I just got back from a family trip to Orlando, Florida, with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins on Friday and wanted to share a little about our trip! All of us flew in last Sunday and stayed our first night at an Airbnb near Disney World and Universal Studios. I’ll share just a few highlights and favorite rides from each day as well as some photos 🙂
Day One: Disney World | Magic Kingdom
When Monday morning hit, we got to Disney’s Magic Kingdom as soon as it opened and stayed until it closed. This was my very first time at any of the Disney parks. I was so excited and pumped with adrenaline to see what Disney World was all about. I decided to bring my camera for this first day only, mostly because I wanted to take a photo of castle! We started our day by getting our “1st visit” pins and got in line for the Space Mountain ride. As someone who doesn’t go on rides at theme parks, I’m really happy that my family helped me find the courage.
Some highlights from our first day were that we got to enjoy Dole Whip ice cream. My cousin told me is only served in a couple of Disney Parks! We also got to see the A-MAZ-ING fireworks at the castle at the end of the night! My favorite ride was Thunder Mountain and we rode it 3 times!!!
Day Two: Hollywood Studios
We spent our second day at Hollywood Studios and this was probably my favorite day. The rides and coasters were SO much fun! I screamed so much this day that I’m surprised I didn’t lose my voice. The Tower of Terror ride almost killed me and I’m so glad that I had my cousin next to me. I definitely held onto her like I was going to die.
We all really loved the Millennium Falcon and Rise of the Resistance rides at Star Wars land. They were so realistic and thrilling! My favorite ride for the whole day (besides Star Wars) was the Rock and Roller Coaster ride. The ride starts out by going extremely fast and takes you upside down, which was crazy.
Day Three: Animal Kingdom + EPCOT
Day three of our trip was our longest walking day. My apple watch said we walked almost TEN MILES! Disney’s Animal Kingdom was such a great time. Once you get into the park, you immediately notice the HUGE tree of life with carved animals all up the tree. We went on the Safari tour and saw so many animals like flamingos, lions, and elephants! One of my favorite parts of seeing so many animals was when we walked through the bird exhibit and tried to find each of the birds as they flew around. We rode rides today, too, and the most memorable one was the Expedition Everest ride, which we rode back-to-back! It was terrifying to me, haha!
With a few hours left in the day, we made our way over to EPCOT. I still don’t really know how to describe EPCOT, but there were a few rides to go on and mostly a walk around the water. As you walk around the water, you enter different “countries” around the world and we ate and drank along the way. My favorite part of EPCOT was probably all of the great laughs we had as a family along our walk.
Day Four: Universal Studios
My aunt hyped me up for Universal Studios well before we even went. As Harry Potter fans, we started out day going to the different Harry Potter worlds and riding every ride we could. I think it’s safe to say that our favorite ride BY FAR was Hagrid’s motorcycle ride. I got to try Butterbeer for the first time and geeked out while walking through all of the shops.
One of the things that I never knew about myself before this trip was how freaked out I get on those virtual rides. I can’t even count how many times I made my family laugh by my reactions to those rides. In the moment, my mind makes everything I’m seeing real, haha!
This entire trip was so fun and I’m really glad that we all went together. This was actually the first family trip that I’ve ever been on and so I’ll always hold it close to my heart <3
Want to see when I visited my family in Delaware last November? You can find that HERE 🙂
Next year…Disneyland! Or maybe smaller, Hershey?