Last month I had an awesome time in Florida with family, so I thought I’d do a bit of a catch-up of what we got up to!

I drove down to Tamworth on the 2nd November and stayed at the Travelodge there to get a few hours sleep before a really early start the next morning. So at 4am, we all got in a taxi minibus from mum’s at 4am to take us down to Gatwick, and it has to be said, it wasn’t the most comfortable journey! There was me, mum, my sister Vikky and the twins, my brother Steve with his partner Ameena, and her daughter Amelia.

One particular lowlight of the taxi journey was when Chloe threw up whilst we were in traffic on the M25! She was sat next to me, so basically I had to catch it in my hands which was gross! I managed to transfer most of it into a plastic bag, but some of it ended up on my hoodie and smelled pretty bad! We had to pull over on the hard shoulder for her to get rid of the last of it before carrying on to the airport!

After a bit of a clean-up at the airport, we got on our flight about 1 o’clock. We flew with Virgin Atlantic, and it’s the biggest plane I’ve been on – it was a 747 and had an upstairs, which is where our seats were! It’s quite a long flight, and then when we got to Orlando, there was a massive wait to get through immigration, which isn’t ideal when you’ve got a couple of tired kids with you! We finally got through at about 7.30pm local time (which of course felt like it was after midnight because we’d started the day on UK time). It took a bit more time to collect our two hire cars – me and Steve were both driving Chrysler Town & Country 7 seaters, which is a bit bigger than I’m used to! We has had to take a bit of a trip to get an envelope containing a code for the keys for the villa in nearby Kissimmee where we were going to be staying. Eventually we got everything sorted, and finally were able to crash out!

The next morning, I got up reasonably early, partly due to jet-lag, but also because the kids were up and about before 7am! Brandon discovered the Xbox Kinnect in the games room area which was next to my bedroom, so that involved lots of jumping around!

We decided to go out for breakfast at a buffet restaurant called Ponderosa on International Drive – I think both Steve and Vikky had been there before when they came on holiday to Florida a few years ago) – and the food wasn’t too bad really, but they were definitely going more for quantity over quality! It was connected to a gift shop next door, so we spent a bit of time looking at the tat in there, before going to Target to buy food and supplies. Then we just went back to the villa for lunch, and the kids spent the afternoon playing in the pool.

Wednesday was our first day at a park, so we all squeezed into on car (to save on parking costs!) and headed off to the Magic Kingdom. The kids were pretty excited – Chloe even wore her Disney princess dress! We took the ferryboat across the main lake to get to the entrance, and made our way in.

We arrived just before one of the scheduled Disney parades, so we stopped in the town square to watch the floats and various characters go by. It was quite interesting to see the kids’ reaction to it all – it was almost like it was all too much for them! We then walked down Main Street to the iconic Cinderella’s castle – it’s quite funny because Vikky’s actually going to be playing Cinderella in Tamworth’s Christmas panto this year, so she felt quite at home!

Once through the castle, we joined a queue for Chloe to meet Cinderella’s stepmother and the sisters, but after a reasonable wait, Chloe was then too shy to go up to them! We tried to encourage her, but nothing would shift her, so they ended up grabbing Brandon and he didn’t actually speak but got into a raspberry-blowing contest with them instead!

The kids really aren’t fans of the bigger rides – I’m sure they’d be fine with some of them, but they just won’t try them. Be we did manage to get them onto the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is a pretty decent rollercoaster! To be fair, I don’t think they realised what it was until we got onto it – we had to queue for a really long time, and you line up through various buildings, so you couldn’t really see the ride, and when we did come to a window which showed anything, we made sure someone was blocking the view!

Oh, one thing that became apparent on our first day at Disney was Brandon’s obsession with water fountains! We couldn’t pass one without him having to have a drink from it – and there are quite a lot around the park!

The other main thing from our first day at Disney was that Chloe got to meet Elsa from Frozen. Vikky had to queue up with her for a couple of hours whilst the rest of us went off around the park, and apparently when Chloe got to meet her, she got star-struck and didn’t say a word! I actually got Vikky to ask ‘Elsa’ to record a little video message so I could put together a little video for Sophie Torry for her birthday which was actually that day! I edited it together with a piece-to-camera and some GVs when I got back to the villa, and posted it on Facebook for her – and she loved it!

