Our First Orlando Visit- Travel Day and Day One- Universal and Islands

[dreamisawish]

It's been a month and now I'm finally getting around to writing this trip report. I dithered over whether I was actually going to write one- and I wasn't planning on it when we were out there, hence the lack of any good photos- but it's a bit of a post trip coping mechanism

This was our 'first trip to Orlando' in rather loose terms. I did visit Disney and Universal when I was younger, but I most of that I don't remember now- but this trip did send me into a few full on flashbacks, it was pretty intense- and my friend Emily has never been to the US, so this trip was a big first for her.

We were only out there 7 nights, and I can definitely see why people say you need more time- though I don't regret going like we did at all. We had an amazing time despite the various ups and downs and medical emergencies we had We stayed at Cabana Bay the entire time and used ubers to get around to Disney.

Anyway from the start-

We left Gatwick on a Monday morning on a BA flight, early Feb. It was nearly completely empty. We were sitting besides the window, but even the middle aisle section next to us never filled up. On our entire row there was only one other person.

This was the longest flight Emily had ever been on, and I was nervous how she would find it, but we both ended up sleeping a lot and the hours went by pretty fast.

When we arrived at MCO I was worried about the part of the airport- the arrivals bit with the hotel balconies overlooking- being closed off as it was two days after the unfortunate death of a TSA employee, but there was no disruption at all. We got through security in maybe 10 minutes, it definitely wasn't longer then 20 minutes, and got our luggage quickly after that.

We picked up some magic bands in the disney store at arrivals. I didn't want to have to flaff around with our card tickets at all, or worry about finding magic bands on our first disney day. I was really happy with how many options they had, I got the disney snacks version and Emily got the millennial pink band. We paid for this using our disney gift cards that came with our Attractions Direct tickets.

At this point I realised how unwell I was feeling, quite hot and whoosy. I first thought the temp in Orlando was just very high but after I while I realised it couldn't be quite as high as I felt, and I was starting to feel like I might throw up. I can't know for sure, but afterwards we were pretty sure this was mild food poisoning from BA's last inflight meal. I had a chicken roll, and the packaging had been inflated, like things do when they've gone off. Emily had a tomato roll, and her packaging was not inflated.

I asked a flight attendant and she told me the packaging does this sometimes because of the pressure in the plane, and I opened it and smelt it, inspected it and decided it was fine it eat. I was started to feel ill going through immigration and by the time we had checked in at Cabana Bay I had almost thrown up several times.

the Cabana Bay entrance was lovely.

The Cabana Bay check in did take forever. I can't really fault them, they had every single check in desk open with a receptionist, but their process does seem to take sometime, between passport checking, taking a card and giving you a map and directions. It took about 40 minutes to get through the queue. I would say though that they had lots of seating, so only one person per party had to queue, and the staff were very friendly. I worked as a hotel receptionist for a while so I know how much a sudden rush of people all at once can take you off guard, and we never saw a queue like that for reception again after this night.

Anyway luckily for me I was feeling fine, bright and ready to conquer Universal after a good nights sleep. And I mean a good night- we slept from 9pm to 8am the following morning, so all those plans to 'use jet lag to our advantage and be out early' were bust, but in the end I was happier having those few hours extra sleep.

Day One- Islands of Adventure

We decided what universal park we would start the day in on a complete whim. We took took the bus from Cabana Bay to Universal, which was very easy and the buses seem to come very regularly. Once we were in citywalk we judged what way the majority of people seemed to be heading towards and headed the opposite way- and that way was towards Islands of Adventure.

We got into Islands and stopped for some breakfast just inside the entrance. I was a bit worried about stopping and wasting precious time while the wait times were low, but I needn't have worried as the crowds never really got that bad all day.

Our first ride was spiderman, a ride I've never been on before, and we absolutely loved it. It really set the rest of the holiday up, the amount of fun we had on our first ride, and I loved that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, because of the lack of ride footage from universal rides in vlogs. It made it even more fun. We walked through almost the entire queue, I think we waited maybe 5 minutes before getting on.

We decided to get the water rides done and dusted so we could dry off for the rest of the day. We had brought rain ponchos for the water rides but we decided to live and let live and just go for it. We started with Jurassic Park, which was one hell of the way to start the day.

