Category Archives: Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World Day 3

So I’m now running a day behind, but hey ho!

Thursday morning we headed into Magic Kingdom around about opening time, and as we walked into the park Chip and Dale were just heading out to meet, so as they had no queue yet, we were basically the first people to meet them, then we walked towards Frontierland and rode Big Thunder Mountain, then picked up some breakfast and hit up Its A Small World.

From there, we went back to Main Street so Chelsea could get a Starbucks and Sarah could get a balloon, and then visited the purple wall for some quick pics for the ‘gram. Chelsea and Sammy had fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so they went off to do that and Sarah and I just hung out at the castle which is where they met us and we went over to Space Mountain for another fastpass.

A quick snack and some shops later, Sarah left to nip back to the hotel for a jacket and the rest of us had a quick wander through Fantasyland and then rode Big Thunder one more time, this time with a fastpass, and then left the park, meeting Sarah on the way out, and got the bus to Art of Animation.

The bus to AoA broke down, so we ended up having to be transferred onto a new bus, but it didn’t take too long for that to be sorted! We had some food at the resort and an explore, and then we got an Uber to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the RunDisney expo where we picked up our race bibs and shopped the merch for the race weekend, then grabbed another Uber to Hollywood Studios, which is where we finished up the night watching Fantasmic before going back to get a good nights sleep in before the 10k!

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Walt Disney World Day 1

Well gang, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve blogged a Disney trip, but would you believe in the last few months I’ve done two trips that I haven’t blogged? So unlike me, right?

Well, I’m now back in Walt Disney World for some magic and some running, and I’ll be back blogging the whole thing, starting with today..

So we’re staying at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, our DVC home, which meant that this morning was far more chilled out as we only had to hop on the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom, and did security at the resort so didn’t have to queue at the park. There had been an early morning magic event on so the park was already a little busy, but we went down to the castle for the welcome show, and then Sammy wanted some breakfast so she grabbed a Mickey waffle at Sleepy Hollow, took a trip to the Tangled toilets and then went for our first ride of the day: Pirates of the Caribbean.

On our way from there to Fantasyland, we met Mary Poppins and the ugly stepsisters, and then met Rapunzel and Tiana in Princess Fairytale Hall, and then headed for Haunted Mansion for our first fastpass of the day. By that time it was pretty much lunch time – Sarah and I hadn’t eaten breakfast either – and we ended up going to Pinocchio Village Haus so that we knew there would be vegetarian options for Sammy.

After lunch, we had to spend a little bit of time at guest services sorting out our annual pass magic bands, and then headed back to the castle to watch Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire and from there grabbed a parade spot. Once the parade was over, we grabbed a quick Starbucks, and then did our second fastpass of the day, Buzz, and also did a lap of the TTA Peoplemover.

The My Disney Experience app was telling us that Big Thunder Mountain had a 35 minute wait time, so we headed over there, but unfortunately so did everyone else in the park.. The cast member said the queue was at least 70 minutes when we got there, so that was a no, and instead Matthew and I got in the queue for Splash Mountain, but after a while we realised that the queue was going to be too long and we would miss our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fastpass, so instead we grabbed a Mickey waffle and headed over to Fantasyland.

I’ve never done Mine Train in the dark before and it was so good!! Because most people were camping out for Happily Ever After by this point, the queue for Big Thunder had dropped to only 20 minutes, so we practically ran back to Frontierland, and had the best time riding the back of the wildest ride in the wilderness. With a little bit of time before HEA, we got some food at Cosmic Ray’s, and then got our spot to watch the show – despite showing up just as it was starting, we got a decent view!

On our way out of the park we hit the shops and Main Street Confectionary, and then we decided to forgo the monorail in favour of the ferry back to Poly, and the Electrical Water Pageant was going so we got to see a lot of that while we were waiting which was really cool because I never stop to watch it when I’m leaving Magic Kingdom.

We’ve got day 1 feet right now, so we got back into quickly and are just spending the evening chilling in the room ready for Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 11

Waking up this morning was particularly difficult for some reason, but when we did drag ourselves out of bed, we were off to Magic Kingdom!

Cutting it close to the end time of our first fastpass, once we were in the park we hightailed it over to Big Thunder Mountain, and once that was done and dusted, breakfast was had in the form of a Mickey pretzel, and then we also decided to try a park snack I’ve been wanting to try for years now, the orange equivalent of Dole Whip: a Citrus Swirl. Matthew has just a plan swirl cup, and I had the float, he hated his, I thought it was ok but nothing to particularly write home about.

After that I dragged him on a customary It’s a Small World ride, and then I went to buy something very exciting (haul post when I’m back!) in Fantasyland before we made our way back to Adventureland for lunch at MK’s newest table service, Skipper Canteen, where despite us both being a little underwhelmed at the menu on first glance, we both had excellent meals and I absolutely would recommend!

Lunch took us nicely up to pre-parade time, so we snagged a spot on Main Street for Matthew’s first ever Festival of Fantasy – I was Disneybounding as Rapunzel as she spotted me out of the crowd, in dead. The park was much busier today than it was on our last day in MK, so queues were a bit of a nightmare, so we decided to do Mickey’s Philharmagic, and even that was packed! Being a Christmas party night, the park was really filling up so we decided to do some resort hopping, and caught the monorail to Contemporary first, meaning we got to see the Christmas gingerbread castle and do a little bit of exploring, and then we went round to the Grand Floridian to do the same, with the addition of hitting Basin White!

From GF we got the monorail across to Epcot for a quick look in a few shops (making final shopping decisions as we’re coming to the end of the trip!) and then got the bus back to our resort, where we decided to actually try out the food options here for dinner!

I’ve got some really nasty mosquito bites that have been giving me grief over the last few days and today has been particular horrible, plus I think I’m starting to come down with a post-Disney cold a few days early, waa!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 1

Well here we are folks, another Disney trip has begun!

Courtesy of the time difference, we were awake well before our alarm, and on the bus to the Magic Kingdom just before 7am. We got to MK at about 7:25, and waited in the area reserved for those with breakfast reservations, getting let in at about 7:50. Our breakfast was at Be Our Guest, and wasn’t actually until 8:50, so we took our time getting castle photos, and even had a ride on the carousel before going to the restaurant. Despite being about 30 mins early, they let us straight in, and we were actually finished with our food before our actual reservation time.

