My Disney Diary: Top 10 Favorites From Our Trip

There were lots of fun things that my family did while we were on vacation in Disney World. Of course, the best part was that my family was together for 12 days. These days it’s hard to get that much family time. So that was definitely the best part!

Here is a list of some other things I enjoyed about our vacation.

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10. Splash Mountain

This has been my favorite ride since it opened. I love floating in the log and the drop at the end. I can never seem to keep my eyes open for the five story drop, but I do keep them open for the amazing view from the top of the ride!

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9. Characters

How could the characters not make the list? It’s so much fun seeing the kids get excited about meeting their favorite characters. My daughter was so excited to meet Anna (glad we got a FastPass!) and my son ran right up to Woody and Jessie to give them a hug. It was so cute!

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8. Dining

We had so many good dining experiences while on vacation.

Some of the quick service food (Be Our Guest and Boardwalk Bakery) was really good. Others were okay, but nothing was terrible. Loved the breakfast waffle cone from the Boardwalk Bakery!

The table service dining, however, was pretty fantastic everywhere we went. My favorite, hands down, was Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club. The food was delicious and the serving portions were very generous. Plus, we were able to see Illuminations from the table where we were dining. This is a great place for a date night.

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7. Shopping

No matter where the vacation is, shopping is always on the list of favorite things to do. I love looking at all the souvenirs and figuring out which ones are coming home with me.

This time around I got a Cinderella Coach souvenir popcorn bucket and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train popcorn bucket…those were fun to pack for the flight home!

One of my favorite souvenirs actually has no Disney markings on it. While we were there I did this thing called Pick-a-Pearl. What you do is pick an oyster and you get to keep the pearl that’s inside. It only cost $16, but you can choose to have it set.

I did it at the Beach Club and have it set so I could put it on a chain. I love it and it was so much fun to do! One piece of advice, pick the ugliest one. The one with the most white on it (where the barnacles were); because that usually means the pearl will be on the bigger size. The cast member said they can go up to 9 mm. I picked the smallest and ugliest one I saw and mine was 7.8.

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6. The Boardwalk Inn and Villas

Loved this hotel! There was an actual Boardwalk behind the hotel with restaurants and entertainment. At night entertainers perform on the Boardwalk and they have games you can play to win prizes.

We spent quite a bit of time on the Boardwalk dining, shopping, and checking out the entertainment. Plus, you can walk to Epcot from this hotel.

The view from our room was pretty cool too. We were able to see Hollywood Tower of Terror and the Earful Tower from our room. It was very hard to leave that room and come home!

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5. Shows

I love going to the shows in the parks. They are fun to watch and the performers are really talented. My favorite, one that I have to see every visit, is Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom. I always get goosebumps watching this show. Plus, the people on the stilts are super impressive.

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4. Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

This was another first for me during this trip. The Halloween party is a separate event that happens on certain nights. It sounded fun, so we bought tickets and took the kids trick-or-treating around the Magic Kingdom.

They had fun, though they didn’t last the whole night. It’s a lot for little kids to take in. They got a bunch of candy and got to see some fun characters and decorations. So, even though we weren’t there for the whole time we had a lot of fun.

It’s great seeing everyone dressed up. My husband and I got dressed up for the party too. We went as Doctor Who characters 🙂

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3. Disney Guest Services

The level of customer service at Disney is fantastic. I can’t tell you how many times cast members went above and beyond for us.

Whether it was taking care of an issue or finding the answer to a question, they were great. Plus, mousekeeping always set the kids’ toys up when they cleaned and the kids got a kick out of that. They set up the Buzz Lightyear and Jessie dolls so they were sitting next to each other and Buzz had his arm around Jessie.

If you’ve seen the Toy Story movies then you know Buzz has a crush on Jessie in the movies. So cute!

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2. Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

This was my first year experiencing the Food & Wine Festival. It was so much fun! My husband and I had a few date nights at Food & Wine, so we were able to walk around to all the booths.

The food was pretty amazing. The Fisherman’s Pie (Ireland), the Beef Bourguignon (France), the Empanada (Patagonia), the Pork Slider and Pineapple Wine (Hawaii), and the Cheddar Cheese Soup (Canada) were among our favorites.

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1. Epcot

Since our hotel was five minutes walking distance, we spent a lot of time in Epcot. This is, by far, my favorite park. Spaceship Earth is so impressive to see in person (yes, the big golf ball), especially at night when it has different color lights on it.

My favorite fireworks show is in Epcot too. It’s called Illuminations and it’s an amazing show. I get goosebumps every time I see it.

Walking around the countries is always fun and there are some good rides in Epcot (Soarin’ anyone?). The Grand Marnier Slushie from one of the carts in France is so good and I am now a huge fan of School Bread from Norway.

Seriously, I could do an entire Top 10 list about Epcot. There are so many fun and interesting things to see and do at that park.

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So, there you have it, my Top 10 list. We really did have so much fun on our trip and can’t wait to go back. Chances are we will look at an Epcot resort again. The proximity is fantastic, you can beat a five minute walk to Epcot!

Thanks for reading!

*Liz*