Welcome back to part 5 of the Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions series and this time we are looking at a canceled project for World Showcase. Epcot Center has had many different proposals for new World Showcase Pavilions but few made it as far as Switzerland.
This project made it to the stage where numerous pieces of concept art were created and all attractions and shops were in late stages of development. We are going to go through all of these shops and attractions in detail, starting with the main ride.
Disney was going to use this pavilion to bring the classic Disneyland attraction, Matterhorn Bobsleds, to Walt Disney World. But despite sharing the same name, this ride would share little with its Disneyland counterpart.
First, the ride would have been either entirely indoors or a vast majority of the ride would be inside. Second, and more importantly, the story would have been vastly different, not even featuring Harold the abominable snowman. Now two different stories were created for this attraction, identified as Storyline A and B, with B mainly serving as a backup if the first was not approved.
Storyline A would feature guests entering a bobsled training facility until something goes wrong and they end up on a much more difficult path than intended, traveling through ice caves and dangerous terrain.
Storyline B on the other hand essentially turned Matterhorn Bobsleds into a Space Mountain lite. It would feature dark, lightly themed caverns that look more along the lines of Disneyland Paris's Space Mountain than Matterhorn Bobsleds. This was likely a budget option if there was not as much budget given to this project as was anticipated.
Also involved in one of these storylines would have been an avalanche themed finale, shown in the concept art above.
Now let us move on to the shops and restaurant that would have made up the rest of this land.
As for shops, they would feature several of the most famous products from the country, with proposals in the works for a candy shop, a clock shop, a wood shop, and an apparel store. There would also be a tourism center with information about Switzerland, as this Pavilion would actually be sponsored by the Switzerland government as an effort to increase tourism, as was the original intention for World Showcase countries.
There was also one restaurant planned for this pavilion. Not much is known about it except its views would have been a selling point.
So what happened to this pavilion? Apparently, Disney could not get the necessary funding from the Switzerland government which prevent construction from ever starting, despite how far along this proposal got.
Disney did release this description below about the proposed pavilion which would have opened in 1985 had the funding moved forward.
This would be one of two mountain themed roller coasters to be designed and ultimately canceled for Epcot Center's World Showcase, the other being a Mt. Fiji themed roller coaster. It would have been the first mountain roller coaster outside of a castle park, something that didn't end up happening until Expedition Everest.
Today the plot of land this would have sat on, the expansion pad between Italy and Germany, is highly rumored to be the location for an upcoming Brazil Pavilion, bringing the first South American country to the World Showcase.
We here at Theme Parks and Entertainment hope you enjoyed this article and if you did that you will sign up for our newsletter. If you missed any of the previous articles in this series be sure to go here and make certain you come back for part 6, Great Moments at the Movies.
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