Just two weeks ago, me and the family came from an awesome visit to the Disney World parks in Orlando, Florida. This was the highlight of our “vacation” in the US. (I put vacation in double quotes because I’m not leaving the country any time soon, like if the vacation has ended.) The drive to Florida took all of 15 hours, but we chose to split it to two days, stopping for cheap lodging in North Carolina both ways.
We bought a 4-day pass to any park within Disney World, and chose to go to the Magic Kingdom twice. Epcot and Hollywood Studios were the other two stops. We thought of Animal Kingdom as well, but since the park was relatively new, and there weren’t a lot of attractions yet (with the exception of the Safari Trek and Expedition Everest) we decided to just go back the next time we’d head to FL.
Incredible. Each one of the parks was exactly how I remembered them when I was a young boy. They all offered different things and thrills, all of them memorable.
Before I go to the individual parks, let me share a couple of tips first to make your visit there enjoyable.
1. Make judicious use of the Photo Pass system. This is an innovative idea. Instead of lugging around tickets of professionally-taken photographs with you the entire time, Photo Pass gives you an electronic card that you use to view all your photos online. Cool, right? Until you realize that the photos available for viewing are pitifully small, they won’t even look great printed in 2R. And ordering a CD with your photographs cost $125. Highway robbery!
Lesson learned: For each pic the Photo Pass Photographers take, ask them to take another one with your own digital or film camera. It’s free of charge, and you have full, high-resolution images with you.
2. Plan your Fast Pass well. Another great idea. Several rides across all the Disney parks have Fast Pass booths, where you can get a return time ticket in order to bypass falling in line for hours. The catch is you can’t get Fast Passes all at once. For every one Fast Pass ticket you get for a particular ride, there’s a 2-hour wait time before you can get another one.
Lesson learned: Go to the park in the morning and ride the most popular, Fast Pass-enabled rides first, when the lines are shortest. You won’t be able to go through them all in the morning of course, but that’s the point: You’d halve the number of attractions you’d use your Fast Pass privilege for.
3. Bring in food. If you don’t mind making your own subs, hoagies, or sandwiches, bring them with you. (No rice-and-ulam baon! You’ll have a hard time, trust me.) The food’s pricey ($7 for a burger? Highway robbery!), and the lines for the food places gets pretty long during lunch time. There are plenty of drinking fountains everywhere to keep you hydrated without resorting to buying bottled beverages, which start at $2.
Part 2 coming soon!