walt disney world 2019: the magic kingdom (day 1)

after a great day in epcot on tuesday, we continued our disney trip on wednesday by heading to magic kingdom.  we packed in a full day at the park from early in the morning when the park opened until midnight when it closed.

magic kingdom is our very favorite of the four disney world parks.  thank goodness for the fast pass system which allowed us to fit so much in our day so that we didn't have to waste our time standing in long lines. 

since we had five full days to spend in the parks, we visited each of the four parks and then came back to magic kingdom for a second day since there is so much to see and do there.  here are photos from our first day at magic kingdom which are a combination of photos that we took and photos of us that the disney photographers took with our memory maker photo pass . . .

^the last time we were in disney we noticed that so many people had disney shirts.  before our trip we ordered a few disney shirts online from etsy for us to wear in the parks.  we both loved this one which had the iconic mickey mouse ears made up of silhouettes of all different disney characters.  we always love to match and we didn't see anyone else with the same shirt as us!^

^big thunder mountain roller coaster is so much fun and such a classic disney ride!^

^the outside of the little mermaid ride is themed to look like ariel's castle.^

^the haunted mansion is in my list of my top 5 favorite rides of all time.  it such a great ride and the photographers outside the ride ask you to stand there and "look scared" but you don't know what they're adding into your photo until later when you get to see it.  looks like we took a hitch-hiking ghost home with us!^

^we ended up in the last row of splash mountain and i was glad that i brought a poncho with me from the dollar store so that i could keep my camera dry, especially when the geyser at the end landed right on my lap!^

^both pirates of the caribbean and seven dwarfs mine train are such great rides.  we rode both multiple times since we loved them so much!^

^the lights of the carousel are so pretty at night, especially when the bokeh effect is hidden mickeys!^

^holding our spot for the fireworks show at the end of the night!  it's a commitment to save a spot!^

^the new fireworks show features so many projections on cinderella's castle.  it's truly incredible what can be done with technology now.  that show was unlike anything we've every seen.  we just kept saying "wow" and "holy cow" and "oh my gosh, did you just see that?!"^

love, laurie

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you can see more of our disney trip photos here

walt disney world 2019: epcot

we kicked off our disney vacation by spending our first park day at epcot on tuesday.  we chose which park to visit each day based on which parks had the longest hours on which days.

epcot is awesome since you can travel to outer space and under the sea in future world and then visit 11 different countries in the world showcase.  it's a lot of traveling all in one day!  ;-)  it's both educational and fun too!

just like our last trip, we were at epcot during the time of their annual flower and garden festival.  all of the landscaping around disney parks is exquisite year round, but everything at epcot is especially gorgeous during the festival.  they even make gigantic topiaries of different disney characters and place them in all of the sections of epcot.  it's really amazing.

here is just a sampling of the many, many photos from our day at epcot.  these are a combination of our photos that we snapped on our phones and our camera along with photos from the disney photographers that they took of us with the memory maker photo pass that we purchased . . .

^we met donald duck in mexico!  he was so cute because he was excited that the colors of our shirts coordinated with the colors in his costume.^

^ice cream in france to cool off during a very hot afternoon!  it was cinnamon apple flavor and it was easily in the top 5 best ice creams i've ever had!^

^we rode the frozen ride in norway and then met both anna and elsa after the ride in their house.  it was so cute and the theming was unreal!^

^we loved test track so much that we rode it twice.  the ride is sponsored by chevy, so after you get off the ride you can check out all of the newest chevy vehicles coming out next year.  ryan fell in love with a bright orange truck!^

^the fireworks show at night on the lake in the middle of the world showcase is really incredible!  this year we stood in a different section to watch the show and it was a great view.^

love, laurie