The happiest place on earth: hitting the heights in Orlando

My London-bred cynicism dominated when I landed in Orlando: grown adults were sporting oversized black mouse ears, en masse. The parking attendant urged me to ‘go and have the best day!” Cheerful music emerged from bushes. It was weird; synthetic, near-dystopian.

Hours later, I was a fully converted member of the cult; beaming my way around It’s A Small World at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and contemplating my own mouse ears in one of the many (many) shops. The whole ‘happiest place on earth’ thing was starting to bear truth.

Walt Disney World has just turned 50 — and it doesn’t look anything like its age. Like Orlando itself (a ten-hour flight from London) it’s constantly conjuring new ways to have fun. It’s easy to get around (monorails, boats and buses glide around), full of excellent farm-to-fork food, world-beating museums and fearsome animals up close; it has world-beating attractions but feels like a set of villages to explore.

Here’s the low-down on Orlando...

Best days out for young families

Magic Kingdom, Disney’s original Orlando base and the most-visited park in the world, is top for children. It has 23 rides suitable for younger kids, plus ‘coasters and wow 3D simulators to please the rest: our pick were Peter Pan’s Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Jungle Cruise, Toontown Hall of Fame tent to spot Minnie Mouse, It’s a Small World and Big Thunder Mountain. Buy the Genie+ booking scheme (about $20 per person) to ensure your day isn’t just spent queuing. Download the Disney World app for planning, and take a buggy for kids to nap in ahead of the nighttime fireworks show, which you shouldn’t even consider skipping.

An hour’s drive away from Disney’s Lake Buena Vista base, the sparkling-new Peppa Pig World and Legoland are brilliant for younger families. Peppa Pig has five rides, including Daddy Pig’s Rollercoaster, shows and a fab Muddy Puddles splash park. Bring water clothes — Florida has the weather for it, but a heads-up that the park in general isn’t as good as the UK version.

Legoland, however, has huge amounts to do — and it’s much quieter and calmer with almost no queues compared to Disney and Universal. Kids love the classic Ford Driving School, Pirate River Quest boat trip and building spots with Duplo, Lego, and arty Dots. The Great Lego Race rollercoaster and Coastersaurus are perfectly thrilling, but not petrifying. The Legoland Water Park with five slides, a huge water playground, wave pool and relaxing lazy river were highlights of our trip.

.Best parks for adults and teens

For serious thrills, rides and nostalgia, head to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Screams, laced with joy, abound — the new Jurassic World VelociCoaster went faster than the motorway and over 150 feet in the air. Don’t miss the gentle, old school ET Adventure and incredible Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. That, plus talking portraits in the queue for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, an intricate Diagon Alley and simulator Hogwarts Express, were truly immersive. Universal gets extremely busy so its Express Pass (from $89) is worthwhile.

Epcot’s mixture of dazzling new rides like Guardians of the Galaxy, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure with old favourites like Soarin’ (still holding its own) means fun for everyone, of any age. Visiting the 11 ‘countries’ of the World Showcase feels like a Disney version of a multi-country city break — we popped from Morocco to Japan in three minutes. The food here is better than any other Disney parks — go to Teppan Edo in the Japanese pavilion for perfect cocktails and the rare chance to have onions sauteed as Mickey Mouse ears — and there’s so much to see just wandering around.

Animal Kingdom involves wild (and less wild: my toddler still talks about her petting zoo experience brushing a pig’s hair) animals intermingled with thrilling rides. The one-off-a-kind Flight of Passage in Avatar’s Pandora land is awesome: perched on a motorbike, an impressive simulator had us swerving attacks whilst feeling wind and rain. The stomach-churning, intricately-themed Everest impressed, whilst another highlight was a live Bambi drawing lesson with a Disney animator.

Best hidden gems

Exhilaratingly speeding through reeds and lilypads on a 45-degree tilting air boat at Wild Florida was my kind of thrill. The warm wind provided a temporary facelift, then we bobbed around next to 14-foot long alligators (“they’re like teenagers: they lie around and wait for their food all day,” said the droll guide). The adjoining Gator Park has crocs and gators, skunks, snakes, peacocks, and bobcats (and some characters reminiscent of the lockdown-era Tiger King show). Its drive-through safari is a great way for kids to see animals whilst in jet-lagged stupor. Driving at 5mph, you pass wildebeests, zebras, bison and ostriches (one had a lengthy smooch with our car window), and can feed giraffes lettuce from a treehouse.

