Answer: Well there is no question about it, the time out there can be exhausting, but no I don’t think you’re doing too much. It partly depends on your family’s preferences. When we go, we get up at the crack of dawn, so that we are at the parks for when they open – that is the least busy time and you can get a lot more done in those first couple of hours than any other time in the day. We stay there all day, until the parks close and do that on repeat for a fortnight. And by the time we get back, we’re exhausted and need another holiday. But that’s our preference and there is no need to enjoy yourselves to those extremes! With two children and given the vast amounts of walking involved, you are definitely right to consider the impact of how tired it will inevitably make you. However there are tips and tricks to make sure no-one gets wiped out and still enjoy your trip to its full potential.

If you can do it, I do advocate getting there early, simply because you’ll beat the queues. Many families choose to stay until lunch/early afternoon and then head back to your hotel/villa for a rest or swim, before going out again to see the evening entertainments, or for a meal, which can slow the pace down a little and allow you to relax. Where you’re planning on staying and if you’ll be driving might impact your decision for that. Alternatively, you can take it easy and relax in the mornings and head out later on, and stay out. As you’re thinking of one of the quieter times of year, you have the flexibility to do that if you wish.

I would LOVE to go out there for 19 nights, so for length of holiday, it sounds great. In terms of the parks you’re thinking of visiting, I don’t think it sounds like too much – many people try to do the same in 14 nights. I make it a total of 12 parks you’ll be visiting (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Universal, Island of Adventure, Sea World, Discovery Cove, Aquatica, Busch Gardens). I would use the fact that you’ve got ‘extra’ time to pace yourselves, rather than trying to do something all day every day. You’ll have more than enough time to experience the best of each of the parks and still get some breathing room.

My advice to try and reduce the impact would be to plan your days effectively, so you intersperse your days at the bigger parks with days at the water parks or smaller parks. The biggest parks are Universal (both parks), Magic Kingdom and Epcot, so make sure between these you add in Discovery Cove, Aquatica and the Disney Water Parks, if you plan to visit these. Sea World has lots of shows, so a few ‘breaks’, and DHS and Animal Kingdom aren’t quite as big. With 19 nights you could also afford to a have a few days ‘off’ – time to hit the shops (not overly relaxing) or pool days. 18 days give you 6 free to repeat and relax – I’d use those extra days to repeat Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Islands of Adventure and Universal and maybe Hollywood Studios (meaning you can take it easy at these parks the first time round) and two/three days where you stay by the pool, or just hit the parks in the evening to see the fireworks etc.

And as always, make sure you make use of the FastPass system at the Disney parks to optimise what you can get done in the parks. Unless you’ll be visiting over a public holiday (and if you are, I’d advocate visiting the water parks, Discovery Cove, rest day on those days), I don’t think you’ll need to pay for the Universal Express Pass, but you can read more about those here if you wish.

Another option to reduce how tired you might get could be to break it up with a few days at the beach, or a Cruise. Disney offer 3 and 4 night cruises to the Bahamas and their private island, or the Caribbean, which are meant to be pretty incredible and a nice pace after the craziness of the parks. 15 nights at the parks and 4 on a cruise to chill you all out before you go home? Sorry, I’ve moved on from your holiday to planning my dream trip

So, to sum up, plan it a little and you will have the trip of a lifetime you want!

Answer: I’m joining you and your kids in the fair-skinned tribe, so I understand the risks of being outside so much in the sun. However, you’ve picked a great time to go, weather wise (and crowd wise actually), so you won’t need to worry about it too much. February in Orlando will be pleasantly warm (you’ll still make your friends here in the UK jealous) but it is well before the intense heat and humidity that Florida is known for kicks in, so it will be a lot more bearable than it can be in the summer months. It will however still be sunny and warm, so just do the normal things that you would in the summer here – keep the kids (and you) covered in lotion, wear a hat (perhaps an almost obligatory Mickey ear hat) and stay hydrated.

On that last point, I have two tips for you. Around all the parks, you’ll find water fountains that you can use for free. A lot of people aren’t that keen on the taste of the Florida water, but last trip we took a Bobble water bottle with us – you just top it up from the fountain and it filters the water as you drink. It made it taste a lot better! And an even better tip is that while you’re in the Disney parks, you can get iced filtered water for free – just ask at any of the counter service restaurants around and they’ll give you cups of iced water with no charge – and as they’ve been through the filter system, it will also taste nicer. And there is always plenty of ice cream around to cool you all down

1. I love the name – I’m always one for a pun – located in the film themed park, it is Starring Rolls/Roles – like a sandwich or like a acting part geddit? Chuckle! (and yes I’m well aware I didn’t need to explain that!)
2. While many quick service restaurants in the theme parks don’t serve burgers, very few just sell a good old fashioned sandwich, which after a few days of fast food is usually what I’m craving.
3. In my opinion, Hollywood Studios is a little lacking in decent quick service locations – which makes Starring Rolls stand out even more and it is almost always our choice for lunch while we’re here.

