'Sunshine State' Diary

Last updated: 30/11/2007 - 12:10

We follow one family of British holiday makers' adventures in Florida - the world-famous 'Sunshine State'. But just why do they - like so many holiday makers - keep going back year after year? Our diary opens with just that very question...“

You’ll Keep Coming Back!

Day 1

"Here we go again, another year and another trip to the US of A: The Rosen family head out on another family trip over 'The Pond'. What is it that keeps us going back - and back time and again to Florida? Well, it could be the weather (always warm and great), the people (always chilled and good humoured)...It could be a lot of things.

“This year (2007) is our ninth or tenth year running holidaying (or should that be 'vacationing'?) in the fine State of Florida. We know we're going to see some things again that we've loved on previous visits - as well as loads of things we've not gotten round to doing the last few times we've been. No doubt they'll as usual be more to do than we can find time for, so we'll leave again with another list of 'must-dos' for next time. It’s all good.

"When we first started going over to the US for our annual trip the kids were little – the youngest was just six years old. There was tonnes’ of stuff to see and do then and it’s the same now – always more to do. These days our ‘littlest’ is a teenager but there’s still plenty to do and see for all of us to see and do. That’s the beauty of the place – it’s a family holiday makers dream: always fresh, there’s always plenty of fun stuff for all ages to do together.

Shopping

"We flew from Manchester Airport to Sanford, all went very smoothly. As we touched down, picked up our bags and got ourselves organised on US soil again we were wondering: ‘just will be waiting for us this year?’ Only one way to find out: throw yourselves into it! After picking up our hire car we drove to where were staying on International Drive, checked into our hotel and just time for a quick swim (soak up those rays!) before heading straight on to ‘Denny’s’. Our first taste of American ‘fodder’ in a year – and we’d all been really looking forward to dining USA style once again – plates piled high and forget about the waistline!

“First day and we’re already on our first impromptu shopping expedition! Post dinner our two teenaged girls insist we take a look at the nearest Mall – end up taking advantage of the latest ‘must-have’ trainers at prices way cheaper than back home.

Day 2

“Up bright and early for our first day proper in the US - and its theme parks we’re after! First destination is Universal’s Islands of Adventure® – home to rides, shows, and all manner of interactive attractions. This is a park we’ve all been to numerous times before and it’s always a treat. We found this year that the (new?) ‘fast-pass’ system saved loads of time and saved on queuing time. A great idea and a great day out.

Follow this link for more information on the Universal’s Islands of Adventure® theme park.

Day 3

“Having spent the whole of yesterday in Islands of Adventure with all the thrills and spills we declared today a simple one – bit of gentle ‘R&R’ and a break from the bustle of the parks.

After a bit of a huddle over a typical US breakfast we decided on taking a day trip over to Mount Dora. Our destination turned out to a lovely, quaint ‘village’ style place on the coast – and we spent a relaxing day checking out antique shops and strolling about soaking up the atmosphere. We even topped it all off with a US version of a ‘traditional English tea’ – a taste of home! A really fun day.”

Follow this link for more information about visiting and staying in Mount Dora.

Day 4

“Day four of our 2007 trip and we’re off to ‘Disney's Typhoon Lagoon’ – ours (and certainly the kids’) favourite water park. Like so many of the attractions, this is within ten miles or so of where we’re based (the ‘I-Drive’ as the local s – and visitors quickly learn to - call it). This year Typhoon Lagoon has HUGE artificial waves being generated, it was very hot and great fun splashing about – apparently you can even swim with live sharks in the place. We didn’t go that far for our fun – but had another great day nonetheless!”

Follow this link for more information about the Disney's Typhoon Lagoon theme park.

Day 5

“Another R&R day for the Rosen family – hanging out at the pool and more Mall duties. It already looks like we’ll have to buy yet another suitcase to get all our bargains, presents and new stuff home. While picking out some new luggage, we do another bit of shopping. Oh dear...”

Day 6

“One word sums up this day for us: ‘Seaworld’. This is an enormous, fantastic place to visit. We left having only seen a small part of it – and we’d been before and felt the same: we must come back. The place has an amazing new attraction ‘The Waterfront’ – which combines all the sights, sounds, and excitement of a real coastal city. Then there’s the new ride: Kraken – a ‘monster’ ride that’s the highest, fastest, longest - and only floorless roller coaster - in Orlando. This is mega stuff!

