Friday 27 June 2014

TRAVEL PHOTO DIARY | Florida

 I have been considering starting a blog for about a year now unfortunately i have never had the confidence or the inspiration to do so! Having just returned from an amazing adventure in Florida with my best friend I thought this would be the perfect first post introduction! My bestie Emma (LWAFS) was blogging all holiday and I kind of had blogging envy!

The run up to the holiday was a complete nightmare, my boyfriend of 3 years was supposed to be coming with me but we had some major passport dilemmas and basically the passport didn't turn up in time! I was devastated that he couldn't, thinking I was going to have to cancel this holiday which i had planned for so long was heartbreaking, however i have the best friends ever. Everyone tried to help me find a solution and in the end my longest friend stepped into his place with less than 24 hours to go! Which means even though I was absolutely gutted he couldn't be with me at least it wasn't a complete write off and i didn't end up loosing a penny.. instead I ended up spending a lot on make-up and drinking lots of cherry vanilla coke! (which is the best drink ever!)
 
Me and my best friend Emma
Florida is an incredible place and I would really suggest going there if you haven't been already! Its going to be hard not to mention everything in this post as we had so many great times however i will attempt to keep it short and sweat! Apologies if i ramble..


Magic Kingdom

Main Street USA - Magic Kingdom
This has got to be my top Florida destination! Being a massive Disney fan it’s like walking around in a fairy-tale from your childhood! I find it so amazing that Disney have managed to create 6 completely different sections which include Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, main street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square they manage to get every single detail perfect! ( we even found hoof prints with maximum written on them outside Rapunzel's tower! I was so impressed by this as it's my favourite film!)


Maximus hoof prints!
It has been a dream of mine to visit for a while so we wanted to fit in as much as possible in the 2 days we decided to go. A lovely couple from our hotel told us about fast pass which is where you link up your Disney ticket to the app on your phone. You can then get 3 free fast passes a day, once you have used these you’re allowed to get unlimited fast passes for the duration of the day but only 1 attraction at a time, seeing as this is completely free i would suggest using it! It saved us a 90 minute wait on the peter pan ride, which i honestly wouldn't wait that long for! It's not the best ride in the world!


We decided to head straight for city hall on main street as i had read about the ‘celebration badges’ which you can get. You can literally be celebrating anything, a birthday, anniversary, engagement or a family reunion they write your name in fancy writing and then every single cast member will say happy birthday / congratulations etc. I even had Elsa, Anna, Snow White and the Mad hatter stopping during the festival of fantasy parade to say happy birthday, a real treat and it made my day and birthday extra special!


Anna and Elsa saying happy birthday!
I would also suggest going behind the Christmas shop to find the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, we had some time to kill waiting for the fireworks so decided to have a play, you get a magical key, map and a few ‘cast cards’ you then make your way around the magic kingdom and find the magic windows which open so you can defeat the evil villain! It was so much fun even though it was pouring with rain and we looked like complete weirdos!

Disney is a long old day and you end up staying until around 10.00pm to watch the wishes spectacular fireworks display, it’s incredible and it ends the day perfectly! They use projections on to the Disney castle of all different characters and even Walt himself! They then finish off with a flying Tinkerbell over the castle (however she didn't fly on our last day, which was massively disappointing!)


Wishes Spectacular Fireworks

Discovery Cove

You have to arrive at Discovery Cove ridiculously early in order to sign in but from the moment you walk through the reception to the moment you leave you are treated like royalty! As the taxi had dropped us off at 7.15am we were super lucky to get a 9.15am dolphin swim time, I have heard that the dolphins are more interactive during the morning time slots, and our dolphin Coral definitely was!! We got to interact with her for 30 minutes this included learning about our dolphin, stroking her belly, feeding her fish, giving her a kiss and then swimming out into the deep water with the dolphin trainer and getting toed back to shore! Was an incredible experience and worth every single penny!


A birthday kiss with Coral
After your dolphin interaction you are free to make your way around the park as you please, there are different areas where you can swim with different animals! The Grand Reef was incredible, although freezing cold!! I actually had trouble snorkeling at first as the cold kept taking my breath away! Whilst in this reef you swim amongst giant sting rays the size of double beds, tropical fish, next to a tank of sharks, eels and also lobsters! Such an amazing experience slightly terrifying at first, especially as i nearly sat on a sting ray! The other reef is a fresh water wind away river this was a lot warmer and we spent most of the afternoon here! You get out half way through and you can go feed birds, one even pooped all down my face, which was a real birthday treat!


Breakfast at Discovery Cove

I cannot wait to one day go back! It was the most magical and special birthday i have ever had! 
Islands of Adventure – Harry Potter World

This attraction definitely didn't disappoint, it was insane every detail was great! They even had moaning myrtle in the toilets 


Hogsmeade
You walk down hogsmeade passing famous places such as – Olivanders, The Hogwarts Express and The Three Broomsticks (where we ate ‘traditionally’ English food, I say tradtionally… not sure pasties and salad are ‘traditional’ English food, but there we go)We decided to pick up a frozen butterbeer from inside The Three Broomsticks and headed for the castle to start queueing for my favourite ride - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey!
Frozen Butterbeer
I really enjoyed everything about Hogsmeade; however i was a little disappointed that the new diagon alley wasn’t open! 

We where however lucky enough to see the train station, the Hogwarts express actually on the tracks and grimmauld place including the famous knight bus! It all looks amazing, i think i will have to just go back again next year!


Grimmauld Place
Over all we had an absolutely incredible holiday.. Hope you enjoyed my first blog! 



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