Finally! I get to reflect on how much fun I had in Florida! *happy dance* When my family and I were driving to Florida in that cramped, uncomfortable car, I constantly daydreamed about all the fun and amazing stuff I will be able to do there. And when we arrived at the hotel (after driving through a bad neighborhood, making the mistake of going into a gas station where dangerous-looking men were hanging out, and sleeping in a parking lot that I swear was haunted), I was so excited for the future days filled with rides and amusement park food.
And I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the parks! I had a blast and took plenty of pictures with my (crappy but useable) camera! So now I can share the pictures with you 🙂 Not that my pictures are anything to write home about, but still! Oh, and my hotel was really neat, too. There were a lot of birds walking around. I even saw some turkeys!
Disney World was all I thought it would be and then some. There was excitement, happiness, and maybe even a little magic in the air. I am also pretty sure I witnessed a proposal as I walked by the buildings along Main Street in the morning. I wasn’t able to take any pictures since my camera literally died three seconds after I turned it on (grrr), but I have a very good memory so it’s okay!
We first went to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain (my favorite ride). We were going to ride it a second time, but apparently Space Mountain had broke down right after we got off, so we checked out Monster, Inc. Laugh Floor, which was actually pretty fun. The monsters really weren’t afraid to pick on the people in the audience. (The guy who was behind me with the really long beard was teased the most.) We also went to Stitch’s Great Escape. That one wasn’t very good, but it was still a little fun seeing Stitch spit on the audience.
Adventureland was the next on our list. My mom wanted to go to The Enchanted Tiki Room so we went there. And I loved the whole! Who knew that singing birds could be so darn entertaining? “Let’s all sing like the birdies sing, tweet, tweet tweet, tweet tweet.” That song is still stuck in my head. Oh, and we also rode the Jungle Cruise and The Pirates of the Caribbean rides. I have always loved boat rides so I really liked those two rides.
Adventureland also happened to have this Dole pineapple frozen yogurt stuff. AND IT WAS SOO DELICIOUS! After I pigged out on the tasty pineapple-y stuff, we went to Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Right after Thunder Mountain, I dragged my parents back to Main Street and spent some more of my money on chocolate ice cream. By then, we had rode most of the rides we desired to ride at least ounce so we started to just visit them over and over again.
At some point, it started raining. Which would have been fine, but somehow my mom and I got separated from my Dad and my brother so we got a little soaked trying to look for each other. We did eventually find each other and after the rain stopped, I realized that we haven’t went to the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square and proceeded to drag my family into the line. After going into the Haunted Mansion and dancing with the ghost, we resumed our activities of going to the same rides over and over (luckily, Space Mountain got up and running again). And also watched the Electrical Parade during that time.
Time flew by and it didn’t seem to take long for the park’s closing time to come near. So we hurried to The Hall of Presidents (robot presidents. Woot woot!) and watched that show. It was pretty interesting but I couldn’t help but inwardly laugh at the President Obama robot, because they accidentally made him look like a white guy. When the show was over, we ran to find a good place to stand and watched the fireworks.
When the fireworks stopped, my mom revealed to my brother and I that apparently we were able to stay two hours after closing time. We rode a couple more rides and then left at 1:00 am. The end!
Hollywood Studios
Me when I first stepped foot into Hollywood Studios: THIS PLACE IS SO PRETTY! Guys, Hollywood Studios is an absolutely lovely place. The buildings, signs and billboards, and all the little touches here and there were so well placed and made. And since I remembered to bring my camera that day, I crazily took pictures until the camera ran out of charge. Everything was so fun to look at. And, uh, sorry to the people who might have gotten caught up in my photo-taking frenzy. But don’t worry, you all look dazzling.
Admittedly, we didn’t get to do as much as we wanted to at Hollywood Studios, because my brother wanted to go back to the hotel early (darn you, brother), but we were able to go watch a couple of shows and ride a couple of rides! We first went to the Hollywood Tower of Terror. You know, this frightening thing:
You can actually hear people’s screams from all the way across the park
It was an amazing ride. I had butterflies in my stomach and screamed plenty. Oh, and my mom also almost lost her sunglasses on it. They actually floated away from her awhile the elevator was crashing down a few stories 😛 We then went to The Great Big Movie Ride, which was fantastic. When the tour guide says that you will be a part of the action, they really mean it. Your ride vehicle will even be hijacked by some lady who is a thief (or gangster?) and wants to get out of her movie. It was amazing experience and the building itself it beautiful, too.
We also got to see the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, a show where many scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark are re-enacted and the stunts that happened in those scenes are explained. The hosts were really good-humored, which made everything more entertaining than it already was. After that ride, we rode Star Tours. Star Tours was really fun. And sort of amusing since C-P30’s reactions to being mistakenly put in charge of a spaceship and being attacked by Darth Vader were hilarious.
Because of my little brother’s complaining, we went back to the hotel, relaxed, and the because of my mom’s insistence, we went back to the park (yay) and watched Fantasmic. I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the show, since I was so dazzled by the water and flashing lights, but trust me when I say it was beautiful. Oh, and before the Fantasmic show actually started, there were these two hosts who managed to get the crowd of people to sing “Call Me Maybe.” I was singing and laughing at the same time when that happened.
After the show, we went home. The end!
Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom is a really lively place, which is to be expected when there are lots of animals in one place. I fell in love with this park. I loved everything about it, really. The birds that were flying everywhere, the animals, and the rides… It was amazing. It was fun to just walk around and look at the scenery and animals. And I took lots of pictures 😀
We rushed to the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where we were able to see some fascinating animals. There were lions, rhinos, hippos, zebras, and much more! I actually found the whole ride to be funny since the animals had a habit of turning around and showing their butts right when I tried to snap a picture. The rhinos were most guilty of this:
Luckily, I was able to get some non-butt pictures, too:
I also got to see my favorite animal, the giraffe:
After that, we went to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Long story short, we got to see a few more animals!
Favorite part of Pangini? The lounging gorilla:
My parents wanted to go see It’s Tough to be a Bug so we checked that out and had a fun time at the show. When the show ended, we ran over to catch the Wildlife Express Train, which took us to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. I didn’t take any pictures there, but I remember everything vividly. I first spent some time with a parrot named Red and learned about how messy parrots were (they don’t even eat all their food), then we went to a show that featured cute little animals like ferrets and pigs and porcupines, then I went to the petting zoo, which housed goats that would not react to you AT ALL. They were all like, “so you’re petting me? That doesn’t mean you exist.”
Anyways, after taking the train back to where we were, we hurried over to the Wonders of Flight show, a show that had lots of interesting birds flying about.
I also checked out the Maharajah Jungle Trek. It was awesome. The fruit bats, tigers, and other animals were so fun to see! And because the pictures I snapped are full-size worthy (pffft) here they are:
After that, we went to the Kali River Rapids (that ride disappointed me a little since we didn’t get soaked at all) and the Expedition Everest Ride (the first ride I have gone on that goes backwards and I loved it). We then watched a parade (that I didn’t get to take pictures of). Oh, and we also got to see Nemo: The Musical, which was absolutely adorable. And then we went home exhausted. The end!
Universal Studios
Universal Studios was my favorite park. And I only got to explore half of it! Really, the whole half of the park is so fun and exciting. I might have only checked out a few things, but those few things were all very fantastic 😀
First, we rode the Minion Mayhem ride, and it was so cute and hilarious. The ride practically turns you into a minion and lets you run among other minion 😛 I love minions so I adored this ride. We then rode the Rock It ride, which was a ride that I was sort of panicking about. I mean, just look at this:
Not my own picture. Just found it on Google.
Though, about halfway through, I fell in love with the ride. Shrek 4D was next on our list, and while I did enjoy it, I don’t think it was the best >_< But I got some Donkey and I love Donkey, sooo. After that, we went to Revenge of the Mummy, which was a pretty jerky ride, but still really, really fun. The ride also decided to fake us out: it made us tourist think the ride was over and then unexpectedly shoot us off into a room of (fake) fire.
Everyone was a little hungry, so we went to eat at a Mel’s Drive In. The food was kind of tasteless, but the decor was really nice to look at. Plus, our table had this music player thingy that I enjoyed tinkering with. The place also had some really cool old cars parked in front of it (you can see one of them in the row of pictures above).
After eating, we went to the Horror Make Up Show. AND IT WAS SOOO GOOD! The two hosts were hilarious right from the very beginning when one of the two ran into the room screaming with a (obviously fake) knife in her chest and then making a big show out of lying down and dying… and then telling the dude in the front row that he has permission to look at her butt. Anyways, the girls were hilarious to watch and I actually started crying from laughing to hard at them.
When the show ended, we walked a little bit and then had the idea that we should ride Transformers: The Ride. It was a real action-y simulation. I’ve never been a fan of Transformers but the fight scenes were so cool in this ride, and it really felt like you were a part of them. We went on another couple of rides (MIB: Alien Attack and Terminator 2 3D) that weren’t really anything to holler about, then found E.T. Adventure, which was really good. (E.T. still freaks me out, though.)
My dad spotted another cool-looking thing called Disaster, so we got in line and then found out that Disaster is apparently an experience that allows you to be in a disaster movie called Mutha Nature. We were stuck in the back and weren’t chosen, but the host was able to find a hot, hunky guy (her words not mind), a group of guys with glasses, a cute eight year-old, an old lady, and a pretty young woman. We then proceeded to watch these guys make a really, really terrible movie that was so bad it was hilarious.
We also went to Twister and got to see a set get destroyed by a “twister.” It was actually really interesting. After that, my family and I started to just go on the same rides over and over again, just having a blast. Some noteoworthy things that happened during that time: I found a dancing minion that wouldn’t stop dancing and being stupid so nobody could take pictures with it. Let’s just say I fell in love with it immediately. I also stumbled across a squirrel (I get so distracted by squirrels it’s not even funny).
At the end of the day, I bought a stuffed minion and named it Marty, and we went home. But not before seeing this beauty all lit up:
The end!
Epcot
Sadly, we didn’t do very much at Epcot. BUT! We were able to go on Mission: SPACE, and it was quite possibly one of the greatest things ever. Uh… The end!
Additional Note:
I think it should be noted that while all this happened, my dad was determined to find the perfect Disney World hat. Seriously, he checked out every store. And after spending days looking for the perfect hat, he found it. Applaud him please.
As you can see, I had a very, very good time at Florida and I would go there again if I could 🙂 I miss it already! But I still have the good memories and will always happily look back on them. I will end this really long post with a thank you to my parents (hi mom and dad!) for giving me the chance to go to Florida. Love you!
Steel Lily by Megan Curd
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Over the Rainbow by Brian Rowe
book adoration 