Florida Series - Giveaway!

To celebrate the end of my Florida series I thought it would be nice to do a little give away with a few things that I picked up specifically with this in mind.

I went for items that we can't easily get over here in the UK, and they are all items I have tried and liked, hopefully you will like them too!

I am giving away:

A Wet n Wild blush in Heather Silk, a EOS lip balm in Pomegranate, a Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me and a Wet n Wild Eyeshadow Trio in Walking On Eggshells.

The competition is open internationally and to enter all you have to do is fill in the form below. Let me know if you have any questions! 

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Florida Series - The best steak I've ever had!

The best steak I ever had. That is quite a bold statement for me to make because my order whenever I go out to eat is always steak, cooked medium, chips and béarnaise sauce, but I can honestly say the steak and chips I had in Longhorn Steakhouse where head and shoulders above the rest, and to make sure this wasn’t just a one off, we actually visited the restaurant twice, and both times it was absolutely fantastic.

Longhorn Steakhouse is a chain with the same menu in all the restaurants. 
One of the things I love about the menu is that it explains all the different cuts, there are so many it can often be hard knowing what you would prefer so this is great at helping you decide what is right for you. It also explains the different ways it can be cooked, once again not something everyone knows and may be too embarrassed to ask about.

I went for the flat iron cooked medium as it is one of their smaller cuts and chips. A salad is also included in the price of your meal, as well as all the bread you can eat but I didn’t have either as I didn’t want to be full up before I tucked into my steak.

My first cut into the steak was a delight, it was cooked perfectly, and then the first bite, oh my I can’t even explain it very well. It was tender and juicy and packed so much flavour, to put my normal béarnaise sauce on this steak would’ve been to sin. I can honestly say this is the tastiest piece of steak I have ever had, and there was no gristly bits or lots of fat on the edge as I have experienced in other restaurants, and of course at home.
The chips, or fries should I call them were also delicious. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and not too salty.

For dessert I had the salted caramel cake, once again delicious, although in my opinion the salted caramel could’ve been a bit more salted, but I know that is not to everyones taste.

My brother had the s’mores chocolate brownie, which of course I had to have a bite of and it was great, a real chocoholic desert, and my boyfriend had the key lime pie which for a desert was light and refreshing, but also quite tart.

Everyone in my family really enjoyed their meal and agreed it was by far the best steak we have had.
Add to that the fact that the wait staff where fantastic too, and the price is pretty insane. It cost around $14 for a starter salad, 7 oz steak and chips, thats roughly £9. £9 for the best steak dinner of my life, are you shitting me?! The cocktails are around the $8 mark, but you can easily get 2 drinks out of them, beers are around $4 and bottomless soft drinks are $3.

If you are planning on visiting Florida and like steak, I strongly encourage you to visit this restaurant, and don’t make the mistake my boyfriend made on our first visit and order salmon!

Florida Series - Epcot

Epcot is a park I have been to before with my family, many years ago, and after spending a couple of hours in there we decided it wasn’t for us and left.
This year we revisited, as it seemed like a good park for my boyfriend to visit as it is more educational (he is a chemistry graduate) and both him and my dad don’t like roller coasters. This visit completely changed our mind on Epcot, and we had a really lovely day.

The park is split into two parts, the bit at the front with all the rides, and the World Expo at the back which gives you a chance to look at different cultures and more importantly, different foods.

When we went there was also the Flower and Garden festival, which meant the park was covered with more topiarys than usual and specialty food and drink, it was lovely and has really inspired me to grow my own herb garden.

At the front of the park the main rides are: 

Soar, which simulates you flying through the sky over California. It is a nice gentle ride, but definitely not for anyone with a fear of heights, like my mum has and had to sit with her eyes closed the whole time...
Test Track, where you create your own car and go through a test track to see how well your design works. I really enjoyed this ride especially as my boyfriend I made a different car to the rest of my family and it was great seeing it perform better in the tests.
Mission Space simulates a real take off and flying to Mars. This was bit of a odd one as it simulates G Force, during the take off part you couldn’t even raise your hands, if I’m honest it made me feel a bit sick!
Spaceship Earth which is set in the iconic globe that you can see when you first enter epcot. This is a nice slow paced ride which takes you through history and how we developed technology. Despite being a bit old a rickety this is another ride I really enjoyed, and learnt quite a few new things.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends, a very young ride which takes you around the sea in a giant clam shell. Great for children.

There are a couple more rides there but we passed over them because of the long queue time and they didn’t really appeal to us.

The other part of the park, the World Expo part has many different sections, each section is based on a country, such as England or France, with buildings stylised after the country, shops that are relevant to the county and food from the country too. Going in the Werthers Originals shop in the German section was a treat!

It was also really interesting hearing so many different languages, it seems Disney has hired people from the country that they are trying to represent, so in the Norway section we actually heard people talking Norwegian!

We went for lunch in the Japanese section as I am a big lover of Japanese food and wanted something other than the American chips and burgers we always seemed to be eating. The food was not 100% authentic, but it was pretty close, and my boyfriend who has been learning Japanese got a chance to practise speaking, the cashier was very friendly and encouraging of him.

