The Power Family come to America

The Power Family come to America

starring me, Kathy (37) as 'Stressed out Mum', Phill (37) as 'Panicking Dad' Martin (8) as 'Over-excited Brat' and Ryan (6) as 'Whining Kid'.

We've been planning this holiday for a year now, so why are we still not ready? The kids get home from school on the Friday night and we are supposed to have everything packed ready to go. In the event we are still running round like headless chickens. We finally get out the door and get to the Travel Lodge at Gatwick at about 10.30 that night, after some interesting side trips around a couple of industrial estates courtesy of my map reading. Oops!

The room is actually quite nice for something that cost just £45 for all of us. As it's so late I'm expecting the kids go off to sleep pretty quickly. After only an hour or so of me shouting they finally quieten down enough that I can sleep.

The alarm goes off far too soon and bleary eyed and fuzzy headed we're off. The car is dropped off at the long stay car-park and the bus whisks us to the airport where we check in with no hassle and go in search of breakfast. True to form the only thing we can agree on is Burger King and so it's burgers and fries and coke all round. I've a feeling that we're starting as we mean to go on.

The flight was fairly uneventful. Phill somehow managed to knock the drinks off the table behind us using Ryan's seat belt. We've still no idea how he did it, but they seemed rather unimpressed by this feat. He quickly bought them both another drink to say sorry and we kept our heads down for the rest of the flight.

The rest of the 10 hour journey was filled with the usual tedium of long haul flights, watching bad movies, waiting for the toilets and wrestling with the lids on the dinners.

One thing I hadn't anticipated was the behaviour of the kids. They were really good. They sat and coloured and played games and were as unlike their normal selves as I've ever seen. The youngest has ADHD and has just started on Ritalin so we did wonder if it was that making a difference. The rest of the holiday was to prove that it wasn't.

When the plane landed at Sandford we cleared immigration and customs with no problems and picked up our hire car from Dollar. It was a Dodge Stratus, in a really nice metallic dark bronze and we managed to fit all of us and our luggage into it with a bit of shoving.

The drive to Orlando was a nightmare I never wish to repeat. The kids, who were really over tired now, fought all the way. Phill, already stressed by driving a strange car, with an automatic gearbox, on the wrong side of an unfamiliar road, was less than patient with them and things became rather fraught.

My map reading proved as useful as it had back home and we sailed past the Holiday Inn Family Suites and did a whirlwind tour of the roads around Disney World. It brought it home to us that we were really there when we went under the arch that says Disney World. Even the kids stopped bickering for a moment.

Finally we found the hotel and checked in. The HIFS is railway themed and Ryan in particular was thrilled with it. The kids have their own checkout desk that looks like a caboose and they got a bag with a few things in it, some crayons and a colouring sheet and some sweets I think. They also got a mysterious box about the size of a video case.

Martin had fallen in love with the Manatee themed Kidsuite on the hotels website so we asked if we had a choice of room. We were told that as the hotel was full that weekend we'd have to take the one we were allocated but if we didn't like it to come back the next day and we could choose which theme we'd like. Martin was happy with that so we headed for our rooms. We were all so busy looking at the lights around the lake that until we got inside the room we didn't notice that it was a Manatee room. Martin did a happy dance all around the kids bedroom and we put some coffee on.

We were too exhausted to move again so we ordered room service. The grownups had Buffalo Wings, Crab Cakes and a Grilled Chicken dinner between us, Ryan had some chicken nuggets and Martin had the cheese burger. The food was OK except for the cheeseburger. It was like the weird ones you used to be able to get in cans when I was a kid and tasted just like our cats food smells! Needless to say he shared the chicken nuggets and the cat food burger went in the bin.

Then we fell into bed and slept dreamlessly till 4.00 in the morning when my confused body clock woke me. I did finally go back to sleep and then slept until about 8.00.

Part 1 - Part 2