4. Haunted Mansion

LOCATION: Disneyland
CONSTRUCTION: 7 years

Given that the Haunted Mansion feels like it's been a part of Disney Parks since opening day, it's easy to forget that at one time, it was a ridiculously-delayed project that ultimately took seven years to finish. Of course, at least in the Haunted Mansion's case, designers had an excuse.

Walt and his team of Imagineers had settled on the idea of a New Orleans-themed expansion to Disneyland's Frontierland way back in the early '60s. In fact, the Haunted Mansion itself was one of the very first hints of what was to come, and construction began in 1962. The stately white plantation house complete with wrought iron gate, lawn, and gardens actually appeared at the end of a proto-New-Orleans Street back in 1963. Of course, the house itself was empty, and the hidden showbuilding that would eventually hold the ride was not yet built. The Haunted Mansion was, in many ways, a very expensive, very empty set piece.

And before Walt and company could dig too deep into the Haunted Mansion, they were called away by big-pocketed sponsors of the 1964 - 65 New York World's Fair, who hired Disney to design attractions for their pavilions in Queens. The mad dash at Imagineering saw "it's a small world," the Carousel of Progress, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the technology that powered the PeopleMover all conceived, designed, developed, and fabricated in a jaw-droppingly short time span.

Armed with the technologies they'd practiced at the fair, Walt returned to Disneyland with big plans for a 1967 New Tomorrowland and for New Orleans Square, where his pet project – Pirates of the Caribbean – was the focus. Unfortunately, Walt passed away unexpected in December 1966, with Pirates as the last attraction whose development he oversaw. As for that old white plantation house in New Orleans Square? Well... It was still empty. And worse, no one knew quite what Walt would've wanted to do with it.

You have to imagine that the Haunted Mansion was really the first attraction whose development was done largely without Walt's input, instead tasking Imagineers with working backwards to imagine what the ride should contain. The result is that the house built and completed in 1963 didn't open its wrought iron gates until August 1969. 

5. Flying Turns

LOCATION: Knoebels
CONSTRUCTION: 7 years

Located in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, Knoebels (with a hard "k") is one of those delightful, classic, old time amusement parks dating back to 1926. It's also the largest free admission park in the country, requiring per-ride coupons or wristbands to experience the attractions. Its historic Haunted Mansion (not to be confused with Disney's) is often ranked as one of the best classic dark rides on Earth. But Knoebels' commitment to history and preservation is made most clear by one of its engineering marvels... 

In the '20s and '30s (during the first Golden Age of the Roller Coaster), coaster designer John Miller and aviator John Norman Bartlett popularized a spectacular roller coaster model they called the Flying Turns. A bobsled coaster, all eight eventual installations of the Flying Turns placed guests in trains that were released into wooden troughs, bobbing and weaving, slaloming through banks and snaking along a winding, half-tube course. (The best documented was the version at Cleveland's Euclid Beach, above.)

Interest in roller coasters bottomed out during World War II, and across the country, little boardwalks, picnic parks, and trolley parks flickered out of existence, with their wooden bobsleds closing with them. The last (at New York's Coney Island) was demolished in 1974.

It really wasn't until the '70s that coasters came back into style, and by the 1980s and '90s, a dozen steel bobsleds had been opened across the world. But in late 2005, Knoebels announced that they intended to open their own Flying Turns – the first in four decades. Using only archival photos of long-lost rides, the in-house team worked to backwards engineer a wooden bobsled ride to modern safety specifications.

Despite Knoebels best efforts, the ride wasn't quite ready for its anticipated opening in fall 2007. First the trains needed new wheels. But the new wheels altered the ride's planned speed. So it didn't open in 2008. Then, further adjustments to the trains meant that it didn't open in 2009. Or 2010. A brand new set of trains left the park "very encouraged" in 2011, but the ride didn't open that year. Or 2012, when a section of track had to be removed and rebuilt to accommodate yet another new train design.

It took seven years of testing and adjusting, new wheels, new trains, and reprofiling, but on October 5, 2013, Flying Turns finally opened to the public. Knoebels classic coaster was a testament to the power of perseverance for both the park and the fans who waited all along.

6. TRON Lightcycle Run

LOCATION: Magic Kingdom
CONSTRUCTION: 5 years

Which brings us to TRON Lightcycle Run. Allegedly intended to be the centerpiece of Walt Disney World's 50th Anniversary Celebration (perhaps even launching October 1, 2021), TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom will open April 4, 2023 after breaking ground on February 14, 2018 – 1,875 days, or just over 5 years. 

For sure, there are a few reasons we should give Disney a break here, not the least of which being that between 2018 and 2023, a global pandemic decimated the tourism industry, brought construction projects around the globe to a halt, and created supply shortages so vast and unthinkable, we're still mired in them three years later. It's totally fair to give Disney credit for that, and to acknowledge that slowing down or even fully stopping construction might've been a fair financial call at the time. It's also good to remember that at some point, Disney likely chose to prioritize Guardians of the Galaxy – Cosmic Rewind, at which point there was no rush to complete TRON lest its pull be wasted with Guardians already drawing crowds.

Of course, in the same breath, we'd have to concede that Universal Orlando underwent the same pandemic, yet saw its VelociCoaster go from construction was to opening in 877 days – about half the time. Likewise, we can't discount that Magic Kingdom's Lightcycle ride is quite literally an identical copy of the Modern Marvel: TRON Lightcycle Power Run that already exists in Shanghai Disneyland, making a five year construction timeline somewhat embarrassing.

In any case, the opening of TRON Lightcycle Run in Florida will in many ways earn a collective exhale from Disney Parks fans who've been waiting for this E-Ticket coaster to finally open. Not only will it be nice to have a new ride to celebrate the Disney100 campaign... but frankly, it'll end the five years of pulling this Band-Aid off one hair a time.