CORRECTION: This ride's top speed was 35 miles per hour, not 30. Also, it was the fastest ride at Tomorrowland, not the whole park. My main source for this video got both of these wrong. I tried to fix this error, but KZfaq's editor failed to trim it properly. I cannot re-upload at this stage since the video has been out for over a day. So I'll have to pin this comment and leave it up.

If Rocket Rods was supposed to be transportation of the future, it must have hurt when Aerosmith gave guests an old Cadillac limo that goes twice as fast.

Disneyland guests: "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?!" Michael Eisner: "I love the young people!"

At least the Peoplemover at Florida's Magic Kingdom is still around. I wouldn't dare have Disney turn that into a thril ride only for them to close it and never have it reopen again.

I remember waiting in the queue for over 3 hours with my wife, brother and mom for this ride. When we finally got on it...late in the evening....it was the equivalent of driving around a parking lot looking for open spaces.

Back when I worked at the park during the brief period when rocket rods was operating, I remember being told that it cost maintenance an average of about $3.50 per rider carried. The cars also went through a set of tires almost daily. It was a complete disaster from start to finish, and it is no surprise why it went down, unceremoniously, and never returned to operation.

I think it’s safe to characterize the entire Tomorrowland refurb as a colossal failure. Not only did you have their supposed A list attraction fail and be shut down in 2 years, I remember the whole structure that sat on top of the Rocket Rods (where the Rocket Jets were) was supposed to be a laser show every 30 mins, but that got nixed because the lasers interfered w an FAA flight path. Then you also had that little water park, cosmic jets, that lasted a short while before it had to get closed for health and sanitary reasons because kids were peeing in the water. Not to mention the metallic paint job that lasted only a short while before they changed that back (predominantly Space Mountain) because people hated it. That’s 0-4 and like 60% of your refurb rendered obsolete in an incredibly short time

I love that ride outside Disneyland when I speed and anamatronic police officers Chase after me! 10/10 ride.

I remember seeing this ride being tested when I was a kid. I had to wait two years to finally ride it. I was so excited. It’s the first time in my life I remember feeling underwhelmed.

I completely agree, I was a fan of the people mover because it never had a line and was a long ride. Giving you some down time while still enjoying something, Rocket Rods was fine but because it destroyed a long standing Disney ride, I hated it.

What bothers me most about the attraction is how much potential gone to nothing the Rocket Rods had. But it’s also interesting to note that the People Mover still has representation at Magic Kingdom, and an Easter egg in Disneyland at Store Command (the store for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters) as the check out counter. Loved this video, and loved hearing the history. Keep up the good work.

I remember riding Rocket Rods not long after it opened and waiting for close to 3 hours. Not only I was extremely disappointed and tired from waiting for so long for a short ride that was underwhelming to say the least (especially since it was so hyped) but I could see the disappointment on the faces of everyone's else.

Let's not forget about Eisner's other embarrassment at Disneyland - Superstar Limo. It was supposed to be a high speed ride to avoid the paparazzi, but due to a certain Royal's death, the high speed element was removed. Add a bunch of budget-cut elements that were a bean counter's dream, and you have the awful Superstar Limo ride. It was so bad, it was closed in under a year after it was opened. Still, Eisner was a much better CEO than Iger could possibly be.

When you haven't been inside Disneyland in years, it's almost easy to forget that the People Mover is gone forever.

It's sad that a wait time over an hour for any ride at Disney is now the norm, and 2 or 3 for a newer ride like that is not uncommon.

This was one of the two infamous rides that eluded me in my childhood, the other being Windjammer at Knotts. While I only ever saw Windjammer SBNO, that was not the case for Rocket Rods. It teased me all day that I saw it operating, but the line was long, and my parents didn't want to stand in it. Finally, as the last ride of the day, my dad relented, and we got in line. The line moved at an absolute crawl, and it was constantly going up and down, but I was a kid, and I wanted to ride. Well after a while, we finally got close to the front of the line, and you probably can guess what happened next - it shut down, again, only this time, the park was closing, and thus my attempt to ride Rocket Rods ended, and by the time I was back, the ride was gone.

I rode this ride once during my Graduation night at Disneyland in 1999. It made me miss the peoplemover even more! 😢

I got to ride Rocket Rods 3 times with only one ride without a breakdown I still wish we had the People Mover it was a fun ride to relax and unwind

I loved the people movers, especially when it was TRON themed, the lights in the tunnel, and the wind really did make you think you were speeding up.

