Orlando, FL

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Charlene and I met at the Calgary airport to catch our morning flight to Orlando, FL. We had decided to stop at Universal Studios because Char was dieing to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Our flight landed in Orlando just before dinner, so we checked into our hotel and freshened up. I do not fly well, apparently. I was SO sick from the plane - landing and taking off was not kind to me. Charlene had done some research prior to the trip, and she found a shopping center near our hotel. We headed over to have some dinner and do some shopping. It might just be because I am a small town girl - but I had never seen a mall quite like the Mall at Millenia. After shopping and dinner, I was exhausted. I knew the next had even more in store for us, so I was quick to crawl into bed and sleep.

Our hotel in Orlando, FL / The Mall at Millenia

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

The next morning we woke up fairly early, and had breakfast at an iHop next to our hotel. Our hotel offered luggage storage and a shuttle to nearby amusement parks. Since we were catching the Florida Express that night, we checked out of the hotel and stuck our bags in storage. We jumped on the shuttle bus. The driver mentioned we had picked an ideal time to visit. There wasn't much tourism during this time, so the park wouldn't be nearly as busy as it usually was. Good news for me! I don't like amusement park rides, and I don't like waiting in line. I was glad I was only going to have to do one of those things. We were off to Universal Studios!

We had bought a one park pass because we knew we would only have time for one. Since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was on The Island of Adventure, that's where we were heading! We stopped and took photos a long the way.

If you haven't been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you must go! It truly is a magical place. Honestly, I only made it to the third book - but I am entranced by the movies. When I was younger I use to imagine a place like Hogwarts really did exist. This amusement park makes all those childhood dreams a reality! It was incredible.

 

We waited in line for nearly 45 minutes to see 'the wand chose the wizard'

in less than 10 minutes, but it was completely worth it!

I don't hate amusement park rides because I am scared of them. I hate rise because I am painfully prone to motion sickness. I have been since I was a tiny toddler, and I've never grown out of it. I wasn't about to leave Universal Studios without riding a rollercoaster. So after much persuasion from Charlene, I rode The Dragon Challenge! It was terrifying - in the most exhilarating way possible. I also rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey without knowing what I was getting myself into. Foolish me, I thought we'd just be walking around Hogwarts - which was so neat! The actual ride portion (that I did not know existed) would have been neat as well if I was concentrating on not getting sick. The walking portion was my favorite part of the WWOHP. It felt like you were IN Hogwarts. There was even holograms of Professor Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. 

After a torturous morning of rides, we ate lunch at Three Broomsticks and drank frozen Butterbeer!

After we'd taken in the magic of Hogwarts, we had plenty of time to explore the rest of The Islands of Adventure. Charlene rode The Hulk, but I was finished with rides for the day. I spent far too much money on all sorts of souvenirs. We even had our picture taken with a few superheroes. The rides I do enjoy are the water rides. It would have been nice to try those, but it was too cold and we had to sit on a buss afterwards for four hours.

Our last stop at Universal Studios was Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. My dad and sister are huge fans of Forest Gump, so I bought them each a t-shirt and a mug. Charlene and I had an early dinner since we'd be catching a bus to Miami, FL in a matter of hours. This was the neatest restaurant I've ever been to! There's Forest Gump trivia, there's a flip sign that has Run Forest Run and Stop Forest Stop to tell a waitor whether you to stop or not, and the food was good too. There was no Dr. Pepper, which was odd - that is Forest's drink of choice.

After a long, amazing day at Universal Studios it was time to head to Miami, FL. We caught a cab back to our hotel to grab our luggage. We had a bit of time before we had to be at the Florida Express stop, so I changed and we lounged around the sofas. Just after 6pm, we caught another cab over the to the pick-up location - which really seemed like some random parking lot. And at 7pm, we were on the Florida Express on our way to Miami, FL!

More photos!