Could It Be Magic? (Magic Kingdom)

Member Name: xalala

Product:	Magic Kingdom
Date:	13/02/05 (317 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of well known characters, Good fun

Disadvantages: No really exciting rides, Crowds!

Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World (WDW) is probably the first (and for some the only) park that people think of when you mention Walt Disney World. It's the oldest park, and opened in 1971 - and to some extent, the age is starting to show. It also attracts more visitors than the rest of the Disney parks put together, and can get extremely crowded. Part of the reason for that is the mere 100 acres the park takes up - compare that to Epcot's 200 acres or Animal Kingdom's 500 acres for an idea of comparitive size. OK, so that means less walking for small legs, but there are also more people to navigate your way around, and more crowds to get lost in.

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Arrival and Parking
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Approaching WDW on the I4, all the parks are signed fairly well - road signs are numerous, and rather than just saying WDW exit, it specifies which parks are best accessible from each exit. It's worth knowing that if you miss your exit, it is possible to take any of the Disney exits and get to any of the parks.

You need cash available as you drive up to the park entrance, parking is $8 for the day - and your parking ticket is valid for the entire day in all Disney park car parks, which is useful if you want to head to a different park later, or you want to leave for an afternoon break but come back later.

Parking is efficient, and the car park areas are well signed, each having a Disney character associated with it as well each row having a number. The character makes it easier to remember where you're parked on returning to the car.

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Entrance
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From the car park you take a tram to the entrance point for the park, and there you have to make your first choice - do you want to approach the park via monorail, or on a ferry? We opted for the ferry, although almost certainly it was slower than the monorail. You do get a much better view of the park going this way, and the chance to let the anticipation build (perhaps not ideal with already excited small children though!).

Disembarking from the ferry we walked the short distance to the park entrance. Although you can buy tickets on arrival, we already had ours, so we got our bag checked and put the tickets through the readers and had our fingerprints scanned (note: if your hands are cold like mine were, the scanner doesn't work, so it's worth warming them up a bit by rubbing etc before you enter). And we were in!

Getting around the park is fairly easy, as you enter you are in Main Street USA, which leads up to Cinderella's Castle in the centre. From the centre of the park there are paths to all of the seven areas that form the park, which makes navigation fairly easy.

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The Rides
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Just about every ride at Magic Park is suitable for small children, although not all will let toddlers or babies on. The big attractions are Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Alien Encounter (which was closed when we visited), but even there you can take your bag on the ride with you - unlike most other parks' big rides.

Tomorrowland:
The biggest ride attraction in Tomorrowland is probably Space Mountain. However, for those of you who have visited Disneyland Paris, don't expect the same Space Mountain as you get there - this one is considerably different. It's much tamer and less exciting, and I was rather disappointed by it. Younger kids will like it I expect, and it's suitable for anyone over 44" tall.

Indy Speedway is a fun ride on the way up to Mickey's Toontown Fair. A couple of people can fit into each car, and you drive round a pre-defined mini speedway track until you get back to the start. It's a simple, fun ride, and there are plenty of places for spectators to stand and take photos as you travel round.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is one of the better rides (although still not as good as Men In Black Alien Attack at Islands of Adventure). You sit inside a car and take control of a laser gun that you have to use to zap aliens with, and your scores are available at the end (and printed on the ride photos, available at the exit).

Stitch's Great Escape is also one of the better rides, for those with strong enough stomachs (or who haven't eaten recently). It's a sensory experice rather than a "ride", as it doesn't move. It's in several sections, introducing you to the background story of Lilo and Stitch (you are new guards at a top security facility, by the way). Stitch arrives, escapes with ease and you have to sit there and experience what he gets up to - it's all harmless fun, although mainly linked to body humour. Disney describe it as "gross-out fun", and they're not far wrong.

Mickey's Toontown Fair is aimed at the younger visitor, and we didn't spend any time there. On our way through it looked busy and as clean and tidy as the rest of the park.

The Mad Tea Party is found in Fantasyland, and is a good old-fashioned cups and saucers ride. The queue for this ride was surprisingly long, given we were there in off-season, and you might decide to give it a miss if you're there at peak times.

Peter Pan's Flight, also in Fantasyland, was a bit of a disappointment. It claims to let you fly above Neverland in a pirate ship, but in practice there's no sensation of flying, instead you travel around a display featuring various scenes from the Peter Pan film. Cute, but hardly exciting.

I'm happy to report that the simply horrible "It's a Small World" was closed for refurbishment during our visit. If you like it, it can also be found in Fantasyland, but be warned that the sickly sweet tune won't leave your head for days!

Liberty Square brings you the Haunted Mansion, which has an excellent introduction and an adequate ride. It's not too scary that kids would be put off, although there are a few moments that more sensitive young'uns might not enjoy so much. There's an interesting moment towards the end of the ride, where you find that your car has somehow picked up a new passenger along the way...

