My sister and I just took a week-long trip to Walt Disney World in Florida for the first time in about 7 years after growing up going about once a year! Here's what we experienced!
Day 1 - Travel Day
My sister and I met up in Orlando as we were flying from opposite sides of the country. She had a direct flight that got in at 6pm, while I had a layover and got in at about 9pm. Since she had some time, she went ahead and picked up the rental car and got us some groceries - this was a lifesaver as we were able to get extra sunscreen, water bottles to throw in the fridge, detergent and dryer sheets for the washer and dryer at our hotel, and other necessities that would have been difficult to bring. Upon my arrival to MCO, we departed for our hotel and reviewed our game plan for our week. Since I am a Magic Key holder (an annual passholder) at Disneyland, we decided our focus for the week would be on new or unique rides to the WDW Resort, with exceptions for rides that are slightly different in WDW or that we just love.
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Our first day was at the Most Magical Place on Earth - Magic Kingdom! We started our activities at 7am in order to get in the virtual queue for Tron Lightcycle / Run and to book our first Lightning Lane of the day. We got Group 68 for Tron, so we didn't expect to get on until later in the day, and we booked our first Lightning Lane for Space Mountain.
When we arrived to Magic Kingdom, I saw the Castle and was in awe... it never gets old, or less cool, no matter how often you see it. And as much as I love Disneyland... nothing really beats the castle at Magic Kingdom. It's so grand and majestic and you can just see and feel the magic of Disney when you see it.
We headed towards our first dining reservation of the trip, the Character Breakfast with Winnie the Pooh characters at Crystal Palace! We used to go every trip when we were kids, so we hoped it would be just as good as we remembered, and... it was! We love the Disney World scrambled eggs and Mickey waffles, and they did NOT fail us this time. And the characters were so fun and kind with us, even as two adults with no kids. We had a blast!
After breakfast, we ventured to the land of the future, Tomorrowland. Our Lightning Lane timing was perfect, and we hopped on Space Mountain, PeopleMover, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and the Carousel of Progress in very quick succession, so we wouldn't have to do a ton of backtracking later in the day. Unfortunately, Tron was not running for much of the morning, delaying our Virtual Queue timing to likely the late afternoon. We decided around this time to do an Individual Lightning Lane for Seven Dwarves Mine Train, as we have never ridden it before and wanted to experience it, so we went ahead and booked a time for after the fireworks that night.
From there, we headed towards Adventureland for our next Lightning Lane of Pirates of the Caribbean by way of Fantasyland. While I love Disneyland, one thing I love about WDW is you can really feel the magic and intention in all of the exteriors and the queues at WDW, especially in Fantasyland. Little things like the Tangled bathrooms, or Beast's Castle at Be Our Guest, or Prince Eric's Castle at Under the Sea (Journey of The Little Mermaid) really make you feel like you're in the stories they're telling.
After Pirates, we went to the Hall of Presidents for some good AC. Then, we decided to go to the Festival of Fantasy Parade. We did not do a Lightning Lane for reserved spots, but it really didn't matter much. We got some Dole Whip from Aloha Isle and then found an amazing spot nearby easily. And the parade was AWESOME. I never really went to Disney's parades growing up except for the Electrical Parade, so it was really cool to see this one.
After this, it was finally time for our Tron virtual queue. Since it was down for much of the morning, the line was VERY long for the Virtual Queue people. It took us about an hour to get on the ride from the time we entered the line. I highly recommend trying the test seat! I'm a fattie with big thighs and calves so I could not fit in the bike seat, but my sister was able to just fine. Luckily, every two trains has a bench seat for all sizes, so I sat there and my sister went on the bike. Overall, it was fun and I enjoyed it, but I wasn't blown away by it and probably wouldn't worry too much about getting a Virtual Queue or Individual Lightning Lane for it going forward.
After that, we did the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor attraction one more time (we LOVE this attraction) and then it was time for some dinner. We got some Cosmic Ray's and found a seat inside listening to his jazzy space tunes. The food wasn't mind-blowing - I got a BBQ burger and my sister got good ol' chicken fingers - but it was satisfying enough.
We moved from there back over to Liberty Square, where we had our next Lightning Lane for Haunted Mansion. It's so different in Florida! I didn't remember them being so different. After that, it was just about time to find a spot for the Happily Ever After show. I decided to split up from my sister so she could get a spot and I could get a funnel cake sundae from Sleepy Hollow and that... was a mistake. The funnel cake was amazing, but I couldn't get to my sister! She found a prime spot right by the castle and I had to do very strategic maneuvering to get to her, but I did, and it was worth it. It's a very good show and the projection mapping on this Castle is much better than Disneyland's (not sure if it's just due to the castle in Florida being larger). I always love Disney's musical arrangements from their nighttime shows, and this one was no different - it had that Disney magic. And the fireworks were perfectly timed and tuned to the arrangements. It was overall just a fantastic nighttime spectacular.
After the fireworks, we had our Individual Lightning Lane for Seven Dwarves Mine Train, and it was so fun! I've never been on a roller coaster that was that smooth before. It's so unique and very innovative. Honestly I like that one much better than Tron. Would I wait over an hour for it? Probably not, but I've resigned myself to not wait that long for anything anymore really. We decided to end our night there, after getting an ice cream on the way out. We had another park day planned for the next day, so we didn't want to be completely without sleep.
