Apologies

Jacob would like to take this opportunity to apologise for not having kept you up to date with his activities for the last few days, but he's been far too busy having fun. Normal service will be resumed shortly when we retire to the seaside to recover from a week of theme park madness.

Lots of love,

The Management


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Location:Orlando,United States

Disney World at last

Yesterday we went to the Magic Kingdom, and I have just about recovered enough now to tell you about it. It was really great and I specifically liked a ride called Splash Mountain. I liked it so much I did it twice! The first time I went with mummy and Max but Max was really scared and cried for most of it. The second time I went with daddy, and he really liked it too.

We did so much that I'm struggling to think of everything. We started off trying to find rides that the twins would enjoy, so we did the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, which they really loved, and then the Winnie the Pooh ride (which was my idea.) We were going to go on It's a Small World, but we didn't and I can't remember why. Then daddy went to get Fast Passes for Pirates of the Caribbean while mummy took Max and me to the Haunted Mansion. Daddy discovered that they don't do Fast Passes for Pirates so instead he got them for Splash Mountain. After that we had to keep walking backwards and forwards all the way across the park to get to the rides we wanted to go on.

At the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, they put Max and me up on the big screen, which was really funny and we felt a bit famous. We also did Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and then after lunch we went back to finally go on Pirates of the Caribbean, which we call Pirates of the Caribeanan because Max used to call it that when he was little. The twins were really brave on the ride because it was quite dark and a bit scary. We also went on the Jungle Cruise and we were just about to leave when we saw that the queue for Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride was quite short, so we did that too, and I had the control which made us go up and down, and Max had the control to make us fly.

At the end of the day, we went to the big Disney shop on Main Street and bought some toys. I got some little collectible figures, Max got a cuddly Hamm from Toy Story that he calls Dr Porkchop, and the twins got little Mickey Mouses. When we got back to the apartment we went for a swim to cool down, then mummy and daddy got some of their favourite colourful drinks from the bar and Max and I got milkshakes.

It was a very busy day and we were exhausted by the end of it but we all had a lot of fun anyway.

Today we've been taking it a bit easier. We went for a walk around our hotel resort this morning, then went for another big swim. Then we came back to the apartment to have a nice big sleep (Max and I slept in mummy and daddy's bed) so that we've got plenty of energy for an exciting night out tonight. I'm writing this blog now while Max and the twins are still asleep - they've been asleep for over three hours now!

Tomorrow is a REALLY big day, because we're going to Harry Potter World. I'm SOOOO excited.

Oh, and did I mention the giant waterslide?

When do we start having fun?

It's Friday morning, and I have to admit that I'm not sure about this whole holiday business yet. We spent all of Wednesday getting here, and all of yesterday shopping. I thought this holiday was supposed to be about the kids having fun.

OK well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. We have done some fun stuff. We found a playground near our villa which is cool. We had really nice pancakes for breakfast in Denny's, and there was a man in there making balloon animals. I got a dragonfly which was huge. The other boys got smaller animals which weren't as exciting. Then we went to the shop called M&Ms world and bought loads of M&Ms and some toys. Then in the evening when the twins went to sleep, daddy took Max and me to the pool and I spent ages diving and snorkeling.

I suppose when you think about it like that, we actually had a pretty fun day yesterday. But that's not my point. We haven't been to a theme park yet, and that's not fair. Well we've been awake since 5 o'clock this morning - daddy said something about so much for being over the jetlag - and now we're just waiting for Disney World to open so we can finally go and have some serious fun.

The journey over here on Wednesday was pretty boring. We spent a very long time standing in queues at airports, and a very long time on aeroplanes. Fortunately for mummy and daddy my brothers and I were all angels all day long. They don't know how lucky they are. I watched Gulliver's Travels three times and bits of Monsters Inc over and over again too. I also read my book, and had a little sleep, and looked at the clouds out the window, but it was a very very very very long day.

Daddy seems to have made a sport out of complaining about things. First we had to take the hire car back to the airport 5 minutes after we picked it up on Wednesday night, because it kept juddering. He complained to the hotel because he found a bit of broken glass in the kitchen. And he complained to the restaurant last night because it took them so long to make his pizza. But he seems to quite enjoy it because he keeps getting money off things, and we even got a gift basket delivered to our room from the hotel manager, which I thought was really cool because it was full of sweets.