We actually left the park around 5pm, and the kids were pretty worn out, but miraculously had a second wind later on, and enjoyed some late night pool fun!

Next day, I woke up way too early again due to jet-lag, so I’d been awake quite a few hours before we headed over to EPCOT.

When you first enter, you are met by the giant sphere which is synonymous with Epcot, and it actually looks really cool seeing it for real. It actually houses a ride called Spaceship Earth, but the queue was pretty long so we didn’t bother joining!

After passing underneath it, we then had a look around ‘Innoventions‘ which is an exhibition about the future of the world alongside tech (sponsored by IBM but still pretty interesting!), and whilst we were in there, Steve bumped into a couple he knew from back home – it really is a small world after all!

After the kids (and Vikky and Amelia!) had their photos taken with Chip and Dale, we then took a look around the aquarium which was pretty enjoyable, but after a morning of a lot of walking, Brandon and Chloe were getting a bit moany because they were pretty tired (and had been up since the crack of dawn!). The solution was the hire of two push chairs – even though they were a bit big fitting in them – but it meant they made it through the rest of the day!

After spending the morning in Future World, we then headed to the World Showcase area, which has 11 different pavilions each representing a different country (basically a collection of stereotypes!)

We met up with Steve and Ameena in the UK section, who already bought pints from the British pub – The Rose & Crown! We decided to get our lunch there too, so bought fish and chips from the ‘Yorkshire County Fish Shop’ – didn’t realise that it was a particularly Yorkshire-centric meal! Obviously they weren’t as good as home, but it was quite nice to have chunky chips rather than fries!

We spent the rest of the day looking around the various ‘countries’ – I found it quite interesting that they seem to actually employ their customer-facing staff based on the nationality of the section that they’re working in. I guess it’s better than getting the staff to put on dodgy accents!

We also went into probably the most USA-thing ever, the ‘American Adventure’, where we watched an a cappella group in period costumes singing traditional American songs. At one point, the main guy singing came over to Chloe and sang to her, and then tried to get her up to take part, but she totally refused! It’s quite funny, because she’s performed on stage quite a bit with her dancing, but she’s really not that confident when she’s put on the spot like that!

Next day we took a break from Disney and all went to the Universal Studios theme parks. We made our way into the Islands of Adventure, and the first ride we went on was the Hulk ride – and there were hardly any queues which was great! The rollercoaster has a really crazy acceleration after the initial climb, and has a few loops and corkscrews which gives a great experience. I really love rollercoasters – there’s a great mixture of total fear and adrenaline!

The other ride I found amazing at Universal was the 3D Spiderman ride. There was a bit more of a queue for this one, but they’ve made it more of an experience, with you walking through the offices of the Daily Bugle, so there’s lots of stuff to look at.

You then get given some 3D glasses and get into a moving car which takes you through multiple sets, with some very clever integrated 3D footage projections throughout, plus additional stuff like water, fog and fire! Your brain totally goes with it, and it all feels so real, and along with the movement of the car mixed with the visuals, you experience multiple twist and turns throughout, plus a really convincing multi-storey fall at the end!

We then made our way into the Toon Lagoon, and after having a bit of an explore, me, Vikky, Steve and Amelia went on the Bilge-Rat Barges – which is basically a water rapids ride – and got totally drenched! Luckily, the heat from the hot Florida sun dried us pretty quickly!

We moved onto the Jurassic Park section and had a bit of lunch, and mum bought some churros, and they were pretty good! For some reason, I though it was some kind of savoury thing, but it’s basically like a long donut, so no complaints! From there we crossed over into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, entering a recreation of Hogsmeade, complete with snow-topped roofs and Hogwarts off in the distance. It’s really well done and totally captures the look from the films.

We eventually walked over to Hollywood Studios which is the other Universal park, and arrived just in time to watch the late afternoon parade. We had a brief look around, and ended day in the Curious George play area, and the kids loved it here because it involved lots of spraying water! There was also an indoor play area full of hyper kids, and they had loads of fun in here too – by the time we got out, the daylight had pretty much gone, so we headed back to the villa.

