Features

It’s the stuff that dreams are made of

(20 January 2005)


Universal

The American guest eating breakfast at the table next to ours had come up with the ideal plan to fool those pesky park rangers and their height restrictions.

"My husband has put little wooden lifts in our daughter’s trainers so she can go on all the rides."

Dreams still come true at Disneyland Florida – as long as you’re dad’s a dab hand with a chisel.

Attractions with height restrictions can be a curse if your kids aren’t tall enough, but our problem was that while our eight-year-old son Donovan is tall, he isn’t very brave, whereas four-year-old daughter Marnie will give anything a go. At 41 inches, would some rides be off-limits without the aid of carpentry–enhanced Reeboks?

We needn’t have worried. Disney’s four Orlando theme parks cater for all ages, heights and degrees of courage. And once you’ve had enough of Mickey Mouse there are two Universal parks, plus SeaWorld and swimming with the dolphins at Discovery Cove, to keep the whole family entertained.

However, different parks do cater for different age groups. Disney’s Animal and Magic Kingdoms are aimed at younger children, with most rides suitable for Marnie and plenty of character greetings and daily parades. MGM Studios stays open later so it’s a good place to go if you want to continue the fun once the other parks have closed.

As the name suggests, it takes its inspiration from the silver screen and is more sophisticated than the Kingdoms, with rides and shows themed around classic films. Highlights include the Indiana Jones stunt show and the Tower of Terror – a lift that goes into freefall and which proved to be our four-year-old’s favourite.

Epcot is the most educational of the parks, with rides which aim to inform as well as entertain, and are more suitable for older kids.

Donovan loved Mission:Space, which simulates a mission to Mars, although it’s one to avoid if you suffer from travel sickness. The World Showcase recreates nations around the world – perfect for those stay-at-home Americans but also a good place for lunch if you’re sick of burgers.

For the most part, food at Disney is fast and fattening – but thanks to the weak dollar, daily costs aren’t as high as they might be.

We spent an average of $20 on breakfast, $30 on a light lunch and $50 on an evening meal. Throw in

ice-creams and pushchair rental and incidentals like autograph books (essential for those character greetings) and our average daily spend was $130 – about £70 at the current exchange rate.

If you do decide to venture out of Disney, Universal has two theme parks, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. Highlights at the former include the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, a

3-D ride in which you leap from skyscrapers Peter Parker-style, and the Incredible Hulk Coaster – guaranteed to leave participants as green as the Marvel character himself.

But with most rides carrying height restrictions of 42 inches or above and a banging soundtrack accompaniment, this wasn’t really the place for Marnie so we popped next door to Universal Studios to meet ET and Barney (for the uninitiated, he’s a purple dinosaur popular with under-fives).

If clients want to get close to real nature, a day at Discovery Cove is a must.

Situated opposite sister attraction SeaWorld, visitors can snorkel a coral reef, wade safely with stingrays and – the highlight – swim with dolphins. During the 30-minute dolphin encounter, visitors get to learn all about, stroke and ride on the dorsal fin of these fascinating creatures.

Visitor numbers are limited to about 1,000 a day; it’s expensive and needs to be booked well in advance – all of which makes it an ideal upsell.

But after a week in the parks, even the kids were showing signs of fatigue, and as December wasn’t quite the weather for the beach, we headed two hours south down Florida’s Turnpike to Club Med’s Sandpiper resort.

Sandpiper features a circus tent and flying trapeze and when we signed Marnie and Donovan into the kids’ club we were told they would be encouraged to give it a go.

Having spent a week convincing Donovan he was not about to die on the Tower of Terror, I couldn’t see it myself. But by the end of our stay, not only had he flown the trapeze, he’d performed an urban dance routine in the hip-hop show – and he wasn’t bad for a kid from Bromley.