Possibly the most recognisable of the parks is Disney’s Magic Kingdom, with its pink castle and Main Street USA. Due to this, I made sure that it was our first park to visit. There’s just something about seeing the castle and soaking up the atmosphere on your first day.

The Six Areas

So, Magic Kingdom can be divided into six sections: Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, Adventure Land, Main Street USA, Liberty Square and Tomorrow Land. Each, as you can probably guess from their names, have a different theme which will give you a hint as to what attractions and food options that can be found there.

The meet and greets that occur in each of these areas are generally influenced by the themes as well. For example, you would meet the Disney Princesses in Fantasy Land and Stitch in Tomorrow Land.

Main Street USA

Once you have passed through the ticket barriers, this is the first view you will receive of the park. It is one of the most iconic views of the park, with a train station above the entrance and shops lining both sides of the street leading up to the castle.

While you are able to find gift shops all over the parks, those on Main Street USA are possible busiest, as well as being home to the glass shop with park specific merchandise and the main sweet shop.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at the shop fronts from the street, but almost all of the shops and restaurants here are connected on the inside so you can walk straight down the road without going outside.

Tomorrow Land

The idea behind this area of the park is to portray the world of tomorrow. It is here that you will find rides and restaurants largely linked to space travel. For example, the flagship ride in this area is Space Mountain (which was amazing!) and the restaurant we ate at was a space diner, complete with musical entertainment from an animatronic alien.

It was possibly the least popular area when we were visiting, but it was still interesting. Our first day we went for a ride on the people mover which was great as we were tired from travelling overnight and because we got to see almost all of the attractions in the area.

Over the course of our visit, we returned to this area several times, once for Space Mountain (when the standby queue was only ten minutes!), once for a Monsters Inc inspired comedy (with audience participation) and again to eat dinner in the space diner before watching the fireworks.

Fantasy Land

For someone like me who grew up on fairy tales and watched the old Disney animated films as a child, this area would have been the only place for me back then. It has a truly magical feel to it with the brick work of the buildings and the traditional carousel in the centre of it all.

We didn’t spend too much time in this section of the park, which is regrettable. However, we found some great food places and Harry finally got to ride “It’s a Small World” (something I experienced as a child many times in Paris, and he was interested in doing due to certain horror stories). We stopped at Gaston’s Tavern for a drink and sit down one day, also ordering a cinnamon roll to share, which was definitely value for money (the cinnamon roll was massive!) It was also outside the tavern that we found the cleanest and quietest toilets.

The Friars Nook was the other restaurant that we had chance to try from this area. It was fairly busy and difficult to find a table but somehow, we managed. It was one of the food places that you could order on the app for and then collect the food when it was ready.

Liberty Square

This was actually the first part of the park that we spent any time in. I bet you can’t guess what the theme of this area is, it’s based on America! So it has attractions like the Hall of Presidents, the Liberty Belle and the Haunted Mansion.

Our first day here, we arrived at about lunchtime, so needed to find somewhere to eat. I let Harry pick as I wasn’t fussed as to where we ate. To anyone who knows him, it’ll come as no surprise that he chose a seafood place. I agreed but was a little nervous because I don’t eat as much fish as he does. It was a good decision though. I ended up ordering the Trio Platter from Columbia Harbour House, while Harry had the lobster roll. Mine was great, but he was a little underwhelming.

The Haunted Mansion was a fun ride (even if it broke down while we were on it!). The workers remained in character and the atmosphere was perfect.

It was hard to resist a trip on the Liberty Belle, a steamboat decked out to look as it would have back then. The journey around Tom Sawyer Island was a lot of fun and really relaxing.

Frontier Land

Home to Big Thunder Mountain is Frontier Land, themed for the Wild West. We actually managed to go on the majority of rides in this section and if memory serves, we found a lovely Mexican restaurant a few doors down from the Country Bear Jamboree.

It is easy to see why Thunder Mountain Railway and Splash Mountain are favourites of the many park visitors. We were lucky enough to go on both rides, getting to experience the fast pace of the railway and the large drop of Splash Mountain. Although if you plan on going on Splash Mountain. Although if you plan on going on Splash Mountain be prepared, we were sat at the front and got thoroughly soaked (even before the ride had started!).

Country Bear Jamboree was something that Harry had wanted to see as he had heard multiple reviews in the lead up to our holiday. It was something we weren’t expecting to be amazing and while it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, it wasn’t a highlight of the trip. The animatronics that were used and even the decor were definitely starting to show their age.

The Mexican place that we ate at was called Pecos Bill Cafe. It was beautifully decorated with ample seating and the trio of tacos that we both had were delicious. I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you need a location for lunch.

Adventure Land

Adventure Land was possibly tied with Fantasy Land for the busiest place while we were visiting, which was probably down to the number of attractions in this area.

Our first ride of the holiday was actually in this area. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which we had been on in Paris and as previously mentioned the films have a special place in our hearts. However, we didn’t think it was all that great, which might be a controversial opinion; the decor and attention to detail were amazing, but the ride itself was pretty underwhelming. Maybe it was because it broke down while we were on it (we had a bit of bad luck with this as it happened to three of the rides that we were on while at Disney!) or maybe because it was so similar to the one in France, but regardless it was not a favourite of ours.

The Jungle Safari Cruise was a ride that I had heard good things about in the lead up to our visit, so I wanted to give it a go. It didn’t disappoint. We had a great time listening to the tales of our skipper and watching the animatronic animals.

While in this area we also visited the Magic Tikki Room. I will admit that prior to our trip I hadn’t actually heard of this but was pleasantly surprised. It was nice to sit out of the sun and watch a musical performance that even bought the walls to life.

The Disney Parade

I have never missed a parade when visiting Disneyland Paris (except the night of the thunderstorm), so I was intrigued to see if there was a difference in the two parks. There wasn’t actually much but it was obvious that they had pulled out a lot of stops to improve the magical parade for their anniversary.

The Magic Kingdom Fireworks and Light Display

We were left in awe at the end of the firework display with questions like “how did they manage to make the mickey ears effect?”. Instead of just having the lights and images projected onto the castle they were also all over the shop fronts up and down Main Street so that everyone could see. It was a sight not to be missed.

Conclusion

We had a lovely time in this park, and with all of the different attractions on offer I would recommend spending the majority of your holliday in this park. It will not disappoint.