Saturday was a bit of a nothing day. We all went shopping at Premium Outlets, a mall we’d spotted previously on our way to Universal, and I was totally bored out of my mind! I did have a look in a couple of stores, but that was about it. I found somewhere to sit down with a coffee I bought from Starbucks – and in classic style spelt my name wrong… I guess it does sound ever so slightly like Garrett! Mum was looking for a particular scented candle for my cousin Sam, so we then had to take a 30-minute drive to another outlet mall where there was a Yankee Candle shop –  inside the store was a total sensory overload!

The following day saw a return to the theme parks, this time to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was a bit overcast which meant it was a little bit cooler which I was fine with to be honest!

The first ride I went on was the Hollywood Tower Hotel – no-one else wanted to go on it other than Ameena, so we split off to join the queue, before ending up in a ride car which held about 20 people, and follows some kind of path through the building taking you through various scenes before subjecting you to a really big drop! You only see outside for a few parts of it to see how high you are, but it really felt like you were in free fall, although I’m sure we were no-where near that!

We then went on the Aerosmith Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, this time Steve and Vikky also joined us, and whilst queuing, you go through a really cheesy studio set-up! You look into a real room, and they’ve filmed some stuff with the band members and they’re projected into the setting, but their acting was really bad! It was a good rollercoaster though, and the acceleration at the start of it was crazy! It’s basically all in the dark, with various lit signs and props along the track, which twists and loops many times, and probably lasted about 90 seconds in all!

After chicken and fries in one of the incredibly busy cafes for lunch, we then all went to watch the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It was pretty well done, but Brandon wasn’t keen on all the explosions! After that, we all went on Star Tours, the Star Wars flight simulator, which was really good, and apparently if you go on it multiple times, you experience a different journey, but we only had time to go on the once. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring, checking out the Muppets, Pixar and various backlot sets you could stroll down.

Finally, before we left, the kids queued up to meet Phineas and Ferb – I’d not heard of them before, but apparently to 6 year olds they’re major celebrities!

In evening headed to Downtown Disney, but it was quite busy and we only really went into the Lego shop, but the kids came alive in there, not wanting to leave because they were making stuff with it!

On Monday morning, we just chilled at the villa, but in  the afternoon me, mum, Vikky and the kids went back to Disney World with mum, Vikky and the kids. We took the monorail from the car park to the main entrance, which is like a ride in itself! We then went on the It’s A Small World ride – a Disney classic, but I’m not sure what I expected, but it  felt a bit old-fashioned! The kids didn’t seem that impressed by it, and I can’t imagine it lasting like that to be honest!

We also all went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, where you’re supposed to shoot aliens in pairs with laser guns as you pass through it. I was with Brandon, and Chloe sat with Vikky, which meant that mum was in a car on her own with her own laser gun! She didn’t seem that impressed which me and Vikky just found hilarious!

In the evening we ate out at Manny’s Chop House in Haines City, about 25 minutes away from where we were staying, and bizarrely it was recommended by an old school friend, Steven Bolton, who saw on Facebook that we were in Orlando and said we should check it out!

We went with some American friends of mum’s – Mary Lou & Paul, and their son David. They live up in Buffalo in New York state, so came down to Florida for a few days to meet up with us. It felt like quite a genuine restaurant, in that it didn’t feel like it was particularly just catering for tourists, and I had a really amazing steak and fries. Chloe, who’s a fussy eater at the best of times, decided the only thing she’d eat off the menu was macaroni cheese, but when it arrived, it wasn’t the same way that she’s had it at home so she didn’t eat any of it! The kids did get pretty tired – Brandon actually fell asleep at the table, and had to be carried out by Steve at the end of the night!

Next day, I headed off on my own to the Kennedy Space Centre over on the east coast while Mum and the kids went with Mary-Lou, Paul and David up north to the Blue Springs State Park.

It was a glorious day, so was ideal for a long drive, although I did have a bit of a panic over petrol – I knew it needed filling up, so planned to do so on the way there, but I didn’t pass a gas station at all, and knew I wouldn’t have enough to make it back! Luckily I found one just before getting arriving at Cape Canaveral, so disaster was averted!

