4. Stitch's Great Escape

The same era that saw Zazu and Iago join the Enchanted Tiki Room also coincided with another major problem for Disney Parks – the Lost Legend: Alien Encounter. Though now remembered as a cult classic, the multi-sensory, 1995 horror / special effects attraction had a major issue: it left families infuriated. Alien Encounter was a persistent problem whose tone was way out of scale with Magic Kingdom's fairytale norms, and the edgy, "Ride the Movies" experiment left the park's elementary audience quaking.

Luckily, 2002's Lilo & Stitch offered just the solution. The film was a rare hit in the dry spell of Disney's early-2000s animation slump, and Stitch himself became a breakout star for the company. (For most of the early 2000s, he joined the "Fab Five" alongside Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto on Disney merch!) It seemed like a match made in heaven. The hideous, carnivorous creature from Alien Encounter could swapped for Stitch, and with it, screams could become laughs, blood splatters could become Stitch spit, and alien breath could become chili dog burps.

The Declassified Disaster: Stitch's Great Escape opened in November 2004... arguably, just as Stitch over-saturation left audiences tired of the mischievous alien. And though on paper it might've seemed like swapping one alien for another would be an even swap, Stitch's Great Escape failed to find an audience. It was far too juvenile for teens and above, but still far too dark, claustrophobic, and frightening for anyone younger. 

Reportedly, Disney's internal evaluation suggested that guest satisfaction scores for the entire Magic Kingdom park were measurably higher on days when Stitch's Great Escape was closed. Yet somehow, the attraction survived for over 13 years – far longer than the original Alien Encounter had existed to begin with. A running joke, the attraction wasn't even "so bad it's good." It was just bad. 

Stitch's Great Escape switched to seasonal operation in 2016 – usually, a sign that a ride's life is short. That seasonal status continued, with the ride operating on-and-off in busy periods. When crowds left after the New Year holidays in 2018, Stitch's Great Escape shut down, too. But it didn't re-open. Rumors ran rampant – especially when backstage photos seemed to capture the Stitch animatronic stripped for parts. It wasn't until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that Disney finally fessed up that Stitch's Great Escape would never re-open. Though rumors for what's to become of the space have persisted, this is one fans were glad to see shuttered... and maybe, one that actually is better off as unused space than as Stitch's Great Escape.

5. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

Disney has never tried anything quite like the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser... and for better or worse, they might never try anything quite like it again. 

Plans for what would become the Galactic Starcruiser were initially announced at the D23 Expo in 2017. Allegedly the pet project of then-Chairman of Parks, Experiences, and Products, Bob Chapek, the Starcruiser sort of served as a climax of the "Living Lands" era started by the announcement of Universal's Wizarding World a decade earlier. Like those fully immersive lands with their "in-universe" food, drink, and souvenirs, Galactic Starcruiser would invite guests to board the Halcyon, a luxury space-liner in the "Chandrila Lines" collection. 

Something of a mix between an escape room, a cruise, and a theme park, the ultra-immersive experience became incarnate as a two-night, all-inclusive, totally-immersive "voyage" filled with entertainment, food, and experiences drawn from the Star Wars universe. That includes upscale alien meals accompanied by interstellar lounge singers, a full service bar (with unlimited Blue Milk on tap), training experiences on the starship's bridge, live character interactions, app-based "missions," interactive trainings on the ship's bridge, Lightsaber training,, impromptu stunt shows, and an included visit to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Hollywood Studios, all wrapped in a two-day long, all-encompassing story.

Frankly, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser seemed to offer everything that had been promised for – but cut from – the Star Wars land back at Disney's Hollywood Studios! So you'd think that fans would've been on its side... But then came the pricing.

Certainly given its all-inclusive nature, the "cruise-like" multi-day model, two nights of lodging, and one day's admission to Hollywood Studios (with meals included), fans expected a voyage of the Starcruiser to be pricey... But few expected a two-night voyage to start at nearly $6,000. With incredibly limited capacity (only 100 cabins), the experience was highly personalized, but highly inaccessible. So much so that fans quickly turned on the concept, which reeked of Chapek's love of ultra-premium upcharge experiences catered to one-percenters.

Now scrutinized as never before, every image and promotion from the Starcruiser was torn apart by fans online in the lead up to its opening. In fact, in the weeks before it made its debut, we asked our readers to lock in their answers as to whether Galactic Starcruiser would be a blockbuster or a bust, and overwhelmingly, fans hoped the experience would crash and burn. In some ways, that's a shame... because those who did experience the Starcruiser called it a life-changing, industry-changing experience (even if they, too, said the price was simply too high to be sustained).

Unfair as it may be to the brilliant creatives, actors, and Cast Members who brought it to life, fans felt a little schadenfreude when, in June 2023, Disney made the shocking announcement that 18 months after its launch, the Starcruiser would be grounded. With the last voyages scheduled for September 2023, Chapek's ultra-premium land-locked cruise was officially a bust – allegedly, a $300 million write-off for the company. We can hope that the best parts of the Galactic Starcruiser live on and that this doesn't cool Disney's interest in trying experimental new things... but we should also hope that they've learned the right lesson in what went wrong with the Starcruiser, because we hope fans never root for anything to fail quite like they did for this one...