My First Disney World Trip!

[coasternate]

Hey everybody! I'm Nate Holden, I'm 13 years old, and I recently went on my first trip to Disney World. I live in the Bay Area and go to Disneyland regularly, but this was my first visit to the Florida parks. I absolutely loved it! We spent 5-6 days in the park and then went on a 3 day Disney Cruise, but I'll get to that later. I overall loved Disney World and had an amazing experience. The magic bands were new to me and made the whole experience seamless and hassle-free. I also loved how the parks are like an entire city. In Disneyland, as soon as you leave the park you see gas stations and cheap motels, and it's a very un-Disney-like atmosphere. In Disney World, the parks make up almost like an entire city, filled with Disney theme parks, water parks and hotels. Also, since Disneyland is so cramped for space, the overall bigness (is that a word?) of Disney World was great. It felt more spread out, and everything (cough the castle cough) seemed to be on a much bigger scale. For these reasons, I thought it was better than Disneyland in California.

 

And disclaimer: This report is really long.

 

We flew to Florida from SF on Saturday the 18th. We got there in the evening and popped into Magic Kingdom for an hour or so. It was nighttime so we couldn't get a full impression of the park for the time we were there, but had a great time. I managed to ride Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Haunted Mansion in just the short time we were there. I loved the Florida Space Mountain and thought it was much better themed than the California version (at least before they changed it to Hyperspace Mountain.)

 

On Sunday, we went to Epcot. I absolutely loved Epcot, especially the World Showcase area. It was really cool to see all of the different countries and cultures. One of my favorite things was that the people working in the different country areas were actually born and raised in those countries. It brought an air of authenticity to it. The new Norway area is also beautiful, and the Frozen theming didn't take away from the experience at all. I'll talk more about the Frozen area later. I also liked Soarin', which had been redone to Soarin' over the World just days before we came. The new video was breathtaking. Test Track was fun too. The theming on the Cars ride back in California is much better, but Test Track was a whole lot faster on the outdoor part, so it was fun.

 

On Monday we went back to Magic Kingdom. Before I talk about anything else, I want to talk about the amazing experience I had on Haunted Mansion. Haunted Mansion (at least the California version) has always been one of my favorite rides, if not my favorite, in Disneyland. I love the theming and the music and the history and all of that. I was riding Haunted Mansion with my grandma when we got stuck right at the entrance to the graveyard scene. We were stuck there for maybe ten minutes when the music turned off. It was really creepy with the music off, actually. Then they turned the lights on. It was really cool to see everything with the lights on, it looked so different! Then they came to evacuate us. My DoomBuggie was the first one they evacuated! Then, we got to walk through almost the entire ride, backwards, next to the track, with the lights on. It was like a VIP tour! The Cast Members were really nice and even pointed stuff out to us ("Show them the hatchet." "Oh, yeah! There's a hatchet right there!") and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We even got some free FastPasses out of it!

 

I loved Magic Kingdom. It felt really similar to Disneyland, but bigger and with some different rides. Here's some quick takes on rides.

 

Snow White Mine Train: We rode this early in the morning to escape crazy lines. It was fun; I liked the train movements and the anamatronics.

Haunted Mansion: I love this ride. I already wrote a lot about it, so...

Big Thunder Mountain: Always fun. It's a blast in the back at night. I think I prefer the Disneyland version, however, because it has a better ending.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Very different from California. The queue has a very different vibe, and it doesn't have the Blue Bayou restaurant. The ride also seemed shorter, and it only had one drop as opposed to two. Still great fun!

Space Mountain: I loved it! The trains felt much more open then the one in California, and it was themed well. The queue was also awesome. At the exit, my family's names all showed up on a screen. I think they read our magic bands somehow. It was cool!

Splash Mountain: Always so fun! I liked the trains better than in California because you can seat 2 or 3 across. I love the music, the animatronics, and how it never seems to end.

Jungle Cruise: We had an amazing tour guide the first time. As we were leaving: "Now remember, I am not an anamatronic, I am a person too, with hopes.. and dreams.. and self esteem issues.." I love the ride, the jokes are corny but still great, and it's a different experience every time.

 

After Magic Kingdom, we monorailed to Epcot and got pastries and beer (not for me, I'm 13) in the World Showcase, then we took the boat to Hollywood Studios. I'll talk about that park later.

 

On to the next day:

 

Tuesday we went to Animal Kingdom. We didn't expect much. We were looking forward to Expedition Everest, but we didn't think we would do much else in the park other than maybe check out the animals. As it turned out, the park shattered out expectations. We expected it to be maybe a half day, if that, but we spent the entire day there. It was beautiful. Expedition Everest was also my favorite ride in any park. The Tree of Life was intricate and amazing. Here are some more of my quick takes on rides and shows we saw that day:

 

Expedition Everest: I loved it. The theming in the queue was great, and the ride was a blast. The drop after the part with the Yeti's shadow was great! The best part about the ride was the single rider line- No matter the standby line, I could get on the ride in under 5 minutes every time. I got 8 rides in!

Dinosaur: I didn't know what to expect but it was fun. It had the same ride movement system as Indiana Jones in Disneyland, which was awesome.

