I realize that I never blog anymore but I figured I needed some place to talk about my first trip to Disney World! I wanted to do something fun and special for my 26th birthday and since I live in Florida currently, I thought I'd take advantage of my close proximity to Disney World. I have never been before (I did go to Eurodisney when it first opened in 1992 but I was a baby and I don't count it because I don't remember anything about it). My boyfriend, whom I'll refer in this post to as M, went with me and we stayed for only 2 nights. I noticed a lot of people put a lot of plan and preparation into their trips but I decided to kinda wing it. I went with the Disney reservations which I thought were laid out well and their whole system made the whole trip pretty seamless. Also, all of these pictures are taken from the official Disney site! Unless it has me or M in it, it's not taken by me.
When it came to the parks, I knew I'd have to visit Magic Kingdom but for the second I was really torn between Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Ultimately, I went with Animal Kingdom since the shows and rides appealed to me more.
For the resort, I considered the value ones but the looks of them just don't personally appeal to me so I decided to go with Coronado Springs which I surprisingly found out wasn't a very popular resort, but I really enjoyed it! I wish I had more time to explore it. The main complaint I read for this park were that it was very spread out but the walk from the front to the back of the resort felt very short to me. I guess I'm too used to walking longer distances than most people because it didn't bother me at all. The lake view at night was very pretty.
I was really excited the night before and only managed about 2 hours of sleep.
Here is me and M on our way to the parks donning our Mickey ears~
Obviously I look a lot more alert and awake than he does.
I live relatively close so it was about a 90 min drive away.
I honestly didn't do much research in terms of rides or what attractions to see, I wanted a lot of it to remain a surprise. I didn't look up pictures or see much beforehand so much of it was entirely new to me. We probably didn't work out everything ~time efficiently~ but I feel like I got to see everything I wanted. Since it'll be so much to talk about every single detail, I'll mention the rides we rode, the events, and the food we ate. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because I was much more focused on experiencing the parks.
So, here we go!
Here is us when we first got into the parks and I'm not gonna lie, I felt a little emotional seeing the castle for the first time. It was like my inner 5 year old came out and I just kept pointing at the Castle while looking at M like "are you seeing this too?!" though it wasn't /that/ new to M as he has been to Disney world before. He did a great job touring me around the park.
☆ Splash Mountain ☆
Both my first and last ride at Magic Mountain! I loved it even though the fake outs throughout the ride were really unexpected and still managed to freak me out. The big drop at the end was a little overwhelming for my pansy ass but the ride was much better at night when you can see the castle lit up! Definitely one of my favorite rides that I'll go on again. We managed to get /completely/ soaked in the front seat during the night time ride so we had to ride the bus back to the hotel completely wet.
☆ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ☆
I knew this was a coaster ride but I felt like it wasn't as well known as Splash/Space mountain so I didn't know what to expect. I ended up riding this ride twice but the first time, I was really scared. Also, those sunglasses I was wearing above did not last long. I managed to somehow lose them on this ride which I was pretty sad about. I enjoyed this though!
☆ Dumbo the Flying Elephant ☆
This is a total baby ride and me and M were probably the oldest people in line but I felt like my first trip to Disney wouldn't be complete if I didn't ride this. It was a cute ride but totally underwhelming. I am okay with skipping this next time. The queue was really cute though!
☆ Haunted Mansion ☆
If I'm honest, this only thing I knew about this was the old awful movie that came out in the early 2000's. I never researched into it enough to know it was it's own ride. Overall, I was really impressed. I feel like a lot of effort went into the imagination and ambience of this ride and I felt like I wasn't able to fully experience everything in one go. I really, really enjoyed this one and I'll for sure ride it again.
☆ Jungle Cruise ☆
I will NEVER understand the hype for this ride. I thought it was really slow, the queue was uninteresting, the jokes fell completely flat for me. I thought it was cheesy and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I feel like this could vastly use an update and after going to the Animal Kingdom, this just felt like a huge joke? Maybe I just don't get it but even the kids on the boat I was on didn't seem too into it either. Total skip for me next time.
☆ Mad Tea Party ☆
Another classic I felt worth riding! A basic carnival ride but fun nonetheless. It felt really short though for how long the queue was. Me and the BF went a little crazy on this and tried to make ourselves really dizzy. It was fun seeing other people do the same.
