The way I celebrated thanksgiving Part III: Orlando, FL (I)

THANKSGIVING: 18 NOV - 26 NOV 2012
After nine hours of bus ride, we finally arrived to the city where fairytales do exist - Orlando.

Orlando generally is a city made for tourists, from the many theme parks, to the awesome international premium outlets. That is the reason why we decided to spend four days in Orlando!

The day we arrived coincides with thanksgiving day!

We spent our thanksgiving day in Universal Studios, Island of Adventure. This theme park is exactly what everybody describes it as. THE BEST EVER. No other Universal Studios theme park can ever be compared to this one. It is definitely the real deal!

This theme park houses the popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This Harry Potter section is the one that attracted me to visit Orlando during Thanksgiving even before embarking on my exchange to the US. I have been a fan of harry potter ever since my mother brought the first Harry Potter novel back home. Since then, I bought the subsequent books on the day it is up for sale without fail! I have read the entire series umpteen times since reading them once doesn't do justice to the amazing literature! Whole story cut short..

 I AM A HARRY POTTER FAN AND I AM PROUD OF IT!

Welcome to Hogsmeade!

I love the intricate snow detail on all the roofs! Absolutely lovely!


Want some quirky candy at Honeydukes?

Hogwarts Castle

The wall of portraits of wizards who can talk and move!

A glimpse of the Headmaster's room!

I have to say that simulation ride in the Hogwarts Castle is freaking awesome! It brought me right into the film. Flying behind Harry during the dragon's challenge in the Tri-wizard tournament, with flames bursting throughout the ride... Participating in the Quidditch tornament and sudden attacks by dementors... Awesomeness!

Other than this ride, we took a rollercoaster called the Dragon's Challenge. Like the Battlestar in USS, this ride has two lines. To my horror, we were standing in the line for the 'scarier' ride. Frankly speaking, I am a 100% scaredy cat. I don't even dare to sit the Battlestar ride in USS and I am in line for the brave. Seriously! I was freaking out ever since we split lines! What's done is done, and eventually, I took the ride. It was full of free-falling drops and corkscrews. *Shivers*  A side note though. I guess I am too thin or something, because for every rollercoaster ride that I take, my body will swing from side to side. Whenever there is picture taking, you can always find me leaning on the extreme sides or you can't spot me since I am 'hiding' below. For this rollercoaster ride, I was flying in mid-air during the corkscrews. Haha, it is not exactly cool since all my weight was on the safety barrier. Nevertheless, this ride is by far one of my best rollercoaster rides ever! (:

 Want a ride on Hogwarts Express?

 

Butterbeer that isn't beer. Boohoo!

After exploring Harry Potter world, we proceeded to Dr. Suess in Seuss Landing! I remembered watching a few episodes of Dr. Suess when I was little, but I could only remember the cat and its famous hat. Haha!

 

 

 

Dr. Suess Carousel

The rides in Dr. Suess in Suess Landing are very much catered to children. For teenagers like us, this place is nice for photo-taking! The decoration is really spot on, as though it came out of the book. It makes you feel like you are in the cartoon!

Toon Lagoon is another section similar to Dr. Suess, but with more rides suitable for teenagers. We took two wet rides at the Toon Lagoon.

 

The first wet ride we took was a flume ride: Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls.

The scaredy cat in me refused to take this ride after seeing the awfully steep drop (see the picture above) at the very end. But insanity overwhelmed me, and I decided to challenge the ride. There were so many surprise drops throughout the whole ride, which were all rather short and steep. Ultimately, it was the last drop that scared my soul out of my body. Oh my gosh. I couldn't believe I was alive after that ride. You may think I am exaggerating, and you are probably an adrenaline junkie. But having said that, this flume ride was really interesting as they were a lot of things to see throughout the whole ride. This flume ride was intricately designed to build up our adrenaline for the last drop. Well done designers!

The second ride we took was a river rapids raft ride: Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. This was the ride which made us soaking wet, and made us cold for the rest of our time in the park. Haha, I should blame my cheapo self because I refused to pay for a poncho and the people dryer. If I paid for either one, I would not have suffered from the cold winds! 

Then, we arrived at the Marvel Superhero Island. I have watched a lot of Marvel Comic movies or kids series and so, I was able to recognise and relate to most of the characters shown.

 

 

The Incredible Hulk Coaster

This section houses the most thrilling rides in the entire theme park: The Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, and Storm Force Accelatron. I did not take the first two rides. Haha! Definitely not for the faint-hearted.

The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman was a simulation ride similar to the Transformers ride in USS. I enjoyed the ride a lot since I have never taken the Transformers one before. This simulation ride followed a plot and the plot was crafted nicely, keeping our excitement till the very end. But if I were to compare it with the Harry Potter ride, I would prefer the latter! (:

After taking all the rides we wanted to take, we headed back to Harry Potter world to visit Ollivander's, the wand store.

 

 

The shelves of wands replicating the movie

All the things you need to attend Hogwarts!

The visit to Ollivander's was rather interesting as they mimicked the whole scene when Harry Potter first visited the shop to get a wand for himself. Instead of Harry Potter, Mr. Ollivander chose someone from the group to carry out the whole wand selection procedure. He chose a kid which wasn't a surprise. If I was a kid and he chose an adult, I would be furious and disappointed at the same time!

That basically ended our day in Universal Studios. I would definitely re-visit this place when I return to the States. Maybe by the time I return, I will not have any guts to take any of the rollercoasters I took before. But even if I do not take the rides, I will still want to visit this theme park again.

Memories of being a teenager.

Memories of being an exchange student.

Memories of how I was once daring.

Alrighty! Off to study for my final exams!

Yeah right...

I will be watching a basketball match in less than an hour's time!

Rewarding myself for going through two mid-terms a week before finals.

Let the screaming and school pride begin!