Disney is coined the Happiest Place on Earth, or the Most Magical Place on Earth... how could someone pass up on that? I've been here several times with my family, you know, as a kid, but I managed to convince hubby that even as an adult it would be cool. And they have a Star Wars section now, so how bad could it be?
Well, there goes the budget again... It is an extremely expensive place to visit, but fortunately, it's a little cheaper if you buy for only one park a day. And I don't even know how you could visit two in a day anyway, to be honest. We planned to visit Hollywood Studios on the first day, then Magic Kingdom on the second day. We'll have to go back at some point to check out Animal Kingdom! Oh and by the way, matching shirts are the way to do Disney, so yeah, we were matchy-matchy.
The place we were most looking forward to visiting is, of course, the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge section of the park. There were numerous downpours that morning, but that ended up playing in our favour as there were much fewer people than usual. We actually waited reasonable lengths of time in line for rides, we were almost alone in the museum portion and to get a picture with BB-8, and we got our food pretty fast. We were really amazed by the feeling of really being on another planet! That's one thing Disney does fantastically, covering up everything that looks ordinary to make it extraordinary. I'm not the biggest fan of Star Wars, but I think I was even more excited than hubby! Here are a few pictures of the market and shops, to give you a feel for it.
I really enjoyed the critter stall, and I would have loved to bring a pet back! Especially that cutie pie-faced thing in the cage.
We saw a lot of characters from the movies, and I love how they were committed to their role. Like, Chewbacca wanted nothing to do with 40-year-old daddy wanting a selfie, and Stormtroopers were suspicious of anyone with a piece of tech in hand, i.e. just about everyone. We also needed an interpreter to speak with BB-8, but isn't he adorable? 🥰
That last picture is from one of the Jedi Trainings, where little kids get to fight against Darth Vader and Kylo Ren... pretty epic! Except for that one little girl who was crying the whole time. 😂
I mean, who wouldn't want to be this powerful?
The rides were really cool, especially the Millenium Falcon! Hubby and I ended up being pilots, with four other little kids gunning and stuff. There are also many shows during the day, which makes it even more magical!
It was even more epic at night, when we went for another stroll in the market, and out for a drink at the Cantina! All that was missing was a second moon.
The DJ-robot was pretty good, not just the drinks!
Oh and we built ourselves a robot at the Droid Depot. Just because. 💸
And here is BB-6UN (get it? like a BB gun...)!
But Hollywood Studios is not just Star Wars, although we did spend the majority of the day at Galaxy's Edge. Interestingly enough, I remembered the Hollywood Tower Hotel ride pretty accurately, although I must have been around 6 or 7 when I was last there. It is terrifying and absurdly fun! The Little Mermaid show, the Beauty and the Beast Broadway-style show, and Toy Story Land were all great, too. It made us so nostalgic!
There's also stuntmen from the Indiana Jones movies that recreate scenes from the movies on a set periodically throughout the day, and it is jaw-dropping! Here's one of those scenes.
And because it's Indiana Jones, he had to be fighting a whole bunch of Nazis while running around an out-of-control plane as the set was exploding... Really, these people are amazing. We have so much respect for people in the movie industry!
But the most magical moment was at the end of the night, just before the park closed, when everyone was just sitting in the middle of the main plaza for the fireworks show. It's really hard to describe how awesome it is, and wow, it just keeps coming! You think it's over, and there's another part to the show. Hubby cried.
Our second day at Magic Kingdom started with a boat ride (when you get to the parking, you can either take the monorail or the ferry), and yet other showers here and there. This time, however, it was packed. I guess this park always is... We chose to check out the tree house, try the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (I remembered this one quite well!), and we bought some Nightmare Before Christmas merch.
We also went on the famous It's a Small World ride! This is such a classic. 😊
And we managed to catch the parade! There were so many people, I was surprised we could see it... The kids had such adorable faces whenever a character would wave at them. And that fire-spitting Maleficent dragon! 🐉😱
We also visited Tomorrowland (definitely not our favourite part of the park, but a nice place to spend time out of the rain), and we checked out Cinderella's palace of course. The best part of the day however was that we managed to get reservations at the Crystal Palace for the dinner buffet with Winnie the Pooh! We were so excited for it, and we were not disappointed. They even had the kids do parades with the characters around the restaurant, which was adorable. And the food was delicious!
And then, of course, were the fireworks and light displays to close the park. And it was my turn to cry my eyes out. It's really difficult to explain, it's just... overwhelmingly magical and nostalgic. Here's a little sample of the magic!
Then came the really horrible part of trying to get back to the parking lot. You can see from the videos that we were a lot of people getting back to their car, so it was zero fun from here. In hindsight, we should have waited for the ferry, as the buses were really slow to take us back. If you're curious, it took around an hour and a half to get back to the parking lot. 😒
So that was it for Disney! Ridiculously expensive, but definitely immersive and magical. And with that began the most (mentally) difficult part of the trip: slowly heading back north, towards home. But there were still plenty of places to stop along the way! Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL;DR: Disney World is a place you must visit once in your life. It is indeed the Most Magical (and expensive) Place on Earth! With limited time, we visited Hollywood Studios (which has Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge) and Magic Kingdom. Get there early, try all the rides (and book a VIP spot on the app), try out the food and experiences, and stay late for the fireworks and light displays! 🤩 Our favourites: everything Star Wars, the Crystal Palace Dining with Pooh, and Hollywood Tower.
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