Halloween Horror Nights Scares and Not-So-Scary Sweets!

October 1, 2026 / Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Hello there! It’s Hailey, back once again to give you the scoop on our latest adventure! We arrived back home from Florida just in time to experience a spell of chilly and rainy fall weather, which was a pretty sudden change from the hot and humid Florida climate. We weren’t expecting to trade in our shorts and linens for pants and hoodies when we got home!

Anyway, after a delay and tight connection in Charlotte, we made it to Orlando. Our first hotel of this trip was Universal’s Aventura Hotel, located right across the road from Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort and a quick walk from Loews Sapphire Falls Resort. Right after we checked in, we headed straight to their food court, called Urban Pantry, for some (very late) dinner. I don’t know if it was just because I was starving, but I had some of the best salmon and potatoes that I have ever eaten that night. The salmon had a delicious citrus beurre blanc, and the roasted potatoes were amazing!!! Smashed, fried, perfectly seasoned… I’m drooling at the thought of them! If you know me, then you know I LOVE a good potato product.

The next day we slept in and spent the afternoon exploring Universal Studios, until it was time for Halloween Horror Nights to start. My dad has been going to HHN solo for several years now, but in 2024 my mom went with him for the first time…and then last year they were able to convince me to go with them. In the past, I thought there was no way that I would ever go to HHN, and boy was I wrong! However, there is some truth to the fact that my mom and I won’t go without an R.I.P. Tour, lol.

For the past few years, my family has been doing the R.I.P. Tour during Halloween Horror Nights. These tours are fantastic, and are such a great way to get to see and do everything all in one night. There are ten houses, four scare zones, one stage show, and one water show to see all in one night. And with an R.I.P. tour, you can do it all! These tours take you straight to the entrance of all of the houses, which saves so much time considering the fact that the waits for the houses can be over an hour long each depending on the house. The tour also has special seating areas for the stage and water shows, which means that you don’t have to worry about arriving to the shows early for a good seat. The three of us have absolutely loved our R.I.P. tour experiences so far, and cannot recommend it enough!

Our tour was a group of 12 people, and we had an awesome guide for the evening, who was ironically named Amber! Before you go into each house or scare zone, your guide will give you a bit of backstory for each theme so that you have an idea of what you are about to walk into. I feel that this is especially helpful for the houses that have an original theme, rather than being based on a popular movie or TV show.

My mom’s favorite houses this year were Stranger Things 5 and Sinners, and my dad’s favorites were Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness (he’s a huge Ozzy fan, more on that later!) and H.R. Bloodengutz. All of those were also my favorites, but I thought that Cybergoria was pretty cool too. I liked the kind of Fallout-esque theme, and how they made it feel like we were going into some kind of sleeping pod, only to wake up thousands of years in the future in this creepy robot world.

We all really enjoyed the stage show this year, Nightmare Fuel: Blood Noir, which had a vampire theme. As always, the show leaned into a burlesque style that is not for the younger audiences. The stunts and dancing were amazing, and the performance by the Fuel Girls (who dance with fire) was impressive as usual. However, we did not love this year’s sword swallowing act, especially because of the corkscrew shaped object that the performer screwed up into his nose and out of his mouth. That was a bit much for me, and grossed me out quite a bit, lol.

Also included in the tour was a reception with a buffet of light appetizers at Cafe La Bamba. One of my favorite things about this buffet is that it includes a few of the food items that you can get at the themed food stands during HHN. To name a few of these options: the Vegan Pizza Skull, Bloody Bones, Skin and Chips Nachos, Pizza Fries, Steve’s Smuggled Peanut Butter Bites, and Carnevil Smashed Tacos. We weren’t a fan of the pizza skull, but the peanut butter bites were really good and my dad LOVED the smashed tacos. My mom also really wanted to try the Meat Grinder Red Velvet (which they really put in a meat grinder right in front of you, yuck!), but we were all exhausted after our tour finished around midnight and ended up heading straight back to the room. My dad also got The Prince of Darkness Cake, a carrot cake with cream cheese mousse, which he said was some of the best carrot cake he’s eaten.

My mom and I slept in the next morning, but my dad had to be up early for a full day of HHN activities. Here are the exciting details from his busy day (and third late night in a row):

After staying up half the night for our R.I.P. Tour, I got up bright and early the next morning for a Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour. (The tour was actually at 9am, but I think that counts as bright and early in vacation terms.)

Universal offers both 3-house and 6-house behind-the-scenes tours. I chose the 6-house option, which included lights-on looks at a nice mix of both licensed and original-themed haunted houses:

Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control
Stranger Things 5
Evil Dead Burn
Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness
Sinners
MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals

Upon arriving at the V.I.P. check-in, I was ushered upstairs, assigned to a 12-person group, and given a lanyard, button pin, and headset. After a quick introduction to Tour Guide Dave and a stock-up on bottled waters (it was HOT), we were on our way for a whirlwind tour of four haunted houses, a leisurely buffet lunch break at Cafe La Bamba (included in the tour), then two more houses before parting ways around 2:30pm.

