Things To Do in Magic Kingdom

The gist is like the Dumbo ride—an 80-second spin on an armature, you control height—except from three stories up, and with 12 toboggan-style rockets seating only two each. Usually, it takes too long, partly because you have to use an un-magical elevator, framed operational permit…

Here we have another Disney thrill mountain, a 2 1/2-acre runaway-train ride that rambles joltingly through steaming, rusty Old West sets. Consider it the closest thing to a standard adult coaster in the Kingdom, although it’s not something that will make you dizzy or scared. Top…

The Toy Story movies provide inspiration for a rambunctious 3-minute slow-car ride that works like a shooting gallery. Passengers are equipped with laser guns and the means to rotate their vehicles, and it’s their mission to blast as many targets as they can. That’s easier said than…

To the left as you face this icon, across from Casey’s Corner, is the tip board listing current wait times at all the major attractions, plus the schedule for parades and fireworks. The circular area before the castle, known as “the Hub,” is home to “Partners,” the statue of Walt and…

An opening-day attraction, one of the last to survive, the Jamboree is a 10-minute vaudeville-style revue that, at one moment, has 18 Audio-Animatronic bears, a raccoon, and a buffalo head singing country music together. Some kids, particularly pre-Ks, are enthralled by the…

The Magic Kingdom still attracts millions from around the world, drawn here by the opportunity to experience the fun and fantasy that only Disney can deliver. Attendance, at slightly more than 17 million, makes this America's most popular theme park. The 107-acre Magic Kingdom is…

Fascinatingly, in the 1941 film Dumbo, the stork delivers baby Dumbo almost exactly over the future site of Disney World, 30 years before it became a reality. The famous baby circus animal recently got a makeover, and now there are two copies of this sentimental ride, halving waits.…

Here’s a character meet-and-greet with a tech twist: In addition to the Beauty and the Beast heroine, who selects audience members to reenact her story—the same story you've seen in two film versions now—you encounter a thrillingly lifelike talking armoire, a fantastic Lumière…

Disney Enchantment, Magic Kingdom's current 15-minute fireworks-and-projections display, is colorful but not terribly emotional. It centers on Cinderella Castle. Numerous good views of the action are available, so long as you're standing on the front side of the Castle—get too far…

The one-room shop on the square (9am–6pm; haircuts $19 adults, $18 kids 12 and under, beards or bangs $7), overseen by portraits of George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt, trims some 700 pates a week and does special requests, such as shaving Mickey onto scalps or combing in clear gel…

This delightful, G-rated excursion was one of the world’s first rides based on a movie. The slow-going boat tour was created for Disneyland’s 1955 opening to capitalize on Disney’s True-Life Adventures nature films, although it has been updated many times, including in 2021 to excise…

The 17-minute ride around Tom Sawyer Island on the Liberty Belle, which departs on the hour and half-hour and has very little seating, makes for a relaxing break. It’s not unusual to see Florida water birds on the journey, which passes a few mild (and mildly stereotypical) dioramas…

Its conceit—spinning teacups on a platter of concentric turntables—has given the name to an entire genre of carnival “teacup” rides, in which each cup serves a steaming serving of nausea. How much you’ll want to heave depends on whether you’re riding with someone who can turn the…

If you haven’t noticed, toddlers abound, and this flying carousel suits their low thrill thresholds. This one is a less-crowded alternative to Fantasyland’s Dumbo, but unlike on Dumbo, a family of four can ride—there are two rows of seats on each “carpet.” The front seat riders…

Out the other side of the train station in the Town Square, you’ll be greeted by your first few costumed characters and to a full view of Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street, U.S.A. Like the first time you see the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House, there’s something…

The computer-animated, widescreen 3D entertainment, which runs continuously, is honest Disney in the Fantasia mold: Classic characters, prominently Donald Duck, appear to a lush (and loud) soundtrack of Disney songs, while pleasant extrasensory effects such as scents and breezes blow…

Mickey’s throwin’ a friendship party, and everyone’s invited. The chief Disney characters (plus the leads of Frozen, Tangled, and The Princess and the Frog) dance and sing in a 20-minute floor show in the Castle forecourt capped by a few flares. See the app or the schedule posted by…

Like Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot, it’s a “Living Character” video show, about 15 minutes long, in which computer-animated characters on a giant screen interact with a theater full of people, singling humans out with a hidden camera for gentle ridicule. The animation looks as…

By the train station at the very back of Fantasyland, meet four Disney stars under the Big Top, envisioned as carnival performers: Minnie Magnifique, Madame Daisy Fortuna, the Astounding Donaldo, and the Great Goofini. The waits to get autographs from the girls are often longer, but…

This iconic ride is also unique because its pirate ship vehicles hang from the ceiling, swooping gently up, down, and around obstacles, while the scenes below are executed in forced perspective to make it feel like you’re high in the air. The effect is charming and—okay, I’ll say…

Housed in a tiled-roof building based on Castillo de San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Disney’s technological prowess as of the 1960s is showcased here at its most whimsical. I call this indoor boat float the quintessential Disney ride, so it’s probably no coincidence…

