Thanks to my 5 yr old daughter Mickey, Minnie, Cinderella , Snow-white have all become an integral part of our family. Needless to say, when I shared with her about our Disney ( Florida, US) trip she was thrilled to bits. She shared about her dream trip with one and all- her teachers, her friends, my friends, my mother’s friends .. basically everybody she met!! We almost missed our flight to the US though, courtesy -an epic 3 hour ride to the airport during the Gurgaon rains!!
The Disney website is awesome and words fail me to describe the great help the website was off, during our planning phase -> https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/
It allows us to book seats for upto 3 rides in advance and saves the time of waiting in long queues!! It also gives the option to choose time slots for popular rides, allows us to design our routes within the different parks, and also helps book strollers for kids ( since the parks are vast in area). There are almost 10 -12 different disney parks out of which we decided to cover -MAGIC KINGDOM, ANIMAL KINGDOM and SEA WORLD.
MAGIC KINGDOM was our first stop. My mom, myself and my daughter were all ready and waiting for the gates to open at 9 am!!! The parade of all the disney charachters marked the opening of the park for the day. The park itself is beautiful and the ambience transports one and all to a make believe world!!!. About 15 minutes into the park and a familiar castle overlooks you and makes you stare back at it in complete awe..
The whole theme park is divided into different sections – Tomorrowland, Neverland Fantasyland and so on. The most popular one amongst young kids is FANTASYLAND. This is where they get to see all their disney icons come alive, click pictures and go all blue eyed. My child was thrilled to bits to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, Ariel, Snow-white Cinderella and so on. These moments were literally ‘living the dream’ for her!!!
The rides are kid friendly and well designed and maintained. ‘It’s a small world’, ‘ winnie-the pooh’ and ‘ the ariel ride’ are a must go-go even if there is a long line.
After a few more such rides and some souveneir shopping it was time to call it a night. We tucked into bed tired, happy and satisfied only to wake up to an even more exciting day !!
ANIMAL KINGDOM was our next stop. The park here is divided into -Asia, Africa, Dinoland, Discovery Island and so on. Each section of the park has its unique features and it is upto us to choose and pick favorites. The Kilimanjaro Safari in the African section is beautiful and will be enjoyed well by kids and Adults.
Dinoland has some nice rides for the kids.FINDING NEMO -the musical and The Lion King festival are brilliantly planned and executed!!
Our last stop in Orlando, was Seaworld. It is a beautifully designed park and has some awesome animal shows and well educated animal trainers.
Seaworld is not part of the disney parks, it is one of the many non disney parks in Orlando. The Dolphin show and the Shamu (orca whale) show are the most popular. The dolphins walk, shake hands and jump upto a height of almost 60 feet in air:-) It is possible to interact with the dolphins and touch them and play with them if they are in the mood for it!!
After a fun-filled 3 days in Disney with my mom and daughter , we resumed the rest of our US trip. I vowed to bring my daughter back here when she is older to visit Epcot center!!!
Adios!!!
musafirmusings 