Florida Part 2
19 Dec
Disneyland. We were determined to not miss the shuttle this time cos Disneyland is very far from our inn. In fact, the journey took an hour. When we got there, we had to take a monorail to another station (within Disneyland) where we took a ferry to Magical Kingdom. The entire Disney World comprises of 4 kingdoms (Magical Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and 1 more that I can't recall) but we only intended to spend 1 day there (due to monetary issues... the ticket prices have doubled in 10 years) so we chose to go to Magical Kingdom. The rides at Magical Kingdom are family-oriented and a large part of those in Magical Kingdom are catered to suit the needs of younger children. If I were to rank the amusement parks I've been to in increasing order of thrill, it would be Magical Kingdom, Universal Studios and lastly Six Flags. Yup Six Flags is really hard-core. Memories of the Superman ride still send shivers up my spine.
Right I digress.
So I had lots of fun there. Not so much of "screams and thrills" but more like a general sense of happiness and joyousness. Some memorable rides include the Rocky Mountain Rollercoaster (the name's not entirely accurate but I'm too lazy to dig out my stuff to check), Pirates of Carribean (the 2nd movie is coming out soon yay! More Captain Jack Sparrow!), the Haunted Mansion (really quite entertaining except for the group of teenage girls next to us who wouldn't stop screaming...) and the Lilo and Stitch ride. Well that one wasn't really a ride but I thought the overall concept was pretty refreshing. Basically it's about Stitch escaping his prison and jumping around the room. Our seats had an additional shoulder guard which applied pressure on our shoulders to simulate Stitch jumping on us to dodge his captors. They also sprayed some stuff to imitate the smell of chilli dogs which was what Stitch was supposed to have eaten according to the story line so it gave the impression that Stitch was pretty near us (for us to be able to smell his "bad breath" heh).
The queues for the rides were at 10 min to 20 min initially but as it drew closer to noon, we started seeing 60 or even 80 min waiting times. But yeah, we managed. Also tried on tons of silly looking hats, both in Universal Studios and Magical Kingdom now that I think about it. I shall post them up soon :) Ooh and I took pictures with Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Chip and Dale. Mickey was so charming, he kissed my hand before I left! *squeal* haha! At 7pm we all crowded at the main street to watch the parade. They dimmed the road lamps so that we could see the full splendour of the brightly-lighted floats at night. The parade ended at 7.30 or 7.45, can't quite remember, and we hung around for a while more for the fireworks display at 9pm. Ah that was really my favourite moment of the whole day I reckon. I just love to watch fireworks cos it brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to my heart. The shuttle bus back was scheduled to leave at 10pm and we absolutely couldn't afford to miss that so we sort of rushed back to the pick up point immediately after the fireworks display. Yup we were definitely exhausted after 2 days of theme parks.
20 Dec
We wanted to visit Daytona Beach today but we found out that we were just too tired so we went to explore Downtown Orlando. We discovered there was really nothing there. We essentially took a one hour bus ride downtown to look at a lake (Lake Eola, supposed to be famous but would someone please tell me the reason why?) with a fountain in the middle of it. On the bus ride back, we realised that the main shopping area (for gifts and souveniers) was in fact just one street away from our inn. So we spent the rest of the day walking down International Boulevard. Went into a Harley Davidson Shop and ogled at the cowboy hat, visited the world's largest McDonalds too (why it's so large is because there was an arcade on the 2nd floor. But they serve gourmet sandwiches too besides the regular stuff so I guess that makes it special) and lastly had dinner at IHOP which is the acronym for International House of Pancakes (whee!). Yesh pancakes for dinner is highly unorthodox but I didn't travel several thousand miles for nothing right? Of course we had pancakes and they were really delicious heh.
21 Dec
Our last day at Florida, we travelled to Daytona Beach. We wanted to go to Miami Beach but settled for Daytona in the end cos Miami is a 6 hour bus ride away. We still took about 3 hours to get to Daytona because we had to take a bus downtown to the Greyhound Bus Station which provides bus services between cities. When we arrived at Daytona, we realised that the beach wasn't that near the bus station so we walked for a good 45 min at least. When we reached the beach, we were kind of disappointed. It was too cold and windy for starters, and the beach looked kind of deserted. We strolled along the length of it for a while, then decided to head for Daytona USA, the racing track. That was a challenge too because we know we definitely couldn't walk there (6 to 8 miles is freaking long) but lucky for us, we met a helpful bus driver who set us on the right path. On top of that, we had reasonably good luck with the buses, always catching them just on time. Yup so we got to Daytona USA at 4pm or so, joined the tour and looked at the exhibits for the rest of the afternoon. We had to leave at 6.45pm to catch the bus back to the bus station. By then, it was dark and the 4 of us were walking out in the cold at the side of a really long but busy road. Heh. Well we met another kind bus driver. He was driving the bus back to the depot but he picked us up anyway and drove us some way along the road and radioed the driver of the bus we're supposed to take to let him know that he was to pick the 4 of us up. Anyway, when we returned to Orlando, we took a cab back to our inn because it was late and also to save time. We were leaving Florida at 6am the next morning so we figured we needed the time to pack.