So first, the negative. My main criticism of the place is the layout and seating. The cafe is very small, with no seating inside and two doors to enter/leave out of. You order at the desk and are handed your purchases from behind the counter, which you then take over to the checkout, where the line also splits into two, to pay. While that in itself isn’t unusual, there’s not enough room to swing a cat, let along form three different queues, while balancing your tray and dodging the strollers and kids. However, the biggest disappointment with Starring Rolls is that there is no indoor seating at all – it is all outside, in a courtyard with tables and large umbrellas, which you walk through to get into the cafe. Not only are you outside, in the very hot Orlando sunshine, correlating to the size of the cafe, there are also only a few tables - perhaps 10 or so – meaning it gets overcrowded and you sometimes have to compete for a seat. Despite all that, we still feel its the best place to eat at Hollywood Studios, especially given that many of the other counter service restaurants here also have outdoor seating.

While it is always the sandwiches that draw me into Starring Rolls, there is actually very little choice on the menu in this regard. Just two in fact – a black forest ham sandwich or a turkey focaccia. I do wish there was a bigger selection, but they do taste pretty good and they are HUGE! I don’t know anywhere in the UK that sells sarnies quite like these!

On our last trip, Hubby and I both had the ham and cheese sandwich. We both thought it was very tasty and the bread felt fresh. It had what felt like an entire pack of ham in it, but very little cheese.

As it was advertised as ham and cheese, I’d have rather they evened that up a little more. It was spread with mustard, which wasn’t too heavy but did give it a nice tang. It came with either a piece of fruit or chips (chips actually being crisps, don’t forget!) We picked apples – we always find there is a lack of fruit and veg around Disney so we take the opportunity when it is offered to us! As an alternative to sandwiches, Starring Rolls also sells pastries and sushi.

However, while I’m drawn in for the sandwiches, the best reason to go to Starring Rolls is the desserts! If you’re on the dining plan, the sandwich plus fruit or crisps counts as your entree and you can pick anything from their very wide range of cup-cakes, muffins, pastries and other puddings as your dessert option. Most of these are also snack options for a dining plan snack credit too. With the exception of Sunshine Seasons at Epcot, this is probably the best place to get of a variety of very yummy desserts for a quick service credit anywhere at Walt Disney World. I always leave feeling very full – and feel that I’ve got good value for my counter service credit.

In any pudding or sweet-based decision, my husband never fails to pick the chocolate option. With one exception – tiramisu. I have never known him to not order tiramisu where it is available and Starring Rolls was no exception to this. Unfortunately it did not live up to his expectations and he was so disappointed with it, he didn’t even finish it, which trust me, says a lot! His verdict was that it was far too creamy and that he couldn’t even taste either the coffee or amaretto, so generally a disappointment all round.

I, on the other hand, took advice from the Disney Food Blog and ordered the Chocolate Butter Finger Cupcake. Which I have to say, was one of my better choices.

The chocolate cake was very tasty and moist and in the centre, it was filled with soft, gooey chocolate! To be honest, that in itself would have made it one to have again, it was so yummy.

Split in two - Heaven in a muffin case!

But then on top was an entire pile of icing – or ‘marshmallow frosting’ which was not only huge – as big as the cake itself, but added to the cake by giving it a contrasting flavour, but without making it too sweet. This icing was then entirely covered in butter finger crumbs, which gave it a little crunch. Delicious. Heaven in a muffin case! I did feel a bit sick half way through, but like the trouper I am, I persevered and finished the lot! But trust me, you don’t want to be heading over to Tower of Terror or Rock and Roller Coaster after this cake!

Choice at Starring Rolls comes mainly in the form of dessert/pudding so if that isn’t your thing, odds are that this won’t make your list of top eateries. The food however is fresh and tasty and offers an nice alternative to other fast food around Disney. We recommend it and it is almost always our counter service restaurant of choice at Holly wood Studios.

• Would we go there again? Yes
• Would we do it twice on one trip? Well I say yes definitely, Hubby says yes but because there are few good alternatives in Hollywood Studios
• My rating: 8/10
• Hubby’s rating: 6/10 – I blame that tiramisu!

Disney’s FASTPASS

Is it worth it? YES – IT IS FREE!! Those that have had experience with Universal, or other parks paid-for fast-tracking passes, tend to discount the Disney FASTPASS simply because they aren’t aware that it is a free to use system, and that you don’t need anything other than your original park ticket to be able to take advantage of it. You don’t buy it and you don’t have to be staying in a Disney hotel to be able to use it and yet it is the single most important thing you can do to shorten your waits for the busiest rides at Disney.

So it works like this. The park maps will indicate whether a ride has a fastpass option. When you head over to the ride, to one side of it will be fastpass machines with a sign above saying what time it is currently giving out for fastpass return. You put in your park ticket and the machine spits out a fastpass ticket, with your return time printed on it. This will be an hours slot later in the day, during which time you can return and enter the ride via the fastpass entrance, enabling you to bypass a large part of the queue.

