The most expensive rides that were destroyed/replaced

retroeric

Active Member
Original Poster
The obvious one that comes to mind is Horizons. So many animatronics and cool interactive effects that were cutting edge for that time. That was a $60 million dollar ride when it was built, which would be around $141,000,000 today.

What others come to mind? This doesn't have to be limited to Disney rides.
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I'm guessing that had Horizons been built today, it would have cost a lot more than even $141 million. The Little Mermaid ride supposedly cost around $100 million to build (don't know how accurate or close that really is), and with the exception of 2-3 of the animatronic figures being pretty impressive, it's nowhere close to being on the same level as Horizons or any of the other major Future World E Tickets. Disney has become a horribly bloated and wasteful company when it comes to building things at their parks, their current rides burn WAY more money than is necessary considering the end result.

Yeah it has got to be one of the three big Future World rides that were ripped apart in the 90's. Horizons, World of Motion or Imagination 1.0. They were all full of elaborate sets, lots of impressive animatronics and other types of state of the art tech (considering the time they were built).

Wikipedia claims Horizons cost $60 million, but i'm not sure whether that's accurate (there's no source for that). The same page also claims that a major reason the ride was demolished was because it was structurally unsound and unsafe, close to collapse anyways, which I believe most insiders here have confirmed to be a complete lie (just losing its sponsor apparently condemned it).

I don't know the cost of the others but i'm guessing they were fairly large. World of Motion had an absolutely massive animatronic population, perhaps the largest quantity of any Disney ride ever (maybe even of non-Disney parks as well). I'm guessing the ride was pretty expensive due to the sheer quantity of these figures.

Imagination had what i'd guess to be the smallest quantity of animatronic figures of the big four Future World rides, but the ride system itself and some of the show scenes and effects look like they may have cost a considerable amount of money. I hear the rotating dreamcatcher scene in the beginning was really state of the art (and troublesome to operate with 80's technology) so i bet that ended up costing a lot to get right. The ride also had some rather elaborate lighting, laser and projection effects throughout compared to other rides that probably wasn't cheap.
 

retroeric

Active Member
Original Poster
$100 mil for Mermaid? Goodness that's a bigger waste than Universal's $110 million Jurassic Park River Adventure. I'm guessing most of it went to rock work?
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
That was actually the price cited by the LA Times for the version of the ride in California Adventure, not Disney World's version. According to an old post by Lee on these forums, that cost apparently includes internal development (imagineering and such) as well as land preparation, ride/set/animatronic construction etc etc. Of course i'm guessing that Horizons' 60 million figure includes the same things, assuming that is even the correct figure in the first place (correct me if i'm wrong anyone).

Obviously when you clone a ride in another park closely if not exactly from the original version, the second copy doesn't end up costing as much. The internal development and design process is already done and you can just duplicate the parts that are identical in both. So if you compare just the two ride buildings and everything contained within, it wouldn't surprise me if Florida's version cost considerably less than California's (the rides themselves after the queue seem to be pretty much identical).

However, as you said Florida's version has an incredibly detailed and intricately designed queue unique to it. Tons of rockwork and detail. This isn't present for the one in California. A number of people on this site have often said that the queue is actually far better than the ride it's building up to. The queue alone probably cost a ton of money, so Florida's version may have been quite pricey even considering the cost benefits of cloning.

Regardless, the ride originated in California and that 100 million figure is apparently for just that version of the ride. So they spent way more than they should have given the ride's objective quality. It doesn't come anywhere close to touching Horizons.

Had the Little Mermaid ride been built at a Disney park back when it was originally talked about (which was apparently around 20 years ago or more now), it most likely would have been a far more impressive experience overall. There's videos of a virtual CGI ride-through on youtube of their original concept for the ride from back then. And had they done it back then, it also almost certainly would have cost immensely less money (even considering inflation).

Another point of relativity from the past- Splash Mountain at Disneyland supposedly cost around $75 million when it was first designed and built (not including the clones). I'll grant you that they recycled a lot of old animatronics from America Sings, but it still stands as an example of current Disney's bloat and wastefulness regardless. Splash also completely and utterly blows Mermaid away. The same exact ride today designed and built from scratch probably would cost 5-6 times or more what it did back then.
 

WEDway1975

Active Member
Had the Little Mermaid ride been built at a Disney park back when it was originally talked about (which was apparently around 20 years ago or more now), it most likely would have been a far more impressive experience overall. There's videos of a virtual CGI ride-through on youtube of their original concept for the ride from back then. And had they done it back then, it also almost certainly would have cost immensely less money (even considering inflation).


Here's the video and if this would of happen instead of the new ride it would have been A LOT better! Why Disney?:facepalm:
 

SPMTCP2003

Member
I'm not sure how much it cost to build, but 8 years of planning and design certainly is expensive. This is how much time went into creating Alien Encounter, which I miss a LOT! I was fortunate enough, though, to see the very last showing, for CMs only! :D

tumblr_m61sfwV4a11r43h8bo1_500.jpg
 

SPMTCP2003

Member
I didn't realize George Lucas was involved with that project.

Yeah! Here's a little blurb from Wikipedia detailing his original concept of the ride:

As an original story was developed, George Lucas was brought in to work on the project. This version's storyline had X-S Tech's open house being a front for exposing human guinea pigs to an alien monster they had captured. After the alien menaces the audience for a moment, it is revealed to be sentient and desires to escape its captors and free the guests as well. The X-S scientists respond by trying to destroy the test chamber and leave no evidence, but the alien holds off their weaponry, raises the restraints allowing the guests to escape. While leaving, the sounds of the alien rampaging through the pre-show facilities could be heard. The story's grim tone would lead to it being further re-worked.

:p
 

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
Yeah! Here's a little blurb from Wikipedia detailing his original concept of the ride:

As an original story was developed, George Lucas was brought in to work on the project. This version's storyline had X-S Tech's open house being a front for exposing human guinea pigs to an alien monster they had captured. After the alien menaces the audience for a moment, it is revealed to be sentient and desires to escape its captors and free the guests as well. The X-S scientists respond by trying to destroy the test chamber and leave no evidence, but the alien holds off their weaponry, raises the restraints allowing the guests to escape. While leaving, the sounds of the alien rampaging through the pre-show facilities could be heard. The story's grim tone would lead to it being further re-worked.

:p

And making the attraction more horrifying than it's Predecessor...
1319073583.jpg
 

matt9112

Well-Known Member
i still dont get why it was changed...as if MK lacked children rides maybe an insider will let us know....were there issues? did it loose popularity? i know there were some issues of it being too scary early on. but that was toned down.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
i still dont get why it was changed...as if MK lacked children rides maybe an insider will let us know....were there issues? did it loose popularity? i know there were some issues of it being too scary early on. but that was toned down.
Snowflakes and Helicopters! Their little snowflakes were scared in spite of the fact that there were a gazillion signs warning that it might not be suitable for young children. Complaints and more complaints were received and eventually Disney got tired of dealing with it, figured Stitch qualified as an alien and the rest is history. For those of you that think running a theme park that everyone likes is easy.
 
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