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!
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.
I’ve been promising that I’ll update you all on our Florida family Christmas, and as I’ve got so much to tell you and I don’t want to miss anything out (I’ve had so many messages from people considering Christmas holidays at Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World) I thought I’d split it into a few different parts, with this first bit covering the journey and Christmas at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort. This was a big ask as a holiday: we had a pretty varied age range, from young adults to my 78 year old Mum, and a lot of different bucket list items to tick off too. I got myself into a bit of a flap planning it all and in the end Jim had to sit me down and tell me to chill out a bit, as it was starting to look like a bit of a military operation getting everyone to see and experience everything I wanted. As it turned out, we had a lovely mix of relaxing and exploring, and there were loads of wonderful memories made. I’m not going to lie to you: six adults being together 24/7 for 10 days was never going to be 100% without stress, but although it was pretty tiring (and the weather wasn’t great), it was definitely one of the best holidays we’ve ever had.
On a chilly Sunday in November, there’s nothing quite like sitting down in a cosy pub with friends and family and treating yourself to a delicious roast dinner. I love to cook, but I’m happy to take a back seat and let someone else do all the work for a change, especially when it’s in the delightful setting of London’s St Pancras Station. Mr E and I travelled up to London last weekend to have a look at all the Christmas lights (still not sure about the Tiffany tree in the station - the conversation on Instagram confirmed that I’m not alone) and try out the lunch offering at The Betjeman Arms - the pub actually located inside the station - surely the most perfect location for long overdue meet-ups and romantic reunions. I’m pretty sure we might have found the best Sunday roast in London.
So last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening event of the brand new Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World. I’ve got tons to tell you about new Toy Story Land, including a video showing you all the new attractions and more, but until then, I thought I’d share some of my favourite experiences, dining venues and yummy treats that will add so much value to your Walt Disney World holiday. Often, it’s the little things that people tell you about that can really make a difference to your Disney experience so here are a few that made my trip extra special this time. I smiled so hard writing this and remembering all the fun we had - so grab a cuppa and get comfy while I tell you all about a few of my favourite things at Walt Disney World Resort, Florida (obviously in addition to raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens).
Many, many moons ago, back when my children occasionally did anything I asked and I was a fully fledged ‘mummy blogger’, I was really proud to be asked by Royal Caribbean Cruises to be an Official Family Ambassador or ‘Royal Mum’. It was a fab time and I really enjoyed my role: as part of my ambassadorship, I wrote about family cruising on the Royal Caribbean blog as well as in newspapers like The Times, and was lucky enough, along with my lovely fellow Royal Mums, to experience wonderful trips like a Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas, and a family cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. Another wonderful memory was when we all got together at Southampton for a sunny day on board Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas. I’ve always been hugely proud of my long-running association with Royal Caribbean: I love the quality of the brand, the wonderful people who have a genuine love and enthusiasm for creating incredible experiences, and all their beautiful, innovative ships, so when Mr E and I were invited along to experience the shakedown cruise following Independence of the Seas’ multi-million dollar makeover, we were all over it. Here’s how we got on.
I honestly don’t think there’s a bad time to visit Walt Disney World resort in Florida (incidentally, for a heads up on the best times to go and loads of other info, visit my My Walt Disney World top tips post here), but the free Disney dining offer makes a family holiday at Walt Disney World considerably better value. I always recommend you stay at a Disney resort hotel if you’re visiting Walt Disney World (I think all the perks like Extra Magic Hours and free Disney’s Magical Express airport transfers add significant value), but now it’s even better value. If you’re a bit confused about what free Disney dining would mean to your family holiday booking in 2019, read on. I’ve got all the info on how the offer works, plus some top tips on the best places to book, too.
In part one of my little love letter to the beautiful Viking Sea, I wrote about how much I loved the beautiful design details and wonderful service that make the ship so special. as well as telling you about the first stop on Viking’s West Indies Explorer itinerary, San Juan. From there, we sailed on, following a roughly south easterly track that would eventually take us to our final port, Barbados. Here’s the final part of my onboard diary, in which we discover even more of the Caribbean on board Viking Sea.
