(Well it’s 6 really but top 5 sounds better!)
Whenever we get to talking about Orlando and Florida (as we tend to do quite a bit) we always chat about the fun things on offer that we would not normally have tried BUT have ended up loving and cannot wait to visit again. And again. And again… so we’ve had a bash at narrowing down our 5 favourite attractions/places that completely surprised us and have become unexpected “hits” on our trips to Orlando!
Surprise number 1 – Star Flyer
Now this ride/attraction we had seen being built on one of the many Tim Tracker vlogs on YouTube. To say we were intrigued is an understatement!
The Star Flyer is a 420ft tall (yes, 420 feet high) circular swing ride. It’s the tallest in the world, and boy oh boy when you are on it you can feel every one of those 420 feet. It’s a classic swing chair ride that started life in London during the 2012 Olympics, but not as high…
The top of the tower is just a little over 50ft higher than the Orlando Eye and that is a pretty imposing bit of steel work in itself. You can see the Star Flyer as you are driving along the I-4 and from the parking garages at Universal Studios if you are up high enough. The base of the ride was poured over a solid 8 hours from midnight to 8am, taking 1400 cubic yards of concrete in 140 trucks, that’s a lot of concrete in one night. The ride was built in Austria and was shipped over in 28 shipping containers along with 110,000 bolts. I would not want to be the guy checking all of those each year…
This ride is absolutely brilliant, no contest. If you want unparalleled views of their surrounding area and you are not afraid of heights this is the one for you.
The ride has 24 seats arranged in 12 pairs with a very safe locking mechanism that only the operators can access whilst you are sat in it. The start of the adventure is a slow turn then the whole ride lifts of the floor at a fast clip whilst picking up speed, it gets up to 60mph at the very top and believe us when we say its a breathtaking view of the whole of I-Drive and way beyond. We rode this in the afternoon and really enjoyed it. Our plan for our next visit is to ride it at night when all the tower and chairs are lit up and the area surrounding is alive within neon lights and fun!
The experience cost $14.08+ tax per person but you can re-ride the same day for a cheaper price at $8.45+tax. We did it twice, albeit the 2nd time was after we had visited the Starbar that is joined to the Star Flyer for liquid courage and to calm the nerves! The staff are excellent, they put you at ease right away and there are ample free lockers to stash your valuables if you don’t have anyone to look after them for you.
Surprise number 2 – Top Golf
Top Golf was a visit for Mr Oh Orlando’s son’s birthday. We are not going to lie – not being very keen golfers we were not exactly thrilled about this visit, but the birthday boy gets to choose what he wants.. … we could not have imagined how much fun this was going to be, from walking in and being greeted by very cheerful staff at the reception desk and the really helpful waiting staff we knew right away this was going to be a fun evening.
We opted for a top floor booth so the view was better. We had to wait for this to become available so we had some food at the ‘high top’ tables in the bar. Now the bar was an excellent place to while away the time, a typical huge oblong affair with large TV’s all around it showing a myriad of American sports. To say Ashley (the birthday boy) was excited was an understatement. The food selection in Top Golf was brilliant, there was a really good selection of items to choose from and for Mrs Oh Orlando, who is vegetarian, was absolutely spoilt for choice. We have to say that of all the meals we had during this holiday, the one at Top Golf had to be one of the best. The food was well cooked, very very tasty and served with a smile. You cannot ask for more.
When the booth became available we were taken upstairs and shown what to do by our host, he explained the scoring system and and what games were available to us for our stay, then he took the orders for drinks! (Yay!) Mrs Oh Orlando was hilarious with the golf club, after a few miss hits she demanded “a bigger stick” and after that there was no stopping her! The whole course was floodlit and the holes were colour coded for scoring. The best part about the view from the booth was that the holes pulsed to the beat of the music that was playing in the background! Add to this the view of the Orlando Eye and the Star Flyer – and it’s a sight to be believed.
