Disney World in Orlando (not to be confused with Disneyland in California) is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Apart from 6 Disney parks (4 with rides and 2 water parks) there are as well Universal Studios and Sea World parks in the area. You can spend 2 weeks of vacation there doing nothing but visiting them. Of course, for the money you can probably fly to Australia, the Maldives or around France, but we all have different priorities 🙂
When we were going to Florida, we took the decision of not spending more than 2 days in the parks. We rejected Universal Studios right away because Adam is still too small for big rollercoasters, Tomasz doesn’t get on them at all, and I’m sick for half a day after one. In general, I think that Disney was more my childhood dream, and our children were were not really aware what it was, after all, they have been to many different amusement parks already, so one more doesn’t make such a big difference 🙂

As I mentioned, Disney World in Orlando consists of 6 parks. 2 parks are water parks that we weren’t interested in. The other 4 parks are: Magic Kingdom (the one with the famous castle and princess), Hollywood Studios (movie theme, Star Wars, Toy Story), Animal Kingdom (animal theme and safari) and EPCOT (where the theme is modern technologies and different cultures ). For several months, before the trip, I browsed various internet forums and Facebook groups to make an informed decision about which parks would be best for us. We were all advised about Magic Kingdom as this is Disney’s flagship park. But we let the kids decide. I briefly presented to Gabriela and Adam what is in which park and said that we are going to 2. The choice was unanimous: Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. So very unusually, we didn’t go to Magic Kingdom and we didn’t take pictures with castles 🙂 The children said that they are not interested in castles and princesses. So why should we argue against that?

Tickets
We bought the tickets to the park several weeks in advance on the official Disney website. It is worth noting that the tickets are non-refundable, and since they cost a fortune, we did not see the need to buy them very long in advance. It only makes sense if you want to go there on e.g. Christmas or other super popular period.
Interestingly, the Disney website and the tickets you can buy are a bit different depending on where you live. Within the EU you cannot buy tickets for less than 2 days. Well, unless you use an American VPN, then there are one-day options. Interestingly, while in the UK, the website will only show you options for 5 or 10 days (I was in England on a business trip before the trip and checked this). Of course, you can buy tickets at the last minute, even at the ticket offices, but in addition to tickets, you also need to have a reservation for the park. So, tickets may be available for tomorrow, but there will be no bookings for the park of your choice. As you can easily guess, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are the most popular and it is worth making reservations there in advance. You can usually book tickets to Animal Kingdom and EPCOT on a day-to-day basis (of course, you have to check the availability of the parks on the website). There is also the option of tickets, thanks to which after 2pm you can hop from one park to another. I know that many people who have not managed to get a reservation to Magic Kingdom choose this option and thanks to that they can at least spend an afternoon in this park.

You will probably ask if we used Fast Track, or rather Genie+ as it is called now. For those of you who don’t know what it is, let me explain. For an additional fee (depending on the day, but probably at least USD 15 per person per day) you can book selected attractions without having to queue. Honestly, we found Genie+ so complicated (and expensive) that we gave up. As far as I know, the Genie+ service can only be purchased on the same day for which we have a reservation and from 7 am you can book the first attractions (and you have to be extremely fast because a lot of people are sitting with the application and want to book exactly the same). You can book the next attraction only after you have used the first one. So, from what I understand, you are able to use Genie+ only 2-3 times during one day. Is it worth the money and the stress of looking at the phone all the time – it’s up to you to decide. On the Internet you can find a lot of videos and articles explaining how to use this add-on.