So you’ve booked your dream holiday: you’ve chosen a great hotel, maybe scoped out a couple of decent restaurants (you know how important this is to me) but what’s the best way to really get under the skin of your destination? Well, Virgin Holidays has come up with the brilliant idea of Virgin Holidays Experiences: a breathtaking range of over 300 experiences for everyone from foodies and shopaholics to the thrill-seekers and outdoorsy types, and even those in search of the perfect Instagram shot. These fab new experiences will enable all of us to create a bespoke holiday experience that truly reflects our interests and obsessions. So whether you’ve always dreamed of shopping with your own personal stylist in New York, fancy taking surf lessons in San Diego, a seaplane trip over Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver or discovering Chinatown in San Francisco, the world really is your oyster! I was lucky enough to travel to LA and San Diego with Virgin Holidays earlier this month to try out a few of the amazing new Virgin Holidays Experiences. First up, an incredible foodie tour of East LA.
If you’re anything like us, one of the biggest considerations when you’re planning a holiday (along with: ‘will there be enough to do?’ and ‘what’s the pool like?’) is ‘are there loads of great places to eat?’. Food is a huge part of our family holiday budget - it’s a big part of our family life at home, so that naturally carries through when we go away together - we want to enjoy gorgeous food in beautiful places. I’ve been thinking for a while now that I really should create a little (well, quite large, actually) guide to dining at Universal Orlando Resort, so if you’re considering a Universal family holiday, you can do a little advanced planning (plus, you know I like taking photos of my food). This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I’ve tried to include everywhere I’d dined in and enjoyed as well as a couple on my still to do list.
October is a super exciting month in the cruise industry. It’s when everyone who loves to cruise comes together to celebrate Plan a Cruise Month: a whole month devoted to everything to do with cruising and the perfect time of year for you to plan your own cruise - especially as there are loads of fantastic offers and incentives available throughout the whole month. This year, the theme of Plan a Cruise Month is ‘destinations’, and I thought I’d tell you about Grand Cayman, one of my very favourite cruise destinations, by having a reminisce of my own lovely trip there, on assignment for Cruise International with Charlie.
We love where we live. We’re so lucky to live in this beautiful part of the world, surrounded by gorgeous countryside and yet just 30 minutes’ train ride away from London. I feel like we have the best of both worlds. People are always asking us about our favourite places to eat and stay in the Chilterns, and it’s honestly taken us lots of evenings of chat (and lots of bottles of wine) to narrow down our choices, such is the wealth of fabulous places throughout Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and beyond! Here, then, without further ado, is my perfect foodie weekend in the Chilterns. I do hope if you’re ever in the area, you’ll come and give some of these fab places a try!
You’ll probably already know that I’m a huge fan of AttractionTickets.com: they’re one of the world’s largest attraction ticket brokers, and we’ve been everywhere from the West End of London, to Disneyland Paris, and even Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando with them. Last week I headed to the gorgeous Sea Containers in London to celebrate their 15th birthday with them, and to hear some really fabulous news about new Attraction Tickets Direct Disney hotel, ticket and dining packages!
As we had some travel plans cancelled in August, Mr E and I have really been enjoying exploring our lovely local area. The Chilterns are stuffed full of historic stately homes and manor houses: from Waddesdon Manor, designed in the style of a romantic French Renaissance chateau, to Sir Francis Dashwood’s extravagant, Italianate West Wycombe Park, we have a huge diversity of beautiful buildings to visit. One that might have escaped your radar is Latimer House, now the De Vere Latimer Estate, a stunning mansion house estate that has recently undergone a huge (£7m) refurbishment that has transformed the original mansion house, including a beautifully renovated library, a coffee shop, a brand new restaurant: 1838 Restaurant and Bar, and the new Huntley Bar as well as additional luxury bedrooms and an elegant new reception.
There aren’t many prettier towns than Marlow, right next to the River Thames in Buckinghamshire. We spent a sunny morning wandering the shops (Sweaty Betty, Fat Face, a massive Jigsaw, Whistles, Mint Velvet, and loads of stylish independent boutiques and shops) down to the river, and then - all set to walk along the river’s edge for a while - the sky suddenly got really dark and fat blobs of rain started splashing on us. Ah well, instead we headed to West Street, to try the bottomless brunch at The Botanist, a pretty, quirky bar and restaurant on West Street. The front window completely rolls back, so when the sun finally came out again, it was a lovely spot to sit, sip a cocktail and watch the world go by while waiting for our table.
We all know that feeling, right? After a gorgeous holiday, the last day is such a massive come-down: you’ve got to be out of your room by midday but your flight doesn’t leave until the evening, you don’t want to get sandy and have nowhere to shower, so your last day is spent miserably killing time, sweating in your travel clothes, before heading home. While I was in beautiful Barbados, though, Virgin announced a brand new concept that’s going to change all that, and I think you’re going to love it. Step forward The Departure Beach from Virgin.
