Universal Studios

As you can tell from the above title, I spent today at Universal Studios. It was a pretty good day but I think once you been to 4 theme parks in 5 days, things feel a bit so-so. Seen one theme park, you've seen them all. That kind of thing. However, I did really enjoy Suess Landing (the rides were so colourful and fun! Eeee!) and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The rest was all a bit eh. Oh, I did like the Marvel area, for the first 10 minutes.



I had lunch at the Three Broomsticks before strolling through the stores and then hopping on the ride. Even though I'd literally just finished eating, I figured the 45 minute wait for Forbidden Journey would settle my stomach but hooray! because I was by myself, I was on the ride in 5. It was SO GOOD. AHHHH so good. I got a bit worried coz they kept saying don't go on it if you're easily susceptible to motion sickness and didn't want to be That Girl who vomited on the ride but pffft they were so over- about it all. Did the Flight of the Hippogriff after that, which was good but too short considering the wait in line for it, and then the Dragon Challenge which was SO COOL and I got to sit in the front row. Crazy. I couldn't even move my face, coz of the G-force. But internally I was screaming :D

Back at the resort now, about to go watch Cinderella in the pool. HOORAY! Then an early bed coz I'm up early tomorrow checking out.

Magic Kingdom

What a day. What a day! First it started with my bus' wheel blowing (or did we hit something? We never found out) on Buena Vista Drive and we had to stop where we were which was the left lane but because in the US they board the bus from the right hand side, they had to block off the other lane while we got off and onto a replacement bus. Felt kinda special, tbh. Holding up traffic for me :D

After that, the rest of the day went smoothly. Spent the morning hunting down all the Disney characters doing meet and greets and had my photo taken heaps. Both on my camera and with the PhotoPass photographers, which if you ask me, is an excellent idea. Then I went on a ton of rides, one I went on 3 times in a row (the last time I didn't even bother getting off). My favourites were definitely Space Mountain (!!!!!!!!) and Stitches' Great Escape.

Lunch was at the fancy Plaza restaurant, where I had a grilled chicken sandwich with "french fries" which were basically what we call regular chips, and a butter pecan milkshake. I watched one of the parades from inside since it was such a good table. Dinner was at Crystal Plaza, where I was greeted by MOAR Disney characters while I ate. It was a buffet but I wasn't hungry so basically I had salads and grapes and apple slices. Things that were mostly water, I noticed. I was sad because there were all these PENNE PASTA options and I couldn't get myself to get any of them :'( I did get to watch the fireworks over Cinderella's castle from my table and oh wow were they pretteehhh.

Shortly after was the Main St Electrical Parade, of which's song I have been obsessed with for a very long time. All the lights in the park went out and the parade started and it looked soooooo good. So good. Did some shopping on my way out at about 11pm, had a very painful bus ride back since I was fighting sleep and had been awake since 5am, and trudged back to concierge at the hotel so I could organise my bus pickup for Universal Studios. Head hit the pillow and I was zzzz. End Saturday.

EDIT: I was originally going to do Emerica games this week but since you all know where I am they were pretty pointless for Orlando. Just so you know, the real ones start next week. But if you'd like to play a fun guessing game in the meantime, you sure can. You have 13 guesses for who I met yesterday, meet-and-greet wise. Bonus points if you can guess which three I squealed at when I saw them. And yes, they did see me do it.

DDO

Today was my Designated Day Off (each week one day will be for doing nothing/very little), although I still did do stuff so mm :/ Very tired.

Had a mixed breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon, french toast, potato gems (breakfast potato. Wut?) and a toasted scone. But I didn't really eat much of it coz the bagel with philadelphia was so beyond delicious I got full quite quickly. Also the strawberry milk. Which, even though it was Nesquik, tasted like an Up 'n' Go, which probably explains why I got so full after mostly a bagel....

Wrote up some postcards before debating between swimming in the pools or going golfing which I had a pass for. Did neither coz I cbb to get changed for swimming or to trek it the 5-10 minutes it was to the Winter Summerland golf course. So instead I caught up on half my journal entries which I've neglected since arriving until it was time to head out to lunch.

You can see why I enjoyed it

 

If you name a movie, chances are I saw a prop from it. I'm just putting pictures up of my favourites.

