My Florida Vacation September 23rd to October 3rd 2016
WHAT. A. TRIP.
I was gone for 10 days to Florida and it had to be one of the most intense, intimate, and fun trips I've had.
It's a lot to read. So I'm going to sum it up right in the front.
So the TL:DR version of my trip is.
I finally was able to attend my friends Beautiful Wedding. Congrats again to Ian and Angela, and their daughter Grace. I did my first Airbnb bymyself at someone's house and it was great. I rented a car from a person and not a rental place using a app called, Turo. I went to all 4 Walt Disney World Parks and got to explore Walt's dream park as thoroughly as I can. I got to attend the nation's best Halloween event and was amazing. I REALLY HOPE I CAN DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR! Got to see Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures. Though the real star of the parks is Harry Potter World. I got to hang out and spend a lot of time with a friend who lives on the other side of the country. And just realizing that I can't wait to have her back here in Albuquerque so we could hang out more.
For a more detailed explanation of my trip. Please proceed.
September 23rd - Friday - Flying to FL, meeting Ian's and Angela's Family
I flew out to Sarasota FL at 06:15 A.M. The night before I couldn't fall asleep. I must have gotten about an hour of sleep. Before I got up at 4:00 to get ready and do my final packing. I was just a complete mess and I really just wanted to fall asleep. I was having a hard time falling asleep on the plane so I wasn't getting any Z's on the way there either. On the plane change in Atlanta though. I did notice someone. Travis Clark of We the Kings was on my flight. At first I couldn't tell if it was him or not. He had sunglasses, a hat, and a hoodie on. But looking at his tattoos on his arms is what gave it away. I really wanted to say something but I really didn't want to bother him. I ended up tweeting him and telling him on twitter that I love seeing his band live and was on the same flight he was on. He later tweeted me back saying I should have come up to him and said hi. SHUCKS! I finally land in FL at 02:30 and got to the beach house where I was staying at and also where the reception for the wedding was being held. At this time Ian and most of the family went out on a fishing trip. I was met by a couple of relatives to Ian's and Angela's family. Jennifer, the maid of honors mom, opened the door and greeted me. She had me going for a while. Telling me the wedding was next week. Gave my heart a lil "WHAT?!" but she quickly welcomed me in. When I got in and set all my stuff down. I immediately just took a 5 hour nap on my bed. At about 8 that night is when everyone returned from the fishing trip. I got to meet the entire family that was staying there. Once again just so happy to have me there and I was so happy meeting everyone there. Earlier that night Ian challenged me to a money match in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Sorry, but I took the man's money. We both crashed after wards.
September 24th - Saturday - Rhi Arrived, Wedding, And the Reception.
The day that I've been waiting all year was finally here. As soon as I got the invitation to the wedding earlier that year. This was the one thing I was waiting to do. Rhi drove down to the wedding to be my plus 1. We hung out all day catching up. I introduced her to the genius of a show that is, Rick and Morty. The wedding was at 06:30 that night. When we got to the wedding. It was absolutely breath taking. It was a beach side wedding on the Anna Marie Islands. The ceremony was very intimate with seating for only 24. To say I didn't add any of my own water to the beach would be a lie. I was moved. Seeing my friend tying the knot with the person who's going to be happily ever after with made the trip out here worth it alone. Now let's move onto the reception. WOW. JUST WOW. For the small gathering we had. It was still a huge party. I think having the pool in the backyard of the beach house helped. The open bar also helped. =D
First of all. I don't go swimming. My interest in swimming has never been there. This time, I got caught up in the celebration. I couldn't help but join everyone. At one point the bride even jumped in the pool. WHILE STILL IN HER DRESS! That was the icing on the cake for me. Seeing everyone just having a blast. I ended the night releasing what I had for dinner and passed out.
September 25th - Sunday - Driving to Orlando and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
I DID NOT WAKE UP HUNG OVER. For as much as I drank the night before .I was proud of when I woke up and I wasn't sick. When Ian got up I rematched Ian in Street Fighter V and lost $20 to the man. Rhi and I had lunch at a restaurant right by the beach and headed our way to Central FL. She dropped me off at my rental car. I used a peer to peer car rental service called, Turo. So instead of renting a car from a car rental place. I was renting from a private owner. It saved me a TON doing it this way because the car only costed me $30 a day. Then I checked into my Airbnb. I stayed with a nice couple who were both Disney Park addicts. Even the husband was an ex-cast member. I unpacked and tried to take a nap but I couldn't my mind was racing to go to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's not-so-scary Halloween party later that night. Well when I got the event. I was awake and just so happy to be there. I LOVE DISNEY PARKS! It makes me so happy just to be there. The major plus of going to these events is getting on the rides you want to get on much quicker. Since these are limited ticket events. The parks isn't as packed and this includes the wait times on every ride. I was able to ride most of the attractions I wanted to w/ very little wait time. The fireworks show for the event was great and the parade was very good. I stayed until the event ended at midnight and went back to my Airbnb.
