RCL VS DCL Disney Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line are the two best cruise lines in my life right now. DCL has been a strong contender after I have been on my fourth cruise in the last two years. I have been on four Royal in the past two years as well, on multiple different ships so I think this will be the best time to rate them. They each have their positives and negatives attached to them, but which one should you spend money on? The ships—Royal Caribbean has a

HHN 35 House Hype List This will be my 6th year at the event, I have walked some great houses, and some disappointing houses. This year, I am super excited for it to open within the month. Some houses I am more excited for than others. While looking through the house lineup, I cant help but feel a bit disappointed in the original house CONCEPTS this year. Evil Dead Burn—I haven’t seen this IP, don’t really plan on seeing it either.. Doesn’t really sound appealing. Madlands: C

Ranking the best Disney Cruise Line Ships In the last two years, I have been lucky enough to get a couple of discounted cruise rates and go on my first Disney Cruise since 2005. I have been on four Disney cruises in the last two years on three different ships. All three are different ship classes, and I are each a decade apart. Disney Wish—The Disney Wish is bringing up the rear on this list. I have been on it twice, so I have a very good grasp on this cruise ship. Let me jus

Best Hotels at Disney A few weeks ago, I made a best hotels at Universal where I basically ranked all of the hotels at Universal Orlando Resort. There are well over 20 hotels at Walt Disney World so I will be ranking the best 5-10. Art of Animation—My favorite value resort, I have strong nostalgia for the all-stars but this hotel is just an improvement in every way. I have stayed here several times, mostly in the Finding Nemo family suites but have stayed in the Little Mermai

Star of the Seas Review I was lucky to get on the newest (at the time) ship of Royal Caribbean’s fleet. The Star of the Seas was the biggest and newest ship and we had to go on it. We don’t typically do 7-night cruises, as locals, we love enjoying a weekend getaway for a couple days, miss only four hours of work, and then come back on Monday and go straight to work. We have taken advantage of our location many times. While maintaining our PTO balance. A sailing on the Star ca

Favorite Land at Epic Universe Epic Universe has been such a great addition to the Orlando theme park market. The number of theme parks is a big reason why I moved down to Orlando five years ago, and lucky me, I was living here when they opened the first major theme park in 20 years. They have five distinct worlds with their own character and attractions. They are all well themed and most of them have great food. Picking my favorite land at Epic Universe is picking between my

Ranking the hotels at Universal Orlando Resort Universal Orlando Resort has been launching hotel after hotel in recent years as their property has expanded. Another hotel is going to be built at some point in the future a little bit further from Epic Universe. Universal has expanded quite a bit since it was a one park-one hotel from the 90’s. It now has 11 hotels ranging between different levels of price points and proximity to parks. I have been to all of these hotels multip

Worst Land at Epic I just can’t ever get Epic Universe out of my mind. I recently wrote about my favorite land in the park, but now, I need to talk about my least favorite. Two have easily separated themselves as the worst lands in my opinion. I think one has separated itself even more. The first of the two lands I want to speak about is Super Nintendo World. Although the theming feels like you have stepped into a video game (with too many NPCs) but I think it relies to heavi

Expedition Everest—Over 20 years in my life I guess I am feeling nostalgic after Everest turned 20 years old this year. This has been one of my favorite attractions for almost that entire span. I was a very nervous kid, scared of most of the rides at theme parks, I would pass them by while my brother and dad would ride them all. One kid rode Tower of Terror at 5 years old, one couldn’t even ride E.T. at 5 years old. Expedition Everest was one of the first dominoes that fell a

Best Harry Potter Attraction QUEUES Harry Potter almost singlehandedly thrusted Universal from close to Seaworld to be in the conversation with Disney. When Comcast acquired the theme park, they put even more money into the theme parks which catapulted them even higher. They have since made three separate lands in three separate theme parks at the Orlando resort. Each Harry Potter land comes with multiple attractions, with rides or shows, and all three have their own unique f

