Disneyland's Submarine Voyage - 1998 Closure (& Finding Nemo Subs)

Disneyland's Submarine Voyage attraction opened in June of 1959, and closed in September of 1998.

Since this month marks the 26th anniversary of the attraction's closing, let's take a look at some related items.

This button was handed out to guests who rode the Subs, on the very last day of operation. 

Prior to that last day, several newspaper articles were written about the impending closure. This article was from the "Business" section of The Los Angeles Times and was published July 30, 1998, five weeks before the closure.  According to a Disney spokesman, the Submarine Voyage was closing "to make way for a new, snazzier attraction to debut in 2003."  Well, that didn't happen!  A new attraction didn't actually debut until 9 years after the Subs' closing.  But then on a similar note, the Carousel Theater actually remained closed for 10 whole years, with a sign out front stating, "We're Closed to Imagineer a Brand New Attraction," and that didn't happen either!

Speaking of the Carousel Theater, this part of the article claims that the Carousel of Progress got the boot, for the 1998 renovation of Tomorrowland.  It had actually closed 25 years earlier.  Do your proper research, people!!!

This Los Angeles Times article was published on September 3, 1998, only five days before the closure.

This one informed readers that the Submarine Voyage was one of the first three attractions given an "E" ticket designation, back in 1959.  The other two attractions were the Matterhorn and the Monorail, which opened on the same day as the Subs.

The journalist included some quotes from Shannon Baughmann, a former "live mermaid" at Disneyland.  The quotes originally came from David Koenig's book, "Mouse Tales."

And this one is also from The Los Angeles Times, and is dated September 9th, 1998, the day after their closure.  The article mentions that the wait for the Subs on the last day of operation, was at times, up to 90 minutes.

All three articles quoted Disney spokespeople, stating that guest surveys showed the public wanted a more "thrilling" ride.....supposedly.  But I wouldn't put it past the Disney spokespeople to be lying to the reporters, and the real intention was just to save the company some money by shutting it down.

I took these next three photos, the very last time that I rode the Submarine Voyage. The photos are date stamped "November 1998" on the back, but since they closed in September of that year, I must have waited a couple months to have this roll of film developed.

This first one was taken just as a Sub had pulled up to the dock. In the bottom left hand corner, you can see the boarding ramp for guests, which cast members would lower down over the front and back ends of the subs.

The same ramp can be seen in the bottom right hand corner of this pic. The ramp led to a staircase, which spiraled downward into the sub. The pilots of the subs would board the vessels prior to the guests.

I took this next pic of the empty sub, after everyone had already disembarked. Notice the little "air blower" vents in each of the portholes.

Going back one year earlier, I was taking many pictures in an attempt to document all aspects of the attraction. At that time, I didn't know for sure that it was eventually going to be shut down. However, a "remodeling" of Tomorrowland had already been announced and I knew there was a chance.....a very likely chance, that they were going to ruin the attraction, if not remove it altogether.

These next pics were taken in Spring of 1997. Note the fencing and tarp along the PeopleMover track. Work had already begun, to convert it to one of the biggest flops in Disneyland's history, the Rocket Rods.  Okay, maybe the Rocket Rods are actually "tied" with Light Magic!

These sea turtle pics were actually taken while standing on the walkway, between the Matterhorn and the Submarine Voyage, looking down into the lagoon.

Now, let's take a ride on the Submarine Voyage!

"Among these coral reefs, you'll see various species of marine life, feeding among the seaweed and unusual rock formations.  There are lobsters, crabs, and sea turtles."

"These reptilian patriarchs of the deep, are the amphibious descendants of the dinosaur, and have changed little in the past 200 million years."  (I believe this is one of the sea turtles we saw from above the surface of the water.)

"Roaming the coastal sea bottoms in search of food, are the Groupers, or Giant Sea Bass."

"And speaking of giants, the giant clam has a fluted shell that can weigh up to a quarter of a ton."

Here are a couple "silent sentinels of the deep"; an octopus battling a young shark.  And speaking of "silent"....."the fish world has always been considered a silent habitat, but now thanks to remarkable advances in marine technology, we can use instruments such as our sonar hydrophones, to actually hear the fish talk."

This one is saying, HEEEELP MEEEE!!!

Quality photographs couldn't really be achieved, once the Subs were inside the ride's show building/caverns....at least, not with my camera. So instead, I decided to take a picture of the inside of the submarine.  Oh, and there is "NO smoking, please!  The smoking lamp is out!"

This is a shot (from Wikipedia) of the last scene before exiting the caverns.  "It...it looks like a....it is, it's a sea serpent!"