Anyway, I've got to go now. I've got an important meeting with Mr M Mouse.

Back to Florida

Hello. I am Jacob. I am seven years old and I live in London with my three brothers. Oh yes and a couple of big people who feed us and tidy up after us. I think they're called mum and dad.

The last time I wrote on this blog was nearly 3 years ago. I was just four and a half and I only had one little brother, Max, who was small, cheeky, but very cute. Now that I'm seven, Max is not so small, still very cheeky and very very naughty, but I love him anyway. But he's not my only brother any more. Just around the time I last wrote here, mummy found out she was pregnant again, and I now have two year old twin brothers called Jonah and Zach. If you thought Max was cheeky and naughty, you should meet those two.

The reason for setting up this blog in the first place was to document my holiday in Florida. For the last two years, mummy and daddy tried to have more cultured, sophisticated holidays in the South of France, but they realised that these don't really work with four small children in tow. The best days we had in France were at theme parks and playgrounds. So they have finally admitted that the only way to have a fun holiday is to make sure it's fun for the children, so we're going back to Florida to do it all again.

I'm a Harry Potter fanatic, so the bit I'm most looking forward to is going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. But daddy showed me all the other stuff on the Universal Studios website last night, and I'm also really excited about the Jurassic Park ride, the Cat in the Hat show (with Thing 1 and Thing 2) and the Spider-Man ride. We're also going to go to Disney World (of course) and I'm looking forward to the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.

But it's not all theme parks (unfortunately), because if it was I think mummy would disown us. We're also going to the seaside for a week in St Pete Beach, where we plan on doing lots of swimming, building sandcastles and eating ice cream.

So if you're interested in knowing what it's like to take your three little brothers, and your parents, on a really exciting adventure, then make sure you keep up with this blog over the next few weeks.

All the best films

Phew! We've finally made it home after an unbelievably long and tiring couple of days, and we're now badly suffering the effects of jetlag. It's 2 in the morning, and Max, daddy and I are up watching a DVD because we can't sleep. But back to the last day of our holiday...

We got up early in the morning and left the hotel in Clearwater. It was sad because Lisa the parrot wasn't up yet so we didn't get to say goodbye. We then drove back to Orlando and after checking in our suitcases for our flight, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I was very excited when I realised which park we were going to, because daddy said we weren't going there this year. It's got some of my favourite rides all based on my favourite films - most importantly the Star Wars ride.

But first, we went to the brand new ride which has only just opened, called Toy Story Mania. Unfortunately because it's new it was very popular and we had to queue up a very long time for it, but it was worth it as it was really good fun. You get 3D glasses and then you go around to all these different screens where you have to shoot 3D balls at different characters and scenes from Toy Story. I got a really high score, but I think daddy's was a bit higher. After that I went on the Star Wars ride with mummy - Max is too small so he and daddy waited for us in the shop. The ride was great, and they've got so many cool Star Wars toys in the shop like a Goofy Darth Vader and Mickey Luke Skywalker.

After lunch we went hunting for WALL-E toys but because the film has only just come out, they've hardly got any toys in stock yet, so we went all over the park trying to find them. Max fell asleep just as the parade was about to start, and slept through the whole thing, but I found a really good place to watch it. It was lots of fun - lots of singing and dancing and characters from the Pixar films, like Woody and Buzz and the Incredibles.

The parade finished just in time for the best part of the day - The Indiana Jones Stunt show. It was amazing. They had the big boulder, exploding cars, fights with baddies, and even an aeroplane. Max was a bit scared by the big bangs.

Sadly we then had to say goodbye to Disney and head to the airport. The plane was much busier than on the way over, but there were a few spare seats, so daddy went and grabbed some after we'd taken off, so there'd be room for us boys to sleep. Daddy made a bed for Max and he went to sleep after dinner and slept for most of the flight. But I wasn't tired at all, and stayed up until about 2 in the morning watching my Power Rangers DVD. I finally fell asleep about an hour before we landed, and so was really grumpy when I had to be woken up to get off the plane. Getting through the airport was really slow, as there was a big queue to show them our passports (we should have got a Fastpass) and then it took ages for our pushchairs to come off the plane. When we finally got back to our car, we realised how much smaller it is than the one we had in Florida, and daddy had a bit of a struggle fitting all our stuff in, especially the new suitcase we had to buy to fit our shopping in.

