20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

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Sadly the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea attraction formerly located within the Lagoon area at Fantasyland has been removed from The Magic Kingdom, and won't be returning.

The reason cited for it's destruction was a combination of long loading times because of the limited capacity of the submarine ride, and high maintenance costs.

However, it's most likely to be a combination of the slow load times, the high cost of maintaining the attraction, the fact that even though it was well liked, it was getting a little old hat compared to some of the attractions at the parks.

Another contributory factor was probably that it was virtually un-ridable for wheelchair bound or disabled guests, and the costs of modifying the ride to allow wheelchair access were also too prohibitive.

The original submarines that were used are now destined for the scrap-yard.

On the banks of the Lagoon area Ariel's Grotto has now been built, and there are rumours that the original 20,000 Leagues attraction will be replaced by an attraction based around the Little Mermaid (something more than Ariel's Grotto), but nothing has come of this rumour as yet.

The original 20,000 Leagues attraction was based around the classic film, in which Captain Nemo took guests below the Lagoon in the Nautilus, complete with attacking squid, and Nemo playing the organ.

As well as being an interesting underwater attraction, the lighting effects of the artificial reefs, polar ice caps, and the Lost city of Atlantis were quite effective and were well worth seeing.

A variation on the attraction still exists in Disneyland Paris, but the Disneyland Paris version is more of a themed walkthrough style that an underwater ride.