When you travel to Orlando, Disney World is the place that you must go to. Orland Disney World is the largest theme park in the world! It has 6 different theme parks. This includes Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studio, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach. Each theme park definitely require you to spend at least a day there. During this trip, we only went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot due to time constraint.
Our flight arrived at 9 am in the morning and we rented a car from Enterprise. I would recommend you to rent a car so that you can go to other places such as Universal Studio and Orlando Downtown. The first place we went to is Disney Downtown. Disney Downtown does not require any admission fee. There is a lot of Disney themed store there and it pretty much make you feel like you are walking in the theme park. There is also a huge LEGO store at Disney Downtown with lots of giant LEGO sculptures outside and inside the store! There is also a lot of famous restaurant at Disney Downtown. The one we went to is the Boat House. The Boat House serves amazing sea food! The crab like is so tender and juicy!
Later in the afternoon, we went shopping at Orlando International Premium Outlet. The mall is bigger than what I expected and actually has quite a few luxury brands. Like many other premium outlet malls, parking is extremely hard to find and many people simply park their cars on the side of the road. If you are not a resident of Orland, I would recommend you to follow the rules and find a proper parking space.
After dinner, we checked in into the hotel. This time we stayed at Best Western on Universal Boulevard. This Best Western hotel offers a pretty good rate at the time that only cost us $85 a night. The location of the hotel is also very convenient for us since we plan to go to both Disney World and Universal Studio.
The next day we went to Magic Kingdom first. The parking lot of Magic Kingdom is huge! I have never seen such a big parking lot! There are people at the parking lot guiding the traffic so you can't just park your car anywhere. Once you parked your car, you will take the monorail to the front gate. If you get there before the park opens, you will be able to participate the gate opening ceremony. The ceremony is not really a big deal, so don't worry about it if you missed it.
When you enter Magic Kingdom, you can start with Tomorrow Land and go through the whole park counter clockwise. There are rides offering Express Pass, so make sure you make use of this. As you would expect, the food at the theme park is extremely expensive but I would recommend getting yourself a turkey leg! The turkey leg is huge! I can barely finish the whole leg myself! Magic Kingdom is also where the Cinderella Castle is at. The Cinderella Castle is actually a very fancy and luxury restaurant. In order to dine there, you have to make reservation 6 month early! In addition, there are parades during the day and night. You can get the schedule of the parade at the information center. When the parade is about to start, make sure you pick a good spot to watch the parade. In my opinion, the parade during the day isn't that interesting. The parade at night is a must see though. At 9pm, there will be cool projections on the castle and there will be fire works afterwards.
Epcot is another theme park that you must visit. It is known to have a spherical structure at the entrance of the theme park. Epcot is split into 2 sections. The front section has all the rides that shows you a lot of cool technology. Many of them are futuristic and has a very long line up. So make sure you arrive early and use express pass wisely. In addition, I want to note that the Mars Mission ride offers 2 different options; intense and less intense option. If you have high blood pressure, you should take the less intense option. The back section has all the cultural stuff from many different nations. You get to see all the different interesting cultures and get to experience them. Each nation owns a pavilion and all the nation's pavilions surrounds the lake in the center. Each nation's pavilion also offers food and music. Thus it is a perfect place to go for lunch and dinner after a long fun day.
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