Disney World: The 4 Main Theme Parks

Disney World: The 4 Main Theme Parks
On this episode, we break down the 4 main theme parks in the Walt Disney World resort. Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT. We discuss the uniqueness of each park and share our favorite aspects. 

Our 2016 Disney World YouTube Playlist - https://youtu.be/tYcfkqt1zZo?si=kPvVPRjG0KOC42va

Transcript

We're the Essary family and we're exploring America. One destination at a time. On this episode of TravelEssary. We're going to continue our little mini series on Disney world. And today we're discussing the four. Main theme parks. Let's chat.  

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode. As we talk about everything, Disney world theme park, we're going to be getting into so much here. We're going to be getting into some of the nitty gritty details we're going to get into. Some of the aspects as the overall theme parks, Disney world does so much and they do it on such a grand scale. 

It is so phenomenal. Everything that they do as far as getting totally immersion. I mean, getting everything from your senses. From smell to what you hear to what you see, and then just how you're treated from everyone that is there. And the total immersion that Disney world does. And we also want to touch on our favorite aspects of each theme park and kind of break down. What is so unique and special about each of the four main parks. 

And I think you can't really have Disney world without magic kingdom. So it's the perfect part to start with. Absolutely and magic kingdom. There are so many things, especially whenever we talk about fun facts of things that people may not know. There are so many that you could talk about. I was doing research and trying to figure out, Hey, how do I limit this down to just a few or, you know, without totally boring our listeners of. , just a fact after a fact that, you know, If you've ever been there, you may not have known

and it was very hard for magic kingdom. Because they spend so much time and so much effort. On every detail. I mean, every detail is just, it's phenomenal, what they do with it.  But I do have one and then we'll go into some other stuff and then we'll periodically share a little fun facts here and there. But   the first thing  is they use something that is called forced perspective.  And they use it horizontally and they use it vertically. And what forced perspective is. Whenever you look at something, like if you look up, it makes you feel that. The building is taller than what it actually is. It makes it look more large, more grand than what it is. 

And if you look horizontally, like, especially down main street, whenever you first intro to the park and you look down main street, Yeah. At first you're like, wow, this is a really long street. Because of the force perspective, whenever actually it's not that long at all, but it makes it seem that way because they go into such detail to bring everything into perspective, to make you feel like you're in this huge and wonderful and magic place and you are in a magic place, but it's not necessarily that huge. 

And the reason that they had to force perspective, especially vertical, like Cinderella's castle. Uh, some of the larger rides that they have is 

because of the federal aviation rules, you can't have anything above 200 feet or you have to put lights on the top of it.  To warn any kind of planes or anything that's flying. So they keep everything below 200 feet, the largest building this Cinderella's castle at 199. And so that's, so you don't have these blinking lights that would take away from the magical experience you have at Disney world. 

And the castle does look enormous, enormous, but it's really not.  So magic kingdom was originally meant to be basically a copy of what Disney land is in California. Right. But with its own, you know, different colors on the castle, its own castle. And over time, they eventually became their own unique places. 

But magic kingdom is a celebration of fantasy, imagination and storytelling. It captures the magic of classic Disney films and fairytales. And I love how you walked down main street. You walk in, you walk down main street and of course you see the big Cinderella's castle. Well, The the, what looks to appear to be big. Yes, Cinderella castle. 

And then at that point, it's kind of like spokes of a will of where you want to go, because there are different lands off of that main street that you can go and visit. 

 So, um, the first land is adventure land. And that's with like the jungles, the pirates, things like that, because remember it's about. Basically magic kingdom. The whole theme is a child's imagination or a storytelling from a child's perspective. And then you have frontier land, which is, you know, the pioneer, the old west. And then you have Liberty square.  Which is more like colonial America. 

It's the Americana, the spirit of independence, things like that. You have fantasy land, which is probably the most popular part of magic kingdom. It's the whimsical , it has all of the things  of Dumbo and Peter pan and things like that.  It's the classic Disney characters. The fantasy Disney characters, and then you have tomorrow land, tomorrow land was waltz. 

His imagination. Vision of what he thought the future should or would or could look like. 

No matter what park that you go into, they do such a good job, especially with eyesight and smell. Like they block everything off to keep you, like, if you're in tomorrow land, you're not going to see things from frontier. 

If you're in frontier, there's a good chance. You're not even going to see anything from like the pirates of the Caribbean or anything of that. But they also do on the other thing where it's called smell analyzers. They actually put sense into , the air. That you smell. So if you're in the pirates of the Caribbean, you're going to smell damp wood. 

And muskiness because they're putting that into the atmosphere. If you're going down main street, especially main street bakery. Okay. I was literally about to say this.

