“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
At his core, Walt Disney’s closest companions often cite him as an optimist, tirelessly dedicated to making life better through not just entertainment, but urban planning and design. And since the very beginning of his career, one of Walt’s biggest inspirations was the past, present, and future of moving people. Especially when Imagineers made the jump from their tiny Californian property to the “Vacation Kingdom of the World” in Orlando, how to move people became more than an art, but a necessity. And in some cases, that meant using mere “prototype rides” at Disneyland as actual, applied transportation systems at Walt Disney World!
To this day, though it may not always be the first component of a Disneyland or Disney World vacation you imagine, transportation is “where the rubber meets the road…” sometimes literally! In fact, Disney Parks are served by many different transportation options that balance the needs of guests with capacity and efficiency, sustainability, and of course, a touch of “magic.”
From memorable, iconic vehicles to tried-and-true systems, there are tons of innovative (and not-so-innovative) ways that Disney Parks and Resorts today move people around. Here, we’ve collected a countdown of the ten most iconic and beloved components of Disney Transportation. Which do you think will make our top 3?
10. Buses
Disney Transportation’s bus service is the only transportation solution that dutifully connects every single hotel and theme park in the sprawling Walt Disney World complex. The immensely complex system is built around five hubs (the four theme parks and Disney Springs) that are serviced by direct door-to-door service from on-site hotels and one another and, in peak times, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.
It should come as no surprise that buses land dead last on our list. Though Disney’s 460+ bus arsenal is impressive, this solution is far from utopian. Especially on a property named after the name who sought optimized solutions to urban planning and transportation, the gas-guzzling fleet of crowded buses trapped in traffic is far from a fitting testament, even if it’s the most cost-effective and utilitarian for Disney World’s unique needs. Even still, Disney World’s buses are iconic in their own way, and are simply a necessary part of any Disney World visit.
9. Trams
Another sort of necessary evil solution? Trams. Reportedly, Disney World alone has 28 parking trams, while Disneyland has a fleet of its own shuttling guests from the resort’s parking garages to the Esplanade. There’s nothing particularly “magical” about the service that exists solely to circulate guests between parking areas and park gates, yet the Tram itself has become somewhat of an icon of Disney Parks just like the buses: you can even buy toy versions!
8. Boats
Much more elegant is the collection of ferries, water taxis, launches, and other watercrafts that connect destinations within Walt Disney World, taking advantage of its sometimes-natural, sometimes-manmade river channels, lagoons, and lakes. A handful of Epcot Area Disney Resort hotels link between Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and one another via a naval collection of 7 Friendship Boats (as well as two that operate inside Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon); 6 launches travel between Bay Lake resorts; and 15 River Boats connect Disney Springs and its area hotels.
However, the resort’s most elegant (and iconic) water rides are the three Ferries that connect the Transportation and Ticket Center with Magic Kingdom’s front gates. The 10-minute ride across Bay Lake takes approximately the same amount of time as the Express Monorail that circumnavigates the lake, but it’s certainly a more romantic and relaxed way to arrive.
7. Red Car Trolley
Speaking of romance, there’s something incredibly heartwarming about the Red Car Trolley, which joined Disney California Adventure during the park’s five-year rebuild. The graceful, crimson recreation of the real Pacific Electric Trolleys that once dinged through Los Angeles even includes (fake) overhead electric guide wires throughout the 1920s Buena Vista Street and down the neighboring streetscape of Hollywood Blvd. To that end, the ride is not only one of those “hidden gem” attractions fans love; it’s a useful transportation link between two of the park’s themed lands!
When it opened, the Red Car Trolley brilliantly bridged both lands with in-cab, in-universe ads for the lands’ eateries and shops, plus its final destination: the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Yes, in the park’s new story, the Trolleys final stop was on “the dark side of Hollywood,” beneath the flickering neon sign of the Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, cleverly connecting two of the park’s lands not just in one overarching narrative. Since the ride’s annexation by the Avengers Campus and the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Red Car Trolley’s last stop is a little nonsensical, but the gentle ride is still a very cool, can’t-miss aside in the reborn park.