I won’t go into intricate details on each of the haunted houses (that’s what the tour is for!), but suffice it to say that as impressive as these sets are at night while you’re having your pants scared off by scare actors, the level of detail you can take in when you’re able to stop and look around is truly astounding. You’re even allowed to take photos in many areas, though it seemed to me that any section where Universal is using some kind of proprietary technology to achieve their Halloween magic is a strictly no-photo zone. (That said, the jaw-dropping decapitated Deadite head animatronic in Evil Dead Burn was free to photograph… Go figure.) While the final house we toured — MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals — was a free-for-all in terms of photos, it was also one of the goriest, making their shareability somewhat limited. Although the houses are of course free of scare actors during the day and the effects are turned off, our guide called ahead to have one of the animatronics in the final house — a giant, robot rhinoceros with a bloody drillbit for a horn — turned on so we could see it in all its gory glory. Nice touch.

After the tour, I returned for one last, solo visit to Halloween Horror Nights 35 later that night. Experiencing some of the haunted houses again, I had a whole new level of appreciation for the momentous amount of hard work and creativity that goes into creating these immersive experiences. There’s a reason Halloween Horror Nights is my favorite special event in Orlando.

While it’s probably not something I’d do every year, I believe the tour is more than worth it when there’s something special in the lineup. As a longtime Black Sabbath fan, this year’s Ozzy Osbourne tribute ticked that box for me with a big, bold, blood-red pen. I highly recommend both the tour and our guide, Dave, whose wide knowledge of the subject matter and sometimes (okay, usually) cringeworthy jokes made the whole experience that much more fun. Just ask for the guy who could easily be mistaken for The Rock; they’ll know who you’re referring to. (Spoiler: He looks absolutely nothing like The Rock.)

Here’s Hailey! I’ll include some of the (least gory) pictures he took throughout the day:

After spending our morning hanging out at the hotel, my mom and I headed over to Epic Universe. Our afternoon and evening was spent riding Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, Fyre Drill, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, and Monsters Unchained. We also spent a while in Super Nintendo World trying out the Power-Up Bands and trying to collect coins and keys. Once you collect three keys from doing the various challenges in the land, you are able to enter Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown, an interactive game where you punch, jump, duck, and throw items on a projected screen. I had no idea what we were going into with this game, but it was pretty fun! Definitely a must-do for fans of the game or for people/kids who want to have a fun and interactive experience in this land.

For those of you that haven’t ridden Fyre Drill in the Isle of Berk yet, keep in mind that sometimes you might ride and barely get wet, but other times you could ride and get completely soaked. This was one of those “completely soaked” times for us. I got wet standing in the queue, from someone who was already on the ride and shooting over the wall, and then we both proceeded to get soaked by someone in the boat behind ours. Sometimes you can aim towards other boats, so be prepared to shoot back when another rider aims at you! Of course, neither of us were complaining about getting all wet, because it was pretty refreshing in the intense Florida heat. This ride also has two safe boxes (one at the front and one at the back of your boat) to put your belongings in, which is great because I wouldn’t want my bags to get as wet as we did!

One more Epic Universe tip I want to share: get ice cream at Frosty Moon in Celestial Park!!! I absolutely love their ice cream, and it’s a must-do for me while we are at Epic! You get to pick your flavor of soft serve in either a cup or a cone, as well as two toppings. I highly recommend the strawberry soft serve with strawberry cheesecake pieces and mini marshmallows. The mini marshmallows are mini Lucky Charm marshmallows, so super delish!

The next day we spent some time walking around Islands of Adventure. We also spent a good bit of time in Kingpin’s Arcade in Marvel Super Hero Island. If you know my dad, then you know he always looks to see if any arcade he passes has a pinball machine. But if you know my mom, then you know that she will always be on the hunt for a coin pusher! We spent some time on our first day in the Palace Theater Arcade in Universal Studios, where she played a Wizard of Oz themed coin pusher, nothing super fancy. But in this Marvel arcade, the coin pusher she played was a Marvel themed one, where your goal was to aim the coin to go through the center of infinity stones! It was so much fun to watch her play, and she even won three collectible cards from the machine: Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther. Such a cool souvenir!

After heading out of the park and grabbing some Voodoo Doughnuts, it was time to ride over to Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter resort, our home base for the Disney part of our vacation. Once we got checked in to our room (with a super convenient location right near the food court!) we decided to go to Disney Springs for dinner at Raglan Road, an Irish restaurant. If my mom has ever told you that it’s a bad idea to go to Disney Springs on a weekend (especially on a Saturday night like we did), I would suggest listening to her advice, lol. It was packed, and I mean PACKED. We don’t go to Disney Springs much for this very reason, but this was a great reminder of just how bad crowds can get over there. Also, Raglan Road was great, as always!

