ORLANDO, FLORIDA
ORLANDO, Florida
Trip Dates: May 12th — 20th
Where We Stayed: JW Marriot, Grand Lakes
Trip Highlight: Leaving Florida
Despite what Marika says, we both enjoyed our Orlando trip. The only downside about going to Orlando was the number of flights it takes from Vancouver. 2-3 layovers and a whole day of travel. But Orlando is warm and beautiful. Uber and Lyft are commonly used, so we used Uber to get to the JW Marriot Grand Lakes Hotel. This hotel was lovely and huge. It has a lot of dining options and also a large pool. The pool includes a lengthy lazy river and provides tubes for floating; we had tons of fun. There is a Starbucks in the hotel, which was great for our caffeine addiction, and they offer a shuttle to Disneyworld. We couldn’t seem to nail down the schedule, so we ended up taking the Uber there.
Orlando’s Downtown Disney is INSANE. It is, like most of DisneyWorld, quite large, with lots to do and see. There are many restaurants and stores and other points of interest. It was enjoyable to hang out there during the day or late at night; it is worth adding to your Orlando sites to see.
A few Disneyworld disclaimers: you need to book your DisneyWorld fast passes months in advance (I believe you can book up to 90 days in advance). This method has its pros & cons. It was nice to plan out ahead of time but also leaves little room for spontaneity. We paid for park hopper passes, which allowed us to hop between DisneyWorld Parks throughout the day. There are four worlds in Disneyworld: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios, and there are shuttles that take you between them (not walkable, something we wish we had known before going). On the first day, we got dropped off at Epcot, which is where most shuttles and vehicles will take you. From there, we checked in, ready for our first fast pass booked for Space Mountain. We, at that moment, realized that it wasn’t one big Disney park, and Space Mountain is in a different world. Now, if we didn’t have park hopper, we would be stuck in Epcot for the whole day and miss all our rides for the day. Once we realized we were in the wrong park, we went back out and found out the only way to the Magic Kingdom from Epcot is either a bus shuttle, a monorail shuttle or the ferry. The ferry was the quickest, so we made our way to the Magic Kingdom that way.
The Magic Kingdom is similar to Disneyland Park in Anaheim; the Magic Kingdom included Tomorrowland, Frontier Land, Main Street, and the castle. Our go-to rides were Space Mountain, Big Thunder Railway, and the Buzz Lightyear ride.
We made our way to the Animal Kingdom, which we had our afternoon fast pass. The Bigfoot ride in the animal kingdom was unreal. It was one of the most exciting rides that Disneyworld had to offer. There isn’t an Indiana Jones ride in this park, but they do have a dinosaur ride that is a similar style to Indiana Jones, equally as exciting but not as nostalgic.
Hollywood Studios was a pretty fun park to walk through, very similar to California Adventure in Anaheim.
Epcot was the one kingdom we did not explore, and I wish we had. I’ve heard it has many restaurants and bars themed around the world, which would have been nice to explore had we had the time.
Universal Studios Orlando was another fantastic spot to visit. Universal Citywalk outside is like downtown Disney, tons of shops, restaurants and other experiences open late. I highly recommend checking it out.
Overall, I enjoyed Orlando, and despite what Marika says, I think it was a great 1st-anniversary trip. We got tan, ate a lot of food, and got to experience Disneyworld. JW Marriott was terrific, with excellent facilities, great pools. There are quite several Marriot Timeshares pushers, so steer clear of them (unless you like that sort of thing, we like to spend our days in the sun — not in a stuffy meeting room with pushy salespeople). Sorry, Marriot, I don’t want to join your timeshare I don’t meet your insane annual income requirements, so stop asking.
