Okay, here's my second attempt at this TR... April 27: Limo picked us up at 4:30 AM to take us to the Milwaukee airport for our 7:30 flight to Orlando. My very first plane ride. We had taxiied out to the runway and had to return to the terminal because they had to check something. Our flight was delayed like 20 minutes yet we arrived in Orlando like right at our scheduled time. We had reserved a Mustang convertible, but when we got there they tried to give us a Sebring convertible which was Grrr because I drive a Sebring coupe here. Honey noticed they did have a Mustang. They said it hadn't been cleaned but we didn't care so we left in the Mustang by like 11:45 to go to Clearwater Beach for the weekend. We spent the rest of the day exploring the area around our hotel, Quality Inn on the Beach. Watched the sunset at Pier 60. April 28: Cruised the strip between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach. Spent a bunch of time at Fort DeSoto Park, which is home to America's #1 Beach 2005. Watched the sunset at Madeira Beach. April 29: Again cruised the strip and spent a little time back at Fort DeSoto Park. I saw dolphins in the wild for the first time. We crossed the Sunshine Skyway and continued on to Prime Outlets in Ellenton. Crossed the Skyway again and went to John's Pass. Watched the sunset at Treasure Island. April 30: Left the Gulf coast for a week in Orlando at Cypress Pointe resort just outside the Disney complex. Awesome resort. We did some shopping and exploring, then went to the Magic Kingdom just to go on the Pirates of the Carribbean because that was to close for renovations May 1st. That was pretty cool. We got 7-day passes to Disney for like the price of four, so why not? Honey said it was worth it to him to spend the $9.00 for parking just to go on it. May 1: A full day at MK and watched the fireworks there. Absolutely magical. I cried during the fireworks... that's how incredible they were! May 2: Another day at MK. Needed that and then some. My favorite attractions at MK were PhilharMagic and Stitch's Great Escape. Spent the evening at Universal's CityWalk. I was really wanting to go there because that's where Margaritaville is. Come to find out, my margaritas are about as good as they are there! Yay! (Not everyone makes them the same.) The shirt I'm wearing in my avatar pic is from Margaritaville. The green circle behind the bottle of tequila reads "I am the woman to blame." Haha! Love it! Had to have it. May 3: EPCOT's Future World. You must go on Soarin'. That and Mission: Space are my favorites there. How Disney could be found liable for those deaths is beyond me. Every minute a voice comes over the PA listing warnings. Gary Sinise is on the TV warning you. Signs are everywhere. Every April through June EPCOT has the International Flower & Garden Festival. That is truly amazing. Absolutely beautiful. An example of that is also in my avatar pic. Bambi & Thumper are all flowers! GM sponsors a ride called Test Track there. Honey is employed at GM. They have a lounge for GM employees to chill in the A/C, drink free pop, and look out over the ride and park. When we were done, we were down a different elevator that took us to the very front of the line. The VERY front. Faster than a FASTPass... the GM employee card! :lol: That evening we went to Downtown Disney. That was worth checking out, but I prefer CityWalk. May 4: EPCOT's World Showcase. By far the hottest day. As hot or hotter than Villahermosa, Tabasco in July! I could hardly take it! My TOES got sunburned! Anyways, World Showcase is comprised of 11 areas representing 11 different countries: the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany, China, Norway, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, France, and Italy. Each area's architecture, food, and drinks are all reminiscent of it's respective country. We got "passports" and had them stamped at each country by nationals who also wrote things in their native languages. They did tell us what they wrote. The chick from Mexico wrote, 'Bienvenidos a Mexico vuelte pronto!' Watched the fireworks there. They were cool, but not as mind-blowing as at MK. May 5: Tired of the go-go-go of the parks and (kinda) dreading another hot day, we decided to hit the beach! Cocoa Beach. Saw the ocean for the first time and went to Ron Jon's. Decided to cruise A1A South so off we were. And did we ever. We stopped here and there at beaches and beach shops. We got a radio station out of WPB and I was excited. (you know, Mustang convertible, WPB, A1A...) My ex lived down there in Jupiter before he moved here and so for years I heard about that area and specifically Blowing Rocks. When I realized we were not far from Jupiter I told Honey about Blowing Rocks so we went there to find they CLOSED at 4:30! We got there at like 7:30. So we found a beach and once the sun went down just after 8:00 we made our way to Florida's Turnpike, the toll road connecting Orlando and Miami. The sign said Orlando 148 miles! Believe it or not we were back in Orlando at Hooter's just after 10:00! He averaged 90 MPH. But it's cool because most people were going that fast. Quite a few were going faster! May 6: Back to the Atlantic. This time we went to Daytona Beach. We went by Kennedy but did not stop. We cruised the strip and the beach in Daytona and then went to a restaurant out on a pier. Once we ordered our drinks and food the rain came. By the time we were done with our food the rain was gone. That was the ONLY rain we saw our whole trip. It was so dry in Florida then. We were hearing about fires on the East Coast on the national news while we were there and in the days and weeks after we came home. We saw evidence of fires: already-put-out black areas, smoke in the distance, and smelled it in the air in the area around Kennedy. Went back to the hotel early-ish to pack for our return home. May 7: Our flight didn't leave until like 6 or something, so we went shopping around Orlando. Whoever says straight guys don't shop has not met my guy because whoa! That man can shop! We got some great deals at an outlet mall. We bought so much between all the beach shops on both coasts and the malls in Orlando that I was shoving things in my purse because all our suitcases and carry-ons were completely stuffed! **Note to self: This year pack one suitcase and take three empty suitcases! To summarize: While I need to return to Cancun, I loved Florida. The sand and the color and clarity of water I saw at the Gulf is close to that of Cancun. The sand at the Atlantic is NOTHING like Cancun. It is a pretty golden color. Again, the water is close. If you have never been to Disney you MUST go. I don't care how old you are. I was 28 but the way I felt I could have been 8. Who cries over awesome fireworks? Well, the fireworks were part of a larger show, but still, who does that? A kid. I know people in their 50's who say they still get giddy over going back to Disney. I have had some rough times in my life. If you knew how rough, you'd probably excommunicate me. But let me tell you, I did not think about those things for days at Disney. Not even once. All of a sudden I was like :idea: oh yeah, that's who I am! I'm hoping for a similar trip this year... April 26 until May 6 are the dates. Same thing, three nights on the Gulf and a week in Orlando. This year one day at MK, one at EPCOT, one at MGM and one at Animal Kingdom. Lots of beach and lots of shopping! Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/steve738315/FloridaPics?authkey=97Vh_Il23U8 for the pictures!!!
Great TR. Sounds as though you made it to quite a few areas which is always a bonus. Glad you had excellent weather as well.
great report!!! You sound like you did exactly what I would love to do. I want to go to Disney World so bad...I went to Disneyland (California for those that don't know the difference) when I was in Junior high...I loved it. Universal, all kinds of cool places..but anyway... Right now would not be good to go for us, maybe in a couple more years when we can all 4 enjoy the big rides...Kathryn is ALMOST tall enough. We'll be doing the Cancun/Riviera Maya thing for the next couple years instead.
awesomeee report! i was there the 3rd week in may i believe... isnt soarin amazing!! I loved how you can smell the trees and the oranges. You MUST go to animal kingdom.. love love love it! (If you do go, make sure you go on the safari pretty much first... its cooler so the animals are more active and the line gets LONGGGG throughout the day). Same goes for Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror at MGM. I love Disney.. I would go every year if I could, and we've been there about 6 times or so.
Loved the tr and the pics were awesome . We agree w/kait13 you MUST go to Animal Kingdom it's my favorite and a lot more shade :wink:
