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

Spring Dapper Day 2018 at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

We booked a weekend in Orlando as a getaway to celebrate Mom's birthday, and later we found out it was going to be Spring 2018 Dapper Day Weekend at Walt Disney World! Since we were going to be there that very same weekend we decided we would participate in our first Dapper Day.

Dapper Day started at Disneyland as an unofficial event to encourage participants to visit Disneyland in stylish vintage inspired clothes. The original idea was to recapture some of the magic and glamour of visiting Disneyland in the 1950's & 1960's when many folks visited the park in their finest clothes. It has expanded to include stylish dress of all time periods (but particularly the Main Street U.S.A. straw hat and suspenders look for Men and the mid-century dress look for Women) or other stylish Disney inspired looks. It's an opportunity to spend a day (or days) in the park dressed up. It has expanded to include Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris.

Mom and Dad have loved all things vintage (clothes, design, architecture) for years and they started collecting vintage & retro clothing & collectibles starting back in their college years. The whole Dapper Day thing took off while we have been living on the east coast and this was the first opportunity for us to participate.

Once we knew our trip would coincide with Dapper Day we set out to put together our outfits. We decided we'd all go in Dapper attire...the whole family including the kids. Teenage Son, the pin fanatic was looking forward to all the Dapper Day pins he could get his hands particularly the unofficial Dapper Day pin released by Disney. The event is not an official event, but they are very accommodating and there ended being tons of people all dressed up.

Our outfits would coordinate with each other largely by using blues & yellows. Mom & Dad put their outfits together mostly with pieces they had already. Mom's outfit channeled Mary Poppins with a vintage inspired dark blue dress. The dress was accessorized with a red belt, a blue & white Mary Poppins scarf and a carpet bag purse. Dad built his outfit around blue seersucker shorts that was paired with a pale yellow shirt. He wore them with a blue coat and a pink bow tie & pocket square and one of his typical fedoras- a black straw one. Teenage son wanted a "Figment" inspired outfit...so we went with a purple shirt, pink bow tie, and pale yellow suspenders. He also wore blue seersucker shorts. Toddler Son wore a blue seersucker pant & vest combo with a pale yellow shirt and blue bow tie. Toddler Son alternated between a set of vintage Walt Disney World Mickey Ears and a Sam Sneed hat...his favorite hat.

As part of the Dapper Day festivities there was a Retro Disneyland Slide Show presented by Author & Humorist Charles Phoenix. Charles Phoenix collects vintage slides and curates them into presentations that are hilarious commentaries on mid-century design and style. Mom & Dad grew up in Southern California and attended college at Cal Poly Pomona not too far from Charles Phoenix' hometown of Ontario, California.

They discovered his first book "Cruising The Pomona Valley 1930-1970- A Tour Guide" at the cashier counter of the Ontario, CA institution "Vince's Spaghetti Restaurant". This led them to attend a luncheon of the Pomona Valley Historical Society where they first saw one of Charles Phoenix' slide shows. Eventually they would see another of his slide shows at  the Hollywood's Egyptian Theater and would end up purchasing several of his other books.  They love the collection of photos filled with mid-century life, design, & style...all of which are the author's specialty. It had probably been 15 or 16 years since they had seen his shows. We ended up buying his latest book, meeting him after the show and getting him to sign it. Toddler Son likes his book "Southern California in the 50's" and was enjoying the new book "Addicted to Americana". "Addicted to Americana" combines highlights of the slide collection with a bit of a memoir of the Author's life and travels and it's a great book.

The Retro Disneyland Slide Show concentrated on the years 1955-1967...basically the heroic Walt Disney years of the park. It was presented in the convention center of  Disney's Grand Floridian Resort where there was also an exhibition room of vintage & retro clothing and accessories. We spent the morning watching the show, looking at the vendor tables and then headed to the Magic Kingdom at 1:00.

We spent most of our day riding rides! The crowds were pretty heavy all day. The lines were really long for all of the Instagram worthy photo opportunities. We ended up just enjoying our day,  and celebrating Mom's birthday spending time together in the Magic Kingdom. Our original fast passes were for Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan's Flight, & Space Mountain. We then had success obtaining a series of follow up Fast passes so we did not end up doing any standby lines for the rest of the day. Highlights would be the time spent in Tomorrowland (we were wearing a lot of Tomorrowland blue)  riding the People Mover & Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. It was a fun day and we would consider doing it again...but probably a Fall event as it was hot to be wearing all of that fancy clothes!

Review: Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort's 1900 Park Fare

1900 Park Fare is a buffet restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort with several themed character meals. We attended the "Supercalifragilistic Breakfast", and were visited by Mary Poppins, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh and had a photo op with Tigger to wrap up the event. The family photo with Tigger was very nice and they were very patient with us as we struggled to get Toddler Son to look at the camera (he just wanted to visit with Tigger). They took our picture in a lovely small lobby with a wonderful painting of Cinderella Castle in the distance. The overall effect of the room was of a Victorian Conservatory.

Beautiful display in the waiting area

Pooh visit #1 was a big hit with Toddler Son

Agent P who was Tweenage Son at the time enjoyed interactions with all the characters. Toddler Son only wanted to meet Pooh & Tigger and had no interest in Alice, Mary & the Mad Hatter. In fact Pooh visited us twice and he was excited to see him both times. The boys collect autographs in the souvenir autograph photo albums they sell at the Parks and enjoy character meals very much.

We attended on a Sunday morning and we were seated very promptly. The food was adequate, the typical Disney breakfast buffet spread. The line for the make your own omelette was very long...it was arguably Fast Pass worthy so we passed on that.  Overall we had a pleasant meal and a great experience. We will most likely not return right away to this particular meal given the food was not extra memorable for us and the character mix did not hold the interest of the entire family. 

Mad Hatter was lots of fun

"Mustard! Don't lets be silly!"

Pooh visit number 2!