Earlier this month, I went on a vacation with my bf, Mike, and our friends! We took a trip to Orlando Florida to visit the Disney World parks and also the Universal Studio parks as well. I've been to each respective park's California counterparts (Disney Land and Universal Studios Hollywood.) However, this was my first time visiting their Florida locations so it was quite exciting This trip has been in the works since early 2024. One of our friends, a self-proclaimed "theme park enthusiast", helped our friend group plan the whole thing. He put in a ton of research and even made a Google doc going over what to know about each park. Another of friend of ours, also just so happened to have parents who owned a timeshare not too far from the area. It was big enough to house all 10 of us O: This diary seems like the perfect place to babble about my time there. This is gonna be a LONG entry so brace yourself for tons of rambling >.>

Before we get to the parks themeselves, we have to start from the beginning of the journey. Firstly, a majority of the group that went on the trip all traveled together by plane! We had a morning flight and landed in Florida around 12pm. It's not too long of a plane ride, only a little over 2 hours. One of the first things I noticed when I got out of the Orlando airport: the HUMIDITY. MAN, it was humid there I'm not surprised by this fact by any means, but I guess I didn't mentally prepare myself as well as I thought I did -.- I happen to be someone that HATES hot weather and humidity, so I wasn't exactly thrilled about that fact. We then called a couple of Lyfts to take us to the timeshare. We eventually arrived, and were all pretty pleased with the size of it. The best part, however, had to be the fact that there was a balcony with a pretty view of a big pond. Even better than the pond is the fact that there were lots of waterfowl hanging out there! Check this out!!:

(In the middle is a Muscovy duck. The 6 smaller ones in the bottom half are the Muscovy duck's ducklings. On the top left there is a kind of bird I had never seen before. I eventually learned that they are called American white ibis. Cool, huh?? )

We weren't going to any theme parks until tomorrow, so today was mostly just a free day until then. We rested for a few hours, then headed over to Universal CityWalk. It's a dining/shopping district that's free to enter. We had reservations for one restaurant in particular. That restaurant being Bob Marley - A Tribute to Freedom. This place was awesome, in both food and atmosphere. Lots of Bob Marley memoribilia, live reggae music, and the food was great too!! Lots of Carribean and Jamaican influenced dishes. One of me and Mike's favorites was the ever-so-cleverly named "Jamacaroni and Cheese." Gimmicky, perhaps, but everything there was awesome so no complaints on our end. After a little bit of souvenir shopping, we all headed back to the timeshare to prep for the real beginning of our theme park adventures.

EPCOT

Our first stop in our theme park vacation was EPCOT. One of Disney World's most iconic parks. Funny enough, this happened to be the day of my birthday. My friend who planned the trip found that this time of year would be the best to visit as it wouldn't be as crowded as most other times. (Don't be fooled though, there were still a lot of people.) We rode on some rides and got to travel through the different "countries." One of my personal favorite highlights of the day was eating fresh ice cream in the French pavilion. Mike got a Cinnamon Caramel Apple and I got Mint-Chocolate Both were delicious, but I was especially impressed with my mint one. It wasn't your run-of-the-mill mint-chip with that weird green coloring. I could literally taste mint leaves alongside the fresh chocolate. I had realized the ingredients came from a greenhouse that EPCOT has within the park. Many of the restaurants in the different pavilions get ingredients from it. Another fun part of this visit was checking out the aquarium they have (I can't remember which particular section of the park we we were in.) I LOVE aquariums, so it's a given that I'd enjoy this one. The best ride at the park was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind! For dinner we ate at a fancy outerspace themed restaurant called Space 220. It was quite expensive, and while the food was okay, definitely overhyped and not worth the $80 price tag (yikes!!) I'd say our first theme park day was a success!

