Monday 11 April - thrills and laughs galore!

Our plan was to get up early and go to Islands of Adventure as it opened, but Sophie slept in until 10.30am which scuppered our plans. It turned out to be a good thing, though, as we spent the day at the villa relaxing and went to the theme park at 4pm. Our aim was to experience the new Harry Potter ride which I'd heard was very busy with long waiting times. However, this plan to get to the park later was a brilliant one as we didn't have to wait at all.

Islands of Adventure is out of this world - so many vivid colours and things to look at. We had a quick drink first as it was very, very hot and then went on the Poseidon's Adventure tour which was a pleasingly silly walk undergound (it was beautifully cool) as Poseidon and Zeus battled it out with fire and water. The acting was a bit cheesy, but it made us laugh. Harry Potter then beckoned and I have to say that Universal have done a fantastic job with Hogwarts. The village houses were covered in fake snow and all the fronts were shops which featured in the film. Above all of this towered Hogwarts castle. We entered the castle, put our bags in a locker and then walked the fair distance to the start of the ride. I was a bit nervous as the warnng notices were very serious! The ride starts as you enter the castle and it was like being on the set of the film. I was very impressed. Half way along Harry, Hermione and Ron appear as holograms and explain the plot, but there's so much to see that we didn't really take it in.

Loading of the ride is very fast as the cars move constantly and you have to get in them very quickly! A staff member pulls down the restraint and then off you go! It was brilliant! Each car (four people) is on a long automated arm which throws you about left and right and up and down, but we never went upside down. As you move around, screens open up and all the characters appear in front of you. At one point we're with Harry on his broomstick and then you go into darkened bits with Valdemort looming out of the darkness and frightening the living daylights out of you! I wouldn't recommend this ride for very young children or those who have neck problems as we were jolted about a lot, backwards and forwards. However, it was very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to going on it again!

We stumbled out into the daylight, laughed hysterically at the awful photo taken of us and then had a pleasant half hour watching a Sinbad show with lots of stunts, pyrotechnics and water. As the park was nearing closing time, we hastened off to the Spiderman ride, taking in Jurassic Park on the way which we'll save for another day.

The Spiderman ride was very similar to the Simpsons ride and again we had no wait time and were soon flying through the air with Spidey around the streets of New York as we battled it out with villains. All good fun!

Our venue for the evening was City Walk and The Latin Quarter restaurant - Sophie's choice. It morphs into a club later in the evening but it was a lovely place to eat with candlelit tables and a video playing Latin music. the children had fajitas, Keith had half a chicken and I had chicken and beef on skewers served with yellow rice. The food was delicious.

City Walk is a wonderful place at night, full of restaurants, shops and clubs and a huge cinema. We walked back to the car, negotiated the freeways in the dark (a bit hairy) and went back to the villa, a glass of wine my treat as we sat by the pool!