Liminal Spaces at the Disney Parks

This place gives me major E P C O T M O N O R A I L S T A T I O N vibes. Liminal spaces tend to freak some people out. Others, it gives them a sense of nostalgia. The Disney Parks excel at both of these things, so obviously we gotta look at some of the liminal spaces that can be found there.

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#disney #DisneyParks #Disneyland #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyWorld #LiminalSpaces #Creepy #Spooky #Scary #Halloween

[fabhatter]

I'd say the Soarin' queue in Epcot is a liminal space. It's just walking through vague corridors and switchbacks, losing a sense of where you are, what direction you're facing, and how much further you have to go. It's a transient area between The Land and Patrick Warburton.

[PhoenixFire]

Ah yes, the three emotions: Joy, Sadness, and Baymax

[SakiMcGee]

I'd like to make a strong argument for the loading area of Living With the Land, especially on a slow day. You just walk right up to a boat in what is otherwise a kind of sad mall food court, and it feels like someone's built a water ride in their garage.

[ThemeParkCrazy]

The exit platform of Magic Kingdom's Space Mountain (right after getting off the train) also gives off this vibe. I see it a lot in my dreams more than the regular boarding station.

[TheRealSkreegle]

The most liminal space in Disneyland is Snow White's wishing well at night. Its very secluded and quiet enough to hear your own heartbeat. I literally have had many dreams where I end up in that area and it creeps me out to no end.

[YourBrother]

As a CM, i've been lucky enough to roam certain areas of the parks early morning and late nights before and after guests leave to get to where I need to be. And that feeling of walking through as nothing happens, with no one in sight always gives me that odd sensation of liminal spaces, I love it. I often particularly walk through Grizzly Peak at night alone and man is it spooky! Secondarily, when we came back after the shutdown but before opening to guests, we got a few hours to play in the parks to "test" the attractions up and running and Pirates was my favorite in that day because I was all alone in there once the boat went into the Bayou and so on. Also, that scene where the pirate turns into a skeleton, that entire tunnel had the lights off and it was pitch black from start to finish, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. To add on, no animatronics were on and some were missing their faces, fun times.

[missybarbour]

Man, I love liminal spaces. When you take a turn into a less traveled area and it's just you and some architecture that has not been updated in a long time? When it was clearly designed to hold a crowd but the only thing to remind you there are other humans on the planet is some very faint atmosphere music? Transcendent.

[Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Then there’s queues in general, especially ones that aren’t popular. There’s something extremely liminal about weaving through empty stanchions and past set pieces so you can get to a walk on. Sometimes you’ll get to bypass entire areas of a queue and only get to glance at unused space with empty chains as you pass by. For example, with Voyage of The Little Mermaid, you can often zip past the roaring waters and rock work, ignore the crabs who peer at you through those little portholes and other glass, and then rush past the Scuttle animatronic who will continue to babble on to no one on and on forever. It’s very eerie. The Nemo ride also tends to lack a wait so you quickly pass a very immersive queue that is very very dark and already offers liminal eeriness through the idea you’re visiting the beach at night when no one is there and neither should you, followed by entering the deep expanse of the ocean, empty, quiet, the only sign of life being the boat above you. Space Mountain feels strange late at night as you speedwalk past the Star Tunnel and hall with the games that might try to speak to you while models of ride vehicles whip past on the other side. Anything in Storybook Circus feels liminal at night when it’s dark and empty. The Robinson Treehouse feels liminal in that it feels abandoned, like someone lived there and suddenly disappeared without warning. Bill Nye echos to no one as people rush to get on Dinosaur, signs about Big and Little Red in like for the safari echo a past that no longer exists, and that queue also feels like a work space where the people just disappeared, same with Everest. Droids continue to speak to no one in Star Tours when it’s empty. Queues are inherently liminal but under the right conditions, they’re even more.

[CardinalKaos]

The entire convention center at the contemporary, also gives off a hella vaporwave aesthetic

[NickZyndaYT]

More of this. Irrational spaces that used to be functional rides or queues!

[taniajohnson]

I first learned the word "liminal" in regards to cats and the way felines can't decide if they want to be inside or outside. For a while, I had a hard time even finding the word in a dictionary. I appreciate learning more about the in between spaces.

[StrawberryCelebi]

I would like to add: almost all cast member areas. The worn down break rooms, weirdly shaped and dimly lit maze like hallways built around showrooms and guest areas, underground corridors, old ride vehicles and festival stalls sitting in a field, the 2nd floor of Journey into Imagination before the Vacation club was built, and so many old backstage murals that the guests will never see.

A few very specific ones I’ve experienced: walking the Test Track outdoor portion while the sun rises, the middle of Future World East after guests have left but the music is still playing, Journey Into Imagination at 3am, the one weird meeting room in the Land Pavilion that character performers have to pass through to reach the break room, the cast member barbershop underneath Magic Kingdom.

[drewby]

I feel like people who like stuff like this are also the people who like being in corners.
I love corners

[kennynealtube]

A definite liminal space is the brief scene in the WDW Haunted Mansion between the piano player and the endless hallway; once was giant spider webs, now Escher stairs.

[davidfeltheim]

Disney World and probably Tokyo Disneyland have the most since they retain a lot of the 70's 80's features while Disneyland has refurbished almost everything. Epcot and parts of the Contemporary (ironically) have a lot of blank spaces that feel completely out of time like the Nixon speech ballroom and every unused area of the Land, Imagination and Seas pavilions. Like my grandparents find it funny that they haven't been changed since they started going in '82.

[SarahBStyles]

The beginning of the Three Caballeros ride in the Mexico pavilion does this for me. Going from being in a busy plaza with a restaurant buzzing next to you, to that long expanse of screens showing the characters and the story. It gives me that transitional feeling and the feeling that despite many people riding it, it hasn’t been really paid attention to in a while.

[ChickenCoop]

I feel like MK's Jungle Cruise temple scene gives off this feeling extremely well

Just the silence of the skipper and the minimal light while that ambience plays

Either that or it's my irrational fear of chimpanzees kicking in

[brentparker]

I think Tower of Terror was designed purposely to use the feeling of liminal spaces -- a hotel (where we stay temporarily), maintenance areas, elevator, Twilight Zone. It's interesting to see these spaces like the Space Mountain entrance and Epcot Monorail ramp that sort of accidentally fell into that feeling.

[Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Because apparently I can’t stop:

There used to be a theater on Main Street in WDW where you meet Mickey and Tink now. Back past the camera and photo stuff, you’d see these old timey things you could pose with like cameos or a wagon, and then past that, you’d find a theater with plenty of seating where you could watch a selection of Disney shorts like Steamboat Willie, Flowers and Trees, and The Band Concert. The back of the theater also had things to pose with like a little Steamboat Willie set, and things where you could put your face in cutouts so you look like a Dalmatian or an LGM. There was almost always no one in there and an abandoned theater playing cartoons was a perfect place to eat lunch when I was a kid. I miss it.

Also areas for meet and greets when there’s no character around. Like the spot Buzz meets over by The Carousel of Progress. It’s often times just a strange little set off in the corner.

A few others: the backside of the castle near the fountain with Cinderella feels empty and wrong at night, as well as the paths off to the side of the castle. That alley besides the Muppets gift shop and the Christmas Store is also usually empty.

[nathancombs]

Me and my friend were in Epcot, and the doors to Journey Into Your Imagination (With Figment). We were Disney novices, we didn't know anything about the ride. So we went in, and we wandered through the completely empty line, past all the theming, worried that we weren't supposed to be in there. Until we rounded the corner and saw a Cast Member at the loading area. We managed to go through 3 times before we saw any other guests XD