Group Travel – Page 2 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 30 – Raleigh

September 14, 2015June 13, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On Thursday it was off to Raleigh!
It’s the capital and the second most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is known as the “City of Oaks” for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city.

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As I’m writing this blog 3 days after being in Raleigh my memory is pretty shit. We arrived late in the afternoon at our hotel and all got our room key. For some reason a few of us had our own rooms so I was one of the lucky ones who got my own king sized bed for the night 🙂

When I got to my room I had a shower and quickly put my washing in the washing machine.
After my last attempt at washing them with no powder they weren’t smelling the greatest.

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We had an included dinner at a buffet restaurant called ‘Golden Corral’ just before 7pm so after getting ready we all met on the bus and headed off there. I thought since it was a buffet it’d be pretty average but I was surprised at how good it was. There was just so much to choose from.
They had a hot buffet set up with all your Beef and Chicken dishes. They had Enchiladas, Fish dishes, Macaroni & Cheese, Meat loaf, Onion Rings, Pork Chops, Pork Steaks, Ribs, Potatoes either fried or mashed or made into fries. They even had rice dishes and Sandwiches, some Turkey and Hot Vegetables you could load your plate up with. They had a Salad Buffet set up too with vegetables and fruits.

My favorite part was the Dessert though. Cheesecake, Soft-serve Ice-cream, Scoop Ice-cream, Candy to put on top of it, Cookies, Chocolate Pies and Tarts. Yum!!

one-big-buffet — Took this picture off Google to give you an idea of what it looked like

After dinner, we headed out to go bowling. I’m not the best bowler, but after a few drinks I was doing pretty well. Still ended up loosing though!

Bowling finished about 10pm. Me, Jonathan and Robert thought it was too early to go back to the hotel so headed across the road to a bar and had a couple of drinks after the bowling.
Nothing was really happening so we headed back to the hotel after wards.

Raleigh was a pretty quiet time for me. Hence why this blog is so short and my memory is shit.
I do however remember my key card not working for like the 100th time on this trip. I always put it near my phone and it deactivates it which makes it impossible to get into my room until I re-activate it at the Reception area. Grr.

Day 26. Miami #2

September 8, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On the Second day of Miami I lay in bed and had a great snooze until 11am.
I was slightly worried that I was actually the only one on the whole tour who had decided to sleep in and everyone else was out exploring the highlights of Miami.
In my head I had visions of the group at the beach, shopping at DASH or eating breakfast at some yummy cafe.

When I emerged all ready for my day and went downstairs, I was mistaken as everyone else had literally just gotten up as well. We all caught up on the previous nights events and people lay their head in their hands to nurse their hangovers.

I had brunch with Paige and Marisa at the hotel restaurant. It would have been nice if I had ordered something savoury. Instead I ordered the strawberry and banana waffles and the whole time I just craved some scrambled eggs and some fried potatoes or something!

After Brunch I walked down to Walgreen’s Pharmacy to try and get myself a Ventolin Inhaler. I know in Australia you don’t need to have a prescription to get one (in NZ you do) so I assumed here would be the same.
Turns out I’d need to see a doctor to get anything to help me breathe better.
😧😧
Every year I get Bronchitis and I thought I’d skip it this year(hence why I didn’t bring anything) but here I am coughing away on the Contiki Coach every day and feeling like I have the airways the size of a straw.

After I bought some Jandals (or thongs as Aussies call them) from Walgreens I went and met up with the girls again where we went to the beach and had a swim.

We were there for about an hour before the thunder started so we decided to go back to the hotel and swim in the pool with some of the group.

When it got later in the day, I headed down the road and bought a Twix ice cream 💕 and some Doritos. I was in such a snack mood! Haha

After munching on them, I had a shower and begun to get ready for my night out. We had a Miami party cruise boat booked and then we’re heading to the club Nikki Beach afterwards.

I was prepared this time and bought my poncho. I got some laughs but I was the one laughing when everyone had to run to the bus in the rain!

When we got to the boat, we all took some photos outside and then boarded.

We all got 3 free drinks each. And they wern’t stingy on the alcohol either!
There was lots of dancing and drinking. Plus Marisa and Paige didn’t feel like drinking so they gave me their 3 free drink coupons. Woo hoo! I was loving life.

After the boat cruise, we all went to Nikki Beach.
We skipped the line and hit the dance floor. It was soo much better than Mansion.
I think there was another tour type thing there so there were heaps of people our age and I talked to other people from NZ which was cool.
By 3am my feet were killing me, I’d gotten free drinks in VIP all night from some guys that were having a party, I then Ubered home with another great Uber driver and I had an hour hang out with the concierge at the hotel.

When I got back I said to the hotel guy I was going to bed but I was hungry so he gave me the rest of his dinner he’d gotten from the restaurant as it was now closed. He even microwaved it for me haha. We chatted for ages about my travels and how I want to move to America but didn’t know how to go about it etc… He recommended working at the Hotel but I’m pretty sure I have to get sponsored for something like that.
It was a pretty all good end to my night.

When I got back to my room I ended up calling my best friend back home and sat in the bathroom talking to her for ages on Facebook messenger calling haha!

Miami, I will defiantly be back! (Maybe when I have more money)
💳💲💰

Day 24 – Orlando #2

September 6, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On Friday Morning we were up early to get ready for a day at Universal Studios!
We had to be on the bus by 8am to get to the park around opening time.
Quite a few of us rushed to the park so we could get to the front of the line before anyone else.