☆ Magic Carpets of Aladdin ☆
I actually really liked this one! It's very similar to the Dumbo ride but, obviously, heavily Aladdin themed. They played Aladdin music and the ride seemed to go much higher. Though maybe a little underwhelming for someone who'd want a more interesting ride, it was a nice change of pace.
☆ Mickey's Philharmagic ☆
This one was completely new to me and I LOVED IT. If you love Disney music like I do, you'll think this is absolutely lovely! I thought it was a really cute little 4D movie that made me ~feelsy~ with the music and I thought the animations were really cute. I expected a little more Mickey but Donald was a nice, little addition. I'd definitely see this again.
They had really cute souvenirs too and I got a picture of M in a Mickey Sorcerer hat.
☆ Pirates of the Caribbean ☆
Another ride I was more familiar with the movie of, I actually really enjoyed this ride! I realized that I enjoy these ride-through rides (dark rides?) such as this and Haunted Mansion. I thought there was so much to see that I missed out on in one go through so I'd definitely ride this one again. One thing that sticks with me was the smell of the place?? and I later found out it's intentional. I had a similar experience on Splash Mountain.
☆ Space Mountain ☆
Okay, first, let me say that I am well aware this ride isn't very fast nor does it have very high drops but something about it being pitch black just freaked me the hell out earning it the scariest ride for me of both days. I was in the front seat of the very little car and it was pitch black and it was just too much for me. I'd ride it again but my legs were legit shaking once I was off this ride. I really hate the dark and this just really fed into my nightly fears. Even the queue and everything about it was just so dark. Also, definitely qualifies for the longest queue's in the park, they were ridiculous. Thankfully we had a fast pass which still felt really long for this ride.
Obviously I look a lot more alert and awake than he does.
I live relatively close so it was about a 90 min drive away.
I honestly didn't do much research in terms of rides or what attractions to see, I wanted a lot of it to remain a surprise. I didn't look up pictures or see much beforehand so much of it was entirely new to me. We probably didn't work out everything ~time efficiently~ but I feel like I got to see everything I wanted. Since it'll be so much to talk about every single detail, I'll mention the rides we rode, the events, and the food we ate. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because I was much more focused on experiencing the parks.
So, here we go!
Here is us when we first got into the parks and I'm not gonna lie, I felt a little emotional seeing the castle for the first time. It was like my inner 5 year old came out and I just kept pointing at the Castle while looking at M like "are you seeing this too?!" though it wasn't /that/ new to M as he has been to Disney world before. He did a great job touring me around the park.
☆ Splash Mountain ☆
Both my first and last ride at Magic Mountain! I loved it even though the fake outs throughout the ride were really unexpected and still managed to freak me out. The big drop at the end was a little overwhelming for my pansy ass but the ride was much better at night when you can see the castle lit up! Definitely one of my favorite rides that I'll go on again. We managed to get /completely/ soaked in the front seat during the night time ride so we had to ride the bus back to the hotel completely wet.
☆ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ☆
I knew this was a coaster ride but I felt like it wasn't as well known as Splash/Space mountain so I didn't know what to expect. I ended up riding this ride twice but the first time, I was really scared. Also, those sunglasses I was wearing above did not last long. I managed to somehow lose them on this ride which I was pretty sad about. I enjoyed this though!
☆ Dumbo the Flying Elephant ☆
This is a total baby ride and me and M were probably the oldest people in line but I felt like my first trip to Disney wouldn't be complete if I didn't ride this. It was a cute ride but totally underwhelming. I am okay with skipping this next time. The queue was really cute though!
☆ Haunted Mansion ☆
If I'm honest, this only thing I knew about this was the old awful movie that came out in the early 2000's. I never researched into it enough to know it was it's own ride. Overall, I was really impressed. I feel like a lot of effort went into the imagination and ambience of this ride and I felt like I wasn't able to fully experience everything in one go. I really, really enjoyed this one and I'll for sure ride it again.
☆ Jungle Cruise ☆
I will NEVER understand the hype for this ride. I thought it was really slow, the queue was uninteresting, the jokes fell completely flat for me. I thought it was cheesy and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I feel like this could vastly use an update and after going to the Animal Kingdom, this just felt like a huge joke? Maybe I just don't get it but even the kids on the boat I was on didn't seem too into it either. Total skip for me next time.
☆ Mad Tea Party ☆
Another classic I felt worth riding! A basic carnival ride but fun nonetheless. It felt really short though for how long the queue was. Me and the BF went a little crazy on this and tried to make ourselves really dizzy. It was fun seeing other people do the same.
