Bean Travels: Magic Kingdom, Is It Worth the Hype in 2023?
Greetings and Salutations to you all! Todays blog post will be on everything you’d want to know about Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and whether it is worth the hype! So let’s dive into the Magic Kingdom!
The Introduction
Splash Mountain retheme
Stitch walking around the stage in Tomorrowland
Characters such as Stitch and even Beast (will go into that later on) can be spotted wondering around the parks. However, as a heads up if you do want a photo with them, sometimes the cast member with them will turn it down and if there is the possibility that you can get a photo with said character, you’d have to take it on your own phone rather than the professional photos that do happen!
The Parades and Fireworks
The Festival of Fantasy parade was the only parade we manage to catch, as we happened to be in the right place at the right time, but there were no advertisements for the parades anywhere. One thing I hope that Disney build up on is the advertising around parades, just so more of us know that they are happening.
Hook in the Festival of Fantasy parade
The upside to watching these parades is that there is more of a chance that you’d see rarer characters that you don’t often get the chance to meet such as the Seven Dwarfs, Hook or even Pinocchio!
Another spectacle that Disney offer is their infamous fireworks displays. We saw the displays at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I do have to say, the Magic Kingdom fireworks were my least favourite, but do let me explain.
Magic Kingdom fireworks
These fireworks did look impressive and the story surrounding them was amazing too. The thing that ruined the fireworks for me was having a balloon or someone’s phone being right in my viewpoint. This made it harder to watch the fireworks and harder to appreciate them, which is why I don’t think I enjoyed them as much. I’d still recommend watching the fireworks if you have a chance though.
The Dining
The snack stalls serve things such as Dole Whips, Mickey Pretzels, Churros and Fountain Sodas (your cokes, diet cokes and sprites). The good thing is that if you wanted a Dole Whip, the Dole Whips themselves are Gluten Free and Dairy Free, but the cones aren’t, however, the guys at the snack stalls are usually happy to sub the cone for a cup if you ask!
Then you have the quick-service restaurants. These restaurants you order at the till (or register depending on where you’re from) and then take the receipt to the counter to collect the food from. Not only that, but you can also do mobile ordering from your phone! This is really handy if you don’t want to talk to people or would rather control what food you get directly. The sort of food they serve at these restaurants are typically burgers and hotdogs, but sometimes they also offer mexican food!
Finally, we have full table service restaurants. These are the extremely sought after restaurants, such as Be Our Guest and Cinderella’s Royal Table. Remember how I mentioned you can see Beast? Be Our Guest was one of the restaurants we ate at, and Beast does wonder through the restaurant but he never stops at tables for pictures.
Deserts from Be Our Guest
The food and menus from these sort of restaurants are normally at a set price, so either they have the same sort of prices for the various courses, or all three courses are at a set price. Be Our Guest was one of my favourite restaurants that I went too all trip mainly for the theming and the food! It was the perfect amount of food for the money it was, I wasn’t feeling too full afterwards but was still satisfied at the end.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom, is it worth the hype?Possibly. I’m sorry that I couldn’t give a fuller answer than that, but it’s hard to say how Magic Kingdom makes the hype worth it. I enjoyed going during September, the crowds were just about right, and the heat was bearable.
However, I do feel that in some places Magic Kingdom is a bit too overhyped. But I also thought that the park needs a bit of TLC in places, as some of the rides and areas do look a bit outdated, but maybe that’ll all change with the new Tiana ride and the rumoured Villains land.
What do you all think? Do you think Disney’s Magic Kingdom lives up to the hype, or is it too overrated? Let me know in the comments!
So until next time, keep on being you!
The Introduction
Magic Kingdom park entrance
Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971 as the sister park to the already successful, Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The park has 5 lands that surround the magnificent castle in the centre; Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I won’t dive too much into the history of the park, but that can be a separate thing if you are all interested (let me know in the comments below!)
Cinderella’s Castle aka the iconic Disney World Castle
The castle itself is a thing of beauty. A little known fact is that the castle that you see in the image above is actually Cinderella’s Castle! Each of the Disney theme park castles are that of different princesses, so for example Disneyland California has Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and Disneyland Paris has Sleeping Beauty’s Castle too!
This castle is actually located within the Fantasyland area of the park, and underneath it, you can get dining reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table, a sit-down table service restaurant.
Adventureland Entrance
The park being split into five areas made it easier to navigate around.
The Rides
The ride selection in the Magic Kingdom isn’t the greatest, but it’s also not the worst. From spending the past two weeks at Disney, myself and my best mate noticed that once we had done the big e-ticket attractions, there wasn’t much else going on.
