Florida 2022 - the second week

 Saturday 29th October

We went back to Universal Studios to do some more of the rides we'd missed. We started with the Bourne Stuntacular again since it's our favourite and it was no less stunning. Different actors this time, and once again the audience clapped enthusiastically at the end. It really is one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Roderic and I read our books in the sunshine while the children did the Hogwarts ride again, and then we went through to Jurassic Park to do some rides and have lunch. We chose a fast-food burger place, but while the meat burgers were all cooked in advance and most customers collected their orders within two minutes, we waited 25 minutes for my "herbivore" burger. Around us were two other families also waiting for the vegan burger. It was delicious, though, once it finally made an appearance.

After lunch we went on my favourite ride, the bilge-rat barges, a Popeye-themed raft ride with lots of splashes. It warns you will get wet and may get soaked, and we got completely drenched. We did it three times because once you're already wet there's no wetter you can get, and the queue was less than five minutes.

Hari had worn a poncho so was only a bit damp, but her feet were soaked and she didn't like that. I paid $5 for the children to go in the people dryer but it didn't help much. We were ready to go home but were too wet to get an Uber, so we went to Dr. Seuss area and did a couple of rides as we waited for the Florida sun to dry us out.

Sunday 30th October

We went back to Walmart in the morning to stock up on a few bits, including some Christmas presents, and then in the afternoon Hari and I went back to Universal Studios. With only the two of us we could join longer queues without worrying about the rest of the party, so we finally managed to do Minion Mayhem. It had changed slightly since last time we did it, primarily in that there were no longer 3D glasses to wear. I was pleased about this, as wearing 3D glasses over normal glasses is really difficult, and I don't thnk the ride lost anything for the lack of 3D effects.

Universal Studios was closing at 5 for a Halloween event, so our plan was to do the last couple of rides there and then go to Islands of Adventure, which was open until 9, and is the better park anyway in our opinion. We went back to Diagon Alley and got a Butterbeer each and some great photos, but the queue for the Gringotts ride was almost an hour, and the queue for the Hogwarts Express (to get into the other park) was 90 minutes. Since the park would close in under an hour neither seemed to be a good idea, so we decided to walk back to the entrance and from there to the park next-door. We'd have dinner there, and Hari would do the Hulk roller coaster.

Unfortunately, as we neared the entrance Hari suddenly felt ill. We sat down at a table outside a restaurant. Feeling sick and faint, Hari said she couldn't stand up. I asked in the restaurant where the medical centre was and although it wasn't far Hari couldn't get there, so I flagged down a team member, who called the medical centre for help. Her name was Harley and she was lovely and very helpful. She chatted to us and fetched some water and a wheelchair. Iris from the medical centre showed up only a couple of minutes later. She took Hari's pulse and blood pressure, and said she thought it was heatstroke. Hari had been wearing her Slytherin jumper, and it was 29 degrees.

Heading into the park - Hari wearing her Slytherin jumper (she left the park in a wheelchair)

We loaded Hari into the wheelchair and Iris told us how to get out of the park. I filled in a form with our details, and we set off back to the rideshare pickup point. We had to return the wheelchair at the bag check area, but they were able to lend us one which we could take to the pickup point so it was all very smooth and organised. Hari was able to get into the Uber, and the Uber took us all the way to our door.

Hari was fine after a couple of hours in an air-conditioned room and plenty of water, just very embarrassed and sad about our evening being cut short. She doesn't remember meeting either Harley or Iris, but I did email Universal to thank them and tell them how well their team members did, and they did reply.

Monday 31st October

Discovery Cove is our luxury park. Visiting is extremely expensive, but it's very special. We opted not to do the dolphin swim this time, having done it before, and that made it a little cheaper.

Everything about Discovery Cove is perfect, from the quick check-in (we were checked in by a lady called Anne from Colchester who had moved to Florida to be near her daughter) to the beautiful landscaping. It's limited entry numbers so it's never too busy, and towels are provided. All food and drink is included, not just full meals but snacks, ice cream, and slushies in interesting flavours like white cherry and pina colada. 

We arrived early and had breakfast there. I've found on this trip that America is getting slightly better at offering some vegetarian options, but it was funny, looking back, that one of the buffet servers was quite concerned that my breakfast consisted of just eggs and potatoes and I had forgotten to take a sausage or bacon. That same server, at lunchtime, tried to offer me chicken and pulled pork to go with my chips and broccoli and was most perturbed when I refused both. He didn't seem to speak much English so I couldn't explain. I did, however, find a child's macaroni cheese to add to my plate.

The flamingos waddled round the park all day. Here they are enjoying a shower.

Pina colada slushie

Fun in the sand

We found ourselves some sunbeds, donned our masks and snorkels, and started exploring the Grand Reef. I'd bought a waterproof phone case (from Walmart, so at less than a quarter of the price of buying one from Discovery Cove) so was able to film the amazing underwater scenery and the beautiful fish. The children played fish bingo, taking a waterproof card to identify as many fish as they could, and I explored the rest of the park - the slow lazy river which passed through the aviary, the warm freshwater pool with an island in the middle where marmosets lived, and pool full of lively and energetic otters, although unfortunately I wasn't able to get any underwater footage of them because of a crowd of people in the best filming spot who refused to move. I also spent some time watching the dolphins perform.