☆ Magic Carpets of Aladdin ☆
I actually really liked this one! It's very similar to the Dumbo ride but, obviously, heavily Aladdin themed. They played Aladdin music and the ride seemed to go much higher. Though maybe a little underwhelming for someone who'd want a more interesting ride, it was a nice change of pace.
☆ Mickey's Philharmagic ☆
This one was completely new to me and I LOVED IT. If you love Disney music like I do, you'll think this is absolutely lovely! I thought it was a really cute little 4D movie that made me ~feelsy~ with the music and I thought the animations were really cute. I expected a little more Mickey but Donald was a nice, little addition. I'd definitely see this again.
They had really cute souvenirs too and I got a picture of M in a Mickey Sorcerer hat.
☆ Pirates of the Caribbean ☆
Another ride I was more familiar with the movie of, I actually really enjoyed this ride! I realized that I enjoy these ride-through rides (dark rides?) such as this and Haunted Mansion. I thought there was so much to see that I missed out on in one go through so I'd definitely ride this one again. One thing that sticks with me was the smell of the place?? and I later found out it's intentional. I had a similar experience on Splash Mountain.
☆ Space Mountain ☆
Okay, first, let me say that I am well aware this ride isn't very fast nor does it have very high drops but something about it being pitch black just freaked me the hell out earning it the scariest ride for me of both days. I was in the front seat of the very little car and it was pitch black and it was just too much for me. I'd ride it again but my legs were legit shaking once I was off this ride. I really hate the dark and this just really fed into my nightly fears. Even the queue and everything about it was just so dark. Also, definitely qualifies for the longest queue's in the park, they were ridiculous. Thankfully we had a fast pass which still felt really long for this ride.
☆ Tomorrowland Peoplemover ☆
I mean... is this a ride? I had no idea what this was but M encouraged us to ride on it. I actually really enjoyed it! It was a relaxed ride for the middle of the day with great views of the park and went surprisingly faster than I thought it'd be. It was a great break for my feet in the middle of the day and it also didn't have any lines at all which was nice.
☆ Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid ☆
Another ride I had no idea existed until I saw it in the park, I LOVED IT. Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney movies and just hearing the songs and going through the whole story essentially was just amazing! The "Under the Sea" portion, "Poor Unfortunate Souls", "Kiss the Girl" so much of it was just absolutely great! I would love to ride this ride again because I thought it was so much fun. It does seem prone to breakdowns however, as we got slightly stuck at the end.
☆ Carousel of Progress ☆
So, by the time we found this ride it was a really busy and hot part of the day and this was inside so we figured why not? I had no idea what to expect of this "ride" but it was basically a 30 min nap time for M. I thought it was pretty interesting but really outdated. It was good for an air conditioned break in the day and I'd probably "ride" this again if I want to escape from the heat for a bit. That song though.... it gets stuck in your head. "Great big beautiful tomorrow.."
I think I covered all the rides we did!
We did happen to miss out on a few either because I totally forgot, we ran out of the time or the queue's were wayyy too long. The two that fall into the latter are Peter Pans Flight and Seven Dwarves Mine Train (which always had an over 250+ min wait time).
For Magic Kingdom Events...
☆ Festival of Fantasy Parade ☆
Like seeing Cinderella's castle for the first time, I loved seeing this parade for the first time! The floats were really elaborate and it was so nice seeing all the costumed characters. It felt very "Disney" like and I really enjoyed this. I definitely want to see this again in the future with a better view!
☆ Mickeys Royal Friendship Faire ☆
I didn't know they had little shows and events in front of the castle so the first time we caught this happening, I was caught completely off guard. Though I know people are sick of Frozen at this time, seeing "Let it Go" performed live complete with snow effects and fireworks was pretty amazing.
☆ Move it! Shake it! Street Party ☆
Sometimes we'd be making out way across the park and this event would be happening where there would be impromptu dance parties with street performers which I didn't stop to really take in but I thought it was pretty neat and added a lot to the atmosphere. I loved all these little details because it really felt like such a festive environment.
☆ Happily Ever After ☆
If I have to name my favorite event of Disney World, it's definitely this night show. Though many older Disney fans are attached to the old fireworks show, as a complete newbie and Disney song lover, this appealed to me on so many levels. The projections were amazing, the fireworks worked really well with the show and I loved the music they chose. If there was any part I felt really emotional during, it was this one! A fantastic way to end the night.
