Travel Memories: Florida

Now that I have filled you in on the time I saw Oprah, the first part of our vacation last year was to Orlando, Florida.  This trip was part of promotional travel from buying a timeshare.  The main focus was Disney World and Universal Studios.  We had some other fun thrown in there too.

 

What would a trip down memory lane be without also looking back at our 2012 Florida Vacation?  I love reading over my travel blog posts and reliving all the fun experiences.  Travel really does feed my soul and is 100% my happy place.  Our 2012 Florida vacation, including a NCL cruise to the Bahamas was amazing.  I really enjoyed this trip.

 

February 2020 was also one for the record books.  This was the year we visited five theme parks and the Kennedy Space Center, which I have never been.  Oh boy were our legs absolutely aching.  But we were also smiling from ear to ear with all the fun.  I’m also not used to such high humidity living out west.  That is an adjustment for sure.  Kennedy Space Center was amazing.  Kenyon booked us an extended tour on the military base which was well worth the money.  While we had the opportunity to see a rocket launch, it would have meant making the 1.5 hour drive back up in the evening time.  Thinking back now, we should have done it.  Maybe we will be lucky on a future trip.

 

We visited Disney Hollywood Studios, which was a new-to-us park.  I really enjoyed being among movie magic and I think Tower of Terror is my new favorite ride.  Kenyon didn’t love it as much as I did. 

 

Epcot is always fun.  I really enjoy all the sights and food as you tour around the world.  The also added a new Frozen ride which was really fun but very popular.  The wait was long!

You can read about the first half of our trip here ß

 

Universal Studios and Island of Adventure were where the real movie magic happens…Harry Potter.  We have been to Island of Adventure but since they opened the addition to include the Hogwarts Express, we knew we would need to spend the money to go to both parks and have the park hopper option.  It is really expensive but totally amazing!  I loved Universal Studios and would go back for sure.  Island of Adventure is just okay.

 

During my travel research, I found a dinner/theater show called Capone’s which was amazing.  We had a blast and I even had my debut onstage with the performers.  Yep, that is how I roll!

 

We saved Magic Kingdom for our final day.  After all, you must safe the best for last!

 

You can read all about the second part of our trip here ß

 

All this travel reminiscing makes me miss it so badly.  I am so thankful we have had the travel opportunities we did.  Life is short and it is meant to be lived!

Florida Vacation: Universal Studios, Universal Island Of Adventures, Capone's Dinner Show, and Disney Magic Kingdom,

If you didn’t read the first part of our Florida Vacation recap, you can read it here: Florida Vacation: Kennedy Space Center, Disney Hollywood Studios, and Disney Epcot

Despite feeling really tired from our evening at Epcot, we decided to start our day early and arrive at Universal Studios & Universal Island of Adventure when they opened the park.  We were hoping for cooler temps, shorter lines, and an early evening.

On our last trip to Florida, we only visited Island of Adventure, which at that time had the only Harry Potter attractions.  Since then, they have also built some Harry Potter at Universal Studios along with the Hogwarts Express, but you have to purchase the park hopper pass to ride the train.  So, we navigate two parks.

I loved Universal Studios.  It is movie magic and was super adorable.  Plus, it has significant shorter lines, some as low as 10-20 minutes.  That was a nice break.  

We rode the Hogwarts Express to Universal Island of Adventure and walked around the Harry Potter area.  We had lunch at one of the restaurants and then rode the Jurassic Park ride, which we didn’t do last time.  I also rode one of the Harry Potter rides as the newest ride to open had a wait time of over 120 minutes all day.  No way!  

Since had been to Island of Adventure before and didn’t really want to wonder around all day, we rode the train back to Universal Studios and I rode some rides while Kenyon sat out.  We loved the new addition of Harry Potter Diagon Alley and I rode one of the new rides.  Harry Potter magic is always so neat to see.

We visited Chocolate Emporium outside the park before we left and enjoyed a very yummy dessert.

Part of deciding to wrap up early was so we could go to this local dinner show called Capone’s.  I am so glad we did.  We had the best time and I even got on stage (by accident).

The show has a full buffet and drinks, alcohol too, are included in the ticket price.  The staff are in character all evening and when you arrive early, you can play blackjack our roulette in the bar area for a prize.  I didn’t win but our ticket also included two shot glasses as a souvenir.  We also took a photo upon our arrival and purchased the magnet.

The show was set during prohibition and we were supposed to be part of the Italian Opera Society Group when the cops showed up.  We were given family names, our group the Marinara Family.  When the cop was talking to audience members I introduced myself as Lindsay Marinara, which got a few laughs and ended up with me and other lady on stage to join the performance number.  

I suppose I could blame it on the alcohol.

