Tag: Dole Whip

I Went to DISNEY WORLD!

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! ❤️

May 22, 2022
A Diamond Head Kind of Day

You’ve all waited a week for this and here’s day two of my Hawaiian adventure! We started Saturday morning off bright and early, since we were still on our clocks back home to hike Diamond Head. For those of you who don’t know, Diamond Head is the crater of a former volcano. The hike was kind of challenging, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Except for the stairs. Oof, there’s one way you can hike which consists mostly of stairs, and that just seemed awful, so I recommend taking the other path if you ever decide to visit Oahu. The view from the top and also on the way up was stunning and quite peaceful, considering the masses of people that had also joined us to hike that morning. Next on our agenda was Hanama Bay and the blowhole. We drove up to a scenic stop to see Hanama Bay from above and I’ve never seen bluer water in all my life. Wow was it beautiful. If you’re looking for a good, safe place to snorkel, I heard that Hanama Bay is the place to be. The Halona Blowhole, which isn’t too far down from Hanama Bay, is a spot where water sprays from this hole in the rocks and the views there are stunning as well. Watching the waves crash on the rocks and just looking out at the gorgeous, blue water made me so happy. Traveling out to these spots is definitely a longer drive from Honolulu so if you plan to visit, be prepared for a long car trip. To add on to this already amazing day, we saw even more beautiful sights at the Byodo-In Temple. This place was my favorite by far. The Byodo-In Temple is a replica of a temple built in Japan and the atmosphere and beauty of this place was just surreal. The overall vibe there was peaceful and serene and it was so wonderful. We had a chance to walk around the gardens and ponds there and also head into the temple. There we lit some incense and viewed the massive Buddha statue. Being in the temple was so calming and it’s a feeling I never want to forget. Unfortunately, we had to leave the Byodo-In Temple at some point, and we did. Now it was time for some Dole Whip. Yay! There was another somewhat long drive ahead of us and then we arrived at Dole Plantation. We were on a mission and our mission was accomplished when we sat down at our table and snacked on Dole Whip. There really is no way to describe how delicious or refreshing Dole Whip is. If you haven’t ever had it, please do at some point. I had an idea of what it would taste like, since I had some at Disneyland when I was there two years ago, but Hawaii didn’t fail to disappoint. There were little chunks of pineapple in the Dole Whip which made it even better. I also got to see how pineapples grow, which is not at all what I expected. They grow from the ground and when farmers want to plant pineapple, they cut it in half horizontally and stick one of the halves back in the ground and voila, more pineapple! Dole Plantation offers tours of the fields and has a train ride around the whole place, which we didn’t do, but if you’ve got kids and are looking for something fun to do, this might just be it!

See you all next week where I talk about my history day in Hawaii. Have a beautiful week you beautiful people! 🙂 Aloha!

June 3, 2018
An Adventure at Disney California Adventure

After a great day at Disneyland before, California Adventure was the next thing my family and I would tackle. Disney California Adventure was an amazing overall experience. There was so much to do and see and my family and I got through most of it.

My aunt, uncle, mom, sister, and I arrived at Disney California Adventure around 9:30 or 10 in the morning and decided to get to Cars Land first. Cars Land was so well created and made my family and I feel like we had just stepped into the movie. It was so cool! Of course we had to do the Radiator Springs Racers ride and so we walked that way first. The wait may be been about two hours but it was well worth the wait. The ride was so cute and it was fun to travel through Radiator Springs and then win the race in the end. It may have been rigged but that’s okay. After that thrilling ride, we got our picture taken with Mater at the Cozy Cone Motel and then made our way towards Paradise Pier.

Paradise Pier is home to many enjoyable boardwalk games, Ariel’s Grotto (a restaurant), several rides, and the World of Color show. We decided to walk around and see where we would be eating later tonight, which would be at Ariel’s Grotto. Allyson, my sister suggested that we ride on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure which was a ride in a seashell through Ariel’s journey. There was no wait which was great and the ride was also very cute.

