Florida Trip, Tinder Dates, and Bad Luck

Just got back from a girls trip to Florida with my cousin! Well, technically my second cousin but we claim each other as first cousins 😜. We flew into Orlando and drove to the beach our first day, Disney World the next two days, Universal Studios the next day, and then hung by the pool the last day. I debated breaking this post up into multiple posts... because I have a lot cover. But I decided just to keep it as one post. So beware it's long... but decently entertaining. So pull up a seat and lets get started!

We had a few flukes on our trip--well, more than a few. Literally one thing after another was going wrong. The only thing we could do was laugh at how comical it got and just roll with the punches... though there were a lot of punches. Like... I might have a black eye now.

We started out the trip with a red eye flight flying out of SLC. I’ve decided anyone who prefers red eye flights isn’t human... curse you people that can fall asleep easily! So we get to the airport at 10 PM... our flight time was 10:55 PM. We go to the gate... they aren’t boarding yet so we are like, “Let’s go get some edamamae from Squatters before we board”. Mind you, Squatter's was right next to our gate. Like, right next to it.

We enjoy our edamame and get back to the gate at like 10:25. No one is boarding and it says the flight is delayed. We think it’s weird... but a lot of people were waiting in line to talk to the agent and she looked ORNERY. Like scary ornery. So we were like alright then, we will just patiently wait. So we waited. And waited. Kept getting notifications sent to our phone saying the flight was being delayed. Kept waiting. (Mind you, right outside the gate the whole time).

Finally, once 11:15 PM hit my cousin was like, “I’m going to go make sure everything is going ok and see when we are boarding.”  She goes to the gate agent (a new one by this point) and I see her talking to him and then look back at me with wide eyes and wave for me to come over. “Oh 💩” I think.

I walk up and she turns to me, “They’ve been boarded on the plane this whole time... they just pulled away from the gate”. 

Wait WHAT. We were literally here the whole time. Well basically the whole time. They must have boarded early while we went to get our edamame and by the time we got back they were all on the plane. We didn't hear any final boarding calls or ANYTHING. My cousin turns to the gate agent in disbelief, “We were literally here the whole time. The whole time.”. He chuckles and says, “You’d be surprised how often it happens. Let’s get you on the next flight. It will have a layover in Atlanta.”

A 45 minutes layover in Atlanta. AKA, we got off our red eye flight (where I didn’t sleep the whole time) and we busted our butt running from one end of the terminal to the other. And have you seen those terminals in Atlanta? Those things are like a mile long! With NO moving walkway. Out of breath we rolled up to our connecting flight right as they were finishing up boarding. 

K, I thought, maybe I’ll get a little sleep on this flight to Orlando.

Me and my cousin weren’t together on this flight... so I go to sit in my seat (an aisle seat) only to find I actually only will be sitting on half a seat due to the physical nature of the other two passengers in my row. 

💩

K... I won’t be sleeping here either. It will just have to wait until we get to the hotel. 

Get off our plane. Wait forever to get our rental car (why does it ALWAYS TAKE SO LONG). Get our keys. Walk to outside kiosk to finish final paperwork.

Drop my phone.

Face down. 

“Dear everything holy please no,” I think as I reach down to pick it up.

Turn it over.

Shattered.

Screen completely shattered.

Efffffffffffff

At this point everything that’s going wrong is getting comical. Not to mention I'm sleep deprived and delirious. So I literally look at my cousin in disbelief and laugh. Nothing else I could do.

Alright, we finally get the keys to our rental car. Get in. Smells like smoke. Go back to the kiosk. Request another car that doesn’t smell like smoke. Get in the car... and we are off. 

We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Seaworld hotel and the location was so perfect. It was 15 minutes from Disney World one way and 15 minutes from Universal studios the other way. And walking distance to Seaworld but we didn't go there.

On zero hours of sleep we check into our hotel at 10 AM, take a two hour nap, and head off to the beach.

My goal this past year was to feel confident in a bikini. This is the first time I've work a bikini in like 7 years... and I felt pretty good. I mean, everything is a work in progress but that's health isn't it? A journey, not a destination. The most important thing is that I NOW feel good physically and mentally. 

We decided to drive to the gulf (even though it was a two hour drive) instead of going to the Atlantic beaches... for a few reasons. One... the water in the Gulf is warmer than the Atlantic. Two... not as many sharks. And three... a guy from Tinder that I’ve been talking to lives out there. 

Yeah I know, sounds like something straight out of the movie Taken doesn’t it? Two girls go to meet guy they’ve never met before. Before you judge, I had been talking to him for months and done my due diligence before agreeing to meet up.

"What is due diligence in the world of dating apps?" you ask. Well, first you need last names. Perform a basic google search. Do some social media stalking. If they pass that, the next step is tell a trusted source (for me this is one of my BFF’s Kaitlyn) where you are going and the full name and picture of who you are meeting. I also have my location services turned on for her at all time in the “find friends” app... so heaven forbid if I ever DID go missing she would have access to my location. Well, my phones last location anyway.

Anyway, can’t be too careful ladies and gentleman. Can’t be too careful.