September 26th - Monday - Disney's Animal Kingdom and Pho with Rhi
First day doing a regular WDW theme park. This is my 2nd time coming here to Walt Disney World. Last time I was here I had a park hopper pass. WDW has 4 different parks that you can go to. Last time I kept on jumping from park to park via shuttle. I felt like I missed a lot doing this. This time I decided to just do a theme park each day. Making sure I get the most out of each park. The first park I wanted to do was Disney's Animal Kingdom. I feel like this park has the least to offer. There's really only 3 good rides here. There's a safari ride that simulates driving through Africa but I was not a fan of that ride. There's a really good Lion King show here that I can't recommend enough. But that's about it. Until they actually add AVATAR land it might change. But this park can almost be skipped or if you have a park hopper do this park for half a day then go to another park. At about 3:00 that afternoon it was getting SUPER GLOOMY. I started making my way to my car and just decided to meet up with Rhi for dinner that night. On the way out I've never seen ran come down that hard EVER in my life. I was generally scared for my life because I've never driven through anything like this in my life. I almost went home first and waited until the rain calm down. By the time I got to my exit the rain slowed down and I made my way to Rhi. Because I need my medicine. I had to go get pho while I was out there. We went and checked out this place called viet-nomz. My god, this was some quality pho. I was satisfied with the food I had. Anyways, hung out with Rhi for a little bit. Then left back to my Airbnb.
September 27th - Tuesday - Disney's Hollywood Studios
Day 2 of a regular theme park. This time I was doing Disney's Hollywood Studios, formally Disney-MGM Studios. This is the 3rd theme park to be built at WDW. The theming of the park is based on show business. This includes film, television, music, and theater. I got to the park at 9:00 am as soon as the gates up. I wanted to make sure I was able to do all the big rides first before they get a ridiculous long wait time. First I had to do there was Toy Story Midway mania. Last time I was here. I waited 2 hours to get on. This time. It was only a 10 minute wait. WHEW! The only downside to this park is that it's currently under construction. One section of the park was completely closed off due to them adding Star Wars land. This park is easily a all day park had construction not been happening or done while I was there. I was able to do everything I wanted to do by 5:00 PM. But besides this, I do want to talk about the highlights of this park. Rock 'N Roller Coaster is awesome, Tower of Terror is better in FL than in CA, Toy Story Midway Mania has a way funner and better line que than the CA version, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show it to not be MISSED!, and Fantasmic here is better here than in Disneyland. There's one other thing that I didn't like about DHS. They have a fireworks show at 07:45 and Fantasmic is at 08:00. You can't do both. Usually Disney will give you time to go from show to show. But it's either Fireworks or Fantasmic for your night time entertainment. I'm sorry. But Fantasmic is the far superior night time show than the fireworks show at DHS. And that's how I closed the night. I decided to check out this barcade that was maybe 5 minutes away from me. Let's just say. I was extremely disappointed and probably won't ever go back to that barcade. Got to my Airbnb at about 10:00 that night.
