Disney “World” of dreams
As a kid we always dream of a fantasy world. I dreamed of a train, which was made of sweets and chocolates. There are places in world where you travel and feel, “Wow that’s a fantasy land”…. One such destination is Disney World.
Christmas is a great time to travel to places like Disney world, as you get a real feel of “the most wonderful time of the year”. There are Christmas decorations all around, feel of crisp winter with a hot cinnamon roll or hot chocolate. We decided to enjoy the magic from 22nd to 25th December. We planned to go to three parks — Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We booked Hilton Bueno Vista Palace, which is very close to Disney Springs and has daily shuttle to any of the four parks with a good frequency all day. One of the perks of staying at Hilton Bueno Vista Palace is that they are considered as good neighborhood hotel to Disney World. You get a fast pass to reserve three rides per day 60 days in advance. After you complete the three rides, you can also reserve more rides for the same day. One can also enjoy magic hours (before park opening or until late in night).
Few things to know while planning a Disney Vacation:
- Plan to stay in Hotels which offer Fast Pass (Disney resorts or any of neighborhood hotels)
- Plan your travel from hotel to parks, specially during holiday seasons you will see lot of traffic on road and it’s better to take monorail and park shuttles rather than driving on your own or taking Uber.
- If you are taking shuttle from hotel, ask about pick up locations at the parks
- Reserve restaurants within the park in advance, as lot of them may not have availability if you try reserving on same day.
- Plan your entire Disney vacation here. You can add shows, fireworks, hotels and order and shop merchandise.
- Download Disney app which is very useful to view wait times for a ride and order food online, so that you don’t have to wait for your food to be ready.
Day at Magic Kingdom
The first thing that comes to mind when someone says Disney is Cinderella’s castle. So obviously, our first park choice was Magic Kingdom park. As soon as you enter the park your eyes keenly look for a castle view and it’s totally worth to wait in line to get a photo with castle in background. Disney offers photo pass and all of your photos clicked at park are automatically available under your Disney account.
Our next stop was to watch spectacular Mickey’s Once upon a Christmas parade.
We took Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road, Haunted Mansion and Pirates Of Caribbean ride. We liked Thunder Mountain rail road the best, this ride has the longest wait times. We also enjoyed Presidents Hall of Fame show, it’s a nice 180 degree screen show of all the Presidents of USA.
Some of the other good rides in Magic Kingdom are, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain.
The most awaited part of visiting Magic Kingdom was the fireworks. It started with Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration, it’s a musical show where mickey invites all his pals for unforgettable holiday party, which was followed by fireworks at 10 PM. It was amazing and totally worth the wait.
Day at Animal Kingdom
This is the park that we loved the most. As soon as you enter you get a rain forest kind of feel with trees all around and sound of humming birds and insects. The park showcases country theme of Asia and Africa.
Expedition Everest is a really good ride to start your day in Asia region of park. After the ride, one can explore the Indian theme market and a river side ghat. We also enjoyed Kali River Rapids ride, it’s not as exciting as real river rafting but it’s fun.
We walked down from Asia region to Africa and saw a spectacular African tribal dance.
We planned our lunch in African themed restaurant Tusker House. They offer a buffet with character dinning experience, a prior reservation is advised during peak season. After lunch, our next ride was Kilimanjaro Safari. It’s a 10 minutes bus ride across area which has lot of animals roaming around. On the way, we took a quick detour to watch It’s Tough to be a Bug show.
In the evening, we planned to go to Pandora — The World of Avatar. This is the best place in entire Disney World and is a must visit. Plan this place during evening, so that you can get day and night view, the valley of Mo’ara glows in night and gives a spectacular view. Both of the rides here Flight Of Passage and Na’vi River Journey are beyond your imagination, you are really into the world of Na’vis.
We also got our caricature picture done.
Our dinner was planned in fine dining restaurant called Tiffins. This restaurant has good food and service. While walking out of Animal kingdom, we watched Tree Of Life Nighttime Awakening. This is again a show that you should not miss, it’s a dazzling visual animation on a tree.
Day at Epcot
This was our final day in Disney World at Epcot and as soon as you enter you get view of big globe which you find in every picture of this park.
We started the day with Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival, it’s a 4d show. Our first ride was Mission Space, we opted for Orange mission in which you really feel gravity pressure in your journey to Mars.
Half of the area in Epcot is World Showcase which has representation of different countries from around the world, it’s a nice two hours walk if you are spending some time at each place. We stopped for lunch at Nine Dragons restaurant in China region. After lunch, we watched 360 degree movie on china followed by some quick shopping.
After a slow walk through all the countries, we came back to future world where we took Test Track ride, where you get to design your own cars and after that you can take a fast car ride. The next ride was Spaceship Earth which was the slowest ride ever.
Our dinner was at Coral reef restaurant which has big aquarium at the dining place, it’s a restaurant with good ambience but average food.
Our last ride to Disney was Soarin’ Around the World. This was a lovely ride, it’s like you are really flying around the world, again a ride you should plan in Epcot.
Last but not the least, the best way to end your Disney trip was to witness Illumination: Reflection of Earth, a great firework show.
Written By: Rhishi Editing & Photography: PriyankaOriginally published at our2chillar.com on December 27, 2018.