Here are two more exterior shots:

After the Subs reopened in 2007, as the new "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage," I tried to replicate the shot above, for a "before and after" comparison.  They had changed the exit and entrance ramp for the Monorail station, so now it is located very close to where the subs exit the caverns.  The new ramp can be seen on the far right.

Construction on the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage" began in 2005, after the lagoon had just sat there for 7 very long years.  A construction wall went up around the lagoon, along with artwork announcing what was coming, and when.

As the opening date got closer, a sign appeared out in the Esplanade, in front of the park.

Banners also appeared on the lampposts in both the Esplanade and Downtown Disney.

Inside the park, a countdown sign was posted at the entrance to the attraction, displaying the exact number of days until opening.

Before the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage officially opened to the public, Disneyland Annual Passholders were given a chance to "sea" it early.

As a part of the attraction's new "Nemo" theme, a large buoy was added to the lagoon.

Three animatronic seagulls sit atop the buoy.

Every so often, the seagulls will open their mouths, and start saying the one and only word they ever spoke in the film, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!" 

I've been on the new version of the attraction many times now, but I've only taken a few pics during the actual ride.  Here are those shots:

"DIVE!  DIVE!  Take her down easy!"

A giant sea bass, very similar to the originals, returned to the lagoon.

Colorful coral:

The two battling crabs vignette returned, but now they are standing over the grate of an underwater pipeline.  According to Wikipedia, they are supposedly just "pinching bubbles."

I hope everyone has enjoyed this "adventurous voyage through liquid space....our last frontier on the planet Earth!"

****UPDATE - October 7, 2024****

Here are two Disneyland guides from the Summer of 2007.  Both were announcing, "The Subs Are Back!" on their covers.

And both guides featured this description, inside.

A Vintage Disneyland Trip Report - August 1976

It's time for another vintage Disneyland trip report! 

Forty-five years ago this week, an elementary school friend of mine invited me to go with him and his family to Disneyland.  I have a fairly good memory about many parts of this visit.  I also saved both the park guidebook (which was handed out to guests when purchasing tickets), and the main gate entertainment guide (which was available to guests as they walked through the turnstiles).

This was the entertainment guide for the week of August 22nd - 28th, 1976.

The country was celebrating it's bicentennial, that year.  In honor of the milestone birthday, Disney created "America On Parade," which performed twice daily, starting in the Summer of 1975, and running through the Summer of 1976.  Incidentally, the nighttime performance of the parade resulted in a hiatus of the Main Street Electrical Parade, for the first time since it's debut in the Summer of 1972.

The entertainment listing mentions "Ragtime Rod," who had been playing piano at the Coke Corner on Main Street, for over 6 years at this point.  There is also a "Ragtime Ray" listed.  I have never heard of him before.  I have also never seen Rod Miller listed specifically by name, on an entertainment guide.  He was usually just listed as, "Coke Corner Pianist."

And this was the guidebook for that summer season.  The cover featured one of the parade units from "America On Parade."  I have scanned the entire guide, and will include it at the end of this post.

I shot a whole roll of film that day (12 exposures).  I've posted a pic of my childhood camera before, but I'm including it again, here.  The camera was a Kodak Instamatic X-15, and took a "126" size film cartridge.  It was a gift from my dad, for Christmas of 1974.  This trip was only the second time that I had taken my camera to Disneyland.  I have previously posted the very first photos I ever took at the park.  To see those, you can click here:  Easter Vacation 1975 - A Vintage Disneyland Trip Report.

Here are my photos, shown in the order that they were taken.  First up, we have the obligatory shot of the Castle.  We got to the park early in the morning, and I remember how it seemed very uncrowded, compared to all the other times I had been at the park.....especially for the summer season.

I remember running over to the Matterhorn, for the first attraction of the day.  The Matterhorn was still the park's only "thrill ride," and it would get a rather long line as the day went on.  It was also still kind of a "new" ride for me.  I had only been on it once before.  Note the solo mountain climber, nearing the Matterhorn's peak.  A bobsled can also be seen, crossing over the stone bridge just above the Monorail beam.

In this next picture, I am wearing my childhood Mickey Mouse watch.  Also, I made the mistake of standing behind that tree branch.  ;-)

The watch had been a Christmas gift from my mom, a couple years earlier.

This shot of Monstro shows how empty the park was, since I was able to take the picture without any people in the frame.

I remember going on most of the Fantasyland dark rides, that morning.  My friend's sister and brother-in-law did not go on Peter Pan's Flight with us.  She said that she would hold my camera for me, while we were on the ride.  Then as we were exiting the vehicle, she snapped this photo of us.

