Disney theme parks have been bringing the magic to guests since 1955, opening a multitude of new, immersive attractions at locations around the world. It’s always exciting when a new ride opens for the first time, but this has a downside too- existing rides, so matter how iconic, loved or nostalgic they are, can begin to fade into obscurity. Coaster Sam Blog and I have compiled our own lists of the most underrated and forgotten rides across the four Florida parks, from Animal Kingdom to Epcot, so lets take a look at our picks for the most underrated WDW attractions of all time! Is your favourite ride on this list? Keep reading to find out!
Carousel of Progress, Magic Kingdom
If you’re unfamiliar with this iconic attraction, you may be wondering- why is a carousel on this list? But Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is no ordinary carousel. First making its debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, the attraction follows an animatronic family: husband and wife John and Sarah, with their two children Patricia and Jimmy, as family life evolves and changes through the 20th and 21st century. The show begins in the 1900s, on Valentines Day when the family are discussing a Valentines dance, and the final scene takes place during Christmas in a past view of the 2010s, in which the characters interact with VR and voice recognition technology, both devices we use today!
By far the most well-known aspect of this attraction however, is that extremely catchy song: It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow! When Carousel of Progress was moved from the World’s Fair to Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland in 1975, General Electric sponsored the show, but a key part of the sponsorship deal was that the song is removed, as it may encourage potential customers to buy from them tomorrow, as opposed to today. The Sherman Brothers composed a new song, entitled The Best Time of Your Life, to tell riders that, well, they’re having the best time of their life. This remained the official soundtrack for the attraction until 1985, when General Electric failed to renew the sponsorship, and along with some minor changes, It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow returned, to great joy from fans of the attraction.
Even today, fifty-six years after its debut, I feel Carousel of Progress holds a special message we can all take away- there really is a great big beautiful tomorrow, and tomorrow is just a dream away!
Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Epcot
1982 to 1994 truly were the golden days of Epcot. Between Epcot’s opening year of 1982 and 1989, nine pavilions opened in Future World, and Imagination! was one of the most popular. The main attraction of the pavilion was a darkride, Journey Into Imagination, which followed the eccentric inventor Dreamfinder and his pet dragon Figment on their whimsical adventures through the realms of imagination. There was virtually nothing to complain about with Journey Into Imagination- the sets were bright and colourful, the jokes were understandable to all ages but not too cheesy. The only thing that could have been considered annoying was the song, One Little Spark, which was more fun and catchy than anything else. Admit it, it’s now stuck in your head, isn’t it?
Like all of Future World’s pavilions, Imagination! relied on a sponsorship for much of its maintenance, and in this case the sponsor was Kodak, who insisted that Journey Into Imagination and the attraction above, the Imageworks, are updated every ten to fifteen years to prevent them from falling into disrepair. When the time came to refurbish the pavilion, Disney were struggling financially, with the failed opening of Euro Disney in France, and Kodak were also having issues. This resulted in a cheap, quickly thrown-together retheme, with a dramatically reduced ride time of less than five minutes. The new ride, Journey Into Your Imagination, was themed to the Imagination Institute to fit in with Honey, I Shrunk The Audience next door, and took riders through a series of Imagination tests in the Institute’s labs, first being told “there’s not much going on upstairs, imagination-wise” then being declared creative geniuses by the end of the ride. Honestly, I think Honey, I Shrunk The Ride Experience would have been a better name for it.
Figment only made a few small appearances in the ride on screens, and Dreamfinder was nowhere to be seen, along with the well-loved One Little Spark song. Fans of Journey Into Imagination were shocked to see what had happened to what used to be such an amazing ride, and Facebook groups such as Friends of Figment began springing up protesting against the removal and near-removal of the two iconic characters. Journey Into Your Imagination lasted only a few years, and soon went down for its second refurb, reopening as Journey Into Imagination With Figment. A LOT of Figment, but still no Dreamfinder. In this current version, the Imagination Institute are hosting an open house day, lead by institute leader Dr Nigel Channing, and Figment is causing as much havoc as humanly, or dragon-ly, possible.
In Journey Into Imagination with Figment, the title dragon is portrayed as a lot more mischievous and annoying than in the original, but maybe it’s understandable- if you had your own pavilion and an institute tried to take over, kick out your best friend and hold an open house, you’d want to cause mischief too!
