I can now officially say that there is one week until I go to Walt Disney World! I’m practically bouncing off walls and spouting a load of Disney related nonsense to pretty much anyone I come across.
I’m fairly sure you know the excruciating torture of having to wait for your Disney vacation. It’s been harder for me this year than it ever has been, so I’ve collated a WDW 2019 Bucket List to kill some time. Here are ten things that I’ve never done (but really want to do!) in Walt Disney World.
Complete a Four Parks, One Day Challenge
I’ve always wanted to do all four WDW parks in a single day but we’ve never really got ’round to it. This year’s going to be different because I’ve made sure we’ve carved out an entire day in our schedule to dedicate to the challenge. We’ll be riding one E-ticket attraction per park, eating one snack per park, and getting a photo in front of the icon of each park. I’m pretty confident we can do it this year, so stay tuned for that!
Ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
This one’s a little strange, especially for a self-professed Disney extraordinaire. But hear me out, I am the biggest wimp in the history of the universe. On past trips, I’ve braved the forty minute wait outside the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster show building as the rest of my family has the time of their life with Aerosmith. I’m really not up for it, but if I want to one day say I’ve visited every attraction in Walt Disney World, I’m going to have to get on with it.
Visit Galaxy’s Edge
I know that I’m probably not going to get on Smugglers Run at Galaxy’s Edge, even if I arrive hours before rope drop, but it’s probably worth a try. Honestly, this is the biggest thing to open in WDW whilst I’m there since the soft opening of New Fantasyland. I’m 100% not the most excited about Galaxy’s Edge in my family, I’ll leave that to my dad and my brother, but I’m pretty psyched all the same.
Watch Happily Ever After in Magic Kingdom
Again, a pretty strange one coming from me, but I promise there’s a reason. Well, there’s sort of a reason. We’ve only been to WDW once during Happily Ever After’s tenure, and that one time, we watched the show from the top of the Contemporary, which was really fantastic, but we missed pretty much the entirety of the projections on the castle and we – especially me and my dodgy ears – couldn’t hear the audio that well. So, this year, I’m desperate to watch HEA right in front of Cinderella Castle for the full experience.
Have “Brunch at the Top” at California Grill
Because my family’s always on the Disney Dining Plan (which I can’t recommend enough!) we go to a few of WDW’s finer dining establishments. Our favourite fancy restaurant is probably California Grill and we’ve been fancying brunch there ever since it was announced. We did actually have a brunch reservation there in 2017, but it was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. This year, no hurricane is going to get in the way of brunch, and we’re all buzzing.
DisneyBound
DisneyBounding stemmed from Disney’s rule of not being able to dress up if you’re an adult in the parks (which is not fun but also totally necessary if you think about it). The genius behind DisneyBounding decided that, if they couldn’t dress up as their favourite characters, they’d dress like their favourite characters, but with a sort of modern twist. I’ve never done it myself, but this year I have everything to put together an ace Cinderella DisneyBound for the *perfect* castle photo, so watch this space!
Leave a Cast Member a Four Keys Fanatic Card
Contrary to popular belief, the cast members (employees) at Walt Disney World are real people, not animatronics. One way to show your appreciation of a CM who did a fantastic job is to drop by or contact Guest Relations to let their leader know that they’re really excelling in their role. By doing this, you could be giving a cast member a Four Keys Fanatic Card, a little slip of paper that goes in their file and is brought up during meetings, basically highlighting that cast member as someone who goes above and beyond to provide guests with the Four Disney Keys: Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. I’ll definitely be contacting Guest Relations this year when I undoubtedly meet some really incredible Cast Members.
Make some Magic in the Parks
At the end of our last WDW trip, my family spent all of our remaining snack credits on bags of sweets and gave them to kids across our resort. We really weren’t going to eat eight or nine snacks in the half an hour we had before getting the bus to the airport, so we figured it’d just make more sense to give them to kids to brighten their day. I just feel like this’d be 100 times more magical if we were making our own magic in an actual park. I’m hoping to give a kid a Mickey balloon, or buy popcorn for the person behind me in line (something a guest did for me when I was eleven and I’ve never forgotten!) It’s just really lovely to make your own magical moments in the park to heighten the magic for children and first-timers just that little bit more.
Visit Toy Story Land
How long has Toy Story Land been open now? For a little while, but I’ve still not made my way over to hang with Woody, Jessie and Buzz. I’m super excited to visit Toy Story Land this year, especially to try some treats from Woody’s Lunch Box and ride Slinky Dog Dash! (If you look to the right of the second photo of the gallery, you’ll see me spotting the initial framework for Slinky Dog and screaming to my brother so he’d see it too before we were dropped on Tower of Terror).
Ride Splash Mountain in the Dark
This is going to get me laughed at by the rest of my family. Two trips ago, the rest of my family went on Splash Mountain – and watched the Main Street Electrical Parade as they dropped into the Briar Patch. I was properly annoyed at myself for not braving the drop (which I’ve been going down since I was eight years old) in the dark. This year, I will ride Splash Mountain in the dark if it kills me, just you wait and see.
So there you have it! My top ten bucket list items for Walt Disney World 2019. I’ve got a few more things I really want to do; Flight of Passage (obviously), Yak and Yeti, and buying a pair of ears being the top three, but I’ve done all of those things before.
I’d love to hear your bucket list for your next Disney trip, or your bucket list for a Disney trip in the far future! Feel free to leave a comment so we can talk about it! I’ll be waiting here, counting down the days until I’m back in the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy.
See you real soon!
Isla 🙂
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Aloha Isla 