carol.

This hits a little too close to home, but it makes perfect sense ;) A postcard from PostSecret back on August 10th.

My visit to the happiest place on Earth was uber awesome, much better than I remember it being a couple of years ago when I went with my parents. A week spent in humid, hot, stickly Florida was well worth the money and the stress caused by planning. Days at Disney and Universal were filled with smiles and laughs and lots of new memories. We felt like such big kids going on the little rides at Disney and lining up to meet the “characters”. Universal was much more to our taste; I even sucked it up & swallowed my fear to go on every coaster we encountered. Lodging at the dingy Best Western was exactly what we paid for: nights spent in the pool, a competitive game of mini golf, snacking on food from the Walgreens, and food runs to every fast food restaurant in a 10 block radius. By the end of the week, no one wanted to return back to New York. Dang, I’m already missing this trip. Another planned vacay during winter break? Yeah, I think so. So much love for my Flo Rida posse: Maggie, Rob, Phil, Winny & Jason.

Day 1: Chilling in Airports

Normally I love flying, but I hate connection flights. We took off from Newark Airport (which turns out to be totally whack) and flew to Charlotte, North Carolina where we had a layover for about 2 hours. The trip to Orlando wasn’t that bad at all. The only downer was the cab ride from Orlando Airport to our hotel. That put a dent into our wallet and by the time we got to the hotel (around midnight), we were ready to pass the fuck out, especially since we had to get up hella early to catch the shuttle to Magic Kingdom. 

Day 2: Disney’s Magical Kingdom

Wow, how magical. It was great to chill out with Mickey and friends. The fatigue from the trip there was still lingering as the day passed. The heat and the burning sun didn’t help either. It was pretty exciting to be back there; I think we all felt like big kids again, only without the parental constraints this time. We finally did it: we went to DISNEY WORLDDDDDD! So much funnn :D

Day 3: Disney’s Epcot

Lots of walking at this park. I didn’t love it as much as Magic Kingdom, but that was probably because we were dead tired from the day before. It was fun visiting each of the country/regions; it felt like we were traveling around the world in a single day. Of course, we almost owned ourself when we decided to go on the ride “Soarin’.” We didn’t realize it was only a simulated ride with “dramatic drops,” because it was definitely not worth the almost 2 hours wait. By the time we got out of the ride, we had to run for the return shutter home, because there was no way we were going to spent $50+ on a taxi ride home. Dang, that was the most intense workout I’ve had in a long time and I hope it’s the last one.

Day 4: Universal’s Studio

This park was much more exciting, but we got there so early that the gates weren’t even opened yet. When we finally got in and made our was through the park, we finished pretty quickly. Then we had to waste time before the shuttle came. Def more touristy than we wanted, but we got to go into plenty of air conditioned spaces. Woohoo?

Day 5: Universal’s Islands of Adventure

This is where all the excitement went down! Right from the get-go we went from one coaster to the next. It was crazy! We went on the Hulk & both the coasters, Fire & Ice, at the Dueling Dragons. I even convinced Phil and Rob to go with me on the Death Drop which turned out to be pretty whack and not as thrilling as we thought it was going to be; they were scared for nothing! This park had much more to do and see, by far my most favorite of the 4 we visited during the trip. The only negative aspect was when the park shut down temporarily for “inclement weather” while Maggie and I were waiting on line to repeat our favorite water ride. We stood there for almost an hour for something that was supposed to take less than 15 minutes. Ugh. All ended well though. It was super refreshing to go through the coarse and get soaked. Tons of fun and lots of food thanks to Rob’s brilliant scheme to get one meal plan and get food for all of us (thankssss!). By far the best day on the vacay.

Day 6: Best Western

Finally a day to relax! We originally planned on being productive, but that plan went down the drain when no one got up except me at 10. Everyone else got up at noon… dang. And when they did finally get up, we decided to go play mini golf (because it was free!). In the end, we ultimately decided to skip the trip to the outlets, because, to be honest, the stores weren’t all that exciting (it wasn’t the outlets on International Drive). We spent our day relaxing in the pool, drinking our (virgin) pina colada. It was so nice to relax before our long journey home. The night was spent staying awake while watching bad (i kid, they were awesome!) crime dramas on tv. We stayed up watching tv until 4am when it was time to grab our stuff and check out.

Day 7: Flying Home

The flight home was direct and to the point. I slept the entire way home. Enough said. I slept on the plane, in the car, when I got home, and then some. Definitely hate being home and leaving the Florida air, but I got some much needed sleep. 

We’re here. I can’t believe it. We’re actually here. After hours in airports and aboard planes, we have landed & checked into our hotel. Time for sleep so that we can hit the tourist attractions. Can’t wait for a week of fun with Maggie, Rob, Phil, Winny & Jason. I hope the Little Neck 7 have just as much fun wherever they go camping! See everyone again in week and I’ll have tons of stories to share!