for this beloved opening day attraction, that's not to say the theme and spirit have completely disappeared. Disney parks around the

world

have several versions of the same classic Jules story see and remember that the attraction system was an adaptation of Disneyland, which in fact still exists, although strangely it would also close in the 9s and remain abandoned for years, but thanks to tough lobbying by Imagineers, the attraction was saved and reopened as Finding Nemo's underwater ride.

Likewise, it is the myus at Disneyland Paris, opened in 1994, ironically, the park that caused the company's financial stress to push to close the Florida attraction, perhaps the most similar being the Tokyo Disney C version of 20,000 Leagues. submarine. Honestly, it might be the best adaptation of this theme that has groups of guests going on a similar journey, although not. through real water, instead the water is filled between two glass panels in front of you to create the illusion that you are underwater, but I think people will always love especially the original attraction in Florida, one that was developed by experts as an attraction concept that lasted for decades.

In the end, as a compelling and engaging attraction, although 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea had a lot going against it, despite a relatively decent guest capacity, the number of actual people moving through the attraction was slower than others and that's because the boarding process was much more complicated guests had to descend some steep narrow stairs to the submarine and that took time obviously this would also not make it ADA compliant in later years this often It caused long queues to form with a low guess capacity per hour, this was also an attraction. that dealt with real items, had real water treated with both fixtures and moving vehicles, all of which would need to be repaired if one fixture or section of track needed little attention, you couldn't just drain the entire lagoon you had to send qualified divers to do those repairs, I'm not going to say it was falling apart, but obviously the soaps were exhibiting somewhere some age, a boat that's in the water 24/7 , all this, of course, was very expensive even from day one. the most financial resources of any other ride in the park to continue, and while we're not sure, we can make an educated guess that it only cost Rose, since both the ride system and the vehicles were old and those vehicles were old too. were problematic with sporadic.

Problems with the air conditioning and problems with the diesel engine, as these were powered by their own onboard power. Guests also reported minor hole leaks and over the years the tracks became bumpy, while guests still rated it highly and revered it as a sought-after classic in Magic Kingdom park operations. Once gone, it was a constant headache for them and I'm sure it dragged down the profit margins of the park as a whole after Euro Disneyland opened and failed to turn a profit. The company as a whole also became much more frugal and park executives took advantage of this opportunity. to close the attraction forever, we may never know why Disney gave such erroneous quotes in the press claiming the attraction was safe from the wrecking ball, then saying it was just a renovation, then giving various reopening dates that obviously they would never happen.

It has been reported that Disney had announced internally that the attraction was closing when it did so in 1994, despite Disney publicly saying otherwise, regardless of the fact that they closed the attraction without any clear plan of what they were going to do with it and that was clearly evident by the fact that the attractions had been abandoned for almost a decade, in fact, it would be over 16 years until Disney World actually broke ground on a permanent replacement for the attraction, it's just a series of strange events and While many may be sad that I missed the attraction or never got to experience it, at least the concept lives on in other iterations in Disney's theme park portfolio and of course the attraction has been well documented by passionate fans like the from 20K ride.com, a great website that has helped tremendously.

To me for making this video, maybe everything that remains physically of the attraction is a good metaphor for its history, an attraction that remained on the water for all its years running only to finally synchronize with SA forever, although in this case now you only have 85.

leagues

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