Everyone has a favorite Disney ride. Mine, for example, is Space Mountain — its thrilling dips and dives serving as the fitting climax to the attraction’s masterful queue and architectural experience. Others love rides like the Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean, for their unique story and intricate theming.
And, whether we admit it or not, there are often individual scenes within these attractions that stand out above and beyond the rest of the experience. When you think of your favorite ride, there’s likely one moment you immediately picture — one tableau that appears in your mind.
In this article, we’ll look at some of those instantly iconic scenes from Disney attractions. These moments stand out as immediately recognizable and, ultimately, incredibly powerful bits of storytelling.
Here are the eight best scenes in Walt Disney World attractions:
The Zip-A-Dee Lady in Splash Mountain
Image: haydn, Flickr (license)
Splash Mountain tells a rather simple story about a rabbit who, after experiencing danger and adventure, discovers that his home is a place worth loving unconditionally. It’s a lengthy ride, with lots of time spent luxuriating in the amazing songs and vivid imagery of the southern landscape.
For the uninitiated, it might seem like a traditional log flume ride — a slow build up to the climactic plunge from atop Chick-a-Pin Hill. But, while the drop is the ride’s signature party trick, what happens after the drop is even more memorable.
After a moment to dry off and decompress, your log re-enters the show building — and, upon entry, you view one of the largest animatronics ever built in a Disney ride: The Zip-A-Dee Lady.
It’s a triumphant moment — one in which the ride’s iconic theme song, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” plays with heartfelt bombast as the residents of Splash Mountain sing and dance. It is in this scene that Splash Mountain pulls off its final trick — combining the masterful storytelling of Disney’s dark rides with its modern commitment to building thrill rides.
The Stretch Room in the Haunted Mansion
Image: harshlight, Flickr (license)
The Disney Parks are different. They consistently reaffirm this by demonstrating how deeply and intricately Disney is committed to immersing you in a compelling story.
There is perhaps no greater example of this commitment than in the Haunted Mansion — but not in the dark ride itself. Rather, its masterful pre-show.
Does the Haunted Mansion begin when you board your doom buggy? Or, in fact, does it begin when the doors to the mansion close behind you and you hear the now famous invocation, “When hinges creak in doorless chambers…”
The Haunted Mansion immediately tells you it’s a different kind of attraction in its pre-show Stretch Room. It uses a classic bit of Disney imagineering to set the stage for a macabre and magical bit of theatrical wizardly — which the ride ultimately pays off. But without the amazing and immediate brilliance of the stretch room, the ride would feel slightly less complete.
The post-splashdown in Pirates of the Caribbean
Image: stevewise60, Flickr (license)
It’s hard to pick one moment in the opus of Pirates of the Caribbean that stands above the rest. The pillaging of town? The auction? The prisoners attempting to coax their dog into giving them a key?
But, if pressed, the clear pinnacle of the attraction comes fairly near the beginning — after the surprise splashdown lands your boat in the middle of a pirate assault.
As you see the fog settling over the cove, with a massive ship bombarding the battery of a small town, the scale and stakes of the attraction become immediately clear. The pirates are no longer theoretical — they are here, and battle is impressive. It sets the stage beautifully, and the slow pace of the ships allow you to settle into the story in your own time.
Flying over London in Peter Pan’s Flight
Image: markluukkonen, Flickr (license)
Fantasyland is home to some of the most instantly recognizable Disney attractions, such as It’s a Small World and Dumbo the Flying Elephant. And yet, the most classically Disney ride found in the area has to be Peter Pan’s Flight.
What is it about this one simple attraction that causes such a devoted following? I submit to you that it is one of the ride’s first indelible images: London, viewed from high above.
As the ride’s unique arrangement of “You Can Fly” plays, your enchanted pirate ship flies high above the London skyline with only small lights representing cars moving swiftly below. It’s the perfect combination of cartoon and reality — showing what London looks like in our imaginations, rather than in reality.
