Orlando

I travelled with my family on Virgin Atlantic to Orlando during Easter 2011 holidays. The weather was gorgeous and sunny with an average temperature of around 80 degrees. After a lot of discussions when I was organising the trip, we decided to stay on International Drive for the simple reason if we decided one evening we didn’t want to take the car, then there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance!

There are so many fantastic theme parks in Florida to choose from. We bought a 14 day Disney Ultimate ticket in the UK and decided as it was our children’s first time, we would spend most of our holiday in the in the various Disney parks! We all loved something different in each one of the Disney parks. There are so many fabulous rides and attractions in each one and they cater for every age group, each one of us had a different favourite!

It is definitely better to buy all your park tickets before you leave the UK. On the last 3 days we decided to go to SeaWorld and Island of Adventures. The local gate price was nearly as much as what we would have paid for a 14 day pass in the UK!

Island of Adventures is home to the fantastic new Harry Potter attraction. There are three roller coaster rides together with Hogsmeade to wander through and buy various Harry Potter souvenirs including wands and gowns! My children’s favourite was Jurassic Park water ride which has great realistic dinosaurs – be prepared to get very wet. Universal Studios has some great attractions including Jaws, and Shrek 4D.

We all loved SeaWorld and Aquatica – the highlights at SeaWorld being Shamu the killer whale and the sea lion show! Unbelievably we went to the Shamu show twice and both times sat in the soak zone (the children insisted!) You do get absolutely soaked but you soon dry off in the sunshine! We loved feeding the sea lions and stingrays and there was also a great children’s play area too, as well as many other attractions to see and do

We found eating out very reasonable, and there is a fantastic choice of restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. We bought the kids an eat free card in the UK and they were great value!

My two children loved Florida there is so much to see and do. I would definitely recommend a few days on a beach or by the pool to finish off your holiday! I loved the shopping too and I got some fabulous bargains at Orlando Premium Outlets and the Florida malls (of course a woman can never shop too much!!)!

It is definitely a place I would recommend for all ages, and I would not hesitate to go again, in fact I think it will be difficult to persuade my children to go anywhere else!