Discovery Cove is about relaxing and experiencing nature, and I actually dozed off on my sunbed for an hour or so. We stayed for the whole day, only leaving when the park was closing. The only thing I'd change about it (and this goes for other water parks too) is to switch off the air conditioning in the toilets and changing rooms. When you leave the hot sunshine to go into the "restrooms" and you're wet, it is freezing! And it's very difficult to dry off and get changed when you're very cold. I've no idea why they would want to have air conditioning there.

Tuesday 1st November

We'd decided we needed a full day for shopping, and we picked the right day. The day after Halloween, and Florida Mall was all decked out for Christmas. It's a great shopping mall, smaller than Lakeside but obviously the shops are more interesting. In particular we found lots of "geek" shops like Hot Topic and Boxlunch and that's where I bought the bulk of the Christmas presents. I also loved Bath & Body Works.

We had some interesting "not in Kansas anymore" moments. For example, to log into the mall Wi-Fi you not only have to give your name and email address, but also your date of birth, address, and annual household income. And no, you can't skip any questions. I was quite surprised in shops, too, to be asked my email address (lots of places in the UK do this so that they can email you your receipt) but also my phone number, address, and date of birth. Although in Hot Topic doing do enrolled me in a loyalty scheme (!) which resulted in a good discount. 

The infamous great US customer service was also evident, with us being warmly greeted in each shop, and friendly and chatty assistants always wanting to help us find what we were looking for. I quite enjoyed that, but I could see that it would start to grate after a while.

I was less keen on the pushy sales tactics from the people with stands in the mall. I accidentally made eye contact with a chap who then waylaid me to put some magic wrinkle-reducing cream on my eyes which he would sell me at a third off - only $200. I've never used any products of any sort on my skin and wasn't planning to start. He then grabbed my hand and started to buff one of my fingernails to demonstrate yet another product. (This on the person who has never had a manicure, ever.) Unfortunately, he chose the nail I have to keep very short because otherwise it splits lengthways, and the encounter only stopped when I had to pull my hand away because it was actually very painful.

We regrouped at the food court for some lunch. Val/Ceri chose Popeye's, I had my first ever (cheese) empanada with a bean stew and fried plantain, and Roderic went for the Asian noodles. Hari wasn't hungry but had an Auntie Anne's pretzel later which she said was very nice.

Hari and I continued shopping in the afternoon while the other two went home. I got all Hari's birthday presents and was very pleased to get some nice shoes for myself - my first pair of Vans, and Motorhead themed. I also enjoyed a cinnamon Auntie Anne's pretzel before we squeezed ourselves and all our bags into the Uber back to our resort.

Wednesday 2nd November

Volcano Bay is Universal's water park. To get there we had to be dropped off at the usual place for Universal and then get a Universal (free) bus as there's no onsite parking or drop-off. It looks as though they've sandwiched in on a vacant parcel of land between I4 and Turkey Lake Road, so when you're waiting for the slides you can watch the cars going past below, which is a bit odd. We loved the raging river - a particularly fast "lazy" river with waves and bubbles and fun round every corner. but the wave pool was less impressive than Typhoon Lagoon's, and the slides all had confusing random names which made it difficult to work out where you were going - or tell anyone else. We did like the idea of the TapuTapu wristband which enables you to join a "virtual" queue for a ride, but the day we were there was very quiet so it was only needed for one ride which I chose not to do. The food choices were also more limited and less inspired than Typhoon Lagoon's, so although we had a lovely time and stayed the whole day we agreed that Typhoon Lagoon (where Gwen and Harley had gone for the day) was the better park.

In the evening we ordered Uber Eats again, this time from Checkers. Zero vegetarian options so I just had the loaded fries and asked them to leave off the bacon, but we all agreed that they were the best fries we'd had in America.

Thursday 3rd November

In the morning Roderic and I walked to Walmart and back once more for essential supplies (diet cola). In the afternoon Hari and I went to Universal for one last time to mop up the rides we didn't get to do last time when she was ill, including a couple of Dr. Seuss rides (nightmare fuel!). We did Hogwarts together (and scored a free locker because we messed up and accidentally opened the small ones) and then got into the queue for the Hogwarts express to get to the other park. While we were in the queue the ride broke down, and the staff told us we might have to wait a "few extra moments". I had my Kindle and we were queued on the stairs so we just sat down to wait it out. Several people ahead of us in the queue gave up, so that when, ten minutes later, the ride opened again we found we were right at the front of the queue.

Back at Diagon Alley I went into the single rider queue and got onto the Gringotts ride in just ten minutes while Hari treated herself to some Harry Potter merchandise with the last of her dollars. For dinner we decided to go to the other Harry Potter themed restaurant, the Leaky Cauldron. I wasn't sure which drink to choose so got chatting to the chap on the door, Elijah, who told me that the hot butterbeer would be the best thing I had ever tasted. They had a vegetarian pasty so I ordered that and a hot butterbeer, and Elijah was right. He came over to see us while we were eating and I told him so and we chatted for a while.

