Since I was a very young child my favorite place in the world to go is Disney World. I will say this till the day I die, Disney World is the happiest place on earth and it is the only place I could go to and be happy and be distracted from life outside of Disney. My recent trip in 2018 really helped me to be happier because I was still cooping from my grandmother’s death and other things and it was also the first time going since 2003 so I was extremely excited to be there. Like I follow multiple accounts on YouTube that talk about the past of Disney World and the Disney Parks, I watched and loved the Imagineering Story and how the imaginers created everything in the parks and I literally watch POV’s of Disney rides because I’m a fucking nerd. So I wanted to spread some happiness and joy on Disney World’s 50th birthday and talk about my experiences in Disney World and talk about my favorite rides/attractions/shows in the park and hope that you all had the same experiences as I did. Now not everyone gets to go to Disney World and I understand that so I will post POV’s of the rides and post the shows that are on this list so they can see why I love them so much. Comment below your favorite ride/attraction/show at Disney World or any of the Disney parks and tell me about your favorite experiences. Now I haven’t been on every ride/attraction and seen every show in Disney World so Splash Mountain, Rise of the Resistance and The Great Movie Ride will not count. And there may be one or two former shows or rides/attractions on here but we will have to see. So let’s begin our journey into the Disney World and Welcome to this happy place, Welcome and here are my top 10 Rides/Attractions/Shows at Disney World.
My Top 10 Rides/Attractions/Shows at Disney World (Disney 50th Anniversary Celebration)
10. Happily Ever After Firework Show – To be fair this is more than just a firework show as there is lights, visual effects on Cinderella’s castle and classic Disney songs being played throughout the show. Now I’m not a big fireworks guy anymore or I’m not so into fireworks as much but when I’m at Disney World I learned to love it and especially during this firework show. Now this show is pretty new to the park as it’s only been around since May 2017 and many people haven’t been able to see the show unless you are a diehard Disney fan and go there all the time. When I went to Disney World in 2018 I got to witness this spectacular show and let me tell you I was not disappointed. The show uses projection mapping on the castle, which is a cool added effect if you ask me as Disney brings magic and dreams to life with this type of visual effects. The shows music and themes include Dreams, Journey, Friendship, Love, Adversity and Triumph. Watching this up close I saw the emotions and it even made me a bit emotional. Hell I was re watching it on YouTube and I was starting to feel those emotions all over again. It’s a perfect way to end your day at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World and it will leave you with an emotional experience like never before. Oh and the finale with Tinkerbell flying in the sky and the fireworks in the end will bring a happy tear and smile. Unfortunately, Happily Ever After ran its last show on September 29th, 2021 and has officially become defunct. The show is being replaced by a new fireworks show called Disney Enchantment. It’s heartbreaking to see this beloved fireworks show go but all good things must come to an end. In case you never got to experience the show in person, here is your chance by clicking the link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7FFFENv6i4
9. Kilimanjaro Safaris – Walt Disney always wanted to add some sort of animal conservation at Disneyland but never was able to do that. That was until 1998 in Florida where Disney World and former CEO Michael Eisner made Disney’s wish come true and Animal Kingdom was born. Inside of Animal Kingdom is the coolest safari ride/attraction, Kilimanjaro Safaris. This is a very special attraction and ride as you are literally going through a safari with living animals walking all around. From Lions to Rhinos to Elephants to Flamingos, there are so many animals in this ride that seeing them up close was a very fun and interesting experience. In 2018 I unfortunately never got to see my favorite animal, the Lion, up close and it was kind of a letdown but I still loved this ride so much and getting to learn a thing or two about the animals and the safari around us. Disney uses this park for animal conservation and research as they do what they can to take great care of each animal species living inside of Animal Kingdom and the attraction. Thankfully I found a great video of the ride with a Lion in it and hopefully you guys enjoy seeing animals. Yes I know it would be better to do this up close and out of a computer screen but for reasons like this I will post a link with a great POV of the ride and an excellent driver who really knew his information. Plus I don’t want you to be like me and almost get attacked by an ostrich. I’m not even kidding, but all the animals in this attraction are very calm throughout the ride and I hope to go on this attraction again and see a lion up close. It’s something on my bucket list to see a lion up close and hopefully Disney can make my dream come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT_hZzymWiY
