USA Itinerary (Orlando) Day 11 - A horrible experience with Dollar Car Rental but the day was saved by good shopping at premium outlets

We arrived at Port Canaveral in the morning, had breakfast, and disembarked into sunny Orlando. We took forever to reach the Dollar car rental shop because the shuttle service took 45 minutes to arrive. The lady driving the shuttle bus was friendly and nice, but appeared severely overworked, and we were completely clueless as to why the shuttle bus took 45 minutes to get to Port Canaveral from the Dollar shop which was about a 10 minute drive away.

Anyway when we reached the Dollar car rental shop we were in for a rude shock. The queue was omfg long, we waited for an hour before it was our turn, and found out that they did not have the full size car which we reserved (and paid for) prior to our trip!

WTF.

Their attitude was horrible, they were completely unapologetic about the screw up, and absolutely flippant about not being able to provide the car we reserved. Offered an extremely small hatchback and told us in no uncertain terms that it was literally take it or leave it. Amazing. If we were going to settle for any shit car that you are going to provide, what was the whole point of reserving and paying for the vehicle before our trip?! It's like making us pay for a scallop and eventually serving us clams and telling us that it was as good as it gets.

Anyhow, so we managed to squeeze all our luggage into the miserable boot of our small hatchback since we desperately wanted to get moving. We asked for the toll-free package (i.e. we paid a flat fee for tolls and need not go through the toll booths and pay separately) and were told it was included, so in the mess and confusion we left, thinking we are finally done with this horrid place. When we arrived back in Singapore, Zg received a rude shock when Dollar billed him for the tolls PLUS a fine for each toll booth we ostensibly skipped.

WTF AGAIN.

It was quite a large sum and I was so furious, I think I could have hit the roof. We wrote to them and filed so many complaints but Dollar simply ignored every single one of them. So I checked all the consumer tribunals in Orlando (lawyer instinct) which was no good because we were literally miles away. Thankfully social media has no boundary, and after a handful of posts on Dollar's Facebook page they refunded the amount and we only had to pay for the tolls. At least there was some justice there. And thank god we can write in English. I can totally imagine being forced to swallow the fine if there was no way to communicate anything to Dollar.

So after a rocky start, we went to the Orlando Premium Outlets (Vineland Premium Outlet and Orlando International) for some retail therapy where we scooped up some awesome purchases. If you visit the premium outlets in US, do remember to drop by the information center for a booklet of discount vouchers that give further discounts on top of the good prices. Had Five Guys for dinner which was good, but my heart belongs to Shake Shack!

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15

USA (Orlando) Itinerary Day 7 - Disney Magic Kingdom

Slept in a little more today so we only reached Magic Kingdom at about 8 am or 9 am. The car park was huge and we had to take a tram to the monorail station before hopping on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. The place was crazy crowded with kids and families but the experience was still magical. Disney always has the power to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Fastpass at Magic Kingdom worked differently from Tokyo's and Hong Kong's Disneyland. In Magic Kingdom, you could make Fastpass reservations online prior to arriving at the park and making more reservations after you arrive at the park. With the Fastpass system, we managed to ride on almost all the rides at Magic Kingdom with reasonable waiting times.

But frankly, rides were not the highlight at Magic Kingdom for me. I was there for the feeling of being a child all over again, looking at grand castles, delightful parades and beautiful fireworks.

Cinderella Castle.

An ice cream in the shape of a Mickey Mouse was exactly what we needed to counter the heat.

Rapunzel Castle.

Festival of Fantasy Parade! I LOVED IT.

Fireworks at the Wishes Night-time Spectacular. I love the fireworks but the reality of watching the show was much more challenging. We were squashed in front of the Cinderella Castle with tonnes of people and when the show ended, everybody wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was almost frightening. People were shoving, pushing, fighting their way out of the square and when I stopped to look at the map at the side of the square, I was scolded unceremoniously (to which I pretended I did not know English and continued looking at the map HAHA. Perks of being Asian). Someone needs to tell me where all these people are rushing to. 

But still, it was a magical day and a magical night. For each time I am at Disney, I must remember that all these beautiful things started with a mouse. 

