An Incredible Summer at Walt Disney World - My Family Travels

Whether you’re a human or a toy, Walt Disney World in Orlando has designed a vacation all about you, with a little sprinkling of PIXAR dust. For humans, there are fresh attractions in all the parks, plus new amenities like extra shaded seating, more FastPasses to reduce waiting time for popular rides, and new water fountains and misters throughout the parks.

If you’re a toy, Disneyworld is even better – you have an entirely new and cozy Toy Story Land, based on the blockbuster “Toy Story” movies from PIXAR Animation, where you can join other toys in Andy’s backyard.

Toy Story Land

Humans love Toy Story Land, which opened in Disney’s Hollywood Studios June 30, 2018. Visitors dwarfed by a nearly 20-foot-tall Woody enter an 11-acre backyard where other toys from the “Toy Story” films are at play and the Green Army Patrol (a gender-neutral name signifies there are women too!) is marching.

Look for clues to the intricate theming that makes Disney attractions so immersive.

Outside the popular Toy Story Mania ride, where guests can rack up points in a fun videogame style format, there’s a fully posable T-Rex Dinosaur on sale for $19.95, celebrating the year that “Toy Story” opened. Some benches are made of stained popsicle sticks. Visitors can look for a Lincoln Log cabin and at night, the whole place is illuminated the way a 9-year-old would, by hanging mismatched strings of Christmas lights.

Red wax covered Babybel cheese rounds are part of the picnic tables in Woody’s Lunch Box, where school lunch fare has gotten an upgrade to include cocktails like “Grown Up Lemonade” with vodka. The bolder fast food menu includes a yummy, garlicy Three Grilled Cheese sandwich; the shareable Monte Cristo with layers of ham, turkey, jam and Dijon mustard; a purposefully healthy kids-size grilled cheese and smoked turkey; floats and fruit-filled pop-tarts. A new favorite: vegan Totchos, a chili with salsa served over tater tots.

Toy Story Land water fountain
Wooden blocks and dominoes support water fountains in the new Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World.

Be sure to use Fastpass to book the new rides. Slinky Dog Dash is based on the roller coaster that Andy built with a booster rocket and his metal coil Slinky, that mimics the humpback movement of a Slinky descending a staircase. It’s just the right amount of thrilling for grandparents and school-age kids. Toddlers and their parents will enjoy Alien Swirling Saucers, bumping cars towed by aliens from the Pizza Planet play set as they slowly spin 360 degrees.

Newly refreshed PIXAR merchandise and unique-to-this-park toys are for sale from carts and in a big Beverly Sunset store. From visual evidence, we can confirm that Slinky Dog and Alien headbands work with every outfit.

New and upcoming favorites at Epcot

If you haven’t been to the Norway Pavilion since the blockbuster, “Frozen” opened, your family is in for a treat. Like all of Epcot’s international pavilions, it’s themed to Scandinavia but with a twist provided by Princesses Elsa and Anna. Have an album ready for your meet-and-greet with these sisters, then embark on an on-the-water journey through Arendelle in Frozen Ever After, the latest family attraction.

In more PIXAR fun, The Seas with Nemo and Friends gentle ride has been refreshed technically for younger audiences and the aquarium accompanying it has some exciting specimens. EPCOT is also home to Turtle Talk with Crush, one of our favorite interactive shows.

Teens will have fun in the America Gardens Theatre, where Star-Lord and Gamora from “Guardians of the Galaxy” join an alien band, playing music from their 80s mix tapes. Soon Epcot will get a new Guardians of the Galaxy attraction.

Magic Kingdom is Incredible

A lot more PIXAR Animation entertainment is showcased in Magic Kingdom. At Tomorrowland, the Incredible Expo lasts all summer.  Guests will encounter Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone from Disney•Pixar’s “The Incredibles” and upcoming “Incredibles 2.”  Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is more popular than ever, and the Monsters Inc attraction – where you can text your jokes to Sully and he replies – is as fun as Turtle Talk.