It's not on my list, but main street bakery is phenomenal. It's an amazing place to go. But they give out certain smells around there  that almost drive you , into the bakery, just because you want to get something to eat because it smells so good. So we're each going to share our favorite aspects of each theme park. And my absolute favorite thing of Disney world is the main street bakery. Like in all of Disney world is the main street bakery, which is of course in the magic kingdom right there on main street. And I think it is the sense that smell the smell of Or smell it. Smell it sizers. 

I don't know what they're called, but , they draw you in. And they get your mouth watering and it smells like baked goodness. And then you go in and you can smell the actual baked goods.  It's amazing. And everything looks so beautiful. And so appetizing.   One of the times that we were there.  Are last day, we went to animal kingdom and we had the park hopper option. So we could bounce from.  Park to park without having to pay individual tickets. And on our way out before we actually left Disney world, I made Jeremy stop by magic kingdom just so I could run and main street bakery one last time and grab some goodies. 

And so she said that it was going to be quick, but it took probably a good 45 minutes just because she couldn't make up her mind. What exactly she wanted to eat? Well, also the lines, there are always so long. Sometimes out the door, depending on what time of the year it is, they were a little bit long, but I mean, whenever you go into the bakery,  you are flooded with so many options. And all of them look absolutely delicious. They are absolutely delicious. And we all know that I love a good bakery. 

I talk about bakeries all the time. We post reels of bakery on our social media all the time. I love bakeries. , I don't know what it is. It's so nostalgic to me.  And I just really like sweet things. . So main street bakery is by far my favorite thing in magic kingdom. So I'm going to stay on main street and go to  one of my favorite things. I can't say the favorite thing. One of my favorite things, I think it's, it's really special just because the first time that we went, it was just the first thing that we saw. And it was just so stupendous, , was the parades. I really enjoy. And it doesn't matter what parades, if it's the parade where they get out and they dance, or the princesses are coming around, or even it's the, , light at night show parade that goes around in the magic kingdom. I love their parades. 

And , you can sit on  main street, you could sit over there by the castle. Wherever you can find a spot to go check it out.  It's a great and wonderful time.  The kids really get into it, but even as adults, , that's something that even we can get into because,  we've grew up watching these movies and now you get to go and you get to see the characters and the different parades of the different. Aspects as they kind of just go around and wave and do everything. 

And I really enjoy the parades. It also gives me a time to relax and take a little break while the kids are just kind of. Run it around as we're waiting for the parade. , but I really enjoy the parades first and foremost.  You know, it's so funny. My second favorite thing about magic kingdom is I think they have the best parades. The parades at magic kingdom are so much better than, than all the other. Much better than I would even say in. Any parade that I've ever gone to, the parades that magic came down. Oh, yeah. Above and beyond, and they don't last that long. 

Or if they're 15, 20 minutes tops. They're not very long, but they are amazing and they're interactive, they're interactive. And what you're going to hear the most about almost everything that we talked about. Especially whenever it comes to Disney world is detail. That their details are just phenomenal. 

I mean, everything that they do is just it's.  It's down to the detail. Which makes it really.  Amazing. And delightful.  And I don't know if you knew this or not, but on main street they have American flags like posted everywhere all over the place. So the one in town square is the only real one. And the reason that is, is because they want to keep you in immersed in what's going on in Disneyworld 

so any times that the flags have to be at half staff or anything of that nature, that they only have one flag that has to keep up with those rules and regulations. And it's because not every flag that they have up, I guess that would be called pendants really that they have up. They don't have 50 stars. And so they don't meet the regulation 

that the United States have put on the American flag. 

And so I just thought that was really cool because I mean, they have flags everywhere, but only one of them is real and only one of them is put up and taken down every single day. 

 So there's also only one real one, I believe at Epcot in the American pavilion. And it was an American flag that was taken from ground zero. , after nine 11. , it's on display at the American pavilion in the world showcase, which we're not on Epcot yet, but I believe that is also the only other real flag  that's in the theme parks. That's cool. 

That that actually makes sense where it would be over an Epcot, ,  But going from the American flags. And going so immerse. My next one is actually the seven dwarfs mine train. Oh yeah.  That was a fun little ride. It's a fun little ride. 

It's not, it's something for everyone. So it's not one of those high thrill seeking rides, but it's not one of those laid back like, um, What's that one.   It's a small world. It's not like a small world. So.  And I get to sit in a boat. But.  

, you have such a good time on this. There's a little bit of rollercoaster, really, but I like how the individual carts can like swing back and forth. So it's  independent from all the other ones. And I did a little research before we went the second time and I knew where all the cameras were on the rise that we were going to take. 