So we're finally back in our lovely house with our comfy beds and all our stuff that I missed while we were away. I'm pleased to be home, but I think it would be better if we had a swimming pool in the garden and a few Disney parks down the road.

Crabs

I don't have much time to write this morning as we've got an early start ahead of a(nother) very busy day. It's the last day of our holiday, which is sad, but I'm also excited to be going home because I miss my teddies and my friends and my school and my grandparents. But as a special treat we're going back to Disney today, so we've got to drive back to Orlando this morning.

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to the beach, but there were some scary black clouds over the sea so we thought we'd better do an indoor activity while the storm passed. So we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is home to a famous dolphin called Winter, who lost her tail in a crab trap when she was a baby. We watched a film about how they made her an artificial tale, and we saw her with her trainer, and lots of other dolphins and turtles too. Daddy was very interested to see the dolphin show but Max and I got a bit bored after a few minutes. My favourite bit was the gift shop.

In the afternoon, we did finally make it to the beach for one last time, where I had lots of fun tipping daddy off the lilo into the sea, and we built sandcastles and tunnels in the sand.

In the evening, we had our last Florida dinner at Crabby Bill's. I ordered the Popcorn Shrimp because mummy told me that I had loved it when we came here when I was little, but I obviously didn't have very good taste in food back then, because I didn't think much of the shrimp this time. Never mind - the chips were nice, and so was Max's hamburglar. And he seemed to like the shrimp, so it all worked out in the end.

This will be my last post from Florida, but I'll fill you in on all the details of Hollywood Studios and our journey home when we're back in England.

Busch Gardens

Today we went to Busch Gardens. We started our day with a train ride around the park and we spotted giraffes, zebras (or zeebras as the Americans call them), rhinos, hippos and ostriches.

Daddy was very excited, but I was a bit safaried out. It takes more than big game to thrill me now, so daddy decided that it was time for me to try a real, upside down, rollercoaster with him. I was very excited by this idea, but just as we got to the front of the queue the ride closed because there was a storm on the way.

We didn’t really know what to do as it was beginning to rain and all the rides had closed because of the lightening. To escape the bad weather we went into the 4D Pirates show, but we had to wait 40 minutes for it to start – luckily mummy managed to find a seat for us all to share so it wasn’t too bad.

The show was pretty scary – Max spent most of it hiding behind daddy and crying – and we got wetter than we would have done outside as we kept getting squirted with water. I wasn’t too keen on that bit either, so I was pleased to see the weather was better once we got out and we could go and try out the Scorpion rollercoaster at last.

Daddy and I joined the queue, while mummy and Maxy went to play on the baby rides. I think Max got the best deal – he had about 15 rides on the train and motorbike rides, while I waited with daddy – and I didn’t like the rollercoaster after all. It hurt me when I went upside down, and to be honest I don’t think I was really a big enough boy to enjoy it.

Never mind – I cheered myself up by having a go on the train and motorbikes with Max, which was great fun, though daddy was a bit annoyed that we had wasted so much of the day waiting for a ride I didn’t even like.

After an hour of watching Max and then me on the train and motorbike rides mummy said she’d had enough, so we moved on to the Land of the Dragons. Mummy and daddy said I had loved it when I came here as a baby and it’s just as good now I am 4.

We played in the water, on the climbing frame, bouncy castle and then had loads of goes on all the rides. Mummy took us on the egg wheel, which made her a bit weepy as it reminded her of when she took me on it when I was baby and Maxy was just a bump.

We both had a go on a mini water ride, we also shared a racing car, went on flying dragons and boats. Mummy and daddy had a hard job tearing us away when the park was about to close.

For tea we had chips (naturally) and the most enormous slice of chocolate cake I have ever seen. Max and I did a good job trying to finish it, but even with a bit of help from mummy and daddy we were defeated and half of it ended up in the bin.

On the way home I went straight to sleep, but Max managed to stay awake for the whole drive. Daddy was particularly pleased about this as it meant he could spend most of the drive asking ‘Where is the hotel?’ and ‘Are we at the hotel yet?’

A lazy day tomorrow, before our last taste of Disney before we fly home so we can tell you all about our holiday in person. Get ready for the epic video – daddy has hardly put the camera down…