Archive for category: Holidays

You are here: Home / FOODIE ADVENTURES / Holidays
Five things I learned when I rode Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Five things I learned when I rode Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

/4 Comments/in , , , /by

I know my job’s a bit of an odd one, but last week was the icing on the cake as far as mad adventures go. In the space of a week, all my Harry Potter dreams pretty much came true: I got to ride Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, the fabulous new Harry Potter ride at Universal Orlando Resort, chat with Draco Malfoy about which seat on the ride is the best one (it’s the front, apparently), get a selfie with Luna Lovegood and Professor Flitwick, and then watch as Ron Weasley and Draco drove up in the Ford Anglia, closely followed by Fred and George roaring up on Hagrid’s ACTUAL motorbike at the opening ceremony. I mean, what a week. Read on to find out the five things I learned when I rode the brand new Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure attraction at Universal Orlando Resort, Florida. Please note that this post contains ride information and spoilers!

Read more

Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy experience

The Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy experience: what to expect from your flight

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

You know I’m a big Virgin Atlantic fan and have written about their brilliant service before. After flying to Orlando this week, I thought it might be really interesting to tell you about my Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy experience, so if you’re considering upgrading to Premium on your next trip, you’ll know what to expect and be able to make a decision about whether it’s worth it (spoiler: it SO is!), especially as this time I got to fly in ‘the bubble’ on the upper deck! So on my flight, I took a few pictures and jotted down a few notes for you. Here goes, then, with my Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy experience!

Read more

The new APH parking facility and WIN your holiday parking at Gatwick

The new APH parking facility and WIN your holiday parking at Gatwick *closed*

/41 Comments/in , , , /by

I’m lucky enough to need airport parking quite a lot, whether it’s flying off on assignments for Cruise International, or writing about family travel for English Mum, and I always, always use Airport Parking & Hotels (APH). I love their convenient meet and greet service, but recently I had the chance to try the parking at their brand new off-site parking facility at Gatwick. APH’s brand new home is now located even closer to the airport, meaning shorter transfer times to both airport terminals via their swanky liveried shuttle buses. Read on to find out how I got on, and to win your own holiday parking this summer at APH’s brand new Gatwick base.

Read more

Everything you need to know about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland Park, California

Everything you need to know about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park, California

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Yesterday, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge officially opened at Disneyland Park in California (can you believe it’s three years since I heard the news in Orlando?!). Spanning more than 14 acres, the brilliant, immersive new land is the first of two - the other, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando follows in August this year. The star studded dedication ceremony, featuring a host of Star Wars stars including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams, as well as George Lucas, took place on Wednesday and the land is now officially open for business. But what can you expect to experience at this incredible new land? Here’s everything you need to know about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park, California.

Read more

Everything you need to know about St James Club, Antigua

What it’s like to stay at St James Club, Antigua

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

So after my life-changing few days celebrating the launch of the W8 GYM, I thought you might be wondering what it’s like to stay at St James Club, Antigua, and I’ve been looking forward to sharing more about this beautiful resort. This was my first time in Antigua, but my Dad travelled and worked - and indeed played cricket - a lot in the Caribbean, and adored it there. I grew up listening to stories of Curtly Ambrose and Viv Richards so it was lovely to finally experience the island for myself. St James Club occupies a stunning 100 acre peninsula on the south east coast of Antigua, with pretty shell-coloured villas and small clusters of hotel rooms dotted around a wide, vanilla ice cream scoop of beach facing into sheltered Mamora Bay on one side, and the other, smaller Coco’s Beach open to the cooling breezes of the Atlantic. When we arrived, we were taken to our rooms by golf buggy, and snatching tempting glimpses of the turquoise bay and swaying palm trees, I wanted to pinch myself a bit just to make sure it was real. Tempted yet? Here’s everything you need to know.

Read more

Discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua

Discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by

Imagine receiving an email that says ‘hey, you’re into fitness - fancy coming to Antigua with Fleur East for the launch of a brand new fitness partnership?’. Well of course I said yes, and last week, we jetted off to the beautiful island of Antigua for a few days of workouts on the beach, and of course a little downtime in the sunshine too. So what was it all about? Well, Elite Island Resorts - a beautiful collection of beachfront resorts in the Caribbean, has teamed up with W8 GYM, a really clever, completely portable gym system created by the lovely Fleur East and her cousins Nick Meaney and Clive Payne. The exclusive partnership will see the W8 GYM being available at Elite Island Resorts locations in Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados (remember I went to their beautiful The Club Barbados resort for my singing holiday?) and The Grenadines, to use in-room, in the resort gym (where group lessons will be available) and even on the beach, if you fancy it. I spent a happy few days discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua, and do you know what? It turned out to be a pretty life changing experience. Let me explain…

Read more

What to expect from Saga's new Spirit of Discovery

What to expect from Saga’s new Spirit of Discovery

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

A few weeks ago I headed to lovely London in the sunshine to a special event at Peter Layton’s London Glassblowing studios to find out about Saga Cruises’ brand new cruise ship. I’ve actually been on a Saga cruise before. I sailed on Saga Pearl II with my Mum for a Cruise International feature a few years ago, and I was impressed with how elegant the ship was, even though she was… let’s just say in her twilight years (the ship, not my Mum). Saga Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship, Spirit of Discovery - one of two currently being constructed for the cruise line - will replace Saga Pearl II in July this year (I can’t wait to attend the christening ceremony) with the second ship, Spirit of Adventure, planned to set sail in August 2020. Here’s what to expect from Saga’s new Spirit of Discovery.

