20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

[Dad Bell]

Is the "20,000 Leagues" submarine ride still operating?

 

[tci1212]

The very 1st time I went to DIsney world in 1992 the ride was open. I believe it closed shortly after that.

 

[Dad Bell]

Thank you. What has replaced it?

 

[yecats]

It is now a character greeting site. I wish they would've updated that ride. I remember having found memories of it when I was a kid.

 

[pintrader]

but local legend has it that they have to keep water in it to keep the walls from caving in. Now Ariel's Grotto overlooks the lagoon for a photo op.

 

[wdwguide]

I believe the ride closed almost ten years ago, certainly before my time as a WDW visitor. Right now it's an unused "reflecting pool" that has not been replaced with anything, and will likely not be replaced for some time, given that there is a lot of empty real estate at the Magic Kingdom that is much cheaper to recycle than the structurally challenged lagoon-area (Skyway stations, much of Tomorrowland, the "Fire Mountain" area, etc).

 

[peachgirl]

Our tour guide told us they removed the ride because they were unable to make it accesible to the handicapped. That was the first I'd ever heard of as to why they closed it down. What a shame, we loved that ride!

 

[kaylajr]

i loved this ride when i took my first WDW vacation in 1989
told my DH all about it
when we got there in 2000 and it was gone i was so disappointed

 

[SueM in MN]

Our tour guide told us they removed the ride because they were unable to make it accesible to the handicapped.

That may be what the tour guide said, but it's not the real reason. There are other rides that are not handicapped accessible that are still open. We've been coming to WDW at least once a year since 1986. in all those times, the ride was often closed. It was a slow-loading. low capacity ride that always had long lines when it was open. I was told that it was closed for that reason plus that when it broke down, there was no easy supply of spare parts; many of them had to be individually made.

 

[Synonymous]

The explanation we got on Keys to the Kingdom Tour:

The waterways that flow through MK, beginnng at what used to be 20K, are a part of the Everglades water system. The water flows into 20K, goes to some other attractions and the River, then flows out and continues all the way down to South Florida. As such, it is environmentally sensitive. It limits what they can do in that water, because a spill of anything environmentally unfriendly would be expensively frowned upon by the gov't. This is the same reason that Jungle Cruise continues to use noisy, outdated air compressors, instead of more efficient hydraulics.

She said not to expect a new attraction there any time soon.

 

[grinningghost]

It was open in May, 1994. I'm not sure how long after that it closed, but by our 1996 trip, it was gone. Makes me sad. With today's technology, they should be able to come up with a knock your socks off version of 20K. Putting Ariel's Grotto in is really nothing more than filler.

 

[meeko_33785]

20,000 Legues always seemed to have technical problems. It seemed like every time I was at MK in the 80s or 90s it was always closed for rehab or for repairs. The queue is now home to the Fantasyland Character Festival character greeting location and area neer the lagoon is now Ariel's Grotto, a Little Mermaid themed playground and character greeting location (which, to me, fits in better into Fantasyland than Jules Verne's Sci-Fi subs).

 

[TreeOfLife]

One of my biggest frustrations was to enjoy that ride for the first time when I was 15 and return to it after closing. Twenty years later, I took my sons for the first time to Disney and it broke my heart to learn the ride had been closed and replaced by several lines of people waiting to meet characters

::sigh::

 

[wdwguide]

Synonymous, that's the best one I've heard to date.
They have to close 20,000 Leagues because it damages the Everglades, but dumping tons of pyro-remnants from Illuminations into the World Showcase Lagoon and tons of fertilizers onto the golf courses is just fine... Cute, but pure fiction.

 

[jwill]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is my favorite Disney movie and I think they should have updated the ride also. As others have said with today's technology they could have really made 20k Leagues a great attraction.

 

[Synonymous]

Well, I have no idea what the truth is, but she didn't say it closed because of that, just that it made it difficult to put anything else in. Perhaps World Showcase Lagoon doesn't empty into that water system.

 

[alyssa810]

I thought I heard somewhere that they were going to have an Atlantis ride...or was that maybe at Disneyland?

When I had my first trip to MK, it was February vacation week and the line was HUGE and my mother said it was ridiculous for us to wait so I sadly never got to ride it

 

[eeyore0062]

From what I understand, the water that included the ride 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is also in the same water system as the water surrounding the castle, the Rivers of America, so to be able to empty it, they would have to restructure the watersways of the MK... not something they could do easily while still keeping the MK open.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea closed fall of 1993. We rode it that spring, and I remember thinking how slow it loaded, and how difficult it was to board. It definitely didn't comply with the laws for handicapped access, and to tell you the truth, I don't know how they could have modified it to do so. Guess I wasn't the only ones with these concerns.

You can see one of the subs if you go on the cruise, and snorkle at Castaway Cay.

 

[kel3420]

Are you sure it closed in 1993? I would swear that my kids went on it in December of 1995. Hmmm. Maybe I am remembering a trip two years earlier, but sill in December, my first trip as an adult and we brought our niece.

I am going to have to look at pictures now. Oh my, I only have boxes and boxes of Disney pics.

LOL.

 

[alvernon90]

Originally posted by eeyore0062
From what I understand, the water that included the ride 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is also in the same water system as the water surrounding the castle, the Rivers of America, so to be able to empty it, they would have to restructure the watersways of the MK... not something they could do easily while still keeping the MK open.

I don't know for certain, but I doubt this is the case. The water in the Rivers of America, around the castle, etc. is "dark water" that is purposely colored so you can't see the tracks and cables and stuff under the water. The 20,000 Leagues lagoon is (or was) the opposite: highly filtered to make the water crystal-clear so it was easier to see the show elements.

I don't know if they also treated the water with chemicals that would be harmful to plants and animals if it was released into the ecosystem, but it's certainly possible they put something in it to prevent algae growth on the show elements.

Again, I'm just guessing. Anyone know more about this?