In November 2006 my mum and I headed off for three weeks in the Florida sunshine.

Our journey began in the usual way for me - by train. On the day before our flight we left Coventry for Reading and from there caught another train to Gatwick.  Once at Gatwick Airport we checked in our bags using Virgin's twilight check-in service and then all that was left was to check into the Gatwick Hilton where we spent the night.  I can't recommend the use of twilight check-in services enough as it avoids the huge stress of coming and going in the same day.  Moreover, you really can't beat a Hilton cooked breakfast.

Our flight was pretty smooth and eight hours later we arrived at Orlando International Airport.  We caught a coach (equipped with a wheelchair lift) to our hotel - the Walt Disney World Swan - where we checked in.  To our delight we were given two rooms (with a connecting door between them) at no extra cost.  So I had and accessible room with a queen-sized bed all to myself and mum had another room with two twin beds.  Superb!  Once we had unpacked a bit we walked to Disney's Boardwalk which was about five minutes from our hotel.  The Boardwalk is basically an entertainment area with restaurants, bars and shops which is beautifully lit at night.

On our second day we picked up a powerchair which I hired from ScootAround for around £280 (for the whole three weeks) which had been delivered to the concierge desk at our hotel.  On our last holiday I took my own powerchair, but it hasn't been very reliable this year and we didn't want to run the risk of it breaking down whilst out there.  I've also read so many stories about baggage handlers damaging chairs whilst loading them into aeroplanes for storage (apparently they damage one in five chairs!).  So I took my manual chair which is pretty much indestructable and decided to hire a powerchair from a local dealer so I had a bit of freedom (I really valued this last time).  The powerchair that I got was a Jazzy Jet 3 Ultra which I was pleased with as it wasn't too dissimilar to my own Jazzy at home.  The only negative was that it had leather upholstery, which has to be the worst material to spend time with in the hot weather.

We then headed off to Epcot, which was a ten-minute walk from our hotel.  MGM was a fifteen-minute walk in the other direction.  There we also water taxies to Epcot and MGM from our hotel but we never got around to taking one - it was so nice and easy to walk.  There were buses to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney which ran every twenty minutes or so (all of which are wheelchair accessible).  Indeed we were right in the heart of the magic - the fireworks at Epcot looked better from our hotel room window than in the actual park and we could see the fireworks in MGM's Fantasmic.  On one night later in our holiday there was a shuttle launch which looked absolutely awesome from our window!

I have to say that Epcot isn't my favourite park, though Soarin' is probably one of the best rides in Walt Disney World.  The Test Track and the Mars thing are pretty popular, but I do tend to avoid the kind of rides that jolt you about a bit as my back is a little tempremental these days and I didn't want to set anything off.  It being the first day I had a quick snooze in the queue to Nemo (the queues were still quite heavy as it was the back side of Thanksgiving, though this soon died down - December and January are actually WDW's quietest months) and a power nap outside the United Kingdom.  We were absolutely knackered by the end of the day, but it meant we slept well that night and so we quickly got into the swing of the five-hour time difference.

We spent another day at Epcot later in our holiday.  We booked a meal at the United Kingdom (missing the taste of home) and seats at the Candlelight Prossessional which is held in Epcot every Christmas.  Now I am not religious at all but I do love music and you just can't beat carol singers at Christmas.  If you go to WDW in December be sure to add this to your must see list - it really is something special.  Incidentally, if you're British and you're missing the taste of home and so you eat at the Rose and Crown pub in the United Kingdom, prepare to be disappointed!  Though the food was very nice indeed, British it was not.  Although if you get really desperate you can buy Cadbury's chocolate here for about $2.20 per bar!

On the third day we headed to MGM.  I like MGM; similar to Universal Studios I like seeing how all the movies are made.  We saw about half of everything - I would say that you need to spend at least two days in each park.  We arrived at Fantasmic about 1.5 hours early so we got the best seats in the house.  We were chuffed until it started raining two minutes after the show had started and it was abandonned!!  Weather-wise we weren't that lucky throughout our holiday.  Although it was warm most days (in the 70's and even 80's), quite a few of those were overcast and we did have a few showers - but because it was warm we soon dried off.  We were there for Florida's coldest day of the year, but on this day it was still ten degrees higher than the temperature when we arrived back in England!

On the next day we had a quick raz around the Animal Kingdon in the morning.  Wild animals don't really capture our imagination so Animal Kingdom doesn't really do a lot for us, although there are a few things at AK that are worth seeing.  And so we saw The Lion King show, Nemo the Musical (new and very very good) and Tough to be a Bug.  In the afternoon we headed to the cinema at Downtown Disney.  We spent a few afternoons here (it's what we did when we wanted "an easy day").and during our holiday we saw some really great movies - Deja Vu, Casino Royale, The Holiday, Persuit of Happiness and Apocolypto.  Don't miss the Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney; they sell the world's best BLT sandwich.