Our final park was Disney Magic Kingdom.  By this point we were flat out exhausted.  We went for another early day and got there when it opened so we could have cooler temps.  The lines weren’t shorter though and the one ride I really wanted to go on had a wait of over 120 minutes all day.  There was another ride I’d been wanting to go on that was over 90 minutes all day.  I just didn’t have it in me.  

We still had a good time but after all the park days strung together, it was a lot.  We ended walking a ton of steps over our days in Florida.

I am thankful for WW, my weight loss journey, and the ability to be able to push through this much activity.

We had an early flight the next morning and left the 85 degree temps in Florida arriving to 35 degree temps in Dallas.  You can read about our Dallas adventures here: I CAN. I WILL. WATCH ME.

Florida Vacation: Kennedy Space Center, Disney Hollywood Studios, and Disney Epcot

I am going to split our Florida Vacation Recap into two posts since I have a lot of photos to share with you.  Our last trip to Orlando was in 2012 and quite a bit has changed in eight years.  It was also really, really, really hot.  We just happened to visit during an “unseasonably warm” week.  It was 85 degrees with 65% humidity so it made being out in the heat on our feet a bit rough.  But, we survived and we still had some fun.  Here we go:

We landed in Florida very late on Saturday night so we stayed at the Hyatt attached to the Orlando Airport so we wouldn’t have to deal with navigating a new city in the dark.  It was pretty neat to have a hotel where the view from your room was the gates to the airport.  

We got our rental car on Sunday and went to Kennedy Space Center for the day since we wouldn’t be a able to check into the hotel we were staying for the week just yet.  We stopped for breakfast along the way and I spotted this sign.

I’m not sure what concerns me more…that feeding alligators is as much of an epidemic as molesting them that you need a sign.  Okay Florida…odd.  We also got to see a life armadillo.

We weren’t able to visit Kennedy Space Center on our last visit and since then, they acquired the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  This was the highlight of the trip for sure.  This makes three of the four of the space shuttles able to visit that we have seen in person.  We will have to make it to Washington D.C. soon to see Space Shuttle Discovery.

Kenyon booked us a behind the scenes tour that took us out on the military side of Cape Canaveral.  We got to see where the rocket launches happen and heard a lot of stories of the astronauts that have come before.  Did anybody watch The Astronaut Wives Club?  It was really cool hearing stories of the Mercury Seven crew and seeing where the actual launch took place all those years ago.  

There was a rocket launch at 11pm that evening and it was tempting to return and watch but it was late and an hour drive back from Orlando.  So we decided not to.  We were able to get a close up photo when our bus driver stopped between some trees.  The tour guide said, “you know this is a big deal when your tour guide gets his camera out.”  The Atlas 5 Rocket launch was a success that evening.

We said our goodbyes to NASA and headed to our hotel in Orlando.  

We were booked at Serilago Inn & Suites, which is close to Disney and ran shuttles to the parks.  OH MY GOD!  It was the most run down, sketchy, and flat out scary hotel after dark.  We almost didn’t want to stay the night.  We booked this trip on our “free travel” through our time share purchase.  Thanks a lot Casablanca for putting us up in a less-than-stellar location.  We felt better about it during the daytime and the staff was nice.  but, in the future, I wouldn’t stay there again.  It isn’t worth the free shuttle and the cheap rates.

Moving on…

Our first day at the park was Disney Hollywood Studio, which we didn’t visit on our last trip.  I love all the movie magic and we had a great time walking around.  This was also where the new Star Wars additions is at.

The lines for the Star Wars rides were long, 90 minutes for one and the other had special passes only.  We were going to stand in line but decided to try the single rider line and split up.  It was a fun ride but I’m not sure worth a  90 minute wait so we made the right decision.

There were only a few rides at Hollywood Studios and the lines were long.  We had a Fast Pass for Tower of Terror, which I loved.  Had the line been shorter, I’d have ridden it over and over again.  I wanted to ride the Aerosmith Rocking Rollercoaster but the wait was over 120 minutes all day with no Fast Passes.  No Thank You.

I was pleasantly surprised that Disney had some chicken sandwich options for our lunch/dinner meals and they have carrot or apples as a side offering.  That made staying on track a little easier.

Our send day was a late start because we needed to take advantage of the laundry facilities at the hotel.  We caught the late shuttle to Disney Epcot and planned to stay later in the evening for hopes of cooler temps.  

The later in the day the lines got shorter but the one ride that didn't ever get shorter was the Frozen ride, in Norway.  We stood in line for 55 minutes so I could ride this.  It was great but so difficult to stand for so long.

We also ended up walking the most of all the days at the park, 20,000 steps, so it was definitely tough on us to continue to navigate a different park a day afterwards.

We made our way back to Hollywood Studios on the cable car tram and caught the shuttle back to the hotel.  It was a long day and we were exhausted.

Still three parks and a dinner show to go.  I’ll be back tomorrow with more.