When Holly met Mickey

Robin Gauldie treated his niece to a fortnight of double holiday fun in Florida – one week in Orlando, and another on the Gulf Coast

Jaws agape and drooling, the tyrannosaur loomed forwards. This is the end, I thought, as our boat was carried helplessly forward between its taloned legs. Then everything went black.

But only for a moment – we were carried out into the Florida sunlight, and that was the end of the Jurassic Park ride.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Holly, my niece, was completely unfazed by claws and fangs, and remarkably patient in the queues for Orlando’s theme park attractions, but she lost her nine-year-old composure completely when Mickey Mouse blew her a kiss. Ah, the romance of travel…

We’d started the week gently enough, with the Cat in the Hat, whirling through the whimsical chaos of Dr Seuss’s loony world, then progressed through the best of Disney to the slightly more intense experiences of Universal Studios.

I don’t do roller-coasters, but we risked the Flying Pterodactyl. After standing in line for exactly long enough to work up a real sense of dread, there was no chance of backing down, so I let them strap me into the hang-glider style seat and spent what felt like an eternity of terror hurtling at high speed and high altitude above the palm trees and landscaped cliffs.

Disney favourites

Disney favourites

Then it was on to the Men in Black ride, in which your waltzer-car whirls you through a labyrinth where alien mutants lurk around every corner to be zapped by your laser pistol.

Villa haven

Instead of heading back to a hotel when the fun was over, we had our own villa haven in Davenport, an easy 10-15 minutes’ drive from Walt Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios and the heart of theme park territory.

With three double bedrooms, there was plenty of room for everyone, and a fully-equipped kitchen meant we weren’t at the mercy of restaurant menus.

After a hard day’s entertainment, we could relax by our own pool – screened to keep the mosquitoes out – and watch huge yellow butterflies floating languidly over the lawns and kingfishers hovering over the lily pool. Once, a fat racoon came bumbling past, just a few yards away, as unconcerned by our presence as any South London urban fox. It felt a little bit like having our own private wildlife theme park, and staying out in the country was the perfect antidote to a day’s worth of accumulated family adrenaline.

By the end of the week, we’d managed many of the Orlando high points, and it was time to head west.

Orcas at SeaWorld

Orcas at SeaWorld