Gate Change

Arrivals and departure boards can mean a lot of different things to different people. They can tell us if our flight to Walt Disney World is ready, when we’re going to be getting home from a long business trip, and where our loved ones are. They can be frustrating or magical, filled with all sorts of emotions and destinations. There’s one board that lives in the Disney TAG corner of the Marketplace Co-Op in Disney Springs, however, that includes some of the most magical destinations you’ve ever heard tale of.

There’s a lot of information on this board to sort through, but the general eye you want to look at the board through depends on whether you are coming or going.

On the Departures side of the chart, you’re looking for true life adventures around the globe. The destination is tied to theme park or resort, while the gate number gives you a year relevant to that locale. The number portion of the flight numbers can mean a variety of things, but the letters in front of them help flesh out more specifics, such as an abbreviation for the resort area (DL) , town abbreviation (OR), its tie to the Disney Company (WD). Starting at the top we have Anaheim (Disneyland), Tokyo (Tokyo Disneyland), Lantau Island (Hong Kong Disneyland), Pudong (Shanghai Disneyland), Marne-la-Vallee (Disneyland Paris), Bay Lake (Magic Kingdom), Ringwood, Harambe (Disney’s Animal Kingdom), Gorda Cay (Castaway Cay), Ko Olina (Aulani), Glendale (Walt Disney Imagineering), Burbank (Walt Disney Studios), Hilton Head (Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort), Vero Beach (Disney’s Vero Beach Resort), and Lake Buena Vista (Walt Disney World).

You’ll notice I subtly skipped over Ringwood. The code we’re given points us towards New Jersey, of which there is a Ringwood, NJ and the year 2015. Now, I combed through every possible scenario and idea I could to come up with identify why this was on the board, but nothing panned out. My current best bet is that this is possibly the hometown of an Imagineer that worked on the Disney TAG project. If you have a better option, I’d be happy to hear it!

Moving over to the Arrivals board, we’re moving into the realm fantasy, including everything from live action features, animated films, and television productions. Again, the destination is the main key. The year the specific project was released can be seen in gate numbers, or occasionally in the flight number. The text portion of the flight numbers can give you abbreviations for the film itself, or the place in which the film takes place. Your best bet is to focus on the destination, but we’ll give you the run down here to make things easy. The destinations are Arendelle (Frozen), Kuzcotopia (Emperor’s New Groove), Neverland (Peter Pan), San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6), Toontown (the one outlier, this refers to Disneyland’s Toontown which opened in 1993), Tortuga (Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl), Agrabah (Aladdin), Passamaquoddy (Pete’s Dragon), Tomorrowland (Tomorrowland), Duckburg (DuckTales), Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland), Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood), Andalasia (Enchanted), and Enchanted Forest (Once Upon a Time).

Considering I’m traveling for work this week, there’s not a destination on either side of this board that I wouldn’t love to be visiting! No matter what destination you’re looking for, real or imagined, or where your next Disney trip takes you, I hope that your flight is always on time! Although, given the choice, which of these destinations would you love to visit next?