Star Wars or bust

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And so our journey down memory lane continues. A visit to the former MGM Studios, now known as Hollywood Studios, found us enjoying family favourites such as The Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Rolller Coaster. The latter taking us from 0 to 65 mph in 2.6 seconds - easily the most exhilarating ride in the entire Disney experience.

Much of the park has been turned over to Star Wars with the original ride affiliated with the franchise having been taken up several quality notches and several new attractions including regular parades from Storm Troupers and the occasional appearance of Lord Vader himself. We all had our photos taken with Chewbacca who hugged Claire so all you can see is a mass of fur and the top of her head!

We've done our best to take full advantage of the photo pass system and seen some lovely results so far. One photographer told us Disney employ 800 photographers around the park for this purpose only. Aside from ride photos you can have group photos taken at various locations with the added surprise of at least one of your shots having an animated character added in without your knowledge. We went back into the park one evening to see a show and when we got home found an additional short video of Tinkerbell sprinkling us with fairy dust added to our family photo!

Park experiences aside, it is difficult to get such a sense of the real America as we were able to last year. Orlando is an oasis of fantasy and tourists and this even seems to extend to the local TV broadcasts. I was looking forward to catching some glimpses of the presidential race and an idea of how the media here are portraying Trump in particular but I've had little success so far. Granted, I'd rather be outside than sitting in watching the TV and I'm sure that hasn't helped but nevertheless you'd be hard pushed to know an election was coming up at all from what I've seen so far...

Last night we decided to go to Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) to return to The House of Blues, a family favourite on previous visits. Although we are told we are now in low season the entire resort and road systems have been consistently busy since our arrival. In view of the latter we treated ourselves to a private taxi company for our only big night out. Our driver was keen to chat so Bill took the opportunity to ask a question we had both been pondering over, that being the etiquette for 4 way crossings. As far as we have been able to tell, in the absence of traffic lights, drivers arrive at the junction and look at each other. A first come first served system would seem to be favoured but it can be quite unnerving at times. Our driver informed us that it was more like Russian Roulette! He advised us that sometimes you can tell who is going to move next by looking at the driver's expressions but that isn't always reliable! Give me a roundabout any day!

At the request of Claire we have also visited the Florida Mall. To us Cornish dwellers this represents a shopping centre of hitherto unimaginable proportions. A couple of weeks before we came over here I was blown away by the size of the O2 on my first visit there. A mere cubicle by comparison - it wouldn't warrant more than a sniff if I saw it now! Store after store selling everything imaginable surrounding an enormous food court. In the 2 hours we were there I think we only scratched the surface. The boys went to The Geek Store and I am now the proud owner of an R2D2 stacking measuring cup system which will be most useful when following all of those recipes I download from American web sites!

One of the things slightly hard to accept about the whole park experience is the cost of parking. We bought ( at not inconsiderable expense) a 14 day Orlando ticket which gives us unlimited "hopper" access to all Disney and Universal Parks but does not cover the $20 a day parking fee. One Disney parking ticket is valid in every park for 24 hours but that's little consolation over the whole holiday. Our driver last night said that Disney has increased the number of parking spaces at The Magic Kingdom alone to 25 thousand and that in total it's income from car parks covers it's wages bill. Disney parks are not understaffed by any stretch of the imagination.

They also spend a lot on fireworks. From our villa we can hear the distant sound of fireworks from 9 for an hour every night. We are told that they spend $10,000 a night on fireworks at 3 of the four parks. Maybe if they had a night off they could reduce the cost of the parking after all!

And now, as is traditional, a word from our sponsor.....



18% is now the expected tip in restaurants as a minimum. Last night we had a meal out and when the bill came the waitress had drawn an arrow to the tip she wanted out of the three options 18 20 and 22 she had of course arrowed the 22%. I selected the middle option, very British, play safe only to be rewarded with a very sour grunt which may or may not have been thank you. Whilst this is an obviously commercial area this blunt fleecing of the tourist may be too much for some.

On a brighter note the wine situation has improved somewhat. No, the local stuff is mainly still paint stripper but the is a healthy influx of Chilean wine including Carmenere!

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