Whilst there are some beautiful and impressive icons and attractions to take pictures in front of within the Walt Disney World, such as the Cinderella Castle or Tower of Terror, sometimes you just want a nice plain but aesthetically pleasing background for your pictures. Whether you're showing off your outfit, documenting the cute snacks your eating, or you just think it looks pretty, there are some amazing themed and colourful walls around Walt Disney World that are perfect for just that. Nicknamed the 'Instagram walls' as that is where they first started gaining attention, these walls are dotted all over the parks so here is a little guide to help you find some of my favourites. 

Epcot

The Bubblegum Wall

Potentially my favourite of the Instagram walls, the Bubblegum Wall can be found at the exit to Spaceship Earth. It's on the outside of the building so you don't need to actually go on the ride to get to it (although why wouldn't you?) and it's the same design on both exits. Because of its location there are often a lot of people walking past as they leave the ride but I absolutely love the colours of this wall and the different variations you can get depending on where you stand. 

The Toothpaste Wall

This wall is quite a bit more out of the way, located near the entrance of the Coral Reef restaurant in the Seas Pavilion (near the Finding Nemo ride). Named the Toothpaste Wall due to it's blue, green and white wavy pattern, this a great vibrant but not too in your face background for you pictures.

Animal Kingdom

The Moss Wall

 

As one of the newer walls of Disney, the Moss Wall was probably partly created for picture taking purposes. Located in Pandora, this wall can be found at the exit of Flight of Passage just before the gift shop, although it can be accessed without having to queue for 3 hours to get onto the ride first! Whilst it's great for showcasing your well thought out animal kingdom themed outfit, it's also the perfect backdrop for a picture of your Night Blossom, a delicious slushy drink which you can buy just round the corner at Pongu Pongu.

The 'You Are Most Beautiful' Wall

This wall is definitely a very popular one on Instagram due to the cute and positive message it portrays, however it's potentially one of the hardest to find. The 'You Are Most Beautiful' Wall is actually part of a backstage entrance for cast members at Harambe Market so it's a bit tucked out of the way and I think a lot of people are bit nervous to go up to it. The wall itself is still onstage so you're allowed to take pictures in front of it but just make sure you're not hanging around there in large groups and blocking the entrance. 

The Fichwa Fellow! Wall

Just around the corner from the You Are Most Beautiful Wall, the Fichwa Fellow! Wall can be found between Harambe Market and Zuri's Sweets Shop (near to Kilimanjaro Safari). I personally love this wall because of the adorable drawing of Mickey Mouse, being one of the only walls to actually have an element of Disney on them. 

Magic Kingdom

The Purple Wall

What could arguably be described as the wall that started it all, the Purple Wall can be found in the walkway between Tomorrowland Terrace and the entrance to Tomorrowland. As well as just being a gorgeous lavender colour, this wall gets great lighting at certain times of the day, and once you've taken your pictures here you can just turn around to get some great shots of the castle too. In 2018 they changed this wall up a bit, leaving half as normal and giving half a more futuristic makeover with geometric shapes and silvery accents and I think it looks great and ties in so well with Tomorrowland. 

The Tangled Wall

I don't know if this is the 'official' name for this wall, or if it even really has one, but this wall can be found just on the inside of the ladies toilets in the Tangled restroom area. Seeing as this wall is in the entrance to some toilets, it's in a bit of an awkward spot but if you can sneak in there when no one's walking through you'll get some fab pictures. There are also some great places for picture taking on the outside of the toilets too, with wanted posters of the ruffians dotted around, and this area is of course also home to the famous lantern photo pass as well. 

Hollywood Studios

The Popsicle Stick Wall

The newest of the Instagram walls, the Popsicle Stick Wall is located at the exit of Toy Story Mania in Toy Story Land. Unlike some of the ones mentioned above, this ride has quite a long exit and I think you may have to ride the ride to be able to reach it. This wall is so fun and creative, made to look like it's made out of leftover popsicle sticks and it fits in so well with the theming of the land. There's also a checkerboard style wall right next to this one and they're both pretty impossible to miss. 

In the past couple of days, the news has broken that Disney World are apparently going to be replacing Photopass photographers with automated cameras in certain character meet and greet locations. I for one am absolutely heart broken by this news and based on the reactions I've seen on social media I think most other people are as well. In a place that's filled with so much magic, the idea of having something so automated and impersonal completely baffles me. An automated camera in a box isn't going to take candid photos off to the side of the set, or take close ups of guests reactions. It's not going to suggest poses for you to get your dream photos with your favourite character. It's not going to get the attention of a distracted child or make a crying baby laugh.  

