Disney World and New York so far

It has been a busy week in New York, I have finally found some time to sit down and write this! We arrived at Disney World two Tuesdays ago at about 11am, but we were exhausted when we landed due to the time difference and flying through the night so we stopped ourselves going straight to the park and had a power nap for a few hours. When we were feeling awake enough, we jumped on the shuttle bus to Magic Kingdom and managed to ride everything we wanted to and then watched the parade and fireworks in the evening. We woke up very early the next morning to fit in a quick swim before getting to the Animal Kingdom park for opening. In this park they have one of their best roller coasters called Everest which does some loops and goes backwards and those sorts of things. Was good fun. We also watched a few of the shows like the Finding Nemo musical and the Lion King. For lunch I bought a smoked turkey leg, it was like a chicken drumstick but about ten times the size, I was sick of it after tackling it for half an hour! When we had finished everything in that park we moved onto to Epcot. Every evening they have a huge firework display over a lake in this park which was very impressive. Our third day was spent in the Hollywood Studio park where they have some of the best rides like Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster. Ashling also volunteered me to take part in behind the scenes show demonstrating how they use water canons to make a boat look like it is blowing up. They didn't have enough volunteers so she also ended up taking part too! We were kitted up in waterproof jackets, trousers and big boots and were both given the roles of deck hands. They filmed us as we pretended to scrub the boat and then run around when a torpedo hits the ship. We looked pretty stupid and got quite wet, was a good way to cool down though as it was extremely hot in Orlando. The evening show in this park was probably my favourite, again set over a lake, they projected clips from films onto water fountains and had characters running around on boats and rocks telling a story. Of course there were more fireworks too. On the last day we went back to do the things we had missed or wanted to ride again. We queued for over an hour to meet Tinkerbell as this is Ashling's favourite character, and they are new to Disney World. Ashling bought me a peter pan hat which I wore for the rest of the day. I got a lot of looks as I seemed to be the only person in the whole of Disney World who was wearing that particular hat. We had a really great time.

The next morning we got back on a plane (the last one before we fly home) to meet Ashling's parents at the airport. Her mum lives in New York and her dad just happens to be out at the same time as we are, visiting his family that also live here. We are staying with Ashling's mum and her sister Elizabeth, but her other sister Kelly is also visiting with her boyfriend Danny so it is a very busy house, not forgetting Lilly their King Charles who constantly wants to be played with. The house is in a place called Rockaway, about an hour away from the city but only a 5 minute walk from the beach. Kelly and Danny have been here for almost a month and have only had 4 days on the beach so far, the weather has been uncharacteristically bad for this time of year with quite a lot of rain. It hasn't been much better this week, but I still have plenty of time here for it to improve! On our first evening here we all went to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean, even though it was freezing cold we all got in and swam around for a while. On Monday we were invited to a BBQ with Ashling's cousins who live round the corner. Danny and I have been trying to learn how to use this skateboard they all own which you have to twist on to move forwards. It has taken a little while but I think we are both pretty good at it now! We have also been on a few bike rides this past week but most of our time has been spent in Manhattan. We bought city passes to get us entry into the major attractions including a few bus tours around the city. On Tuesday we did a bus tour of the downtown area and then got on a boat over to Liberty Island to see the statue of Liberty up close. Another boat took us to Ellis Island to the old immigration building where we learnt about the history of the immigrants who came to New York. It was really interesting to hear how openly the country excepted new citizens. After some food we hung around in time square waiting for it to get dark before we travelled the 86 floors up to the viewing platform on the Empire State Building. We were really lucky to have good weather so had a really great view of the city. On Wednesday we did a tour of uptown Manhatten, taking us through Harlem and around Central Park. On Thursday we braved the rain and did a tour of Brooklyn, we were the only four on the open top bus so had a private tour around the city, dressed in blue ponchos. Then on Friday we did the last thing on our ticket which was a boat ride on the Hudson River up towards Staton Island and back again. I think we definitely got our money's worth from the ticket! After our cruise, we met up with Sara again, after leaving her in Miami to travel the states by herself. She has been with us this weekend but is checking into a hotel tomorrow, to meet her mum who is flying over for a week before the both leave for home. Today we went for a walk on the beach for a couple of hours then got a bus to Coney Island to ride on their wooden roller coaster called the Cyclone, it was Ashling's fathers day present to her dad! It is a really old ride which shakes you about a lot with some quite steep drops! Not sure I would recommend it to everyone! We had a huge dinner in an all-American diner and then Ashling and I popped out to a local bar where they were throwing a big party, for no apparent reason! Tomorrow we are heading back into the city where I will be meeting Phil, my old housemate, who is staying in NY for a week.