Florida it is!

Ok. Mule2 ingatkan nak buat tulis pasal benda lain dulu, tapi sementara tengah ingat details tentang Florida, baik tulis sekarang.So, here it is...

DAY 1

We left the house around 3 am cos our flight was at 6 in the morning. Parked our car at Jai's office and his colleague sent us to the airport. Reached Orlando at 3.30pm and we were already panicking cos the car rental office closed at 5pm. Got our bags around 4.15pm and rushed to the taxi stand drove by 'pak hitam' who I assumed not a local because of his accent. We reached the car rental office 5 mins to 5pm (thank god!) and successfully rented a car. Pheww, nasib baik. Oh, tips for those who has a car in the US, no matter which state are you from. You can actually transfer the insurance from your car to the rental car so you don't have to waste your money paying more to the rental car company. However, you have to check with your insurance agent whether your insurance is transferable or not. Did I say I was very tired on the day we arrived in Orlando? The day before, I had a Christmas party at my supervisor's and got home around 11pm. Did some last-minute packing and slept around 12pm. So, basically after dinner at a halal restaurant in Orlando, we checked-in to our hotel and I dozed off to the la-la land.

DAY 2

We chose to go to the Universal Studios on this day cos they closed at 7pm and we already visited U.Studios Los Angeles last Winter so we don't actually have to enter all the shows. So, we skipped the shows that we had been to and went in those that we haven't. We finished all the rides around 2 pm cos there was less people (probably because the school holidays has not started). To kill the time, we went in to the shows that we had went in Los Angeles such as Revenge of the Mummy and it was the same, nothing extra compared to LA. But I prefer Universal Studios LA cos they have this tour to the studio/shooting locations which was very interesting. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant which at first I assumed was owned by Pakistani who I thought can cook Chinese until the Chinese chef went out from the kitchen to greet the customers including us. Hahaha. Anyway, the first question he asked to my husband, " Are you Chinese?" My husband is 1/4 chinese ie: his grandmother is a Chinese but because his skin color is dark, people hardly noticed his Chinese inheritance except for his sister/brother. And I noticed Chinese from Tanah Besar always the one that noticed my husband's Chinese look. Sorry,digression sekejap. After dinner, we went to Prime factory outlet which was bigger than the one we have here and I was so happy kerana dapat bershopping! Takdelah shopping gila-gila but because we didn't expect Florida to be very cold and we brought only thin jackets, we were forced to buy winter coats in Florida..

Tips: Buy Express Pass if you are tired of long lines. Or come and visit during school time so there will be less of people, less queuing.

DAY 3

Weather forecast predicted it was gonna be raining and thunderstorm so we decided to drive down south to Miami to fulfill Jai's wish of eating halal KFC. We reached Miami around 3 pm and went straight to KFC. It was nothing similar to our KFC cos the one that halal was the crispy chicken which was not on our favotite list. After our late lunch, we headed south to Key Largo but because of the traffic congestion, we decided not to continue our journey cos we needed the energy for the next day.

MIAMI, macam Penang kan?

DAY 4

This was the day we chose to enter Disney World. We bought a one day ticket with Park Hopper option cos the ticket was really really really expensive. Disney World has four theme parks but we only managed to check out only 3 parks which was Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.We purposely skipped Hollywood studios. The first park we went in was Epcot. Personally I found Epcot is more suitable for adults compared to the others. My favorite ride was Test Track! Next, we went to check out the World Showcase which was like visiting 11 countries in one day.It was some sort of Mini Malaysia comprise of 11 countries, Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. I wish Malaysia was one of them, probably our PM has to make an effort to promote Malaysia in a good way :P
The next park was Animal Kingdom. Disney World is HUGE, probably as huge as Putrajaya so we had to take a shuttle bus to Animal Kingdom. We went straight to Kilimanjaro Safari which was very cool, rode a safari vehicle and saw wild animals right in front of us.We had only 4 hours left before the park closed, so we decided to just pick up shows that we thought was interesting such as Kali river rapid which get us soaked and Expedition Everest, a high-speed train ride. It was already dark but we managed to catch the last show, Festival of the Lion King. I must say, it was a very exciting show, not to be missed. We were half-dead when we reached the last park, Magic Kingdom. We chose this park as the last one because they closed at 1 am leaving us a plenty of time to explore the magnificent beauty of this park. It was very thrilling to see the Cinderella's castle right in front of my eyes. Wow! That's the only word I can described. It is true, most of the rides are for kids but we still enjoy the environment and not to forget, the parade of all the Disney's characters. I had only one video tape of Disney movie when I was a kid and that was Cinderella! And I met her and her charming prince as well :)

Tips: Disney World works differently compared to Universal Studios in terms of express pass. They have certain attractions which you can obtain Fastpass for free using your Disney World ticket. The Fastpass only works for the time it stated when you obtained them and at the ride/show you obtained them. For example, if you want to enter a ride at 10 am but the line was very long. However, they have fastpass that valid from 1-2pm, you can obtain the fastpass and go enjoy other ride, come back at 1pm, showed your fastpass and you don't have to queue at all! So, you need to know which ride that has fastpass and go grab the fastpass first!