Tropical Storm Nicole
Nothing is perfect so for exactly the 2 days we were supposed to spend in the park, an upcoming storm was announced. Thankfully, it’s not the same as the hurricane that hit Florida 2 months earlier, but it sounded threatening. There was a risk that the parks would close and we would lose a lot of money (whether Disney refunds money in such cases is very debatable). As a result, on the first day of our adventure, the parks were closed at 5 pm (Animal Kingdom was scheduled to close at 7 pm), and on the second day Hollywood Studios opened at 2 pm (instead of 8.30). So, we had much less time than planned, and it was raining (mostly on the first day) and as you can imagine the temperature suddenly dropped from 30 to 20 degrees (it wasn’t a problem at all). This also meant canceling evening fireworks etc

Now that you know what parks we chose, what tickets we bought and what weather we had, let me tell you how we spent our time at Disney World 🙂

Animal Kingdom

Our first day started at 8am. In fact, I wanted to be at the park at 7.30, but it didn’t work out. Fortunately, we parked relatively close to the entrance (the parking lot is huge and costs $25 for a regular spot or $50 for the preffered one). Then we had a bit of a problem with the tickets, because something didn’t work in the app, but fortunately we managed to handle everything at the ticket offices. Tickets scanned, fingerprints taken (so there’s no chance you’ll give your tickets to someone else as they’re linked to your fingerprint), let’s go!

Even if you do not use Genie+, it is worth getting acquainted with the map and attractions in the park in advance and checking the length of queues in the application on an ongoing basis. The parks are huge and visiting them “as you go” will end up with not many attractions.

We first went to the world of Avatar, on the Na’vi River Journey. It’s supposed to be one of the best attractions in Animal Kingdom, but honestly it was average. Simply slow boats in the land of Avatar. But there was no queue in the morning so it was nice!

Next we went to the part dedicated to Africa. There we started with Kilimanjaro Safaris, which is a real safari. We rode buses among the savannah and looked for zebras, giraffes, elephants, hippos, lions, etc. Adam really liked it, especially that he had never been to a similar place before (he slept in the zoo in Singapore and he was only 2 years old). Then there was the Gorilla Falls exploration trail, a walk in search of gorillas. Then we boarded the Wildlife Express train – a train that goes to Conservation Stations and Petting zoo. There you can e.g. learn to draw Disney characters. Gabriela and Adam were not interested and generally we think that this part can be skipped. After the train ride we ran to the Festival of Lion King show which started at 11am. We lined up around 10.45 and were let in after the show had started. We had seats in the back, but we were still delighted! A fantastic show with acrobats and music from The Lion King. Mandatory!

After Africa came Asia. We started with Kali River rapids – pontoons on the water. And even though we were already a little wet from the rain, after this ride (despite the capes) we were soaked! On a hot day, it’s probably very pleasant, but not in our case. So, a word of warning: You’ll get wet! We ran from the pontoons to the only roller coaster in the park, Expediton Everest. The roller coaster has no upside down loops and Adam could go on it. According to me and Gabi it was great, but Adam was afraid.

Then we finally managed to grab a quick late lunch at Restaurantosaurus (burgers of course). By the way, we visited the main attraction of the part called Dinoland, the Dinosaur – a jeep trip into the world of dinosaurs. Tomasz loved it! But the kids said it was too loud. Then it was Adam’s favorite show, Finding Nemo.

As the closing time of the park was approaching, we finally had to line up for the most important attraction in Animal Kingdom, i.e. Avatar Flight of Passage. Fortunately, the queue wasn’t that long, and the attraction itself was just fantastic! And worth standing in line for. Avatar Flight of Passage is a 4D flight simulator on such individual “scooters”. For a few minutes we move to the world of Avatar and fly on movie creatures. To be in Animal Kingdom and not ride it is not to be there at all.

At the end of the day, Gabi and I rode Expedition Everest again (completely without a queue) and walked the Mahrajah Jungel Treak, where we saw a tiger and monitor lizards.

At that time, Adam and Tomasz went to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse and watch a 3D film about insects It’s tough to be a bug.

Despite the unfavorable weather, we had a great day and we managed to do everything we wanted. If we had these 2 extra hours, we would probably go on something again, calmly walk around the shops, eat ice cream. But there’s nothing to whine about!

Hollywood Studios

Unfortunately, we started the second day late (due to the weather). In the morning we slept well, had lunch before leaving and left the hotel at 1pm. The park officially opened at 2pm, but the gates opened at 1.30pm. And we were already there then. Thanks to this, we were able to pass the first attraction completely without the queue.

