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!