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15

USA (Orlando) Itinerary Day 6 - Universal Studios Orlando, Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Express

Second day of Universal Studios Orlando! We tried to wake up early today too but we really could not drag ourselves out of bed before dawn after an entire day of walking around Universal Studios yesterday. We granted ourselves a little more time today and only reached the Universal Studio's car park at sunrise after grabbing breakfast at Walmart. I know this sounds ridiculous, like somehow being at the park at the crack of dawn was considered "late", but the crowd was really formidable. In fact, by the time we reached the entrance to Diagon Alley, there was a long queue of like 50 people waiting to enter Diagon Alley! What sorcery is this. The wait for the Gringotts ride was almost an hour even though it was only the morning! To sum it all up, if you intend to take the Harry Potter rides, be prepared to drag your ass there as early as possible or be prepared to queue for a very long time. 

Walmart. Still dark outside but dawn was creeping up on us. The Walmart was huge. If there is one thing I love so much about Florida (aside from the warmer weather and sunny days) is the sprawling grounds with large squat buildings, huge car parks, and a complete absence of skyscrapers. Coming from land scarce Singapore, it was so refreshing to see so much land, large squat buildings, and car parks that could spread out to the size of two soccer fields. 

Sunrise from the car park at Universal Studios.

DIAGON ALLEY!

The dragon on top of the Gringotts spits fire at random times of the day. Or at least I think it was random since there did not seem to be a particular schedule to witness the fire-spitting. Zg did some research and read that the dragon would growl for a few moments before spitting fire. So when the growls started, we dashed out and planted ourselves beneath the dragon for this shot. Perfect!

The Gringotts ride itself was amazing and I actually liked it better than the Forbidden Journey ride. The wait for the ride was incredibly long and the queue took us through the opulent main lobby where we watched the goblins working hard behind the counters. After a few more turns, we reached the mine carts and boarded one. It really felt like I was zooming around inside Gringotts and being part of all the action. So exciting!

Had butter beer ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and picked the souvenir cup so that I could bring it home. 

We also bought some souvenir coins from the Gringotts Exchange where we changed our muggle money for Gringotts coins.

Aside from the Owl Post which really amused me, the other highlight of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter had to be Hogwarts Express. We liked it so much that we took it so many times from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley and back to Hogsmeade. You should do it both ways because the image you see from the "windows" differs depending on the direction of travel!

Another interesting part of Diagon Alley was Knockturn Alley which, true to its dark nature, was dark, gloomy and chilly throughout the day despite the bright sunshine outside. There were also more "magical spells" in Diagon Alley as compared to Hogsmeade and interesting potions sold on the stands. 

I love both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and would strongly recommend the park-to-park tickets so that you could hop on and experience the Hogwarts Express. If I really had to pick one favourite, I would pick Diagon Alley because of the intricate details of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Gringotts and all the other shops and stands. Hogsmeade was beautiful and delightful as well, but Diagon Alley was the one which stole my heart.

Going around the wall from Diagon Alley, we emerge in London where the Knight Bus was. 

On the second day in Universal Studios, we went back to Avanti Resort for a rest in the afternoon before heading back to Universal Studios for the nighttime parades. We tried to swim in the resort's pool but it was overrun with kids so we gave up and decided to rest on the deck chairs instead. After some lazing around, we drove to the Orlando Premium Outlet for a quick walk before driving back to Universal Studios. The parade was underwhelming (Disney certainly does better parades and shows!) but Diagon Alley at night with a fire-spitting dragon was amazing. 

The rides in Universal Studios were world-class and I loved every moment in both parks. Very glad that we were blessed with great weather, clear blue skies and warm sun on both days at Universal Studios!

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15 here!

USA (Orlando) Itinerary Day 5 - Universal Studios Orlando, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade, Owl Post

To beat the crowd at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando, we woke up when it was still dark, drove to pick up some breakfast at the large MacDonald's along International Drive (the fries with neon lights were such a classic!), and reached the Universal Studios' car park before the sun even peeked out from the horizon. We were so early that the park was not even opened yet but! There was already a crowd at the gates. When the gates rose, the crowd surged forward and we hustled along with everybody else towards Hogsmeade. 

