There's more magic to be found at Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary

Spaceship Earth at Epcot during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

I often encounter Canadians and Americans who are completely oblivious to the surreal scale and very concept of Walt Disney World Resort in Central Florida.

These folks are typically on the West Coast, and for them, Disneyland Resort — home to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park — in Anaheim is their Disney-fix destination for proximity reasons.

Unfortunately, this is their only point of reference for what a Disney Parks experience can be.

The West Coast, the world’s original Disney Parks experience, is “The Happiest Place On Earth,” while the East Coast experience is “The Most Magical Place On Earth” for good measure.

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Just a 20-minute drive from Orlando International Airport, Disney World spans a land area of over 100 sq km — roughly equivalent to the entire City of Vancouver. There are not two but four unique theme parks spread out in this world of fantasy: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom (zoo).

While obviously still an impressive destination in its own right, Disneyland Resort, in comparison, is just 0.5 sq km, surrounded by Anaheim’s urban environment.

Disney World’s expanse is designed to fully immerse and encapsulate visitors into the “Disney magic” for every moment of their visit. And that is due in many parts to the 31 themed resort hotels found across Disney World, with a combined total of over 36,000 hotel rooms — equivalent to the number of hotel rooms in the Vancouver and Whistler areas combined.

African savannah animals within the internal courtyard of Animal Kingdom Lodge resort hotel at Walt Disney World. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Boardwalk Inn resort hotel resort near Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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Skyliner gondola and ferries backdropped by the France pavilion outside Epcot. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

There is also a sprawling outdoor retail hub called Disney Springs, containing the world’s top retail brands, ample dining options, and entertainment, including AMC Theatres and a permanent, standalone Cirque du Soleil “big top” venue (one of the few resident Cirque venues of its kind in the world outside of Las Vegas).

And all of this is linked together by Disney Transport, a free multi-modal public transit system that brings visitors between the theme parks and the hotels, and between Disney Springs and the hotels. The size of its bus fleet rivals the public transit system of some mid-sized US cities, and the options also entail the monorail and themed ferries.

The equivalent of “Disneyland” at Disney World is Magic Kingdom (but please… don’t call it Disneyland!).

Disney World is now in the midst of its 50th-anniversary celebrations, marking the milestone birthday of the theme park that started it all in Florida, Magic Kingdom.

The 50th anniversary celebration period that officially kicked off in October 2021 is scheduled to run for 18 months, until March 2023.

It carries some of the same flairs of the pomp and circumstance the sister resort in Anaheim put on for its Diamond Anniversary (60th anniversary) about seven years ago.

Train station at the entrance of Magic Kingdom during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

For Magic Kingdom’s big 50th birthday, there’s a new nighttime fireworks show over Cinderella Castle called “Disney Enchantment.”

If you have not been to Magic Kingdom for the past two decades, new projection mapping, searchlights, and lasers were added in recent years to truly turn the nighttime fireworks into a multimedia digital spectacular that pushes the potential of what the curtain-closing entertainment at the park can be — far beyond the scale of Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams, which had its run between 2003 and 2017. Disney Enchantment, which first launched in October 2021, fully benefits from this show infrastructure.

This past Monday, an updated version of Disney Enchantment premiered, featuring castle projections of archived photos and videos, and nostalgic audio clips of Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney, when they were planning their then-secret “Florida Project” for Disney World. The expanded introduction for the fireworks sets the tone for the entire show, mirroring the fan-favourite Disneyland Forever fireworks show originally made for Disneyland Resorts’ Diamond Anniversary.

“Disney Enchantment” fireworks at Magic Kingdom during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Daytime parade at Magic Kingdom during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

There was also a similar turnover last fall in the nighttime entertainment at the World Showcase Lagoon at Epcot.

Disney Imagineers wasted no time during the most difficult period of the pandemic and pushed forward with their plans to provide the lagoon with a technological upheaval that brings together the legacy of the longtime Illuminations: Reflections of Earth fireworks show and clear inspiration from Disney California Adventure Park’s World of Color to create the new show, Harmonious.

Massive floating barges in the middle of the lagoon have been outfitted with six-storey high LED screens to display imagery and animated sequences to further support Disney storytelling, with the same structures also supporting an array of water fountains, water curtains, searchlights, lasers, and fireworks launch points.

According to Disney, this state-of-the-art show infrastructure is the largest nighttime spectacular ever created for Disney Parks — larger than its transformation of Paradise Bay for the World of Color at Disney California Adventure Park a decade ago.

