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The bus ride was dull and uneventful and of course when we arrived in Orlando, the Greyhound station was in the middle of nowhere. So we had to catch a bus to downtown Orlando and then another bus out to International drive, which took 1 hour but it felt like it was forever and it took you through all sorts of scary neighbourhoods and downtown Orlando is not to be admired, It got to a point on the bus where I forgot what it was like not to be on the bus. We arrived at the Imperial Swan Hotel around 8pm on Monday 7th February and I was so happy to be in a private room with a double bed, we said that we would be thankful for this room every day after the drama in Miami. That evening we went to Red Lobster for dinner and a drink after the epic bus ride drama.
Tuesday 8th we went to IHOP for breakfast before trying to get to Magic Kingdom, we learnt that morning our shuttle from the hotel was far too expensive and had already left for the day, so we were told we could get the bus there. Two hours and 2 bus rides later we finally entered Magic Kingdom. We were told it was going to be a nice warm sunny day, the sunny was correct but warm it was not. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts as we had been advised the weather was going to be nice, but after a few hours Jess had to buy some jazzy Disney trousers as she was so cold. We also donned our 'I <3 Miami' t-shirts as we thought we would be geeky at Disney.Apart from the weather I loved Magic Kingdom, although I remember it having a lot better rides, but then I guess I was a lot younger when I went last time. I had a great day getting myself into the Disney spirit. My favourite rides are still Space Mountain and the buzz light-year ride; we chose not to do the water rides as it was far too cold. We stayed late at the park so we could see the light projection show on the castle and the fireworks, which were amazing and magical.
Wednesday, we made sure to be dressed appropriately for cooler weather for Islands of Adventures at Universal Studios. This park is still my favourite park out of them all. After buying some cereal for breakfast, where the woman asked if I wanted bacon and sausages with it (I can see why these Americans are fat) we hit the park. We headed straight for Harry Potter Land, which personally I thought was AMAZING! If you are not a Harry potter fan you probably will have no idea what I am about to talk about but It was designed to look Diagon Alley, the magical shopping road, it was so impressive and they kept close to detail, moaning Murtle was even in the toilets. First thing we did was to see a wand choosing at Olivanders, I was jealous that I was not chosen. The rollercoaster in this land was a duelling dragon ride themed on the tri-wizard contest from the Goblet of fire book/movie. The queue line had props from the movie, like the cup and the tent and the best thing there was only a 10minute queue line. Personally this rollercoaster was the best I've been on, we sat at the front and it got so close to the other rollercoaster that intertwines with your one it made the coaster so much more thrilling. Next we went on the 4D ride which was in the Hogwarts Castle, the queue itself was epic as it takes you through the castle and you get to see Dumbledore's office, the fat lady's picture, the potions classroom and so many more other rooms. The 4D ride itself was amazing, it was like a rollercoaster but you went round and it flung you from a 4d screen and then seamlessly into a real life scenes and animatronics, it was awesome and quite scary, Jess even loved it. Also I couldn't leave the land until I had bought a butter beer, which was very bizarre and full of sugar. We also went to all of the other lands, we skipped out the water rides again but we went to all the rides in Dr Zeus land and of course my 2nd favourite land; Marvel. We only had to wait maximum 15 minutes for the rides so it made it so much better. That evening we couldn't be asked to go out for dinner so we bought an Indian takeaway and chilled in the room.
Thursday was our day off from theme parks, we caught the I-ride trolley to the outlet malls, where we tried to buy some warmer clothes, Jess was pretty successful, and I was not. For lunch we had an awful jerk chicken pizza, which we accidently ordered. We then went to another mall that had 4 shops in which was a massive let down. We caught the I-ride to a steak house as the place we originally looked at was far too fancy.
Friday we had our haircut in a small salon near our hotel, I had the one hairdresser that couldn't speak English, which was very nerve racking when she is hacking at my hair. I did some souvenir shopping, and we bought our Disney drawstring bags to go with our cheesy theme park outfits, we were going to by bum bags but we needed something to carry our jumpers in. In the afternoon we went to 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' museum, it was a lot of fun and Jess enjoyed it a lot as she hadn't been before. We ordered Chinese to our room that evening and Jess dyed her hair, we were enjoying our lovely private room.
