Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
Theme park rumors spread fast, but the latest viral claim about Disneyland left even casual fans in shock. Reports suggested Disney executives were considering a radical plan: tearing down the iconic Matterhorn Bobsleds and rebuilding the mountain coaster elsewhere to make room for a Tomorrowland overhaul.
Before fans start mourning Walt Disney’s original 1959 Swiss peak, a former Imagineering executive has delivered a definitive reality check.
Jim Shull, who spent over three decades as a senior executive creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, addressed the speculation directly. Shull explained that demolishing and relocating the Matterhorn is logistically absurd and economically impossible, carrying a price tag exceeding $800 million—a cost Disney leadership would never justify.
Here is why moving Disneyland’s mountain is a complete non-starter, and what it actually means for the future of Tomorrowland.
Where the Rumor Started
The speculation grew following reports analyzing Tomorrowland’s physical layout at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
With Disney confirming a multi-year Tomorrowland reimagining at D23, fans began debating how planners would resolve the land’s structural choke points. Hemmed in by the Submarine Voyage lagoon, the Monorail track, Autopia, and Space Mountain, Tomorrowland lacks open space. Because the Matterhorn sits right at the border of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, rumors suggested that Disney might demolish the 147-foot mountain to widen pathways and rebuild a modernized version elsewhere.
The $800M Reality Check
Jim Shull shut down the theory using simple economic logic. Constructing a steel-and-concrete artificial mountain equipped with dual coaster tracks, rockwork, and civil engineering infrastructure cannot simply be relocated. Tearing down the peak and building a replica from scratch would push costs beyond $800 million. To put that into perspective:
- The entire 14-acre Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land at Disneyland cost roughly $1 billion to build from scratch.
- Rebuilding the Matterhorn alone would cost almost as much as an entire new land packed with multiple E-ticket attractions.
Disney executives would never authorize nearly a billion dollars just to recreate an attraction that already exists and functions daily. That capital would instead fund brand-new E-ticket rides, fresh intellectual property, or the multi-billion-dollar DisneylandForward expansion initiative.
Why Walt’s Mountain Is Built to Stay
Beyond the financial impossibility, physical logistics, and Disney history make moving the Matterhorn unthinkable:
- Deep Infrastructure: The Matterhorn is a 14-story hollow mountain anchored by heavy steel framing and concrete footings, tightly interwoven with the Monorail track and surrounding waterways. Demolishing it would cause years of massive disruption in the center of the park.
- Land Constraints: Disneyland is notoriously land-locked. There is simply no open space inside Disneyland Park big enough to hold a 147-foot mountain without tearing down another major attraction.
- Historical Heritage: Opened on June 14, 1959, as the world’s first tubular steel roller coaster, Walt Disney personally commissioned Matterhorn, and it is an irreplaceable piece of park history.
Refurbishment Over Demolition
Instead of tearing down legacy rides, Disney routinely updates internal systems while preserving historic structures—just as Imagineers replaced Space Mountain’s track in 2005 inside its original dome.
Tomorrowland is getting a bright new future, but the Matterhorn Bobsleds isn’t going anywhere. Thanks to Jim Shull’s $800 million reality check, fans can rest easy knowing Walt’s mountain is here to stay.