Finding Nemo: The Musical: I thought it was really fun! Finding Nemo isn't the movie I would necessarily expect to be turned into a 40 minute musical, but it was great! I'm actually listening to the soundtrack right now

The Jungle Book Show: Not great. Just not the best show. I didn't hate it, but it just wasn't very good. Felt like it was kind of thrown together.

 

On Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studios in the morning. This was my least favorite park. I didn't dislike it at all, but the rides (with the exception of Tower of Terror) weren't amazing and it felt almost exactly the same as California Adventure. The Star Wars fireworks were awesome, though. Here's my opinions on rides:

 

Tower of Terror: Amazing! Way better than the California version. I got the elevator that moves forward and backward both times. The first time that I rode I had a really cool bellhop guy who was having a lot of fun with his job, being intimidating and such. The ride was great!

Rock 'N Rollercoaster: Not great. I didn't expect much, even though many guests said they loved it. For some reason, I expected it to be the same layout as, say, Poltergeist at SFFT (not that I've ridden that but I thought it was the same layout). The launch was good but the ride was really short and not all that exciting.

Star Tours: I love this ride. Exactly the same as California though, so not much to say.

Toy Story Midway Mania: Always so fun. I'm not very good, but it's fun to beat your high score/the person next to you.

 

On Thursday, we went back to Epcot in the morning for the new Frozen ride. Somehow I missed the news that it had opened while we were there. I thought it would be at least another year. But we went in first thing in the morning to ride it. Unfortunately, there was a Magic Hour we didn't know about, so by the time we got there right at opening there was a 4 hour line. Then it broke down. We went to Disney Springs, then back to our hotel. We returned to Epcot in the evening with renewed determination to ride the ride. It was our last day and our last chance for a long time.

 

We got there right as it reopened- it had been closed much of the day- and there was a reported 3 hour line. My brother bailed, but I waited in line with my parents. We were prepared to wait 3 hours, but were surprised to discover that it only took just over an hour. The queue was beautiful as well.

 

The ride was great. The animatronics were amazing and I loved the Let it Go part. You go into a room where Elsa is singing, then you drop backwards and back away from Elsa as she sings in front of you, getting smaller and smaller, and ice is shattering all along the walls. It's a really cool effect. Then you have a big log fume-style drop, and I actually got a bit wet sitting in the front row. I even got to ride twice, and the line was only around an hour both times, even though both times it said the line was 3 hours.

 

That was the last ride we rode in the parks. The next day we went to our Disney cruise.

 

We went on a 3-day cruise aboard the Disney Dream. We left Friday and went to Nassua on Saturday and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, on Sunday. The ship was beautiful and the cruise was amazing. There was free ice cream and beautiful views and great musicals and an awesome waterslide. Let's start with the ice cream. There was a free soft serve station and you could get as many as you want! There were 4000 guests on board and at the end of the cruise the cruise director said we had gone through 18,000 ice cream cones!

 

There was also a Broadway-style musical every night. I thought they were great, and the final one, Believe, was amazing. The big waterslide on board, the AquaDuck, was really fun. It was in a clear tube and even went out over the edge of the ship! We rode it while at port in Castaway Cay a few times while there was no line.

 

Castaway Cay was beautiful. I ran the 5k in the morning, and it was pretty, if miserably hot. The water was amazing. I snorkeled and even saw a huge sea turtle!

 

I also watched Finding Dory aboard the ship late at night. I love Pixar, and Finding Dory is a great movie. It was the second time I had seen it, and I highly recommend it.

 

A lot of the time on the ship I spent hanging out at Edge. It is an area just for kids age 11-14 and it was really fun. The counselors there were amazing (most were from England or Australia, and were just awesome people) and there were cool activities. There is always something for kids to do on the ship.

 

The food on the ship was also great. There were 3 restaurants that we rotated between each night, and we had an excellent service team who followed us place to place. I have to give a shoutout to Craig, our amazing waiter. He was awesome. The restaurants were really cool, too- the Animator's Palate was all Finding Nemo themed and they even did a Turtle Talk with Crush thing on screens on the walls! This was my first ever cruise and it was an amazing experience that I'll make sure to do again.

 

Thanks for reading all of that. Here are some pictures. Sorry, many of the pictures are in portrait mode

Flying over the Sierras

Made it to Magic Kingdom!

Epcot!

I take German in school, so it was fun to see Germany

Haunted Mansion

Space Mountain with the lights on seen from the People Mover!

Expedition Everest! There was no bird on a stick

A view from the Animal Kingdom safari

Me on space mountain...

Magic Kingdom entrance. Looks just like Disneyland

Heavily Edited Tower of Terror!

Tree O' Life

Frozen ride entrance. 3 hours? Why not. It was only 1 actually

Anna and Elsa were really nice. I'm the taller one

The beautiful Disney Dream. That's all, thanks for reading!

[natejackcoastermom]

Can't wait to go back!

[ThemeParkJunkie51290]

Awesome report!

[ArgoZ]

Awesome vacation! Your family sure did it right with an added cruise. I will always remember my first trip to DW. Special memories. I like the Everest picture. Now, you have to come back and do all the Universal and Busch parks.