In late October, and just as the latest powerful hurricane had passed through Florida, we flew from Toronto to Orlando for an amazing 11 day vacation, which included a stay in Cocoa Beach (2 days prior to the cruise vacation) 7 day cruise vacation aboard the amazing 'Wonder of the Seas' from Royal Caribbean - third biggest ship in the world - and concluded it with 2.5 days in Orlando.
Cocoa Beach, Florida
We landed in Orlando international airport, where we rented a car and drove half hour east, to Florida's space coast, and where NASA has been flying rockets to space. Coco Beach is few miles away from Cape Canaveral and where the Kennedy Space Centre is located. Unfortunately, despite our hotel being located next to the beach, we couldn't swim or enjoy it, as the sea was extremely rough those two days, with winds gusting up to 30 km/h! You would get swept if you dared try get into the water.
But there is still enough to see and do on the coast, including an amazing trip the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, where we spent several hours touring this amazing place. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a space-themed attraction in Florida, where visitors can learn about space exploration and NASA's missions. It is actually located near NASA’s primary launch sites and features exhibits like real spacecraft, astronaut training simulators, and even the Space Shuttle Atlantis. There are even buses that will shuttle (excuse the pun) to the actual launch site, but unfortunately due to having our 1 year old with us, we couldn't do it.
7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise
Of course, this was the highlight and main reason for our vacation, with our last cruise being back in 2017. My family are huge fans of cruising, so been a long 7 years waiting for this latest cruise and we couldn't have had a better one. Wonder of the Seas is an absolutely amazing ship, not only due to its sheer size, but the service, the food and everything about it. We were on deck 9, in total of 18 decks. To put into prospective and how big this ship is, I looked it up and this is what I found:
>length of 1,188 feet (362 meters) and a height of 210 feet (64 meters) above the waterline. To put that in perspective:
Orlando, Florida
There is nothing as depressing as getting off an amazing cruise vacation, where you are spoiled and treated like royalty, and come back to realty. Even though we were still technically in vacation and in a touristy place like Orlando, it still felt like a bit downgrade. Our hotel was amazing, and just walking distance from Universal Orlando, and we booked it like that on purpose, as we planned to visit and take the kids to Universal Orlando's big theme parks. I chose Universal over the more popular Disney resort, due to the big difference in pricing and other factors. There are 3 Universal Orlando Resort parks: Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay. We visited the last two and we had an amazing time. In fact, it took something as good as Universal Orlando to make us forget about the cruise a bit get over our cruise blues lol. Volcano Bay is one amazing water park and can't recommend it enough.
Yes, this amazing vacation cost a lot of money and was a bit tiring giving that we traveled with our 16 month old for the first time , but the experience, the places, the people we met, are worth every penny. In fact, I would rather save money and go on a special cruise vacation like this every two years, than to go on an ordinary vacation once a year, to an all inclusive resort for example. That is how much I love cruising. It really sucks that we live in Toronto, where the city is great, but is not located near a major port. Yes we have a port where you can cruise in the great lakes, but that is it. If we need any nice cruises, we need to fly to Florida (or other places like Texas, New Jersey, Seattle or even Vancouver here in Canada) .
Cocoa Beach, Florida
We landed in Orlando international airport, where we rented a car and drove half hour east, to Florida's space coast, and where NASA has been flying rockets to space. Coco Beach is few miles away from Cape Canaveral and where the Kennedy Space Centre is located. Unfortunately, despite our hotel being located next to the beach, we couldn't swim or enjoy it, as the sea was extremely rough those two days, with winds gusting up to 30 km/h! You would get swept if you dared try get into the water.
But there is still enough to see and do on the coast, including an amazing trip the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, where we spent several hours touring this amazing place. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a space-themed attraction in Florida, where visitors can learn about space exploration and NASA's missions. It is actually located near NASA’s primary launch sites and features exhibits like real spacecraft, astronaut training simulators, and even the Space Shuttle Atlantis. There are even buses that will shuttle (excuse the pun) to the actual launch site, but unfortunately due to having our 1 year old with us, we couldn't do it.
7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise
Of course, this was the highlight and main reason for our vacation, with our last cruise being back in 2017. My family are huge fans of cruising, so been a long 7 years waiting for this latest cruise and we couldn't have had a better one. Wonder of the Seas is an absolutely amazing ship, not only due to its sheer size, but the service, the food and everything about it. We were on deck 9, in total of 18 decks. To put into prospective and how big this ship is, I looked it up and this is what I found:
>length of 1,188 feet (362 meters) and a height of 210 feet (64 meters) above the waterline. To put that in perspective:
- Length:
- It's longer than three football fields lined up end-to-end.
- It’s twice as long as the Washington Monument in D.C.
- It’s also longer than the Eiffel Tower laid flat (1,083 feet/330 meters).
- Height:
- The ship’s height is roughly the same as a 20-story building.
- If stood on end, Wonder of the Seas would be about 70 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty (including the pedestal).
Orlando, Florida
There is nothing as depressing as getting off an amazing cruise vacation, where you are spoiled and treated like royalty, and come back to realty. Even though we were still technically in vacation and in a touristy place like Orlando, it still felt like a bit downgrade. Our hotel was amazing, and just walking distance from Universal Orlando, and we booked it like that on purpose, as we planned to visit and take the kids to Universal Orlando's big theme parks. I chose Universal over the more popular Disney resort, due to the big difference in pricing and other factors. There are 3 Universal Orlando Resort parks: Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay. We visited the last two and we had an amazing time. In fact, it took something as good as Universal Orlando to make us forget about the cruise a bit get over our cruise blues lol. Volcano Bay is one amazing water park and can't recommend it enough.
Yes, this amazing vacation cost a lot of money and was a bit tiring giving that we traveled with our 16 month old for the first time , but the experience, the places, the people we met, are worth every penny. In fact, I would rather save money and go on a special cruise vacation like this every two years, than to go on an ordinary vacation once a year, to an all inclusive resort for example. That is how much I love cruising. It really sucks that we live in Toronto, where the city is great, but is not located near a major port. Yes we have a port where you can cruise in the great lakes, but that is it. If we need any nice cruises, we need to fly to Florida (or other places like Texas, New Jersey, Seattle or even Vancouver here in Canada) .