And so we have like pictures of us riding every ride and I'm pointing at the camera as we drive by.  Yeah.  Yeah, you are. Really enjoyed it. I was like, yep. There it is. There's the camera. That's where we take pictures. And everyone else already has, like they're screaming face on, or they don't really know what's going on. , but I really enjoyed the seven doors and even  waiting in line,  you get to hear some of the songs from snow white and it was just a really nice ride.  This will be across all four theme parks, no matter what you're going into. 

 If you're in line, the lines themselves are very entertaining. The lines are immersive. There's usually games. There's things you can touch. There's things to look at. , there's hidden Mickeys all throughout Disney world. And a lot of them are on the lines as you're waiting for a show or a ride 

so this one we can say is actually for all four theme parks, all four theme parks, every line is different. It's not like  they took like a cookie cutter option and put it on every ride. Every ride is totally different. Every.  Every line. Fits, whatever. Um, theme, whatever show or ride that you're going, right. 

It's not like you're going to a theme park. Like I know whenever we go to six flags over Texas, that it's. It's the same queue line. You're doing the same thing. You're watching the same shows. If they have the TVs on your. This the same layout, but I really do like how Disney world. Paid attention to details. It made the ride, the Q line, everything. Just pretty much all one thing.  

And as much as I love magic kingdom. 'cause who couldn't love magic kingdom  it is the most visited of the four parks. But do you know, it's my least favorite of all four parks. So it's not my least favorite. And. I can't believe that you said that.  That kind of hurts my feelings a little bit.  I mean, I love it. 

I love the park and I want to go and I love to visit it. And I always have a really great time. But out of the four it's ranked number four for me.

The people all the way back from 1971 from whenever. 

Magic kingdom was opened. Are probably not going to agree with you there.  I don't really care. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure most people won't because it is the most visited. But I think when people think of Disney world, they think magic kingdom, I think that's all they really do think about. I don't think they know about the other stuff. But magic kingdom is such a small, small fraction of Disney world. 

But when you hear the word Disney world people associated with Cinderella's castle, which is in magic kingdom.  And I think that's why it's the most visited because like we talked about last week. People think Disney world equals theme park, but Disney world equals an entire resort. And magic kingdom is just a very small part of that. 

Right. And don't get too much into that because we're going to be talking about that on a later episode. Right, right. As far as everything that you can do at Disney world outside of the theme parks. But, 

what's another good memory you have over there. Of magic kingdom, magic kingdom. Oh, I think we've touched on this before. Are my favorite memory of magic kingdom is the very first time we ever went to Disney world. And we walked in on that parade, like you were talking about. I think we all got a little bit teary-eyed. 

It was just such a magical moment that first. Step of not only into a Disney world theme park, but it happened to be magic kingdom. Yeah. I think just , the, the flooding of like getting there. We're actually walking into Disney world. There's a parade going on. And one of the princesses waved at Ariel. She was assessed with princesses, literally named after a Disney princess. And the songs and everything else that was going on. 

Yeah. I mean, that was absolutely one of those. One of my other things that I want to talk about is  the agenda tells with bell. Do you remember whenever when Justin got to dance? Was the beast. Yes. And. So it's one of those once again, total immersion. And it's not only for children because they had a few adults that had to take on roles like me and your brother, Jason we're Knights. 

And we got to stand in the back and like watch the show from behind. As, uh, Ariel was. I think she was like a pepper shaker. She was a pepper shaker. And there were some other kids that were, were doing other things, you know, being a part of the castle in the scene and this story. Of beauty and the beast. We get to be a part of the show and Justin.  He was picked for the beast part. 

 He got to dance with bell. Mesmerizing. . He was so mesmerized. , 

so if we left magic kingdom, what is.  So it's magic.  What's number three on your list. Hollywood studios, Hollywood studios. Okay. 

So and 1989 Hollywood studios was opened. And do you know that the famous, the great.  One of my favorite actresses ever. I would even say like even a little crush on,  audrey Hepburn. 

Has her hands. And signature there in front of the Chinese theaters. I actually did not know that, but that's awesome because I love Audrey Hepburn. Now that is the only place defined her hand prints were really . So she was never asked to put her hands down in front of the Chinese theater. In, Hollywood. How is that even possible? 

I don't know someone made a mistake, but the story goes, she was never asked. And so whenever she got asked by Disney, she totally agreed. And then. The people in Hollywood were like, oh, Hey Audrey, would you be able to do you're hampered? And she said, no. That's so awesome. So that's the only place to find her hand prints and her signature.  So Hollywood studios is an idealized version of Hollywood, California during the golden age of Hollywood. 