6. Main Street Vehicles
The Main Street Vehicles have been a mainstay of Disneyland since 1955. Their continued operation is nothing short of a miracle given that the horse-drawn carriage, horseless buggy, firetruck, and double-decker Omnibus would be easy targets for a budget-cutting executive… Yet for more than sixty years, these ultra-classic vehicles have honked, clip-clopped, and shuddered their way down the turn-of-the-century town – a perfect encapsulation of the magic of Main Street.
Though Magic Kingdom’s Main Street Vehicles do make appearances, they’re more rare – typically sneaking into the land only in the afternoons or off-seasons. At one point, that was written up to the park’s larger crowds… but given that Disneyland’s Main Street is smaller and its annual attendance is neck-and-neck with Magic Kingdom’s, maybe it’s time for fans to formally visit Disney World’s City Hall, requesting the vehicles get the spotlight once more!
And now, we’re on to the top five fan-favorite transportation systems at Disney Parks…
5. Sailing Ships
Since each park’s respective opening, one of the most spectacular sights in either Disneyland or Magic Kingdom has been the massive sailing ships slicing through the Rivers of America. Disneyland construction supervisor (and former Navy admiral) Joe Fowler famously oversaw the construction of Disneyland’s original Mark Twain – the first authentic steamboat built in 50 years. The ship’s drydock is called Fowler’s Harbor to this day, while one of the ferries linking Walt Disney World’s Transportation and Ticket Center is itself called the Admiral Joe Fowler in his honor.
Best of all, the gargantuan vessels that circumnavigate Tom Sawyer Island on each coast sneakily serve as attractions not just for riders (who can spot vignettes set along the river’s course) but for onlookers! As rafts criss-cross the river, the riverboats (the Liberty Belle at Magic Kingdom, and the Mark Twain and Columbia plus canoes at Disneyland) add life and vibrancy and movement to the otherwise rigid and still Old West.
4. Skyliner
As fans know, Disneyland had spurred Walt to think of things differently. The park was a sort of living laboratory of urban planning and design and, for Walt, a place to present the public with cutting edge solutions to very real problems. Chief among them was Walt’s push for public transportation. The Lost Legend: The Skyway opened in 1956 as the first of Walt’s experimental transportation systems. The aerial route between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland might’ve exposed some of the hidden infrastructure of the park, but it also acted as a prototype for real world application… or at least, Disney World application.
A similar Skyway connected Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, till both Skyways were closed in the ‘90s. The concept was gone, but not forgotten. In 2019, the Skyliner opened not as a ride, but a true transportation solution for Disney World. The high-capacity ride system connects Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Riviera Resort, and the Pop Century / Art of Animation Resorts with a transfer station at Disney’s Caribbean Beach.
A newcomer on this list (with a relatively high rank to boot), the Skyliner is already adored by fans (and executives who can now boost hotel rates at older resorts). Reportedly, plans are already being worked out to expand the system, perhaps establishing it as the long sought-after, all-in-one solution that can downsize Disney’s buses and work as efficiently as the Monorail but at a much lower start-up cost.
3. Railroads
Walt was fascinated by trains, and even famously had his own miniature, 184 mm gauge rideable miniature railroad – the Carolwood Pacific. Even before Disneyland, Walt’s plans for a small amusement park on land adjacent to Disney’s Burbank studio called for a train circumnavigating the property. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the 3-foot narrow-gauge Disneyland Railroad was there, connecting Main Street, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. In fact, the history of Walt’s fondness for trains and the story of the Disneyland Railroad and its locomotives has inspired a number of standalone books on the subject!
A Railroad has since become a staple of every Disneyland-style park (except Shanghai Disneyland, though it retains a Train Station as its entry feature). The charming “Grand Circle Tours” of Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, though, retain a special place in the hearts and minds of Disney fans given the immensely personal connection the ride has to Walt’s legacy.
