We’ve all seen it in the movies…the notorious Spring Break. A luxurious full 9 days, there is no doubt that everyone on campus was dying to start ‘breaking’. By the time last Friday rolled around I was itching to get away from the cold. Only that morning I had trekked to help paint the set of the play I am in this semester. It was not pleasant. It was raining ice, windy, freezing and everything was ridiculously slippery. Thanks Durham.
I wasn’t the only heat seeking Dukie with Cancun, California and South Padre also popular picks. Many others went home (bad luck if you live up North!)
Florida, however, was my Spring Break destination of choice with two stops, Orlando and Panama City Beach.
I was lucky enough to be invited to join my friend Mark and his family on their trip to Disney World, Orlando with (quite obviously if you know me at all) a detour to Universal Studios Harry Potter World. The ‘family’ as I now call them included Mark, his friend Jovonnie, his mother, father, brother, brother’s girlfriend and aunt. We were quite a group, and I had the best time getting to know them all!
*Disclaimer, said friend Mark goes to UNC (our rival university). Technically seeing as the big basketball game between our two schools was on that night, there really should have been more animosity. Don’t worry guys, Duke won ;)
We landed and it was sunny and warm and gorgeous and green! I had started to forget what nice weather looked like and so I danced around in the sun for a while singing “Vitamin D yay, Vitamin D”. The Disney magical express bus picked us up and we were off on our adventure.
How often do you gaze out of your beautiful hotel room and spy giraffes or baby zebras wandering by? Well over those four days I did… a lot! We stayed in the Animal Kingdom Lodge that was decorated with gorgeous African art, and had numerous ‘savannahs’ filled with all sorts of animals. We even went on a safari and had a delicious African inspired multiple course dinner!
As wonderful as our hotel was, we had four days and four Disney parks to cover. And cover we did! Our first night was spent at Magic Kingdom, where in addition to rides we saw the beautiful Disney castle illuminated and a firework display. Over the next few days and nights we went on all the best rides, ate Disney themed food (mickey mouse shaped ice cream anyone?), took tons of pictures, and felt very victorious as our fastpasses let us jump the lines. I am completely terrified of heights and yet went on every single ride, yes I may have deafened a few people with my terrified screams and cried once (or twice) but hey I faced my fears! I now know I can do and enjoy almost any ride in Disney world…except for the Tower of Terror. I mean really who likes being repetitively dropped down 13 storeys?
All Disney’d out…the day arrived…the magical, wonderful day that had me bouncing everywhere. The day we were to visit Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.
People were worried I would be disappointed. It’s not that big… they said. There are only a few rides… they said.
It was quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to me.
From the village of Hogsmeade, to Hogwarts castle, to Dervish and Bangs and Honeydukes everything was impeccably designed. I really felt like I was in the world of Harry Potter, and quite honestly I was FREAKING out.
The rides were excellent, I can now say I have ridden a Hippogriff and flown alongside a Hungarian Horntail. But the very best of all, was the Forbidden Forest ride. It takes you in a virtual and non-virtual adventure through Hogwarts, you fly alongside Harry and Ron, you dodge the Acromantula and narrowly escape the Dementor’s kiss. If only someone had taken a picture of my face at the time…
After sampling some Butterbeer (most delicious thing ever, far better than what I have made), a cauldron cake and having lunch at the Three Broomsticks all there was left to do was…shop. You are speaking to the girl who spends hours prowling through Harry Potter merchandise online. Here it was all at my fingertips and in real Harry Potter shops – I mean I was IN Dervish and Bangs and Honeydukes…what was I meant to do? A t-shirt, chocolate frog, butterbeer mug, jar of sherbet lemons and a beautiful Hogwarts throw later…I was done. Personally I feel I was quite prudent.
We finished off our day exploring the rest of Universal: tackling the insane Hulk rollarcoaster, sampling dipping dots icecream and getting drenched on a raft ride (twice).
Back at the hotel we had yet another delicious dinner, relaxed in the hot tub and played a round or two of pool. I was very sad to leave my new found family the next day. They were such goodhearted, kind, generous, and loving people and it was a privilege to be a part of their ‘vacation’. But I had another Spring Break stop to attend to…Panama City Beach…which brings us to Spring Break Part II…
Panama City Beach is your typical Spring Break Destination, beach and parties. For all you Aussies, it greatly resembles Schoolies – only College style.
Several girls from my sorority, including my Big and my BigBig had headed down to PCB when I was on my way to Orlando. I was lucky enough to be able to catch the tail end of their Spring Break. I had an awesome time bonding with these funloving Zeta girls, got to know my ‘fam’ even more and soaked up more sunshine on the beach. The entire hotel, in fact the entire area was booked out with college kids galore. The beach was filled with about one thousand Spring Breakers and bikinis and boardies were the dress du jour. Needless to say I had a lot of fun.
Now, an American ‘vacation’ wouldn’t be complete without an American roadtrip, would it now? The Zeta’s had braved the drive down, and I came along for the drive back. Starting our day at Waffle House, Katlyn, Liz, Sarah and I commenced our approximately 11 hour journey at 8am. I, having no American (or actually Australian) license was obviously a big help. With fast food stops, a great soundtrack and even better company the trip ticked all the boxes. Leaving Florida, into Sweet Home Alabama, hitting some traffic in Georgia and passing through South Carolina on our way back to NC and Duke we sure had a country trip. With several bathroom and food stops along the way we made it back to Duke just before 10pm. 4 loads of laundry, two unpacked bags and a hot shower later I fell fast asleep for 10 hours.
There you have it, rides, sun, Harry Potter, beach, parties and fabulous people.
I have to say, Spring Break 2015…you have a lot to live up to.
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| mmm Butterbeer |
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| Dippin Dots Icecream! |
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