For me personally, Photopass photographers are an essential part of a character meet and they can sometimes help to create magical memories for you to the same extent as the characters themselves. A lot of people's favourite memories come from meeting characters in the Disney parks, but it shouldn't be forgotten that its the Photopass photographers who are responsible for immortalising these memories for you to look back on. Whilst of course we've all have some not so great experiences where you're not in focus or you're blinking in every single picture, for the most part Photopass photographers go above and beyond to give you memories you'll never forget. 

To show just how valuable I think Photopass photographers are, here are some of my absolute favourite moments from character meets that I am lucky enough to have in a form that I can treasure forever.

Even if it's just in a few locations around the parks, I believe that losing Photopass photographers will be a huge loss for guests new and old, and I really hope this decision may be reconsidered. Let me know your thoughts on this subject in the comments below and remember:

As I'm writing this it has been just over 36 hours since I left Walt Disney World and the Disney blues are officially setting in, making this the perfect time to write my trip report. Whilst I've previously written my trip reports with day-by-day diary entry type posts, I don't want to bore people with excessive details so I'm rounding it all up into one post instead and then I'll write some separate posts with more in depth reviews of things like the resort and the Halloween party. 

Trip Overview

Our trip was for 2 weeks, from September 22nd - October 6th and I was there with my mum and my sister. This was our first holiday together without my dad and brother and it was my first proper Disney World holiday with my sister (the first time we went she was working there and the second time I was working there) so it was a pretty special trip. It was also my mum's first time staying onsite and therefore getting the Magical Express from the airport, and she was so impressed with the efficiency of it all. We stayed at All Star Music, which was perfect for the little amount of time we actually spent at the resort, but I won't go into too much detail here as I'll be writing a separate post all about it soon. Having only ever been in the summer before, it was great to experience the parks at a different time of year and we would definitely go back at this time again. The parks were way less crowded, especially in the first week, with Slinky Dog at one point only having a 30 minute queue and Flight of Passage once having a shorter queue than Navi River Journey. The weather was still pretty hot and was apparently hotter than average for this time of  year, but it was still manageable for the most part and we had minimal rain for the whole fortnight. During our 2 weeks we did all 4 parks multiple times as well as Disney Springs, and we had a day at the outlets and the mall. We didn't do any of the water parks as we weren't really interested in them, and my sister went to Universal for a day but me and my mum weren't bothered.

The Parks

Magic Kingdom

Over the two weeks, we went to Magic Kingdom 5 times during the day and 2 times in the evening, not including the Halloween party. Whilst this isn't my favourite of the four parks, it is obviously the most magical and quintessentially 'Disney' so of course we spent both our first and last days there. During those days we managed to get on all of our favourite rides at least once, including Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain, and we got a fastpass for Mine Train. We also met plenty of characters such as Mickey, Tinkerbell, and Pooh and Tigger. We watched Festival of Fantasy twice and no matter how many times I watch this parade I still absolutely love it! I love how vibrant and colourful all of the floats are and the music is great. We also saw Happily Ever After twice and I sobbed throughout both times. Not only do these fireworks have such a special meaning to me after my program, they are also just the best night time entertainment I have ever seen in a Disney park and I will never get over how incredible they are. 

Epcot

Epcot quickly became my favourite park last summer and it didn't disappoint this trip, especially with the addition of the Food and Wine Festival. I experienced this for a few hours last year but to be able to properly experience it this year was amazing and it was everything I hoped it would be. We got to try some incredible food, with my personal favourites being the Steakhouse Blended Burger from Earth Eats, the Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Noodles from China, and the Fritto Misto from Italy. We didn't try many of the drink offerings as it was quite hot and we didn't want to dehydrate ourselves with alcohol but we did try the Chilled Coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur from Belgium and the La Passion Martini Slush from France, both of which were delicious. As well as eating our way around World Showcase, we also went on all the rides we wanted to, including 2 rides on Frozen Ever After and Soarin', and we met all the characters at the Character Spot. I also got to watch IllumiNations for the first (and probably last) time. As much as I love Epcot for some reason I had just never got round to watching its night time show and whilst it definitely isn't my favourite, I really enjoyed it and the fireworks were spectacular. 

