Back in August I
spent an exhausting, but really exciting, 10 days in Florida, visiting the
theme parks and generally making the most of the excuse to act like a child.
Having always been a Disney fan and only having visited the USA once before, I couldn't turn down the chance to combine the two.
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| All the excitement |
The Flight
As I’d only been
on a long-haul flight once before, the journey itself was quite exciting (is
that sad?) and I used the time to catch-up on some films I’d wanted to see for
a while. The Lego Movie, by the way,
is HILLARIOUS.
We were also
flying business class, which was another new experience for me, and the novelty
of having a seat that reclined into a bed somehow didn’t wear off for the
entire eight-hour flight.
The only thing
that was disappointing was the attitude of some of the BA staff when we
informed them that the floor around my chair was dripping wet. Instead of
attempting to help or show any interest, the air hostess seemed annoyed that
we’d interrupted her dinner and sent us to the toilet to get some tissue, which
had no effect on the puddle surrounding me. Not cool, British Airways.
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| My own little cubby-hole |
The Hotel – The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes
The
Ritz-Carlton Orlando is a great location to stay if you’re in Florida to
visit the parks, as it’s only a five minute drive from SeaWorld, 15 from
Universal Studios and only 20 from Disney World, and the hotel provides a free
shuttle service to all the parks throughout the day.
The grounds of
the hotel are really beautiful, and as the grounds are shared with a JW
Marriott, there is a lot of space to explore. Around the lakes the grounds
double up as a golf course, and there are other activities such as Kayaking, a
Ropes Course and a four-person bike you can ride around the paths. There is
also a huge spa on site, and if you’re staying in the Ritz-Carlton you are free
to use the lazy river which is in the JW Marriott’s pool area.
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| A View from the Balcony ;) |
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| The amazing view |
The lobby area
of the hotel, which was predominantly marble, has a really luxurious yet
relaxed feel, and most evenings we chose to eat in the seated area here, rather
than in the more formal restaurant, NORMAN’S, as we didn’t have to feel
compelled to dress up so much and there was much more choice on the menu.
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| The eating area in the lobby |
The rooms are
spacious and the beds are really comfortable, which is important after you’ve
spent 12 hours on your feet at a theme park! Just be careful not to sing too
loudly in the shower as the ventilation systems in the bathrooms are far from
soundproof (I’m looking at you, William)!
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| I wish I'd got a photo on the first day! |
Although we
didn’t get to spend much time at the hotel because we were trying to fit in all
the parks, the pool area is lovely and the staff are extremely attentive,
whether you are after some food and drinks or would just like an umbrella
moving. There was also a smaller, gated pool area for young children, which had
a few slides.
Attached to the
pool area is a casual restaurant – ideal for hiding from the passing storms or
having an early poolside dinner.
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| Bliss |
The only real
criticism I have of the hotel is that on weekends the restaurant used for
breakfast couldn’t cater for the number of guests, and you had to arrive at 8am
to avoid a 25 minute wait. But that wasn’t really an issue for us as we were
leaving the hotel at this time to get to the parks anyway.
Disney World – Magic Kingdom
Whilst I was
expecting Disney World to be huge, nothing could have prepared me for its
actual size. Wow.
So the resort is
made up of six parks (including the waterparks) and there are 22 (if I counted
right) hotels within the resort, as well as the ‘Downtown Disney’ area full of
restaurants and shops. Disney World really is like its own city, with actual
‘highway’ type roads between each of the parks. I mean, to put it into context,
it is about a 20 minute drive between some of the parks, and that’s still
within the resort. It was insane.
We began with
the main park, Magic Kingdom, complete with the iconic Cinderella’s castle. I
love the entrance area of Magic Kingdom, with all the buildings and cute little
shops leading up to the castle.
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| Such a cute quote |
Each area of
Magic Kingdom has a different theme, with a different set of films and
characters that reside within the area. I can’t even imagine how magical this
must be for little kids – I was excited enough rediscovering all my favourite
childhood films!
Best Ride: It’s too difficult to
choose but I love the story-based rides like Peter Pan’s Flight and Journey of
the Little Mermaid. Space Mountain is the most thrilling ride, though!
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| How perfect is this shot? |
Disney
World – Epcot
So with some
crazy first-day enthusiasm, we attempted to squeeze in Epcot after Magic
Kingdom (which on reflection wasn’t the best idea, as I spent the bus journey
home vomiting my exhaustion into a plastic Disney World bag – classy, eh?).
Epcot is more of
an educational park, with rides such as ‘Living with the Land’ that takes you
through living laboratories. You can get to Epcot (as with Magic Kingdom) via
Disney’s monorail service, which runs frequently throughout the day.
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| I still don't know what this is, but it's cool right? |
Best Attraction:
We didn’t
have time to do it, but round the lake in the park there are various small
clusters of buildings, each of which represents a different country.
Disney
World – Hollywood Studios
A couple of days
later we returned to Disney World to tackle Hollywood Studios and Animal
Kingdom – and this combination is actually doable in a day.
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| Yep, we were about 15 years older than anyone else queuing up |
Best Ride: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster –
so this is cheating a little as we ran out of time and had to skip this one,
but I’ve been on the ride at Disneyland Paris and it’s amazing.
Best Attraction: The
Studio Backlot Tour takes you through the creation of various special effects,
including a fuel tank blowing up and water flooding through a canyon. You also
get to see loads of vehicles that have been used in Disney films and the tour
takes you through Disney World’s costume department.
Disney
World – Animal Kingdom
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| Lion King tree |
Unfortunately
the weather wasn’t on our side and so it was into our rain ponchos for the rest
of the day.
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| Looking gooooood |
The downside to the storms was that a lot
of the animals were hiding from the rain, so we didn’t get to see as much as we
would have liked, and didn’t get to go on the safari ride.
Animal Kingdom is split into four main
areas (Discovery Island, DinoLand U.S.A, Asia and Africa), with themed
buildings and rides and the corresponding animals within each area, which
really gives you a feel for some of the cultural aspects of the two continents
too.
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| Expedition Everest |
Best Ride: Expedition Everest is
possibly the scariest ride I’ve ever been on. Getting to a point in the ride
where the track is broken and shooting backwards into the pitch-black mountain
to see a Yeti before dropping the entire length of the mountain was not was I
was expecting!
Best Attraction: We
just happened to catch the gorilla enclosure just as they were doing a training
exercise, which involved one gorilla catching fruit that was being thrown at
him from the other side of the valley. Amazing.
As you may have noticed, this is only part one of two - that's how crazy the 10 days really were! The next post will include SeaWorld, Aquatica and Universal Studios, so keep an eye out for that.
Have you been to Disney World? Which were your favourite parks and rides?
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