Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Disney makes it very clear that you’ve entered into a different world, “the most magical place on earth,” in a number of different ways. Even from the highway driving in, there are huge signs that declare that you’ve reached Disney World on the road and for each specific park. Even the road signs are different than normal ones. Many people enter Disney World via the Magical Express, Disney’s airport shuttle service. This shuttle has a television that plays Disney cartoons and informational videos about Disney so that you’re immediately brought into the Disney experience as soon as you board. In addition, our driver on the way in muted the video as we approached the entrance to make us all say, “Hi Mickey and Minnie!” All of these elements combined make it clear that you’re leaving the normal world for a place in which Mickey and Minnie are the most important people (or characters rather) and normal social norms don’t apply.

To enter each park, you must walk through an area to scan your park tickets, sometimes accompanied by a gate. This seems to signify a switch over from the real world to ‘the most magical place on earth.’ As you walk through, your priorities shift to finding the rides with the lowest wait times and meeting as many characters as possible. Social norms fall away and strange behaviors are acceptable, such as walking around eating turkey legs and waving hello to people.

Upon entering the Magic Kingdom, you’re greeted with music and costumed cast members. Each land of the Magic Kingdom has a different “costume,” or work uniform assigned to it. Thus, the clothing that the cast members wear indicates that you’re not in the normal world. The costumes are more whimsical, and often more old-fashioned, than what you would see in the ‘real world.’ The instrumental music played on Mainstreet U.S.A. creates an atmosphere of happiness and fun and an illusion that people should be a bit more carefree than at home.  

Disney ensures that upon entering its gates, you’re fully aware that you’re on Disney property. The rules of society shift and Disney characters are plastered everywhere. You are fully immersed within the Disney experience. In one of the readings, it discussed that Walt Disney’s “conception of a ‘total immersion’ experience to transport the park traveler back in time and across vast spaces applied the power of the physical setting to capture the imagination of audiences of every age and origin” (King, 2002, 14). This immersion that starts immediately upon entrance into the parks makes sure that the visitors are fully aware that they are in a completely different world.

King, M. (2002). THE THEME PARK: Aspects of Experience in a Four-Dimensional Landscape. Material Culture, 34(2), 1-15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29764155