Don’t miss the other PIXAR characters who will appear in the daily parades and illuminations.

Animal Kingdom goes extraterrestrial

Green Army Patrol marches around Disney World
Men and women of the Green Army Patrol march around Disney World trying to get guests in shape to serve.

Last year saw the launch of Pandora, the world from the film “Avatar” which became an instant hit. There are stunningly scenic floating mountains, a new ride down the Na’vi River and a fantastic virtual reality ride aboard a flying banshee.

For a non-PIXAR and totally classic cartoon experience, celebrate 20 years of Animal Kingdom at Dinoland U.S.A. as Donald Duck takes over.

The PIXAR theming shines through at UP! A Great Bird Adventure, where naturalists modeled on the movie’s characters work with trained, performing birds. To rest your feet mid-safari, allow time for a show filled with music and delightful puppetry, “Finding Nemo the Musical.”

Latest offers from Walt Disney World

Can’t wait to see everything? It will be crowded, but offers abound. For example, if you book by August 14, 2019, there are discounts on two-day Park Hopper tickets if used by the end of the summer. Otherwise, your 7-day ticket costs the same as a 14-day tickets, plus you’ll get a Memory Maker photo card worth $199, FastPass+ access to book rides up to 6 months ahead of arrival, plus that 7-day ticket will be valid for 14 full days. Just check it out at Walt Disney World Company UK.

2019 Alert!If you’re patient, you can save even more because the folks at Disney want to spread out visitors and reduce the crowds. That’s why they’ve come up with several value offers for 2020 vacations that they’re sharing now online.

With so much going on, it’s time you planned a return to Orlando.

 

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1 Reply to “An Incredible Summer at Walt Disney World”

  • nguyenrobert

    I poured my heart and soul into this!!! Hope you people enjoy! =)

  • kindercore

    Wow, this is wonderful! You are so lucky to have gotten this opportunity. You looked absolutely gorgeous at the show and the red carpet. Thanks for sharing this, it really made me smile. I used to have the biggest crush on Joe Jonas.. hahah!

  • juliakristine12

    Amazing trip!

  • jsapijaszko

    I hope that my story will inspire and enrich your lives; even if it doesn’t touch you as much as it has touched me. I hope that this will be passed on and that people will take a few minutes just to read what I had to say and try to be in the mind of these children. Try to change your day and see your house, your possessions, your income, and those many great things that you possess and find a way to share them with others. We all need a wakeup call sometimes, a message to straighten us out and look at the life we were given. I hope to go back next year to repeat the experience all over again and try to change myself even more, I love those children and I love their compassion and selflessness. Words can’t fully express what I felt or what I witnessed but my words are clear, these people see the world much differently than us, they treat possessions differently and they know how to work as a community.

  • Broncosfan102

    This is about when my family and I took a trip down to Central Florida for our Family Vacation.

  • Kendylpearson

    Hope you enjoy!

  • Adria394

    This was a vacation that taught me a lot about how my religion is organzied and gave me more appreciation for it.

  • hero1133

    I will never forget the time I spent in Germany.

  • paramorechick_3

    I hope you guys enjoyed my story!

  • Fernandinho

    Best luck.

  • Fernandinho

    I give the best luck to my paper to be found in a good hands, and be successful.

     

     

  • GWtheW1

    South Africa is this amazing country that not only is beautiful for its animals and scenery but for its people and for its ability to overcome the greatest oppression: apartheid, the discrimination of the majority. I am so glad I was given the gift of traveling to South Africa. It is an experience I will never forget!

  • YomaLuv

    It was a great trip!

  • Frenchfry3

    I hope everyone who takes the time to read The Awakening enjoys learning about my bus ride to reality.

  • ninja2643

    My typed essay about my vacation in Vietnam. It seem poorly written or should I say typed :\

  • bgray

    Bryan Gray Europe Tour.

  • christophernaso

    My vacation to Panama became suprisingly meaningful, contrary to what I had initially expected.