Frozen butterbeer (very nice too)

Sign in the Leaky Cauldron

We'd wanted to get our caricatures drawn and I'd suggested we do it at the end of our visit so that we didn't have to carry them around all day. Unfortunately, we left it too late and they were closing by the time we remembered. 

Friday 4th November

Roderic and I walked to 7-11, only ten minutes from our resort, to get milk for breakfast. I'd wanted to have another look at the new timeshare we'd bought, so Hari and I went to the South Welcome Center [sic] but there was no one available to take us round it, so we'll have to wait until our next visit to remind ourselves what it's like.

In the afternoon we gave the resort's water park another try. I went down a flume, and once round the lazy river, and then spent a pleasant afternoon on a sunbed reading my Kindle. At 5pm the water park closed so I headed back to the apartment to reluctantly start packing.

Somehow when we booked our flights we managed to book Premium Economy seats on the way home at no extra cost. The huge advantage of this is that we each get an extra suitcase coming home, free of charge. My plan had been to do all my Christmas shopping in America, but what actually happened is that we bought lots and lots of food American cereals, ranch dressing, cornbread mix. and enough food to fill one and a half huge cases which we had taken empty for the purpose. I just hope customs are okay with us having a 2kg bag of Captain Crunch in our luggage.

Last minute cleaning, laundry, packing and panicking got tiring, so Gwen, Harley and I headed for the hot tub and spent a pleasant hour chatting in hot bubbling water. It's 25 degrees even in the evening ehre and there is no better way to end the day than putting the world to rights under palm trees. I shall be very sad to have to go home tomorrow.

We decided not to leave a tip for housekeeping because they kept randomly removing stuff we needed. Initially it was tea towels and potholders, then our dishwashing sponge, and bin bags. Every time housekeeping came it seemed we lost more stuff we actually needed and had to ring them to ask them to bring it back. I've given up now and we're still minus a dish sponge and are using Walmart bags as bin bags, but I hid the tea towel last time housekeeping came so we still have that.

What I'll miss...

Evening hot tubs

More junk food places than you can possibly imagine

Glorious hot sunshine every day

McDonald's egg and cheese biscuits and hash browns

An apartment bigger than my house

Sam's Diet Cola

Ultra-friendly and helpful shop staff

Cheetos

The amazingly quick and efficient washer and dryer

The weird and wacky randomness of Uber drivers

Shaved ice slushies in every flavour

Everything smelling of cinnamon

Walmart

Hot Butterbeer

Florida 2022 - The First Week

Saturday 22nd October 2022 - The Journey

In 2019 I travelled a lot. In February I went to Cambodia with my dear friend Hellen Riebold to visit the girls we sponsor through a charity run by another dear friend, Ruth Williams. In June Hubby Dearest and I took our first cruise. We went round the Baltic, including to St. Petersburg, and I caught the cruising bug and now have four cruises booked. And then in October we went to Florida with the family. I'm beyond glad we did all that, because of course in 2020, and much of 2021, we went nowhere at all.

We own a timeshare (Westgate Lakes) so are obliged to go to Florida every three years to make use of it. We decided to have a taxi to the airport this time, and that was a good decision. A round-trip in a minibus for six of us was just under £300 - £100 less than the cost of parking two cars at the airport, and much less hassle. The first leg of the flight with Air Canada was uneventful. We had over three hours to kill at Montreal airport waiting for our connection so were slightly frustrated to have so much downtime, but decided we'd try some poutine and look around the airport shops.

In the event we were very glad we'd booked flights which such a long layover, because Montreal airport was the worst I've ever encountered. We were to clear American customs there, which is a nice idea, but we queued for 2 1/2 hours in a dingy room under some stairs. Occasionally airport staff would rush around asking whether anyone was on a particular flight and those people would get to jump the queue. (As we got to the blessed start of that queue that felt extremely unfair, as we watched them go ahead of us to passport control.) We also had a major "not in Kansas anymore" moment when directed to check screens for our names. The screens listed the names of every passenger on each upcoming flight, and their immigration status - green if they were approved, amber if they had to consult a member of staff. GDPR only came in in Europe in 2018 but already we're so used to it that it seemed horrifying to have personal data put on display in that way. In the UK displaying that information publicly is illegal.

We just about cleared customs with time to eat poutine at the gate before boarding our flight to Orlando.

I'm recovering from a nasty chest cold as I write this, the main symptom of which has been coughing. I had a coughing fit in the taxi to the airport, and another on the second flight. The French-Canadian lady in front of me threw an airline package containing a face mask at me, never mind that I was already wearing my own.

Once in Orlando the next challenge was locating our shuttle driver. It turned out that we couldn't find him because he wasn't there yet, but he showed up eventually and we finally arrived at our resort at 1.30am, which was 6.30am on our body clocks, having been travelling for over 21 hours. The journey is not my favourite thing about Florida. 

Sunday 23rd October - Walmart and the Water Park

One thing I do love about coming here is our tradition of going to Walmart on Sunday morning to buy all the weird and wonderful American food. Roderic and I walked the mile to Walmart, and the rest of our party took an Uber. For the second time we have decided not to hire a car during our stay. Car hire comes in at around $100 per day and it now costs $25 to park at a Disney or Universal theme park for the day. Ubers average around $15-$20 per trip (depending on where you're going, of course) and with Lyft too that price is competitive, so we decided we'd use ridesharing apps to get to wherever we wanted to go.