Not building it the way it should have been built because of budget cuts was the rides demise. A perfect example of,"If you can't afford to do something right the first time, you wont be able to afford to do it again."

Rode it on opening day. Waited almost 4 hours. I knew after I got off it would be a failure. PeopleMover should’ve never been removed…well, until the structure failed.

I love the people mover at Disney World. Just recently got to ride it and timed it so my wife and I could watch the fireworks from it. Since not many people were riding it we got to just stay on and ride it multiple times.

I was a kid in '78 during our first trip to the House of the Mouse. I still remember the super speed tunnel and how effective the visuals were. In a world before CGI and 300 million dollar effects laden movies that have made us jaded it's surprising how great this ride was with nothing more than curved projection screens and audio. Sigh...

This was an extremely well thought out and executed video!I had heard about Rocket Rods but didn’t know anything about it. It shows how passion and ability is key to success!!

Loved the People Mover and hated what it had become in Rocket Rods. I work in an industry that uses similar electronics as those used in the ride vehicles. One rep had come to see me and the Rocket Rods project came up. He mentioned one issue was they were using off the shelf Allen-Bradley VFD drives, taking them out of their factory housings and placing them into the vehicles exposed to the elements. 😵 I just lol'd as Allen-Bradley VFD's in the 1990's were well known to be poor performers compared to Danfoss. Exposing them to the elements and starting and stopping the motors creates a lot of heat, so add that to a vehicle in the hot sun and you'll experience drive faults repeatedly. It's a darn shame what those in power did to Tomorrowland by going on the cheap.

Rocket Rods sounded kinda cool on paper, too bad the execution was extremely terrible to the point it only lasted 2 years.

We visited Disneyland in 2000, and we absolutely loved the ride, in fact, we rode it a number of times and enjoyed it immensely. Sad to see it go.

My parents would take my brother & I to Disneyland once a year from when I was eight till I was fourteen. It opened when I was twelve & every year the line was either three hours long…or it broke down. I never got to ride it & I’m completely happy I didn’t considering how underwhelming it was to everyone who did. I haven’t been to Disney since 2015 but wasn’t the wait line for rocket rods integrated into autopia’s wait line? I also remember seeing chunks of concrete missing from the support beams & the park not fixing it for well over a year after the ride shut down. They only fixed it when pretty much half of Tomorrowland was shut down for the space mountain renovation.

Idea for a future video: Top 10 most missed Disney attractions. You did 10 most missed roller coasters and after watching this Disney topic, I think you should make something like it.

Glad to know that classic animated movies are not the only thing Disney destroys by doing terrible remakes.

Never knew the track was structurally damaged. Makes sense now why they never did anything with it once it closed

As a kid, I really liked the Tron phase that the PeopleMover went through.

Remember waiting over 2 hours to get a ride on this thing. Was one of the best ride at the park! Also kinda fun to see all the track still standing there.

😂😂😂 The thumbnail made me say, "This shit looks HELLA boring." 😂😂

There is another Peoplemover out in the world. It’s at the Houston airport as one of the inter-terminal trains. ☺️

Somehow this is the first time I am learning what the people mover actually was, and the first time I am seeing footage of it, despite hearing about it numerous times. I always thought it was that thing where you sit in chairs that spin you around a stage showcasing stuff, and those overhanging structures outside were just decorative architecture (and yes, I did think the People Mover was a bad name for that stage thing). Turns out the overhangs were the people mover tracks! Now I kinda want it back too. Any idea if modern technology could help them refurbish it, especially since they already shut down all of ToonTown for recent refurbishments?

My memories of this ride are much better watching it than riding it. It opened when I was very little so sitting on the monorail and watching the cars zoom by really did scare me with all that noise. I rode it once when I got a little bit older and had taken on bigger coasters like X and Xcelerator and I just remember feeling let down. I wanted it to be as scary as I always thought it was, but it didn't measure up. Obviously now I realize that it was never going to, but the sound those cars made really did fill me with fear as a little kid.

$25M for such a ride.. I honestly think they just wanted to spend money

Initial reaction - How dare you sir! After watching - Yeah, you’re right. I remember going on this ride something like 10 times growing up. Always loved the stuff in the queue tunnels about “transportation system of the future” with lines to the beach and the mountains. It was fun, but it gone really makes Tomorrowland somewhat dead feeling in the evenings. There’s no more stuff above ground level to bring life into that area of the park. Unfortunately it also suffered from the same issue I think Smugglers Run has, where the ride was great for 1 person, and the rest of the passengers it was just ok. Being in the back row helped a bit since it was side by side, but it wasn’t anywhere near as fun as being up front. I’d love to see a modern concept with money put into it. Would likely end up with a test track like vehicle now, maybe something like journey to the center of the earth if you don’t want people needing to get down that low.

