Florida Disney World

Hi Shravantika,

Sorry , won't be able to help with Niagara. Its been a little over 10 years since i visited. And am sure, a lot of changes must have happened in this time. May be some one else who visited recently will be able to help. Why not post in the New York section?

Vandhana

 

Disney Part 3.

Disney Resorts, I think make it their business to ensure that we visitors have the smoothest and most wonderful memories of the visit as possible and they start weaving their magic right from the parking lot itself. Am yet to see a more organised Theme park than Disney. There are no long wait lines to pay the parking fee( 11 bucks a day). And once you enter the parking area, there are "n" number of attendents to direct you through the maze of parking lots at each park. Please be sure to take a pen and paper with you , so you can note down the lot name and aisle number you parked your car in( its easy to get lost there!!).

Now for the parks and the attractions themselves:

Magic Kingdom: We covered MK in 2 days. Kind of Split the park in half and covered each half in a day. This is do able. For those who visited, will know the MK is divided into mini lands starting with Main Street USA which leads up to the Cinderella castle.
Main Street: Its the best place to watch the parades that happen in MK. And also the shows that take place in front of the Cinderella castle. Show themes will change according to season i think , so its best to pick up the Show time flyer at the park to pick the shows.
As for parades: there is a 3.00 PM parade " Disney Dreams Come True" parade And the SpectroMagic parade ( this is an electric parade and happens only on specific days of the week. But please don't miss this one. Its truly very beautiful . The times will vary according to season as it happens only after sunset.) . For most parades, people start lining up at least an hour before to get the best seats( view) . So make note of this.
There is also a Fire wroks spectacular , and yes the times will vary according to season, please don't miss this one either.

The first stop of the Magic Kingdom Railroad is also on main street. Kids love this "Choochoo train" .

Adventureland: All rides in this part are kid friendly. So any kid under 40" can ride with an adult.
Don't miss : Enchanted Tiki Room. Just superb piece of Disney Animatronics.

Frontier Land: 2 of the big 3 rides in MK are here: Splash Mountain and Big Thundermountain railroad. These rides are very popular and so please do use the Fast pass system.
We skipped Tom Sawyer Island for want of time. But its just a place for kids to go exploring and have some fun the good old way.

Fantasy land:
This is another part of the park that has rides with no height requirement.

Don't miss: Its a Small world, Mickeys Philarmagic ( 3d movie) and Peter Pan's flight.
Kids will love the Carousel, Dumbo's ride, and Mad Hatter's tea party ( the cup and saucer ride) .This is also the place to meet " Pooh Bear". Please be warned that lines are really long, and its a long wait. You could meet him in Epcot where the wait times are typically less.

Mickey's Toon Town: Replicas of Mickey and Minnie's house.
Don't miss: Kiddie roller coaster.

Liberty Square: Take the river boat ride to unwind and relax a bit. The hall of Presidents is a nice one. There is a 30 minute movie though , which kids will not be able to sit through.
Haunted House is a skip for those with young ones. But my older son and hubby liked it.

Tomorrowland: The last of the big 3 rides is here: Space mountain.
Don't Miss: Space Mountain , get a fast pass for this one too. Wait times can be 2 hours for those going in the stand by entrance.
Indy Speedway: little kids enjoy the fast track here!!
Buzz Lightyear ride: nice special effects and we get to fight space aliens!!
Time providing do visit Carousel of progress, and the Transit Authority . But this can be skipped if needed.

Last but not least, the best places to view fireworks according the park authorities are at Liberty Square, Frontierland and Tomorrow land.

Also bear in mind that the fast pass system limits you to get the fast pass only for one ride at a time.
Next I will cover Epcot in a separate post.

 

Time for Epcot:

Epcot, is a whole new theme park within the Disney World resort. It is much bigger than magic Kingdom in terms of size. You will need 2 days to see the whole park completely.
The park is divided into two : Future world and World Showcase.

Future world is where all the rides are. World Showcase is just as the name suggests, countries from around the world are showcased in this area.

