K.Bunniii ◊【迪士尼旅行日記 2017】Disney Trip Part Two ♡
Seems like everyone is enjoying this Disney series! In today's chapter I will be going over Disney theme parks and tickets. I had a few questions about Universal Studios as well, but I will be making a separate post for that, so stay tuned!
Disney Parks (which one should I visit?):
As you all know, Disney World Orlando is divided into 4 theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. If you have a more flexible schedule I would say visit them all! If you're on a tight schedule or budget maybe this post will help you decide on which parks to visit! Let's begin.
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I don't think there's any doubt that Magic Kingdom is a must when visiting Disney. I mean come on, this is hands down a must visit! When I visited in August back in 2014, I went into this park with no preparation and it was a disaster! Magic Kingdom is probably the most crowded park at Disney World, but there are many ways to avoid the crowds. We found fast passes to be the key to avoiding long waits! Going to the park earlier will also reduce wait time on the more popular rides. This way you are able to save your fast passes for other rides (we did this and it worked like a charm). Character meetings are something I absolutely love when I visit Disney. These are super time consuming though! I would highly recommend everyone to arrive to the park 30-40 minutes earlier as they usually let you enter the park early. This way you can get priority to wait for any rides or characters you want to meet. For example meeting Mickey Mouse on Main Street took us almost 2.5 hours in August, but this time around we arrived 30 minutes earlier and we only had to queue in line for about 15 minutes. I would also recommend everyone to look up each character meeting time and location, this will save you a lot of time! If character meeting isn't your priority, you can use the same tips for rides.
TIP: If you have extra magic hours (resort benefit), I noticed the popular rides can also be quite a long wait - instead go on rides like Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, The Little Mermaid Ride or Pirates of the Caribbean. Save your fast passes for Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Seven Dwarfs rides.
(these are just examples choices, of course preference may vary depending on independents)
Oh and it's pretty much a given - if you decide to visit Magic Kingdom you can't leave the place without watching the firework shows! I swear I have never seen such magical and breathtaking fireworks in my life. It was pouring dogs and cats, but the show went on as if nothing happened and was perfect!
Enough of Magic Kingdom, let's move on to the other parks. Going down the list the second park I would recommend everyone to visit is Animal Kingdom! This is strictly due to their new Pandora - World of Avatar. This new section will blow your mind away! I never felt so overwhelmed by a theme park (beside Harry Potter but I'm biased on that one lol). Pandora - World of Avatar is park of Animal Kingdom, so you don't have to pay anything extra to visit. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone to do the rides there and if you do please get fast passes! Even if you have extra magic hours GET FAST PASSES! My boyfriend and I made a huge mistake thinking we can depend on extra magic hours to get a shorter queue time from 11:00pm - 1:00am, WRONG. We waited almost 3 hours for Flight of Passage. I have never been so cranky in my life waiting for a ride - with lots of tantrum throwing and being super tired at 12am - I have to say this ride was DAMN STRAIGHT AMAZING! Everyone that knows me knows the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studio is my number one, but ever since Flight of Passage... I am speechless! This ride is incredible! Even at 12am being super tired and running on 5 hours of sleep - this was worth every minute and second! Also give Pongu Pongu a try (a soft drink shop) - I highly recommend the Night Blossom! With all honestly I think Animal Kingdom is worth a visit strictly for Pandora World of Avatar!
Next I would pick Hollywood Studios! Hollywood Studios is a bit smaller in comparison to the other parks. I would actually suggest people to do a park hopper between Hollywood Studio and Epcot. Main reason why I would suggest Hollywood Studio is because of Fantasmic! I'm not sure if I had to rate Magic Kingdom fireworks with Fantasmic, which one would win. This is a must see no doubt! I would definitely suggest everyone to arrive 30-45 minutes earlier for this show as it will be full house! If you're a huge Star War fan this is without a doubt the theme park for you! Visit Backlot Express Cafe - they have these really cool Dark Side Chicken and Waffles.