Luckily my necessary precautions paid off and my tinder match WAS NOT Ted Bundy. Yahoo! Another Tinder win. Tinder is great guys. You have to sort through a fair amount of creeps... as well as couple's that are wanting you to be the three to their threesome BUT there are some good finds in there too. Hahahaha. What is my life. The stories I get out of being on tinder though guys... PRICELESS. I have so much blog material now it's insane. Hahaha.

Back to this guy, he grew up in Florida and was a Marine in Afghanistan. He has some crazy stories about all of that. Especially about how they train Marines in the first place. INTENSE. We spent the day at the beach (Treasure Island) got some food and he even paid for me and my cousin (my cousin who was third wheeling this outing like a CHAMP), which was so sweet. We watched the sunset on the beach and then me and my cousin left to make the two hour journey back to the hotel because we were hitting the parks early the next day.

He's super handsome isn't he? And a Marine?! Impressive. I mean, I don't think anything serious will ever happen between us because he’s a Florida boy and I’m a Utah girl... and neither of us will be moving 😜. But I'm glad we got together! He travels for work and is in Utah every so often so we'll probably get together next time he's in town.

Cotton candy skies... completely unedited. And even more vibrant in person. Surreal.

The next day we got up at the break of dawn to get ready and to the parks before opening. Yes... after not sleeping the night before we still pulled our butts out of bed to go hit the parks HARD. The plan for this day was to make it to Animal Kingdom before opening so we could run straight to the new Avatar ride (and hopefully bypass the rumored 3 hour wait).

We get to the gates (the park opened at 9:00 AM) and literally run straight to Avatar. We get into Pandora and there is a Disney employee standing quite a distance from the ride holding a sign that says “end of line”. Wait what. “How long of a wait is it?” we ask her. “Two and a half hours,” she replies.

I look down at my watch. 9:06 AM. 6 minutes have passed since opening and it’s a 2.5 hour wait?! What? They didn’t even have the extra magic hour here this morning so they literally didn’t let people in until 9 AM. 😳

Whatever, we’re waiting. Luckily me and my cousin are on the same level of theme park fandom so it wasn't even a question.

Us in Pandora about 1.5 hours into our wait.

Actual unaltered footage of us being the most touristy tourists ever. And loving it! 

Florida heat is so different than Utah heat. Even if you’re outside for just one minute the humidity has you sweaty profusely. My cousin and I bought some portable fans on amazon and they turned out to be lifesavers, especially while we were in line for Avatar! Mine was a lanyard that hung around my neck and was a pretty impressive fan! While waiting in line for so long you tend to make friends with the people around you... the ones in back of us were a couple from Michigan. They waited in line for the Avatar ride for three hours a few days ago... and they are doing it again today. “Yeah, by the time we waited and finally got on the ride we were hoping that we wouldn't think it wasn’t worth it... because the wait was brutal. But to our surprise it was TOTALLY worth it. So here we are again.”

After 2.5 hours of waiting we finally made it on the ride... and... drumroll please. It was so worth it. It’s kind of like a virtual reality ride but you’re riding one of the dragons (or whatever the Avatar people call them) and the graphics are incredible. There was one point it felt so real and beautiful I was actually holding back tears. TEARS. Crazy right? I’d totally wait another 2.5 hours to go on it. Out of curiosity I looked up the longest wait time that has been clocked for that ride... SIX HOURS. Six. Hours. In. Line. That’s insane!

After hitting the rides at Animal Kingdom we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. Magic Kingdom is magic just BEING there. We didn’t hit too many rides but just soaked it all in. No lies though, we were exhausted still from that red eye. I snapped this video of my cousin on one of the busses between parks and we are still laughing at it. 

We stayed for the fireworks and those were on another level. They project images onto the castle (and again... their projections are INCREDIBLE) and have you on the verge of tears the whole time. Seriously, tears streaming down my face. Freaking Disney, they always get you! Even the toughest ones!

For the record I went to Disneyland earlier this year and Disney World wins the prize for best firework show. The projections on the castle really make it that much more magical. If you go make sure you stand somewhere between the Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue and the end of Main Street. Best view! 

The next day we went to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Epcot we hit the ride Fast Track and Soaring... Hollywood Studios we hit Tower of Terror (yes, they still have the original and didn’t change it to Guardians of the Galaxy!) and Aerosmith's Rock 'N' Rollercoaster (such a good one)! Also guys... have you had the cinnamon glazed almonds from Disney??? They are, hands down, my new favorite Disney treat. I think I ate three bags myself. Don’t judge me. 😝 I convinced myself they were semi healthy... because they're nuts. I mean... it's not three bags of cotton candy is it?! We good.

Despite having a good couple days, the bad luck of our trip wasn’t over just yet. As we were walking back to our rental car in Epcot's parking lot we notice a HUGE dent on the passenger door. Like someone had backed into our car. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say as we walk up and assess the damage. NOOOOOO. Dealing with damage to rental cars is THE WORST. Rental car companies always charge even more than the damage is worth. At this point I wasn’t laughing at our bad luck anymore, I was finally getting discouraged. We call the rental car line... which forwarded us to someone from India that spoke broken English. “You will be responsible for any damage caused to the car,” he tells me while sounding strikingly like that gas station owner from the Simpsons. What's that guys name, again? Apu. Apu gave us no hope.

