KatelynOctober 7, 2022 – October 18, 2022
Where We Stayed:
Hyatt Place Orlando/Lake Buena Vista
Trip Highlights:
- Eating around the world at Epcot
- Relaxing at the pool
- Watching Aruba iguanas
Favorite Restaurants:
We’re married! And we’re going to Disney World! Well, Aruba really. After some flight changes upset our original travel plans to Aruba, we decided to make a pit stop in Orlando first and spend a few days at Disney and Kennedy Space Center before continuing on to our honeymoon in Aruba.
Animal Kingdom
Our first stop at in Orlando was Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I had only been to Animal Kingdom once before in 2017 and Sam hadn’t been to Animal Kingdom since he was young, so it was fun to take on a park neither of us had spent much time at together. This park has become one of our favorites in Orlando. We went on a trip through their safari, watched the Festival of the Lion King show, rode banshees in the Pandora section of the park and wandered around the Tree of Life. It was a relaxing day and we really enjoyed it!
Kennedy Space Center
Our second day in Florida we spent on the coast at Kennedy Space Center. Neither of us had been here before, so we were excited to see what it was all about. Overall, Kennedy Space Center was okay, but a bit underwhelming. Probably the most interesting part was driving around the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) where the build the rockets and other spacecraft. The size of this building was hard to comprehend, even when looking at it. In order to fit the rockets that they assemble there, the building needs to be one of the largest in the world. Just the blue stars section of the American flag on the side of the building is the size of a football field.
The rest of Kennedy Space Center was a bit underwhelming. While it was cool to see the Atlantis space shuttle, most of the other artifacts there are replicas or mostly replicas. Overall the entire place felt a bit too “theme-park-ified.” We had hoped it would feel more like a museum than just another Florida attraction. We had a good time, but don’t feel the need to go back.
EPCOT
Our final day in Florida was spent at EPCOT. More specifically, EPCOT’s Food & Wine festival. Both of us have been to EPCOT multiple times, but this was Sam’s first trip to the Food & Wine festival. We did ride a few rides during our day at EPCOT, but most of our time was spent eating our way through the festival’s food booths. There were a ton of gluten free options, which was very exciting, and we both had a handful of dishes we really enjoyed. We ended our night watching what we both agreed was our favorite nighttime show we’d seen at Disney, Harmonious, which took place over the lagoon.
Aruba
Our next day began our journey down to Aruba. The flight was a pretty easy four hour direct flight from Orlando on Southwest. After getting through customs (also a breeze) we grabbed a taxi to our hotel.
The hotel felt like a private ocean oasis. Our room was pretty simple, with a small balcony that overlooked the palm tree lined pool area. We also had access to the private club with our Hyatt hotels status which allowed us to stop by for free lattes and snacks throughout each day.
One downside of this trip is that we did both get a bit sick. I think the stress of the wedding weekend finally caught up with us, and we were pretty beat for a good portion of our trip. But, considering we were planning to spend most of our honeymoon just relaxing around the resort, this didn’t impact our plans too much.
Pool Time & Iguanas
We spent a lot of time lounging in the adult pool area. This area, and really the entire property, was crawling with iguanas and lizards. One of my favorite parts of the trip was just relaxing on a beach chair watching the iguanas climb up the trees and dart under the chairs.
Casino Wins
Our hotel had a casino on site, and we liked to stop by a play slots or roulette now and then. During one stop at the casino when we were trying to kill time before heading to dinner, we decided to spend $20 on a few slot machines. On our last pull, we hit the day’s big winner jackpot, winning $500! Definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
The Food
Aruba is an interesting island culturally. It is located in the southern end of the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela. Because of this, there is a lot of both culturally Caribbean dishes (fish, jerk-flavoring, etc) as well as a lot of South American fare (steaks, pupusas, etc). In addition, Aruba is owned by The Netherlands, which has allowed some Dutch and general European influence on the island as well.
This led to a really interesting mix of foods on the island. We enjoyed delicious margaritas and tacos one night. Another night we visited a Argentinian steak house for delicious grilled meats. We also stopped by a Dutch pancake restaurant for dessert. The shops on the island sold both American treats and European candies and snacks. It was a strange mix but overall very tasty.
Snorkeling
Our one major excursion was a half day snorkeling excursion on a catamaran. We visited three sites to snorkel. Two of the snorkel spots were near different reefs to view the various fish that lived among the rocks and coral. Another spot was in deeper water to snorkel over a shipwreck that was relatively near the surface. The shipwreck was definitely the most interesting, but it was neat checking out the different fish as well.
We really enjoyed our relaxing honeymoon in Aruba (with a quick stop in Orlando on the way). While we probably wouldn’t stay for a week like we did on this trip, I could definitely see us taking a trip down to Aruba again in the future.
