A Day in Orlando

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For a little while I kept thinking & trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my birthday. Every year, I want to have the best birthday but the pressure gets overwhelming at times. I really wanted to celebrate this one with things I love to do. This led me to decide to travel for my birthday. The day was on a Thursday, so I knew it would not be reasonable to ask anyone to accompany me. That’s why I decided to go on a solo trip on my birthday. I took the day off & searched for the most affordable roundtrip day trip on June 6th & that’s how I decided on Orlando.

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Getting There

My decision to go to Orlando was solely off the affordability of the flight. I know Orlando is mostly known for theme parks but there are some other hidden gems in the city so I was excited to check them out. I booked a roundtrip flight with Spirit. They’re not my favorite airline but the flight was cheap & I wasn’t carrying any bags so didn’t have to pay extra. If you’re still scared of travelling with spirit, check out my post on how to successfully fly with them.

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF MY DAY IN ORLANDO

Chocolate Museum & Café

I love chocolate (Seriously, who doesn’t?) so I was excited to check out this place. The place has a cute café & a museum at the back (as the name implies). The café has pastries, chocolate, macarons and a few drinks. It’s not one of those museums that you just walk through- this one actually includes a 50min tour. I got there a few minutes before 2pm but the 2pm tour was sold out so I had to wait an hour. I used that time to get my nails done in a nearby nail salon. The tour has about 15/20 people & it starts on the hour every hour they’re open. Apparently, it gets sold out hours in advance over the summer.

The tour was amazing! It starts off with a quick video on cocoa. I won’t give all the details of the museum so you can check it out 🙂 Anyway, we got a detailed story of the history of chocolate. Turns out at some point chocolate was more valuable than gold. Sheesh. I’m glad to live in a world where chocolate is affordable and accessible to everyone. I also got to see a couple of chocolate sculptures and sample some premium chocolate. I bought 2 chocolate bars to take back to Philly.

 

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition

I’m so glad I got to visit this exhibition during my day in Orlando. The exhibition has a mix of props from the titanic movie set, replicas of Titanic artifacts and items from the actual Titanic ship. When I entered the museum, I was given a boarding pass containing information on an actual passenger. At the end of my visit, there’s a memorial with the names of all the passengers and it notes those that survived and those that were “lost”. That was an extra twist to the experience as I was really hoping that my passenger survived. (Spoiler: My passenger was a 17-year old girl & she did survive!)

The titanic went to the bottom of the ocean in 1912 but the first dive to the ship wasn’t until 1985. Since then there have been only a handful of dives. In those dives, items were brought back from the ship. The items ranged from cufflinks to plates to decor to the actual ships’ body. This exhibition is actually really amazing! The ship is over 12,000 feet below sea level and has been there for over 100 years & I was able to see items from the actual ship. I didn’t have that much time to spend here, if not, I would have spent at least 3 hours because there were so many things on display. I bought a Titanic shot glass to commemorate my visit. If i’m ever in Orlando again, I will definitely be back.

 

Dinner

It was my birthday so ofcourse I gave myself a treat before heading back to Philly. I decided to treat myself to Japanese food, so I headed out to Kobe’s. Before traveling, I had decided on that restaurant and I was interested in all the different options of sushi they had. It wasn’t until I got there that I realized it was a Japanese Hibachi place. At that point, I was craving sushi too much to change my mind but it ended up working out because I got to seat by the Hibachi tables with other people and enjoy my birthday dinner before heading to the airport.

 

If I had more time…

1. Orlando Museum of Art
2. Ripleys Believe it or not
3. Outlet Shopping Malls
4. Downtown Exploring
5. Universal Citywalk

 

Planning a day trip can always be tricky. For a day trip to be successful, there has to be a nice balance between having a structured plan and staying flexible. No matter how good you plan, things may not go your way. For example, I planned to go to the chocolate museum at a certain time but when I got there it was sold out for an hour. I could’ve just let that spoil my day. Instead, I went to get my nails done to pass away the time. I love doing day trips as they’re quick and affordable. With time, I can only get better at my planning and execution. Have you hung out in Orlando without visiting theme parks? If so, let me know about it in the comments.

 

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