In Central Florida lies this little town called Orlando. Orlando’s claim to fame – Amusement Parks.
Walt Disney started the trend a few decades back with Disney World, and since then this city has become an entertainment hub with Disney, Universal studios, and myriad other amusement parks and other attractions.
Disney world is spread over some 27000 acres of land, roughly the size of San Fransisco. It comprises of four theme parks, two water parks, and, hold your breath, twenty three hotels. It is the largest single site employer in the US providing employment to some 65000 people.
Here’s an account of our recent trip to Disney World. Part 1 covers the most famous amusement park, known as Magic Kingdom. Part 2 coming up next will cover Epcot, Disney’s space themed park.
There’s us driving through the parking gates. The parking is huge, so be sure to remember where you parked your car or you could spend the night trying to find your lost car!
After you park the car, you get a tram to take you to the entry terminals. There you take either a ferry or a monorail to reach the actual park.
We chose the ferry.
The view from the ferry. The park is centered around Cinderella’s castle, which you would notice in the background.
There’s the castle.
The Magic Kingdom received some 17 million visitors in 2007 making it the most famous amusement park in the whole world. To put this in perspective, this number is a multiple of the total number of foreign tourist arrivals in all of India on an annual basis.
Another beautiful shot taken with my wonderful Canon S5 camera.
First ride of the day. Go Kart meets Disney. It turned out kinda lame in the end. Great fun for kids, which is the whole point of this theme park.
I never thought i’d live to see this day. That board over there says – Stroller Parking. There were strollers and kids all over the place. Luckily they all seemed happy. Imagine 20k kids crying in symphony.
That’s a little river through which runs a river boat. Not really a thrill ride, but good to rest your legs and take a short break. In the background is the Haunted House which was pretty cool.
The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This roller coaster is probably the park’s most action packed ride for adrenaline junkies.
This one is the coolest. Splash Mountain. Experience a free fall from five stories high. Doesnt sound like much till you actually do it. What they dont tell you is that before the big fall there are a couple of smaller, but very exciting similar falls.
We obviously didnt do much kid stuff, but there’s the usual merry go around rides.
A day at Magic Kingdom is full of walking and planning if you want to cover everything. If you dont plan well, you will be stuck waiting at all the rides. Wait times can be as high as an hour for the most popular ones such as the Splash Mountain.
To help reduce the wait, they let you get a Fast Pass at some of the attractions. These let you skip ahead of the line, like an MP driving on Delhi roads. The caveat is that you can only get one fast pass at a time. If you mix wait times and fast passes, you can manage everything.
I know we did.
Make sure you take along some comfortable shoes! There’s going to be a lot of walking at this place.
How good am i at photography! The blue skies, the setting sun, the reflection in the water, the bird soaring away. Wow!
Every evening there is a fancy parade in the park. There are a whole bunch of fancy colorful floats with all the famous Disney characters that i dont get, and kids seem to adore.
The day we went, it was jam packed. We watched the parade perched atop a lamppost.
The crowd reminded me of the 4th of July celebrations. Only, this happens there every day.
During the night the castle looks amazing. The lighting keeps changing illuminating the castle in different color schemes of blues, greens and other colors i cant name.
All this culminates in a grand fireworks show that might even be better than the one we saw in New york on Independence day! Pretty damn spectacular.
At the Magic Kingdom they certainly create some magic. Its like a different world far away from the hassles of life. Its an awe inspiring spectacle that drives the little kids crazy, as also the older ones.
This was it from Magic Kingdom. Epcot comes up soon. Stay tuned!
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[...] Original post: Travelogy – Disney World Magic Kingdom | amreekandesi.com [...]
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Awesome place!
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Nice visiting Disneyland again through the pictures
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Awesome Man, Too Good, Someday me too will visit.
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Walt Disney was sure a passionate & creative guy. Who could have thought of building such a big empire from a mouse!
Other things I loved about DL were a Space ship ride, a Barn plane ride, their Disney effect….. They can do a little better with the variety of food available inside though.
While they continue to improve….I will look for my super mouse idea
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Thanks for the tour. Enjoyed immensely.
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[...] Travelogy – Disney World Magic Kingdom [...]
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@Reema – Thanks!
@Poonam – Thanks. So you have visited Disney earlier? Florida or California?
@Chirag – Sure you should. It is a must see!
@Amlistening – You bet. Walt Disney was a man with great vision and foresight. Good luck with you super idea!
@Shail – Welcome to Amreekandesi! Glad you enjoyed the tour
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lovely. disney world is surely on my must visit list sometime in my life. I would love to play all those roller coasters. Am a very big fan of them. Tried them out in Singapore and Malaysia. Now, i want to try out some of the scary ones
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beautiful, I loved almoest all the rides, but specially that splash mountain and jungle cruise. For a day it feels as if i am living a dream, this is one park where I can go any no. of times.
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Orlando was my home for 4 years and also home of my alma mater…this post makes makes me all nostalgic!!!!!!
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Would you believe that in May we’re going on my 7th vacation to Walt Disney World? My husband’s 11th trip. And my first trip was in 2003.
I had no interest in WDW until my husband convinced me to go, and I’m a total mouse junkie now. Even when we plan to skip a year, one of us breaks and we end up doing it anyway (like this year).
Beautiful blue sky pic! For some reason, no matter how blue the sky is when we’re down there, it turns gray the second I whip out my camera!
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