The next morning was spent as a pool day, until the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and the pool closed down. During this trip, we had some of the worst thunderstorms that we’ve had on our trips in a while. On this day in particular, I heard some of the loudest thunder I might have ever heard! My mom and I were reminiscing on the last time we stayed at French Quarter, back in December 2018, when we had some crazy weather and a tornado warning. Weird coincidence! If you want to read more about that, check out the blog my mom posted in January 2019.

Anyway, we had to gather up our umbrellas and ponchos, because that night we were attending Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party! This year, the party is celebrating 31 fang-tastic years. I love this event, and the parade is easily my favorite Disney parade. The music is so nostalgic for me (and I get it stuck in my head all the time, especially this time of year, lol) and I absolutely love the Haunted Mansion grave diggers and ballroom dancers. I even have a Loungefly mini backpack with the Haunted Mansion ballroom dancers on it, they are one of my favorite parts of the ride!

As a party guest, you can enter the park as early as 4pm, even though the party doesn’t start until 7pm. Party guests are funneled into the park (avoiding Main Street) through a backstage area to the left of Tony’s Town Square Restaurant that leads over towards Tomorrowland Terrace. Usually there are some cool props and characters to see in this area, and I loved the characters they included this year! There was a stage area where a Haunted Mansion steward/maid came out to welcome guests to the party. In addition, there were a couple of grave diggers greeting guests with spooky stares, as well as Lady Fermotta who was also talking to guests.

As usual, this area also served as the first treat stop where you got your candy bag and a special treat, which was a full-size Ghoulish Green Twix. At the regular treat stops throughout the park (which open once the party starts), you can find normal fun or mini-sized Mars candy bars, including smaller versions of the green Twix bar. I’ve eaten a few of these green Twix bars so far, and while I don’t notice a difference in taste, they are super delicious!

During the party, we met Chip and Dale in their super cute skeleton bat Halloween costumes, saw the Cadaver Dans singing in Frontierland, and saw Belle, Maleficent, and the Evil Queen at various treat stops. We also watched Disney’s Not-So-Spooky Spectacular (firework/castle projection show) and Mickey’s Boo-To-You Halloween Parade from Main Street. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the Headless Horseman this time around. It had been a very rainy afternoon and he often doesn’t run on days when it has been rainy, because of any potential slipping hazards for the horse. But of course the parade was still fantastic!

As soon as the parade was over (at 11:47pm, the party ends at midnight), we headed straight for Tomorrowland to squeeze in a quick ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We’re all still trying to figure out how to master the new handheld blasters since the refurb, lol. But before we hopped on the ride, we made a quick stop at the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Treat stop and also ran through the treat stop outside of where Stitch’s Great Escape was located. It was 11:57 or so when we went through this last treat stop and my candy bag wasn’t far off from being full, but the person who I went up to for candy told me to set my bag down straight in the candy bin and proceeded to stuff as much candy as possible into my bag until it was literally overflowing. Our candy bags were HEAVY! But if you’re looking to leave the party with a bag stuffed(!!!) full of candy, make sure to enter a treat stop line just before midnight, and I’m sure the cast members would be more than happy to do this for you. And keep in mind that you will have to transport this candy home somehow, which can be a challenge if flying, lol. We made it on to Buzz right at 11:59, and then headed back to our resort as the park closed down for the night.

The next morning we had to pack up our things and check out of the hotel. But since we had a late flight, that meant that we had just enough time to head into Hollywood Studios and check out the new Magic of Disney Animation and Animation Courtyard areas. We had visited the Animation Courtyard back in July, but the new Magic of Disney Animation (replacing Star Wars: Launch Bay) opened just before our trip in September. Perfect timing!

We visited the Once Upon a Studio Theater and watched the super cute short that showcases so many wonderful characters from the history of Disney Animation. The waiting area for this show also has several interactive games, like filling up balloons with Baymax, which are super fun to play! There is also the Drawn to Wonderland play area (ideally for children 6 months to 5 years old), which is adorable from what I’ve seen but we didn’t get the chance to experience this area. There is also the Off the Page! area which has a bunch of character meet and greets.

Another cool new offering here is the Olaf Draws! class where you and Olaf learn how to draw popular Disney characters from a Disney animator. This was a fun experience and the character being drawn seems to change after every class, which is super neat, since you don’t know who you will be drawing until it’s your turn. But I think that some characters that you learn to draw might not have been that well thought out. The class before us was Stitch which would have been easy enough for most people, because I’d say most people aren’t going into the experience with a ton of drawing experience. But our character was Moana… and I knew that would be a challenge, lol.

I believe the experience was around 25 minutes long, which is NOT enough time to learn how to draw a human with no prior drawing experience. The instructions were way too fast and I think that they really should stick to the non-human characters for the drawing classes, since drawing human anatomy isn’t exactly an easy thing for the beginners to master in 25 minutes (especially since most people expect to come out of the class with a semi-recognizable drawing). While characters like Stitch or Mickey would be much more doable, I do understand that some people want a greater variety of characters. I just think they should stick to the non-human options.

