I'm back! Well I've been back for 5 days now but I've not been coping very well with jet lag which is one of the reasons it's taken so long to get this post up! I've been sleeping A LOT & taking "naps" (long sleeps during the day & the night). I think my body is also trying to make up for the lack of sleep from the past 3 years of uni now as well.
Florida was so good definitely one of the best 2 weeks of my life, I was so relaxed & happiest I've been in a very long time. I'm going to do posts in parts with a separate one up tomorrow of the wedding on it's own as I took under 700 photos on my camera & around 200 on my phone so it took a very long time last night going through them & uploading them onto facebook! I got very snap happy but what are camera's for?!
Those who follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr will have seen some of the stuff I got up to but those who never there were some highlights. On the night we got there we went to see Robin Thicke for Mardi Graz. Seen Tom Daley 2 days on the run at Busch Gardens & Sea World where I asked for a photo. Seen Pitbull (also rubbish) for the last The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. We missed JLO on the Monday & Fun the night before.
Frankie & Benny's breakfast smoked salmon & scrambled egg bagel at the airport!
During the 2 weeks we stayed at the Ramada Plaza which was really nice. We got free continental breakfast every morning with toast, cereal, a waffle maker, mini pastries, juice, tea, fruit. Funny story with fruit... Near the end of the week they had a bowl of grapefruit, oranges, pineapple & like 2 grapes.. The bowls were polystyrene & I filled 2 up a bit too much & the bowl ripped & I dropped the fruit all over the floor when I was inches away from putting them on the table.. The women working there just starred at me whilst I was looking round for my cousin's to laugh with me. She didn't even help or give me anything to clean it up so I was just picking it all off the floor with my hands!
There were 2 double beds, the bath was pretty shallow but it was alright as we took showers, got a mini kitchen/living room, with a microwave, cooker, mini fridge & tea machine. Laura & Ste stayed on the floor above, then my auntie & uncle (Tracy & Laura's mum & dad) stayed on 2 floors above them. As they paid more for their rooms they got access for the roof top pool & bar & the gym. (Which I sadly didn't get to use). These were the views from upstairs. You could see Universal & Wet n' Wild as it was round the corner from us.
We only used the maid about 3/4 times but she was rubbish even though we made it so easy for her, the room was always tidy & clean. All she had to do was clean the floor, take our dirty towels & give us new ones but every time she just took them & didn't give us any new ones!
I also had a nightmare with the lift. There's 2 lifts & we were staying on the 7th floor. I went up to my auntie & uncle's room on the 11th to get our clean clothes that had been washed, got in the lift (this was broke the other day) pressed to go down to 7 & it just thudded so I knew I was stuck & wasn't moving. Tried to open the door but it wouldn't open so I had to press the alarm & phone button. It just read a really long number & no-one answered. I did panic a bit as it was hot, I didn't have my phone & needed the toilet so I started banging & shouting to see if anyone could come save me. I was stuck for a good 5 minutes the doors finally opened & the phone answered but I just wanted to get out so didn't answer them. It was horrible & never want to have to experience that again!
Necklace - Cousins, Shirt - River Island, Shorts - Zara, Bag - H&M
Cousin - Shorts - American Apparel
Robin Thicke Mardi Graz
Necklace - Cousin's, Top - Topshop, Shorts - Cousin's Topshop, White Hi-top Converse - China
Cousin - Shorts Topshop
They had a belly dancer who would dance on the tables & instead of throwing plates they threw tissue all over the floor it was really strange. This was the second night we went for dinner at Pointe Orlando. The starter portions were massive which we all shared & I was still unable to finish my meal which was like a lasagne but instead of sheets had bits of macaroni inside it.
Kobe Teppanyaki Japanese restaurant, they cook the food in front of you & do a little show. All the chefs & waiters came out to see us while we were waiting to be seated at the bar, mustn't have seen that many Chinese people at once! You get so much food as part of your meal, soup, salad, veg, fried rice, then what you order as part of your meal comes with rice or noodles! If you've never been before you DON'T need to get a starter! Me & Tracy shared out meal & still couldn't finish it all!
McDonald's really does sell everything in America. The one on International Drive is the largest entertainment one as it has all games, arcade & an upstairs. Everyone else got a proper breakfast, pancakes, hash browns, Mcmuffins but I had an ice cream & a blueberry smoothie. When I ordered my ice cream they didn't even know if the machine was ready yet to serve it!
The day after the wedding we went to Gary's villa in Kissimmee to just chill. Watched the sun set by the pool which is covered by a net, had a Papa John's Pizza party. It was the first time I had Papa John's & it was horrible, didn't like the pizza at all. The BBQ chicken wings were alright but I woke up the next morning with a sore throat. This is why I don't eat pizza.
The garage had a pool table & air hockey table which I spent hours on.
Went to Denny's for lunch but I didn't get anything as we got free continental breakfast at the hotel & I don't like greasy food but went with them. Tracy ordered grits thinking it was what they called hash browns turns out it was this disgusting sloppy stuff made from ground-corn.
