Five Days of Disney Magic!

My sister, Jennifer, and I spent five days at Disney World last week. It was a fabulous trip - not only were we at "the happiest place on earth", but we got to spend a lot of time together, just the two of us - something we don't get to do very often. It was a great week to go; we had good weather (it was a little warm at times and very humid - but hey, it is Florida!) and the crowds were really low. Most rides we just walked right on or waited less than 5 minutes for; only a few times did we wait 10 or 15 minutes for a ride. I'm planning to blog about the whole trip in this one post, so it's going to be a long one - here goes:


Day One (Monday) - arrive at and check into our resort and then head to Hollywood Studios.

The Carribean Beach Resort (very nice!)

Hollywood Studios

Even arriving in the middle of the afternoon, the lines for rides weren't long and we were able to see pretty much everything we wanted to before closing time. We rode the Hollywood Tower of Terror, the Rockin' Rollercoaster, Star Tours, The Great Movie Ride, and Toy Story Mania. We also saw several shows: Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show; Muppets 3D; Block Party Bash Parade; The Voyage of the Little Mermaid; and Beauty and the Beast (my favorite).

One of our favorite things was a street show by the "Citizens of Hollywood". We just happened to walk up on the show in progress. They were having a "funniest citizen" contest and they were all hilarious.



Day 2 (Tuesday) - The Magic Kingdom

Traditional picture on Main Street in front of Cinderella's Castle:

We were amazed at how few people were there. We arrived shortly after the park opened and within the first hour had ridden Snow White's Scary Adventure, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, and It's a Small World, as well as seeing a show, "Mickey's PhilharMagic". The park got busier as the day went on, but the lines for rides were never long. We rode The Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, The Pirates of the Carribean, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Jungle Cruise, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, The Mad Tea Party, The Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lighyear's Space Ranger Spin. We also caught most of the shows: The Country Bear Jamboree, The Hall of Presidents, The Enchanted Tiki Room, The Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, The Carousel of Progress, and the afternoon parade. I'm getting tired just writing about all that we did!

Mickey and Minnie Mouse during the afternoon parade:

Cinderella's Golden Carousel:

Splash Mountain (we enjoyed this one so much we rode it twice in a row!):

Tommorowland:

By 5:00 we had seen pretty much all of the park, but the fireworks show didn't start until 9 and we really wanted to see that. We decided it didn't make sense to go back to the hotel, so we ate a leisurely dinner, revisited some of our favorite rides, and did some souvenier shopping. I didn't get any good pics of the fireworks, but here's a one of the castle all lit up:

Day 3 (Wednesday) - Animal Kingdom Park and Downtown Disney

This park was probably the most crowded of our trip, but the lines were still very short or non-existent. We rode all the big rides: Dinosaur, the Primeval Whirl, Expedition Everest, the Kali River Rapids, and Kilimanjaro Safari. We saw all the shows: The Festival of the Lion King, It's Tough to Be a Bug, Flights of Wonder, and the best show in all of Disney World - Finding Nemo the Musical. We also explored the zoo like trails and saw giant fruit bats (very interesting), tigers, gorillas, and hippos, just to name a few.

Jennifer in front of "The Tree of Life":

We made a new friend:

Two of our favorite rides: The Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest:

We left Animal Kingdom around 6 and took a bus to Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping. We were both almost sleeping on our feet by the end of that day.

Day 4 (Thursday) - after a good night's sleep we were up and ready to hit the largest of the four parks - EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, also known as Every Person Comes Out Tired - and we did!)

EPCOT is divided into two main sections: FutureWorld that has most of the rides and The World Showcase that has pavilions representing 11 different countries. FutureWorld opens first, so we started there and rode MissionSpace, Test Track, Soarin', Spaceship Earth (in the giant ball) and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Jennifer on MissionSpace:

We also took a "Behind the Seeds" tour and learned all about Disney's alternative gardening techniques. We saw some interesting produce like this snake gourd and Cinderella pumpkin:

After a break for lunch, we hit The World Showcase and visited Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Here we are with a 9 foot troll in the gift shop in Norway:

We ended this very long day with ice cream and the fireworks show -a great combination!

Day 5 (Friday) - relax on the beach, clean up and check out of our resort, visit Downtown Disney for lunch, head back the the Magic Kingdom for a couple hours for final souvenier shopping and a few more rides, then back to the resort to catch our shuttle to the airport.

After five very busy, fun-filled days, I was ready to be back home with my family, and I think they were happy to see me, too!