Here's a picture of us after riding Splash Mountain with the castle lit up in the background.
At this time, I was really exhausted and just couldn't wait to get back to the hotel room and pass out. My feet were also KILLING me. I hadn't walked so much in ages and I got some awful blisters by the end of the day. Even almost a month later, my feet are still healing. u_u
As for Magic Kingdom food....
It wasn't really on my mind so we didn't eat that much.
But since it was my birthday, I really wanted to eat at Be Our Guest and I managed to get lunch reservations. But the inside is actually very dark so it was hard to photograph.
Me and M inside! It was so beautiful and there were so many little Beauty and the Best details. Though I'd love to see the inside again, the food left much to be desired. Honestly, it's how I felt about a lot of the Magic Kingdom food, I wasn't very impressed by it. (And I'm not a very picky person but for how expensive a lot of it was, I expected just a tad bit more than mediocre)
25 dollars for this little food.... u___u
The soups were good though! Despite how much they were.
The cupcakes were pretty but way, way too sweet!
I knew Dole Whips were really popular too so I wanted to try one!
Again, I didn't think this was very good and far too sweet for me.
M really liked it though and finished off mine~
(Also in these pictures, I WAS SO HOT, I was sweating so much all day lol)
M also wanted to relive his childhood Disney treat of the massive turkey leg
This was probably one of the best things we ate all day >_>
The one other place we went for food was Sleepy Hollow
I got a fried chicken + waffle and since so many people raved about it...
But I just didn't like it?! Was I just getting food I'm not interested in?
I don't know.... nothing I ate really satisfied me this day.
BUT, since I loved the Animal Kingdom food, I chalk it up to MK.
_____________________________________________________
Day 2, Animal Kingdom Day!
I was really excited for Animal Kingdom since I love Zoo's, I was interested in the rides but I was not prepared for how busy and hot it was going to be that day. There were some parts of the day where I was just sweating my ass off and I needed to sit down because it was just so hot. Magic Kingdom the day prior definitely didn't feel too bad. Also, the bus was much more cramped too, the park felt much busier and cramped. Even if so, it was still really fun! (but hot, definitely hot)
So, I'll start off with the rides/shows!
☆ Expedition Everest ☆
This seems to be the centerpiece of this park and it's huge and very hard to miss. I LOVED THIS RIDE. Number 1 ride of the whole trip and of both parks so far. It was extremely fun, I loved the theming and it has enough thrill to not be boring. It was fun trying to see the yeti and during my trip the lights were completely on which I found out later wasn't very common. Me and M managed to ride this 5 times on our trip and I honestly could have rode it more. It was super, super fun.
☆ Kali River Rapids ☆
This was actually really fun because during the queue they had warned us that there were storms coming and it was raining pretty hard but thankfully we still got to ride it! These type of river rapid rides are fun at the risk of getting very wet (which I didn't mind since it was sooo hot) The people on our ride were all adults and pretty talkative too so that added to the experience as we were debating who would get splashed. All in all, it was a fun ride, especially in the rain and with nice companions.
☆ Kilimanjaro Safaris ☆
The line for this, even the fast pass, was SO LONG. There were some ostriches that kept causing trouble on this ride and blocking the cars so it took forever. The line stretched back forever. I thought this ride was pretty fun though since it was the most "zoo" like and we got to see Elephants and Giraffes and such up close.
☆ It's Tough To Be a Bug ☆
I remember when I passed by this, I was like, "Is there seriously a bug's life ride around here?" and then I realize that it was in the giant tree itself! I thought that was really neat. This was a fun little 4D ride that actually had some scary bits in it. I realized that the dark rides and these 4D ones appealed to me the most, they were really fun and interactive.
☆ Festival of the Lion King ☆
I loved this show! There was just so much going on and if you even love the Lion King just a little bit, you'll love this show. They incorporate all the songs with fun performances, a huge Simba and Pumba and it's just one huge Lion King love fest. It was really entertaining and I'd be happy to watch this again. (We were in the Lion Section~)
☆ Finding Nemo the Musical ☆
I don't really like Finding Nemo but I enjoyed this! The performances were fun and the puppets were actually pretty impressive. Watching my boyfriends confused expression throughout the performances was the most priceless part though. He kept whispering to me "he knows we can see them, right? why are they not even trying to hide"... that's the point, lol. He went out of it like this ?_? and I love to tease him about it and each time he'll just say he doesn't "get" it.
