Hey it’s Walt Disney Wednesday time again!!! This week I’m back with a blog all about the Magic kingdom. Now if you have been following my Disney adventure blogs you will know that I have already spoken about the Magic Kingdom in my very first blog post titled quite simply ”my Disney adventures’. I spoke about the reasons why this park isnt my favourite, and touched on the do’s and dont’s of the parades and wishes fireworks. Today I am going to be speaking about the park as a whole and giving my tips to doing one of the biggest hardest parks in the whole resort!
No need to start with the stats as I covered those in my first blog.
Okay here we go, I find magic kingdom the most difficult park to do because it is so big! It is divided into six themed “lands.” and is designed like a wheel, with the hub in front of Cinderella Castle, pathways branch out across the 107 acres of the park and lead to these six lands.
The six Lands
- Main Street, U.S.A. is the first “themed land” inside the entrance of Magic Kingdom. Main Street is lined with shops selling merchandise and food. The decor is early-20th century small-town America, inspired by Walt Disney’s childhood and the film Lady and the Tramp.
- Adventureland represents the mystery of exploring foreign lands. It is themed to resemble the remote jungles in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America and the South Pacific, with an extension resembling a Caribbean town square. It contains classic attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, the Swiss Family Treehouse, and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Note- I advise that you fast pass pirates and jungle cruise. It’s here that you will also find the Aloha Isle stand– which offers Dole Whip! Oh my god I LOVE ?? DOLE WHIP!…. please if you have never tried it put this on your must try list! It’s the best! You can either get a Pineapple Float or just a Pineapple Dole Whip, they are both delicious so my advice is to try both!!
- Frontierland is where you can relive the American Old West, from the cowboys and Native Americans, to exploring the mysteries of the Rivers of America. It contains classic attractions such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and the Country Bear Jamboree. Fast pass for splash mountain and thunder mountain.
- Liberty Square is inspired by a colonial American town set during the American Revolution. The Liberty Belle Riverboat travels down the park’s Rivers of America. Liberty Square is home to such attractions as the Haunted Mansion, the Hall of Presidents, and The Muppets Present…Great Moments in American History.
- Fantasyland is themed in a medieval-faire/carnival style, in the words of Walt Disney: “Fantasyland is dedicated to the young at heart and to those who believe that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.” Attractions include It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, and Mad Tea Party. From 2012 to 2014, Fantasyland was expanded to nearly double its size and new attractions and guest offerings were added, including sub-areas themed to Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, and The Little Mermaid. New attractions such as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid were introduced. If you can get a fast pass for seven dwarfs mine train then you are one of the lucky ones!
- Tomorrowland is set in an intergalactic city, a concept of the future as seen from around the 1950s: rockets, UFOs and robots, etc. In the words of Walt Disney: “Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the door of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future.” Classic attractions include Space Mountain, Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, Astro Orbiter, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover and the Tomorrowland Speedway. Other current attractions include Stitch’s Great Escape!, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.
Okay so one of my biggest issues for this park are the fast passes. Now don’t get me wrong fast passes are a great thing, but they are also very restrictive. So let’s say your first 3 fast passes of the day are space mountain, thunder mountain and seven dwarfs mine train,three of the the most popular rides in the park, also in three different lands. So your in tomorrow land for your space mountain fast pass which is for arguments sake at 10.00-11.00 which means you can ride that attraction between that hour. Now please don’t think that just because you have a fastpass you can rock up to a ride and just waltz on, some fast pass queues are at least 20 minutes long (Luke isn’t sure this information is correct) and obviously this isn’t always the case, but I’m just giving you the heads up.So let’s just say you get to your fastpass ride at 10.00am and wait for 20 minutes, once you’ve done your ride it’s time to check out your picture and have a look in the merchandise shop, you need to be over in frontier land from 11.00 till 12.00 to do your next fast pass for thunder mountain! So my point is you are forever going from one land to another for your fastpass attractions meaning that you could potentially be missing out on other things. That is why PLANNING your day and splitting it into two if not more days here will naturally allow you more time, and you won’t feel like a headless chicken like I did back when I visited in 2015.