Whilst we were in Downtown Disney we wondered over to the Cirque du Soleil box office and bought ourselves a pair of tickets.  We did a lot of awesome stuff throughout our three weeks in the sun, but Cirque is definitely up there and if you're going to WDW be sure to make going to see this show one of your must dos.  I have seen Cirque twice in Orlando and I'm going to see it for a second time in London next month, so you could say I'm a bit of a fan.  It's essentially a French circus but it's really a lot more that that - weird, intruging, dramatic, brilliant, jaw-dropping - it was absolutely fantastic!!

Anyway, onto the next day when we cought the bus to the Magic Kingdom (my favourite WDW park).  We spent the day doing all the attractions and watched the spectacular fireworks display in the evening (another must see).  The park then closed and re-opened for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party which we has tickets for.  This meant we could see the Christmas parade and exclusive fireworks display.  For me, who loves a good fireworks display, you really can't top two different variations of Wishes in one night.  We then wondered back to the Boardwalk where we ate some pretty nice pizza and watched the Epcot fireworks (they are visible from here).

We made it back to MGM later in our holiday to see Fantasmic and on the same night we also saw the Osborne Lights.  These lights are really something special - they really are something you have to see to believe; an entire street covered in millions of lights and the new thing for this year is that the lights now dance to music!  We also returned to the Magic Kingdom where we saw another night time attraction called Spectromagic.  This is a rather amazing parade in which each float has on it millions of lights.  All the night time shows at WDW are pure magic - don't miss any of them.

Mears provide transport to other attractions in Florida.  We bought vouchers through Virgin which covered the cost of the journey.  We phoned Mears ourselves and booked directly for when we wanted it and just paid with our vouchers.  Mears have wheelchair accessible vehicles equipped with lifts and there are yellow taxis floating about that are equipped with ramps and clamps.  All in all getting about wasn't a problem.

So using Mears we set off for Sea World.  I forgot what a beautiful place this is and we soon realised that we hadn't given ourselves enough time here - after we had rushed about filling the day with shows we hardly had any time to wonder and enjoy the gardens and smaller walk-through attractions.  Shows you must see are: well obviously Shamu (!!), Pets Ahoy, and my ultimate favourite - the Clyde and Seamore show (although be sure to get there about fifteen minutes early so you get to see the mime pick on all the late-comers) (don't be a late-comer!!).  I also went on the Skytower on which I got some great photos.  I say I because my mum, not liking heights, sent me up on my own!

We stole time in our first week to wonder around our magnificent hotel.  We found a nice sunny spot by one of the pools where I sat with my MP3 played until boardom overtook me about an hour later!!  It really was a fantastic hotel though - we will never stay anywhere else now - we have found the perfect place.  We stayed at the Swan but there are no eating facilities here; all restaurants we in the adjacent Dolphin hotel which was about one minute's walk away and we were free to use them at any time.  This was far from inconvenient - it was nice to have to wonder between the two hotels and take in the sights of this beautiful place.

We made it to my ultimate favourite park, Universal Studios.  Some of my favourite stuff is here such as the Horror Make-up Show, Twister and Terminator 3D.  This is definitely something that needs to be done over at least two days, especially if you want to do as we did and go to the new park, Islands of Adventure.  There is also a massive entertainment area between the two parks with lots of shops, restaurants, bars and stalls.  We had the best food of our holiday here at the Hard Rock Cafe (even if the music wasn't really to my taste!).  It's so great to hear "normal" music though - we mostly had Mickey Mouse singing Ten Days of Christmas throughout our three weeks!

Well that is a small taster of what we got up to during our three weeks.  I will say that the beauty of having so much time is that you can do as much or as little in a day as you please.  Although we were out and about somewhere every day, we could take it really easy and in this way we had a really relaxing and easy going time.  We arrived back home a week before Christmas.  We have said that we won't plan to go on holiday this late in the year again - one week isn't near enough time to prepare for Christmas and that time for us was complete madness.  I would however not go to WDW at any other time of the year - the Christmas decorations and extra shows add so much to it.

Until next time... (this was our seventh visit to WDW)

PS - I couldn't end this without a mention of my mum's Crocs.  We covered miles and miles during our trip; mum actually took her step counter with her and on one day during which we had been to MGM it read 17,000 steps.  Yet my mum only suffered one blister throughout our entire holiday.  Crocs are like mules but they have some science to them that makes them more comfortable than the average shoe.  Mum likened them to "walking on air".  She bought a pair from the official Crocs shop in Orlando International Airport for the bargain price of $29.99 (about £16).