Grizzly River Run: Never Built Disneyland Paris

Never Built Disneyland Paris

Grizzly Peak Disney California Adventure Grizzly River Run Ride

Grizzly Peak is an amazing ride at Disney California Adventure and it was the original icon of the park. But it was almost not the only version of this ride built, as plans were developed for this ride to be built as an early expansion to Disneyland Paris.

Early expansions for the European Disney Park explored the potential of adding a water ride to the park throughout the 1990s and the 2000s. This fit with a trend of water rides being added to the US Disney Parks with Splash Mountain, Kali River Rapids, and Grizzly River Run being developed and added at this time.

Two of these rides, Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids would not fit with the theme of the lands of Disneyland Paris at all. This then allowed Disney to explore cloning the Disney California Adventure ride to Disneyland Paris.

This ride would have been added to the Frontierland section of the park on the other side of the railroad near its station in the park, alongside the Rivers of America. This ride could have easily been added into the backstory of the land, and with some slight aesthetic changes, it could have fit in the park relatively well.

The plans for this were never formally announced, only being known due to a leaked planning document. Due to the nature of this, the reason it was canceled is unknown. The easiest guess is probably that a water ride was deemed unrealistic in the climate of Paris. Budget issues certainly could have been an issue as well, as Disneyland Paris was far from a financial success at the time.


It is interesting to know that this ride was explored for an entirely different park at one time, and imagine what a Paris version of this California attraction would have looked like had it actually been built.


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