Why Disneyland's WORST Ride EVER Failed - Luigi's Flying Tires

In this video, we explore the history of Luigi's Flying Tires, one of Disneyland Resort's most notorious failed attractions. We'll cover its origin as the classic Flying Saucers ride and its brief and troubled run at Disney California Adventure, we delve into what went wrong with this ambitious yet flawed ride. Join us as we uncover the technical challenges, guest experiences, and the ultimate closure of Luigi's Flying Tires, all while reflecting on the lessons learned from this memorable theme park misstep.

Music by NCTRNM

[breakingoblivion]

having worked retail for close to 8 years, it doesn’t matter how large or clear you make the signage. people WILL refuse to read it.

[ericthomason]

I was lucky to ride Luigi's Flying Tires back when it was in operation. While my memories of it are fuzzy, it might've been the most unique ride I've ever ridden.

[WayLessRaces]

No disrespect but Magic Spoon is the WORST cereal that I ever had. Not recommended.

[hootowl]

"The ride's balls were removed..."

[manlyone]

It wasn't a bad attraction, but people got hurt on it a lot by stepping on the tire portion while disembarking, which you are specifically told not to do, resulting in a fall.

The attraction couldn't stand up to riders' insistence on not following directions.

[filmfreak]

There were several tips to best experience the ride:

1) Adults should ride solo
2) Once the air turns on and your tire is floating, center your body weight in the middle of the tire for balance
3) Gently lean in the direction you want to travel
4) Make sure to not lean too far on one side, otherwise the bottom of your tire will hit the ground. And that could be a real "drag" 😅
5) Keep gently leaning into an area of long empty stretch of floor. This way your tire can build up enough speed and momentum to crash into other tires or bounce off the ride perimeter.

Cast members would often ride with guests at the end of every night and really show how much fun the ride can be.

In order to get enough running space to gain enough speed, less tires needed to be in the ride path. But that would also result in lower hourly capacity

[PaulFisher]

6:41 that dude straight-up smoking a cigar on the ride is so very of its time

[-dtuyhnjhggvjjjn]

This was a great ride once you learned how to navigate it, it was a lot of fun. There was a steep learning curve for visiting guests, so I can understand why it failed, but as an Anaheim local for a while it was great. The line was definitely too long as well, I'm not sure why they didn't make it a larger arena. But "Worst Ride EVER" is extremely inaccurate I think

[amyrachelle]

“ the ride’s balls were removed “ that’s too bad, I heard it was looking forward to having tires of its own some day.

[JCBro-ygvd]

Disney with Rocket Rods: You wanna see us ruin a beloved attraction?
Disney with Luigi's Case De Tires: You wanna see us do it again?

[filmfreak]

Fun trivia: If you didn't notice before, the control mechanism on the tire was designed to look like an oversized air valve to go with the oversized tire

[felixcortes]

I got to ride this during a down pour of rain that made the fans blow up the rain drops. The rain drops were falling and bouncing up so hi that it was the most fun water ride I have ever been on. It created a wall of water on the edge of the attraction. It was not raining as the ride started to operate.

[DaveysWonderfulWorld]

Luigi‘s flying tires is basically like if Disney Imaginering brung back the old flying saucers attraction from the 1960s and made the ride cars bigger and bulkier, themed it to the Cars franchise and made it slower than a slug in a pot of glue

[LawyerPanda]

this was one of my favorite rides! i was sad when they converted it to what it is now. Learning to steer did take a few tries, but i eventually was able to get it where I can get the craft charging towards my intended target, only to end up gently tapping their craft, just to freak them out, lol.

[nikguimont]

I have a vague memory of Luigi’s flying tires being advertised on Disney’s 365 on the Disney Channel as a kid

[Kerm_ie]

3:58 highly reccommended skipping this ad and watching Shane McGillicuddy's "Just Another Paid Promotion" video on magic spoon

[jlb]

I got to ride this. It was ok. You could move in the direction you wanted, but it was slow. Also, the line was long, and they yelled instructions to us, but you couldn't hear what was being said. It wasn't a terrible ride, but it wasn't too fun either. By the time you really started to get the hang of it, the ride was over.

[greenchevy]

I actually rode Luigi’s flying tires back in 2014. While I am proud to say that I got a ride on this short lived Disney attraction, I can’t say the same about the ride experience. It was an incredibly slow ride that my mom and I couldn’t really figure out how to operate at the time. What we really need is an extreme revamp of Tomorrowland so we can see the return of the Peoplemover and maybe even a re imagined version of the flying saucers!

[waverly]

I'm old enough to have ridden the original flying saucers in 1965. That was a great ride, you really moved on a cushion of air. You steered your saucer by leaning in the direction you wanted to go. The Luigi's tires were a lot bigger and held multiple people and the ride wasn't as good.

[TheNewTriStateGuy]

Flying turns?

We got flying tires.