Please correct the Disneyland opening date from June 15, 1955 to either July 17, 1955 for the televised press preview or July 18, 1955 for the first public day.

Around October 1954 a plan for Main Street was drawn and used in a press release package that showed the sets for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the Opera House (current home of Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln) on Town Square of Disneyland. The Opera House was still in active use as the park's lumber mill so it did not get public access until later. I can provide a copy of the image if you can't find it.

I was a huge Disney fan before they staring doing the box office IPs on everything. I used to love how they would have ideas that were just there to be there like matterhorn bobsleds, 20k, and people mover. I grew up as this shift in the parks was happening and quickly quit going to Disney because it has lost that sense of wonder. I remember riding the people mover and seeing space mountain and the sense of curiosity and wonder. I also agree that the US parks should bring back the Imagineers Ideas of wonder back into the parks and not just the modern box office hits of some classic fairy tale that they fluffed. Prime examples the DL versions of the Pirates and Haunted Masion sparked movies. They then changed both rides to better reflect the movies and not the original ideas and wonder of the imagination. Even if they did revamp the submarine ride to Atlantis there were still so many things the movies left open where they coukd have expanded on and not just retold. If disney keeps doing massive IPs and retelling of their versions of the movie in the parks they are going to quickly hit a wall. They are already losing people because of poor management and ticket price spikes. Granted I havent been back since the revamp of Nemo, but from what I have experienced Disney is copying Universal but not expanding on the world of the IPs.

I was very fortunate and blessed to work with one of the lead imagineers on this project, Jack Gladdish, of Odessa, Florida. He shared lots of stories with me about working with Walt Disney. He also was the imagineer for Abe Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents (and the trip to NYC for the world's fair) as well as working with Julie Andrews on Mary Poppins. He told me about his nightmares after 6 months of trying to get the birds to chirp with the music. If you look closely at her dress sleeve you can see the pneumatic air lines going up her arm to the bird. It was and is nice knowing him and hearing all his stories about working with Walt. He is alive and kicking in Florida still.

I am so sorry they took this ride away before my 4 grandkids could see it. Two of them are reading the Jules Verne book. I love this ride as a child and an adult. The ocean is very much a mystery and the book is still a classic. With today's technology I don't see why Disney couldn't resurrect it.

Beautiful read. As a child this was the first & last ride of the day fire me. I was heart broken when it was gone. To never be able to share with my children. Always was always will be my favorite. May have to explore Paris & Japan.

My father worked at Disneyland Anaheim for 20+ years. We spent 18 mons in Tokyo while my dad help build Tokyo Disneyland. On our way home back to the states we made a trip to WDW and I had a chance to ride 20,000 leagues. It was a fantastic attraction. Im a huge fan of the movie and being raised in a disney family it was a ride I really enjoyed.
Its funny because I tell people all the time about the organ in the haunted mansion and people question it.
Great article, I really enjoyed it and brought back a lot of great memories of a piece of my childhood.

The Tokyo Disney Sea 20,000 leagues ride is a blast. i make sure to ride it every time I visit. I'd love to see something like it at one of the US parks.

I was a College Program cast member on 20K during its final season in the summer of 1994. I have fond memories of that attraction. The capacity was horrible and the lines were always long, but guests loved it.

We did know it was closing Labor Day weekend of that year and for good. A final cast picture was scheduled and dozens (if not hundreds) of costume pieces mysteriously disappeared as August came to a close. One of my few regrets in life is that I had to return home ten days before that photo was taken and had to miss it.
An interesting tidbit not mentioned in the article: one of the subs (I think number eleven) was powered by natural gas, not diesel. I also remember that the engines leaked so much fuel and the water was so dirty (even though clear), that if anyone accidentally fell in, a tetnus shot was mandatory. All told, it was a summer I'll never forget.

This ride is s running at Tokyo Disney Sea I rode a few years back (in 2013) it was interesting I guess but I fail to see how it was that great.

I was just at WDW MK last week and the people mover is still there and running and had a 30min wIt al day..

I have been to WDW at least twenty-five times from almost it's opening and EVERY SINGLE time I have gone there, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was closed for maintenance. I always wanted to go on it and it almost became a joke for our family because we would march down to the ride and the familiar "Closed for Maintenance" was up. From these developments, it seems as though I was just never meant to go on it! lol :-(

Thank you for that retrospective on Disney's 20K ride. I first saw 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as a young boy and it absolutely captivated me. So when I visited WDW in 1972, I headed straight for the 20K ride and it didn't disappoint. I found it the most spellbinding and captivatingly immersive (no pun intended) ride in the park. I think I went on it 3 or 4 times on that visit alone. Of course over the years I repeated that experience every chance I got. So I can't tell you how shocked and disappointed I was when I took my own young boys to WDW many years later only to find the ride gone. I was sad for them. I was sad for me. Like you said, we never got to say goodbye or take one last ride. So thank you for this chance to view that great footage and to "relive" that wonderful experience once again via the miracle of the Internet. I can only hope that one day Disneyland and WDW will bring some of that nostalgic retro-futuristic style back to their parks and give us North Americans a chance to revisit the future that once was. Cheers.

