Showing posts with label disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disney. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Magic Kingdom 2015


This post is the second of four posts about my trips to the Walt Disney World parks. This time, it's all about my trip to the Magic Kingdom, Disney World's biggest and most famous park! If you live in California, Magic Kingdom is the Florida counterpart to Anaheim's Disneyland. It has all the same lands as it: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and Adventureland. I had the pleasure of experiencing the park in its entirety!



 Outfit Rundown
Minnie ears: Tokyo Disney Sea
Polka Dot Dress: Shimamura (in Japan) 
Sandals: Birkenstocks

This outfit was inspired by Minnie Mouse 




The centerpiece of the Magic Kingdom was the beautiful Cinderella's castle. It's definitely bigger than the Sleeping Beauty castle, and there was also a platform where performances by Disney characters would be held every few hours. As you can tell, there were quite a bit of people at the park, so it was difficult to get a good shot. 



The first land that we hit up was Frontierland! This land had Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain almost right next to each other, so the area was very densely packed. We rode Splash Mountain as our first ride to cool off in the beginning of the day! We had our card programmed with Fast Passes for both of these rides, so we were able to get on quickly. I noticed that towards midday, the wait times for these rides became ridiculously long, over 90 minutes for each! 



We went to Tomorrowland next and the first attraction we went to was a show-type that they don't have in California called "Stitch's Great Escape." The attendees are basically being "recruited" by the intergalactic police in Lilo & Stitch, when they capture Stitch and he..well... Escapes! It's a whole lot of fun to experience and I wish they had this attraction in Disneyland. 




The Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom was much more spacious than the one in Disneyland. There were more rides, stores, and the design truly made it as if we were in a futuristic society. I adored all the details in the architecture that created an atmosphere of elegance and technology. 





Another show that was Disney World-Tomorrowland exclusive was Monsters Inc's Laugh Floor. The attraction takes place after the events of the Monsters Inc movie, where laughter is needed now to supply power. We were put in a room modeled after a comedy club and monsters on the screen would come out and tell jokes to make the audience laugh. They use the same technology as the Turtle Talk with Crush attraction, so the show was charmingly interactive as well. I enjoyed it quite a bit!




When we went into Fantasyland, one of my main goals was to get a picture with at least one Disney princess. Luckily, my favorite princess, Cinderella, along with Rapunzel, was in the Fairy Tale Princess Hall! (I could have that name wrong) There were two lines, one for Ana and Elsa and the other for Rapunzel and Cinderella. Luckily the line I went into was much shorter, so I got to see them after waiting about half an hour. The interior of the hall was beautiful! The portraits on the wall had all the Disney Princesses and there was a gorgeous replica of Cinderella's glass slipper. 



Rapunzel was such a sweetheart! She acted super bubbly and we had a conversation about my ears and how she wanted to make some for Pascal. She was always smiling so I felt really comfortable despite how awkward I was. 




I absolutely lost it when I met Cinderella. She was my favorite princess as a child, so you can imagine how excited I was! She acted very elegant and was kind as well. I told her how I've loved her for a long time and she invited to me a ball. So sweet! 





The Fantasyland in Florida was very beautiful and recently gone through renovations, perhaps a couple or few years back. All the buildings were polished, well detailed, and very elegant-looking. I felt like I was walking through a dream! 




We watched another show called Mickey's Philharmagic, which was a 4-D show that presented and celebrated the wonderful music used in Disney films throughout the years. It followed Donald, who had secretly used Mickey's sorcerer hat and was trying to get it back as he stumbled through different movie universes. The movies in the show were The Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Aladdin, to name a few. A very charming show to watch!




Another one of the new parts of Fantasyland was The Little Mermaid ride, which had been reconstructed to feature the castle from the movie and the shore where Ariel had washed upon! I was in absolute awe with all the detail and effort that they put into recreating the world from the movie. 

The Magic Kingdom was a wonderful park to visit! It was basically a bigger, more detailed and renovated version of Disneyland, so of course I enjoyed it quite a bit. There were, however, a lot more people in the Magic Kingdom than at Disneyland so the wait times were not pleasant. I still recommend going there if you ever have the chance. All of the attractions are wonderful amounts of fun!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Animal Kingdom 2015


Hello everyone! Long time no post. I've been lazy and rundown when it came to this blog during the school year, but now that it's summer once again, I'm going to pick up the pace with posts. To kick i off, I wanted to do a few posts on the Disney World trip I went on last week! We hit up all four of the theme parks, so I'm going to do one post on each park. The first that we went to was Animal Kingdom!


Outfit rundown (although it's hard to see)
Ears: Tokyo Disney Sea
Minnie Mouse signatured heart eyes sunnies: Animal Kingdom
Cat-eyes tee: Cotton-on
High-waisted pink gingham shorts: H&M
Sandals: Birkenstocks
The first thing I saw when I went into the park was Dug and Russell from Up. The line was super short since the park had just opened for the day, so I knew I wasn't going to get an opportunity to get a picture any other time of the day. The two of them were so cute! I hugged them both but Russell began acting scared because I had a cat on my shirt, hehe. 




One of the biggest highlights about Animal Kingdom was the fact that the park was practically drowned in nature, making it truly seem like you were in a jungle. The tiniest details and lush plants impressed me so much! There wasn't a single area where the park was barren. Trees, bushes, leaves and flowers sprouted everywhere. Florida weather at this time of the year feels super humid, hot and tropical, so I was grateful that the plants provided shade. The park also had multiple zoo-like attractions where attendees could sight see animals native to dense jungle areas. I freaked out when I saw that they had a Komodo dragon! 






Around 2pm, I started getting a mild heat stroke since we had been walking in the heat for over 6 hours. Luckily, we were nearby a small venue where they were hosting a show called "Festival of the Lion King." The inside was air conditioned, so we popped in to watch! The show was a celebration of tribal and African culture, brought by characters from The Lion King, including Simba, Timon, and Pumba. The music was sung by live singers, all of whom were wearing traditional tribal clothing. The show also featured acrobatics, my personal favorite being a couple who danced to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." Festival of the Lion King was a beautiful watch and a wonderful celebration of culture that needs to be more widespread in our society! I definitely recommend going to see it.



The biggest highlight of the theme park was its safari. This isn't some lazily thrown together drive tour, this safari was amazing! The line was 45 minutes long when we got to it, but it was one of things we wanted to ride before leaving. Passengers get in a tram/jeep and their driver guides them around the vast animal reserves that Disney owns. There were so many different animals to see! The pictures below were my favorite sights of the tour. 



I forgot the scientific name, but this plant has a more commonly used name: the upside down tree. It looks like its roots are growing upwards rather than into the ground! It was much larger in person than it seems in the photo.




Giraffe booty




There was such beautiful plant life throughout the safari






The animals seemed to be incredibly at peace in the wildlife. They weren't restrained in a single area but rather they were allowed to roam a vast land as they pleased. Some animals, such as the lions, we weren't able to see because they were roaming a different area. It truly felt like I was taking a safari tour through a savannah! 

The trip to Animal Kingdom suited my tastes very well. As a lover of nature, I was enamored with how in touch Disney went to recreate African and Asian jungles! For those who would rather have easy-going and relaxed theme park days like me, Animal Kingdom has more than enough attractions to fill up your time. For thrill seekers, the rapids ride was very exciting and Expedition Everest is an amazing ride to experience! (Much much much better than the Matterhorn at Disneyland). Keep in mind that if you go in the summer to stay cool with a wet rag, water mist, parasols or fans!