We started with the part dedicated to Star Wars and we took a ride on the spaceship flight simulator – Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – a great attraction. Tomasz and Adam were pilots, and Gabriela and I were shooting at the enemies of the galaxy 🙂 We also wanted to go to Rise of Resistance, the most important attraction of the park, but unfortunately it was temporarily closed.

So we went to Toy Story Land, where we had a ride in Alien Swirling Saucers (completely without a queue), and then Toy Story Mania (here we waited in line for about 30 minutes). From the world of Toy Story we ran to see the Indiana Jones show which started at 3.15pm. This show is a stunt show that usually lasts an hour, but on this day it was shortened to 20 minutes. Thanks to this, we made it to the next show at 4pm, which is Beauty and the Beast on stage. Both shows were very well done, but the ones in Animal Kingdom stole our hearts.

Then came Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Ride (long queue) and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. For this attraction, which is advertised as one of the best in the park (and many people love it), we stood in line for a whole 2 hours. And we didn’t think it was worth it. You ride the elevator in the zombie house, and of course the elevator drops several times. It was just average.

After these attractions, we finally managed to eat dinner (hamburgers at Backlot Express). We were all very tired from running around the park. With only 8.5 hours in the park, which has so many attractions, it’s hard to catch your breath… we didn’t even have time for ice cream.

Finally, we did another 3D flight simulator – Star Tours – The Adventure Continue, souvenir shopping and finally Rise of Resistance, the best attraction in the Star Wars world. Fortunately, we only stood in line for 30 minutes, and the attraction itself is great. It consists of several parts, including introduction, during which we are drawn into the atmosphere of Star Wars. Our job is to support the Resistance! And then escape! It’s great, not only for Star Wars fans 🙂

Due to limited time and long queues, we were unable to do everything. We didn’t take photos with Toy Story characters, we didn’t go to sing with Elsa, we didn’t ride a small or a big roller coaster. But we’ve made Star Wars attractions, unlike anything else, a priority. If we could do this day over again, we’d probably skip The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Beauty and the Beast show. But it was great!

I must point out here that each of these days we walked several thousand steps, and Adam didn’t complain even once that his legs hurt. Gabi’s shoes crumpled a bit and in addition her knees were scraped, so it was a bit worse. But even so, we can’t imagine another day in a row at a Disney park. i.e. we’d have to take a day off. Probably because of it, it is not uncommon to see children in similar age to ours in strollers. Americans have no problem with that…

All in all, for us, Disney World was a place we wanted to visit because of the kids (and me), we’re happy, but we don’t think we plan to go back. I mean, I do not rule out that maybe someday in another place in the world we will visit the fairy-tale world again, but it will certainly not be our main destination (as it was not in the case of Florida either). Fortunately, the children were happy and even the rain and wind did not bother them 🙂

My top tips are:

• Wear comfortable shoes 🙂
• Bring a supply of snacks and water bottles (these can be refilled at the fountains in many places in the park)
• If you are planning activities like Kali River rapids, put on capes (unless it’s 35 degrees and you don’t care :))
• Make a plan, but don’t cry if it doesn’t go 100% and be prepared to be flexible
• Decide what is most important to you
• Download the Disney app a few days/weeks in advance and check it out. Mainly to use it as a map and check queue lengths. In our case, only once did we wait longer than the planned time, and in other situations we waited much shorter. There is quite good wifi in the parks (but you probably need your own Internet to get around Genie+).
• If you would like to eat in a restaurant where you can meet Disney characters, you have to make a reservation. They can be made at the earliest 60 days before the day of our visit (and as far as I know, they disappear super fast).
• Prices for both food and souvenirs are a killer. We paid USD 35 + tax for the headband with Mouse ears, which is about USD 39 (remember that prices in the USA are without VAT and you never know how much you will pay in the end).
• Prepare good moods, a lot of patience and relax – it will be great!