7. Frozen Ever After

Image: Disney

Location: Epcot
Theoretical: 1000 pph
Operational: 900 pph

When Disney announced that the long-sailing EPCOT Center original Lost Legend: Maelstrom would take its final voyages in 2014, fans knew there could only have been one reason... Many Imagineering fans have a frosty relationship with the 2013 film Frozen thanks in part to what felt like a rapid oversaturization of the fairy tale film in the years following its release. The fact that the fictional world of Arendelle would overtake a part of the very real Norway pavilion at Epcot meant that cartoon characters had officially breached World Showcase, and that there was no going back.

Perhaps tempers cooled a bit when the final product was revealed. The subject of its own in-depth Modern Marvels: Frozen Ever After feature, even naysayers have to admit that the dark ride is surprisingly astounding. En route to Elsa's ice palace, the ride sails through gorgeous, totally-transformed scenes as riders hear familiar, re-worked songs in this quasi-sequel to the film.

One thing the reimagined ride could not overcome were the limitations placed on it by way of simply reusing Maelstrom's infrastructure and ride system. On Maelstrom, a 4-minute ride time was acceptable... but that same ride time on the end of a multi-hour wait for Frozen Ever Ever feels brisk. Those multi-hour waits are caused by the re-use of Maelstrom's ride system (including its Viking longboat vehicles) which, of course, isn't really meant to be used as the backbone of a headlining attraction. 

6. Dumbo the Flying Elephant

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland
Theoretical: 900 pph
Operational: 800 pph

Forget the Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, or Haunted Mansion... Dumbo the Flying Elephant may be one of the most legendary and instantly-recognizable rides at Disney Parks. The simple circus spinner just seats pairs of guests in flying elephants where joysticks control the elephants' height as they circle a center post. Of course, each subsequent refurbishment of the ride has added increasingly more elaborate decorations, but at its core Dumbo is what it is... a simple carnival ride. And it carries a pitifully low capacity to prove it.

If Dumbo can realistically accomodate 800 people per hour, then in a 15-hour operating day only about 12,000 riders – 25% of Disneyland's average daily attendance! – can take the flight.

Which is precisely why when Disney designed the elaborate New Fantasyland for Magic Kingdom, they purposefully doubled Dumbo. Now, two mirrored spinners are placed before a big top tent and circus playground which serves as a virtual queue for waiting riders. The simple doubling of the spinner means that Florida's Dumbo can actually process 1600 guests per hour – more guests in an hour than Flight of Passage (Cue our jaws dropping)!

5. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland
Theoretical: 900 pph
Operational: 800 pph

When Walt Disney debuted the Submarine Voyage in 1959, he loved the attraction so much, he created the new "E-Ticket" designation, meaning it required the most expensive ride coupon to experience. The journey sent guests through "liquid space" aboard lumbering, 38-person submarines – perfect for Tomorrowland given that submarines were as cutting-edge as spacecrafts at the time. The underwater dark ride was even spectacular enough to be included in the new Magic Kingdom park, albeit remade into a Jules Verne inspired version placed in Fantasyland – the Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

In the 1990s, cost-cutting closed both versions of the seafaring ride. Why? The subs took up a massive amount of space, were wildly expensive to operate and difficult to load, and had a relatively low capacity for two of the highest-attended theme parks on Earth. Magic Kingdom's lagoon was eventually filled and today, almost all of New Fantasyland resides on the massive plot of land vacated by the subs. Disneyland's looked headed for removal, too, until Finding Nemo offered it a new lease on life in time for the park's 50th anniversary in 2005.

The wildly low capacity left Disneyland's "new" version of the ride with multi-hour queues for its first years, but its wait times have leveled out in recent years. Unfortunately, that means the Subs are once again viewed by many as land-wasting, expensive, low-capacity rides destined for removal, so we'll just have to wait and see... And in case you missed the numbers, yes, Submarine Voyage has the same hourly capacity as Dumbo!

4. Mad Tea Party

Image: Disney

Location: Magic Kingdom and Disneyland
Theoretical: 1100 pph
Operational: 765 pph

Returning to the "classics" category, we land on Mad Tea Party, which seemingly spawned hundreds of "spinning tea cup" rides at amusement parks and traveling fairs across the globe. Simple as it may be, the Mad Tea Party has become a Disney Parks standard with installations in California, Florida, Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong (plus a Pooh-themed version in Shanghai).

The difference between the ride's theoretical and operational capacity shouldn't be too surprising; despite cups being designed for four, many end up with parties of two or three, severely slicing the ride's throughput in a day. Still, a ride on the Mad Tea Party is practically as essential as a ride on the Railroad, and perhaps we should be glad that the nausea-inducing ride even still exists at Disney Parks when it would seem that nothing of the sort would be approved by Disney's stateside lawyers today!