Our host was brilliant, he was asking if we were having fun and taking orders via his little iPad, and as if by magic the drinks would appear! The extra special touch was when the host asked why we were at Top Golf and Orlando, and we told him it was for Ash’s birthday and for our wedding a few days later. He arranged a lovely surprise of a free dessert of deep fried mini doughnut balls with a little rack of syringe’s filled with cream, custard, jam and chocolate to inject into the mini doughnut. Now there’s fun!
Surprise number 3 – Disney Springs
Once upon a time when we first started going to Orlando this area was called Downtown Disney – and it was at best an hour or two’s entertainment walking round a couple of shops, a couple of bars and the now extinct Disney Quest. It also had another area which was themed bars and you paid a one-off amount to enter this area and you could go in any of the bars/clubs. This whole area has been amended and expanded over the years and in March 2013 the area was reborn, revitalised and renamed Disney Springs. We had both been to Downtown Disney and were completely blown away by what is now there – totally unexpected and totally amazing. It’s now a place to spend hours and hours, shopping, eating, relaxing, drinking. We loved it so much on our last visit that we have opted to stay in this area for our next visit to Orlando and WDW – and we cannot wait.
Disney Springs is split into four areas – Market Place, The Landing, Town Center and West Side. Each area has a distinct feel and every time you cross a bridge you are entering another area.
There are the Disney shops, as you would expect, Disney Home products, Disney Christmas Products, Sports, apparel, accessories, children’s costumes, plushes, sweets and everything in between. Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boutique is also located here in the hugest Disney Store you have ever seen, so if your mini me dreams of being a Disney Princess or Prince then you can book a full make-over and dressing up experience here. A joyous sight to see kiddies dressed up and clicky clacking round Disney Springs in their little outfits glittering and grinning from ear to ear. Priceless. There are designer shops selling clothes, luggage, swimwear and accessories, a fabulous Sephora store, Uniqlo, Havianas Flip Flops, Lego store and toy stores – we could go on, because there’s a lot of shops. It’s all laid out so prettily and looks beautiful during the day and in the evening.
Restaurants and bars are a plenty at Disney Springs, from the themed “gimmicky” type ones such as Rainforest Cafe, Planet Hollywood and the T-Rex cafe, to the beautifully ambient high quality restaurants such as Terralina, STK, Morimoto Asia, Paddlefish and the like, to the fun and quirky Edison, House of Blues, Wine Bar George and Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar. There are so many bars and restaurants here there’s something for every one and every budget. There’s a bowling alley and cinema, cirque de soleil and heaven knows what else. Disney Springs was an expected absolute hit with us and everyone else we have spoken too who was just expecting to pass an hour or two there on an evening. Nearly everyone has to go back and revisit as they had no idea how much there is to do there. It is all laid out so beautifully as you’d expect, with topiary and wonderful planting around a lake, ample parking too with the arrival of the multi storey parking garages.
Surprise number 4 – Celebration
The town of Celebration was somewhere we visited one day after seeing the signs for it off the main highway and wondering what was there. It was a town built on a vision by Walt Disney of what an American town should look like. It is no longer owned by WDW but it retains it white picket fences and pretty houses and perfectly laid out and matching shop fronts.
The central lake is a gorgeous spot to sit and while away some time, on a rocking chair, watching the wildlife and chatting to the locals, who are super friendly. There are some super little boutique style shops selling pretty quirky things and a fabulous pet shop called Woofgang Pucks. Fun! There is a wonderful Deli on the corner of the Main Street and we have had some gorgeous snacks, sandwiches and enormous cakes from here. It has a proper village family run deli feel about it.
But the BEST thing about Celebration, apart from it’s overall look and feel, is the Market Street Diner. We go here every time we visit Orlando and Celebration. A proper American Diner, the breakfasts are amazing, the lunch and dinner entrees are delicious. The service is always good and we love it. Definitely worth a visit – both Celebration and the Diner. We can happily spend a couple of hours just wandering around looking at the fantastic houses. It is a real departure from the hustle and bustle and crowds of the theme parks – the perfect way to relax after a crazy few days of theme parking!
