Florida Catch-Up | Shopping, Aquatica & Islands of Adventure!

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for a few days of missing posts. I’ve either been too busy or too tired to update, so I’ll do a quick run-down of the past few days, and then focus on yesterdays!

On Tuesday we chilled by the pool for most of the morning. The weather was glorious, and we were definitely in for a warm one!

Obligatory pool and legs photo!

In the afternoon, we headed over to Orlando Premium Outlets on I-Drive, it’s bigger than the one we usually go to on Vineland but definitely not as good. Had a walk round the Vans outlet but didn’t buy anything. Then went in Forever 21, which is sort of like a cheap Topshop and is AMAZING. I spent way too long in there and only ended up buying a few things. Some amazing jeans, a pretty floral top, a cute rabbit jewellery stand and a hairbrush.

When we got back to the villa, I had a horrendous headache so went for a lie down. We then headed out to Downtown Disney later – bad idea! It was peeing down the whole way round and we all (me mostly) ended up looking like drowned rats. Never again! Especially due to the renovations of Pleasure Island, the whole thing is upside down and just not a very enjoyable experience. We had a look round World of Disney, which is probably the biggest Disney store in the world! And also got our free Ghirardelli chocolate then went home and went to bed.
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Wednesday was a lovely day spent at our favourite water park – Aquatica. We got there nice and early to see if we could hire a private cabana for the day. We managed to get one overlooking Roa’s Rapids which cost $121, but it was definitely well spent. It included towels, a locker, a fridge with 14 bottles of water, and a concierge serving you food and drink if you wish. We also got a Banana Beach Buffet wristband, which was all you can eat and drink all day. Some of the choices were pulled pork, pizza, chicken legs, salad, pasta, mac & cheese, chocolate pudding and cake.

This is the only photo I took of the day. Mum and Dad at our cabana.

We started off the day on Roa’s Rapids, which is sort of like a fast lazy river. Then went on the family slides, in the wave pool, on the lazy river. Towards the end of the day, Emma and I went in the wave pool which was fun. All in all it was a lovely day. I love Aquatica!

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Yesterday was one of my favourite parks – Islands of Adventure!

As soon as we got in we headed over to The Hulk and rode that first! I LOVE this coaster. It’s just so fun and I forgot how awesome it was!
We then got some breakfast. Mum, Dad and Nanna had Cinnabon and me and Em went to Starbucks, where I opted for a caramel frappucino and some banana walnut bread, lovely!

For some reason I chickened out of doing Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, despite the fact I’ve rode it tonnes of times. I just really wasn’t feeling it, and it is genuinely terrifying!

The Spiderman ride was up next! We took Nanna on this one and she loved it! Me and Emma went round again and had another go as it was just a walk on.

We went round to the comic book store where Emma bought a Deadpool t-shirt, and then headed over to Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges. NEVER AGAIN! I’ve rode this before, but I never got as soaked as this before! I was literally drenched through and it took me ages to dry. We went in the “human dryers” which seemed to make little difference, and moved on. We decided not to ride Dudley Do Right’s Ripsaw Falls because we didn’t want to get wet again. Through to Jurassic Park now where we went on Jurassic Park River Adventure, which was great as usual. For some reason I really screamed going down the drop and the photo is both hilarious and horrible at the same time.

Lunch time now, we went to Burger Digs, which is our usual IoA restaurant of choice. I opted for a grilled chicken sandwich, fries and salad.

After lunch, it was time for Hogsmeade!

 

We took Nanna on the “Hogwarts tour” (or Hogswash as she called it). And then rode Forbidden Journey. This ride is great. It’s a simulator “robo-coaster” ride, where you’re stuck on the end of a robotic arm and swung all over the place. It’s fun though! After that we rode Flight of the Hippogriff (me and Em went on twice), and then Dragon Challege, which is ace. I actually kept my eyes open during it this time too (last time I shut my eyes the entire way round). We also met a lady from Boston who sat on our row, she thought it was amazing how we were from England and “sounded just like in the movie”.

Then finally, it was time to ride the Hogwarts Express!

It was absolutely amazing and everything I thought it would be! Needless to say, by the time we got to “London”, I was well and truly feeling like a wizard. So much so, that I headed straight for Ollivanders and bought a wand!

Almost $40 and Voldy’s wand acquired, I felt so powerful! We were going to ride Gringotts again but the wait time was 30 minutes (which is good, but we didn’t want to leave Nanna outside for that long). Back to Kings Cross now for the return trip to Hogsmeade!