8. Slinky Dog Dash – Back in 2018, being able to go to Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios on the first week of it being open is an experience I will never forget. Slinky Dog Dash is the land’s biggest ride and the people at Disney did a great job of the whole ride itself when it comes to the look of the ride, the theme of the ride and most of all the Toy Story gang being all around the rollercoaster. The Wheezy the Penguin audio animatronic was an added bonus as he sings You Got a Friend in Me. Now the rollercoaster goes up to max speed of 40 mph and it has a certain part where it stops and launches you. So if you’re not a fan of going too fast then maybe go on Toy Story Mania, which is another fun ride in the land. But I promise you the feeling of the ride doesn’t feel 40 mph and it is a very smooth ride with a couple of bumps and smooth turns. I love that there are hidden Toy Story Easter eggs and also random toys themed into the ride and I love hearing Slinky Dog talking throughout the ride. It’s a ride for the whole family and its brand new to the park as well as it’s only been there for 3 years. TPMVids has a great POV of the ride and I promise you it’s worth the watch. Also shoutout to TPMVids for the lit channel about all things theme parks and Disney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LZp-L1ekQ
7. Haunted Mansion – Not going to lie this ride spooked me out when I was three years old. I swear I didn’t understand anything and saw a ghost sitting next to my grandma. But that is Disney’s way of making magic happen and this ride is a very classic ride in Disney World. When you head to Magic Kingdom and go into Liberty Square you will find the spooky, eerie, gothic looking Haunted Mansion. The queue for this ride, or in this case the wait line room of the ride, is phenomenal. I love the theme of the ride’s queue and the detail it has with the pictures that look like they follow you and then there is the stretching walls room of the ride. Technically it’s an effect used in the ride but it makes you think you are actually going down an elevator. The ride is a dark ride attraction, meaning it’s not fast and you will be seeing cool animatronics, special effects and sounds. Believe me when I tell you, you will be getting a lot of great animatronics and special effects. The Ballroom scene, the hitchhiking ghosts animatronics, the singing heads and the heads that follow you are a big reason why I love this ride. Like I said as a kid I was afraid and spooked but as an adult I learned to really love this classic ride. Also it’s worth noting that this ride has been around since Disney World opened back in 1971. This ride is loved by the Walt Disney World community and many people praise it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRp4CiUnuWY
6. Avatar’s Flight of Passage – Were heading back to Animal Kingdom and into the world of Pandora and going on the 3-D flying simulator Flight of Passage. The attraction is set in the Avatar Universe and allows the guests to take flight on the native mountain Banshee and soar across the landscapes of Pandora. Now this ride is fucking badass and amazing. First of all the queue is done beautifully and the simulation technology in the attraction is out of this world. Seriously back in 2018 my mind was blown because of this ride. You go on this simulator type of motorcycle and you literally feel the banshee breathing on your thighs. That might seem very weird but trust me it adds to the effect that you are in the world of Pandora. It’s better to do this ride in person but I highly recommend the next time you go to Disney World to defiantly go on this ride. However if you have a fear of heights and have motion sickness then be careful as there are certain scenes in the simulation where you are up high or moving around really quickly so be aware. It’s a very unique ride simulator and its one of my favorite rides when going to Disney World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SiLDQKvcIk
5. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Welcome to the wildest ride of the wilderness, Big Thunder Mountain. This ride can be found back in the Magic Kingdom in Frontierland and it is a rollercoaster themed like the Wild West. Once again we have a very great themed ride and queue and by far one of the coolest rollercoaster’s in Disney World. This is one of my favorite rides in the park and I love it so much I remember going on it 3 times during my last trip to Disney World. It has max speed of 36 mph so once again if you’re not into going very fast then this isn’t a ride for you, but believe me when I tell you this ride is very smooth and has a lot of quick turns so that’s the only time the speed really picks up. It’s one of those rides you can ride multiple times a day at the park and always love it. It’s a very underrated ride if you ask me for Magic Kingdom knowing the bigger name rides like Splash Mountain or Haunted Mansion are in the same park but it’s one hell of a ride that will make you scream, smile and laugh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80AzDkChKU
4. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and imagination. You've just crossed over to... The Twilight Zone." – Rod Sterling. Tower of Terror is not like your ordinary ride. It is a dark ride but with an added twist, it drops you. It is a drop tower dark ride and it can be located at Hollywood Studio’s. The ride is based off of The Twilight Zone and it is the second highest attraction at the Disney World parks. Now trust me when I tell you when this ride drops you, you feel it. I lost my soul on this ride and I promise you it hasn’t come back since. The ride is very fast as well with top speed of 39 mph. Now that might not seem so fast but trying dropping 13 stories and telling me that’s not fast. Now if you go on with a child, don’t. There was a little girl on my ride when I went and lets just say she didn’t enjoy it and was crying after. This ride could be very scary for kids, which is why it took me till 2018 to finally ride it but aside from that it is a very fun ride. It has a great themed queue and a great preshow and it would defiantly make the late great Rod Sterling, creator of the Twilight Zone, very proud. I’ll post a link below so you could get an idea of what the ride is like but again do this in person and I promise you will enjoy it. Just make sure you guys keep your soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMO4neITEKA
