03 October 2012

31 Days:: All About Magic Kingdom


{About Series}
Welcome to today's topic: All About Magic Kingdom! You can find out all about the park {here at the Disney official website}. This is the first day where I'll be sharing about each of the Disney parks and other areas like Downtown Disney. The website is really one of the best places to find out about everything in the parks, so I'll just be sharing my favorites about the parks :)

Cinderella's Castle
Magic Kingdom is DH and my favorite park, if we had to chose just one! There is just something quintessential Disney about Magic... from the oldies charm of Main Street to all of the kid-friendly rides to the signature Cinderella's Castle. I truly think it's the Happiest Place on Earth (amusement park-wise)!

Our Top Ride Picks
  • Space Mountain - located in Tomorrowland, a crazy roller coaster ride where you're dodging stars and black holes in the pitch black! They recently redid this ride and I think it's even better than it used to be!
  • Splash Mountain - located in Frontierland, a lazy log boat ride through the store of Brier Fox with a few small dips and the one big drop at the end! You will get wet, especially if you're in the back, and if you stand on the bridge that goes over the drop, you can get a good splashing too! During the off months, and during droughts I believe, they lower the water levels and splashing is kept to a minimum. 
  • Jungle Cruise - located in Adventureland, this is perfect for the whole family. A lazy tour along the jungle river, complete with punny narration by the tour guides (hehe the narration hasn't ever really changed, but I still crack up at all the bad puns and jokes, love it!)
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - located in Frontierland, my first "roller coaster" as a kid, but tame enough for most any age, a runaway train ride reminiscent of a wooden coaster but without the headache at the end!
  • Walt Disney World Railroad - a lazy roll around the perimeter of the park, making stops in various lands throughout the park, truly a relaxing little ride and a great way to get away from the crowds for a bit, and the engines are to-scale working steam engines (a passion of Walt Disney)
  • Tomorrowland Transit PeopleMover (formerly the WEDway PeopleMover) - another great way to escape the crowds, this highway in the sky is a leisurely ~10 MPH tour through  Tomorrowland complete with narration of factoids about the land
  • Haunted Mansion - located in Liberty Square, a mild slow moving ride through a "haunted" mansion, but even this easily-startled-and-scared-overactive-immagination big kid was able to handle this ride without problem, truly suitable for most kids of any age (I might wait a bit though if they're afraid of the dark... I actually didn't ride this until our honeymoon LOL)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean- located in Adventureland, this is the ride the movies were based off of, suitable for most any age, there's one small dip in the dark, but the rest is a slow boat ride through the Pirates story, a true classic ride! FYI- the line on the left is usually a little shorter!
  • Liberty Square Riverboat- a leisurely steam around the Liberty Square area on a real working steam boat! Feels like you're taking a step back in time...
Main Street Electrical Parade
Entertainment
  • Wishes- who doesn't love a great fireworks show?! I know I do! You can see it from most anywhere in the park. If you want to escape the crowds, I'd recommend watching from Liberty Square or a great view can be seen from the WDW Railroad station that's right as you enter the park- perfect view of Main Street all lit up for the night along with Cinderella's Castle and the fireworks!
  • Main Street Electrical Parade- this is my favorite parade out of all the parks! Formerly there was the ElectroMagic Parade, but both are comprised of wire-framed floats that sparkle with thousands of LED Christmas-style lights, fiber optics, and a great soundtrack! It runs down Main Street and through Frontierland. If there's two runnings of the parade, I'd recommend catching the second one as it will be slightly less crowded, and Frontierland is generally going to be less crowded to watch from than Main Street.

Main Street illuminated at night

Other Things to See and Do
  • Tours- there are a TON of behind-the-scenes tours that you can do at Magic Kingdom {read about them here}. They all have a fee, some are more than others. I really hope to see many of them one year, myself :) Check them out via the link above, they're really neat!
  • Casey's Corner Pianist- throughout the day, you might find a pianist tickling the ivories of a standup piano outside of Casey's Corner on the path that lead towards the bathroom areas
  • Shopping- check out the shops in the early afternoon for the least crowded shopping
That's about it for today, but tune in later in the month to find out about all the great restaurants we love at Magic!! Tomorrow I'll be talking about Epcot, so I hope to see you then :)

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