Florida is an amazing sunny state. We were lucky to visit Orlando a year ago.We visited Orlando, Florida last year in October. Hurricane Milton had just passed a day earlier and devastated the Tampa area. Fortunately, Orlando was not badly hit. Our trip was luckily not cancelled. Our hotel resort was changed due to power cuts but we were lucky to stay at a wonderful place nevertheless. Here is a travel diary of our trip and couple of tips for accommodation and places to visit.
Accommodation in Orlando
We stayed two nights at Rosen Inn International on arrival. All four of us were able to fit in the two double beds in the room. We did this to recover from our jetlag. It was also a much-needed rest after our long flight. The hotel was next to the largest McDonald’s in the world. We went to Denny’s for our first day vacation brekkie. The hotel was within walking distance to the Icon Park and Madame Tussaud’s.
We were also able to walk to Ross Dress for Less for some cheap shopping. We relaxed at the pool after a hot day. After the two days, we moved to our main RCI resort. We stayed for a week in Cypress Palms and enjoyed it very much. The kids had their own queen size beds and us adults shared a king size. We had full kitchen and two bathrooms (one with a jacuzzi) so plenty of room for the four of us. There were two pools each with a jacuzzi and showers by the pool. The bigger pool was of great size and the gym was excellent.
Food
We like to go to restaurants once per day. Also we like to cook for ourselves when we travel. The resort was conveniently close to an Aldi and a Walmart Supercenter. We were able to find everything we needed and more. Here is my recommendation for a cook book that has very simple family recipes: The Family-Friendly Healthy Eating Cookbook. The book is written by Dennis Heikkinen.
These are the reasons why I like this cookbook:
- 30-Minute Weeknights: Dinner fast without complicated steps.
- Budget-Friendly: Grocery-store ingredients; no fancy stuff.
- Picky-Eater Friendly: Family-approved meals + swaps.
- Stop the Scroll: Everything organized in one clean cookbook.
- Done-for-You: Includes a 7-day meal plan.
These recipes are doable also when you are traveling because the ingredients are easy to find wherever you go. So buy your copy here. This is an affiliate link so I may earn a commission from your purchase at no extra cost to you.
Normally we would have rented a car. This time we found Ubers and Lyfts very handy. The parking fees at the amusement parks can be quite high. The Ubers ended up being a cheaper option for us.
Parks and Activities in Orlando
I noticed something interesting about Disney World tickets. When looking online from Finland, I could only buy a two-day ticket. However, when I was in Florida, the same official site showed us one-day tickets. So we spent one day in Disney World and one day in Universal Studios.
If you are familiar with Undercover Tourist, you can get a discount of up to $109. Use this affiliate Undercovertourist link to the Universal Orlando. The kids preferred the Universal because they were already 9 and 12 yrs old and found Disney a bit “childish”. However, the Disney Magic Kingdom fireworks were something that we had never seen before and I highly recommend them. We were there on a Wednesday night so the park was open later and it was already dark outside. At Universal I loved the E.T. ride and the Springfield area.
At Disney World, we did not spend time in the shops. Instead, we visited the free Disney Springs shopping area another day. We also watched a movie at the cinema there. The three-storey Coca-Cola store was fun and the restaurants with dinosaurs and impressive decorations were again something new to us. We did some souvenir shopping also at the Vineland Outlet stores at Gap and Tommy Hilfiger etc.
We had time to visit the Gatorland and the rescue gators. The place was scary and a bit smelly at times, but again it was something worth a visit. The shows were fun and we walked around the whole park and even saw the famous capybaras. The Orlando trip was completed with Orlando Magic basketball game at the Kia Centre. It was quite the show with dancers and the supporters and atmosphere.
We thought there are so many parks and places to visit in Orlando. We could plan another trip at some point. The new SuperNintendo Park and Universal Epic Universe look interesting. We think that even older kids could enjoy them for a fun day. We did not go to any of the waterparks. These can be on the itinerary for our next trip.