We always start with breakfast at the in-store McDonald's and I was pleased to find that oatmeal was no longer the only vegetarian option - I really enjoyed my egg and cheese biscuit. We then spent a very pleasant hour wandering round Walmart and stocking up on the essentials - corn dogs, Hawiian punch, pizza pockets, ranch dressing, cornbread mix, breakfast cereal that looks and tastes liked cinnamon buns, and hundreds of frozen burritos. 

The cost of groceries in America is generally higher than in the UK, and I'd been a little concerned that it would be an impossibly expensive exercise, but although many things were three or four times the price (apples, meat) we also got some bargains. Roderic's favourite flavoured water was 70 cents a bottle which is slightly less than it is in the UK, comes in more varied flavours and apparently tastes better. We spent $300 so not too bad for six people for a week or so.

In the afternoon we went to check out the resort's new water park which they were building last time we were here three years ago. When we checked in last night we'd been given a little slip of paper which entitled us, as owners at the timeshare resort, to twelve free wristbands giving us entry to the waterpark. I confidently presented a slip of paper to the member of staff in the entry booth, only to discover that what I'd actually given him was a random receipt from my purse. The actual paper I needed was still at apartment 213. Oops. He took my word for it that we were owners and let us in anyway.

After all that we found the water park to be unimpressive. The lazy river was very slow and there weren't enough rings available, the wave pool was tiny, there were two flumes but the steel steps up to them were the type I can't climb due to my fear of heights, and a kids' area which looked great fun but only if you're five years old. Entry to the water park was $20 for non-owners, and I couldn't help thinking it really wasn't worth that. We'd probably have quite liked it as an option when the children were small but decided not to bother with it again.

In the evening we ordered Sonic on Uber Eats. Half the order didn't arrive - Gwen got no meal at all - and what we did get was nothing to write home about (except my pretzel, which was very nice). So not a fast-food place we'll bother with again, although we did get refunded for the missing food, and we didn't get charged for a random large lemonade which showed up with our meal.

Now I read this back it looks like a disappointing first day. It absolutely wasn't. Did I mention we're in Florida? It's 30 degrees and the sky is blue. Our apartment is huge and very comfortable. Our resort has six other pools and hot tubs for us to enjoy as well as the water park. And none of us are at work.

Me at our resort (Westgate Lakes) the first morning

The entrance to Westgate Lakes in the evening

Monday 24th October - Universal Studios

Universal Studios! Our Lyft driver had come to us straight from talking to his divorce lawyer and told us all about it and how sad he was, so naturally we tipped him very well. Hari suggested later that he probably tells everyone that sob story precisely for the tips, but if that's true then I salute his ingenuity and he still deserves a good tip.

Gwen and Harley had gone to Animal Kingdom (they're doing Disney while we do Universal) and left early to be there for rope drop (when the park opens) so that they could take advantage of shorter queues. They reported later that they did very well and blazed through many of the best rides. Their safari was particularly good, with close-up encounters with lots of animals.

Since we went to Universal Studios a little later we knew that we would be looking at long waits to do the rides, but there is so much to see and enjoy, especially in the little details, that half the fun is just being there and taking it all in. Hari is a big Harry Potter fan so she loved Diagon Alley. We each had a frozen Butterbeer and it was delicious. We then decided to do the Gringotts ride, which I had chickened out of on our last visit. Lots of the rides at Universal don't allow you to take bag with you, so there are lockers to put your things in before you join the queue. The lockers are small, cost $2 for each hire, and you need you park ticket to open them. It felt a bit like being scammed for yet more money, so future reference - travel light and pack everything into a bum bag, since you can take those on the rides.

The Gringotts queue was advertised at 55 minutes which is really the upper limit for me, and in the event, it was well over an hour, but the ride at the end was good - the combination of hydraulics and VR which means it's a roller coaster without being a roller coaster, and thus not too scary for me since I kno w I'm not actually high up, even though it looks as though I am.

We ate our sandwich lunch in fake (but very well done) London, outside Grimmald Place, with the Eros statue and Leicester Square tube station, then joined another queue, this time for the Hogwarts Express. The train takes you from one park (Universal Studios) to the adjacent park (Islands of Adventure) and a story plays out through the "windows" as you travel.

We had a quick look around Hogsmeade, but the wait times for the rides were all very high, so we decided to call it a day at that point. Our tickets are valid for two weeks, so there really was no rush to do everything.

Calling a Lyft/Uber to take us back to our resort was something of a challenge. We have to pay an extra £6 per day for our data plans in the US so had decided just to use the wifi in the parks and our resort. That's fine, but it turned out the Universal wifi didn't quite reach the rideshare area. We had to buy data, and the rideshare pickup and dropoff areas at Universal are very poorly set out so finding and then getting to our car were tricky. Hopefully that'll improve as more people use Uber and Lyft.

In the evening Roderic and I went to a free dinner for Westgate owners over at Westgate Town Centre resort. It was further away than we'd expected, so the Ubers to get there and back probably cancelled out the value of the dinner, but we did win a few bits of Westgate merchandise in the after-dinner music competition.

