"Atlantis Expedition" was a cancelled attraction at Tomorrowland at Disneyland themed around the 2001 Disney animated feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was going to replace the classic Submarine Voyage attraction, but ended up getting scrapped.
History[]
Around the time Submarine Voyage closed on September 9, 1998, Disney was developing Atlantis: The Lost Empire, as part of Disney Animation's plans to create animated action-adventure films. Something that made it fitting for Submarine Voyage was that the original storyline featured a quest to the lost city of Atlantis, which would have been a successor to the former Submarine Voyage attraction and would have paid homage to the original E-Ticket attractions.
During development of the reimagined version of Submarine Voyage, Atlantis Expedition would have featured a great expansion of Submarine Voyage while retaining a lot of elements that remained before - particularly the giant volcano where the Monorail would have passed through to match the attraction's Atlantis theme and hence its storyline, the ride was centered around guests traveling to the lost city of Atlantis where guests had the opportunity to explore Atlantis. Something unique in this transformation was that this attraction would have combined a submarine ride as well as being dropped off at Atlantis, making it two attractions into one, as Disney was relying on Atlantis to be a success at the box office.
Immediately after Submarine Voyage closed down, a tarp was placed onto the former attraction, showcasing that Disney was commissioning the project to focus on an Atlantis-themed attraction as part of Disney's plans to reimagine the attraction. Three years passed with no work done to the site of Atlantis Expedition, most likely due to the cost of California Adventure being constructed around the time Submarine Voyage was planned to be completely reimagined to have an Atlantis storyline. Around the time Atlantis: The Lost Empire was released in theaters, it immediately became a box office failure, resulting in the project being completely scrapped. All that was left was a meet and greet spot for Milo and Kida, which was made around the time the film was released in theaters.
Almost a decade after Submarine Voyage closed, the attraction was completely reimagined into Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, themed after the 2003 Disney/Pixar animated feature film Finding Nemo, which opened on June 11, 2007.
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