Nice to see a prince get a little recognition around here (even though he doesn't personally appear)! It’s easy to enjoy one of the world’s prettiest carousels. The 90-second ride was handmade in 1917 for a Detroit amusement park and it spent nearly 4 decades in Maplewood, New…

Meet and greet four of the most popular Princess characters, such as Cinderella, Tiana, Elsa, or Rapunzel (Belle “lives” at her Enchanted Tales cottage). Little kids (mostly girls) wait in a reception hall that’s dressed in stained glass and portraits of the royal ladies, and when…

Disney’s newest mountain, circa 2014, is really more of a knoll, and a joyful little ride. The mine cart roller coaster, which replaced a circa-1971 Snow White ride, goes in and out of a hill containing the gem quarry dug by Snow White’s diminutive landlords, whom you’ll encounter…

Walt Disney liked creating one landmark for every land. He called it the “weenie” that drew people in. Tomorrowland’s weenie, and only 6 feet shorter than Cinderella Castle, is contained in that futuristic concrete-ribbed circus tent. Although it’s a relatively tame indoor toboggan…

After 30 years of operation, Splash Mountain closed forever after January 22, 2023. Disney is converting this 11-minute log flume ride to Tiana's Bayou Adventure, a riff on The Princess and the Frog. The ride will open in late 2024 or in 2025.

The Swiss who? You’re forgiven if you don’t know The Swiss Family Robinson (1960), a story about a shipwrecked clan that survives using salvage; you’re also forgiven if you lack the will to take 15 minutes to clamber up the 62 stairs and catwalks to inspect the ingenuity of their…

Fantasyland’s kiddie coaster, which is all about giving small children a sense of excitement and accomplishment, invariably has a line, which is outdoors. The tangled track does a few swooping figure-eights and passes through a Goofy-shaped hole in a billboard, but takes scarcely…

Following a wide-screen historical film, Audio-Animatronic versions of the U.S. presidents crowd awkwardly onstage, nodding to the audience, and several in turn spout homilies about democracy, unity, and other satisfying nuggets. (In 2021, it was Bidenized—the current president is…

One of the park’s largest and most intricate rides opened with the park in 1971, and fans are in love with it—many of them can recite the script verbatim (“I am your host . . . your ghost host!”). The outdoor queue area passes funny gravestones, some of them interactive and some…

Pooh makes for quite a joyous attraction, with vibrant colors, plenty of peppy pictures, and a giddy segment when Tigger asks you to bounce with him and in response, your “Hunny Pot” car gently bucks as it rolls (nothing your toddler can’t handle). The effects, such as a levitating…

Across Rivers of America, you’ll find a place where you can roam the step-free Old Scratch’s Mystery Mine, cross wooden suspension bridges, and pretend to defend Fort Langhorn with rifles rigged with weak recordings of gunfire. The fort is made of fiberglass logs—the wooden version…

Originally built in Disneyland at a time when freeways were considered tech breakthroughs and not a bane of life, this half-mile, self-driven jog of four-lane track is the first chance most kids will have to drive. These are go-karts with no juice, although the late sportscaster Tom…

The tramlike second-story track, which boards under the Astro Orbiter at Rockettower Plaza, uses pollution-free “linear induction” magnetic technology to take a story-free scenic overview of the area’s attractions. On a 13-minute round-trip with no stops, it coasts past some windows…

Beat the heat here, at two character meet-and-greet areas. On the right, meet Mickey Mouse dressed as a magician, and on the left, meet a selection of other characters (cameos of those who are currently available are pictured on the wait time sign). You can also come here for…

The most monumental ride addition to Magic Kingdom in 30 years is a duplicate of a coaster that debuted at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, and boy, is it a treat. Riders mount illuminated futurist bicycles and are safely clamped into place with built-in back braces before being abruptly…

As you travel in slow-moving shell vehicles for 6 gentle minutes, you retrace a truncated jukebox version of the film’s plot, including dutiful reprises of “Part of Your World,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls” (by an enormous Ursula), “Kiss the Girl,” and most spectacularly, a big room full…

The prominence of a railway is no accident; the concept of Disneyland grew out of Walt’s wish to build a train park across the street from his Burbank studios. The train, which runs all day, takes about 25 minutes and encircles the park, stopping first in Frontierland and then…

Board here for a round trip to the front gates at Main Street, U.S.A., then Frontierland, and finally back here in 20 minutes, all to a recorded narration that describes what you see along the way. Across the path, the train motif carries over to the Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak…

Between Splash and Big Thunder mountains is a stop for the trains, which are pulled by one of four steam engines built between 1916 and 1928 and operated in the Yucatan before coming here. They take you to Fantasyland, then the foot of Main Street, and back here in 20 minutes. This…

As of July 6, 2026, this attraction is closed until 2027 for a complete overhaul.They know it’s an antique: They put Walt’s name in the title to compensate. But as a preboarding movie attests, Walt Disney loved this attraction—he created an earlier version with General Electric…

In the 1950s, Walt Disney developed a Frankenstein-like obsession with developing robots to replace living actors, and as a first stab at lifelike technology, he had his staff create a little mechanical bird. That turned into the concept for a restaurant full of them, chattering…