A quick trip to the Magic Kingdom (Part 1: Overview and Fantasyland)

     On October 1, 1971, Five years after the death of the company's founder, Walt Disney, the Florida Project officially opened with one theme park, the Magic Kingdom. This park would go on to be a successful way to begin the new property, and it's still considered by many to be the best park out of the four in Walt Disney World. It's certainly the most iconic as you can hardly think of the parks as a whole without thinking of Cinderella's Castle or Space Mountain, which are both originals from this park. It certainly takes a lot of ideas and attractions from Disneyland, its big sister from across the country, and puts its own spin on things. The Imagineers had much more room to work with, as Magic Kingdom is slightly larger than the original park, with its 107 acres of land vs. Disneyland's 85. This park definitely claims the title of my favorite park, for reasons that I'm excited to get into. I have a lot to tell you about, so instead of going more into the history and opening of the park, I'll give a quick overview tour of the different lands that make up this incredible place. All aboard!

"Here you leave today..."

    As you enter the Magic Kingdom, you may notice a plaque hanging above the entrance which reads, "Here you leave today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy." This quote is placed here because the park is made up of differently themed lands. Main Street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland split this "Happiest Place on Earth" into different areas all flowing into one another, while all very much being their own thing. The theming cannot be overstated, as they do a magnificent job of obscuring other lands from sight even if they're just on the other side of a small building. Unlike the theming at a lesser park such as Six Flags, you'll never be walking around thinking, "Huh... if that coaster is called the Georgia Cyclone, why is it in the U.K. area of the park instead of the Georgia area?" Everything in each of these lands is deliberate and the theming really contributes to how well these lands immerse the visitors into a new world. The first land you enter is Main Street USA, as that's the only way into the park, and it's great. You walk down the street and the buildings that line the long street create this corridor so you really can only see Cinderella's Castle and the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse holding hands. It's really amazing to see the castle at the end of that long stretch of buildings, and it's obviously the first thing that people want to take pictures of, even though they're supposed to be walking into the park. Once you get past these buildings, you enter the "hub," as all of the different areas are accessible to enter from here. Adventureland has an entrance, Liberty Square and Frontierland share an entrance, though Liberty Square gets the actual sign, and Tomorrowland is on the other side of the castle. "What about Fantasyland?" I hear you asking. Why, my dear readers, Fantasyland gets the greatest entrance of all! You simply walk through the castle's tile laid tunnel, and Fantasyland is on the other side of that. If that doesn't get you stoked about the world of fantasy awaiting you on the other side, I don't know what will. Of course, all of these different entrances fit the theming of the lands as well, with Adventureland having tiki masks on the sign with spears crossed, as it takes place in a jungle setting, and Tomorrowland having a futuristic looking sign to entice the visitors to start at that side of the park. While the entrances are impressive, including the entrance to the park as a whole, let's go into some of these different worlds, shall we?

"Worlds of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy"

