‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ Became a Real Life Submarine Voyage at Disney, But What Happened to It?
A few years after opening to great fanfare, Disneyland in Anaheim, California, was buzzing with inventive concepts for new attractions in an effort to continue their amusement park revolution. Walt Disney’s team of creatives dreamt up the Submarine Voyage, an immersive 1,365-foot-long lagoon journey inside a partially submerged rail-guided submarine where riders would move through a ship graveyard, skirt the North Pole, head to the bottom of the sea, coast through Atlantis and encounter a sea serpent before “surfacing.” It was a hit, and when plans began for Disney’s expansion into a sister park in Florida, the team set their sights on an expanded submarine experience and found inspiration in one of the studio’s most popular films, 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Everett Collection
Based on the novel by Jules Verne, the film follows Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, a sailor on a ship that falls prey to a rumored sea monster, only to end up inside the beast, which turns out to be an elaborate submarine piloted by a madman named Captain Nemo (James Mason). The film may have been anchored by two of the era’s biggest actors, but the real star was the Nautilus, Nemo’s endlessly ornate, technologically advanced sub that captured the imaginations of viewers young and old. Disney wanted his new ride, set to premiere on opening day of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Bay Lake, Florida, in 1971, to closely replicate what the world saw on film.
The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage featured 12 subs that each held 38 passengers, guided on a track through 9 million gallons of water in a lagoon through familiar scenes from the movie. The film’s Nautilus design was tackled by Morgan Yachts in Clearwater, Florida, for the initial construction, which was finished by Tampa Ship, who delivered the boats to Magic Kingdom in August 1971. The project ran over budget, but the results were worth the extra expense, as evinced by long lines from the start.
Riders boarded and sat down to peer out individual portholes under the surface of the water. Once the boat left the dock, bubbles obscured the view, suggesting descent. With Nemo’s organ music providing an underscore, patrons were then greeted by beautiful scenery, including lobsters, turtles, fish and eels, as the captain’s voice guided them along. They then encountered a storm before moving through a ship graveyard, the North Pole and Atlantis, same as on the ride’s California counterpart. The main event came in the form of a giant squid “attacking” the subs, replicating the film’s centerpiece encounter.
The ride was the park’s most expensive to operate, necessitating 20 employees and constant maintenance battling the water and elements. Despite enduring patron interest, it was announced in 1994 that 20,000 Leagues would be temporarily closed for maintenance, but the attraction never re-opened. It was eventually razed, its four acres were replaced with new construction three times since. All but two of the famous Nautilus submarines were buried in a plot of land on the park’s outskirts, the survivors moved to Disney’s private island Castaway Cay in 2000, where they remind divers of one of the amusement industry’s most memorable experiences.
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August 2021
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