We knew from the start that this Disney World trip would be different from when Hong and I visited back in 2006 and 2007. We had a large group with varying ages and preferences, so coordination and compromises were part of the expectation. Some of our children were quite young and didn’t meet the minimum height requirement for certain rides. Taller children may even be reluctant to get on the more exciting stuff. Also, the grandparents who didn’t care for the theme parks were hanging outside, so we should make a point to spend time with them. Truth be told, none of us probably had the energy to run around from rope drop to park close any more, anyway.
Our itinerary was planned out to start and end on high notes (e.g. not Epcot or Hollywood Studios), while evenly spacing out pool time for the kids and meals with the grandparents. It turned out petty well.
Animal Kingdom
A lot of people seemed to think poorly of Animal Kingdom for some reason, and avoid it during their Orlando trips. Vic and Brian were of this impression so they opted to skip it and spend an extra day with their kids in Magic Kingdom. Hong and I loved it back then and still did now. Xuan and Ting, visiting for the first time, also agreed with us that Animal Kingdom was the best of the four parks.
As zoo lovers, we naturally found the (fake) safari and the bird show quite appealing. Hong and I re-lived the top thrills of our younger days with Expedition Everest (the kids sat this one out), and everyone had a blast at Kali River Rapids.
The best ride of the entire trip was also here – Avatar: Flight of Passage. It was an amazing simulation of flying on a banshee, riding with 3D glasses on individual bike-like mounts. Like a more modern version of Soarin’, multiple stories of riders were put in front of a gigantic screen. The mount tilted and jerked with the banshee’s flying motions, and blew air and sprayed water for effect. It felt so awesome… and we were fortunate enough to do it twice.
Animal Kingdom opened an hour earlier than other parks. Thanks to our early entry as Disney-adjacent hotel guests, we were able to get in by 7:30. This really helped us knock out a big part of the park before the Florida heat started getting unpleasant.
Epcot
We didn’t think that Epcot had enough to keep the children engaged, and thus only spent the late afternoon and evening at this park. The aquarium was nice as I remembered. The nearby Soarin’ and Living with the Land featured futurism of the mid-20th century, which felt rather odd. The World Showcase was fantastic, though it was a bit hard to enjoy the scenery with young kids. Even the fireworks show at night wasn’t appreciated by all, as the young ones found it too loud.
The best ride was Ratatouille, a combination of 3D glasses and those RFID-based self-driving pods to simulate the frantic experience of a mouse in a kitchen. Hong got extremely motion sick from it, though, unfortunately.
Hollywood Studios
This park had some sort of identity crisis – Hollywood themed streets, Toy Story, and Star Wars each took up a third of it. While all three were well loved, they were rather disjointed franchises. It felt a bit strange walking from one world to another.
When the adults took turns riding the classic stuff (Tower of Terror and Rock N’ Roller Coaster), Xuan and Ting who didn’t care for the thrill took care of Alex and Livia who were too short to be admitted. Later we all had a blast with Toy Story Mania, a favorite for our family. We also did Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and found small differences between here and the California version. The new ride for all of us was Mickey’s Runaway Railway, an RFID-based pod ride without 3D glasses simulating a train in a chaotic cartoon.
It was really hot on the day of our visit and shade was limited. I got a bit of heat stroke toward the end of it.
Magic Kingdom
The most Disney of all Disney World parks was saved for the last. We used our early-entry privilege again here and were able to beat the crowd to a couple rides in Tomorrowland.
Unfortunately, the newest attraction – Tron – was inaccessible until the official park opening time. All the adults wanted to check it out, so we used rider swap and took turns entertaining the children. This ride was a roller coaster with individual bike-like mounts chained to the track, going both inside and outside the building. While we didn’t care for the movie, this roller coaster was a fantastic experience.
Magic Kingdom had a lot more rides than other parks, with a full range from slow kiddy trains/boats to high thrills like the Tron Cycle. Thus our group had to makes quite a few choices splitting up in different directions. Vic and Brian were the only ones that did Space Mountain. Hong and Vic did the Haunted Mansion by themselves. Vic, Ting, and I went for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (formerly Splash Mountain), while Hong and some of the kids waited for Peter Pan. Nobody got to try out Seven Dwarves Mine Train. The only ride that all eight of us did together was Pirates of the Caribbean. It worked out better than a single pair of parents juggling young children, and thus having to sacrifice many things entirely. But it also felt a bit strange how fragmented the day went, and was difficult to relax until it was time for dinner
When Hong and I visited back in 2006 and 2007, Disney World was indeed the Happiest Place on Earth. Younger, far more naive, and seeing it all for the first (and second) time, I was as excited about everything as those Youtubers today. I wanted to see every corner of the premise, ride every ride, and (if only I had the money) bring home all sorts of trinkets from the gift shops.
Coming back after 18 years was a completely different experience. While I still did enjoy it, I couldn’t as easily bring myself to suspend any disbelief. Xuan and Ting had also aged beyond when they’d eagerly wait for princess autographs… which was a net positive given our family’s preference for keeping things real, but it’d be a lie if I claimed to not at all miss their more innocent childhood days.
Disney World 2025
- A Family Reunion in Orlando
- Walt Disney World Parks
- Financing A Disney Vacation
- Getting Around
No Comments