Awake at 5.30 am, an hour later than yesterday, there’s hope yet.

This morning we headed to the very nutritious Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. I’m fully aware that donuts and coffee for breakfast is a treat and not the ‘healthy option’, unfortunately Dunkin Donuts don’t agree, their tagline is ‘America runs on Dunkin’. I’m not sure anyone runs anywhere after going to ‘Dunkin’ which is why we’ll drive thru when we go back for some Baskin Robbins or one of the uber calorific Snickers shakes.

Epcot was our intro to Disney World for Erin and we headed straight for ‘The Seas’ where we had a ride in a big shell to visit Nemo and then we had a chat with crush which was the highlight for Erin, she’s been saying ‘hey little dudes’ all day, unfortunately she wasn’t chosen to ask a question, which she says was “I like flowers”. Okaaay, crush will have been gutted to have missed that one. We also popped upstairs to see a real live ‘crush’ which amazed me, this turtle was hyowj, we also saw some dolphins.

The Disney transport system whisked us away to Disney Hollywood Studios where we did the Jim Henson 3D Muppet Show before heading to the Hollywood Brown Derby courtesy of Sarah. Our vouchers entitled us to a three course meal with non-alcoholic drink. I had a salad with goats cheese and candied pecans, followed by chicken and israeli cous cous with lemon aioli. Alex chose coconut shrimp followed by steak, which he said was the best he’d ever tasted! Erin had a hot dog and fries which she seemed to enjoy, it was the least sophisticated choice on the menu, one of the other options was tempura fish. We both had creme brulee for desert while Erin had an ice cream/jelly sweet/orio cookie concoction. I even had my first strawberry daquiri The whole lot was lovely, a real treat.

We decided to have a chillin out night, not sure Erin heard though, she’s still tearing around the room at breakneck speed.

The Tower of Terror behind us we headed for something to eat and a stiff drink. The Hollywood Brown Derby was our destination and I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so happy to see a strawberry daquiri.

The food, once again, was amazing. I had pork tenderloin, spaetzl (which I’d seen being made on Saturday Kitchen a while back, very tasty), red onion chutney and cider jus.

We weren’t able to sit too long as we had VIP seats for the American Idol Experience! The theatre seats a thousand and it was packed out for the show. The set was amazing, I mean really amazing, you could have been at the real thing. We were at the final show which is in the evening, they basically hold auditions all day and the best go through to the evening show to sing for a golden ticket (which gets you to the front of the queue at any ‘real’ American Idol audition). This sort of attraction is the reason why Disney are one step ahead of the competition, the entertainment they offer within each an every park is so diverse that there really is something for everyone, and not only that but something that you’ve never experienced before. Yes, I was pretty blown away with the whole thing.

The show has all the usual features, the singers, the cheesey presenter, the judges, and the over enthusiastic audience (that was us). Everyone ‘played’ their parts without really meaning to, you get completely sucked in and it all feels so real, even down to the ‘nasty judge’ calling the contestant from Manchester an ‘English tart’ haha, he didn’t mean it ‘that way’ but it was still a bit jaw dropping for the British audience members At the end you get to vote for your favourite and there’s the familiar tense announcement.

Post show we headed across the road for a ‘quick’ drink before heading to Fantasmic. Unfortunately we got caught up in the flaring talents of Craig the barman and didn’t make it to Fantasmic… Here’s a video, especially for Laura and Becky.