Animal Kingdom

Our second day of theme park hopping landed us in Animal Kingdom. As the name suggests, the theming is all about wildlife. If you haven't figured it out by now, I love animals and nature, so I was really eager to visit this park. I'm pretty sure this is the smallest of the parks, so we weren't here ALL day like the previous one. We went on a good majority of the rides and had lunch here, though had reservations for dinner elsewhere. There were two particular highlights from this park I enjoyed the most. First one is the tour we took around the wildlife reserve area. We got to see tons of animals, most of which are native to Africa. As the above photo suggests, we saw zebras. We also got to see rhinos, elephants, giraffes, lions, and much more Another highlight of the park was visiting Rafiki’s Planet Watch. It's a research and education center area. Half of our friend group attended while the other half went back to the timeshare to rest. To get to this section of the park, you have to take a train. Once we arrived, we got to see even more animals. Many of which were reptiles and insects that were inside special animal care rooms. There was also a petting zoo with lots of goats and some donkeys as well! They were all super cute. The last thing we did before leaving the park was a live drawing class. We'd receive a paper with some already drawn guidelines and an art teacher would show us how to draw a specific character. For this class, they taught us how to draw Bruce from Finding Nemo. While it was technically freehand drawing, we were all just copying the same strokes the teacher was doing. It's for kids, after all ^^ All the friends I was with for this class happened to be artists as well, so it was fun seeing our drawings together and noticing how we did certain things different from eachother despite copying the teacher's instructions. Once we were done in this area, the park was closing, so we headed out! The rest of the day involved going to Disney Springs, another shopping district similar to CityWalk, and having dinner at a steakhouse called STK. It was delicious!!

Hollywood Studios

Here we are on the 3rd out of the 4 days of Disney theme park hopping. We've found ourselves at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Not Hollywood, CA sadly but it'll do. The layout of this park was a pain to navigate but the theming of each section was really cool, especially Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. We got to meet a few mascot characters this time around! Including: Edna Mode, Elastigirl, Goofy and Max, and even Darth Vader. For lunch we ate at a 50's themed cafe. It was a little nerve wrecking, as odd as that sounds. That's because the waiters not only dress like they're in the 50s but also LARP as if they're in that time period as well. We'd seen videos of them scolding guests for not finishing their vegetables. Thankfully, our waitress was really nice and we were all on our best behavior (I wonder if they had to tone it down... Thank goodness if they did >_>) If you manage to finish your food, you get a "Clean Plate Club" sticker :3 One of the WORST parts of this day was going on the dreaded Tower of Terror. I hadn't been on this ride since I was 17, and even back then I hated it. I knew I'd hate it again but somehow convinced myself to get on it again. Big mistake It was scary... I was screaming my head off cuz I HATE drop rides! It wasn't all bad though. Some dude had apparently brought a bag of popcorn onto the ride and, as you can imagine, it got flung all over the place. That part was pretty funny, at least :P We were supposed to eat at a Toy Story themed restaurant later that evening, but we were all still pretty full from lunch and Mike was starting to not feel well. Him and I decided to go back to the timeshare and to get some extra rest (not before stopping to get a lightsaber -.-) I guess the heat and constant walking with minimal breaks were starting to get to us. It wasn't so bad. It was nice to relax in the timeshare. I found out they had Del Taco so I ordered that for dinner instead. I love their trashy tacos and crinkle cut fries -w- No regrets!