HULL TRAINS! 😀

Nanna and Mum going through the wall at Platform 9 and 3/4.

Excuse my face, but wand and Hogwarts Express selfie.

Emma on the Hogwarts Express.

We arrived back in Hogsmeade where I bought a $13 Butterbeer, just for the souvenir cup. Worth it though. I drank half of it before deciding I didn’t like it, so chucked at least $8 worth of Butterbeer in the bin.

We wandered through to Seuss Landing where we went on the Cara-Seuss-El, One Fish Two Fish and the Cat in the Hat ride, then headed out. It was at this point that we seriously started to get tired, and we took the long, arduous trip through City Walk to the car.

On the way home we stopped at Walmart for some stuff for tea, got home, went in the pool, ate, went to sleep.

Hopefully today we’re going shopping, so I’m gonna do some serious spending! Catch you soon!

 

 

Day 3 | 90 Degree Heat, Escaping From Gringotts and LOTS of photos!

So I thought I’d at least be a little bit over the jet lag now but apparently not. It’s 5:30am and I’m awake. It is the perfect time to do my blog posts though so we’ll focus on the up sides. Yesterday was AMAZING. I can’t even get over how brilliant Diagon Alley is, but I’ll start from the very beginning even though I just want to talk about that.

Woke up around 5:30am and ran myself a bath. Decided I could get away with a fringe wash so just did that to save time (if you don’t know what a fringe wash is, it’s where you just wash your fringe. If you’re plagued with greasy hair after just one day of washing it, fringe washing is great if you don’t like to wash your hair every day!). After I was all ready I had fruit, yoghurt and boiled eggs to set me up for the day. And I was ready!

Ignore my stupid face and just focus on the fact I’m wearing a Ravenclaw shirt please.

We set off just after 8 and got to Universal Orlando at around 8:35 which was the earliest we’ve ever been I think. But we thought if we got there early, went straight to Diagon Alley, we wouldn’t have to queue very long for Escape From Gringotts.

Family moving walkway selfie (minus Nanna, she’s not allowed on the moving walkway in her mobility scooter).

I honestly couldn’t stop smiling. Although I love Disney, I just love Universal that little bit more. Up until I found my roller coaster feet, Universal Studios was my favourite park where it came to rides too (now overtaken by Busch Gardens as it’s full of awesome coasters!). Universal Studios still is my favourite park in terms of the buildings and surroundings.

After getting our Special Assistance pass for Nanna (which we didn’t use once), we headed in and by this time I was absolutely buzzing with excitement. The first ride was Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, which used to be Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast. This was our first walk-on of the day. We were waiting 5 minutes, if that. But the woman who worked at the entrance for some reason blocked off the queue at a certain section, so we were just stood there stuck not knowing what to do…

This ride is fun, and is a good update from Jimmy Neutron which was a bit outdated. It’s a 3D simulator ride where riders sit in rows of four (poor Dad was sat alone) where you go through the process of “becoming a minion”. You’re jumping about all over the place and it’s just really fun! Plus the minions are super cute too! Nanna found it hilarious, although it jolted her back a little. Even Dad was smiling so it must have been good!

After that we walked up to Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It, which we just walked onto as well.. I was so excited to ride this because last time we came it was closed  because of teething problems. This was also Emma’s first “big” roller coaster, so she was really nervous! When we got on we picked our songs (I did one of the hidden songs which was Tom Petty – Runnin’ Down A Dream).

This roller coaster lifts you at a 90 degree angle. And when you watch it you think “Ah it won’t be that bad”. But jesus christ, it’s so intense! It was really fun though but probably more intense than any coaster I’ve been on. We consoled Emma in the fact that it’s more intense than The Hulk (if Emma goes on The Hulk she’ll get $40, $30 from Mum and $10 from me, she’s buzzed herself up about it for ages watching videos and I really hope she goes on it!).

Next up was Revenge Of The Mummy. I can’t even explain the lack of queue times. We didn’t even have to queue for this one either. Because of Nanna too we had to use the disabled entrance. We realised afterwards that this ride was too much for Nanna. She felt sick afterwards and me and Emma found ourselves constantly asking if she was okay. Including an instance where she started coughing and I really started to panic! Needless to say, she didn’t go on another ride all day.

