Walt Disney World: Magic Kingdom Park
In New York, schools are in the midst of mid-winter break and my 12 year old son’s vacation wish was to head to Walt Disney World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for the holiday. There’s a lot of available information on visiting Disney World Parks and Universal Studios. This guide won’t be comprehensive but just to share some tips that I found helpful and some experiences and eats that I think are worth sharing with you to help plan your perfect Disney World trip.
First, I highly recommend staying at one of the Disney World resort hotels. The perks of resort to parks transportation, and discounts on your daily passes make your overall experience more enjoyable and relaxing. Additionally, you get early access to the Disney parks allowing you to get on your favorite rides before the real crowds and long waits start. Related, I also recommend you pre-order Disney Magic bands. Again, the ease with which you can enter the parks, your hotel room, access photos, and enter fast pass lanes makes it worth the extra money. It’s also a fun experience for each member of your party to select their Disney themed band. Finally, do not wait to make dinning reservations. They open 60 days in advance, and you will need to jump on it to secure the dining experiences you want (for sit-down, full-service meals). Also keep in mind, even if you have passes you need to book the Disney Park/s for the days you want to visit.
Disney World: Magic Kingdom Rides
Of course, you’ll want to use the Disney Genie (available on the Disney app) to assist you with the perfect Disney day. While there is some debate as to whether Disney Genie + Fast Pass and lightening lane is worth it, we definitely enjoyed using these features. Just keep in mind, with fast pass, you can make one reservation every two hours. Begin your reservations at 7:00 am and then just set your alarm every two hours to get the most out of the app. Using fast pass and lightening lane we got through 13 rides in 13 hours which included a long lunch, shopping, and watching the parades. Here are the rides we went on. Loved them all. We’ve all been to Disneyland, and some of the international parks—Shanghai Disney and Tokyo Disney—so we knew what we would enjoy and used that as our guide.
Space Mountain
Tomorrowland Speedway
Monsters Inc Laugh Lounge
Peter Pan’s Flight
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Jungle Cruise
Splash Mountain
Mad Hatter Teacups
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Barn Stormer
Disney World: Magic Kingdom Eats
Tony’s Town Square Restaurant
For our family, we find it important to have at least one restaurant reservation per day at the Disney World parks. It’s a nice time to relax and enjoy a good meal in between the excitement of running around from ride to ride. Based on Lady and the Tramp, Tony’s Town Square restaurant was the perfect Italian cuisine to enjoy for a day at the Magic Kingdom.
Bread and Beverages
Our drinks were brought to the table with bread butter, and olive oil. Nothing exceptional here but it was a nice bite after a long morning in the park. There is a full bar and lemonades and sodas to choose from.
Antipasti
We kept the antipasti simple with a fresh and delicious garden salad.
Garden Salad
Mixed Greens, Balsamic Dressing, Olive Medley, Marinated Artichokes, Tomato, and Shaved Rainbow Carrots
Secondi Piatti
We always share our dishes and the entire table agreed that the scampi pasta was the winning dish of the day. The pasta was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the seafood tasted fresh.
Scampi Pasta
freshly made Linguine Pasta, Shrimp, Mussels, Spinach, Tomatoes, and Onions in Herb-Butter Sauce
Secondi Piatti
I was pleasantly surprised to find that all our dishes were in fact really well executed and tasty. Fettuccine Alfredo is a classic favorite of my son’s and he enjoyed this dish.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Herb-grilled Chicken Breast with Fettuccine and Alfredo Sauce.
Secondi Piatti
The sustainable fish dish of the day was a grilled salmon served with sun dried tomatoes, spinach and a boursin polenta. It was delicious.
We skipped dessert to save room for Magic Kingdom park treats but we did get a sweet recreation of the Lady and the Tramp pasta moment.
Main Street Bakery
This is basically a Starbucks with some Disney themed sweets. It’s perfect for your caffeine fix and the themed Disney Parks cups add to the experience.
Casey’s Corner
While Lynette and I were ready for our caffeine fix, Jack was ready for a snack and a cool drink. Casey’s Corner required you pre-order and pick up. He got fries and a frozen lemonade. He loved the lemonade. The fries were a little stale. This is why it’s good to book a full-service dining experience at Disney World to be sure that you eat something you’ll really enjoy.
You cannot visit Disney theme parks without partaking in some of their famed Dole whip. Right after riding the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster we cooled off with Snow White lemon Dole whip. The bird and bow chocolate pieces were a nice thematic touch.
We decided to have an evening bite just before leaving Magic Kingdom for the day and so the crowds were very low. My son ordered the turkey leg from Sleepy Hollow. He had wanted one earlier in the day as a snack but they don’t begin serving turkey legs until 7:00 p.m. For a healthy dinner option, Lynette and I had vegetarian salads at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Cafe. Both experiences were fine.
