…. and no, we are not talking about the two of us, but more about the little things about Orlando and Florida that make us feel all nice and warm and fuzzy when we think about our next trip there. Now don’t get us wrong, we are also very much looking forward to the parks, the food, the experiences, the shows ……. every last bit of it! But when we are not focusing on those things and we talk about just being in Orlando generally you may be surprised about the things we look forward to and the things we talk about when we are not discussing Slinky Dog, or Mickey Mouse or Star Wars. We thought we’d share a few of them today, mostly because thinking about them and talking about them makes us happy but also it might make you think a holiday in Orlando might be for you!
We enjoy the whole journey there – from checking our suitcases in and heading for breakfast at the airport to watching a lovely film with a delicious ice cream on board our flight courtesy of our amazing Virgin Atlantic crew. We look in advance what films will be showing, we get excited about what ice-cream they’ll serve, we get excited about settling down on the plane with our IPods or a good book and just relaxing. There’s nothing else you can be doing on a long flight so you don’t feel guilty about just sitting still, napping, reading, listening to music, chatting, or watching the map to see how close we are getting to our destination. How many times we point out to each other where we are is ridiculous, but we love it!
One of the things we absolutely can’t wait for is the feel of the Florida sun on our pale little faces and the smell of Orlando itself. The heat that hits you as the plane doors open is phenomenal. Orlando has a smell all of it’s own – whether it’s amazing heat or you’re in the middle of a wild thunderstorm, or just after a thunderstorm – our first sniff and feel of Orlando is something we always look forward to. It smells tropical, like a jungle, moist and hot full of promise!! Well maybe we’ve waxed a bit lyrical there, but honestly, it smells and feels like nowhere else so enjoy that first gulp of Orlando – fill your lungs, it’s magic and there’s definitely magic in the air in Orlando
Our next favourite thing is picking up the hire car and then driving to our accommodation. Mrs Oh always does that drive because she looks forward to it even when we’re on the plane. Most tourists are getting stressed and mithered in the queues for the hire cars, but not us – partly because we are happy we are there in Orlando and partly because picking up our car is exciting!! You can do it all automatically these days and just scan a bar code in to direct you to your car, but we’re never waiting long and we are pretty chilled about the whole thing. They usually just direct you to a whole row of cars in your category so having a wander along the row and picking our car is great fun. Luggage in and off we go – trying to figure out where the indicators are and the hand break (which is often just a button somewhere) and as they’re all automatics we generally have a cautious reverse out of the parking space and a jittery fairly slow exit from the parking garage!! Much fun. Once out on the open road it all comes back to Mrs Oh and we’re away. That’s when we get to see all of our favourite and familiar landmarks, hotels, signs and restaurants and we are positively giddy with excitement at this point. That takes us nicely onto the next paragraph.
The joy of seeing the Mickey House shaped electric pylon. That’s when we know we’re are close – close to Disney, close to our accommodation, close to the town of Celebration and close to everywhere we want to be. We don’t care if the traffic on the I4 or the 27 or the 192 is bad – nothing stresses us out. We are there!! And we are happy and grateful and delighted. We jibber jabber like kids – “ooh look there’s a Denny’s, ooh there’s an IHOP, ooh that’s new, was that there last year? Have we eaten there before, maybe we should try it, that’s where that new Water Park is” etc etc etc.
We are always excited to see our accommodation. Usually it’s a house or villa and we go dashing in, leaving the luggage in the car, to fully investigate everything. We check every room, have a good look at everything, if we’re with other people we sort out who’s having which bedroom and we generally wander about discussing how marvellous it all is, and finding new things round every corner. This year we’ll be doing that in our hotel – we know the location obviously, but it will be nice to see it in the flesh. We can’t wait to investigate our room, cupboard space, balcony and view and also the rest of the hotel and what it has to offer. We’ll check out the pool and restaurant and then we’ll unpack.