3. Pirates of the Caribbean – We go back to the Magic Kingdom and into Adventureland to go on the dark boat ride of the scurvy pirate Jack Sparrow and his crew and into the Pirates of the Caribbean. Now this isn’t the greatest one, Disneyland and Shanghai Disney is a lot better, but it is one of those rides that I have loved ever since I was a kid that I needed to put it on my list. POTC is one of the most iconic rides in the Disney parks and has some of the greatest audio animatronics in the parks history. It also includes 3 added Jack Sparrow animatronics back in 2006 from the success of the films. This ride is a very smooth dark boat ride and yes you might get a little wet but it’s worth it. Plus it’s a great ride to stay cool and away from the humid Florida weather/heat. I will ride this ride multiple times every time my family goes to Disney World and I continue to fall in love with the ride each time I ride it. I always notice something new with the ride, but in my defense they refurbish it a lot so obviously there will be something new added. Aside from all of that it is another classic Disney park ride that everyone can ride and fall in love with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7lkfseTXA
2. Expedition Everest – Back in December 2005 I witnessed a preview of the ride while watching Disney’s Christmas parade. After that preview I knew I wanted to ride this ride and there were two reasons why. 1st was because it had a point where it went backwards and 2nd because it had the biggest most amazing animatronic ever, The Yeti. The Yeti is 25 feet tall and was able to move it’s arm up and down and the point of the Yeti animatronic was for him to grab you while you go past him. I said was because a year in a half after the ride opened the foundation around the Yeti was beginning to crack. So they had to turn the Yeti into B-mode, which is when he stays still and a strobe light effect is used to make it look like he is going to grab you and move. As you can see that was a big reason why I wanted to go on the ride because of the Yeti. It was very underwhelming without it but the ride itself makes up for the missing part of the ride. The ride is the tallest ride in the park and has max speed of 50 mph. In retrospect it feels more than 50 and feels like 60ish and trust me be aware when it does go backwards as I wasn’t ready for it and almost got a concussion. But I still loved the rush of the ride and it’s my favorite ride in the whole park. The ride can be found in the Animal Kingdom in the Asia part of the park and it is to this day Disney’s most expensive ride to ever build. Joe Rhode, the imaginer who created the ride and the Yeti animatronic promised that he would fix the ride and the animatronic but to do so he would have to take apart half of the mountain the ride is on and it can take up to almost 2 years to fix. I don’t blame Disney and Rhode for not fixing it yet because Expedition Everest is the park’s draw when it comes to attendance and it is the best ride in Animal Kingdom. I’m going to post both the Yeti working and not working because I want people to see what the ride is like when it’s on A and B mode. Enjoy what Disney Park fans now call the Yeti, Disco Yeti. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G9rdoKSs8U – A-Mode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L3pdI9SeDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTji1hOICEI – B mode
1. Fantasmic! – Since 1998 and each time we went to the Disney parks my family and I would end our Disney trip with this amazing, beautiful spectacular. I started this countdown with a firework show and I wanted to end the countdown with my favorite show in the park and my favorite thing about Disney World, Fantasmic. Fantasmic is a 27 minute show with beautiful effects with lights, water projections, lasers, fireworks, puppets, music, many Disney classic characters and most of all Imagination. Fantasmic can be found in Hollywood Studios and it is a nighttime spectacular. I remember my final day at Disney World and from beginning to the end of Fantasmic I remember being very emotional and I silently had a couple of tears because the trip was finally over and this was the final thing we did in the park. Watching the show on YouTube made me more emotional and made me miss Disney World so much. I love everything about this show from Mickey Mouse fighting off a big snake, which is being puppeteer by multiple people to the amazing finale with Steamboat Willie Mickey driving a boat with many classic Disney characters. Looking back at all the times I went to Disney World and watching this show made me fall more in love with it and made me care and respect the hard work the Disney employees or in this case the cast members put on for this amazing show and even throughout the Disney parks. I look forward to always seeing Fantasmic every time not because of the fireworks, effects and amazing moments, but that one moment of three year old me looking amazed and becoming distracted from the world he lived in and being happy. And each time I felt that same feeling and right now the world needs that feeling to be distracted from the drama and stress and to put a smile on their face. This show really is the best show in the park and once again don’t take my word for it. Watch and be amazed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTbz2R2oCo
This top 10 list may be my favorite list that I ever had made as I was able to relive a lot of happy moments going on this journey with you all from the amazing fireworks show in Magic Kingdom to the fast/scary ride of your life on Tower of Terror, to watching Mickey Mouse take on Maleficent in Fantasmic. Disney World is an experience that you need to experience up close and personal and not through a screen. I wish you all will be able to experience it one day. Disney World is now 50 years old and so much has changed since the park first opened. I guess that’s what Walt would have wanted as Disney World is never ever going to be fully completed as there is always going to be something new and exciting
being added into the park. I guess that’s why they call it a “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”.
