Spring Break Day 8, 9, 10, 11: Miami

Miami started turning up in our travel plans when a friend commented that the beach was a place that we should go and experience. After some headaches over how to factor Miami into the equation, a decision was made to drive down from Orlando, spend a day there, and take a train back to Raleigh from there. At least that was what we planned in our original itinerary.

On our drive down!

We reached after a four hour drive. It had been a long time since we last saw high rise financial buildings.

We headed straight for the beach!

A common sight: small aircraft with advertisements in tow.

We hung around a while at the beach, then went walking around the shopping belt for lunch...

...before we headed back to the beach haha.

Dinner was at Joe's Stone Crab, a restaurant so famous for its crabs, we had to wait more than an hour for our table. It was a rather high class restaurant too, and we were very under dressed for it. Fortunately we were not chased out haha.

Nighttime Miami. Like D.C, police was everywhere.

All our plans for a incident free Spring Break went down the hill when we missed our train the following morning. Several factors contributed to our missing of the train:

1) The train was originally scheduled to leave at 11.50am the following morning, but track works caused the train to be rescheduled to leave at 6.45am instead.

2) Because of the rescheduling, we had to wake up very early the next morning to catch it. But unsatisfied with spending so little time in Miami, we stayed out till pretty late, and woke up late as a result.

3) Made a couple of wrong decisions along the way.

4) Bad luck when we couldn't catch a taxi.

After considering all other available options, like drive back to Chapel Hill, take Greyhound bus, try to catch the train at the next station before it reached, our final decision was to stay in Miami for another two days to catch the next available train.

We had to resort to tapping on free WiFi on the metro to find last minute accommodation.

We finally found the cheapest possible accommodation located next to the airport, and after a hellish morning rushing all over the place, we slept the entire afternoon away. At night, we decided to pay Downtown Miami a visit.

After some googling, we found the Bayside Marketplace a worthwhile place to visit and have our dinner there.

While the front was a little shopping area, the rear was a rich man's place. Bars, clubs, yachts, and live music performances.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel, and with our bags in tow, we were back at, guess where, the beach again! However, unlike the previous day where we only spent a couple of hours there, our plan was to spend the entire day there that day.

Again, the ridiculous amount of police there. Not that I was complaining, we felt safe there.

Panorama of the beach.

At night we decided to walk along the road closest to the beach, to get ourselves immersed in the famous Miami nightlife once more.

As a classic example of 'once bitten, twice shy', this time round we were determined not to miss our train again. We spent our night at the airport instead, tried not to get too comfortable with ourselves, woke up early the following morning and cabbed down to the train station.

Finally on our elusive train.

Miami is a place meant for the rich. Its so right in the face: the flashy cars, the hunky guys, the bikini girls, and the bars and clubs lining the streets. I don't exactly feel out of place there; but its not my kind of place either. A good place to visit and experience.

The end of our little adventure in Miami also marked the end of our Spring Break; the additional two days caused us to miss a day of lessons and blew our budgets completely. But I had a really great time in the state of Florida, and its okay, the money can be earned back next time.

Spring Break Day 8, 9, 10, 11: Miami

Spring Break Day 7: Disney's Epcot

Finally on our last day in Orlando, we went to the last of the theme parks: Epcot.

To cite Wikipedia, the Epcot 'is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely international culture and technological innovation', and the word Epcot itself 'is an acronym of Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was the name originally given by Walt Disney to a conceptual Utopian city of the future'.

Took the monorail there, the only mode of transport available to reach Epcot.

There was a little aquarium there.

Test Track! A ride sponsored by General Motors, it took us through the simplified process of testing cars before they are sold to the public. 

A very elaborate setup in the waiting area detailing the many tests administered to cars. 

I guess this little showroom was part of the deal.

A major area of the Epcot was the World Showcase, where many pavilions representing different countries were there for visitors to learn more about them, like China, France, Germany and UK. Here is the one for Japan.

Over at the Italy pavilion there was a clown performing street tricks.

The Mexico pavilion looked small on the outside, but actually came complete with an indoor boat ride!

One of the few rides in Epcot, simulating a glider ride over California.

Mission: Space, a ride simulating a manned mission to Mars. The only ride among all the rides I had taken to make me feel a little dizzy by the end.

Like all theme parks, a fireworks cum lightshow to end the night.  This is called IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.

I didn't have nice photos of the fireworks this time.

