Disney's Magic Kingdom was the biggest of the four Disney parks and the one that we spent the most time at. We spent a full day there on our second day and spent the morning and night there on the Wednesday.
The main feature of the park was the giant castle in the center, which was visible from most places around the park.
The park is split into several sections:
Main Street U.S.A - The main entrance road with shops and food stores
Adventure Land - An area themed on exotic adventures, like Aladdin, Smith Family Robinson, Pirates and jungles.
Frontierland - A wild west themed area which houses two of the three 'mountain' thrill rides
Liberty Square - An American themed area with a Liberty Bell replica and the Hall of Presidents
Fantasy Land - This area is themed on fantasy and fairy tales.
Tomorrowland - This is a futuristic land that houses the final of three 'mountain' thrill rides.
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| The entrance |
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| Us at the entrance on the last night |
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| Castle and fireworks (stock photo) |
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| Dedication Plaque |
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| Disney Magic Kingdom Map |
Main Street USA
On entering the park, the entrance curved around the main building and Walt Disney World Railroad (shown in the night picture above), once past this you enter Main Street USA
which stretched ahead to a circular park and the castle in the distance. Main Street is lined with lots of shops and food stores like bakeries, ice cream parlors and restaurants.
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| Looking down Main Street USA |
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| Fountain on Main Street USA |
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| The other side of the fountain |
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| Alana, Cameron, Mickey, Disney and the Castle |
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| Mickey, Disney and Tomas |
Dance Dance Parade
While we were on the Main Street we caught the Dance Party Parade:
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| Woody |
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| Woody and Jessie |
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| Baloo |
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| Baloo and King Louie |
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| Dance Party |
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| Chip and Dale |
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| Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde |
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| Phineas and Ferb |
The Castle
The
Cinderella Castle in Disney World is visible the whole way down the Main Street and also from many other places in the park. It is the site of the firework shows and is lighted up various colours at night.
We took many photos of the castle (60 of our own and 100 professional shots) and had a stack of professional photos taken - here's a sample of our favourites:
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| Cinderella Castle |
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| Castle and surrounding gardens |
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| Projected light on the castle |
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| Side of the castle and the river |
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| Castle close up of the front |
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| Side towers (the capsules in sight are for the firework and light show) |
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| One of the mosaics inside the castle |
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| Another mosaic |
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| Rapunzel's Tower |
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| Us and the castle from the Fantasy Land Bridge |
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| Kris and I on the Fantasy Land Bridge |
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| In front of the castle at night |
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| Silly faces in front of the castle |
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| In front of the castle (can you tell Tomas was getting tired of photos?) |
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| From the Tomorrowland Bridge |
The next few photos were taken from Casey's Corner on Main Street (Number 10 on the map)
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| Cameron makes a new friend |
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| Tough pirate pose in front of the castle |
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| Alana's new friend |
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| Another tough pirate |
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| Tomas' new friend |
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| Posing in front of the castle |
These next ones were taken on Main Street in the middle of the road leading to the castle:
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| Main Street USA |
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| Perfect timing! |
Adventure Land
Adventure land is to the left of the main square once you pass through Main Street USA. It runs along the side of the River that leads to Frontier Land. It focuses on Adventure themes and has a mix of themes, from Tiki islanders to Aladdin to Pirates, to the Swiss Family Robinson. There are several rides here and some restaurants and shops.
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| The road from Adventure Land to Frontier Land |
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| Adventure Land |
Jungle Cruise
This ride was a slow boat ride through a jungle filled with Animatronic animals. The tour was pretty funny with
plenty of puns and we enjoyed it. Unfortunately we rode it late in the evening and it was too dark to get any decent photos from the boat.
Swiss Family Treehouse
This is a walk-through treehouse based on the Swiss Family Robinson. It was an interesting climb and we picked the perfect time to climb, catching the sunset over the park from the top.
