What a fabulous week we had with 7 amazing parks each unique with their own theme and style! It's been the best vacation ever! After we left Animal Kingdom, it had not sunk in that we will be leaving Orlando the next morning. We came back to our room from the park, relaxed a little bit, had some delicious maggie noodles, and we even had time to sit down and watch a movie, Avatar, in our room :). I mean, this is the first day when we have had such a relaxing time in the room :)....packed the bags, I wrote up the hightlights of day 6 and day 7. Luckily our hotel has a small business center, nothing fancy, but it comes with one computer and printer, so I was able to check-in and print the boarding passes. Finally went to bed to get up early...not to go to any parks ..but to go back home :D.
We had already bought roundtrip for Mears transportation when we arrived in Orlando and already scheduled the return shuttle 2 days before our trip, so the shuttle was going to come at 7:15 am to pick us up. That was king of early, but we were able to get ready and be done with breakfast by 7:10 am. The check-out was pretty smooth and quick as well. Our shuttle came 15 minutes earlier than scheduled but the driver was really nice and she waited until we had our breakfast. We were the only two passengers for the shuttle, so there were no stops and reached straight to the airport in half an hour. The airport wasn't crowded either so we got through security and reached gate in 15-20 minutes. We said our final good bye to Orlando and headed home sweet home in 10 am flight.
Looking back at all the parks, their rides and shows, I have few favorites that I would like to share with you and if you are ever in the park, don't miss those rides!
Top Rides:
- Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
- Peter Pan's Flight (Magic Kingdom)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom)
- It's small world (Magic Kingdom)
- Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (Magic Kingdom)
- The Simpson's Ride (Universal Studios)
- E.T. Adventure (Universal Studios)
- The Great Movie Ride (Hollywood Studios)
- Toy Story Mania (Hollywood Studios)
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)
- Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges (Islands of Adventure)
- Jurassic Park River Adventure (Islands of Adventure)
- Spaceship Earth (Epcot)
Top Shows (3D and Live):
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (Magic Kingdom)
- Micky's Philar Magic (Magic Kingdom)
- Disaster (Universal Studios)
- Twister (Universal Studios)
- Shrek 4D (Universal Studios)
- Horror Makeup Show (Universal Studios)
- Indiana Jones (Hollywood Studios)
- Lights, motors, action! stunt show (Hollywood Studios)
- Beauty and the Beast (Hollywood Studios)
- Poseidon's Fury (Islands of Adventure)
- Turtle talk with Crush (Epcot)
- It's tough to be bug - 3D (Animal Kingdom)
- Finding Nemo Musical (Animal Kingdom)
- Festival of Lion King (Animal Kingdom)
- All the shows at Sea World
Couple of Tips:
1) Arrive at the park as early as possible (possibly right when it opens) and stay until it closes to cover as much as you want. Arriving early helps you cover your top rides in first 2 to 3 hours. The park is not very crowded in the morning when it opens and the wait times are not more than 10-15 minutes (sometimes even less than that), so you get head start than everyone else.
2) Each park allows you to bring food and water, so pack lots of snacks regardless if you have kids or not because you might find yourself standing in line for 30-45 minutes to 2 hours (yes, this happens if the ride is crazy packed) and having quick snacks around really helps. We never had consistent time for eating because we would be eating handy snacks here and there and then have late lunch around 2 or 3 pm. Even for lunch, we brought peanut-butter-jelly sandwiches from our hotel so we didn't have to wait in long lines to get food and it saves money as well.
3) Drink lots of water!! Remember that it's extremely hot in Florida, always 90+ degrees and some of the parks don't have any shade, so you will be wandering around in sun and you need to drink lots of water so you don't get dehydrated. We always brought 2 water bottles filled from our hotel and then whenever needed, got them filled at the park from one of the restaurants. Don't hesitate to ask for water in the restaurants thinking they will say no, because they don't. We were never turned down when we asked for water...of course they don't fill your water bottles, but instead give you glass full of water and we always got iced water so that ice automatically melts in the heat and we get chilled water :)
4) Definitely bring sunscreen, a cap, and sunglasses. These are necessary to help protect your skin in the extreme heat!
Apart from these, don't miss any of the fireworks/night shows at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot along with the world showcases of Epcot. Wow...just re-listing these rides and shows makes me want to go there again.....:) I will be writing one more post about our hotel which will be the last post of this trip....I promise. Till then, see ya :)
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