So, our time has come to an end! It was the most fantastic experience again, and we both loved it! Here is a quick rundown of what we got up to! We did all our favourites! We started the week by going to a shop – Walmart. I’m always surprised to see how big their shops are!

Next, we headed to Florida Mall; it was a great experience. The mall only really had clothes shops, but it was still a good experience.

For the first time ever, I had my birthday abroad and in Florida, it was a fantastic day. The meal at the end was really nice, too!

On Friday, 8th November we headed to Magic Kingdom in the evening for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas! This was an awesome evening, and we both loved it. I felt really Christmasy when I came out!

After that, on Sunday, we headed to Animal Kingdom; this was Mum’s first experience, as we never had the chance to go last time! She loved it and so did I the highlight is the Safari!

Our next adventure on Monday was Discovery Cove. This was probably Mum and I’s highlights of the holiday! We got to meet Clipper and had an awesome day!

On Wednesday, we headed to EPCOT. We both love EPCOT, and we had a cracking time; it was all set up for Christmas, plus the food and wine festive was running; we managed to explore everything this time!

We headed to Disney Springs on Thursday to enjoy the atmosphere and get gifts for ourselves and our family and friends! We like it here at Disney Springs!

Friday saw us heading to SeaWorld for another amazing experience! Mum got to see the Shark tunnel as it was shut off last time due to the Halloween event. It was a great day!

And finally, on Saturday I headed to the cinema; Mum didn’t want to come as she wanted to enjoy the sun, which is absolutely fine!

And that concludes our trip around Orlando! We had the most amazing time and loved every minute there; the weather was great, with temperatures high 20c and low 30c temperatures. It was warm, but we loved it. The room was brilliant, and I’m glad we picked a suit! We didn’t quite achieve our goal of going to restaurants, maybe something for next time! Although there are no immediate plans for Florida, I want to return there soon! Epic Universe opens next year, so I’d love to go there in 2026 to see that!

Mum – I hope these last 2 weeks have given you some great memories. I know it has been great for me! I will treasure this for the rest of my life! I hope one day I can take you back here! Thank you for making this holiday awesome, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I love you!

With that, my blog for November 2024 comes to an end; thank you all very much for reading my blogs, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them! Although Florida isn’t on the cards next year, we have some plans for smaller breaks next year, but I will explain more next year; for now, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I will leave you with my favourite picture of this holiday when we met Pooh again, which Mum loved! See you next time!

Our flight time today is 1725 Flordia time, so we had to get to the airport around 1400 to allow us to check in and get through security. We checked our bags and the cupboard to ensure we hadn’t left anything at the hotel, so we did a quick sweep.

After the final sweep, we headed downstairs to check out and basically waited 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to the airport. We grabbed a booth, sat in Bayliner Diner, and waited. It wasn’t too long of a wait, and we had lunch too. At 1320, we headed outside and grabbed an Uber to get us to the airport.

We arrived at Terminal A and headed to the Virgin Atlantic check-in desk to drop our bags off. They were really friendly and helpful! I was so close to the limit on my case! My limit was 23kg, and my final weigh-in was 22.5kg, so close! Mum’s were OK.

The nerve-racking part out of the way it was time for security; ironically, that is less stressful than weighing bags! It took about 30 minutes to completely go through security from bags and is being scanned. So it wasn’t too long! We arrived at our gate early, around 1500, but that was fine with us as we were there! They did have some good snack shops and food places.

Finally, at 1640, they began to board us! We were ahead of schedule, which is good! Overall, the flight back was ok; there was quite a lot of turbulence, and unfortunately, the wifi wasn’t working, which was a little frustrating, and they had run out of some of the breakfast, which was also a little annoying. Overall, it was an OK flight, 3 out of 5 stars. It could have been better; I know I have had better before.

We had to wait about 50 minutes for Dad to get us due to traffic, which I guess is normal. Now we are home and unpacked! I will do a review shortly so check back soon!

As we have done most things, there wasn’t much left of our agenda as we’d done everything we wanted. Mum wanted a chill day and spent time around the pool and enjoyed the sunshine. Personally, I have never really liked sunbathing, so it was cinema!

So this is Cinemark, located on City Walk, and as we are at a Univeral Resort, we get a free bus to and from City Walk, making it a cheap way to enjoy the cinema. I decided to see Red One for those Christmas vibes starring Dwayne Johnson, one of my favourite actors. It cost me about $24, which was the XD screen (Cinemark version of IMAX), a large drink and a bag of sweets that was about £20, which is impressive as in the UK it’d be double that! As usual, the Americans show us how to do cinema! Just look at the seat!

