WDW


Snow White Plans Final Scary Adventure

Bob tries to hang tough as news of ride demise spreads

- by Bob McLain, January 19, 2011

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As part of its expansion of Fantasyland, Disney will shutter Snow White's Scary Adventures, one of the park's original attractions, and turn it into a bland princess meet 'n greet.

Does anyone care? Bob does. A lot.

I have a hard time letting go.

Books I'll never read, action figures I'll never pose, tools I've never wield.

Most of all, though, I have a hard time letting go of classic Disney World attractions.

I still remember how, as a kid, I was sure the plexiglass porthole on 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea would burst. Or how I swore I'd learn to perform card tricks like the folks in the old Magic Shop on Main Street, U.S.A. Memories, now.

Even worse is saying farewell to an attraction that I rode as a child and then rode many years later with my children.

Farewell, Snow White's Scary Adventures.

Disney has torn you up, spit you out, pimped you into purgatory for a new meet 'n greet.

Doesn't Snow White's Scary Adventures qualify as historically significant? People will band together to protest the demolition of their town's crumbling manse, often resulting in its placement on the Historical Register, forever inviolate, so why not this ride?

And what will Disney do with all the wonderful pieces: the boulder, the mirror, the chattering forest critters?

Buck up, Bob.

You've weathered worse. The loss of Jeremy Irons as the narrator for Spaceship Earth was a bigger blow. But there's something about Fantasyland, the beating heart of the Magic Kingdom, that makes this loss more poignant.

You're not supposed to rip hunks out of Fantasyland.

Sure, sure, I'll see the Seven Dwarves again on their new coaster once the Fantasyland expansion is complete.

And won't it be thrilling to roar through that mine, not meander herky-jerky in an old fiberglass car, dreading the whiplash turns and the frequent ride stoppages?

Sure, sure. It's gonna be great.

Don't stop there! More Tidings Await...

Stuff Not to Skip

Comments (8)

Always nice to hear another perspective :)
Hedy - 1/21/2011 @ 11:17 AM
You can find Hedy's perspective here:

http://wdwnotjustforkids.com/disney-world/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/

She titled it 'Ding-Dong, The Witch Is Dead' so I think you can assume she's not broken down burbling over the ride closure.
Bob McLain - 1/21/2011 @ 11:25 AM
I agree with Hedy. Not that I hate the ride, but I mean what is Disney supposed to do... just keep every ride the exact same and never change things for the sake of "history" so that the only people who enjoy Disney were people who were alive when it opened, and then when they die- start from scratch? And you can't really think of it as being replaced by meet and greets as being replaced by the new coaster.

Don't worry, changes help make sure Disney World lives on, and hey... at least it's a Snow White coaster and not a Pixar or new Disney film one :) They're keeping the classic movie alive!
Angela - 1/28/2011 @ 9:22 AM
Those are good points you make, Angela, and you're right: Disney can't stay frozen to the past if it expects to grow in the future. I was writing from the heart, not the head. If Snow White's Scary Adventures had been an uber-popular ride, Disney would have kept it and closed something else. Thanks for reading - and thanks, especially, for taking the time to comment!
Bob McLain - 1/28/2011 @ 9:38 AM
If it's any help, my girlfriend is about as broken up about it as you are, Bob. We rode it twice this weekend just so she could get her fix.
While I am saddened by its closure for purely historical factors, I'm OK with the fact that they are leaving Disneyland's alone!
Jeff Heimbuch - 1/31/2011 @ 8:27 AM
Bob I'm with you. I am sad to see it leave. Unlike many who seem to think it is "lame" and "outdated," it still gives me the creeps even though I am, most assuredly, a fully-grown adult. It is a very well done dark ride which successfully makes one feel as if he is inside the movie on which it is based. The only reason I don't ride it as much as I would like is because the line is consistently TOO LONG. Go figure.
Jason McMahan - 2/5/2011 @ 4:46 PM
I am sad to see it go. I wish I'd had one more chance to visit Fantastyland as it was (though I did get to go to DLR in 2010) before it all changes.
Merrick - 2/16/2011 @ 6:58 PM
I am kind of torn between the two opposing opinions, because I really don't want them to take this classic ride out of fantasyland, its like a Disney signature attraction, but I am refering to the original SWSA ride that ran from opening day in 1971 to 199whatever, I don't care how much prettier or how you could now see Snow White in the ride, the original one put the Queen, the villian(of which if there was none, no story would exist) right in your face, I admit it was scary for me as a child, but ridding it as an older kid made me laugh at my childhood naiveness, the makeover was more like a ride through museum of the story, and who needs that when you can see the movie? and I am kind of glad to see them do away with it
A. Ste - 3/12/2011 @ 1:59 PM
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