My Trip to Orlando - A good time... WITH LESSONS.

Howdy y'all,

So I just got back in from Orlando (like maybe 7 hours ago), and I really wanted to write about my experiences in Florida and in the parks (I ventured out to Disney's Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios - both parks).  I figured I'd sort of do everything in a "pro" and "con" style type of deal. Nothing was all bad, nothing was all good. But first...

Lesson number 1: NEVER fly with a cold.  
I'm serious. Never.
When I was flying to Orlando, I was in the middle of a "cold", although not a typical cold for me.  I had a sore throat, lots of sneezing/drippy, but no cough.  No one told me this, but you should never fly when you're sick.  When a flight attendant finally told me that it wasn't a good idea, I figured it was because you'd get the entire plane sick.  Actually, no one gives a shit about that.

When you fly with a cold, all of your tubes n' shit are either congested or inflamed (or often both) so pressure builds up in your brain and it has nowhere to expel itself (normally through your ears, hence the popping, or through your sinuses). When your ears try to pop and they can't, it puts enormous strain on your eardrum.  Then it goes boom. I'm not even fucking kidding.

LEARN. FROM. MEEEEEEEE.

Anyways, now onto the goodness that was my Orlando trip (aside from what I thought was a "clogged" ear).

Orlando

Pros: Very clean city, southern hospitality is still very much alive and well, people are genuinely nice and holy crap do people ever have manners! I forgot what it's like to have the door held for me.

Cons: I didn't actually stay in Orlando, I stayed in the Lake Buena Vista area which is outside of Orlando which is why it was probably so nice.  The south is super religious, and I didn't think it would bother me as much as it did.  There were at least 6 Christian channels on TV, Christian radio was always on and when I was outlet shopping, there was a plan that wrote "Love God" in the sky.

Radisson Buena Vista

My mom and I stayed at the Radisson Buena Vista hotel instead of opting for a resort at either Disney or Universal.  Not only did this save A LOT of money, but the quality of our rooms was better and our location was central to both parks.  Overall, I'd highly recommend our hotel if you're staying in the Orlando area.

Pros: Sleep number beds, good cable selection, microwave and bar fridge in room, very clean, friendly and knowledgeable staff.  Selection of Tazo teas at the bar.  Restaurant wasn't bad.  Location was central and close to more "local" things.  In front of the hotel there was a sketchy Waffle House and a "Giftland" (basically old marked down Disney krap). It kept me entertained.

Cons: Couldn't open the windows, curtains didn't close (we were up at 7:30 every morning because of it), cleaning service started at 8:30 AM which was extremely inconvenient.  Breakfast buffet was expensive.  Shuttles were (mostly) free, but extremely inconvenient and we often took taxis instead.

Disney World (Magic Kingdom)

Our first day in Orlando was spent at Disney's Magic Kingdom.  Both myself and my mom really wanted to go see it because it is "classic".  Therefore we were expecting more nostalgia than anything else.  If you're doing Disney for more than one day, it will be worth it to you to get the FastPass to cut the line rides, otherwise your day will be spent in line.

Pros: It is classic. The grounds are very well maintained and the park has huge attention to detail which is worth seeing in person.  To go to the Magic Kingdom for a day is $99, which is cheaper than Universal. The Country Bear Jamboree was hilarious.  I fufilled my long term dream to go on "it's a small world" and to torture my mom with the song for days afterwards. They had coin pressers everywhere, which made a nice souvenir given that the "real" souvenirs were sort of meh.  

Cons: Screaming. Children. 2 hour line for Space Mountain (which was pretty lame, a bit of a let down). Very little for adults to do.  The freaking music.  VERY few food options if you do not have restaurant reservations.  Restaurants ONLY RUN on reservation (we knew this going in, but I hate this concept since I'm not a fan of concrete schedules). It took us an hour to get a hot dog and fries.  Merchandise options were not very good.  It was a really cold day in Orlando and we certainly underdressed and therefore wanted to buy sweatshirts.  We ended up with sweatshirt/ponchos (we got the same ones, they're super cute), but there were very few "non ugly" options for adult women. I swear to God that the musical choreographies were set on repeat just to harm me. Huge lines for photos with characters.

Universal Studios (Both Universal studios and Island of Adventure)

We had learned an incredible lesson from our time at Disney.  What is more important to you - time or money? This is a huge factor in how you want to approach the parks.  For my mom, time is much more important as we wanted to do both parks in a day.  If you go on a Sunday, the parks will be less busy (thanks cab driver!) so we decided to do Universal on a Sunday (a cold Sunday none the less).  Regardless of how busy it was, we decided to purchase a FastPass, and we're really glad we did.  That way we were able to do both parks and do almost all of the rides we were interested in.

Pros: We got to take pictures with characters, actually sit down and eat some sort of "food" mid-day, rides were fantastic (many were thrilling - we didn't do any of the big coasters because of my constant ear pain and I was fearful my brain would explode).  We had dinner on the CityWalk without reservations with ease. "Krustyland" was incredible as was the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" (the butterbeer is so good om nom nom) and the clearly Marvel comics sponsored "Toonland". 

Cons: Almost every ride landed in a sometimes hard-to-navigate gift shop.

So there is my two cents on the parks and the hotel I stayed at in Florida to better inform your future vacations and what not! Universal is far superior to Disney unless you're travelling with small kids.