Disneyland: One Man's Dream- Return of the Subs

We already established about a month ago that in 1959, the Submarine Voyage was added to Disneyland as one of three new E-Ticket attractions. Then we discussed how in 1998, the ride closed. Shortly after that, it was announced that a new ride would be placed there by 2003. Originally, they were going to put an Atlantis themed sub ride in the lagoon, but the movie flopped at the idea was abbandoned. It would be years before any ride would be place there.

Later in 2004, there was activity in the lagoon. A Sub was docked at it's original dock for an inspection, and to see if animated scenes would appear through the porthole.

Finally, the highly anticipated ride opened. Some people loved it; others critized it for being "just TV screens". Whatever the case may be, the ride had insanely large lines. It had the longest wait out of all the rides at Disneyland!



The story of the ride is that you are setting out to explore and undersea volcano. You "dive" (via bubbles galore) and are emerged in a wonderful underwater landscape. You see ancient ruins and characters from Nemo, and continue on to a large reef. As you go deeper and deeper, the cpatain commands that the sonar hydrophones be turned on, which actually allow you to hear the fish. It's at this time that we see scenes from Finding Nemo via projections in the show building while people are still in the submarines. At the end, you end up seeing the volcano, and the captain decides not to put any of this into the log because "no one would believe any of it. We better get out of here before we see a mermaid or a sea searpent" (in homage to the original ride).


The rise was popular. However, some quests can't go down into the sub due to claustrophobia, size, etc. So, Disney also has an alternate viewing area, where you watch the ride in a nicely themed seaside Marine Observation Outpost. To this day, it is not uncommon to find waits for the ride at about an hour. But what will be next for Disneyland?

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- The First Major Expansion

Disneyland was a hit. But, after a while, things seem to get repetitive. And of course, Walt wanted to build things he could not build before due to a lack of money.

So the first Major Disneyland expansion was introduced in 1959. The Disneyland-Alweg Monorail, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and the Submarine Voyage were intorduced to Tomorrowland.

The Disneyland Monorial began as a simple elevated train ride around Tomorrowland and was the first daily operating system of it's kind in the western hemisphere. He loved this form of transportation, and soon continued it to the new Disneyland Hotel. A station was built there and people could ride between the hotel and Disneyland. Throughout the years, the monorail would largely reamined untouched while Disneyland grew around it.

Walt was inspired to build The Matterhorn Bobsleds after going to Switzerland and making Third Man on the Mountain. With the new skyway that connected Fantsyland and Tomorrowland, there was a need to hide the tower that held the Skyway up. And, it covered the astetically unpleasing Holiday Hill. Disneyland's Matterhorn is a 1/100th Scale, making Disneyland's 147 feet tall and the park's tallest minature. The Matterhorn became the first tubular steel roller coaster, which would become the most popular form of coasters. In later years, it would officially become part of Fantasyland and become home to the Yetti.

Last but not least, the Submarine Voyage took people underwater to discover "liquid space". Now Disneyland had one of the largest operating submarine fleats in the world. The ride would take guests underwater and underneath the North Pole. Real mermaids were also featured in the lagoon, but were removed when men kept jumping in to get them. The ride closed in 1998, but repopened with a new Finding Nemo theme in 2007.


As you can see, today, all 3 attractions are quite popluar. And just like Disneyland, 50 years later, they continue to delight a new generation of guests, as well as the older ones.


But still, age was cathcing up with Tomorrowland. The "futuristic" year of 1986 was still years away but advances in science were cathcing up fast. Now, Tomorrowland would need a brand new theme.