I found it really fascinating there, after checking out some rockets in the Rocket Garden, before going in to the Atlantis exhibition, where I got up close to the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis, which is crazy! I then took a coach to another part of the base which was all about the Apollo moon landing.

They’ve recreated the original period control room where they play out audio and clips from the actual launch which was really cool, and then in the main exhibition area I actually got to touch a piece of real moon rock!

I took a longer route back, heading south along the coast first, before heading back west to the villa. I got stuck in some traffic for part of it, so go back later than I’d planned, so I didn’t get to see Mary Lou, Paul & David as they’d already headed back to their hotel.

But we met up with them again the next day with a trip to Daytona Beach. It’s a name that conjures up images of old American cars on the beach and 60s speedway, but it’s fair to say that 2014 Daytona has definitely seen better days.

After parking up, we walked along the beach towards the pier area. It was very windy, so you couldn’t really sit down on the sand for too long.  Brandon had sore arms and the sand blowing on him was hurting him, so we took a walk which ended up at some amusements which the kids did for a bit. We’d not eaten, so we had some food at Neptunes restaurant just off International Speedway Boulevard, which is where the iconic Daytona Beach sign spans the road (of course I had to have a photo taken under it afterwards!) We were the only people in the restaurant, so got really good service, although I’m not sure it’s great for their business! 

Day 11 was Thursday, and we left the kids with mum to go back to Mount Dora with Paul and Mary-Lou, and the rest of us went to Universal to hit the big rides! We started off Hogsmeade, and I went on the main Harry Potter ride there – ‘The Forbidden Journey’ – which is so well done. It’s another one of those dark rides with a mixture of real sets and video, and you sit in a ride car that does some pretty complex movements as it moves down the track, so if really does feel like you’re flying as the characters are on their broomsticks around Hogwarts.

Back out in the heat, I succumbed to trying some Butterbeer, and I’ve got to be honest – it’s not the best taste… a bit too sweet and sickly for me! We then took the Hogwarts Express train to Kings Cross station, which is in the other Universal park, and the way they’ve done it is really clever. Obviously we’re probably passing through all the back areas of the park, but in your train carriage, the windows are actually screens, so it looks like you’re moving through a different world, and they make good use of silhouettes on the screens in the door to make it look like characters are walking past in the corridor.

It was quite strange getting off at ‘King’s Cross’ because it kind of felt British, but not quite! The London frontages are pretty convincing – although the sunny weather is the big giveaway!) and hidden behind the fake record store and tube station entrance is a brilliant recreation of Diagon Alley.

Here we went on the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride, which is a rollercoaster based on the sequence from second Deathly Hallows film (using some specially shot footage of some of the characters), and the attention to detail – both in the pre-ride experience and on the ride itself – are spot on.

One thing Amelia had said she really wanted to do in the US was to visit an American Diner, and luckily they have on at Universal so that’s where we had our lunch! I had to sit on my own though because you can only fit four people around a table!

After lunch I went on the Simpsons ride, which was basically a pod like a flight simulator where you’re watching a big screen, but the movements match up so it feels like you’re on a crazy rollercoaster – I really enjoyed it. We then headed back to Diagon Alley, and here we went on the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride. It’s a rollercoaster based on the sequence from second Deathly Hallows film (using some specially shot footage of some of the characters), and the attention to detail – both in the pre-ride experience and on the ride itself – are spot on.

We then thought we’d go on the Disaster Studios ride – it’s a bit of a weird one because there’s a big preamble where they pick some people to do some filming so they can be inserted into a film later on, and the cast member playing the part of the assistant director picked Steve to take part!

The put him in front of a big greenscreen where he had to flail around looking like something big is happening behind him, and after he and some other ‘volunteers’ had filmed their pieces, we all moved onto an undergound train to supposedly film a sequence for this imaginary film. At this point, and earthquake hits, and there’s lots of movement, a runaway train, water and fire! We then got shown the film with Steve and the others in it which was pretty funny!