So that was the original vision for Hollywood studios. Yeah. I mean, it used to be a full blown studio, like animation and everything else used to happen there. And then it just turned into more of a theme park and more of attractions. Um, one of my favorite things that's there is the frozen singalong. Oh, my gosh. Whenever we went, it was just one of those really cool things. 

Frozen had just came out the second time that we went and . It was really enjoyable as the girls were sitting there and they were singing along because they knew all the songs. Of course. But even  the cast members of that we're doing the near rating part,  although they, they had a job to do and they did a fantastic job. There was a few points where they got interactive with the crowd and it just made it that much enjoyable. Like whenever, um, Olof is singing about melting.  People would yell out,  a puddle or something like that. 

And then they would quickly like give them like a playful scornful look and be like, Hey, we're not talking about that.  It was just really enjoyable and how  immersed we were with it as bubbles were falling down and it was just a really cool place. Ariel loved it so much that we had to do it twice in one day. What she means twice in one day is back-to-back. Yeah, we did. We did, you know, I should, I have all that on video from whenever we went 

 If you're interested in that, , I will link that in the show notes. But, um, yes, that was,  a lot of fun. Not actually one of my favorite things. But.  I think my favorite thing is. By far the Indiana Jones show.  I did. I liked it. I it's the, one of the more adult things. It is. It's definitely not something for our kids did enjoy it. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the adults,  wasn't interactive with the kids. 

It was interactive with the adults. Like they call some adults down. To be a part of it somehow. And hate. Did you know that that ball that rolls down from Indiana Jones weighs over 400 pounds? And tells her really. I kick, it really hurt the person that does this. The stunt man. And so, but yeah, that was one of those amazing things. I was like, oh, I thought it was like papier-mache or something like that. Even then it's so big. It would still weigh quite a bit. So Hollywood studios. It is a place for small kids. 

Cause you know, there is frozen things and you have the whole animation area. There's toy story, land and Hollywood studios. Now. Where everything is to scale of you being the small little toy. It's like you're in Andy's room basically. So there's toy story land with shows and rollercoasters and entertainment, but then there's the big kid version where you have star wars Galaxy's edge. 

Oh my goodness. I love star wars. Yes. We're a big star wars family. We have been since birth. I think.. Actually, I think our biggest star wars fan is Ariel.  I think she might be the biggest star wars fan in our house. 

I remember when she was like, Five years old and she would fall asleep to.  

What's the cartoon star wars. The one.  The clone wars. Yes. And that's what she would watch every night. And that's what she fell asleep too. But, ,  Hollywood studios. . It's all about movie making and.  The rides, the entertainment are all geared towards. Basically blockbuster hits like the big, big movies. Oh, yeah, definitely the big movies. 

And even though I am a huge star wars fan and it's, it's on my list. Um, but that's not one of my favorite things about Hollywood studios. And I actually have Hollywood studios as my number four on the list.  But I like just. The overall themes of all the other ones better,  but it also has the number one.  Firework night show in my opinion. All of them. Oh, yes. That's one of my two, one of my fantastic is just it's phenomenal. I mean, I can't, I can't put into words how amazing it is now. You're going to see videos, and you're going to look at these.  oh, that's cute. 

But whenever you actually get there, And you see the boats and you see the characters. Do you know that. I think.  Mickey mouse has to change costumes 32 times. 

When they just use different Mickey mouses.  The same one he has to , change his wardrobe. Over 30 times. It's crazy. But. It's also the longest. It is the longest show. Yeah. And it it's phenomenal. I mean, everything about it. We loved it.  If you're in Hollywood studios, you have to go to fantastic. 

It's the perfect ending to the day. And I know everyone likes the fireworks show at magic kingdom, et cetera, et cetera. I'm sorry. I think fantastic is way better. It is so much better. If you have to choose. , if you only get to choose maybe one or two late nights that you get to stay out. Definitely choose this one. It is well worth it.  So one of my favorite things, , something else we have done back to back in Hollywood studios, because we liked it so much and it was so enjoyable. Is, , the beauty and the beast live on stage. That is by far one of the best live on stages I've ever seen anywhere. 

Oh yeah. The whole drama and play production was, it was absolutely memorizing set is beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. It was. And it, we, because we watched it back to back, we got to see different actors play in different spots. Oh yeah. And that was really, and they, it was like they filled each role perfectly. 

It was. It was really, really nice. It's my favorite. That was definitely one thing that kind of caught me off guard because usually whenever you go somewhere like that, it's the same crew. They're doing the exact same thing and they're just doing it over and over and over again. But it was totally different people , in both of them playing different parts. And I couldn't tell you that one was better than the other because , they both performed it.  So Admiral believed that it was, it was wonderful. 

