My name is Emree, I live in London, England and am traveling with my aunt and uncle for holiday. Emerson is my older sister, who will be going off to a university in the fall and is also traveling with us. The occupants of the hot tub at our resort, the lush Sheraton Vistana in Orlando, Florida, are convinced that Emerson and I are two British girls looking for adventure and wanting to learn more about America. But inside, we know we are really just best friends from Oklahoma talking with awkward accents and attempting to pass for foreigners.
â–º QUARTER FINALIST 2012 TEEN TRAVEL WRITING SCHOLARSHIP
During my week at Disney World my parents agreed, although reluctantly, to pose as the American aunt and uncle of my best friend, Ashton, and I. With Ashton being the lead role in several dramas at our school, it was only too easy for her to convince me to portray a new character once we boarded the airplane. However, we did invest the hour long car ride from the airport to our resort looking up videos on how to speak in a proper British accent. From that moment on, our southern twang was disguised with “proper” English for the duration of the trip.
Since my mom was in charge of planning the trip she chose Ashton's favorite parks first since she hadn't visited in ten years, then ours. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and went straight to Animal Kingdom. Usually not an outdoors person, I was surprised to find that I was enjoying the animals and various activities tremendously. Going on the Safari ride was perhaps the most exhilarating part of the day. The skies had just let loose a light drizzle which excited the animals to activity just as they might be in the African Serengeti.
Our week started out great in Orlando, visiting two Disney parks as well as Universal Studios, and we made many friends with our British accents. While standing in line, on Thursday at Hollywood Studios, we met some college-aged students who were British. When my dad informed them of our real origination, they were shocked to find out that we weren't British at all.To our surprise they worked at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure, as part of an internship. After conversing with them for the remainder of our wait in line, one of the guys volunteered to show us around his work, if we would just find him at the Butter Beer stand the following morning.
The next day, we met up with him right where he told us he’d be (much to the surprise of my parents). Not only did we get VIP treatment on the Forbidden Journey, which had a wait time of 4 hours for groups and an hour wait for single riders, but we also got to tour part of the castle that was off limits to the general public! Being such a devoted fan to the Harry Potter series, it still seems like a dream that all this happened.
This experience will continue to stand out in my mind for the rest of my life. Even though I’ve been to Disney World several times, this has been by far the most unique trip and probably the most fun. Given the opportunity, both my friend Ashton and myself would repeat the whole trip exactly as it was. This was a great experience and I can’t wait for the next time I go back.
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