On the way out of the area, there is a gallery that is full of concept art and figures from the upcoming Disney movie titled Hexed. In the next room, Treasures Untold, there are a ton of cool items to look at. The items in this room are “on loan” from Disney characters, so you can find all sorts of iconic items in these displays. You can catch a glimpse of the collars from The Aristocats, Scrump on loan from Lilo, the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast, Maui’s magic fish hook, Rapunzel’s frying pan, and SO many more! This was such an awesome display!

Also, in the Animation Courtyard just outside of the Magic of Disney Animation, you can interact with all kinds of roaming Disney characters! We have saw characters like Moana, Rapunzel, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale in this area playing with guests in this area on our July visit. This time, we saw rarer characters like Suzy and Perla (two of the mice from Cinderella) and Geppetto from Pinocchio! Also, be on the lookout for little statues throughout the area including: Oliver & Dodger, Pua & Thumper, Zazu, Lucifer, and lots more! And also check out the feet and hand/paw prints to the right of the Mickey’s sorcerer hat. Lots of fun ones there! I’m super excited to spend more time in this area and see how it continues to evolve.

After we finished in Studios, we took the bus back to French Quarter and enjoyed some beignets (YUM!) while waiting for our time to head back to the airport. Right before it was time for us to leave, a huge storm started and it was pouring some heavy rain by the time we had to get into our Lyft. Gotta love the Florida weather and its afternoon rainstorms!

After a few more lovely delays and an annoying connection in Charlotte, we finally made it home around 4am (way later than expected). We came home to cold weather (yuck!), but now it’s starting to get back into the 80s (yay!). I’d say we all had a blast on this trip, and can’t wait for the next Halloween season!

Until next time!

Hailey

Wondrous Fun on Royal Caribbean!

August 20, 2026 / Amber Benson / 1 Comment

Hey there! It’s me, Hailey, back once again to cover all the details on our latest trip. It’s been a busy summer here in the Type A Travel Mom household filled with several fun trips, and we are still trying to hold on to summer as long as possible!

After being back home for a week following our Hilton Head and Disney World vacation (be sure to check out our last blog for all the details!), my mom and I hopped on a plane headed right back down to Florida. This time, though, we landed in Fort Lauderdale, with our final destination being a 4-night sailing out of Miami on Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas. This trip was a part of a Seminar at Sea, where my mom and I were able to learn more about Royal Caribbean and go on a tour of Perfect Day at CocoCay. While my mom has sailed with Royal Caribbean before and knows a lot about their ships and offerings, this was my first non-Disney cruise and I went in knowing next to nothing about Royal so I was super excited to see what Royal was all about!

I loved getting to see how different Royal Caribbean is from Disney Cruise Line. I mean, first off, this ship was massive! This ship, Wonder of the Seas, is a part of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class and was once the largest cruise ship in the world, until it was surpassed by Royal’s Icon-class ships. There were so many exciting activities to take part in, cool places to hang out, delicious places to eat, and the list goes on!

Stepping onto the ship, you immediately find yourself in the Royal Promenade, the area of the ship where the stores are located as well as several bars and the complimentary pizza restaurant, Sorrento’s. This area is super lively and fun, and it even had live music playing on many nights of the sailing. Right after we boarded the ship we stopped by Spotlight Karaoke to pick up the souvenir cups for the soda package that we purchased for this sailing, as well as our WOW bands. The drink cups can be used at the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines located at the buffet and quick-service style locations around the ship. These cups were very nice and didn’t leak at all, and we both made sure to get our money’s worth in Dr. Pepper throughout our sailing! The WOW bands (kind of like Disney’s MagicBands) were really convenient and comfortable, and could be used to get into your room or make purchases. However, you still needed to have your actual SeaPass card to get on and off the ship at ports.

After we got all of our gear ready, it was time to head up to the Windjammer buffet for lunch. Overall, the buffet had some great options, including potato leek soup which is always a must for me on embarkation day! One thing that really stood out to me was the layout of the buffet in comparison with Disney Cruise Line’s buffets (Cabanas on the older ships and Marceline Market on the newer ships). Disney Cruise Line’s buffets are somewhat linear, meaning that you kind of have to jump in the line whenever you see a break. But the Windjammer had a really interesting layout that was more spread out and included many little buffet “islands” that I think were much more effective in distributing the crowds.

After having some lunch, we explored the pool deck area. I really liked the layout of the pools and the variety of areas you could hang out in. And there was an impressive variety in the types of chairs everywhere too! The adults-only Solarium area was very pretty but the phrase “human greenhouse” comes to mind, because it gets super hot and humid in there during the day with little airflow. It was a very nice place to hang out in the evening though!