The current version is a joyful nod to the first Journey Into Imagination, and for those of us who never rode the original, it’s the closest we can get to experiencing this iconic attraction. Journey Into Imagination with Figment has been gradually declining in popularity over the last few years, getting queues of less than ten minutes most of the time, so the ride may not have much longer left at the park, so when you’re next at Epcot, make sure you get a ride on this bright and nostalgic darkride!
Check out this post if you want to learn about another much-loved pavilion at Epcot!
Strangeness of Life: The weird and wonderful attractions of Epcot’s Wonders of Life Pavilion
When Walt Disney began drawing up his plans for the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, something that was included right from the start was a pavilion dedicated to health and fitness, and the wonders of the human body. Imagineers wanted to stay as close to the original plans as possible when designing Epcot Center, now…
It’s Tough To Be a Bug, Animal Kingdom
Nestled in the roots of Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life, there is an impressive 4D cinema attraction, one of the last remaining in Walt Disney World! But in the same way Carousel of Progress is no ordinary carousel, It’s Tough To Be a Bug is no ordinary 4D experience. Guests become “honorary bugs” and are shown the world of bugs by Flik from the Pixar film A Bug’s Life, before encountering a terrifying animatronic known as Hopper the Grasshopper, livid at the way humans have always treated bugs and that they were allowed to enter the theatre. He tries to flatten the audience with fly swatters, orders hornets to sting them, and attempts to kill them with bug spray. For an attraction that seems so light-hearted at first glance, this scene is extremely dark!
The experience ends with a collection of insects singing about how tough the life of a bug can really be, and hidden bugs leaving the theatre, an effect that utilises some rather unexpected leg ticklers!
When It’s Tough To Be a Bug opened in 1998, Hopper was Disney’s most advanced (and largest!) audio-animatronic today, and twenty-two years later is still going strong. For many this attraction is a one-and-done, either due to the uncomfortable leg ticklers (I found them annoying too) or the out of nowhere fear aspect, but these elements of the experience made me love it, and I will definitely want to experience it again next time I find myself at Animal Kingdom!
Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, Magic Kingdom
When Walt Disney envisioned Epcot as a city of the future, one of the features that was in the designs from the beginning was a monorail-type transport system known as the WEDway Peoplemover. The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow would eventually open as a theme park in 1982, but fifteen earlier Walt’s design of a Peoplemover would be honoured at Disneyland in 1967. This version sadly would not last and closed in 1995 to make way for the infamous Rocket Rods, but the version in Magic Kingdom, Florida was able to stand the test of time and is still operational today.
A key element of the Peoplemover is taking riders through many of Tomorrowland’s ride show buildings, including Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which offers a great look at these attractions from a whole new angle, especially when one of them breaks down. This isn’t even the most impressive part though, as several minutes into the attraction you pass by a scale model of Walt Disney’s original designs for Epcot! It’s incredible that such a fundamental part of Disney parks history was included in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom’s incarnations of the classic ride, and that we can still experience it today in Florida.
Despite all this, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover is beginning to show its age. In January of this year, riders were evacuated after smoke was spotted billowing out of the attraction, and Astro Orbiters was also temporarily closed as a safety precaution. It was later concluded that it was a technical fault that caused the smoke, not an actual fire, and a few hours later both the Peoplemover and Astro Orbiters were back open, but events like this show that Disney really do need to give one of their classic attractions a bit more love!
Living With The Land, Epcot
For many, Living With The Land is one of those attractions that you just skip past, only riding if your feet need a rest, or you’re in desperate need of some air con. I’ll be honest, that was me on my first visit to Epcot too! But this water-based darkride is actually a significant part of WDW operations and history. Originally known as Listen To The Land, Living With The Land opened with the park on October 1st 1982, as one of two attractions in EPCOT’s Land Pavilion, the other being Kitchen Kaberet, which may a contender for one of the most obscure attractions Disney have ever built.
Living With The Land begins with a darkride section that takes riders through a forest in a thunderstorm, showing that, while we may dislike storms, they are extremely beneficial to the natural environment. After passing through a few more biomes, from a desert to a rainforest, and even some animatronics that were created for a never-built Magic Kingdom attraction, Western River Expedition! (I told you it’s historically significant!).
