It's definitely been more than a few days since my last post. Getting back to Utah and settling into our new lives here has been busier than ever. Work, Solomon, friends and family have kept us busy in a very good way! This post will be on the first two parks we saw at Disney World and the next post will be on the other two parks we saw.
I have never been to any of the Disney properties and that's never really broken my heart but Christopher and I were excited to spend 2 solid days at Disney World. Since neither of us knew a whole lot about Disney World and how the parks worked it felt a little overwhelming when my relatives were giving us tips on how to do everything. But, once I had the app downloaded and our tickets linked on the app it all made perfect sense and I became quite the fastpass queen :) Solomon has to be the most amazing baby in the entire world. I know you're not supposed to brag about stuff but we are super duper thankful for this little man in our lives! He was amazing both days at the parks. There's not a lot of free range grassy areas so he lounged in his Cadillac of strollers or road on Christopher's shoulders all day both days. We would lay the stroller down and he happily took a two hour nap both days and loved being around all of the people. He waved at everyone and made a lot of friends on the bus rides. People liked to say how magical things are at Disney and I'm not sure what that's supposed to look like but we did have a really fun experience there :)
Animal Kingdom - we went to this park first and arrived about 9:30am after all the shuttles and buses we took to get there. We stayed at a good neighbor hotel that had only been open for 8 weeks and has a free shuttle to and from Epcot. Animal Kingdom was actually our favorite park. It's basically like a massive adventure zoo. It's the largest park by far with it's 600 acres. As soon as we entered the park someone who worked there told us the route he recommended and it worked out really well for us. You don't really want to jump from section to section in this park because of it's large size. They have taken 40 acres of the park to build the new Avatar attraction.
We started in Africa and man, it really looked like Africa. There was a show going on in the middle of the street with some singers and dancers from Africa. That's a really cool thing about Disney anytime you are in a different country they have people from that country working there. We went to the Lion King show and Solomon screamed and clapped the whole time! He was asleep when we went in and we ended up on the 3rd row so when he woke up to the loud music, lights and people in crazy costumes dancing around we weren't sure if he'd be ok but he spit his pacifier out so he could yell (sing) the whole time :)
The whole time you're in Animal Kingdom there are different walks you can do through different exhibits with different animals. It's like being at a zoo but it all felt very natural and like you were in that country or their habitat not a man made area with an elephant walking in circles. They only have animals that are in that country so the safari was really fun through Africa and we got to see a lot of animals. You're in a really awesome looking vehicle with the sides open like a safari truck and you drive on a path that they've made look like it's going through water and mud and crazy dips but it's just a path. The giraffes (some were babies) walked across our trail and right beside the truck and Solomon's face was so funny! His jaw dropped to the floor and he watched them the whole time!
Asia was the next destination at Animal Kingdom
where there are tall buildings with monkeys hanging around in the India area and Mount Everest in the Nepal area. Everywhere you looked you saw that country and they blended so well together with all the greenery and animals you couldn't tell you went from one to the other. We really enjoyed all of Animal Kingdom but it was time to go to the next park.. Magic Kingdom!
Magic Kingdom - now this is where the magic is! Princesses everywhere (half of them I didn't know because i didn't watch princess movies growing up - I liked Calamity Jane :)) Mickey
and Minnie with all their friends were easy to see. Basically we felt this park was A.D.D because everywhere you looked there was a parade or a show or something to see or do. It was a lot to take in. It was crazy to us how different all 4 of the parks are. There are very specific and all very well done. The parade was a lot of fun to watch and it stops a lot of traffic so if you didn't want to watch the parade you could go to the other side of the park and probably have great luck with getting on rides. But we wanted to watch it and we enjoyed it. Within this park were several other parks. You had Dinoland - a Carnival - Frontierland and several others. Each on of those parks (sections whatever you'd like to call them) have their own shops - rides - characters to get pictures with and so on. The castle was, of course, super pretty and whimsical... even with a massive crane sticking out the side of it :) Here's a little tip for everyone that when you offer to take someone's picture or they ask you to take their picture actually get the thing they are wanting in the picture.... In the picture :) I don't know why people seem to be so terrible at this haha! See us with half of the magical castle below :)
Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios Parks will be on
the next post.