Visiting Orlando

by Anna K
(Brisbane,QLD,Australia)

Orlando is one of the most exciting places I have ever visiited. As soon as we arrived at the airport, we went off in search of cheap car rentals because we knew that there would be so much to explore. Because we're not sure if we will ever have a chance to go back to Orlando, we wanted to see as much as we possible could. With a few short side trips, we focused most of our attention on three main areas: Disney parks, Universal Studios and Sea World.

Disney World is the heart of Orlando, and once we found the cheap rental cars , we hopped in and made our way to Downtown Disney, an area with free admission that gave us a taste of what was to come. Downtown Disney features mostly shopping venues and restaurants, and whenever we were there it was pretty crowded, but on the whole it wasn't as busy as the parks themselves. We bought souvenirs there, including the iconic Mickey Mouse hats that we wore for the rest of the trip.

The next day, we went to the Magic Kingdom, and enchantment abounded even though, after an hour of waiting, we had to bid Brer Rabbit goodbye because Splash Mountain wasn't working. We talked to other people in the line, and this had happened to them before; they were locals with season passes. But we loved the Jungle Cruise, and it's a small world was even more impressive than we had imagined. We topped it all off with the electric light parade. Over the next few days, we screamed our lungs out on Hollywood Studios' Tower of Terror, went on safari at Animal Kingdom and toured the world at Epcot. We could've stayed a month.

At Universal Studios, our biggest draw was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The lines there were insane; we had to wait 45 minutes just to get a glass of butterbeer, the butterscotch / cream soda concoction that characters often enjoy in the books. There are only three rides in this part of the park, but one of them - the 3D tour of Hogwarts Castle - is a must-see. We couldn't use our fast passes on this ride, but going as single riders sped up the line a lot. Also in Hogwarts Castle was Filch's Emporium, where we loaded up on t-shirts, pins and other souvenirs.

And that was just the beginning! We still had the rest of Islands of Adventure to Explore. We loved the Jurassic Park water ride, but our favorite place to get wet was in the classic cartoon area, where the Popeye white water rapids ride got us thoroughly drenched. Afterward, we stood on the bridge and tried to squirt water at people on the ride. We also got a good soaking on Dudley DoWright's log flume, which had a long line that wasn't quite so bad because of all the campy cartoon entertainment.

After all the fun of those park, Sea World was pretty relaxing, and we just wandered through and enjoyed the shows, especially the whale show, which was extremely impressive despite the extra precautions taken in light of the recent accident that happened with a trainer there. Seeing the manatees was also great; it's sad to think of these gentle creatures being so endangered by motor vehicles.

It will be a while before we can return to Orlando, but I hope that we will eventually. There's enough there to keep us busy for weeks. It's the best vacation that our family has ever taken, and the memories will last a lifetime.