It's A Small World
It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes, and a world of fears. -It's A Small World
Along with Carousel of Progress, the "Its a small World" ride made its premiere at the 1964 World Fair. After the fair was over the ride was re-assembled at Disneyland.
The "It's a small world" is an attraction that people have a love-hate relationship with. When you visit Disney you feel obligated to go on the ride, and then you spend the rest of the trip hating the ride because you keep singing the theme song over and over again.
Here are some notable facts about this ride:
- This is the only water ride in DisneyWorld where you won't get wet.
- In Walt Disney World the power for It's a Small World and Haunted Mansion is from the same source. So if there is a power issue at one ride, it will impact the other ride.
- The exterior design are different between the two parks. In Disneyland, the clock display is very visible to people walking around Fantasyland. In DisneyWorld, you can't see the clock display unless you're in the inside waiting area.
- The display gets a Christmas seasonal makeover, which causes the attraction to be closed. When the Christmas season is over, the ride is shut down for a couple of days to change the The ride is also closed when Disney has to take down the display.
- Disney spends a lot of effort on the clock, plan your ride so that you can see the hourly time show.
- After you get on the boat, be sure to wave at the security people. They are always waving and making sure everyone is sitting before the boat moves.
- You can buy an "It's a Small World" boat toy at the Emporium Shop on Main Street USA. Simply ask a cast member for it. It's a perfect tub toy for any preschool.
- At Disneyland, the turrets and gold colored ornaments on the outside of the Small World Ride are an actual 22K gold leaf. Normal gold tone paint had been used early on when the ride first opened but the paint would oxidize very quickly and need to be replaced on a continual basis. While initially expensive to gold leaf, the gold is actually more cost effective in the long run.
- At the end of It's a Small World, there are signs with the word "Goodbye" in different languages from all over the world. However the sign that supposedly represents Japan is the Japanese word "Arigato" meaning "Thank You".
- In "It's a Small World" in Disneyland, there is a clown holding a "Help Me!" sign. The clown holding it is the only character in the whole ride that is not smiling - he has a little frown. The sign is just to keep him in character.
- There are no American Small World scenes in Walt Disney World's the Magic Kingdom. There's one in Disneyland Paris.
- All seven princesses are someplace on the ride. This is a fun thing for little ones to search for. Tip: Expect them to be in the lands where the character appears in.
- Total uninterrupted ride time is 10:30, this tends to be slightly longer when it's extremely busy as the boats bump into each other as the waiting queue causes a backup.
- Listen closely during the grand finale of the Muppet Show when all the soldiers come out carrying the different countries flags. At one point you can hear them softly singing "It's A Small World!"