September 28th - Wednesday - Epcot
Day 3 at WDW. EPCOT!! Epcot I feel is the best thing WDW has to offer. This was the only idea Walt had for Disney World before he passed away. Though it's not exactly what he wanted Epcot to be. I still feel this is the cream of the crop of WDW. This isn't a very child friendly park. The reason I say that is because there's not a lot of rides here. Or should I say rides geared towards children even. Just like any other Disney Park. The park is broken up into sections. Epcot has Future world and World Showcase. Let's start with Future World. This is where most of the rides are found at this park. There's really only 4 that I'd recommend. Space ship earth, Mission Space, Soarin' Around The World, and Test Track. The later 3 I say are a don't miss for sure. And if you get there early enough B LINE IT TO SOARIN' this ride can have wait times for up to and hour and half. This would be my number 1 suggestion too! The other 3 that are here are okay. Imagination, The Land, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now let's talk about the best part of Epcot. WORLD SHOWCASE. You get to travel to 11 different countries in just about 3 to 4 hours. All while enjoying the sight of the manmade lake, World Showcase Lagoon. What I love about World showcase is. It feels like you're actually visiting that country. Every gift shop you go into have gifts from there native country. I was expecting to see Minnie Mouse in a Kimono when I went Japan. No, just gifts from that country. Now here's the one part that I'm not quite sure of. But I think everyone who works in each country is actually from that country. I don't know how Disney makes this works. Every time I go into that country I hear them speaking in there language or speaking in an accent. I just think that is so fascinating and cool. The other thing I love about World Showcase is the food. You actually get authentic food from each country. They even have beers from their country that you could only get if you were over seas or there at World Showcase. So a little more about my trip. At Disney you can get buttons for special occasions. It's my birthday, or just married, or 1st time visit, etc etc. I had to get the I'm celebrating button in The United States Section of the park. Because I wanted to celebrate me getting my U.S.A. Citizenship while I was there. That made me so happy to get that button in that part of the park. I also got a surprise concert from Sugar Ray while I was there. Sugar Ray is absolutely a late 90's early 00's band. And getting to see them perform the only songs I knew by them made my night even better at the parks. Then I had dinner in Germany and it was phenomenal. I didn't stay for the night time entertainment. Last time I saw illuminations I was not impressed. I left early and headed back to my Airbnb. I got a nice surprised when I got to the Airbnb. They were watching How I met your mother. HIMYM is hands down one of my favorite shows. To be watching episodes with them in the living room. Totally made me feel like I was at home. This was my last night staying with them. Very good host and I can't recommend them enough. His wife even baked a cake and offered me some!
September 29th - Thursday - Magic Kingdom, Rhi's kickball game, and Downtown Orlando
Last and final day at WDW. Now I'm here at Magic Kingdom and not for a specialty event. I still get very giddy when I walk into either Disneyland or Magic Kingdom. But my heart belongs at Disneyland. It's still a very great park and has a lot to offer for the entire family. Having done most of the attractions I wanted to at the Halloween party. There was no rush or anxiety of not doing everything. Everything was back to normal for MK. Long wait for all there most popular attractions. So I just took it really easy that day. Catching shows that I won't ever get to see in California. Riding rides that are a little different from CA. I took off from there at about 3:00 to meet up with Rhi. I dropped off my rental car. Got picked up by Rhi and headed our way to see her and her friends play kickball. THIS WAS FUN. At first I thought I'd be sleeping on the grass on the sidelines the entire time because I was so tired. No, I was cheering Rhi and her friends on with a giant sippy cup full of beer. After the game there was some discussion of going out, but no one was able too. Luckily Rhi wanted to show me downtown Orlando. Show me what local life in Orlando kind of looks like. I don't remember all the bar names that we went too. We rushed to one bar that was a train station. The reason I say rushed is because we both have to go number 1 reallll bad. The 2nd bar we stopped at was literally just to get free pop corn from their pop corn machine. I walked out the bathroom and I was about to grab some of Rhi's pop corn. She quickly pulled her plate towards her and said "GET YOUR OWN POP CORN!" LOL I didn't realize we were getting our own. After that we went to a country bar that she loves. Retailing me of tales of this bar. How she first met her kindred there. I could tell this bar met a lot to her. After that we went to one of the coolest bars I've ever seen. The bar was called Frosty's. It's a bar where the theming is Christmas ALL YEAR ROUND!! THIS WAS FUN. It even smelt like Christmas in there. Along with their Christmas themed drinks. That was a lot of fun. Last stop was another bar that I can't remember the name for. Anyways we had a drink there and there was a photo booth that we took a picture in. It's honestly probably one of my favorite pictures I've taken with Rhi. Anyways, we went back home. Crashed out and got ready for a very exciting Friday evening.
September 30th - Friday - HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS
It was a lot of chilling, watching south park, nap taking kind of day. We had a big night ahead of us. We were going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I LOVE Halloween and everything that comes with it. This includes haunted houses. HHN has receive many rewards and is recognized as the nation's premier Halloween event. I WAS PUMPED! We got there roughly around 6. We were able to do 7 out of the 9 houses. American Horror Story had the longest wait out of all of them. At the beginning of the night. The wait was at least 150 minutes to get in. We waited until it was only a 75 minute wait. It was well worth the wait and a beautifully crafted haunted house. Out of all the houses. The Halloween and Texas Chainsaw houses were my favorite. We caught the Bill and Ted show. Along with a performance from the dance group, Academy of Villains. Both shows were top notch and very entertaining. I say we were both smiling from ear to ear the entire night and couldn't get enough of the event. By around 01:30 in the morning our tank was running empty and we decided to head back home.
