7. Getting SKUNKED by a former friend

Image: Ray, Flickr

Attraction: Journey into Imagination with Figment
Smell: Garbage, burnt coffee

There's no ride on Earth with a story as captivating as Epcot's dark ride through Imagination. Originally, the Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination, took guests on a soaring trip through lands of literature, theater, art, and science with the enigmatic Dreamfinder and his purple dragon Figment – one of the most iconic, beloved, and missed attractions ever. As the new millennium approached, the ride was overhauled from scratch, eliminating the beloved characters and transforming into a sort of "sensory funhouse" of sight gags narrated by Monty Python's Eric Idle... most fans agree that that Declassified Disaster: Journey into YOUR Imagination, was the worst ride Disney World's ever had.

Luckily, the awful ride closed after barely a year. When it re-opened, Figment had been haphazardly inserted into the bizarre Imagination Institute story with a new personality – a pesky troublemaker intent on derailing the tour through sensory labs by inspiring guests to think outside the box. One of his more fabled pranks is to spray guests with skunk smell. Don't worry; no tomato juice baths necessary – the scent is actually burnt coffee. It's just repulsive enough (when mixed with the skunk visual) to leave guests "eww"ing. Mission accomplishment?

8. Driving the ROADS OF TOMORROW

Image: Disney

Attraction: Autopia / Tomorrowland Speedway
Smell: Gasoline

When Disneyland opened in 1955, the Interstate Highway Act had not yet been signed. That's what made Autopia a perfect fit for Tomorrowland, giving guests of all ages a glimpse into what the wonders of the multi-lane interstate highway system would bring. Though highways were no longer futuristic by Magic Kingdom's 1971 opening, a simpler version of the ride was exported to Florida as the Tomorrowland Speedway. In fact, similar car rides have become staples of Tomorrowlands, opening in Japan (removed), Hong Kong (also removed), and even Paris' 1890s-themed Discoveryland.

Still, the most iconic thing about Disney's car rides today? The sputtering, rumbling vehicles emit one heck of a smell – yep, they run on gasoline. The cars feature rear-mounted engines that are air-cooled, four-stroke, 270cc single-cylinder rated at 8.5 horsepower – engines that would otherwise be used for pressure washers or wood chippers, though they sound and move like lawn-mowers, moving at a clip of 6 mph. Fans have criticized the rides' placements in Tomorrowland, especially given that Disney's never switched the cars over to electric (which Hong Kong's Autopia was before it closed). In any case, the gas-guzzling cars bellow the smell of spilled gasoline and exhaust throughout their courses, even earning Cast Members stationed there hazard pay for the exposure. 

9. Being BURPED ON

Image: Disney

Attraction: Stitch's Great Escape
Smell: Chili dog

Back in the 1990s, Disney Imagineers were tasked with bringing Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland out of the '70s and into the present. Their solution was to transform the retro-sleek land into an industrial, silver "city" of comic book colors and characters, inspired by 1930s pulp sci-fi comics. The lands inhabitants were all original stories, and all interconnected by the frame story of the "real" city. One of its most infamous occupants was the Lost Legend: Alien Encounter, a horrifying interstellar tech display gone terribly wrong. Re-using the "theater in the round" seating of a former show (and equipping each seat with special-effects-filled shoulder restraints), Alien Encounter set a massive insectoid alien loose in the crowd in Magic Kingdom's only PG-13 experience.

The results deeply offended parents whose little ones were traumatized, leading Disney to pull the plug and insert a flavor-of-the-week character who'd just hit his apex: Stitch. Aboard Stich's Great Escape, guests were still horrified... just in a different way. The slimy sci-fi attack became a gross-out slapstick cartoon attraction that was too dumb for anyone over 10, and too scary for anyone younger. Perhaps the ride's lowest point is when Stitch "burped," filling the theater with the scent of chili dogs... which regrettably soaked through the ceiling and into the model of EPCOT visible from the Peoplemover. The sickening smell was just one of the awful elements of the Declassified Disaster: Stitch's Great Escape, which has been closed for a year now... but whose final closure Disney has never announced or made official.

10. POPCORN

Image: Disney

Who doesn't love warm, buttery, freshly-popped popcorn? And just ask anyone who's stepped a little too close to the concession stand in a movie theater lobby – there's nothing that makes you want popcorn more than smelling popcorn. Disney's onto it, too. Though it's one of the worst kept secrets in Disney Parks, we'd be remiss if we didn't note that Disney famously has artificial popcorn smell emit from its Main Street popcorn stands (and beyond) – a siren song for tired travelers to grab a bucket.

And popcorn isn't all... Vanilla and peppermint are also known to be used in key places and times in the parks... Keep your nose open and you may smell them.

11. One-of-a-kind SKREWT SCENTS

Image: Universal

Attraction: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Smell: Rotting fish? Flaming marshmallows?

Guests lucky enough to have tackled Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure rave about the roller coaster, which races along the edge of the Forbidden Forest just beyond Hogwarts. The ride's story has guests attending a Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid where an unexpected field trip arises: to find the missing Blast-Ended Skrewts (creatures mentioned, but never seen, in the books and films) that have escaped his stables and could potentially wreak havoc.

In fact, after racing out of the ancient abbey ruins that serve as the ride's queue, the first show scene is in that stable – exploded outward from the Blast-Ended Skrewts – where a single Skrewt remains. With Hagrid nearby, guests come face-to-... well... blast end with the creature, which sprays mist and a rather unusual scent. While Universal suggested these creatures smell like "rotten fish," guests have found the Skrewts' smell to be... unusually alluring... sweet, but off-putting (not so different from the way folks are describing Blue Milk at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge)! So while it may be hard to describe, guests who've smelled it can't seem to forget it.

12. The smells of MO'ARA

Image: Disney / Fox

Attraction: AVATAR Flight of Passage
Smell: Distant oceans and moons

Here at Theme Park Tourist, we dove into the history of theme park simulators in a must-read feature –Artificial Worlds: The Rise of Screens at Theme Parks – but by most any measure, Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom's Pandora – The World of AVATAR must rank among the best on Earth. Capturing the thrill of free-flight on the bank of a Pandoran Banshee, the trip is sensational, electrifying, and even spiritual. In that way, it's easy to see that Flight of Passage combines all that Disney's learned from its simulator predecessors, including the use of smell.

On the journey, you'll be overcome by the mists of Pandora's oceans – a supernatural sort of salty and minty smell – and otherworldly scents of Pandora's bioluminscent plant life and rich soil. As in Soarin', the smells are subtle enough to simply feel like an obvious element of the experience you're in the midst of; it's part of what gives this simulator something visceral, multi-sensory, and real to ground the experience.