One of the many advantages of living in Orlando is having several world class theme parks, hotel, restaurants and beaches close by – perfect for a mini-staycation. If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know that Steve (DOS) and I (Steve UNO) take several local staycations throughout the year in addition to our international vacations, and my work trips. We stayed at many of the Disney Resorts, Disney Springs are hotels (formerly called Downtown Disney), as well as several others, especially the Hyatt properties. On this visit we once again stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Cypress Creek Resort, directly adjacent to Disney Springs.
Although the Hyatt has a shuttle bus to the parks, we took Uber over to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) to save time. Uber or Lift is so convenient it really doesn’t make sense to take the buses unless it’s an off peak time. Once at the TTC, we took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom, which at 6pm wasn’t very busy.
Although Magic Kingdom (MK) is Steve (DOS’s) favorite park (mine is EPCOT), we haven’t been to Magic Kingdom in quite a while, mainly because of the crowds and stroller-city atmosphere you have to contend with at “The Happiest Place on Earth”.
Once inside the park though, our happy child-like demeanor glows, and as many times as we’ve been to MK, we always get excited walking down Main Street and take umpteen more photos of Cinderella’s Castle.
We always get a photo by the balloon vendor and wonder how he or she can handle all those balloons, and still take money and make change for the customers!
As we both have seasonal Annual WDW passes, we can park hop to all four Disney theme parks, and as we can visit most of the year (with a few black out dates in summer, and certain holidays) and we don’t feel as obligated to go to the parks all day. (Unless friends and family are visiting and we can show them around and maximize their time here with the Steve’s travel tips.) Here are a few of our Cinderella Castle photos to add to our collection.
As our dinner reservations weren’t until 7:30pm, we had an hour and a half to take a leisurely walk thru Tomorrowland (my favorite section), before heading to dinner in Fantasyland (DOS’s favorite section). We actually had time to do two attractions: WED-Way People Mover and Carousel of Progress.
sitting atop the roof.
After riding the two attractions, (yes Carousel of Progress counts as a ride because the whole theater moves!), DOS and I headed to dinner at the other castle for our dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant. While the “Beast Castle” is a facade and sits high on the hill (unlike Cinderella’s Castle), it’s Disney Forced perspective makes it look far, far away. You don’t actually eat in the castle, but the main dining room which is themed to be part of the castle.
For comparison, here are the two Magic Kingdom Castles: Cinderella’s and The Beast’s, both shown at night with their colorful lights:
Our dinner at Be our Guest Restaurant continues next: Enjoy!