April 28 - Rocket Rods

Image courtesy laughingplace.com

On this day, in 2001, it was officially announced that Rocket Rods, a high speed thrill ride in Disneyland, would never be reopening.  When Disneyland’s Peoplemover attraction closed in August 1995, the transportation system of tomorrow might have been gone but the infrastructure remained. It kind of had to since it was built on, around and through so many of the other buildings in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. As Tomorrowland began getting a major face lift over the next few years, it was decided that the old Peoplemover real estate could be turned into a thrill ride showcasing another new form of transportation (albeit not one that would ever actually be considered as such in the real world as its predecessor was). So Disney began shopping around for a corporate sponsor to help fund the new attraction in exchange for slapping a few logos on ride vehicles. They couldn’t find anyone willing to bite, but started building the ride anyways, hoping that someone, anyone, would eventually pony up. Spoiler alert: no one did and that was not a good thing.

Image courtesy disneylandcompendium.blogspot.com

Rocket Rods opened for business on May 22, 1998 as the showpiece of new Tomorrowland. The queue area took over the old Circlevision 360 building and presented itself as a depository for old Disneyland blueprints. Vehicles from defunct attractions, including Peoplemover cars and an part of an old monorail, plans of different park buildings and concept drawings littered the line with the focal point being the thrilling new mode of transportation guests were about to experience for themselves. Disney had even placed mock plans throughout the attraction showing where the Rocket Rod system would expand to in the future. The queue area was fine. It wasn’t until guests actually got on the ride that the problems began.

Image courtesy allears.net

Without the usual millions that a corporate sponsor brings to the mix to develop an attraction, Disney was unwilling to make up the shortfall itself and had to cut major corners to create the ride. Instead of redoing the Peoplemover track, straightening out some parts and putting banked turns on others, they basically kept the track the same. This meant that while the Rods could quickly accelerate on straightaways, they had to quickly decelerate for just about every twist and turn instead of maintaining some semblance of speed. As anyone who’s ever had to slam on their brakes on the highway knows, all that constant stopping and starting is terrible for your car. Turns out it’s terrible for elevated infrastructure, too. The toll that not having banked corners took on the ride vehicles and the track itself caused Rocket Rods to close for refurbishment a scant month after opening. Things did not get better.

Image courtesy disneythisweek.com

The estimated five weeks needed to get things going again turned into three months. Finally reopening in October 1998, Rocket Rods was plagued with problems for the next two years. Capacity on the attraction was so low (each car only held five guests, what did they expect?) that for the first time in Disneyland history, a single rider line was used to try to shorten wait times. Unfortunately, the ride broke down so often, that it really didn’t help. Guests were less than thrilled with the experience overall. Rocket Rods kind of felt like a thrill ride but all the decelerating made it seem not like a thrill ride. True, it only took three minutes to zip around a track that the old Peoplemover did in 16 minutes, but the Rods were too fast to sight see and not fast enough to truly be thrilling. And who wants to wait two hours for a three minute ride (yeah, I’m giving you the side-eye, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train)?

Image courtesy touringplans.com

In September 2000, Rocket Rods again went down for refurbishment with a cute little sign at the entrance announcing a Spring 2001 reopening. But as the days and weeks went by, there was no sign of any work being done, probably because there really wasn’t any. Instead of pouring more money into the disastrous venture, Disney ultimately decided to cut their losses. Especially since getting a sponsor to bankroll a ride that’s already failed isn’t something worth even trying. So, instead of reopening in the spring, they announced that it wasn’t going to. At least they were honest about it, citing the fact that without banked curves the ride would never be up to snuff. So once again, the Peoplemover track is empty but still standing (although at this point it probably isn’t structurally sound anymore, so don’t hold your breath that something new is ever going up there). Rocket Rods queue area however is prime real estate and now houses the Buzz Lightyear ride. Maybe not as thrilling as futuristic transportation, but a whole lot more reliable.