Pretty in Pieces

It finally happened. After years of my friends and I talking about how we should all go on a trip together, we finally did. And we went to the happiest place on earth: Disney World! If you don’t believe me when I say it’s the happiest place on earth just go there for yourself and try not to be happy. Go ahead, I dare you. We went for a week at the end of May since that was the time that worked out best for the particular condo where we stayed. Getting there involved planning. And a lot of cash. Disney World is made for the kid at heart with the discretionary spending money of an adult in mind.

 

Our villa was sooooo nice. It was the perfect layout and it accommodated all seven of us without a problem. It was a great place to come back to after a long day full of walking around the parks.

We landed in Orlando early in the afternoon on a Friday. Since we couldn’t check into our hotel/condo/palace until later in the day we decided to check out Disney Springs. We mainly used this as a time to pick out places where we wanted to be sure to come back to later (I see you, Ghirardelli).

For our first full day on Saturday we hit up Universal for a laid back stroll to check things out. Since we had a 4-day pass, we weren’t too concerned with fitting everything we wanted to do into one day so we only went to the Islands of Adventure.

Fun fact: I was born in Tampa and lived there for about 5 years. My aunt and uncle live in Tampa now so since we were only about an hour and a half away we made the drive over there on Sunday afternoon. We spent the day out on the bay on my aunt and uncle’s boat soaking in the sun and pretending we were born to sail.

Monday was spent exploring Magic Kingdom… and it soon became the day that never ended. We got to the park around 9 am and didn’t leave until almost 10 pm. The original idea was that we would be staying for the fireworks that night but we were just too exhausted to turn that idea into reality.

 

On Tuesday we went back to Universal for one reason and one reason only: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! At least, that was my only reason. I was late to hop on the Harry Potter train (I saw none of the movies until college and read the books about a year ago) but I absolutely love it.

 

Wednesday was our drinking around the world day at Epcot. For anyone that doesn’t know, Epcot’s World Showcase features 11 distinct countries and culture: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada. It was so cool to walk around and find ourselves in ‘other countries’.

 

By the time Thursday came around we were dying for a day spent lounging at the pool, which is exactly what we had planned. It was the best way to spend our last day in Florida. That night we headed back to Disney Springs for dinner at Bongos Cuban Cafe. The food was tasty and, as an added bonus, there was a live band.

 

Friday we woke up, finished packing, and headed to the airport. I would say the highlight of Friday was having Wawa’s vanilla iced coffee (holy amazing- and I don’t even like coffee that much) and enjoying the most delicious margarita ever (holla at the Chili’s in Orlando’s airport).

All in all, our first ever ‘friendcation’ was a success! I’m sure there will be many more to come in the future. Do any of you have a go-to vacation spot with friends?

~xo~

Rachel