Awesome video! Im excited for the Space Mountain video that you teased at the end!

Enjoyed riding the Rocket Rods, but preferred the ole People Mover. Bummer to lose them both. Surprised engineers missed considering the Rocket Rod stresses on the People Mover structure.

I wrote it on opening day twice. I waited one hour in line after the park first opened..and loved it. I've been caught in line five minutes before the Park closed and waited for 3 hours and 45 minutes to write it again... I should have gone home and gone to bed instead.

This was like Darkoaster. They tried to turn a slow moving ride into a thrill ride, but Intamin did it way better with Darkoaster.

Bring back the Peoplemover!!!!! This current Disney regime is so wildly out of touch, it’s no wonder Universal is dominating them.

I rode rocket rods at the end of 1999, and the peoplemover many times before that. Returning with my own family over a decade later, I missed the peoplemover, and it seems such a waste to have the overhead track still in place but not able to run guests on it. ISTR VFD dot matrix displays on the rocket rods displaying diagnostic information, which gave me a very hard awkward retrofit vibe.

I’ve been to Disneyland back in 1999 and saw it running. Looking back at the Rocket Rods, I just wished they’d refurbished the original People Mover instead. Even though Magic Kingdom’s People Mover is still running, it’s a real shame that they turned California’s People Mover into a dumpster fire.

I’m still mad at Disney Anaheim for removing the carousel of progress.

This video really took me back to my early childhood ages where my family and I would constantly ride the Monorail at SeaWorld Australia. It sucks that it's been closed and the trains are getting scrapped.

I never knew how much I wanted a Living With The Land Rapids ride until now!!

I was born in 96, so the peoplemover was long gone by the time I was born. But I remember being very little seeing the rocket rods zoom through Tomorrowland. From literally one minute to the next they were gone, it’s sad to see Disney still has yet to do with anything with the track. I’ll just pray that somehow or way they can rebuild the peoplemover.

Was just at Disneyland and still some remains of it around. It's why Peoplemover is still around in WDW, it'd cost too much to remove it.

I remember when I was standing in line for star tours and wondering if they would ever bring it back. Great vids man

What a ride of emotions. I would have loved to ride either the people mover or rocket rods. However, i hope someday something happens with this track. Great video!!

I remember seeing stuff about this ride on the Disney channel before it opened, but didn't make it to the park by the time it closed. The name of it had been on the tip of my tongue, for like a decade.

TomorrowLand is meta to America in unexpected ways. Destroy a very efficient passenger service & misuse old infastructure to failure = profit? That sounds exactly like American Railroads. Forget building new track or infrastructure, only buy shiny new vehicles that perform awful on old track from the sixties AND even damage the repurposed PeopleMover track structure from the new heavier/faster RocketRods. Kinda amazed Disney managed to hit 3 birds with one stone. Kill the PeopleMover, kill the RocketRods and kill any chance of People Mover returning in OG form by weakening the track structure. As a kid I thought the PM tracks were so wasted, those people mover tracks looked awesome gliding around tomorrow land, sharing airspace with the monorail ,moving above Autotopia and ducking in & out of other attractions at a smooth calm pace. I can only imagine.

Yep rocket rods was a terrible idea. The people mover was better. I hope they bring it back in some form.

I always liked the idea of Rocket Rods, just a shame about the execution. I remember getting a little Rocket Rod toy in a Happy Meal during their Disneyland promotion!

Fruit stripes gum🤣😂 And no, we ALL hated rocket rods and we are still pissed they have never brought back the people mover or the essence of it. Which is going behind the scenes of other rides (kinda like the train). The people mover was another way to RELAX (15min) and enjoy the park views without windows or seatbelts. That ride would stimulate minds believe or not. From creative ideas to making out🥰 Another losing essential at the park (romance). Like Splash mountain with those uncomfortable seat dividers they installed. You used to be able to cuddly embrace your love one and sneak a consensual boob grab. But I digress. 😞

I'm sure that Bob Gurr shakes his head in quiet regret to this day whenever someone says, "Disneyland Peoplemover". In truth, I liked Rocket Rods... the one time it was operating when i visited the pack that is. I wouldn't have traded Peoplemover for it, however.

