We've Been on Holiday! Part I

So, Flickr + Blogger seems to be the way forward if I want to add photos to my posts; the only downside is that it's taking me ages! There may be an easier/quicker way than the one I'm taking and, if so, I hope to find it soon; but, in the meantime, here's the start of some holiday posts.

We are back and totally refreshed from just over two weeks in the US of A. We started with 10 days in Orlando and ended with five days in New York City. The weather in Florida was lovely - a little cool the first couple of days (ie light jacket during the day/coat in the evening weather), but it soon warmed up to be in the mid 70s to low 80s farenheit, which was just tippity top (I'm not a fan of anything much warmer than that, unless I'm lying in the shade with a cool drink in hand and no toddler to run around after.) It was decidedly cooler in NY (as was to be expected), in the mid 40s, although on our final day we were walking round Central Park in shirt sleeves as the sun beat down and the mercury topped 60F - a wonderful way to end our trip.

Our flight over was fabulous as there were only 84 passengers on the entire plane - it worked out that everyone could pretty much have a row to themselves. It also meant that we didn't have to worry about DC disturbing people with any possible toddler antics, although in the end we needn't have worried as he behaved impeccably throughout the entire 9hr flight (thank goodness); here he is engrossed in his Peppa Pig comic.

And here's a shot of the Dorset coastline with Portland Bill below the clouds.

We spent our first full day at Downtown Disney as an easy introduction to the madness of themeparkworld. Basically this is just a mass of Disney shops and eateries all crammed into one area around a lake. They may as well have a sign above the entrance saying "Deposit your dollars here". At least there's no entrance fee... We spent our first dollars in the Lego store, followed by a few more in World of Disney (the largest Disney store in the world)

We bought one of these (but don't tell DC as we bought it secretly for his Christmas present - it's some sort of Toy Story Buzz Lightyear grabbing hand thing - don't ask.)

And we ended up with two of the Jack Sparrow swords because, really, what's the point of one sword in a fight?!?

We then spent more $$ in the next toy shop along and a few on some lunch. Luckily by mid-afternoon we were all flagging and it was time to head back to our villa where our credit cards took a well-earned rest.

The following day we were ready to take Disney by the horns (or should that be 'by the mouse-ears'?) with a trip to one of the four theme parks: Hollywood Studios. Our first view on arriving was this rather incongruous palm tree/Christmas tree combo:

Eeegads, what a nightmare - it was busy, it was crowded, it was hot, it was expensive, there were queues

- it was everything you expect a theme park to be and much, much more. It was the absolute lowlight of our entire trip, so we're glad we got it out of the way at the beginning! Admittedly it was Thanksgiving Week and we had been warned by books and websites that it would be busy, so it didn't come as a surprise to see wait times of 1h 30m to go on a ride/rollercoaster so we just kept on moving and grabbed a couple of FastPass tickets that enabled us to go on the rides at a set time without queuing. Hubby was happy that we got to ride the Star Tours (ie Star Wars) ride, and DC & I enjoyed it too. And DC was happy when we went on the Toy Story ride, which certainly cheered him up after he burst into tears upon coming face-to-face with the 'real' Buzz and Woody earlier in the day. It was all looking so promising when we started to queue:

But the mother in me should have realised what the hand-in-mouth, glazed expression meant:

I have no photos of the infamous meet-and-greet that I care to share with the world! And I'm also going to end this post now before I run out of patience with Flickr; hopefully I'll be back tomorrow full of vigour and vim...