October 1st - Saturday - Universal Studios And Islands of Adventure
It was Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure day. This is Rhi's expertise. She's an annual pass holder! I just had her guide me the entire time. Up first was Islands of Adventure. Over there we rode the Incredible Hulk ride, which is probably one of my favorite coasters I've ever been. I got to meet Storm and Rogue at the Marvel section of the park also. We also rode the King Kong ride. It's a great ride!! But our seats were absolutely awful. We sat right in front and this is a 3d motion ride where the screens are on the side. It was still entertaining. But due to our really bad seats it wasn't really un-enjoyable for us. Got to ride there log ride, Ripsaw. This was a FUN log ride. Probably the best I've been on. We then made our way to Universal Studios. We had maybe 20 minutes before the parked closed due to Halloween Horror Nights happening at night. I had to do the Escape from Gringotts ride. It did not dissapoint. I think my favorite part was "riding" the elevator down to the ride. And one of the screens was suppose to be a part of the ride. But the screen crashed and was stuck on a windows 7 logo. I snap chatted and I got to hear Rhi say, "Nooooo". Anyways very fun and very enjoyable. When we got off the ride it was starting to rain. Luckily I brought us two rain ponchos to wear. Rhi and I walked in the rain for a little bit. It slowed down for a bit. Then it started dropping down VERY HARD. I had to put mine on. Rhi wanted to get rained out and just wanted to walk in the rain. We walked all the way back to Islands of Adventure over to hogsmeade. We grabbed a beer and finished it before we got onto Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey. At this point the rain had finally stopped. When we both got off the ride. The rain was coming down HARD again! Rhi finally decided to put on her poncho this time. With the rain coming down this hard. Our options were pretty limited as to what to ride. We headed over to Marvel land and got on the Amazing Spider Man Ride. Which is a indoor 3d motion ride. Last time I rode it ride glitched on me and everything was out of sync. After we got off the ride. It was still raining pretty bad. At this point was maybe 7:30 and the park was scheduled to close at 8. We just decided to leave. We originally had plan to go do Karaoke that night. But after getting rained out and being cold. And a very, very, car ride home in the heavy rain. We just decided to stay in. Order Pizza. And watch more South Park.
October 2nd - Sunday - Lazy Sunday
My lazy day. I didn't want to do anything. I just walked at a theme park everyday for the past week. I'm good with a lazy Sunday. Rhi made breakfast burritos, which were some of the best I've ever had. I told her on Thursday that I've never seen, The Princess Bride. Now, I feel like an awful friend. This is one of her favorite movies. I know what you what you're thinking, INCONCEIVABLE! So while we enjoyed our breakfast I got to see a classic movie that I completely fell in love with. After that I wanted to watch John Carpenters 1978 classic, Halloween with her. She's never seen it and it's hands down one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Loved every moment of this movie. It's like watching a piece of moving art is how I see this film. After the movie we watched Dallas dominate over the 49'ers which was beautiful. Then we headed to a local pizza parlor called, Lazy moon. We went there for there giant slices of pizza that can feed a small family of 3. We watched some of the game there and then headed to a bar called World of Beer. At this point Rhi's steelers were up by a healthy amount of points so our attention wasn't really that on the game. Instead when we got there. They were doing trivia night! We signed up 3 out of 4 rounds in. I finally got to drink Orange Blossom Pilsner again. Or as the local's call it OBP. We stayed there and did the Trivia and had a blast. After that we went home and just talked. One of my favorite nights with any of my friends. Is when we just stay up bull shitting about anything. We talked a good 2 hours about music. Who's our top 5 favorite bands to see live, If you had to pick a genre of music. What would you choose. Top 10 pop punk bands. We probably could have spent the whole night talking. But I had a flight to catch and we were running out of beer to drink. We ended the night at 2 in the morning.
October 3rd - Monday - Travel Back home
Nothing exciting really. Packed my bags. Got driven to the Airport. Tried not to cry when I was saying bye to one of my best friends. Made it home extremely exhausted and just wanted to see my Dog.
