We had lots of fun relaxing, people-watching, eating, drinking, and swimming on the cruise. The food was pretty good, and the entertainment was OK. We saw some kooky juggler/comedians one night and a kinda funny stand-up comic. Ilya won a decent amount of money on the ship’s casino, which helped us not feel guilty buying a few non-included beverages here and there. My least favorite part of any vacation is...sunscreen. I really, really hate sunscreen. The way it smells and feels are both incredibly unpleasant for me. Also the fact that it makes sand stick everywhere is another downside. Each morning I stomped and threw a little hissyfit when it was time to apply. But we never skipped it, and neither of us got burned, and I know a burn is much worse than feeling goopy.
As we exited the port to make way to our next stop, we noticed a sign that said that persons wearing Crocs style shoes were not permitted to ride the escalator. This was complete with a guard watching everyone board the escalator, who we presumed was the Crocs Police. We had a giggle about this and wondered what possible repeated incident was happening with Crocs on escalators. We soon got in our rental car and drove to Orlando for part two of our trip: the excitement excursion! We were pretty non-stop doing stuff and going on all sorts of rides and seeing lots of shows on this part of the trip. This post is going to be a general overview, but I think Ilya may write a post documenting all the attractions we did, with some comments, just for historical accuracy.
On the first day in Orlando, we visited Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We had lunch on Harry Potter Island and drank butterbeer. As two people who have never read a Harry Potter book or seen a single movie, we knew enough about the story to get a kick out of that “Island” in particular. It looks very much like a very old, enchanted magical village. We got dinner at Margaritaville in Universal City Walk. As we were leaving Universal studios and entering the parking garage, the escalator up to our level of the garage was at a standstill, and we had to take the stairs. We had a very “full-circle moment” at the top when we saw what had caused the escalator to stop: an abandoned pair of Crocs stuck between the top step and the ground! Now it all made sense!
From here we checked into our hotel at almost 10PM and pretty much went straight to bed to rest up for another full day. On our second day in Orlando we visited Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We made a reservation days in advance to eat at a nice restaurant in “France” to make up for my high school senior trip when my friends and I did not make a reservation and had to eat in Norway, which was not the most appetizing option. We saw some goofy improv ladies and yet another juggler perform in “Italy”. We made sure to stick around for the Epcot fireworks show, which was great. Once again we didn’t get back to our hotel until around 10PM.
On our last day in Orlando, we got up early and as I was begrudgingly applying sunscreen to my face, Ilya checked his email on his Blackberry. That’s when we got the news that his sister had her baby, Nathan, early that same morning! We were now first-time aunt and uncle and couldn’t be happier for the whole family. And we were excited that our trip was ending that night, just in time to meet Nathan the next day. More on that little cutesie later! We checked out of the hotel and went straight to Magic Kingdom and then Hollywood Studios. Around 4PM, we left to head to the airport for our 7PM flight back home. Jackie-kitty was happy to have us back home, and we were glad to be back, too. All in all, we had a really fun trip!
