Orlando
We left Savannah in the morning to head for Orlando, where Paloma’s sister Emma was due to meet us to get away from the freezing temperatures of New York for the weekend. If the Charleston air had had a holiday-like feel for me, Florida was even better. It was hot and humid and lovely. Orlando also inevitably has the feel of a permanent holiday destination because of all its theme parks. The evening we arrived we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner, while I sat nervously in anticipation/dread of the next day when I would be making a solid entrance into my mid-twenties. Paloma insisted that I choose which park we went to, and I deliberated long and hard before suddenly realising Universal has Harry Potter World, so it was a done deal. The morning of my birthday I Skyped my parents and was delightfully surprised by Emma and Paloma with a cake and candles! It was a lovely and unexpected gesture and the cake was also delicious. So moist and chocolatey, pretty much my ideal choice. It certainly eased the pain of feeling my youth slip through my fingers. After the cake, we headed into Universal, where Paloma insisted on telling the lady at the ticket office that it was my birthday so that I could get ‘privileges’ like line-skipping allowances. Unfortunately it seems this practice must have been denting the park’s astronomical profits, as they no longer offer it, and I had to be content with a birthday badge with my name on it. Ever the sceptic, I initially didn’t see much point to the badge, but I must admit that the park staff were so good at noticing it and wishing me a happy birthday that I quickly began to enjoy the attention and reminders that it was MY special day and no one else’s (apart from the other people whose birthday it was). A big shout out to Christian, who broke all the rules letting Paloma and me in to the express lane at one of the rides because of it being my birthday. The first thing we did in the park was the Escape from Gringott’s ride in Harry Potter World. It. Was. Just. Amazing. Saying that I love Harry Potter is kind of an understatement. And what they have at Universal is very, very impressive. The Gringott’s ride has an actual recreation of the Gringott’s entrance, with goblins which I thought were men in suits BUT ARE ACTUALLY MACHINES. They were so unbelievably life-like it was so cool. Although the queues weren’t short, it didn’t feel like queuing because you go all through the Gringott’s building looking at all the displays with moving pictures and other cool stuff. After that ride we hopped on the Hogwarts Express which was also just like the books, making it look surprisingly accurately like you are really passing through London but with Harry, Ron and Hermione whispering in the corridor. On the other side we rode the Hogwarts ride which has similar cool things to the first one, and ate lunch in Hogsmeade. We then did the main rides like Spiderman, Simpsons, Hulk, Cat in the Hat etc. to get the busy parts out of the way before returning to Diagon Alley to stroll and take pictures and generally be wowed. What was also so cool is we went into Olivander’s for ‘wand-shopping’. A ‘wizard’ takes you into a dimly lit shop where the shopkeeper, with an unexpectedly good English accent, selects someone – this time Paloma – to try out wands. She did a few spells which went awry until her wand chose her and the scene was over. Emma and Paloma also bought me a butterbeer which was very tasty and even came in a ‘souvenir cup’ for keepsies. Another fun thing about Harry Potter World is that all the staff call you Muggles, although it is a bit presumptuous of them. I have to say though that most of the rides at Universal are just on a whole other level from anywhere else I’ve been. Most of them have simulator-style set-ups with screens, sometimes even in 3D which is awesome, so it’s not just rollercoasters. The graphics and engineering are incredible. The only thing I wasn’t impressed with at all was getting stuck on the Transformers ride for 35 minutes. After the theme park we went to have dinner at Citywalk, the nearby restaurant/bar part, and as everywhere had huge queues we went to the Hard Rock Café, where we met three of Emma’s friends who were very nice and friendly. During dinner several people were the subject of some kind of aggressive-sounding birthday shout-out from the waiters, and I made sure to be very vocal about how embarrassing and unnecessary I found it thank you very much. Sure enough, this fell on deaf ears and I too was coerced into participation and had the entire episode recorded by Paloma. It was very embarrassing but I got free ice cream out of it at least. We were supposed to stay in Orlando for two days, but when Jimmy Buffet agreed to an interview for the documentary, we reworked the plans to leave for Miami a day early. So the next day we got up very early and hit the road to Palm Beach for the interview.