Anyway, so something's wrong with my eating this week because the meals are so fricking huge here that I'm getting sick whenever it's time to eat. Today for example, with the bagel and milk. Or at lunch, I ordered the pizza from the kid's menu and only got through 1/2 of it before having to take the rest home. Or the all you can eat buffet the other day! I had some broccoli and green beans, left my penne (!) and chicken and all the other yummy stuff, AND HAD NO DESERT. Told you something's wrong. But moving on...

Then, I intended to go back to the resort but got distracted by all the shopping ughhhhhhh. Did buy some stuffies and so now I shall spend my evening counting how much money I've spent this week so I can re-evalute my Emerica budget. Have cancelled my dinner reservations for Cap'n Jack's seafood restaurant coz I'm too tired to go anywhere. Possibly even too tired to trek it the 3 minute walk to the food court here. Emma's gonna go hungry tonight!

Hollywood Studios

Yesterday was so much fun, I can't even blog about it. All you need to know was that I had breakfast in a rainforest, lunch in a fairylight-lit grapes-and-vines Italian restaurant, dinner at Hollywood and Vine and everything in between that was too awesome to write down because it's only going to depress me that life will never again be as great as yesterday was.

Was out for 12 hours, came home and barely had energy to brush my teeth before falling asleep. Hence yesterday's blog today.

So awesome. So so awesome.

Also, look what I drew

Agent P aka Perry the Platypus

Epcot

Today I visited the iconic Giant Golfball (kk, they actually call it Spaceship Earth but it doesn't look like a spaceship to me). It was the first "ride" I went on and the line was miles long (see that? American speak!) but went incredibly fast. I think there's some kind of psychology in having long lines all twisty and bendy that keep people moving to keep them from getting frustrated at how long they have to wait. I dunno.

The ride scared me a bit, only because as I entered I saw a sign saying if you are uncomfortable in dark, small spaces don't ride it and they kept repeating over and over again that if the ride stops you must stay inside the car. Like, I think I heard it about 20 times. Six of which I heard while on the ride when it randomly stopped (my theory for that is someone in a wheelchair was getting on at the front and they had to stop the revolving floor for them). It wasn't a scary ride but I still managed to panic.If you've seen me play Snap, you'll understand this. Plus every time I made eye contact with one of those freaky as crap robotic mannequins, it always managed to lock eyes with me until I couldn't see it anymore. Flashes of House of Wax ensued in my mind.

Then I did the Stormstruck severe-weather simulator which was cool and interactive yet educational and reminded me of my old EES classes. My teacher would really enjoy Epcot, it's full of stuff like that.

Did the Seas with Nemo and Friends which was cute but Jesus this woman two clamshells to my left kept taking photos even though they said no flash photography, so the flashes lit up all the mechanics and ruined the atmosphere of it all for me. I tell you, if I'd been able to get out of my clamshell, or even make eye contact with her, I would have had words. Loud ones. Follow the rules, ignorant woman. Turns out she was the mother in the annoying family I stood behind while waiting for the Stormstruck. Figures.

Saw the Circle of Life show which was fantastic. It must be something to do with it being the Lion King, because anything that includes that tends to become my favourite part of the day [see yesterday]. Timon and Pumba wanted to make a Hakuna Matata resort so they dammed (sp?) up a river and Simba told them a story of how other creatures didn't take care of the land and look where it got them. Inspired by the humans' lack of sense and success, they turned it into an ecological resort haha.

Rode the Soarin' next, which was a hang glider simulator. Was epic fun. Almost worth the 45 minute wait - and stupid me, I didn't see you could Fast Track is so I waited in line when I didn't have to. Lame.

By then it was about 3ish and I still hadn't gotten to International Showcase, which was what I'd been looking forward to the most at Epcot. It's like this GIANT lake that is surrounded by different "countries" and stuff, so you can try their food and learn about their culture and whatnot. I only made it to Ireland when my body was like 'if you don't turn me around right now and take me back to the bus, you're not making it back to the resort today'. I was really shitty about that coz I didn't want to go but I was just so sore everywhere from walking and line-waiting and sun/heat exposure and my shoulders hurt from bag-hauling. But one look across the lake and I saw some pretty buildings and thought 'mmm, that's nice. I'd like to work there if it meant I could look at a Disney park whenever I wanted' until I realised it was still the park and I was looking at Germany, Italy and Japan. Germany was the country I was most excited about coz it's German Reunification Day today, which meant cool stuff was going on and I could get a award certificate at the end. Ah well.

