今年年初因為一個意外的小幸運，獲得飛往美國小旅行的機會！之前雖然踏上過北美旅行也在當地學習，但一直待在加拿大而始終沒有前往美國，這次總算有機會能前往當地體驗不同的北美人文與景色。一共八天七夜的行程，我們決定只待在佛州，其中有幾個重點行程是我們實際去過後覺得很有趣的：環球影城、NASA航空中心、聖・ 奧古斯丁古鎮、國際賽車場。
In the early of this year we got a lucky chance to experience different cultures and views in north America because of the free tickets from Edelweiss airline! Our trip this time was just for 8 days, thus we decided to stay in Florida only. In this article, I would like to share some places we visited and was really interesting and worth to go in my opinion.
The schedule of the road trip in Florida 佛羅里達自駕遊行程概要:
(Day 1) Zurich ZRH蘇黎世機場→Orlando MCO奧蘭多機場 (Day 2) Universal Studios環球影城 (Day 3) Ice hockey game in Jacksonville (Jacksonville Icemen v.s. Atlanta Gladiators) 傑克遜維爾看冰上曲棍球賽 (Day4) One day tour in St. Augustine 聖・ 奧古斯丁古鎮一日遊 (Day5) Local market地方市集→Daytona beach戴通納海灘 (Day6) Daytona speedway tour戴通納國際賽車場導覽 (Day7) Kennedy space center甘迺迪航天中心(NASA博物館) (Day8) Rocket launch watching前往航天中心附近看火箭噴射→Orlando MCO奧蘭多機場→Zurich ZRH蘇黎世機場
Universal Studios環球影城
原本我們是計劃前往迪士尼的，但因之前去過東京的海洋迪士尼了，加上評估後覺得環球影城可能更適合成人玩。佛州的環球影城一共有三個主題樂園：佛羅里達環球影城、冒險島樂園、火山灣（水上主題樂園）。最後，我們選擇了佛羅里達環球影城！樂園裡大部分都是高速又刺激的遊樂設施，因此幾乎每一項設施在玩之前都要先把身上所有物寄放。當中有些寄物櫃滿有趣的，會先要求建立指紋，之後再利用指紋開鎖就好，如此便不怕鑰匙在玩的過程中飛出去了呢！
At first, we planned to visit Disneyland in Orlando, however, we’d been to Tokyo DisneySea before, furthermore, after we compared with Universal Studio with other visitors’ comments and information, seemed that Universal Studio will be more interesting and exciting for us. There’re three theme parks belongs to Universal Studio Orlando: Universal Studio Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay (water theme park). Because it was our 1st time visiting Universal Studio and also winter when we were there, therefore, we decided to visit “Universal Studio Florida" in the end.
對於第一次去環球影城的我們，每一個設施項目都和喜歡的電影、動畫有關，且幾乎都是4D或5D的感官科技體驗，有別於一般的雲霄飛車，除了刺激外，也多了許多故事情節和畫面。其中，我最喜歡的是辛普森的270度動畫實境體驗，感覺彷彿置身於動畫裡的世界，跟著辛普森一直不斷橫衝又瘋狂旋轉的，差點快吐了。另外辛普森園區裡的各個建築、人立像都仿照卡通裡的畫面建造佈置，簡直就像置身在卡通世界裡，成為當中的奇耙一員;-)
Around 75% of the rides in the park were high speed and very exciting and entertaining for us. Most of every ride and attraction were related to our favorite animations and movie, and you could experience either 4D or 5D technology with different stories on the rides. There’s one thing you should be aware before you wait in line: don’t forget to save your belongings in the locker! Some of the lockers were very convenient, it will ask you to build your own key with your fingerprint, and you don’t even need to carry the key or worry about losing it as well.
My favorite attraction would be “The Simpsons ride: Crash through Krustyland", which with a virtual reality roller coaster. The ride animation was shown on a gigantic 80-foot diameter domed surface. It made us feel so real, like we’re a part of the cartoon world. Definitely it’s one of the rides you must experience in the park in my opinion!