There are some rides that I would rarely contemplate riding without fastpass, due to the typical length of the regular queue. For Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios it is practically a necessity – the queue for fastpass itself can be pretty long first thing and the fastpasses almost always run out for the entire day within the first few hours of opening. Soarin’ at Epcot, Peter Pan at Magic Kingdom, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom are all rides that unless you’re there at rope drop, you’ll want to consider getting fastpasses for as the regular queues will run pretty long all day long.

The one thing you need to consider when getting your fastpasses is your priorities for which rides you want to use them on. You can usually only have one fastpass at a time – i.e. if you’ve have already got one, the machines won’t grant you another one for this or any other ride for a while. Usually you become eligible for your next fastpass around the time that your first one is due, but if you’re first is much later in the day, occasionally you’ll be eligible earlier on. Your fastpass ticket will give you the time when you are able to get another.

There has recently been a change to fastpass policy whereby Disney is now enforcing the time slots for returns. It used to be that you could return any time after your fastpass slot, whereas cast members are now only permitted to grant you access to the fastpass lane if your are returning within 15 minutes of the time slot on your ticket. Many people won’t even be aware that this was never the case, but I thought I’d mention it as it is often a tip you read about that is no longer be true.

Universal’s Express Plus Pass

This is a much more ‘exclusive’ pass and you pay for the privilege of getting quicker access to SOME of the rides around Universal. The amount depends on the time of the year and you purchase it as an addition to your regular ticket, on a per-day basis.

The Express Plus pass allows you to ‘skip the regular line’ ONCE for each of a list of attractions. It does cover many of the attractions at both parks, but worth noting that it does NOT include Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Pteranodon Flyers, or Hollywood Ripride Rockit. Having it for the main Harry Potter ride would make it much more worthwhile, in my opinion.

You can purchase these for just one of the parks, with the cost ranging from $20 to $60 per day, depending on the time of year  or between $26 and $70 per day for both parks. This cost is in ADDITION to your regular park ticket. The cheaper price is obviously when the parks are least busy – cheaper to buy, but essentially worth a lot less as the queues aren’t huge anyway. The times when it would be an advantage to skip the queues it is very expensive, given that it is in addition to the cost of your park ticket. If money’s no object, or you only have one day at the parks, it might be worth it. You can purchase them at the park, or online in advance – and bear in mind they are limited so sold on a first come first served basis.

It is also possible to purchase VIP park tickets, which gives you unlimited access to the Express Plus queues as part of your ticket – these cost between $170 for a 1-day off-peak ticket to $350 for a 4-day peak ticket (compared to $156 for a 4 day regular ticket). If you stay at an onsite hotel, one of the perks is that you get a free unlimited access to the Express Plus lines – therefore you do not need to purchase the pass and are not restricted to how many times you use the Express Plus Pass lanes.

Whether or not you purchase a Universal Express Plus Pass is purely down to personal preference on what you spend your money on. If you have some spare cash and your time at Universal is at a premium then it might well be worth the extra money, so you can get everything done. For us, Universal is not and has never been a priority and I could never justify spending additional money – we rarely even visit it any more. The fact that the pass only allows you on each ride once also puts me off, given that I often fastpass my favourite rides more than once per day and for free at Disney. If however I really wanted to make the most of my time here and was visiting at a peak time when it might be worth paying to beat the crowds, I would probably explore staying one night at the on-site hotels and getting the unlimited pass, before I moved to Walt Disney World.

So there you have it! Summary: Disney’s fastpass – do it, it won’t cost a penny and will save you hours a day in queues. Universal’s Express Plus – will cost you extra and is more limited in its use, but might be worthwhile to some families as a way to make the most of limited time in the parks.

The restaurant is unique as one entire stretch of very large wall is glass, looking out onto the Seas aquarium. We weren’t so lucky this time, but on our last trip we were seated right next to the tank and it really was incredible having the fish float right by you as you ate. Although I must say, I find it a little odd eating fish (which is the main focus of the menu) with some of their friends swimming happily next to you. Its like eating a hamburger next to a field of cows, it just doesn’t seem quite right!

The restaurant is one quite large room, with tables at different levels so everyone has a view of the tank. Sitting next to the tank is definitely very cool. This time round we were two levels back and still had a good view – we could see more of it as a whole, but less of the fishes up close. We’ve not sat on the level at the back, but I imagine the experience of sitting with the fish is somewhat diminished if you don’t get in the front half of the room. Due to the size of the room, it is pretty noisy and there is no real way to get away from that – but it does give it atmosphere.

On our last trip, hubby and I were on the dining plan, so we skipped appetisers and went straight to the main course. Our waitress was gave us some detailed information about what was good on the menu. I don’t really eat fish that often and she answered all my questions, letting me know which fish was more meaty, which would be similar to fish I’d already tried etc. and then didn’t mind in the slightest when after all of that, I decided to order the steak instead!

