Friday, September 9, 2011

40 Disney Attractions: 36

"C'mon, everybody. Here we goooo!"



36. Peter Pan's Flight

Fantasyland, more than any other section in the Magic Kingdom, the place where dreams come true, regardless of whether or not you wish upon a star. While Disneyland's version is modeled on an old-thyme Bavarian village, Disney World's is modeled on a renaissance Fantasie Faire, mainly out of necessity. Florida is pretty rainy a lot so there needs to be a lot of coverings to make sure the rides don't get all rained up. Currently at the Magic Kingdom, things are a little cramped, seeing as Fantasyland is going through a full-on facelift adding huge areas devoted to the princesses and adding a second Dumbo ride.

Probably the most common ride at Disney theme parks is the "dark ride". Dark rides are indoor attractions where vehicles travel through specially-lit scenes containing music, sound, animation, etc.

Peter Pan's Flight is a fairly traditional dark ride with one caveat. It's the only dark ride with a suspended ride vehicle. Instead of traveling on an Omnimover track on the floor, the vehicles(modeled after the flying galleon at the end of the film) travel with an overhead thingy to "simulate" """"flight""". From there though, it's pretty straightforward. You travel through all the big scenes from Peter Pan: Pete arriving in the Darling home, flying over London, the sword fight, all that good stuff.

The thing that always confused me is how popular the dang thing is. Wait times can go up to over an hour, even if it feels shorter thanks to the efficient Omnimover system. It's a normal, short dark ride and yet people go nuts over it? Maybe that's not it, maybe it's just that it's a super quick ride and it gives folks something to do before they go eat a burger at Liberty Tree Tavern(located adjacent to beautiful Gracey Manor). Who knows?

More importantly, who cares. It's fun.

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