Peter Pan's Flight is my favorite dark ride, but because of the long lines, the one I ride the least. As luck would have it, I was able to board a magic pirate ship and enjoy this attraction on a recent visit. Here are a few shots from that journey.
A teasing glimpse from the queue of the magic that lies ahead.
The queue mural:
Sailing into the dark, the revamped nursery scene is the first thing that we see.
What a fantastic feeling when you soar over London
and then over Neverland:
Drama! A thrilling fight between Captain Hook and Peter Pan.
A happy ending occurs quickly as our heroes (and heroines) fly home on a magic pirate ship:
Mermaids - could it get any more magical?
More Peter Pan dark ride magic at my main website.
By now you have a large and extensive collection of Fantasyland dark ride photos. These are wonderful! Your interior photography gets better and better as time progresses. Thanks, Dave.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1954 I got to see an early attempt of the flight system -- a track circling the top of a Burbank Disney Studio sound stage. The "pirate ship" was a vertical pipe attached to the drive mechanism, and a horizontal wood plank handing from the pipe. There were no flats or characters or anything that might suggest what this iconic ride would eventually look like. Dave, this is my favorite dark ride also, except when I am actually in a Caterpillar-mobile. Thanks to your excellent photo collection, I can enjoy Peter Pan's Flite any time I want to!
ReplyDeleteI grew up with Disneyland from its earliest days and watched as the park changed and evolved over the decades. This ride was always my favorite dark ride. Especially at the very end of the ride, before the boat exited the building, Tinkerbell would fly out and hover over the riders. Just out of reach but you could hear her wings buzzing. It was every local kid’s fantasy to catch her and many tried.
ReplyDeleteThere was a renovation of Fantasyland in the 80s and the whole section was dismantled and all the rides were moved over a bit, so their current situation of most is close to, but not the original spot. They removed the iconic Tink at the end of the ride. She can be peeped in an earlier scene that was added after the ride was rebuilt.
I worked at the Studios in Burbank in the late 80s. My office was an original Studio building that housed The Archives. I mentioned the original ride Tink to the curator one day after getting acquainted with him during our friendly lunch chats. He surprised me by one day asking me to come see him. He left the reception area and disappeared. He brought back with him that original Tink. She had been salvaged, and mounted, and catalogued. He placed her in my hands. A childhood dream realized in an instant frozen in time. She didn’t look like I imagined she would. She was made of some kind of plaster. One arm had been repaired from the elbow down because someone had finally been successful at grabbing hold of her. Her texture was like stucco and her features were crude. She was painted in reactive paint. Her wings were metal barrels with fins like a dart. They spun and made the fluttering noise. She was crafted to catch the black light and appear 3D. She most certainly did.
I know this post is old. But memories need to go somewhere before they are lost. Thank you.
LOVED that story, Anonymous - thank you so much for sharing! I added it to the Disneyland Peter Pan page on my website.
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