After breakfast – which was so good by the way – we had planned on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was closed, so instead we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and got on the first train out, plus I asked the cast member if we could be in the last row and she let us! From there we did Jungle Cruise, then Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and our first fastpass of the day, Space Mountain.

The park has been so nice and quiet this morning, and after Space Mountain we managed to do Dumbo, The Barnstormer and The Little Mermaid ride in quick succession, and then made our way round to do Haunted Mansion. Next on the agenda was sorting out a few bits and pieces; Matthew needed to reset his MagicBand pin and my memory maker wasn’t working properly, so we went to Guest Services, via shopping on Main Street USA. We went to City Hall but as there was a queue, the cast member directed us to Liberty Square Ticket Office, a lesser known guest services spot, and thanks to the wonderful Javier, we got everything fixed and he even gave us 3 free Fastpasses by way of apology for the issues I had with my memory maker.

To use them up, we did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Tomorrowland Speedway and Space Mountain, and then we did a lap of TTA Peoplemover and had a sit down in Carousel of Progress, which took us nicely up to our early dinner reservation at The Plaza Restaurant. The food was nice, but I wouldn’t rush to eat there again, and had we not been on the dining plan I don’t think I would have liked to actually pay what we should have done.

After dinner the lack of sleep from the night before was really kicking in, so we finished up with our last fastpass of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed out from Magic Kingdom for the night – we would have been kicked out later due to the Halloween party anyway! 
Back to the resort, and we picked up our refillable resort mugs, and as we started to walk back to the room I noticed a furry friend was just outside the reception area, and in the cutest outfit too so I just had to have a cuddle! So we just spent the evening at the resort and ended up falling asleep nice and early, which was definitely needed!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day!

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MK and Chill

Considering that this outfit is quite different to what I normally tend to wear in the parks, I’m so excited to wear this look!

Rather than a traditional Disneybound, I’m opting for a comfy t-shirt and shorts look for my first day in the Magic Kingdom, sporting this INCREDIBLE t-shirt from Great Adventure Supply Co. I knew from the moment I saw this t-shirt on Instagram that I had to have it, and I was not disappointed when it arrived – in fact, I wear it all the time!

Keeping on the relaxed look, I’m pairing it with my pastel candy stripe shorts, which I’ve Disneyfied with my iron-on teacup patch (which you can buy here!), and rather than my usual Mickey ears, I’ll instead be sporting this adorable embroidered baseball cap from Just Peachy.

Hub grass, here I come!

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February Disney Trip Day 11

There is actually nothing more beautiful than looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom just across the water. Honestly, our stay in the Polynesian was perfect. We sat in our room and ate peanut butter Rice Krispie treats for breakfast and could have stayed there forever.

But it was extra magic hours in MK, so we slightly begrudgingly checked out, and got the monorail over to the park. Despite missing most of the hour, we did get to see the new welcome show on the castle stage, which was very sweet, them casually strolled through the castle and into Fantasyland where we kicked off the day with a ride on the carousel – something we’d not done yet this trip. After our ride, we headed over to the Tangled toilets to shoot some photos of my outfit – The Happiest Fitness Co’s new collection – then back round Fantasyland to the Under the Sea Little Mermaid ride, which was a walk on.

Park still fairly quiet, we headed into Storybook Circus and rode The Barnstormer, then made our way round to Tomorrowland for a Space Mountain fastpass. Again, they tried to put us into the Alpha line, but I asked if we could do Omega and the cast member let us so we were happy! Then is it really a trip if you haven’t been on the TTA People Mover?! This ride has been crazy busy for our whole time here, and because I firmly believe that it should always be a walk-on, this morning made the perfect first and last ride of the trip.


As we made our way back through Fantasyland, we once again came across the Tremaine sisters, but same as yesterday, were told as we got in line that they would be finishing soon and replaced by the Fairy Godmother, who we’d already met, so our plan was foiled again! Instead, we walked into Liberty Square and grabbed some snacks at Liberty Square Market, before going on a final character meet – the boss himself, talking Mickey Mouse. Lucky we had fastpasses, cos the queue was over an hour! He told us we were the most beautiful princesses he’d seen all day, and lots of cuddles were had as we faced the reality of leaving soon.

To enjoy our remaining hour, we watched the Dapper Dans on Main Street, then spent some time on the Hub grass and even did a little bit of Move It, Shake It before we said ‘see ya real soon!’ to the kingdom. Our simple monorail trip back to the resort turned into a little bit of a disaster, courtesy of the monorail ahead of us having some technical problems, and as a result we missed our Magical Express to the airport, but after discovering that the next bus was fully booked, the hotel staff were kind enough to provide a taxi to the airport on them to ensure we didn’t have any more problems.

This, my friends, is where this story comes to a close, and I’ll be back in the UK by the time this post goes live. It really has been the most magical of trips, and while I can’t thank you lovely bunch enough for all your lovely words, the star of this show in my eyes is the beautiful Sarah, my Disney soul mate who I’ve just had the most fun with. This trip would have been nothing without here, and I’m so grateful to have her in my life ❤

Signing off guys, see ya real soon!

PS. I’m not really signing off, usual blog content will resume shortly!

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February Disney Trip Day 10

I can’t get over the fact that today is our last full day here in the magic, waaaa!

After checking out of Riverside, we headed into the Magic Kingdom, slightly delayed by crazy traffic, and after a gentle stroll down Main Street went straight to Splash Mountain, where I got a red card, woo! From there, we walked back towards the castle, bumping into the lovely Jane along the way, and as we arrived back at the hub, Royal Friendship Faire was just about to begin. Spoiler alert, I took 130 photos..

Afterwards, we went to go see Pooh and Tigger, but the line was moving so slowly that we had to give up in order to get to our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. Unlike on previous quick service trips here, we weren’t given anything to take to the table with us, instead they tracked us using our magic bands! Then, with a bit of time to kill before our next fastpass, we headed down to Town Square Theater to meet Tinkerbell. It was a bit of a wait, but it was in the air conditioning and we could sit down on the floor, so it was ok!