Staying true to World Showcase’s theme of “travelling around the globe” in World’s Fair-like country pavilions, Harmonious is a celebration of the world’s unity, with the soundtrack featuring hit Disney songs sung in a wide range of languages.

As part of the 50th-anniversary festivities, Disney+ recently streamed a special live performance of Harmonious — featuring a diverse group of international singers performing the nighttime spectacular’s soundtrack live, and hosted by Idina Menzel (voice of Elsa in Frozen). A recording of the live Harmonious performance is available to view on the streaming platform.

“Harmonious” fireworks at Epcot during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

“Harmonious” fireworks at Epcot during the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

But the biggest addition yet to Disney World timed with the 50th anniversary period is unquestionably the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot, replacing the pavilion building previously occupied by Ellen’s Energy Adventure. It officially opened in late-May 2022.

This is a thrilling, high-speed indoor roller coaster that can be best described as Space Mountain on steroids, layered on with inspiration from Hollywood Studios’ Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith and the latest advancements in roller coaster and immersive experience technologies, including a projection screen larger than a football field.

Cosmic Rewind, the first roller coaster for Epcot, joins another relatively recently opened ride addition at this park — Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Located within the France pavilion, riders on Remy’s are “shrunk” into the size of the perspective of a rat for a scurrying “miniature world” adventure through Gusteau’s restaurant.

This mouse ride uses the same trackless technology as Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which opened in early 2020, replacing The Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios.

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“Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind” roller coaster at Epcot in Walt Disney World Resort. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

And even more major changes and additions are planned for Epcot in the foreseeable future.

Construction has been ongoing over the past three years on rebuilding the former core plaza area of what was previously known as Future World into the new World Celebration neighbourhood of Epcot.

“This whole centre area is part of the biggest transformation, where it is really an opportunity for guests to connect with each other. This whole area will be activated almost year-round with festivals, turning it into the heart of the festival programming for Epcot,” Jodi McLaughlin, the executive producer of Walt Disney Imagineering, told Daily Hive during a press event at Epcot.

“Even by day and night, it’ll feel quite different, and each of the seasons and festivals will bring a new look and feel of the park.”

As an Expo-like destination, Epcot is known for its special seasonal festival periods throughout the year, including the Flower and Garden Festival, Food and Wine Festival, Festival of the Arts, and Festival of the Holidays during the Christmas season.

The new large open Communicore Plaza will be a new space for a wide range of outdoor events ranging from big concerts to intimate music performances. The Festival of the Holidays, for example, could activate the plaza with an installation with nighttime lighting and audio synchronized to the new lighting of Spaceship Earth’s geodesic sphere.

Additionally, adjacent to this plaza area will be Communicore Hall — a large indoor exhibition hall for galleries, special events, and festival programming. A new Mickey & Friends greeting building will also be situated in this area.

2022 artistic rendering of the Communicore hub of Epcot. (Disney Parks)

“When Walt said ‘Epcot should always be in a state of becoming,’ it’s really an opportunity to evolve the park that keeps it relevant and future-forward, but also really harkening back to Walt’s original vision of community,” added McLaughlin.

Adjacent to the Communicore hub will be Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana, a self-guided exploration trail and maze that takes visitors through a lush forest environment, with immersive features intended to teach about the water cycle and conservation. Artistic renderings suggest Journey of Water will have some similarities to the intricate landscape theming of Pandora — The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. This is all part of the new World Nature neighbourhood.

No timeline for the opening of the Communicore hub and Journey of Water attractions has been established, but they are most likely set for sometime in 2023 at the earliest given the visible progress of construction.

But there will potentially be a major new attraction to look forward to over the coming months at the original park of Disney World.

Rising high over Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom, it is impossible to miss the futuristic canopy dome that will contain the Tron Lightcycle — an indoor and outdoor roller coaster inspired by 2010’s Tron: Legacy film. This is essentially a replica of the ride of the same name that opened at Shanghai Disneyland Park in 2016.

Disney Parks has yet to provide a potential opening timeline for Tron Lightcycle, but the construction progress suggests it could open by late 2022 or early 2023, establishing a forward-looking bookend to the world’s most magical celebration.

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Artistic rendering of “Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana” at Epcot at Walt Disney World. (Disney Parks)

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Tron Lightcycle ride under construction at Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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