DisneyWorld January & February 2023
We’ve been to DisneyWorld many times but I always find things to do that we’ve never done before. There are also things that we’ve done before that I just enjoy doing again and again. I love going with family and I love just going with David, who may not enjoy it as much as I do but he is a good sport about tagging along. I think he also has some fun too and finds things that he enjoys. This trip (January 26-to February 5, 2023) was the first part of a Disney/Caribbean Cruise trip. The trip was also to celebrate by birthday. We spent 9 nights at the Disney Beach Club and 2 nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. A few minutes after we arrived in our room at the Beach Club we were greeted by a partial view of the EPCOT fireworks which we could see from our balcony though the trees..
We visited EPCOT a number of times during our stay at the Beach Club. We also went to Hollywood Studios, The Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs. This trip we skipped the Magic Kingdom but did get to see the Magic Kingdom Fireworks from the California Grill the night of my birthday. These are some pictures from our stay at Disney with a little text to set some context.
From mid January though February Disney holds a festival at EPCOT called the Festival of the Arts. One of the things it features is food presented artistically. Most of these picures are from the festival booths. A few photos towards the bottom are from some of the excellent dinners we had at restaurants in EPCOT and some of the Disney resorts.
We also enjoy EPCOT for the entertainment. Some of it can be enjoyed during any visit like the fireworks and characters meet and greats while some of the other entertainment is unique to the different festivals like the Festival of the Arts. During this festival we saw artists doing demonstrations including some incredible chalk art that washed away in the rain. visitors participating in making art and live music.
We spent a fun day at Hollywood Studios where you can feel like a kid and still be an adult - doing rides, enjoying characters and getting to see the evening show Fantasmic that mixes fireworks, lasers and projections on water screens and music in a show that can be viewed by about 3000 people. The technology used for this show is incredible. Pictures cannot do it justice. This was the only day of or stay where we did more than a ride or 2 in one day.
No trip to Disney Hollywood Studios is complete without a visit to Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, The technology used in the Guardians of the Galaxy ride is world class. At the end of the evening we paid a visit to Oga’s bar which was quite entertaining.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park you are immersed in animals from all over the world and the you get to go beyond the real world into the make believe world of Avatar. The Animal Kingdom has terrific live entertainment which sometimes includes audience participation. We did a special safari excursion where we got extra time out on the park’s savanna with a guide and had a light dinner while getting to watch elephants, giraffes, rhinos and may other animals enjoy the end of their day.
A visit to the Animal Kingdom’s Avatar land feels like visiting nature in another world. Walking though the area it is hard to tell what is real and what is make-believe because everything looks so real. We did one ride here where you ride on the back of a banshee in virtual reality. The technology is incredible and this is my favorite Disney Park ride.
The Animal Kingdom Park is also my favorite of all the Disney parks.
We spent one evening at Disney Springs where we had a terrific dinner at Wine Bar George where you can try some terrific wines and appetizers. We sat on the restaurant’s deck overlooking the crazy cookie store called Gideon’s Bakehouse where people wait an hour to purchase case a cookie. We also visited the Lego Store which has more Lego kits than we’ve ever seen and some larger than life Lego constructions in front of the store.
These are some some pictures from the area around the Beach Club Resort, our home base for the first 9 nights of our trip. The resort is in an area called the Boardwalk. The bird appears to be a young cardinal. Each morning as soon as we opened out drapes he would come to the sliding glass door and and pick on it, then would throw himself up against the glass. He didn’t want food because we put a cracker out one morning, he pecked at it and left, then never came back. I guess he just wanted company.
For our last 2 nights we moved from the Beach Club over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where our room overlooked a savanna. When we arrived at our room we could see a giraffe from our balcony. Walking around the resort you can find giraffes, zebras; ostriches, ancole cattle, pelicans and many other animals grazing out not he Savana, I love the theming inside the resort which you can experience in your room and thought the building. The lobby of the resort is a museum of African art and periodically you can find African woodcarvers working near the entrance.
We celebrated my birthday at the end of our DisneyWorld stay with dinner at the California Grill on the top floor of the Contemporary Resort which overlooks the Magic Kingdom. We had a great dinner and watched the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom without getting in the massive crows.
The nine nights went by really fast. We will be back again soon.