Bringing us on to our next “joy” – WALMART!! Off we go, to Walmart to get our supplies. Milk, tea, coffee, snacks and some breakfast supplies (for the days we are dashing out early to do other things or don’t fancy breakfast out). There’ll of course also be some beers, wine, soft drinks and water. We also get all of our toiletries from there and there’s such a massive choice we can get lost in there for some time. There’s so much to see and choose from and we end up leaving there with the things we need, some things we didn’t need and a load of stuff we didn’t know we’d ever need or indeed didn’t know even existed – but now we’ve seen them we need them. Back to the accommodation with the supplies and load up the fridge etc.
Another thing we both adore is sitting either at the end of the night or very first thing in a morning with either a beer or a cuppa in hand just watching the sun come up or go down and just relaxing. First thing it’s always peaceful and it sets you up for the day, watching hot air balloons bobbing by, looking at the colour of the sky, breathing in the warm air and planning a lovely day. Last thing it’s lovely to take stock of the day, talk about where we’ve been or where we’re going tomorrow, or generally just wind down and get nice and relaxed ready for bed time.
Cracker Barrel is our breakfast of choice as we’ve mentioned a lot previously – so we won’t go into great detail again, but honestly we have started looking forward to this already! The service is outstanding, the choice and quality of food is phenomenal and the look and feel of the restaurants is fantastic. That first morning when we head off there, already knowing the menu inside out and already knowing what we’ll order, is something we really look forward to – almost as much as sitting in the rocking chairs to pass a few moments on the porch, in the Florida sunshine, letting our breakfast go down.
Another thing Mrs Oh is particularly excited about is choosing this year’s ears! She’s pretty obsessed with them and every week she seems to see a new set she wants. They are bring new ones out all of the time, some are limited editions, some are new staples, but if she’s not stopped she’ll by all of them. Studying new ears is a firm favourite part of her trip – last time we went it was bride ears (obviously) and All American Girl ears, who knows what will come back with us next time, but the studying has begun – like she’s prepping for an exam.
We absolutely always look forward to meeting new people. The cast members at theme parks, the servers and waiting staff in restaurants, the people in stores – people everywhere. They are courteous and helpful and warm and friendly and it makes our holiday. They make you feel special, like they can’t do enough for you, they all do their job vey well but some go above and beyond and go out of their way to make things so much more special. It seems like they could help with anything you ask them about – nothing is too much trouble and it’s amazing how that makes you feel. The janitorial staff and the staff at the turnstiles at theme parks – it doesn’t matter what their job is, they do it well and with pride and with a smiling face. It’s infectious and it makes you smile back – a lot. So if we’re not laughing, screaming, eating or drinking we are smiling! Always!
We’re very much looking forward to the first trip of our holiday to a coffee shop. Mr Oh’s love of coffee is famous – but when he gets there and the list of options is endless his little face is a picture! The excitement of watching him look through the menu and change his mind several times before he gets to the counter is great. He usually panics and orders something totally random but it’s always nice to try something new eh!
You cannot beat floating round in a lazy river! Bobbing along watching the world go by under the Florida sun. Marvellous. A good choice for an after lunch chill – like bobbing along on the sea on a lilo but without the possible drama of floating out too far and needing to be rescued. Come to think of it the crazy river is also absolutely fantastic – for very different reasons. It’s fast and fun and wild, they make you wear a life jacket so that’s how wild it is, and be warned – it also scraped mine and TIFF’s toe nail varnish off as we whizzed along struggling to stand up – but heavens how we laughed.
So there you have it – the little things we are looking forward to. That’s before mentioning all of the other stuff we can’t wait for, Star Wars Land, the various restaurants we’ve booked, the fireworks and shows, meeting the characters, eating breakfast with Mickey Mouse, the quick service locations we want to try, the fancy cocktails, wines and vast selection of beers, the Disney snacks, the snacks in general, roller coasters, rides and attractions, water-parks, the stores – oh the list is endless!
Laughing and smiling is key here – these things all make us smile – even just talking about them and writing this blog is making us smile, and that’s what holidays are all about! If smiling and laughing is your thing – Orlando is for you.
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