Disney's Magic Kingdom: Create Your Fairytale

My today’s post will be dedicated to our one day excursion to Disney’s Magic Kingdom located in sunny Orlando, Florida. Orlando itself is a host to many different amusement parks, including four different Disney parks, two Universal Studios parks, two Sea World parks, and many other individual parks. Having all these choices does make it difficult to plan a vacation, since you only have a finite amount of vacation days and even a more finite budget. Admission to these parks does get pretty steep, with Magic Kingdom being one of the more expensive choices. My fiancee and I paid around $250 dollars to get a one-day admission ticket to Magic Kingdom. So you can only imagine what a week long vacation there will cost you. The best way to travel to Orlando is to find package deals or promotions. By doing so you would be able to get tickets and lodging at cheaper rates. But anyways, today’s post is not about the cost of the Magic Kingdom, but rather about what awaits you inside. So let’s begin!

The park grounds

As soon as you enter the gates of Magic Kingdom and find yourself inside of the park grounds, you can tell that you are part of a multi-billion conglomerate. Everything in the park is pretty impressive, from the design of the buildings to the flowers and trees that are planted along the streets. Disney does a really good job of keeping the place tidy, clean and presentable. Even if there is some construction or renovation going on in different parts of the park, it does not stand out from the overall park theme.

There are various themed sections within the park. The main section of the park at the entrance is called Main Street, USA. By taking a stroll down the main street, you will find yourself by the castle which is known to probably everyone in the world, the Cinderella castle. Cinderella castle is the one that shows up during the opening sequence of every Disney movie. What is really cool about the castle is that there is a passage through it and you can actually walk underneath it. Additionally, there is an attraction there called Cinderella’s Royal Table which is a dinner with your favorite characters. It is a pretty popular attraction so if you are planning on dining with the princesses you better plan accordingly and make reservations in advance!

Other sections of the park include Liberty Square which features colonial style buildings, Adventureland with its jungles and desert themes, western-themed Frontierland, Fantasyland for younger visitors, and finally Tomorrowland which is put together in a sci-fi and futuristic manner. One thing I would have to say is that you should not expect crazy and adrenaline-filled rides while at Disney. Majority of the attractions are there not to give you thrills but rather to provide some sort of entertainment. There are only few rides there that would give you a rush and even then, the wait line for these attractions is pretty long. We were in the Magic Kingdom on a Thursday in early May. According to the Disney calendar, the time before the school is out across the country and thousands of tourists from all over the US come to Orlando is considered slow. This was not truly the case, however, as there were still a lot of people in the park and some popular rides had an hour long wait. I guess it does get worse since the day we were there was actually considered slow by the park's employees.

The parade

One of the main attractions that Magic Kingdom has to offer is its parade. In prior years, Disney used to hold the parade during night hours, however, recently they moved the parade to the afternoon. It starts of in the Frontierland section of the park, moves towards the Cinderella Castle and then concludes by the entrance to the park. The parade features floats with different characters from Disney movies and cartoons. All of the floats are accompanied by the support cast wearing corresponding costumes and performing some sort of a choreographic routine. The entire parade is done with such quality that it is rather impressive and makes you not want to leave your spot. From the costumes to the cast, everything looks very organic and believable. I would say that the parade at Magic Kingdom is something you would not want to miss because it is a spectacular show which happens only once a day!

The fireworks and the light show

Once the sun sets over the park, you get to see all of the attractions and the decorations in a different light (pun intended). The atmosphere within the park becomes even cozier once the streets are lit by the streetlights and the lights from the stores. Of course the main event that everyone waits for once it gets dark is the light show and the fireworks. The fireworks show is sponsored by the Pandora company, probably in the exchange to Disney letting Pandora open its store inside the park. Business must be booming for Pandora, because the fireworks show happening over the Cinderella Castle is no joke. Going for probably good fifteen minutes, numerous fireworks go off behind the castle which has different projections cast onto its walls. It does get pretty crowded around the castle grounds so you need to get there some time in advance to get a good viewing spot.

A little bit after the fireworks show, there is a light show called “Once Upon a Time” which brings Cinderella Castle to life with projections of Disney’s most iconic scenes and characters. This is the last attraction of the day and once the final light goes off on the castle, it is a good indication that your time at Magic Kingdom is coming to an end. What I found funny is that while the park’s hours state that Magic Kingdom closes at 10pm, the stores are located by the entrance/exit and are open till 11pm. Obviously, these stores are extremely crowded during the park closing hours and are probably making half of the daily revenue in just that one hour.

Kirill Abdul Photography

Disney’s Magic Kingdom: Create Your Fairytale