Since Disney World is always changing, chances are you’ll see something that’s closed.
Temporarily closed
That’s just the nature of change. Disney’s got to take out the old to be able to bring in the new. That being said, we have seen a number of attractions close with nothing ever replacing them, and there’s a deserted building in Magic Kingdom that sorely needs new life!
For those with keen eyes, there’s been a bit of a mystery going on in Magic Kingdom. The building that once housed Stitch’s Great Escape has been sitting quietly for a long time. While the Stitch theme is gone, the building still remains.
Stitch’s Great Escape
This particular spot has some history. The building originally housed “Flight to the Moon” — an attraction that opened in December 1971 — just a couple of months after Disney World’s opening day. After a pre-show where you were briefed by Mission Control, you entered the theater in the round for a flight to the moon. Upper and lower screens were available to look out of the space craft. Flight to the Moon didn’t last long at Disney World — after all, by the time the attraction opened in Florida — most Americans had already watched a REAL moon landing on TV.
In 1975, the attraction was changed to Mission to Mars — another NASA-style flight but this time to a more futuristic destination. Then came the divisive Extra-TERRORESTRIAL Alien Encounter (talk about nightmare fuel) — which opened in 1995. And finally, Stitch’s Great Escape, which opened in 2004. While it was primarily about helping capture the mischievous Experiment 626, it did have its “scary” moments, too.
©Disney Stitch’s Great Escape
The Stitch experience closed officially in 2018. After that, the building was even used temporarily as a TRON Lightcycle / Run merchandise pop-up store.
TRON Lightcycle / Run pop-up store
The building has been closed and gone unused — at least for the public — ever since. It is our understanding the area is now considered backstage and used as a Cast Member break room. But what if Disney decided to open this building back up for the public? Well, Disney likes to keep its plans close to the vest, but here are some possibilities:
- Stitch’s Return? (Especially with the new live-action movie in the works, perhaps a new Stitch meet-and-greet or a whole new Stitch attraction could use this space.)
- Something Entirely New? (We’ve heard all sorts of rumored attractions filling up this building. Perhaps Disney is cooking up a new attraction based on another franchise.)
- Another pop-up? (Let’s be honest, Disney loves gift shops, so it’s entirely too plausible that they make this into more retail space.)
Where Stitch’s Great Escape used to be. (Construction photo from 2020)
The point is that, at the moment, we’re not sure what Disney’s going to do with the space. We’ll just have to wait and see (hopefully not another 6 years). In the meantime, keep following along so that you don’t miss a thing!
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We would love to see a new Stitch attraction go in here, or at least a meet and greet experience. Stitch is a huge fan favorite, and Stitch makes Disney plenty of money. It would be great if there was a Stitch attraction on this continent. Sometimes I worry that they’re trying to phase Stitch out completely though. I heard that someone saw a version of Stitch that was planned for the live action movie that completely removed his ‘cute and fluffy’ qualities. It’s easy to believe, because it seems like a lot of the time, Disney merch makes Stitch look scary and ugly. I can’t imagine why they’d want to do away with such a money maker when they are struggling so hard to hit the right notes with customers in so many ways, but more baffling things have happened. And the live action movie will flop if Stitch isn’t Stitch.
How about an Incredibles 4D attraction ride?
Alien Encounter was the best attraction in that space – totally did not fit in TMK but was really on par with Disney’s ability to go over the top (in a good way). I remember having the **** scared out of me as a teenager on that, and couldn’t get enough of it – but I could see where some unknowing parents would take their small children on it, and no amount of ice cream could fix those nightmares. And Disney is really not about age restricting attractions – if only they had a park that was more geared towards adults……… hum….
Only thing is that if they do decide to put something new in that spot, they’ll have to close Cosmic Ray’s, and everything else in that one building structure. Due to the age of that building it does contain asbestos, so if they do renovations in one spot, they’ll have to bring the entire structure up to code and remove the asbestos. That means Ray’s, Star Traders, Auntie Gravity’s, and people mover