It was very enjoyable to watch. Also, it's hilarious. There are so many really funny moments. , even the kids at small ages really enjoyed watching it. I mean, they had no complaints setting there watching it back to back. I don't remember why we did. Oh, I think we were waiting for one of our fast passes to come up and it was just right around the corner. 

And we were like, Hey, you know what? We have time to sit here and watch it again. And best decision that we ever made.  The first time we went to Disney world, when the kids were really small, like three and five.  I would have said Hollywood studios would have been my least favorite. 

Absolutely. But since then, , they have added so much to Hollywood studios, they've added toy story land. They've added new rides and entertainment. They've added the whole star wars thing. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Hollywood studios used to be the smallest part of all of them, but no. Least amount of things to do. 

Yes. And now it's one of the largest ones with the most to do because they've added so much over there. Now. My favorite, favorite memory and Hollywood studios, which they no longer do. Was  at the beginning of the star wars stuff, they were still adding everything. In fact, , at this point, they hadn't even completed the galaxy edge. Justin got to do the star wars training, Jedi academy or whatever it was. 

Oh yes. And he got to participate in that and they gave him a light saber and he got to dress up in. , like a little jet I wrote. As a pedal one. Okay. I don't know. And he gets actually go through a little training session and then he gets to fight the bad guys with his lightsaber. And we got so many videos and pictures of that. I think that's my favorite memory, because I know that he had such an amazing experience that they no longer,  , do anymore. Yeah, 

the emotion that was on his face as he got there and swung his light saber, and then they forced push at the end. 

, he had just a wonderful time. And so it was, it was really great. One thing that I want to mention before we go to what I can only imagine as both of ours, number two is.  You don't see trash on the ground. .  Anywhere in Disney world, you don't see trash on the ground because they do such an amazing job. Uh, picking it up and there's a trash can every 30 feet.   And you don't see it that often because  they have a special paint called green, go away.  That blends in and makes your mind think that it's not there whenever it is. 

And so they have people that are picking up trash all the time. They do such a phenomenal job with  taking care of it. And. I like to watch , the guys that go around, um, picking up trash or , getting sticky stuff off the ground. 

They'll get their water and they'll draw like Mickey faces or Donald duck or something and make a show out of it. It's really, really full.  

Janitors custodian type people. Even those cast members. Like you can have a good experience with them. 

And so we're going to go into our.  When I am assuming is number two for both of us. Yes, it's my number two is the animal kingdom. That is the most recent one that was open in 1998. And did you know, and I'm going to talk about this ride a little bit more, but the Kilimanjaro. Safari ride. Is bigger than magic kingdom by itself.  I do know that animal kingdom, um, space-wise is the largest of the four parks. Yeah, but one of their rides is bigger than magic kingdom. 

That doesn't surprise me. The Kilimanjaro safari is pretty unique. It's pretty fun. So animal kingdom is based off of the idea of having an immersive experience of research conservation and protection of wildlife. It's essentially a zoo. I mean, it has the zoo aspects, but it's so much more than just a zoo. 

It's like someone took. As zoo, but a zoo that is centered around conservation and smashed it with a theme park. Yeah. I mean, they did such an amazing job with bringing everything together. One of the rods, even. Takes you through like a little boat ride. Of deforestation and just the conservation and  everything that we can do to protect, , our world that we live in so that it's around for generations to come and . 

. It's phenomenal, the educational, but making it fun, not just sitting down and listening to a lecture, but it's interactive. It's educational. It's fine. It's enjoyable.  And,  the Kilimanjaro safari is just one of those things where you get on this.  Vehicle that also is kind of a boat 

and you go through this wonderful ride and it's interactive, especially if you get a really good, not all of them are great. Don't get me wrong. But if you can get an exceptional driver, that's there entertaining you and telling you jokes and information. Oh, yeah. Just like the jungle cruise at magic kingdom. 

It's the same thing. Oh, You want someone who is a lot of fun and, uh, And the more energy , that they put off, the more energy that you put off. And if you get involved with the jokes and you get involved, even if they're not funny to you, but you still laugh at them, it brings so much more out of them and it makes the ride. Just take one extra step above and beyond of how great and wonderful that it is already.  So animal kingdom also has different. Areas. , of places from around the world and then in each area.  They focus on the local wildlife of that area. 

And my favorite is Asia. Because I love how transportive it is now when you're in each area, it's extremely, transportive like the decor. . The shops, the restaurants, everything. Is made to look like you're in that part of the world. Because, you know, they're focusing on the conservation, the culture and the animals. Of that location.  Around. , Mount Everest right there, expedition, Everest.  That is by far one of my favorite places, because I think it's absolutely beautiful. 

