I made the plans with my longtime friend to spend a few days in Orlando to celebrate Ace's early birthday. We moved the dates earlier because we each have medical appointments. Ace's 2nd birthday falls between his veterinary cardiology and ophthalmology appointment and my dental surgery.
Ace and I have been working around the bus depot at Lake Sumter Landing to get him familiarize with huge buses and the sound of the slamming doors. We did that for a couple of weeks leading up to our actual road trip.
Ace breezed by boarding the bus with glee. Of course, it is not a Greyhound.
Ace successfully guided me through the Ground Transportation level and Terminal C at Orlando International Airport (MCO) and found the restroom, elevator, and sliding door to go outside while I tugged my luggage. It seems like Ace already knows how to navigate and he was eyeing at an escalator and staircase, but he knows I couldn't do that because I was pulling my luggage.
We were staying with my friend and her service dog-in-training puppy at Vistana which is a resort near Disney Springs. Ace and I participated in the Cinco de Mayo Pub Crawl just because my friend wanted to go. To me, it is not my thing, it is my friend's thing. But it's a good thing to learn what pub crawl is all about. It is a pub hopping and you get to enjoy one speciality drink and food samples at each pub. There were three pubs at the resort. Ace got a chance to pose for a photo with a donkey.
The following day we left early in the morning to go to Disney Springs to ride different types of transportation as a team. Everything is always a first for us. This time, we did parks and resorts hopping from Disney Springs to Contemporary Resort.
We boarded the Disney bus to head over to Caribbean Beach to ride Disney Skyliner which is a type of transportation system known as a gondola. The gondola took us to the Art of Animation Resort. We took a bus to Magic Kingdom to walk over to the ferryboat which sails across the Seven Seas Lagoon. Then we boarded the monorail which took us into the Contemporary Resort. Ace received his Disney birthday button. Ace thought it's cool, even though it is not edible.
I did some creative craft project to show off Ace's career as a movie star and a guide dog Walk of Fame. Ace enjoyed his photo opportunities and he felt so proud of himself because he knows he is a star. It is an excellent basic skills for him to remain in a "stay" position for the duration of time.
We went to ICON Park which is an indoor and outdoor attraction in the late afternoon to experience Sea Life Orlando Aquarium, Madame Tussauds, and Orlando Eye. Sea Life is a very dimmed atmosphere where marine life live in glass tanks. We saw a 8-foot shark swimming and Ace thought it is cool to see it up close. We hoped for the shark to return from hiding, but never returned. Ace spotted a pedestal to get on by the tank as the jellyfish descend down to get a close look at Ace.
Ace met several wax figures such as Neil Armstrong, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, and the most ugliest ever, Shrek. Ace thinks he likes Elvis the most because his handler has her birthday as Elvis Presley's birthday.
Lastly, we rode Orlando Eye, a giant and slow-moving ferris wheel and watched the sun slowly sets.
Ace and I wrapped up with our final adventure, a ride on a Sunrail train which is a two decker train. Ace doesn't mind the smell and sound of the locomotive and he was so chill as the train breezes by. The weather was excellent for us to explore because it was windy and more favorable to experience to walk a pedestrian bridge which is a busy overpass over Colonial Drive.
Ace and I managed to do some staircase and escalator work and find some types of pedestal to stretch Ace's hindquarters throughout our stay and Ace loved every moment of it for his birthday.
Four short videos to share our work on the ferryboat staircase and our ride on narrow escalator.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W6UsBB_cLsQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wt1YCHM3WoY
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZHvkYB6mO9A
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/45h6UrDKVGQ
We are proud to finally mark off what we needed to experience as a team:
✔ Airport Bus
✔ City Bus
✔ Disney Skyliner (gondola)
✔ Ferris Wheel
✔ Ferryboat
✔ Monorail
✔ Sunrail
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