Nerdy Travels: Pancakes and Parks

Our first full day in Orlando was a pretty chilled out one. The day started late as after the previous day we were in no rush to run around the parks like a bunch of mad men.

The first stop on the trip was the place I have been dreaming about since my last visit in 2016, IHOP! I’m a massive fan of IHOP’s food and it felt like the perfect way to kick off the trip. Fortunately our hotel was on Disney property but was around a half an hour walk away from outside the property, meaning we had access to outside food, drink and other necessities. We began what would become a regular walk down to IHOP where I ordered a delicious batch of pancakes along with a side of toast and the best cold brew coffee ever. On the way down to the restaurant we also passed the Walt Disney World sign.

After our food was demolished we decided to head on over to this store which was across from IHOP which was one of the many decoratively painted buildings which acts as a cheap gift shop for tourists. These kinds of gift stores seem like common place throughout the area as you cannot walk or drive far without seeing a bunch of them within close proximity to one another. The store was pretty big and had a range of different merchandise to do with Orlando, Disney, Universal as well as beach wear and your typical trinkets. The store actually had some really cool items including expired license plates which I didn’t know were a thing so I picked up a couple of different plates from different states to put on my wall.

After the gift store we decided to head to the local 7/11 petrol (or gas) station to grab some snacks for the room. One of my favourite things about going abroad is going to the local stores and seeing all the food, drinks and snacks we cannot get back home. America offers plenty of goodies for me and my junk food loving soul.

After all of these various stops in the morning it was time to head back to the hotel. We decided to spend some time in Disney Springs before heading over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.

When we finally arrived at Magic Kingdom, the weather was looking a little gloomy so we decided to head over to an indoor ride to start with and we decided on the classic Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland. The Buzz Lightyear ride is such a fun one but as it is a shooter game where you have to defeat the evil Emperor Zurg, I usually always loose to my mum who is like a pro at the ride.

After Buzz Lightyear we decided to go on one of the original rides which I don’t remember ever going on until this trip which was the classic Carousel of Progress which is a 30 minute show in a moving theatre which takes you through from the turn of the 20th Century all the way up until present day. Whilst it isn’t the best ride in the park by far and the animatronics are a little terrifying, the ride was still pretty fun and I learnt a thing or two about how technology has progressed over all these years. After that we decided to go grab some food as the gloomy weather had turned for the worst and made doing anything outside basically impossible. I grabbed some chicken nuggets and fries and I then got this absolutely delicious red velvet cake pop from Big Top Treats located in Storybook Circus. Disney do some of the best cakes and other sweets and so I got probably a few too many of these cake pops over the course of our trip but I just couldn’t resist.

After my cake pop it was time to head over to the other side of the park to do one of my all time favourite rides, The Haunted Mansion. When I first rode The Haunted Mansion ride when i was six years old I was absolutely terrified of it and cried the whole way through. Now I am older I cannot get enough of the ride and it never gets old no matter how many times I ride it. I suppose these days it appeals to my darker, more spooky personality whilst still having the charm of Disney. The ride has a great atmosphere both inside and out to the point where it feels pretty immersive even whilst waiting in line. They have a bunch of humorous gravestones, a ghostly house pulling a hearse and some spooky atmospheric sounds to lure you in.

After The Haunted Mansion we decided to sit down for a bit and discovered that there were tons of these adorable birds hanging around some of the food stalls. We also saw some ducks which the cast members refer to as “Donald’s cousins” which I thought was the cutest thing.

After admiring all of the adorable birds we decided to call it an early night and head back to our hotel as I don’t think we had fully recovered from the day before.

Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!