Fort Lauderdale to Savannah

Fort Lauderdale to Savannah via Disneyworld

Cleland and myself woke unprecedentedly early, excited by the idea of Disneyworld. After only 2 hours sleep, Jez and Carl were led to the car and belted in, where they remained for the next four hours. We made our way north along the Florida coast, stopping only to refuel and buy Burger King breakfast, during which time Carl and Jez remained asleep. We arrived in Orlando, shortly after Blizzard Beach’s opening time at 10 am. After helping Jez and Carl into their bathing suits, we descended upon the park – which is one of six within Disney World, and one of two waterparks.

Real Talk: Disneyworld at Orlando is ridiculously big. Spanning over 20,000 acres it contains 6 individual theme parks, 6 golf courses, over 2 dozen hotels and is purportedly the happiest place on earth.

Cleland’s enthusiasm was infectious and we quickly realised how much of a chore he must have been as a child. Mr and Mrs Cleland clearly deserve the Order of Australia for chaperoning him around Disneyworld for a week at the age of 12.

Once inside we headed straight for Summit Plummet, the tallest free-fall waterslide in the whole of the USA, (and the second tallest in the world by 2 inches). At 120 feet tall you were travelling at close to 55 miles per hour by the time you reached the bottom. The speed record for the slide 78 miles per hour which is well in excess of 120 km/h. Carl, with his irrational fear of heights and rollercoasters did not join us for this first run but was able to be dragged up there after several hours of peer pressure and constant ribbing from his supportive friends.

Only in the knowledge that everyone we knew was on the other side of the world and unlikely to run into us did we revert to children. It was a lot of fun but after four hours it was time to leave – keen to get some more miles under the belt and make it to Savannah that night. We made good progress and stopped just short of Savannah to stay at another classy motel 6. We ended the night with a Caesar salad at “Steamers” across the road and played BB until our customary fights and subsequent need for rule specification had us all in bed for a much needed early night.

Missing you all,

Nick