I was gone for 10 days to Florida and it had to be one of the most intense, intimate, and fun trips I've had.
It's a lot to read. So I'm going to sum it up right in the front.
So the TL:DR version of my trip is.
I finally was able to attend my friends Beautiful Wedding. Congrats again to Ian and Angela, and their daughter Grace. I did my first Airbnb bymyself at someone's house and it was great. I rented a car from a person and not a rental place using a app called, Turo. I went to all 4 Walt Disney World Parks and got to explore Walt's dream park as thoroughly as I can. I got to attend the nation's best Halloween event and was amazing. I REALLY HOPE I CAN DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR! Got to see Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures. Though the real star of the parks is Harry Potter World. I got to hang out and spend a lot of time with a friend who lives on the other side of the country. And just realizing that I can't wait to have her back here in Albuquerque so we could hang out more.
For a more detailed explanation of my trip. Please proceed.
September 23rd - Friday - Flying to FL, meeting Ian's and Angela's Family
I flew out to Sarasota FL at 06:15 A.M. The night before I couldn't fall asleep. I must have gotten about an hour of sleep. Before I got up at 4:00 to get ready and do my final packing. I was just a complete mess and I really just wanted to fall asleep. I was having a hard time falling asleep on the plane so I wasn't getting any Z's on the way there either. On the plane change in Atlanta though. I did notice someone. Travis Clark of We the Kings was on my flight. At first I couldn't tell if it was him or not. He had sunglasses, a hat, and a hoodie on. But looking at his tattoos on his arms is what gave it away. I really wanted to say something but I really didn't want to bother him. I ended up tweeting him and telling him on twitter that I love seeing his band live and was on the same flight he was on. He later tweeted me back saying I should have come up to him and said hi. SHUCKS! I finally land in FL at 02:30 and got to the beach house where I was staying at and also where the reception for the wedding was being held. At this time Ian and most of the family went out on a fishing trip. I was met by a couple of relatives to Ian's and Angela's family. Jennifer, the maid of honors mom, opened the door and greeted me. She had me going for a while. Telling me the wedding was next week. Gave my heart a lil "WHAT?!" but she quickly welcomed me in. When I got in and set all my stuff down. I immediately just took a 5 hour nap on my bed. At about 8 that night is when everyone returned from the fishing trip. I got to meet the entire family that was staying there. Once again just so happy to have me there and I was so happy meeting everyone there. Earlier that night Ian challenged me to a money match in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Sorry, but I took the man's money. We both crashed after wards.
September 24th - Saturday - Rhi Arrived, Wedding, And the Reception.
The day that I've been waiting all year was finally here. As soon as I got the invitation to the wedding earlier that year. This was the one thing I was waiting to do. Rhi drove down to the wedding to be my plus 1. We hung out all day catching up. I introduced her to the genius of a show that is, Rick and Morty. The wedding was at 06:30 that night. When we got to the wedding. It was absolutely breath taking. It was a beach side wedding on the Anna Marie Islands. The ceremony was very intimate with seating for only 24. To say I didn't add any of my own water to the beach would be a lie. I was moved. Seeing my friend tying the knot with the person who's going to be happily ever after with made the trip out here worth it alone. Now let's move onto the reception. WOW. JUST WOW. For the small gathering we had. It was still a huge party. I think having the pool in the backyard of the beach house helped. The open bar also helped. =D
First of all. I don't go swimming. My interest in swimming has never been there. This time, I got caught up in the celebration. I couldn't help but join everyone. At one point the bride even jumped in the pool. WHILE STILL IN HER DRESS! That was the icing on the cake for me. Seeing everyone just having a blast. I ended the night releasing what I had for dinner and passed out.
September 25th - Sunday - Driving to Orlando and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
I DID NOT WAKE UP HUNG OVER. For as much as I drank the night before .I was proud of when I woke up and I wasn't sick. When Ian got up I rematched Ian in Street Fighter V and lost $20 to the man. Rhi and I had lunch at a restaurant right by the beach and headed our way to Central FL. She dropped me off at my rental car. I used a peer to peer car rental service called, Turo. So instead of renting a car from a car rental place. I was renting from a private owner. It saved me a TON doing it this way because the car only costed me $30 a day. Then I checked into my Airbnb. I stayed with a nice couple who were both Disney Park addicts. Even the husband was an ex-cast member. I unpacked and tried to take a nap but I couldn't my mind was racing to go to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's not-so-scary Halloween party later that night. Well when I got the event. I was awake and just so happy to be there. I LOVE DISNEY PARKS! It makes me so happy just to be there. The major plus of going to these events is getting on the rides you want to get on much quicker. Since these are limited ticket events. The parks isn't as packed and this includes the wait times on every ride. I was able to ride most of the attractions I wanted to w/ very little wait time. The fireworks show for the event was great and the parade was very good. I stayed until the event ended at midnight and went back to my Airbnb.
