Craving a Disney Visit? Our Virtual Roadtrip Is the Way

April 3, 2020, 6:22 PM · We have saved the biggest parks for last on the United States leg of our worldwide theme park Virtual Roadtrip. After our imaginary cross-country journey, we have arrived in the theme park capital of Lake Buena Vista, Florida for our video visit to the Walt Disney World Resort.

With all of the recent additions and changes throughout the resort, the Google Maps here are going to be wild. So try to guess the year (and for a higher degree of difficulty - the month, too!) that these satellite and Street Views were taken. Let's start with the home of the most recent work at Disney World, Disney's Hollywood Studios.

You don't need to arrive at opening and play the lottery for a boarding group, because we have your front-row view of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance right here. (This is a two-video playlist, with both the queue and on-board POV.)

Then let's head into the Black Spire Outpost and hop into the pilot seat for a crack at flying the "fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy" on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

The newest attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort just opened a couple of weeks before the parks closed. But you don't need to have missed it. We've got your seat on Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.

No need, either, for a tough-to-get Fastpass+ reservation, as there's no wait for a video trip on Toy Story Land's Slinky Dog Dash.

Just before Disney glowed up Hollywood Studios, the focus was on Disney's Animal Kingdom.

So let's start with a walk around the park's amazing Pandora: The World of Avatar.

And enjoy a scenic ride on the Na'vi River Journey.

But many fans' favorite thrill ride at Disney remains Expedition Everest.

The next park to get a Disney makeover was to be Epcot, but we'll see how much of its planned new development actually happens.

But let's look forward to what awaits up when the parks reopen with a ride on the original (Walt Disney Studios Paris) version of Epcot's upcoming Ratatouille ride.

And this is the California Adventure version, but other than the ending, it's the same show of Soarin' Around the World that you could experience in Epcot's The Land pavilion.

Let's wrap our trip to Walt Disney World with a visit to its original theme park, the Magic Kingdom.

Like on a real-life trip, let's start by making a beeline top get ahead of the crowd waiting for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

But I also want to enjoy a ride on one of my former attractions, so let's continue the Disney coaster tour on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

One of my favorite Disney theme park shows is The Muppets Present Great Moments in American History, which plays seasonally in the park now but is always running on our YouTube channel.

Of course we will finish our trip to Disney with fireworks and a performance of Happily Ever After.

Thank you for joining us on this virtual trip around the country while the parks are closed. But this is hardly the end of our virtual theme park adventures! Stayed tuned for our next legs... as we head to Europe and beyond.

Theme Park Insider's Virtual Roadtrip:

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