Family holiday to Florida staying at Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge

We flew with Virgin Atlantic. I had pre booked our seats early to make sure we got upstairs in the aircraft which is much nicer (known as 'The Bubble'). You get served quicker, it's quieter and you can easily go up and get drinks throughout the flight without walking far. I also like the fact that if you are by the window you get a big ledge which opens up to store things which is great for snacks and iPads. You also are one of the first off the aircraft after Premium and upper.

Be prepared for long immigration queues when you arrive in Orlando Airport, another reason why we booked upstairs on the aircraft so that we were off quicker than the majority of the plane. I will always try to book my customers seats where possible as close to the front as I can. I would quickly walk to the immigration queue the moment you are off the plane, save toilet stops to while you’re in the queue or before the plane lands, not en route to immigration or your letting so many other people then go ahead of you.

Another point to note while at Orlando Airport - after you have got through immigration and picked your bags up, while making your way through you will then be asked to either take your luggage with you on the monorail and upstairs or have your luggage meet you the other end. We made the mistake of them taking the luggage as did many others, it seemed the obvious thing to do rather than carting luggage upstairs. We saw others taking their luggage and at the time thought why on earth are they doing that when it can go through on a luggage belt. After waiting 45 minutes for our luggage (after already picking it up once) we knew why others choose to not part with their cases again. Those reading this who have been to Florida will know exactly what I am talking about.

We stayed at Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge for 14 nights in a safari view room. This was lovely, having giraffes and zebras wonder past your room. We really liked this hotel. The pool entertainment in the day and night was great for the kids and each night they would have a film on a big screen by the pool at 10pm.

We got the complimentary dining plan which consisted of a refillable mug for when we were at the hotel, snacks per day, a quick service meal and waiter serve meal each per day. It saved us a lot of money and is well worth having. There were a lot of choices of restaurants in the parks and in Disney Springs. The downside was you ideally needed to book a table so before we went I had to create an itinerary of what we were doing each day (something I was not looking forward to doing as I didn't like the idea of having a holiday and having times of when we needed to be where each day) however it was a must and worked out really well. We stuck to schedule pretty much the whole two weeks. You have to pay a $10 each deposit for dinner reservations so it worked out in our favour to make sure we stuck to the plan. You have 24 hours to cancel the reservation and not be charged. I did this through 'My Disney Experience' App which will become your best friend while away and the ultimate tool to use, so make sure you get to grips with this way before you go.

The benefit of staying at a Disney hotel is you get to book your time slot on the rides at the Disney Parks 60 days before rather than the normal 30 days before. I actually only started booking our slots not too far from the 30 days before so I didn't use the 60 pre book benefit. This was only because the thought of having to plan what we were doing each day kept putting me off doing it, and to be honest we didn't miss out on booking for rides we wanted.

We found the way to fit as much in as possible was to do half days rather than full days and the great benefit of staying in a Disney hotel was the free parking (otherwise this is approximately $25 per car). If you’re not driving then you have the free transport too, but this can get very busy so we saw a lot of people getting taxis rather than waiting for the next shuttle bus.

Although we had our Disney dining included we did still dine out at some other restaurants when we were driving about as we wanted to sample this too. I can highly recommend Longthorne Steak house and Ale House for really good meals.

Disney Springs (which used to be called Downtown Disney) was a lovely place to go to wander around in the evenings, with a huge choice of restaurants and shops. The Disney dining plan also includes pretty much all the restaurants here too so we were here a lot because of the dining plan and ate at a lot of restaurants here.

We were here during the Halloween celebrations so we did pre book the Disney Not So Scary trick or treat at Magic Kingdom which was expensive to do but felt we should. Everyone dresses up in fancy dress and really makes an effort. There were treat stations around the park and they were generous too, my girls left with a massive bag each filled with candy. Due to how busy it was we couldn't get near the parade or to see the show which takes place just under Cinderella's castle but this didn't really bother us. It was much quicker to get on rides so that was a bonus.

Make sure you have your 'My Disney' app on your phones while in the parks. It’s free Wi-Fi anyway but you can look instantly at the queue times and while waiting for one ride you can be planning the next and see where hasn't got many queues.

If you have any questions about a holiday to Florida that you are planning then do contact me and I will happily assist with your enquiry.

We had such a lovely holiday and can't wait to return.