Twenty years ago today, Epcot's Test Track had its grand opening with the typical Disney fanfare, replacing the original "World of Motion" ride. It took two and a half years to get the ride up and running, but it harkens back to a few similar blunders in Disney theme park history.
However, I should first lay out all the dates for reference. World of Motion opened to the public on 1 October 1982 along with the rest of Epcot Center (except that Horizons ride next door). 5 October 1982 was a special press opening and the ride was beloved by guests for a number of years. Eventually, the pavilion sponsor General Motors was intrigued by the suggestion that the ride would be replaced with a test track, similar to the one GM showed Disney in the 1970's. That was the early 1990's and when it was decided to go forward with the Test Track idea, World of Motion was closed in January 1996 with a preview center opening up the following month. Meanwhile, the interior was gutted and the exterior track was assembled in March 1996. The interior and exterior tracks were completed in late-October 1996. Ride testing began three days later and on Valentine's Day 1997, show installation was completed. It looked like the new attraction was going to honor its announced Spring 1997 opening.
However, issues with the ride system were apparent with the tires on the ride vehicles failing to perform to the standards needed for operation. This meant that the May 1997 opening had to be delayed and delayed it was. Luckily, after testing turned into executive cast openings on 11 December 1998 and cast previews (12 Dec.-16 Dec. 1998). The public soft opening was 19 December 1998 with limited hours of operation to the public before the Grand Opening on St. Patrick's Day 1999.
The Grand Opening included supermodel Christine Brinkley (I wonder if she tested out a red convertible) as well as NASCAR driver Richard Petty. That was apparently what happened twenty years ago.
So the blunders I can think of aren't mere omissions of attractions (e.g. the Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World), but delays in the ride systems and technology and other factors when it came to opening properly on-time. There are too many cases where this happens, so I will focus on six major ones.
Dumbo the Flying Elephants (1955, Disneyland) - Ironically one of the first rides conceived for Disneyland was not operating on Opening Day. In fact, the technical delays with the fiberglass elephants and the hydraulic lifts had rendered the ride inoperable until August 1955, one month after opening.
Pirates of the Caribbean (1967, Disneyland) - The Pirates at Disneyland publicly opened in March 1967, but imagine for a second if the popular ride opened nine months prior along with New Orleans Square. Well, it could've happened and here's how. So according to Charles Ridgeway, who served as a Disney publicist for a great number of years, Walt tested out the ride in July 1966 and it took six months to work out the issues with the splash at the bottom of the first slide. However, Disney promised the arrival of the Pirates along with the new land as early as 1964 and even the magazines were promising Pirates of the Caribbean during the Summer of 1966. So what happened? Well, the Animatronic production helped delay the opening. Understand that we are talking about human-sized figures...actually sixty-four or so...and we expect them to sing, talk, and move like real people. Oh, and it all has to be done as soon as possible. So work resumed and it resumed and it resumed and hey, the ride was workable by Halloween 1966 and the sets were mostly finished. November had all 119 figures completed and shipped down to Anaheim where they were slowly installed. Walt passed away the following month, but a D23 video taken in early-December 1966 shows the near-completion of the ride. Valentine's Day 1967 saw the first non-engineers (or "human sandbags") to enjoy the ride before it was publicly opened the next month.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1971, Walt Disney World) - While it was set to open along with the rest of Walt Disney World on 1 October 1971, the Subs were delayed until the 14th due to issues with the subs and footage from the first week of the Magic Kingdom which shows the Submarine Lagoon with no subs floating around.
Pirates of the Caribbean (1973, Walt Disney World) - Walt Disney World's Pirates of the Caribbean had a relatively short approved-completion period of roughly 24 months and the construction itself lasted 15 months. With a ride like Pirates, even in abbreviated form, the ride system proved to have issues similar to its sister in California. The major issue with the ride system was mostly caused by the awkward flume layout. The up-ramp in the ride is directly after the unloading area. This backs up the boats in the Treasury/Jack Sparrow scene and this is a source of delays. However, the original dual loading area had to be altered in 1991 because it became such an inconvenience. I've had the pleasure to talk with some of the Opening Day operating crew and they confirmed that there were delays lasting from October 1973 through December 1973 and even in the months following. These delays didn't keep the ride from opening, but cast members had to manually operate the loading and unloading system. By May 1974, these delays and bugs were fixed for the most part because there are still issues with the ride system due to its awkward, problematic layout that have affected the attraction for 45 years.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (1979, Disneyland) - Big Thunder Mountain was meant to open by the end of 1978. After all, construction began in 1977 after the closure of the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. Big Thunder had delays with its ride system similar to the early technical difficulties experienced when designing Walt Disney World's Space Mountain in the 1970's.
Splash Mountain (1989, Disneyland) - Disneyland's Splash Mountain took a long, long time opening to the public. While it eventually did on 17 July 1989, it took months and months of delays because like the Pirates, the splash would drench the testers. Basically, they had to rework the final drop to reduce the "splash", but then again if it's Splash Mountain, then it needs that splash.
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