Tuesday 25th October - Typhoon Lagoon

As a family we LOVE water parks. There's something about being in or around water that just feels so relaxing and lifts the spirits. Gwen and Harley had Disney tickets entitling them to use the Disney water parks, but the rest of us had to pay for day entry. We'd also pushed the boat out and booked a cabana again, and we got Beachcomber shack no. 1 - the same one we had last time. The advantage of having a cabana is that we each get a comfortable seat in our own private area with a locker, ice box, tables, and an assistant who will bring us whatever we need. It includes unlimited drinks, and towels, and it makes it much easier to find each other and have a base to return to without having to find six sunbeds together when the park is busy. For us it was well worth doing, even if it was expensive.

Everything about Typhoon Lagoon was wonderful. The huge wave pool generated a 6-foot high wave every 90 seconds. I loved the raft rides - Gangplank Falls and Misadventure Falls - and the solo tube rides, Mayday Falls and Keelhaul Falls. One of the great things about Disney water parks is that the climb up to the flumes and ride isn't steel steps, but a pretty mountain path. We spent a lot of time just bobbing round in circles in the lazy river, Castaway Creek, and I can't think of a better way to relax - I just wished my Kindle was waterproof so that I could also read my book. 

We had Julian, our attendant, bring us lunch, and like all Disney parks (but unlike America in general) there were good vegetarian options available. I had the crabless crab cakes which were delicious. 

We were at Typhoon Lagoon from opening until closing, and we all agreed that if someone were to ask which was our favourite Disney park, this would be it. There may not be Princesses and roller coasters, but it's the perfect combination of relaxing in the fun, and enjoying thrill rides.

I made steak with roast potatoes, broccoli and carrots for dinner. (Cheese omelette for me.) The knives in the drawer were extremely blunt, and we had no oven glove or tea towel, so that wasn't the easiest meal I've ever cooked.

Wednesday 26th October - A Rest Day

Part of being timeshare owners is that the company will keep trying to get you to buy more timeshare. They do this by inviting you to a breakfast where you can chat to a representative about the company's future plans. They also bribe you. We were told that if we went to the dinner on Monday and the breakfast they'd give us a $150 prepaid debit card. So off we went, and after a frustrating start (because no one told us we needed to check in in a specific area) Naima from Morocco welcomed us and took us upstairs to the buffet breakfast area. Very nice scrambled eggs, but less of a spread than I remembered from previous visits.

Naima then set about trying to persuade us to buy more timeshare, but we resolutely refused. As usual she took us on a little ride in a golf cart to see the new building with the bigger apartments. It was impressive - four interconnecting one-bedroom apartments sold as a single unit so you could bring friends, or use one section and rent out the others, or have four weeks for the price of one.

Since Roderic is an accountant it's difficult to pull the wool over his eyes when it comes to figures and investments, and he was quite sharp with Naima when he thought she was trying to blind him with numbers. But eventually he asked her to leave us to discuss things and explained to me that the latest offer she had given us was actually very good, and in the long term would be a better deal than the one we were currently on. So, we went with it, and spent a further hour with a very nice lawyer from New York tying up the paperwork. And yes, they did give us the $150 at the end of it all, and a tablet, and a free week.

During our chat with Naima I mentioned some of the issues with our apartment - the blunt knives, lack of scissors, tea towel or oven gloves, non-working light, blind, and patio door. Nothing got fixed until I told reception two days later, at which point it was all fixed so quicky that the maintenance man arrived at the apartment before I had got back from reception. Far from being our resort rep, Naima really was just a salesperson.

In the afternoon I walked the mile to Walmart and the parade of shops beyond it, including a DollarTree, to restock with cola and a few other things we needed. I had brought reusable shopping bags from home since Walmart will otherwise give you hundreds of little grey plastic bags, and the checkout staff seemed happy not to have to pack my shopping for me. With five large bags of shopping I needed to get a Lyft back to the resort, though. I thought I'd be clever and input the actual address of our apartment, not just the dropoff point at the resort. Unfortunately the driver got lost trying to find his way through the maze which is Westgate Lakes, and eventually dropped me and the shopping at a dead-end within sight of our building. I sent a quick "Help!" text, and Harley and Roderic came sprinting out to help me carry the shopping.

Pizzas for tea, including an American croissant-base pizza (which tasted nothing like a croissant) and a Stranger Things branded pizza.

Aggressively American car

Another car which would never fit on a British road

Thursday 27th October

We decided to take a leaf out of Gwen and Harley's book and get to Universal Studios for rope drop, which the internet helpfully told us was 8am. Unfortunately the internet failed to tell us that was only for annual pass holders or people staying in Universal resort hotels - for everyone else the rides didn't open until 9. So we waited in the Dr. Seuss area until we were allowed through to Hogsmeade.

The plan to join the queues early didn't pay off - the queue for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike ride was already at 3 hours, so Hari, Ceri/Val and I went to the Hogwarts castle ride instead, with a queue of only 25 minutes, while Roderic looked after our bags. The queue was a large part of the fun as wandering through the corridors of Hogwarts and looking at the talking paintings was wonderful. The ride itself - the combination of hydraulics and VR which works so well - was stunning.