TIP: At this cafe ask for a cup of water (they will give you a cup and you can fill it up at the coke machine). There you can get unlimited soft drinks without having to pay $4.50 (ouch). As for rides I have to say the Toy Story Mania is a must! We also made a small mistake and basically went for this ride at the beginning of extra magic hours leading us to wait a lot longer (since everyone with extra magic hours wants to go on the popular rides). Use fast pass for this ride and your magic hours for rides like The Great Movie Ride or Star Tours.
Finally Epcot! We actually didn't visit this park for this trip, but I did back in August 2014. It was my least favourite only because we didn't get a lot of time there and alcohol was not really my thing. If you're more into a chill day this will be your park! You can try out beer from all around the world as well as food! There's also a new Frozen ride, so if this is something you want to see remember to get a fast pass for it! I don't have much to say about this park as I was left with a very dull memory of it. However, from friends that have visited this park they really enjoyed. It was more "adult" (I guess) as in more for an older audience. If you like to explore the different cultures then you can find it here. There's also a few nice places to snap some Instagram pictures haha.
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So to break it down in short here are my top picks for theme parks
1. Magic Kingdom
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Hollywood Studios
4. Epcot
*
I don't think there's any doubt that Magic Kingdom is a must when visiting Disney. I mean come on, this is hands down a must visit! When I visited in August back in 2014, I went into this park with no preparation and it was a disaster! Magic Kingdom is probably the most crowded park at Disney World, but there are many ways to avoid the crowds. We found fast passes to be the key to avoiding long waits! Going to the park earlier will also reduce wait time on the more popular rides. This way you are able to save your fast passes for other rides (we did this and it worked like a charm). Character meetings are something I absolutely love when I visit Disney. These are super time consuming though! I would highly recommend everyone to arrive to the park 30-40 minutes earlier as they usually let you enter the park early. This way you can get priority to wait for any rides or characters you want to meet. For example meeting Mickey Mouse on Main Street took us almost 2.5 hours in August, but this time around we arrived 30 minutes earlier and we only had to queue in line for about 15 minutes. I would also recommend everyone to look up each character meeting time and location, this will save you a lot of time! If character meeting isn't your priority, you can use the same tips for rides.
TIP: If you have extra magic hours (resort benefit), I noticed the popular rides can also be quite a long wait - instead go on rides like Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, The Little Mermaid Ride or Pirates of the Caribbean. Save your fast passes for Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Seven Dwarfs rides.
(these are just examples choices, of course preference may vary depending on independents)
Oh and it's pretty much a given - if you decide to visit Magic Kingdom you can't leave the place without watching the firework shows! I swear I have never seen such magical and breathtaking fireworks in my life. It was pouring dogs and cats, but the show went on as if nothing happened and was perfect!
Enough of Magic Kingdom, let's move on to the other parks. Going down the list the second park I would recommend everyone to visit is Animal Kingdom! This is strictly due to their new Pandora - World of Avatar. This new section will blow your mind away! I never felt so overwhelmed by a theme park (beside Harry Potter but I'm biased on that one lol). Pandora - World of Avatar is park of Animal Kingdom, so you don't have to pay anything extra to visit. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone to do the rides there and if you do please get fast passes! Even if you have extra magic hours GET FAST PASSES! My boyfriend and I made a huge mistake thinking we can depend on extra magic hours to get a shorter queue time from 11:00pm - 1:00am, WRONG. We waited almost 3 hours for Flight of Passage. I have never been so cranky in my life waiting for a ride - with lots of tantrum throwing and being super tired at 12am - I have to say this ride was DAMN STRAIGHT AMAZING! Everyone that knows me knows the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studio is my number one, but ever since Flight of Passage... I am speechless! This ride is incredible! Even at 12am being super tired and running on 5 hours of sleep - this was worth every minute and second! Also give Pongu Pongu a try (a soft drink shop) - I highly recommend the Night Blossom! With all honestly I think Animal Kingdom is worth a visit strictly for Pandora World of Avatar!
Next I would pick Hollywood Studios! Hollywood Studios is a bit smaller in comparison to the other parks. I would actually suggest people to do a park hopper between Hollywood Studio and Epcot. Main reason why I would suggest Hollywood Studio is because of Fantasmic! I'm not sure if I had to rate Magic Kingdom fireworks with Fantasmic, which one would win. This is a must see no doubt! I would definitely suggest everyone to arrive 30-45 minutes earlier for this show as it will be full house! If you're a huge Star War fan this is without a doubt the theme park for you! Visit Backlot Express Cafe - they have these really cool Dark Side Chicken and Waffles.
