Universal Studios Orlando

Day 0 – Getting there

by Advaith Nair

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Tomorrow we are going to a new theme park. Do you know where we are going? We are going to Universal studios! And do you know where it is? Well, it’s quite far… in ORLANDO, USA! Cool! Right? I know! And it will be my first time to USA and flying for 16 hours! There is one another thing special about this trip. This time, it’s just me and my dad.

As we started packing, I was like…

“Man! a lot to take care these days before we travel!”

Boxes and boxes of masks, preventive nose sprays, sanitizers. And, we got to get our pre-flight nose-pocking done. All thanks to COVID19👾 … duh! By the way, we also bought same hoodies for me and my dad (dad said it will be easy to search for each other in the park in case one of us gets lost… lol).

So, we went to NMC hospital near our home and asked the guy at the reception what the wait time is, and he said 2 hrs and 30 mins. We were bewildered! 🥴😨😶 My dad asked that if we can come back. The man said that the queue will be longer. I used to remember when travel was a lot simpler, sigh! Honestly, I started to get bored as we waited for loooong. When I was about to say I am bored, SPECTACULARY it was my turn to go for covid-testing. Usually, I am not nervous but this time the testing room lot looked like a dentist’s room, gulp!😕 I kept sneezing after they poked my nose, and it was annoying to say the least.

After all that, we reached home and started the final packing. But we had one problem we should not let Surya know where we are going. We decided not to take him along as he is too small for most of the rides. So, we told him we are going to India. While I distracted him (which was VERRRY hard), mum helped dad with the packing. Well, got a long journey ahead of us so talk to you after a good night’s sleep.

So, the day is today! We woke up quietly and got ready while Surya was still asleep. My uncle drove us to the airport early in the morning – he is always there to help day or night! After we checked-in, we went for shopping at Duty-Free shop. For the first time, it was just me and dad in shopping at an airport. After a while we went straight to the gate, and it was time to board the aircraft by then.

Oh, got to tell you something. We went through the smart tunnel in Dubai, you gotta try that… it gets to know you as you walk across! Okay, I will repeat – just walk across – no need to stop or insert your ID or anything. Also, no need to meet the immigration officer. Dad told me it was fully developed in Dubai and if someone else wants it, they can buy it from us. I love Dubai 😍 here every other day there is something new to surprise rest of the world.

For a first, I am gonna travel for 16 hours on air. My father jumped straight onto movies while I jumped onto games. I played a game called Biobot and my father watched a movie called Hitman’s wife’s bodyguard. Oh! I forgot to mention that I am flying business class this time. It was FUNtastic! There was a tab, a big screen and the seat that can switch to bed on the press of a button. The seats were large, and screens were too. We had like side mini tables to keep snacks, drinks, or anything else. We also had our own lights – one for sit-reading and another to sleep-reading. And last but not least I felt like the games’ loading time was reduced a lot compared to economy. The food variety and quality were great, and by great, I mean super awesome! I drank like 3 glasses of Pepsi (dad was very cool this time, I wonder why!). After two rounds to game-eat-sleep-game, we finally reached Orlando.

Once we reached the airport it was very quick process to get out and about. But we had a slight problem… we didn’t know where we were and where is the exit to get an Uber. We asked somebody and they said it was on the second floor. So, we went to the second floor. Tadaaa! There is no exit! We asked another person “Where do we exit?”, he said that it was on the ground floor. So, we went to the ground floor. Tadaaa! There is an exit, but not the exit to get Uber – it was for hotel buses. Since there was only one more floor left, we went to the first floor and hired an Uber to our first hotel, Rosen inn international.

When we reached there, we were greeted by a woman at the entrance. She started speaking Spanish to my father. Yeah right! You heard it right! SPANISH!😆 My father was like “Mmm… err… ?! Sorry I didn’t get you.🥴” The woman was surprised, and she asked if he is a Spanish Guy!!! Loll! I laughed so much.

After that incident we headed to our room. It only had 1 light! And it’s not so bright. The view from there was beautiful. We can see a Ferris wheel miles away, we can see a highway and a forest on the other side. We showered, got changed and got out for a walk to explore the place. By the way, dad told me it was 2am midnight in Dubai (while it was only 5pm in Orlando), but I was not feeling sleepy – coz I was excited!

As we went out, I expected the weather to be normal or warm because it was quite sunny. But boy was I wrong.

It was cold out there, real cold!

I could even see my breath! Thank dad that he insisted me to take my jacket. Anyway, we saw many of my favourite places – BurgerKing, McDonalds, many Pizzerias – yummy! I requested dad to get dinner from BurgerKing after we finish our round. While we were walking, we also saw other food restaurants (and strange like there was a tropical party place ‘The mango one’). We went to Walgreens to get some water, drinks and snacks. As we walked around in that weather, my hands became literally numb! So, I put them in my pockets. It has been a long time since I been in the cold because in Dubai is warm even during winter. As we headed back to the hotel, we picked our dinner from BK…you know, I also tried a new fizz drink SURGE – a green sweet fizzy drink, it tasted more like a lemonade. We watched something on the TV (I really don’t remember), ate our food, and

zzzzzzzzzz

Orlando Day 1

Coming soon…

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Advaith Nair

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4 replies

Philipp says:
16 December 2021 at 4:39 pm

Great post man, loved to read about your trip to Orlando! Looking forward to the next one 👍

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Minnu says:
11 December 2021 at 3:40 pm

Wow adu enjoyed reading every bit of your travel experience.Waiting for more.

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Jyothi says:
11 December 2021 at 2:14 pm

Nice writing mone 🥰
Waiting to hear more about your adventures in Orlando

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Jyotsna says:
11 December 2021 at 9:16 am

As always, the eye to see the details! ❤ed it mone!!! Katta waiting for Orlando Day 1.

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