“To top that you have 'Shamu' the whale – and his family – awesome sights – plus the great 1,000 pound plus Manatees. Its little wonder that the attraction was voted ‘best new zoological exhibit’ in the ‘States by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the AZA. One down side was that – unfortunately - the ‘Journey To Atlantis’ water ride/roller coaster wasn’t open when we were there as it was closed for refurbishment, so that’s definitely one we’ll just have to look forward to doing next time.”

Follow this link for more information about Seaworld Orlando and the other Florida adventure parks.

Pancakes!

Day 7

“Start the day with another HUGE breakfast – this time at the ‘I Hop’ (AKA the world-famous 'International House of Pancakes', but only a real out-of-towner would call it that!). This place is food heaven and probably a dieters’ nightmare. Massive tasty feeds make this great diner somewhere that lives up to its slogan of: ‘Come Hungry, Leave Happy’.

Dishes on the menu the day we were there included: Roast Beef & Mushroom, Ham & Brie and Turkey and Provolone Sourdough Cheese Grillers – and waffles and pancakes: America’s breakfast favourite were much in demand. If you need an example of the sometimes weird – but pretty wonderful –food on offer, check out this link to I Hop’s menu. One thing’s for sure: in a nation that never does things small the food is no different - the Americans sure can put it away! Rest of the morning was spent feeling thoroughly full!

“But not too full to get over to Epcot® at Walt Disney World® – after all, we’ve come too far to sit about for too long! Epcot was calling us so we could experience a new ride we’d been hearing about: the ‘Test Track’.

Downtown Disney

“A short drive down to ‘Downtown Disney’ – which seems to contain the world’s largest Virgin Megastore, among other things – brought us to the home of 'Circe De Soleil'. The world-famous circus skills performance has all the razzamatazz you’d expect from Epcot and we’d heard all about it. Sadly, though we tried to get in it was all booked up. Must remember to book in advance for this evidently very popular show next time!

There was so much else to do though the day wasn’t lost – we took in the great atmosphere of the place and ended – pretty exhausted - with supper at the Hard Rock Café.”

“The Test Track ride proved to be everything we’d heard about – around six people per car travelling at huge speeds around an immense track – just what adrenaline junkies like us were looking for. Perhaps that huge breakfast might not be such a good idea if you didn’t have a very strong stomach...

Thrills & Spills

“The thrills and spills of the Test Track were followed by a leisurely wander around the huge lake that the various - there are around twenty - international ‘pavilions’ are bordered on – taking in a taste of the ‘rising sun’ with some sushi in the Japanese pavilion.

Like a lot of the places we went in Florida (as with elsewhere in the US in general), Epcot is huge and there’s far more than you can see on your first trip – this really is The Big Country - but the Disney magic is everywhere and your time just flies by as there’s so much going on. A real treat especially for families this one.”

Follow this link for more information about Epcot® at Walt Disney World®

Day 8

“We’ve already been here a week. The time has flown! After yesterday’s day of slobbing about it’s time to set out on the ‘I 4’ for just a little over an hour en route to Tampa, to check out the Busch Gardens wildlife theme park. One tip for Busch Gardens is: buy your tickets at the same time as you buy for Seaworld. We came away with great value for money doing this – which makes a big difference if you’re travelling as parents with children.

“Saw loads of great wildlife – including an immense tortoise that’ll probably outlive us all if it carries on the way it’s going (see picture, above) – and went on some fantastic roller-coasters – including the ‘Montu’ – a 60mph beast of a ride that’s one of the tallest and longest inverted rides on the planet!

Wildlife

“When the evening came around we changed our plans to travel back to the hotel and off-the-cuff decided to stay in nearby Clearwater, rather than drive back to Orlando. Clearwater beach proved particularly good – and the hotel we were in had a very nice chilled out view of both the beach and the sea. Nice.”

Follow this link for more information about visiting Busch Gardens and the other Florida Parks..

