Disney World - Orlando FLORIDA

The beautiful Disney Castle lit up at night time.

I had always thought that Disney World was just one big theme park like Disneyland in California. I was wrong.

Disney World in Florida,is made up of FOUR theme parks.

Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studio's, Epcot and Magic Kingdom (which is where the castle is).

To give you an idea of size comparison it took us 5 days to cover all of Disneyland over on the west coast. Here in Florida you can cover 1 theme park in a day.

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom. Safari's (like an open range zoo), petting zoo, Lion King shows, Dinosaur discoveries, train rides, conservation and discovery shows, Finding Nemo performance - similar scale to Disney on Ice.

Day 2 - Hollywood Studio's. Home to Disney Pixar! Toy story characters, Pizza Planet, Phineas & Ferb, Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coasters, Indiana Jones Stunt shows, Lights Motors Action Stunt show (where they bought out the real "Lightning McQueen" - Ka - chow!!) , Backlot tours, Beauty and the Beast Shows. As well they have the "American Idol Experience" here, where you get to watch people sing that have been picked out of the crowd and had auditions to be a part of it and numerous other rides and simulators. Also the "Fantasmic" light show in the evening.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom - (and David's Birthday).  What a way to spend your birthday - at Magic Kingdom. We bought David his very own set of "Mickey Ears" that said "It's my birthday". We also went and got him a standard issue "Birthday badge" from Guest Services as you walk in the gate with your very own name on it! All day David was greeted with "Happy Birthday David" from every Disney staff member and ride operator in the ENTIRE park. Pretty cool - he thought for the first hour. By the 14th hour of the day........hhhmmmmm not so much! We were at the park from 9am and got home at midnight. A 15 hour day!!

Magic Kingdom was like a land all of it's own. To get there - first you drive your car to the car park then you get on a open air bus to the front gates. From there it is your choice if you want to take the 'monorail' or the 'ferry' to the main entrance to the Magic Kingdom. We took the ferry across the lake. It really creates the story that you are being transported to another world!

Loads of rides, loads of shows, loads of performances  and a big beautiful main street that comes alive in the evening with an electric light show of floats filled with Disney characters (pictured below). Followed by the most incredible and magical fireworks display, set off over the castle.

Day 4 - Epcot - (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). This theme park had two sections. The front of the park has rides and shows etc. A Test Track ride where you become the crash test dummy and the race car driver all in one. A Rocket Launch Simulator - Experience the pressure of a real rocket launch. At the rear of the park was an entire world of different countries. From China, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Norway through to England (unfortunately no Australia though - was very much looking forward to a meat pie)!! However in England we did find some real "Fish & Chips"!

Had some very full and fun days of theme parks here, but have had some really nice 'down days' here in Orlando too. We have caught up with another friend we met in Fort Lauderdale - Charlie.

He and his daughter Victoria have come to our apartment for dinner and we have shared the most incredibly cooked sirloin steaks on the grill followed up with Keylime pie. Now Charlie manages a nearby Golf & Country Club called "Lake Nona".

Me being the 'non - golfer' that I am was not familiar with the names of Annika Sorenstam & Yani Tseng. Only the women's world #1 and former women's world #1golfers! Charlie is such a generous, caring and hospitable person and he invited us to join him for dinner at the Country Club for family night. There we joined him for an incredible buffet of food and dined with the number #3 men's golfer in the world Ian Poulter, whilst Jackson and Makalea played with all the kids on jumping castles and craft rooms etc. I really wish I new something about golf to appreciate the company I was surrounded by! Charlie said that along with the golfers who play the course and have homes on the estate, it has or is also home to famous tennis players such as Jim Courier and Pete Sampras at some time or another.

Let me tell you about my dining experience. It is a 'gated community' and our names were left at the Country Club gates. Well, we all dressed appropriately in "Country Club" attire. I had on a full length grey dress with silver belt and shoes to match. Makalea dressed in lovely top & skirt and David & Jackson in collared shirt and shorts. We opted to leave Kenny at home for the evening!

Surrounded in the room of 20 to 30 people, of worlds best golfers and families. Charlie was quite the host and ordered champagne, Shirley temples for the kids and sushi to start with. Then followed by an amazing buffet of meats, salads, vegetables and desserts.

Yes that's right - remember the scene in Pretty Women when Julia Roberts is was way out of her comfort zone ........that was me!

Charlie also invited us back on the Sunday to the Pool Party, where we were surrounded by golfers, their families and we also met Miley Cyrus' stunt double! The Golf & Country Club had a fairly big pool, a DJ, a huge blow up water slide, pizza's, salads, drinks, a cup cake truck and a big blow up ball that you hop inside and roll down the hill in. Gee...do these people do it right!

We will be forever grateful to Charlie and his family for letting us experience and be a part of his life here in Orlando.

An epic blog to do this time, so here is part 1 and part 2 will be up towards the end of the week, with some of Kenny's antics, when we finally start heading away from Florida towards those other 15 states we still need to see.

Till next time, Team Connor USA

West Palm Beach

Our time at Fort Lauderdale/Miami came to an end and we were invited by one of our new friends 'Randy' to visit him in West Palm Beach, approx 2 hours north up the coast. Upon our arrival to his beautiful Bed & Breakfast establishment - the Palm Beach Hibiscus, the manager Pat took us on a 'trolley tour' of the City Beach area before showing us to our room. An exquisitely decorated premises with a king size, four poster bed, and a much welcomed soak in a claw foot bubble bath !! Highly recommend dropping in if you are in the area. www.palmbeachhibiscus.com

We were then given the tour around Palm Beach (in Randy's BMW convertible) viewing the mansions of the rich and famous. Donald Trump's and Rod Stewart's homes were just some of the ones we got to see. In some of our photo's you will notice that some homes have the shutters and security blinds down as they have moved to their 'northern homes' for the summer and return to Florida for the winter time.

