WDW Parades

In general, I'd say that Mark and I aren't huge fans of parades. However, the parades at Disney World, like so many other things, are in a category of their own. Still, there were only two parades we scheduled time to go see, both at the Magic Kingdom: the Main Street Electrical Parade and the new Festival of Fantasy Parade.

We saw the Main Street Electrical Parade on our first night there, arriving early to secure a good spot to view the parade and fireworks. We had fond memories of the previous evening parade, SpectroMagic, so we were excited. Unfortunately, we both felt like the current parade (actually a resurrection of an older one) isn't as good as SpectroMagic; it must have a big following because of nostalgia. Also, it had really annoying music, which never sits well with Mark. Still, it's pretty impressive to see the number of lights used to create the floats.

The Festival of Fantasy parade just started this year, and we were all set to watch it one afternoon, but it got rained out. I do have this one picture from our first day, when we arrived to the park just as the parade was ending.

While we were a bit disappointed that the big parade was cancelled because of the weather, our consolation prize was this rainy day cavalcade:

We also happened to catch part of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade at the Animal Kingdom. This was a bit inconvenient, because we had to slowly follow the parade with a big crowd of people in order to get where we were going. But since this parade will be retired sometime this year, I guess it was good to see some of it.

WDW Fireworks

There are three big fireworks/evening shows at Disney World:

• Wishes at the Magic Kingdom
• IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot
• Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios

Since we had a longer trip this year, we decided that we'd like to see each show twice, and that's just what we did! After seeing them all again, I had to agree with Mark that Fantasmic! is the best, followed by Wishes, especially now that they've added Celebrate the Magic before and after. I still enjoy Illuminations, too, of course!

It's really hard to get quality photos of fireworks, but our new camera does have a setting designed for it, which at least allowed me to snap a few that weren't totally blurry! 

Here are some shots from IllumiNations. In this show, they set up barges all around the World Showcase Lagoon, including a lighted globe that spins and opens up during the show. There are fireworks, water effects, and lasers, all set to music. 

Technically, Wishes and Celebrate the Magic are two separate shows, but they happen close together, with Cinderella Castle as the focal point. We'd seen Wishes before, but this year our goal was to watch from in front of the castle. One of our longest waits for anything was on our first night there, when we staked out a place to watch the evening parade and fireworks. It turns out that this was a great place to watch the new Celebrate the Magic show. It's a bit hard to describe, but basically, they use the castle like a canvas and project different scenes and effects on it. There's music, too, and a few fireworks. It was one of my favorite things from this trip. The Wishes fireworks show has a little bit of a story line, narrated by Jiminy Cricket. The fireworks can be seen from lots of places in the park, as well as some of the nearby hotels. I think watching the fireworks from the flagpole on Main Street was really great. The pictures below show some of the fireworks from Wishes, but I was so mesmerized by Celebrate the Magic that I didn't take any photos. Here's Disney's description and a decent YouTube video.

Fantasmic!, though, is in a category of its own! It's really much more than fireworks; there are water effects, characters, boats, fire, and music, all telling an epic good vs. evil story. Of course, Mickey wins! Again, here's Disney's description and a YouTube video.

Overall, these evening events are some of the best highlights from the trip. 

WDW Characters

One of the unique activities at WDW is meeting the beloved Disney characters. While this isn't a particular highlight for Mark and me, we did have a few character encounters during our trip.

There are a few main ways to see characters:
--at designated times/places for character greetings
--at a character meal
--by chance as characters move through the park
--in parades (more on that in another post)

We had a few chance encounters, like seeing these two from the Jungle Book at the Animal Kingdom:

Toward the end of the trip, I decided to visit Princess Fairy Tale Hall at the Magic Kingdom, which had caught our attention throughout because of the ridiculous wait times to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen (by ridiculous, I mean 300 minutes! We couldn't believe that people would actually do this, but they did...). Anyway, one evening, we saw a 10 minute wait to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella, and Mark was willing to go along and take my picture.

Some of the character meeting times are outdoors, so you can spot the characters and snap a quick pic without having to wait in line, like I did here with Cinderella's stepmother and sisters.

But our main character experience was the Star Wars Character Dinner at Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios. Originally, we booked a meal at this restaurant in order to get the Fantasmic! Dining Package (basically seats in a reserved section for the evening show at the park). Later, the park announced that they'd be offering this character dining experience as part of the Star Wars weekends events. We were really interested in the dining package, so we decided to go ahead and keep the reservation. Unfortunately, we found that the food (a buffet) was underwhelming at best, the restaurant was noisy and a bit disorganized, the service was slow, and the whole thing was way overpriced (nearly $150!). However, we did get some cute pics with the classic Disney characters in their Star Wars costumes, plus a few professional photos of the characters on their own. In the end, I think we decided that character dining isn't really our thing, but for anyone who is really into meeting characters, it's a nice way to do it (no waiting in line!).

WDW Hotel

When we started planning this trip, Mark did a lot of research about hotels at WDW and picked out the Port Orleans: French Quarter. At Disney, there are 3 levels of hotels: value, moderate, and deluxe. When my grandparents took the family for their 50th wedding anniversary, we stayed in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, a deluxe resort. It was such a beautiful place! When Mark and I went in 2010, we stayed at Coronado Springs, a moderate resort. We liked it, but decided to try a new hotel next time. We considered a deluxe resort, but ultimately decided to stay another day and choose a less expensive option. The Port Orleans resort has two branches, and French Quarter is the smaller of the two. People recommended it because there's only one bus stop (unlike other moderate resorts, which have several), and it's relatively small, compact, and quiet. Sometimes, it shares bus service with the other Port Orleans resort (which adds at least 10 minutes to the drive), but we found that many times, we had our own bus. Also, the resort is pretty centrally located within the WDW property, so it doesn't take too long to get anywhere (unlike the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is a bit remote). It's also the only place on property that sells beignets (which were good enough to eat, but not something I'd make a special trip for). Overall, I think we really enjoyed this hotel, though I think we're considering the Contemporary (a deluxe resort within walking distance to the Magic Kingdom with great restaurants) for the next trip--if we can afford it! 

Walking toward the main building from the bus stop. 

Mark with the fountain in the lobby.

Looking toward the dining area.

One of the famous beignets (they come in a box of 3).

On the opposite side of the lobby.

Near the pool area.

Our building, which was really close to the main lobby.

View of the main lobby.

The cute display in the store window.

Our room! It's hard to see, but the towels on the corner of the
bed are arranged in a Mickey shape.

I loved this shower curtain!

Housekeeping left us a few surprises during the stay!

An Olaf towel in one of our neighbors' windows.

Last, but not least, the super cheerful doorman!