Overall, the wait times we had for that day weren’t too bad for a Friday
I think the longest we had to wait was about 25 minutes for a ride. But then again, we saw some that had like 45 minute wait times so didn’t bother to go on them.

I ended up going on all the rides with 6 others people. Emma, Brent, Marisa, Robert, Mitch and Scott.
Me, Emma, Robert and Brent were really keen on all the rides but Marisa and Scott were being a bit of a scaredy cat 😜
Mitch however was just too hungover to go on half the rides haha.

We started off at Harry Potter world, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a Harry Potter fan at all. I wasn’t a fan of the books and have only seen a bit of the first movie.
However, the setup that they have at Orlando universal is so cool!
We took a train to Harry Potter world from ‘Kings Cross Station’The train ride was really fun and so were the rides at Harry Potter World. I think they only had about 5 rides overall but the whole set up is quite well-doneThey were also selling this ‘butterbeer’ drink which tasted really yum! It doesn’t taste like beer, it’s more of a butterscotch and caramel drink with froth on top.

The first ride we went on was The Dragon Challenge which is a roller coaster that overlaps each other. It’s quite cool because as you’re queuing up for this ride they’ve put Harry Potter things to look at, including the Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. Also the hike to the ride features the flying car featured in the second film, as well as Hagrid’s hut.

The second one we went on was called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey which is a new attraction inside a replica of Hogwarts Castle.
When you walk in, it’s like a tour of the castle and it’s grounds and you get to interact with various characters and props from the Potterseries, including a speech from Dumbledore, and directions from Harry, Hermione and Ron, before boarding a ‘magic bench’

The Magic Bench takes you around the castle by using a simulator flight. If you can imagine it, you’re strapped into this ride and it moves around while realistic animation versions of the Whomping Willow, a horde of dementors, giant spiders, the Hungarian Horntail Dragon, and a Quidditch match appear in front of you. It’s so realistic it can actually be a bit scary haha!

So basically if you love Harry Potter you’ll love Universal.
They have heaps of Gift Shops around the park selling shirts and wands, hats and gowns and broomsticks.

When we finally left Harry Potter world, we went back to the main park and went on the Jurassic park ride which we all got wet on!The other people in the group all went on a couple of the other water rides but I skipped out on them because I didn’t want to look like shit for all my Univeral Photos. Hahaha. #fancytraveler
I was going to go back at the end of the day to do them but didn’t end up having time.

I really wanted to go on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It (pictured above) but by the time we got there it started thundering and lightening so the park had to close the ride.

I feel like I went on most of the rides overall so I’m happy about that. I’d defiantly go again as well! All of us went on the mummy ride like 4 times haha. Mainly because it was so much fun and also because the line was short when the storm came.

I saw the Simpson themed area of the park which was really cool as well. Scott got one of those large donuts and some of the others bought Duff beer.By about 4.30pm the storm had begun and it just absolutely poured down!
We all bought ponchos so we wouldn’t get our clothes soaked.
But by 5.30pm we were back on the Coach, soaked and on our way back to the hotel, so I’m not sure how well those Poncho’s actually worked.When I got back, I quickly did my hair (as it’d gone all curly and frizzy from the rain haha) And then met Marisa downstairs so we could Uber to the Mall.

We went to the Mall of Mallesia (I think it was called).
I wanted to go so I could find something to wear in Miami and we were both going to get our nails done.

When we got there, we were starving and wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory as everyone talks about it being amazing.
It was pretty amazing alright, because the line was like out the door. It was such a big restaurant but it was full and so many people were waiting that we didn’t bother to hang around. We said we’d try and go if there was one in New York City though.Instead for dinner, we went up to the food court and had these wraps. They weren’t too bad but the service was so shit.
We went in search of a nail bar or something but they didn’t bloody have one!
This wasn’t turning into be the greatest shopping trip 😯
Instead I bought some nail polish so I could do my nail polish at the hotel.
It’s great coz OPI is like $9 here, cheap!

I also couldn’t find anything to wear so I’m going to have to re-wear the dress I wore in Las Vegas for Miami. I did however buy a black skirt so I could always team that up with one of my overly worn tops from this trip.

When it was time to leave (the mall shut) we ordered an Uber and he didn’t even come! I rung him twice to tell him exactly where we were standing at the mall (since it was so big) and he obviously couldn’t find us so he cancelled the ride and I got charged $5. Grrr.

Then the second Uber we ordered cancelled as well until we finally had this lovely guy Anthony come and get us. It was an interesting ride home with him. He was an ‘actor’ and we all talked about the meaning of happiness and goals in life haha! Very deep and meaningful for an Uber ride.

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the supermarket so I could get nail clippers and some vitamins for my sickness.
Marisa also got some Lucky charms (the cereal) to have in the morning and we went back to her room to do our nails. (Well I did my nails anyways) and we sat on her bed and ate our slices of cheesecake that we did end up getting from the cheesecake factory before we left.
They were so good but I couldn’t finish mine! 😦I was knackered and was in bed by about 12am (so yes another late one) but I’m on the bus now heading to Miami and I’m trying to have lots of naps.
That’s the good thing about being on the coach, if you have a late night the night before you can always sleep and prepare your body for the coming night.

I know I’m sick but I’m not missing out on partying in Miami! I haven’t drunken in 2 days and it feels weird now.