So in the end we stuck with family and didn’t go very far afield. Crammed an awful lot of the parks into 10 days as well as Clearwater, some glow in the dark crazy golf…
…an airboat ride at Boggy Creek to see some 'gators and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The parks were way cooler than I expected with Islands of Adventure topping the lot. I’m not a massive Harry Potter fan but I was totally won over by the Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade station linked by a Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4 Hogwarts Express train ride from one to the other. So much attention to detail and this just looked so damn cool:
Two of my more obscure favourite things were the beautiful (and massive) mosaics of Sleeping Beauty under the Disney castle…
…and this guy who blew me away:
I wish I’d asked him to play Scott Joplin’s The Cascades but he was so content playing I couldn’t bring myself to waltz over there and ask. His name’s Jim Omohundro and he’s been playing there for nearly 35 years. Much like the mosaics most people seemed to just saunter by!
Edit: here’s him from 1989 on blistering form: https://youtu.be/ZJOBwtAvq3Q
A few other things though: Do people rest in restrooms? Auto-flushing toilets? Blinking red lights for indicators instead of orange ones? Number plates not on the front of some vehicles? No PIN numbers for authorising credit card payments? No half pints (or 6oz drinks on tap)? Adding tax at the till? Toll stations on every other strip of freeway? Biscuits and gravy?
Anyway, I had a terrific time and thanks for the suggestions even if I didn’t get to check many of them out.