Tuesday 28th December, Miami - Orlando, Florida (240 miles)
A taxi took us the 9 blocks we needed to the Avis rental office . We got ourselves one mother of a car - a Ford something we've never heard of - a car so big it made Sue feel like Ronnie Corbett (old UK comedian of yesteryear who's vertically challenged)! Still the big leather armchairs inside, the CD and tape deck, excellent acceleration and big roads helped ease us in. We pulled in at a 'tourist office' on the way up - it was cover for a timeshare signup but you get nearly 1/2 price tickets for an hour of your ears so we signed up and decided to stay at the resort anyway for the next 4 nights. The resort itself is more like a town with plenty of high-rise buildings - still the rooms are very plush so we are more than happy. We did some 'breakfast and lunch' shopping for about the first time since we arrived here - knowing supermarket prices makes it easy to know why people eat out here a lot!

Wednesday 29th December, Epcot Centre, Disney World, Orlando
We met Bob, our friendly salesman who brought us through the pros of timeshares without telling us the cons . We waved goodbye to Bob and met his friends who also tried to persuade us but we stood firm and claimed our DisneyWorld tickets. Being the US everybody took the shuttle from the car park despite the fact that it was a 5 minute walk. Twas a warm sunny day and the world and his wife were there - there were still hundreds of people arriving at noon. We tried to get a 'fastpass' for a popular rollercoaster just after 11am but it was sold out for the rest of the day! Nevermind, it's be busier in 2 days time we were told! So for our first stop we had to make do with a boat trip through a fruit and veg farm! Epcot has surprisingly little to do with 'space' and more to do with education (especially for kids). The big ride of the place is a 'Mission : Space' simlulator which recreates the G-force and weightlessness of a space launch. We enjoyed it but endured the effects of quesiness for a while afterwards. The 'World Showcase' part of Epcot had a couple of good 360 degree film features on China and Canada and we paide homage to Mexico and Norway too (though the biscuits we bought were 'made in Sweden' according to the wrapper!) Vikings indeed! The 'Illuminations of Earth' light show and fireworks and some good old 'Fish & Chips' from the UK part of the 'World Showcase' wound up our first day here .

Thurday 30th December, Disney/MSM Studios, DisneyWorld
Up early once more to get to MGM for the 8am opening. We made it on time and were straight on the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster - hectic brilliant ride that rocks to the music of Aerosmith and starts off by going from 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds! It that wasn't enough for us the 'Tower of Terror' is a vertical elevator ride that drops anything from 4-13 floors at a time - let's just say we never screamed so loud! The Muppet's 3D movie was excellent and brought back some childhood memories. We gathered for the audience participation of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' which was again brilliant - the 2nd time we saw it today a bloke got all 15 questions right and won - but only a Disney cruise, not a million dollars! We went back on the 'Tower' and the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster again and took the backstage tour of MGM with car stunts, water effects and catastrophe recreations down to a tee. The 'Beauty & The Beast' show and the Playhouse Disney shows made us feel like big kids again . We finised the day with the Indiana Jones 'special effects' show, a ride through movie history and the water and fire-fuelled special effects show of Fantasmic. We were sat down relaxing for about 30 minutes all day and we're pretty worn out by now but there's still 2 days left.

Friday 31st December, Animal Kingdom, Disney World
As it was New Years's Eve, we thought we'd head away from the inevitable crowds of the 'Magic Kingdom' and to Animal Kingdom instead. The crowds here were indeed small (compared to the other parks) though the excitement level of the rides was less. The 'Triceratop Spin' was as good as it got, which was ok and the river rapids were a bit tame but we still got wet. The African safari had an abundance of creatures, big and small and the 3D effects of 'It's a Bugs Life' were excellent. After catching 'The Lion King' production and the acrobatics and music of 'Tarzan Rocks' we headed off to leave the rest of the animals to the kiddies. We had planned to view the fireworks at midnight in the Magic Kingdom but alas when we rolled up to the gates the park was full! This was at 3pm - so headed for the best alternative and back to MGM Studios where we'd been yesterday . There were 35,000 people there too but we still managed to ride the 'Tower of Terror' twice more - it's great we think even if it does scare the living daylights out of you temporarily - it rises and drops different numbers of floors every ride. We went back to 'Millionaire' and watched the Little Mermaid animation. We'd become expert crowd dodgers and weavers by now and fatigue was setting in - but not before we watched the amazing music and fireworks show in the sky that rang in the New Year. We raised our bottle of water, kissed and thought how strange it was to be sober at New Year's Eve for the first time since we were 16!

Saturday 1st January, Magic Kingdom, DisneyWorld
New Year's Day and we're awake at 7am - another first! One final journey down the road to DisneyWorld - once we parked it took a shuttlebus and a monorail to get inside the park. It was very quiet to start so we jumped on old favourites from Disneyland - Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster - they were good but not quite the same as first time round . Space Mountain was a rollercoaster a nothch up from the others - the 'Fastpass' system of avoiding queues for rides is excellent though lots of people don't seem to see it's advantages. We skipped some stuff we'd seen last time but enjoyed shows like 'The Timekeeper' and 'Mickey's Philharmagic' (which starred Donald Duck). The last 3 days were catching up with us by mid-afternoon so we left early to relax and take the weight off our feet.

Sunday 2nd January, Orlando - Florida City (250 miles)
We polished off a bottle of wine last night which sent us swiftly to the land of nod. There was no way we were getting up early today after the last 4 days. We left our plush room behind and headed to the 'mall' for some pre-beach shopping before St Lucia on Tuesday. Our drive took us back down south through miles of orange growing areas and just beyond Miami, from where we are poised to strike the Everglades tomorrow.

Monday 3rd January, Florida City - Miami
The Everglades have a whole range of companies that run 'airboat' tours and we chose the one nearest to us. The boat breezed through the sawgrass (so sharp it can cut you like a razor), reeds and lillies whilst making a hell of a noise moving around. We saw a couple of sleep alligators and bird life abound. From there we headed into the actual park on the only road it's possible to, as far as Flamingo one of the most southerly points of the US land mass. We were on time to catch a park ranger talk on the very interesting Red Mangrove tree which essentially props up the whole eco-structure of the Everglades. A walk over the top of the water revealed many alligators basking in the afternoon sunshine. We headed back to the airport and dropped our car back with Avis before we caught a shuttle to an airport motel in preparation for tomorrow.