Disney in a Day
By Michele Blandino
Recently, my family and I found ourselves in Port Canaveral, Florida for a day, so we decided to take a trip to Disney World. Since neither of our kids had been there, we weren't particular about having to see certain attractions although we did strongly prefer to spend our time in the Magic Kingdom as opposed to one of the other parks.
A Valuable Reference
With a total of eight hours to spend in the Magic Kingdom, I was determined to make sure we were able to take in as much of the park as possible. However, as we began to plan our day, I quickly became overwhelmed with the enormity of plotting a course that would maximize our kid's ability to have a sampling of all the park had to offer.
One tool that I found to be extremely valuable in this effort was the Walt Disney World Resort edition of the Passporter travel series. This book, which is updated on a regular basis, contains a section for each park, including a highly detailed map.
The book also provides details about each ride and attraction including age appropriateness, duration and a brief description. We found this information to be particularly helpful while in the park as we tried to assess whether waiting on lines in excess of 20 minutes was worth the effort. In general, we opted to by-pass lines that were in excess of 20 minutes and instead invested the time moving on to other attractions.
Cutting our Losses
With a seven year-old and two-year old along for the day, there were some attractions that simply did not make our list for the day: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain were scratched from our itinerary in favor of the gentler Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Mad Tea Party and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Because it was a brutally hot day, we tried to alternate between outdoor rides and indoor shows. This strategy seemed to work out well; the air conditioning in the theaters where Country Bear Jamboree, Tiki Birds and Hall of Presidents was refreshing and enabled us to rejuvenate ourselves before heading out to the next line.
The Final Tally
By day's end, we had ridden 5 rides (Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, and Tomorrowland Transit Authority), saw 4 shows (Country Bear Jamboree, Carousel of Progress, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Hall of Presidents), spent time wandering through Mickey's Toon Town, and met scores of Disney characters. We also walked through Cinderella Castle, ate ice cream on Main Street and purchased the requisite mouse ears for the kids.
Planning Your Trip
Should you find yourself with the opportunity to visit the Magic Kingdom or any of the Orlando Disney parks for a day, take the time to plan your visit. This will help you to identify the attractions you most want to see. Using a book like Passporter is an excellent way to get started.
