Every time Dave and I go to see our family in Florida we try to visit some interesting places there. Among them are Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando. This time we spent 3 days in Orlando and visited Magic Kingdom, Sea World and Islands of Adventure. Magic Kingdom is a beautiful park and a heaven for kids, but it is not as exciting for the adults.
Magic Kingdom was the only theme park of the 4 Disney World parks in Orlando that I haven’t seen yet, therefore we decided to dedicate one day to experience it. The other 3 Disney World theme parks are Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Epcot is our favorite Disney park, which we visited numerous times and I would visit it again. This one is the most suitable for the adults. Animal Kingdom is good for visiting equally by adults and kids, although we enjoyed the Virginia Safari park much more. It was awesome! Hollywood Studios is more for kids as well.
The popularity of the Magic Kingdom park is impressive. Here is an excerpt from 25 Most Visited Theme Parks In The World. “Magic Kingdom was the first built of the four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, and is the most-visited theme park in the world. In 2013, the park hosted 18.5 million visitors, making it the most-visited theme park for the fifth consecutive year.” Cinderella Castle, the icon of Magic Kingdom is in the picture below.
We entered the park right after its opening hoping that we would beat the crowd at least for a couple of hours. It was raining hard, so the first thing we did was buy rain ponchos in the souvenir store at the park’s entrance.
Everyone else seemed to have the same idea, so ponchos were very popular that day.
Magic Kingdom is divided into six themed “lands”: Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Liberty Square. It is designed like a wheel, with the hub in front of Cinderella Castle. This post is about the highlights of our Magic Kingdom journey. This theme park is huge and most activities (for kids) we omitted. We started our day with the Space Mountain indoor roller coaster in Tomorrowland. This is the Space Mountain picture from outside downloaded from DisneyDayByDay site. We didn’t take our own picture, because I didn’t want to deal with the camera in the rain. 🙂
There were no lines there and the ride wasn’t bad for Magic Kingdom. It was a dark ride through space with pulsing stars, wormholes and massive galaxies. We tried to remember that this was not Six Flags or Kings Dominion.
Next stop was in Adventureland.
We started with the Enchanted Tiki Room, an indoor sit-down show hosted by singing animatronic parrots. It was a cute show.
Another view of the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Pirates of the Caribbean, a rollicking buccaneer boat ride, was entertaining. This ride features Captain Jack Sparrow and other major characters from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series.
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, a high-flying spin on a magic carpet featuring 16 flying carpets in which guests soar over Adventureland. There was almost no line, so we decided to try it out.
We passed the spitting totems.
And joined the line for the Haunted Mansion journey at Liberty Square. The Haunted Mansion is a gothic manor containing a host of family-friendly frights from 999 happy haunts.
There are five busts of six members of the Dread family at the front of the new portion of the queue. They represent Bertie (from left), Aunt Florence, Uncle Jacob, Twins Forsythia and Wellington, and Cousin Maude.
It felt like we stepped back to the age of colonial America. Liberty Square land honors the country’s early heritage.
Hall of Presidents attraction is also located in Liberty Square. This is a stirring Audio-Animatronics salute to the United States’ chief executives and the struggles that built America. Here you can hear speeches from the 1st President, the 16th President, and the current President. Dave and I walked in the hall and looked through some exhibits, but didn’t get to experience the animatronics. We planned to come back later, but ran out of time. The picture below is taken from the web.
Cinderella’s Castle is located in the center of Magic Kingdom. It is the most recognizable structure Disney has to offer. There are Cinderella’s Royal Table and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique located inside the castle. Cinderella’s Royal Table offers a storybook dine experience with Disney Princesses. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is a beauty salon where girls and boys are magically transformed into little princesses and knights.
We passed Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel on our way to Cinderella’s Castle.
And we took a few pictures of ourselves with Cinderella’s Castle in background.
Then we moved to Frontierland, where the Wild West comes to life in this prairie outpost.
The Tom Sawyer Island attraction looked good. Besides, the rain was almost gone.
The log raft below took us to the island, an idyllic place influenced by the works of Mark Twain.
We arrived at Tom’s Landing where we embarked on a self-guided expedition into the heart of early America. There were easy-to-read maps along the way, so we always knew our location on the island.
The view of the Haunted Mansion from the island.
Cinderella’s Castle Towers can be seen from almost everywhere in the park.
There were narrow passages, secret mine caves, dusty roads and creaky suspension bridges to go through on the island. A lot of walking… Fort Langhorn represents an early frontier settlement, which includes a blacksmith shop, a watch tower, stables and an escape tunnel.
Injun Joe’s Cave consists of tight rocky passageways of this forgotten cavern, where strange fossils and jetting stalagmites mingle with a haunted pit.
We crossed a cute suspension bridge.
The Liberty Square Riverboat was moving so close to the islands banks. Liberty Belle is a working reproduction of the historic vessels with actual working steam engine that ferried people up and down the mighty Mississippi.
A view of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction.
Here is the Splash Mountain ride. We skipped this one. We didn’t feel like getting wet again, although this water ride would be great on the hot sunny day.
Then, we joined a crowd to see the Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade that winded its way through the streets of Magic Kingdom park this afternoon.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse participated in the parade.
Walt Disney World (WDW) Railroad includes several train stations and steam engine trains. Main Street Station railway platform is the first thing you see as you enter the Magic Kingdom. Visitors can board or exit the train at any station. It is a good way to get from one side of the park to the other.
We took a ride on a vintage steam engine that provided a scenic trip around the park with stops in Frontierland and Adventureland.
Next we stopped in Fantasyland. This land aspires to be the happiest land of them all. Fairy tales spring from storybook pages in this whimsical land of castles, princesses and flying elephants. We took Peter Pan’s flight, a pixie-dusted flight above London to Neverland and had lunch there. Here is Peter Pan’s flight from outside. There is always a huge line to this attraction.
Boarding the ride.
The sun came out in the afternoon and the park got really crowded. We are on Main Street, U.S.A. with Cinderella’s Castle far in the distance.
Main Street was full of balloons, Disney’s characters, and numerous park visitors. Kids looked so happy there wearing their little princess dresses, make-up or painted faces. All kinds of events take place during the day there.
There are also many stores and restaurants on Main Street. We stopped in one of them to buy Mickey Mouse Gloves, which we are showing off in the photos below. 🙂
Then, we noticed the crowd gathering near Cinderella’s Castle for a show and fireworks. We joined them as well. The show was fantastic!
Many Disney characters including the most famous Mickey and Minnie Mouse were a part of the show.
Fireworks at the end of the show.
One more picture of Cinderella’s Castle. We were ready to leave Magic Kingdom.
WDW Railroad was the first and last attraction on our way in and out of the park. We were pretty tired by then.
Later we had a nice relaxing dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack.
And enjoyed the hotel pool with a “flaming” volcano next to it. The pool and jacuzzi felt great after long day of walking.