Took some photos of “New York” when we got off The Mummy, including being photobombed by Dad! Also the Transformers ride wasn’t there last time we were here, and it upsets me how it ruins the look of New York (far left photo). Also see the props for Halloween Horror Night (VW beetle in the far right photo). It’s part of The Purge scare zone. I really hope we go! Emma’s said she doesn’t think she’ll be scared at HHN. So we have a $5 bet on. By the end of the night I’ll be $5 richer no doubt.

Diagon Alley was up next. Now I’ve watched endless videos of Diagon Alley, and looked at countless photos. But nothing can compare to being there and seeing it with your own eyes. Even “London” was amazing.

Walking through the wall to Diagon Alley was the most excited I’ve been in a long time! I literally could not stop smiling. It’s just so perfect, and the detail is absolutely amazing!

The only downside was the fact I was so warm by this point. It was 90 degrees and I felt so uncomfortable. I just hope that when we visit next week, I’m not too hot and can enjoy it properly! I also need to get a photo next to The Daily Prophet building – my future place of work of course!

Escape From Gringotts was the main attraction here so we headed towards that. Nanna waited outside in the shade with our bags and we headed in. The detail inside Gringotts bank is amazing too. Theme parks in Florida really do knock UK theme parks into the dust. Just the queuing area for one ride is better than a whole ride in the UK.

We were expecting a long wait for this one, but we were only waiting about 20 minutes, if that! All I have to say on this one is WOW. It is amazing. It has the coaster element of The Mummy, with the visuals of the Spiderman ride at Islands of Adventure, but no ride technology could ever match up! It’s so clever the way it switches from roller coaster to simulator.

After EFG, we had a look around Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. Emma bought an interactive wand (Ginny’s I think) and did some of the spells. Dad probably has photos of her doing spells in her cape. She’s a real wizard now!

I melted a bit more until we went to cool off in Knockturn Alley, which is equally as amazing! We had a look round Borgin and Burke’s where I got excited over Tom Riddle’s diary which they sold, only to find it was bloody $42! No way I’d pay £25 for a notebook, no matter how amazing it is.

After Diagon Alley, we headed over to the Springfield area. Now I don’t like The Simpsons, but this place is really impressive. Last time we were here, the only thing that was there was The Simpsons Ride, but they’ve extended it to be a full area. Complete with Moes Tavern, Kang & Kodo’s Twirl & Hurl (which me and Emma rode later on), a Duff Brewery bar and the Kwik-E-Mart.

Strangely, I don’t have many photos from Springfield. Only these two.

We headed into Moe’s Tavern to eat and cool down. I opted for a turkey wrap (in which the wrap part was green…not sure) and caesar salad. I needed cold food.

 

After eating, we headed over to Men In Black, which is a family favourite! And then back to Springfield. By this point we were all seriously flagging, so cooled down with what was probably the nicest ice cream I’ve ever eaten. We made the decision to call it a day and head back early, but we’d come back next week to ride the rides we’d missed and have another look round!

All in all, it was a successful day! When we got back I slept, ate, went in the pool and slept some more! Today we have a chill day. That’s the upsides of not doing Disney, we have time to chill and just take it easy. I think we’re going to Orlando Premium Outlets later, which means more shopping! YAY!

I’ll update again tomorrow, although I doubt it will be very interesting! Thanks for reading 🙂

That Obligatory Awkward First Post.

First posts on a new blog are probably one of of my least favourite things in the world – finding out Robin Williams has died is definitely number one on my least favourite list right now. First posts are awkward and unwanted, I just wish I could pre-load a blog with random posts, but that’s pretty difficult since I haven’t written them yet.

I just hate the notion of having to describe what I am, who I am and what I like in order to build an audience of readers, because I always end up missing something vital out. For example, I’m on my second paragraph and I haven’t even written my name yet. It’s Rachel by the way.

I decided to start a daily, weekly, whenever I feel like it-ly blog for several reasons. I’ve wanted to start one now for a long time, but I could never find the reason, or the words, to do so. But as my summer goes on, my life is getting a little bit more interesting (I say a little bit – no skydiving out of burning buildings for charity, or organising events that will be attended by thousands here folks).

But I guess I’ll get right into it and I hope you enjoy reading (because there’ll probably be a lot of words).

I’ve been volunteering at a place called BRiCWorks since I came home for summer. It’s a community hub for people recovering from drugs and alcohol and has been such a good place to spend my summer, and is undeniably a great cause to give my time to. The experience I’ve gained has been invaluable, and it would be difficult to pick up such a variety of experience and skills elsewhere.

