Orlando, Florida is the most visited tourist destination in the United States. This is due to the two destinations that they have their: Disney World, also known as the happiest place on earth and Universal Studios.
In true Black Girl World Traveller fashion I made my way to the most visited place in the United States, Orlando, Florida. I had a 10 day house-sit in the College Park section of the city. College Park is a quiet residential neighborhood. It is approximately twenty minutes away from the mayhem of Universal and Disneyland
Food
Asian place
Delicious! I ate here almost everyday for lunch. ,y favorite dishes were the shrimp tempura and grille chicken noodle salad. Yummy. They have great boba flavors too.
Italian restaurant.
I ate here twice. Once upon my arrival and on ,y last day in Orlando. Both were delicious! That chicken Marsala was he best I’ve had anywhere in my life. The calamari was delicious. The service was attentive. I enjoyed my meals here.
College park was a mini community within a community. I felt like I didn’t have to leave and I didn’t unless I had somewhere to go. Take with that what you will.
Diner
Diner has good food with quick and easy service. It was here that I noticed that everyone is Florida Carries a gun on their hip.
Bubba gump shrimp
The great thing about universal is that it has a ton of stuff to do before you get into the park including restaurants, a movie theater and live concerts. Every night we noticed how packed and lively it was.
The food here was good. Line is always long so we opted for seats at the bar. Do not go during peak lunch and dinner hours (12-1, 5-7pm).
Italian restaurant
Yummy! We sat at the bar since the restaurant was packed and had great conversations with our neighbors and waitress who was from Puerto Rico.
For travelers interested in learning more about Orlando outside of the mayhem I recommend you stay in a local neighborhood of Orlando. You’ll save some money by avoiding the touristy hotels and Airbnb’s in the surrounding areas.
We opted to visit universal studios since Disneyland is truly a place for kids. Since universal has hand in a much wider variety of movies (Hardy Pottrer, the hulk, Dora, several cartoons,) we figured as adults it was worth it to visit universal. My 3 dya plus 2 days free pass was about $330. We went to universal studios first and had a great time. If I were you I’d est before coming so that way you only have to buy one overpriced meal.
There were some great crab croquette sandwiches we had while there that were delicious but other than that it was overpriced. For some reason, eating an oversized turkey leg seems to be super common while at universal studios. Partake of your will, but I did not like them. We drank beers and rode one roller coaster because the lines for all the rides were all 2-3 hours long. If you do decide to go to universal know that you’ll only be able to ride 1-2 rides per day. An employee told us that spring break lasts for 6 weeks at universal. The only real slow time for universal is for a brief period in August.
Day 2: My friend wanted to ride the Harry Potter motorbike rollercoaster so I obliged. I do not find roller coasters thrilling at all but he said he didn’t want to leave without riding the ride so I agreed. And it was amazing! It was a whirlwind of emotion. The ride goes all the way up, backwards and has several twists and turns. It’s rest for those that seek adventure.
Greg rode the Hulk and I opted to go to the arcade which was super fun. It was easy to play the games and win tons of plans within a short amount of time. Universal would be great for a group of young adult travelers looking to have fun and don’t want to spend a ton of money on Disneylands EPCOT.
Leaving Universal was a nightmare if you don’t have your own car. We opted not to rent a car because the prices were ridiculous and rental cars were hard to come by. If you do go and decide to Uber or Lyft to universal leave 1 hour before the studios close at 9pm. There were so many people on the Uber and Lyft apps that the apps kept crashing. Trust me you don’t want to be in that predicament.
Overall Orlando is great to visit. Universal Studios is a must-do once in your life but no more than that. If you are a traveler seeking adventure I recommend moving
abroad to an unknown place. The adventure is longer lasting and will keep you coming back for more.
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