Epcot's "Holidays Around the World"

 
Christmas is my favorite time of year to visit the theme parks. At Epcot, through December 30th, you can experience "Holidays Around the World".  The park is decorated with Christmas trees and lights, a Candlelight Processional performs every day, and stories are shared about holiday traditions from all over the world. You can also find tons of adorable holiday merchandise to bring the magic of Disney home with you every Christmas.

The Candlelight Processional is one of the most popular events at Epcot during Christmastime. Three times a day, the story of Christmas is told by a celebrity narrator accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and a visiting high school choir.

I really like the storytellers around World Showcase. I was able to catch three performances while strolling around the park with my husband one day. The first was in Japan, where the story is told of the Daruma doll and the Japanese customs of the New Year. The second story we heard was in China, of the Monkey King and Chinese New Year. Lastly, in Norway, the storyteller Sigrid told the story of the mischievous Christmas Gnome, Julenissen.

Each of the countries in the World Showcase has its own holiday story to tell. You can hear from Los Tres Reyes Magos in Mexico, listen to the tale of the first Nutcracker in Germany, or hear from Italy's good Christmas witch La Befana. In the American Adventure, you can visit with Santa Claus, experience the spirit of Kwanzaa, or hear the story of Hanukkah. The Morocco storyteller explains the customs of Ramadan and Ashura, while Father Christmas tells of Christmas traditions in the United Kingdom and Nowell the Canadian lumber jack tells his tale in the Canada pavilion.

Back at Future World, you can catch a gospel performance by D'Vine Voices. And of course, the fireworks show continues each and every night on the World Showcase Lagoon. Each of the Disney theme parks has something different to offer for Christmas, and I had a great time enjoying the festivities at Epcot.

Bar Hopping in Baldwin Park

If you're not familiar with it, Baldwin Park is a planned community located about 3 miles east of downtown Orlando, near the Fashion Square Mall. Formerly a naval training center, the neighborhood of Baldwin Park has grown to include a large variety of homes, apartments, offices, restaurants, and shops.

A group of friends decided to go out Friday night to say farewell to a coworker who is moving to California. We met up immediately after work, around 5pm, at Colibri Mexican restaurant. Situated on Lake Baldwin, the patio offers a great view of the neighborhood. We ordered margaritas and Coronas for happy hour, and munched on chips and salsa.

After an hour or so we headed over to CaddyShanks, a brand-new sports bar located in the heart of the village center. They serve a ton of different beers and microbrews, as well as a few frozen drinks and mixers. They have lots of flat-screen tvs, two pool tables (one of which was converted to a ping pong table), three tvs hooked up with Wii, a foosball table, two virtual golf simulators, and two race car simulators. There is a fee for each of the games, and we ended up playing pool and ping ping for a few hours. Someone brought in a bunch of barbecue ribs and chicken wings to share, so we feasted on food, beer, and games.

Our next stop, around 9pm, was the UpTown Park Wine Bar. They offer a huge variety of different beers from all over the world. There was a DJ that night (he visits about once a month), and of course my crazy group were the only ones dancing in the middle of the bar! Generally, though, the UpTown Park Wine Bar is a nice quiet place to unwind and relax with a glass of wine or an international beer.

Our last stop of the evening was Seito Sushi Japanese restaurant. After all that drinking and dancing, it was time for more food! Seito's is probably my favorite restaurant in Baldwin Park. I love their fried gyoza, miso soup, house salad, and specialty sushi rolls. It was a great end to a fun-filled night.

So, if you're looking for some nighttime fun outside of the busy theme parks and away from the craziness of downtown Orlando, give Baldwin Park a try. It's classy, full of variety, and easy to hop from one place to another!

Reindeer Run at Sea World Orlando

 A few weeks ago, a coworker asked if I would be interested in doing the Reindeer Run 5k at Sea World. I just started running this summer, and had completed my first 5k in November at Lake Nona. Running at Sea World sounded cool, so I said yes! I registered and paid my $24 entrance fee at TrackShack.com (proceeds benefited the Pediatric Cancer Foundation...they were also collecting toys for Toys for Tots).   

The run was scheduled to start at 7:30am, but it got off to a late start because of traffic. According to the announcers at the event, they only had 400 people participate last year and over 4,000 this year! So things were a little backed up. No problem, though. We started running at around 7:45am.

Yes, it was COLD out. But once you start running, it isn't so bad. Plus, the Santa hat I was wearing kept my head warm. Participants were encouraged to dress up in a festive holiday outfit for the run; prizes were awarded for Most Creative Holiday Attire and Best Group Costume. I saw people dressed as reindeer and elves, lots of people wearing Santa hats and jingle bells, and even some dressed up as Christmas gifts with big boxes wrapped with a bow!

The route had us run about 1 mile through the parking lot, then into the park for the last 2 miles or so. We ran through the Bayside Stadium and around Shamu Stadium, over the bridge to Manta and the Dolphin Cove, back around past Atlantis, the Penguin Encounter, and the sea lions, and finally through Shamu's Happy Harbor to the exit. It was really nice to see the park decorated for Christmas. There were lighted Christmas trees on the water, fountains synchronized to Christmas music, fake snow falling during a performance by a live band, and Santa Claus with his elves greeting runners and taking photos as we passed by. We saw the Polar Express and Shamu Santa, could have our photo taken with a macaw or a two-toed sloth, and were treated to free snacks and hot chocolate after the race.


I definitely had a lot of fun, and am interested in trying other runs around different Orlando-area attractions. I'm already looking into signing up for one at Mead Garden in Winter Park. I'll keep you posted!

EEEK! My 2-park Universal Orlando annual passes are about to EXPIRE!

I recently received an email from Universal Studios reminding me that my annual passes will be expiring December 29th and I can renew now for the special price of $150. This sparked some interesting conversation between my husband and I. We had already agreed, months ago, that this would be our last year using the Universal annual passes (at least for now). We've had the passes for a long time and don't really feel the same excitement we did when we first bought them. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE being able to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure whenever I want. But we both feel that maybe it is time to move on. However, the thought of actually letting go of my preferred annual pass is not easy for me to accept!

My husband and I have had our Universal Orlando annual passes for 4 years. He bought them for me as Christmas gift right after we first moved to Orlando. I was thrilled! Here we were, newlyweds in a new city, with theme park annual passes! I was so excited to be taking advantage of the fact that we were living in Orlando, so close to the some of the world's best theme parks. After one year with the passes, we renewed with the special buy-one-year-get-one-free deal. After another 2 years with the passes, we were ready to take a break and wait until after the crowds for Wizarding World died down before going back. But then we got an offer for a $115 renewal rate, we decided to go for it. And now here we are again, deciding whether or not we should renew.

The 2-park preferred annual pass for Florida residents costs $220. It has no blackout dates, free parking, discounts on food and merchandise, and access to special passholder-only events and deals. In comparison, a one-day one-park ticket for Florida residents is $71. This does not include parking, which I'm pretty sure is around $14. So if we don't renew our passes but end up going to the parks twice in one year (which is very likely when guests visit from out of town), we will have spent more than this year's $150 price of the renewal annual passes.

So...after talking about it with my husband again, we decided that we will go ahead and renew the passes AGAIN! I mean, come on, it totally makes sense. Sure, the initial excitement of getting the passes for the first time may have worn off a bit....but I am still SO HAPPY to have the chance to get another fun-filled year at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.