Florida Trip - Wedding, SeaWorld, Disney

I got a message from my friend Jackie saying she was having a reception in November down in Florida. Cara and I threw around the idea of going but having recently returned from our CA trip, we weren’t sure if we could afford it. We went back and forth, considering our options, and Jackie mentioned to me that we could stay at her mom’s new house if it would help. That moved the needle closer to “let’s go” vs. “sorry, we may not be able to”. Eventually that changed to “yes, of course we’ll go” and away we went.

We left on a Thursday, rented a car from the Atlanta airport and decided to drive down instead of flying. That saved us some money in the long run and with it being a 6+ hour drive, i’d rather drive someone elses car instead of putting the miles on ours. We got into Orlando right about the 6 hour mark after stopping twice.

Friday was spent relaxing and getting ready for the wedding. Jackie & Mel got married on the south shore of Lake Apopka, one of the larger lakes in Florida. The reception took place just steps away at Tanner Hall in a beautifully set up venue with decorations that could only be considered “Jackie”. We dubbed our table the “SeaWorld” table as we sat with and got to catch up with some friends and ex-coworkers. We had a great time and partied all night, but i’d be understating that if I didn’t mention how much Lia tore up that dance floor. This little girl was constantly dancing, even when no one else was, and even outside the dance floor area. She enjoyed the music, the photo booth, the props, meeting new friends, the food and of course some fantastic cupcakes.

Saturday we got up and spent the day at SeaWorld. I was mostly interested in riding Mako, their new roller coaster, but couldn’t resist showing Lia around to new aquariums and new animals. She got to do the “peek” in Manta’s aquarium, we paddled in the flamingo paddle boats, saw the manatees, rode a little train and spinning ride in Shamu’s Happy Harbor and checked out Antartica’s new ride and the penguins.

Sunday was questionable as we were hoping to get a hookup on tickets to Disney but nothing ever panned out. Knowing that Lia was absolutely fanatical about Mickey and Minnie, I couldn’t resist and paid FULL PRICE ADMISSION (it hurts to say that) to the Magic Kingdom. She was asleep when we arrived but after we bought our tickets it set in as we walked through a set of crowd control gates that had Mickey’s silhouette on them. Yep, she saw them…all 10+ of them. Quick ride to the main entrance and she picked out almost every Mickey silhouette on the way in. Head. Explosion.

Lia got to meet Daisy, Minnie and Mickey in person and that alone was worth the almost $250 admission. The excitement and tense body clench she did as I held her (aka the happy butt clench) was proof enough that her day was fulfilled (and ours). We arrived just about noon and didn’t leave until about 11pm when the park closed. We rode many rides, met a few other characters (Belle & Ariel), had some lunch, drove some cars, then watched the fireworks (which is about when Lia called it a night). Couldn’t have asked for a better day.

In-park photos