Magic Kingdom

Our final Disney World journey was at their most well-known park, Magic Kingdom. I can definitely see why this was the definitive park. There was lots to do! My friends and I got to go on a whole bunch of rides, some even more than once. One of my favorites there was Tron! It's a newer ride and it was super fun I also got to go on Haunted Mansion. I've been to its California counterpart, so some parts of the ride felt familiar. At some point, the ride stopped in the middle of it and we had to sit there for a few minutes in a barely lit room. Something I haven't mentioned yet is the fact that on some rides, your picture gets taken and it gets sent to an app. We were plesantly surprised to find out that we received photos from Haunted Mansion. What we didn't expect is the fact that it gave us SOMEBODY ELSE'S photo o_O Some grandma and her grandkid were sitting behind us on the ride and we ended up getting their photo instead. I wonder if that means they got me and Mike's pic. Poor souls. We hadn't ate too much for lunch as we were saving our appetite for dinner. We had a reservation for Liberty Tree Tavern, which has Thanksgiving themed cuisine. The food was all-you-can-eat, and man did we eat!! After dinner, we got out just in time to catch a nighttime parade. Earlier in the day, we got to see a parade as well. This one was even bigger and nicer as it had a ton of cool lights. Not long after this, it was time to see the nighttime fireworks. It was quite hectic trying to find a good spot though eventually we found somewhere suffient, though it involved some of us to split up. We eventually regathered and found out they were going to do another nighttime parade before closing. We found a good spot right at the start of the parade route. Not to sound corny, but it certainly did feel magical that night.

Epic Universe

Our Disney adventures had come to an end, and it was now time for Universal Studios parks. While this was only the about the 3/4 point for most of the group, it was sadly the last day of park festivites for Mike and I. You see, one of Mike's cousins just so happened to plan a wedding that landed during our group vacation. Even though this vacation had been planned long before we received a wedding invitation, we still had to attend. Sucks, but at least it landed toward the end of the vacation rather than than interrupting the start of it. Now onto the park itself. It was sectioned off into different parts, and each part was themed quite well. Because this park was new, there were lots of people. That means LOTS of waiting in line. There were a couple of instances where we had to wait in line for almost 2 hours x_x We can't really complain though as the rides were solid. One of the best ones of the visit was Mine Kart Madness in Donkey Kong Country, which is a section inside of Super Nintendo Land. I've been to Super Nintendo Land in Hollywood, but the Orlando location is much larger! As you can see in the above photo, we got to see the one and only Cranky Kong and his pet parrot, Squawks. After the ride, Mike and I had lunch at the Toadstool cafe ^w^ It was yummy! Sometime later that evening, I started to feel kinda out of it. I think the heat and exhaustion was starting to get to me too I was able to hang in there at least. I'm glad I did! We ate dinner at an ocean themed restaurant called Atlantic. The inside had a gorgeous ocean theme. We lucked out as well, as the restaurant is right next to the main fountain where they have an evening water and light show before closing. Despite some setbacks, the overall experience could only be described with one word: EPIC! H-hey!! Why are you booing??


The next day was the rest of the group's day to visit the main Universal Studios park. Sadly, it was me and Mike's departing day. Admittedly, we were quite exhausted from our theme park adventures. It's apparent we weren't the only ones, as some of our group members slept in and decided to head to the park later than the rest. I don't blame them. Once they left, Mike and I had some time to pack up and relax before heading to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Florida. While I hated the humidity, I did enjoy my time there. We flew back home, and prepped ourselves for Mike's cousins wedding the next day


Overall, our vacation was a lot of fun! It's always nice to be able to spend extended quality time with our friends. Everyone's life/work schedules are different, so I'm grateful we were able to set aside the time to pursue this journey together. It isn't always easy cohabitating with others, as everyone has different rituals and habits. At times, I could tell the heat, exhaustion, being stuck together for hours and combination of the three would cause some to butt heads. Despite this, I think it's safe to say we all had a lot of fun ^_^ If you think your friend group has a close enough bond and enough time/budget, I recommend a group vacation. It doesn't have to be at a theme park either. As long as everyone's on the same page, it can be a lot of fun


Alright, this diary entry got WAY longer than I expected. I'm gonna have to tinker around with the coding to fit everything nicely -_- Wish me luck... If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading! Until next time

After years and years of putting it off, I've FINALLY gotten around to putting together a Diary page for my site. Yay!!! It still needs some work but for now, I'm content. Now I can reward myself for all my hard work by writing an entry. Hmm... Now that I'm actually here. What should I even write about?? o_O. How personal do I truly want to get with these diary entries? I want to be open but not too revealing either. Decisions, decisions. I suppose I should start off with how I'm doing and what's been going on in life. That's what diaries are all about, right? Alright, let's see...