Darn, I was snorkeling at Castaway Cay just six months ago. Wish I had known about the submerged sub; I'd have made the swim to see it!

There's a small "homage" to the ride at Winnie the Pooh in his tree house in the entrance to the ride. If you walk into the tree house from the larger side door and look around the top edge there is a shape of the Nautilus.
Source: I work the Winnie the Pooh ride.

No Disney Park ever had submarines they were semisubmesible trains on tracks.
They were decorated as subs. Disney Still uses SemiSubmersible trains as the Ferrys to the Magic Kingdom

Kind of! Like the article says, they're essentially just boats that travel along a flat track (using diesel / electric engines), just with guests seated below the water line.

In reply to by Guimar (not verified)

Assuming you're talking about WDW, the ferries that run across the Seven Seas Lagoon between the TTC and Magic Kingdom are fully free-floating, and are often run between the resorts and the Magic Kingdom. The maintenance facility for them (and the resort launches and cruisers) is off the northwest tip of Bay Lake. The craft you're probably thinking of are the paddlewheel steamers that run along the Rivers of America around Tom Sawyer's Island in Frontierland, and are vehicles that run on an underwater track, but are not semi-submersible.

I went to WDW on my honeymoon in 1975, and again a few years later. The 20K ride was the most beautiful and peaceful spot in the park in MHO. At dusk, the sight of Nemo's subs gliding around the huge lagoon and emerging from the waterfalls was stunning. The first time I rode the lagoon was having a problem with alge and visibility was limited, but the second ride a few years later was perfect and a very different experience! I understand the problems that plagued the ride, but do wish a modern version, similar to DisenySea would again be available. Disney continues to give one of it's most valuable properties, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea a short-shift in it's parks.

you can still see this ride in Disneyland Paris! Half of discoveryland there is Jules Verne themed (including space mountain), and this is still one of the attraction

Yeah! We wrote about that on page 5 under "Discoveryland." However, the attraction there is a large walkthrough of the interior of the submarine, similar to the walkthrough that was at Disneyland during its first decade. But the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction at Magic Kingdom was a real ride, with 38-passenger subs sailing underwater through dark ride scenes! So, quite a bit different from the walkthrough in Paris!

Awesome piece, thanks. This is the Disney I loved. Some with some adventure and balls. That Disney no longer exists and I miss it. But I think I am a rare breed. I hate what they did to Disneyland's subs (though still better than what happened in Florida), and I love the walk through in Paris, never missing it (even though most visitors skip it or find it a waste of space). My how I long for a more testosterone fuelled Disney experience of my youth. It is why Tokyo Disney Sea is very much on my bucket list, not for the Little Mermaid or soon to open Frozen areas, but the adventure of Vulcania

As for 20K in WDW, there was more value than the ride. There was the kinetic aesthetic value. Something that the Rivers of America and Florida's Tomorrowland give. HK Disneyland misses much of that and by trimming back the vehicles on the RoA, so does WDW (and DL to a lesser extent - at least the park has the sailing ships Colombia and the canoes)

All very true! I, for one, am a HUGE proponent of Jules Verne style adventure fitting perfectly into Disney Parks, even the fiercely-protected castle parks. That's why Discovery Bay would've fit perfectly in Disneyland, even amid classic Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, etc. It's a natural compliment to those stories. And, most importantly, if Disneyland HAD built Discovery Bay back in the 1970s, it would still feel relevant today, which speaks volumes.

Hopefully the inclusion of so much Jules Verne in DisneySea (and to fantastic effect and overwhelmingly positive feedback) means that Disney "gets it" and recognizes that these are valuable stories that translate well to the theme park environment. Maybe one day we'll see movement on that front. I wish it could be Discovery Bay or 20,000 Leagues, but oh well.

In reply to by David Loyd-Hearn (not verified)

David's on to something here in that there was an aesthetic value that's sorely missing now. The 20K ride DID take up alot of space for the tiny amount of people who could ride it, but it was a beautiful, peaceful spot by which to rest and take a breather. As I mentioned in my previous comment, sitting by the ride at dusk, watching the subs as they cruised around, the lights of the sub illuminating the water, it was really breath-taking in it's tranquility.

I got some of the seaweed from the ride and still have it around here somewhere. A lot of my Disney friends try to steal it from me from time to time.

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