Post Pixie Hollow trip, we staked out a spot for Festival of Fantasy on Main Street USA, then once the parade was done, we tried for Tigger and Pooh again, but with a 45 minute wait, we gave up and made our way towards Pirates of the Caribbean. As we got behind the castle, we noticed the ugly stepsisters meeting, so dived into that queue, only to find that they were leaving before we’d get a chance to see them, boo! So Pirates it was, followed by a purple wall photo shoot – Disney basic life – to fill the time until our Big Thunder fastpass, but while we were on our way back to BTM, we came across the Frontierland Hoedown Happening, a 10 minute dance party featuring some of the Brer animals, but also Horace and some of the bears from Country Bear Jamboree. While we didn’t really participate, we did get to walk arm in arm with Horace as they left to go backstage, and snagged a quick photo too!

After Big Thunder, we headed back for a third attempt at Pooh and Tigger and… SUCCESS! These two tipped our character count to over 50 – yes, 50 unique characters on this trip alone! Once we’d finally got to see them, we walked back to Adventureland for our final fastpass of the evening, Jungle Cruise, then headed back to the castle and grabbed some popcorn to camp out for our final Wishes viewing EVER. Waaaaaaa!

It was perfect – we sat for the whole performance and had a great view. They did cancel Tinkerbell due to strong winds, but that made it no less magical, and we sat in front of the castle for ages afterwards in denial about leaving. When we did finally stand up, we headed to Main Street Confectionery to use up the last of our food credits before jumping on the monorail to our hotel for the night. Oh that’s right it’s the Polynesian!

You guys this hotel is beautiful, and the only sad part about this stay is that we’re only here for the night and won’t get a chance to explore the other facilities, but we can see the castle and the lake from our balcony and it’s so beautiful!

Just gonna cry myself to sleep with happiness about this hotel and sadness about tomorrow..

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February Disney Trip Day 6 and Princess Half Marathon

Hey gang! Well I dunno about you but I’ve had quite a day..

Up again at 3.30am and on a bus in under 20 minutes, but thanks to a crazy amount of traffic, it took us over an hour to get to Epcot for this mornings race! I finally got into my corral at 5:30am, which is when the race was due to start, but luckily thanks to the bad traffic, the start was delayed 10 minutes so I didn’t miss out on anything.
The race itself was a classic combination of hard work and a lot of fun; I probably spent about 30-40 minutes waiting for various character stops along the way, but also being my first half without my dad, I struggled a little bit to work with a proper pace and ended up winging it just a bit! I did come in quicker than the time I had set as a sort of goal, so no complaints here, and I was back to the hotel in no time for a bath and, today, a nice long nap, while Sarah went on a solo excursion.

Once I was back on my feet (just barely) I headed into the Magic Kingdom ready for a day of twirling around the place in my beautiful Chip skirt. First stop of the day was meeting Stitch in Town Square, and he loved my outfit and knew exactly who I was, pointing to the picture of Chip on Sarah’s tshirt! Then we had fastpasses for Space Mountain, but not until after I re-carbed with a Mickey pretzel, and we got put on the Alpha track – BOO. With some time to kill before Merida was back meeting (due to her being on parade) we went over to Be Our Guest and luckily there was a photopass photographer outside to take some photos of us in front of Beast’s castle.

Meeting Merida was big for us, as she was the last of all the princesses for us to meet. That’s right, it’s day 6 and we’ve done all of the princesses, eek! And speaking of princesses, next we had fastpasses for Enchanted Tales with Belle, where I was chosen to play Mrs Potts (because an adorable kid was cast as Chip) and Sarah played the operatic wardrobe! It was my first time being part of the show, and Sarah’s first time altogether, so it was amazing that we both got to be in it and meet Belle for photos too as well as get an Enchanted Tales bookmark!

We then wandered through Fantasyland to the Tangled toilets for some photos *cough* new range coming to The Happiest Fitness Co *cough* and met Peter Pan by the Neverland map. Afterwards, we ticked something off our Disney bucket lists by going to Starbucks and giving cute Disney names – Chip and Belle to be precise! A quick hub grass chill and a little bit of Move It Shake It, and we headed back to Be Our Guest for dinner!

It was my first time doing table service there, having only eaten once before during quick service lunch, and it did not dissapoint! We had steak which was delicious, and super filling, so fitting in the lemon meringue cupcake for dessert was a little bit of a struggle. After we ate, we had a photo with Beast, then headed back into the now cold and dark park, and to Ariel’s grotto for a quick mermaid meet.

As we headed to Main Street USA, the new projection show Once Upon A Time was starting, so we stopped midway down the street to watch it. Now I loved the old show, Celebrate the Magic, so I was a little unsure how to take this change, and as much as I hate being negative, I was so disappointed. Compared to Celebrate it just didn’t match up, and I didn’t even have to fight back a single tear – and I cry at everything. I’m glad I’ve seen it, but I probably wouldn’t bother again.

Finally, we finished up with a late fastpass to Big Thunder, because the wildest ride in the wilderness is ten times wilder at night!

And with that, it’s time for me to go to bed..

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February Disney Trip Day 3

So after our crazy early night last night, we ended up awake super early this morning. Typical.Our plans for the morning were to hit the RunDisney expo so I could get my bib and tshirts, so we had a fairly chilled morning at the hotel, grabbed some breakfast there and jumped on a transportation bus to the ESPN centre. Because Sarah had never been to an expo before, I was pretty excited for her to see what they were really like.


We got my bib and race shirts, and collected the pre-ordered pin I got for Sarah and my event jacket, then got stuck into the official merchandise, before getting into the 40 minute queue to pay. Yes, 40 minutes.. We also had a quick look around the main expo hall, but with fastpass commitments looming, jumped on a bus back to the hotel so I could dump my stuff, then hopped on another to Epcot.

Our only fastpass of the day was for Soarin’, a ride I haven’t done here since 2014 as it was being refurbished last year, and the new update is incredible! Honestly if you do no other ride in Epcot, do this.

 

Having seen that she meets in the French Pavilion on the World Showcase, I decided to bring my Aurora themed outfit forward, so we dashed from Soarin’ to the 2:30 meet, and while we were in the queue we overheard rumours that Belle would also be out in her blue dress, so after Aurora we got in the mystery line to meet Belle. She was super lovely, and it was my first time meeting her in her blue village dress, and another princess off the list!

Onwards, we grabbed a Starbucks and jumped onto a monorail across to the Magic Kingdom, then a bus across to Fort Wilderness for Mickey’s Backyard BBQ..


You guys, I cannot put into words how much fun Backyard BBQ was. There will be a full review in the coming weeks, but OH MY GOSH. There was amazing food, incredible entertainment and we just had the best time dancing with Mickey and the gang! 100/10 would recommend, and yes, that is 100 and not a typo.

