Top five favorite things to do in Disney World's Magic Kingdom

I'm sure that many of you know that I am a Disney fanatic and if you don't know then where have you been?!

I took my first trip to the magical world of Disney in 2015 with my bestie Amber and I never looked back! I have been a total of 4 times now and I feel like I have developed my top 5 favorite things to do while in the Magic Kingdom and I wanted to share those with you today!

1. My absolute hands down number one favorite is watching Wishes. Wishes is the fireworks show that happens at Cinderella's castle every night. I cry and sing a long and any trip I go on to Disney I HAVE to see Wishes. There is just something so magical and Disney-esque about it and even when I'm not at Disney I will watch YouTube videos of the fireworks show because I just love it that much!

2. Ariel's Under the Sea ride. Even though Aurora is my favorite princess Ariel is my second favorite princess so I always have to find time to make it to this ride. I normally want to ride this one at least twice because the lines are usually never more than a 15 minute wait and being that Ariel is one of my favorite princesses I love being able to ride through the movie of The Little Mermaid!

3. Big Thunder Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster is, according to me, the best roller coaster at Disney's Magic Kingdom. It has the best turns and drops of any of the other rides in this particular park and the best spot to ride is is the back. When Daniel and I went for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (Which you can read about here) there was no wait time, which is unusual, for this ride and we rode it 3 times in a row and it was awesome. Any time I am going I always reserve a fastpass for this ride because it is a very popular one with long wait times.

4. Meeting characters. Since I didn't start going to Disney World until my adult life I have had an anxiety about meeting characters for the first time and for the first few trips I made I was always terrified and didn't know what to say when meeting them. It was only this last trip I took, less than a month ago, that I really became comfortable with meeting characters and I started to enjoy it. During my last trip to Disney it rained a little bit towards the end of the day and so lines to meet characters were super short and I met a total of 8 characters in Magic Kingdom 5 of which I had never met before!

5. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This is the other roller coaster type ride in Disney's Magic Kingdom and I always use a fastpass for this ride because wait times are normally 60 plus minutes long. It is a fun ride but it is a more tame version of a roller coaster. I love being able to watch the dwarfs sing heigh-ho in the middle of the ride and see Snow White in the dwarves house at the end of the ride. It is a really quick ride but definitely one to do when at Magic Kingdom.

What are some of your favorite things to do in Disney's Magic Kingdom? Did I mention your favorite thing or ride? Let me know! Let's talk about all things Disney! Tweet me (@thejesslauren) or leave a comment!

xoxo Jess

My first Disney World experience

At the beginning of January my best friend and I decided to take a trip to the magical world of Disney. The first thing you should know about me is that I LOVE Disney. The princesses, the movies... when I was little I would always have on a Disney shirt, or shoes, I had every Disney character in a stuffed form (yes of course they all slept in my bed), my first bike was Lion King... you get the point. For some reason my parents never took me there when I was younger and as I got older I just never really thought about it so this trip was something I was very much looking forward to.

We only spent two days in Disney parks but two days was enough to seal the deal. I was hooked and my life would never be the same. Today, I wanted to share my top 3 experiences while in Disney!

1 The characters. This was probably my favorite part honestly. Getting to meet various Disney characters and having them interact with me made my inner 6 year old squeal with glee. Growing up my favorite princess was Aurora (or Sleeping Beauty) so getting to meet her was so much fun. We also met various other characters as well. Every time we would be close to the front of the line I would get SO nervous and it made my best friend giggle because she thought I was being silly but I was so overwhelmed by everything it just made me want to pass out from excitement! Getting to interact with characters for the first time that had become a part of your life is a BIG DEAL!
Below are some pictures of us meeting various characters!

 

 

2 The shows. By this I mean the night time light and fireworks shows. They were so emotional for me. I literally cried watching Celebrate the Magic and Wishes for the first time (both times lets be honest). They were truly something to see. You can watch tons of videos of them on YouTube but nothing beats being there in person and watching Tinkerbell fly from the castle and having the music surrounding you and just being in the moment. It was truly amazing. This again made me feel like I was 6 again and I honestly could have watched it a million times over and still not have gotten sick of it. 

I took a few shots during Wishes and goodness Cinderella's castle is gorgeous! 

Celebrate the magic video (Here is a little link  to a video someone made if you want to watch the Celebrate the Magic shows that we watched while there)

We also got to see Fantasmic, which was honestly SO cool. This show followed the plot line of Mickey having a dream and showing you how your dreams can come to life. Watching it just gave me chills because of how they bring everything to life in such an amazing way. They had lights displayed on water shooting out of the ground and fire works and it was just something to experience. Seeing so many of my favorite characters in one show just added to the emotions I had (Yes okay I cried during this one too).

3 The atmosphere. This is definitely a big part of the Disney magic and the experience that you get when you are there. The people who work in the parks are all so friendly and wonderful and it makes the trip so nice when you have workers who actually look like they love their jobs. They were all so happy and would greet you with warm smiles and a cheery hello and it just added to the enjoyment. 

The parks themselves also added to the atmosphere. Everything you see such as the artistry that goes into even the smallest things makes it so magical as well. I remember we were walking through Cinderella's castle and the walls on the inside had little marble murals of the story of Cinderella and other princesses. It just made that such a memorable moment, just walking through somewhere. 

Having settings and places come to life that you have only seen in Disney movies is such an amazing thing to experience! You see things like Rapunzel's tower, Ariel's grotto, the Beast's castle... it is all just so amazing how they bring all of those magical places to life! 

These are a few pictures I took of various areas in the park. The first is when you are walking through Cinderella's castle, the second is inside the Beast's castle, and the last one is Rapunzel's tower.

There were so many things to see and do and we obviously only got to do a few of them but I will forever remember this trip because it made me fall in love with Disney even more than I already did and okay yes I watch videos of the shows almost weekly because I get a little sad that I'm not there at that moment. We spent most of our time in Magic Kingdom (because why wouldn't you) but we also ventured into Epcot and Hollywood Studios as well! 

This experience has made me only want to continue to go back again and again and create even more memories in the most magical place on earth!

If you have ever been to Disney what was one of your favorite parts? Who was your favorite character to meet? Do you have any funny stories? I would love to hear about your experiences!

xoxo Jess