    This park is full of so many different lands, I felt that just describing them would have to be a whole section. Adventureland is a Jungle area with some slight Aladdin vibes thrown in the middle such as the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and the Agrabah Marketplace. This is where you can find rides such as Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as home of the greatest ice cream you can get in the parks known colloquially as "Pineapple Whip." From Adventureland, you can mosey on over to the old west at Frontierland. This place is best known for having not one, but two mountains in it: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the soon to be re-themed Splash Mountain. Big Thunder is a rollercoaster wrapping around and going through the titular mountain which has a mining town built up around it, and Splash Mountain is a water ride taking you through some of the Uncle Remus stories with Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, though it will soon be re-themed to be a new ride based on the 2009 animated film, Princess and the Frog (Though I'll talk about this another day).  Frontierland is also home to the Country Bear Jamboree, which as rumor has it, was one of the last big laughs of Walt Disney's life at the version in Disneyland. Just down the road from Frontierland, we have Liberty Square, emulating what things looked like around the time of the American Revolution around Boston. This area is home to attractions such as The Hall of the Presidents and The Haunted Mansion, as well as one of my favorite restaurants in the park, Columbia Harbor House. The Haunted Mansion is a fun and campy ride through a spooky haunted house, complete with your host... your GHOST host, and Hall of the Presidents is a neat little animatronic show featuring all of the presidents that have been elected so far, as well as a bit about the founding of the country. The Hall of the Presidents is interesting, but Haunted Mansion is definitely the more fun attraction of the two, especially if you're a little kid. Next to Liberty Square, there's Fantasyland which I'm going to go more into detail on in just a bit because there's a lot to it. For now, however, I'll just say that as soon as you cross over into this area, you're met with potentially the two most popular attractions in the entire park, it's a small world and Peter Pan's Flight. From Fantasyland, you can take the concourse to Tomorrowland, the world of the future and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover. Tomorrowland is super cool and the Peoplemover may genuinely be my favorite ride in the park. It's certainly the one that I've ridden the most often, at least! That's a very brief overview of the park, but don't worry, I have a lot more to say about this park (hence why I'm calling this part one), I'm just trying to get a lot out of the way so this post doesn't take fifteen years to read.

All in the name of Progress

    In Tomorrowland, there's a show that's constantly running all throughout the day called "Carousel of Progress." It's a show that can run all the time because of the animatronic actors and actresses involved in the show. The show itself is all about the American family through the ages, and specifically focuses on different technological advances that have come into the home to make life a bit better. Ironically, this show is very dated, but that's partially because it was first shown at the New York World's fair in 1964. Disney was contracted to make all kinds of attractions for the fair, including this show as well as It's a small world. The show is probably best known for it's song, "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," written by the incredibly talented Sherman Brothers. In that song, it says, "Tomorrow is just a dream away," and Walt certainly loved that notion. He stated in an interview once that, "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there's imagination in the world." Everything in Disneyland, as well as the parks that came after, is constantly changing, and never was that made more apparent than in the case of Mickey's Toontown Fair. This was an area where you could go meet Mickey and his friends, and was also home to a few attractions such as the Barnstormer, but it was closed in 2011 to make room for a new expansion to Fantasyland. This new area is now home to a few new rides, restaurants, and most importantly, the best bathrooms in the park. Unfortunately, Tangled doesn't have much representation in the parks as a whole, but with the new Fantasyland additions, there's a whole Tangled pavilion that looks like the kingdom from the movie , complete with lanterns everywhere and a huge tower for Rapunzel. There's nothing in this area except for bathrooms, but they are really well themed. The boys room has frying pans everywhere and wanted posters of different characters from the movie, and the girl's bathroom (from what I've heard) is themed more like Rapunzel's tower, complete with paintings and books that she's read. Alright, I know bathrooms aren't exactly the most exciting thing in the world for most readers, but I love them a lot. Let's get to some of these rides.

    Under the Sea, the Little Mermaid attraction, is a lot of fun, and it does a good job of portraying the story of the movie, but it's pretty short, only has a few big scenes, and some of the animatronics don't look great, especially when your clamshell stops and you have to stare at creepy puppet looking Ariel dancing for an extended period of time. Dumbo The Flying Elephant is just the same as it's always been, except they've added a second one because it was so popular, and Barnstormer is also pretty much the same, except they've re-themed the queue to fit more with the circus theme of the area. The crown jewel in this area is definitely Seven Dwarves Mine Train, a Snow White themed family coaster utilizing a cart that swings slightly as you ride through the mines and around the hills. Inside the cave, there's a mini dark ride as you watch the Dwarves mine diamonds in their own unique way. These animatronics for the dwarves are definitely the most impressive out of any of the parks that I've been to, looking like they actually could have come directly out of the movie and plopped down into the ride. They're incredibly fluid, and it's clear that they worked really closely with the source material in this area of the ride. The additions to Fantasyland as a whole are really interesting, and I haven't even gotten to the one that a lot of adults may be most excited about.

