Transportation and Ticket Center
| Transportation and Ticket Center | |
|---|---|
| Park | Walt Disney World |
| Type | Intermodal transportation hub |
| Opened | October 1, 1971
|
| Status | Operating |
The Transportation and Ticket Center, universally shortened to the TTC, is the central transport hub for the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. It stands on the southern shore of Seven Seas Lagoon, beside the Magic Kingdom car park and more than a mile from the park itself, and almost every guest who drives to the Magic Kingdom passes through it twice. From its platforms guests board monorails to the Magic Kingdom and to EPCOT, ferries across the lagoon, buses, and parking trams back to their cars.
The arrangement is deliberate, and one of the defining ideas of the Florida resort. Unlike Disneyland, where the car park originally sat directly in front of the entrance, Walt Disney World separates the car from the castle: drivers leave the ordinary world in a vast lot, and the last mile is made by Disney transport, so the Magic Kingdom is first seen across water. The TTC is the hinge on which that transition turns.
History
The TTC opened with Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971, as the single gateway for day guests to the Magic Kingdom.[1] Guests paid to park, rode a tram to the centre, bought their admission there, and then chose between the monorail and the ferryboat. In the first years, only guests of the Contemporary and Polynesian Village resorts, which had their own monorail stops, bypassed it.[2]
The name records that original double job. The centre was a transport interchange, but also the ticket office: off-site guests bought admission at the TTC, in its early years paying by cash or traveller's cheque, before there was a ticket sales point at the park entrance itself.[3] Ticket booths remain today, along with functions including theme park lost and found, although most guests now arrive with admission bought online or held on a MagicBand or phone.
The hub grew up in 1982, when EPCOT opened and a third monorail line was added from the TTC to the new park, turning the centre into a genuine interchange between the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT beams.[4] Later changes were mostly scale and security: the car park was reorganised and rethemed, and security screening moved out to the TTC, so guests arriving by monorail or ferry are screened before they travel.
The car park
The Magic Kingdom car park at the TTC holds 12,156 spaces, worked by two parking tram routes.[5] Since a 2011 renaming, the lot is divided into a Heroes side — sections include Woody, Aladdin, Simba, Peter Pan, Mulan and Rapunzel — and a Villains side, including Jafar, Hook, Scar, Ursula, Cruella and Zurg.[6] Before 2011 the sections carried different character names. Each numbered row is unique across the lot, so a row number alone places a car.
A pedestrian path links the TTC to Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, a short walk away.
Monorail, ferry and bus services
All three lines of the Walt Disney World Monorail System serve the TTC, on three tracks above the centre. The Express Line runs on the outer beam directly and non-stop to the Magic Kingdom. The Resort Line runs on the inner beam in the other direction around the lagoon, calling at the Polynesian Village, Grand Floridian and Contemporary resorts as well as the Magic Kingdom and the TTC. The EPCOT Line leaves the lagoon loop on its own spur and runs to the monorail station at the entrance to EPCOT; guests travelling between the two parks change at the TTC, walking between platforms.[7]
At water level, the Magic Kingdom Ferryboats load at a dock beside the monorail station and cross the lagoon to the park entrance. The ferries carry far more guests per trip than a monorail train, so at park closing the two modes share an enormous homeward flow. Buses use stops at the TTC as well, and taxis and rideshare vehicles are directed to the centre rather than to the park entrance.
Operation follows the park day: monorails and ferries start before the Magic Kingdom opens and continue after it closes until the hub is clear. The TTC is busiest in two surges — the morning arrival, and the half hour after the fireworks.
See also
- Magic Kingdom
- Walt Disney World Monorail System
- Magic Kingdom Ferryboats
- Seven Seas Lagoon
- Disney Transport
- Parking tram
- EPCOT