It’s hard to believe that the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, FL has been pulling in millions of visitors for 40 years – four decades of parades, fireworks, stage shows, restaurants, hotels, and wonderful attractions; all designed to bring a little piece of fantasy into our lives. There is little wonder why many people who have visited Walt Disney World (WDW) once have often taken great efforts to revisit time and time again.
Although Walt Disney never lived to see his dream of what he dubbed “The Florida Project,” his brother Roy saw it through to fruition, and on October 1, 1971, the gates to Magic Kingdom opened to re-re-re-solidify the Disney brand in American culture. Since that day 40 long years ago, the Walt Disney World Resort has expanded exponentially, and today houses four theme parks, two water parks, five golf courses, 33 resort/hotel accommodations, a shopping district, a race track, the Wide World Of Sports complex, and hundreds of eateries!
But the mouse-begotten magic began in Florida with that one park. The Magic Kingdom is a place where time stops, and in some cases, actually reverses, transporting its visitors to a more innocent time, when dreams were limited only by one’s own imagination and where fantasy was as real as the nose on one’s face.
While the visual aspect of Walt Disney World lures in a fascinated audience, one of the primary components that keeps us rapt and suspends our disbelief is the integration of music throughout the park. There is scarcely a spot in the Magic Kingdom where tuneful joy does not resonate (excepting the walkway between the Tomorrowland Speedway and Fantasyland).
This brings us to the point of our endeavor – to bring to light some of the magical music one encounters during an average visit to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Over the course of the next few articles, we will explore some of the wonderful ear candy that helps to maintain the park’s timelessness while enhancing our vacation experience.
We will (hopefully) accomplish this in a walkthrough fashion, starting with the main turnstiles and onto Main Street USA. We will then march straight through the hub and into Fantasyland, looping through Liberty Square, Frontierland, and Adventureland. And then we will thread the needle with Tomorrowland, and finish our tour with a couple parades and fireworks, in true WDW fashion.
And throughout the week, keep checking back, as we have several additional special features to share that will hopefully elevate your appreciation for the Wonderful World of Disney!
Our tour begins here on Main Street USA!
Skip ahead to Fantasyland!
For more musical magic, check out some of these other great Disney-related features to keep the celebration going:
- Interview with LITTLEBIGPLANET 2: TOY STORY composer Winifred Phillips
- Interview with PRINCE OF PERSIA & CHRONICLES OF NARNIA composer Harry Gregson-Williams
- Interview with Walt Disney World Opening Day composer/conductor John Beal
- ALMOST ALICE CD review
- BEST OF THE LION KING soundtrack review
- CINDERELLA soundtrack review
- DISNEY JAZZ: Everybody Wants To Be A Cat CD review
- DISNEYNATURE: Oceans soundtrack review
- GNOMEO & JULIET soundtrack review
- THE HAUNTED MANSION commemorative CD review
- THE HAUNTED MANSION film score soundtrack review
- PHINEAS AND FERB: Holiday Favorites soundtrack review
- PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES soundtrack review
- PONYO soundtrack review
- THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG soundtrack review
- STARSTRUCK soundtrack review
- TANGLED soundtrack review
- TOY STORY 3 soundtrack review
- TRON LEGACY soundtrack review
- UP soundtrack review
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