Florida Trip

We had a fantastic 2 weeks in Orlando during the Easter Holidays. The journey was pretty good with no mishaps apart from middle child spilling his drink on himself before take off. I was reminded again why I pack a change of clothes for each child in our hand luggage. (I will do a post soon on what and how I pack for our trips. A few people have asked me some tips with summer holidays coming up. I definitely don't think I'm any kind of expert but I have a particular way of packing and tips that I've learnt and found most helpful with international trips we've taken with 3 kids over the last 9 years. These are from clothes, times to fly, onboard tips and airlines. )

When we do park holidays like on this trip, we are definitely not the kind of family that are there from opening until closing. We may do a couple of days like that but we find days (and the whole trip) is much more enjoyable when we take our time and have some down time too. Day after day walking around parks is exhausting and takes its toll on everyone! So on most days of this trip, we either arrived earlier in the morning and left mid afternoon or got to the park around 3.30pm and left late evening/closing time.

Our accommodation was also split between a Condo that we rented through AirBNB and a Marriott Vacation Villa which we love every time we stay at one. We used the week that we had busier park days at the Condo (that was less expensive and where we wouldn't be around as much) and the time that we had lazier days and more spare time at the Vacation Villas. 
We also visited each park more than once and with our tickets, were able to book 3 fast passes each day 30 days before our trip so we planned ahead what we wanted
to do and it certainly helped with organising our time at the parks. When it is in the mid 90's and humid, it's not very enjoyable running around like headless chickens and waiting in lines for 200 minutes like some rides!

I am remito nded that when my 2 year old has had a tablet for way too long, I'm leave him because a happy child is a happy parent and happy fellow passengers! My husband always tells me that a long haul flight is NOT the time to get the Mum of the year award!

It's hard work sitting on a plane for 9 hours being fed and having constant entertainment!

 
I think the easiest way to break down the parks is by doing a different post for each park, starting with our Day 1 Park... Hollywood Studios.