Features

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co.’s ambitious attempt to open a chain of virtual theme parks has come to an end with the announcement that DisneyQuest in Chicago will close at the end of the summer. 

Disney Regional Entertainment said the five-story indoor interactive theme park that featured 3D computer-animated versions of popular Disney attractions, such as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Space Mountain,” simply didn’t make enough money. 

“Although the concept has been a great creative success and exceptionally well-received by our guests, we have concluded that the expected returns on the investment required to achieve DisneyQuest’s cutting edge technology standard in a stand-alone environment will not meet the company’s financial requirements for this type of business,” said Randall Baumberger, senior vice president of Disney Regional Entertainment. 

The park’s 270 employees – about 70 percent of them are part-time – will lose their jobs, although Disney said an effort will be made to transfer the workers to its nearby ESPN Zone restaurant or one of 14 Disney Stores in greater Chicago. 

The facility will close Sept. 4. Full refunds will be issued to people holding annual passes or prepaid tickets. 

DisneyQuest was launched in 1998 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and trumpeted as a means to bring the thrill of Disney’s theme parks to people who lived too far away from Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo or Paris. The company hoped to open 15 to 20 of the indoor “virtual theme parks” at a cost of about $30 million each. 

The centers featured sophisticated virtual reality rides, including “CyberSpace Mountain,” where two people could design their own roller coaster, then “ride” it while sitting in a capsule that rolled and pitched 360 degrees. 

The second DisneyQuest opened in Chicago in 1999. A third was scheduled to anchor a major development in downtown Philadelphia, a few blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. The $90 million high-tech entertainment center — with a 20-screen movie complex, shops and restaurants in addition to the five-story indoor theme park — had been set to open this summer, but was scrapped by the city because of problems with the developer. 

Disney said in June 2000 it would halt further development of its DisneyQuest parks while it reevaluated the business model behind the concept. That announcement came just a few months after the company held its annual shareholder’s meeting in Chicago, in part to highlight the opening of the second DisneyQuest location. 

The flagship DisneyQuest in Orlando will remain open. 

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On the Net: 

http://disney.go.com/disneyquest/index.html