Disney World: The Most Magical Place on Earth!

I never thought I would be one of those Disney crazy people, but here I am! Disney is actually the most magical place on the planet and I think I appreciate it more now than I ever did as a kid. You see all of the detail and effort that goes into the parks and even everyone who works there is part of that magic. I have been so excited to go and experience both Disney and Universal Studios again, it’s been about four years since I was there and that was about four years too long!!

We left on the Friday after Kurt was done work to drive down to Orlando and got settled in at our hotel that night. We had wings and sliders for a late supper and then sat in the hot tub a while before heading to bed. I had a full day of Disney plans set for the next day so we really needed to make sure we got lots of sleep. HOWEVER - since I’m a kid at heart, it took me over an hour to fall asleep and then I woke up probably every half hour thinking it was time to get up! I finally woke up at 5:30 and was pumped to get going.

From there we got ready, made sandwiches and packed our lunch and we’re out of the hotel by 6:30am. The first park we went to - Hollywood Studios - opened at 7:00am and I was determined to get there for rope drop. It’s so important to get to parks right when they open, you just walk as fast as your little legs can carry you and get to your ride and wait times are much less than they would be later in the day.

It was raining when we got to the parks and continued to rain until about 1:00pm so dealt with that but it was still enjoyable! We hit up the Tower of Terror first, followed by the Aerosmith Rockin roller coaster which is one of my favourites. its a high speed roller coaster in the dark that plays Aerosmith while you’re whipping around and going upside down!

From there we made our way into Toy Story Land, which was a new land to me since the last time I was in Disney. Everything in the park makes you feel like you are in Andy’s room, the toys are all oversized and make you feel little. They have a little roller coaster called the Slinky Dog Dash as well as this fun little shooting game which me and Kurt went on.

Beyond that, we made our way into the Star Wars area of Hollywood Studios which just opened up recently. Personally, I am not a Star Wars fan so didn’t have much of a desire to wait in the 180 minute line for their new rides (such as Rise of Resistance) so we just walked around and looked at the amazing way they’ve set everything up. It is so detailed and everything has a magic touch to it!

When creating our schedule for the day, I allotted about 4.5 hours for Hollywood studios. Since we were moving quickly and we’re on our A game, we were able to get through what we wanted to see in about three hours! On our way out of the park I saw my two chipmunk friends (Chip & Dale) and just couldn’t resist but to take a picture with them! They were so cute and I was so excited I didn’t even know what to do with myself!

Since we were ahead of the game, we made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up ponchos because it was just getting more and more wet and rainy throughout the day. These ponchos seriously saved the rest of our day because it poured rain when we got to Animal Kingdom. (Also! Don’t buy a poncho in the park: they cost $12 each and these ones at Walmart cost us $3.50 each!)

Right when we got to Animal Kingdom, we made our way into Pandora! This part of the park is extremely detailed and well-built. We got in line for the Na'vi River Adventure and waited about an hour and a half to get on that ride. It really doesn’t feel like a long time to be in line at times because there is just so much to look at.

After getting off of that ride, we decided to grab a quick snack and a couple of beers before getting back in line for another ride: FLIGHT OF PASSAGE! I think this ride is my favourite in all of the parks. You get matched to an Avator to fly on the back of a Banshee through the land of Pandora. The beers and pretzel really made waiting in line that much better and yes - the beer is GREEN!

We made our way to Expedition Everest and passed through the Discovery Island - where the beautiful Animal Kingdom tree is located. We overheard it is made out of rebar and then covered in plaster to shape the animals into the trunk of the tree.

We went through the walking Jungle Tour and saw some animals before making our way out of Animal Kingdom and back to the hotel to change into dry socks and to refresh before heading to the MAGIC KINDGOM! Something that took me by surprise is that you park, then take the Monorail to get to the park beyond that THEN you finally get to the gates to enter the park. When we arrived, we walked right into a parade which was great!

We made our way onto the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and then off to the Big Thunder Mountain ride from there. It was absolutely FREEZING by this time who knew I would be cold in Florida!

We ended up going on a few more rides before watching the “Happily Ever After” fireworks show. It was a tribute to so many of the original Disney movies (aka the best ones such as Hercules!) But also had tributes to newer movies like Frozen and Moana, too.

We went over to the Seven Dwarves Mine Train right after the show was done to get on that ride before the park closed. After that, we gave in and went on the spinning teacup ride and I swear, Kurt and I were spinning faster than anyone else. We were laughing so hard because we couldn’t even focus on anything outside of the teacup!

Once we had enough of waiting in lines and the park was closed, we walked through the little shops on Main Street to check out the Disney goodies and treats. I didn’t get a photo of it but we bought a giant Mickey sugar cookie and a fancy Disney cupcake to snack on which was delicious! Also, since I didnt actually buy ears since I’m not going back to Canada right away, I settled with taking a photo with my favourite pair.

Finally, we made our way back to the Monorail to get to the parking lot and to head back to the hotel for the night. We made a pit stop at Arby’s (haha) on the way home and loaded up on curly fries and roast beef sandwiches since we ate all of our snacks throughout the day. Overall we spent a total of 15.5 hours at the Disney parks in one day and we’re absolutely exhausted by the end of it!

Disney World is absolutely magical in every way! I already can’t wait to go back!

- T