Yea, i remember when they took out the peoplemover and put in the rocket rods, i was so disappointed only ever rode it once, and have since been holding out hope they bite the bullet and get the peoplemover back in there where it belongs!

My family and I loved Rocket Rods haha, but I think it was mostly because it was the only ride my grandfather could really ride with all of his health issues. I was also pretty young when we went, it was 1999 I believe, so like 7.

This is one ride I’ve wondered about for a while so thank you for this one. These videos are fantastic. I’m working to build up my channel and I would totally love to collab with you at some point.

I waited in line for 2 hours to ride Rocket Rods. It kept breaking down right after a car would leave the station. It had some fun moments, but because they did not do any banking on the turns, it was really just a short launch into breaks every few seconds.

Even though the original peoplemover is gone One still lives over at Magic Kingdom

I loved this ride. The issues I had with the ride was the lack of show in the dark tunnels, it was loud as hell when you are under the initial launch area, and it did slow down a lot on turns. I thought it was a cool ride. However, I am glad they got rid of it. Either they need to remove the tracks altogether or spend the money to reinstall the Peoplemover. I was about 16 years old when I rode the People mover that included the Tron movie in the dark tunnel. That was cool as hell. I do remember the original and the Rods. Loved them both. Disney needs to do something with this thing instead of leaving it there unattended and rotting.

Was super strange seeing it in person last week. I’m used to the one in Orlando that still operates and doesn’t have hills like the one in Cali. Super strange but super cool.

I rode them once and they were okay. I never find any of the rides 'sucky' ... kind of like any day at Disneyland is a good one. But I wouldn't wait in that long line for it. I managed to be going by just after it re-opened after being down for a few hours and everyone went elsewhere so I probably waited 5 minutes. Glad I did it but the sample was ample.

I worked there when the Rocket Rods were running.....it was fun...but broke down a lot. I enjoyed the ride.....people mover was better though. I was inside the tomorrow land offices and the rockets rods went over the roof of the offices....it shook the building every time a "rod" went over it.....major structure damage to old buildings and the track......same track as the people mover.....people want the people mover back.

The Michael Eisner era is really interesting to me. There were many projects that were much more thrilling back in the late 80's and through the 1990's. There was Splash Mountain, Alien Encounter, Body Wars, and more that where more for thrillseekers and attractions meant for teens and young adults such as Videopolis, Captain Eo, and others. However, there were many failures as well that tried to be more modern or thrilling or trendy during that time. This is often considered one of the worst Disneyland attractions along with Superstar Limo.

I enjoyed the Rocket Rods. Disappointed it didn’t work out, more so that it ruined the cool elevated track around Tommorwoland.

I was lucky enough to ride Rocket Rods 3 times during my visit in August 2000, twice in the front seat. That ride provided quite a rush. It was also the first ride at Disneyland to use the Single Rider system thanks to the long lines and the ride's limited capacity. The ride was also prone to multiple breakdowns during the day. It broke down on me twice during that same visit, causing me and many others to wait between 60 to 90 minutes in line for it to come back up. If you had to rank the least reliable rides by breakdowns, I can almost guarantee that Rocket Rods and Rise of the Resistance would be going at least 12 rounds boxing each other over 1st and 2nd.

"He made Bob Chapek look like Jeff Bezos... Maybe." 🔥🔥

Excellent video, really interesting and informative 👍

An attraction that only lasts 2 years... thats not too bad... Then comes Galactic Starcruiser XD

It shows how desperate Disney was to create a ride on the cheap. This is a great video on the history of the California version of this ride. Fortunately, they never did the same thing in Florida, and after a refurbishment after the year 2000, it is still in operation today. instead, Test Track with GM's involvement is still running today at Epcot and its refurbishment that came in the last 15 years. That ride is what this ride could never be - correctly invested in and designed to support 60 mph on a stretch of the ride without destroying the track to this very day.

Great documentary. I feel fortunate that I got to ride it, considering it had such a short lifespan. I remember thinking it was generally fun, but definitely remember a long line to ride and frequent starting and stopping at every turn.

I always wanted to ride those rocket rods. Then three years later...like they never existed. Wasn't meant to be, I guess.

This video absolutely nailed it. The ride itself was actually fun, but not worth more than a 1/2 hour wait. And it broke down so much that in around 5 visits to Disneyland while it was open, I only rode it twice. And yeah, the fact that it destroyed the People Mover infrastructure was a really bad thing. They could have easily re-themed the People Mover to go with the "retro future" look, added something cool in the Super-Speed Tunnel, and it would have been successful and still in operation to this day.

