Disney - Magic Kingdom Day 1

5 February, 2024

One significant advantage of staying at the Contemporary Resort is the close proximity of The Magic
Kingdom. If there were an entrance in Tomorrowland you could be there in just a couple of minutes (hey, Disney - how about a back gate like the International Gate at EPCOT?) As it is, the walk to the entry is just a few minutes more, and you enter as Walt intended, with train whistles and popcorn scents before emerging onto Main Street USA where Cinderella's Castle towers over the hub, inviting you to "choose your adventure" Note to Disney neophytes: The maps are deliberately skewed in scale to try and direct traffic flow - hence Adventure- and Frontier- lands appear much larger than Tomorrowland in an effort to generate a clockwise traffic flow.  After a quick breakfast in the counter-service lobby restaurant we headed over to the park.

Carousel of Progress

We had passes for TRON later in the day, so we checked the Disney App (much more on that to come in a later post) for attraction wait times and headed to the perennial favorite, Carousel of Progress. Always a good place to take a cool break from the Florida heat, this day it was more an homage to Walt and a touchstone to past visits. It made it's debut at the 1964 World's Fair before moving to Disneyland in 1967 and making it's debut at the Magic Kingdom in 1975.

Upon exiting the Carousel it's a short walk across the plaza to the boarding area for Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or the "PeopleMover" for the older among us, who first experienced it as the "WEDway PeopleMover" - theoretically a continuous ride, the lines never stop moving (except when the ride is interrupted) and generally kid-friendly as long as they don't get spooked in the dark.

By the time we were coming off the PeopleMover the crowds were thickening in Tomorrowland and we had a midafternoon reservation at Skipper Canteen, so we made our way across the hub to Adventureland. The line for another sentimental favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean, was short enough that we could easily make our reservation time at Skipper, so we spent a few minutes with Captains Sparrow and Barbossa before checking in at the Canteen.

This was our second time ever eating at Skipper Canteen, and it was as good as the first time. A cool libation after wading through crowds for several hours was quite refreshing. Our server was suitably punny in Jungle Cruise fashion and the food was on-point. Our ride time for TRON was approaching, so we wrapped things up and headed back across the hub to meet the rest of our party.

TRON is probably the best attraction in the Disney lineup. The line experience is entertaining and exceptionally well done. Lockers are provided to store personal items (don't bother trying to figure out the entry/exit flow the first time - just enjoy the experience) and the plot presentation is enough for those who have no knowledge of the origin story without being overbearing. 

Loading Area

After navigating the first stage of the line you enter a more traditional queue with displays overhead showing the results of current races. At the end of the queue you're separated in groups of two and given a position to stand in behind the boarding gates.When the gate opens one person walks between the light cycles to board from the other side. After climing on the cycle you pull the handlebars towards you to lower the clamshell on your back. There's a test cycle outside the attraction that I highly suggest you "try on" before waiting in line to make sure you can sit comfortably. Bulk, height, and flexibility all impact your comfort, and those of us past a certain age aren't as flexible as we may have been in the past! The ride was developed originally for Tokyo Disney, which tends to have guests of smaller stature. The primary issue I had was my calves, but I found a way to make it work. Once you're loaded and everyone is secure the coaster zips around the corner to the launch platform, where the fun begins!

My daughter and me.

The initial linear launch takes you out of the building, through a banked turn over the approach/exit paths to the attraction, and then back into the building before zipping you through an array of drops and banks with vivid visual effects. The from launch to end the trip is just under two minutes – fairly short even for a thrill coaster, but the overall presentation is worth it, in my opinion. I don't think I'd wait an extended period for future rides unless I was with someone who had never ridden before, but if you have Extended Magic or can get a Lightning Pass (or whatever the current incarnation of "line jumping" happens to be) then go for it. It's not the best coaster I've ever ridden, but it's far from the worst.

When we finished with TRON we made our way back to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, where the lines were now down to just a few minutes. The original incarnation of the attraction was "If You Had Wings" sponsored by the now defunct Eastern Airlines. After Eastern pulled sponsorship in 1987 Disney stripped all mentions of corporate identity and rebranded it "If You Could Fly" which survived until 1989. Not long after, Delta Airlines signed on and it became "Delta Dreamflight" for about six years. When Delta pulled their sponsorship Disney rebranded it once more as "Take Flight" and operated it until 1998. Later that same year it reopened as Buzz Lightyear, which is now the longest operating attraction in that space.

Respectable

"Buzz" - as we call it - is always great fun, largely due to the competitiveness of our group. Some of us
have identified the highest-scoring elements in the game and almost always rank at least near the higher end of "Space Ace" if we don't make it to "Cosmic Commando." I've never seen anyone approach "Galactic Hero" and I'm pretty sure Buzz himself is the only one to reach that rank.

By this point all of the "littles" were reaching the end of their rope and the grandparents weren't far behind. We collected everyone and headed for the gate and the short stroll back to the hotel. After much-needed showers most of the adults convened at the snack bar for munchies, my grandson and his uncle (my younger son) visited the arcade (this turned in to an almost nightly ritual, which I didn't learn of until the last couple of nights of the trip) and everyone shared a general outline of their plans for the next day. With a group as large as ours it was logistically impossible for everyone to do everything together, but the next morning our first group activity was on the books - a character breakfast for the Matriarch's birthday!

Fireworks from our balcony.