The movie was fantastic, and the seat was comfy. I really wish the UK could take a leaf out of the American’s book; this is how you do cinema! With that done and a very full bladder later, I headed back, but we decided to take a look at Adventura Hotel, where I stayed last January. It brought back so many memories! They even had Christmas up in the lobby, which is better than Cabana Bay, which hasn’t put Christmas decs up yet for some reason!

We decided to try their food here as I remember it being really nice. Mum had the steak dinner, which she loved, and I had the Mushroom and Swiss burger. It was nice and quiet there as it is designed to be an adult hotel, so a nice change!

We had a nice sit-down and chatted about our holiday while enjoying the peace and quiet. It was time to head back to Cabana Bay; luckily, they were linked on the garden walk, and we chilled the rest of the evening.

Sunday really was a nothing day; unfortunately, we had to pack our bags; we weren’t sure if we’d get everything in, but luckily, we did! I was poised to head to Walmart to get another suitcase! We chatted about what we had done and loved every minute of the holiday. We discussed tomorrow’s timings and how we get to the airport. Our flight leaves at 1725, and they start boarding at 1640. We have also checked in, making it easier at the airport. We had a last dinner, and we enjoyed pizza together.

We head to the airport tomorrow and go home; there will be a brief blog and a summing-up later. So, thanks for reading today’s blog, and see you tomorrow for our travel day home!

We both love SeaWorld for its park style and mission to protect the ocean’s animals. The theme park is well laid out, and they have good shows throughout the day. We were there about 10 minutes before opening, so it wasn’t too bad initially. It was also decked out with Christmas stuff too. We headed to the Shark encounter section first, as we couldn’t go there last time due to the Halloween event.

This is also a sight to behold; it’s a tunnel where fish, mainly sharks, swim above and around you. It was great to see, and Mum loved it. Since last I was here, they added a travelator to move you through the tunnel quicker. I guess it stops people from just standing there and not allowing others to enjoy it!

Once we had finished here, it was time to head to our first show of the day, the dolphin adventure. As you may remember, we had some one-on-one time with Clipper, the Dolphin, on Monday, so we greatly appreciate her and her family; it was an excellent show. Here are a few pictures of the show.

It was a brilliant show, and we both loved it! I think we loved it more due to our experience on Monday! Next up was the Orca experience on the other side of the park! So, lots of walking again, but well worth it! We grabbed some snacks and a drink and found our seats. Again, this is another outstanding show, and it shows the power of these orcas and exactly why they are at the top of the ocean food chain. Here are some pictures:

These are truly amazing animals! The show just had us both in awe, and we loved it. Our next stop was Sesame Street; I know it’s primarily for kids, but it was fun to explore nonetheless!

After our short walk down Sesame Street, it was time to head to the Wild Artic! Another fantastic setting for an attraction showing off our ice friends like penguins, walruses and so on! It was a great little trip through the icy lands!

After our icy trip, it was time for dinner; we decided to try something new this time and headed over to a place called Lakeside Grill; it was lovely! I had street tacos, and Mum had a burger! Look how nice these look!

Our final stop of the day was also our final show of the day. It showed off Sealions and raised awareness for them in the wild; it was a fun and enjoyable show!

With another show in the bag, we had to head to the gift shop and return to the hotel. I ended up getting a few more things before we left! I also tried the funnel cake for the first time, which was great!

And that concludes our trip to SeaWorld! It was a brilliant day, and we both loved it. We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for the evening! Thanks for following along!

Just a heads up, as we are coming to the end of the holiday, there will unlikely be a blog tomorrow as nothing is planned; over the weekend, we will start packing up and getting ready to leave on Monday. There may be a blog on Sunday, but no promises. So for now, see you next time!

So, we headed to Disney Springs today! We love this place; it has one of the biggest Disney stores across Orlando, a Coca-Cola store, and an M&M store, which is fantastic! Our first stop was the M&M store; I got nothing as the temptation was real! They have so much there!

Next up, I headed to a sleek candle store! It’s called Bowes Candles and is based in Orlando; they have many choices and fantastic smells! I bought a candle after going through all the smells!

After we stopped at the candle shop, I headed to the candy store, where there were so many sweet treats! I picked up an Apple Fudge Pie, and it was awesome!

After my sweet fix, we headed to the Coca-Cola store and bought a few things to take home. We also stopped at the rooftop bar and had a special drink and souvenir glass!

They were fantastic drinks! Once we had a moment and enjoyed the scenery, we headed to the World of Disney, which is the biggest Disney Store in Orlando! I bought way too much here!

After our shopping trip, it was time for lunch, and I know it’s a bit samey, but we decided to go to Earl of Sandwich! They had a holiday sandwich, which was turkey, stuffing and cranberry. It was lovely!

