Photo Album: The waterways of the Magic Kingdom & Epcot Resort Areas of Walt Disney World

Even under construction and on a cloudy day it's still the place where dreams come true.

We have only been visiting Walt Disney World since 2015, and  are just beginning to scratch the surface of all the amazing things to see and do there. Early promotional materials loved describing how the Disney property in Florida was "twice the size of Manhattan".When they layed out Walt Disney World they placed the Magic Kingdom theme park at the top of the property farthest from the entrance to the resort to act as a draw that would pull folks through the rest of the property. If you have only been to Disneyland in California it is probably hard to wrap your head around how enormous the Walt Disney World Resort is. It is made up of 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, several hotels, several golf courses, 2 miniature golf courses, a sports recreation area, and an expansive waterside shopping center.

"We'll put the theme park in the top corner...that way they have to go through the rest of it to get to it!"

Walt Disney World is organized around 5 "Resort Areas", these are the collections of hotels  grouped together around a major destination. So the farthest north resort area is the "Magic Kingdom Resort Area". Moving south through the property you will encounter the "EPCOT Resort Area" & the "Disney Springs Resort Area". The 2 southern most resort areas are the "Animal Kingdom Resort Area" and the "Wide World of Sports Resort Area". Lakes are such a big part of the charm of Walt Disney World and many of the resorts are built around bodies of water.  This essay will cover the Magic Kingdom & EPCOT Resort Areas.  

Magic Kingdom Resort Area 

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom Theme Park on the shore of Seven Seas Lagoon

Arriving at the Magic Kingdom dock via ferry boat

At the heart of this resort area is the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake which are linked via a water bridge. The Magic Kingdom theme park is on the shore of Seven Seas Lagoon which is also flanked by the the Grand Floridian Resort, the Polynesian Village Resort and the Contemporary Resort.

The Victorian seaside splendor of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort

Escape to the mid-century tiki paradise of the Polynesian Village Resort

The future is always today at the Contemporary Resort where monorails pass through the Grand Canyon Concourse

Next to the Polynesian Village Resort is the Transportation & Ticket Center where you can board a ferry to the Magic Kingdom or take monorails to the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, or the  hotels around the lagoon.  The main parking lot is at the Transportation & Ticket Center. Behind the Grand Floridian is Shades of Green Armed Services Resort and adjacent to that are some of the Walt Disney World Golf Courses.  The Contemporary Resort sits in between the Seven Seas Lagoon and the Bay Lake at the water bridge that connects them. Also on the shore of Bay Lake is the Wilderness Lodge Resort and the Fort Wilderness Campground.

Sometimes it gets really cold in Florida!

Catch a monorail from the Transportation & Ticket Center

Ferryboat dock of the Transportation & Ticket Center

Take a monorail from the Transportation & Ticket Center to the Polynesian Village & Grand Floridian Resorts beyond

Across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom you can see the Ferryboat dock of the Transportation & Ticket Center, the Polynesian Village & Grand Floridian Resorts

The Resort Areas are connected by roadway open to vehicles and by "Disney Transportation", a fleet of busses, boats, and monorails. All resorts have complimentary bus service, some resorts have boat and/or monorail service.

EPCOT Resort Area

Welcome to EPCOT

Monorails to and from EPCOT

EPCOT theme park is the center of this resort area. It is connected to the Magic Kingdom Resort Area by monorail service and to all other resort areas by roadway. Directly adjacent to EPCOT's second entrance is "Crescent Lake", a body of water that links EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios Theme Park. 

Disney's Boardwalk Inn on Crescent Lake next to EPCOT

Disney's Boardwalk Inn

Dolphin Hotel beyond

Disney's Yacht & Beach Club across Crescent Lake from the Boardwalk Inn next to EPCOT

Disney's Beach Club Resort

The lake is flanked by several hotels: Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resort, Disney's Boardwalk Inn Resort, and The Swan & Dolphin Hotels.  The Crescent Lake hotels have boat service between each other and to EPCOT & Hollywood Studios. Behind EPCOT and connected to the resort area by roadway is Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. Caribbean Resort is contained in it's own area around it's own lake, soon an aerial tramway system will be connecting the Caribbean Beach Resort to EPCOT directly.

A twilight walk at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

Star Wars Weekends 2015 at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios

In 2009 we moved from California to the East Coast, a side effect of this was an end to our regular visits to Disneyland. In our time on the East Coast we had never been to Walt Disney World. After returning to North Carolina from a March 2015 trip to Disneyland- our first in 6 years we found ourselves Disney crazy. We decided to plan our first trip so we could attend a day at Disney's Hollywood Studios during a Star Wars Weekend. Agent P our Teenage Son was 10 year old Son and Toddler Son was due to be born in September of 2015 so Mom was 6 months pregnant on this trip.

Event Pin

June 2015 was a time of such promise for the Star Wars world, Disney had purchased Lucasfilm, had released the Star Wars Rebels animated series and the release of the first Disney Star Wars movie was slated for December 2015. It was in this time between the old and new that we attended "Star Wars Weekends" at Disney's Hollywood Studios. 

We arrived right after they opened, and signed 10 year old Agent P up for the Jedi Training Academy where he ultimately dueled Darth Maul! There was a fairly long line to do this using the queue from the Indiana Jones stunt show.

There was several character meet and greets set up, but we only met Darth Maul as the lines for these were fairly long.  The bounty hunter Zem Wessel from "Star Wars Attack of the Clones" had a neat interaction with Agent P while we walked along a studio walkway.

The early June Florida heat & humidity was so intense and something none of us had ever experienced or were prepared for. On our first trip to WDW we suffered from too many preconceptions of it as an East Coast Disneyland(including expectations of the weather!) but we would develop a deeper appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses over repeat visits.

The parade was the real highlight of this event for us. We managed to find a spot on the curb for Agent P while Mom & Dad were a few folks behind. Classic Disney Characters appeared in Star Wars Costumes, and many Star Wars Characters appeared.

There were several celebrity guests in the parade riding in open cars:

Ashley Eckstein (The voice of Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars Animated Series)

Taylor Gray (The voice of Ezra Bridger from the Star Wars Rebels Animated Series)

Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)

Ray Park (Darth Maul)

Frank Oz (Puppeteer and voice of Yoda)

James Arnold Taylor (The voice of Obi Wan Kenobi from The Clone Wars Animated Series)

 

The 501st Legion (Star Wars Costume Fan Club) made appearances...this was fun as their large numbers gave life to the parade by populating it with Imperial & Rebel troops.

"Bounty Hunters! We don't need their scum!"

Jawas....."Utinni!"

The night closed out with a fantastic fireworks show over the Chinese Theater. This show had a live narration by James Arnold Taylor and character appearances on a stage in front of the theater.  This event used to run for several weeks out of the year lasting 3 days at a time, but 2015 was the last year they did it. It has been somewhat replaced by Star Wars Galactic Nights ( a one night special ticketed after hours party that accompanies the theatrical release of a new Star Wars movie) which we shared in the previous post.