When you end your biome journey, you embark into what is by far the most important part of the ride, and maybe even of Epcot, a greenhouse dome known as the Living Laboratory! Here, new methods of agriculture are tried and tested, and a lot of the food that is served up across the parks is grown in these greenhouse labs! So whenever you’re dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table, the Rainforest Café, or Woody’s Lunchbox, it’s likely that you’re eating something grown just a few miles away in Epcot!
This archetypal Epcot darkride is one of just two opening day attractions in Future World, and one of the few remaining experiences in the park which really captures what Epcot what always meant to be about: sustainability, creativity and innovation.
While many classic Epcot attractions are closing to make way for the new overhaul, I don’t really see Living With The Land going anywhere, it may be losing popularity but still plays a significant part in the operations of all of Disney’s parks and restaurants in Florida!
Check out this post to learn more about the changes made to Epcot since its opening in the 1980s!
The Disney Park of the Future: has Epcot lost sight of it’s vision?
Let’s face it: what with all the Disney parks closed, we’re all facing a bit of Disney withdrawal, myself included in that. Today I’ll try to cure a bit of your (and my) theme park withdrawal by diving into the history of one of the world’s most famous theme parks, a park that started with…
Dumbo The Flying Elephant, Magic Kingdom
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of flying through the air in a circle, the Central Florida wind blowing in your face, and Dumbo, located in Magic Kingdom’s Storybook Circus, is a ride that offers this exhilarating sensation. The first version of this much-loved family ride opened at Disneyland in October 1955, just a few months after Disneyland’s official opening in July, and despite being enjoyed by riders, it was riddled with problems. WED enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) built one aspect of the ride, while Arrow Development built another, resulting in two ride systems that didn’t really work well together. The aim was to get the ride open as soon as possible, it had already missed opening day, so there was no time to get these issues fixed before October. So, when Dumbo was operating, the elephants would leak hydraulic fluid, meaning the ride had to go down every few hours for the elephants to be “milked”, or have the fluid cleaned away.
That was until a NASA engineer visited Disneyland, and on seeing the issues plaguing the ride, suggested a new system that meant the elephants would actually keep their hydraulic fluid, and the ride would no longer have to close as much as it did. After a few months of downtime and upgrades, the new and improved Dumbo opened to excited riders, and ever since it has been a guest favourite at Disneyland.
It wouldn’t be long before Dumbo would take flight at other Disney parks, beginning with Magic Kingdom for the 1971 opening. However, it was only a soft-opening, with some of the theming not ready yet, and several months later the missing theming elements would be added, without the water feature that’s so prominent on many other versions of the ride.
In 2011, a major change was coming- Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland. Mickey’s Toontown Fair was closing in February of that year; some elements of the land were demolished, while others remained to be rethemed in the new land that was being built. When the area reopened as Storybook Circus in 2012, there were not one but two of the ride carousels, complete with a new interactive queueline, and what is arguably one of the greatest play areas Disney have ever built! This was not the only new addition to the ride though, Disney had also implemented an innovative new queueing system in which you are given a pager when entering the queueline, which will flash and vibrate when it is time to board your flying elephant.
There’s so much I love about Dumbo The Flying Elephant, from the elaborate history behind the ride system, to the beautiful theming, right down to the easy and fun queue system, its one of many amazing but often overlooked ride experiences in the Magic Kingdom!
Do you agree with my picks? Which attractions would you add to the list? Let me know below, and check out Coaster Sam Blog’s post to find out if he agrees with me!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy them. Sorry about the late reply -Lily 🙂
Your articles are amazing. Thank you for your hard work.
It’s definitely worth a visit! 🙂
Interesting! Never heard of that park before
Love this Lily
If you’re a theme park enthusiast like me, or just enjoy travelling, you’ll love Coaster Sam’s content! From Disneyland Paris to Dollywood, there’s something for every theme park fanatic! Check it out here! https://coastersam.blogspot.com/
If you enjoyed this article, check out some of my other posts from theme parks and attractions around the world, and consider subscribing to have all the latest content delivered straight to your inbox!
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