Saturday 12th, we went to Disney Hollywood Studios, It was a warmer day today so we thought wearing our 'I <3 LA' t-shirts would be very appropriate, but we were wrong, we soon had our jumpers back on. We went to see beauty and the beast show, rode the rocking rollercoaster, we saw the Pixar parade, 4d Mumpets ride, studio back lot tour and tower of terror where I massively freaked out, much to Jess' amusement. For lunch we ate a HUGE turkey leg and shared a pretzel, it was very tasty, but I'm good for eating turkey for a while. There were thousands of cheerleaders in the park that day as there was some kind of competition going on, they were massively irritating but not as attractive as I thought they should have been. My favourite ride of the day was the brand new Toy Story ride which was the 4d shooting ride, which was awesome, however the highlight of the day was stumbling across Mickey Mouse and meeting him and taking a photo with him, I was a massive kid and I LOVED it. The most annoying thing about these parks are that you are made to clap every time you arrive back after the ride, it's like welldone, you didn't die on this safe ride. Anyway, the journey back to the hotel is one I would like to forget, our shuttle man wasn't coming to collect us, so we had to walk to the closest hotel, catch a bus to downtown Disney and then two buses back to the Hotel, which took well over 3 hours and we were cold and hungry, we were not impressed.
Sunday, we mooched around in the morning and then caught the I-ride to Universal Studios in the afternoon. We didn't do much but we went on the Disaster ride, watched Beetle Juice and went on the new Rock'it rollercoaster, where the incline was vertical and you could chose what music you wanted to listen to as you rode the rollercoaster. The funniest thing is you can view yourself on it after as it films you as you ride. As the park shut at 6pm, we went for some Margaritas in the NBA bar and had dinner at Bubba Gump's, which was awesome, it was themed around the Forest Gump movie, and we of course had the coconut shrimp.
Monday was Valentine's Day, so we had a lie in, we spent most of the day around the hotel, skyping, looking for accommodation in New York and sunbathing around the pool as it was nice and warm now. That evening we dressed up to go out for dinner as we thought we should celebrate Valentine's Day. We booked Bob Marley's restaurant at Universal Studios, but first we went for a drink at the Hard Rock Café. The food at Bob Marley's was a massive let down and the atmosphere was dyer, so we made a swift exit to Margaritaville where we enjoyed some cocktails and shared a massive Chocolate Sundae. Well what else did you expect, its valentine's day and we were single; booze and comfort food.
Tuesday, I awoke with a bit of a fuzzy head but we donned our 'I <3 S.F' t-shirts and headed to Universal Studios. We first went to Islands of Adventures to do the water rides; we thankfully bought ponchos, as we would have been soaked. As it was a warm day I finally could rock my shorts again. We went on the Terminator, Simpsons, Men in Black, ET, the mummy rides and the let-down that was the Jaws ride and of course we went back on the awesome Rock'it rollercoaster. The most irritating thing that I found at the parks was the fat people on mobility scooters who would push to the front of the queues, it would irritate me because they aren't disabled, they are just FAT! We also had our photo taken with Curious George, Woody woodpecker and the Madagascar characters, it was such an awesome day and the weather made it so much more pleasant to be outside all day. That evening we went to Olive Garden for dinner, as we had seen the adverts a lot, it was nice but our server was a big twat.
Wednesday, we spent the morning sunbathing and then I left Jess to go to the Florida mall to buy some warmer clothes. I took a long and scary bus ride through Orlando, but when I finally arrived I was so pleased to have gone as it had so many decent shops. I found everything I needed at H&M and Cotton On, I also finally found some boots, I arrived back at the hotel with everything I needed. We had dinner again at Red Lobster, which was our new favourite restaurant. After dinner we went to the Congo Crazy golf, I believe this brought out the worst in both of us as this was one of the 1st times we have shouted at each other because we were both getting quite competitive.