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom definitely doesn't get enough credit for what an amazing park it is and it was definitely the quietest of the four parks whilst we were there. On our first day there we were able to do everything we wanted to apart from Flight of Passage which we had a fastpass for on another day anyway. We did the safari twice over our two weeks and we were lucky enough to see some amazing animals including a baby giraffe, baby elephant and some hippos out of the water. We also did both of the animal treks were we saw tigers, gorillas and meerkats amongst other animals. Pandora was just as incredible as I remembered and we managed to get on Flight of Passage twice which was also as amazing as ever. We spent one evening there and we watched Rivers of Light which I think is a nice nighttime show but it definitely doesn't compare to the others.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was the park we spent the least amount of time in, mostly because it has the least amount of rides that we actually go on. We did all the shows (Beauty and the Beast, Frozen singalong, Muppetvision, Indiana Jones) and met Olaf, Mickey and Minnie, and Pluto but of course the highlight for this trip was getting to experience Toy Story Land. The park was actually a lot quieter than we expected it to be seeing as Toy Story only opened a couple of months ago but the queues really weren't that bad. We did Slinky Dog Dash, Alien Swirling Saucers and Midway Mania and I think I actually preferred the Swirling Saucers to Slinky Dog which is great because it always has a much shorter queue. The only problem is that all three of these rides are tier 1 fastpasses meaning you can only get an advanced fastpass for one of them per day. The good news however is that Midway Mania now has much shorter queues than it used to... we only queued for 20 minutes in standby and managed to get an on the day fastpass for it as well. Of course, we also saw Fantasmic twice during our trip which was as great as ever.

The Food

Would it really be an Amy Beatrice blog post if I didn't talk about food? This trip we were on the Disney Dining Plan which we upgraded to from the free breakfast we got when we booked our hotel. We absolutely loved being on the Dining Plan and we 100% found it worth the money we had spent to upgrade... we worked out that all of our food and snacks was worth almost double what we had actually paid and we got to eat at some incredible restaurants. As well as returning to some past favourites, including Ohana and 1900 Park Fare, we also experienced a load of new places where we had some absolutely amazing food. In particular I loved Teppan Edo, Boma and The Yachtsman Steakhouse. Our only disappointing meal was breakfast at Be Our Guest. There was nothing wrong with the food, but for the same price as a cronut, fruit salad and some pastries at Be Our Guest we had an all you can eat breakfast buffet at Trails End. As we were on the dining plan the cost didn't necessarily matter but if you're paying out of pocket that'd definitely something you should have in mind. 

Halloween

Finally, I wanted to talk a little bit about Halloween in the parks. Halloween starts in August in Disney World and I actually got to see some of the decorations before I left last summer but I didn't properly take it in. Magic Kingdom is really the only park that goes all out for Halloween and I loved all of the decorations - from pumpkins and scarecrows to orange leaves and sunflowers all over Main Street. They look so beautiful and instantly make you feel autumnal even when it's still 34 degrees outside. They had an amazing range of Halloween merchandise throughout the parks including ears, t-shirts, sweets, magic bands and much more as well as a load of special Halloween food. Our resort had a delicious pumpkin cheesecake as well as a Coco inspired Dia De Los Muertos spiced cupcake. We also went to a Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party but I'll be talking all about that in a separate post. 

So there is the most concise summary of our trip I could give which I realise is still pretty long! Whilst it felt odd to only be there for 2 weeks instead of 2 and a half months, and it was strange to be the one fully experiencing the magic instead of helping to make it, I had an incredible time with my mum and sister and it felt great to not have to leave them half way through the day to go clean tables or fry chicken nuggets! Even though I would definitely love to be a cast member again one day, I had a great time as a guest and I cannot wait to start planning my next trip!

Thanks for reading

Amy xxx

Saturday 15th July - Universal and Animal Kingdom

I had the day off today so I went to Universal Studios with Esme and Courtney as I hadn't been since I got my annual pass in week one. We didn't get there until lunchtime so we headed over to the quick service in the Jurassic Park area where I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries. We then went to Hogsmeade and went on Forbidden Journey; I hated it and had my eyes closed for literally the entire thing! After that Esme and Courtney went on Jurassic Park but I stayed and sat in Hogsmeade and just did some people watching. Then we got the Hogwarts Express over to the other side of the park and went to the Simpsons area where we got giant doughnuts before going on the E.T. ride which was so weird but also great at the same time. We then got an Uber back to housing before Courtney and I got the bus to Animal Kingdom where we met her friend Luke. I went on Tough to be a Bug, Primeval Whirl and did a nighttime safari and then got to see Pandora at night which was so cool where it was all lit up. The other two went on Flight of Passage but the queue was three hours long and I had work in the morning so I watched Tree of Life Awakens before getting the bus home. When I got back the others were ordering Dominos so I got some too - it's so cheap in America compared to the UK!

Sunday 16th July - Work

Didn't do anything exciting today, my shift started a bit earlier than normal so I didn't have time to do anything before.

