Orlando, FL - Christmas family break with a 2 year old

Sara Gouthwaite
Dec 26, 2016
5 min read

Xmas was a bit of a rush in our house this year, we moved in on Dec 4th, Rushed the tree and xmas decs up (we would have put up mid Dec and taken down 1st week in Jan) had a few weeks of rushing around and wrapping...after sorting the new place out... Then BAM xmas day arrived...we had xmas dinner booked as I could not have handled the stress of Win cooking his GIGANTIC seasonal meal...leaving the kitchen like he's just opened a blender, on top of packing, cleaning up after guests AND tidying up after tornado kid on xmas day!

We took the tree down xmas evening, and ALL of the lights and decorations from outside, the living room was COVERED in pines, i have never seen so many! The dog decided to walk them around the house and lay right in the middle of the pile!

The next morning we took a stroll to the coach collection point, and jumped on the coach to heathrow! several hundred hours later we arrived in ORLANDO...about 8 in the evening, very disorientated and completely exhausted! We had hired a car right away so jumped in, to find our sat nav (from home) took an AGE to acquire satellites! I would recommend bringing your own, and buying a USA SD card to upload the mas if you don't already have them, as hiring a sat nav is a FORTUNE...and a car seat! We purchased one from walmart for $30.

We eventually found our way to the magic moments resort in kissimee..west irlo bronson highway (a very busy area) Win wasn't thrown off by driving on the other side of the road, we usually hire a car wherever we go, He says it takes him a few moments to get into it..however the roads were pretty busy, so only for the experienced driver!

When we arrived at the hotel, it was 10 at night, we popped cass straight in bed and he slept through til 6am...no jet lag, we had kept him awake all day...kids needs sleep, and he has always been great!

The hotel was pretty much brand new, at around £110 per night, quite pricy, but lower than the prices of other hotels near by. There was a charge for tax that was not mentioned as we had our hotel swapped by hotels.com a few weeks before, since our booked sister hotel was not ready, the original did included taxes but this hotel did not....After speaking hotels.com they were fantastic and reimbursed all fees plus gave us a £100 voucher towards future hotels! (we used this later in the trip).

The hotel had lots of facilities for kids, most hotels in the area do. There was a great pool, 2x kids park one for older kids and one for toddlers, an arcade and a sandpit! This was handy for the evenings we would go shopping or for dinner and pop back to the park for an hour, lovely warm weather, very chilled! Cassius would wear himself out and fall straight to sleep when we got in!

Breakfast was pancakes, fruit, cereals, bacon, eggs basic and filling, cassius had a micky mouse shaped pancake each morning, an apple and a glass of milk! We would then wake daddy up...and go exploring. we had a 3 week pass to disney so popped in and out whenever we liked, it was about a 30min drive and petrol was a fraction of the price it is in the uk.

There are fast food outlets everywhere you look, buffet restaurants and chains, portions are MASSIVE, and everything is salty, sweet and/or very saucy! Everything is very indulgent, and not cheap either....friends would often talk of how cheap everything was in the states, but when we arrived it was pretty much a dollar for a pound, so lunch would cost us £30/40 and dinner £50/60....groceries were extortionate, a 2ltr milk around $6 and a loaf of bread around $4!? Freshly chopped and washed fruit boxes around $9.....we would get a buffet for lunch, usually around $8 you could be as healthy or as naughty as you like so we were happy with that once or twice, otherwise we would grab whatever was available if we were out for the day.

Cassius only drinks water, or occasionally fruit juice 50/50 water....non dairy milks and sometimes dairy milks....we were often shocked that restaurants would ask if he would like a soda...clearly seeing he is a baby! Saying it is included in the meal...we would just get water, but this also is fluoridated...we often found if difficult to eat healthy let alone clean...cass would ask for 'rice and trees' they would send along broccoli..buttered...I didn't understand the need to season everything? Supermarkets have drinks in colours i have never seen, electric blue, pink and yellow, everything is convenient, but whole foods seem to cost more? I drink soda water usually but this seemed to be $3 a bottle!

Other than the food we had the time of our lives, there are plenty of outlets to visit, the cheapest brand is levis, you can pick up jeans for around £20, tommy hilfiger also have good deals....ralph lauren had 50% off everything on dec 27th, we went back a week later (as we thought they may keep the sale until jan) everything was full price!

We visited celebration village...it was truly the picture on a post card! old style american houses, rocking chairs on every porch, perfect lawns, perfectly painted as if the houses had never been lived in....in the evening it looked beautiful with incredible decorations and lights...we visited a few times as we found a lovely little thai restaurant..the food was incredible!

We visited old town amusement park a few times, they had a bungee jump, Win obviously had a go! There is no way in HELL I would try, we are completely different! I often wonder what path Cass will take, but it appears for his blatant fearlessness....it's probably his Dad! We spent NYE, they had 60's bands playing and it was full of families, not hugely busy, about a 15min walk to our hotel and Cassius fell asleep around 10pm, we he had 1 or 2 drinks to see in the new year! We chose not to go to the magical kingdom on the big night because traffic was usually crazy, if we had gone it would've taken hours to get how, it would not have been quite so relaxing, on standard nights after the fireworks, it is busy enough to get out....We watched the replica NYE fireworks at epcot on the 30th Dec instead, the park was very quiet and we had an amazing night!

We left Orlando on the 2nd of January, and headed down to key west we cut the journey in half and spent a night in Fort Lauderdale! I haven't written much about disney in this post, I'll elaborate in a specific disney blog, as there is a LOT to write about! So scroll up to read more!