     

  • GoDuke94

    This was a fun and yet difficult project i truely have enjoyed sharing my vaction with you.

    Mahalo,

  • colinm64

    Have you ever been to Maine? What did you like best?

  • paigemawhinney

    This is such an amazing story and essay!!

  • cwilson

    Their were many more memories from this trip that impacted me as much as the ones that were included, but I just didnt have enough room. So, I shortened it and tried to write the best description of the trip without exceeding the word limit. But the trip was, indeed, as remarkable as I said it was.

  • Brittanyshim

    Washington is a really nice place. It has many museums and historical places. it also has very delicious foods. Chinatown was my favorite place to eat.

  • LydiaZhu

    Thank you for this scholarship opportunity!

  • LydiaZhu

    IB York was a great experience, and a great opportunity to explore new ideas and innovations

  • rodeostar94

    So now I head to college without my classmates but i will always have this wonderful experience.

  • ashpepp

    This is one of my many travel adventure stories from my trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer. Besides Prague, I traveled to Berlin, Munuch, and Nuremberg in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France. My favorite place was Switzerland, but my favorite story was the one I shared. I hope you enoy reading it as much as i enjoyed experiencing it!

  • aliash747

    I want everyone to be able to expericence something like I did.:) Everyone desevers happines!

  • beachcrystal

    I hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I hope you plan to take your mom to the Peaks of Otter Lodge for the best brunch you will ever eat. For more information click on this link:

    http://www.peaksofotter.com/ 

     

  • kiana.roberson

    Finished product. I love PERU!

  • winterchild2

    This eye-opening opportunity has shaped my conviction toward making change and developing the community. It is a great pleasure to meet all those Leadership Award Honorees and other49 ANNpower fellows from 24 states in the U.S. I will continue to make change and build a dynamic community, excursively to ethnic, social, political gender aspects of advantage, as my milestone to become a great leader! 

  • winterchild2

               This eye-opening opportunity marks the culmination of my junior year. I am so glad to meet all those wonderful women leaders from all around the world and 49 other ANNpower fellows from other 24 states. I will continue to explore the world and make change with eagerness and confident, and overcoming disadvantage exclusively toward the milestone of a great leader!

  • melodee_groesz

    I hope everyone enjoys my trip to Catalina and Ensenada!

  • dianasida

    This trip was the best trip regarding family time. It is unforgettable.

  • MirandaElliott

    To see more photography from the trip, check out my photojournal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Photojournal-of-My-Grecian-Travels/213497035367351.

  • TMartin

    What a testimony!! Thanks for posting. You don't know how impactful this is. Let Jesus keep using you for His glory. 😉

    I was saved in August of 2009. I was in my parents's room and we all prayed for m, becuase I was tired of not having a desire for God. There I gave my life to Him and let Him be my Lord. I already excepted Him as Savior, but though it was a license to sin. Thatt day, though I wanted to repent of my sin and let God lead me. Lord and Savior go hand-in-hand. My life is changed. Now I have convictions and am learning so much about seeking God, because He is seeking me. It's awesome to live in the security and hope of knowing I will see Him one day in heaven. I am so glad He lives in me, because my goodness outside of Him is nothing. I don't know what I would do without Him.

  • TMartin

    Jesus used that park to bring you and your dad back together. How beautiful 🙂

  • riolivingwater

    Each place I go, I leave a peice of myself. And everyplace I go leaves a peice of itself in me. The people I have met along the way have changed me in the deepest way. Their lives have touched mine and I can never return to life as was usual. Likewise, my life has touched many along the way. It is my hope that nobody I meet along the way may return to life as was their usual. This is how each thead pulls coth and fabric together as we the people of the world cover it like a quilt. We must double stitch each peice so not to fall apart or leave holes. We need one another. 

  • thunald

    To whoever reading this, I am the person wearing blue shirt and white shorts, sligtly leaning on the panda bear statue.

