Magic Kingdom

 

December 15, 2021

Magic Kingdom

The first theme park at Disney World that we visited as a group was the Magic Kingdom. Normally when I visit Disney, this is one of the last parks we visit, if we even go there as it is truly focused on children and while I have a lot of old favorite rides, most of the attractions are really not for me and we can spend about a half a day and see everything that we would like.

This trip is something altogether different as we were joining Dakota and her family including her husband Andy and two young girls, Sloane and Norah. It was mostly Sloane who the trip was designed for as the Disney Magic is especially magical to a four-year old. Seeing the world of Disney through the eyes of a young child and getting to see her reactions to the ever surprising and wonderful array of attractions, character interactions and all that is involved with visiting the theme parks was pretty special for all of us.

Andy’s mother Robin and her friend were on hand too, driving over from Venice, Florida where they are spending the winter to see the family and meet Norah for the first time. It was great having so many extra hands because it allowed everyone to be able to go on every ride they wanted, even those where the children did not quite meet the height requirements.

The park was very crowded, but they seemed to have excellent Covid mitigation efforts in place and not once did it feel overly crowded or like we were at any additional risk than a visit to the grocery. Masks were required always indoors, even if the ride or attraction was mostly outdoors, if any part of it was inside then masks were required for the duration.

We were able to ride just about every ride that we wanted without much trouble including many of the classic favorites such as “It’s A Small World”, “Peter Pan’s Flight”, “The Jungle Cruise”, “The Haunted Mansion”, “Dumbo the Flying Elephant” and more. Most of the rides were exciting for Sloane, she aced her first rollercoaster style ride and “Splash Mountain” with no problem, but got a bit frightened inside the ”Haunted Mansion”.

We took time to wait for her to visit with a couple of Disney Princesses, which she really enjoyed and just had a terrific time watching the pop-up parades, enjoying unhealthy food and taking in the just about perfect weather for the occasion. 

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Walt Disney World, specifically the Magic Kingdom which was the first portion to open, and Disney is doing it up in style with all sorts of special touches to mark the milestone. There are 50 golden statues of famous Disney characters spread through the various theme parks and they have created special closing night shows for each park to mark the celebration. 

Each day we drove over and parked at the Art of Animation hotel where our friends were staying and took the Disney transportation from there to whichever park we were visiting so that we could come back with them during the afternoon for a break at the hotel. They had a great pool that Sloane was almost as excited about as the parks themselves, so we came back so she could swim and nap, thus hopefully preventing the dreaded exhausted child meltdown, which we were thankfully spared thanks to Dakota’s good planning.

Epcot

 

December 14, 2021

Epcot

Kathy and I traveled up to Central Florida in mid-December to meet our friends Dakota and Andy and their young daughters Sloane and Norah and spend a week at Disney World. It is something that we have been wanting to do for some time now, but with Covid and travel issues etc., we just had not been able to arrange, but finally we were all able to get on the same page and schedule the trip.

Dakota and her family were flying out from their home in New Mexico and Kathy and I drove up from Key West and arrived a full day ahead of them, so we had a full day to enjoy Disney before we were to meet them. Our friend Renae was staying at our house for the week and we drove up and had a full 24 hours on our own.

Our first night after arriving, we headed over to Disney Springs, the sprawling shopping and dining area where we ate dinner at the House of Blues, which was really good and then went to see the new remake of the classic Broadway musical film, “West Side Story”. It is tough remaking one of the most classic musical films ever, but I really enjoyed this new version. Kathy was not quite so enamored, but it made for a fun date night with just the two of us.

It was just us the next morning as we decided to take advantage of the Florida resident annual pass that we had purchased for Disney World and headed out to what is my favorite theme park, Epcot to spend the day. Disney has totally redone just about every aspect of their entry procedure and you now have to book what park you plan to attend in advance. 

They have also totally revamped their ride options, doing away with the Fast Pass option and adding a slightly more complicated Genie Plus option that works through an app on your phone, but that once you get used to, is actually fairly easy to use and actually almost eliminates wait times on many of the most popular rides and attractions if you are able to log in and secure your place in a timely manner.

We certainly had no agenda and were able to ride just about everything we wanted with the exception of the new Remy’s Adventure Ratatouille ride, which we were not able to book. We also were able to secure lunch reservations at what is now my favorite restaurant in Epcot since the Norway restaurant Akerhaus has been turned into a Princess dining experience, the German Biergarten.

Like all the restaurants in the World Showcase area of Epcot, the German Biergarten features authentic food from the featured country and entertainment as well. A variety of sausages, bratwurst, spaetzle, potato salad and more highlight the menu and it is topped off with a selection of German Beer replicating Octoberfest year-round. 

It was beautiful weather and a really fun day hanging out with Kathy and in the evening, we went over to meet Dakota and her family at their hotel Disney’s Art of Animation resort. It was so fun and exciting to surprise the girls by suddenly appearing at their hotel and being able to experience Disney through the eyes of a young child is pretty cool. We shared a pizza dinner at their hotel then headed back to our off property hotel to get ready for a fun week.