Once we finished that, Allyson and I led everyone to Hollywood Land where we got to go to the Animation Academy, meet Anna and Elsa, and then attend the Animation Academy and draw Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Frozen is my favorite Disney movie, so of course we had to meet the royalty of Frozen. Anna and Elsa were very sweet and Anna even gave my sister and I a hug! The Animation Academy drawing class was a lot of fun because we got to draw with an actual Disney artist and he complimented my sister on her drawing which was awesome.

Meeting Anna and Elsa!

After visiting the Animation Academy, we found a place to grab some really good hot dogs for lunch and then headed back to Disneyland to get on a few rides we missed yesterday. We ran into Cinderella on the way back to Disneyland and got to meet her and take pictures with her of course.

The next thing we did was walk over to Adventureland to get some Dole Whip and also take the Jungle Cruise. Before we got to California, I heard a lot about Dole Whip and how amazing it was. Everything I had heard about it was true. It was so refreshing, light, and delicious. My family and I were able to enjoy the beloved treat while waiting to get on the Jungle Cruise which was also an enjoyable and interesting ride. Our tour guide for the boat trip was hilarious and the animatronic jungle animals looked so realistic and were fun to watch move around.

Dole Whip… It can only be found in Hawaii or at Disneyland

Once that was over, we walked back to Fantasyland to walk through Pixie Hollow, rode the Monorail, and do the Alice in Wonderland ride. While the Monorail didn’t go around the whole park, it was cool to be in it and see as much of the park as we were able to. The Alice in Wonderland ride was very cute and fun.

This was one of the caterpillars to ride in for the Alice in Wonderland ride.

And of course, to finish out our time in Disneyland, my family and I had to do Splash Mountain. The line had been terribly long all day and we knew that the ride was popular so we decided to get Fastpasses earlier in the day so that we could come back later in the day and get in line, wait for a short amount of time, and then ride Splash Mountain. That ride was my favorite out of any ride we’d been on. It wasn’t jerky or ridiculously fast like the Matterhorn, but it had enough speed and drops to be thrilling, enjoyable, and worth everything. I got soaked on the ride, and that probably happened because I sat up front in the log.

Splash Mountain

On the way back to California Adventure, we did a quick walkthrough of Sleeping Beauty’s castle and then made our way back to California Adventure to get to our reservation at Ariel’s Grotto in time.

We made it to our reservation with plenty of time to spare and we were even able to get in like ten minutes earlier than our reservation because we checked in early. The food was wonderful. We were served a three-course meal, which started with a choice of soup or salad, then an entree, and it finished with dessert. The salad was a strawberry, pistachio, and feta cheese salad, I picked their fire-roasted corn cakes as my entree, and then for dessert there was a lemon frosted madeline, passion fruit creme brûlée which was to die for, and then a mocha chocolate pastry. I somehow managed to eat it all and I was satisfied with the food and the service. After dinner, my family and I were given our tickets to the preferred seating at the World of Color show. World of Color is a show at Paradise Pier that involves fountains and lots of water and pictures and clips are projected on water. We purchased the package deal of dinner at a specific restaurant, which for us was Ariel’s Grotto, at California Adventure and preferred seating access to World of Color. We got to stand right up near the water and see the show from a very good spot. Even though we got somewhat wet, the exciting light show, reflection of Disney movies and pictures on the water, lasers, and flames kept me happy and entertained throughout the entire show. It was a wonderful experience and that like no other and I would definitely do the package deal again to get such good seats for World of Color.

The best part of the meal. (I forgot to mention that we were celebrating my sister’s birthday as well as mine and the restaurant gave us cupcakes for it.)

That was a great way to end our last day at the Disneyland Resort and I know that will definitely be going back in the future. Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth and I’m so glad I had the chance to go.

Walt and Mickey on Buena Vista St. at Disney California Adventure

I’d also like to add, Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there. Thank you for everything you do for us all. 🙂

June 19, 2016