We have been in Florida a few days now, and have been enjoying the sunshine; it has peaked at about 94°F each day. You can’t beat that sort of weather!
Some fun things that have happened so far:
On the flight over (Virgin Atlantic), none of the seat back screens in our row were working. To appease us, the flight crew brought us two mini DVD players, and two very cool entertainment machines. They had basically taken an HP1100 Tablet PC, replaced the keyboard with more of a “media keyboard”, and then loaded software onto the machine that allowed the user to play all of the same media that the in-flight entertainment system was showing. Of course, it meant that we had much bigger screens than everybody else! The only drawback was that my son was more interested in watching the in-flight safety video than the main movies; I think he managed to watch it 8 or 9 times...
The house we are staying at is great. About 6 miles to the west of Disney, it is really convenient for the parks. It is a large house, on one level; so more of a bungalow really! As you walk in there is a large “Great Room” with adjoining kitchen. The three bedroom areas are joined to the great room. There are two double rooms, both with walk-in closets and en suite facilities at one and of the house. At the other end are two twin rooms, a childrens den and a bathroom. This is great, because it makes the children feel like they have their part of the house, and we have ours. The childrens den is particularly cool – it is equipped with a TV/video, funky chairs and games. On top of all that, the pool and hot-tub are great fun for everyone, and the garage has had a pool table and foosball table installed. There are more details about Silver Creek Villa here – if you book, tell them I sent you… 
On the first day, the kids asked to go to SeaWorld; this was surprising since it is not a Disney park. We went early and the place was pretty quiet at that point. We found ourselves towards the back of the park (intending to see the Sea Lion show) and with a few minutes to spare. I thought I would check out the queue for Kraken, SeaWorld’s roller coaster. A 2 minute wait time! You don’t get those on big attractions often, so I decided to ride. Now, I know the details of most of the area attractions (height, speed etc) but for some reason, I knew very little about this one. This just made the ride so much better – it was fantastic. It has a top speed of 65mph, and there are a total of 7 inversions during the ride. The Roller Coaster Database has more details.
The kids and I have all been wearing our Boston Red Sox hats. I am very surprised at the amount of fans there are around. I have had many conversations in queues etc, most starting with the question “where are you from?”. Most people seem surprised when I say “London”. We were watching some street performers at Epcot called the JAMitors (very much in the style of Stomp, playing old trash cans and flower pots with drumsticks – totally awesome) and when they had finished the head JAMitor even came up to me to ask where I was from, and if I knew the score from the previous night. I guess it really is Red Sox Nation. 
Of course, we’ve met quite a few characters already, and the kids are enjoying getting their autograph books filled up. They have seen Pinnochio, Timon and Rafiki, the 7 dwarves, Chicken Little and Abby Mallard. They are looking forward to seeing Mickey and Minnie et al when we head to the Magic Kingdom.
