19 June 2004 (morning)

After a really long flight we have finally arrived. Mom and Dad said we were really good on the plane, we had lots of fun colouring in, watching videos (we even had our own little TV screens). There were lots of children on the plane to Orlando so we spent quite a bit of time running up and down the aisle with all the other kids, nobody seemed to mind too much except Mom and Dad.

We nearly missed the connecting flight to Orlando because we had to catch a bus from Heathrow to Gatwick and we were a little late, but we eventually made it.

It took us nearly 3 hours to get out of the airport at Orlando, but eventually we had our car and we drove straight here (Dad was really good with his navigation .... with Mom's help!).

We were really tired so after a quick bite to eat we went off to bed. Everyone woke up at 04h00 (10h00 South African time) so now we are sitting around waiting for breakfast.

From what we have seen so far I think we are going to have lots of fun. Dad saw a Harley shop so he wants to go off there, Mom wants to go off to the studios and we are still waiting to see Mickey Mouse.

19 June 2004 (evening)

We had a really amazing day, we took a walk down International Drive and saw lots of things. It was really hot, and Dad ended up having to push me in the pram whilst Mom carried Jade. I fell a sleep in the pram because I was so tired.

Anyway, we saw a house that was upside down, a house that was skew, a two headed cow, a Rolls Royce made from a million matchsticks, the world's tallest man, the world's fattest man, and a fossil mermaid (they said it was the world's best fake). We went to the "world's largest gift store" which had the Shuttle stuck on the side, and we visited a fairy castle. Dad saw lots of Harleys and some really big cars (Dad said that the cars here would eat his Landy for breakfast they were so big). After all of that we came to our holiday home (the Westgate Vacation Villas) which are really nice. We have a jacuzzi which we all climbed into last night.

We are now going off to bed, tomorrow we want to see Mickey Mouse.

20 June 2004

Wow, what an amazing day, we went to the Magical Kingdom and we had, dare we say it, a truly magical day. Just getting to the place was quite a thing, but amazingly slick. After parking the car in the Disney car park we had to take a tram to the train station to get on a fast train, and then we finally arrived at the gates of the Magic Kingdom! We met Mickey Mouse (at long last), Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Cinderella, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Ariel and many others.

We went on roller coaster rides, saw an amazing 3D show (the characters really came out of the screen but we just couldn't grab them no matter how hard we tried!). In the movie it rained on us, the wind blew our hair and we could even smell the apple pie that Donald duck had to eat!!

We went in our own little car through the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - it was loads of colours, and things happening all around us. Dad & I went in the mad hatters tea cup - we went around and around and got all dizzy. It was a good thing Mom was on the side lines with Jade taking photos - she's just too little.

We wanted to stay longer today, but my Dad said no it was time to go home cause he was tired - he said we had been there for 10 hours - we don't think so cause it just went by so quickly and we didn't even get to the other 3 parts of the Magic Kingdom! We asked my Mom and Dad if we can go back again (they are thinking about it because we heard them say that next time we might go later in the afternoon so we can stay for the fireworks and the other night time activities- yay !).

Well that's it - we are about to collapse in 4 big heaps (actually 3 plus a small heap) and we sure won't be waking up early tomorrow. I even have a suspicion that Jade might have a good long nap tonight because she was pretty much into all this stuff today and didn't sleep for too long!

21 June 2004

Wow, what a day. As we arrived at the Epcot Centre Mickey and all his friends came in a bus to meet us at the entrance. I have started to collect autographs of all the Disney people, and so far I have quite a collection.

After that we travelled around the world. We visited Canada, France, England, Germany, Japan, China, Morocco, Italy, Mexico. We also took a rocket flight to Mars (yes Mars), and then we went down to the bottom of the ocean where we saw all sorts of fish.

Dad test drove a car around a high speed track, and then we went into a dinosaur cage where we nearly got eaten.

At the end of the day we were all exhausted.

22 June 2004

Mom and Dad decided to have a break for the day, they needed to do some shopping and Dad wanted to fix up our website. We went for a swim in the afternoon before coming back to the Villa for an early night.

23 June 2004

It was off to the MGM Studios today. Today we saw an Indiana Jones' film been shot (cars exploded, there was lots of shooting, and a massive ball nearly squashed Indiana Jones). We then went off to watch Ariel's show. We saw Disney Playhouse, a history of movies, a 3D Muppet show before going on an inter-galactic flight. We got a few more autographs, Hercules, Chip n Dale, and Eeore, and saw a parade of a whole lot of Disney stars in fancy cars.

As usual the temperatures were in the mid 30's and it was very humid.

Tomorrow we are off to the Animal Kingdom.

24 June 2004

It was another amazing day. We travelled back in time to the dinosaur age, and then got chased by dinosaurs that wanted to eat us, at the same time a meteorite shower struck earth, we only just managed to escape. I was frightened but fortunately Dad held onto me quite tightly. We then went on a walking through an Asian forest and saw tigers, bats, and a live dragon (a Komodo Dragon). It was then off to Africa where we saw hippo and mountain gorilla (Dad got some good photos, see the photo section). We went off to see "it's tough to be a bug" and became honory bugs! We saw (and felt) some of the bugs. We got attacked by giant wasps who stung us in the back (it wasn't too sore) before we were saved by the ants.

As usual I got a few more autographs from some of the animal stars , like Rafiki the monkey.

Jade thinks she is very clever at the moment, she has started to roll over and then sit up all by her self. She has also found her voice and is continually "talking" to everyone. She's also been a pain in the car - she has taken to screaming in my ear when she is put in her car seat.

Tomorrow is our last day here at Westgate and the theme parks so we will go off to the water park and have some fun.

In the meantime Dad has said that we MUST finish the ice cream so we are having some for supper and some for lunch tomorrow - yay .

25 June 2004

Today was the best day so far, we went off to Typhoon Lagoon where they had a large tropical beach with huge waves. We went down a huge tube slide, I was really scared the first time I went down (by myself), but after that I just wanted to keep going again and again. Mom, Jade and I went for a long laze in a big tube in the continuous ring river that goes around the tropical beach  while Dad looked after all our stuff.

We then had a huge water fight on board a big boat, there were real water canons which we used to shoot people. There were also water rapids that I went down on a tube, all by myself (again & again & again). Jade sat in the little rapids and cooled off - she got shot a few times with the water canons but didn't cry.

We had to come home early (5.30 pm) because we are off to Key Largo tomorrow morning.