Touring the States: Florida!

This past month, our family took a family vacation to the USA and very early on, we decided to make it a road trip along the east coast going from Florida to New York. On the way, we passed by and stopped at a few states/cities. This series of posts will highlight one particular state or city and all the things we did in that location as well as my thoughts on what people should expect when visiting this particular state or city. I'll be doing these in semi-chronological order and so my first post will be all about Florida.

I lived my whole life in the Philippines and as such, I've always considered the US to be universally be a cooler place than the Philippines. Going to Florida proved me wrong as I wore shorts the whole time we stayed there. We placed Florida on our itinerary for the sole purpose of Disney World. I have two nephews and Disney theme parks are always better with kids. It also gives the adults a reason to go. So our Florida stop was largely theme parks (3 Disney parks and Legoland) and shopping at an outlet mall.

Our first park was Legoland. Legoland was a kid's theme park. Almost all the rides can be ridden by anyone - young, old, fearless and fearful. Ironically, the most thrilling ride involved riding on ponies in the Lego Friends portion of the park. It was well worth the wait in line though to be fair the line wasn't as long as the other rides.

Our next theme park was Disney's Magic Kingdom. Actually, the next two are also Disney theme parks so I was curious as to what would set each park apart from each other. For the Magic Kingdom, it was definitely the rides. Classics like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and It's a Small World were all still amazing. The 7 Dwarves ride was one of our favorites. It was a kid's ride which ran very smoothly compared to rest of the rides and had it's own little story with it. We ended our day with an amazing fireworks display and though we were all tired from the long day we just had, we enjoyed that last bit so much. My nephews who would normally complain at being out the whole day just stood in awe and amazement at the fireworks.

Hollywood Studios was our next stop and we went in knowing it wouldn’t have as many rides as Magic Kingdom. What Hollywood Studios does do is it makes up for the lack of rides through a lot of shows. Even the rides seemed like shows. Tower of Terror was a great ride which seemed like a 3D movie experience. The Aerosmith ride was just amazing. We lined up for almost three hours for that one but it was worth it. Going around the park, you can see different things like children doing Jedi training, and even an Indiana Jones Stunt show, which was amazing!

Our last Disney park to visit was Epcot Center. It also had a few rides and so safe to say the park wasn't focused on the rides. Though the rides we did ride had a big amount of participation from the riders. Test Track was a notable ride which sees your car designs be put through the test while you ride it. Most of the park, however was very nice in that the park itself was the park's main attraction. I can honestly say that one can simply go around the park walking and neglect all the rides and you could still have a great day in Epcot. Our Epcot day was spoiled by a little bit of rain in the beginning but it quickly turned around before we left.

In summary, Legoland is a park for kids and they will love it. Magic Kingdom's main draw is its rides. Hollywood Studios lives up to it's name as the shows take center stage in this park. For Epcot, the park itself is the main attraction.

If I were to rank the four parks we visited, I'd put Magic Kingdom on the top of the list just because I'm the kind of guy who enjoys rides. Epcot would follow because of how beautiful the park is. Hollywood Studios would be a close third and is the home to my favorite ride, the Aerosmith one. And Legoland was just too kiddie for my taste.