See it?

Cool. Ok... nothing we can do right now. Get into the car (which is like I don’t know... 200 degrees inside) and sit down just as my cousin says, “I’ve literally never had this much bad luck on one trip before”. Insert the keys... turn them. They don’t turn. The car doesn’t start. The battery is dead. 

At this point we just look at each other half expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out from the sea of cars and say, “YOU’VE BEEN PUNKED”. But he didn’t. Because we’re not that lucky. But Ashton if you're reading this I love you and I'm single. Marry me. 

Back to reality, we chase down Epcot’s parking lot security and he calls someone to jump our car and in the meantime gives us some cold water bottles. Awwwww. Disney, you’re always outdoing yourself when it comes to customer service. I love you too.

We chose not to think about the car situation until we had to drop it off back to the rental car company. Nothing we could do about it until then. We went home, took a nap, and tried to recover some of our optimism that was running dangerously low thanks to our luck. After we woke up we headed back to Hollywood Studios to catch Fantasmic before the night ended. Which was great, for the record. Not as good as Magic Kingdom's firework show... but still good!

Sunday we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Let’s be honest... we were there for Harry Potter World and strictly Harry Potter World. Florida’s Harry Potter World is on ANOTHER LEVEL compared to California’s. Sorry California... I’m ragging on you in comparisons on this post but I do still love you! Florida just has that much more room to make it that much bigger! They now have it in both parks (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure) so definitely get the park hopper because you’re going to want to hit both sides. 

First time trying the "butter beer" and it was REALLY good. I could go for some right now!

Plus, if you get the park hopper you get to ride the Hogwarts Express between parks (which is a ride in itself). 

Prior to this trip I had only been on the islands of adventure side of Harry Potter world... this was my first time being to the Universal side. It’s funny because you get off the Hogwarts Express and walk out and it just looks like London. You don’t really see anything that screams “Harry Potter”. However, as we were walking we noticed crowds of people walking out of this area with no signs... like an alley way. We were thinking, "What’s back there?" And decided to walk back to find out.

Oh just a whole other Harry Potter World. Diagon Alley to be specific. We went on the new ride (Escape from Gringotts) and ate some Harry Potter treats while watching a show they were performing. I love that they made it so hidden like that, makes it that much more cool!

Oh Harry Potter world... what would we do without you. More importantly... what would Universal Studios do without you?! Haha! They did take out the Jaws ride to expand Harry Potter world (which I am a little sad about) but it’s Harry Potter and Harry Potter is worth it. 

The last day of our trip we hung out by the pool at our hotel. It was a nice change of pace.  While sitting in the pool we noticed a plane write in the sky “Jesus forgives... ask.” Which was pretty cool... I’ve never seen a plane write something in the sky before and this was literally right above Disney World. I wondered if it’s something he does often or a one time thing.

This swimsuit is so cute but it gives some KILLER tan lines. Not in the good way. But I'm so in love with it I usually take my chances every once in a while and just layer on the sunscreen.

The time came to return the rental car and we were sweating bullets just imagining what they were going to tell us. We park and the employee walks up to the car and I see him eyeing the side of the car that has the damage. He walks around the car... comes up and says, “If the keys are in you’re good to go!”

“Oh uh... we noticed some damage to the side of the car and we just need to know if it was there prior to us or not,” I say.

“Oh yeah... I scanned it already. You’re fine. You’re good to go.”

Me and my cousin look at each other with wide eyes, thank him, and quickly walk off with our luggage never looking back. Hahaha! So it was there the whole time but we just never noticed it due to bad lighting and being sleep deprived from our red eye flight. Sweet!

So let’s do a quick recap at everything that didn’t go as planned this trip. Miss our flight, get on another flight with a layover in Atlanta, get 0.5 of a seat on that flight, no sleep, shatter phone screen, think someone backed into our rental car, have car battery die... oh and I forgot the last one. I washed my 160 dollar apple AirPods in the washing machine while we were there. 

HEYO! 

Never have I had a streak of poor luck as bad as this. Never. But we are home safe and had a blast despite the set backs so I’m still calling it a win. But I do feel like we are ready for some good karma to start rolling in. On that note... Megan, let’s go buy some lottery tickets. 

Shout out to my ex husband for moving around some of his parent-child time so I could get a few days away and shout out to my mom for taking care of the kids a couple nights while I was gone as well. It takes a village. And an ex husband. Jk. Kind of.

Guys, if you’re still reading this you’re amazing. This is my longest blogpost in my history of blogposts... and if you've made it all the way here you better leave me a comment below because you’re the real MVP. Plus I need some cold hard evidence that ANYONE even made it to this point. I’ll be sending out participation awards tomorrow to you rockstars. Hahaha!! Jk. I’m poor now, do you know how much it costs to replace a phone screen at Apple? The answer is TOO MUCH. Curse you Apple. I swear they do these shattering phone screens on purpose.

Any who.

Love ya guys!!

Over and out ✌🏼

Britney Munday