Came back to my resort, had nachos and ice cream for a late lunch, dropped by my room with the intention of a 2 hour nap, instead ended up canceling dinner plans and slept through til 7.30, where I watched some Disney and the Presidential Debate and whatnot (as if anyone would vote for anyone other than Obama?), had a bath while watching OUAT and now here we are.

Goodnight x

Reuniting with the Mothership

What a day! I arrived in Orlando fairly early in the morning and got the Disney Magical Express bus to my hotel. The driver was so nice and it was a big bus with just four of us! I took some videos of the trip because Orlando is reeeeallllly beautiful. It's so green here! The trees are so pretty too. Also, I'm 78% sure I saw a crocodile (or alligator?) . I definitely saw a squirrel though, that's for sure. It is such a bouncy animal!

So by 8.30 I was settled in my room and despite practically not having slept in 3 days, I forced myself to head out so I could fix my jetlag (of which I slept from 4-7.30 later in the day). I caught the bus to the Animal Kingdom and pow pow pow had a nice long day of walking around and seeing stuff. The playlist of the day was every song on my iPod that related to the Lion King. It was great. Now, whilst there weren't many rides, they did have some fantastic shows. My favourite part of the whole day was the Festival of the Lion (an interactive musical Lion King thing). It was fantastic. I now wish I'd gone back for another show before I left!

Had nachos and mint choc chip ice cream for lunch, pizza and cookie dough ice cream for dinner (while watching Hercules). Plus they give you a refillable mug when you arrive so you can fill your drinks whenever you want with whatever. So I had a giant hot chocolate ('hot cocoa' hahahahaha) just now while I spend the evening in bed watching the Disney channel.

All in all, a very long and tiring day but I am having such a blast, it's not funny. DANCE PARTY IN EMMA'S ROOM!!!!


*(The link is to the song I've danced around the room to the most since arriving)

LAX adventures. Jks

So I just had the longest Monday of my life. The 14 hour flight from Sydney to LA, Sydney time, arriving at 7am which gave me enough time for my 5 hour 10.25 flight to Orlando.

OH WAIT.

I missed it. That's right. I was sitting at the gate but they switched it without verbal notice, and I assume they tried paging me but here pages are only heard from the gate in which they are made, which is so incredibly stupid because if you need a page you are obviously not at the gate to hear it. But I'd already checked my suitcase in so my suitcase went on a solo adventure to Orlando without me for a while. I was then given two options: A) catch a 1pm flight to Salt Lake City and transfer or B) catch a 11pm straight to Orlando.

I chose B) because A) had far too many opportunities for me to screw up and leave myself stranded in the middle of the country. So I had to wait around the airport for aaaaaaaaaaaages. I was too uncomfortable to sleep and my phone and laptop chargers were in my suitcase so I couldn't use them. It was just me and my Kindle for a while. I read two whole books I'll have you know.

On the other hand, there was a Mattel Experience store there and I went in three times coz the wall of Barbies was like a flame. I, in this metaphor, was the moth. On the first visit, I just looked. Second time I got a photo next to a Barbie wall, third I bought a Barbie. I needed a companion for Emerica and who better than my BFF?

 

Pic might be too small to see the wall of Barbies?
But it's there all right

Rocking the jumper-around-the-waist look
in the way that only a tourist can

 Anyway. So on the Syd - LA flight I watched a trillion movies (premier ones! Yay!) and Disney shows and some New Girl. Yesterday I read for about 9 or 10 hours. Today I am sitting in my new Disney room and it is early morning and I've only had about 5 hours' sleep since I got up at 6am on Monday (Syd time) and as much as I desperately crave to just sleep through today, instead I'm off to a theme park to tire me out so I can sort my jetlag out pronto.

Photos to come tonight. Be prepared to squeal. Or fawn over me. Or both.