Florida Series - Epcot

Epcot is a park I have been to before with my family, many years ago, and after spending a couple of hours in there we decided it wasn’t for us and left.
This year we revisited, as it seemed like a good park for my boyfriend to visit as it is more educational (he is a chemistry graduate) and both him and my dad don’t like roller coasters. This visit completely changed our mind on Epcot, and we had a really lovely day.

The park is split into two parts, the bit at the front with all the rides, and the World Expo at the back which gives you a chance to look at different cultures and more importantly, different foods.

When we went there was also the Flower and Garden festival, which meant the park was covered with more topiarys than usual and specialty food and drink, it was lovely and has really inspired me to grow my own herb garden.

At the front of the park the main rides are: 

Soar, which simulates you flying through the sky over California. It is a nice gentle ride, but definitely not for anyone with a fear of heights, like my mum has and had to sit with her eyes closed the whole time...
Test Track, where you create your own car and go through a test track to see how well your design works. I really enjoyed this ride especially as my boyfriend I made a different car to the rest of my family and it was great seeing it perform better in the tests.
Mission Space simulates a real take off and flying to Mars. This was bit of a odd one as it simulates G Force, during the take off part you couldn’t even raise your hands, if I’m honest it made me feel a bit sick!
Spaceship Earth which is set in the iconic globe that you can see when you first enter epcot. This is a nice slow paced ride which takes you through history and how we developed technology. Despite being a bit old a rickety this is another ride I really enjoyed, and learnt quite a few new things.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends, a very young ride which takes you around the sea in a giant clam shell. Great for children.

There are a couple more rides there but we passed over them because of the long queue time and they didn’t really appeal to us.

The other part of the park, the World Expo part has many different sections, each section is based on a country, such as England or France, with buildings stylised after the country, shops that are relevant to the county and food from the country too. Going in the Werthers Originals shop in the German section was a treat!

It was also really interesting hearing so many different languages, it seems Disney has hired people from the country that they are trying to represent, so in the Norway section we actually heard people talking Norwegian!

We went for lunch in the Japanese section as I am a big lover of Japanese food and wanted something other than the American chips and burgers we always seemed to be eating. The food was not 100% authentic, but it was pretty close, and my boyfriend who has been learning Japanese got a chance to practise speaking, the cashier was very friendly and encouraging of him.

Epcot makes for a really lovely slower paced day out in Florida, with plenty to see and do. Be warned though, the park is huge so put on your most comfortable walking shoes and be prepared to spend the whole day here. If possible I would even suggest dedicating two days to the park, one to do all the rides in the front part, and one to spend in the World Expo.

I will leave you now with some more pictures of the flower and garden festival, because it is too pretty to not be seen.

Florida Series - Disneys Magic Kingdom

Cinderella's Castle

Disney's Magic Kingdom is probably the most well known of the Disney parks, its the one with the big Cinderella castle!

The park is definitely geared towards younger visits, with tamer rides such as Pooh's Honey Pot and It's a Small World (one of my personal favourites).

There are a couple of roller coasters in the park, such as Space Mountain and The Runaway Train, however both of them do not go upside down and don't reach the speeds of more thrilling roller coasters, making them a good introduction to thrill rides for children, or a great ride for people who don't like 'scary roller coasters' like my boyfriend.

Space Mountain

One of my favourite rides there was the Buzz Lightyear one, where you go around shooting targets with a laser to defeat Zurg. 

It's great fun but can get a little competitive! 

There is also Pirates of the Caribbean as well, which is a must see.

The film was originally based on the ride but they have recently updated the ride to feature parts from the film, including a very realistic Jack Sparrow. 

Vanilla Dole Whip and a Dole Whip Float

Whilst you are by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride you have to try Dole Whip, as this is one of the only places you can get it.

Dole Whip is a frozen soft serve that comes in vanilla and pineapple flavours. It isn't ice cream and actually contains very little dairy which is great for me because my body doesn't always react well to dairy.

I went for the Dole Whip Float, which was vanilla Dole Whip and pineapple juice. It was delicious and thirst quenching, definitely helped me to survive the blistering heat.

At the end of every day at Magic Kingdom they do their Wishes firework display. It lasts for about 15 minutes and takes place in the park above Cinderella's castle.

These are fantastic to watch, I have never seen fireworks like it.

We decided to watch them from the car park to try and avoid the rush to get out of the park afterwards. I wouldn't really recommend this because you don't see them as well and miss out on some of the lower ones, although the bangs aren't as loud so this option could be better for children who are afraid of the loud noises that go with fireworks. 

As much as I enjoyed Magic Kingdom, I don't think I would go again next time we visit Florida.

It is fantastic for younger children, but I am much more of a thrill ride person.

If you are thinking of taking your children, be warned that the queues for rides like the Peter Pan one and the Winnie the Pooh one where 45 minutes when we went, and that was out of season, so be prepared to wait up to 2 hours in peak season.

The park is also starting to feel a little bit dated. Disney is doing it's best to remedy this by adding new rides and refurbishing a lot of existing ones. There is a major redevelopment going on in the Fantasyland part of the park (the bit that will most appeal to younger children), which means a lot of the rides are shut down and there is a big construction site smack bang in the middle of things, which is not the prettiest of things to look at. 

I also think it's bit of a cheek to charge full price for tickets when this much work is going on.

Despite all this we did have a great time, but as I said, I'm in no hurry to go back to Magic Kingdom.