The rides we noticed were mainly for younger children, however there were a couple of rides that we thought catered more for older kids and adults, such as Space Mountain and of course the new Tron ride.
Don’t get me wrong though, some of the existing rides that are there like Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise can cater for all the family, I personally felt like
there could be a bit more for older kids and adults.
Splash Mountain retheme
However, it’s not all doom and gloom! The old Splash Mountain log flume recently shut, and was announced that they’d retheme it to be… (drumroll please) Princess and the Frog! Personally, I am a fan of the film and think that Tiana needs a bit more recognition, but seeing the construction of the new ride made me wonder if this may be catered to all the family, rather than just little kids!
The Characters
The main thing about going to a Disney park is which characters can I meet? And the answer, quite a lot! Scattered throughout the park are various meet and greets such as Snow White, Merida (from Brave), and of course Mickey Mouse himself! But the nice thing about Disney is that you can even be wondering around and spot a character wondering.
Stitch walking around the stage in Tomorrowland
Characters such as Stitch and even Beast (will go into that later on) can be spotted wondering around the parks. However, as a heads up if you do want a photo with them, sometimes the cast member with them will turn it down and if there is the possibility that you can get a photo with said character, you’d have to take it on your own phone rather than the professional photos that do happen!
The Parades and Fireworks
The parades are some of the most iconic things that people talk about when they talk about Disney. However, from when we were wondering around the parks, we hardly noticed the parades.
The Festival of Fantasy parade was the only parade we manage to catch, as we happened to be in the right place at the right time, but there were no advertisements for the parades anywhere. One thing I hope that Disney build up on is the advertising around parades, just so more of us know that they are happening.
Hook in the Festival of Fantasy parade
The upside to watching these parades is that there is more of a chance that you’d see rarer characters that you don’t often get the chance to meet such as the Seven Dwarfs, Hook or even Pinocchio!
Another spectacle that Disney offer is their infamous fireworks displays. We saw the displays at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I do have to say, the Magic Kingdom fireworks were my least favourite, but do let me explain.
Magic Kingdom fireworks
These fireworks did look impressive and the story surrounding them was amazing too. The thing that ruined the fireworks for me was having a balloon or someone’s phone being right in my viewpoint. This made it harder to watch the fireworks and harder to appreciate them, which is why I don’t think I enjoyed them as much. I’d still recommend watching the fireworks if you have a chance though.
The Dining
OMG, there are so many dining options within the Magic Kingdom, and they are so accommodating with food allergies and intolerances. At Disney parks, you have various options for dining; snacks, quick service and full table service.
The snack stalls serve things such as Dole Whips, Mickey Pretzels, Churros and Fountain Sodas (your cokes, diet cokes and sprites). The good thing is that if you wanted a Dole Whip, the Dole Whips themselves are Gluten Free and Dairy Free, but the cones aren’t, however, the guys at the snack stalls are usually happy to sub the cone for a cup if you ask!
Then you have the quick-service restaurants. These restaurants you order at the till (or register depending on where you’re from) and then take the receipt to the counter to collect the food from. Not only that, but you can also do mobile ordering from your phone! This is really handy if you don’t want to talk to people or would rather control what food you get directly. The sort of food they serve at these restaurants are typically burgers and hotdogs, but sometimes they also offer mexican food!
Finally, we have full table service restaurants. These are the extremely sought after restaurants, such as Be Our Guest and Cinderella’s Royal Table. Remember how I mentioned you can see Beast? Be Our Guest was one of the restaurants we ate at, and Beast does wonder through the restaurant but he never stops at tables for pictures.
Deserts from Be Our Guest
The food and menus from these sort of restaurants are normally at a set price, so either they have the same sort of prices for the various courses, or all three courses are at a set price. Be Our Guest was one of my favourite restaurants that I went too all trip mainly for the theming and the food! It was the perfect amount of food for the money it was, I wasn’t feeling too full afterwards but was still satisfied at the end.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom, is it worth the hype?Possibly. I’m sorry that I couldn’t give a fuller answer than that, but it’s hard to say how Magic Kingdom makes the hype worth it. I enjoyed going during September, the crowds were just about right, and the heat was bearable.
However, I do feel that in some places Magic Kingdom is a bit too overhyped. But I also thought that the park needs a bit of TLC in places, as some of the rides and areas do look a bit outdated, but maybe that’ll all change with the new Tiana ride and the rumoured Villains land.
What do you all think? Do you think Disney’s Magic Kingdom lives up to the hype, or is it too overrated? Let me know in the comments!
So until next time, keep on being you!
Sadie
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