We were able to go to our room right at 1pm, and as we were going to our room, we saw all of our luggage already out in the hall. That’s like crazy fast! The room itself was very spacious, but the bathroom was on the smaller side, as can be expected with a cruise ship bathroom. One thing that I really loved (and Disney needs to make note of!) were the chairs on the balcony. The chairs themselves were pretty standard, but they had a separate footrest that was such a nice addition. These footrests made for a much more comfortable and enjoyable time on the balcony.

If you know us, then you know how much we LOVE doing the trivia on Disney cruises. So, of course, we had to try out some trivia! We decided to try out the general knowledge trivia, and we had such a great time. I loved the way that Royal Caribbean does trivia, which involves your phone. Disney is still using pencils and paper for their trivia, but I think they need to develop a system like Royal! For this trivia, you scanned a QR code with your phone, entered some info about yourself, and you were ready to play! The trivia itself had several categories with a few questions each, and the faster that you answered a question, the more points you got. No time for looking up the answer! I didn’t do too good (two of the categories were James Bond and Prince, and my knowledge for both of these is just about nonexistent), but my mom got second place! She won some Royal Caribbean zipper pulls and a highlighter, which were some pretty cool souvenirs.

We continued to explore the ship for the rest of the day, including areas like Central Park and Boardwalk. Central Park is filled with so many plants and trees that it’s hard to believe that you are on a ship in the middle of the ocean! I think this would be the perfect spot to hang out if you are a little scared of cruising or sailing out in the ocean, because it makes you feel like you are back on land. There are also a few specialty dining locations in Central Park, more on that later! The Boardwalk is another open area of the ship like Central Park, but with a carnival of theme. This is the area of the ship where you will find the rock climbing walls, the Aqua Theater, and the carousel. The Ultimate Abyss ends here as well, which is a dry slide that slides down 10 floors, starting on deck 16 and ending on deck 6.

The next day was spent at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. While we were here, we went on a tour of the island as a part of the Seminar at Sea. The island has areas that any guest can access, as well as several areas that are paid upgrades to access. On the tour, we were able to tour the three paid areas: Hideaway Beach, Coco Beach Club, and Thrill Waterpark. Hideaway Beach is an adults-only area that has more of a party vibe, Coco Beach Club is a more upscale and quiet area, and Thrill Waterpark is where you will find 13 waterslides and a wave pool. All three areas looked like a lot of fun!

After the tour was over, we spent the rest of our time in the Chill Island area, one of the areas that anyone can visit. We had rented a beach bed for the day, which was a nice spot to hang out and stay out of the sun throughout the day. The beach bed rental came with the beach bed itself, as well as two lounge chairs, two floating beach mats, and a cooler of water bottles. The rental also came with towels which, on Royal Caribbean ships, you normally have to check out and check back in, or pay a fee if you don’t return them.

Another thing that is interesting about CocoCay (and different from Disney’s private islands), is that CocoCay can have two ships docked there at the same time. On the day we visited the island, the other ship was Jewel of the Seas. It was really neat to be able to see the size difference between an older Royal ship (Jewel, on the right) and one of their newer ships (Wonder, on the left). If you zoom in you can even see the little people walking on the dock, which really helps to put the massive size of the ships in perspective!

The next day was our Nassau day. For most people, Nassau is a one and done, and that includes my family. I haven’t been off the ship in Nassau in years, we always treat it like a sea day and spend our time exploring the ship. However, Royal Caribbean has opened a new beach and pool area that is exclusive to guests sailing on their ships, called Royal Beach Club Paradise Island. Access to this area is not included, so you have to purchase a day pass in order to visit it. Remember that little strip of land with the run-down lighthouse on it, on the same side of the port as the Atlantis hotel? Well, the lighthouse is still there, but you can now spot the bright colors of the Royal Beach Club area as well as a large Royal Caribbean logo. It is such a convenient location, and you can get some great views of the ship while you are there!

To get to the Royal Beach Club, you can follow the signage as you leave the ship which takes you to a little dock where you will board a ferry, which takes you straight over to the area. The ferry designs are super cute, and each one has an adorable name, including: Sassy Starfish, Twisted Turtle, Flirty Flamingo, Coral Calypso, and Lucky Lizard. We were on the Sassy Starfish (as you can see from the life ring in the picture below), and you can also spot the blue Lucky Lizard already docked at the Royal Beach Club!

When we arrived at the Royal Beach Club, we decided to stick around the pool in the Party Cove section for the day. We got some great, front row seats at the swim-up bar pool that is closest to Paradise Beach. And let me tell you, the pool here has such a great view! If you look over the edge of the pool, you are looking straight towards the beach. So you can enjoy watching the waves without having to worry about getting all sandy!

Similar to CocoCay, there were two Royal Caribbean ships docked in Nassau on this day. The other ship was Oasis of the Seas. These ships are quite similar in size, with Oasis being just a bit smaller than Wonder, so the size difference wasn’t quite as noticeable as it was when comparing Jewel with Wonder. Having two ships also meant that more guests from Oasis were able to come to the Royal Beach Club, which made the area get super busy in the afternoon. But we did get to enjoy a nice, quiet morning in the area, which we both really enjoyed!

