Swiss Family Tree House
Adventureland
Based on the movie "Swiss Family
Robinson"...explore your way through this fantastic tree house
fashioned from salvaged items and other island findings...
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This attraction
is based on the 1960 film, "Swiss Family Robinson". The movie is about a
family that is shipwrecked on a deserted island and how they create a new
life for themselves around their new home, a fantastic tree house
fashioned from salvaged items and whatever they could find on the island. The
Disney imagineers have created this tree house with amazing detail.
Naturally, the tree is not real, but the creativity involved in it's
construction is certainly genuine. The attraction doesn't have any
animatronics, music or lights, but kids like to scamper around in what
must be the greatest treehouse ever built. A path that has many stairs
and footbridges takes you through the treehouse, so you can observe
it's numerous rooms and features. If you're looking for high-tech pizzazz,
you'll be disappointed. Don't
wait too long for this attraction. If your kids need to run around,
take them to Tom Sawyer's
Island. At the Swiss Family Treehouse visitors must climb many stairs
in single file, so the line moves particularly slowly. Unlike rides
where you are seated, you can move through this attraction only at the
speed of the slowest person. There are spots for people to rest and
let other people pass, but if time is short skip it.
 Nestling in the branches of a Banyan
tree, the
Swiss Family Treehouse almost fills the entire tree. You climb
into the upper reaches of the tree along winding stairways, passing
through the home of the shipwrecked family on the way.
Because of the weight of the walkways,
and the number of people visiting the attraction,
Disney had a (larger
than life) complete tree made out of steel and concrete to provide the
attraction support structure, for what would probably be most peoples idea
of an ideal tree-house (assuming one exists).
The "roots" of the tree poke 42 feet
into the ground to support the structure, and the 1,400 branches which
stretch out to make up a 90 foot diameter canopy are decorated with
300,000 lifelike polythene "leaves", and the tree is draped with a real
variety of Spanish moss for added "realism".
The various "rooms" are fully furnished,
and each has a supply of running water, which is brought up to the top of
the tree by a fascinating waterwheel and pully system.
Incidentally, a similar tree building
method has been employed, though on a larger scale, to build the "Tree of
Life" in the new Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.
For those interested in the species of
tree represented, it is the Disneyodendron eximus which roughly
translates to "out of the ordinary Disney tree".
The ideas behind the tree and treehouse
are derived from the Disney film "Swiss Family Robinson" which was
released in 1960, though of course as with everything at Walt Disney
World, the imagineers have added more than a handful of their own ideas,
mixed in with just a hint of pixie dust.
Order
Magic Kingdom Tickets
here
2 Free Tickets here
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