From Fort Wilderness, we got the bus back to the Magic Kingdom, rejoiced at the park being much quieter than Tuesday, and took a good spot to watch Once Upon a Time and Wishes. The whole area between the partners statue and castle was sat down which was amazing. That was, until about 5 minutes before it was due to start, when the whole front of the audience decided to stand up. Ugh. We actually ended up leaving midway through in order to make our fastpass for Buzz, but having already watched it this trip and knowing we’ll see it again, it wasn’t really a problem.

After Buzz, we had our last fastpass of the day at Haunted Mansion, then as we still had 10 minutes til park close, we decided to run over and get on Big Thunder Mountain because the queue was pretty short, plus I love riding Big Thunder in the dark – it just seems to make it more fun!


Now past park close, we walked through a fairly empty Liberty Square back to the castle, and decided to hang out until Main Street emptied out a bit to get some photos in front of a clear castle, and we managed to sneak a photo shoot with one of the remaining Photopass photographers on Main Street. We eventually left the park about 11pm – an hour after park close – and got back to the hotel about 11.40, now pretty wiped and ready for a good nights sleep!

Today:

– Characters met: 7

– Total steps: 20,226

– Total distance: 8.46 miles

Tomorrow we’ll be in Animal Kingdom!

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February Disney Trip Day 1

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I AM BACCCKKKKK

Today has been magical. Because we forced ourselves to stay up so late on Monday night, we slept right through til 6am with no troubles, and hopped on the resort bus into the Magic Kingdom for pre-opening entry, courtesy of our breakfast reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We did empty(ish) Main Street and castle photos, before heading round to the back of the castle to the restaurant. Oh my gosh, it was the most magical breakfast! Full review to come, but 5 princesses, amazing food, and well, WE WERE INSIDE THE CASTLE. Our server was also really lovely too!

We left the restaurant just after 9, yet the park was still pretty empty to we wandered to the Tangled toilets and then through to Liberty Square, where we stumbled across a pair of mischievous cowboy chipmunks, and we had such a fun play with them, before we headed over to my traditional first ride of Pirates of the Caribbean! On our way back through to Fantasyland, we spotted Mary Poppins at the gazebo, and had a chat and a few photos with her!

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From there, we had our Fastpass at Princess Fairytale Hall with Rapunzel and Tiana, then bumped into the Fairy Godmother just outside – 11 characters before 10.30! Next was a ride on Dumbo, and then Starbucks on Main Street #disneybasic.

We sat on the hub grass being classic WDW girls with our Starbucks and listened to the music from Move it, Shake it, and watched as the floats headed back up Main Street, and then Royal Friendship Faire began on the castle stage. I was super excited to watch it having last been here when it was Dream Along with Mickey, and safe to say I fell in love with it – Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Donald.. It brought a tear or two (I mean, I know everything at Disney does, but still) and I’m definitely looking forward to watching it again and hopefully getting some better photos with my telescopic lens! After the show, we had our Fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then walked through the now super busy park, and ended up in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

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Now in Adventureland, we came across Aladdin and Jasmine meeting in the bazaar, so we waited to meet them, and then headed to Tomorrowland and hit Carousel of Progress before our Space Mountain fastpass. It was then about 2.30 so we rushed back to Main Street for Festival of Fantasy, only to find it was packed and only got a mediocre view, but hey ho.. The park was HEAVING and queue times were ridiculous for everything, so we decided to beat the odds and get some food – also cos we hadn’t eaten since breakfast – at Cosmic Ray’s, since the busy park meant eating at a normal meal time would probably be absolute chaos.

One chicken club and fries later, we decided to do Philharmagic and then head to Tom Sawyers Island, only to find it was shut.. To console ourselves, we headed down Main Street and I dutifully watched Sarah buy her annual pass cos I’m a good friend like that. A quick walk through some shops, and 3 Vinylmations later (oops sorry not sorry) and we made our way back to Its a Small World for our final fastpass of the day.

Feet aching and tiredness setting in, we headed to the Tangled toilets to sit down for a little bit in the hope of a magical moment.. AND IT HAPPENED.


The legendary (or not quite) lantern that’s been the hit of Disney Instagram for the last week, that we were praying might still be a thing this week was!! All of a sudden the end of the day became even more magical than it already had been – and then we topped it off with Wishes!
I’m gonna round the day off with some stats cos y’all know I love numbers:

Total characters met: 12

Total steps: 22078

Total distance: 9.21 miles, and no, I’ve not even done any running yet..

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Best Rest Rides at Walt Disney World

Speaking as a person who has not only had to do WDW parks on major jet lag, but also after being up since 3am and running a half marathon (hello RunDisney life), I know that there are always those days where you need to chill out, but also don’t want to miss out on any valuable park time, so I’ve got you covered!

Tomorrowland TTA People Mover

Magic Kingdom

TTA People Mover

Has anyone ever actually had to queue for PeopleMover? I don’t think I’ve ever been on it and not been allowed to ride around and around for ages because there’s no one else waiting. Its the perfect way to still experience MK while keeping your feet up.

Walt Disney World Railroad

One of my favourite things to do sometimes is just get on the train and ride a loop or two around the park!

Epcot

Ellen’s Energy Adventure

Hello 45 minute sit down! I will admit to drifting off while riding this one time..

Living with the Land

This educational little boat trip is one of my Epcot favourites; I love looking at all the plants and trying to spot hidden Mickeys, plus I normally follow it up with a trip to Sunshine Seasons for Mongolian beef and a red velvet whoopie pie!

Spaceship Earth

Its iconic Epcot, plus a nice relaxing trip through history and into the future!

Hollywood Studios

The Great Movie Ride

I don’t care if people think its a little cheesy, but its a nice gentle ride and I always like waiting to find out if I’m in a gangster or bandit car!

Animal Kingdom

Kilimanjaro Safaris

So I always try to make this a morning ride, but its the perfect way to ease into a day in the park, plus you never get the same experience twice!

What do you do on your down days in the parks?

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My Top 5 Most Underrated Places in Walt Disney World

It feels like forever since I’ve written a post about WDW, all the amazing other parks in the world have been busy getting in the way! But as it currently stands, my next Disney countdown is ticking towards my trip with Sarah in February, and I’m getting super excited to start properly planning again.