Loved this ride as a kid!! Only fond memories of the ride & the music in the line queue. Front seat was so fun! 😢

When Cedar Fair bought the Paramount parks, they could've kept liscences for 10 years without any cost had they wanted to. I wonder what the theme park world would look like had they gone with that. I imagine Cedar Fair would be a footnote like Premier Parks is a footnote, you would see "Paramount's Dorney Park", "Paramount's Worlds of Fun", "Paramount Michigan's Adventure", and "Paramount's Valleyfair". Cedar Point and especially Knott's Berry Farm are probably too iconic to Paramountify ("Paramount's Cedar Point" actually has a nice ring to it but since Knott's is actually named for the Knott family they would've needed to make it a tagline). I do suspect we're on a better timeline because Cedar Fair's version of Paramount parks undoubtably would've been more family focused with less coasters, but perhaps it would've just collapsed entirely because they would have tried to integrate Marvel into the parks after Iron Man...and they would've had to contend with Disney after Paramount sold off the film rights (Knowing what I've heard about Disney's business model, they're only, reletively speaking, easy on Marvel Superhero Island because it brings in tourists who will likely go to their parks too, they would be a lot tougher if your regional theme parks made it so you didn't need to go to Orlando for a Marvel theme park).

Ironically enough, this ride was in operation for both of the first two times I've been to Disneyland and I didn't ride it in either visit. Either because the line was absurdly long or because it was broken down yet again. At first I was a bit disappointed that I never got to experience it before it closed, but then I found out that I wasn't missing much at all when I discovered POV videos of it on the internet a couple years later. POV's (especially ones shot on VHS cams from the 90's/00's) usually only do so good of a job at replicating the experience of riding extinct attractions, but I think i can trust my gut feeling that the real thing would have been just as boring as the POV's made it look. 😅

your channel is my comfort show :)

I was lucky enough to ride the Rods just the one time. We also went to DCA which must have been it's opening year. It was empty and the Rods were awful. I grew up in Florida with the linear induction People Mover, and that calming trip is a great counterpoint to the hustle bustle of a Disney day. The old Sky gondolas were good for that too. And getting across the park in a hurry!

It’s a mysterious ride in California that I never been on it before. But it’s a forgotten ride that keeps questioning to me and I don’t know what will be replaced with. It’s like the old school peoplemover that has a normal speed same as the one in Florida. 10:26 I would not wait in line for hours and I would walk away from it.

i got to ride it twice, I was about 10 years old. I remember watching the commercial on tv that had rocket rods in it and as a kid I was super hyped to ride it. I waited about 3 hours both times, absolutely loved it. I just recently rode test track again at disneyworld, and that really brings back memories of rockets rods, so Test Track will always be the closest thing ill ever ride again to remind me of Rocket Rods.

I actually really loved this ride. It was so fun. When it was not broken down hahaha

Only Disney could mess up this terribly and still exist! Gotta give them credit.

To all my fellow Offhand DIsney viewers: our time has come!

They always say at Disney that no idea is ever dead and it seems like the idea originally for Tokyo is what may have inspired Light Cycle Run in Shanghai.

This was the last ride I went on with my dad before he passed away. Thank you for this video ❤❤

I was just the right age when this ride opened and I loved it. I enjoyed the people mover but I was just a kid and the mover was slow. I loved the scenic track but I wanted to go fast. :D

I was there the week new Tomorrowland opened. I wanted to ride rocket rods so bad, but the wait was like 4 hours and my parents weren't down. The main thing i remember about them were they were LOUD. Every time a car went by we had to stop talking and cover our ears

When he said "Fruitstripe Gum" I took it personally 😂🤣

The rocket rods was a huge mistake that Disney made. It not only took away a fan favorite ride, but it completely ruined Tomorrowland. The abandoned tracks are an absolute eyesore.

I grew up in San Diego, so Disneyland was was a 2X a year visit. From 1967 to 1985, I'll be damned if I ever saw the People Mover actually in service. It was also a liability for the park, due to idiots getting off while it was moving and taking a header onto the ground below.

“Test Track” accomplished what this wish it could.

6:52 That ''fard'' sound sounds like something straight out of kracc bacc.

The preshow through the CircleVision theater was the best part of the ride.

To quote the Angry Videogame Nerd, "what were they thinking?!"

The problem with the Peoplemover in California was that it never adopted the advanced electromagnetic linear motors that they used in Florida.. and they actually installed one in the Houston Hobby airport. It didn't have the issues that the tires had.