Monday 17th July - Magic Kingdom and Be Our Guest

This was such a magical day! I had the day off so I went to Magic Kingdom with Cat in the morning and we had funnel cake with strawberries and cream for brunch which was delicious although we definitely could have shared one between us! We then went over to Fantasyland and went on the teacups before going to one of the shops by the castle and getting pixie dusted! Esme joined us after that because she'd had a lie in after working late the night before and we went on Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic (one of Cat's work locations), Winnie the Pooh and Carousel of Progress. We then met Katie and went to our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest. I had made this reservation before we'd even gone out to Florida and that was the only date I could get and I could only get it for 4 people so it worked out so well that 4 of us had the day off on that day! None of us had ever been in there before and it was so amazing; the atmosphere and the food were both incredible! We were sat in the west wing and I had the shrimp and scallop pasta and then the grey stuff for dessert of course! We met The Beast in his library after dinner and then we stayed on theme and did Enchanted Tales with Belle before going on The Little Mermaid ride and watching Happily Ever After. After that we went and did Haunted Mansion again and got to see Kayleigh at work and then we went on Mine Train for the first time which was such a good ride.

Tuesday 18th July - Another lazy day

This morning I caught up with my laundry and then went to work. I did a 3:30-11:45 shift on greeter.

Wednesday 19th July - Shopping in Disney Springs

I went to Disney Springs by myself in the morning to do a bit of shopping a get some stuff that I'd had my eye on for a while but had never bought. I ended up getting the big storage box that looks like a storybook, some notebooks that said 2017 on them, and the Animal Kingdom Lodge pin. I went to Earl of Sandwich for lunch and had a Caesar salad and then got a cinnamon pretzel from Wetzels Pretzels. After that I went to work and did another 3:30-11:45 shift. Normally I would only do one thing for a whole shift but because of people calling in sick I ended up doing a bit of dining room, greeter and stocker and it was really nice to have a bit of variation.

Thursday 20th July - More work

The next few days were quite busy ones for me so I decided to take the day off today and just went to work in the evening after a day of sitting in bed and watching Youtube!

Friday 21st July - Epcot with Jenna

I went to Epcot in the morning with Jenna and we went on the Frozen ride for the first time which was actually quite good, although I don't think I'd go on it again without a fastpass; the queue time got longer after we had been in it for 5 minutes so we queued for a lot longer than we thought we were going to. We then spent some time going round the world showcase and we ate lunch in the France pavilion; I had a bacon and cheese pastry swirl and then a macaron which were both delicious. I then left Jenna and went back to the apartment to get changed and then went to work for the evening.

I really hope you're all enjoying reading these posts as much as I'm enjoying writing them and reminiscing about what I got up to! The next week is a really great week as my family arrived to visit me and I got to spend a lot of time with them.

Love Amy xx

(You can find my other posts about Walt Disney World and my CEP here)

You can find my previous diary posts here

Saturday 8th July - Earned my ears!

I had my KAPA today (the test at the end of training) and I passed! This meant that I was officially a fully trained Walt Disney World cast member! I was really stressed about this day thinking it was going to be really difficult and they were going to be hard on us but it was really relaxed and if we had any questions or weren't sure about anything then our trainer was more than happy to help. I had to be in work for 9am as we were being tested on both breakfast and lunch and we spent about 20 minutes in each role before moving on to the next one so they could see us doing everything. After the assessment I was scheduled for a regular shift which meant I would have been working until 12:30am (a 15 and a half hour shift in total!) but my manager let me go home at 8pm so it was still long but not as bad as it could be! After work I went to Walmart with Esme and Jenna which was ridiculously busy, even though by the time we left it had gone midnight!

Sunday 9th July - Lazy day

Today I just had a lazy day; I had a lie in and did some laundry before going to work. It's easy to feel like you should be going to the parks at every available opportunity so you're not wasting your time on your program but sometimes you really need a day to catch up on sleep and washing! This was my first day at work since earning my ears so it was my first day completely by myself. I was on greeter all afternoon and it was quite stressful because it was really busy but I do quite enjoy it. 

Monday 10th July - Jenna's birthday!

Today was my flatmate Jenna's birthday and we had reservations for breakfast at Akershus in Epcot. The bus we wanted to get never showed up so we were pretty stressed and running a bit late but we got there just in time and had a really lovely breakfast; pastries, fruit, bacon, sausage, potatoes and scrambled eggs. Akershus is a princess character dining restaurant and we met Belle, Jasmine, Snow White and Ariel. 