September 26th - Monday - Disney's Animal Kingdom and Pho with Rhi
First day doing a regular WDW theme park. This is my 2nd time coming here to Walt Disney World. Last time I was here I had a park hopper pass. WDW has 4 different parks that you can go to. Last time I kept on jumping from park to park via shuttle. I felt like I missed a lot doing this. This time I decided to just do a theme park each day. Making sure I get the most out of each park. The first park I wanted to do was Disney's Animal Kingdom. I feel like this park has the least to offer. There's really only 3 good rides here. There's a safari ride that simulates driving through Africa but I was not a fan of that ride. There's a really good Lion King show here that I can't recommend enough. But that's about it. Until they actually add AVATAR land it might change. But this park can almost be skipped or if you have a park hopper do this park for half a day then go to another park. At about 3:00 that afternoon it was getting SUPER GLOOMY. I started making my way to my car and just decided to meet up with Rhi for dinner that night. On the way out I've never seen ran come down that hard EVER in my life. I was generally scared for my life because I've never driven through anything like this in my life. I almost went home first and waited until the rain calm down. By the time I got to my exit the rain slowed down and I made my way to Rhi. Because I need my medicine. I had to go get pho while I was out there. We went and checked out this place called viet-nomz. My god, this was some quality pho. I was satisfied with the food I had. Anyways, hung out with Rhi for a little bit. Then left back to my Airbnb.
September 27th - Tuesday - Disney's Hollywood Studios
Day 2 of a regular theme park. This time I was doing Disney's Hollywood Studios, formally Disney-MGM Studios. This is the 3rd theme park to be built at WDW. The theming of the park is based on show business. This includes film, television, music, and theater. I got to the park at 9:00 am as soon as the gates up. I wanted to make sure I was able to do all the big rides first before they get a ridiculous long wait time. First I had to do there was Toy Story Midway mania. Last time I was here. I waited 2 hours to get on. This time. It was only a 10 minute wait. WHEW! The only downside to this park is that it's currently under construction. One section of the park was completely closed off due to them adding Star Wars land. This park is easily a all day park had construction not been happening or done while I was there. I was able to do everything I wanted to do by 5:00 PM. But besides this, I do want to talk about the highlights of this park. Rock 'N Roller Coaster is awesome, Tower of Terror is better in FL than in CA, Toy Story Midway Mania has a way funner and better line que than the CA version, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show it to not be MISSED!, and Fantasmic here is better here than in Disneyland. There's one other thing that I didn't like about DHS. They have a fireworks show at 07:45 and Fantasmic is at 08:00. You can't do both. Usually Disney will give you time to go from show to show. But it's either Fireworks or Fantasmic for your night time entertainment. I'm sorry. But Fantasmic is the far superior night time show than the fireworks show at DHS. And that's how I closed the night. I decided to check out this barcade that was maybe 5 minutes away from me. Let's just say. I was extremely disappointed and probably won't ever go back to that barcade. Got to my Airbnb at about 10:00 that night.
