Extinct attractions at Disneyland Paris: what the park has lost

By extinct attractions at Disneyland Paris, I mean the ones that have closed for good: demolished, replaced by another attraction or shows that will never come back. That is different from an attraction closed for a few months for refurbishment, which eventually reopens, and different again from a simple name change (Space Mountain, which became Hyperspace Mountain, is still the same ride).

Since the park opened in 1992, several attractions have left Disneyland Paris for good. Some were there from day one. I go through them below, grouped by area, with what each one was, the year it closed and what took its place.

Le Visionarium was a 360-degree Circle-Vision theatre, there from the park’s opening on 12 April 1992. The audience stood surrounded by screens covering a full 360 degrees and followed a journey through time with two robots, Timekeeper (the master of time) and his flying camera 9-Eye, alongside Jules Verne.

It was an attraction designed especially for the park, and for many visitors it was their very first Disney attraction.

It closed in 2004. The theatre building was converted to house Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, which opened in 2006 and is still there today. Le Visionarium remains one of the park’s most missed extinct attractions.

Also in Discoveryland, a theatre then called CinéMagique showed a 17-minute stereoscopic film from the opening in 1992: Captain EO, a musical short starring Michael Jackson, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Be careful not to confuse this theatre with the CinéMagique show at Walt Disney Studios, which has nothing to do with it: it’s simply the same name for two different things.

This first run of Captain EO ended in 1998, replaced in the same theatre by the 4D show Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

After Captain EO left, the same Discoveryland theatre hosted Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, a stereoscopic show based on the film.

It opened on 28 March 1999, and the audience shrank alongside Professor Szalinski: giant mice, a snake that lunges out and a sneeze you really felt, all boosted by in-theatre effects (moving seats, jets of air and water, puffs under your feet).

It closed on 3 May 2010, making way for the return of Captain EO in the same theatre. It’s one of the lost attractions regulars mention most often.

Captain EO came back to the same theatre in 2010, in a reworked 4D version, as a tribute to Michael Jackson, who had died the year before. This re-release took its final bow in 2015. The theatre, the Discoveryland Theatre, is now home to Mickey’s PhilharMagic, a musical 3D show. Michael Jackson’s film therefore had two lives in Discoveryland, and disappeared twice.

The second park, opened in 2002 and now in the middle of a major transformation, has lost many of its original attractions. Several were demolished or repurposed as part of the park’s big expansion plan, in particular to make room for Avengers Campus. It is the area with the most permanent closures in recent years.

The Studio Tram Tour was a guided tram tour behind the scenes of film-making, there from the park’s opening in 2002. Its big moment: Catastrophe Canyon, a special effects sequence with an explosion and a flood set off all around the visitors.

The last tour ran in early 2020. The area was redeveloped for Cars Road Trip, which opened in 2021. Good news for the nostalgic: the Catastrophe Canyon sequence was kept and built into the new attraction. The Tram Tour itself, however, is well and truly gone.

Based on the film Armageddon, this opening-day attraction (2002) put visitors in a special effects room to experience a meteor shower, with heat, shaking and explosions. It was one of the park’s few indoor special effects attractions.

It closed in 2019 and the building was demolished to make way for Avengers Campus. It disappeared completely, with none of the sets reused.

CinéMagique was a much-loved indoor show, there from 2002: a film mixing clips from great film classics with a live actor who stepped into the screen. It’s one of the park’s most missed shows.

It closed in 2017 (with a brief, limited return in winter 2018-2019). Its theatre then hosted a Marvel show, followed by the Pixar show that plays there today. CinéMagique itself won’t be coming back.

This big car stunt show played in its own arena from the park’s opening in 2002: car chases, cars skidding, motorbikes on fire, all narrated like a film shoot.

Its last performance was in March 2020. The show never reopened and its cancellation was confirmed the same year. The arena, renamed Theater of the Stars, hosted the show Alice and the Queen of Hearts: Back to Wonderland from May 2024, before it stopped. Its return is announced for 2027.

Animagique was a black light puppet show (black theatre), there from the park’s opening in 2002. Disney characters came to life in the dark thanks to fluorescent effects. In almost fourteen years, it drew millions of spectators.

It closed in 2016, replaced the same year by the show Mickey and the Magician. A confusing detail: the theatre has kept the name Animagique Theater, but the show itself has gone.

The Wild West and adventure lands of the first park lost several attractions from the very early years. The same reasons often come up: low capacity and running costs that were too high, at a time when the park was trying to get more visitors through.

These flat-bottomed boats (keelboats) sailed on the Rivers of the Far West in Frontierland, there from the park’s opening in 1992. Their story is one of breaks and comebacks: withdrawn in the early 2000s, refurbished and reopened in 2007, then stopped for good around 2009-2010.

Their low capacity and the need for pilots holding a French boat licence made them unprofitable. Disneyland Paris was in fact the last Disney park in the world to run this type of boat. They were not replaced: the landing stage was hidden behind scenery.

The Indian Canoes had around twenty visitors paddling round Big Thunder Mountain, along the Rivers of the Far West, past abandoned mines and animated animals. It was a hands-on attraction: the visitors really did paddle.

There from 1992, they closed as early as 1994, victims of their low capacity and the physical effort required. The old landing stage was reused for the Pocahontas Indian Village, a play area opened in 1996 and still there, now renamed Frontierland Playground.

Critter Corral was a small petting farm near the Frontierland station, there from 1992: ponies, goats, cows, hens and rabbits that visitors could get close to. French regulations soon required pens where the animals had originally roamed more freely.

The farm closed around 2006-2007. The space became a Toy Story meet and greet, then went through several seasonal makeovers. Farm animals came back now and then near the old station from 2022, but the original attraction is well and truly gone.

At the far end of Fantasyland, near It’s a Small World, Les Pirouettes du Vieux Moulin was a bucket wheel: eight gondolas shaped like wooden buckets, four seats each. The ride opened in 1993.

It’s the only real Fantasyland ride to have disappeared completely. Its low capacity and long queues for a ride many found disappointing sealed its fate: closed for the whole of 1999, briefly reopened in 2000, then shut for good in 2002. The gondolas were removed afterwards. It’s often forgotten because the mill building is still there and houses a food outlet.

To find out what keeps the park going today, here are a few ideas:

All the rides in the park

every current attraction at Disneyland Paris, page by page.

My top rides

my favourites in the park, to do first.

Rides in numbers

height and speed records and striking figures.

Note: temporary closures for refurbishment are another subject. A ride being refurbished reopens, it doesn’t disappear.

• the closures calendar to find out which rides are closed for refurbishment during your trip.