2. Monorail
When Disneyland’s Monorail opened as a full-circuit ride in Tomorrowland in 1959, it was the first in the Western hemisphere. And again, Walt hoped it would be a prototype meant to sincerely demonstrate this efficient transportation solution that could’ve (and probably should’ve) rewritten the rules of urban transportation. Disneyland’s Monorail eventually expanded to connect to the Disneyland Hotel (today, the Downtown Disney station), though since one of its two stops is inside Disneyland, park admission is required to board. Disneyland’s iconic Monorail received its sleek “Mark VII” trains in 2008.
Like so many of Walt’s utopian ideals, Walt hoped that the Monorail would be elevated from mere “ride” to functioning system in his E.P.C.O.T. city, which would serve as a living model for any master-planned global city to follow. There, a “highway in the sky” would effortlessly glide over Florida freeways and swampland en route to and from the city’s core.
Though E.P.C.O.T. wasn’t its centerpiece, when the Florida Project did open in 1971, the Monorail was there. Circumnavigating Bay Lake, one “Express” route serves Magic Kingdom directly while another stops at the deluxe hotels around the lagoon’s perimeter. Later, a new route opened, serving the EPCOT Center theme park (above). However, Disney World’s Monorail hasn’t expanded since due to the enormous cost of a new build. What’s more, the resort’s current trains – the “Mark VI” model – are almost inexcusably old, having taken to the beams in 1989 (closer to the resort’s opening than to today).
Despite its aging fleet and its unchanged route, the Monorail is by far one of the most iconic images connected to Disney World; a true transportation solution brought to the U.S. by Walt Disney and applied impressive at the sprawling resort… not to mention inspiring a very specific line of on-ride dialogue Disney Parks fans know by heart…
1. Peoplemover
Like the Skyway and Monorail, the Peoplemover made its debut in Tomorrowland. In this case, it was in 1967 as part of the grand unveiling of Walt’s New Tomorrowland – a Space Age-inspired vision of the future bringing to life the era’s infatuation with atomic power and the race to the moon. The Peoplemover was a gentle but functional display of the innovation and optimism of the time; an open air, peaceful, aerial tour of the land’s sights and sounds.
Magic Kingdom’s Tomorowland was born of the same basic design philosophy and featured its own Peoplemover, zigging and zagging along the land’s second story into and out of ride buildings. In the ‘90s, Magic Kingdom’s was overhauled as part of a sci-fi-inspired redesign to the land, becoming the “real” mass transit of a retro-futuristic alien city… a fantastical fulfillment of Walt’s initial ideas!
Though that storyline was been mostly stripped (alongside the loss of the Lost Legends: Alien Encounter and The Timekeeper that fueled it), Magic Kingdom’s Peoplemover remains a brilliantly simple, wildly high capacity ride beloved by all.
Disneyland’s didn’t fare so well. The West Coast version of the ride is the subject of a in-depth Imagineering feature, Lost Legends: The Peoplemover, because in a misguided redesign of Tomorrowland in the ‘90s, its tracks were repurposed for a high-speed “thrill ride” variation. Suffice it to say that the Declassified Disaster: The Rocket Rods quite literally didn’t work and were abandoned in 2000. Unfortunately, the twisting tracks of the Peoplemover continue to weave through Disneyland’s Tomorrowland as a depressing reminder that Disneyland created, then closed, the coolest transportation Imagineers have ever designed.
World in Motion
From pack rules to spaceships; submarines to Rocket Rods, Disney’s passion for moving people is evident throughout the history of Disney Parks. Don’t believe us? To finish off this look into the story of Disney transportation, we recommend making the jump to our Lost Legends: World of Motion feature to dig into the Disney-designed EPCOT Center pavilion dedicated to sharing the history of human movement from barefoot prehistory to the cities of tomorrow.
Then tell us, which Disney Parks transportation options do you think best balance efficiency and “magic”? Which are iconic options you can’t go a trip without riding? What do you think the future holds for transportation at the sprawling-and-expanding Walt Disney World, or even the pedestrian-friendly Disneyland Resort? Let us know in the comments below!