That night, my mom participated in The Price is Right gameshow that they host on the ship. This game also is played by scanning a QR code with your phone, similar to the trivia, but an extra fee is required in order to play this game. My mom has always loved the idea of playing this game on the ship, so there was no way that we were going to miss it! See the picture below for her cute little hamster avatar! Everyone got super into the game and it was a great time, but unfortunately my mom didn’t get to “come on down.” Fingers crossed for next time!

The next day was our sea day, and my mom had to go to some classroom training as a part of the Seminar at Sea so that she could learn even more about Royal Caribbean. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend this with her so I spent the day exploring the ship and getting a ton of videos/pictures for social media content. Enjoy these cute little towel animals that I saw on my adventures!

During our sailing, we tried out two of the specialty dining restaurants. The first was Izumi, a Japanese restaurant, and the second was Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen. Neither of us were insanely impressed by Izumi, but the food at Giovanni’s was very nice. We also ended up eating at the buffet for the majority of our meals, because the menus at the main dining restaurants didn’t really appeal to us (we are both vegetarian, but I sometimes experiment with different types of fish). However, we both loved El Loco Fresh, a buffet style Mexican restaurant. The only downside was that it closed at 5:30pm, which was generally too early for us to be able to have dinner here. Other than that, I loved getting some quesadillas to snack on, and their guacamole is delish!

The three shows that were offered on our sailing were The Effectors II: Crash ‘n’ Burn (stage musical), inTENse (water show in the AquaTheater), and 365: The Seasons on Ice (ice skating show). When we were waiting for inTENse to start, it ended up being cancelled due to lightning in the area, and that was the final performance of this show during the sailing so we never got to see this one. We did get to see the other two shows, and The Effectors II was a pretty cheesy superhero show with a simple storyline. However, the ice skating show, 365, was really impressive. The show went through each season, and their outfits and music changed to fit with each one. They even used the Game of Thrones theme during their winter performance, which I really enjoyed!

After a few fun and action-packed days, it was time to head back home. We spent the day at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale because we had a late flight. After some delays and a super late night, we finally made it home. After being to Florida twice in the span of just a few weeks, we were both ready to spend some time at home and getting back into our normal routines.

I had a lot of fun learning about Royal Caribbean and we had such a great time exploring the ship! Can’t wait for our next cruise vacation!

Until next time!

Hailey

Fun in the Hawaiian Sun!

July 30, 2026 / Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Hello there! Hailey here, writing to fill you in on all the details of our most recent trip to the Aloha State! This blog is a bit overdue, since we traveled in May and I’m writing this in July, just after we returned home from another trip, this time to Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort and Walt Disney World. Keep an eye out for that blog, coming soon!

So, back to Hawaii then! This trip was a graduation celebration for both me and my cousin, since I graduated from college this year and she graduated last year, as well as a trip in honor of my grandpa who passed away last year. The travel crew this time around included the usual suspects: my mom, dad, and me, plus some exciting extras: my grandma, aunt, two cousins, and my boyfriend. Everyone except my boyfriend had been to Hawaii before, so this was a fun first for him! The theme for this trip was exploring and experiencing new things on Oahu. In our previous trips here, we mostly spent our time hanging out at the resort, and didn’t get to see all of the things this beautiful island has to offer. Safe to say that we fixed that this time around!

Two long flights and eight sore butts later, we arrived in Honolulu. At the airport, we picked up our two rental vans and started the drive to Ko Olina and our home away from home, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa. But, before we could check in to the resort, we had planned a scenic railroad ride with the Hawaiian Railway Society, which operates the only active historical railway on the island of Oahu. This was such a great way to get to experience the beauty of the island, and we even got to ride on the railroad tracks that run just in front of Aulani, making for some great pictures of the resort as well!

Being a group of 8 who didn’t want to be piled on top of each other for a week (bringing a whole new and unpleasant meaning to family togetherness!), we decided to split into two rooms for this vacation. The room that my parents, boyfriend, and I shared was a two bedroom villa with the island gardens view. The room that my grandma, aunt, and two cousins shared was a two bedroom villa with the ocean view. Both views were spectacular!

The next day was our first pool day. We spent the day enjoying the lazy river, the beach, the waterslides, and the amazing infinity pool! I think everyone’s favorite was the lazy river, we all spent the most time in there! We also had rented a Ka Maka Cabana for the day, which holds up to 12 guests. These cabanas come with some very helpful amenities, such as a refrigerator, a ceiling fan, a TV, complimentary bottled water, and our own comfortable exclusive seating area. Some great snacks are included as well, a fruit platter, naan bread and hummus platter, and a dessert platter. The hummus platter was my favorite, so delicious! You also have a host who checks up on you throughout the day, brings you these platters, takes other food orders, and brings you anything else you might need. My family loves the acai bowls and shave ice that they serve here. We all have our own personal preference when it comes to shave ice flavors (and we all argue about who has the best combo), and my favorites are li hing mui, green tea, and haupia (coconut).