For the first couple of months I was mainly working on their newsletters, behind the reception desk, or drinking lots of tea and hearing peoples recovery stories – the latter probably being my favourite while I’ve been there. I’ve met some really inspiring people, who have shown me that no matter how hard it gets, it’s always possible to pull through, and come out at the other side victorious.

Anyway, BRiCWorks have their own community radio station, Hull Recovery Radio, and after months of umm’ing and ahh’ing about it, I finally bit the bullet and asked if I could do a show. I really wanted to be involved with the radio side of Spark at university but didn’t have the confidence, so I knew if I built confidence through HRR, by the time term started I’d be ready to go back to Spark and get more involved, so this really was something I HAD to do.

They said they could fit me in on the Thursday, bearing in mind this was Monday, and I was expecting at least a week to mentally prepare myself for this. To say I was extremely nervous would be an understatement.

But I did a whole lot of preparing, and loaded about 20 songs I wanted to play on my trusty University of Sunderland USB stick and turned up on Thursday ready to do my show. As 1pm rolled around (I was due to go on at 1:30pm), I was told that it was time. It was 30 minutes earlier than it should have been so I went into full-on panic mode right then and there.
“What do you mean?! It’s only 1, I’m not due to go on until 1:30.”
I got a lot of words of encouragement and a hug from my Mum. As if I wasn’t nervous enough, my Mum was also there so that added to the nervousness tenfold. She even stood by with her phone to take a photo!

I sat in the chair and loaded the computer with my songs, which now, in hindsight, were a bad pick. I tried to pick songs that would be kind to everyones ears and not play a load of Bring Me The Horizon, Four Year Strong and A Day To Remember, but I just felt awkward when I introduced The Kinks and Oasis. Don’t get me wrong, I like The Kinks and Oasis, I’m just not really into them.

I genuinely felt like a poor mans version of Annie Mac, sat there in the presenters chair, with a myriad of computers and speakers around me, and a microphone in my face. It felt great to be honest. Here’s the aforementioned photo:

After doing a considerable amount of awkward things such as stopping songs too early, or too late, not fading songs out properly, and admitting to having the Sound Of Music soundtrack LP live on air, I finally got into it, stopped feeling so gawky and relaxed a little.

It helped that I was joined with one of the other DJ’s, Rick, (we’d had a lengthy conversation about games beforehand, so I liked him already). He had had only done a couple of shows for HRR but seemed so relaxed on air. I would have probably been a nervous wreck if it wasn’t for him to be honest! In between songs we chatted about music, got a couple of other people in to talk about things and just had a laugh. I’m pretty sure my show was meant to start at half 1 and finish at half 2, but we ended up occupying the radio studio until half 4.

I honestly never could have imagined how much I’d enjoy presenting a radio show, and I didn’t even get conscious about my horrible voice either! And doing this was a huge boost for my confidence, not to mention that I’m yearning to do it again already! So that’s one for the portfolio!

Speaking of portfolios, another reason I wanted to start this blog was so that I could blog about my holiday, which you’ll no doubt he hearing a lot about over the coming weeks if you read my blog. Finally, after four long years of waiting, and a couple of months of packing and re-packing my suitcase, I’m going back to the motherland. Florida. (Not really the motherland may I add, but it feels like I’m going home!)

I blogged my whole holiday in 2010 which you can read here: http://rachelamystriptoflorida.tumblr.com if you wish to. It’s full of awkwardness and crude language, but it’s a good read and has pretty photos. The URL is also meant to read like “Rachel Amy’s Trip To Florida”, not “Rachel Amy Strip To Florida”, sounding like I’m doing some kind of stripping road trip, I apologise.
Not even a trip to the moon could beat 2010’s trip (well maybe). It was amazing and one of the best holidays I’ve ever been on.

So yes, it’s just 24 days, 5 hours, and 13 minutes until I (with my Mum, Dad, sister – Emma, and Nanna), set off for Manchester Airport for two weeks in the Sunshine State. And honestly, I’m having trouble sleeping due to excitement already. Florida is 10x better than Christmas in my opinion and it will be so good to be back there!

If you’ve read this far, you deserve a gold star because this post is LONG. I don’t think my posts in future will be this long but you never know. Anyway, thank you for reading and be sure to keep an eye out for future posts – I’m going to Wales on Thursday so that’ll be an interesting read…

See y’all real soon!

(I’d just like to add a RIP to Robin Williams, will be sorely missed in the comedy/film world. Such sad news.)