Favorites: Walt Disney World

I don't care how old I am. If I'm at Disney World, I'm going all out. Every ride, every photo op, every face character, I'm conquering it all. It's called the 'most magical place on earth' for a reason.

Honestly, I think senior trip season is one of the best times to go (around late April, early May). The weather's gorgeous in Orlando, and the parks aren't obscenely crowded like they are in summer.

Even if it is pretty crowded, you can get a lot of use out of the FastPass system and single-rider lines. It seems to me that not as many people utilize these options as I would expect, so they're great to take advantage of. FastPasses can only be obtained once every hour or so and give you a time frame during which you're allowed to use it, but allotted times always overlap, so it's possible to get two FastPasses that let you ride a ride twice back-to-back. As for single-rider lines, you're sacrificing the guarantee of sitting with all your friends on a ride, but it's so worth it when the queue is unimaginable. Then again, sitting all together provides you and your friends some stellar opportunities to photobomb the ride picture.

Sometimes, it's more magical to not skip the lines. Queuing for rides like the Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise is fun because they can be interactive and entertaining and even contain some clever jokes and puns from the Imagineers.

By the way, my favorite Magic Kingdom attraction is the Enchanted Tiki Room, which I feel gets overlooked sometimes but really captures the spirit of Disney World being a place where you step into and are a part of the movies.

My favorite park, though? It has to be Epcot. Of course, there's the Future World area where you enter into first, but, me being a lover of travel, it's the World Showcase that really captures my heart.

Make reservations and enjoy a meal in any one of the countries. I personally like Japan's Teppan Edo, Mexico's La Hacienda de San àngel, and Canada's Le Cellier. 

When you're done, don't follow the biggest crowd as they circle around the big lake at the center of the World Showcase. It's worth it to actually enter into the countries themselves. Each one hides a spectacularly authentic-seeming world that transports you across land and oceans. Morocco is my personal favorite. Everything from the smells to the sounds inside are just perfect. Italy is a close second. Because I'm Italy-biased.

Oh, and stick around after dark for Illuminations. Trust me.

While gathering material to write about for this blog post, I asked some of my friends about what they thought was the most magical part of WDW. Emily's answer? The Animal Kingdom park. Oh Emily, I know you love your critters.

I know the first thing we did when my girls and I went to Animal Kingdom as soon as it opened was to head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris, located in Africa near the very back of the park. Getting there early means the animals will definitely be out there to get up close and personal with you since they haven't been overheating in the sun all day and numerous guests haven't been through to scare them off yet.

For more of a thrilling experience at Animal Kingdom, there's the wildly popular Expedition Everest ride, which is good for FastPass and for going through the interestingly set-up 'yeti museum exhibition' in the queue. There's also the Dinosaur ride, tucked away in DinoLand USA, which is sure to stun you with its use of animatronics and enhanced motion vehicles.

I also posed the 'most magical' question to Megan, and she tells me that she most enjoyed Disney's Hollywood Studios park for its two most well-known attractions: the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. These two mind-blowing rides are in extremely close proximity to each other, which makes it easy to just go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... Don't worry, each time you ride either one, it's a different experience. The Tower throws you for a loop with varying drop heights while the Coaster lets you rock out to different Aerosmith song each time.

I'll admit there's not much else in Hollywood Studios. There are plenty of live shows to experience if that's your thing, or film-inspired shops if that tickles your fancy. The Great Movie Ride is also a favorite, combining a ride with a sort of live show.

The real star of the show at Hollywood Studios, in my opinion, is Fantasmic. It'll be so worth it to get in line extra early and get seats front and center of the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater to witness this spectacle.

Finally, because someone had to say it, Kensie responded to my question with the most important answer of all: the most magical part of WDW was being able to have such an amazing time with our friends. Sorry this post is so long. I just have a lot of feelings about Disney, okay?

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