Our Orlando Florida vacations - what memories we have

Orlando Florida vacations have been focused on the magic of Disney World since the theme park started up in the 1970s. They still are even today, despite competition from Universal, Sea World and other attractions. But if you've ever experienced a Florida vacation, you know that the magic extends far beyond the Disney empire and lives on for a long time afterward for many reasons.

Out of the many Orlando Florida vacations I enjoyed before we eventually moved here ten years ago from the UK, one of my fondest memories was from December 1990. That was the first time we ventured into renting a vacation home instead of hotels or motels for our holiday and it made a tremendous impression on us - a favorable impression, that is! At that time the short term rental industry was a lot less developed than in is now and I had no idea how much more I'd get involved in the business within a short space of time. But in 1990 there was no Internet, no online virtual tours, no instantaneous booking based on vast amounts of data. It was something of an adventure when you lived 3000 miles away in the UK to take a chance on that sort of unknown, but it worked out just fine.

At the time, my children were in their early teens and my parents were still active and mobile. During the planning stage, my children were excited at the prospect of another US trip because they hadn't been there since a California holiday three years before. They were in love with the USA fly/drive lifestyle, either in Florida or California, where we'd hire a car and just book hotels or motels as we chose from day to day. Breakfasts in McDonalds, hot fudge sundaes in Howard Johnsons and dinner in Dennys, Big Bobs or even KFC was a teenage wonderland for them. Who cared about healthy eating in those days? Added on to that were theme park visits, hotel or motel swimming pools and lots of sunshine, which made that life ideal as far as they were concerned.

My parents on the other hand were a different story. Although we had tried to entice them to visit the USA with us before, they had always refused. Eventually we began to understand that my Dad was the problem, because he had all sorts of worries about the USA gun culture and the likelihood of getting caught up in robberies or violence. This time, though, my Mum came to the rescue: we went for dinner with my parents, asked them if they wanted to join in with our vacation, and she said "yes" before my Dad could say anything. They were committed.

After that it was all down to planning. We knew that we would be more relaxed in a vacation rental home rather than separate hotel rooms. We decided that we wanted to divide our time between Orlando and the Gulf Coast, so in that pre-Internet era we scoured the classified ads in the Sunday Times and eventually booked: first of all a house in Orlando for one week and then a condo in Treasure Island, on the Gulf Coast between Clearwater and St Petersburg, for the second week.

I can't now imagine how it could have gone better. The four bedroom two bathroom house was in Indian Wells, a community in Kissimmee and about ten minutes from Disney. Of course it took us longer than that to get anywhere because of our ability to get lost regularly, due to confusion about road signs and conventions. The house itself was great - even though it didn't have a swimming pool (unlike now when a pool and spa are more or less essential). We were out at the theme parks for most of the time and virtually used the house for sleeping only. It was great to have separate bedrooms for all, unlike the motel experience when a family of four crams into one room. The lounge was perfect for relaxing in during the short time between leaving Disney or Sea World and retiring to bed completely exhausted. The availability of a kitchen meant that we didn't need to trek off to a restaurant every time we wanted a snack or a drink.

The Treasure Island condo in the second week was equally as good. We were on the fourteenth floor overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and right on the beach. We all enjoyed both the sea and the community pool. The condo was spacious and we could spread out even more than in the Indian Wells house and after using up all our energy at the theme parks, a lazy week was very welcome! We spent Christmas Day in and around the condo after we had figured out how to make sure we could enjoy a Christmas dinner. We found out shortly before Christmas Day that restaurants were closing then, so we had a last minute hustle to find food that we could cook using the limited pots and pans that the condo boasted. Other than setting off the smoke alarms while cooking the dinner and having a quick panic about what was going on, we had a lovely time and even got to spend some time on the beach that day.

Looking back, it was all a bit of an adventure but one that all six of us remembered with such fond memories forever. My parents' instant fascination with Florida was balanced by the ability of their grandchildren to teach them all they knew from four or five previous visits. And one of the things that made it such a great success was the accommodation - hotel rooms would just not have been the same.

I often think back to that holiday when I hear many people, even nineteen years on, planning Orlando Florida vacations and preferring hotel rooms to vacation homes - the don't know what they're missing!