    In addition to all of these different rides, they added a restaurant inside of Beast's Castle called "Be Our Guest." It's incredibly themed, very expensive, and almost impossible to get a reservation unless you call months and months in advance. I've only eaten there once or maybe twice now, but I have been able to look around at it before, and the three dining rooms are incredible. The three areas include: the Ballroom, themed like the hall where the big dance scene happened in Beauty and the Beast, the West Wing, complete with dark atmosphere, a slashed portrait, and the enchanted rose, then the library with a bunch of pictures on the wall of the different characters and a giant rotating statue of Belle and the Beast dancing in the middle of the room. I've only ever been able to eat in the ballroom, because it's the biggest area, but I'm certainly not upset about that, because the giant windows on the side of the restaurant make it look like it's snowing outside. I haven't tried it, but I will say that I've heard that the Grey Stuff that they serve for dessert is, in fact, delicious, just as Lumiere described it. 

Gotta love the classics!

    So far I've only talked about the new attractions that have come along with the expansions, but there are plenty of rides and attractions here other than those that are definitely worth checking out. Peter Pan's Flight is always one of the most crowded attractions in the entire park, even though it's definitely one of the oldest. You get in a little pirate ship and fly out the window of the Darlings' nursery, over the streets of London, and then, whoosh! Second star to the right and straight on 'till morning, you're off to Neverland. This is an attraction that is definitely showing its age, but there's definitely still something cool about the flying pirate ships as you whiz past the shores of Neverland to see the Mermaid Lagoon, and of course the battle between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Just across the way is it's a small world which is certainly one of the most iconic rides on any Disney property. You sit in a little boat and ride through a bunch of rooms where dolls are all singing the same song in different languages. This attraction has had a few renovations over time, but this old ride seems a lot more timeless, as it's all about unity and world peace. Though I am not a huge fan of the ride, and I was afraid to ride it for my entire childhood because I'm afraid of puppets, I have to recommend this one. Speaking of iconic rides, the Mad Tea Party is also in Fantasyland. If you've ever seen a commercial for a Disney park, you've almost certainly seen this ride as kids are spinning the wheel to make their teacup spin as fast as it possibly can. It's a short ride, but the line is typically pretty short, so as long as you don't get sick when spinning, this is a lot of fun. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is not an original ride to the park, as this space used to be home to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but it's been there ever since the first time I went. This is a really interesting and exciting dark ride as your ride vehicle will actually do different things as you go through it. Tigger comes out at one point and the whole vehicle bounces around as he sings his song, and though the other instances of this system aren't as extreme, it's still very impressive considering this ride opened back in 1999. If you're a big fan of Disney Music from the 90's or 4D movies, you're in luck, because Mickey's Philharmagic is definitely the thing for you. You and the other visitors have come to see Maestro Mickey Mouse conduct the Philharmagic orchestra, but when Donald gets his hands on Mickey's Sorcerer hat, things quickly get out of control as he's swept through various Disney worlds. It's a really fun time, and though it opened in 2003, it's still very well done considering how far 3D technology has come since that time. Alright, that was a really quick rundown of the rides that need to be checked out in Fantasyland, but hopefully I did them justice.

    Now, I originally set out to talk about the entire Magic Kingdom park in this post, but I have so many thoughts on this particular park, I'm going to have to split it up into several! I just love this park a lot, and I hope you enjoy reading about it too. There's something about it that is so comforting to me, even though there are millions of people there all the time, and people always get upset about there being too many people, it's still a whole lot of fun. I truly believe that I'm at my best and most confident when I'm able to go there, so let's hope that holds true for when I write about it as well!

    Thanks so much for reading this post, everyone! I really appreciate all of your support, and though I don't know exactly what I'll be writing about in two weeks, I think it'll still be focused on Magic Kingdom. Do you have a favorite ride in Fantasyland? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! I hope you're all staying safe and I hope you have a good week. Talk to you next Friday, or rather, as a certain anthropomorphic mouse would say, "see ya real soon!"