Disney World, not to be confused with Disneyland, is located in Orlando Florida, and its property covers over nearly 25,000 acres of land. Disney World consists of four major theme parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. It also has two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.
This trip was with my family and was primarily for my younger sister. We had the opportunity to go three of the four major theme parks, each being distinctively different. To talk about Disney World, you really have to break it up by individual parks. Magic Kingdom is the most popular park at Disney and features a wide assortment of rides and other attractions, including the famous Cinderella’s Castle.
For me and I think for most college students, the most enjoyment to be found in Disney World is to be found here. It has plenty of rides aimed at young adults, and there are plenty of attractions suitable for people of all ages.
Epcot was the second theme park built after Magic Kingdom and boasts an acreage of more than twice the size of the Magic Kingdom park. Epcot is primarily focused on technological innovation and international cultures. Its iconic attraction is that of the Spaceship Earth, which is a large sphere located inside the park. I did not mind this park and it was definitely interesting to see a lot of the things that Epcot had to offer. It is akin to a cultural fair almost and my parents seemed to enjoy themselves immensely here.
The last park that I had the opportunity to go to was Animal Kingdom and for me was the most underwhelming. True to its name, it features an expansive array of animals and the park icon is the Tree of Life, which is a 145 foot tall baobab tree. I am personally not a huge fan of zoological theme parks, but those who love animals would also love Animal Kingdom.
The amusement parks themselves are all unique and variably enjoyable, but are eclipsed by their startlingly high costs and bustling crowds. Almost every attraction was accompanied by a 90 minute wait, making the decision of which ones to ride paramount. Most of your time in the parks will be standing in lines in not the most pleasant weather. The food was markedly overpriced, with water bottles being $5 and a pretzel $7. While this sort of practice is not uncommon, it was never really worth eating in the park. Disney World’s overwhelming popularity leads to inevitability of lower customer satisfaction, to no fault of its own.
Shane Witzer 
Hannah Bonanducci