其次好玩的則是神鬼傳奇，原本因為裡面的故事情節，我以為會很恐怖，加上高速快感外竟然還有大火等特效伺候，感覺差點被吞噬，實際的感官體驗比故事內容來的更驚奇，一起搭乘的人無一不驚聲連連，甚至我們在離園前看人變少又再玩一次，可見有多麼喜歡！
Moreover, “Revenge of the Mummy" is my second favorite. Because of the story, I thought it would be a very scary ride. In fact, even there’s swarms of insects, and intense fire that you definitely could feel the heat during the high speed ride, it’s not scary at all. The experience which combined with the movie story and technology was so amazing and surprisingly to us. We even took a second ride before we left the park!
環球影城不像迪士尼可以免費排隊領取各設施的快速通關的卷，需要額外花一筆費用購買快速通關卷。因為樂園的票本身就不便宜了（115USD/人，單一樂園一日卷)，所以我們也並沒有花額外的預算購買快速通關卷(69.99USD/人)。可能因為我們去時並非週末假日，花了一整天將所有的設施都玩遍，有些設施甚至玩了兩遍。我個人是覺得不太需要買快速通關卷，如果人太多不太想排隊，建議也可以排單人通道，雖然無法跟夥伴們手牽手坐在一起，但真的快很多！
建議如果和我們一樣喜歡比較刺激類型遊樂設施的朋友，到佛州時可以花個一天到環球影城瘋狂尖叫發洩一下！
The single-day ticket for single park of Universal Studios was 115USD/ per person (see more detail with the link below). Unlike Disneyland you can get the fast pass tickets for free, you got to buy additional express pass ticket for 69.99USD/ per person in Universal Studios, thus, we didn’t but the express pass. Maybe is because we visited the park on weekdays, there’re not that much people waiting in line, some of the rides we could even take twice. In my opinion, you don’t need to buy the express pass ticket if you also go the park on weekdays. If you don’t mind not to sit next to your partner and friends, you may also consider about single rider path, it could save you a lot of time.
If you also like the exciting rides as us, I’ll recommend you to spend at least a day in the park when you visit Florida for a very exciting adventure and a good day!
⇒官方票價資訊 The official information of Universal Orlando theme park tickets
Kennedy space center甘迺迪航天中心(NASA博物館)
出發前我們偶然看到了有火箭將在我們旅行期間於佛州海岸發射的新聞，因此決定將NASA博物館納入本次行程的重點之一。一開始，我們是計劃在火箭發射的當天參觀NASA航空中心博物館，並同時現場觀看火箭發射，但除了基本博物館的門票 (成人門票50USD，不含稅），還要再另外購買觀看火箭發射的現場票（最便宜的票卷35USD)，另外也有些擔心看完後會因為塞車趕不上飛機（事實證明果然很塞），因此，最後我們決定提前一天先去參觀博物館，之後在旅程的最後一天前往附近的海岸邊觀看火箭發射，只是沒想到和我們一樣在海岸邊等候的民眾多到超乎我們預料，塞車的程度也超乎我們想像。所幸，最後匆匆忙忙還是趕上了還車時間跟返程的飛機！
Before the trip started, we saw a news about a rocket would be launch at the shoreline in Florida on our last day of the trip. Thus, we’d decided to put the Kennedy Space Center (NASA museum) into our schedule of this trip. In the beginning, we planned to visit the space center and watch the rocket launching at the same day, except the ticket of the space center (50USD/ per adult) we also need to buy an extra ticket for watching the rocket launch (the cheapest ticket was 35USD/ p.p). However, we’re also worried about the traffic jam after the rocket launching will be too bad to reach our flight. Therefore, we visited the space center one day earlier, and watched the rocket launching at the shoreline close to the space center on the day we left. It’s our first time to watch the rocket launch with our own eyes, even it’s smaller than our expected but still very exciting for us. Just the traffic jam was worse than our expect, we’re almost late to return our rental car and our flight. It was so lucky for the whole trip until the end 😉
官方票價資訊 The official information of Kennedy Space Center tickets
St. Augustine 聖・ 奧古斯丁古城
說到這趟旅行中看到最美的建築與城鎮，非古城 聖・奧古斯丁莫屬了。從奧蘭多機場沿路開車途中看到的建築與風景總是給人感覺灰灰土土，並不是很吸引人。直到聖・奧古斯丁才發現，原來美國也有這麼充滿歷史味道的歐式建築物及城鎮，心情瞬間也美麗起舞。
St. Augustine is definitely the most beautiful city in this trip! While we were driving during this trip, the buildings on the way weren’t look that nice and attractive than I expected, until we arrived in St. Augustine that the houses there were more European style and full of history and story.
