A ferryboat gliding into the landing at the Ticket and Transportation center opens our 17 minutes 1974 visit to the Magic Kingdom. Views of the Contemporary and Cinderella Castle onboard yield to Main Street USA and then our subjects step through the arches of the castle. Note the two vehicles on a sparsely populated Main Street.
Friar Tuck is greeting guests in the rear of the castle while a solemn looking Snow White boards the Carrousel for a little mid-morning merriment. Perhaps she’s upset that the cameraman can only find three Dwarfs instead of seven. No matter, he finds happier parkgoers at the Fantasyland Skyway Station in all its alpine glory. A few seconds of footage from the Skyway station is too dark to really make out but then we board the Skyway for a journey above Fantasyland and Tomorrowlandd with views of 20,000 Leagues lagoon.
A few men can be seen working atop the under-construction Space Mountain as the Walt Disney World Railroad passes by. A few shots of Frontierland before we head inside the Mickey Mouse Revue. This is some great footage for those of you who have never seen the figures before. Can you spot the Three Caballeros? These same animatronics were recently installed in the Gran Fiesta Tour ride at EPCOT.
We then board If You Had Wings with a little on ride footage to give you the flavor of this attraction as well. There’s on ride footage from the Magic Carpet Around The World (a Circlevision 360 attraction) and even a little bit of Mission to Mars.
Running out of things to do in Tomorrowland our filmmaker heads to Adventureland and boards the Jungle Cruise. In search of some live entertainment we heads into the Diamond Horseshoe. There’s some footage of the Disney World marching band before we head outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom for a few shots of the monorail and the entrance plaza where our subject sports a Stanley Cup Champion Philadelphia Flyers shirt (go Flyers!).
There is footage inside the Penny Arcade and then of our Main Street ragtime piano player followed by some character greetings including Mickey Mouse! Brief footage of a few attractions and locations gives way to the obligatory chronicling of the daily parade. Be sure to watch for Herbie The Love Bug complete with his hood that opens to reveal a full mouth and tongue. Yikes. After the parade there is some on ride footage from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and then a ride on the Walt Disney World Railroad.
The topiaries that formerly occupied the area in front of the Contemporary Resort that now hosts the bus loop depot is glimpsed before we head back to the Magic Kingdom for an afternoon visit to Tom Sawyer Island and a ride on the Rivers of America where we spy the burning cabin and Mike Fink Keel Boats among other sites.
Our friends conclude their visit in the best possible way: a visit to Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.