Day 1: Got up at some stupid time of the morning to go to Manchester Airport. Flight was good, but long - 7 hours ish. The in-flight film was Cat In The Hat, which was pretty rubbish, but I had plenty of books to read so it was OK. Once we landed in Newark airport we had to lug all our suitcases on a monorail and then down lots of stairs and then on a train and then in a taxi to get to the hotel - the travel agent said it was cheaper than just a taxi, which it was, but I don't think she was realising that we were a family of four, each with two weeks worth of stuff to carry around the place... Anyway, we got to the hotel eventually and Emily nearly fell out of the taxi because the doorman opened the door when she wasn't expecting it. The hotel was nice but pretty basic, which was OK as we were up pretty early most days and out all day.

Day 2: Had to get up early-ish to go meet our Big Apple Greeter - a nice guy called Bob. We had to get the subway to meet him, which was harder than it may seem - what's with having different trains going to different places running on the same line? Anyway, we worked it out and got to Greenwich Village (what's with places being named after places in London?) to meet him. He took us round some bits of New York you wouldn't normally go to, which was nice, like some residential bits and an old speak-easy that you would never find unless you knew it was there. We saw some of the big shops, including wandering round the Apple shop drooling for a while. He took us to Chinatown and Little Italy too, and we had a drink and some sorbet-stuff in a nice little Italian cafe place. He left us just around lunchtime-ish, at which point Emily promptly threw up, which was nice. At least she left her mark on New York... Didn't do much else that day as we were too tired.

Day 3: Shopping! We did Maceys and Boomingdales (not that we bought anything) and had lunch in a proper American McDonalds :-) We went round a mall too, because Emily wanted to see one, and we gaped at the American flags everywhere - what is the point? Didn't buy a whole load, but had lots of fun. In the evening we went to a baseball game - Mets v Expos. We didn't really understand what was going on, but we ate pretzels and mostly watched the merchant navy recruits who were sat behind us. The Mets won in the end by 1 run, so I suppose that's a good thing.

Day 4: We did a 'Showbiz Tour' which took us backstage at the Lion King on broadway (I've been on a broadway stage!), round NBC studios (which was quite boring as it was all about the news readers and stuff, and we had no clue who they were), for lunch at Planet Hollywood (I ate more then I've ever eaten before, and it was goooooood), and an interview/private performance with a broadway performer. The performer was really good - she was part of the chorus and also an understudy for some of the main parts in Beauty and the Beast, and answered all our questions really well. That evening we went to see the Lion King, which was amazing. I'd definitely recommend going to see it if you have the chance, especially if you get to see behind the scenes at some point to see how it's all done.

Day 5: Just a travelling day really - Newark airport to Orlando. We were delayed for about 90 mins due to the weather, but it wasn't too bad and we weren't in a hurry anyway so it didn't matter. We didn't get to our hotel in Orlando until after dark, so there wasn't anything to do other than sleep, even if we'd wanted to.

Day 6: We went to Universal Studios, which was really good! We went on Shrek 4D first, which Mum came on too (a big achievement to get Mum on a ride!) and it was amazing :-) We (Mum included) also went on Jaws and Men in Black. Dad, Emily and I went on Back to the Future, which was really good and really clever, and we queued up for Revenge Of The Mummy but it broke and shut down after we'd queued for about an hour, which wasn't good.

Day 7: Universal Studios again, but the Islands of Adventure bit this time. We discovered the wonders of a single rider queue, which means that they use you to fill the seats not taken up by groups. It means your group is split up, but that doesn't matter, and the queue is sometimes as short as 5 mins rather than an hour or more in the normal queue. This meant that we could go on some rides two or three times, which we did! We all went on the Cat in the Hat ride, which we decided was like 'It's a small world' on drugs. The deulling dragons ride was very cool - we went on twice, once for each dragon. The first time we went on it was just our dragon going round, but the second time both went together and they come so close you're lifting your feet up because you think you're going to crash! The Jurassic Park ride was good - you really felt like you were in Jurassic Park, and the Ripsaw Falls ride was so good we went on three times! The Hulk ride was good, though no single rider queue so we had to wait for about an hour to get on.

Day 8: Disney! We went to the Magical Kingdom first, stayed there about 2 hours while we queued in the blazing sun for one ride and couldn't get any food because it was too crowded, and ran away to Epcot. Epcot was much better, much less crowded and the queues were much shorter even though they didn't have single rider for most things. We didn't do much at Epcot though, as we'd wasted most of the day at the Magical Kingdom. We had a storm in the afternoon, luckily we missed the worst of it because we were inside on a ride, and then having some food.

Day 9: Epcot again - we did everything we'd missed the day before. Mission:SPACE was definitely the highlight of the day - it makes you feel like you're really in space! It was amazing, and they had a single rider queue so we hardly had to wait to get on it :-) We went round the World Showcase too, which has a section for different countries. The England section was nothing like England - more like what Americans think England is like. Made me wonder if the other countries were nothing like what they should be too. The American section nearly made me walk out - we saw a presentation thing with anamatronics about the history of America and how they were so great and how they saved everyone in WW2 and blah blah and there was a song about how America should fly like an eagle, and it just made me think that we'd never have anything like that in the UK, and I'm glad about it! There was another storm in the afternoon, so we had to sit in 'Italy' for an hour or two while it blew over.

Day 10: Disney again, but the Animal Kingdom this time. We did an african safari and saw all the animals, and went in a 3D bugs life thing which was really good. Around that point I started feeling really ill, so I sat feeling sorry for myself while Dad and Emily did some of the rides. We went back to Epcot in the afternoon, and Dad hired me a wheelchair because I felt a bit better when I sat down, but felt like I was going to throw up when I stood up. So Emily pushed me round the shops in Epcot and we got all our souvenirs etc.

Day 11: I was still feeling pretty ill, so in the morning Mum and I sat round the pool at the hotel, and Emily and Dad went to Wet and Wild, the big water park opposite the hotel. In the afternoon we all went swimming in the hotel pool, and Emily and I got pretty sunburnt :-(

Day 12: Home time! First we had to go to the airport in Orlando to get to Newark, and then Newark to Manchester. Both flights went without problems, and we got home at about 10am local time the next day.