Disney World - The Magic Kingdom

After leaving Chicago, we needed a well earned rest. We had been on the road for over 2 and a half months, bouncing from city to city seeing all there is to see and more. So where do you go for such rest and relaxation? Well fortunately enough our next stop was DisneyWorld. We had been waiting for this stop for a long time, and for a long time it did feel like we were going to get the relaxation we had yearned for. But were we wrong. Dead wrong. During our 3 night stay, we had envisioned frolicking in the pool for hours, laying on sun beds and only using our legs to go seek food. While we knew we were doing two days of theme parks in between, we just had no idea how exhausting doing two parks in two days could be. We had never been worked so hard since climbing the mountain in Banff, or just living in New York City for the time we did. 

So below is our time in JUST ONE theme park, the Magic Kingdom. There was so much to do we will have to do a separate post for EPCOT. Enjoy!

We got a little bored on the plane ride to Orlando, and gum was our only amusement (despite having a laptop, a tablet each and a pack of cards)

During our stay in DisneyWorld we decided to stay in one of the Disney Park Resorts because it gave you the whole DisneyWorld experience, refer to my previous to post to find out more about the whole DisneyWorld Experience (rather than staying out of DisneyWorld in a different hotel).

Our Disney Resort, All Star Sports. 

As you can see, our particular section of the resort was tennis themed, hence the giant tennis balls. But you also had basketball, surf and a couple of others. 

The giant tennis court outside our room.

This was the start of the surf section of the resort. The life saving tower is actually a stair case up to the upper levels. 

This was our stair case up to the upper levels of the rooms, it was pretty cool. 

Straight through here was the pool area where they played various Disney movies on a big projector every night. 

A shot of the pool and the main building of the resort which had its own mini supermarket, gift store and a food court which had just begun renovations. 

So if you were unsatisfied with the food or activities in your own Disney Resort, you also had the option to go into downtown Disney. It was about a 30 minutes Disney bus ride (all free and included in your Disney Resort stay) and featured many cool themed restaurants and endless gift stores.

One of the cooler gift stores was the giant Lego store. All around the Lego store were various things made out of Lego, for example this dragon in the Disney Lagoon...

...And Buzz and Woody taking off from the RC car in the original Toy Story (classic moment). 

That night we decided to eat at a themed restaurant called T-Rex. You've probably guessed the theme already, but for those who didn't get it, it was dinosaurs. They had 5 or so different sections all depicting different geographical areas the dinosaurs lived in, and we were in the jungle. If you click on the panorama below you will see us in the jungle, and the blue was the ice cave. There was also underwater and I think volcano.

The front of our awesome themed restaurant. 

A panorama of inside T-Rex. 

Delicious delicious dinner. 

This was a shot taken in the Ice cave in the restaurant. 

DisneyWorld really is the most magical place on earth! Hands down. 

Words cannot describe how awesome DisneyWorld is. It literally makes you feel like a kid again, to the point where I made Lauren wake up at 7am just to be one of the first to enter in during its extended morning hours (only on the day we come, how awesome). But it was worth it, we breezed through all the rides and barely had to wait 5 minutes, which made it all totally worth it.

This is what your greeted with as you enter the park, the awe-inspiring Magic Kingdom in the distance through the Disney streets. . 

Christmas at Disney World is just magical.

I wanted a balloon, but it was just too impractical. 

Typical tourist shot in front of the Magic Kingdom.

Lauren had to get in on the action also. 

It wouldn't be DisneyWorld without a street parade or two. The parade was full of dancers and all different Disney characters.

Our favorite float, Toy Story.

More of the street parade.

I hope you're all ready for the abundance of Magic Kingdom photo's, because here they come!

Close up of Cinderella's castle. 

Magic Kingdom (Kristian wrote Magic Kingdom everywhere in this post but it is actually Cinderella's Castle, Magic Kingdom is the name of the park) far away, with two tourists posing in front of it. 

One of the many lands making up the Magic Kingdom. I think there were about 6 districts making up the grounds. 

Splash Mountain, one of the best rides in DisneyWorld. 

Side angle shot of the Magic Kingdom. 

Shot of Magic Kingdom with Mickey and the Crew. 

Shot of the Magic Kingdom with Walt himself and Mickey obstructing the view. 

Marching band in Main Street.

A few minutes after we took this photo on Splash Mountain Lauren copped an almighty splash of water to her whole face. It was beyond hilarious. 

Damn old guy in the front blocking our awesome photo.

One of the many Disney themed streets. 

Ariel's Grotto, it was a slow kids ride but we still went for the thrill. 

Under the sea with Ariel

We lined up for about 15 minutes (one of the longest lines we had experienced on the day) just for the ride to be over in about 8 seconds. 

If you look closely the name on the Starbucks cup says 'Princess Lauren'!

Another typical tourist shot in front of the Magic Kingdom. 

Splash Mountain

This was one of the best things I had eaten in a long time, and it was from a theme park can you believe it!
It was a jumbo Turkey Leg but we swear it was ham. Nonetheless delicious!

Conquer that beast!

We arrived at 8am, and we were still there at dusk, to say the least it was a long day. Little did we know it wasn't over yet.

This was Tomorrowland, which had the amazing space mountain contained within its walls. 

At this point it was about 7pm, so we had been in the park for no fewer than 11 hours so far. But when they lit up the Magic Kingdom like they did, we felt compelled to stay a bit longer. It was nothing short of spectacular.

It looked like an ice kingdom once it was lit up. 

Typical tourist shot in front of the Magic Kingdom. 

After a while, we decided we had seen enough of the Magic Kingdom at night, but as we were walking out, it started to (fake) snow! Little pepperminty flakes of foam sprinkled down in the Disney Main street, and while it added a little bit more magic to the sight of the Magic Kingdom, the damn stuff burned your eyes!

Fake snow falling in Disney Main Street. 

The height of the fake snow. 

A panorama of Main Street Disney while it was snowing with the Magic Kingdom in the background. 

So many damn people!

This is the last thing you see as you leave the Magic Kingdom, a mere 12 hours later. 

So that was our time in DisneyWorld, or just the Magic Kingdom, we will post an EPCOT blog sometime in the next couple of days then update everyone on how our relaxing time in Miami has been.

So until then!
Kristian & Lauren.