Surprise number 5 – Toy Story Land
We watched this built on various vlogs we follow and we were fairly excited from the get-go, mostly about the Slinky Dog coaster. The Slinky Dog Coaster is phenomenal- it’s cute, family friendly, fun and exciting – just as we had expected. What we hadn’t expected was the way the “land” actually looked. The attention to detail in Toy Story Land is unbelievable- the whole place makes you feel like you are a tiny little toy as everything is oversized and brightly coloured. Everywhere you look there are interesting little bits and bobs – water fountain made out of dominoes and an alphabet cube with a W for water on it! Glorious. Giant pencils and lights, and models and games – we can’t begin to describe it in a way that does it justice. The rides are all fun and cute, you get to meet Buzz, Woody, Jessie and Bo-Peep and the green toy soldiers march about and play drums.
The land is really cleverly put together, there are fences and railings made from giant ‘K-nex’ pieces, there are huge ‘Andy’ footprints in the yard, there are gigantic stacks of ABC blocks that make the towers surrounding the coasters and there’s an oversize string of fairy lights that bedeck the edge of the land. There is a small seating area that has a few table and chairs to eat your snacks out of the sun, what sets these apart is the fact the parasols are made from cocktail sticks with cheese triangle wrappers for the cover and band aids inside holding it all together. Genius!
The theming does not stop there, as you would expect, the whole land is a riot of colour, for example when you walk around by the Alien Swirling Saucers the planting is full on dark greens and purples with the occasional 15 foot long ray gun for good measure. The Alien Swirling Saucer ride is a fun little ride for the younger members of the family, you sit in a little flying saucer towed behind the mothership piloted by the Aliens from the grabber machine in the Toy Story film. This ride flicks you from side to side whilst being spun around, not one for before the churros.
Toy Story Midway Mania is a 3D shooting game similar to the now defunct Buzz Lightyear Ranger spin ride that was in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom. Warning the Toy Story Midway Mania game/ride is a killer on the arms! You have to pull back a drawstring to shoot your ‘gun’ to knock things down or shoot targets. Great fun though.
Now, to the big dog…or to be more specific Slinky Dog Dash, this is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most fun roller coasters we’ve been on in years! From the queue with all its little Easter eggs to all things Toy Story related to the actual ride itself.
When you walk into the land Slinky is one of the 1st things you see, and hear as he yee-haws his way around the track with his tail wagging behind him! Yes! Slinky has a steel coil tail just like the films, and when he’s in motion it wags!! A genuine pleasure to watch as it goes around. We had the pleasure of riding this many times last year and we will guarantee that you will too! The ride is quite quick with a few sharp turns and twists but nothing the younger rider will be scared of, the icing on the cake at the end of the ride is the Penguin Wheezy greeting you with a well known song rom the film. Bet you can’t guess what it is?
There are lots of meet and greets at this particular land, Woody and Jessie are always out and about as are Buzz Lightyear and now Bo peep as she’s in the new movie.
The one thing Toy Story Land is missing is a decent food court/diner, but as we speak work is under way to build a new bbq based restaurant just near the entrance, if you are hungry there is a quick service restaurant/diner here called Woody’s lunchbox, some decent food but the amount of space to sit and eat or relax with a coffee is a bit limited so can be a bit of a pain. But we can’t wait to see the new restaurant when we get there next year and we are sure it will be the final fabulous touch to this glorious bright and cheerful Toy Story Land.
So there you have it – 5 things that surprised us completely. We are constantly being surprised at new developments and new things we haven’t tried before or things we knew were changing but had no idea would be so absolutely fun and extraordinary. We didn’t get chance to even mention Boggy Creek (but we didn’t want to edge into a top 6 as it doesn’t sound quite so snappy) – that’s right up there too with things that blew us away – we go every time we visit Orlando and you should too. Wildlife and a peek at the real central Florida whilst whizzing around on an air boat. It’s a really reasonably priced morning of sheer pleasure and the guides are knowledgable and entertaining. Again another departure from the theme park mayhem. What a joy – hope you find them all a joy too – and if you’re not booked up for a holiday in Orlando well get booking – there’s lots of unexpected joyous fun awaiting you.
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