If you follow me religiously on Facebook you can skip right over this post as most of these photos have already made their way around the interwebs. For those that don’t know, we just came back from a post-wedding season recovery vacation in Fort Lauderdale and Disney World. This was my first trip to Orlando and Disney so I was in for a world of smiles and happiness. It’s seriously crazy the amount of joy is spread around those parks and the customer service is second to none. Before we headed down to Disney, we hit up a Tiki Mecca—The Mai Kai, which is possibly the largest, most amazing Tiki bar in the world. The place has a massive tropical jungle, fire show and some of the fiercest Mai Tais on the East Coast.
We made a quick pit stop at the McCarthy’s Animal sanctuary where we got to learn and hang with a ton of giant cats and skunks. It was crazy to see a lion stand on its hind legs and roar. The bass coming out of that creature was awesome and terrifying.
From there, we hopped into our Ford Focus and drove three hours to Disney where we spent the next four days hitting up all the big parks. I’ve go to say that my two biggest disappointments where Star Tours and Epcot. First off, Star Tours is a Star Wars themed ride that relies on 3D video as a crutch and lasts a whopping five minutes. I’ll take my rides with a nice helping of puppets, thank you. Epcot turned out to be a giant world full of fake cities filled with shops to help you part from your money. That’s about it. I thought it was cool for an hour, but with the exception of Norway, none of the cities offered anything fun besides local beers.
Now for the good. The Magic Kingdom is simply beyond belief. It’s a world of fun and excitement and lives up to the hype 100 percent. Splash Mountain and The Enchanted Tiki Room were my favorites, but we also loved just walking around and taking in the fantasy. Hollywood Studios was a blast and holds the greatest ride ever—Toy Story. The ride is a ten minute 3D shoot em up that pits you against your partner. Balloons pop around you, water and air blasts at you, but all that matters is that you get the highest score. Needless to say, Allison whooped my butt. Finally, the Animal Kingdom is exactly what you think it is—a really clean, nice zoo. We made our way around the park taking in all the animals and made sure to visit the petting zoo. The park is easily a half day adventure, but it was so worth.
Below are a ton of Instagram photos that both Allison and I took during our week-long stay. For years now, Allison has refused to pick up a camera, but surprisingly she has taken to Instagram and absolutely loves it. All the photos below were taken with an iPhone 4s, so please don’t judge. The phone has been a breath of fresh air for me and I find myself reaching for it way more than I did when I only had a DSLR with me. The quality of the photos are great and with Instagram, I can get images as good as my old Toy Cameras, except the shots are actually in focus. I can’t say enough about that phone.
As they say, it is the photographer, not the camera. Great shots! Looks like tou had a blast 🙂