I know everyone has their special places in WDW, the places that they love over anywhere else, and we can’t possibly understand why not everyone shares our immense love for them, and here are mine:

1. The Boardwalk

Walt Disney World Boardwalk

It genuinely upsets me that there are a tonne of Disney World goers who have never discovered that little area of beauty that branches off of the World Showcase at Epcot. I love resorts, I love the peace and its just so damn pretty!

2. Japan

Epcot World Showcase Japan

Japan is definitely my favourite country on the World Showcase. The architecture is amazing and I love the huge shop of Japanese goodies; its so true to the country itself and it always gets me really excited.

3. Sleepy Hollow

Walt Disney World Sleepy Hollow

For starters, there are amazing waffles. For mains, the view of the castle is just stunning and its an awesome photo spot, plus its always been really quiet when I’ve eaten there. And for desserts, the waffles again..

4. Africa

WDW Animal Kingdom Africa

So often people overlook the incredible detail in Animal Kingdom, but I think this is truest in Africa. Disney Imagineers blow my mind.

5. Hollywood Boulevard

WDW Hollywood Studios

I know Hollywood Studios is considered a bit of a dunce park right now, what with all the development, but there’s just something beautiful about looking down the street and seeing the Chinese Theater at the end. It just feels like being transported to the era of classic movies and Hollywood glam!

Where are your favourite areas in WDW?

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Favourite Photo’s from.. Festival of Fantasy Parade

This is really just a glowing tribute to my absolute favourite and, in my opinion, the best parade Disney World have ever created. I could honestly sit and watch it all day, every day, burning heat or pouring rain. I’m actually writing this while listening to the soundtrack on Youtube, just to keep the magic going.

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If you only spend one day in the Magic Kingdom, do not let yourself miss out on this truly beautiful display of Disney magic!

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WDW Transportation Links

Walt Disney World spans a crazy 40 square miles, did you know that?

With that in mind, your holiday can double as a logistical operation as you maneuver getting from park to park and back again, especially if, like us, you don’t have a car to get about. Fortunately though, Disney have thought all of this through, creating a bunch of different ways to get about, and on our January trip, Dad and I did a lot of exploring via some of the lesser known transportation options, and today I’m going to share all these wonderful links with you!

Magic King

Credit: itslizi.etsy.com

Bus

If you’re staying at a Disney resort, you can get to and from the Magic Kingdom by buses that run direct from your resort to the park entrance

Monorail

The monorail services the Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian resorts, and also runs from the Transportation and Ticket Center if you do drive to the park.

Boat

Boats to and from the Magic Kingdom run from the Ticket and Transportation Center and Disney’s Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Polynesian resorts, as well as Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Campground.

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Bus

Buses run regularly from all Disney resorts

Monorail

If you’re at the Magic Kingdom or monorail loop resorts, you can get the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and transfer to a monorail that travels direct to Epcot’s park entrance

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If you’re at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, Yacht and Beach Club resorts or Swan and Dolphin hotels, you can travel by boat to Epcot’s International Gateway, where you can enter the park via the World Showcase

On foot

You can also walk to the International Gateway from any of the above resorts, and also from Hollywood Studios – a path runs between the two via The Boardwalk

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Bus

Resort buses regularly travel to Hollywood Studios and back again.

Boat

You can travel to the park by boats from The Boardwalk Inn, Yacht and Beach Club resorts and Swan and Dolphin hotels. You can use these boats as a way of transferring to Epcot too!

On foot

You can walk to Hollywood Studios from Epcot via The Boardwalk – during peak seasons, this walk is quicker than any other transportation!

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Bus

Because its so far out from the other parks, the only way to get to the Animal Kingdom via Disney transportation is resort bus, and sometimes these routes travel to Blizzard Beach too.

Disney Springs

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Bus

All Disney resorts have buses that run to and from Disney Springs. If you want to travel from the parks, I recommend getting a resort bus to Saratoga Springs which is right next door, then you can either walk from there or catch a bus

Boat

A fun way to get to Disney Springs if you’re staying at Port Orleans Riverside or French Quarter, Old Key West or Saratoga Springs (including the Treehouse Villas) is by boats that run every 20 minutes or so to and from the Marketplace jetty. You can also get boats from The Landing to West Side.

Love these Disney inspired underground logos? They were made by the lovely Lizi and you can buy prints here!

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WDW Day 9 – and onto Disneyland!

Today we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom *sobs*

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After a quick run, and fighting with our suitcases before checking out of French Quarter, we headed into the Magic Kingdom; overnight all the Christmas decorations had disappeared, so Main Street USA was looking a little bare. First up was Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by breakfast at Liberty Square Market, then Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain and the TTA People Mover before our Haunted Mansion Fastpass time.

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With some time before our next Fastpass, we wandered back into Fantasyland and caught the railroad, doing a full loop of the kingdom, before getting on an entirely different train: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. High speed rides out of the way, we stopped off at Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch.

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A final ride on the carousel, and it was back to French Quarter to catch the Magical Express to the airport, and a 5 hour plane journey and a drive to Anaheim, and we’ve just checked into our hotel! We’re now 3 hours behind Florida time, so 8 hours behind UK, and off to bed for us!

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WDW Day 8!

Today was our last full day in the parks, can someone tell me where that time has gone?!

The plan was to have a little bit of a lie-in, then get to the Magic Kingdom for the rope drop. Well, we missed the rope drop, but we did get to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder and Space Mountain all within the first hour of park time, so that was pretty impressive in any case! Fast rides out of the way, we stopped at Sleepy Hollow for breakfast: fresh fruit waffle sandwiches in the sunshine, right next to the castle as the first Dream Along with Mickey show was on – kinda perfect, am I right?

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After our late breakfast, we caught the monorail to Polynesian Village; the lobby was under construction on our last visit, so we were curious to see the changes for ourselves, and it made the perfect stop to hop across to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. First on the agenda was Star Wars Launch Bay to hang out with Chewie and Darth, and we even got to see a rogue Jawa hanging around! After another Great Movie Ride (gangster this time, in case you were wondering), we finally caved and bought ourselves a BB-8 sipper cup each as well as some popcorn to see Beauty and the Beast live on stage.

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After the show, we headed across to Star Tours, but as we were a little early for our Fastpass slot, we decided to watch the Jedi Training Academy show, which was pretty adorable. You might have caught my tweet about how it’s been updated to include some TFA stuff, but we asked a CM today and it turns out there are 50 different variations of the simulation, crazy!

