We visited Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Theme park map; click or tap to view on their site:
An interactive map:
theme park
Disney World: Animal Kingdom
Finally, we spent a day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park, which is part theme park, part zoo.
The central Tree of Life:
Avatar land:
Africa:
Jenn likes collecting the pressed pennies:
African safari:
Lunch:
Train:
Snack:
Tortoise:
The Tree of Life; if you look closely, it’s covered with animal sculptures:
The backside of water:
One day was enough to see everything we were interested in at this park. Worth a visit, but probably not a re-visit.
Disney World: Hollywood Studios
We also visited Hollywood Studios in Disney World a couple of times.
Entrance:
Main street:
Us in front of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge:
Smugglers Run ride:
Drinks and snacks at Oga’s Cantina:
Uh oh:
Lunch:
Rise of the Resistance ride:
Muppets:
Runaway Railway:
Hollywood Tower of Terror:
Video:
Mickey ice cream:
Toy Story Mania:
Alien Swirling Saucers:
We went to the Brown Derby restaurant for dinner:
Neon:
Another day:
Back to our favorite part, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge:
Transition from Galaxy’s Edge:
… to freeway tunnel:
We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater restaurant:
Neon:
The Fantasmic! show, better than in Disneyland as they have actual seating:
More neon:
Disney World: Epcot
We visited Epcot within Disney World a couple of times.
Epcot’s Spaceship Earth globe:
We dropped off our backpacks at a locker, and marveled at the advanced futuristic technology nearby:
Spaceship Earth:
A customized video created at the end of the ride.
Topiary:
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind ride:
Monorail:
Epcot is arranged in several sections called pavilions, around a central lake. We first visited the Mexico Pavilion:
Frozen ride:
United Kingdom Pavilion:
Fish & chips for lunch:
France Pavilion:
Morocco Pavilion:
Japan Pavilion:
USA Pavilion:
Germany Pavilion:
We had dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant:
Seas exhibits:
Mission: Space ride:
During our second visit the Flower and Garden Food Festival was underway, so we sampled several of the options:
Journey of Water:
The second day, we had dinner at the Space 220 Restaurant, which simulates a restaurant on a space elevator 220 miles above the Earth:
Spaceship Earth globe:
We did the Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind ride again:
Monorail:
Disney World: Magic Kingdom
We spent eight days at the four Walt Disney World theme parks. We took over 3,000 photos during that time… so a bit of a challenge to filter them down to a reasonable number for the blog. (Where “reasonable” is rather subjective.)
I’m doing a separate post for each park, starting with Magic Kingdom.
Us in front of the railway station:
Main Street USA:
Cinderella’s Castle:
Adventureland:
Pirates of the Caribbean:
Something we don’t see in California’s Disneyland: alligators and snakes:
It’s a small world:
The line was inside, vs outside in Disneyland:
New Zealand representation:
Teacups:
The new Tron lightcycle ride:
A video:
Speedway:
Carousel of Progress:
Train:
Liberty Belle Riverboat:
Haunted Mansion:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:
The Dapper Dans:
Haunted Mansion:
Parade:
Skipper Canteen restaurant:
Back to the campground:
Boat from campground:
Monorail:
Train station:
Jungle Cruise:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train:
A video:
Rain:
Tomorrowland:
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor:
Peoplemover:
Space Mountain:
Peter Pan’s Flight:
Journey of the Little Mermaid:
Gaston’s Tavern:
Monorail:
Ferry boat:
Parade:
Universal Studios Florida Theme Park
On the other two days, we visited the Universal Studios Florida Theme Park.
The Simpsons characters:
Spongebob Storepants:
Jenn in a pineapple under the sea:
Coming soon:
Springfield:
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
Knight Bus:
Diagon Alley:
San Francisco:
New York:
On another day, we started at Starbucks for some coffee:
The Brown Derby Hat Shop:
Beverly Hills:
Kings Cross Station:
Diagon Alley:
We did the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride:
Frozen butterbeer:
Diagon Alley dragon:
Back to the Future:
Finally, we got some Voodoo Doughnuts on the way out:
More fun stuff. We’re not so interested in Universal properties, other than Harry Potter, so we basically went to the parks just for that, but enjoyed exploring the other areas too.
Universal Islands of Adventure Theme Park
While staying in the Orlando area, we spent four days at two of the Universal theme parks. Two of the days were at Universal Islands of Adventure Theme Park.
Hogsmeade:
We enjoy the Butterbeer there:
We did the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride:
We checked out many of the shops, and bought a few souvenirs, including some sweet stuff from Honeydukes:
Dinosaur selfie:
Comic area:
Leaving Islands of Adventure at night:
Another day, we started out with cheese curds and margaritas at Margaritaville:
Then went on the Hulk roller coaster, which was the first time we’ve both ever been on a real roller coaster, with inversions and everything. We survived!
Then we went on a much more gentle ride, Storm Force Accelatron:
A Hulk popcorn snack:
Spiderman ride:
And Skull Island: Reign of Kong:
Natural Selections for another snack:
Hogsmeade:
We were going to go on the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, but they had a major delay, so we bailed:
Time for more butterbeer:
Cat in the Hat and Things:
Hat:
Finally, we enjoyed some Green Eggs and Ham:
Fun times. Tomorrow, the other Universal park.