Right then.
We went to florida on the 7th april- so our first week was the easter holidays- also obviously the American easter holidays aswell. It was HEAVING- the theme parks were packed, and as it was so hot ( @ 90 degrees most days) it made our first week it bit of an ordeal. The following week was much quieter, and we felt that the theme parks appeared less stressful.
My boys are 6 and 3, my 3 yr old really was just a little bit too young I felt. I think we should have left it about another yr, as although he appeared to be having a fab time, he was too short for most rides and lost interest in the theme parks ( he said he wanted to go back to nursery after just one week!)
My 6 yr old however- LOVED it, he was in his element, I cannot put into words his excitement in each park, it made my holiday to see him enjoying it so much.
we arrived into sanford airport at 6pm on the saturday night, got our hire car and drove straight to our hotel (Port Orleans FQ). the check in staff were lovely- and it is a nice little hotel. The room was decorated nice, bathroom was a little small but no problem.
It has a nice pool area and a food ahll also on site, a frequent paddle boat service links it to its sister hotel (Riverside) and Downtown Disney. We felt happy with our hotel, but if we went
again we would stay at Riverside, the pool is much better, as is the Dining facilities. The food at FQ was, to put it bluntly- crap. However at Riverside, they had two eateries- one again a foodhall which had a marginally better menu than at FQ, and also a waitered restaurant (Boatwrights) which had a good variety of food on the menu.
The added bonus of staying in a Disney hotel is the resort transfers, we found these to be a good, reliable service. another bonus is 'Extra Magic hours@ at the theme parks- we went to Magic Kingdom on our second day at 7am! it was still dark! but lovely, all lit up- this gives you a chance to jump on the rides before the gates open to every one at 8am. We used the Extra magic hours also at Animal Kingdom, and Typhoon Lagoon ( its so lovely swimming around at 9pm!!)
We chose to go to Animal Kingdom on our first day as we were tired from travelling ( it really hit the kids hard- they were falling asleep early afternoon) Animal Kingdom is a fairly relaxing park compared to MAgic Kingdom. As we were staying on Disney we would come away from the parks at around 1/2pm and go back to the hotel for a swim or a nap, refresh ourselves and then go back to the parks on the evening, we felt this was much better than staying in the park all day as the kids would get grumpy.
We eat in mainly the Disney restaurants, the self service ones and 'fast food' ones are Dire, but some of the waitered ones were good, with a good selection of menus, Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom was a good experience, the boys loved it in there.
Our fave restaurant was 'Fultons Crabhouse'- a massive steam paddle boat at Downtown disney- had the best crabs and lobster that I have ever eaten. The 'Brown Derby' at Disney MGM was also good. 'Cap N Jacks' at Downtown Disney was appalling- the service was crap- they obviosly wanted to get as many people in and out as possible- we arrived at 8.45 pm and had eaten our starter and main course by 9.30- so rushed!!!.
I liked each park for different reasons, 'MAgic Kingdom' was just as it sounds, it was magical- Cinderellas castle all lit up at night was amazing. Animal Kingdom was good because of its Safari, we loved the disney waterparks- especially Typhoon Lagoon. On our second week, we decided at the last minute to go to the Univeral parks , we hadnt planned this into our itinery- Im so glad we went, apart from Magic Kingdom- universal knocks spots of the disney parks, they were by far the best parks. You can buy passes that get you to the front of the q's ( think ours came to $64) for the whole family ( about £32) so worth it! the restaurants on Universal were also 100x better than the restaurants on disney.
The best day without a doubt was 'Discovery Cove'- best day of our hol
we chose to go here on the day before we were coming home ( you have to book up in advance - it gets sold out as it only allows 1000 people a day in.) Its so relaxing and all inclusive- the food here was amazing, dp and ds1 both swam with the dolphins, amazing experience and finished our holiday off beautifully. If you can afford to do this one day- its money well spent!
I would go back tomorrow if we could afford it, We had the most amazing time as a family and would love to do it all again. If you have any other Q's just ask!