We already posted our honeymoon but what we didn't include were the photos from our time at Orlando's Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. Matt and I sat through a timeshare presentation to get 3-day passes to the theme parks and enjoyed a few days there. We chose Universal Studios over DisneyWorld because Matt had never been to any Universal Studios.
Universal Studios
Island of Adventure
Carrying the weight of the world on my back
I've got the whole world in my hands...
Playing in the gift store
Sponge Bob Square Matt
Just chillin with Jaws
Photo bombed by the shark
Cuz I'm bad like that
Matt and his funny faces entertaining me while waiting in line
And then doing some info-gathering
Posing at the Simpsons Ride
The Lego people
Matt and I loved walking around seeing all these people gnawing on big turkey legs in the Florida heat
The real Jaws not so scary
Trying to take my mind off the heat
Look Mom, no hands!
About to enter Jurassic Park...
Matt showing that he is not afraid of what lies ahead
Just fighting off dinosaurs
Somehow I became a dinosaur
Help me!
I've always wanted to be character in a Dr. Seuss book
We represent the lollipop kids
Thing 1 and Thing 2
Thing 3
One night we stopped in the Universal Studios Riverwalk and had dinner at Bubba Gumps
"I know what love is"
The paddle is how you let the server you need help. Look at how sweaty Matt was - good old Florida humidity.
We also stopped in at this place in the Riverwalk where you could do karaoke with a live band and backup singers, which would have been amazing but I think we were both too hot, tired, and grumpy to actually do it. So we left after about 15 minutes.
We also saw the movie "Up" in 3D
For a couple days, we left Orlanda and headed down to the Tampa Bay/Clearwater area. We stayed in some dirty motel that we hadn't booked until we got there. But we got to spend the day at Honeymoon Island Beach, which was voted one of the best beaches in the U.S. It did not disappoint, though Matt got fried from not putting on sunblock.
Honeymoon Beach
Clearwater, Florida
While there, we also got to see a pretty amazing firework show at night.
As I look back at these photos now, I'm amazed at how many photos we took. But I remember we bought a little video camera just for the trip which we were excited about at the time.
Our dream Cancun honeymoon was cancelled the day before our wedding thanks to the wonderful swine flu shutting Cancun down.
So instead Matt and I postponed our honeymoon a month and a half and ended up finding an opening for his parent's timeshare exchange in Orlando. We wanted beach and warm, sunny weather and it worked out. Though I'm still dying to get to Cancun.
We headed out at the end of June and spent a week in Orlando and then another weekend at Clearwater Beach (near Tampa Bay) to get our beach fix.
While in Orlando, we stayed in the Marriott Grande Vista timeshare, which was a HUGE resort. The room was nice for us and we loved having our own little kitchen. I think we made 2 or 3 trips to Walmart for groceries - loved our Oreo's, yogurt, and nutter butters.
We had a wonderful Honeymoon and enjoyed Florida, but don't know that Orlando is a fave of ours. It is definitely made for children and tourists who like to pay a lot of money. One of our first lessons as a married couple was learning the differences between our travel preferences. Matt was completely content with staying in our hotel ALL DAY - watching movies, playing games, TV, sleeping, and relaxing (emerging only for sun and food).
I get more antsy though. I put up with a lot of relaxing but I can only take so much and around 2 pm every day I would start getting anxious to go out and play. Overall I'd say we had a great mix of relaxation and adventure though.
Our resort with its many pools
And its many lakes
Highlights of Orlando:
The warm weather - minus the random hurricane warnings and rain
All the theme parks
The funny names of Florida, including their millions of random lakes. Matt & I had a game of yelling out the names of the lakes that we passed including: BOO BOO LAKE & TURKEY LAKE
The food mostly - such as Pina Coladas at Bahama Breeze, BJ's Pizza pizookies, the Waffle House, Bubba Gump
Timeshare presentations - which we took full advantage of and ended up getting a huge discount on 3 day Universal passes and even $75 cash
Watching movies and relaxing in our hotel
Our cab driver, Tito, who drove us home in a sweet Chrysler 500 and talked all about his time in jail, his local Ruff Riders motorcycle club and couldn't understand why we weren't going out dancing
Quirks of our time in Orlando:
Keri forgot all of her garments so we had to hit up the Orlando temple
Flying in at midnight, not getting to our room until 2 am and starving! But our resort was all shut down and a good 2 miles from food. Luckily the front desk hooked us up with a local pizza joint who delivered pizza at 3:30 am - only to be the thickest pizza dough we have ever had
THE HUMIDITY
Our rental car - a red PT Cruiser. Matt felt like an old man!
All the cheesy tourisms
Almost getting talked into a timeshare program - yep suckers
BJ's Pizookie - manna from heaven
Tito's sweet ride
Matt trying to sleep
Me not letting him sleep :)
Our nightly entertainment at Bahama Breeze - we ate there or stopped in for a drink several times during our week
