Orlando, Florida

Hey guys!! And welcome to the December Teen Scene column in ENID MONTHLY. It’s the last month of the year 2023!! I hope you are very excited for the new year to start because I know I am. This past November my dad and I took a 5 day trip to Orlando, Florida, and I would love to share with you about everything we did. I hope it gives the parents reading this an idea of a trip for their teens or the teens an idea for a recommendation to your parents for a vacation. Let’s Go!! 

 Every year from now on my dad wants to go to one Oklahoma State Football away game a season. This year we chose OSU vs. UCF & last year we went to OSU vs. TCU!! On November 8^th, we started our journey to the airport, but first we had to stop at one of my favorite places to get amazing deals on name-brand clothing. DAISY EXCHANGE!! I found a few cute things and even $20 Lululemon leggings. Then we headed to the airport. Our flight was only 2 and a half hours long and took us directly to Orlando. When we arrived, we had to wait AN HOUR for our bus to Cabana Bay Resort at Universal Studios. When we finally got to our hotel, we noticed how mid-century modern the theme was and LOVED it!! We were very hungry, so we got all dressed up and headed to CityWalk. CityWalk is the area/entrance before the 2 parks (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure). We ate at this very popular Steakhouse called Bigfire. It was pretty good; the steaks were cooked over real wood from trees, which gave them a little bit of extra flavor!! After we ate, we went back to our hotel and went to sleep so we were energized for a long day ahead. 

On Thursday, we woke up bright and early ready for our full day at Universal Studios. When we got there, there were SO many people!! We couldn’t believe it. It didn’t take THAT long to get into the park, even though there were thousands of people, so that was nice. We were notified that almost all of the rides were down right as we got in, so we were hoping they weren’t the smaller ones. Someone had recommended going to Diagon Alley first, so we headed that way. Now I have never seen any of the movies or read any of the books about Harry Potter, but that did not stop how breathtakingly cool Diagon Alley was. My dad said it felt like you were really there. We rode there, and it was so amazing. The graphics, and 4D & 3D elements were just unbelievable. The other rides were pretty similar, but the Escape from Gringotts was by far the best on Day 1. We hung out by the pool at our hotel and then later got dinner.

The next morning, we woke up even EARLIER to start our day at Islands of Adventure. We went to Hogwarts and rode another really cool ride. On most of the rides, you are sitting in a big thing depending on the theme and it’s kind of like a roller coaster. We rode some more rides then came back to the 2nd ride at Hogwarts, which we waited an hour and a half for, but it was totally worth it. It was a real rollercoaster. We found out you can put these little boosters to make the coaster speed up A LOT without having to slowly chug up a hill. If I had to choose my favorite ride it would have to be that one (Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure). It didn’t go upside down or anything, but it was still the craziest roller coaster I had ever been on. Both Harry Potter areas at both of the parks sold the most delicious drink ever, BUTTERBEER!! It was so good that we had to get one on both days. We had lunch at the Chocolate Emporium, and it was really good. I had the best Bruschetta I have ever had. We went back to our hotel and chilled by the pool again and then went to dinner at Bubba Gump. 

On Saturday, I finally got to sleep in!! We got picked up to go to the UCF campus at 11 and saw a little bit of the city on the way there. The campus was really big, but I still LOVE OSU’s campus way more. We met some really nice people while waiting for the game to start. Now I am sure all of you know by now, but OSU didn’t do too hot, so we didn’t stick around for very long. That was pretty much the end of our trip. On Sunday at the airport, I did get to meet Warren the Cowboy, which was pretty cool. I had a really fun trip but was definitely excited to get home. 

Thank you so much for reading this month’s article. I hope you enjoyed it!! If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for upcoming articles, email me at tweensceneenid@gmail.com. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and December!! See you next year!!