☆ Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail ☆
This was disappointing because the Gorilla's weren't around when I went in. :( I did manage to see a hippo though so that was pretty cool. I just think during my walk-through the animals were chillin on their own and weren't around to see.
☆ Affection Section located in Rafiki's Planet Watch ☆
k, I'm being really loose when I describe this as a "ride" but it was a fun little activity! You need to take a specific train to get onto this area which there isn't much other stuff to do that isn't educational. In this section, it's like any petting zoo area of a normal Zoo. There were goats, pigs, a big cow, alpaca's...It was a cute little area though! I love these parts so I enjoyed it.
☆ Primeval Whirl ☆
I, uh, wasn't expecting this weird Carnival esque ride/area in Animal Kingdom. There was a DJ in the area blasting top 40 One Direction and a lot of little kids. It was truly like being transported to a carnival. The theming was really strange in accordance to the rest of the park. This ride felt like a carnival ride too because it was just so damn rickety and jerky, it felt really unsafe to ride this. I felt like it was going to give me whiplash and it just spun so much harder than I thought it would.
☆ Na'vi River Journey ☆
Holy hell was this ride underwhelming. We managed to wait in a half hour queue for this during extra magic hours (if you love yourself, do not wait over an hour for this ride) so I didn't feel like my time was too wasted but the only impressive part of this ride is a HUGE singing animatronic with the rest being lazy 3D projecting. Considering how impressive all the other dark rides were, this really didn't hit the mark. I would not ride this again.
The Pandora area in general didn't interest me and though I would have rode the Flight of Passage ride, I wasn't going to wait 3 hours in line for it. I wanted to ride the Dinosaur ride too but unfortunately it was closed almost the entire day I was there. When it reopened at night, the queue lines for it were too long. We also forego the night show of Rivers of Light to ride Expedition Everest since there was basically no line. Overall though, I don't feel like I missed out on too much at Animal Kingdom in terms of shows or rides.
Unfortunately, I took even less pictures in Animal Kingdom but I managed to get one of me and M in front of the Pandora.. rocks? I've actually never seen avatar so I'm not sure what these are.
Onto the food!
Like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed this much more than MK food.
I wanted to try the Pandora restaurant Satu'li Canteen so we went there first.
We shared the beef bowl and vegetable steamed curry pods. I'm actually not sure what type of food they were going for here but it was actually really good! The food managed to have a lot of flavor, the meat was really well cooked, and for the value we were pretty full.
For dinner, we ate Flame Tree BBQ!
I really enjoyed this too but I didn't manage to take a picture of the food.
We shared the ribs + chicken combo and french fries with pulled pork.
It was actually a really filling amount of food for two people~
I enjoyed it a lot!
I'm trying to think of what else we ate that day...
but I think that was it.
Overall, I really enjoyed the day at Animal Kingdom even if it didn't feel as "magical" or "disney" as Magic Kingdom did. When I come again, I feel comfortable skipping here next time in place of Epcot. I have no desire at the moment to go to Hollywood Studios since that park seems very sparse right now. I am waiting for Toy Story land to open as I have no interest in Star Wars land.
_____________________________________________
Here I'll cover a tiny bit about our hotel Coronado Springs!
I thought this resort area was super lovely and I really enjoyed it.
Here are some pictures of our room
The sheets weren't very comfortable and I have very sensitive skin that seemed to break out in rashes and hives really badly when it came to these bed sheets. Also the soap/shampoo they provide you also really irritated my skin but for M who has normal skin, it wasn't a problem. Our room was definitely missing the Disney theming which I didn't mind. I liked the little touches of "Three Caballeros" but I don't need the overwhelming disney in my face. I'd stay here again for sure.
Overall, I loved Disney World~
Ever since, I've been wanting to go back!
I would love to go back near Halloween so I can experience Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party (the one time you can dress up in the parks!) and to experience Epcot and their Food and Wine Festival. Also, it will be much less busy and hot than in Summer. I realize that I picked one of the worst times to go but I was really adamant on visiting on my birthday and I don't regret it at all. Even if it was busy and very hot, it didn't ruin the experience and I still loved it! Disney World may not be for everyone but like most little kids, I loved Disney growing up so this was definitely a dream come true for me and I can see why so many people are obsessed with these parks!