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Next up some Muppet Vision 3D, followed by late lunch at Studio Catering Co, then One Mans Dream (all the feels!) before out Tower of Terror Fastpass. You may have heard me talk about my love/hate relationship with this ride before, and it’s pretty simple: I hate waiting for the first drop, after that I’m totally cool, and it works fine because I know that it doesn’t drop until you reach the top and look out over the park. Nope, not this time! The first drop was done totally in the dark; I felt betrayed, but at least it was over. After that we made our way to Fantasmic nice and early because of our Fastpasses, and to avoid the mad rush that happens so often. It was magical as per, when Mickey comes out on the boat as Steamboat Willie..

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After the show, we made our way to our favourite spot to watch Symphony of the Stars for our last time this trip. It was no less magical the second time; you can physically feel the bangs pass through you!

Tomorrow is our last day here (waa!), but I’m getting so excited to return to Disneyland!

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WDW Day 7!

Well that’s Four Park Challenge off my bucket list!

We started this morning with Extra Magic Hours in Animal Kingdom, and first stop was obviously Expedition Everest – did you catch it on Periscope? Rollercoaster out of the way, we stopped off at Creature Comforts (the AK Starbucks) for hot drinks – yes it was that cold – and breakfast pastries, then onward to Kilimanjaro Safaris where we got to see two baby white rhinos playing, eek! We decided that for our challenge, we would get photos with Mickey at each of the parks, so we stopped off at Adventurers Outpost to see him and Minnie before catching a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to park-hop.

From AKL we transferred onto a bus to Hollywood Studios, where we first stopped off to see Mickey, this time in his classic Sorcerers Apprentice costume. On a character meet roll, we also got a selfie with a green army man, and went to see Mike and Sully, but as we’re headed back to Studios tomorrow, we decided not to queue for any rides.

Now midday, we caught another bus onto Wilderness Lodge, for a quick look around but also so we could transfer to the Magic Kingdom by the boat that runs direct from the resort, handy right? Again, first things first, we went to see Mickey in Town Hall Theater, then grabbed lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. Would you believe we’ve never done Astro Orbiter before? Well we have now! With that experience under our belts, we got a spot near the castle for Festival of Fantasy, which was just as magical as it always is, and finished up out MK time with an obligatory Its a Small World.

 To throw another form of transportation into the works, we obviously had to take the monorail across to our final park, Epcot, and actually it wasn’t Mickey we went to first, it was Baymax. Yes again, no we don’t care. Mickey was next, at the Epcot Character Spot, then we went across to Journey into the Imagination. We had a Fastpass, but there wasn’t much of a line to bypass! Not quite hungry yet, we stopped off to watch Circle of Life in The Land, before dinner at Sunshine Seasons, probably my favourite quick service in the whole of Walt Disney World. From there we went to Spaceship Earth for our Fastpass, but again there was no line so we didn’t even bother scanning them. With time before the fireworks, we figured a 40 minute wait at Test Track (which we discovered a love for the other day) would keep us warm and indoors, but we actually waited less than 10 before we got to the design stage, then another 10 before the ride itself. In fact, we ended up doing it twice! That took us right up to our last Fastpass for the day, for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, which was beautiful as always. It was pretty chilly, so as soon as the display was over, we joined the brisk hoard of people leaving the parks and jumped on our last bus: back to the resort!

How’s that for a busy day?

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WDW Day 5 and RunDisney Half Marathon!

Has anyone ever run a half marathon with a chest infection? No? Just me..?

Yep, today was the big day, and the cold I’ve been battling since arriving in Florida was rearing its big ugly head, manifesting in my chest making every single breath hurt. Throw in the stress of all this setting off the weird little heart palpitations I get from time to time after about 9 miles, and I was not exactly fighting fit..

But we did it. It was not a record time, and I couldn’t even muster a sprint finish, but it was still epic. Looking back on it, now 12+ hours later, it was even more epic, mainly because I can breath properly now but still! There was a tonne of great entertainment, the cheering crowds were incredible and some of the sights were phenomenal.

We started once again in the Epcot parking lot, and from there ran up to the Magic Kingdom, down Main Street USA and right into Tomorrowland, then into Fantasyland and through the gloriously lit castle, before heading through Frontierland and out backstage. We then took a fairly straight route back down towards Epcot, finishing up with a loop down to the World Showcase and back, and finally that magical finish line was in sight!

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To celebrate, lunch was at Beaches and Cream, and included an sundae the size of my face – not that I could finish it! From there we walked into Epcot via the International Gateway so we could catch a monorail to the Magic Kingdom ticket centre, then decided to get the ferry boat to the park from there.

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Despite exhaustion, we still packed a fair amount into our afternoon: Philharmagic, character meets, a ride on the train, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain etc, but the rain began to pour down so we didn’t fancy sticking around to get soggy on a Jungle Cruise, and having been up since 3am, we settled on an early return to the resort so we could get some washing done.

Hello bed..

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Being the first people in The Magic Kingdom

So I always knew that I wanted our trip last year to be as magical as possible, given that it was a) my first time back in 15 years, b) the girls first ever visit to Disney World, and c) probably the only time both families would be able to do this holiday together, and with that said, I wanted to make it as magical as possible for everyone.

My first priority was making sure that the first time everyone stepped into the Magic Kingdom, it was totally perfect, and in my opinion, the only way to do that was to be the first people into the park, and to see it all without the hassle of weaving through hundreds of other guests.

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Now you could do this by waking up super early, rushing down to the park to be the first in line at the entrance, and waiting for AGES for the ropes to drop and make a dash before the surge of people behind you also converge onto Main Street.

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Or, you could do it the easy way!

Yes, ok, you do still have to get up early, and there’s a tiny bit of queuing, but its worth it, and its as simple as breakfast, quite literally.

Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace and Cinderella’s Royal Table all offer breakfast reservations from 8am, when the park doesn’t usually open until 9am, and if you have a reservation for any time before the park opens, the gate for you opens just before 8am!

With this in mind, we managed to get reservations for Crystal Palace at 8.15, giving us the opportunity to stroll down Main Street, get some uninterrupted photos and absorb all the early morning magic before we made our way to our fabulous breakfast booking, which you can read more about here!

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Photo Parade – Festival of Fantasy

If you’re following me on Instagram (@lottiedoesdisney) or Twitter (@lottieanddisney), you’ll see that recently I’ve been suffering major Disney blues in the last week or so. I realised the other day its been over 6 months since I was last at Disney World, and that seems like too long to me, especially as, at the moment, I won’t be going back until January.

