The Best of WDW

I’m feeling a little homesick this week, and I am more than ready for our Disney World vacation in April. So, to try to relieve some of this homesickness, I give you my rankings of various WDW Resort things. I welcome all opinions and arguments to these lists as they are my personal opinions. Also, I have only stayed at three resorts on property, so I’m not ranking those. BUT Animal Kingdom Lodge has been the best so far.

The Parks in Order of Amazingness 

Disclaimer here: the last time I went to WDW Great Movie Ride was open and Pandora was barely doing soft openings. It’s been a hot second. The water parks are not listed as I have not been to them.

1. Hollywood Studios. I worked here, but even before that MGM was my favorite park.
2. Magic Kingdom
3. EPCOT
4. Animal Kingdom

Top Five Shows to See

1. Fantasmic (Forever will be my ultimate favorite show on the resort.)
2. Festival of the Lion King
3. Wishes (RIP)
4. Illuminations
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Bonus: the Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios. I’m not sure if it counts as a show, but I loved working that ice cream stand watching the kids fight Darth Vader (especially on the busy days when Darth Maul came out to “Duel of the Fates” and kids always screamed. It was great.)

Top Ten Rides (of all parks)

1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Haunted Mansion
3. Rockin’ Roller Coaster staring Aerosmith
4. Jungle Cruise
5. Space Mountain
6. Mount Everest
7. Tower of Terror
8. Star Tours
9. Great Movie Ride (SUPER RIP)
10. Universe of Energy (also RIP)

Top Character Dining Experiences

I’m going more by location here. I don’t remember all the exact names of the dining experiences.

1. Cinderella’s Castle with the princesses
2. Polynesian Resort with Lilo and Stitch
3. Chef Mickey
4. Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh
5. Tucker House at Animal Kingdom

Best Time to be at the Parks

1. Halloween. Hands down.
2. Not Spring break.

Best Parades

1. Boo to You (see above. You shouldn’t be surprised here.)
2. Pixar Play Parade (I miss this one. Saw it everyday during my DCP.)
3. Spectro-magic (My whole life was basically this parade until a couple years ago.)

Best Snacks

1. Jalapeno cream cheese pretzel (honestly I don’t know if this is still available. I sold them on the Streets of America during my program. The best pretzel ever.)
2. Mickey Pretzel
3. Popcorn
4. Funnel cake
5. Mickey ice cream bar

Best Sit Down Restaurants

1. Si-fi Drive in
2. Be Our Guest
3. That place in Norway in EPCOT
4. T-REX (Okay, that one is in Disney Springs, still counts)

Best Character Meet and Greets

1. Gaston. Hands down. Best interaction of all time.
2. Mickey. Tears every time.
3. Peter Pan
4. Tiana and Naveen
5. Rapunzel
6. Merida
7. Chip and Dale
8. Mary Poppins (I love her, and she’s my husband’s favorite so she makes top ten)
9. Kylo Ren. He scared me.
10. Belle. My favorite Disney gal and the princess I most relate to.

There is so much more I wish I could include, but I have to stop at some point. Like I said earlier, these are my personal opinions based off of my experiences. I know people will disagree on some things (not Gaston though. If you don’t think he’s perfect then you’re just wrong.), and I would love to hear your own lists!