We had many questions when arriving to Orlando. How much had changed in 4 years? We were lucky to find out that the brother of Eirik, who we met in Sydney, was working in Epcot now. Anders was nice enough to let us in for free in the parks a couple of days and introduce us to the people living in The Commons, where we used to live.
First change we noticed was that “MGM Studios” had changed its name to “Disney’s Hollywood Studios”. Also, we had been excited about trying out new attractions and rides. There were no new rides to try, but we enjoyed the old ones just as much since there were 4 years since last time.
First stop MGM and tower of terror
Next stop was Epcot, and we were soooo excited to eat our favourite treats from the Norway Bakery. Again, another big change. Fellow retired cast-members prepare to be shocked; the cinnamon roll is now served cold and the schoolbread is half its size!!! We also walked into the restaurant to talk to Bev, a Norway pavilion-veteran, and even after 4 years she still remembered us! Taking a sneak-peek at the Norway menu, we found out that there was only one dish left from the days we worked there everything else was changed (americanized). There were no managers we knew, but we were told that one of our managers were still in Epcot.
School bred and cinnamon roll in Norway!!
We walked around the park and stopped to talk to our old manager, Rueben, and he also remembered us. Soarin’ was one of Silje’s (blonde) favourite rides so we hopped on before heading to Animal Kingdom.
Flower and garden festival in Epcot
Silje (brunette) didn’t take the Mount Everest ride 4 years ago when it was new, so we had to try that. Silje (blonde) didn’t see the Lion King show 4 years ago, and Silje (brunette) really thought it was a great show, so we decided to let it be the end of a great day.
Silje`s first time on Mount Everest
It was Wednesday, and to be true to the tradition we wanted to go to Chillers. Anders was nice enough to invite us to a pre-party in The Commons.
Silje could finally buy alcohol legally
It turned out to be a great night and we had a lot of fun. We even jumped the fence to get to the after-party.
Anders, Håvard og Eirik outside Chillers
“Drinking around the world” is when you walk around the Word Showcase in Epcot and enjoy one traditional drink in each country. Japan has sake, Mexico has tequila and so on. We met up with Anders and his friend Eirik for a fun time.
Drinking around the World
The tequila bar in Mexico was new to us. It had a lot of expensive tequilas. We decided to go for one of them even though we already had a margarita in Mexico.
Tequila in Mexico
Walking through United Kingdom, Eirik was very excited about seeing Tigger, claiming he had never seen him before, so we decided to stop for a picture.
Group-photo with the characters
We were lucky to enjoy the different drinks in a slow pace since it was Magical (Tragical as we used to call them) Hours (open 3 hours longer).
Playing in the waterfountain
The next day we were ready for a slow night. We went to Planet Hollywood and then we went to the movies and had a movie-marathon.
Movie-night with movie-nacho's
We were ready for some pampering, and since it’s so cheap in USA, we decided to get manicures and pedicures. We went to have dinner at Kobe, a Japanese steakhouse, and we enjoyed the most delicious grilled tuna. After that we headed for House of Blues(HOB), which is the usual spot to hang out on Sundays.
Got some manicure & predicure
The next day we got some shocking news. After HOB, Anders and Eirik had an after-party in their apartment, with some people that weren’t supposed to be there. The security of the Commons broke up the party and terminated Eirik and Anders from the Disney program. This means that they had to go back to Norway. We were so sad on their behalf…
Before we left Orlando, we had to see Pleasure Island. This was the party-street we used to go dancing every Monday, but is now closed. It was strange to see it all shut down and hidden away with flowers.
We started the journey down to Miami with a stop in Fort Lauderdale. We were surprised by how nice it was there, a lot of very nice private boats in small canals. We had both a completely different picture of this city. There was a drive-in in Ft. Lauderdale, the world’s largest actually, and none of us had been to one before so we decided to go there.
Watching "the Bounty Hunter" in the world's largest drive-in
On our way to our hostel in Miami we stopped by the Norwegian Seaman-church by the port in Miami. They gave us A LOT of waffles with our Norwegian goat-cheese and jam. YUM! We had to buy some Norwegian caviar, because we always eat caviar and eggs every week in Norway and now we haven’t had it for 4 months!
Arriving in Miami on a Friday, we had talked to the cousin of our friend Ana Maria, and he invited us to a pre-party in his house in Key Biscayne. It was a very nice house, probably the biggest we have ever seen. His friends were too young to get in to the club we were going to so we had an early night.
A crowded South Beach on Saturday
The hostel stayed at had free breakfast, free lunch and free dinner. They had a lot of other nice freebies too, and each night there was something happening. We met a lot of nice people, so we went to Mansion one night and Nikki Beach another. We hung out with a nice American girl named Amy a lot.
Goofing around at Nikki Beach
We went to do some shopping and we saw our first real celebrity, Brooke Hogan, daughter of Hulk Hogan. After that we went to the movies and tried to do a movie-marathon, but we quickly found out that they are smarter in Miami than Orlando and actually check the tickets.. 😛 On our way back from just the one movie, we saw a lot of paparazzi outside a theater. Everyone seemed to know who the person was, so we had to ask; Ricky Williams, the “best” player on Miami Dolphin (american football).
The next day was spent in Dolphin Mall shopping. Camilo, Ana Maria’s cousin, sent us a message that we could come with him and some friends on a boattrip, outside of Key Biscayne where he lives, the next day, so we did. It was a lot of fun. There was about 20 people divided on two boats.
In Key Biscayne with Camilo and his friends
After the boattrip we went straight to the hostel to enjoy our last night at the hostel.
At Mansion with the hostel
It was almost only people from the hostel at Mansion, given that we were a big crowd and it was a wednesday night.
Having fun the last night in Miami
Siljex2
Silje & Silje around the world 
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