Read more

Everything you need to know about Toy Story Play Days at Disneyland Paris

Everything you need to know about Toy Story Play Days at Disneyland Paris

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Have you heard much about Toy Story 4 yet? We’re huge Toy Story fans in this family (unsurprisingly) and can’t wait to see Woody, Buzz and friends reunited in the latest film which sees the gang taking a road trip with Bonnie and a brand new character called Forky. The adventure takes an unexpected turn when Woody is reunited with his old friend Bo Peep too. The new film is produced by the brilliant Jonas Rivera who also produced Inside Out and Up, and directed by Josh Cooley, who directed the gorgeous short film Riley’s First Date. Toy Story 4 is released on 26 June, and to celebrate, Disneyland Paris have announced Toy Story Play Days - an 11 day celebration dedicated to all things Toy Story 4.

Read more

Everything you need to know about Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

There’s so much going on at Universal Orlando Resort at the moment, and last night I was lucky enough to be invited to the suitably Hogwarts-esque St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London to hear more about all the exciting new experiences, including the brand new coaster attraction featuring everyone’s favourite Professor. Here’s everything you need to know about Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure!

Read more

The best friends breakfast with Lilo & Stitch at Disney's Polynesian Resort

The best friends breakfast with Lilo & Stitch at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The boys have always adored Lilo & Stitch. I dread to think how many times we’ve watched the movie over the years and even now Charlie’s got a Stitch character on his car keys. One of the things I really wanted to do when we were at Walt Disney World was to treat everyone to the best friends breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. I did it ages ago and it was great fun, plus the food really stood out for me, so on the day we were due to fly home, I booked us in for breakfast for a last treat before we headed back to pack up and leave Disney’s Contemporary Resort (sob). Read more

Is it worth buying tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Is it worth buying tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party?

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Last year, I told you all my top tips for planning a Christmas trip to Walt Disney World, Florida, one of which was to give serious thought to buying tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Honestly, as I said at the time, it’s not cheap, and there were six of us, so we had to think long and hard about whether to go. So now we’ve had the chance to experience the event and time at home to really process all our favourite things from the holiday, I thought it was time to revisit the question: is it worth buying tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party? Here’s more about what to expect at the event, and a deeper look at whether we thought we got our money’s worth.

Read more

Some of our favourite things to do at Walt Disney World

Some of our favourite things to do at Walt Disney World

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Sometimes, when you’re planning a Disney holiday, it can all seem a bit overwhelming. When I was writing my post with my top tips for planning a Christmas trip to Walt Disney World, I think I touched on the fact that I’d let it all get completely out of hand and was rabidly writing lists and planning out days until Jim gently reminded me that this was, in fact, a lovely family holiday, not some sort of military operation. One of nicest things, I always find, is talking to people about their own cherished memories of their Disney holidays. And when they go all misty eyed and say ‘oh we loved XYZ’, those are the things you should be listening to. So with that in mind, here are our own misty eyed memories - some of our favourite things to do at Walt Disney World.

Read more

Christmas at Disneys Contemporary Resort

A Disney Dream come true - Christmas at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Waving goodbye to Universal Studios was hard, but we were also incredibly excited as our next stop was Walt Disney World, and more specifically, Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Since my very first visit to Walt Disney World, back in 2009, I’ve always wanted to stay at the Contemporary. I’m a bit of a Mary Blair obsessive (more of this in a bit) and I’m fascinated by the hotel’s structure, more specifically the story of how the A-frame of the Contemporary Tower was built and then workers slotted the rooms, which were constructed off-site back in 1971, into the building after they were finished. I’ve even heard rumours that at one stage, Walt Disney planned to keep the hotel modern by periodically removing and updating the rooms before slotting them back in. So what’s it like to spend Christmas at Disney’s Contemporary Resort? Here’s what we thought.

Read more

Making the most of a day at Universals Volcano Bay

Making the most of a day at Universal’s Volcano Bay

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

And so, sadly, we’ve reached the final part of our Universal Orlando Resort Adventure. I’ve told you all about what it’s like to spend Christmas at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, talked you through our top ten attractions and everything to do with Christmas at Universal Studios, and last week was all about Grinchmas and Christmas at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. The last park on our list was Universal’s Volcano Bay, the beautiful tiki-themed water theme park centred around a huge volcano, which had been calling out to us every day from our hotel room window. We were originally booked to go on the Monday of our trip, but the weather wasn’t looking great and, as it turned out, the park wasn’t even open, so we swapped our days around and - happily - the Tuesday morning turned out crisp and a little chilly, but with perfectly bright blue skies and the promise of decent temperatures to come as the day warmed up. I really loved our evening conversations when we all did a bit of brainstorming after a day out and came up with our best bits from the day: things we’d loved, things we thought you would like to know… So without further ado, here are our top tips for making the most of a day at Universal’s Volcano Bay Water Theme Park.

Read more

Christmas at Universals Islands of Adventure

Grinchmas and Hogwart’s Castle: Christmas at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

On the last part of our Christmas adventure in Orlando, we covered Christmas at Universal Studios, including Diagon Alley, beautifully decorated for Christmas. When we’d done just about everything we could fit in at Universal Studios, we headed to Kings Cross Station to board the Hogwart’s Express to Hogsmeade Village over at Universal Studios’ sister park, Universal’s Islands of Adventure. I thought I would turn this into part three, as there was so much stuff to cover, and I didn’t want to make the blog posts too long and boring, while still wanting to fit in loads of information and photos. So here goes with Christmas at Universal’s Islands of Adventure!

Read more

Christmas at Universal Studios

Christmas at Universal Studios

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

So in my last post all about our family Christmas in Orlando, I told you about our journey in Virgin Atlantic’s new Economy Delight class, and what it’s like to stay at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach resort. The next morning we hit Starbucks early ready for a full day at Universal Studios. The weather forecast was sun and showers, but still, it was so much better than the weather in the UK - shorts and t-shirts in December? Bring on Christmas at Universal Studios! Read more