I've been doing just fine. Not amazing, but not too bad either. The world sucks, don't get me wrong. But as for my life in it's current state, I'm grateful that things are okay. Could be better, of course. But they could also be much worse, and I'm extremely grateful that isn't the case. Sometimes things being okay is okay! As for whats been going on in life, not too much at the current moment. However, a couple weeks from now, I'm going on a big vacation with my boyfriend, Mike, and our friends! We'll be visiting Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida. I've been to Disney Land and Universal Studios Hollywood, but never their East Coast counterparts. While I'm not excited to visit a controversial and humid state like Florida, I am excited to go on a big vacation again. My last big vacation was earlier this year when I visited the one and only Japan. I NEED to write a post about my time spent in Japan sometime. In addition to this diary page, I want to make a page for other blog-type posts that have more of a theme. Guess I'll have to jot that in my site's neverending to-do list

What else, what else... Oh yeah. I'm hoping by the end of the year that I can finally resume streaming games after an almost decade hiatus. "ALMOST A DECADE?!" you're probably thinking to yourself. Well, let me explain. Back in late 2014, I started streaming games. I was inspired by Joel (Vargskelethor) and Vinny Vinesauce, so I didn't show a face cam. It was amatuer hour at its finest. For starters, I streamed off of a 2012 Macbook (and hey, AT THE TIME it was only a couple years old.) I used some cheap logitech headset that office workers used as my mic. For the love of god, I used my neighbors internet for my very first stream because our house's internet was worse. And if memory serves me correct, that first stream was only and hour or so because I had to leave for work that night (I worked at a dollar store.) Despite the odds, I did end up getting into the groove of things. I never reached stardom, of course, but I did gain a decent handful of followers who considered themselves fans. I even met one of them when I went to Sakuracon back in 2015. One of my proudest achievement was having Jabroni Mike (at the time, still going by his old username) raid and watch my stream. Imakuni stopped by as well. Ugh, it was so awesome It was a little embarrassing though because I was playing Mario Party and BROKE my joystick on stream while doing a minigame -_-;;; So it affected the other game I streamed that night which was Banjo Tooie. ANYWHO... I streamed from late 2014 till mid 2016.

In 2016, after returning from a trip, my mental health went into a funky place and I was afraid to stream again. Not exactly sure why. I guess I was feeling insecure :T Anxiety sucks. It took a while for me to get out of that rut. Later in 2017, I finally felt as if I was ready to make my big return. I did a test stream on a different account and everything. I even drew up a teaser image. However, my macbook (which by that point was 5 years old) stopped working properly. What timing -_-; To cut it short, the biggest thing holding me back from streaming for so many years was always either technical troubles, mental health, or a combination of both. 2024 and onward, I finally have a PC suitable for streaming and my mental health is finally in a decent enough state. It's just been a matter of being busy with freelance work and wanting to figure how I want the streams to look and run. It seems VTuber/PNGtubers are all the rage now. I had always just streamed with my voice like Joel and Vinny do, so it'll be interesting bringing a little dinky PNG drawing into the mix. I'm planning on starting with streaming art on Picarto before making the big comeback to gaming streams. Streaming art, is a much less interesting story. I hadn't done that in a while either but I believe my last one was in 2021. I was using my boyfriend's PC to do it while he was at work. I planned to start streaming art last year, but again, work and dwelling on the details has stopped me. After this vacation, I really want to buckle down and prepare to start streaming again. It was a lot of fun and I've been putting it off for long enough. Wish me luck on achieving this goal!



Alright, this first entry went on MUCH longer than I expected, so I think I should wrap things up here. I suppose this entry serves as a good example of what to expect from future post. Lots of rambling and tangents :P I've always enjoyed writing diary entries, so I'm glad I've finally gotten around to working on this page. There's still much to do for not only this page but my site in general, but I'm glad I'm finally making some decent progress. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this entry. Until next time!