Disney Parks

The Disney Parks can be overwhelming! Especially if you had never thought about it or looked into it before. So when we started planning for our Florida trip I knew I wanted to visit the Disney Parks , especially the blue and white castle, however I didn’t know much about it.

I talked to a few people who had been to the park to understand what the park was all about and I used Google for research!

Is it suitable for just adults alone?

Yes it is very much suitable for adults alone! The initial ticket cost can be high – however incremental days are cheaper. We had booked it for 5 days, and used all 5 days thoroughly!

Canadian residences also get a cheaper rate. We used the below site to book our tickets.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/special-offers/

We added the park hopper option – this gives you the flexibility to go to multiple parks on the same day. If you don’t have this you can only go to one park per day and can’t go back to the park you already visited.

We also added the water parks – just an additional $20 for two water parks. During the winter months at least one of the water park is closed.

Fastpass

You need to download the Disney app on your smart phone in order to use the Fastpass.

Fastpass will let you skip the line for a ride. Only specific rides within each park has the Fastpass option. Each day you can pick 3 rides for Fastpass and all 3 rides must be in the same park.

Planning

With a set amount of time it can be hard to go on all the rides at each park – read the description of the rides ahead of time and plan your route through the park the day before. I found this Disney Blog to be helpful in understanding what the rides were in each park:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/

Use it as a guide only. Your interests maybe different than that of the blog author.

Why are there so many different parks and what is in each of them?

You can find a list of Disney Parks:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/destinations/

The ones we visited and my thoughts about each one :

Magic Kingdom  

This is the park with the famous blue and white castle. It is a great park for kids especially for fairy tale characters. For adults you can appreciate the amount of details that went into building the park. I have never seen this much thought put into any other amusement park I have visited.

Things I recommend in this park:

• The haunted house ride – Great simulations and a must do.
• Space Mountain
• The night time firework display! Go multiple times if you like fireworks. This is how the fireworks looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXKNWH8s7zE

• Wandering around the entire park
• Souvenir shops
• Splash Mountain – was okay, if there is a long line don’t bother with this ride

Hollywood Studios

This park is based on movies, TV shows, music, and theater. It has rides, shows, and presentations that explains how movies are made.

Things I recommend in this park:

• The twilight zone of terror – Super fun ride. A must do.
• Fantasmic – Great light and fireworks show
• Walking around
• Souvenir shops
• The Indiana show – Was okay

Animal Kingdom

This park has rides, animals and animal themed shows.

• This is an interesting park to walk around in. All of Disney’s parks are! You can spend hours just wandering the parks.
• One of my most favorite ride in all of the Disney Parks is the Kilimanjaro Safaris. Disney has managed to bring Africa to Florida! I was amazed by the trees they have managed to grow in the park. In the Safari we saw many different exotic animals including lions, crocodiles, elephants, monkeys, giraffes, flamingos, hippopotamus, and many other animals whose name I have forgotten!

• The Animal Kingdom also has various areas designed after different countries, and I was fascinated again by the amount of work they have put into the settings.
• Expedition Everest – This was an okay roller coaster – not one I would wait in line for
• Kali River Rapids – This was fun

Epcot

This park is supposed to be for celebrating human achievement and international cultures. This was my favorite park! I love to travel, and seeing the buildings, food, music, people and plants from many different countries at the same place was a happy experience for me.

Things one must do:

• Epcot fireworks and show was incredible. We were lucky enough to see it two times and it was just wow.
• Soarin – This was the best ride for me at Disney. You sit in a chair in front of a screen and it simulates places all over the world like the Pyramids, Eiffel tower, Taj Mahal, Waterfalls, Mountains and they even simulate the smells and has water effects. It was such an incredible ride and a great feat of engineering! I was lucky enough to find a video of the places the ride takes you too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0_WElXsY-k In addition to the incredible locations, the movement of your chair that simulates movement add to the experience of the ride!
• We also visited multiple countries in Epcot and had food at many of the stalls associated with the different countries. Chicken dumplings at China, empanadas at Mexico, cheese plate and apple cider in Germany, Pizza in Italy, Sushi in Japan and a full out dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. This was filling and fun  !
• My favorite country area in Epcot is Morocco. I think it is designed incredibly well! Also liked Japan, China, Norway and Mexico. I think Canada, Paris, Italy and London can use some improvements! They seemed a bit old and somewhat outdated.

• Another ride that I really liked in Epcot was Mission: Space. This ride is a centrifugal motion simulator thrill ride .
• Frozen Ever After – This is considered the most popular ride in Disney. We waited about 2 hours for this ride. However, I didn’t find this as exciting as Mission Space and Soarin. I think this ride makes sense if you are a big fan of frozen or have kids! Otherwise don’t waste your time.
• Another ride that was pretty cool was called Living with the Land. It is a slow train ride that shows how plants can be grown in the future as well as things like fish farming. It is an educational and a cool ride. Not very long lines and very interesting!

• Walking around is very interesting in Epcot. You walk from one country to another within minutes!

Typhoon Waterpark

Out of the two waterparks only the Typhoon waterpark was open. We only had a few hours at this park. As in all things Disney, this park is beautifully designed. The park itself is surrounded by tons of trees and vegetation. It is probably the most beautiful waterpark I have seen. We only had time for the wave pool. The wave pool was just okay. I usually go to Calypso waterpark in Ottawa, Canada. The wave pool at Calypso is much better. We didn’t have time to go on any of the water rides. Maybe a good break if you have lots of time, otherwise I would skip it. It is still a beautiful park .

Final Words

We stayed about five minutes from the park and took our car each day to the park. Parking is $20 per day but you can move the car between multiple parks. We liked the flexibility the car provided. We also took the monorail to the Disney resorts to check out the different Christmas decorations at the resorts and to go to Trader Sam’s Tiki Bar.  At this Tiki bar you can order all kinds interesting drinks and some drinks include cool looking cups that you can take with you . Some of the drinks will trigger different effects – like the bar staff singing a song or getting a drink out of a large clam.

 

I had a wonderful time at the Disney Parks. It is a truly a magical place!