10 things to do at the best place in the world. AKA Orlando

By: Ana Paula Almeida

Reviewed by: Esther Martins

An Orlando trip can cause you the peter-pan syndrome, and you may never want to grow up. But that is not something you should be afraid of.
I am going to list 10 things you can’t leave the town if you didn’t do and you’ll see that Orlando can only bring Joy and makes you happy:

1 - Meet the princesses at ALL Disney Parks. But especially at Magic Kingdom.

Disney is the most magical place on earth, so once you go on a Disney trip, you have to meet the princesses, PERIOD. But meeting them on Magic Kingdom is a magical moment because they are so real (I mean, Ariel even keeps moving her mermaid tail) and cute.

2 - Make sure to enjoy every simulator you can, because it feels like a safe roller coaster and it is also very realistic. One of my favorites, it’s “Transformers: The ride” because during all the ride you are inside of a transformer.

3 - I’m not actually a Harry Potter fan, but you definitely have to visit the universal themed park, especially inside the hogwarts castle. You can see the moving paintings on the wall, you can interact with the park if you buy the wand available there. Like the movie you can drink frozen butterbeer and pumpkin juice and they taste delicious. The waiting line of one of the simulators is inside the gringotts bank and they have robot goblins that look exactly like the ones in the movies. Outside there’s even a white dragon that spits fire every 30 minutes (or less). Believe it or not, the things I said here are not even half of what you can experience there.

4 - The E.T. adventure Roller Coaster like everything else, the ride is a one of a kind experience. Everything is custom made to make you feel like you are inside the movie. The carts are bicycles and in front of you there is a basket with E.T. inside. The scenario is exactly like the movie and as you go up in the sky the city and everything else below you keeps getting smaller, giving you the feeling that you are really flying. The attraction looks old and it is super 80’s.

5 - The dolphin encounter at the Sea World is a paid attraction where you get to spend 10 minutes interacting with a dolphin. They teach you some gestures so you can “communicate” with the animal, such as spin, wave, dance, etc. At the end of it, you can buy the pictures a professional took of you, because you can’t take with you any personal belongings close to the water. PS.: You can rub the dolphin’s belly, and that’s really cool.

6 - Kilimanjaro Safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom it’s like a little piece of Africa in the US. You get inside of an equipped truck and then we go inside an artificial jungle with real animals such as lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, etc. At first it’s a little scary, but then you get used to it. As we go further inside the jungle the driver talks to everybody on the truck on a microphone giving information about the animals and making some jokes.

7 - An adventure without adrenaline it’s not worthy, so Disney’s Animal Kingdom gave us The Everest Mountain. It is a roller coaster that tells us the story of the yeti (aka big foot) as it go up (it is so high you can see the other disney parks), but there is a point that the trails are broken and you have to go back down on reverse. You have to be careful not to faint. But it’s still a fun ride.     

8 - At Disney’s Hollywood Studios you can go on Star Tours. It is a Star Wars simulator that takes you on a space ride. As the line goes on you can see the droid characters from the movie. The scenario makes you feel like you are in a boarding platform. At the end of the line you enter in a spaceship and you go on a tour in one of the Star Wars saga worlds.  

9 - At the end of the day, everybody goes to the Fantasmic arena to see Fantasmic! Firework show. At this attraction you’ll see Magic Mickey fighting against every disney villain. Is is a water show too and some animations are projected on a water fountain. It is really magical because they play with optical illusions (one time mickey is here, then he is there…) and at the end there are fireworks.

10 - Last but not least, “Wishes” is one of the most emotional attractions at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. It’s the last attraction of the day, when the park is closing. A half hour firework show around Cinderella’s Castle that shows a little bit of every Disney animation projected on the castle. At the end of it Tinker bell shows herself flying and throwing magic at everyone watching the show. Fireworks and tears of happiness show along with it and you realize your trip was one of a kind.