Since Tash went through the cruise side of our holiday I thought I would give you a round up of the Theme Parks. In Disneyworld Orlando, Florida, there are four main theme parks. Magic Kingdom (with its signature castle), Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot Centre. Any guest staying at the Disney Resorts get a special treat… We had passes to all four parks and since we were guests we were entitled to the “Extra Magical Hours” promotion which allowed us to stay in the parks after closing time while general admission guests would have to leave. This meant that if the park closes at 12am, we were allowed to stay there until 3am with about 75% less people in the park which meant no wait times!!

What I loved about Disneyworld is that they have rides to accommodate both adults and kids. So for the more faint of heart there are the Dumbo and Giant Tea Cups rides, while for those who were after a bit more adrenaline there was the Hollywood Tower, Space Mountain, Rolling Thunder and a few other rollercoaster thrill rides. My favourite ride by far was the Toy Story Ride. It was an amazing interactive 3D shooting gallery that you ride through. At the end of the ride you score is compared to the other competitors in your team.

On a  funny note, while Cyrus and I were about to go on the Hollywood Tower ride, we were joking about how funny it would be to see our Mother in Law’s reaction if she went on it. We then though oh wait… maybe not because she’s got high blood pressure and probably would have a heart attack. She would never go on any sort of rollercoaster or thrill rides EVER. So with this ride, basically you sit in the carriage and go through a haunted tower in total darkness in your very own episode of the twilight zone and enter an elevator shaft. Once you’re in the elevator shaft the carriage free falls about 2 storey’s and then starts to rise again. After it goes up to about the 20th floor you see a window in front of you with the view of the entire theme park and you realise how high up you really are…. and then you free fall… This happens over and over from varying heights, so once you hit the bottom you might go up 8 floors before falling again. Each time you go on the ride you get a different algorithm for the free falling so its never the same and you can’t prepare yourself for how long you’re going to drop. Back to my Mother in Law… She unsuspectingly lined up by herself for the Hollywood Tower ride thinking that it was just a ghost house where people would jump out of a dark area and scare you. Little did she know that it was a free fall ride and she told me that she felt like she was about to die and was yelling “JESUS! JESUS!” the whole ride while her handbag was flying around because she didn’t secure it.  

The funny thing is, right after that ride she went into another line because she heard Aerosmith music and she thought it was them playing live. Little did she know that it was one of the most scariest roller coaster rides in the park (Route 66) and after about an hour waiting in line she approached the front and heard screaming. She turned to the person behind her and asked her what it was and after hearing that it was a rollercoaster she was outta there  like a bat out of hell… We can all laugh about it now though…

I must admit I was blown away by the quality of service during our entire stay at the resort and the parks. They’ve thought of everything that you would need at your disposal to make your holiday as pleasant as possible. The little things like “one check in only” for the cruise and resort, the baggage service where you don’t even need to carry anything because they include porter service, and also the free transportation between the parks and the resorts every 20 minutes.

All in all, I thought the parks were really awesome, the decor of the parks, the grandeur size of everything, and especially the fireworks spectacle at each park EVERY night… It truly does make it the most magical place on earth.