In Search of Warmer Climes: December in Orlando and the Florida Coast

An alligator watches us as we pass by at Black Point Wildlife Drive.

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

This is the second post in a two-part series. Check out the prior post for the Savannah, Georgia, portion of this trip here.

Note: Some links throughout our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

After touring some of Savannah’s Spanish-moss ridden highlights, we hit the road for the drive to Orlando, about 4 hours in length as a straight shot. For a portion of the way, we took a coastal road as we approached St. Augustine, Florida.

St. Augustine is known for being the oldest city in the present-day United States settled by Europeans. The city dates to 1565 when a Spanish soldier founded it, and the city’s architecture reflects this with Spanish-styled buildings. A family member had recommended that we check out St. Augustine en route to Florida. As we got closer to St. Augustine, we were amazed by how jam-packed it was. People were crossing the road, barely checking for cars. It was as if we found ourselves driving through a street closed off for a festival. It was unlike anything we’ve been before. The only thing I can guess in retrospect is that this was prime time for pre-Christmas shopping and holidayers. I would like to check out St. Augustine under different circumstances but under those, we kept on driving!

Reflections of marsh plants are seen on the water’s surface.

Peaking through the bushes to spy on a fishing heron.

A confession: I do not like Orlando. I do not generally find Florida appealing. I think this is because I grew up in Southern California, and so I don’t understand why someone would choose the sticky, humid heat (Florida) over dry heat (California). Orlando is also a completely overwhelming tourist hub, built like suburbia with endless parkways that look alike and blur and bend into each other. But, if you keep reading, you’ll find where I found a place in Florida that helped me think about the state differently and will also see some of the fun spots we enjoyed at the parks in Orlando.

Our trip was four full days in Orlando, and we stayed at Caribe Royale, a hotel I had stayed at before during some work trips to the area. Of our four days in Orlando, we spent three at parks. Below we break-out each of our 4 days of the trip, some highlights and observations.

Bufflehead ducks paddle together in a small flotilla.

Florida in 4 Days

Days 1 and 2 in Orlando - universal’s islands of adventure (including the wizarding world of harry potter)

Visiting the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was the main impetus behind this trip to Florida. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located at Universal Studios. If you have not been to theme parks recently or at all, I highly recommend you do thorough internet research on the most current tips and tricks for the parks. We did a little but would have made better use of our time had we done more. For example, the wait for the main ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was something ridiculous like 3-3.5 hours long, but there was a secondary line for people who were willing to not sit with their group that was much, much faster. So, as long a you and your friend are fine not sitting right next to each other, you can save a lot of time.

But what of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter? I thought they did a fantastic job bringing the world portrayed in the books and movies to life in a really cool setting. It was very crowded, which wasn’t surprising right at Christmas-time, but also fortunately much cooler than visiting in the humid summer months would be! Butter beer was pretty darn good. We grabbed lunch at Three Broomsticks , which had pub-type fare. Finding a seat was tricky business, but we found a nice spot in their outside dining area. There are also a number of shops that will appeal to Harry Potter lovers of all ages, including a wand shop and a Honeydukes replica with candy straight out of the books and movies!

This seems like as good of a spot as any to mention that when we visited Scotland, we road on the Jacobite Steam Train that was featured in the Harry Potter movies. You may remember the beautiful filming of the train traveling over the viaduct, which we also rode across, too. For more photos and information on this, check out our post here.

Universal Studios in Orlando is actually two parks side-by-side - Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure (which is where Harry Potter is). You have to purchase tickets to them individually or can pay for a more expensive park-to-park pass. While it wasn’t open yet when we were there, a Hogwarts Express train now operates to connect the two parks. We spent two days at Islands of Adventure. I do not like crazy roller coasters, so I avoided those, but here are my thoughts on a few rides:

Flight of the Hippogriff - called a “junior” roller coaster, this is about my cup of tea.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - this ride that is very popular with long wait times and resides in the Hogwarts Castle. The building is cool, but the ride was - for me - nausea-inducing. If you are susceptible to motion sickness, this will be the longest 4 minutes of your life. I literally closed my eyes and said the alphabet to keep myself focused on something other than feeling sick, and hey, it worked. Not to be overly graphic, but another rider just ahead of us wasn’t so lucky and ended up throwing up all over herself.
Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls - a log flume ride that was really fun…as long as you don’t mind getting wet, like literally buckets of water dumped on you. I wish we’d gone on it on a warmer day or with a change of clothes but still, it was fun.
Jurassic Park River Adventure - the dinosaurs and ride lay-out were cool, but I was surprised when we came to the drop, which looked like we’d go straight down forever. Basically, the drop is 85 feet (compared to Splash Mountain’s 50 feet).

For dinner after our second day, which happened to be Christmas Eve, we went to Benihana’s. Dustin's family has a tradition of either Chinese or Japanese for dinner on Christmas Eve. Teppanyaki is always fun and tasty!