My Personal 27 years out of the 36 years of Universal Universal Orlando opened on June 7th, 1990. 36 years of growth, new attractions, new food items, new hotels, and now its third theme park is hitting its stride right next to them. Universal has been such a part of my personal history that I needed to give it a love letter to the awesome property that has provided me some great memories over the years. I don’t remember the first time I saw the Universal globe, I am doing so

Worst Rides in Orlando I did a best rides of Orlando list a little while ago, so it is only right to get a little negative about our lovely rides here. The further down the best rides list I got, the more my preferences began to show up. I am thinking this will be similar. Mission Space—Claustrophobic on top of a simulator with a tiny screen. I haven’t even done the orange mission, but the green is awful enough as it is. I haven’t ridden this attraction in at least 15 years

Ranking The Theme Parks of Orlando Orlando has some of the best theme park destinations in the world. From Disney World to Seaworld, they each have their parks that can provide a great vacation for families. Seaworld— This park’s Achilles heel every time I go is the operations. People walking in quick queue because there is no greeter. No grouper on the ride platform so it is just a free-for all. Time between ride dispatches are extremely long, leading to lines moving extreme

Best Event in Orlando Theme Parks When I was growing up, going to Orlando theme parks was a huge event themselves. I was lucky enough to have parents that took me to Universal and Disney World about once a year. Some were field trips from our Florida schools, and some were just family vacations. I loved the parks so much that I just ended up moving here. Now, my relationship with the parks have changed. They aren’t huge events anymore. They are my third place when I am thirty

Best Rides at Universal Universal has been on a tear in the last seven years dropping amazing rides one after another. How do they stack up against themselves? In some order. Men in Black—An absolute classic at Universal Studios. I know the property is starting to get dated. Unfortunately, the last Men in Black movie gave the franchise its death sentence. Even with a dying property lineup, this shooter attraction is still the best in Florida. The physical sets are something t

Best Rides at Disney World Disney World is stuffed full of attractions. Some attractions are world-class while others are stinkers. There is a huge range when it comes to Disney World, so I am going to try my best to rank the best attractions at the resort. In some order…. These fluctuate so much, just depends on how I am feeling for the week. A few honorable mentions Dinosaur—I loved that ride and it got shut down for more IP. Tron—It’s short but very cool. Tiana's Bayou Adv

After many trips to Epic Universe, I have definitely been able to see the patterns that have emerged during the day. This park is still having plenty of issues. Rides being delayed, rides being closed for extended periods of time, and susceptible to bad weather. My last trip to Epic included all of those. They have adjusted their hours from 10 AM-9 PM from the original closing at 10. Losing that one extra hour in the evening hurts as this is a nighttime park, and this is al

The Strategy of Epic Universe Epic Universe has some issues in operations and a complete lack of capacity has lines far exceeding what any one should wait for a Carousel or even a pizza. If you have an upcoming trip, and you have no express. Don’t worry about it. You can still have an amazing day at Epic Universe, you can try different food offerings, watch some shows, and even ride all the rides without a crazy pace. You don’t even need early park admission or express passes

Best Harry Potter Attractions While I was waiting in line for two and a half hours for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, I though to myself. This is easily the best Harry Potter ride that Universal has ever made, and I think it is almost unquestioned at this point. I wonder how do the others stack up. So over the next week or two, I had friends come into town and we rode Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, the Hogwarts Express, Gringotts, and the Battle at the Ministry.

The Food on the Disney Wish The Disney Wish is a part of the newest fleet subset on Disney Cruise Line. This brings more dining options to Disney Cruise Lines and new menu items that are delicious. I was able to go to every included restaurant, tried some DCL staples and ate as much as I could on my six nights on this ship. The Good The filet mignon at 1923 was one of the best items on the cruise ship. It didn’t taste completely mass produced and had a good flavor. The churro