So to cheer myself up I’ve been reading my Disney Trip Diaries and going through my endless photos, which inspired this post, the first of a mini series where I’ll be re-living my favourite shows and parades in my photo memories, starting with my absolute favourite: The Festival of Fantasy.

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Ok, so I know its a long post, but considering each time I watched this parade I took around 200 photos, I don’t think I’ve done a bad job of cutting it down! To call it amazing would be a total understatement, it honestly brought me to tears, but then again so did quite a few of the parades and displays..

I just love Disney World..

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Be Our Guest

It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight..

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Be Our Guest is the restaurant inside the elusive Beast’s castle, in the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland. It is open for lunch, which is quick service, and dinner which is table service, and absolutely must be booked in advance (180 days for the best chance of getting a table).

After a failed attempt at trying to get in for dinner, on our last day in the Magic Kingdom we were lucky enough to get there just in time to queue for the lunch opening..

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Wow. One step inside and you can understand why it is such a sought after place to eat; its just stunning. For a quick service lunch, you stop off at a counter to order on your way in, and then take a seat in either the ballroom, the gallery, or the out of bounds West Wing, which contains the enchanted rose. We sat in the ballroom, near the large glass window so we could watch the ‘snow’ fall outside the window. The settings in all the rooms are so accurate to the films, its like you’re actually in the film.

As if by magic, your food is delivered to your table, wherever you choose to sit, without you having to tell a cast member where you are (they track your Magic Band, or give you a tracker if you don’t have one). The lunch menu ranges from soups to sandwiches to salads, all with a French theme, and desserts are mainly cupcakes, including The Master’s Cupcake that is topped with ‘the grey stuff’ – delicious!

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I can’t fault the food, it was perfect. The whole place totally did it for me, and the family loved it too! On my next trip I’d love to try dinner here.

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If you get a chance, do not miss this fabulous opportunity, you’ll never forget it!

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Pinocchio Village Haus

Tucked behind the castle in Fantasyland is a little cottage serving fabulous Italian food..

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Ok so its not little at all, but the food is so good we ate there twice! With inside and outside seating on both ground floor and a tiny first floor, you’ll bound to find a table to sit at once you’ve ordered your flatbreads or subs, and if you can, sit by the large windows on the left of the restaurant: you can watch riders on Its a Small World – wave!

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One of our quick service eateries of the Magic Kingdom; plenty of space for our large group, good food and a nice setting.

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Columbia Harbour House

This fishy eatery is located in Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom, and serves up a selection of sandwiches, platters and salads.

Its a standard quick service place, order at a counter, collect your food and grab a table in the spacious seating area – don’t forget there’s more seating upstairs!

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This was our first quick service experience, and honestly was one of the worst. Although the food was decent, there was a lot of mix up when our order was placed, resulting in a few of us getting the wrong sides or desserts, and the servers didn’t seem that motivated to help us resolve it.

A spacious place for a good bite to eat, but nothing to write home about.

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Crystal Palace

Tucked into a corner of Main Street USA, Crystal Palace is the fave place to eat of Winnie the Pooh and some of his very best friends. As the name suggests, the building is a stunning structure of glass and framework, and is decorated with displays of hanging baskets and impressive topiary centerpieces.

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We booked for breakfast on the first day of our trip. While the park isn’t open to the public until 9am, breakfast bookings start from 8am, giving a unique opportunity to see the Magic Kingdom first thing; an empty Main Street leading up to the castle: totally beautiful.

The food is all you can eat buffet-style, with a range of options from classic Mickey waffles to an omelette station, cereals and fruit to full cooked breakfast options. Mixed in with classic choices like bacon and eggs are unique specialties such as ‘breakfast pizza’, pizza base with an omelette style topping with vegetables, meat etc, and ‘breakfast lasagne’, layers of fruit, custard, and sponge, topped with granola.

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Once you’ve got a plateful of food, you can head back to your table and wait for your favourite childhood classics to come and say hi, and make sure you have your autograph books at the ready as Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore will all make an appearance!

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The characters make the rounds of the restaurant, one at a time, but they only visit once so you need to keep an eye out for them, not that you can easily miss them! They space out their visits nicely, so you’ve got time to go up and get food between each character. Make sure to have your autograph books ready, and to make it easier for the characters, stack them up ready for signing as they’ll do that first before posing for any photos.

We absolutely loved Crystal Palace; it was the perfect start to our Disney trip. The food was incredible, the setting was classic Disney beautiful, and who doesn’t love Pooh and friends?! An absolute must place to eat for all.

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MK Tips and Secrets

Main Street USA

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°o° On your way in, grab your park map and schedule; sometimes parades and shows happen at different times due to the day/season/occasion.

°o° All the shops are conjoined – when Main Street is packed, like park closing, make a dash to the nearest shop and cut through there, you’ll save a load of time!

°o° The shops don’t shut until an hour after park closing, so if you’re not in a rush to get to bed, you can take your time browsing souvenirs.

°o° If you need any help, pop into City hall, or if you have any Photopass problems, Town Square Theater is the place to go.

°o° With any luck you won’t need to, but should you have any medical problems, First Aid is just next to Crystal Palace.

°o° If you can, watch the Main Street Electrical Parade on a Friday – they make it longer with additional floats.

°o° Sneaky devices emit the scents of cookies and vanilla onto Main Street.

°o° There’s a secret apartment above the fire house to reflect Walt’s apartment.

Adventureland

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°o° Most people head to Fantasyland first, so Adventureland is really quiet in the morning – hello queue times under 5 minutes!

°o° Most attractions and shops are indoor or undercover, great for avoiding middle of the day sun.

°o° Watch out for spitting camels!

°o° On Pirates of the Caribbean, look out for Ab Lincoln disguised as a pirate – when Hall of Presidents was updated, the retired animatronic was moved here to live out the rest of his career!

°o° The skeletons playing chess in the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean are at a stalemate – how ironic!

°o° The front half of the plane on Jungle Cruise is the one used in the Casablanca scene of  The Great Movie Ride

Frontierland

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°o° Most people don’t like doing Splash Mountain first thing, so its pretty quiet, but if its hot, its a great way to keep you cool.