The children and Roderic then went on an actual real roller coaster, Flight of the Hippogriff, while I looked after the bags. They liked it so much they did it twice. We then crossed the bridge from Hogsmeade to Jurassic Park. I really enjoy the little details, like the fact that there were now fossils and dinosaur footprints in the path. Roderic and Hari did the velocicoaster which they reported was very fast and very scary, and then Val/Ceri, who loves dinosaurs, bought a dinosaur mask.

We decided an early lunch was needed at this point so headed back to Hogsmeade to the Three Broomsticks which was a pub serving traditional English food with a Harry Potter twist. I had a mushroom pie and pumpkin fizz to drink. Meals for the four of us came to $80, so it wasn't cheap, but Hari was so excited to eat there.

We then took the Hogwarts Express back to Kings Cross Station. The film is different on the way back, and the queue from Hogsmeade to Kings Cross is a lot shorter than the queue in the other direction for some reason. Once back at Universal Studios Hari and Roderic did the Jimmy Fallon Race through New York ride. I'd decided to give it a miss because a) I have no idea who Jimmy Fallon is and b) I thought it was a roller coaster. They reported back to me that it was a very good ride and I'd probably have enjoyed it, so I will do it next time.

The queue for Minion Mayhem was too long, so we ambled along looking for something else with a short-ish queue. We saw several characters and Hari, as the photogenic one, had her picture taken with them. It was almost 2pm by now and uncomfortably hot so when Roderic saw than an indoor show, the Bourne Stuntacular, was about to start he suggested we try it even though we haven't seen the Bourne films, and we gratefully went inside for the air conditioning.

As we waited for it to start Hari asked me what the show was. It was so new it wasn't on the app yet, but I managed to find a description which didn't much help. It wasn't a ride, there were no 3D glasses or moving floor so it wasn't a 3D show.

It was, in fact, like nothing we had ever seen before and we all agreed it was the best thing we had done in the park. It was like a live-action film, with real actors who ran and jumped and performed amazingly choregraphed stunts on a moving stage with a seamless screen backdrop which surrounded the audience. We stared open-mouthed as Jason Bourne swung above our heads from a helicopter, raced a police car on a motorbike, and fought on top of tall buildings. Truly stunning.

From there we headed for the ET ride since I had read it was closing. The queue was barely five minutes, so we had one last nostalgic ride on those bikes, surrounded by wobbly animatronics. It's a lot like Universal's answer to "It's a small world" with kitsch singing aliens at the end. Going on the Simpsons ride afterwards (hydraulics and VR again) really shows how much technology has improved theme park rides.

We were all pretty exhausted at that point and the park was closing at 5 (for the Halloween show which needed a special ticket) so we decided that the other rides would have to wait for our next visit.

Scary dinosaur!

Entry to Jurassic Park

The ceiling at the Three Broomsticks

Friday 28th October

Every morning in Florida I wake up, look through the window, and think it has rained overnight. It hasn't. The sprinklers which keep the grass lush and green come on in the early hours, so everything is damp when I wake up. Today, however, it did rain. It was a planned rest day so we had only been thinking of going to the resort's pools, but we only actually managed an hour in the pool and hot tub between rain showers. and Roderic got soaked walking to Game Stop, a shop in the parade of shops near Walmart a mile away. Still, I had a very good book to read and doing nothing is one of my favourite things about holidays.  (I'm reading a Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling's pen name, and the irony of reading her book while sitting in a theme park dedicated to another series of her books was not lost on me.)

I had said that I'd like to visit a Mexican restaurant at some point during our holiday, and for a while it looked as though that might have been tonight, but in the event we just ordered Taco Bell instead. US Taco Bell is very different from UK Taco Bell, but still very nice, and happily just as in the UK everything on the menu can be made vegetarian.

I can't believe it's almost the end of our first week in Florida! We're having such a wonderful time, it's going to be very difficult to go home again.

Florida 2019: 25th October - Magic Kingdom

Last May we went to Majorca, and as we were about to head through security at our home airport on the return trip I discovered I had lost the passports. Cue BA looking for our plane, and they turned out to have fallen out of my bag in the overhead bin, so we were able to go home after all.

So I was taking no chances at Magic Kingdom and had our precious Disney tickets in lanyard round my neck. We took the resort shuttle to Epcot (much cheaper than an Uber - just $1 tip each) and then got the monorail to Magic Kingdom. It was when we were heading for the ferry that I realised that the lanyard around my neck was empty.

Without a word of reproach Roderic ran back to the monorail (the train was still in the station) and explained our dilemma. The staff conducted a quick search and, blessed relief, found our tickets on the exit ramp where they'd fallen out of my lanyard.

The family now know me as the person who will lose the vitally important document, and will never trust me with anything again.

Anyway, we took the ferry to Magic Kingdom, which was indeed as magic as described, and worked our way round the park starting at Tomorrowland. We loved the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (although Ceri and Roderic worried they'd get chosen for audience participation) and managed to fit in quite a few rides and shows including Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, the Barnstormer (when I say "we" I mean everyone else - those three are too scary for me), the people mover, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (Roderic scored 272,000, I scored 7,000 - he's had a lot of practice playing computer games), Mickey's Philharmonic, and several others.

Roderic shows me how it's done

Hari meets Buzz Lightyear

Scary ride, thus I wasn't on it.

