Our (short) Vacation in Florida!

Well, all too soon the day we all dreaded arrived. After 7 days of tropical bliss, it was a sad moment as we said our last good byes to the ship, stuffed our faces one last time with the glorious food, and disembarked the ship very early on Sunday morning! It was so crazy trying to find our shuttle! Everyone on the ship was running around trying to find their shuttles as well, and a midst the crowds and all the luggage strewn over the side walks, it was definitely a stressful time! It didn't last long though, as we soon found our shuttle and were on our way to our hotel in Orlando, Florida!

Hello Florida!

Our flight schedule allowed us a couple extra days after the cruise so we decided we better hit up some amusement parks whilst we were in the area! Our shuttle delivered us to our hotel, the Double Tree, around 11 o'clock or so, but we couldn't check in until 4 o'clock! Our hotel was right beside a little shopping area, so we killed some time by walking around and finding some restaurants and shops nearby, then we just relaxed by the pool! It was a scorcher that day, but being Sunday we didn't go swimming, so we contented ourselves with relaxing in the shade! Finally, after bugging the front desk beyond reason, we were finally able to check in and get settled in our rooms! We went for dinner at T.G.I. Friday's and wow do they ever have the best burgers and sweet potato fries! In fact, we loved it so much we ate there again the next day! It didn't compare to the cruise food though! After dinner we were going to relax by the pool some more, but then a huge thunderstorm blew in! The thunder was incredible and I've rarely seen it rain that hard! Our hotel was quite a high one, I think we were on level 12, and I was almost positive I could feel us swaying in the wind of the storm! We weren't of course, but at times I sure thought so!

Raiding the hotel's cookie stash as we waited to check in!

Our very high hotel!

Looking at the pool from our room window!

From our room window you could just make out
down town Orlando! See all the sky scrapers?

Chilling by the pool!

As we were heading to Islands of Adventure the next day, we were very hopeful that the rain wouldn't continue on in to the day and ruin our plans! We lucked out and it cleared up and was a beautiful, perfect day for an amusement park! We were up bright and early and, as our hotel was only across the street from the park, we walked over and got there first thing! It's a good thing we did too, because we were able to go do all the rides without hardly any waits at all!

Walking the short walk to the park! Do we look like
tourists or what?!

There were tons of these tiny little geckos everywhere
on the side walk! You seriously had to watch where you
stepped because they were darting all over the place!

We made it!

We went to the Island's Of Adventure theme park!

I'm not much of a roller coaster person, and I hadn't been to any big amusement parks before, so it was fun to see all of the attractions and I did go on quite a few rides, just not the really big ones ha ha! So the different areas of the park were (in order that we went)...Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, Superheroes (Spiderman and Hulk), Dr. Seuss and the Lost Continent. Brayden loves going on the big roller coasters and it was fun to watch him go!

Harry Potter was definitely our favourite! We have always loved the Harry Potter books and movies, so it was fun to see it brought to life! The ride was in 3D throughout the castle! It was amazing! We also bought some Butterbeers and they are as delicious as I imagined! I've had a craving for one ever since!

For those of you who love Harry Potter as much as I do,
you'll know exactly what tune was playing in my head as
we entered Hogsmeade!

The Three Broomsticks restaurant!

Delicious butterbeers!!! Those whip cream staches
are legit, that's how good it was!

All aboard the Hogwart's Express!

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Standing in line for a ride!

Just about to take off on the ride Flight of the Hippogriff!

The candy shop! We wanted to buy
some Bertie Bot's every flavour beans,
but they were WAY too expensive!

Ollivander's Wand shop, picking our wands!

The castle!

Seuss land was cute and fun, but they didn't have very many rides. In fact we went on the one, Cat in the Hat, and I didn't really like it at all! It whipped me around way to much that my brain hurt!

All the trees and shrubs were made into cool shapes and
animals!

Such a silly boy! 

Riding the Carousel!

Cat in the Hat ride! This is the one I didn't like very much!
Those carts we're sitting in whipped around so fast and
gave no warning! It was a good ride otherwise!

The Hulk was way to crazy of a ride for me! I was content to watch ha ha! The Spiderman ride was a 3D ride that was very cool, except for the part where it broke down when we were on it! We were stuck for probably about 5 minutes! Good thing it was dark, because I didn't want to see how high up we were!!

Oh yeah!

This is the Hulk roller coaster! Brayden is on there
somewhere!

The Lost Continent was good, but didn't have any rides, it was all just attractions and shows! Brayden and I did watch the Sinbad show, which was good but very cheesy!

There were some very cool sites to see
in the Lost Continent!

The Sinbad show! Like I said, it was kind of cheesy, but
they had some really awesome affects and explosions!

I love getting to go on all these adventures
with this awesome man!

Love him!

Toon Lagoon was super fun! I didn't know any of the characters other than Popeye and Betty Boop, but we really loved the rides! They were all the water rides, and let me tell you we got SOAKED!! There is nothing more uncomfortable then walking around all day being soaking wet! I even attempted to dry off with the hand dryer in the girls bathroom, but it did little to help! We eventually dried out to a crisp though with how hot it was! 

                                      

We got soaking wet on Popeye's ride!

Yes, we got as wet as this looks like it would get!

Jurassic Park was another of our favourites! I had no idea what I was in for! We got quite wet on this ride as well, but we loved it so much we did it a couple times!

Starting out, had no idea what was coming! (the HUGE
drop at the end down the waterfall!)

Teagen is perhaps the only one who looks convincing....
the rest of us, well, we tried! Lol!

The ride had some pretty neat affects as well!

Once we had done all the rides, we just wandered around and did all the ones again that we wanted to do! We eventually made it back to the hotel with very sore legs and feet! A nice swim in the pool helped to ease the pains.The rest of the day was spent packing and getting ready for our flight home the next morning! As we were packing, we could see fireworks from our window at the amusement park! It was a perfect ending to our vacation!

Gotta love that view above the clouds!

Good bye Florida!