With that done, we decided to head back to the hotel and then head to Walmart; we got some dinner and more stuff that we wanted to take home, so we went around and looked at what we wanted to take home; obviously, we had a limit!

So that was our day! We bought a lot of stuff to take home! Luckily, we have 2 cases each at 23kg and hand luggage at 10 kilograms!! So we should be fine! In the evening, we just had dinner and relaxed. We head to Seaworld tomorrow for our final holiday trip; it should be great fun. See you tomorrow!

EPCOT is my favourite theme park in Florida; it’s not ride-focused and celebrates the world! Today, we decided we wanted to head there as Mum loved it, too. We bought the tickets last week. We got there nice and early, too. We arrived around 0920, and initially, it wasn’t jam-packed. Our first order of business was Spaceship Earth, which basically goes through human history; it was remarkable.

This ride is always excellent. Next up was exploring the world with their world stops; basically, they have places from countries all over the world. They also had the Food and Wine festival on, so snacks from across the globe. First up, Canada.

We had a walk around the gift shop and what food they had. Next up was London, where we met Winnie the Pooh.

We explored all the areas, too! Here is a quick round-up of the places we have been:

Those were the main areas we explored today! We actually managed to get around it all this time; last time, we both struggled due to how tired we were. We headed over to the American area for lunch and had a hot dog each, which was quite lovely!

We also explored the new area in EPCOT as well; last year, they were working on this impressive little centre bit, and it has turned out great; there is a dedicated area to meet Mickey and Friends, plus a show at the centre every few hours!

Overall, we had a wonderful day. After we had explored, it was time to head to the gift shop and head back to the hotel. We are both glad we went. Tomorrow, we will be heading to Disney Springs, which should be good. See you tomorrow.

So today marked a special experience, a few months back we decided we wanted to go to Discovery Cove and have a dolphin swim. We had an early start and were both up at 0630 this morning, that’s because they recommend being there between 0700-0830 so we can get settled in and changed into our wetsuit. They also put on unlimited food and drink throughout the day!

Unforunatley, I only got a few photos of the day, mainly because it is a water attraction, and although they had waterproof cases I did not trust them with my phone, so the day was phone free. Once we had breakfast, we headed over to the lockers and changing rooms to change into our wetsuits. You have a choice of a full wetsuit or a vest. I chose a wetsuit and Mum chose a vest.

With us changed into our wetsuits, it was time to explore the park. We started off at the lazy river area, which was remarkable. I have not swam in years, so it was a bit of a struggle initially to get back into the swing of it, but I eventually did. I wasn’t great still, but hey it was enough! Going forward, I am going to get much better at swimming.

I went around the lazy river twice. It was so relaxing and chilled, just letting the current take me around the park. It takes about 20–30 minutes to go around the park, plus you get to see the birds too!

After my second go around, we headed over to the Great Reef, which is basically a pool with all sorts of fishes swimming around you. For this part, you have to wear a life jacket due to how deep the pool is. It was amazing, I floated around looking at all the fishes, it was serine.

Next up was our dolphin swim, it was amazing! Both Mum and I loved it and there was something about it that was magical, and it felt a privilege to be with them. We had Clipper, who was a female dolphin who has been with the park for 20 years or so and gave birth to 4 children. She was so relaxed around us and seemed to enjoy herself. Although it was funny as the trainers were saying she was telling off the younger dolphins who were messing around, it was funny to watch! Overall, it was astonishing, here is my favourite picture of Mum and I with Clipper.

After our swim, it was time for lunch. They had a good selection here, and you can have anything you want, I went with the pulled pork, which was really nice, and Mum went with the pineapple salmon. It was really good! With lunch done, we changed and showered and headed to get our photos and went to the gift shop!

Overall, both Mum and I had a fantastic time, it was an experience of a lifetime! Thank you, Clipper, for allowing us to meet you!

On a side note, I did get my bag back today, so that’s one less problem to worry about! Tomorrow is another chill day, so there might not be a blog, or it will be merged into Wednesday’s blog when we go to EPCOT, so see you next time!

Well, we went to Animal Kingdom today as we read on a website that crowd levels would be medium… boy were we wrong. It was so busy today, it was difficult to get around the park. Note to self, don’t rely on that again. We had a great day overall, though, aside from a few mishaps.

As we entered the park and headed to the Safari, I showed Mum the tree of life and explained what it was. She loved it. The weather was superb today, so the pictures came out great.

We decided to start off our day with queuing… yay, fun. We decided we’d queue for the Safari bit of the park, which is basically a 22-minute drive around wildlife and learning all we can about them. Furthermore, we were in the queue for about 1 hour 30 minutes, so not too bad, and we were not disappointed. I took countless pictures as normal, but here are a few of my favourites.

