Blogtober Day 10- Wish You Were Here: Florida in Fall

October 10th 2018

I know it has been a month since my last Florida trip…but I went back and did it all again!

Fall is a wonderful time of year to travel. Places are less crowded up by summer vacation tourists, the temperature and humidity have become a little less oppressive, and flight and hotel prices are a bit lower than during peak vacation season.

This year, my friend and I decided to book a trip to Orlando, Florida (well, my friend decided to book a trip and I decided to tag along) and we decided to stack it to the absolute brim. Before I get started recounting the trip, I wanted to say a quick thank you to my friend Angie and her friend Vale for making this trip possible (and helping us save some money which is always a plus)

So, I have decided to try to write this travel post in real time as things are happening so I can more vividly remember things since they are fresher in my head. Right now I am soaring high above the clouds on my flight to Orlando.

We were supposed to take off at 6AM but, due to some delays and technical issues, we took off a little after 7. I wasn’t too upset by this because our flight was incredible affordable so a little delay doesn’t hurt (especially when the flight was so early to begin with and we have no real plans today).

Upon arrive to Florida, Vale came to pick us up and bring us to our hotel. We stayed at the Cabana Bay Resort in Universal! The hotel was adorable and had a really cool vintage theme. The dining hall played commercials from the 1950’s and the whole atmosphere was bright and colorful.

Our room was a really cute little suite with a kitchenette and small living room. We spent our first day hanging out at the suite and pool, and also heading to Disney Springs! I was super excited to get a mix of Disney and Universal during this trip because both have so much to offer that are entirely different.

At Disney Springs, we ate at the T-Rex restaurant which is a personal favorite of mine. It isn’t that the food is amazing or anything, but the atmosphere is something super fun that you should try to experience at least once. The restaurant is theatrically lit and feature animatronic dinosaurs scattered throughout. Every half an hour or so, there is a meteor shower and the lighting changes and all of the dinosaurs react accordingly.

After, we walked around Disney Springs exploring the various Disney and non-Disney shops. Also, as per my request, we went to see what specialty Disney drinks Starbucks had to offer. I always like to see what they come up with in terms of Disney-themed beverages. Angie and I got the Appley Ever After which was a vanilla bean frap with apple juice and caramel I believe. It tasted like apple pie and ice cream!

After taking a few pictures, we headed back to our hotel where we scoped out the hotel pool to enjoy some time relaxing and floating around. The pool also had a lazy river which was super nice. They even offered nightly movies at the pool which sounds really chill to me.

The next day, we had another relaxing day at the pool where we laid out and enjoyed some nachos. I can’t say I got any color, but I also didn’t get burnt so that’s a win for me! That night was Halloween Horror Nights so after the pool, we got changed and ready to go. We met up with Vale’s friends and headed in. I will talk more about Horror Nights in a later post this month, but I will say that Universal really does a great job with their scare houses!

After getting back to the hotel pretty late, we slept in until about 8:30 and headed out to the parks. We went through both parks in one day, spending extra time in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which Angie loves. We got to go on most of the rides we wanted to go on before heading back to the hotel to get ready for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party that night!

Despite a few set-backs the Halloween party was really fun and we got to see a parade, fireworks, and a show!  The show featured the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus and I was more excited than I should have been honestly. I will be talking more in depth about this in an upcoming post.

The next couple days were pretty lowkey as we moved to an airbnb for the last night there and hopped on a train for the 26 hour expedition home. I would personally never do a train ride like that again, but at least I got the experience.

Right now, I couldn’t be more happy to be home, blogging from my bed!

Can’t wait to share more posts and pictures from this trip, but until then, happy Blogtober and I will be back tomorrow!

Jess~