Thursday our plan was to go to Epcot, but first we went to Magic Kingdom where we saw the 3d sing along show which was so much fun, we also rode Splash Mountain as it was a very warm day and we rode 'it's a small world.' We then caught the monorail over to Epcot, which was a let-down. It is like the park Disney forgot about, it had far too many rides preaching about the environment, even the Nemo ride was lame. The only good ride was the car ride which threw you around a bit but we had to queue for ages as everyone knew this was the only good ride here. We also bought our Disney hoodies as we both had wanted one. As the sun went down we bought a beer and walked around the different cities around the huge lake, we arrived at our restaurant that we booked for dinner and found out it was over $35 so we of course we did not eat there so we ended up eating Fish and Chips in the UK land. The fireworks at Epcot were the only decent thing there and I was glad we stayed to see them as they were pretty cool.
Friday 18th was a very hot day, it was going to reach over 80*F, so we wanted to take advantage of the waterparks at Disney, as Blizzard Beach was closed we went to Typhoon Lagoon. We creamed up, dumped our stuff on chairs and hit the huge wave pool, then the rubber ring rides and the family raft ride which was fun. Then we sunbathed on our tubes going around the lazy river and hopped off to snorkel with sharks. After lunch we sunbathed, then hit the flumes, which killed our backs and made my shorts disappear up my butt crack. My favourite ride was 'Crush n' Gush 'em' which was a really fast duel tube ride which was very fast and had lots of drops. We had a great day and I loved being at a waterparks, although of course I burnt myself and which was annoying as I was very careful. For dinner we just went across the road to the salad buffet restaurant.
Saturday we went to the last Disney Park, Animal Kingdom, our shuttle man did not turn up to take us, so after four bus rides and a lot of moaning we arrived at the park around lunchtime. We headed straight to the Rainforest Café for some food and some much needed alcohol. We didn't have long in the park as it closed at 6pm and we didn't arrive till 2pm. We saw the Bugs Life ride, which would have been quiet frightening for a child; I also didn't appreciate it poking me in the back. We also went on the Dinosaur ride and saw Finding Nemo the Musical, which was awesome, they had shortened the story down, added in some songs and it was all done with puppetry, it was amazing. We also went on the new Yeti rollercoaster; this has to be the best rollercoaster at Disney as it went high up. As we didn't have long left we chose to go on the safari ride as it felt like the right thing to do at Animal Kingdom but of course there was few animals and the 'guide' was far too over animated. I wished we had longer here as it was a good park and had been approved since I last went. We caught two buses to downtown Disney, had a pretzel for dinner and then had the epic bus journey back to the hotel, and it was epic because we caught the wrong bus and then had to go back on ourselves, not impressed.
On Sunday 20th we finally went for our all you can eat breakfast at the Sizzlers near our hotel. It was a fat man's dream and there were so many overweight people in there, it was amazing to see how much people pile onto their plates. After waddling back and packing our bags we caught the I-ride trolley to Universal Studios, as it was our last day we were going to go on all of our favourite rides at both of the two parks, of course we went back to Harry Potter land. There was a Mardi Gras celebration at the Universal studio park so we had some beers, bought some frozen margaritas and had some Jell-O shots from the waitress that was walking along the parade strip. The parade itself was amazing, they had spectacular floats but the best thing was that they were throwing beads out, it was every man for themselves and I managed to grab quite a few. It was so fun and everyone was going crazy for them. For dinner, we went to the Hard Rock café, where we had ribs and beer.
Monday 21st, we checked out of the hotel, headed to Downtown Disney as were waiting to collect our car. We had lunch and then went to Disney Quest, which was the interactive theme park. We played around on the dance machines, I thrashed Jess on guitar hero, rode the 3D raft ride and the virtual reality rides. We picked up the car around 4pm, they told us that the small car we had booked had issues and was not available so instead they were going to give us a Chrysler convertible, which was a monster of car, I couldn't believe what I was about to drive it. We drove away from the rental place with the roof down, in search of a sat nav. After a long search we finally found a well-priced one and we got on the road to Atlanta. I massively enjoyed Disney and Universal studios, but I think I've done it enough for a while, I felt like a massive kid but I don't think I will be rushing back until I have my own kids. It was nice to come out of season as we had significantly small queues than in the summer, but then the weather was very unpredictable and there was little atmosphere in the restaurant along i-drive.
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Becs Your driver seems to be crap :(