The Magic Kingdom is a moniker for the world of Walt Disney, emphasizing childlike wonder and imagination. The Disney Company has since applied it to the main park in its Walt Disney World resort--by far the most popular of the four parks that constitute Walt Disney World. Indeed, it is the single most visited theme park in the entire world, eclipsing its elder sibling in Anaheim, California, by several million customers each year. Its history straddles the period between Walt Disney's passing and the rise of his successors.
The Magic Kingdom began as an offshoot of the Disneyland Park's success. Though hugely popular in the 1950s, the Anaheim, California, park catered primarily to visitors in the western half of the United States. Easterners rarely flew the great distance required to make a trip, and yet most of the country's population was on the East Coast. Walt Disney believed that the solution would be to add a second park somewhere on the Eastern seaboard.
Florida provided an ideal location for building a second park--it was warm year-round and already had a burgeoning tourist industry--and Walt Disney eventually settled on the city of Orlando as a location. He worked heavily on the project from 1959 to 1966, only to die a full five years before it was finished. Despite the overwhelming loss, construction began in 1967, and Walt Disney World formally opened on October 1, 1971. It consisted of the Magic Kingdom, several golf courses and a series of nearby Disney-owned resort hotels.
The Magic Kingdom was laid out in a manner similar to Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, with seven different "lands" containing themed rides and attractions. Rides include variants of the famous Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain roller coasters, and Fantasyland rides based on classic Disney feature films. Fireworks have been a regular part of the Magic Kingdom's attractions since it opened, and the park began running nighttime parades starting with the Main Street Electrical Parade in 1977.
The Magic Kingdom tries to remain open all year, but three times in its history it has been forced to close down. The first time was after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The other two occasions came as a result of hurricanes--a regular occurrence in Florida. Most of the time, the park can endure them fairly well, but Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Charley in 2004 proved too much for even the Magic Kingdom to defy.
Though officially referred to as the Magic Kingdom, the park was sometimes confused with Disneyland, which used the same moniker as an unofficial nickname for years. In addition, more parks were added to the Walt Disney World resort on top of the Magic Kingdom, contributing further to the confusion. In order to cut through the clutter, the Disney Company officially changed the name to Magic Kingdom Park in 1994.
