gift guide: for the jet setter

In anticipation for our trans-Atlantic flight this summer, I thought a gift guide for those frequent fliers or for those with an upcoming vacation would be fun.

1. Portable phone charger

2. A mini version of my favorite scent "wood sage and sea salt" 

(available in the perfect sample size for the holidays)

3. 2017 Calendar with pretty paintings of cities around the world

4. Passport cover

5. Neck pillow with memory foam. Splurge here.

6. Face Mask for the flight

7. Transparent TSA-friendly liquid pouches for easy access. 

Day at Magic Kingdom DisneyWorld

Our last day in Orlando we went to Magic Kingdom. We were debating about what to do this day up until a week before we left so we didn't get any food reservations. Our Fast Pass reservations weren't that good on this day either since we waited to buy our tickets. 

We headed for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train right when the park opened, since that's been the busiest ride in the park. We waited 15 - 20 minutes, but the estimated wait time was over 90 minutes most of the day. 

We rode most of the rides (except the ones for really little kids):

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Fastpass)
• Haunted Mansion
• Space Mountain (Fastpass)
• Splash Mountain (Fastpass)
• Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• It's a Small World
• Jungle Cruise
• Peter Pan

We enjoyed Turkey Legs for lunch with the banjo music in Frontierland. We didn't make it in for a visit to the the Hall of Presidents, but we saw the parade outside the castle, and also enjoyed looking around at the gift shops and reading the art and fun facts around the park. 

We didn't stay for the Wishes Firework show because the car to take us to the airport was coming to get us at 2:30 a.m. that night and we were going to be missing our shuttle to our hotel if we would have stayed anyway. Plus we would have gotten no sleep by the time we got back to the hotel and packed. Instead we left at 8:00, went to CityWalk and ate (Pat O'Brien's again) and then headed back and got a few hours of sleep in. And the only restaurant that we could really eat at for dinner (that wasn't booked or too full) was a corndog place, which would have been fine but we decided to leave anyway. 

Planning Three Disney Parks in One Day

Both of our favorite day on this little getaway to Orlando was doing the Park Hopper at Disney. I had never seen Animal Kingdom, Epcot, or Hollywood Studios when I went so it was cool to experience all of that for the first time. My planning strategy really came in handy at Disney because it seems like Disney goers have it all planned out. For instance, people make food reservations l80 days in advance for the best places (you could starve in Magic Kingdom if you procrastinate), and if you don't book your three FastPass+ right away (60 or 30 days out depending on if you are staying on Disney property) then you won't get one for the busiest rides.

Taking all of this into consideration, here's what we did to hit up the most popular rides at each park the day we did Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood studios. The Disney App was amazing because it had maps and made it easy to use or cancel FastPasses. 

We started at Hollywood Studios where Jake was surprised to see the other planners like me (everyone really!!) raced (literally raced)  to get to Toy Story once they let us in. I admit it was a very fun ride and we only ended up waiting 5-10 minutes. This ride is over an hour wait by 9:30 a.m. and 75 min+ the rest of the day. Get a fast pass if you can - we couldn't.

Then at Hollywood Studios we did:

• Star Wars (Fastpass)
• Muppets 3D
• Met Buzz and Woody
• Rock and Roll Roller Coaster (FastPass)
• The Great Movie Ride

Then by my mistake we missed out on Tower of Terror but we had plenty of time to fit it in. (We had rode it in California but still that's kind of a bummer)

We left at 11:30 a.m. for Animal Kingdom using the Disney Transport and that was super easy to use! It took us no more than a half hour total from walking out of one park to entering the next.

Animal Kingdom was my least favorite but we did:

• Expedition Everest (FastPass)
• It's Tough to Be A Bug
• Kilimanjaro Safaris (FastPass)

We definitely had time for DINOSAUR but didn't feel like riding it because we wanted to do more at Epcot. Expedition Everest was so fun though. We were seated in the front and it was my favorite thrill ride at the Disney Parks by far! We had lunch and relaxed and watched some tribal dancing and looked around each area of the park and then left.

We arrived at Epcot at 4:00 p.m. and rode:

• Spaceship Earth (FastPass)
• Mission Space (FastPass)
• Sum of All Thrills

We had a FastPass for the Test Track ride (long wait) but when it was time for the pass we were in the World Showcase area and we had a great spot for fireworks so we decided to pass on this one. Realistically we could have done TestTrack and still watched the Illuminations show over the water but we were sat down with a cool drink on a bridge in Italy and so we decided to keep our perfect spot for the show.