TIP: At this cafe ask for a cup of water (they will give you a cup and you can fill it up at the coke machine). There you can get unlimited soft drinks without having to pay $4.50 (ouch). As for rides I have to say the Toy Story Mania is a must! We also made a small mistake and basically went for this ride at the beginning of extra magic hours leading us to wait a lot longer (since everyone with extra magic hours wants to go on the popular rides). Use fast pass for this ride and your magic hours for rides like The Great Movie Ride or Star Tours.
Finally Epcot! We actually didn't visit this park for this trip, but I did back in August 2014. It was my least favourite only because we didn't get a lot of time there and alcohol was not really my thing. If you're more into a chill day this will be your park! You can try out beer from all around the world as well as food! There's also a new Frozen ride, so if this is something you want to see remember to get a fast pass for it! I don't have much to say about this park as I was left with a very dull memory of it. However, from friends that have visited this park they really enjoyed. It was more "adult" (I guess) as in more for an older audience. If you like to explore the different cultures then you can find it here. There's also a few nice places to snap some Instagram pictures haha.
*
So to break it down in short here are my top picks for theme parks
1. Magic Kingdom
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Hollywood Studios
4. Epcot
Where to buy tickets:
Another question I have gotten a lot - where do I buy my tickets? The first time I visited Disney, tickets were included because it was a tour (4 theme park + 2 universal studio park - all park hoppers). From what I remember it was roughly $600-700 for these tickets, which is so much cheaper. Now the only thing about park hoppers is if you plan your visit accordingly it can be a very useful thing. What I personally found bad about park hoppers was we didn't have enough time. Hence this time around we bought 5 single day tickets for Disney itself. Yes, it was a bit pricier (actually a lot but that's cause we extended our trip a lot more). I would not recommend park hopper for Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom, just because these parks are a bit bigger so there's a lot more to explore and sometimes wait times can be so long that it'll take up half your day.
TIP: I would also suggest everyone to keep checking the Disney website for further discounts. For example when we purchased our tickets we got extra 30% off because we were Canadian residents. A lot of people choose to buy tickets at the gate, but I personally prefer to have all my tickets before going and most of the time there are additional discounts online.
If your schedule is a bit tighter consider the park hopper tickets, but if you're a bit more flexible go with the one day park tickets as I know for sure Magic Kingdom will take up a lot of your time just for pictures and exploring!
Wow - this was a lengthy post! I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did sharing it! I also hope these are some useful information! For my next post I will go a little bit more into eating at Disney and some great deals my boyfriend and I found!
Another question I have gotten a lot - where do I buy my tickets? The first time I visited Disney, tickets were included because it was a tour (4 theme park + 2 universal studio park - all park hoppers). From what I remember it was roughly $600-700 for these tickets, which is so much cheaper. Now the only thing about park hoppers is if you plan your visit accordingly it can be a very useful thing. What I personally found bad about park hoppers was we didn't have enough time. Hence this time around we bought 5 single day tickets for Disney itself. Yes, it was a bit pricier (actually a lot but that's cause we extended our trip a lot more). I would not recommend park hopper for Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom, just because these parks are a bit bigger so there's a lot more to explore and sometimes wait times can be so long that it'll take up half your day.
TIP: I would also suggest everyone to keep checking the Disney website for further discounts. For example when we purchased our tickets we got extra 30% off because we were Canadian residents. A lot of people choose to buy tickets at the gate, but I personally prefer to have all my tickets before going and most of the time there are additional discounts online.
If your schedule is a bit tighter consider the park hopper tickets, but if you're a bit more flexible go with the one day park tickets as I know for sure Magic Kingdom will take up a lot of your time just for pictures and exploring!
Wow - this was a lengthy post! I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did sharing it! I also hope these are some useful information! For my next post I will go a little bit more into eating at Disney and some great deals my boyfriend and I found!
