Theme Parks

No visit to Florida would be complete without a trip to a theme park. Which ones though? So many to choose from.

In the end we decided on Disney's Magic Kingdom first, followed by Universal Studios, both in Orlando. We arrived early at Disneyland, paid $14 for the car park and began the tortuous journey into the park. First was a ride to the ticket booth where we were lightened of $90 each for over 10's and $80 for the younger ones. Thereafter there was a choice of either ferry or monorail to the park itself. We chose the latter, the whole process taking over an hour and it was the same on the way back.



Once inside all reality is suspended. The park is aimed primarily at younger children - no big roller coasters here. The only one of significance, Space Mountain, is enjoyable enough but didn't really get the pulse racing. It was a busy day, the last Saturday of the Easter holidays, and the queues for everything were long, many taking 50 minutes or so for a usually short ride.

Prices in the park for food, drink and merchandising are on the high side of extortionate. You are a captive audience and I felt well and truly exploited.

Overall, I wasn't impressed and certainly wouldn't go back. The children enjoyed it, but Disney is a little bit too false sugary sweet for me.

Max meets the 'real' Mickey

Universal Studios on the other hand was an altogether better experience. Firstly, it was easier and cheaper to get in. Once inside, food and drink was all at normal prices as far as I could see and there was a good selection. Starbucks coffee for example, at $2, was almost half the price we pay in Dubai for the same thing!

We didn't bother paying the extra $99 each(!) for the express pass which helped you skip the bulk of the queues, but it wasn't necessary anyway as none of the queues were excessive. They had also, unlike Disney, gone to some length to keep you entertained whilst waiting - special Simpsons videos, for example, whilst waiting for the extremely good Simpsons ride.

The 2 big roller coasters were excellent, especially the Mummy one in pitch black with fire in the ceiling, backwards travel and clever special effects.

The tie-ins with the movies were good, especially Terminator, but some parts, like Jaws, were looking a little jaded.

Overall though, something for everyone here and an excellent day out.

The picture below is the current state of Universal Studios, Dubai. It consists of a gate, a site office and a whole load of empty desert as far as the eye can see. The park was due to open this year but appears to be another victim of the global slowdown.

The most fun you can have whilst puking your guts up ...

Meet Captain Fox Watkins, genial Floridian professional charter captain. For 47 years he has been fishing the waters off the coast of Florida. Today he had the uneviable task of taking me on my first ever sports fishing trip.



I have been fishing before; minnows in streams, the odd small trout, that kind of thing. But I have never been anywhere near sailfish, marlin, tuna and the big fish that lurk in the ocean.

First of all though, we needed fuel and I discovered part of the reason that deep sea fishing trips are so expensive. The 1500HP is very, very thirsty and needs a lot of maintenance. The fuel tanks hold 300 gallons which cost a cool $863 + 6% state tax to fill. The trip to Titusville and back, about 10 hours round trip had used 400 gallons of fuel - well over $1,000.



We started out catching some live bait. Specifically, this was sea bass about 8 to 10" or so that hung themselves eagerly on our hooks when we put small pieces of shrimp on. Ben particularly loved this, once catching three fish on one cast, and would have been happy to do this all day. However, we had bigger fish to fry and motored on to a wreck to look for amberjack.

Nico dropped over a couple of sea bass as livebait and was immediately in to a big fish. Unfortunately, I chose this moment to be overcome by the smell of diesel and the feeling of nausea from the rocking of the boat and was violently sick for the next hour or so - the first time I have ever been seasick and I felt embarassed that my sea legs had let me down.

Then it all went quiet for a while and we couldn't catch anything. Fox, who gives directions from the bridge on exactly what to do when, came down to see what was happening. He dropped a rod in and immediately got a bite, gave me a knowing look, and handed the rod to me. I wasn't prepared for how hard it would be. The fish fought like hell and I didn't think I had enough strength in my arm to reel it in. With help and encouragement from Nico I finally hauled him up. Nico gaffed him and put him quickly into the fish box. Fox guessed the weight at 35lbs - I was sure it was larger! - but it did get quite an appreciation from the crowd that gathers at the marina to see what has been caught.