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom and Movie Night
Day 3 was Animal Kingdom day! This day reinvigorated my love for that park - it is VASTLY underrated. We started the day booking a Lightning Lane for Kilimanjaro Safaris and an Individual Lightning Lane for Avatar: Flight of Passage, as we had never done that ride before (when we came back in summer 2017, Pandora had JUST opened and the wait times for that and Na'vi River Journey were over 3 hrs and we couldn't get a FastPass for both, so we only did Na'vi River Journey). At rope drop, we decided to go for Dinosaur, as my sister loves that ride. I was afraid of that ride as a kid, but as an adult, it was SO MUCH FUN. We were glad we still had a Lightning Lane for it later.
We then had our second dining reservation of the trip, the Donald & Friends Character Breakfast at Tusker House Restaurant. Again, another fantastic breakfast with very fun characters - their Zebra coffee cake was delicious, and I have started to love POG juice.
We then headed to our Kilimanjaro Safaris Lightning Lane and we went at a great time because the animals were pretty active! We even got to see the male and female lion playing with each other. And there was a baby elephant! Too cute.
From there we booked a Lightning Lane for Na'vi River Journey and headed to the Finding Nemo show. We LOVE this show, but were devastated to see they cut 10 whole minutes from the show! Even the memed song "Where's My Dad?". We then went on Expedition Everest via Single Rider, and it was probably less than a 15 minute wait. I cannot believe how amazing that ride is - I had been on that one before, but I honestly forgot how fun it is. We went on it two more times in a row because we loved it so much.
Our Individual Lightning Lane time for Avatar: Flight of Passage came around so we headed over to Pandora. This is also a ride where I recommend trying the test seat. Luckily both my sister and I fit, but I know some other people have had issues getting on this ride. I have seen NOTHING about Flight of Passage, so I didn't know what to expect. It was pretty fun! Again, would I wait over an hour for it? No, but I would do it again for sure. It's almost a cross between Tron and Soarin', which was really interesting.
Na'vi River Journey closed down and we got a multi-experience pass for it, so we decided to skip Na'vi since we did it in 2017, and do the Safaris again instead. I love animals, so we figured this would be cool to do one more time. After that, we walked the Gorilla Falls trail before heading back to Asia to do our Lightning Lanes for Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest. I did NOT like Kali River Rapids, even though it was an extremely hot and humid day. The seats and restraints are super tight and uncomfortable if you have big hips. It is very similar to Grizzly River Run at California Adventure, but the seats are way better on Grizzly. I couldn't enjoy the ride because I was so uncomfortable.
We were pretty much done at that point after two big days of walking, so we did our last Lightning Lane for Dinosaur, saw It's Tough to be a Bug!, and then headed home. If we weren't so tired from Magic Kingdom, we absolutely could have stayed a whole day. I so wish they would have the park be open full hours again, not till just 6pm or 7pm. This park is so SO underrated and tons of fun!
We needed a chill night after two big days of walking, so we decided to go to our hotel's pool and then watch a movie in our room. And what better movie to watch than a Disney/Pixar movie? I'm currently in the middle of a full Pixar movie watch-through, so we hit the next one on my list, WALL-E. We sat on our room's ginormous couch, watched the movie, and did some work, and it was lovely. A nice break after two big days of Disney chaos!
Day 4 - Typhoon Lagoon & Disney Springs
Day 4 was our first "break" day of our Disney trip. I highly recommend working these into your Disney trips; having a water park or pool day to reset and chill was so nice. I don't have as much to report about our time at Typhoon Lagoon - we went in the wave pool, did some slides, and spent a lot of time in the lazy river. Something I do really appreciate about Disney's water parks though is that none of the attractions have weight limits! So my sister and I were able to do as many slides as we wanted.
One thing that was surprising about Typhoon Lagoon was the food - my sister got Pork Elote Nachos from Leaning Palms and LOVED them. When we went back later in the week she got them again. My burger from there was nothing special, just a theme park burger, but my sister demolished those nachos. And the brownie sundae from the ice cream place near there... SO GOOD. I don't know what hot fudge they use, but that and the brownie with the delicious soft serve ice cream was just so delicious. I didn't think that a water park's food could be so good.
After our relaxing day at Typhoon Lagoon, we headed to Disney Springs to try to catch the new Disney Dreams That Soar drone show. It was pretty crazy at Disney Springs, especially for a Wednesday evening. It was hard to find parking, and the security line to get in by the Cirque du Soleil building was insane. We got dinner at D-Luxe Burger and Blaze Pizza, and then found a spot for the 9pm drone show at 8pm. While the drone show was awesome, it is short (about 10 minutes) and the hassle to go see it almost outweighs how cool the show is unfortunately. But overall I'm glad we went to see it!
After the show, we hung out for a little bit to try to give some time for people to clear out. However, it didn't really work and we ended up in a long line to get out of Disney Springs. It probably took us over an hour for us to get back to the hotel, for what should have been a 10-15 minute drive. I have not really been to Disney Springs much before this, but I wouldn't really recommend going to Disney Springs unless you're going to see the drone show from now until the end of the show's run. It's just so crazy there.
Conclusion
Overall, we had a blast on the first half of our Disney trip!!! It was so cool to see and experience all the new things since our last trip 7 years ago. And now I feel like I'll be better able to serve my clients, having up-to-date firsthand knowledge and putting it to the test for myself. I'm looking forward to sharing my tips and tricks going forward!
If you would like help planning and booking your next Disney vacation, please reach out to me on the Book Now page or email me at jill@fantasticaladventuresbyjill.com! My travel services are included in the cost of your vacation whether you use me or not, so don't miss out on something you're already paying for!
Thanks for reading!
-Jill
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