°o° While a lot of the queue for Big Thunder Mountain is under cover, its still very warm during hot seasons, so don’t get stuck in a long queue around the middle of the day.

°o° From Frontierland, you can catch a ride to Tom Sawyer’s Island to explore, and look for hidden paintbrushes.

°o° Sometimes parades run reverse routes and begin near Splash Mountain.

°o° From here you can hop on the Walt Disney World Railroad to get across to Fantasyland, Tomorrowland or Main Street USA

°o° You can meet Woody and Jessie near the queue for Splash Mountain.

°o° If you’re a Vinylmation collector, Frontier Trading post trade and sell figures.

Liberty Square

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°o° During the heat of the middle of the day, Liberty Square is an ideal place to be; all the main attractions are indoors, and hold a lot of people.

°o° Many of the displays in the waiting area for Hall of Presidents are authentic items that belonged to former presidents and their families. Disney also needed special permission from the US State Government to have the Presidential Seal on the carpet.

°o° Tucked into a small corner of Liberty Square is a year-round Christmas store: Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.

°o° In the queue for The Haunted Mansion, you pass a pet cemetery where you’ll see a tombstone for J. Thaddeus Toad, a nod to the former attraction, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride.

°o° Each building in Liberty Square has a 2 digit house number – put an 18 in front of each number, and it gives you the year from which that style of building came.

°o° There are no restrooms to reflect a lack of plumbing during that period in history.

°o° The Liberty Tree holds 13 lanterns, to represent each of the original colonies.

°o° Ask to pilot the Liberty Belle!

Fantasyland

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°o° As you start your trip on It’s a Small World, look up and wave at diners in Pinocchio’s Village Haus!

°o° You can ride Cinderella’s horse on Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel – its the one decorated with purple flowers.

°o° You’ll find another nod to Mr Toad on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride; Mr Toad appears in several pictures to mark the fact that this ride replaced his own.

°o° Ride the lilac teacup on the Mad Tea Party – it goes fastest!

°o° Try and pull the sword from the stone; you just might succeed.

°o° Through Storybook Circus is another stop of the railroad, continuing road to Main Street.

°o° Dumbo the Flying Elephant Ride has a new interactive queue – inside the Big Top is a play centre where you can wait, and a pager will let you know when its your turn to ride.

°o° In Pete’s Silly Slideshow, you can meet your favourite characters in wacky circus outfits – great unique photo opportunities!

Tomorrowland

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°o° Tomorrowland is an ideal place to go at all extremes of weather: hot, cold, wet etc, as almost all the attractions are indoors, as are the queues. Even the TTA Peoplemover is fairly safe in rain – we took cover on it during a horrendous rainstorm, and stayed pretty dry!

°o° You can skip fighting through the busy castle area to get to Tomorrowland by taking the shortcut past Plaza Ice Cream Parlour and walking through the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant

°o° Get a Fastpass for Space Mountain, whether its busy or not. The Fastpass queue leads to the track on the righthand side, which is longer and faster, with more bumps and turns.

°o° There’s a quiet path round the side of Space Mountain, which leads to Fantasyland through the Storybook Circus – also a good way to get to the railroad.

°o° The TTA Peoplemover runs through the top of a few rides, look out into Buzz’s Space Ranger Spin and Space Mountain, and also spy on shoppers in Mickey’s Star Traders.

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Meeting Characters in Disney World

Character meets can be a truly magical experience for everyone involved!

Make your memories more magical with these top tips:

1. Go to character meals

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A great way to meet loads of characters without having to queue or fight through crowds is to book character meals. These are available in restaurants all over the parks and some deluxe resorts, from princess meals to Mickey and friends to the Winnie the Pooh gang. They’re also great for children who tend to be a little more shy as you’re not being taken out of your comfort zone.

2. Do your research, find out who you can meet and where.

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You’ll be amazed how many characters you can meet throughout the parks, sometimes its just a case of going slightly out of your way to find them. Who are your favourites? Park maps and schedules tell you who you can meet, where they are and what time they’ll be there, from Russell and Doug in Disney’s Animal Kingdom to Mary Poppins in the UK Pavilion at Epcot.

3. Make your meetings special.

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While preparing for your Disney trip, why not have your kids make gifts for their favourite characters? Characters aren’t allowed to accept tips, but you can make their day with drawings or small handmade items; you might even get an extra minute out of it! Alternatively, why not do something different during your character meet? Ask princesses to dance with you, show Mr Incredibles your crime fighting skills!

4. Prepare a few excuses.

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This sounds bad, I promise its not! Kids are curious, and everyone knows how much they love to ask questions, so prepare a couple of white lies for why certain characters don’t speak (‘Goofy’s got a big show later, he needs to save his voice’), or why they take so many breaks (‘I think Pluto’s had a bit too much to drink, toilet time!’).

5. Get autographs

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Get yourself an autograph book, or some kind of alternative (I’ve seen people have characters sign t-shirts, pillowcases etc). You’ll be able to look back at all the characters you’ve met during your trip. Be sure to have a large pen, like a sharpie, as they’re easier for characters with larger hands.

6. Book Fastpasses

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Some characters, especially Elsa and Anna in the Princess Fairytale hall, will have a long queue time if you don’t Fastpass them (Elsa and Anna Fastpasses book out up to 60 days in advance, plan ahead!). You don’t want to take away from the magical experience of meeting your favourite characters with an hour long queue for a 5 minute meet.

7. Decide if meeting characters is something you really want to do

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Character meeting can be time consuming, so if you’re on a tight schedule and you’re not that fussed, don’t waste your time, or a place in a queue that someone else would appreciate more. For younger kids who can’t do as many rides though, characters are the true magic of Disney World.

8. Amaze yourself

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You will truly be amazed by how well characters play their part, so play along with their conversations, or test them by introducing a new topic and see how brilliantly they can cope. On my last trip, Princess Aurora offered to set me up with one of Prince Phillip’s handsome single friends!

9. Appreciate the cast members

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Characters need to take breaks, so sometimes your queue time will be lengthened as they do so. Remember that characters are real people too, so be patient with them.

10. If you only see one character, make it Magician Mickey!

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In the Town Square Theater, you can meet Mickey at his most magical. Take a trip to backstage of Mickey’s magic show, and meet the main man himself in a way you’ve never seen him before, or heard! That’s right, Mickey speaks to you! It is the only opportunity in Disney World to meet him where he can speak to you, answer questions and even show you his latest magic trick!

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