Five Things to Know About Peter Pan’s Flight

Have you ever dreamt you could fly? On Peter Pan’s Flight, you can! All it takes is a little pixie dust and some happy thoughts. This classic Disney ride showcases everything Disney does best: fun, fantasy, and family-friendliness. We’ve got a fun overview below, but if you want to skip ahead to where to find this attraction and when the lines will be longest (answer: all the time), you can head straight to the Nuts and Bolts section.

1. The ride is a classic and great fun – starting with the queue!

This interactive queue is like an attraction all its own. In my opinion, it’s one of the best and most immersive in the Magic Kingdom. The first part of the hall is lined with “paintings” depicting key points of the ride to set you up for what’s to come. Then you peek in the window of the Darling home before getting a chance to enter it.

The vestibule features portraits of Wendy, Michael, John, and of course, their parents. The nursery is filled with a lot of fun activities! Tinker Bell flits through the room, interacting with different items and leaving a trail of pixie dust in her wake. Your own shadow can interact with shadow elements on the nursery wall, like shadow bells you can ring by “touching them” with the shadow of your own outstretched arm. You can also play a game exclusive to this attraction on the Play Disney Parks app.

Finally, just as you exit the queue, Tink sprinkles you with (virtual) pixie dust so that when you get on the ride you can fly!

2. The story is the ride is the story.

Whether or not you’ve seen the movie or read the book, you probably know the basics of the story — and you’ll follow them faithfully on the ride. You’ll board a pirate galleon and follow Peter Pan as he gathers the Darling children and transports them to Neverland. After a short time to enjoy the scenery, Peter Pan saves Wendy from walking the plank, Captain Hook is defeated, and everyone sails happily into the moonlit night.

While that accurately sums up the storyline, we think a better description is this: Peter Pan’s Flight is superbly designed and absolutely delightful, combining beloved Disney characters, beautiful effects, and charming music. The end result? Disney magic at its best.

During the ride, your ship is suspended about 17 feet off the ground. If you have a fear of heights, know that most of the ride involves looking down and around at the scenery below you. (I’m not a fan of heights, but I have no problems with the ride.) There are a few gentle swoops, barely worthy of the description, but there are no jolts, no drops, and no sudden turns.

3. Walt Disney felt a special connection with Peter Pan.

As a boy, Walt saw the play Peter Pan when a touring company came to Marceline, Missouri. A classmate put on his own version, and Walt played Peter Pan. He said, “No actor ever identified with the part he was playing more than I.”

Early in the history of his company, Walt wanted to make an animated film using the story. In 1937 he sent his brother Roy to visit the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London who was the copyright owner at the time. Roy learned that Paramount Pictures had already purchased the rights to turn the story into a feature. It took a year for Disney to buy the rights from Paramount and in 1939, Walt and the hospital entered into an agreement as well. It took more than a decade to develop, but Peter Pan premiered on February 5, 1953.

The attraction, named Peter Pan’s Flight, opened with Disneyland in 1955. There was one problem: the ride was designed so that riders played the part of Peter. Peter didn’t show up anywhere in the scenes! After a while it became clear that folks weren’t catching on to this idea.  The Disney World version opened on October 3, 1971, two days after the Magic Kingdom, and it featured Peter in the scenes from opening day. The Disneyland version was also updated to add Peter to the scenes – but not until 1983!

Since then, Peter Pan’s Flight has been duplicated in Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park (Paris), and Shanghai Disneyland Park.

4. The secrets of Neverland.

⭐ The stereotyped portrayal of Native Americans in the ride (and the movie) was the subject of quite a bit of criticism over the years. In August 2024, Disney updated the scene with the Never Land Tribe to address this. The dance that Tiger Lily and her grandmother are performing in the new scene is called the “Fancy Shawl Butterfly Dance”.

⭐ When your galleon goes through the nursery window to fly over London, Peter yells “Off to Neverland!” Look up to your right and you’ll spot Tinker Bell.

⭐ While in the air over London, most folks look down at Big Ben and its surroundings. But if you look at the moon to your left, you’ll see the shadows of Peter, Tink, Wendy, John and Michael crossing the face of the full moon.

⭐ The “cars” driving through London at night are really the links of a bicycle chain that have been coated with phosphorescent paint to glow under the black light. Credit to the Imagineers for thinking of this!

⭐ The red-haired mermaid with the other mermaids on the shore is indeed Ariel. When the ride was refurbished, she was specifically added to this scene!

⭐ In the final scene where Peter has beaten the pirates who are all sprawled out on deck, look up over Peter and Wendy and you’ll see Tink flying. She’s been with you the whole time, ever since she sprinkled you with pixie dust just before you boarded!

⭐ As you leave the attraction, look for the barrel outside that reads, “Lost Boys Fire Brigade.” It conceals a working fire hydrant.

⭐ Bonus fact for word nerds like me: “Never Land” is sometimes two words, sometimes “Neverland” or sometimes “Never Never Land.”

5. The Nuts and Bolts.

Peter Pan’s Flight is located in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, across from “it’s a small world.” Since Peter Pan’s Flight is an indoor ride and its queue is covered, bad weather doesn’t affect this attraction.

Your ride vehicle is a pirate galleon that runs on a track suspended from the ceiling. The seats are a plastic seat bench with a tall back and a single pull-down lap bar. Typically, two adults and a small child can ride comfortably in each galleon.

You’ll board via a moving walkway that keeps pace with the slow-moving ships. Unlike many newer rides, guests must be ambulatory – which means wheelchair and EVC users must transfer to the standard ride vehicles. Note that vehicles will not slow down or stop to help people board and service animals are not permitted. There are no health and safety advisories for Peter Pan’s Flight, and no height requirement. To be accessible to more guests, Audio Description and Handheld Captioning devices are available from Guest Services for a refundable fee.

Peter Pan’s Flight is open for Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. You can enter through the standby line or purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Premiere Pass. Note that the Lightning Lane skips the queue described above. You can pretty much expect long lines all day; without Lightning Lane access our advice is to ride during the first 30 minutes the park is open, during a parade, or just before the park closes.

The Bottom Line.

We think Peter Pan’s Flight is not to be missed. The flight over London alone keeps me coming back over and over. While not a thrill ride by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a classic Disney attraction that the whole family can enjoy together. And best of all – you can fly!

Have you flown with Peter Pan? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments.

(Originally published April 20, 2023. Last updated/republished March 6, 2025.)