So I ordered the New York strip steak, which was what I’d also ordered the last time we visited Coral Reef – I decided to stick to what I knew I’d enjoy and the last steak I’d had here had been one of the best I’d eaten in Disney. This time round, I wouldn’t say it was the best steak ever, but it was certainly very good and I would definitely recommend it. In the UK I always order medium-rare, but I find that in the US, medium-rare is just a little more rare in the centre than it would be here. I would always rather more rare than cooked (I can’t stand cremating a perfectly good steak!), so I do stick with the medium-rare, but ask for it to be done on the ‘medium side of medium rare’. Not that I’m picky or anything. This steak came out cooked to perfection and really tender. The accompanying asparagus was also very good - nice and crisp with a good crunch to it when you bit it. As always with vegetables at Disney, I think there should have been more of it. It was also served with horseradish ‘smashed potatoes’ which to me should be very lump mash – i.e. the potatoes broken up, but not creamed. I hate the texture of mashed potato, but don’t mind smashed, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately though, it was proper mash – it was pretty good, with a nice taste to it, but it was a far too creamy for my personal taste. Overall though my main course was very good.

My husband decided that he’d try something new and went for the grilled Mahi Mahi - which we forgot to take a photo of! It was served with prawns and rice in a coconut sauce – which makes it sound like a curry, but it was actually fish with a sauce and rice side. His verdict was that the mahi mahi was good – it was a ‘meaty’ fish, as opposed to a very ‘fishy’ one and the whole dish was quite simple. He liked it, but I think he preferred my steak!

For dessert, we did as we often do which is each pick one and then share both. Hubby selected the Chocolate Wave, a chocolate pudding that comes with a raspberry ice cream.

The pudding was nice – quite soft and ‘melty’ when you split it open, but it didn’t taste very fresh and the ice cream was only ok, which considering the pudding was very rich, was a shame as it could have complemented it well.

I chose the Baileys and Jack Daniels Mousse – which had a dark chocolate and Jack Daniels mousse base, topped with a white chocolate and Baileys mousse and was served with a caramel crisp. This was definitely my preferred dessert of the two. It tasted best when you got a bit of both together, but was yummy separately too. Neither of us are big drinkers, hubby even less so than me – I didn’t think it tasted strongly alcoholic at all, but my husband said he could definitely taste it. It wasn’t too rich, so left you feeling satisfied but not sick!

The meal itself was pretty good, let down just a little by the service. Our waitress was very friendly and did answer all my questions, but she was extremely busy and we felt like we had to track her down to get our re-fills and we waited quite a while to put our order in. She also cleared my husbands plate away while I was still eating, which is a pet hate of mine – it is just rude, but it was something we found happened quite often in Disney, so perhaps waiting until everyone has finished before you clear is a British thing.

All in all, a good meal and a restaurant that we will definitely visit again on our next trip.

• Would we go there again? Yes
• Would we do it twice on one trip? No – Epcot has too many great restaurants, and this isn’t so amazing it is worth missing out on the variety
• My rating: 7/10
• Hubby’s rating: 7/10 – but he said if he couldn’t see the fish, his rating would drop!

So for those that, like me last year, happen to be attending during the Flower and Garden Festival by accident as opposed to by plan, I thought I’d share some of our photos of last year’s incredible displays, to get you excited about what you’ll be about to see – just click on the photos for a slightly larger image:

The outside of the castle, is exactly like you see it in the films – it looks huge and imposing and gives a great first impression. The queues for this do get incredibly long – while it is quite nice to see the castle and some of the effects that they have around the queue, standing for 30 minutes in the greenhouse gets old quite quickly. This first part of the queue is outside and gets really hot too. Having said that, one you’re queuing inside the castle, it gives you the chance to see some really quite impressive items in the Hogwarts theming. As you move around you enter Dumbledore’s office, you see moving paintings that talk to you, including Dawn French as the Fat Lady! There are so many items that you will recognise if you’ve seen the films – the hourglasses containing the house points and the statue at the bottom of Dumbledore’s staircase are particularly impressive.

The idea for the ride is started almost straight away. Once in the castle you make your way into Dumbledore’s office, where a 3D hologram of the man himself welcomes you as a visitor to the school and advises you that you’ll be having a lecture with Professor Bimms. You then enter the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and a 3D hologram of Ron, Harry and Hermione appear out from under the invisibility cloak and tell you to meet them in the room of requirement so that they can sneak you out so you can see a game of Quidditch. Ron then tries some magic which goes wrong – I think this might change, but when we were there, it snowed on us! You then keep on going until you board the ride, passing the Sorting hat on your way. After you get on the ride, you see Hermione who throws floo powder on you and the bench is then lifted up and away.