Oh to have that much $$$. The world famous 'Breaker's hotel' was also on our tour. Pictured above is the main entrance. Hotel picture featured in the gallery. First opened in 1896 by Henry Flagler - oil, real estate and railroad tycoon - rooms started from $4, which included 3 meals per day. They now range up to the vicinity of $3500 a night!

We also got to drive down Worth Ave (similar to Rodeo Dve in Beverly Hills). Top designer stores and boutiques line this very, very wealthy street. Being in the BMW convertible, we got many glances from the pedestrians window shopping on the sidewalk. It was a huge laugh to us, to be in the 'role reversal' position. We are normally the poor backpacker on the street thinking ' wow - look at them!'

We finished off the day, with dinner, with his family, who had also spent time at the Driftwood (Fort Lauderdale) with us. Randy had asked Makalea and Jackson what food they had missed the most from home and he cooked it for them. A beautiful chicken stir fry!

The next morning saw us served with amazing 'blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit and coffee' at the

B& B  from Pat. Superb start to the day for our drive up to Orlando. Home to Walt Disney World!!

Signing off - Team Connor USA.

XOXOX

More... FLORIDA!!

 Miami Beach!

We left Crystal River and headed further south into Florida, through Tampa and into Naples, on the East Coast. Here we went to the Corkscrew Sanctuary. This is a 3 mile boardwalk style stroll through the swamp lands and prairie's of Southern Florida. Home to Alligators, frogs, bird life, plant life, snakes, insects, butterflies, puma and bear.

Our walk was quite pleasant for the first 2 miles until we heard a deep rhythmic growling off in the distance....OK sounds like a bear, but surely not this far down south, just because the brochure said we may see them in the area. Must be wrong and pushed on. As we got closer on the board walk, viewing beautiful birds and plant life, the noise got louder, deeper and we became more cautious. Has to be a bear we said eating it's prey. It was frightening! I felt so sick and scared. We contemplated walking back along the boardwalk so as the noise did not get closer. We hadn't laid eyes on another soul all morning from that point on. Great.....the bear is eating every person that walks up the last mile. It was the loudest deepest growl sound my ears had ever heard. So much so that I pulled out my mobile phone and was ready to dial 911 for when the bear took David first. The kids and I walked in tow behind him.

We rounded the corner to where the sound was at it's peak and there in the swamp was the biggest alligator and out of it's mouth came that deathly growling sound we had all been so scared of! No one told ME that Alligators make a noise - especially like a bear!

 I flopped to the park bench, (on the safety of our boardwalk) in relief and watched his deathly eye's dip beneath the lilly pads of the swamp.

As my heart rate returned to normal and I put my phone away, a small black snake slithered across my feet! I jumped up on the bench as quick as lightening and was ready to get the hell out of there! The swamps were no place for 'the princess'....the kids and David thought it was now hilarious!

Next day David and the kids wanted to go to the Everglades on our way across to Miami, and ride on an air boat through the swamp in search of Alligators. Yeah right....think I'm gonna' set foot on an Alligator swamp after yesterday......? Well guess what.....I did!

We ended up sighting 3 or 4 more Alligators and met some fairly funny 'swamp people'. At the conclusion of the ride we went to their quaint little Diner and ate 'Gator tail' and 'Frogs legs' - Not too bad actually!

Drove the rest of the way to our next place for the week - Fort Lauderdale (just north of Miami beach).

The beach is the first picture above - the white sand, the clear warm water and the beautiful people. This place is incredible!

Our accommodation had an oven!! Our accommodation had a real full size refrigerator!! Our accommodation had real metal cutlery!! Our accommodation had a couch!! Oh how you miss the simple things in life, when you are travelling.

We went straight to the grocery store to buy food to be able to have home cooked meals every night for the entire week!

At our hotel the 'Driftwood Beach Club' we met the most beautiful people. All guests checked in on around the same day and we were all staying for the week. The resort pool was central to all rooms and the beach was just across the street. Guests from Chicago, Florida itself, England, Italy, and all up the East Coast of America gather here for the same week each year as part of their time share. They welcomed us very quickly as part of their extended family and were very interested to hear of our travels. We were made to feel so welcome and like part of their big family, of which we truly appreciated.

Pictured above is a 'mock wedding' that we held one afternoon at the resort and the lovely couple asked if Jackson and Makalea could be included as their 'ring bearer' and 'flower girl'. Bathing suits and board shorts were acceptable attire of course!

It was a very funny day/night of which we will treasure; along with the entire week of enjoyable and interesting conversations, meals and drinks, with such amazing people in our memories and hearts forever. Looking forward to catching up and/or keeping in touch with you all.

On one of the days, Team Connor took the trip down through Key Largo to Key West (the furthest point of the USA - only 90 miles from Cuba) - take a look at the map and see where it lies off the coast of Florida. We hired a white Mustang convertible for the day, top down and drove for 4 hours to get there across bridges that go for miles across the ocean to link the islands together. Makalea loved that convertible so much, cruising along the Miami and Florida Beaches with the top down, I don't think the smile came off her face the entire day. 

A very cool day out!!

Happy Father's Day Dad's (in Australia)!

Good night all!

Love - Team Connor USA.  XOXOXOX