While the rest of the fam stayed behind at the resort, my boyfriend and I ventured off on our own to try a new restaurant! We decided beforehand that we wanted to try some new places that my family had never eaten at before. My family has a lot of picky eaters to please, if you know what I mean! The two restaurants the BF and I chose were just a quick walk away from the resort. First, we tried the Monkeypod Kitchen restaurant. We loved the atmosphere and the food was great! We ever saw a rooster hanging out in a tree, which made for some great laughs. Our favorite part of this meal was the dessert, which was a seasonal mango cream pie. The thinly sliced mango was so delicious and this pie will live rent free in our heads for many years to come. Later in the trip we also tried the 808 Craft House restaurant, which was another lovely dinner! I think the dessert was my favorite part again, which was a delicious creme brulee. Overall, two great date nights!

Next up was a day exploring the island! We drove out to Kualoa Ranch, which is a huge nature preserve on the island that has been used as a filming location for many popular movies and TV series. Kualoa Ranch was featured in films like Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and 50 First Dates. The TV series Lost is perhaps one of the most notable uses of Kualoa Ranch as a film location in a TV series. We took the Movie Sites & Ranch Tour here, which included a ride around the ranch to see popular film locations and props/sets, as well as an old repurposed World War II bunker. The ranch still has several interesting remnants of film sets that you can spot, including Godzilla’s footprints in their cow fields (which had to be made shallower since the cows were falling in the footprints and couldn’t get back out), the fallen tree that the characters from Jurassic Park hide behind while being chased by the herd of dinosaurs and T-Rex, a field of bones from Kong Skull Island, and the road that Lucy takes every day in 50 First Dates.

Our experience here also included a lunch buffet and an ocean voyage. The day that we visited Kualoa turned into a rainy one, which did not make for smooth waters on the ocean voyage part of our tour. I’m not a fan of small boats and choppy waters (thanks, motion sickness!), so I did not particularly enjoy that part of our experience here. But, that’s ok, because I absolutely loved the first half!

After we left the ranch, we had planned stops at several different beaches around the island. The beaches we ended up stopping at were so stunning. The beautiful blue water, the mountains meeting the sea… just so amazing! We also saw lots of people kitesurfing at one of the beaches, which was so impressive and so scary at the same time. Super fun to watch, but I’ll leave the kitesurfing to the experts! We also stopped at just about every overlook that we passed, which made for some breathtaking views and insane pictures! We were starting to run late for our dinner reservation at the Hard Rock Cafe in Honolulu after making all of these stops, so we had to cut some stops short.

The following day was our visit to Pearl Harbor, to see the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. After that, we headed over to the Ala Moana Center, which is the world’s largest open air shopping center. We had some lunch there, but didn’t end up hanging out there too long. So, we made our way to the northern part of the island to experience the Toa Lu’au at Waimea Valley. This was our first time experiencing this lu’au, and we all really enjoyed it! It was a very informative and immersive experience, the performance itself showcased different styles of dance that have originated from each island. There were some performances that involved fire dancing, done by some insanely talented people! Before the performance, there were interactive cultural demonstrations showing how to remove the husk from coconuts and peel taro roots, as well as a weaving activity. One of the performers also demonstrated how to climb up a coconut tree, better him than me!

On our final day, we had planned to visit Waimea Valley and the North Shore of the island again to visit the Waimea Valley waterfall as well as a few more beaches. But, we all decided that we wanted to have one last pool day before we left, so we changed up our plan and ended up spending the day at the resort instead. Oh well, that just gives us one more reason to go back to Oahu in the future!

For this pool day, we rented a different type of cabana to try out, which was a Makua Cabana. These cabanas are located at the adult only pool. Similar to the Ka Maka Cabanas, these cabanas also have an private seating area for your family, a TV, a ceiling fan, refrigerator, and cabana host. But the only included treat that you get in this type of cabana is the fruit platter, as well as the complimentary bottled water. Overall, both cabanas were lovely and both had their own benefits.

After this last fun pool day, it was time to make our way back to the airport. On our ride back, we saw a perfect, whole double rainbow! Such a lovely parting gift from the island of Oahu! All eight of us are already dreaming of our next visit to the Aloha State.

Until next time!