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is a bird watcher’s paradise.

This alligator has made a bed of brush and a branch pillow… I guess it is better than sleeping on nails….

Day 3 in florida - merritt island national wildlife refuge

On Christmas Day, we decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of Orlando and headed for the east coast of Florida. About an hour from Orlando is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, right near the Kennedy Space Station. (Check out the map at the bottom of this post.) While we didn't have time to tour the Kennedy Space Center ourselves, that is another great option for thoe visiting the area. Note that since Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge is on the same island as the NASA facility, there are times when access to the refuge would be limited (like during rocket launches) so always check ahead for closures before venturing out!

As we've said before, we love wildlife refuges and have been visiting them across the country for probably a decade. I honestly think they are some of the most under-appreciated lands open to the public - and I'm okay with that since it means fewer competing visitors when we go!

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge consists of 140,000 acres filled with a variety of wildlife (including alligators, which we saw), endangered species, and migratory birds. The best time for bird-watching at this location is October through April with waterfowl most prevalent from November through February (which is when we were there!).

A view from the road at Black Point Wildlife Drive.

Marsh grasses look pretty cool against the cloudy sky.

Thin wisps of clouds floated overhead. Just enough to keep the sun at bay.

The entrance fee is $10 per vehicle as of this writing in October 2020. While there are various activities within the refuge that will appeal to different visitors, we spent our time driving the 7-mile one-way Black Point Wildlife Drive and then taking a hike on a portion of the Cruickshank Trial. Here's a bit more information on each:

Black Point Wildlife Drive - During bird season, this is a route to be taken very, very slowly. There are lots of pull-offs, most vehicles crawl along (going faster will disrupt the birds that others are watching). This is a 7-mile route to be enjoyed leisurely, just taking in nature, keeping an eye out for interesting birds and wildlife. We packed a picnic lunch for the day and ate it in our vehicles while enjoying the surrounding views.
Cruickshank Trail - This trail is a 4.8 mile loop, accessible directy off of the Black Point Wildlife Drive at approximately its mid-oint. We didn't walk the whole trail ourselves given that we needed to get back to Orlando for dinner reservations, but we spent quite a bit of time doing a slow-paced exploration of the portion we did walk. There is an overlook in a field, which is a wooden structure that provides more of a birds-eye view (no pun intended) of the marshy area around it. There is a waterway that had several sunbathing alligators. Funny story: Because sun-bathing alligators are about as lively as, well, sun-bathing humans, several visitors near us actually thought some of the alligators were fake (they weren't).

So, as I said at the start of this post, during this trip to Florida, I found a new appreciation for the state’s diverse offerings thanks to this time at the wildlife refuge out in nature.

We headed back to the hotel, where we had their Christmas buffet. If you end up in Orlando or, frankly, anywhere over Christmas, make sure to plan your meals in advance because so many places aren’t open and those that are often book up early! Even though we made an effort in advance, there were very few options that we found available.

You could hear the oysters and other benthic critters moving about just below the mud.

It always surprises me just how much of a difference there is between low and high tide in tidal marshes.

Day 4 in orlando - disney world’s magic kingdom

On December 26th, our final day of the trip before our return drive home to Virginia, we spent the day at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. As I mentioned before, I grew up near Disneyland in California, and that park is much smaller and there are some slight variances in the equivalent rides at Disney World. When I say Disneyland (in California) is smaller than Disney World (in Orlando), here's just how big of a difference it is. According to Travel + Leisure, 51 Disneylands (2 parks) could fit inside of Disney World (4 parks)! Read Travel + Leisure's side-by-side comparison of the two parks here.

I think it’s hard to compete with childhood standards, so Disneyland will always be my favorite, but Disney World was nice to check out, too. Most people I know on the east coast of the US only take their families to Disney World and love it.

In terms of your own visit to Disney World, again I recommend doing your homework on the most current ticketing options. As of our visit and at present (October 2020, though on hiatus due to COVID), the park offered “fastpass” which allows visitors (with their regular entrance ticket) access to hold a spot in a shorter line on time-bound tickets. So, for example, you might decide you want to visit Thunder Mountain at 2pm and could request that time slot. When you get to that ride, you can go into the special, shorter line. You can read more here about the way you can use this to maximize your time.

By mid-afternoon of our visit, I wasn’t feeling that great. It turns out, I was coming down with a bit of a cold, and so we ended up calling it a day a little early but not before visiting one of my favorite rides, Thunder Mountain. Now, it seemed to me that the Disney World version of Thunder Mountain was faster and more jarring, but is that true? Is that just a case of being less comfortable on roller coasters as an adult out of practice? I could probably look this up and find out, but I’m going to let my childhood memories stay in tact on this one and assume the Disneyland one was truly a slower, less jarring ride!