Neverland is a fictional place in Disney’s “Peter Pan,” where pirates rule the seas, mermaids lurk the waters, fairies are real, and you never grow up. It’s a place of “never.” For a moment, let’s pretend that it is the year 2078. In this time period, Disney has just announced plans for their 6th theme park which would be 500 acres – their biggest park yet. This park would be called Neverland. This park is filled with shows, rides, concepts, ideas and many other things that Disney had plans for, but never fully put into effect. Let me be your VIP tour guide and show you what would be in this fictional Disney park of things that have “never” happened.

We begin our tour in the first land called Failed California. This land has rides and ideas proposed for Disneyland in California but never came to be.

Failed California (Disneyland, California)

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• LILLIPUTIAN LAND- This land was actually proposed by Roy O. Disney. This land was supposed to be based on the book Gulliver’s Travels and in it would be a miniature Americana village populated by 9-inch-tall singing and dancing mechanical people. The main attraction for this land would be a 17-inch-tall locomotive.
• EDISON SQUARE- This land was supposed to be a side land of Main Street USA and its theme would be 1920 suburbs. The centerpiece in the land would be a statue of Thomas Edison. The main attraction would have been called Harnessing the Lightning, which would consist of retelling the history of electricity and the effect it had on the American society. This idea was scrapped, but some themes were used for Walt’s Carousel of Progress at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
• MYTHICA- This land would have a Greek/Roman theme and all the rides, shows and attractions would be based on Greek and Roman mythology. This was an idea by Disney Imagineers but never came into development.
• ATLANTIS EXPEDITION- In this ride, you would be traveling in a submarine, similar to those in The 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea as well as The Finding Nemo Voyage. Riders would have been able to use a mechanical arm that was attached to the submarine, and grab gems and doubloons. The “area” or underwater part would have been based on Disney’s Atlantis film, but with the horrible box office ratings it had received, the idea was changed and thus The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage was created.
• TOMORROWLAND 2055- Tomorrowland 2055 would have been an extraterrestrial-themed Tomorrowland, but the plans were abandoned because of budget cuts.
• BIG CITY USA- A land that was supposed to be New York themed, featuring a giant Broadway theater that would hold live performances each day. This land was scrapped, however, the ideas for this land was inspiration for Tokyo Disney Sea’s American Waterfront.
• HOLLYWOOD LAND- The theme for this land would have been the 1930’s/1940’s. Rides would have featured ideas and characters from “Dick Tracy” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”.
• DISCOVERY BAY-  The land would have had elements and been a tribute to Jules Verne and H.G Wells. The idea never came into development, but elements from the plans were later used in Disneyland Paris and Disney Tokyo Sea.
• LIBERTY STREET- This land was an idea that just never came to be. It was going to resemble Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776, and even have its own small harbor.

We we will end our tour here for today. In the time to come, I will guide you on more deep into Neverland‘s secrets. Next time,we will be traveling to The Land of Forgotten Countries…

Ben Drummond