Disneyland released an upcoming refurbishment for early 2015 today, and interestingly enough, Luigi’s Flying Tires in Cars Land is listed as closed January 12th through December 1st, 2015.
Rumors have been circulating lately that the ride would be remodeled or replaced with a new, trackless “flat” ride starring Luigi and Guido from Cars, but this is the first confirmation from Disney that the attraction is closing. What exactly is planned is still a mystery, but it would seem that it may be connected to Cars Land clones being developed for other Disney resorts around the world. Rumors persist that part of the overhaul at Disney’s Hollywood Studios would involve Cars Land, or at least some of the offerings from the popular California Adventure offering and it’s likely they wouldn’t want to make any mistakes that they made the first time around by building this ride again. For Disney to invest so quickly in a replacement, there would have to be strong financial reasoning for change, and developing a new ride for multiple locations makes sense.
Luigi’s Flying Tires never scored very well as far as guest satisfaction as the lines were very long for a ride that had a bit of a learning curve to it. Guests were often burnt-out on the attraction after waiting over an hour just to play with the tires for the first time, probably only getting the hang of it just seconds before their ride was over. Luigi’s Flying Tires was meant to finally be the spiritual successor to Disneyland’s ill-fated Flying Saucers from the 1960’s, but it seems it will suffer the very same fate.
To add excitement to the attraction, large beach balls were placed on the ride floor when the ride opened in June 2012. Guests could send the balls high into the air by bumping into them throw the balls at one-another. The balls were unfortunately removed shortly after the ride opened as a few guests who were hit with the balls complained to guest relations cast members. Lines for the attraction dwindled following this removal and they have never quite recovered.
So, is this the end of Luigi’s Flying Tires? It seems so. If you would like to say goodbye to the attraction, you have two-and-a-half months to do so. If you can’t make it, you can relive the experience through our video:
I will say I am not surprised. We rode this ride once and yes there is a learning curve but not a very eventful ride. We did it and were on to better things at DL. I feel the loss of draw to the ride is that there there is really no story line as your on the ride. Now if you gained points or there was some other interaction of your tire saying things each time you hit another tire or edge of the ride that might have added to the experience. I am not surprised this ride is being dismantled.
I never cared for the ride but always liked the characters Luigi and Guido so I hope these 2 characters will still be seen around Cars Land with or without a ride of their own. BTW I drive a yellow Fiat and guess what we call it.