Happy Sunday! I hope you are all doing well and that summer is off to a good start for everyone! So, I spent the last week in and around Orlando, Florida! The biggest part of my trip was a wonderful four days at Disney World (yay)!! Beside Disney World, we also visited Cape Canaveral to see the Kennedy Space Center as well as Cocoa Beach. So fun! And I apologize ahead of time, but for some reason, I haven’t been able to post pictures to my most recent blog posts, so there will be no pictures. 🙁 I’ll maybe come back in and add some pictures once I get that figured out, but in the mean time, feel free to head over to my Instagram (username: anahorvathh) to see some of the fun I had!
My aunt, uncle, sister, and I arrived in Orlando last Saturday. After doing some grocery shopping and settling in, we walked around the property of the resort we stayed at, Hilton Grand Vacations Tuscany Village in Orlando. While there wasn’t much on Saturday, Sunday provided plenty of excitement at Kennedy Space Center.
Kennedy Space Center was an hour drive from Orlando. Not too bad in my opinion! We arrived just before Kennedy Space Center opened, and we spent almost an entire day there. I didn’t expect that, but it was a lot of fun so it was totally worth it. There was a very cool rocket garden that displayed many different rocket types. I just can’t understand how they’re so big. Just can’t. My absolute favorite part of Kennedy Space Center had to be our tour of the Apollo Center. There, we got to see one of the Apollo rockets and THAT WAS A ROCKET, WOW. You have to see it for yourself to truly appreciate just how large it is. When I was little, there was a brief period where I wanted to go to space. I wanted to be an astronaut. That part of me was awakened again that day (not that I want to be an astronaut anymore, but I totally enjoyed my time at Kennedy Space Center). Space is so cool! I think my favorite attractions/buildings/whatever we want to call them from Kennedy Space Center would be the Apollo Center and the Atlantis building. The actual Atlantis space shuttle is permanently housed there too! There was true American pride at Kennedy Space Center and it was something I really appreciated. The food at Kennedy Space Center wasn’t too bad either!
After our time at Kennedy Space Center we drove a bit farther to check out Cocoa Beach. We got to see the Atlantic Ocean, almost get run over by a guy that was land windsurfing, and check out I Dream of Genie Lane! Sunday was a great day.
Monday was our first day at a Disney park in Florida. It all began with Animal Kingdom. We got there right when the park opened, and I’m so happy we did. The crowds were not bad at all in the morning and they continued to be pretty low the rest of the day! We started our day off on the Dinosaur ride. It was much more rough than I honestly thought it was going to be. Fun ride though!! Next ride on our list was Expedition Everest. I think this was a one-and-done for me. My sister and I sat in the very front row on this one. The first half of the ride was so much fun. And then we got to the top of Everest. We looked out over Animal Kingdom. AND THEN THE RIDE STARTED GOING BACKWARD. AND SO. SO. SO. FAST. No joke, I think I actually passed out at some point on this ride. I asked my sister if I screamed after we got off the ride and she said it was the most high-pitched screaming she had ever heard. 😅 Sorry Allyson! Following that traumatizing ride, we took some time to cool down (literally). Kali River Rapids definitely cooled us down, and also soaked us. It felt really nice to get splashed so much though! I would highly recommend wearing sweat-wicking/resistant clothing to Animal Kingdom, in all honesty, because you’ll probably ride Kali River Rapids and you’ll get SOAKED. Our time at Animal Kingdom also included: a wonderful Lion King show that lasted about 20 minutes, Dole whip, lots and lots of animals, a great safari, and finally Navi River Journey.
Boy, do I have a story regarding Navi River Journey. I loved Pandora, but we spent a good chunk of time waiting in line for this ride. We did also eat in Pandora for lunch (we ate at Satu’li Canteen!) but we spent about an hour and fifteen minutes in line for Navi River Journey. We were inching closer and closer to the front of the line and then we were told the ride broke down. It was pretty sad. In response to the sad news, we kept our eyes on the Disney World app the rest of the day but we did go do other stuff. Eventually, we saw that the ride had opened back up and we spent about another hour in line to finally ride it. Worth the wait in my opinion!!
Our day at Animal Kingdom finished after Navi River Journey and with that, we left our first Disney World park! We finished our day up with dinner at Shake Shack which I really enjoyed and then that was about it!
Tuesday- another day, another Disney World park! Tuesday was our day at Magic Kingdom! If I’m being honest, Magic Kingdom was actually my least favorite park. It was just really hot that day and there were much more people. I still enjoyed my time though, don’t get me wrong. Our day started at Splash Mountain which was my favorite ride at Disneyland. It was so fun!!! I was surprised to see that it was longer than Splash Mountain at Disneyland also. My sister and I didn’t wait too long in line either which was just perfect (we maybe waited 30 minutes). If you’re wanting to ride Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom at Disney World, maybe put it at the beginning of your day like we did! Some other rides we made sure to get on were Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. We also rode the carousel and then saw Mickey’s Philharmagic Show and the Hall of Presidents. We enjoyed lunch in the area over by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and managed to get some more pretty good Dole whip that day too! I got the Simba Sunrise (I think that’s what it was called), which was exclusive to the 50th anniversary celebration at Disney World. Pretty yummy!!
Our day at Magic Kingdom ended with a trip to Main Street Bakery (Starbucks, of course!!). With a pink drink in hand, I finished my day at Magic Kingdom, and we headed back to our resort. Looking back on the day at Magic Kingdom, I would really say to make sure you’re packing lots of water and sunscreen and maybe also a fan or something to help keep you cool. If you’re there in May like I was, it gets hot! And humid! So, make sure to take care of yourself.
This post is getting to be pretty long, so I’ll continue my next post with all I have to say about Epcot!! I hope you all have a wonderful week. See you back here next Sunday! ❤️