You may think that
travel is about expanding ones mind through seeing new cultures, people, and
places. Our childrens’ horizons and attitudes are enriched by exposure to the
unfamiliar. If so, the idea of returning to the same holiday destination year
after year seems like a wasted opportunity. That being said, I have a hint of
jealousy for people who have found a place so inspiring that they would prefer
to forsake the rest of the world for it. The theme parks of Orlando are just
such a place for many families, so we joined the 100,000 daily visitors during
August for a tour of duty to see what we were missing.
There are any
number of practical reasons to visit Florida. The summer weather is beautiful,
the language is English, the food gets eaten, the shopping is cheap, and its
easy to hire a car and travel around. But the reason millions of tourists go is
that there is so much activity thrown at them, that they are never at a loss
for what to do. The sheer size, range and number of amusement parks is
bewildering. Disney itself is comprised of four or five separate parks – really
the world comes to Orlando relieving visitors of any need to visit anywhere
else. And Disney is marvellous.
Over a seemingly
frantic 16 days, we used our multi-park passes to visit eight separate theme
parks, separated by breaks to cool off for entire days in phenomenal water
splash parks. No matter how cynical the parents, its difficult to act miserable in Disney, even though I personally tried quite hard. The happy
excitement of the children keeps everyone jolly even through the exhaustion and
long queues. However in an effort to
thwart my determination to stay miserable, the management of queues is very
efficient with various fast-pass and express type options ensuring that more
time is spent having fun than waiting to have fun.
The Disney parades
are widely copied but never beaten. Each park has its own character-filled
extravaganza, continuously updated with the most recent Disney productions, but
including the old favourites. The crowds line the streets early but there is
space to see without feeling the need to do that. The subsequent fireworks and
lights shows in the evening, are more spectacular than anything we had seen
before.
But that’s just
the Magic Kingdom. There still the Animal Kingdom – possibly the best African
safari outside Africa, which manages to combine education with Entertainment.
Epcot – a little tired but still a valiant attempt to summarise the world in a
single day through sections on each country. Disney Studios where we could see
how the movies are made. And the water parks spread around the estate for some
much needed cooling off, splashing, and even scuba diving with sharks for toddlers.
Its not all about
Disney. The range of shows and exhibits at Sea World was both awe-inspiring and
educational. Equally the incredible selection of amusements to both play and
watch at Universal Studios made this another busy few days. For the Harry
Potter fans in our party, Universal was the bigger draw. The creation of Hogwarts
and the village of Hogsmead covered in snow is a triumph. Details of the
snow-covered buildings in Hogsmead, particularly the crooked chimneys of
English villages defied rational belief.
Further afield is
Busch Gardens, although after Disney’s Animal Kingdom that seemed a rather
pointless day out for us. Legoland however was fantastic, the recreations of scenes
and cities out of Lego outshone anything that their European counterparts
offer, and the distractions of the better known parks seems to keep Legoland
quiet and much more manageable than the larger venues. Again the education
option exists, with workshops from basic lego building to advanced programming
and robotics.
Our most
inspiring day was a visit to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. Here
the aim really is to educate visitors about NASAs space programme – what it has done, what it’s doing now, and what it will do. The presentation was
outstanding, from the sheer scale of the rockets and the buildings housing
them, to the accessible and practical nature of explaining them. This was
cutting edge scientific thought that both adults and children could take part
in.
Would we recommend Orlando to friends? Definitely. The success of any family holiday is how happy the family is. Quite obviously, happy trips are made by being occupied, miserable trips are made from boredom and bickering. 2 weeks of non-stop fun is going to work.
Would we go back? Probably not just yet. There's just a bit too much of the rest of the world out there first. But its still a great trip.