19 Dec
Disneyland. We were determined to not miss the shuttle this time cos Disneyland is very far from our inn. In fact, the journey took an hour. When we got there, we had to take a monorail to another station (within Disneyland) where we took a ferry to Magical Kingdom. The entire Disney World comprises of 4 kingdoms (Magical Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and 1 more that I can't recall) but we only intended to spend 1 day there (due to monetary issues... the ticket prices have doubled in 10 years) so we chose to go to Magical Kingdom. The rides at Magical Kingdom are family-oriented and a large part of those in Magical Kingdom are catered to suit the needs of younger children. If I were to rank the amusement parks I've been to in increasing order of thrill, it would be Magical Kingdom, Universal Studios and lastly Six Flags. Yup Six Flags is really hard-core. Memories of the Superman ride still send shivers up my spine.
Right I digress.
So I had lots of fun there. Not so much of "screams and thrills" but more like a general sense of happiness and joyousness. Some memorable rides include the Rocky Mountain Rollercoaster (the name's not entirely accurate but I'm too lazy to dig out my stuff to check), Pirates of Carribean (the 2nd movie is coming out soon yay! More Captain Jack Sparrow!), the Haunted Mansion (really quite entertaining except for the group of teenage girls next to us who wouldn't stop screaming...) and the Lilo and Stitch ride. Well that one wasn't really a ride but I thought the overall concept was pretty refreshing. Basically it's about Stitch escaping his prison and jumping around the room. Our seats had an additional shoulder guard which applied pressure on our shoulders to simulate Stitch jumping on us to dodge his captors. They also sprayed some stuff to imitate the smell of chilli dogs which was what Stitch was supposed to have eaten according to the story line so it gave the impression that Stitch was pretty near us (for us to be able to smell his "bad breath" heh).
The queues for the rides were at 10 min to 20 min initially but as it drew closer to noon, we started seeing 60 or even 80 min waiting times. But yeah, we managed. Also tried on tons of silly looking hats, both in Universal Studios and Magical Kingdom now that I think about it. I shall post them up soon :) Ooh and I took pictures with Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Chip and Dale. Mickey was so charming, he kissed my hand before I left! *squeal* haha! At 7pm we all crowded at the main street to watch the parade. They dimmed the road lamps so that we could see the full splendour of the brightly-lighted floats at night. The parade ended at 7.30 or 7.45, can't quite remember, and we hung around for a while more for the fireworks display at 9pm. Ah that was really my favourite moment of the whole day I reckon. I just love to watch fireworks cos it brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to my heart. The shuttle bus back was scheduled to leave at 10pm and we absolutely couldn't afford to miss that so we sort of rushed back to the pick up point immediately after the fireworks display. Yup we were definitely exhausted after 2 days of theme parks.
20 Dec
We wanted to visit Daytona Beach today but we found out that we were just too tired so we went to explore Downtown Orlando. We discovered there was really nothing there. We essentially took a one hour bus ride downtown to look at a lake (Lake Eola, supposed to be famous but would someone please tell me the reason why?) with a fountain in the middle of it. On the bus ride back, we realised that the main shopping area (for gifts and souveniers) was in fact just one street away from our inn. So we spent the rest of the day walking down International Boulevard. Went into a Harley Davidson Shop and ogled at the cowboy hat, visited the world's largest McDonalds too (why it's so large is because there was an arcade on the 2nd floor. But they serve gourmet sandwiches too besides the regular stuff so I guess that makes it special) and lastly had dinner at IHOP which is the acronym for International House of Pancakes (whee!). Yesh pancakes for dinner is highly unorthodox but I didn't travel several thousand miles for nothing right? Of course we had pancakes and they were really delicious heh.
21 Dec
Our last day at Florida, we travelled to Daytona Beach. We wanted to go to Miami Beach but settled for Daytona in the end cos Miami is a 6 hour bus ride away. We still took about 3 hours to get to Daytona because we had to take a bus downtown to the Greyhound Bus Station which provides bus services between cities. When we arrived at Daytona, we realised that the beach wasn't that near the bus station so we walked for a good 45 min at least. When we reached the beach, we were kind of disappointed. It was too cold and windy for starters, and the beach looked kind of deserted. We strolled along the length of it for a while, then decided to head for Daytona USA, the racing track. That was a challenge too because we know we definitely couldn't walk there (6 to 8 miles is freaking long) but lucky for us, we met a helpful bus driver who set us on the right path. On top of that, we had reasonably good luck with the buses, always catching them just on time. Yup so we got to Daytona USA at 4pm or so, joined the tour and looked at the exhibits for the rest of the afternoon. We had to leave at 6.45pm to catch the bus back to the bus station. By then, it was dark and the 4 of us were walking out in the cold at the side of a really long but busy road. Heh. Well we met another kind bus driver. He was driving the bus back to the depot but he picked us up anyway and drove us some way along the road and radioed the driver of the bus we're supposed to take to let him know that he was to pick the 4 of us up. Anyway, when we returned to Orlando, we took a cab back to our inn because it was late and also to save time. We were leaving Florida at 6am the next morning so we figured we needed the time to pack.
This was when I was wrongly accused of flirting with the cab driver.
Argh.
Well it's a whole big joke, dun take it seriously :) Cos I was sitting in the front passenger seat and the cab driver is actually a Daytona enthusiast so of course I was obliged to make some small talk. Whatever were you thinking hmm?
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