I don’t normally do Disney, but Tinkerbell is different  You can’t do Florida without doing Disney. How many times had people told me that? So, despite my conviction that Disney wasn’t for me, I agreed to spend a day in one of world’s most popular theme  parks to see if might  experience the magic… “No [...]

Antarctica Empire of the Penguin SeaWorld Preview Antartica is about to get much more accessible. The biggest ever extension to Florida’s SeaWorld is due to open May 2013 and will introduce visitors to The Empire of the Penguin. While in Orlando recently SeaWorld gave us ten minutes behind the scenes with one of the stars of the [...]

Behind the scenes with Legoland Master Builders Who do you imagine builds Legoland? Kids in third world sweatshops working to blueprints drawn up in the Billund headquarters? Nope. Bespectacled professors of plastic? Wrong again. It isn’t a line of people in a grim northern factory, robotically slotting heads onto Ewoks while counting the minutes till [...]

Orlando’s Gatorland doesn’t have cute furry animals or spectacular rides. It doesn’t have ‘cast members’ or ‘model citizens’ to wish you a good day. Its signs look homemade and frankly, they’re a bit un-P.C. It brings you up close to some of the kings of the wild, and then serves you deep friend chunks of [...]

I spent most of my visit to Orlando either upside down or flying backwards. I might not have been able to get to the Kennedy Space Centre but I did fly around Hogwarts, above a Miniature USA, over an alligator swamp and had slime flying at me. However, no ride, zip wire or even broomstick [...]

Do you love or hate theme hotels?  I’m on the fence, so wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Orlando’s Nickelodeon Hotel. As colorful as a graffiti artist’s palette, and with a guest list of larger than life cartoon characters, spending a night there is a bit like stepping into the TV channel itself. It wouldn’t [...]

From:      KirstieDate:       4th August 2005Subject:   Start spreading the news, we’re leaving todayPlace:      New York City, USA The man in uniform took the kids’ ice creams before they even had time to pull the wrappers off. He placed them in a plastic tray on a short conveyor belt. Matthew [...]

From: Stuart Date: 1st August 2005 Subject: Mission improbable Place: West Coast to East Coast USA The boys sat happily devouring their fish and chips, tomato sauce smeared around their faces like bloodied warriors. Kirstie looked up from behind her newspaper, glanced around to check we were alone, then leant across the table. “Your mission, [...]

From: KirstieDate: 31st July 2005Subject: On the trail of freedom and a big red dog “What we meant in going for those red-coats was this: We had always governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.” -Levi Preston -member of Boston’s Danvers Militia. An unassuming red line lay ahead of us [...]

From:      Kirstie Date:      29th July 2005 Subject:  The West Wing Place:     Washington DC, USA The West Wing Washington was a stuffed shirt. An expensive grey suit with a silk burgundy tie and a boring briefcase; in short possibly the dullest capital city I’d ever visited. It was all so different [...]