Now there are definitely a couple of rides that I would avoid here in the Magic kingdom, I cannot stress enough that these are just my views, and everyone will have different likes! But the rides I will from now on avoid are
- It’s a small world– Yes it is a classic and yes I did enjoy it back when I was 12, but now it’s a ride I do just because I think I should. For those of you who don’t know what this particular ride is it’s a water boat ride featuring over 300 audio-animatronic dolls in traditional costumes from cultures around the world, dancing and singing the attraction’s title song, which has a theme of global peace. Now I have just googled the length of this ride and have found the times to vary between 11 and 15 minutes! Way too long!- this ride however will be shortly going into refurbishment
- The second ride in the Magic kingdom I now avoid is stitches great escape! Now I find this ride just pointless and quite frankly boring. It is an experience starring the title alien from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2002 film Lilo & Stitch and takes place entirely in the dark. Although you don’t move at all you are held in place in your set by restraints similar to those found on upside down thrill rides. They are to keep you from moving out of your seat whilst everything is going on.
So here are some interesting Magic kingdom facts I found whilst researching for my vacations
- Main Street USA smells amazing! And it’s a little fact that your senses aren’t playing tricks on you. As you pass by the bakeries and candy shops along Main Street USA. The scent of freshly baked cookies isn’t just coming from the bakery. Imagineers figured out how to pump a potpourri of chocolate chip cookies into the air which put an all-out assault on your sense of smell. It always makes me so hungry! Delicious ?
- The kiss goodnight-Too few Walt Disney World fans know about The Kiss Goodnight. If you just thought, “what’s that?” you’re not alone. The Kiss Goodnight is a little over 2-minutes long, and it is the Magic Kingdom’s way of saying “goodbye” to guests at the end of a long day. Sadly I am yet to witness this, and am hoping very much that I will be able to see it this year.
- Within Cinderellas Castle is a lavish royal suite, built in the space originally intended for Walt and his family. YES YOU CAN ACTUALLY STAY THERE IN THE CASTLE!! Unfortunately It can’t be booked or even toured. It is currently only available for VIPs, special guests and occasional contest winners. Oh my god what I would do to stay there! Just for a night!!!?
- Cinderella Castle stands at 189feet tall, compared to Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland which is just 77 feet tall. This is just short enough to keep it below the Federal Aviation Authority’s 200-foot limit, beyond which buildings must display a flashing red light at their top. Both castles used “forced perspective” techniques to make them appear larger – as each gets taller, its width gets smaller. This has the added effect of making fireworks that explode behind them look larger and more impressive.
- Walt designed the parks so when you pass from land to land, you don’t see the others. If you were in Liberty Square, you can’t see Fantasyland because of trees, buildings, and distractions like the water wheel. The noise keeps you from looking to your left and seeing the other lands (even the pavement changes to match the new land.
So as well as all the amazing rides here at Magic kingdom they also host 2 day time parades and a firework spectacular where they use more than 1 million fireworks annually in the displays above the Magic Kingdom. I have done a spepeate blog about parade times and the do’s and dont’s so please refer back to my first blog titled my Disney Adventures. The parades (currently I believe festival of fantasy) are amazing! They show this twice a day so when one parade is on use this time to get on some rides as ride times will almost definitely be shorter!
Now let’s quickly mention that this is also the longest park to actually get into. So you you park your car, you make your way to the transportation bus which then takes you to the monerail or ferry terminal. At this point you are still at least a mile away from the Magic kingdom. You either choose the monerail or ferry to take you into the park, both of which pretty much take the same time, so ride both at some point because it’s a good experience. Once your at the entrance you have bag check, security and ticket scanning, so be prepared for long queues. 
My best advice that I can give from experience is Plan! Don’t rush the park and split it over 2 or more days, use parade times to get rides done, arrive at parade spots early enough so you don’t get a restricted view. But most of all enjoy it! And just be prepared for this particular park to always be busy!
Please feel free to message me with any questions, I could go on for on for ages talking about Magic kingdom!
I’ll be back next week where I will be giving you my top 10 rides at WDW!! I’m excited for that one!
In the mean time enjoy the read, like share, subscribe even!!! Until next time
Little miss keeping it real ?