The park closed at 6pm, so by the time we got out of the Disaster ride there wasn’t much time left, but me and Vikky joined the queue for the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster – we spotted that the queue for single riders was pretty short, so we’d be able to get on before closing time, and we both got on at the same time, just on different parts of the coaster. It honestly was the craziest ride I’ve ever been on! There are speakers in your seat blasting out pop music, and it doesn’t have a traditional over-the-head restraint, but a thing that is just pulled across your lap, and it really didn’t feel very secure, especially with the first part of the ride being a 50 metre vertical ascent where you’re tipped back a full 90 degrees! I really felt like I was going to fall out! We were going really fast, and one thing I noticed is the track is really narrow, which kind of messes with your head a bit and makes it seem more scary – I was just laughing like a crazed man all the way through!

The next morning, we back to Epcot (minus Steve, Ameena and Amelia) because mum really wanted to go on the Soarin’ ride. It was a really long queue,  and the kids struggled with that, but when we got in the experience you got from the 180 degree screen and the motion of the raised  seats was really good.

In afternoon went back to the shopping outlet centre because kids had been going on about wanting to go to the playground that they’d seen there on their first visit! I think they had as much fun there as at any of the theme parks!

I did actually take advantage of being there this time and bought myself some Vans trainers for a bit cheaper than they are at home!

On our final Saturday we all went to the Disney Animal Kingdom. As soon as we arrived, we headed over the go on the Harambe Wildlife Reserve safari,  and it was pretty decent – we got to see lots of animals, but it was a pretty bumpy ride. Mum was filming bits on her video camera, but it was bouncing up and down so much I don’t know whether you’ll be able to see anything when watching it back!

After that, we then went on the Everest rollercoaster which was pretty crazy! The track takes you all the way to the top of the ‘mountain’, and when you get there, you come to a stop as the rails abruptly bend upward – at which point you start rolling backwards down to the bottom! Next, we took the kids to the children’s section for a bit so they could go on some rides as well!

We left Animal Kingdom mid afternoon since we had a busy evening ahead. It was Steve’s 40th birthday, so we all went to the Longhorn Steakhouse in Kissimmee for a really great meal! I had steak and fried again, and mum brought a birthday cake with us which our server brought to the table after we’d all finished, and we managed to embarrass Steve slightly by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him pretty loudly!

To round off the evening we went back to Disney World, getting there about 9 o’clock for the Electrical Parade, which is where they decorate all the parade floats with thousands of lights, and it really does look great. Following this, we watched the fireworks display, which was focussed around the around Cinderella’s castle, and they used 3D projection mapping to create some really cool effects on it – I was very impressed with it all.

Monday was our last full day, so we all went back to the Magic Kingdom for one last time, with the intention to focus more on the kids’ experience rather than us going on the bigger rides!

Whilst Vikky did some stuff with Chloe (including trips to meet Tinkerbell, Ariel the mermaid and Rapunzel), I took Brandon to play amongst the water jets at the Splash ‘n’ Soak Station, and he got totally drenched! Luckily it was really sunny and hot, so it didn’t take too long to dry off.

We then both took the train around the park, before meeting back up with the others to watch the brass band and flag ceremony, finishing off with the afternoon parade.

Brandon and Chole were really tired by time we got back to the villa, but they somehow managed to find the energy for one last night in the pool!

Day 15 – our final day – and we loaded up the cars with all our luggage and headed to Kissimee, because the whole time we’d be there, Brandon had really wanted to do crazy golf after we’d passed one when we first arrived. We found a wild west-themed one (that even had mountains and waterfalls!) and to be honest, Brandon wasn’t that great playing, but that made it even funner, especially when his golf ball ended up in the water – although to be fair, he wasn’t as amused by that as the rest of us were!

Then we nipped over to Ponderosa one last time for lunch before driving over to Downtown Disney because the others wanted to grab a couple of things from the shops there. I decided to stay in car since we had all our stuff in there, and I was a bit paranoid about it getting stolen! Ultimately, I’m glad I did stay because the heavens opened and the others got drenched getting back to the cars!

We got to the airport around 4pm, and then had to wait about 4 hours until our flight departed which was a bit dull. Then it was just the long flight home – I mostly listed to music on my iPod all the way back because as usual I wasn’t able to sleep at all! The same taxi driver picked us up at Gatwick to drive us back to Tamworth, so it was a really, really long journey over-all!

So a really fun couple of weeks, and I’m not sure who had the most fun – the adults or the kids! Definitely would like to go back at some point – really love all those amazing rollercoasters!