 One of my favorite things over on animal kingdom. Is the street performers. They have street performers in different locations and depending on where you are, but we walked in. 

And, , there was a street performer. And they started dancing. And then like, as people were stopping, they were pulling people out of the crowd. And they've made us dance and like you would do the moves that they would do. And, you know, after it was done, They stuck around and we were able to like have a conversation and I'm like, they were seriously. Do you know what that man told me? 

He said, it's okay. Keep trying.

I was like, do you think? Cause he gave me a hug. He said it's okay. 

Not my favorite part, but it's funny to watch other people. I enjoyed it a lot. It was really fight.  And so I enjoy , the street performers.  But not only in animal kingdom, but in magic kingdom and all of them, they all have street performers. And if you can.  Take just a few seconds, a few minutes and stop it's well worth it. 

. So with animal kingdom, obviously being focused around animals. There are also shows in animal kingdom that do the same thing, but they're Disney animals. Like there's the lion king one, the finding Nemo one. There are so many really great. Shows to watch. And the lion king one is so interactive, so interactive. 

They pull people out of the crowds and it's in your face. And it's, , high energy. It's a lot of fun. And then the finding Nemo one is more of a laid back one, but it's beautiful.  So you have rides, tons of rides. , the biggest rollercoaster. Oh yeah. Talking about rods, biggest rollercoaster. Whenever you're talking about expedition, Everest. Yes.  , if I had to pick like one true ride to go on, that's the one. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So I think the most popular rollercoaster in Disney world is that one is expedition, Everest. Um, so you have shows, you have zoos, you have rollercoasters. 

And my number one thing at animal kingdom is the food very specifically, a place that we eat every time. We're an animal kingdom, because it's our favorite and that is flame tree barbecue. Oh my goodness. , we hinted at this one. On another podcast that we did, but yes, that is the place you go. 

If you want some amazing barbecue. And the best thing about it is it's a quick service. So you don't have to sit down and be waited on. You. Don't have to , make reservations. , it's a quick service you go in and you get your food and you sit down and most of the seating is outside because it's beautiful. 

There's lots of. Great seating, but amazing food and giant portions. Yes, they do give you an ample amount of portions that are delicious.  You won't go hungry  since the last time that we went there, they have changed the portions just a little bit, but  it's still plenty for you to get full on or even two people to get full on. 

Whenever we went. , the portion was ginormous. Matter of fact, the person that even took whole order was like, I ordered some type of barbecue place. And she was like, um, how hungry are you? Because this is massive. And I was like, well, it's going to be me. And I think my son.   He was going to share with us because he wanted something else on the other side of the park. , and so both of us ate and we had just a little bit of food left over, but I mean, that's how much that they give you. 

 It's a fantastic place to go.  Usually when people talk about one of their favorite places to eat in Disney world. Um, you're going to get a restaurant that you have to make reservations at. And by the way, to make those reservations, make sure you do those at least three months in advance, or you may not get their reservations. 

You want. But flame tree barbecue is a quick service and it's, I think possibly my favorite place to eat in all of Disney world. Absolutely. And not only that, but , they have opened up.  Avatar land. Oh, yes. I was about to get into that Pandora, Pandora. We still haven't went and visited, but that's definitely on , our checklist. Over there and check it out. 

We went. , we just didn't go into animal kingdom that time.  

Oh, yeah. , the last time where we only spent one day. And quickly went to Epcot. But it's definitely one of those places that we're definitely going to go check back out.  Since Pandora has opened up. , animal kingdom has gained more popularity. Oh, absolutely. Like because before, because like you said, it is. It is one of the newer parks. 

It's not that old. It was made in the nineties. It was open to the nineties. And I think most people just kind of look at it as a zoo and they don't like, I don't want to go to Disney world and go to a zoo. I can go to a zoo, any world. But it's so much more than a zoo, but now that it has the Pandora. I think way more people visit it now. 

And it also has a night show. It didn't have a night show for the longest time. And now it has a night shift because it used to close it like. Four in the afternoon. Whenever the animals were going to sleep. That's where they closed the park. Yeah. We always got park hopper tickets specifically for animal kingdom day so that we could go to another park. Because it closed so early.  But whenever you really think about animal kingdom, the biggest thing that stands out in your mind, you know, magic kingdom, you have the castle.  Hollywood. 

You have the Chinese theater animal kingdom, the tree of life. Yes. The tree of life. 145 feet tall with over 300. Hand-carved animals. The entire tree is hand carved. Now we just like to walk around and look at the tree. It is absolutely stunning. It is beautiful to admire, especially if you do anything with your hands, as far as making our crafting, that is definitely one of those things that if a group wants to go watch bug life, that's 

that's being played underneath the tree and you just want to walk around like me and Ariel did. , it was really cool and awesome. Just to take a few minutes, walk around the tree and just enjoy. The hand carved animals that were on it. 

