Tomorrowland is typically my first stop if I use the counter clockwise method of covering this park so as to strategically hit all of the rides, shows, arcades, food, and souvenir shops without having to back track thus wasting valuable time. This area has been there since the beginning when the park opened in 1971 and is dedicated to man’s fascination with space exploration and what we may find above the clouds. The main attractions were the Grand Prix Raceway (still here), Circle Vision 360-America the Beautiful (gone), and the Skyway to Fantasyland (gone). In 1975 new attractions were added to include Space Mountain, the Peoplemover, Star Jets, Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, and Mission to Mars. My first task was to use the Peoplemover to get a good overview and location of the other sites that I wanted to check out while in this -- my first -- section of the 107-acre park. This ride brought back many fond memories from my more than a dozen previous visits dating back to the early 1970’s when I was in grade school.
I had to change my
strategy upon learning of a new device that had been implemented at the
park called Fast Pass+ which allows you to reserve entries at more
than 60 of the park’s favorite experiences. You can reserve
via one of the kiosks throughout the park or download the app to your
Smartphone. I had a little trouble setting up mine until I ran into
the nicest park employee who was kind enough to assist me with my technical
challenges.
Once properly
downloaded and set up I was able to select timed-entry to three of my
favorite rides: Space Mountain (Tomorrowland), The Haunted
Mansion (Liberty Square), and It’s A Small World
(Fantasyland). The grace period is one hour which allows you time to make
it over to that particular section of the park. On that note, I had to head
on over to Adventureland to begin my day at one of my favorite
places in the world. It was nice to catch one of the many street shows that
take place throughout the day to keep you entertained from start to
finish.Adventureland featured only three attractions in 1971: Swiss Family Tree House, Jungle Cruise, and Tropical Serenade (Tiki Room). The popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride was added in 1973, the Enchanted Tiki Room (under new management) in 1997, and in 2001 the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Another neat addition to the park since my last visit in about 2 decades is these signs that tell you about how long a wait it will be before you get a chance to enter each ride/attraction. My first stop was the Swiss Family Treehouse which luckily had no waiting. It still is fascinating to experience how they constructed this attraction to look and feel like a real tree that comes complete with household rooms spread throughout from top to bottom.
I arrived at
12:40 PM and was done in about 20 minutes. I decided to skip
the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean because the
wait times were 45-minutes and 50-minutes respectively. Next
I headed over to my all-time favorite show featuring those wise old
good-ole-boys featured in the Country Bear Jamboree. I arrived at about
1:15 PM and had to wait only about 20-minutes to enter. I
have been fascinated with the animatronics behind this attraction since the
beginning and I still wonder how they make those huge bears and wall
characters so life like. They even blink their eyes and wiggle their ears.
I could not leave Adventureland before stopping in at my favorite
arcade the Shooting Gallery. As a military man I cannot resist any
opportunity to sharpen my skills as an expert marksman.
I decided to pass on
a visit to Tom Sawyer Island and Frontierland because my
timed entry at The Haunted Mansion was about to expire at 2:30
PM. I did, however, have enough time to walk over to the Hall of
Presidents in Liberty Square to see how they captured the
likeness of our first American-American President Barack Hussein
Obama. While waiting to go inside I had to stop over and once again
thank former President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr.
who gave me and all veterans the largest pay raise in military history
during his tenure (1977 - 1981) as Commander In Chief.
I was a bit
disappointed during most of the show but that quickly changed as he was
given a rather lengthy speaking part at the end. When folks ask me
“what did he say,” I simply smile and reply -- something
presidential! I was out of there and feeling quite patriotic at 2:15
PM which gave me 15-minutes to head on up to another one of my
favorite attractions The Haunted Mansion.
I am not too
big of a man to admit that this place scared the crap out of me back when
I was in grade school. I came back through as a teenager and actually had
fun laughing at some of the ghouls, ghosts, and monsters present after
realizing that they were all very fake? My timed entry saved me
30-minutes of precious wait time as I had other things to do,
places to go, and people to see. One reason The Magic Kingdom is
high on my list of favorite places in the world is their contribution to
the cliché “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it.”
On that note,
you can expect exactly the same set up at this wonderfully magical park
on each and every visit -- year after year, decade after decade. We
currently live in an instant grits society which has a bad habit of
changing a perfectly good sheet just because they can. As such, they have
my sincere kudos for keeping the Magic Kingdom consistently great
and magical since opening in 1971. The Haunted Mansion was
presented exactly as I remember it as a child, and I was done at 2:37
PM.
