This is the firstl installment in a 7-part series on Idlewild Park's former Mister Rogers' Neighborhood attraction. Read the other parts of my series on the ride here: Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6 and Part 7
From 1989-2013, Idlewild Park in Ligonier, PA was home to a truly amazing and ground-breaking attraction known as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make Believe. I was only fortunate enough to ride it twice at a young age, but nonetheless, I feel extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to experience the ride in its last two seasons. My dad took a handful of pictures, but there is much better quality available elsewhere online if you're interested in learning more. This will likely be a 3-part series in which we revisit the beloved trolley ride attraction.
After passing through a tunnel on a trolley painted to look like the one from the old PBS show, riders stopped at the castle of King Friday XII, who in earlier years of the ride emerged through an operational curtain out onto a balcony of the castle. He proposed his plan to the riders for a "Hug-N-Song Party" that day at the castle courtyard, which is just what it sounds like. :)
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| That's my head in the foreground... |
A factor that made the ride extremely special was an on-board narrator who used a prerecorded script to interact with the animatronics. You practiced the call of "Come along, come along, to the castle Hug-N-Song," before you realized that you would be traveling elsewhere around the "neighborhood" to invite the other characters. What did they look like, you ask? You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out...
Some History on the Ride...
The main thing, for me at least, that made this ride truly groundbreaking, was the fact that it was completely designed by Fred Rogers himself. He directed the storyline, aided in the musical development, and most importantly, recorded every voice for the animatronics. Sadly, this was mostly destroyed once the ride ended its run in 2013, seemingly with little regard. Costing over a million dollars to construct, the ride took advantage of Idlewild's wooded setting, winding under a thick tree canopy. Built on the sight of a former zoo at the park, the ride spurred the development of the adjacent Raccoon Lagoon children's area a few years later. Various photos of Rogers were taken during the ride's development, and only the most hard-core fans would realize they were taken at Idlewild, even with some of them being among the most-well known portraits of the man.
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