Our JetBlue flight touched down in Orlando, Florida and just like that we had no further need for the cold weather gear we had used almost daily for the past four months. We were now surrounded by sunshine, tropical plants, and loud Americans in bright, colourful summer clothes.

We had a car booked with a rental company, and made our way down to the service desk after collecting our luggage. Of the vehicle sizes available (economy, compact, midsize, standard, full size, SUV, etc..) we had opted for the ‘standard’, which should have been something like a Toyota Altise. We completed the necessary paperwork, declining offers for an upgrade and were directed to the small office in the multistorey car park to collect the car. Once there, the attendant gave our paperwork a quick check-over and indicated towards a row of parked cars saying something like, “Pick any one of these, the keys are in the ignition”, and then walked off. I quickly picked out a Chevrolet (Holden) Captiva SUV, but it seemed odd that we were picking a car out of the ‘full size’ lot. A further check with the attendant and we were assured everything was in order, so in we piled and off we drove. In continuing tradition in naming our hire cars, Immi christens this car ‘Florriet’.

Florida is the fun & sun state of the US, and Orlando is in the heart of it. Around 2.5 times the population of Australia visits Orlando every year: about 52 million people. The only other city in the US to have more hotel beds is Las Vegas. Setting the GPS, we head to another “Extended Stay” hotel we had reserved a couple of days prior. The girls are mighty impressed when they see this one has a pool too, and waste no time checking it out.  Then it was off to the nearby Wal*Mart to stock up on food for our three day stay here.

Our first fun park would involve two things the girls love: playing in water and swimming. Aquatica has a number of rides and activities all designed to get you wet. The park has an Australian & New Zealand theme and they’ve used names like Tassie’s Twisters, Walkabout Waters, Kookaburra Cove, and Whanau Way, while all the recorded announcements are made by a guy with an Australian accent, which we found quite bizarre and unnerving.  We managed to tackle all but one of the rides and had an absolute blast doing so. Phoebe favoured the Taumata Racer a straight drop of a slide, whilst the rest of us loved the Walhala wave: a four person tube ride down a winding waterslide that passed through a pitch black tunnel for part of the ride! Woo-hoo. Such a fun day with plenty of laughs.

Of course no visit to Orlando would be complete without a stop at Disney Magic Kingdom – where dreams come true! As one reviewer said, “choosing which one  to visit is totally dependent on the ages of your children. Too young and your children won’t appreciate it (saw plenty of adults with whining toddlers who would have found it so overwhelming – gee I found it overwhelming!), too old and they will hate you forever for dragging them there”. We think we hit the mark fairly with our girls fairly well.

Arriving at the Disney car park, we were efficiently directed to the next available parking space and then took the waiting train to the ticket office. After purchasing our tickets at the park entrance, we were still nearly 2kms from the fun/rides area and so needed to take the monorail or ferry across the lake to the official entrance.

Immi (our more daring daughter) has wanted to do a serious roller coaster ride since we visited SeaWorld on the Gold Coast two years earlier where she was under the minimum height requirement. Today she would get her chance! The Prince Charming Carousel, Aladdins flying carpet, Ariels clam ride through the ‘grotto’, racing cars, ‘Big Thunder Mountain’ roller coasters and flume rides; we had a go at them all.

We planned to stay for the evening electric street parade and fireworks display (both of which happen every night). Of course, thousands of other people decided to do the same, and at the end of fireworks and impressive light show against the backdrop of the castle, there is a mass exodus. The Disneyland staff are extremely well practiced, and with great efficiency we were politely herded back to the front entrance and then to the car park.

Whilst in Washington I spent many hours looking into the myriad of options of cruises from Florida in and around the Caribbean.  Western, Eastern and Southern Caribbean options with various cruise ship companies.  In the end the one that appealed the most and fit in with dates was the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). So we had our 3 night stint at Orlando, got in two full days of fun parks and then hit the road planning to stop for another one night stay enroute to Miami in time for the ships departure the following day.

Before leaving Orlando we again visit the Wal-Mart Supercentre that we had already visited on the day of our arrival, and kitted up with everything including some more summer clothes, sandals, sunscreen and snorkelling masks – the essentials for a cruise around the Caribbean.

We departed Orlando for our drive down the turnpike (freeway) towards Miami.

The next afternoon would be our first on board the Norwegian Sun cruise ship for 11 days. A picnic lunch stop at Jupiter Beach for a picnic lunch and the girls played on the sand.

We opted again for a Extended Stay hotel (better the devil you know) at Boca Raton so we were about an hour’s drive from downtown Miami – an easy, non-stressful distance to drive in order to make it in time for our cruise departure at lunchtime the next day.