Hailey

The best intentions…

April 4, 2025 / Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Here we are again, two trips down and still no blog post. Geez. I have been quite the slacker lately. I guess this will be another ‘hit the highlights’ post and I’ll try to do better next time. 🤞🏻

In January, the fam and I returned to Disney for the International Festival of the Arts at Epcot. The daughter had two days scheduled to work during the festival as a chalk artist on the bridge between World Celebration and World Showcase. This year, she was tasked with working on a reproduction of a Master with a Disney twist each day. She chose two August Macke paintings, Promenade and Walking in the Park, with some color brightening and the addition of Hidden Mickeys. Each piece takes about three hours to complete and are about 3 feet by 4 feet in size. She works so hard on these pieces, as do all of the chalk artists, with hours of prep time and work on the ground to make these pieces come to life for park guests. Kudos to the entire chalk team! 🏆

Our weather this year was wacky with a capital ‘W’! It was so very cold initially with gloves, heavy coats, and hats each day. Then we were quickly approaching shorts weather not three days later. January is definitely a bizarre month for Orlando weather, each year stranger than the one before. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort for a couple of nights and then moved over to the Boardwalk Inn resort for the rest of the trip. The HVAC system in our room at Caribbean Beach didn’t know what to do with the cold weather… it was super hot in the room when we got there and we had to have maintenance come in to get it down to something tolerable. Then, of course, it was too cold in the room. I’m not sure which I liked less but being cold is just no bueno! The Boardwalk room didn’t have any issues like that, it was lovely and a nice, spacious corner room! 😍

Oh yeah, the temperatures! Guess who got lucky with a Lightning Lane MultiPass for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom on the first trip day? Yep, me! Well… not all lucky because that day might have hit 50 degrees for a high and we all had our winter coats on. When we rode the ride, of course we got completely soaked and were freezing for a good while afterward. I’m not sure that the hubs has forgiven me for that yet. You had to laugh though! I’ve never gotten that wet on the ride but we ended up in the front of the log and it was like the water was just coming straight for us every time. Yep, that’s me in the front! 😂

Other than the weather, it was a great trip! Fast forward to March… the fam plus a niece headed to Hilton Head for a few days at Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort. We’ve been there many times before and it is a great place for a spring break getaway. The weather here was much more cooperative, after a major storm the day we arrived. We had a great couple of days looking for shark teeth on the beach, trying out some local restaurants, and relaxing at the resort. Al’s Aloha Kitchen and their incredible acai bowls never disappoints!

I always feel like I could stay longer there but this year I was a little bit grateful that we didn’t have a longer trip. The pollen was atrocious for some reason! I guess all of the beautiful Live Oak trees decided it was time to spread their neon yellow cheer all over the island because, holy cow, was it everywhere! I had a runny nose and super itchy, red and goopy eyes the whole time we were gone. Not my idea of a fun time! At first I thought it was the sand that blew in my eyes when I might or might not have been crawling around on the beach looking for shark teeth. 🫣🤭But nope, pollen. So.much.pollen! You know who didn’t care about the pollen? This guy. He was eating the little flowery bits causing the pollen! 🤧

Our next journey will be back to Florida this summer to enjoy more time at Disney and stop over at Universal for a day at Epic Universe! I cannot wait to see this new theme park and live out my How to Train Your Dragon dreams!

xoxo, Amber

PS- This post is dedicated to the Oleman. We lost a beloved member of our family in February and will forever miss taking him along on our journeys and spending our days surrounded by his love. 💔

Recapping the fall, y’all!

January 31, 2024 / Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Wowza! I was coming to write about my latest trip to Disney and realized my last entry was from July! That means I have neglected to fill you in on all of the excitement of the last six months!! I will hit the highlights from the fall and move on to my recent (January 2024) trip in the next post. Hold on to your hats! It was a busy six months…

In August, the hubs and I went to The Omni Homestead resort for a few days for an annual conference related to his job. This resort is full of Southern hospitality and not too terribly far from our home. If not for the winding roads and mountain climbs, it would be a lot closer. I had a great time relaxing by the pool while he toiled away and wouldn’t mind sneaking over for a quick getaway there again when the weather warms back up.

In September, the hubs, kid, and I went to Disney World for the kid’s birthday celebration. (I really do need to stop calling her a kid since she’ll be 20 this year…) We enjoyed a lovely stay at Disney’s Riviera resort, some park time, and the hubs went over to Universal for a Halloween Horror Nights evening out. Going to Halloween Horror Nights remains a “hard no” for me and the kid.

October and November were slow months for us, no big adventures. In December, we headed to Hilton Head, SC for our annual holiday getaway. We normally go there over Thanksgiving but switched it up to go right before Christmas. That was a nice change and helped get us all in the holiday spirit. Disney’s resort at Hilton Head is undergoing a huge renovation project and we were very fortunate to have been able to stay in a renovated room. The updates in the rooms are incredible and I can’t wait to stay there again!

Our last jaunt in 2023 was for New Years Eve. We headed up to the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland (not to be confused with the Inner Harbor in Baltimore) and spent a couple of nights enjoying that area, driving into DC to visit some of the Smithsonian museums, and watching the fireworks over the Potomac River as we welcomed 2024. There is also a traveling exhibit about the Titanic at the National Harbor which was a delight to check out before we headed home. Check out the third class menu (actual one!) from the doomed sailing.

Phew, that was a quick recap! I hope you had a great second half of 2023 and an even better 2024!

xoxo,

Amber