I’m going to post in the honorable mentions so more fun rides/attractions/shows you could enjoy at Disney world and I’m going to include an old parade that became my first memorable memory of Disney World. I’ll explain in small detail for each as well. Enjoy.
Honorable Mentions: Rock N Rollercoaster – This ride is really fast as it launches you to max speed of 57 mph. Plus this ride includes one of the greatest rock bands of all time Aerosmith. So if you want to go through a couple of loops and listen to Sweet Emotion or Walk This Way then this is the ride for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWgElnl4zMk
Dinosaur – Animal Kingdom holds probably the most underrated ride in Disney World, Dinosaur. In this ride you back in time and see some amazing Dinosaurs. The animatronics look really great considering this ride opened in 1998. Regardless it’s a classic in my opinion and a fun ride. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHNZUPUJyGI Frozen Ever After – I’m not a fan of the movie Frozen but the ride in Epcot is pretty sweet. It has amazing animatronics and it’s a really enjoyable ride for all ages. Plus there is a part when the ride when you go backwards, I love it. Hopefully you will too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8OHP9OriMA Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin – A very classic ride in Tomorrowland as this ride is a very nostalgic ride for me. It’s a fun ride where you compete to get the most points and work together to defeat the evil Emperor Zurg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko08QBou0J8
Spectromagic – Let’s take a minute from the rides and let’s talk about my favorite parade and first memory of the park, Spectromagic. It was the night time parade at Disney World after The Main Street Electrical Parade was moved into Disney Land. I enjoyed this parade so much that rewatching the parade gives me this smile because I remember the beautiful lights, the amazing floats and of course those Spectro men….were very haunting now that I mention it. But unfortunately this parade is no longer in the parks but I found a video of it on YouTube. Enjoy what Jiminy Cricket and Mickey Mouse call Spectromagic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsZbFYBC_c4
Jungle Cruise – This ride is very nostalgic and classic as it has been around since the park opened back in 1971. The animatronics are cute but the ride is mostly loved because of the cast members that drive the boat in the ride. Lets just say you’re going to hear a lot of puns. Enjoy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ybSVe8HVFg
Muppet Vision 3-D – Now I couldn’t make this whole thing without talking about Jim Henson’s final project. Now unfortunately this is a 3-D show so in true Muppet form disaster struck and as usual nothing goes right. So bare with me with this one as I had to include it since it’s a classic Hollywood Studios show that needs the love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btbz4TXlZ5Q
Navi River Journey – This ride is defiantly a great ride to ride when it’s very hot out in the Florida weather. But it also has one of the most amazing animatronics and it literally feels like you are in Pandora. Also it has a great scent of smell in the ride. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciaHToIQMM
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor – This funny, interactive show is very clever and it could be found in Tomorrowland. There is monsters who tell jokes, monsters who interact with the guests and of course “That Guy”. Trust me once you watch the video you will understand why you would want to be “That Guy”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB2hEyHBxAs
Festival of the Lion King – Animal Kingdom wouldn’t be Animal Kingdom without The Lion King and of course this beautiful show. It’s a 30 minute long show full of acrobatics, singing, dancing and of course characters from the Lion King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgk-LhNnluI
Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E-HEPTkNw
コメント