tierneytravels

Oh Orlando

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Thank goodness the tierneycreates Beastie did a post on April 13th (Guest Blogger: Updated Tour of Beastie’s Home), otherwise I’d be many weeks without a post to my blog!

We been “on holiday” and have had several sets of visitors (as well as more to come over the next several months). You give people vaccines and they just go crazy – ha! (Speaking of vaccine, we did get our one dose Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine at the beginning on April – yay!!!!)

So now it’s back to some blogging for me and I was torn between first catching up on reading my blogging buddies posts from the past several weeks versus writing a post myself. But if I don’t go ahead and start writing posts it well it might be a couple more weeks before you hear from me (smile).

OH ORLANDO (FLORIDA)

Not sure why I added the “oh” in front of “Orlando” but I do love alliteration in blog post titles (one of the small pleasures in life).

On April 9th my partner John and I headed to Orlando, Florida for a 4 day vacation which included a visit to Universal Studios Florida.

Here we are in the obligatory photo in front of the Universal Studios Theme Park globe:

I am a notoriously bad group selfie photo taker but at least 75% or so of John’s head got in the photo!

Why Orlando? Well in my March 14th post Outstanding Blogger Award (and snow) I wrote:

Tierney here, writing to you from the “Snowpocalypse” in Colorado, buried under quite a bit of snow. Any of my blogging friends live in Florida or anywhere warm? May I move in with you? 

Well none of you invited me to come live with you in Florida (ha); somehow I got Florida stuck in my mind (warm, sun, no snow); and I read an article somewhere that that Orlando theme parks had excellent COVID protocols.

In retrospect I think I would have enjoyed visiting a Florida coastal town and enjoying the beach but I’ll save that for my next trip to Florida.

When we first arrived at the Universal Studios Resort area which a shopping and eatery area before you get to the theme park entrance, we were very naughty and began our day with a Voodoo Donuts treat:

I had a crazy sugar rush after my exceptionally delicious jelly donut but I worked it off (and hopefully the 10,000 calories) from walking 13,000+ steps per my phone around Universal Studios theme park.

We went on a Monday and were surprised how many people were there. The lines were long to get on each attraction because they had COVID protocols and could not fill each line. We also discovered we were there during a “Spring Break” time (we thought we had bypassed “Spring Break”).

We did not go on as many rides as we planned but here were our favorites:

The Bourne Stuntacular

I could not take any photos but it was based on the Jason Bourne movies and was a mind blowing mix of live action and 3D effects. Definitely worth seeing.

Transformers 3D

I screamed the entire ride as the 3D was super realistic and I thought I was actually plummeting down a skyscraper!

Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon

This ride was so fun as it was a virtual race through NYC and being a native New Yorker (grew up in Long Island and Update NY), I’ve spent a lot of time in NYC (pre-COVID my sister and I would go a “girls trip” at least once a year there).

Note: none of the rides allowed you to take photos in the actual ride, so any photos I am sharing are from the attraction’s wait queue line or the front of the attraction.

The Fast & Furious Ride

I’ve see all the Fast and Furious franchise movies and the ride itself was an amazing 3D experience but what was really amazing was the extremely detailed recreation of the garage from the movies where the built and services their racing high performance cars. We really enjoyed waiting on/moving through the line on this attraction and seeing the recreation of the garage.

In addition to going on rides, we also went to Diagon Alley at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was pretty amazing and if I’d been a kid currently reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling it would have blown my mind.

You can look at the images on the link I provided above and I am just going to share some of my favorite things from Diagon Alley:

Books that can eat you from the bookshop:

And Self-Knitting Needles (wouldn’t that save a lot of time!):

In addition to Universal Studios we stayed in Orlando near a collection of shops, restaurants and attractions called Icon Park. We ate several meals at restaurants at this park and had an especially memorial and delicious meal of paella at Tapa del Toro which also featured flamingo dancers while you ate.

It was a lot of paella and luckily our hotel room had a refrigerator and microwave so we could enjoy our leftovers the next day. John did go golfing with his colleague who lives in the Orlando area one morning while I binged watched a Netflix show (you got to have some downtime/chill out time on vacation).

So that was our Orlando trip, more stories of recent adventures (and even some about crafting) to come!

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

38 thoughts on “Oh Orlando”

  2. What a fun post! Thank you!! I feel almost like I’ve been there. I have only been to Disneyland and Univ Studios in LA. And VooDoo Donuts! You’ve having too much fun!

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  5. That sounds like a wonderful vacation! Glad you got to see and do so many fun things 🙂 I didn’t know VooDoo Doughnuts had a shop in Orlando – I have been to the one in Portland. It was very good, but the doughnuts are definitely not light 🙂 Thanks for sharing your adventure!

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  6. Hi Tierney, glad to see you two visited our part of the world! Pete and I love our theme park passes – I love Universal the most! I agree with your favorites especially the Jimmy Fallon Race through New York. We live approximately 25 miles away…next time you’re in the area let me know – I’m getting pretty good at being a tour guide!

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  7. Sounds like a fun time. It has been years since I visited Florida and the themed parks with my sons when they were young. I think it’s time to take my grandchildren. The paella looked delicious. My roommate during my university years was my cousin, and she made a delicious paella. She has learned the recipe from the time she lived in Spain. She also made a killer Sangria drink.

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  8. That looks like fun! I am jealous at your vaccine! It’ll probably be July or later before they reach my age group. And you’re lucky with the one shot vaccine. My mum gets her first dose this week and it’ll almost be August before she’s 2 weeks past her second shot because they stretched the interval between shots to get more people a first shot quicker.

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  9. Wow there is really too much to comment on for this post, love the alliteration to begin with 😉 And Diagon Alley, self knitting needles, what! Looks like so much fun, thanks for sharing 🙂

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  10. Wow, looks like you two had a blast! I completely get needing some ‘down time’ when you visit theme parks… they’re fun but also exhausting 🙂 We haven’t been in over 30 years, maybe it’s time to consider a short trip ourselves :-p Thanks for sharing!

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  18. This looks like it was a lot of fun, Tierney. 🙂 I especially feel like I need to get myself a pair of those needles! I’m glad you guys were able to enjoy sunny Orlando — a well-deserved treat after last Winter!

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