  • StrawberryTravel4

    My essay that talks about my experience traveling to Lima, Peru aims toward encouraging others who are not too familiar with it to visit and appreciate the fun life changing experience they're gauranteed to get.

  • justin_nolen

    What a great contest!  Hope to see lots of terrific teen travel stories here!

  • snoopygirl808

    It was difficult for me to type a 600 word blog about an amazing experience I had in the month of July. It was also difficult for me to choose certain pictures from the ones that I have chosen, so I uploaded the pictures of my time at NeiHu elementary school. I really wished that I could have used more sightseeing photos, but unfortunately, those were too big to upload.

  • crazybluebunny

    This trip was amazing and it also tested who I am becoming as a person.  Seeing the woman in Central Park living out her dream, to the woman selling fruit throughout the day; New York is made of dreamers and hardworking people.  I loved it.  Hope I get the chance to go back.

  • lizk10345

    This was an amazing experience!  I am so grateful for everything it taught me!!

  • TravelerDE

         From research, I believe the ice cream shop was called Eisdiele Eddy. More information about the exchange program can be found at http://www.aatg.org/study-trip-faq as well as at the bottom of the page at http://www.aatg.org/NGE-awards

  • dylanmuller

    These Picutures are both of my own creation (one being an acrylic painting). When I took this picture at the western wall in Israel, the man in the photo was crying his heart out wearing a tattered down bath robe, I thought it would make for an intersting picture. So it did, it also inspired to me to create a painting in which I showed the world what I believe he really is. A man who is down on his luck but seems to still find peace in his life.

  • YetzaNoyola

    My sophomore year of high school I went to Donner Pass in California with a group called The Woods Project (www.thewoodsproject.org) . I had to apply to go , I was really anxious and scared that I wasn’t going to get. When I got my acceptance letter I was excited. I was also nervous because I had never been away from home for more than a week and The Woods project was going to last for two weeks. I had chosen to go to Donner Pass because I wanted to experience something new. I was going to go backpacking for one week and hiking the other. I had never gone backpacking before. When I told my friends that I was going backpacking they started to laugh because I am the smallest girl in my whole school and they didn’t think I was going to make it. Getting that response from my friends made me super scared of going to the trip. I thought I was going to die while backpacking!

    My dad went to go drop me off at the airport and then he left. I was already scared and freaking out at the fact that he had just left me there and I did not know anybody! . I got in the plane to California and I was already regretting going on the trip. I was going to be with complete strangers for two weeks! When we got to California we all got split .There were three groups going to different places, one to Yosemite, another to Marine Headlines and then mine, to Donner Pass. I got in a van and that’s where I met the people who I was going to spend two weeks with. We were in that van for hours! When we finally got to our cabin we had to go up a hill to get to the door.

    The first cabin we stayed in was named Clair Tappan Lodge. It was really nice . It was made out of wood, had a pool table, personal chef, jacuzzi and hot water in the showers. I loved it there! Too bad it only lasted for two days then it was time to go backpacking. They gave us our backpacking materials. I tried on the backpack and almost fell over. My backpacking week had started. We went up and down mountains, through rivers and lakes, and I thought we were never going to set up our tents. When it started to get dark we finally started cooking. The food we had was not good at all. We couldn’t bring a lot of food because of the bears and other animals. My second day of backpacking went better than the first. Everybody in my group started to know each other better and soon we became really close. We would sing while backpacking to make time pass faster and at night we didn’t want to sleep because we would play games. While backpacking I got to experience many things I hadn’t before. Even though I was the smallest girl going backpacking I was always the leader of the line because of my stamina.

    When our backpacking week ended it was time to hike. I had gotten the hardest part of the trip over with so I knew hiking was going to be a piece of cake. We would hike in the morning and hanged out at night. It was the best experience I had ever had! When it was time to go back home I didn’t want to because I knew I would miss my friends.

    To watch my video go to : http://youtu.be/FLd7W71EnyU  

     

  • jessicaburros

    My experience as a first time camper.

  • levincentclark

    i hope i win