From the World to the Universe

Today was a  travel day for our class, and a day off of blogging for the students. We started the morning by saying goodbye to Animal Kingdom Lodge. The unexpected upgrade was an amazing way to start the trip, and there really was something magical about being able to look out off of our balcony to see giraffes, zebras, wildebeests whenever we went back to the room.

Before we left, the students took a little time to practice their elevator speeches to each other. These  short, one minute talks on their own passion projects will be their last assignment before we head home. We still have more to accomplish here in Florida and more guest speakers to meet, but getting a sense for just how much time they have is an important first step.

After a short bus ride, we came to our new hotel, the Surfside Inn and Suites. We  had some down time before our rooms were ready, which the students to advantage of by relaxing, trying out some puzzles, or doing some coloring in the lobby.

Eventually, while part of our group waited at the hotel for our rooms to be ready, he rest went in to start exploring our two new theme parks. Lines were long, but they managed to ride both Spiderman and Cat in the Hat, as well as explore some of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter too.

The evening concluded with a pizza party back at our hotel. With the promise of an early morning rope drop, most of us turned in for the night, while a few went back to Citywalk to try their hand at karaoke. Tomorrow we will take a look at how Universal was inspired by the Mouse, and how Disney was in turn inspired by Universal. 

Thanks for reading! - Paul Fonstad