Skyway | |
Disneyland | |
Land | Fantasyland, Tomorrowland |
Designer | WED Enterprises |
Manufacturer | Von Roll Holding |
Attraction type | Gondola lift |
Soft opening date | June 10, 1956 |
Opening date | June 23, 1956 |
Closing date | November 9, 1994 |
Vehicle type | Gondola |
Ride duration | 3:36 minutes |
Skyway | |
Magic Kingdom | |
Land | Fantasyland, Tomorrowland |
Designer | WED Enterprises |
Manufacturer | Von Roll Holding |
Attraction type | Gondola lift |
Opening date | October 1, 1971 |
Closing date | November 10, 1999 |
Vehicle type | Gondola |
Ride duration | 3:36 minutes |
Skyway | |
Tokyo Disneyland | |
Land | Fantasyland, Tomorrowland |
Designer | WED Enterprises |
Manufacturer | Von Roll Holding |
Attraction type | Gondola lift |
Opening date | April 15, 1983 |
Closing date | November 9, 1998 |
Vehicle type | Gondola |
Ride duration | 3:36 minutes |
Skyway (aka Skyway to Tomorrowland/Skyway to Fantasyland) was a gondola lift attraction that operated at Disneyland Park at Anaheim's Disneyland Resort. It also operated at Tokyo Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
Ride history[]
When Disneyland Park first opened in the mid-1950s, its creator, Walt Disney, found out that the Swiss company, Von Roll, was constructing Skyways in Switzerland. Disney was obsessed with transportation itself (mainly its futuristic forms, thus the creation of Autopia and Submarine Voyage), and demanded he had a Skyway in his park.
In less than a year of the park's opening, the Skyway to Tomorrowland/Fantasyland opened on June 23, 1956. The attraction proved to be a major success for Disneyland and opened with the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971, and at Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, 1983.
In 1959, Disney decided to expand the Tomorrowland-Fantasyland area. This expansion brought the park many famous attractions, such as the Submarine Voyage, Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Disneyland Monorail, and the Motor Boat Cruise. However, the planned location for Matterhorn Bobsleds was directly in the path of the park's Skyway attraction. Miraculously, the Matterhorn's manufacturer was able to build the Matterhorn attraction around the path of the Skyway without the ride closing once. Another expansion came in the way of the Skyway in the 1980s, when Fantasyland was expanded. During this time, the Skyway only made round-trips from Tomorrowland.
After 38 years, Disneyland closed the Skyway attraction on November 9, 1994, due to stress cracks in the attraction's Matterhorn supports. After the closure, Disneyland demolished the attraction's pylons, scrapped the vehicles, and demolished the Skyway's Tomorrowland outlet. The Skyway's Fantasyland Station still remains to this day, perched on its hill above Fantasyland, but is off limits to guests and is mostly canopied by trees. The station, as of November 2013, is planned for demolition sometime in the near future.
The Tokyo Disneyland Skyway closed on November 9, 1998. The Fantasyland station was replaced with Pooh's Hunny Hunt, and the Tomorrowland station was re-purposed into Stellar Sweets, a sweet shop. Magic Kingdom's Skyway was the last to close on November 10, 1999. Both the Magic Kingdom Skyway's Fantasyland and Tomorrowland stations survived after the attraction's closure. The Tomorrowland Station met its demise in September 2009, and the Fantasyland station followed several years later in June 2011. A Tangled-themed restroom area was then built on its location for the 2012 New Fantasyland expansion.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The staircase that led to the Tomorrowland Skyway station still remains.
- Since the 2012 refurbishment of Matterhorn Bobsleds, most of the Skyway's original holes have been filled in, but few remain.
- Tokyo Disneyland's Skyway closed exactly four years after Disneyland's Skyway.
- The Magic Kingdom Skyway had a unique L-turn.
- After the Disneyland Skyway closed, the attraction's operating fund went to the newly-opened Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction.