Day 40 to 46 – Jacksonville Saturday 22nd to Friday 28th September 2018 Well, our week here in Jacksonville is all but at an end, alas. It has been quite the busy week for us here. Initially, we were planning on taking things easy. We were going to take our foot off the gas pedal […]

Day 39 – Sea World Friday 21st September 2018 I woke up this morning and went straight into packing mode. This was a necessity. No time to waste on such silly things as allowing myself to wake up first or succumbing to the cold I’m still suffering from. No rest for the wicked, as they […]

Day 38 – Universal Thursday 20th September 2018 We’ve had our fair share of early starts during this holiday, but we’re trending more and more towards late ones now. I wasn’t complaining this morning about the slow start. I ‘was’ complaining, however, about being stuffy and having a sore throat. Sadly, I’m in the throes […]

Day 37 – iFLY Wednesday 19th September 2018 September is always a busy month for us. Both the kids were born on this month. It’s also the month Sandy and I were married. This morning, we woke up to a new tweenager. Jennifer is now twelve. Although a year younger than Joey, Jennifer is actually […]

Day 36 – Sea World Tuesday 18th September 2018 Today marked the first day of our Sea World all access pass usage. From the date of first entry, we are allowed to visit any Sea World theme park as often as we would like for ten days. This includes Sea World, Bush Gardens and Aquatica, […]

Day 35 – Universal Monday 17th September 2018 After the stresses of yesterday, I was glad for a slower start to the day this morning. In fact, I think we all slept much longer than we planned. I woke up early enough but then dozed off again. I don’t recall how many times that happened […]

Day 34 – Volcano Bay Sunday 16th September 2018 We awoke today with yet another milestone having been reached. Sandy and I are married thirty years today. It’s in fact one of the reasons underpinning the fact we’re here on this rather long holiday in central Florida. Both Sandy and I love it here and […]

Day 33 – LEGOLAND – Joey’s birthday Saturday 15th September 2018 When we awoke this morning, Sandy and I were the proud parents of our very first teenager. Was I still dreaming? You know that feeling you get when you’re sort of half awake, and your dreams are still there but only fleetingly? Sometimes it’s […]

Day 32 – Rest day Friday 14th September 2018 I awoke alone this morning. I stretched out a hand to give Sandy a cuddle. She wasn’t there. The universe was telling me something – or at least Sandy was. I think we were all still reeling from the disaster that was last night. I called […]

Day 31 – iFLY & Universal Thursday 13th September 2018 Once again, Sandy and I managed to slip out of the house for a bit of us time this morning. I think we had finished our Waffle House breakfast and were already on the way back before either of the kids even realised we were […]

Day 30 – Volcano Bay Wednesday 12th September 2018 We decided to make today a rest day. Frankly, it wasn’t a hard decision. This holiday continues to take its toll. We’ve scheduled various rest days in amongst all the theme park madness, although we haven’t kept to the original schedule. One of the many benefits […]

Day 29 – Universal Tuesday 11th September 2018 For the past few days, we’ve had a slow start and we’ve left the house relatively late. That trend bucked this morning. Surprisingly, nobody was in a bad mood (it’s all relative in the mornings). We had planned on stopping at a Walmart for something or other […]

Day 28 – iFly & Universal Monday 10th September 2018 Today marks the return to normal operations of daily blog writing. Jennifer and I went and spent a couple of hours in the Universal theme parks last night, and I was tempted to do a write-up for that. We got home rather late, after an […]

Day 19 to 25 – Tampa & Cruise Saturday 1st – Saturday 8th September 2018 For the past week, I’ve not maintained a daily blog. We’ve been spending time with very good friends of ours and I wanted to devote all my time and energy to them instead. It’s also a substantial commitment of time […]

Day 18 – Resting Friday 31st August 2018 We had a really good lie in this morning. That notwithstanding, everyone was really quite lethargic. The holiday was continuing to take its toll on all of us. There really is a limit to how much fun and enjoyment you can take in a single sustained burst. […]

Day 17 – Animal Kingdom Thursday 30th August 2018 Somehow, we all managed to get up in time for the anticipated early start. We needed this to happen if we were to stand a chance of getting a full day in at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Today is a milestone day. It marks the very last […]

Day 16 – Magic Kingdom Wednesday 29th August 2018 Nobody was up particularly early this morning. Everyone seemed a bit irritable with each other. Clearly, holiday fatigue is setting in. The plan for the day was to do Animal Kingdom in the morning. Since the Weather Bug app had told us to expect an early […]

Day 15 – Disney Springs Tuesday 28th August 2018 We had another very late start to the day this morning. It’s always a double-edged sword when we get up late. On the one hand we do have a nice lie in, but we also tend to be quite lethargic and slow to get going as […]

Day 14 – Blizzard Beach and Hollywood Studios Monday 27th August 2018 It has to be said that the holiday is taking its toll. Yes, we’re really enjoying ourselves, but living out of a suitcase in a strange place can lose its charm under certain circumstances. We’re not there yet but we are feeling the […]

Day 13 – Hollywood Studios and Disney Springs Sunday 26th August 2018 It was another uncharacteristically late start to the morning, although nobody was complaining about that. The day was NOT going to turn out as we expected. At this point, however, everything looked normal. This morning’s Waffle House experience was a rather odd one. […]

Day 12 – Fixing the phones Saturday 25th August 2018 Wow! Nobody was up and about when I came downstairs this morning. Sandy, as is often the case, had actually gotten up earlier than me but she must have found somewhere else to go and lie back down again, since she wasn’t asleep on the […]

Day 11 – Blizzard Beach & Old Town Friday 24th August 2018 Well, today was going to be a nice, relaxing day at the water park with a bit of well-earned R&R. That was the plan, at least. What could possibly be simpler, right? By the end of the night, we were all thoroughly knackered. […]

Day 10 – Down time Thursday 23rd August 2018 Once again, we all enjoyed the sheer bliss of having nothing to do and nowhere to go this morning. Consequently, everyone was up and active well past rope drop for all the parks. I have to say it was a well-needed suspension of the busy schedule […]

Day 9 – Typhoon Lagoon & Old Town Wednesday 22nd August 2018 Another day, another visit to a Waffle House. In light of the variety of restaurants here, we could probably be experimenting with various other breakfast options. However, it’s already so hard to find something that Joey likes, and getting him to eat anything […]

Day 8 – Magic Kingdom Tuesday 21st August 2018 Oh, the bliss of a lie in with nowhere to go and no reason to get out of bed. For the first time since we arrived, everyone managed to sleep as long as our bodies wanted, with no one of us intentionally waking any of the […]

Day 7 – Disney Springs & Hollywood Studios Monday 20th August 2018 We decided to have breakfast at home this morning. I was to take Jamie, Dan and Shanuel to the airport this afternoon. Jamie had made a lunch reservation at Planet Hollywood for noon. We wanted to leave room for lunch and elected to […]

Day 6 – Kirsty & Andy at the Polynesian Sunday 19th August 2018 With no theme parks to get to today, it was a slow start to this morning. The plan was to have breakfast and then head on over to the Disney Polynesian Resort, where Kirsty and Andy and the two girls are staying. […]

Day 5 – EPCOT Saturday 18th August 2018 Today promised to be another full-on theme park trek. The plan was to collect Jamie and co after breakfast and drive us all to EPCOT for the day. This meant a relatively early start. I was up and active by around 6am. As I was the first […]

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom Friday 17th August 2018 Last night, just as we were snuggling up in bed, Sandy had a bit of an idea. No, it wasn’t to have sex. It isn’t my birthday until March. She figured it would be very busy at the Magic Kingdom being a Friday. There’s a really […]

Day 3 – Kirsty and Andy Thursday 16th August 2018 I still have high hopes that we’ve kicked the jetlag but given that Sandy and I were both up and on the couch downstairs chatting this morning from around 3am, despite us going to bed before midnight, suggests our body clocks are still a little […]

Day 2 – settling in Wednesday 15th August 2018 Thanks to the comfortable beds, we all slumbered serenely through the night. I woke up at around 09:00am and gently tried to get everyone else up. If we are to stand a chance at kicking the jetlag, we’ll have to adhere to the local day/night cycle […]

Day 1 – getting there (part 2) Tuesday 14th August The first flight, despite being the longest at fourteen and a half hours, finished and we emerged relatively unscathed. We deliberately allowed the rest of the plane’s occupants to disembark before we got out of our seats. With a five-hour layover, there didn’t really seem […]

Day 1 – getting there (part 1) Tuesday 14th August I’ve called this blog entry day 1 but in truth, the first day will end up spanning at least a day and a half. This is because of the time zone shifts we’ll undergo as a part of this journey. We’re travelling half way around […]

Pre-departure 3 – one last night out with the boys Saturday 11th August So, I wasn’t planning on putting out another blog before we left but one or two interesting things happened today and I think it would be best to record them for posterity’s sake. The day started innocuously enough with a brief trip […]

Pre-departure 1 – the calm between the storms Saturday 4th August Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. The Morgan family (well, this one at least) is leaving Australia after moving here just nine years ago. This wasn’t actually something we planned well in advance. In fact, the decision to move came as something as a surprise […]