 Epcot

 World Showcase: Japan

Animal Kingdom

 

 Cantik gile kan?

 

DAY 5

We knew the next day, we would be drained out of energy so we decided to stay in until noon. We were contemplating whether to head east to Kennedy Space Center or towards northeast to Daytona Beach. Having to know that we need to pay around 30+ bucks per person to get in Kennedy Space Center, we decided to skip that and headed to Daytona Beach. On the way, Jai saw a helicopter tour banner so we decided to ask the price. The price started from $25/person, a 5-min tour and we chose a $45 tour which brought you a little longer around Orlando. It was a bit terrifying cos the wind was strong and the helicopter was shaking a little bit. Hahahaha. Then, we continued our journey to Daytona Beach where we found a NASCAR track (racing track) and we found out they have a tour which costs around $15/person that takes you inside the track. We managed to catch the last tour and hubby was excited to see the racing car in practice. We like racing cars, so if you're not that type, please don't bother to visit the track :) We missed the sunset at Daytona Beach  :( so we headed back to Orlando for dinner! Dinner was superb, we went to a lobster buffet and we were full with lobsters,crabs and what not. On this very night, I suffered from stomach cramp (probably because eating too much seafood ?)  and I couldn't sleep and was screaming in pain. Hubby had to drive to Walmart to buy medicine at 4 in the morning, but the pain didn't go away until the time we need to get up.

 

DAY 6

I lacked of sleep and the pain didn't subside. Before we left the hotel, I applied medicated ointment and by the time we entered SeaWorld, it went away. Alhamdulillah, kalau tak macammana nak jalan terbongkok-bongkok. I enjoyed SeaWorld the most because I love animals! Plus, the animals were sooooo intelligent. My most favorite show was Shamu, Believe! The show was very inspiring and I couldn't believe the killer whale can follow instructions. Teringat kisah Nabi Yunus. Make sure don't miss all the shows in SeaWorld, check out the showtimes first thing when you enter the park and organize your time accordingly. We decided to go back to hotel to catch a nap before meeting my virtual/Facebook friend/teman seangkatan, Aira who currently studying at North Carolina State University with her hubby, Parie. Met up with them at the Chinese restaurant I mentioned earlier. Aira and Parie is the opposite of me and Jai, cos Jai usually does the talking when it comes to meeting a stranger, so does Aira.

*Aira, nice meeting you by the way. Though you spent the night with us, I wish we had more time to chit-chat*

Tips: SeaWorld express pass works the same with Universal Florida where you have to pay certain amount of money to skip the long lines!

Sea World

 This is Shamu.Pandai gile buat aksi bergolek-golek

 

Aira and Parie

 

DAY 7

The final day. I couldn't sleep after Aira and Parie left cos I was too excited to end our vacation. Nooo, our vacation was not that awful, only that we were very tired and we missed our anak hidung pink,Rocky. We went to Island of Adventures, next door to Universal Studios. It was fun except I couldn't ride the roller coaster anymore. Not like the old days. I don't know why, my heart just like sinking down whenever I had to ride a roller coaster.We bought the Express Pass which allows us not to endure the long queue and I don't have to wait forever while hubby enjoying his roller coaster ride rides. Yes, he rode Hulk Coaster twice and the scariest one, Dueling Dragons once.Argh, jelesnye die leh naik, kenapa lah sekarang tetibe jadi penakut sangat nih?? Anyway, my favorite ride was Spider-Man! Oklah,saya dah tak berapa adventure seperti dulu.
We decided to tapau the food so that we can rest while packing for our things since we need to catch an early plane the next day. If you gonna visit Orlando one day, please try Buffalo Wings at Slim's Orlando Phillysteak. It was the most delicious Buffalo Wings I've ever tasted in the US so far. Check out www.zabihah.com for halal restaurant listing if you're travelling abroad.

Tips: If you're going to both parks, Universal Studios and Island of Adventures, they have express pass package for both parks.

Hulk Coaster. Jai rode twice!

Insya-allah, if nothing comes in between, we'll be heading to Hawaii next year winter break! Sebelum tuh kena simpan duit banyak-banyak dulu. (Hint: I'm broke!)

Panjangnye post nih! Sorry if I make you bored.