After breakfast we went on Living With the Land, Finding Nemo and Soarin'. I went home to get changed for work and then had a 5:15-11:30 shift doing greeter again. I had so much food for breakfast that I didn't have any lunch or anything to eat on my break but there was loads of food left over at the end of dinner so our manager let us have some ribs and mash and then one of my friends gave me a lift home so I didn't have to get the bus. 

Tuesday 11th July - Animal Kingdom and Fantasmic

I had the day off today so I went to Animal Kingdom with Esme and two of her friends that she flew out with. We met Mickey and Minnie in their really cute safari outfits and then we went to Yak and Yeti for lunch where I had the honey chicken. After lunch we went on Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur and Kilimanjaro Safari; I was terrified before we went on Dinosaur because I thought it was going to be a ride with big drops but I actually loved it. We managed to get fast-passes for Fantasmic so we got the bus over to Hollywood Studios and finally got to see after a couple of failed attempts. When we got back to the apartment we ordered McDonalds off of Uber Eats and watched Love Island before going to bed. 

Wednesday 12th July - Pizza

I had another lazy morning and then went to work for my 3:15-11:45 shift. I was on pizza today which was definitely one of my favourites but it does get really stressful when it's busy!

Thursday 13th July - Greeter

Did nothing today but go to work!

Friday 14th July - Magic Kingdom and Grab & Go

I didn't have work today until 6pm so I went to Magic Kingdom by myself for a few hours. I saw Philharmagic , Move It Shake It parade and Royal Friendship Faire and then had lunch at Columbia Harbour House. I'd taken my camera with me so I spent the afternoon taking pictures around the park and then I got a red velvet cake pop from Storybook Circus before getting the bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I worked from 6-12:30 going grab and go which I absolutely loved because it's so peaceful and stress free. When we'd finished we had to stay and help clean the bakery so we got to take some cookies home which is definitely a great perk to doing a closing shift. 

Wow. Just wow. If you had asked me to write this post last Wednesday I honestly don't think I could have because I was just lost for words. I feel so lucky to have been able to be at Disneyland Paris on April 12th, the official 25th anniversary of Disneyland Park. It was honestly the most magical day and it 100% reminded me of why I love Disney so much.

We got to the park just before it opened at 8am, which was a little bit later than we had planned. Luckily we'd parked in the Disney Village car park so there was no line at security and we were able to go straight through to the park, as the gates opened as soon as we got there. Once in the park, we picked up our free badges and programmes and headed straight down the arcade to central plaza. We didn't have the best view and were about 5 people away from the front, but considering people who were at the front had been queuing since about 4am, we didn't really mind!

We were waiting for about an hour before the show started and it was so so worth it! I don't think my words can still do any justice for just how incredible this show was, but I'll give it a go. To begin with, Mickey and all his friends came out from the castle (which was magical enough as it was). Then, as the show went on, characters that represented each of the lands came out and had a section of music and dancing. There was so many amazing rare characters out, like Kuzko, The Rescuers and the experiments from Lilo and Stitch, but my personal highlight was seeing all three of the Aristocats (my all time favourite Disney film). Right at the end, Catherine Powell, the president of Disneyland Paris, came out and made a speech before all the cast members came out and did a massive flash mob. I managed to hold it together until this point where I just started sobbing thinking "THIS WILL BE ME SOON!". Whilst it would have been amazing to be nearer the front and seen everything a little better, I just feel so happy and lucky to have been able to see it all in person. I've already watched it again on YouTube and you should definitely check it out if you haven't already. 

Later on in the day there were two 25th anniversary cavalcades, which was basically a parade of all the characters that we had seen that morning. We wanted to make sure we were at the front for this one, so we got there as soon as the first cavalcade finished and waited for almost 2 hours for the second one (the top of my head is still very sunburnt!). It was so worth it to be able to be at the front though and see all of the characters up close. I was able to take some amazing pictures which I know I will treasure forever!

I know there were things that we didn't do, like meeting Mickey and Minnie and everyone in their anniversary costumes, but the day was still absolutely magical without that. It was such perfect weather and I don't think I've ever seen the park looking so clean and sparkly! Bring on the 30th anniversary! 

If you want to see more pictures of my trip, check out my new Disney Instagram!

Thanks for reading!

Amy xxx

Some of my favourite posts I've done are photo diaries from various trips and holidays. I love going through all of my photos and being able to share some of my favourite ones on my blog. In September 2015, a few months before I started my blog, I went to Copenhagen with my family for a few days and I realised that I have never shared any of my photos from the trip, neither on my blog nor anywhere else. I had a really lovely time there, it was such a beautiful city and we even took a train over to Sweden for a morning too. I thought it would be such as shame to not share any of my pictures so here are a few of my favourites.