Without being inside the Magic Kingdom or Epcot

Whilst gorging on Winter Sun last week in Kissimmee the January high broke all Florida records and also the lowest temperature for the state in the same period it was a superb week from the gloom of British winter.

Our accommodation was on the 8th floor of the Delta by Marriott in Celebration bang in between Main Gates East and West. Our room was facing the car-park at the rear of the resort, on the horizon Epcot’s Spaceship Earth was clearly visible alongside the Dolphin and Swan Resort hotels. 

Scanning along the treeline on the other side of the Interstate I4 snaking between the worlds’ of Disney and Universal the ‘Tower of Terror’ in Disney’s Hollywood Studio park was visible, resplendent for about a third of it’s height. 

Nightly fireworks in the Magic Kingdom explode into life at 21:00 in the winter season at the same time as Epcot and as we parked up on our first full day we heard them and wondered if they would be visible from the room being so high up. 

Sure enough we were treated to the most amazing experience watching both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot displays exploding and cascading over the horizon.

After some searching on the WWW there are two locations on Walt Disney World that afford an even more spectacular viewing opportunity completely free. Yes folks …. FREE!

You can drive in Walt Disney World without having to go through the car parking turnstiles and there are a lot of roads to discover that take you very close to the perimeter of the Magic Kingdom for glimpses of Cinderella’s Castle and right up to the edge of Space Mountain. 

Some restaurants within Disney resorts allow you to park for free with a dining reservation and fireworks can be visible from your table. The only really free place to park is Disney Springs. The parks are charging $35 per car for 2026.

Viewing Fireworks for FREE

1. Magic Kingdom – Search for Disney Car Care Center  1000 West Car Care Drive Bay Lake, Florida 32830. Drive to the Speedway Fuel Station and try and park up by the edge of the facility by the hedge. There isn’t a designated viewing area but there will be cars already parked up just waiting for the 21:00 excitement to start.

2. Mobil Petrol Station – Search for Reams Road, Windermere, FL 34786 – This is an absolutely spectacular location to view the fireworks, the noise is insane and the displays are so massive that they fill the windscreen of the car. There was way more cars parked up for this location and many were playing music to accompany the display loudly which definitely added to the experience. 

The Mobil is on the edge of a small shopping plaza right by the Disney University and near the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian Resorts. It is worth just a drive around that area and getting to see the monorail service area and costume areas. The road gets right up to Space Mountain and Tomorrowland. I had no idea that you can get so close to the action without paying anything. It was very exciting.