Had a Magical Day at Disney!

Going to Disney at 29 is just as fun as when I was 8.  What a nostalgic experience!  There were so many things I remember from when I was a kid but soooo many things had changed (all good changes).  You definitely don’t need to have kids to have the Disney experience.  Disney is great for all ages, for the young and the young at heart. 

Since we only had 1 day to experience all of Disney (something I don’t recommend) we really had to speed through each park but make the most of our time there.  Disney has 4 parks, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.  I chose just to stick with Epcot, Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom since Animal Kingdom is a little further away and going to those 3 were the best use of my time.

Before you start doing anything at any of the parks is good to start off with the following:

1.       Pick up a park map & time guide

·         Each park is very big and having a map will help give you an idea of where everything is in proximity to one another.  It’s always good to have if & when you get turned around.

·         A time guide give you the hours of operation of the park, the restaurants within the park, the character greeting times & locations, and lets you know when all of the shows take place

2.       Pick a location in the park to meet if you get separated

·         Doing this will ensure that you all know where to go if anyone gets separated from the group.  Make sure to do a walk by of the location so everyone is familiar with it and knows where it is.

3.       Plan Your Trip

·         Take a couple of minutes before you start wandering to figure out what you want to do with your day.  There is so much to see and if the park is really busy then you really need to have a plan of attack.  Decide what the key things you want to do and plan your route accordingly (i.e. don’t bounce from one location to another, try and plan your route that is as direct as possible that maximizes your time.

4.       Fast Pass

·         Before you get in any line up for rides, check out the board that displays the wait time and then shows the fast pass time window.  If the wait-time is 30 mins or less, you might as well just wait in line.  If it’s a longer wait time, you can get a Fast Pass for the ride.  The Fast Pass allows you to come back to the ride at a certain time and bypass all of the people waiting in line.  This is great for those really popular rides!  Keep in mind, if you get a fast pass, you can only get a fast pass for another ride after the time that’s on your other fast pass.  So if you get a fast pass for the Rock’n Roller for 10am-11am, you can only get a fast pass for another attraction that is after 11am.   

·         If you do want to get fast passes, do it early!  There are only a certain amount of fast passes for each ride/attraction so get them early so you don’t miss out

 

We started off in Epcot which is where the transportation hub is.  If you do stay off the Disney property, all shuttles from your resorts/hotels will take you this area.  From here, you can then take a bus or monorail to the other parks.  We didn’t spend too much time in Epcot but we were able to get some great pictures of the Flower & Garden Festival that was going on.  There were characters spread out throughout the park all done up in flowers and other greenery.  It was quite beautiful! 

Hollywood Studios was the next stop on the list.  The Rock ‘n Roller Starring Aerosmith rollercoaster was amazing!  It went so fast that my eyes were totally tearing.  What’s great too is that they have Aerosmith music was blearing throughout the ride.  Lots-o-fun!

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was a ride that I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid…and I finally did it!  I really didn’t know too much about the ride other than that I knew that there was a big drop.  Oh no, it’s not just one drop, it’s multiple.  Up and down and up and down…you just keep bouncing between the various floors of the elevator.  The great thing about this ride is that you will get a completely different ride if you did it again.  The drops between the floors are done in a random sequence so you never know if it’s going to keep on climbing or if it’s going to drop.   If I had more time in the park I would have done it again just to see what it would be like the second time round.

It was now time for lunch and we decided to relax for a little while and have a sit down meal.  I definitely recommend having a sit down lunch rather than a grab and go because you are doing so much running around from attraction to attraction you need that time to get off your feet and have someone do the work for you.   Reservations are key though!  As a part of your planning process for the day, decide where you want to eat and make sure to make reservations a head of time.  Some of the more popular spots have long wait times for a table and having reservations gives you that piece of mind that your wait time will be minimal.

We ate at the Sci-fi Dine-In Theatre and it was a really cool experience.  It’s set up exactly like an old drive in movie theatre and you get to eat in the cars.  They play old commercials, cartoons & movie clips throughout your meal and you really feel as though you are sitting out under the stars watching an old school movie. 

They have pretty big portions so it may be a good idea to opt. to share an entrée.  We told our waiter that we were going to share and when he brought it out it came already divided on separate plates.  I thought that it was great that they made is so easy for us.  All in all the service was excellent and the food was great too.

Last but not least, Magic Kingdom!  This totally brought me back to my childhood especially seeing the characters all singing and dancing in front of the castle.  We were able to do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain.  Both were extremely fun and we lucked out with very small line ups.  I was really most concerned with seeing Mickey and taking a picture of the castle and they were both accomplished.  A fantastic ending to a magical day at Disney!

We did do another site visit in the evening at the fairly new (since 2009) Waldorf Astoria and Hilton hotels that are both on the Disney property.  They are both upscale hotels that will give you the feeling that you are in a luxury hotel/resort without being bombarded with children and Disney everything.  Even though these hotels are not inundated with children, kids are quite welcome and they do have a kids program onsite.    The conference and banquet facilities are huge so both hotels would be great for large corporate groups or weddings.  These properties definitely bring a different hotel experience to Disney I would stay at either of them in a hear beat!

Speaking of beat…guess who’s completely beat yet again?!  Oh yes, that is me!

Karen

If My Passport Could Talk…

                                               “M.I.C…K.E.Y…M.O.U.S.E!”