Looking Back...

On our third day at Disney World we went to the Magic Kingdom, the Disneyland clone that opened in 1971. And, as you can see, I didn’t write about it. Not one word. I just conveniently decided to skip a whole day. I mean, between driving to the park, standing in line, sitting down to eat, and driving back to the motel, when could I possibly find the time to write?

I guess I’ll have to pick up the slack here.

• The Magic Kingdom is the park that opened Disney World in 1971. It’s basically a copy of Disneyland, but there were a lot of lessons they learned from the first park that they were able to apply from the start when building the Magic Kingdom. Having a lot of space is one, so this park is a lot more wide open than its sister in Anaheim.
• When it was first built, it didn’t have the Pirates of the Carribean ride, because they thought people in Florida, which actually live on the Carribean, would be tired of pirate stories. They were wrong, and the huge number of complaints they got in their first few months forced them to hurry up and build Pirates in Orlando.
• The Carousel of Progress was originally built for the New York World’s Fair in 1964. After the fair it was moved to Disneyland, but it only lasted for a few years there before it was kicked out and moved back to the East Coast, to Disney World
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was first built in Disneyland, then copied in Orlando. The Country Bear Jamboree was first built in the Magic Kingdom, and then copied in Disneyland. Neither of them was a match for Winnie the Pooh, though, as both of the copies were driven out and replaced by the Hundred Acre Wood.
• The Magic Kingdom was originally just supposed to give an extra boost to the main attraction in Orlando, the City of EPCOT. EPCOT wasn’t built as planned, though, so the Magic Kingdom became the star and Epcot now plays second fiddle.