Disneyland Review: King Arthur's Carousel

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Classic carousel...

Cons: ...Like you can ride everywhere else; themeing issues

The Bottom Line: 

Up and down, around

One a bunch of white horses

Classic amusement

Kids Still Love King Arthur's Carousel

Disneyland is filled with wonderful one of the kind rides you won’t find anywhere else.  Then there’s King Arthur’s Carousel.  Yet, it can still be fun, especially if you are there with little kids.

The ride is located in the heart of the Fantasyland courtyard.  As you walk through the castle, you can’t miss it.

And the ride is exactly what you’d expect from a Carousel.  It’s got a bunch of horses, mostly white, and a few benches.  When the ride starts, you go round and round and your horse goes up and down.

Looking for the Disney twist?  The best I can come up with is that the organ music that comes from the ride plays arrangements of classic songs from the various animated movies.  And they use stuff from the old classics as well as the newer movies.  Other than that, this is the same merry-go-round you can do countless places in America.

On the plus side, the wait is rarely very long.  I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than one cycle to ride it.  At most, it would be a two cycle wait.  On busy days, 10 minutes can seem good for anything, right?

I do have to rant about the name.  Why do they call it King Arthur’s Carousel?  There aren’t that many horses in the Sword and the Stone?  I will grant you they have a sword in front of the Carousel, and they have their “Sword in the Stone” ceremony there several times a day.  On the other hand, the pictures you go by on the inside of the Carousel are taken from Sleeping Beauty.  So again, where does the name come from.

Okay, rant over.

I would have given this ride 3 stars until my recent trip with my niece.  It was the end of the day, and we were killing time before they closed Fantasyland for the fireworks and we headed out to find a spot to watch them.  With nothing really on the agenda, my niece really wanted to ride the Carousel over and over again.  And she did, with Grandma and Grandpa tagging along since she’s only 3.  Every time she passed by, she had a huge grin on her face.  And they were getting off and getting right back on for the next cycle because the crowds were so small by this point.

And that’s when I realized how special this is.  Everywhere else, you have to pay by the person and by the ride to ride a merry-go-round.  Here, it’s part of the entrance fee you’ve already paid.  And for someone like my niece who loves these things, getting to go on them over and over again is a real treat.

Now, for my money, King Tritan’s Carousel over at California Adventure is slightly better because you get to ride on sea animals, but that’s a minor issues.

No, I don’t recommend paying Disneyland’s admission prices just to do this ride, but if you have a young one who enjoys them, King Arthur’s Carousel is a real treat.  Let them ride it a couple of times and make their day.