First blog post for a while. Sorry all, it's been "go go go" and as soon as we have time to ourselves it's been "sleep sleep sleep".

It's a bit odd to call a trip to Walt Disney World a 'holiday'. That word conjures up a nice, relaxing break from work and the usual daily grind. This place knocks you out....in a good way of course..but it's still a massive, tiring rollercoaster ride. Even when you decide to have a 'chilling' day, the parks are calling you and before you know it you're walking down Main Street USA at 1:30am.

Anyway, on our 3rd full day we decided to try and go to 3 parks in one day. We didn't quite pull it off but we still had fun. The day started with us catching a Disney bus to Hollywood Studios. This isn't our most favourite park but we were itching to get Jack on The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror. We headed straight over there and after a 5 minute wait we were in the basement of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. How can a 4 year old boy be so fearless? Apart from the main drop of this ride, the actual pre-drop experience is also really scary. Jack just takes the entire thing in his stride. EVERY time we go to a theme park he wants to know "am I tall enough for this ride". Luckily, on this trip, the answer for pretty much all the rides is 'yes' and he's just lapping it up. Check out the picture below, he is laughing his head off while some others around him look petrified. I think we're going to be riding this over and over with him.

Straight after this we head over to the fab little candy shop to get a big Mickey cookie (don't worry, it was shared between 3 people) and something I craved for months, a carrot cake cookie (you can worry now....this was only shared between one person). That's only because no one else likes it (honest guv). The Mickey cookie went down well but the carrot cake cookie will be a one off. It tasted great but it was waaaaay too sickly. It's one thing to knock off the list of things to do though.

Next, over to the best ride in this park (in my opinion),Toy Story Mania. This is the newest ride at Hollywood Studios and it is MASSIVE fun. 4 people don 3D glasses and sit in a car that takes you through numerous set pieces. It's all based on a fairground style sideshow attraction where you have to score points by hitting targets. It all gets really frantic as you try and beat the score of the other people in the car. Rockets and balloons shoot off in all directions and with the 3D effect and air blasting in your face gives the impression that it's really all going on around you. I feel like i'm just saying words like this all the time in these blog entries but it's AMAZING!!!

One of the great things about Walt Disney World is their transportation system. We left Hollywood Studios and decided to hit EPCOT next. We could have taken a bus but decided to take a boat over there which made a stop first at Disney's Boardwalk, an old style American Boardwalk themed place with shops and restaurants. This is right next door to the entrance to Paris at EPCOT so we hopped over there for a quick drink in the new bakery.

It is so hot here at midday that a welcome blast of air conditioning is needed in these shops and eateries, we're not just eating and drinking our way around the theme parks (honest!).

I'd read on Facebook that Greg (the guitarist in my friend Kevin's band, The Scam) was playing in 'Off Kilter', the band at the Canada pavilion at EPCOT so we walked over there to check them out and say hello. It had been 23 years since I last saw Greg...crazy!

By the wonder of modern technology (quite appropriate as we were in EPCOT), I got a WhatsAPP text from our friend Angie to say she, Dirk and Ava and Ainsley were heading to EPCOT for dinner in Germany. Josh was very giddy at the thought of meeting Ava and Ainsley for the first time in 2 years so we arranged to hook up and we headed over to Test Track so I could take the kids on there. We've been on this about 5 times now and I think I can say I prefer the new, updated version to the old one. The technology in place here is incredible. You are given an RFID enabled card which you login to a computer terminal and design your own car. Once on the ride, your car design competes with the designs of the other riders in the ride vehicle to find out who's is the most efficient, powerful and versatile. The future is here with this ride. The thing is, I remember being wowed so many times with new innovations i've seen at EPCOT over the last 25 years. I first saw a HD television at EPCOT and also played on The Internet before it became popular back in the early 90's. Love technology...love EPCOT...

After letting the kids run wild in the post show area for a while we said goodbye to Dirk, Angie and the girls and decided to grab a quick ride on Spaceship Earth before heading back to the hotel for an early night (which was around 11pm in the end, so not so early). A quick hop on the monorail and we were heading 'home' to The Polynesian ready for another crazy day....