Orlando - Best Family Holiday

We arrived at Orlando Airport late evening 1st July 2007. The first thing to hit us was the humidity as we made our way by taxi to our accommodation. We were all a bit tired what with the heat and the jet leg and we headed to bed determined to be fit and ready to tackle the theme parks the following day.

The next day we were up early and headed off to Universal Studios. I had purchased the Orlando Flexi Tickets for the 6 of us in advance. These tickets gave us unlimited access for 14 days to 4 of the parks – Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld and Wet ‘n Wild.

On arrival, we picked up maps of the park to get an idea where everything was and we picked the first attraction – Shrek – to visit. After queueing for approximately 10 minutes, we entered a cinema like room and were all given the 3-D goggles. The show was very entertaining and suitable for all the family. Our party consisted of 2 adults and 4 children aged 17, 15, 13 and 11 years and everybody enjoyed it. We came out into the sunshine and decided to go and visit the set of Jaws for our second attraction. This time the queue was a little longer – approximately 30 minutes and by the time that ride had finished, we noticed that the blockbuster rides for example Earthquake, The Mummy and Twister all had queues in the region of 90 minutes. We decided that with the heat, there was no way we were prepared to wait out in the sunshine for that length of time. We enquired about the ‘Fast Pass’ which would give access to the rides via a secondary queue with queueing times shortened to approximately 10 minutes on all rides. The cost of this pass was $45.00 each and we decided to return the following Friday morning early and work our way methodically through all the rides. The fast pass would also give us access to Islands of Adventure which was where all the big roller coaster and thrill seeker rides were located.

Wet’n Wild was situated approximately 10 – 12 minutes walk from our apartments and most evenings after a day at the parks, we headed there. This was the best time to go as the park was quiet and there were hardly any queues for the various water slides. The kids had a ball and I was able to relax and read my book.

It was agreed by all of us that Seaworld was our favourite theme park. The layout of the park was beautiful – lots of lakes and green areas, we all enjoyed the dolphin shows and the younger ones enjoyed the roller coasters.

The final theme park we visited was Epcot – one of the Disneyworld parks. We were silly enough to mention the word ‘educational’ to the kids and that I am afraid was an immediate switch off for them. As it turned out, Epcot was fantastic and whereas it was educational, it was also great fun. The difference between the Disneyland park passes and those of Universal is that the Disneyland passes have a ‘fast-pass’ inbuilt into them. This allows you to punch your ticket at the fast pass kiosk and you will be told what time to return for your ride. The general waiting time would be 10 minutes doing it this way.

Finally, Orlando has more to offer than the theme parks. The shopping there is fantastic and there are large shopping malls at either end of International Drive. We spent 1 full day at the Premium Outlet centre and another at Pointe Orlando. The kids were delighted with the bargains and returned home laden down with shorts, T-shirts, hoodies and lots of shoes.

A wonderful, fun filled holiday!