Before I went my mum told me I had to eat as much sushi that I'd be sick of it & won't want to eat it when I get back as it's so much cheaper there. She was right. Me Tracy & Laura got this 62 piece platter for $36! $12 each, 20 pieces each. We got it from Sushiology a take-away around the corner from our hotel. I had sushi 4x while I was there but most definitely not sick of it yet!
This was from the Japanese stall from the food court in Orlando Premium Outlets (stop 1 on the I-Ride). Prawns & boiled rice it wasn't very nice. Not much flavour & the rice was really hard.
I wouldn't recommend Chinese food in Florida, I had something similar to this in Mall Millenia & that wasn't very nice. Even though it's not proper Chinese food (which I don't like) the food in general just wasn't nice. It's worse than what it is back at home.
Shirt- Urban Outfitters, Belt - M&S Skirt- H&M, White Hi-top Converse - China
Bonefish Grill the scallops & prawns are amazing. Definitely recommend if you ever get the chance! We went to the one by SeaWorld!
Playsuit- Cousins Miss Guided
Red Lobster date with Tracy! This is also another definite place to visit if you love sea food. We both ordered the same but I got prawns changed to crab legs & chose green beans instead of rice. Lobster, scallops, crabs legs, broccoli & green beans. The meal comes with garlic bread which look like scones & you choose a salad, we got Caesar.
American magazines are weird. Why is Harry Styles Orange? & what kind of gossip is that about Kate?
Wonderworks is a good place to visit if you're staying on International Drive. It's a museum that has different things to see & do. Put your hand in water the temperature the Titanic sank in, see how long you can last, sit in the earthquake cafe, stand in a hurricane, make your own rollercoaster simulator. I made one which was full of loops & drops, which made Tracy hit the emergency stop button after 2 loops cos she felt sick. This was after queueing for half an hour for our turn! I would have stayed on & let her out but I was dying for the toilet & thought I was going to wet myself!
It costs $26 but if you get the I-ride booklet from the bus you get $2 off.
Tracy just got a dessert & watched me eat my dinner as she had pizza from the hotel. I needed to have steak while I was in America of course but getting a 9oz wasn't the best idea when I didn't actually know how big that is! I wasn't impressed & should have probably stuck to having seafood!
This was the night we missed Fun, we practically ran to Universal & got to the gates but they closed the whole park so you couldn't get in! We were 10 minutes late but we didn't think they would close the whole park thought it would only be the stage area & that they would show it on screens but they never so we ended up going to see 22 jump street at the cinema in CityWalks. I wasn't really a fan I prefer the first one. American's are very over the top, they clap, screen & jump up when they find something funny.
Hard Rock Cafe at Universal of course we had to go here! Me, Tracy, her mum & dad were meant to come her before we went to see Pitbull for The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.. Tracy got a taxi but use 3 decided we were going to get the I-ride bus (you can buy a 2 week ticket for only $18 then jump on & off as many times as you like, it takes you up & down international drive.) annoyingly as it's public transport it comes every 20 minutes or 30 depending on whether you get the green or red line. Which wastes far too much of you holiday time when you're trying to do as much as you can it should really come more often. I waited 20 mins & it hadn't turned up so I decided I would walk to Universal since it only takes 15 minutes but my auntie & uncle decided they would wait (I should have just walked in the first place) so I got there, me & Tracy ordered our food thinking they weren't going to turn up. They turned up as we were about to pay for our meal so we just left them, we didn't want to miss Pitbull since we missed Fun the night before. (Pitbull photos will be on another post.)
We both got the pulled pork sandwich, I got green beans instead of chips. I wasn't really a fan, I thought it was quite dry & there isn't much to choose on the menu, pretty over priced for what they do as well.
Breakfast at IHOP - International House of Pancakes. I had Ste's pancakes as he doesn't like them & it came with his breakfast anyway. I asked for no cream or cheese, so just got blueberry pancakes
This was our last supper at the Brazilian restaurant right next to the hotel which we had been avoiding the whole time because it looks horrible from the outside even though Tracy went the last time she came & said it was nice. Laura & Ste got the buffet while me & Tracy got the same pasta dish. We should have just got the one to share since we ended up boxing them up. It was really nice but just couldn't eat it all!
This first post is very food heavy as I took that many photos & we did so many different things I decided I'll dedicate separate posts for the places we visited meaning I had to fit all the food photos somewhere!
Tomorrow I'll be posting about the wedding the main reason for going to Florida! Can't believe it was 2 weeks today. It felt like I'd been gone for ages but wasn't ready to come back! The first week went slow but the second went so quick :(
If you have any questions or want to know more please comment or message, tweet whatever & happily tell you more :)
Julie
XxX
Some of the photos were taken on my Nikon 1 J2 camera while others were taken from my Nexus 4 phone & some from my cousin's iPhone 5 which is why the picture quality isn't consistent throughout this post.
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