Warning, this is long!
No trip to the US is complete without visiting Disney! We spent 5 nights in Orlando to finish the East Coast leg of the trip.
We had a long drive from Key Largo to Orlando. We checked into our AirBnB and awaited the arrival of Eric and Jenn and their two kids.
The first full day together we had pancakes for breakfast then lounged around the pool. The unit was part of a gated holiday community. It had a community centre with an arcade, movie theatre, pool and hot tub. The kids had a blast running around the pool. That afternoon Eric decided to indulge in the local culture and hit up the gun range complete with free popcorn.
Neither of us are gunsmiths my any stretch. We rocked up wearing thongs (flip flops) completely lost. “So how does it this work?”. Turns out you pay money and then pick a gun from a shelf, buy ammo and shoot! Quite simple. Except you get more instructions getting onto a ride in Disney! They literally pointed to the trigger and said pull this down range. Multiple times we had to ask for help and were met with a disappointing sigh. In their defence, we forgot/didn’t know how to turn off the safety. We shot a 9mm Glock, a semi automatic rifle and shotgun, a full automatic rifle and a 6 shooter. We also got some sweet booties.
The next day was Disney World. This was mine and Hanika’s first time. Thank goodness we had Jenn and Eric to lead the way with their combined 15 visits!
Everything was planned out. We knew which rides we’d hit up first, how we’d effectively use our Fast Passes. Flawless.
We changed accommodation and dropped our bags at the Animal Kingdom Resort and hopped on the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom park. We arrived 45 mins later than anticipated and that’s when the wheels fell off! Already the wait for rides was over an hour. Thank God we had Jenn to navigate the park and make the most of our time.
We had a jam packed day. We managed to catch a mid day parade, do some rides and watch some shows. Moose wasn’t a huge fan of any ride that was remotely fast/scary but he was happy enough to sit out. One of the highlights for me was the shows. They’re only about 20 minutes long, in a large theatre, minimum line ups, air conditioned and filled with comfy seats! They offered a reprieve from the heat and screaming kids.
In the middle of the day we got our hotel rooms texted to us. We were miles apart! We thought that mattered (it didn’t), so Eric called up and asked if they could change us. Thank God he did, they ended up right next door with a room upgrade! Disney really does do anything they can to make your stay happy. Ask, they’ll do it.
Unfortunately Disney closed the Magic Kingdom at 6pm on our day. They were hosting a Christmas Party which mean we got kicked out unless we spent another $100 EACH. Not even a restaurant reservation would keep us in the park. We headed to the Rainforest Cafe for an immersive meal compete with fish tanks and animatronic gorillas.
The next morning we woke to the sight of giraffes and zebras from our balcony. I enthusiastically woke up Moose who begged me to let him sleep! Since when is a 4 year old a teenager?? So much for investment in a safari view room.
We ate a delicious buffet, no alcohol for $100 USD for 3 people! All those websites that say Disney has reasonably priced food must be eating stadium hotdogs. Jesus. Saying that, it was delicious apart from the subpar filtered coffee.
Our second Disney day was spent at Hollywood Studios. Again, a delayed start due to the Haiarts’ meant missing our first preferences. The park is divided into two major areas; Toy Story and Star Wars. The Toy Story world is filled with rides and regular character appearances. We didn’t make it onto the Slinky Dog roller coaster because the line had ballooned to >75 mins by the time we entered the park! We say the Indian Jones special effects who which was incredible. Another chance to sit down but this time with explosions! We also managed a Frozen show, a Cars show and Eric, Jenn and I rode the Rockin’ Roller coaster. It launches you 0-90kpm in 2.8 seconds! The whole thing is somehow inside, dark and ludicrous. Do it.
I dragged everyone to Star Wars Galaxy Edge after. As a huge fan it was mind blowing. A totally immersive experience despite the fact it’s not complete. People were being randomly arrested by circulating Storm Troopers. Unfortunately we had the WORST food of the entire trip there. I misread “Turkey Jerky” as jerked turkey. We spent 2 months in Jamaica and loved jerked chicken. Sure, I thought, a new bird but same great taste right? False. It was literally jerky (dried, seasoned) turkey skin. It looked like a withered ball sac. It tasted no better. Still, the $15 extragalactical cocktail made up for it. But seriously, the whole thing was amazing. The attention to detail was “out of this world”. I was like a kid in a candy store. I even considered buying Star Wars Christmas ornaments. The grand finale of the night was riding the “Smuggler’s Run” ride in the Millennium Falcon. I’d read review on how the ride worked but they left a lot of details out to keen an element of surprise. I’ll do the same… It was great fun with any of the “roles” being interactive and undoubtably fun. Worth Eric and Jenn doing the line up so we could to the parent swap.
We retired back to the resort and the kids did a bit of animal viewing. They set up night vision goggles and with them Moose swore he could all of them. There was one cow..
The next day we enjoyed another overpriced buffet and the Johannson’s left us. We checked out and into another timeshare type community, much smaller and without any sort of country club feel. We were treated to a visit by the Thurling’s who are also doing a North American tour with their young children. We had a lazy day by the pool and a few bevies. It was great to catch up with people who understood the trials and tribulations of travelling with family. They went off to Mexico and we flew off to San Francisco.