The scene by scene of the ride is fairly easy to describe – you start out in the astronomy tower, then fly over the quidditch match, where Hagrid’s new dragon starts chasing you and you end up in the Forbidden Forest where you come across Aragog (the acromantula) and the Whomping Willow which hits you back out to the Qudditch field again. Dementors then arrive and you get swept into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry comes out to save the day with his Patronus and it is then a race against time to get out before the chamber collapses. You arrive back to lots of clapping and cheering from the main characters, including Dumbledore, Hagrid, Ginny Weasley etc.

The ride itself and how you do all this is much harder to describe, because it really is like nothing else I’ve experienced. The bench you sit on is on a robotic arm (which you can’t see) and this enables you to move around, up, down, side to side etc. But that also moves along – you don’t stay in one place as is typical of this kind of technology in rides. As you move through the ride, a lot of what you see is on a wraparound screen – with 3D technology – but it doesn’t really feel like you’re watching a screen as you’re moving too. But in addition to the screen, there are parts that are real sets and audio animatronics – so for instance you really do see the Whomping Willow and dementors swinging out at you. It really does have to be tried to be believed and understood – and I would definitely recommend it – it is the best ride I have ever experienced and it surpasses anything elsewhere in Disney and Universal right now.

I have three tips for enjoying the ride without the hassle. Firstly, wear shoes that day, not flip flops – I was wearing my crocs and spent the first ride with my feet turned up into the air as I thought they were going to fly off! There is a height limit (4 foot) which will incredibly disappointing to some little ones. They do a child swap so the adults can still enjoy it. So my second tip would be, even if you can’t try the ride, I’d recommend that you take them around the castle – it really is very fun and worth seeing. Just tell them at the entrance that is what you want to do and they’ll let you through – I believe you go through the single rider line. Which brings me to my third tip. On our first go, we were there first, only had to wait ten minutes and on we hopped. On our second, the queues had got a lot longer and we waited about an hour, and saw a bit of the castle. It is nice to see so actually we didn’t mind the wait. However, we didn’t really want to wait that long again and so we decided to try the single rider line. If you have already seen the castle this is sooo worth it. In the queue (which for us was less than five minutes instead of over an hour) you’re still waiting together. You only separate once you’re about the get on the ride – at which point you can’t really see who is sitting next to you anyway. Once done you hop off and meet up again in the shop at the end. We rode it another 3 times in a row and did it within half an hour! They really don’t advertise that you can do this that well – we only realised because we over-heard someone else asking for it. Once you’ve dealt with the lockers, just let them know you want the single rider line and they send you down a different queue. I’d definitely recommend it.

There are two specific things about Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey that I think if it had been done by Disney, would have been done better. The first is the lockers. You’re not allowed to take bags and loose items onto the ride with you so there are lockers available for you to store your items in (free of charge) before you ride. However it is shockingly badly organised. The lockers are located at the same entrance as the start of the ride, making it very unclear what queue you need to be in. In fact the main queue often leads right outside the front of the castle and if you weren’t aware about the lockers, you could easily queue up and then have to leave it and start again. At very busy times, I imagine there would also be a shortage, as there was a bit of a scrum when we were there, although there were enough to go around. But more than this, actually getting a locker is a total free for all – the rooms are small, there are points all over them for getting a lockers, as each bank of lockers has its own access point – which is screen that scans your finger and then allocates you a locker number – or opens your locker again afterwards. There is only a couple of people around to actually help out when someone can’t work the machines (which is unbelievably frequently!) There is no-one directing people to which locker bank might be free next so it literally has everyone pushing and shoving to either try and get past to a free bank of lockers or just to access the lockers. I really think it could be managed so much better.

You can see the white box to the left of this picture

The second thing I’m sure Disney would have done better is the back of Hogwarts. There is no faulting the castle itself. It has been done extremely well and as a Harry Potter fan, is really great to see. But stand to the left of the castle, or head out of Hogwarts towards Jurassic Park (that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say) and not only can you see both the Jurassic Park sign and Hogwarts, you can also see the huge white boxy building that the castle really is. You can even see it while standing in the queue as it runs through the greenhouse – if you look up it’s just a big white box above you where you should be able to see the castle. I’m sure it must be down to cost, but given how immersive the rest of the area it is, it really ruins the fantasy and lets the area down a little.

Having said that, these are minor details in what is an overwhelming success for Universal. The popularity of Harry Potter was always going to mean it would be popular in the short term, but the excellent way they have implemented the look and feel of the films into the park will give it an on-going draw. However, where they have really excelled is with the Forbidden Journey – it is the first time I’ve found anything in any park that I honestly think is better than whatever is similar in Disney World – and in this case there is literally no comparison. Universal have really stepped up their game – now it is Disney’s time to do the same!

But on our latest trip, there was no question about it – we were going to be visiting Universal. My love of Disney has only one competitor for its number one spot in the list of ‘things I love that are really for kids’ and that is Harry Potter. I LOVE Harry Potter. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read the books – every time a new film has been released, I’ve re-read the entire series (or however many was out at that point) before I went to see the new film. The opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal’s Island of Adventure had been much publicised and I couldn’t wait to see it.