Day 9

“Following a leisurely drive back – via yet more shopping malls! – we wonder aloud whether it’s possible to drive past any of these immense outlets when there’s bargains a calling? It’s clearly all part of the US lifestyle – and very addictive! More chilling out by the hotel pool follows – a few drinks, some nice food and a chance to catch our breath and enjoy the sunshine.”

Day 10

“Slobbing about by the pool – this could very easily be the most relaxing day we spent – after a day of hard relaxation and taking it VERY easy indeed we took in an early evening show, at the request of the equestrian-inclined members of the family: Dolly Partons' Stampede. This proved to be really great for all of us – horse mad or not. Got some great pictures of the horses. Really impressive.”

Day 11

“Slob about a bit – I think we deserve a break after all the charging about we’ve been doing! As usual our ‘rest’ days aren’t actually spent sitting about – we’re getting good at combining shopping (spend those dollars!) in the malls, going to the cinema (a real delight in the US – unlike too many British cinema complexes these days the audience seems to be genuinely there to see the film, eat cinema food and enjoy the show – no one ever seems to mess about or ruin the film for everyone else) and swim in the pool. This is the life...It’s a point though – in between theme parks you really do need to plan days to recharge your batteries. We were getting into the swing of doing this long before the second week of our trip started.”

Day 12

“Day twelve and it’s time to do the Disney-MGM Studios. Themed around Hollywood of the 1950’s, this has so much: Hollywood Boulevard, the New York Street, Mickey’s Avenue, the Animation Courtyard, ‘Sunset Boulevard’. The list goes on! You really can’t come to Orlando and not try out ‘The Tower of Terror’ ride. This ride – which we went on for the first time this trip (though we’ve been to Disney-MGM Studios numerous times before) is an atmospheric event rather than just a them park ride. Sound and back-story is used to set the mood before the lift (elevator) ascends thirteen floors (unlucky for some – particularly if you don’t like heights!) before plummeting the whole length of the building. Terrifying, fun stuff.

At The Movies

“We also went on the kids’ (new) favourite ride here: 'The Rock & Rollercoaster'. This is a mad mix of indoor rollercoaster –that goes upside down and does all the things a regular rollercoaster would – except the whole thing is set to a full-on rock soundtrack. Madness – but great fun. Needless to say we spent the whole of the rest of the day jumping on and off too many other classic rides to mention. This is definitely a great place to come if you like lots of varied fast rides.

“This is probably a good place for me to point out something that might not be obvious to visitors from Britain: aside from all the rides, shows and attractions each of the parks in the US that we’ve been too really lays on the entertainment wall to wall.

They each seem to do their own fireworks displays, for instance. Unlike British parks you can expect a very long day (you can easily spend 12 hours straight in one of these huge places – especially Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios – and still not see anything like the whole thing). The temptation is to change your plans and come back the very next day to do some more of a place this size – we were spoilt for choice and the idea was very appealing – perhaps if we hadn’t been at the end of our trip we might have done just that!”

Follow this link for more information about visiting the Disney-MGM Studios.

Day 13

“The day before we have to go home. Just time to try and make the very most of our trip this year – with a quickie visit to Universal Studios. Being such ride aficionados we thought we must try the film tie-in ride The Mummy Returns - which was great stuff.

Shows

During the day we also took in a few open air shows (that are going on all, over the Universal site all the time, making them very easy to catch). We wandered about, taking in the atmosphere, saw a demonstration of jet ski skills – and caught the ‘Blues Brothers’ band – who we like to catch each year. Seems fitting that we come to the end of our trip with a performance of a show that’s become something of a tradition for us to catch, as a family.”

Follow this link for more information about visiting the Universal Studios.

Day 14

“Just time for one more immense breakfast in the hotel. It’s weird, but you get used to the tastes and the scale of the US breakfasts very quickly, end up hankering for them when you get home and know you’ll miss them, even before you leave – they’re that addictive! Quickly pack – not forgetting the extra items of luggage for all the US goodies we’ve bought - then we’re off to the airport. Before we know it we’re back in the air and heading to the UK – all of us thinking about where we’ll go next year...

Follow this link for more information about visiting the Sunshine State of Florida – which includes a directory of ‘Must-See’ attractions while in that part of the world.

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