充滿歐洲風情建築的聖·奧古斯丁，是在1565年被西班牙探險家們發現並建立的（參考資料）。因此，古城裡的建築充滿了濃厚的歐洲色彩，甚至西班牙的國旗也在城裡飄揚著。我很喜歡在古城裡悠閒的徒步逛逛，逛累了在晃到咖啡店或酒吧喝杯熱巧克力與啤酒。當然你也可以選擇搭乘火車造型的觀光巴士（價格約一人22-25美金左右，Trolley與Red train 兩家的價格不同），輕鬆地環繞古城一圈，並聽著司機先生的解說。
St. Augustine is a very old city with more than 450 years history and was founded by Spanish explorers in 1565 (source from). You can still see some Spanish flags in the old town surrounded by a lot of European colonial style houses. I like to walk around the old town with my casual and slow way, and go to the local cafe or bar to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate or some local beers when I’m slowly tired. If you don’t like to spend too much time on walking, you can also take the tourist bus which looks like the train and drive around the old town with the introduction from the local driver. There were two companies provided the service with different prices, it was 22-25USD per person.
古城繞了一圈後，散步至城鎮的對面，在那兒有一片海洋及十分壯觀的古城牆，這古城牆可是美洲大陸最古老的石牆堡壘，由西班牙工程師 Ignacio Daza所設計，並於1672年開始建造，堡壘中間最前方的部分於1695年完成，其餘的部分則是橫跨了世紀分別於不同時期慢慢完成的（參考資料）。對於喜歡體驗不同文化與歷史的我，這裡是很棒的地方！
After you visit around the old town, don’t forget to walk across the street and visit the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States: Castillo de San Marcos, which was designed by a Spanish engineer: Ignacio Daza. The fort was started to build in 1672, and the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695 (source from). For the people who also like to experience different cultures and histories as me, St. Augustine is definitely the place you must visit when you visit Florida.
Daytona International Speedway Track Tour戴通納國際賽車場半日遊
在戴通納國際賽車場的導覽體驗遊，可以說是這趟旅程中一場意外的驚喜！原本這個點根本沒安排在我們的計劃內，開車經過下車看看後回到飯店查詢了下資料，發現賽車場竟然還有提供導覽活動，且透過導覽活動可以實際至場內甚至賽車跑道上參觀。因此，我們便決定花半天的時間前往賽車場參與導覽活動。我們是在現場買票並挑選合適的場次時間，分別有30分鐘以及約 90分鐘的全程導覽，我們是選擇後者全程導覽，一人約25美金（含稅）。導覽的行程主要是搭乘導覽車繞整個賽車場一圈，包含導覽、講解與拍照。其中比較有趣的是可以看到並實際體驗傾斜度31度的真實賽車跑道，感覺一會兒賽車手是如何在如此傾斜的跑道上進行賽事的！
I would say that the track tour of Daytona International Speedway was one of the unexpected surprises in this trip! It was not in our schedule at all, until we accidentally passed by and found out that they also provide some guide tours for the visitor who would like to look inside of the Speedway and experience the special 31 degree high banks. Therefore, we decided to spend half of a day and join the All-Access tour for around 90 mins (you can also choose a shorter one with 30 mins only), the ticket per person was 25USD (include the taxes). We took the car as the the picture above and drove around the Speedway with a private guide and driver.
- 拍照的部分，導覽人員會帶你至幾個賽車選手重要的拍照點（記者會現場、冠軍者慶祝跑道…等）幫你拍張紀念照（可提供工作人員你的私人相機或手機），你也可以於導覽結束後在場外購買由館方專業相機所拍攝的實體照片。近90分鐘導覽的過程中，除了瞭解實際賽車場的各種設施及賽事歷史外，更深刻體會了美國人對於國產車的驕傲與今昔興衰的小感傷。
The tour also included photography service, you can make some interesting pictures at some special places, such as victor lane which you can also experience how the winner felt like, and media room…and so on. There will have another staffs to take the pictures for you with both of your own camera and their professional devices, so that you can also buy some pictures after the tour.
During the 90 minutes tour, except experienced the real track and other facilities and histories about Daytona International Speedway, we had also felt about how pride are the American feel about their local car and the sadness of the situation that compare with the history and now.
Victor gate 冠軍通道
PeiJung's Life Note 