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With many pre-conceived ideas of Florida, we touched down in Orlando after a very comfortable BA flight. The children were very well catered for by both the airline and its staff, with child meals, activity packs and plenty of on-board entertainment readily available.

The US homeland security has a notorious reputation for unfriendliness, we found this quite unfounded and the immigration process was conducted speedily and was very welcoming.
Collecting our rental vehicle from Alamo, was also easy and a short walk to the parking lot allowed us to chose our monster truck which would be well used over the next 14 days! The road system for the 1st time visitor to America can take a while to get used too, however we had been well briefed by the Alamo representative. It may be worth renting or taking our own Sat Nav nexxt time.

I would highly recommend anyone visiting Orlando and its many attractions, to consider staying in one of the many private villas that are available. Most villas are located within a 20 minute drive of Disney and the many theme parks. We were stunned by a deluxe 5 bedroom home with an enormous pool running the entire length of the villa. The children were spoiled for choice every night to which bedroom they could sleep in. Supermarkets and restaurants were all within a 5 minute drive of our holiday home for convenience.

During our trip we tried to make as much of our time as possible visiting as many Theme and Water parks as possible. Everyone has there own highlights for many different reasons and it would depend on your own childrens ages as where to spend most of your time.

Our highlights included the following:-

Disney's Animal Kingdom - with an African theme and the opportunity to see animals on safari our children loved this park. You need to arrive early to see the animals before the midday sun. We took advantage of a Character breakfast, and within 15 minutes we were all dancing with Mickey and his friends to African Drum music!

Aquatica Water Park - the newly opened water park has immaculate communal areas with the most amazing WaterWorks section for children of all ages. The children loved floating in the river and bombing down water slides of all sizes!

For a slightly more natural experience, the 45 minute drive to ride on an air boat through the Everglades was well worth it! During our excursion we were lucky enough to see 5 foot long alligators and the all American bald eagle. For the children to see the animals in their natural habitat was an education.

The highlight of our trip was to swim with Dolphins at Discovery Cove. The ticket price seems expensive at first, but the experience of seeing our 6 year old daughter floating in her lifesaving vest stroking a dolphin will never leave us. The entrance includes all food and drink and was also combined with Sea World entrance.

In summary Orlando is a must do with children of any age and for most adults too! Our pre-conceived ideas were blown away and we are planning our next trip for 2010. There will always be attractions and sights that you do not have time to see the first time around and we are hoping to visit the beach for a rest next time!