Future World:

Don't Miss:
1. Space Ship Earth: Ride into the huge gaint Geosphere and go through time from eons in the past to the future. This ride was in testing stage when we went and is scheduled to open officially in Feb 2008.
2. Mission Space : Located in the Space pavillion is one must see ride. This is a very popular ride so do get fast pass. There are two levels of training. Green ( beginer) and Orange ( advanced) . The green tends to be less crowded , so i would recomend that you go on this one.
3.Test Track Ride: again another hit attraction. Do get fast pass for this also.
4. Soarin: Fantastic ride in the Land Pavillion. Very popular . do get fast pass for this one too.
5. Seas with Nemo and Friends : is a ride for young ones.
6. Turtle talk with crush ( sea pavillion): Dont miss this one folks. This interactive show is just too good.
7. Honey I shrunk the audience : ( imagination pavillion): 3d Movie, really good effects. may be a little scary for small kids. But us big ones enjoyed it a lot.

World Showcase:

Here they show case a few different countries from around the world. This one will take a day to cover. Its quite big. Take your time and do enjoy all that there is to see.
We heard that kids are given a "passport" which they can get stamped at every country they visit. ( we did not do this since we found out later)

Lastly, do not miss " Iluminations : Reflections of the Earth" A night time show with fireworks, dancing fountains and really spectacular.

 

Disney MGM Studios: This was the last park we went to. By now we were tired of all the rides. So we mainly concentrated on the shows in MGM.

Again , the park is divided into regions:

Back Lot: Here there are few rides and some great shows:

Don't Miss:

1. Indiana Jones epic Stunt Spectacular: 30 minute show with some awesome stunts. Kid friendly too. Please get a fast pass for this show. Fast pass holders are allowed in first and they get the good seats....
2. Lights Motor Action Stunt Show: Again this is a must see show. Here again get a fast pass. The arena holds about 5000 people and this one is very popular. Fast pass helps in getting in quickly and getting good seats.
3.Muppet Vision 3D: A totally lovable 3D movie with the Muppets. Kids love this one
4. Star Wars Thrill Ride: Good ride, can do time permitting.

Mickey Avenue Animation Courtyard: We covered only 2 attractions here. The Backlot tour and the Walt Disney: One mans dream. Back Lot tour is a tour through a part of the studio, and covers how the movies are taken.
Walt Disney is a short film about him and very insightful into his life and how he created this huge empire of dreams and magic. Can do time permitting. But if you miss it , its okay.
There is the Little Mermaid Ride here, which is very popular, but then we skipped it. So cannot comment on it.

Hollywood Boulevard: Here again are a few rides based on the movies from the past. We skipped this whole section . Excepting for the Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade, which is the only parade in MGM. But after seeing the parades in MK, we were not too impressed with this one.

Sunset Boulevard: This section hosts the 2 most popular rides in MGM. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Aero Smith Rock"n" Roller coaster. We skipped both , since by now we were heartily tired of rides.

Don't Miss: Fantasmic: a spectacular, lights sound show that is done fully using projecting images on water. Superb special effects. This is the grand finale of sorts. Seating for this show starts 1 and half hours before the show time. So if you want good seats again, please be early. There is no fast pass. truly first come first serve. Also its after sunset, so times will vary according to season. Very small kids may find a few scenes frightening.
But this is a must see....

And that ladies concludes my trip report. We were there for 5 days. 4 in Disney World resort: 2 in MK, 1 in Epcot, and 1 in MGM. We also went to Cape Canaveral where the NASA Kennedy Space Center is located. If anyone is interested, let me know and I will post the info about that too.

I do think we will make a trip back some day to visit Epcot again and also Animal Kingdom. heard that there some new rides in Animal Kingdom and also the latest in Disney inventions the first free standing and moving animatronic Dinosaur " Lucky" can be found here. and if we are lucky we can get his autograph too... but then can we find a book that size????

 

Dear Punita,

We did not go to Sea World or Discovery Cove , so can't help there.Hope some one else can.

Vandhana

 

Puni,thanx for the info...reg Niagara
Vandhana..I'm amazed by your eloborate writing and the excellent planning....
Thanx for sharing....