Around the end of January, leading into February, I went to Orlando with DECA for a Sports Entertainment and Marketing Conference. It was interesting and very informative. Of course, we also got to go to Universal and Magic Kingdom.
It was amazing. We got there at like 6pm and settled into the hotel rooms pretty quickly. We didn’t have anything we had to do that night so the advisors let us do whatever we wanted until curfew. The rooms were separated by gender and there were 4 people to a room. My room had a connecting door to the other hotel room so it basically just the 8 of us moving through the 2 rooms constantly. I went on a night walk around the hotel with my roommate Joyce and we also walked past the bajillion pools, where we saw a bunch of the boys swimming. And then we had to be in our designated rooms at 11pm, so all 8 of us just watched a movie until we all fell asleep.
My first official day of the trip started very tardily. We had to be at the conference at 8am so the call time was 7:30am. Nobody was able to wake me up. I’m a pretty deep sleeper. I woke up at 7:20am, which is totally fine because I can get ready in under 5 minutes. I packed these Doc Marten-ish shoes, a short sleeved black turtleneck, and plaid dress pants. I was gonna bring a blazer but I forgot. The conference itself took like 3 hours and a lot of us fell asleep during it. It was just a bunch of different people from the marketing/PR/etc. teams of Universal talking about their job and how they got there/what their job basically is. But after the conference, we went back to the hotels to change in like 15 minutes, and then we were off to the park!
I’ve never been to Universal but a lot of my friends had been(from the previous DECA trips) so we were just getting through all the good rides pretty fast. I love rollercoasters. Although I do tend to freak out a bit when we’re in line, I will never skip a ride. We went on The Hulk rollercoaster first which was a great start to the day. We also did the Spiderman 3D ride, and then we went to Hogsmeade. OMG I loved Hogsmeade, I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but I would say I’m pretty into it. Hogsmeade was so visually pleasing and the butter beer tasted amazing. We went on Hagrid’s ride, which was probably my favorite, and we also went on another 3D Hogwarts ride.
If you don’t know what the Velocicoaster is, it’s basically the newest Universal ride, Jurassic Park themed, and very very very scary. It goes like 155 feet high and goes 70 mph. It also loops a bunch and there’s corkscrews and the launching thingy. Basically we all wanted to go on this ride really bad. So we’re waiting in line, there’s like 9 of us, and our friend Kathrine is also with us, but she has told us over and over again that she will NOT be riding the Velocicoaster. Huge bummer, Kathrine is a party pooper. But anyways, we’re waiting in this line and I am, as usual, freaking out. I was freaking out a lot more than usual tbh, but that was probably because in the line there was a section where the rollercoaster actually zooms past and I was just staring at that the whole time. Eventually, we get near the checkpoint, where we drop off our stuff, and Kathrine has been watching me freak out this whole time so she goes “Okay guys, I’ll go on it.” And we all freaked out and started celebrating and we asked her why she changed her mind so suddenly and she says, “Well Thuc seems more scared than I am, and if she can do it, so can I.” I dunno how to feel about that statement but I’m still very glad she came along. On the coaster itself, Kathrine and I sat together(lol) and our friend Ally, who has been telling us that the coaster isn’t actually that bad and she loves it, sits in the row in front of us, the very front row. Right before the coaster does the super scary launch thingy with the countdown, Ally turns around to look at Kathrine and I, and she goes, “This is actually the scariest ride I’ve ever been on, and I hate it.” RIGHT AFTER SHE SAYS THAT THE COASTER TAKES OFF. At this point there is so much wind in my face and adrenaline rushing through my body I cannot make out coherent thoughts, except for the fact that the view from the top of tracks is beautiful, and absolutely gut-wrenching when we drop so fast and twist and turn, and I made sure to scream out many curses towards Ally and her entire bloodline for the next 5 generations. After we got off my hands were literally shaking I kid you not. This strengthened Kathrine and I’s relationship. Also, after you go on a rollercoaster and scream a bunch, your mouth turns out very dry, I realized.
After that crazy experience, we went on our last ride of the day, a water one. While we were walking up through the empty lines, we asked a worker if you got absolutely drenched on this ride, and he just nodded at us. So, I sat at the very back(it was sort of a log ride), to ensure I didn’t get too wet. WRONG! I got soaked, from head to toe. Mind you, it’s the end of January, and about 8pm, so you can imagine I was freezing my butt off. But then I decided to run back to the rendezvous point and boom, I was basically completely dry.
Despite that being our last ride, the night was far from over. DECA would be paying for our dinner at Universal’s Chocolate Factory. OMG it was the best dinner I have ever had. We all got our entrees and sundaes and tons of cheesy fries. There were about 24 of us, so I can imagine what the check looked like. And then afterwards, while we were leaving, I noticed Ally had stayed back with Kharlo and he looked like he was whispering something at her so I watched the whole scene go down. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but Ally was shaking her head and giggling and Kharlo looked like he was about to deal drugs. To my surprise, Ally gives in to whatever Kharlo was saying and she SWIPES THE GIANT BOTTLE OF TOBASCO OFF THE TABLE AND SHOVES IT IN HER BAG. Then, she turned to see me standing there, trying not to pee my pants from laughing. Walking back to the buses was the funniest thing ever because we were all just trying to not look suspicious in front of the advisors while Ally walked around looking like a narc.
When we got back to the hotel everyone was exhausted. We all showered and got changed and shared our silly little stories of the day. Around 12:30am everyone was knocked the freak out.
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