Unlike Disney, which I organise to the nth degree, I knew very little about the park and I didn’t do much research prior to the trip. I knew it was at Islands of Adventure – a fact which I think many people don’t realise, as in the UK it seems to be talked about as the ‘Harry Potter park’ like it is a theme park in its own right. I know it was only a ‘land’ and therefore I wasn’t expecting it to be huge – but I do think others might be disappointed if they weren’t aware. My tip for other visitors would be to get there early and head right over. It will be what everyone else is doing and there will be a temptation to let the crowds pass and try it later, but while it was busy first thing, that is nothing compared to the crowds later on in the day. We visited on a Tuesday in a non-peak time of year and it was still heaving – when the rest of the park really wasn’t that busy.

The vast majority of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is incredibly well done. In a relatively small space they manage to include the Hogsmeade Express, Hogsmeade, including the Three Broomsticks and numerous shops and then of course, Hogwarts. And it feels really authentic – just like you might imagine it would be, based on both the films and the books. It really has a village-y type feel to the Hogsmeade area, with snowy roofs – which are very odd to see considering how blimming hot it is! There are two entrances. When you first enter the theme park, if you turn right and head to the back that way, you enter Hogsmeade first – and are immediately confronted with a life-size version on the Hogsmeade Express, which looks really amazing. If when you enter the park you turn left and head to the back that way, you go through Jurassic Park and enter right by Hogwarts.

There are only four main attractions, apart from the general setting and shops. The Dragon Challenge is a pair of duelling rollercoasters that wrap around each other – each having a different plan and therefore it is a different experience on each. The two rollercoasters are themed as dragons – the Hungarian Horntail and the Chinese Fireball – representing the dragons Harry and Victor Krum face in the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The idea of dragons obviously fits in very well with the Harry Potter theme – but the ride itself has been there for years – previously called Duelling Dragons, and just re-themed for Harry Potter. The ride has always been ‘duelling’ meaning the two rollercoasters run together, but I’ve read that since incidents where people were hurt by objects falling from the other coaster, Universal now run them separately. It has a height restriction of 4’6″.

The Flight of the Hippogriff is a smaller coaster, that doesn’t go upside down – it has more of a ‘runaway mine train’ type feel to it. Once again this is actually a re-themed coaster – it used to be the Flying Unicorn. Less busy first thing, during the day, we found that despite the ride not being all that special, the wait times get very long. I think that this is possibly because it has the lowest height restriction (3 feet) than the other rides in the Harry Potter area and so really is the only one younger children can go on.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey is Universal’s flagship ride and it has to be said, is incredibly good, set in Hogwarts Castle itself. It is also the only new ride for the area. There is far too much to say for just one post, so I will be going into more detail about the ride and the castle in my next post. With a height restriction of 4 feet through, little ones will be disappointed. However, you can do a walking tour of the castle without going on the ride.

The final attraction isn’t a ride, but a mini-show, set in Ollivander’s Wand Shop. Considering what a stickler for detail J K Rowling is renowned for being, I’m surprised she allowed there to be an Ollivander’s in Hogsmeade, as in the books it is located in Diagon Alley. I’ve since read that it is meant to be a branch of the store, but that is not made at all clear in the park itself. The queues for this ‘attraction’ are huge – but this is because only 20 people are allowed in to see the show at a time. Once in, you see a wand ceremony, where one child is selected by the wand maker and the ‘wand chooses the wizard’. It is a fun show and I’m glad I saw it – if I had kids I’d probably go back a few times to see if I could get my child to be the one picked because I think they’d love it. But having done it once, I probably wouldn’t queue up to do it again. Once the show is over, you exit into the wand shop, where you can purchase either a wand based on your birth date or a replica of the wands from the characters. This shop is BUSY and it connects to another shop with lots of fun things to purchase. If you do want to see this shop and not the show, you can enter it through the Dervish and Banges entrances. If however, you’d like to forgo the crowds altogether, there are carts selling the wands near the exit of the Forbidden Journey and they are sold in the main shop at the exit of Islands of Adventure – along with a lot of other Wizarding World Merchandise.

Of course the setting and the shops are also an attraction in themselves. In shops there is Zonko’s, selling joke and tricks, Honeydukes, selling sweets (including chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans) and Dervish and Banges, which sells quidditch supplies and leads into the back of Ollivander’s. The largest of the stores is probably Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods – which is at the exit of Forbidden Journey. This is a little bigger than the other stores, which have been kept small to fit into the theming of Hogsmeade. The emporium sells a little of everything, including film prop replicas and more general Harry Potter themed gifts and clothing.

