We had another slow start to the day getting to Animal Kingdom in time for our lightning lane ride on Expedition Everest. It was freezing cold today with a projected high of 11°C. Getting from the car to the park in the tram with the wind chill was cold ?. We rode the ride and … More Day 36 – Animal Kingdom
It was an early start to drive the hour or so it took to get to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. It was a very wet morning so driving was not easy but we got there just after opening and had to stand in the rain waiting to get through security as they … More Day 35 – Kennedy Space Centre
A slow start with Space Mountain booked for 10:45am so we caught up on some sleep, washing and Mark got a bit of work done. We arrived at Magic Kingdom but it is a bit of a rigmarole getting into the actual park – you have to get a tram ride from the car and … More Day 34 – Magic Kingdom
Despite claiming an extra day being 49 due to the time differences there was no denying it this morning, my birthday was here! And a day of shopping was planned ? ??. We hit the Orlando Vineyard Premium Outlets about 7 minutes after they opened at 10am and it wasn’t too busy which was good. … More Day 33 – Birthday, Shopping, Cosmic Rewind and Dinner
Another 7am alarm to book our lightning lane, this time for Tower of Terror – we got a return time of 9:45am so decided to take a leisurely morning and get to the park in time for that. The kids played some air hockey in the games room at the house and I got some … More Day 32 – Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Splitsville
The alarms were set this morning to wake up in time to try and get our individual lightning lane purchase and virtual queue (something Disney use for newish rides – you still have to queue but it limits the time and is open to anyone) for the Guardians of the Galaxy – Cosmic Rewind ride. … More Day 31 – Epcot
Our stay at the Disney property over, we packed everything up, made our lightning lane selections and headed to Hollywood Studios. The park opened at 9am today (8:30am for us as resort guests) so we decided to get there extra early and arrived at 7:30am – one bonus being an extra close car park. We … More Day 30 – Hollywood Studios
An advantage of staying on property at Disney is you get early entry to the parks, generally for 30 minutes prior to general public admission. You also now have to prebook which park you are going to each day well in advance and can park hop between parks (assuming you have paid the extra fee … More Day 29 – Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs
Our stay in Miami over and everything packed up, we headed north towards Orlando. The kids were all very excited … this is what they have been looking forward to the entire trip. We stopped at Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach in the hope of spotting some Manatees (also known as sea cows). We … More Day 28 – Manatees and Magic Kingdom
Today we had a well deserved down day so we booked to go and see the new Avatar movie, Avatar: The Way of Water at the IMAX in 3D. We had a quiet morning until we headed down there at 11am. There was basically no one there – no staff to hand out the 3D … More Day 27 – Movies and Little Havana
Another early start for us (I think there is a very high likelihood these kids will start the school year off more tired than when they finished last year ?). Another day in the car but this time not quite so far … we headed to the Everglades, one of the National Parks in Florida, and the … More Day 26 – Everglades and South Beach
This was our first trip back to Cayman since we left on 2011 and so the first time for the kids to visit their birthplace. So I asked them about their thoughts on it, what they liked, what they didn’t like, how it compared to what they expected. I started asking them individually but have … More Kids Observations on Cayman
Something on my bucket list was the Florida Keys and in all of our time in Cayman and visiting Miami we never got there – but today was the day. We headed off fairly early as it is a good 3.5 hour straight drive to Key West so it would be a long day, especially … More Day 25 – Florida Keys
It was a very early start this morning with the alarm going off at 3am, time to shower, wash towels and undertake the fine art of balancing out the bags to 50lb each. We locked everything up and headed to the airport to drop the rental but there was no one there (not surprising) and … More Day 24 – Miami and Shopping
We got up early this morning and set off to check out a few old local haunts we still had not seen. First stop was Little Trotters where TJ and Sophia (very briefly) attended preschool when we lived here. Next was Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital where all three of the kids were born. Finally we … More Day 23 – Botanic Gardens & Kaibo
We started at the Cayman Turtle Centre (as it is now known) and had a look at the turtles – it is not breeding season so no little babies there. You can’t pick them up like you used to be able to but they have touch tanks now so the kids spent a little time … More Day 22 – Turtle Farm, NYE
A slow start to the day and Mark decided to head to the airport to check on his bag as there was still no word from Cayman Airways. He gets there and they tell him they have no bags from Miami so thank goodness for the AirTag so he can show them it is at … More Day 21 – Stingray City & Sunset House
Upon waking and having our showers this morning, I realised my bikinis were also in Mark’s bag so had nothing for the beach today. Mark tried to contact Cayman Airways about his bag but there was no luck. The view from their apartment is lovely – would not get sick of it every day. We … More Day 20 – Cayman, Seven Mile & Friends
It was an early start with the alarms going off at 3:30am in order to get ready, finish packing and ensuring the bags were all evenly weighted (they’re all getting very close to the 50lb limit). Our Ubers arrived on time and we headed out to JFK airport to finalize our check in and drop … More Day 19 – Travel day to Cayman
This morning we stopped in at Max Brenner’s at the Bryant Park Market for a quick hot chocolate and wander around the market before catching the subway (despite protests from the kids that it was dodgy – not at all) down to Brooklyn and the area know as DUMBO (Down under the Manhattan Bridge Underpass) … More Day 18 – DUMBO, Subway rides, Shopping and Queueing