Crayola Experience is a fun, large, art-themed day out. Best for under 8s, beyond its enormous model crayons are more than 10 activity stations including making colouring books featuring your own face, crayon-making and soft play. It’s attached to the huge Florida Mall, with 250 shops, and a vast food hall; an excellent day out for wet winter days or too-steamy summer ones.

Don’t miss the Orlando Science Center, which our kids named the best children’s museum in the world. It has a working orange grove, den-making, water play, rooms devoted to space, movement, forces — we adults tired long before the kids, who would have stayed the night if possible.

Best chic neighbourhoods

Orlando’s theme parks are full of child-free adults having a ball, but if you’re after something calmer, head to Winter Park. Its ten picturesque tree-lined blocks are packed with individual shops, an excellent brunch vibe, a huge weekly farmers’ market and lovely park. Join the locals at Italian Prato, as we did — the butternut squash ravioli alone made the 10-hour plane journey worthwhile. Opt for a patio seat to watch moneyed Winter Parkers with dogs in handbags debate the best local olive oil stockist. Peterbrooke Chocolatier and The Wine Room are both excellent places to buy non-mouse souvenirs.

You won’t regret a stroll around Lake Eola, or just gliding across it in a swan boat, but head there on a Sunday so you can tuck into the excellent farmers’ market afterwards.

Best nighttime magic

At Cirque du Soleil’s Drawn to Life show, the acrobatics are as incredible as you’d expect from Cirque (my son loudly whispered ‘HOW DO THEY DO THAT’ eight times..), with a Walt Disney collaboration that means hit songs and characters will keep even young kids entranced for 90 minutes.

The Icon Park area was also worthy of a night-time wander; it has many restaurants, street entertainers, casual rides and a lit-up Orlando Eye observation wheel.

Best hotels

Orlando isn’t enormous; you can easily stay in one spot — but moving around to park resort hotels means early access to parks. Shiny-new, 14-storey Swan Reserve is ideal for Disney: its style is corporate swish rather than mouse chintz, with luxurious rooms, (ask for one with views of Epcot’s fireworks), friendly staff, and earlier entrance to Magic Kingdom et al to cram in rides before the hoards arrive. The lake full of swan boats and 90-foot pool are ideal for flopping after a knackering day. It’s a 15-minute stroll along a pristine boardwalk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, so you can return from a day at Disney for a swim or nap, then stroll back for supper and evening shows.

Since Legoland and Peppa Pig World are 90 minutes from downtown Orlando, that was reason enough for us to try out one of Legoland’s on-site hotels, Pirate Island. This was the stay of my kids’ dreams, with immersive, pirate-themed rooms packed with Lego models, bricks, and treasure hunts with minifigure prizes stored in the safe. The resort pool (with epic slide) was super warm and filled with Lego floats; there are nightly Lego workshops and PJ parties. The Shipwreck restaurant had an excellent dinner ($36 for adults, $15 for kids), with skillets of steak, fish, rotisserie chicken and veg - the kids kept popping back to the restaurant’s Lego room to play with new friends.

At Universal, the newly-built Surfside Inn towerblock at Endless Summer Resort was very reasonable ($135/night) for a spotlessly clean, modern, large beach-themed room. It had free shuttles to Universal, and included early admission to the super-popular The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The hotel’s huge, sand-framed pool was open til 10pm, so a great post-theme park retreat. Go for a high-up room - our 14th-floor suite had great views, albeit also long waits for the lift – from there, you can see all the fun of Orlando lying in wait for you to come out and play.

Getting there

Magic Breaks has a 14-night holiday to Orlando for two adults and two children under 10 from £1,839 per person, flying from Gatwick to Orlando International in July/August, and staying at Walt Disney World Swan Reserve and Universal’s Endless Summer - Surfside Inn & Suites. More information about Orlando at visitorlando.com.