Oh, wait, that was The Go-Gos, not The Bangles. Ah, well.
The Husband and I are in Orlando, celebrating our 11th anniversary and my 37th(!) birthday. People, it is HOT. I'm from Wisconsin. Sometimes we get a couple of 90-degree days. Sometimes we have kickass summers like this one, where most every day is somewhere between the mid 60s and mid 80s and I don't want to die from the heat. Anyway, we come here a lot at this time of year because of the aforementioned anniversary/birthday convergence, and much like I hear about childbirth, I love the end result of our awesomely fun vacation and forget about the horrendous heat until we arrive again.
We left MKE yesterday morning, after getting up at 4:15 AM. I am not exactly a morning person, so much of the getting up, getting ready, cab ride to the airport, and check in at the AirTran counter is kind of a blur. However, what's not a blur is us being upgraded to business class. Awesome. Granted, it's only about a two and a half hour flight, but the extra legroom was tremendously appreciated. Upon arrival in MCO, our luggage came off faster than I've ever seen it here, and shockingly *together*! We picked up our rental car and were on our way!
Our destination for the first night here was the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios. We found our way easily and checked in, though our room was not yet ready. They promised to call my mobile phone with our room number when it became available, so off we went to get some lunch and hit the Universal Studios parks. We grabbed lunch in the on-site restaurant, The Kitchen, which was quite good, and spotted The Bangles having lunch as well (see, now the first line of this post makes more sense!). They were playing a show to benefit breast cancer research at the hotel last night. During lunch, it started raining pretty hard, so we waited that out a bit, and when it let up some, we grabbed the water taxi over to the theme park and Citywalk area.
Honestly, we are not fans of the Universal parks, but there are a few new things since we were last there, so off we went. The Simpsons ride is *phenomenal* - so well done! Over in Islands of Adventure, I was sorry more of the in-progress Harry Potter area was not visible. After some touring, we were running out of gas (see: 4:15 AM wakeup), it was after the time our room should've been ready, and yet there was still no message. FAIL. We headed back to the hotel, finally got our room number, and then had to haul our luggage up a flight of stairs, as there was no elevator available from the self-park area. We spent the rest of the night chilling in our room and had room service for dinner.
This morning, up early again with a 6 AM wakeup call. We packed up to head over to our next destination - Saratoga Spring Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World! We checked in easily, were given both Happy Anniversary buttons for both of us and a Happy Birthday button for me, and they also took my mobile number to send a text when the room was ready. We grabbed a quick breakfast in The Artist's Palette, then headed off to Animal Kingdom for our first day of park touring. We had a fabulous day in the park, saw quite a few active animals on the safari, tried out the new Picnic in the Park option for lunch, and SSR texted me promptly at 12:01 with my room number. WIN. After a bit more touring, we headed back, have unpacked, picked up our tickets for our dinner luau at the Polynesian tonight, and had a bit of a nap. The Husband went up to get some drinks and snacks, and surprised me with a pair of Crocs with the holes shaped like Mickey ears, which I'd pointed out to him this morning (for, like, the 87th time). I know, they're the ugliest shoes on Earth (not exactly "stylish boots";-) ), but I've been wanting a pair of these particular ones for years. I love having a pair of easy-clean shoes around. But the point is, isn't he thoughtful? :-)
And with that, I'm off to get ready for my anniversary dinner with my awesome husband!
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