September 28th - Wednesday - Epcot
Day 3 at WDW. EPCOT!! Epcot I feel is the best thing WDW has to offer. This was the only idea Walt had for Disney World before he passed away. Though it's not exactly what he wanted Epcot to be. I still feel this is the cream of the crop of WDW. This isn't a very child friendly park. The reason I say that is because there's not a lot of rides here. Or should I say rides geared towards children even. Just like any other Disney Park. The park is broken up into sections. Epcot has Future world and World Showcase. Let's start with Future World. This is where most of the rides are found at this park. There's really only 4 that I'd recommend. Space ship earth, Mission Space, Soarin' Around The World, and Test Track. The later 3 I say are a don't miss for sure. And if you get there early enough B LINE IT TO SOARIN' this ride can have wait times for up to and hour and half. This would be my number 1 suggestion too! The other 3 that are here are okay. Imagination, The Land, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now let's talk about the best part of Epcot. WORLD SHOWCASE. You get to travel to 11 different countries in just about 3 to 4 hours. All while enjoying the sight of the manmade lake, World Showcase Lagoon. What I love about World showcase is. It feels like you're actually visiting that country. Every gift shop you go into have gifts from there native country. I was expecting to see Minnie Mouse in a Kimono when I went Japan. No, just gifts from that country. Now here's the one part that I'm not quite sure of. But I think everyone who works in each country is actually from that country. I don't know how Disney makes this works. Every time I go into that country I hear them speaking in there language or speaking in an accent. I just think that is so fascinating and cool. The other thing I love about World Showcase is the food. You actually get authentic food from each country. They even have beers from their country that you could only get if you were over seas or there at World Showcase. So a little more about my trip. At Disney you can get buttons for special occasions. It's my birthday, or just married, or 1st time visit, etc etc. I had to get the I'm celebrating button in The United States Section of the park. Because I wanted to celebrate me getting my U.S.A. Citizenship while I was there. That made me so happy to get that button in that part of the park. I also got a surprise concert from Sugar Ray while I was there. Sugar Ray is absolutely a late 90's early 00's band. And getting to see them perform the only songs I knew by them made my night even better at the parks. Then I had dinner in Germany and it was phenomenal. I didn't stay for the night time entertainment. Last time I saw illuminations I was not impressed. I left early and headed back to my Airbnb. I got a nice surprised when I got to the Airbnb. They were watching How I met your mother. HIMYM is hands down one of my favorite shows. To be watching episodes with them in the living room. Totally made me feel like I was at home. This was my last night staying with them. Very good host and I can't recommend them enough. His wife even baked a cake and offered me some!
September 29th - Thursday - Magic Kingdom, Rhi's kickball game, and Downtown Orlando
Last and final day at WDW. Now I'm here at Magic Kingdom and not for a specialty event. I still get very giddy when I walk into either Disneyland or Magic Kingdom. But my heart belongs at Disneyland. It's still a very great park and has a lot to offer for the entire family. Having done most of the attractions I wanted to at the Halloween party. There was no rush or anxiety of not doing everything. Everything was back to normal for MK. Long wait for all there most popular attractions. So I just took it really easy that day. Catching shows that I won't ever get to see in California. Riding rides that are a little different from CA. I took off from there at about 3:00 to meet up with Rhi. I dropped off my rental car. Got picked up by Rhi and headed our way to see her and her friends play kickball. THIS WAS FUN. At first I thought I'd be sleeping on the grass on the sidelines the entire time because I was so tired. No, I was cheering Rhi and her friends on with a giant sippy cup full of beer. After the game there was some discussion of going out, but no one was able too. Luckily Rhi wanted to show me downtown Orlando. Show me what local life in Orlando kind of looks like. I don't remember all the bar names that we went too. We rushed to one bar that was a train station. The reason I say rushed is because we both have to go number 1 reallll bad. The 2nd bar we stopped at was literally just to get free pop corn from their pop corn machine. I walked out the bathroom and I was about to grab some of Rhi's pop corn. She quickly pulled her plate towards her and said "GET YOUR OWN POP CORN!" LOL I didn't realize we were getting our own. After that we went to a country bar that she loves. Retailing me of tales of this bar. How she first met her kindred there. I could tell this bar met a lot to her. After that we went to one of the coolest bars I've ever seen. The bar was called Frosty's. It's a bar where the theming is Christmas ALL YEAR ROUND!! THIS WAS FUN. It even smelt like Christmas in there. Along with their Christmas themed drinks. That was a lot of fun. Last stop was another bar that I can't remember the name for. Anyways we had a drink there and there was a photo booth that we took a picture in. It's honestly probably one of my favorite pictures I've taken with Rhi. Anyways, we went back home. Crashed out and got ready for a very exciting Friday evening.
September 30th - Friday - HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS
It was a lot of chilling, watching south park, nap taking kind of day. We had a big night ahead of us. We were going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I LOVE Halloween and everything that comes with it. This includes haunted houses. HHN has receive many rewards and is recognized as the nation's premier Halloween event. I WAS PUMPED! We got there roughly around 6. We were able to do 7 out of the 9 houses. American Horror Story had the longest wait out of all of them. At the beginning of the night. The wait was at least 150 minutes to get in. We waited until it was only a 75 minute wait. It was well worth the wait and a beautifully crafted haunted house. Out of all the houses. The Halloween and Texas Chainsaw houses were my favorite. We caught the Bill and Ted show. Along with a performance from the dance group, Academy of Villains. Both shows were top notch and very entertaining. I say we were both smiling from ear to ear the entire night and couldn't get enough of the event. By around 01:30 in the morning our tank was running empty and we decided to head back home.
