10 Classic Disney Rides That Look Totally Different Today

Many Disney rides have gotten makeovers to keep up with modern audiences

NEED TO KNOW

• Disney parks have revamped classic rides like Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror with modern themes
• Attractions like The Great Movie Ride and Maelstrom were replaced with newer experiences featuring Mickey Mouse and Frozen characters
• Iconic rides like Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Submarine Voyage were reimagined with themes from The Muppets and Finding Nemo

As the Disney parks evolve over time, many attractions have been given makeovers to appeal to modern audiences, transforming them to look totally different today than when they first opened.

Take DinoLand U.S.A., for instance. That opening-day land in Disney’s Animal Kingdom delighted families for 28 years, but officially closed in February 2026 to make way for an entirely new Tropical Americas land.  The new theme for that land will include an all-new Encanto attraction, and will see a new Indiana Jones attraction.

But still, when beloved attractions starring The Muppets, vikings or an 80-foot sea monster leave the parks to make way for contemporary makeovers, people have feelings about it. Before The Muppets moved to their new home inside the Rock n’ Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios, fans gathered to have a “Muppet prom” at their old home in Muppets Courtyard.

Here’s everything to know about 10 Disney rides that look very different today.

01 of 10

Rock n’ Roller Coaster starring The Muppets (formerly starring Aerosmith) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

It was the loudest, most rock ‘n’ roll ride in all of Walt Disney World when the Rock n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith opened in 1999. The indoor coaster brought riders through a queue that took you into the studio with Aerosmith, then into limousines that zoomed up to 57 mph on an intense track with three inversions, while you would see neon signs flashing, and a hear a soundtrack of Aerosmith’s greatest hits on your way to the gig.

When the Muppets were facing eviction from Muppets Courtyard to make way for the new Monsters Inc.-themed Monstropolis land, currently under construction at Hollywood Studios, they needed a new home.

In May 2026, The Muppets moved into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Roller Coaster. Now, the featured band is Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, but there are still nods to the original version of the ride and to Muppet*Vision 3-D, the attraction that closed to make room for Monstropolis.

02 of 10

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (formerly Universe of Energy) at EPCOT

Today, the biggest and most thrilling ride at EPCOT is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, an indoor roller coaster that takes riders through the cosmos — and through time — to a soundtrack of 1970s and ‘80s hits.

But in that same area, there once existed a totally different experience, one that involved a 45-minute ride with a much different theme. That corner of the park was once home to Universe of Energy, a ride/show hybrid about the evolution of how we create and harness energy technology. It was sponsored by oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil for most of its run.

On it, people sat down in 96-person ride cars that looked like small sections of theater seating, and would remain seated while traveling through many different show rooms. The ride started in the prehistoric era, and showcased animatronic dinosaurs, then went through various scenes of how humans have used energy throughout history.

The ride originally opened in 1982; in 1996, Disney added some star power to modernize the experience, “plussing” (Disney’s term for enhancement) the ride into Ellen’s Energy Adventure starring Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Nye the Science Guy and Alex Trebek, among others. That version ran until 2017, when the ride shut down to make way for Guardians.

03 of 10

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (formerly The Great Movie Ride) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Originally opened as Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in 1989, the first iteration of the Walt Disney World park was a true homage to moviemaking. It included a tour like the ones tourists can take at real Hollywood studios, with recreated filming locations like the house from The Golden Girls.

Another of the homages to classic cinema was The Great Movie Ride, housed in the park’s centerpiece, a replica of the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The original, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, was the site of countless old Hollywood movie premieres, including Mary Poppins in 1964.

Inside The Great Movie Ride, scenes from The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain and Casablanca came to life. Live actors would appear throughout, sometimes as gangsters in a noir crime movie, and sometimes as Wild West cowboys. The ride did include some then-contemporary movies like Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but as time passed, it began to feel increasingly outdated. In 2017, Disney closed the ride for good.

In its place, Walt Disney Imagineering built Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, the first ride-thru attraction in any Disney park to star Mickey and Minnie as the main characters. While the queue looks very similar today, themed to an old Hollywood movie theater lobby, the rest of the ride is totally different.

Now, riders go into a cartoon with Mickey and Minnie, following them through the Wild West, cityscapes and tropical scenes, even underwater. A similar version opened at Disneyland in 2023, which has the same storyline but a totally different ride queue full of Disney Easter eggs, even one pointing to the former Rock n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith.

04 of 10

Frozen Ever After (formerly Maelstrom) at EPCOT

Half of EPCOT is Future World, but the other half is the World Showcase, with pavilions showcasing different countries around the world. Many of them have rides, like the Mexico pavilion’s The Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros, which is inside a replica of that country’s iconic Chichen Itza Mayan ruins.

The Norway Pavilion once included a ride called Maelstrom, which took riders through the Norwegian fjords with Vikings and mythic trolls.

“You are not the first to pass this way, nor shall you be the last,” a voice boomed over the boats. “Those who seek the spirit of Norway face peril and adventure — but more often find beauty and charm.” After the high seas adventure, riders would disembark and then enter a theater to watch a short film called The Spirit of Norway.

Maelstrom ran from 1988 to 2014, and was replaced by Frozen Ever After. What was once an indoor loading area that looked like a Norwegian fishing village is now Arendelle on the day of the Winter in Summer Celebration.

