Once referred to by the company as the "crowning
jewel" of Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom has
remained the resort's most popular park since its
opening date of October 1, 1971.
Based on Disneyland's winning arrangement of
nostalgia, history, fantasy and futurism, Florida's
Magic Kingdom did not face the same type of
economic uncertainty that followed its older sibling's
July, 1955 debut. Within two months of admitting its
first guests, the park was drawing monstrous holiday
crowds that tied traffic in knots from Winter Haven to
Orlando. This successful visitation only dipped
seriously once, during the energy crisis that began in
1973, but shortly rebounded with a ferocity that has continued, if not
intensified, to the present day.
No one who has visited both Disneyland and WDW's
Kingdoms could deny that the original has the upper
hand when it comes to overall attention to detail and
friendly intimacy. The Florida version was designed to
handle greater numbers of visitors and was built on a
substantially larger scale. The physical differences
affected by these facts can be startling and off-putting
to someone who grew up with the California park.
Even after several attempts to correct some of the
problems and 35 years of tree growth, visitors
to the Florida park will notice how some of the
buildings still look like warehouses with too little
trimming to overcome their bulky volume. Also, the
total reinvention of Disneyland elements, like
Fantasyland, never made it to WDW with the same
sense of grandeur. Contrast Mickey's Toontown at
Disneyland with Mickey's Toontown Fair at WDW and
you immediately see that someone should have been hung out to dry. That
disparity notwithstanding, Florida's
Magic Kingdom is where millions of East
Coast kids are first exposed to a themed Disney experience and like it just
fine, even without a Matterhorn.
As the Kingdom has grown, so too has it surrendered
many of its early attractions, shops and restaurants
to the ravages of "improvement." From the first losses
(Adventureland's Safari Club arcade and
Frontierland's Westward Ho shop) to the more recent
(Alien Encounter and The Legend of the Lion King), there have
expired enough rides and other venues to populate an
entirely separate park - albeit one that will never get
built. The same goes for a wide variety of ride and show concepts that
were considered for the Kingdom but came short of
reaching the construction phase.
Widen Your World is committed to propagating the
long-term recollections of these lost, forgotten or
cosmetically re-engineered institutions. The related
pages show a clear bias in favor of those components
that relate to the park's first fifteen years, when WDW's
crowning jewel sparkled with a radiance that was
perhaps imperfect but still far more brilliant than that of
today's mixed-up gemstone.
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The Magic Kingdom
Altered WDW Theme Park
Located:
North end of WDW property
Opened: October 1, 1971
Contributing
Disney
Personnel:
Walt Disney,
Roy Disney,
Richard F. Irvine,
Gen. Joe Fowler,
Gen. Joe
Potter,
Claude Coats,
Marc Davis,
Bill Martin,
George McGinnis,
Tony
Baxter,
hundreds of others
Descendant of:
Disneyland California
Related Internal Sites:
WYW's
Magic Kingdom Index
Extinctions:
20,000
Leagues
Adventureland Veranda
Caribbean
Arcade
Fantasyland Art Festival
Fife
and Drum Snack Bar
Flight
To The Moon
Frontierland RR
Station v. 1
If You Had Wings
The
Mickey Mouse Revue
Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride
The
Plaza Swan Boats
The
Safari Club
The Walt
Disney Story
Westward Ho
Altered States:
Adventureland
The Hall of
Presidents
The Haunted
Mansion
Main Street USA
Space Mountain
Sunshine Tree Terrace
Lost Worlds:
Thunder Mesa &
Western River
Expedition
All photos copyright The Walt
Disney Company.
Text copyright 2007
Mike Lee
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