October 1st - Saturday - Universal Studios And Islands of Adventure
It was Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure day. This is Rhi's expertise. She's an annual pass holder! I just had her guide me the entire time. Up first was Islands of Adventure. Over there we rode the Incredible Hulk ride, which is probably one of my favorite coasters I've ever been. I got to meet Storm and Rogue at the Marvel section of the park also. We also rode the King Kong ride. It's a great ride!! But our seats were absolutely awful. We sat right in front and this is a 3d motion ride where the screens are on the side. It was still entertaining. But due to our really bad seats it wasn't really un-enjoyable for us. Got to ride there log ride, Ripsaw. This was a FUN log ride. Probably the best I've been on. We then made our way to Universal Studios. We had maybe 20 minutes before the parked closed due to Halloween Horror Nights happening at night. I had to do the Escape from Gringotts ride. It did not dissapoint. I think my favorite part was "riding" the elevator down to the ride. And one of the screens was suppose to be a part of the ride. But the screen crashed and was stuck on a windows 7 logo. I snap chatted and I got to hear Rhi say, "Nooooo". Anyways very fun and very enjoyable. When we got off the ride it was starting to rain. Luckily I brought us two rain ponchos to wear. Rhi and I walked in the rain for a little bit. It slowed down for a bit. Then it started dropping down VERY HARD. I had to put mine on. Rhi wanted to get rained out and just wanted to walk in the rain. We walked all the way back to Islands of Adventure over to hogsmeade. We grabbed a beer and finished it before we got onto Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey. At this point the rain had finally stopped. When we both got off the ride. The rain was coming down HARD again! Rhi finally decided to put on her poncho this time. With the rain coming down this hard. Our options were pretty limited as to what to ride. We headed over to Marvel land and got on the Amazing Spider Man Ride. Which is a indoor 3d motion ride. Last time I rode it ride glitched on me and everything was out of sync. After we got off the ride. It was still raining pretty bad. At this point was maybe 7:30 and the park was scheduled to close at 8. We just decided to leave. We originally had plan to go do Karaoke that night. But after getting rained out and being cold. And a very, very, car ride home in the heavy rain. We just decided to stay in. Order Pizza. And watch more South Park.
October 2nd - Sunday - Lazy Sunday
My lazy day. I didn't want to do anything. I just walked at a theme park everyday for the past week. I'm good with a lazy Sunday. Rhi made breakfast burritos, which were some of the best I've ever had. I told her on Thursday that I've never seen, The Princess Bride. Now, I feel like an awful friend. This is one of her favorite movies. I know what you what you're thinking, INCONCEIVABLE! So while we enjoyed our breakfast I got to see a classic movie that I completely fell in love with. After that I wanted to watch John Carpenters 1978 classic, Halloween with her. She's never seen it and it's hands down one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Loved every moment of this movie. It's like watching a piece of moving art is how I see this film. After the movie we watched Dallas dominate over the 49'ers which was beautiful. Then we headed to a local pizza parlor called, Lazy moon. We went there for there giant slices of pizza that can feed a small family of 3. We watched some of the game there and then headed to a bar called World of Beer. At this point Rhi's steelers were up by a healthy amount of points so our attention wasn't really that on the game. Instead when we got there. They were doing trivia night! We signed up 3 out of 4 rounds in. I finally got to drink Orange Blossom Pilsner again. Or as the local's call it OBP. We stayed there and did the Trivia and had a blast. After that we went home and just talked. One of my favorite nights with any of my friends. Is when we just stay up bull shitting about anything. We talked a good 2 hours about music. Who's our top 5 favorite bands to see live, If you had to pick a genre of music. What would you choose. Top 10 pop punk bands. We probably could have spent the whole night talking. But I had a flight to catch and we were running out of beer to drink. We ended the night at 2 in the morning.
October 3rd - Monday - Travel Back home
Nothing exciting really. Packed my bags. Got driven to the Airport. Tried not to cry when I was saying bye to one of my best friends. Made it home extremely exhausted and just wanted to see my Dog.