This is the moment everyone remembers from their childhood, because the magic of this attraction is just that strong.
The burning of Rome and the Library of Alexandria in Spaceship Earth
Image: harshlight, Flickr (license)
Sometimes, the most effective means of telling a story are also the simplest. You don’t need a massive animatronic boat or a mysterious stretching room to evoke an emotion from your audience. Sometimes, you can do it with sense of smell alone.
Though it’s seen a few narrators, a handful of different scripts, and entire show scenes rebuilt, Spaceship Earth has had one scene stand the test of time: The burning of Rome / the smoldering ruins of the Library of Alexandria.
There is some debate among the Disney fan community as to what this scene actually represents, but the reason it is so iconic is, of course, the overpowering barbecue-style smokehouse smell present. Such a small detail has become one of Spaceship Earth’s most recognizable elements, and it’s something that you can mention to anyone who’s been to Walt Disney World, and they’ll know just what you’re talking about.
The Finale of Impressions de France
One of the great shocks of modern life is that, despite significant upheaval and a radical shift in tone, Epcot retains its most ambitious and unique attraction: Impressions de France.
It has no intellectual property involvement. It is not a ride. It has no real reason for existing beyond its artistic value — but man, is it chock full of that.
Created in 1982, this visual tone poem dedicated to the beauty of France has remain unchanged for over 30 years. The film’s resilience is a testament to its incredible imagery, music, and emotional journey. It is impossible to view this film without instantly falling in love with France in every conceivable way.
The highlight is, of course, the stirring finale in which we revisit all the parts of France we’ve already seen in the film while Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Symphony plays regally in the background. The last lingering shot of the Eiffel Tower is a visceral gut punch in combination with the blistering organ, proving unforgettable and downright tear-inducing.
While you might laugh at the semi-pretentiousness of the film as it begins, as it approaches its end, you can’t help but feel totally won over. It is that brilliant.
The Fifth Dimension in Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror
Image: mattcc716, Flickr (license)
The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror is misleading. To those who don’t read attraction spoilers, it is clearly obvious that the ride will include a few drops and dives. But, the manner in which it delivers those drops and dives cannot be described as anything but a bait and switch — in the most brilliant way.
Halfway through the ride, with tension at its highest, the elevator doors open to reveal a maintenance shaft — which, quickly, becomes overrun with pinpricks of light representing stars. It is eerie and otherworldly, and it sets the tone for one of the great shocks in attraction history: the elevator you sit in lurching forward, moving out into the maintenance corridor seemingly through mystic force.
If you aren’t expecting it, this moment is unforgettable. It is the moment in which the ride transcends logic and truly enters the Twilight Zone.
The Finale of Fantasmic
What does a trip to Walt Disney World actually feel like? How do you describe the emotions you experience as you ride all of the rides and see all of the shows? Is there any way to convey the indescribable feelings of a trip to the Vacation Kingdom?
It’s hard, yes. But, if you wanted to give someone a shorthand, you could do no better than showing them the finale sequence of Disney’s most masterful stage show: Fantasmic.
With Mickey Mouse fresh off a victory over the evil forces of darkness in the Disney universe, the big cheese conjures Tinker Bell to the stage. She, in turn, uses her magic to bring all of the Disney heroes out in Steamboat Willie’s famed watercraft — with Mickey Mouse steering the ship.
As the music swells, and the boat finishes its journey around the stage, Mickey Mouse appears again high atop the mountain that makes up the stage’s backdrop. He summons climactic fireworks before disappearing once again, apparating down to the front of the stage to deliver a lasting and brilliant challenge to the crowd: “Some imagination, huh?”
That feeling — the magic of Mickey’s teleportation, the fireworks, the musical crescendo — is as close to a microcosm of the Disney Parks experience as you can find. It’s a scene every Disney fan remembers, and one which makes you feel like a kid again. And, isn’t that the whole point anyway?
