Stuck in Florida
Written by Delton Pease
This March over spring break I had the opportunity to visit Florida with my girlfriend Jaycey Jonnes. The trip was a part of my girlfriend’s family vacation to Cocoa Beach, FL. Unfortunately, the planned dates for the trip didn’t quite line up with USF’s Spring Break other than a small overlap of two days. Obviously, it’s hardly worth flying to the other side of the country just to fly back the next day. So we found a way to make things work by flying in four days earlier and doing our own thing until the rest of the family arrived. If only we had known, we would be staying in Florida a bit longer than we had bargained for.
We left Sioux Falls the night of March 7th, to arrive in Orlando at 9:30 PM. That was where our problems began. We ended up circling the city of Orlando for an hour due to the extreme rainstorms in the city below and would be continuing for the remainder of the week. When we finally landed and arrived at baggage claim, we found out that all of the carousel conveyor belts were down, and we would have to wait another hour to pick up our suitcases. By the time the conveyor belts were up, all of the other flights that had also been circling the city landed around the same time resulting in chaos throughout the airport and making it extremely expensive just to catch an Uber.
When we arrived at the hotel within a typical college student’s price range, we were very upset to find out the room that we were given was occupied when we opened the door. Which made for a very awkward conversation with the attendant at the front desk. Luckily, we were given a different room that was not occupied before the remainder of the rooms filled up with other travelers on Spring Break.
The next morning, we awoke to surprisingly clear skies after the intense rainstorm that we were greeted with when we landed. After eating breakfast, we caught our shuttle to Universal Studios Orlando where we would spend the next three days. Being the Harry Potter nerds that we are, Jaycey and I rushed to the far side of the park to the Wizarding World of the parks to visit Diagon Alley. We made it to Diagon Alley before too many other visitors had made it so we were able to experience the magic without the crowds.
Of course, as soon as we arrived, we had to visit Ollivander’s Wand Shop, so we were all ready for our first year at Hogwarts. After getting our wands we made sure they were the right fit by practicing a few spells before we made our way to the Leaky Cauldron to try the infamous ButterBeer from the books and movies. If you’re curious what ButterBeer tastes like Jaycey describes the drink as “a butterscotch soda with a whipped cream-like topping to look like thick foam”.
From there we headed over to King’s Cross Station and to Platform 9 3⁄4 to catch the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade located in the Islands of Adventure park of Universal Studios. When we arrived in Hogsmeade we walked through some of the shops like Honeydukes candy shop before making our way to Hogwarts. The Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Ride queue took us through the halls of Hogwarts to Dumbledore’s office, Herbology Classroom, Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom, and even to meet the sorting hat before getting on the ride.
For the remainder of the time at Universal Studios that day as well as the next two, we visited the Wizarding World regularly while also enjoying the rest of what the parks had to offer. Until Friday, when we met up with Jaycey’s parents to head East to the Atlantic Coast of Florida at Cocoa Beach.
When we met with them, we found out that the rest of the family that was supposed to arrive that night had their flight canceled. And if they wanted to arrive before Monday, they would be forced to fly into Miami, FL the next day, get a rental minivan, cram six people and their luggage into the vehicle, and then drive 3 hours North to arrive in Cocoa Beach at 11:00 PM. This fiasco only foreshadowed what was to come later in the trip.
While we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, and after they arrived our time in Cocoa Beach consisted of a lot of time on the beach, surfing, boogie boarding, seashell hunting, biking, hanging out, and most importantly: eating a lot of great food. And just when we thought it was all coming to an end for Jaycey and me as we would be flying out Monday morning, we woke up to find out our flight was canceled. Not only was our flight back to Sioux Falls, but just about every flight back to Sioux Falls for the next two days was canceled due to understaffing at the airport.
We had already been somewhat anxious about getting back home as we would be missing a day of classes to fly home only to find out we would be missing two more on top of that. Fortunately for us, the rest of the family was staying in Cocoa Beach until the Saturday of that week and didn’t have to frantically search for a place to stay during Spring Break at the last minute. We were also very fortunate to have such understanding professors for our absences due to the flight cancellation.
Overall, we had a lot of fun on our escape to warmer, albeit extremely humid weather and we wouldn’t have done it any differently. After all, what’s an adventure without a few mishaps along the way?
Photos courtesy of Jaycey Jonnes and Delton Pease
