Hello from Florida! My mom and I
arrived at Orlando two days ago after about a four hour flight. Man, I had a
hard enough time sitting still in the airplane seats that I have zero ideas on
how I’ll be surviving the car ride home after our travels! :’) Anyways, we
stepped off the plane and through that tube-like walkway that leads into the
airport and BAM. Muggy weather. I swear a trickle of sweat was already working
its way down my back. To put it plainly, prepare yourself for the humidity,
guys! After nodding our heads a billion times like we understood everything the
rental car spokesperson was saying at a billion miles-per-hour, we finally got
into a cute little grey car and made our way to our fabulous hotel. Or so we
thought. Let me explain: Orlando’s I-Drive is kind of like Phoenix- there’s the
northern half of the strip, dazzling with beautiful hotels and ritzy
restaurants, and there’s southern Orlando, cluttered full of souvenir shops,
random food shacks, and a grand McDonalds. You can guess where our hotel was. (Think
price.) Seeing as my only impression of Orlando was the southern half of the
I-Drive and I had NO clue that the northern half existed, I was kind of
wondering, “This is it?? All of those people who visit the famous Orlando for
Disney World, Sea World, etc. get stuck in the part of town that’s ‘full of
character’ (a.k.a. kinda slummy)?” (Here’s where I go on a rant about the place
we were staying, so just skip this part if you want a head full of happier
thoughts.)
I was even more unimpressed when the
International Palms Resort (btw the name is a bit of a misnomer) put us into a
handicapped room that wasn’t suited for people without a wheelchair. I guess
they do this to everybody who books a third-party stay, so be careful when you
book places from online! After staying a night in this room, the next morning
as my exhausted mom and I tried to drag ourselves out of the room to leave to
Disney World, the handle on the door broke! It was literally dangling from the
door, useless. At this point, our thoughts were along the lines of “What the
heck did we get ourselves into here?” After a night of little sleep, my mom
asked for a different room. Now, I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Wow, you
couldn’t stand another night in a hotel just because it wasn’t kosher, what
some uppity snoots, etc. etc.” I’m just going to say, my mom and I have stayed
in every single kind of I’m-not-sure-about-this place. From
dog-poop-on-the-stairs-motel to
public-hostel-where-everybody-sleeps-in-one-big-room-full-of-bunkbeds-coed-style.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that I am an incredibly lucky person and am
very well provided for. However, there are just some places that you really
don’t feel comfortable with. This was one of them. They were quick to apologize
and gave us a different room in a tower that we didn’t know was part of their
hotel service. Yes! Score! But wait. There’s more! When we finally breathed a
sigh of relief about getting to stay somewhere we wouldn’t be hearing people
outside our door in the middle of the night, we went back to our old room to
retrieve our belongings. The door. Was. Stuck. At this point, my mind was
spiraling towards
great-we’re-gonna-be-stuck-at-the-hotel-the-whole-day-and-are-gonna-miss-our-one-time-chance-to-go-to-Disney-World.
My mom had the front desk call an engineer, who I’m sure would have taken close
to an hour to get there to help us. As she went to check on the new room in the
meantime, I just waited for the guy next to our old room with a salty look on
my face and my arms crossed in a don’t-cross-me fashion that I’m not proud of.
However, maybe it did something, because then an awesome woman who was cleaning
rooms asked what the problem was and helped kick the door open. Literally. She
put her key-card in the slot, lifted her leg up high, and slammed it against
the door. Bingo! I proceeded to thank her profusely while placing a tennis shoe
in the way of the door to keep it from closing. There was no way I was getting
locked in that room while packing up our things! Anyways, when my mom made it
back to the room, we hauled everything into the car (and left it there for
time’s sake), and headed over to Starbucks for breakfast. When you’re staying
in a place where most of the food is served at fast-food places or food shacks
on a day you definitely don’t want to be sick, you try and look for something
you feel you can trust. Coffee/oatmeal/yogurt to the rescue!
FINALLY, we managed to hightail it
to the Magic Kingdom. (Here’s when we discovered that the I-Drive had a good
side to it, hahaha) And wow, magic it was! As soon as we walked through the
entrance, I was floating. I love going on crazy rides, and although the Magic
Kingdom doesn’t have anything too wild, the thing I love most is that you are
really transported to a different world. Nothing exists beyond that magical
place in the moment, and you live in the here and now. Your sense of wonder is
reawakened, and you get to enjoy that precious sense just as little kids enjoy
it every day. I also thought it was a wonderful place to go with my mom, seeing
as she no longer likes going on anything that’s too crazy. She went on every
one of the faster rides besides Space Mountain, and she loved the experience! She
was really a good sport through the whole day. Thanks, Mom! All of the lands
were fantastic, but Main Street was most charming as always (pinstripes,
anyone?), and Adventureland was pretty sick, definitely my favorite land
looks-wise. I can’t stress enough how wonderful it was to be in a place so full
of creativity in its design and character in its staff. It made for a truly
fantastic day. Throughout our time, we treated ourselves to frozen chocolate
and pecan-covered bananas, Starbucks (again, I know, we have an uncurable
affinity for coffee), a rice crispy (Micky-Mouse shaped, of course), and later,
dinner at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café. The food was surprisingly good! At
night time, we stayed for the electric parade and wish fireworks spectacular.
This was the first time for both of us watching these. The parade was pretty
cute, but the fireworks spectacular was inspiring. Kudos, Disney, for
encouraging people to believe in their dreams! The end of the spectacular
features Tinkerbell in a pretty sweet way that I won’t give away in case you
decide to visit the Magic Kingdom. We went back to the hotel happy and content,
myself fully renewed with magic.
The only thing I personally didn’t
like much about the Magic Kingdom is how much they catered to their resort
guests. I understand that they are only trying to make more money, but
sometimes they made things much more difficult for the ordinary (in a
money-sense) guests or kind of shoved the fact that “you aren’t a resort guest,
so you don’t get this, this, and this” in your face. Nevertheless, we had a
great time and enjoyed ourselves very much! Now, I’ll stop talking and let the
pictures finish.
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