Having a magical day is Disney’s goal, their promise . We pass the doors, and presto, we enter the most magical place on Earth, the most magical place in the world.
I lived my whole life without wanting to go to a Disney park, and then one fine day, the idea came up, a date was chosen, tickets were bought.
It was a magical day , yes. I had a great time . It was also an expensive and somewhat stressful day . Because Disney forces you to constantly ask yourself questions, before arriving, and once there:
Before arriving on site, the choice of tickets is already complex. Which park to go to? How many days ? Because Disney World, as its name suggests, is a world of parks:
the Magic Kingdom (Magic Kingdom, the classic),
the Animal Kingdom ,
Epcot (which I had never heard of before, dedicated to world cultures)
and Hollywood Studio – which will open a Star Wars section at the end of August 2019
I then discovered the existence of a “fast past”: you can choose in advance the schedule of 3 attractions, among the most popular. I didn’t do anything about the info immediately when I bought the tickets, even though I downloaded the Disney app on my phone. I waited until the day before to find out what to do, and then a world of blogging opened up with all-out recommendations on what is best to do. I was a bit lost. I tell you my choice below.
Before leaving, you must also choose a hotel . The Disney hotels in the park look fabulous, but the price is very high, anything less than $600/night. Around the park, there are other options, I search via Booking, I read reviews, and finally I make my choice for 2 nights not far from the park.
On site, the day is a series of questions : what do we do next? Where are we going ? Do we expect so much? We only had one day there, and our goal was to enjoy it as much as possible, without waiting too long, without dying of heat, and without having too bad feet. We were pretty lucky with the attractions. Being two, moving quickly, and being on the same wavelength probably helped.
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What am I going to talk about in this article?
The story , quite simply, of the day at “Magic Kingdom”, the magic kingdom of Disney World in Florida, impressions, photos, etc.
What I wish I had known before leaving – hence my practical advice. There are already a good number of blogs, I have consulted the American blogs, but they are almost all sponsored, many are aimed at families. In short, this article is not sponsored, I paid for all the activities and hotel out of my own pocket. There are affiliate links (if you book via the blog I get a %). I also thank Lost in the USA for answering my questions on their recent Florida road trip article. Always on top JP and Delphine.
My favorite things about attractions, parades, etc. ❤
The choice of the hotel , it took us a long time to look for and find this hotel , I recommend it to you for certain reasons, it will be in the last part of the article.
Ready? Let’s go!⁂
The day begins a little before 8 am in front of the hotel where we are waiting for a free shuttle to take us to the park. There are less than ten people using the hotel shuttle, which does not bode well for the crowds we will encounter today. Everyone is dressed with a detail reminiscent of Mickey, whether it’s written on the t-shirt, by a “First time at Disney World!” », or by Minnie’s ears in sequins – which we will find all day long. We just look like tourists who are a little too hot, without a T-shirt like Disney.
The bus drops us off near the cash desks where I withdraw our tickets for the day – those who stay for several days in a row (many of them, the brave ones), are entitled to a bracelet. We haven’t arrived yet, we have to take either a train or a boat to get to the Magic Kingdom . A boat is ready to leave, we choose this option, and here we are, several hundred people, crossing a basin, in the distance the castle that awaits us. The journey takes less than 10 minutes.
Going down, the crowd is dense, the lines form to validate the tickets. Everyone hurries and beeps their card or bracelet.
Here we are officially at the Magic Kingdom !
We advance on Main Street , to the foot of the castle where we wait for the rope drop, in English, it is literally the rope which falls, that is to say the lifting of the curtain, the opening of the park. A mini-fireworks display is fired at 9 a.m., signaling the start of the day, and Mickey and his friends arrive to welcome the first visitors, the guests , the guests. Everyone applauds, waves hello to the characters, and boom, let’s go, people rush into the park in droves, so do we.
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Our goal for the morning: to go and do one of the most popular attractions, the Seven dwarfs mine train , the mine train of the 7 dwarfs. Alas, the app tells me that the attraction is down… we’ll come back later. We walk through the surprisingly deserted park, towards the westernmost part, Frontierland , where there are other of the most popular attractions, for which we do not wait at all. We walked quickly, and it seems that we lost all the families and the undecided. Stroke of luck.
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Splash Mountain, it’s wet
After doing two bustling Frontierland attractions – Splash Mountain (pictured above) and Big Thunder (a roller coaster in the mines), we head to Pirates of the Caribbean , again the wait is very short, less than 10 minutes. I wasn’t expecting it to be a walk through tableaux of animated characters reenacting the film at all – which I’ve never seen by the way. No roller coaster , no interactions strictly speaking, just a calm walk in the middle of beautiful scenery. It’s my first time at Disney, I had no idea that a majority of attractions would be like this.
Around each attraction, ride in English, shops, sets, sometimes characters in costumes. I buy like it’s 1994 pins , and gifts for friends in Boston.
We chain the attractions, following both the app that tells us where there is little waiting and a bit randomly of our stroll.
Little by little, the park fills up, there are more and more people. It is hot, we are in the middle of a subtropical climate , the temperatures in mid-April are around 30°C. Despite my precautions, I noticed that evening I had a nasty sunburn on one of my shoulders.
