Travels

Kid-free Orlando Vacation

October 1, 2018

Planning a kid-free vacation to Florida without your little ones? Read on for our tips and favorite places! Being a working mom of two and my husband works full time… weeks go by fast and weekends go by faster. Our alone time consists of watching TV at night before falling asleep, so a vacation by ourselves was much needed! We planned it for Thursday-Monday, so we had three full days to make plans.

Thursday we ventured around Daytona Beach and then headed off to Lake Buena Vista to our hotel. We stayed at the Lake Buena Vista Resort & Spa, which was perfect for a family heading to a Disney vacation. Our Suite was a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom on the 12th floor overlooking the pool area. The suite was stocked with everything you would need for your vacation from a kitchen area, living room, washer/dryer and plenty of room!

The Hotel Amenities on site –

Pirates Plunge Themed Pool

Lani’s Luau Poolside Bar & Grille

Reflections Full Service Salon & Spa

Frankie Farrell’s Irish Pub & Grille

Pizza Hut Café Express

Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores

Wireless & Wired Internet Access (included in nominal resort fee)

24 hour Fitness Center

Convenience Store & Gift Shop

24 hour Reception Desk and Check-in

Meeting Room

Personalized Housekeeping Services (nominal fee)

staySky Kids Club

Scheduled Shuttle to Major Theme Parks (included in nominal resort fee)

My favorite part of the Lake Buena Vista Resort & Spa was how close it was to everything. 15 minutes to Disney, 20 to downtown Orlando and right off of a main route with lots of shopping & restaurants.

Mango’s Tropical Café

Thursday night after adventuring we headed down to International Drive in Orlando and went to Mango’s Tropical Café. As soon as we walked in we could feel the atmosphere and it was fun! The food was to die for and the whole time we were laughing and dancing along with the music. There is a few different menus to choose from that came with an appetizer, entrée and dessert. I started with a ceasar salad, had the lobster ravioli for my entrée and for dessert we brought home the Mango’s Mango Flan. We would totally recommend doing Mango’s dinner & a show while you are visiting Orlando!

Walt Disney World

Friday morning we got up bright and early and headed to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Disney without kids, we must be crazy for not taking them… right? Absolutely not. We actually said multiple times while we were visiting that we couldn’t imagine taking our kiddos right now while they are still young.

We did a total of almost 9 miles of walking and 3 parks in one day! Our favorite ride by far was the new Avatar Ride… so amazing!

ZooTampa at Lowry Park

Saturday morning we headed to Tampa to check out ZooTampa at Lowry Park. This was our first time visiting Tampa in over 15 years and our first time at the zoo. There is plenty of parking and best of all… free parking! We started off our morning with a Rhino encounter with the male Rhino, Jon. Jon was SO sweet and mellow! Touching his skin and his horn seemed super relaxing for him, and I really just wanted to give him a big hug!

Next we headed off to do our penguin encounter with Tinkerbell the penguin. Tinkerbell was super cute and friendly! She was very soft and silky feeling and wasn’t as smelly as I expected her to be.

After our encounters we were free to venture around and explore on our own. We headed to do the Safari ride and see some of the awesome animals that ZooTampa has to offer. The zoo was setting up for Halloween so there was a ton of fun pumpkins everywhere and in the children’s section you could find some fun water play! After some exploring we grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to the Florida section to check out some manatees and gators!

ZooTampa at Lowry Park is the perfect spot for young and old, and very kid friendly! We can’t wait to go back and visit.

Balmoral Resort –

We left Tampa and headed off to Haines City to our next resort stay. We arrived at Balmoral Resort which is part of the Feltrim Resorts. This Resort has the most dreamy vacation homes which are perfect for your family vacation, a special occasion or for snowbirds who want to stay for a few months. Our home was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full car garage with an enclosed pool area. The homes are very sleek and modern looking and the swans on each bed were adorable!

The resort left us with a welcome amenity pack that included items for breakfast such as milk, orange juice, eggs, toast, peanut butter jelly, and cereal. Everything that you could ever need while being on vacation and to eat in, they had available for you.

Balmoral Resort features amazing amenities including a waterpark for your kiddos, clubhouse, bar & grill, games arcade and more. We spent time down at the clubhouse, had a few drinks and relaxed in the hot tub.

Revolution Off Road

My husbands favorite part of our trip was visiting Revolution Off Road located in Clermont, Florida. Revolution Off Road is the only place where you get to actually drive “The Mucky Duck” this unique vehicle is an Argo an amphibious vehicle that travels over our tracks and trails as well as drives across the water.

We were able to head out onto the lake with it and looked out for alligators the whole time. Our guide Chris said there is definitely gators on the lake so we must have missed them!

During the hour long adventure we went through the woods, on the lake twice and went through a ton of mud! We did get stuck twice so our guide had to pull us out of the water, which definitely made for some good laughs. Revolution Off Road is definitely a must on your Orlando Vacation, so make sure to check them out!