I took many more as it was a wonderful ride through wildlife. Mum absolutely loved it too. By the time we finally finished the tour, it was time for lunch, and this was the first mishap. We decided we wanted to have lunch nearby as we’d wanted to go on the Gorilla trek, so we had some African food. The mishap happened while I was walking back with the food… I somehow didn’t see some stone and tripped over it. Luckily, I didn’t stack it however I spilled the drink and spoiled my lunch, The staff were really helpful and replaced the affected pieces. Anyway, here was my lunch:

Lunch was delicious and tasty despite the mess-up. Next up was the Gorilla trek, this was great too and Mum loved seeing the animals. Here are a few pictures along the way.

Next up was Asia, and we headed over to the bird show, it was excellent! Mum loved it! Our next stop in the park was the Jungle Trail, which showcases animals from the jungle. It was great, and I got to see my birth year animal, the Tiger. Here are some pictures:

With that, our adventures in Animal Kingdom came to an end, as we’d seen everything we wanted to see! Our final stop was the gift shop, of course! There was some great stuff there too. We also picked a time to exit the part when Uber was expensive too, as everyone else was leaving. We booked an Uber who was 14 minutes away with less than 4 minutes left, the driver cancelled the ride for some reason, leaving us stranded, so had to request another ride but was even pricier. So we used Lyft, which I have never used, which was fine, but we had to wait even longer. Anyway, the last mishap of the day when we finally got to the hotel, and said goodbye to the Lyft driver. I didn’t realize I had left my bag in her car. Great way to end the day… not. So spoke to her via message on the app, and she will bring it over tomorrow morning and leave at reception. What a day, but nonetheless awesome!

Tomorrow we are heading to Discovery Cove, I have never been, nor has Mum, so should be interesting. I may be limited to picture taking due to the place mainly being a water park, but I will try my best, hopefully they will have some waterproof pouches there! Anyway, see you tomorrow!

After discussion with mum, we decided today would be best chilling and relaxing around the resort, we have a busy few days coming up and we both felt the need to just rest! So that is what we did! For lunch, we ordered something on Uber Eats as we’d seen other hotel guests do so, we tried something new! A place called Jimmy Johns, which is a Sandwich place! It was superb. Here are some pictures:

We did decide to do one trip and considering we’d never actually been, we decided we’d visit a Target, not only that, but it was also a Super Target! We think we actually prefer Target! They seem to have more choice and more in stock items, here are a few pictures:

And with that, I am afraid to say is all I have for you today folks. We both had a good chilled day ready for the next few days. Tomorrow, we are heading to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which should be great. Mum has never been so, a new experience for her. Join us tomorrow for a fuller blog.

I started the morning in a bit of a weird mood; I think it was the comedown from my birthday yesterday. I perked up, though, as I am on holiday. Firstly, for me, I headed to Costco. I wanted to see what an American Costco was like, and…. it was mostly the same as the UK’s. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Not only that, but I couldn’t get anything as they don’t take Mastercard in the US. So, I’ll get a visa card next time I am here. Here are some pictures:

The main event today was Magic Kingdom in the afternoon for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas, and it was spectacular. I feel very Christmasy now. We explored the park, and everything laid on for the event; it was great. It was a ticketed event, so it was as busy as usual, but there were still plenty of people there.

We got a special wristband to enter the park for the event. It was gold and a pain to get off at the end of the night. We started to explore the part, and it’s all Christmased up. It felt busy despite being limited, so we went around the park and saw the Christmas stuff being put on.

All the rides were active, and the wait times were much smaller than normal. So I guess most people went for the atmosphere rather than the rides. After looking around, we went to one of the places that offered seasonal food. We both had an “A lump of Cole in your stocking” drink which was a cookies and cream milkshake with “lumps of Cole” in it, which were basically mini doughnuts; it was great. I had a brownie. Here is a picture

Once we had done this, we went to Cinderella Castle and watched the Christmas show with Mickey and all his friends. It was wholesome to put a smile on my face, and upped the Christmas joy.

Next up for the evening was the parade, it was fantastic. It had every Disney character you can imagine, plus fake snow blowing over the parade, and it was full of joy. I took loads of photos but didn’t have room to put them all here, I will post a few of my favourites.

The parade led nicely into the fireworks display, which was also spectacular. I have never been to a Disney fireworks display, and they did not disappoint. Here are some pictures

Overall, we had a fantastic afternoon and evening at the Magic Kingdom. We even got some souvenirs. It was a long evening, but I loved it all the same. We finally returned to the hotel room at 2310 and promptly went to bed. Tomorrow will be a chill day, so there might not be much blogging, but I will do my utmost to write something. Sunday sees us heading to Animal Kingdom, which will be great. See you tomorrow, perhaps.