The amberjack are part of Fox's deal; he has them made into what he calls fish dip or Smak and is sold locally. He gave us a tub and it is delicious - Lucy gorged herself on it.

So, we had to catch something for supper. Ben caught a couple of legal sized sea bass and then we moved on to troll for kingfish (also known as king mackerel). There were around 20 other boats in the area, mostly commercial fishermen. After a one hour or so of no bites, we landed three decent sized fish in quick succession. They have pretty nasty teeth and I was glad to see them safely in the fish box.

After that, we returned back to the marina for the obligatory pose with the catch. Fox then drew quite a crowd of tourists and pelicans as he demonstrated his filleting skills. The resulting fillets were then made into a superb meal by the restaurant in the marina for only $10 each. Great way to end another memorable day.

Shuttle Launch

5am, Easter Monday. T minus 1 hour and 21 minutes until the space shuttle blasts off on one of its very last trips into space. There are only 3 missions left after this one. It is pitch black, a little bit chilly. Everyone else is fast asleep but the jet lag has just caught up on me and I am wide awake and wondering what camera settings and which lens will be needed – there is no second chance for this photo op and, for me, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that is too good to miss. The first photographer has just arrived with tripod (damn – didn’t pack mine). He has clearly done this before and at least is showing me the direction to point.

We are in Titusville Municipal Marina. Titusville is THE place to watch a shuttle launch if you can’t get one of the few public spots at the Kennedy Space Centre and you don’t work for NASA. Mind you, it is still at least 10 miles away but the area surrounding the launch is locked down by NASA and there is nowhere closer.

The first day of the holiday was a bit of a blur. We took the 17 hour night flight to Orlando and then drove down to Fort Pierce City Marina where Nico, Helen and LJ (friends from Dubai) are being most excellent hosts on their boat ‘Distinctive Too’. Three young kids on a plane for that length of time is nobody’s idea of fun but they all coped extremely well. The plane was full of what was mostly Americans returning home for Easter. A fair few of them, judging by their size and lousy haircuts, appeared to be soldiers returning for R&R as I believe they call it. I was struck by how big they all were, and Americans in general for that matter. As we were getting ready to take off a petite stewardess was struggling to close the overhead locker. The man mountain sat underneath it did not move a muscle other than to raise his arm slightly and easily push it shut.

From Fort Pierce we sailed up the intercoastal waterway for almost 5 hours to Titusville, watching dolphins play in the wake and jealously regarding the waterfront mansions. It’s not too hard to see why this is a popular holiday and retirement area. The boat is great, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, internet connection and a big plasma TV. But this isn’t a boat built for pleasure cruising. No, first and foremost, this is a boat built for serious deep sea fishing. Nico takes this all pretty seriously, both in Dubai (where he has another boat) and here in Florida. Yesterday he caught an 80lb amberjack - comfortably bigger than Max!

At the back of the boat (I’m sure there’s a proper nautical term, but I am a complete landlubber) there is a big chair (‘the fighting chair’) with holders for 9 rods. You can even be strapped into it. Two of the rods, I am informed, are electric and cost a cool $1500 each. On the upper deck there are 6 more rods and giant pointed arms which can be set to trail bait. There are boxes to put fish in, a big tank full of livebait, and drawers and drawers of fishing tackle. This really is a professional sports fishing boat.

Anyway, back to the shuttle launch. It is now just after 6 and everyone has woken up and eagerly anticipating the launch. We have the local radio on giving commentary and countdown. And then, at precisely 6.21 EDT, the sky is no longer black as ball of incandescent light illuminates the whole sky and the shuttle is on its way to the space station. It is truly an amazing sight as it thrusts spacewards leaving a huge plume of smoke behind. A minute or so later the sound arrives, a gentle rumble at first and then a crack like a large clap of thunder. Suddenly, I am glad that we are 10 miles away.




After a few minutes it is gone and out of site. An absolutely amazing sight to witness first hand - the smoke lingers for a few hours, making strange shapes in the sky, but the memories will last forever.