One place really worth exploring is the Three Broomsticks, even if you only want to have a look around. This is the main eatery and considering they’ve had to make it pretty big and full of tables, they do it really well – it definitely has that English pub feel to it. It is quite dark, with lots of wood. If you go in, make sure you have a really good look around – and look up as well! You can see winding staircases and there is a really authentic bar on the far side. It is also one of the places you can find Butterbeer! It is actually worth coming inside to buy it from here – the queues at the carts that sell them outside get massively long. Butterbeer has become extremely popular – you can buy it in either the regular form, or as a frozen slushie. Hubby and I shared a regular one – we wanted the ‘authentic’ version. It is hard to describe but tastes a bit like butterscotch – a bit like liquid Worther’s Originals, with froth on top. At first I really liked it, but after a while it got way too sickly for us, and we actually couldn’t finish even the one between us. But I know lots of people adore it and it is quickly becoming a must-have for many people.

We spent most of the morning in the Wizarding World before heading off to do what we wanted to in the rest of Islands of Adventure and the main Universal park. We were back at the Wizarding World by 4pm – the rest of the parks were exactly as we remembered them and felt dated. As we had mainly come to see Harry Potter, we decided to just make the most of the time we had there. I’m still not sure if we’d come back again on our next trip – if we did it would mainly be for the Forbidden Journey! Having said that, I’m really glad we made the effort to go there this time. If you’re a Disney fan, I think you would enjoy the immersive elements of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts as in the main it is very well done. And if you’re a Harry Potter fan – well you probably don’t need convincing!

The menu looks really tasty and it was difficult to choose which to have. The options are:

• ShawarmaPlatters – either chicken, lamb or chicken and lamb – served with side of hummus, tabouleh and a Tangierine couscous salad with fresh Moroccan bread
• Specialty Wraps – either chicken, lamb or falafel – served with Tangierine couscous salad and lentil salad
• Moroccan Kefta Sandwich – Ground beef, grilled and served with fresh salsa and fries
• Vegetable Platter – Falafel, tangierine couscous salad, hummus, tabouleh, lentil salad and marinated olives
• Mediterranean Sliders Combo – three Pita pockets – lamb, chicken and falafel, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, and tahini Sauce. Served with lentils, hummus and tabouleh

When you go in, you order at the start of the counter and move along it, as your dish is made up in front of you, until you reach the end of the counter where you receive your dish and pay. I like how fresh it all seemed – the fact that it is scooped and plated in front of you is a nice touch and makes it seem less fast-foody. My biggest criticism is that there is no mention of the dining plan or desserts. They’re not on the menu at all. We assumed that maybe they just didn’t offer them and because we wanted the main meal, we were prepared to forgo them. However when we got to the till, we were also given a piece of baklava each – so there was no dessert option but you do get one – this isn’t made clear at all. What you get if you have a nut allergy or something, I’m not sure. This being Disney I’m sure they do accommodate, but the alternative doesn’t seem to be made an option to most. Along these lines, it would have also been nice if there was a non-alcoholic authentic drink included in the dining plan. They sold Sangria, Moroccan wine and coffees but a soft drink would have added to the experience, we thought. Hubby suggested Ayran, which is yogurt, salt and water and sounds bloody horrible to me, but I do get his point that something other than your usual Coke etc would have been a nice addition to the menu.

Typically, hubby and I both wanted the same thing so I’m afraid we’ve only got the one thing to review – the Mediterranean Sliders. I liked these a lot, my hubby thought they were just ok. You get three mini-pittas, each filled with either lamb, chicken or falafel. My problem with them were that they were all quite wet – due to ‘seepage’ from one of them. In my experience, that is quite common with this kind of food, but it makes it messy to eat. The chicken one was my favourite – the chicken was really moist and tender. We did think though that the meat in general was too thick – it made it more like a burger as opposed to slices of meat, which would have been nicer (and more authentic possibly?). The accompaniments were also really good. The hummus was really tasty, and as a rule I’m not much of a fan – I can take it or leave it, but it was really good with a nice smooth consistency. Hubby said it needed more garlic, but to get it as garlic-y as he likes it makes it pretty much inedible for anyone else, so in this instance, I’d ignore him! The salad it came with was also really good, with a lemon tang to it. Very yummy.

And on to the Baklava. Two things before I start: 1. Hubby is extremely particular (read fussy) about his baklava (see my Kat Kora review for further evidence!) and 2. I hate pistachios as a rule, so I don’t usually even like the stuff. For those that don’t know, baklava is a Turkish (or other Ottoman empire countries) pastry that consist of layer of chopped pistachio nuts, thin pastry and honey or syrup. The know-it-all’s expert’s opinion was that it shouldn’t have been served in one large triangle shaped piece – it should have been chopped into two smaller pieces. More importantly, he thought the pastry was too thick, as was the filling. It came with a thick middle filling and then layers of pastry on the outside. Instead these should really have been layered up more. Although he also said that this sometimes happens when the layers get stuck together if the dish isn’t totally fresh. He also said that you shouldn;t be able to see the syrup and that it needed more pistachio. My only response to all that was that the latter was probably true because I hate pistachio and yet I thought the baklava was really good. Very sweet, but really tasty. Given that I’m not a fan of baklava as a rule, the fact that I thought it was yummy I personally think is a better judge than all of the above!  I was going to say maybe a little sweet but it didn’t stop me polishing off the second half of hubby’s!