Exiting the Epcot marked the end of my theme park tour in Orlando. All in all it had been fun; as far as my memories went, the last time I went to a theme park was during R&R in Taiwan during my National Service days, and the theme parks there were more of a cluster of rides put together rather than keeping to any specific theme.

Indeed, the theme parks of Disney and Universal were top notch; every single detail from the exterior of the structures to the uniform of the staff were carefully designed. My most impressive moment was hands down, the Harry Potter and the Wizarding World. I could still recall my jaws dropping when I reached the entrance the first time. Generally, the Universal parks appealed to me more, but the Disney parks, being more family friendly, were special in their own unique ways.

Spring Break Day 7: Disney's Epcot

Spring Break Day 6: Disney's Magic Kingdom

After two days of visiting Universal's theme parks, we are back at Disney. On this day the destination was Disney's flagship theme park, the Magic Kingdom.

Unlike the Animal Kingdom and the Hollywood Studios where they are only reachable by bus, there are two ways to reach the Magic Kingdom - ferry or monorail.

We took the ferry there.

The ferry.

Arrival at the park! Kinda similar to Hong Kong's Disneyland.

Just in time to see some street performance...

...and more street performances!

The Tomorrowland Speedway. It was actually not that fun; the need to cater to kids meant they put limits on speeds.

Steam powered train that took us around the park.

As night arrived, everyone was waiting at the 'Main Street' waiting for the finale.

A fireworks cum lightshow!

It was very spectacular.

For the return trip, we took the monorail.

Before heading back to our hotel, we dropped by Downtown Disney, which was full of food and music.

As I left the Magic Kingdom, staff lined up near the exits to bade farewell to the park goers. It was at that moment where I had a 莫名的感动. It was the perfect place to bring kids to; for them to have fun, for them to live within the cartoons they grew up watching, for them to have good memories of. I never had the luxury of my parents bringing me to a theme park before, heck I didn't even grow up watching Disney cartoons, but I guess it wasn't too late to get immersed in one now. Among all the parks, this one was definitely the one that stirred the most emotions in me. Finally I could see why some reviews suggest putting the Magic Kingdom as the last park to visit.

Spring Break Day 6: Disney's Magic Kingdom

Spring Break Day 5: Universal's Islands of Adventure

[Getting bored with all the theme park posts? I personally am LOL. I should try keeping subsequent posts shorter.]

Just like the day before, free shuttle service from hotel to the park. Difference was that we overslept, so we went in later than the previous day. Once again photos were not quite in order, because I did not take photos according to the sequence in which we took the rides or watched the shows.

Previous day we turned right towards the Universal Studios Florida. Today we turned left to the Islands of Adventure.

Crowd levels were on the higher side on this day. Could also be because we went in later .

The Incredible Hulk Coaster. The consecutive days of roller coaster riding had taken some fun out of them :/ It was nevertheless fun though.

Highlight of the entire theme park: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

A Hogwarts Express train complete with a train conductor greeted us at the entrance.

Crowd levels within the Harry Potter area was ridiculously high. Amount of effort put into emulating the Harry Potter world was ridiculously high too.

A little choir performance, complete with screams from a roller coaster just behind it.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the flagship ride in the Harry Potter area. Waiting times were long but the ride was great!

Flight of the Hippogriff. A kids' ride even though we went on it too haha.

I didn't have photos, but we went on the Dragon Challenge as well. We could choose between one of two roller coasters, although we only went on one. Here is a photo of the locker rental area.

After completing the Harry Potter world we were out and went to the rest of the areas. This was the The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad Stunt Show. 

Jurassic Park! Never really got old. There was nothing much inside though. 

Panoramic view of the park from inside the Jurassic Park area.

Water rides! Something we have never done in the previous days, until we bought cheaper ponchos from outside rather than from inside the park. Pictured here is the Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. Very fun!

Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. Much more mild compared to the Ripsaw Falls, but very, very much wetter.

I like this area on comics. Very colorful.

Ended the day with the Seuss Trolley Train Ride, a little train ride that brought us around Seuss Landing area. Wanted to take it in the day so I could take aerial photos, but time wasn't on our side.

With this we ended our visit of the Universal Orlando Resort.

Islands of Adventure was easily my favorite theme park among all the six we went. The first time I saw the Harry Potter and the Wizarding World my jaws dropped; I felt like I was really transported into the virtual world of Harry Potter. The rides, whether the roller coasters or the water rides, were incredibly fun.

Spring Break Day 5: Universal's Islands of Adventure