This was arguably the best of the Disney Parks, or at least it was in our opinion. They areas that it is split into have more of an ecological theme to them, including Asia, Africa, dinosaurs and the like. We went on the Kali River Rapids ride, which did warn you that you might get wet. Will get totally and completely drenched and will be squelching around in wet clothes for the rest of the day, would be more accurate. The worst thing was that it was the first ride we went on. And it was the second ride we went on, so we couldn’t complain too much. The Expedition Everest roller coaster was fantastic. This actually went backwards at one point. We had Fast Passes for this one, but we still had to wait ages ... read more

It was back to Disney World again, this time to EPCOT. This stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, although there didn’t seem to be a lot of that in the park. Parts of it did have a bit of a futuristic theme to it, but then there is also the Tomorrow Land in the Magic Kingdom. Mission Space was an excellent simulation ride. It had an orange level for harder amongst you, like those of us who had done a proper take-off simulator at the Kennedy Space Center , and a green level for the lightweight scaredy-cats. Soarin’ was an excellent ride with a large screen making you feel that you were flying over various places. The sudden transitions from one place to another spoilt it a bit. The Test Track was rubbish – basically ... read more

Our second theme park was the Disney Hollywood Studios. This is Disney's response to Universal Studios with various stunt shows and various TV / movie themed rides. The most popular one seemed to be the Tower of Terror , which was themed as the Twilight Zone and consisted of a lift that went to the top of the tower and then free-fell most of the way back down. There was also the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, which, in our opinion is Disney's best roller coaster, rivalled only by the Mount Everest Ride in the Animal Kingdom. Star Wars seemed to be a big theme here, much to Jake’s delight, however we couldn’t really workout what the connection with Disney was, unless it was just good, down-to-earth coining it in. High School Musical (a sugar-coated version ... read more

We decided that we would get to the park early as it is a good chance to get on some of the most popular rides before the masses arrive and the queues start to get to long, and grab some fast passes while we were at it. Once we got into the park that proved to be remarkably successful. It took a while to get in however. Even though we were staying just outside of the park, the sheer scale of the place meant that it was still quite a long drive to the car-park. We had to pay to park, which we were not impressed about, given how much we had spent on park tickets. We then found out that that car-park was not a walking distance from the Magic Kingdom (although we should have ... read more

Given that we had not had a chance to adjust from UK time, we were awake and about very early the next day. Our kids were playing out in the pool at 5.00am, which they loved, despite us constantly telling them to keep the noise down because of how early it was. We thought we would spend the first day taking it relatively easy before we hit the theme-parks full-on. That’s not to say that we didn’t get to Disneyworld at all. We needed some park tickets as we had been advised that it would be far cheaper to buy them from the parks rather than in advance from the UK , so we went to Downtown Disney for the afternoon. Even though this is little more than a series of shops and restaurants, it quickly ... read more

As we were flying out to Orlando and flying back from Miami, it meant that we would be leaving from Gatwick and arriving back at Heathrow. Consequently we got a taxi all the way to Heathrow as it wouldn’t be possible to drive ourselves there, and there was no way that we were going to go by train as it would mean crossing central London on the tube. We got there early and since we had checked-in online we were expecting just a quick luggage drop-off and then loads of time spare to have a leisurely breakfast and nose around the duty-free. However the luggage drop-off was every bit of time-consuming as the normal check-in and in fact had a longer queue. We wondered why we even bothered with the on-line check-in. But if that was ... read more

Jake and I went on a tour of the Rogers Centre stadium - formally known as the Sky Dome. This is the base of both the Toronto Argonauts North American football team and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. The stadium can support both sports by moving the seats and changing the artificial surface of the pitch. As well as changing the pitch, the roof can also be opened and closed according to the weather. It’s an amazing stadium. Integrated into the stadium is a hotel, a restaurant and a Hard Rock café, all with rooms or tables overlooking the pitch. We looking at getting a replica baseball shirt, but at £69 a shot we decided against it. And of course, the price needs to be inflated with the state tax, federal tax and, no doubt, ... read more

Following all the debates about the official height of various buildings, the highest “free-standing structure" in the world is the CN (Canada National) Tower, which is in Toronto. Following a recommendation, we didn’t go directly to the viewing gallery but booked in for a meal at the 360 restaurant. This is quite expensive, but you get a free assent of the tower. Given the standard cost for this, it makes the meal look a lot more economical. Costs aside, it is by far the most civilised way to enjoy the view. We sat in the restaurant, which revolves once every 76 minutes enjoying the view in relaxed quiet whilst eating an excellent meal. Once up there, we were free to join the mob in the scrum of the viewing gallery. To be honest, that didn’t have ... read more

The Niagara Falls are not far from Toronto, so it would be a crime not to go. We hired a car, which worked out a lot cheaper than a coach tour and also meant that we didn’t need to be ready at the crack of dawn. As we learned from Australia last year, the information on these tours is fantastic, but it is hard to make up for the rounds of hotel pick-ups and waiting for all the pensioners to amble back in their own good time. We'd been warned that the Niagara Falls town was a bit of a tourist trap and should be avoided, but nothing could have prepared us for the tacky Blackpool meets Las Vegas nightmare that opened up before us. It had to be seen to be believed that such a ... read more