Just to preface this- I am a massive wimp. Before this trip the biggest drop on a ride I've ever been on is Pirates of the Caribbean in Paris- so this was a bit of a concession for me. I knew when we booked the trip that I was going to have to be a lot more open to rollercoasters and thrill rides.

Anyway I screamed myself hoarse on the end of Jurassic Park

We were on the back, in my hopes the back would be less scary. Honestly now I think the back might be the worst row. We didn't get wet at all though, so we were saved from that. I still haven't decided if I love or loathe Jurassic Park, it was pretty thrilling but that bit at the top with the T-Rex and the drop almost killed me, I was so nervous

I can't have hated it too much though because Emily managed to get me to go around a second time the wait time was only 5 minutes both times. The second time around we were in the front row and we did get a bit wet but the drop was miles better. We had a really nervous little girl behind us and I decided I had to be brave in front of her, so I managed to not scream the second time around

We went on Kong at this point, our longest wait of the day, at 30 minutes. I wasn't terribly impressed, but the queue did scare me with the actors.

We headed for Pop-eye's Bilge Rat Barges. I had seen people say you get soaked on this but I was slightly disbelieving because it was one of the few rides I'd been on when I was young and I don't remember getting that wet.

Literally no one was coming off the ride for us to judge wetness by so we just chanced it



big mistake.

We got DRENCHED. I've never been so drowned in my life. I almost feel we would have been less wet had we fallen in a pool fully clothed.

Anyway it was a lot of laughs as we left a trail of water behind us for the next twenty minutes. We were literally dripping!

Of course as soon as we came off I turned to Emily and said 'you know, now I remember that when I went on this when I was younger we were drenched'. Emily was not impressed

Anyway it didn't mean much to us and I honestly would do it again without the rain ponchos, being wet afterwards made it all the more memorable, but next time I would bring flip flops to wear on the water rides and then switch back to trainers, because once they were wet my shoes started rubbing like crazy.

After this we decided just to walk around for a while and dry off.

We headed into Hogsmede. This was an emotional moment for us both as massive Harry Potter fans. None of the Harry Potter sections were open the last time I was there so this was a first for both of us.

We spent a lot of time wandering through the shops, and we shared a frozen butterbeer. We liked this butterbeer a lot better then the one at the Warner Brother's Studios in the UK.

After about an hour and a bit we were finally dry enough to get on the Hogwarts Express and head to Universal.

At Universal we went on Gringotts, and I have to say I was dying inside the whole way through the queue. I was so worried I'd hate it, but I knew we had to do it! I had my eyes closed a lot the first time but when we got off Emily looked to me, I think expecting me to say 'never again' but instead I said 'I think I loved that'. We went on twice more! The queue was 10 minutes each time.

We then went on Men in Black and Simpsons. We enjoyed both, but I have to say putting things in lockers was getting old at this point.

It was getting later and we were pretty hungry. We decided to head out to City Walk to get something to eat, with the hopes of going back into Universal afterwards.

We ate at the Chocolate Emporium, and I have to say our meals where very nice. I had bottomless pink lemonade, and it was very good lemonade. I managed to drink three full glasses, and we realised we probably hadn't been drinking enough throughout the day.

After this we both fell into a food coma, and having a quick look at the wait times we both decided to call it a day, as they had gone up quite significantly since we left the park.

I somehow managed to flip flop my sketchers after the backs started rubbing and walked like this for the majority of the day can't say it was too uncomfortable. Honestly we were riding a bit of an adrenaline rush the whole day and I didn't even realise how much my feet had rubbed until we got back to the hotel.

Our step count for our first day!

You can imagine when we got back to the hotel we struggled to stay awake a few hours so we could get into some kind of routine

I bought one of those Cabana Bay refillable mugs and went down to get some lemonade and we watched a movie.

And thus ended our first day!

We had a great day and got a lot done. The wait times were so minimal, especially in Islands, we did a lot of rides multiple times.

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So thats the first trip report for our first Orlando trip! It was really lovely to be able to relive this day when writing this all out and going through the photos!