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| One of the rooms |
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| Sunset over the park - looking towards Splash Mountain |
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
This was a standard spinning ride so we skipped it, but the kids did love the spitting camel that fired a stream of water every minute or so.
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| Looking at the Aladdin Ride from the Treehouse |
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
We completely missed this show somehow (I think I thought it was a restaurant). It was a Polynesian themed animatronic show.
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| Enchanted Tiki Room |
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| Other Tiki buildings |
Pirates of the Caribbean
This was one of the rides I was most excited about (after the thrill rides of course...) as I really loved the pirate ride in LegoLand and pirates make for an exciting theme. Sadly I was a little disappointed as I felt it was short with not quite as much stuff as I expected to see. It started with a cool projection onto a wall of steam that the boats pass through and there was a nice boat vs town fight but overall I felt I expected a little more.
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| Pirates of the Caribbean |
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| One of the displays in the queue area |
The Stocks
The kids had lots of fun playing with the stocks on the road, and I can say that we were only slightly tempted to jam a stick in the lock and run... :)
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| It was a bit of a loose fit on Alana |
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| Cameron's attractive face |
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| And the Oscar for best fake scared face goes to Tomas |
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| Although Alana came a close second (and took out the prize for most likely to swallow a fly) |
Frontier Land
This area was accessible through
Adventure Land (which made it a little difficult to get to when the Adventure Land roads were closed for the pageants - although there was a boardwalk on the lake that bypassed it). It was a Wild West theme and housed two of the three "Mountain" thrill rides - Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
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| Frontier Land entrance |
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| Frontier Land |
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| Frontier Land - Looking toward Big Thunder Mountain Railway |
Big Thunder Mountain Railway
This is a famous Disney ride (I remember riding another version of it in EuroDisney back in
the mid 90s). The classic runaway minecart rollercoaster. It was lots of fun and the theming and scenery was great. The only issue was the lines - the wait was usually 60-90 minutes and the FastPass options disappeared fast.
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| Looking down at the track from the queue |
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| Hot Pools |
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| The ride |
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| Big Thunder Mountain |
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| Getting ready to ride |
Splash Mountain
This was a log flume ride based on Brear Rabbit and Songs of the South. I managed to lose my hat on this ride (unfortunately it was my good Saab hat) but the photo station caught it, so we got a good picture. We only got to ride this once as the lines were very long and it closed early on the Magic Hours night so we couldn't get on with reduced queues.
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| Splash Mountain |
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| Tomas felt very special as he got to carry the red lanyard that helped the staff measure the wait time |
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| And we're off... |
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| Going around the scenic part looking at the big drop that's waiting later |
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| The drop - this shot shows the angle better |
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| Theming at the top of the mountain |
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| Just before the fall |
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| Here goes... |
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| And our ride photo of the drop - see my hat... (Kris lost hers too but it landed in the back seat - mine disappeared into the water) |
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| Dancing and singing characters inside the ride |
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| Inside the ride |
One of the smaller drops
Part of the ride
Liberty Square
Liberty Square formed the last part of the west side of the park - you walked through a small portion of it to get from Main Street USA to Adventure Land and it curved north around the castle lake until it reached the back of the castle and the start of Fantasy Land.
Liberty Square hosted the Liberty Tree, a copy of the Liberty Bell (Cast from the same mould), the Hall of Presidents and the famous Disney Haunted Mansion.
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| The Liberty Tree |
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| Liberty Tree Plaque |
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| Tomas was not impressed by the tree |
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| The Liberty Bell |
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| Liberty Bell Plaque |
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| Liberty Bell Sign |
Haunted Mansion
This was a fun Haunted House ride which made use of animatronics and projectors. At one point the carts go past mirrors and ghosts can be seen on the cart with the riders. Making use of the Magic Wrist band technology the ghosts hold personalized messages - we got "Sweden here we come!"
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| The Carriage - On our first trip someone proposed to their partner in front of this |
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| Graves in the queue |
Next post will cover the Eastern side of the park, including Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land.
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