All in all, I had a good quick service meal that was really quite different from anything else you can get on Disney property. I think I was happier with it than hubby because of those expectations I mentioned at the start. But if you’re looking for some varied cuisine on your holiday, I’d personally recommend giving Tangierine Cafe a go.

• Would we go there again? Yes
• Would we do it twice on one trip? No – but only because Epcot offers some other really good quick service restaurants too.
• My rating: 7/10
• Hubby’s rating: 6/10

So firstly, why not a Value resort? Well that’s easy, in the UK  ‘free dining’ is not offered on the Value resorts – you get nothing for a value, quick service for a moderate and the full plan for a Deluxe. We stay on site and always gets the full dining plan and by the time you’ve added the cost of the dining plan onto the value resort, instead of just the upgrade from quick to full dining at a moderate, a value resort can actually be MORE expensive than a moderate! Two weeks in October 2012 at All Stars with the Dining Plan and tickets for two adults is currently £2333.02 ($3649) and it is  £2173.10 ($3398) at Port Orleans with free dining plus dining upgrade. That won’t apply for everyone – if you don’t mainly stay on site, then the dining plan won’t be worth getting but for us, moderates make more sense.

So the question for us is do we upgrade to a Deluxe? We would certainly like to – every single time we go, we come back saying “next time, we’ll save up and go to…”. Which Deluxe varies - The Beach Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge (but only with Arusha Savannah view) and the Polynesian have all made our “next time” list in the past and the Contemporary is currently our number one choice for our next trip – the walk to Magic Kingdom, free WiFi in the lobby and the one stop monorial to ‘Ohana has elevated it to the number one spot.

So why is it that each time, we end up back in a moderate? It comes down to cost – not whether we can afford it as such - it would be a stretch, but if we really wanted to, we could – it is more whether it is ‘worth it’? I’m aware I go on about this a lot, but I do think the difference is the typical length of our holiday – the extra money for a 14 night holiday is a lot harder to justify than for a week. That and the offers – ‘free dining’ seems to be a much more common offer in the UK than a discounted room rate. To put it in real terms, a fortnight, room only in Port Orleans for October 2012 (i.e. a moderate at a ‘cheap’ time of the year) is currently £1498 ($2343) - standard room, standard view. The same time, cheapest room at the Contemporary is £3556 ($5561)- well over twice the price. It is not quite as simple a a straight comparison – with a moderate you only get free Quick Service, so we pay for a upgrade to the regular dining plan, but including that and tickets for two adults, excluding flights, the holiday is £2173.10 ($3398) compared to £3848.20($6017). £1675 ($2620) is a lot of money!

So is it worth an extra £1675/$2620 to stay in a hotel like the Contemporary? What am I paying for?:

• Convenience - this is the number one factor for an upgrade for us – a walk or short monorail ride to Magic Kingdom is VERY appealing – or a walk to Epcot from the Beach/Yacht Club. The Magic Kingdom resorts also have four of our favourite restaurants – Kona Cafe, Narcoossee’s, California Grill and ‘Ohana. But £1675 is a lot for convenience – its not like we only have a short amount of time to cram everything we want to do into. And Deluxe hotels usually share buses with other nearby Deluxes, therefore taking just as long to do the ‘pick-ups’ as a moderate for the parks that they bus to, so are not always more convenient.
• Deluxe rooms – having never actually stayed in a Deluxe hotel, the only comparison I have is a Studio at Old Key West, which apart form the size, didn’t feel any different to a moderate. I’m assuming the pricier Contemporary’s rooms would have a more ‘plush’ feeling to them – which of course would be nice. But given we literally use them to sleep and change and then run out of the door, I’m not particularly looking for a fancy room for my Walt Disney World holiday.
• Peace and quiet – I always perceive the Deluxe hotels to be more peaceful than the values or moderates. Given that they, like all the others, are full of extremely excited kids, I’m not sure that is actually the case – especially as because they have the ‘hotel’ indoor corridors as opposed to ‘motel’ outside corridors, the walls are often thinner. Having said that, the Grand Floridian is definitely quieter!
• Free Wifi – at the Contemporary at the moment- used to skype my Mum in the UK and occasionally use the Walt Disney World website to book a restaurant. Well clearly the extra is not worth it for this! While we be-grudge paying for it, we can get the Internet in our room for $10 a night – $140 if we needed it everyday. We’d have to take a router with us, but even so! Or paying for US to UK calls would cost about the same.

So each time, we um and ahh about the cost and so far, have always decided that it is not worth the extra. I do sometimes wonder though if we did upgrade one year, if we’d realise what we’ve been missing. We never really understood the benefit of paying more to stay in a Disney hotel, until we did it and now we would never stay anywhere else. We’ve not yet booked our next trip – so I’m sure we’ll carry on discussing it for some time yet.