Travel: Orlando
(Image: Google)
Hi everybody, it has been almost a month since my last blog post, I am going to be doing plenty of more posts in the next while so keep an eye out for them. If you follow me on social media you will have seen me and my boyfriend have recently got back from a two week trip to Orlando. We had such a brilliant time that I decided to do a post with my tips for anybody heading over in the future :) If you are interested in reading about where we stayed, what parks we visited, where is good to eat well then keep reading. I am going to do a separate post on shopping and how I found it over there so keep an eye out for that one. I hope this gives you some idea of what to expect and if you are heading over I am extremely jealous!
We decided to fly directly to Orlando from Dublin with Aer Lingus, they do tend to work out a bit more expensive than going through Heathrow however you get your flight done in one go plus you get to go through pre clearance in Dublin which saves a lot of time and trust me once you land all you want to do is start your holiday not be waiting around in ques for hours! Our flights cost us around seven hundred euro each I think. We booked back in January so it was quite early.
For accommodation we decided to rent out a villa, it was the same price as getting a hotel for two weeks plus we had our own pool which was an added bonus. The villa we stayed in was situated in Kissimmee which is about a forty minute drive to International Drive. If you would prefer to stay in a hotel there are hundreds of hotels to choose from in Orlando, especially on International Drive. Two friends of ours stayed in The Point Resort Orlando which was really nice. One thing I would recommend when travelling to Orlando is to rent a car. We rented one for two weeks and it was so handy, the parks are situated all over the place so it was nice to be able to drive ourselves and not rely on bus schedules everyday.
For accommodation we decided to rent out a villa, it was the same price as getting a hotel for two weeks plus we had our own pool which was an added bonus. The villa we stayed in was situated in Kissimmee which is about a forty minute drive to International Drive. If you would prefer to stay in a hotel there are hundreds of hotels to choose from in Orlando, especially on International Drive. Two friends of ours stayed in The Point Resort Orlando which was really nice. One thing I would recommend when travelling to Orlando is to rent a car. We rented one for two weeks and it was so handy, the parks are situated all over the place so it was nice to be able to drive ourselves and not rely on bus schedules everyday.
Most people travel to Orlando to visit the theme parks and as this was my first time there I was so excited to see them all.
We purchased our tickets before we traveled. Attraction Tickets Direct have some good deals, we purchased our Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Wet 'n' Wild, Busch Gardens and Sea World tickets from here. It was a package deal for around 350 euros. You can also pay them off over a couple of months which was really handy as I only work part time with college. We then purchased our Disney Land tickets separately off an American website. The ticket we got gave us five days in the parks using one park each day, it cost us around 300 euros as well. I will link the websites for both sites below if you are interested.
http://www.attractionticketsdirect.ie/
https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/walt-disney-world-resort/#tickets
The parks are really an amazing experience and it is so much fun to walk around them. Even if you are not a big roller-coaster fan the detail they put into the parks is amazing and you will still definitely have a great time. My advice for the parks would be too wear comfortable shoes and clothing, it is too hot to be thinking of tight shorts and fancy clothing! In most of the parks they have a deal with a refillable drink cup, they usually cost $12 and you can refill them for free for the rest of the day, it works out so much cheaper to buy this when you arrive first. The food is quite expensive and not the best in the parks, we usually went for food before going to parks and just got snacks in the parks.
My favourite parks were Magic Kingdom, this is where the famous Disney castle is. It is so amazing in real life and I felt like a big kid as soon as I saw it. If you visit Magic Kingdom make sure you stay for the firework show at the end of the night, its such a magical experience and will stay with you forever, it was my favourite part of my whole holiday.
The other parks I really enjoyed were Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. This is where Harry Potter is and if you are any kind of fan you will love it, the detail they have put into it is amazing!
I enjoyed all the parks we visited however Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Sea World stood out to me and I really enjoyed them.
There is so many places to choose from for eating out in Orlando. We ate out most nights and got some amazing places and some not so amazing places. You will find the biggest range of restaurants on International Drive, there is places all along the street. There were two restaurants we visited here that we both loved we actually went back twice to each! Maggianos an Italian restaurant. The food is amazing and the service is great too. I would recommend you book a table if you want to eat here as it does tend to be very busy and on busy times wait times can be from one hour. If you are going get the brownie it is delicious!
We purchased our tickets before we traveled. Attraction Tickets Direct have some good deals, we purchased our Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Wet 'n' Wild, Busch Gardens and Sea World tickets from here. It was a package deal for around 350 euros. You can also pay them off over a couple of months which was really handy as I only work part time with college. We then purchased our Disney Land tickets separately off an American website. The ticket we got gave us five days in the parks using one park each day, it cost us around 300 euros as well. I will link the websites for both sites below if you are interested.
http://www.attractionticketsdirect.ie/
https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/walt-disney-world-resort/#tickets
The parks are really an amazing experience and it is so much fun to walk around them. Even if you are not a big roller-coaster fan the detail they put into the parks is amazing and you will still definitely have a great time. My advice for the parks would be too wear comfortable shoes and clothing, it is too hot to be thinking of tight shorts and fancy clothing! In most of the parks they have a deal with a refillable drink cup, they usually cost $12 and you can refill them for free for the rest of the day, it works out so much cheaper to buy this when you arrive first. The food is quite expensive and not the best in the parks, we usually went for food before going to parks and just got snacks in the parks.
My favourite parks were Magic Kingdom, this is where the famous Disney castle is. It is so amazing in real life and I felt like a big kid as soon as I saw it. If you visit Magic Kingdom make sure you stay for the firework show at the end of the night, its such a magical experience and will stay with you forever, it was my favourite part of my whole holiday.
The other parks I really enjoyed were Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. This is where Harry Potter is and if you are any kind of fan you will love it, the detail they have put into it is amazing!
I enjoyed all the parks we visited however Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Sea World stood out to me and I really enjoyed them.
There is so many places to choose from for eating out in Orlando. We ate out most nights and got some amazing places and some not so amazing places. You will find the biggest range of restaurants on International Drive, there is places all along the street. There were two restaurants we visited here that we both loved we actually went back twice to each! Maggianos an Italian restaurant. The food is amazing and the service is great too. I would recommend you book a table if you want to eat here as it does tend to be very busy and on busy times wait times can be from one hour. If you are going get the brownie it is delicious!
The other restaurant we loved was called Bahama Breeze, it has an islandy vibe to it. The food is a lot cheaper here but still extremely delicious.
If you decide to rent a car Disney's Boardwalk and Disney Springs have a great range of restaurants to choose from. The Boardwalk is such a great experience and there is a lovely Italian restaurant called Trattoria al Forno. If you are anyways interested in the old Atlantic city boardwalk you will love it here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and picked up some tips. If you have any questions regarding Orlando do not be afraid to email me. I will be writing a separate blog post on shopping so i will have that up soon.
Thanks for reading :)
Lots of Love,
Shauna
xoxo
If you decide to rent a car Disney's Boardwalk and Disney Springs have a great range of restaurants to choose from. The Boardwalk is such a great experience and there is a lovely Italian restaurant called Trattoria al Forno. If you are anyways interested in the old Atlantic city boardwalk you will love it here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and picked up some tips. If you have any questions regarding Orlando do not be afraid to email me. I will be writing a separate blog post on shopping so i will have that up soon.
Thanks for reading :)
Lots of Love,
Shauna
xoxo
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