Which brings us to our number one. Our life of the party, our place to go. It is. In our own minds, the most exciting place. It's the most relaxing place. It is the place that is distinguished from the rest of the parks. And that of course is Epcot. Yeah. I don't know if our children would say this is their favorite park. But Epcot is like the adult park now. There's lots of things to do for kids and our kids do like the park. There are entire rides that revolve around kids shows and things like that. 

But Epcot has the most adult things to do. Yes. And whenever we were trying to make up our list of the things that we like about it, what was most appealing to us? This was definitely the easiest one to do out of all of them. It was super, super easy, easy to think of what I like, but hard to narrow it down to a few reasons. 

That's why I kept it as general as possible. I mean, this park that opened up in 1982 is just a phenomenal park. It's one of my favorite ones. And did you know that the Epcot was actually supposed to be a city and not a theme park? Right? It was supposed to be a city. , A celebration of human achievement. 

, it was supposed to be kind of like a future world. I think one of the nicknames that's gained throughout the years is like, , permanent, , world fair or something like that.  , The name Epcot actually comes from the acronym of experimental prototype community of tomorrow. That's where they get Epcot at. Yeah, it was Walt's vision of.  Uh, working in livable city. 

Yeah. But like,  a company. Owned city. Like it was his little. His little vision, but you know, he died before. Kai was opened or even started and all of that. And so they took that.  Themes, so to speak and they turned it into a theme park. 

And although, you know, I'm sad while its vision didn't pan out the way he wanted to, I'm thrilled with what they did with it. , and especially whenever , you think about Epcot, the very first thing that you're going to come to mind is the spaceship earth, or what's better known as the golf ball.  The giant golf ball. That's what our kids call it. I hate that ride so much. I hate that ride. 

. I mean, it's not entertaining. It's hot. It's stinky. Almost every time we get stuck on it at some point. Oh yeah. You're going to get stuck on the ride. , it's one of those things that you do to say you did it and then you don't do it again. Yes. Do you know that the outside is made up of over 11,000 triangles? That's crazy. 

I do like the outside. I like the iconic news. Yes. It's very pretty at night when it's all lit up, but I, I don't ever want to step foot inside of it again. But that's, you know, w we kind of went all the other ones, you know, the tree of life. The castle and the golf ball is like the most iconic place to go. 

A hundred golf ball. And , as much as we.  Vividly. Don't like the golf ball or spaceship earth. . Especially in the summertime. If you want a nice place to kind of go get out of the sign. Relax a little bit.  That's definitely the place to go. Cause. I mean, it's a very slow moving rod. , but there's things that are happening. Either people getting on or people getting off that could leave you in suspense. For a good 20, 30 seconds as you're watching the same animatronics over and over and over again. So the previous three theme parks that we've talked about, they all have multiple lands, so to speak within their theme parks. Epcot kind of focuses on two areas. 

You have future world. Which is, , about modern innovation and technology and things like that. And then you have the world showcase, which,  highlights the diversity. Of human cultures and experiences. And by far, my favorite place in all of Disney world is the world showcase. Absolutely. 

The world showcase is. I mean, all of my favorite things are in the world. Showcase. Yeah.  The world showcase you go through these different sections of.  Countries, countries around the world. So you have France and Germany and Italy and Japan and China. And you just go through all these different countries. And while you're in that section, the shopping, the restaurants. The entertainment, everything is focused on that country. 

And do you know that for each country, the chefs are actually from the countries that they're representing? Yes. So  they make it a big deal to. Recruit or try to entice true, authentic people from each country to come and work at Disney world. Yeah, they have these special work programs that they do just to cook the food or do the entertainment, or even work at the shops. 

 And I think that's one of my favorite reasons that I like the world showcase is cause I like the immersion of each country. But then the food I'm getting the variety of the food. It's delicious food and it's all authentic to the country that it's representing. I'm going to quickly go into my three because it's really simple. Uh, number one is shopping.  Just shopping, not like a particular store within itself, but just shopping. 

Cause you're a window shopper. I'm not much of a window shopper. So. Yeah. I mean, I like going into every shop that is at the  world showcase. And just looking at the different variety. And what they have to offer from beer steins in Germany to chopsticks in China. Yes. We still have our chopsticks. 

We do have our top six. And it's just.  The whole shopping experience from, you know, going to Japan and looking at some of the anime stuff or hello, kitty. It's just. I like it all because you're able to. Go shopping in every country. All right there. 