The Orlando Universal Studios have two separate parks namely, the Islands of Adventure and the Universal Studios Florida. We bought park-to-park tickets which meant we could ride the Hogwarts Express (certainly a must!) between Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley in Universal Studios Florida. We allocated two days for Universal Studios (one day for each park) and paid a bit more for the Express Pass on the first day. We figured that we would cover Hogsmeade and all the popular Express Pass attractions on the first day while leaving Diagon Alley and the other attractions for the second day. 

Hogsmeade at dawn.

We took the Forbidden Journey ride the minute we hit Hogsmeade because we heard that the queue get pretty bad by late morning. It was such a wonderful ride, I truly felt like I was flying along on a broom stick with Harry!

Being in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was amazing. It was exactly how I imagined Hogsmeade would be like (ok maybe not really, I always imagined Hogsmeade to be a lot bigger but, you know, space constraints). Everything here felt so real. The moving portraits, the magical "spells", the colourful store displays, the butter beer (which really tasted like root beer with butter foam on top), the moving books. Ah! I felt like a kid all over again. Then again, I strongly believe that we never truly grow up. Inside every adult is a kid at heart, suppressed by the daily grind of work, adult responsibilities, money matters, and "maturity". We never truly mature, you know? We just believe that we do. Some people are just better at hiding that childish side of us away. 

Owl Post. We stumbled upon this discovery accidentally and it was truly such a remarkable joy. We purchased post cards and stamps from the Owl Post, wrote our post cards, and mailed them from the Owl Post complete with the Hogsmeade postmark! I was so thrilled by this discovery that I wrote a bunch of post cards to my friends and myself!

The Hulk roller-coaster. Stef and King went to try it first while Zg and I watched with trepidation. Eventually I mustered enough courage to board the roller coaster and omg! It was such an intense ride but so much fun! I felt like I was zooming around upside down at a crazy speed and before I know it, I was back. So glad I tried it :D

We made a small mistake, took a wet ride sometime in the middle of the day, and left the ride soaked to the bone. Everything was wet - our clothes, shoes, bags, socks, hair. Everything. So we paid a bit to dry ourselves in the drying box and left the rest to the sun. Took a long while before we stopped dripping water everywhere we went. The other rides were good though! We did the Minions, Simpsons, MIB, Spiderman and Transformer. Some of the rides were in the Universal Studios Florida park so we hopped on the Hogswarts Express for a nice relaxing journey from the Islands of Adventure to the Universal Studios Florida. Will share some pictures of the Hogwarts Express in the next post!

As expected, food in Universal Studios was expensive and not the best but I guess nobody was really too bothered about the food because we just wanted to have fun all day under the warm Florida sun!

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15 up too!

USA (NYC - Orlando) Itinerary Day 4 - Avanti Resort and Pio Pio Restaurant

Wanted to eat a quick breakfast around Kips Bay so we dropped by this place called Bread and Butter where they serve salad and breakfast items buffet style. Basically, you pick up a takeaway box, pile the items you want inside the box, take it to the counter and pay according to the weight of your items. We chose a bunch of stuff, ordered coffee and settled down upstairs for a quick casual meal. 

Took a domestic flight on Delta to Orlando! The weather was superb. So glad to be away from the frigid cold in New York City and to feel warm sunshine on my face. Picked up our rental car from Dollar and drove to Avanti Resort on International Drive. This was a cheap, good and clean resort. We came during spring break when families and students descended upon Orlando so the resort was kind of crowded but the stay was definitely still comfortable. And yes, we could see the new Orlando Eye ferris wheel from our resort!

Chasing sunsets in Orlando.

Peruvian food at Pio Pio Restaurant for dinner. Had the rotisserie chicken, beans and fried plantain (essentially fried bananas). The chicken was so tender and juicy! Ended the night with sangria and lots of laughs when we stumbled into the nearby supermarket on a high. A cool wind picked up when we headed back to Avanti and I felt so... present. I had a full belly, some wine in my system and I was hanging out with some of the best people in the world. The roads were empty, the car park was quiet, there was nobody around, and I could actually hear myself think. 

5752 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819, United States

Day 1, Day 2,Day 3, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15