Mission Space really freaked me out! You are launched into space with your crew in a tiny spaceship simulator and you get G forces put on you making it hard to breathe and compressing your chest. I really thought I was going to puke. (they have barf bags in there and emergency stops just in case)

Sum of All Thrills allowed us to design our own roller coaster and ride it and we really had fun with that. We went upside down four times in ours! The simulators looks like this:

Then we walked around the World Showcase, road a little boat ride in Mexico in the market, started a Beer Tour (one drink from each country) that we couldn't finish, had dinner at Vio Napoli (pizza is easy with food allergies) and then watched the Illuminations night show.

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

If you've run into me at all the past month you've heard me talk about how excited I was for this trip. Jake and I both love rides and going on adventures together and we didn't think we were going to be able to this year. But we took four days and visited the Disney parks and both Universal Studios parks and it was just so fun to leave town for a while. I visited Orlando around 15 years ago and Jake hadn't been to the parks before so it was fun to experience it all together! Also, May is a great time to visit the parks they are not very busy!!

I did my homework before visiting and knew what rides to hit first and how to avoid lines so that we could do the most popular things at the parks. For instance, I read Harry Potter world at both parks is least crowded at park opening and 1-2 hours before close - this was very correct. Websites like Orlando Informer were helpful to plan, the Facebook Group "Universal Community" had some good info and updates, and the Universal App had wait times and maps to use when you get there.

We spent one day at Universal's Islands of Adventure and another day at Universal Studios . When you buy two days you get the third free so the day we arrived we went to the parks at 6:00p.m. and headed straight for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley (one park has Diagon Alley and the other has Hogsmeade and Hogwarts). It was one of our favorite times being in Diagon Alley when it was hardly busy and having the chance to explore every single detail in the shops. There was no wait for the Escape to Gringotts Ride Line (we rode it a couple times). The details in these HP areas are so well done and well-planned that looking in every window and every store shelf was so fun for us. We even pulled out all of the character's wands to have a look at what they picked for each person.

 We had dinner at The Leaky Cauldron, and then watched the firework/Cinematic Spectacular show over the water at 8:00p.m.

Above is the vanishing cabinet (used in the last book/movies)

Inside Gringotts

The next day we spent the whole day at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We headed straight back to Hogmeade/Hogwarts at this park when it opened and explored everything there and rode Forbidden Journey (their most popular Harry Potter ride - the ride goes through all the scary things in the books like the Whomping Willow, Chamber of Secrets, Forbidden Forest, etc). Forbidden Journey had no wait when we went in the morning, but we wanted to tour the castle so we rode it a couple more times (later in the day it had a 70 minute wait, Jake was glad I did my homework!).  The ride line runs through a big part of castle for you to tour (more than the Gringotts tour which was also cool), but you get to see a lot of your favorite rooms and statues and pictures from the book even the greenhouse! Of course all of the photos are interactive and move! 

Next, we rode all of the water rides and got soaked. Then changed our clothes, grabbed lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe right outside the park, and explored the rest of the park. The Hulk coaster was down, and The Reign of Kong was not open yet, but we still had a fun time exploring Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, Super Hero Island, The Lost Continent, and Seuss Landing. 

I laughed harder than I have in so long when Jake went under the T-Rex (You can control just the head and eyes I thought) and lets out a HUGE ROAR (there was a microphone voice changer too - and he was just so loud!!). The kids taking pictures with the T-Rex couldn't see him underneath and the whole place clapped and all the kids' faces lit up because they weren't expecting it. He kept doing it and it was so funny. (Pics of what I'm talking about are below)

We ended the night at Hog's Head for drinks and another run through of Hogsmeade before it closed and then dinner at Vivo Italian in CityWalk.

Everything interacted with us and talked!

The Three Broomsticks

Chocolate Frogs!

Here's the T-Rex I was talking about that Jake was roaring in... .

The day we went to Universal Studios park, we slept in. We had visited three Disney parks the day before so we went to lunch at 11:00a.m. at Hard Rock and then went into Universal. Our initial plan was to go see some SeaWorld shows from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. and then do Universal Studios (we only had a few days - we wanted to squeeze it all in) but we were just too exhausted. 

We did not go to Diagon Alley right away this day (park opened at 9:00 and 11:30 a.m. was too busy). We explored the park until 4:15 and then went to a movie right outside the park (The Boss with Melissa McCarthy) and then did Diagon Alley all again until close from 6:30-8:00p.m. 

We went looking around the shops of CityWalk after the park closed and then had the BEST time at Pat O'Brien's with Dueling Pianos in CityWalk . They were so fun that night, we stayed late, but we went back the next night and....wasn't as fun with different performers. CityWalk was so fun you can carry drinks around and shop or just walk around the water and relax.

Overall we saw just about everything at both parks we did miss out on The Animal Show, Makeup Show, and WoodyWoodpecker's Kidzone but besides that we rode and watched all the rest!

Jake with the Knight Bus in the background

Loved the fire breathing dragon atop Gringotts. Warmed the entire street up with the heat!

Bell Clocks in Diagon Alley :)