I just like the world showcase in general. I couldn't narrow it down. Of specific things in the world showcase. I just have it all clumped together. All together because it's my favorite place in Disney world. I could spend every morning walking around , the world showcase and be absolutely in heaven. 

So the second thing that she's already hinted at, of course, in the world showcase that is so amazing is all the eating places.  X specially Darren, our favorite time of the year to go, which is the. , international flower and garden festival. Oh. Mal. Goodness, whenever , you go and all the flowers are all beautiful and they're fresh and they look amazing. And they spend countless hours planning them all . In specific ways and , they take their bushes and they cut out like topiaries. 



I called topiaries. 

Oh, topiaries. Okay. Where they take them and they cut out a Donald duck or a Mickey mouse or goofy. That's just, it's really awesome to look at. And you get to look at them while you eat. Yes. And also during that time around the world showcase, they have the little.  Not food tracks, but like food stalls that are all over the place. 

And those only come out like two, three times a year, . Um, the food and wine festival, the flower and garden festival, I know they do those two times of the year where you get the specialty food, the unique food, and a lot of times it's different every year. And.  It's delicious like that one year. We'll be, we got, um,  The burnt, the cheesy Burton's of the brisket with the potatoes and then peppers never had that again, because it's, you know, it was just available during that one time, that one year. But dalicious food, which is one of the reasons why I love the flower and garden festival. I mean.  No matter what you get in Epcot, it's going to be amazing. . I'll never forget. That one time I was so full and we were coming out of the Mexico pavilion. And  I, like, I had to have Charros, I was craving Charros. 

I don't know what it is with our family intros, but I was craving bureaus and I finally got them, but I was way too full to eat them. I carried those Chas around with me for the rest of the day. I think I carried them around for like five hours. Oh, at least for five hours. 

But it's because everything is so delicious. So delicious. And I remember vividly the last time that we went, like I had it in my mind exactly what I wanted. I wanted fish and chips from England. I wanted a funnel cake where we usually get the funnel cake by the American pavilion. American pavilion.  We didn't quite make it to. I think they closed. 

I think the, they closed early. Like 10 minutes before you got there. Yes. So. So I had to come back and eat some amazing Japanese food. So I can't complain about that. But then we went to go get the funnel cake and it happened to close like 10 minutes before we got there. I remember you were so upset.  I was like, those are my two favorite things. 

I don't get to eat them. I just want to go home.  

I remember you were so crazy.  You're like, why am I even here?  

So if, if you have specific foods that you definitely want to try. Check out and make sure what time everything closes. Yes. Because the world showcase, sometimes things shut down. Pretty early. Yeah. Depending on the time of the year. And what's going on, there are some that was in July. That was in July. 

I don't know why it closed down so early. I guess we were staying a little bit later because the.  Illumination at the end was way later than what it normally is because it's lighter.  Right later. And at that point, Everything else was starting to shut down at its normal time, but we were staying so late that.  We thought it was going to be open until elimination and we just, we missed it by a couple. 

Um, the next thing that I will definitely talk about is, and one of my favorite things that I stopped at every single time and I don't care what the family is doing. I don't care what kind of time constraint we have going on. I know what you're about to say. I want you to guess what, what do you think I'm going to choose? You're going to talk about what you go in and you do the drinks.  No. Oh, good. The Asian drummers. 

Oh, okay. Yes. We're still on world showcase.  Showcase they're out there and they have the drums up vertically and they're hitting them with their.  And the Japan pavilion at the Japan pavilion and , I'm a percussionist. So that's something  that I dig. That's something that I like whenever they're out there. 

, they're putting a beat down. It's not  sitting there and watching them as long as I have a snack in my hand. Yeah. And so it's just definitely one of those things that.  One or two people in the family, if they really enjoy that, can sit there and do that. Someone runs off and like grabs a quick snack or a drink and then brings it back and you just get to sit there and enjoy like a 20, 25 minute show. 

And if you have ever grabbed those wooden mallets that they have, and like try to do the Trump rhythm and how you have to pop it to really make the really good sound for as long as they drum. Is phenomenal. And it's amazing because your forearms would literally fall off.  

How interesting. 

Yeah. So Epcot. Jeremy, and I absolutely love Epcot. I don't know.  Which park the kids would say is their favorite.  I think Ariel would go to magic kingdom. Probably Justin would be Hollywood studios. And we always feel specifically because of the star wars. Exactly. Yeah. I think so, too. 

 📍  So that is the four main theme parks in Disney world.  But next week, we want to talk about going beyond the theme parks. So much more to Disney world other than just the theme parks. And we want to tell you. What else that you can do? So join in next week, as we talk about. Beyond the theme, parks and Disney world.

  Let's go home, na-na-na. Let's go home, na-na-na.