Epcot makes for a really lovely slower paced day out in Florida, with plenty to see and do. Be warned though, the park is huge so put on your most comfortable walking shoes and be prepared to spend the whole day here. If possible I would even suggest dedicating two days to the park, one to do all the rides in the front part, and one to spend in the World Expo.

I will leave you now with some more pictures of the flower and garden festival, because it is too pretty to not be seen.

Florida Series - Disneys Magic Kingdom

Cinderella's Castle

Disney's Magic Kingdom is probably the most well known of the Disney parks, its the one with the big Cinderella castle!

The park is definitely geared towards younger visits, with tamer rides such as Pooh's Honey Pot and It's a Small World (one of my personal favourites).

There are a couple of roller coasters in the park, such as Space Mountain and The Runaway Train, however both of them do not go upside down and don't reach the speeds of more thrilling roller coasters, making them a good introduction to thrill rides for children, or a great ride for people who don't like 'scary roller coasters' like my boyfriend.

Space Mountain

One of my favourite rides there was the Buzz Lightyear one, where you go around shooting targets with a laser to defeat Zurg. 

It's great fun but can get a little competitive! 

There is also Pirates of the Caribbean as well, which is a must see.

The film was originally based on the ride but they have recently updated the ride to feature parts from the film, including a very realistic Jack Sparrow. 

Vanilla Dole Whip and a Dole Whip Float

Whilst you are by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride you have to try Dole Whip, as this is one of the only places you can get it.

Dole Whip is a frozen soft serve that comes in vanilla and pineapple flavours. It isn't ice cream and actually contains very little dairy which is great for me because my body doesn't always react well to dairy.

I went for the Dole Whip Float, which was vanilla Dole Whip and pineapple juice. It was delicious and thirst quenching, definitely helped me to survive the blistering heat.

At the end of every day at Magic Kingdom they do their Wishes firework display. It lasts for about 15 minutes and takes place in the park above Cinderella's castle.

These are fantastic to watch, I have never seen fireworks like it.

We decided to watch them from the car park to try and avoid the rush to get out of the park afterwards. I wouldn't really recommend this because you don't see them as well and miss out on some of the lower ones, although the bangs aren't as loud so this option could be better for children who are afraid of the loud noises that go with fireworks. 

As much as I enjoyed Magic Kingdom, I don't think I would go again next time we visit Florida.

It is fantastic for younger children, but I am much more of a thrill ride person.

If you are thinking of taking your children, be warned that the queues for rides like the Peter Pan one and the Winnie the Pooh one where 45 minutes when we went, and that was out of season, so be prepared to wait up to 2 hours in peak season.

The park is also starting to feel a little bit dated. Disney is doing it's best to remedy this by adding new rides and refurbishing a lot of existing ones. There is a major redevelopment going on in the Fantasyland part of the park (the bit that will most appeal to younger children), which means a lot of the rides are shut down and there is a big construction site smack bang in the middle of things, which is not the prettiest of things to look at. 

I also think it's bit of a cheek to charge full price for tickets when this much work is going on.

Despite all this we did have a great time, but as I said, I'm in no hurry to go back to Magic Kingdom.

Greetings from Florida!

If the titles isn't a complete give away, I'm currently on holiday in Florida!

I'm with my parents, brother and boyfriend and we are here for two weeks, it's so exciting!

I'm going to try and blog a little bit whIlst I'm here, but I can't promise anything because I might be too busy getting my picture taken with Mickey Mouse, but whilst I have a little bit of time I will share with you what we did on our first day.

Because I anticipated we will be up early because of the jet lag I decided we should go to Universal Islands of Adventure first thing in the morning so we can get Harry potter land done before the crowds start to build up.

The Forbidden Journey Ride is the one that gets very busy, with good reason, it's fantastic. 

Even the waiting area is brilliant. The queue takes you through Hogwarts castle and the detail is amazing, from the house points display to the talking portraits, it all adds to the charm of the ride and is a great replica of the settings in the film.

The ride itself starts off by Hermione charming the benches that you are sat on so that you can fly. You are then taken through all different parts of the hogwarts castle meeting lots of characters and creatures like dragons and dementors (which can get a tiny bit scary). 

The ride is a simulator so can make you feel a tad queasy  but technically it is very impressive.

If you are a Harry Potter fan then this is a must see, it really brings the books and films to life.

We then had breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron, another amazing themed restaurant, complete with pumpkin juice! 

The breakfast was a tad on the expensive side, but that is to be expected with eating food in the parks. I had the continental breakfast and the fruit was so fresh and juicy and it came with a lovely buttery croissant.

After breakfast explored the rest of the park, going on the Dragon Challenge roller coaster and Hippogriff roller coaster in Harry potter land, Dr Dooms Fear Fall ride, Spiderman simulator and The Hulk roller coaster in the marvel area finishing off by getting soaked on the Popeyes Bilge-Rat Barges ride in toonland.

By this point the jet lag had well and truly caught up with us so we went to Walmart to get some supplies then back to the house we are renting for a relaxing evening by the pool before heading to Chilli's for dinner and I discovered I quite like margaritas  especially if they are frozen and strawberry.

Hopefully I can update you on our time at the rest of the theme parks soon. Hope you are all having a great time too.