One Happy Memory: Frontierland Shootin' Arcade

It's closing now, but here's a story to remember about it.

That’s it. I’m going to be nostalgic about the dumbest, most you-can’t-be-nostalgic-for-that piece of the 2024 Magic Kingdom…the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade.

But it’s not because I think the Shootin’ Arcade is super enjoyable, or that I have great memories of playing it, or even leaning against it while my son tried to shoot the gravestones or the saloon. 

No, it was one of those funny little perks of being a Cast Member…one of those times when we turned something annoying into something fun for guests, and made us feel like we were getting away with something, too. 

Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade. Photo: Eden Pictures/Flickr, CC by 2.0

Trading Post Register 3 was the place. Boredom was the mood. But while Register 3, which faces the Shootin’ Arcade, wasn’t the best or most air-conditioned position in the store (that was Register 1, although when they took away the big window and replaced it with a few props to cover up the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom portal, a lot of the airy charm went out of that position for me), what Register 3 did have was the opportunity to stand on the porch and talk to the Cast Member sitting at Leather Treaty.

There wasn’t much merchandise within eye view of the register, because it faced the door and the bulk of the store was around a corner, so guest conversation was mostly regulated to “Howdy” and “Welcome” as guests came in and walked through the ice-cold shop, possibly buying some pins, but mostly enjoyed an air-conditioned pass-through on their way to other destinations.

Every now and then a guest would wander up and buy a baseball cap or a couple pins, or a Leather Treaty bracelet or keychain order would come in, but mostly, we stood and chatted. It was the conversation register. Positions where you can shoot the breeze with a fellow Cast Member were so rare and coveted in Merchandise! So, you hoped for a friend to get assigned Leather Treaty and you enjoyed some, in 1890s slang, chinwaggin’.

But then some kid would come up all sad because the Shootin’ Arcade machine ate their quarters, and you’d have to break off your chat, march inside, and give the kid a refund.

That register was assigned twice as many rolls of quarters as the other registers, and Cast Members would go through them all. 

I left Frontierland for a while and when I came back, I found some changes, like that aforementioned picture window that once looked over the passage between Country Bears and Sunshine Tree Terrace, now a few fake bags of grain and an air handler unit for the energy-guzzling Sorcerers portal. And Register 3 no longer gave out refunds. Now, to my astonishment, Cast Members  reset the gun.

Crazy enough that we were allowed to leave the vicinity of our register, but we didn’t just walk over to the Shootin’ Arcade and press some button on the gun that had wasn’t firing for the guest..

No, we opened a door and went into a tight little hallway, went right up to a digital control panel, and hit a button that added shots to the offending gun. I remember Adventureland Attractions coats hanging on hooks back there, and some custodial equipment, and sometimes when I peered around the corner while working on the control panel, I’d see a Cast Member from Adventureland sitting on a folding chair, arms across their chest, eyes closed. There were lots of hidey-holes in Magic Kingdom where Cast Members could escape for a doze, away from the noise of the break rooms, but there weren’t a lot of Cast Members who knew where they were—that’s what made them special.

It was clear this hallway hideaway belonged to Adventureland Ops, so I didn’t try to sneak a nap here myself. I just used it for adding shots to guns. I believe it was twenty at a time. Hit the button, the gun’s shot count went up to 20. It was very, very easy to give them twice that, so we generally always did. Surprise and delight, provide a service for the inconvenience, all that.

But then we started adding shots to all the guns when we went back there. 

And then some of us started adding 200, 300 shots at a time to the guns. 

I can’t imagine what some of the parents thought. “Will this NEVER end? We have reservations at the castle!”

A few years later, the Shootin’ Arcade would go permanently free, as it should have been all along—why was Space Mountain free to ride, but the Shootin’ Arcade cost parents money? There was a reason I never did it as a kid, and it wasn’t for lack of asking. 

 I like to think maybe the Frontierland Cast Members, specifically the ones from Register 3, helped that decision along. Lowering profits, sure, but the guests were loving it! And for those of us who joined Walt Disney World before the mood switched in the 2010s, every guest was a VIP, and their satisfaction and happiness always came before profits. “There will always be more guests as long as we treat them right,” was the saying back then, and some of us never forgot that philosophy.

I do have fond memories of the Shootin’ Arcade that aren’t related to creeping through that narrow hallway behind the arcade. I remember walking out of Frontierland two or three hours after park close, and seeing a maintenance Cast Member moving amongst the miniature town and its tumbleweeds, fantastically large—the Giant of the Old West. I remember quiet nights when one of the animations would light up or a vulture would croak, for no reason at all that I could see. And honestly, just the sound of those guns and the silly sounds of the targets being hit is part of Frontierland to me. I’m sure I’ll always remember walking into the land with those sounds intact in my memory.

So let’s remember the good times, as the Shootin’ Arcade gives way to a DVC lounge — and lord knows we need more lounges, because Magic Kingdom isn’t getting any cooler or less crowded. Thanks for the memories, Shootin’ Arcade — thanks for giving some Cast Members a little amusement on our shifts, as we loaded up those Guests with shots they didn’t ask for or probably even want. I think a good time was had by all.