Magical Blogorail – Original Magic Kingdom Attractions!

 

Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Blue. Enjoy the ride as we discuss vintage Disney attractions, shows, and more!

For my piece of the Blogorail Pie, I’m going to talk about some of my favorite original Magic Kingdom attractions!  This is something that I even have a series about called Disney Attractions, and through my research, since I wasn’t at Walt Disney World when it opened in 1971, I have a list of the original attractions that were open on October 1, 1971 that are still open today.  They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• “it’s a small world”
• Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
• Haunted Mansion
• Jungle Cruise
• Walt Disney World Railroad

What makes all of these attractions totally incredible to me is that they allow all of us — young and old alike — to immerse ourselves in the Disney Magic and put away our real world lives while we use our imagination — the most powerful magic at Disney, in my opinion — to take ourselves back in time to a simpler time and place.

I know when I’m riding “it’s a small world” the first thing that I start doing is singing like a little kid the song, over and over and over and over again.  I wave at the starter; I wave at the kids watching from Pinocchio Village Haus; I laugh with Cindy and Sophie; I point out goofy characters and hidden Mickey’s and all the rest.  Oh, and I take hundreds and hundreds of photos of the same things that I saw the year before, and the year before that, and so on.  Why do I do all of this?  Because Walt Disney has taken me back to my childhood, when I didn’t have a care in the world, all through the power of imagination.

One of my favorite attractions at the Magic Kingdom is Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  I love it because it gives such great views of the park; I love it because there is NEVER a wait to get on it; I love it because I feel like I’ve been thrown into the movie; I imagine myself sleeping in one of the rooms on the tree after the park has closed.  All of this is possible, once again, because of the Disney Magic of Imagination that takes me to another place and time.

The same is true of the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, and the cream of the crop — the Walt Disney World Railroad.  All of these incredible attractions each has it’s own way of lighting up your imagination, of taking you out of the here and now and transporting you to the land of “the way it was then”.  All of these make heavy use of your imagination.  Imagination is so powerful, in my opinion, that it is the reason why Walt had this quote regarding Disneyland:

Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Walt understood the importance of imagination.  He knew that without it, the children of today would live dull lives, with no excitement.  He knew that as long as a child had the use of their imagination, the sky was the limit regardless of the financial situation of the child or his family.  Walt got it, and I think we that love to visit Disney Parks get it too.

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is my friend Jenn from the Disney Babies Blog!

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ My Dreams of Disney
2nd Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog
3rd Stop ~ Disney on Wheels
4th Stop ~ My Pixie Dust Diary
Final Stop ~ Disney Nouns

Comments

comments