05 of 10

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (formerly Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland) at Disneyland

Walt Disney loved trains so much that he built a rideable miniature train in his L.A. backyard — and he insisted that the Disneyland Railroad be one of the park’s opening-day attractions in 1955. His love of trains and his love of the Wild West inspired him to champion the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland, which opened in 1960.

The Frontierland ride, which had evolved from the 1956 Rainbow Caverns Mine Ride, loaded guests onto train cars in the miniature Old West town of Rainbow Ridge. From there, people took a slow train ride through areas like Bear Country, the Living Desert and Rainbow Caverns. There were over 200 animatronic animals dotting the route.

“If yuh’ve never gone beneath a waterfall before, then get set, cause we’re comin’ up on Big Thunder, the biggest falls in all these here parts,” the conductor narrated on the ride. “Yuh don’t hafta worry though … unless the wind changes.”

The “Big Thunder” waterfall became the inspiration for the “wildest ride in the wilderness” that came after.

The ride was mostly torn down in 1977. Two years later, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened on the same spot, but there are still bits and pieces of the Mine Train in Frontierland.

A ride tunnel with original track is still visible over the Beaver Valley Pond, but is inaccessible to guests now, and some of the “sun bleached bones of ancient animals” the conductor hinted about are on display as the Big Thunder ride cars make their last high-speed turn. And Rainbow Ridge still sits above the ride area — although now it’s the final stop as the Big Thunder ride cars slowly roll back into the station.

06 of 10

Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! (formerly Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) at Disney California Adventure

The ride’s story goes like this: on Halloween night in 1939, lightning struck the Hollywood Tower Hotel. In the aftermath, an elevator plummeted down to the basement, killing all five passengers inside. 

Decades later, The Twilight Zone host Rod Serling visited the hotel to uncover the unexplained supernatural happenings inside, bringing riders with him.

The building, which looked like a very tall, very haunted old Hollywood hotel, housed elevator-shaped ride cars that would bring guests very high into the air, stopping at various floors to see ghosts of the hotel’s guests and staff in its heyday. Finally, the doors would open at the very top, giving people a grand view of Disney California Adventure, before plummeting down in the same way that ill-fated elevator did in 1939, but, of course, sparing its riders the same fate.

The ride is still beloved at Disney parks around the world, sometimes using the Twilight Zone theme and sometimes not. The Disneyland version of Tower of Terror closed in 2017.

It later reopened as Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout!, the precursor to the Avengers Campus land. Instead of an old abandoned hotel, the building is now a space fortress, where the Guardians have been trapped by the Collector, and only Rocket can help them escape.

07 of 10

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (formerly Splash Mountain) at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom

Today, people join Princess Tiana on a “joyful celebration” as they take a boat ride into the bayou, meeting beloved characters from The Princess and the Frog before plummeting down a 50-foot waterfall drop. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debuted in 2024 — but the mountain that contains the log flume thrill ride has been around for decades longer.

Splash Mountain, the original version of the ride, opened at Disneyland in 1989 and Walt Disney World in 1992. The flume ride would take riders through watery pathways inside and up the mountain, making several smaller drops before the big finale and the joyous party inside Brer Rabbit’s “Laughing Place.”

It was based off the animated critters and the music from the controversial 1946 movie Song of the South, which has drawn criticism for its portrayal of life for formerly enslaved people in the post-Civil War south. The movie is not available to watch online and does not stream on Disney+.

Amid increasing fan calls for any traces of Song of the South to be removed from the experience, Disney announced in 2020 the company was re-theming the ride to The Princess and the Frog, though the ride still operated for three more years. Splash Mountain closed at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in 2023.

08 of 10

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (formerly Submarine Voyage) at Disneyland

In 1959, Disneyland debuted an attraction that was, at the time, a technical and fantastical marvel. Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland loaded passengers onto 37-person vessels in the Submarine Lagoon, and then took them on a “voyage through liquid space,” as the captain announced on the ride.

The experience showed riders the wonders of the sea, like eels and giant clams, before venturing through more dangerous environments: under the polar ice cap, the graveyard of lost ships and the lost continent of Atlantis, where they’d see mermaids before reaching the grand finale, an 80-foot sea monster.

The effects were thrilling in the ride’s early days, but in 1998 then-Disneyland president Paul Pressler described it as, “[not] as relevant as it was.” It closed that year and remained unused until 2007.

The revamped ride opened as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, with the underwater lands replaced by scenes from the Pixar film.

09 of 10

Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (formerly Golden Dreams Theater) at Disney California Adventure

When Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, the park was a celebration of life in the state.

One of the original California-themed attractions was Golden Dreams, a film narrated by Whoopi Goldberg telling the story of California’s founding, including the Gold Rush and Hollywood’s early days. The film showed in the Golden Dreams Theater, in the San Francisco-themed area of the park, in a building that looked like that city’s Palace of Fine Arts.

The show ran until 2008, and the building was mostly torn down in 2009. Imagineers saved the stately rotunda, and incorporated it into the design of the building that replaced Golden Dreams Theater, which became The Little Mermaid-themed Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

10 of 10

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (formerly Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride) at Magic Kingdom

When Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, it included a version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, an opening-day attraction at Disneyland. The Florida version was essentially the same ride, but had two different ride tracks instead of one.

It was a Fantasyland favorite, but closed in 1998 to make room for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which opened the following year. The original ride building is still in place, but today the interior is totally different, a trip through A.A. Milne’s classic children’s tale.

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