Di’s Disney World Highlights

by Di · Published 21/09/2016 · Updated 23/02/2021

Last week I shared our experiences of a prize holiday to Orlando in The Cokes in Florida, and in this post I’m sharing my favourite Walt Disney World moments and tips, as well as a few short YouTube clips!

We didn’t get Disney tickets as part of our prize, so we ordered 7-day Disney tickets directly from the Disney website using Quidco for cashback – using most of the £1000 cash I won in a Heart FM photo competition. We got 14 days for the price of 7 so managed to visit all four parks, plus the two water parks, and this post features the highlights of our Disney adventures.

We paid extra on arrival for Magic Bands, which you wear on your wrist and scan to get into the parks and through the FastPass entrances. Best of all, we got access to all our PhotoPass photos and videos which you can view almost immediately by downloading and registering on the My Disney Experience app. Using the app (and the free wifi available practically everywhere), you could also book more FastPass selections once you’d used your original three – this was brilliant and meant we could go on our favourite rides twice!

Magic Kingdom

For most visitors, Magic Kingdom is Disney World – the castle, the fireworks, the parades… it’s a complete assault on your sanity! We spent a day and a half exploring…

I was too disorganised to get a Fastpass booking for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so instead we arrived at 8.30am for the Opening Ceremony and marched into the Park behind the Disney staff – we only had to queue for about five minutes, and got to go on loads of other rides before the park filled up. A bonus was that they had put up all the cute Halloween decorations the night before.

If it rains, the TomorrowLand People Mover is a great option – it takes a while to do a full circuit! Another rainy day option is the comfortable Carousel of Progress, a mega cheesy retro experience that Ryland made us go to TWICE! All together now: “It’s a great big beautiful tomaaaarrrrrow…”. Another safe haven out of the heat or rain is the hidden indoor play area that kids can go to while waiting to fly on Dumbo. And the Haunted Mansion, although not scary, has some brilliant special effects.

We watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade and Electrical Parade from the first floor of the railroad station, it was nice because Ryland could easily see all the characters at the top of the floats and wave to them.

At one point we accidentally boarded a boat (well, more of a raft!) to Tom Sawyer’s Island, a shady spot where kids could run amok in a castle and in the woods. A nice break from the madness! And talking of madness, the drop at the end of Splash Mountain is awesome. Ryland found it terrifying, but he really guffawed watching others get soaked afterwards…

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is all about the movie magic, and I definitely felt the Force – there’s a LOT of Star Wars stuff going on.

Highlights of Hollywood Studios were the Tower of Terror (the videos and photos you get at the end are a scream!) and the clever 3D Toy Story Midway Mania ride, which we did three times! And we loved hanging out in the Cantina in Star Wars Launch Bay.

We spent two evenings at Hollywood Studios so we could watch the Star Wars light show and also Fantasmic – both are an absolute treat but there really is nothing quite like hearing the Star Wars music blasting out accompanied by lasers!

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was a great park to wander around, and I thought the Asian and African themes were amazingly well executed, down to the tatty Himalayan flags strung across the paths. The Kilimanjiro Safari was so good we went on it twice. Is it me, or do lions and tigers spend most of the day sleeping?

Buffet breakfast with Donald, Mickey, Daisy and Goofy at Tusker House was a real treat for Ryland. I did a very British thing and took ziplock bags to take away cream cheese bagels for our lunch – shhh, don’t tell Donald!

It was super hot when we visited, and we found the BoneYard play area in DinoLand was a lifesaver – with fans blowing cold air in, we could rest and cool down while Ryland ran around like a lunatic. Ry decided he was too scared for Expedition Everest but I rode the front row with a teenager on her 13th go – it was ace!

I’m not a big fan of shows, but Festival of the Lion King was simply brilliant. The songs from the film are fantastic, it’s funny and Ryland couldn’t stop smiling!

Epcot

Epcot felt a bit like being in a weird 1960s sci fi film. I loved the park and all the fountains (especially the jumping ones) but there was loads of walking around and Ry was really flagging by the time the fireworks had finished.

Ry spent an hour running round making music in ImageWorks – and the indoor character Meet & Greets were a break from the heat – and we loved our cuddles with Baymax.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the Soarin’ Round The World ride – it actually brought a tear to my eye, and the riders burst into spontaneous applause when it ended! Afterwards we naturally had to go to the Coke shop at Club Cool, and taste colas from all round the world.

There was way too much to see in one day at Epcot – so I guess I’ll have to win another trip back there! The Illuminations show looked wonderful from our spot behind the Japanese torii gate.

Blizzard Beach & Typhoon Lagoon

We certainly needed a couple of days at a water park after all that yomping round in the heat! The ski resort theme at Blizzard Beach was quirky and cute, especially the cable car to TeamBoat Springs, which Ry says he enjoyed best of all.

I was keen to try the faster water slides but to be honest, I couldn’t face a 45 minute queue when I could spend it drifting along the lazy river! The excellent Run off Rapids weren’t near any other slides, and had loads of stairs to climb, so the queues were very short. We tried all three tube slides, with the enclosed one being Ry’s favourite!

Funnily enough, our time at Typhoon Lagoon was cut short by a storm (not quite a typhoon!) – the pool was closed, the rides were shut down and hundreds of us huddled under cover for an hour in the torrential rain before deciding it was time to head for Disney Springs. But we did have some fun before we left…

The waves in the Typhoon Lagoon pool are TERRIFYING. I tried to go quite far in to get some footage on my GoPro, but I was out of my depth and the waves were so strong I didn’t enjoy it at all. It was much more fun in the shallows with the kids – make sure the young ‘uns wear one of the many float vests that are about.

The food in both water parks was pretty poor, so we took a small cool bag with an ice pack, full of lunch and snacks. A top tip is to freeze your water bottle so it melts during the day and is ice cold for ages!