Next, we headed over to the Skyway......

This picture of Cinderella's Castle came out a little blurry.

However, I was pretty happy with this "artfully" angled shot of the Mad Tea Party.  We can see that the park was still not very crowded, but it would get more crowded as the day went on.

I remember being VERY excited to see Space Mountain under construction.  My brother and I had seen it listed for years as a future attraction, on our souvenir Disneyland "wall maps."  The finished product did look different than the artwork on the maps, and the name, "Spaceport & Rocket Flight," had also been changed.  I'm assuming that was a "placeholder" name, anyway.  I was also excited to see the construction, because Walt Disney World's version of the attraction had already opened, and I had watched Mike Douglas ride it on his afternoon talk show, the previous year.

We got off the Skyway and hit Tomorrowland, next.  I'm not sure why I didn't take any more photos of Tomorrowland, especially since it was always my favorite land.....at least up until 1998, WHEN THEY TOTALLY RUINED IT!  ;-)

Later in the day, we rode the Mine Train thru Nature's Wonderland.  I remember how nice the cool mist from the geysers of  "The Living Desert" felt, on a hot summer day.  Sadly, this would be my last time riding the attraction, since it closed just 5 months later (in January of 1977).

After exiting the Mine Train, I remember seeing this tableau of a stagecoach, parked in front of an extension of Rainbow Ridge, and liking it enough to want to snap a pic.  At the time, I did not realize that this Stagecoach was a vehicle from an extinct Disneyland attraction.  I also did not realize that these buildings had been the backdrop for the former Pack Mules attraction.  While I was aware of the Pack Mules during the time they existed at Disneyland, we somehow never rode them.  We always chose to ride the Mine Train, instead.

Next, we rode the Mark Twain around the Rivers of America.  Is it just me, or does the Friendly Indian Village look small here?

For the remainder of our visit, we went on many of the same attractions that my family always went on, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Country Bear Jamboree.  I also remember watching "America On Parade."  I really loved this parade.  It ranks right up there, as one of my all-time favorite parades.

This was the very first float in the parade.  Note the blue and white Small World Souvenir Stand, on the far right.

I remember at this point, my film was running out and I only had one more exposure left, so my last shot of the day was of "Betsy Ross" and her giant flag.  I wish I had been able to take more pics of this parade.

As for souvenirs that day, I bought this caricature of myself, at the Fantasyland Caricature Stand.  The stand was located directly behind me, as I was taking the photo, above.  I remember when the artist drew this, the last thing he included was the cliff that I was about to "go over."  My friend also had his caricature drawn.  The artist depicted him dunking a basketball through a hoop.  As he was finishing up, he drew a ladder underneath him, with him standing on the top step.  It seemed like the artists always added "the gags" to their drawings, at the last minute.

Here's a photo showing the Fantasyland Caricature Stand (from the blog, "Disney On Parole").  It was taken in 1979, but I'm including it because it's the best one I have seen out there on the internet.  In the photo, we can see that there are about 5 samples of framed caricatures, displayed on the counter.  A customer is standing in front of the counter, and turned to the side so the artist can see his profile.  The artist is seated behind the counter, and in between him and the customer, we can see the top of an overhead projector.  As the artists drew the caricatures, guests could watch the progress, projected onto that white screen behind them.

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the Candy Palace on Main Street.  Both the Candy Palace and the Castle Candy Shop used to sell these clear plastic cubes, filled with various kinds of candy.  Some of the plastic cubes came with a ceramic figurine of a Disney character, glued to the lid.

How about that price of $1.55 for five ounces of candy!

I have several of these plastic boxes, which I saved from different visits to the park.  I always bought the ones that were filled with the "Swiss Petite Fruits."  I even remember coming home with this same type of candy, after a childhood visit to Universal Studios.

I hope everyone enjoyed this time traveling visit back to 1976!

****BONUS****

Here is the Disneyland Guide from this trip, in it's entirety.

Note the message below, about Disneyland being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, in the off season.  Disneyland did not start being open everyday, until the early eighties.

In the "General Information" below, I see that there are two references to Disneyland "employees," and two references to "Disneylanders."  I guess at this point, Disney was not yet calling their employees, "cast members."

I always loved the tiny graphics used in these guides, for each of the attractions:

The PeopleMover had been temporarily removed from the list of "D" attractions.  The construction of Space Mountain had forced it's closure.

Note, the location of the Fantasyland Caricature Stand, below.

The back cover had an ad for the re-release of Peter Pan, and two new "live-action" films, from Walt Disney Productions.