A trip to Orlando is always a happy trip for me. After all, so many of my favorite places are there! Even though I vlogged my entire trip, I had such a good time that I wanted to write about it too! So, without further ado, here’s the recap of my most recent trip to Florida!
My family left around noon on August 1st, which was not too soon after we picked up our rental car. About an hour after we left, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. I spent most of my time in the car on my phone, mostly working on my blog, checking social media, and playing games like Exploding Kittens. Later that night, we stopped at a Wawa for a quick dinner, and we checked into a Fairfield hotel around 11pm. The next day, we got up, got back on the road, and our first stop was a Chick-fil-a for breakfast. Once we made it into Florida, we stopped at the St. Augustine and Daytona Beach outlets to walk around and look in some of the stores. Around 4pm, we made it into Orlando, and headed over to Disney Springs for dinner at the Edison. It was rainy, so we didn’t get to do much more that day.
Saturday was our first full day in Orlando, and it was essentially our “shopping day.” We started off the morning at the Premium Outlets near the Disney College Program housing. I was able to score an American Eagle shirt for less than $3, a banshee from Pandora at Animal Kingdom for $10, a celebration plush Mickey for $6, and a few other small souvenirs. The outlet was crazy busy and well stocked, so I believe a lot of new releases were dropped that morning. After we were done at that outlet, we went to the other Premium Outlet, over near I-Drive and Universal Orlando. We went into the Aerie and American Eagle over there, and the other Disney outlet. Once we were all done at that outlet center, we drove over to Disney Springs. My whole family enjoys lunch at Chicken Guy, so we ordered some chicken, fries, and a milkshake. Afterwards, we walked around all the stores, took some pictures, and picked up a treat from Amorette’s. In the afternoon, we explored the Pop Century and Art of Animation resorts for some pictures. We tried going to the new Margaritaville Resort for dinner, but since they didn’t have a traditional Margaritaville restaurant, we ended up at a Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner.
We went to Epcot on Sunday. The first thing we did was rope drop Soarin’, followed by a *nutritious* breakfast of cupcakes and cookies at the Sunshine Seasons Grill in the Land. We did several of the main attractions and the Character Spot before we headed into World Showcase to wander around the various countries. Aside from taking tons of pictures, snacking, going to the attractions, and meeting some of the characters, we saw Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Live and the Voices of Liberty. After visiting the France pavilion, we took one of the friendship boats to the Boardwalk, were we picked up some Ample Hills ice cream before it started to rain. We headed back into Epcot, finished out the loop and rode Spaceship Earth. We then went over to SeaWorld, where we got totally soaked on Infinity Falls, met Cookie Monster & Elmo, and saw the Electric Ocean fireworks.
The next day was our full day at SeaWorld. I was able to start my morning with a Dolphin Encounter, and thanks to the hotel-provided quick queues, was able to ride most of the rides I wanted to go on with little to no wait. We also saw most of the shows, and even got to go on the Sky Tower. Right before it started downpouring, I was able to meet Cookie Monster & Elmo again without a wait. The rain started to clear, so we got to see Sea Lions Tonite (aka the best Clyde & Seamore show). We left SeaWorld, and headed back to Disney Springs, and decided to try Maria & Enzo’s, which ended up being an amazing decision.
On Tuesday, we took a day trip down to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. It started raining as soon as we got there, so most of the rides ended up being closed while we were walking around, but I was later able to ride Cheetah Hunt, Falcon’s Fury, Cobra’s Curse, and the train that takes you out onto the savannah. We spent most of the day looking around at all the cute animals, and we took quite a long stop for me to admire the elephants. After we were done at the park, we met my uncle at a Carrabba’s for dinner.
Our Wednesday at Universal was pretty rainy. The new Hagrid’s ride had over a three hour wait from park open, so our first order of business was to meet Blue the Velociraptor. Unfortunately, there was rain in the area, but since we were at the front of the line, we were given a special password that would get us back to the front of the line whenever we came back. While we waited for the storm to pass, we finished walking around Islands of Adventure, took a bunch of pictures, rode both major rides in the Jurassic Park area, picked up a butterbeer, and met a few characters. We finally were able to meet Blue, and after that, we headed out of Islands and stopped at Toothsome for lunch. After lunch, we walked over to Universal Studios, and the first thing I got to do was meet two adorable minions. I had booked a Virtual Line pass for the Fast & Furious ride, and we all went over to do that. Unfortunately, as soon as we came off the ride, it started downpouring, so we had to take a little break. During a break in the rain, we walked over to the Simpsons area, picked up a Big Pink donut, and relaxed over there. Once the second rain passed, we went on a little adventure to the Portofino Bay and Hard Rock hotels, followed by a dinner at Margaritaville in CityWalk. I convinced my dad to go back into Universal after dinner, and we got to ride Kang & Kodo’s Hurl and Twirl, and the ET Adventure (such a classic and the last original ride left at Universal Studios, we also had a great experience with some of the cast members there). We took our time leaving since the lighting was gorgeous and I was able to get some amazing pictures. As we were heading to the car, the Cinematic Spectacular started, so we got to see the fireworks from the parking garage, with a lovely view of CityWalk too.
Thursday was our last full day in day in Florida, and it was mixed with a little of everything. We started the morning off with a visit to Coronado Springs and the new Gran Destino Tower, followed by a quick first trip to the All-Star Movies resort. After exploring and taking lots of pictures, we went to both of the Gatorlilly’s stores, where I ended up finding some cute Lilly basics for a reasonable price. We then headed back into Orlando, were we had snack at Wilderness Lodge, and then took the boat to the Contemporary to start the monorail resort loop. Right after we got off the boat, we saw Chip and Dale playing games on the Contemporary’s lawn, so I stopped and got some quick chipmunk hugs! At the Polynesian, we got some Dole Whip, and we simply just walked around at the Grand Floridian. By the time we were done with resort hopping, it was dinner time. After a little thinking, my dad decided to take us back to Disney Springs to try Enzo’s Hideaway since we enjoyed Maria & Enzo’s so much, and it was such a good meal. We walked around Disney Springs for the last time, and headed back to our hotel, the Renaissance, to get everything ready for us to head home the next day.
The vlogs from my trip will be available starting this Saturday, so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Terrifically Toni, to see them all and not miss a thing! I’ll also be sharing lots and lots of the pictures I took on my various social media channels, so you’ll also want to join the party over there. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this quick recap of my 18th birthday/graduation celebration trip to my happiest place! In the next few weeks, I’ll be starting at college and celebrating my actual 18th birthday, so stay tuned for all the magic that’s yet to come!
See ya real soon,