We'd tried to do this day on a budget. You're allowed to take your own food into Disney World, and we took sandwiches, crisps and cereal bars and made use of the drinking fountains when we were thirsty, but that didn't stop the children wanting Mickey burgers and it ended up still being quite an expensive day. In fact we spotted someone wearing a t-shirt proclaiming "Most expensive day of my life". It really is.

I got to try Dole Whip (it was nice, but not worth the hype) and we also went to Gaston's Tavern to try what are reputed to be the best cinnamon rolls around. We both felt Cinnabon are better.

The ride which really wasn't worth the time is the Carousel of Progress. It was only a third full, and it was overlong and somewhat dull. I think it's largely there as homage to Walt Disney, as it was his idea and he loved it, but I suspect it might not be there much longer. Still, if it rains or you need a fifteen minute sit-down in air conditioning it never has a queue.

Donald and Daisy Duck in the parade. The sky may look cloudy, but it was extremely hot - 30 degrees.

We enjoyed watching the parade which was really very impressive, but by 5pm we were exhausted. Our shuttle home wasn't until 7pm, so we took an Uber and cancelled our place on the shuttle when we got back to the resort.

Florida 2019: 22nd October - Typhoon Lagoon

Yesterday we did a quick straw poll of everyone's favourite Disney park, and it was a unanimous conclusion: Typhoon Lagoon.

You'd think with so many attractions, roller coasters, characters, shows, etc. that one of the theme parks - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios - would have been the high point of our holiday, but in fact we all loved the day we spent at Typhoon Lagoon because it was truly relaxing, and a lot of fun.

We'd paid extra to have a Beachcomber Shack. This is a private cabana set in "Getaway Glen" to which only those with wristbands have access. It included a locker, towels and unlimited drinks for all of us, plus our own assistant, Marylou, who popped by several times during the day to check up on us and see if we needed anything.

We paid quite a lot ($200) for the privilege of the cabana, but I think it was worth it for that visit. There were six of us so the unlimited drinks alone would have come to $78, plus the cost of a locker. Also, the chances of us finding (and keeping) six sunbeds together were pretty slim, and we liked the idea of having somewhere we could retreat to and call our own. I don't think it would be worth it for a smaller party, however, or in high season when it's more expensive.

There are plenty of "rides" at Typhoon Lagoon. I'm scared of roller coasters, and generally don't like high or fast rides so I avoided the worst of them, but I loved all the ones called "falls". Mayday Falls, Keelhaul Falls, Gangplank Falls and Miss Adventure Falls - all raft rides. We all loved the lazy river (Castaway Creek) and there were times floating around in a tube in the sunshine when I felt the entire cost of our Florida holiday was worth it just for that moment of bliss. The wave pool was also fantastic.

When it came to lunchtime, full marks to wonderful Disney for their special menus. They have allergy free menus for every possible allergy, and this awesome vegan menu. I had the Impossible burger, and Roderic gave the bratwurst a try and said it was as good as a meat one.

We spent the whole day at Typhoon Lagoon, from opening (10.00) to closing (5.00) and would happily do so again. We plan to go back to Typhoon Lagoon before we leave. (Blizzard Beach is currently closed.)

Florida 2019: 23rd October - a rest day

My very sensible husband told me before we ever started going to Florida that he insisted on having a rest day between park days while on holiday. Park days are long and exhausting, he said, and so it was essential to have a day just chilling round the pool and the apartment in between.

Typhoon Lagoon wasn't really a tiring day, but nevertheless we decided that a day off was in order. We started by attending the owners breakfast at the main building on the resort. We'd be bribed into doing so when we checked in: we were promised a $75 Visa gift card if we spent just an hour at the breakfast speaking to one of their consultants about the planned upgrades to the resort.

Now, this isn't our first rodeo, and every other experience of these things has been terrible. The children remember them with horror too, as Gwen reminded me. They can go on for hours, and it's a pretty hard sell for more timeshare. But lured by the promise of $75 and free food, we decided to go for it.

It was actually not as bad as in the past. I think it helped that as Roderic and I were climbing the grand marble staircase with our VIP Owner Advisor, Johanna, she asked whether we had children. He replied, "We've left them back at the apartment because the little one isn't feeling too well so we really can only spare an hour." All true (Ceri had a bit of an upset stomach after our Typhoon Lagoon day - she's fully recovered now) but he didn't mention that the "little one" is 15 and the sister looking after her is almost 19.

The room where they do the breakfast/hard sell was also a lot quieter and emptier than I've seen it before, with maybe only a quarter of the tables filled with people being talked into timeshare. Johanna's English wasn't good and she struggled when she went off script. She asked if we had any questions, and I asked whether there were any plans to update or redecorate the apartments, since they were looking so outdated now, and she didn't understand my question and moved on to something back on her script instead.

We had the usual golf-buggy tour where she showed us where the new waterpark is being built (it'll be small but with two flumes and a lazy river) and the latest block of huge five-bedroom apartments, which is what she was trying to sell us. We said no, because we love our timeshare but we really don't need a bigger one, and that was that. One hour, and yes, we got our $75 Visa gift card.

