ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter will go down as the scariest ride in Disney Parks history. It was scarier than Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Tower of Terror, and Hautnted Mansion combined. It was open for less than 10 years and replaced with a very controversial attraction, Stitch’s Great Escape, which we just learned will be reopening after being closed for almost 5 years.
Stitch’s Great Escape took the place of ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter in 2004, only one year after Alien Encounter closed. Disney took the existing theater, did some slight retheming and reopened it as a slightly less terrifying experience, based on one of their most popular IPs, Stitch.
The good news for Disney is that Stitch’s Great Escape ran for longer than Alien Encounter. It had a strong run for just over 13 years before closing in 2018. Initially Disney started with a soft closure where it was only open seasonally, that slowly faded into it being closed indefinitely. Weeks later, Disney announced it would be closed for good, but they have just retracted that.
The breaking Disney news today is that Stitch’s Great Escape is re-opening at Magic Kingdom! Bob Iger has decided to reopen the attraction as one of his initial big announcements as the new CEO of Disney. So far this is the biggest announcement Iger has made in this new position leading the company.
For those who experienced Stitch’s Great Escape prior to closing, they know this is a controversial decision by Iger. The attraction was not as scary as Alien Encounter, however, it was still somewhat terrifying, especially for young children. Not only that, but it also has the world famous chili dog burp. This was widely recognized as the grossest moment in all of Disney parks history.
The skunk scene in Journey Into Imagination with Figment is not good. The smell is terrible and many people cover their noses during it. However, the chili dog burp is far more pungent than the skunk smell. In fact, there have been many complaints of people feeling ill and vomiting after riding Stitch’s Great Escape because of that burp. It’s certainly a surprise for those not expecting it.
This begs the question, if Disney closed the ride back in 2018, why are they reopening it? We reached out to an internal source. They said that while the attraction gets a bad rep, many guests actually loved the ride and it was a more popular attraction than people remember. They mentioned that Disney didn’t ever destroy the attraction as they always had the intention to reopen it.
While the closure felt permanent, that was never the plan. Disney planned to reopen it eventually. Staffing, COVID, and cash flow issues all led to it being closed for longer than anticipated. With Bob Iger now at the lead, he is working to solve those issues and now sees the perfect opportunity to reopen the beloved attraction in Tomorrowland!
There is no official set date for Stitch’s Great Escape to reopen, however it’s estimated to happen in the next few weeks, potentially before the end of the year. Since Disney was always planning to reopen the ride, there isn’t a lot of work that needs to be done to get it ready for its re-grand opening. Except fixing the Stitch animatronic pictured above of course. We wonder if Stitch will take over the castle again as part of the reopening ceremony for Stitch’s Great Escape!
What do you think of this classic ride making a return to Disney World? Are you as excited as we are? Let us know in the comments below!
To stay up to date on more very real Disney news like this totally made up story, be sure to follow The Mouse Trap on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Please consider joining our email list below to get all of our stories sent directly to your inbox!
I’m extremely excited for the reopening for stitchs great escape. Maybe the ride might have a grand opening again like if splash mountain is closed for good and reopens on 2025 beacuase…. The robots are old and so bad people are saying. And they don’t know it