Moving on to Frontierland, this is where the older kids will have most fun, with two of the biggest rides in the park, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. It also features the incredibly twee Country Bear Jamboree, which is probably worth missing unless you're in need of a sit down in an air-conditioned room.

Splash Mountain is good fun, especially on a hot day. You begin the ride with a quiet trip through Brer Rabbit's environment, with lots of animals and scenery to look at and admire. This seems to last for ages, but finishes with a 5-storey drop down into the final stretch - and as you pass under the bridge where spectators can stand at the bottom of the drop, if they really like you they'll pay a quarter or two to try and squirt you with the water guns that line the bank. Definitely worth another go if you have the time, and available to everyone over 40" tall.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is also worth a couple of goes if you get chance. This is Disney's answer to a rollercoaster, and although it doesn't measure up to the really big rides some other parks have, it still manages to be good fun and get a shriek or two out of most people on the way round. Again the minimum height is 40", so it's fine for all but the youngest visitor.

There are many more rides that we didn't go on, for a variety of reasons, and there should be some to suit pretty much everyone, whatever their age.

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Other Attractions
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The Characters - one of the major attractions of Disney is the chance to meet some of the famous characters that populate cartoons and films that everyone is familiar with. Each of the major characters has scheduled times and places where they are available to meet guests, have their pictures taken and sign autographs if you want them. Queues for this are usually fairly long, so we contented ourselves with snapping away in between the guests, to get each character on their own.

The Parades - again, something Disney is deservedly famous for is the quality of its parades. At Magic Kingdom there are two, one at 3pm and one in the evening. The afternoon parade features all the best known and loved characters in large snow-globe type things perched on vehicles, along with other characters walking along meeting and greeting children along the route. The evening parade is lit, with many bulbs on each float and even the walking characters are lit (and presumably battery powered). Both are a fantastic sight, and as they are very different in look and feel, it's worth making time to see both if you can. For the evening parade, most of the other lighting along the route (eg shop fronts etc) is turned off, making it easier to see if you're watching, but difficult to see where you're going if you're not.

The Fireworks - at park closing time, a huge firework display called Wishes takes place, which lasts around 20 minutes. The display is new, and really is an amazing sight. It is, however, full of loud bangs and explosions, which small children might not enjoy. You can see the display all round the park, but we found a spot at the bottom of Main Street USA to watch from. Most impressive were the shaped fireworks - I have no idea how, but a series of lilac coloured fireworks exploded into star shapes across the sky.

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Facilities
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Guest Services is to the left as soon as you enter the park. You can pick up park maps from here and also, if it's your birthday, get a birthday badge from them. It was my birthday when we went, so I wore this badge all day - it's pretty good as an icebreaker in the queues, with loads of people (not all of whom worked there) wishing me a happy birthday or striking up a conversation with typical american friendliness. It also meant I got given a free mini cake as we were buying our lunch (yum!).

On the subject of lunch, the restaurants were reasonably priced and had more choice than you might expect. There seems to have been a drive towards providing healthier food choices, so as well as the usual burger and chips combo, you could get chicken, pizza, salads and soup.

There are toilets throughout the park, which were plentiful and clean when we visited. There were short queues in the ladies on a couple of occasions, which makes me think that the situation might be quite different during high season.

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Conclusion
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I think that Disney do a great job at making even the boring bits of visiting a theme park (like the queuing to get in, the queuing for rides and so on) part of the overall experience. It's of a consistently high standard, so there's never really the chance to get bored or run out of things to look at or do.

However, what this park really misses is the big rides that some of its competitors have (especially Busch Gardens or Universal Islands of Adventure). Having visited Disneyland in Paris a few times, I was expecting rides more like the Space Mountain that they have there. Instead, it's more about the whole Disney experience, slightly sickly and full of messages of love, peace and friendship, with rides suitable for the whole family and rated no higher than a U certificate in film terms.

If you have small children, they will certainly enjoy a visit to Magic Kingdom, and if you want a nostalgic look back at the way life used to be (in a golden utopian land that probably never really existed) then this park is certainly for you. Teenagers might not find too much that would keep them amused for a full day, although they'd probably enjoy Splash Mountain a few times. For me, I thought it was somehow lacking an element of magic that would have kept me more entertained.

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Other Information
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We used a 5-day Park Hopper Plus for entry, which cost us about £300 for the two of us. These are no longer available, instead tickets now expire 14 days after the first use, although a non-expiring ticket is an option you can add if desired. Prices tend to go up from 1 January each year, so we bought our tickets just before New Year - worth knowing if you're planning a trip for next year.

For more information you can visit the website http://www.waltdisneyworld.com and select Magic Kingdom under Parks at the top of the page.

There are plenty of guidebooks available on WDW, and it's well worth getting hold of a couple before your visit to plan which of the attractions you want to see.

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