I did learn, from the tour, that there are no plans to update the apartments because the newly built apartments are exactly the same. To my mind they look very outdated. The walls and ceilings are textured. The furniture is dark and heavy. The kitchen cupboards are brown wood. The overall look is from the late 1980s or early 1990s. As evidence I present the cutlery. Yes, it's a fish fork (who still has those?) in the Kings design which was very popular in 1988. I know this because in 1988 I was selling cutlery at Keddies in Southend.

We all discussed this, and wondered whether maybe American fashion in interior design is very different from UK fashion. Possibly because their homes are bigger they can get away with large and dark items of furniture, rather than the sleek, light, minimalist look preferred in the UK where houses tend to be necessarily small. (Having said that, I have just been looking up pictures of Westgate Lakes bedrooms rather than take a photo of our messy one and it looks as though some of them have already been updated with fresh white paint and new furniture.)

I've not really sold our timeshare very well I realise, but actually I do love it. It is big and spacious, well-designed, the beds are comfortable, and I have completely fallen in love with ceiling fans, balconies and open-plan layouts.

A bedroom like ours at Westgate Lakes.

The floor plan of our apartment. A two-bedroom apartment, plus a studio lockoff.

Florida 2019: 21st October - Animal Kingdom

Gwen loves Disney. She has spent the last few months watching You Tube videos, reading blogs, and generally getting all the insider tips on the best way to do Disney. What rides to do and which to skip, what food to eat, how to avoid the worst of the queues. So when she told us we had to be at Animal Kingdom before rope drop, we went with it, and arrived there around 7.30am, just as the sun was rising.

It meant we could pick up our tickets quickly and easily, but unfortunately didn't give us the desired result of avoiding the queues on the most popular rides due to extra magic hours - that hour before the park opens when Disney Resort guests get it to themselves. Gwen had known this, of course, but I hadn't factored it in. The queue for Avatar: Flight of Passage was already 75 minutes when we got into the park so we didn't bother.

Instead we went on Kilimanjaro safari since it had only a ten-minute queue (and cancelled our later fast passes for it) which we really enjoyed, and we saw all sorts of animals, including rather lovely lions. There were also two "walking safaris" which were well worth doing since there were, of course, no queues at all for those.

We had a fast pass booked for Kali River Rapids - my favourite Disney ride - but the ride broke down and it looked as though we might not get to do it. Happily it was fixed about an hour later, so we jumped on it, fully expecting to be soaked - and barely got wet. The queues quickly went up again to impossible lengths, so although we all wanted to go on it again we didn't want to face those wait times. We went to see It's Tough to be a Bug instead, and all enjoyed it.

We had lunch at a burger restaurant in Dinoland. (I'd enjoyed a Mickey pretzel earlier so only had Hari's chips.) The restaurant wasn't cheap ($52 for burger, chips and drink x 3) but it was very tasty, and there was a lovely condiments bar where you could add everything you could ever want to your burger including eight different sauces. They were also very slow serving us, so we got three complimentary brownies.

Pandora

We'd booked fast passes for Expedition Everest later in the afternoon, but over lunch Gwen and Harley texted to say that they were tired and wanted to go home, so we cancelled those, had a quick explore of Pandora - the one part of the park we hadn't done - and met up with Gwen and Harley to head back instead, arriving back at the resort around 2.30. Then Gwen, Harley, Ceri and I headed to the pool and the hot tub, returning to the apartment only minutes before a dramatic thunderstorm hit.

Pizza for tea, although Gwen and Harley ordered Panda Express but were a little disappointed it. It didn't live up to expectations. We were all pretty shattered even  after only half a day at the park - and all in bed by 9pm.

My tip for Animal Kingdom: Think of it as a safari park/zoo rather than a theme park. The easiest and most relaxing thing to do there is look at the animals, and there are plenty of them, everywhere. The shows are also good, but the queues for the rides tend to be rather long.

Florida 2019: 20th October - the Wonder of Walmart

As crazy as it sounds, one of the parts of our trips to Florida I most enjoy are the early-Sunday-morning visits to Walmart. We're still on UK time so often wake up around 3am, although on this trip it wasn't so bad - maybe 5.30. We've no food in the apartment, so Walmart really does have to be the first port of call during our holiday.

Harley with a huge American-style McDonald's breakfast and Romulan ale. Or something.

Due to not having a car our plan this time was to walk to the store (a mile away) and then get an Uber back. And in keeping with tradition, we have breakfast at the McDonald's there too. Roderic chose to run to the store (and back) but the rest of us walked.

I love the sheer variety of food here, and we felt that the quality had gone up and the prices had gone down since our last visit. We had no problems finding bread which didn't contain high fructose corn syrup (and it tasted much better than we remembered) and as ever there were lots of things we just can't get at home and were looking forward to trying. Breakfast cereals in particular are wonderful - my favourite Cinnamon Toast Crunch now comes in a churros version!

The view from our balcony

Gwen and I spent some time at the pool in the afternoon, then had a walk around the resort to see what other fun things were available, and the plan was to eat one of the pizzas we had bought for tea. But at 5pm, watching Downton Abbey, I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and decided instead to go to bed. By 5.30 I was fast asleep (7 hours behind, remember, so my body clock thought it was past midnight) and according to my Fitbit I slept for almost ten hours. I needed it!