In the heart of Fantasy Land, a ride known as Peter Pan’s Flight is as classic as it can be at the Magic Kingdom. Based on a plaque I read in Disney’s Hollywood studios, this attraction was designed by original animators of the Peter Pan animation film. It is was first introduced in Disneyland as first person perspective as Peter Pan. As guest had difficulties connecting that, the Magic Kingdom version was revised to have guests travel in a flying ship instead. This ride is suspended in the air and allows guest to get a pretty accurate feeling of what it would be like flying with Peter and Tink.

Two guests per ship during the ride, as this is a suspended dark ride, sometimes guest can be riding by themselves.

Each one of the ships are brightly coloured, as the ride uses black light, it would make the fluorescent painted parts on these ships visible during the ride. To board the ships we must walk from a stationary ground to the moving ramps which is a form of people mover or flat escalators.

During our time on this ride, we were lucky enough to have the entire ride stopped twice. A group before us was an elderly couple with their grandson. The entire ride was stopped twice so the elderly couple can get on and get off. During this stopped time, I was able to take a nice clear shot of the scenes inside the ride. I missed the flight and the fight but was able to capture the moment before Hook was swallow whole.

And the moment when Peter and Wendy flew back to London while Tinkerbell hover over them.

This was also a very interesting ride to me from a technological point of view. I noticed in multiple section that the ‘drive’ of the muscle of the ride was actually garage door openers. The staff was controlling the entire ride with a standard garage door opener remote and you can see the actual openers when the ride stops with a faint light. I wonder if this was the original design back in teh 50s or was those replaced with a Custom Off The Shelves version during their annual maintenance and the garage door opener was chosen as it had the power and durability required for the ride.