A family holiday in Orlando conjures up one image for most of us. A giant grinning mouse with a supporting cast of cartoon characters ready to delight children and relieve parents of vast amounts of money. Apart from the Disney experience, what else has Orlando got to offer? Well, a whole lot as it turns out ... enough to transform another fortnight away into a potential family holiday of a lifetime.
First up is the choice of accommodation. If you prefer to be near Walt's world but not part of it, you can't do much swankier than staying at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. This five-star hotel opened last month and is the sister of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. With 498 rooms, including 167 suites, it is luxurious without being over the top, a mood of restrained opulence permeating throughout. The "Waldorf suite" I stayed in with my two stepsons - Daniel, 12, and James, 9 - had one double bedroom and one twin, two bathrooms, a large living and dining area, three televisions with a Blu-ray player, and a balcony overlooking the hotel's swimming pools and 18-hole golf course. Okay, perhaps a bit over the top.
There are two restaurants, Oscars for a traditional American breakfast and the Bull & Bear for a stunningly good haute cuisine dinner, a well-equipped gym, a Guerlain spa and a kids' club. The Waldorf is connected to its four-star Hilton sister by a long corridor: brave the psychedelic carpet to find family-friendly restaurants and a pool with water slides.
Away from the hotel, and out of Mickey Mouse's clutches, there are enough activities to keep families entertained for weeks. First stop is a chat with the Waldorf's super-efficient concierge, Peter Frost. "If you want things to do, I can fill your days," said Peter, and promptly gave us about 10 choices off the top of his head, all of which sounded appealing.
We spent a day at SeaWorld (£45 for those aged 10 and above, £40 for 3-9 year-olds), less than 10 minutes' drive from the hotel, where educational and entertaining activities focusing on all things aquatic await you. James loved every moment of it - from the exhilarating rush of the Kraken roller coaster, to the fun of feeding dolphins and rays, to having lunch with a killer whale swimming a few feet from our table. The shows with sea lions and whales were amusing in the former case and spectacular in the latter.
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Elsewhere in the park, you can be attached to breathing apparatus and a transparent helmet, step into a cage and be lowered into a pool to get up close and personal with some sharks (an extra £90 for ages 10 and above); take a ride on the Manta Ray roller coaster, which rotates you through 90 degrees before you set off, so you spend the ride facing down instead of forwards; or take a simulated helicopter journey across the Arctic. It is worth buying the Quick Queue ticket for £9, which can cut queuing times from half an hour to a few minutes. Nearby you can visit two related but separate theme parks: Discovery Cove (£175pp), to enjoy the thrill of swimming with dolphins, and Aquatica (£28/£24 ages 3-9), a water park with enough waterslides and pools to keep any child happy for a day.
While Disney's shadow was looming large (even some of the electricity pylons in this area are shaped like Mickey's head), Peter organised jet-skiing for us, seats for Cirque du Soleil (from £41/£33) and tickets to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football team (from £48), where a full-size pirate galleon at one end of the stadium let off a blast of cannon fire every time the home team scored. We also paid a visit to the Orlando Magic basketball stadium (from £95pp). The match was tremendous fun - the glitzy entertainment matched by some sublime skill - and afterwards we headed to the excellent Kres restaurant in downtown Orlando for what proved to be the best steak of the trip and, as it proved, an added treat. Mickael Pietrus, one of the stars of the Magic team, turned up at the bar and happily posed with Daniel and James for photographs, signed their shirts and then chatted to them about basketball ... and how Chelsea were faring in the Premier League. An already memorable evening became unforgettable.
The possibilities for excursions are as endless as your pockets are deep: Kennedy Space Center, simulated skydiving, hot air balloon rides. The costs start to mount up, and you even have to pay to enter Orlando's museums, but the Science Center (£10 for aged 12 and over/£7) was a particular hit as many of the educational exhibits are disguised as games. Finally, we could fend it off no longer, so away we went to DisneyWorld. And, yes, we had fun and, pleasantly, it wasn't as frantic as I'd feared. "It's so much more spaced out than EuroDisney," said James. "The crowds aren't as bad and the queues aren't as long."
That on its own would make a trip to Orlando win hands down over the Disneys in California and France ... but with everything else on offer in and around the city, Orlando just about beats every other family holiday too.
BA Holidays has seven nights at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando from £945pp, room only, based on two sharing, from January to March 2010. The price includes return flights from Gatwick (0844 493 0758, ba.com/orlando). Rooms at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando (waldorfastoria orlando.com) start at £160.
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J K Rowling may have put down her pen but it's a very foolish parent who thinks that spells the end of her bespectacled hero. Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure next spring launches The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (universalorlandoresort.com). Universal has spent three years developing this multi-million-pound attraction, the only one worldwide that will feature Potter and his friends. Among the treats, the Three Broomsticks will offer butterbeer and pumpkin juice, while there will be personalised wands at Ollivanders.
Precise details of the star ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, are under wraps but it will involve a tour around Hogwarts Castle. Dragon Challenge will be a twin high-speed roller coaster, inspired by tasks from the Triwizard Tournament.
Thomas Cook Signature (0844 879 8015, tcsignature.com) has a week at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando from £2,996 for a family of four, flying with Virgin from Gatwick. Access to Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure theme parks, and to the live entertainment at Universal CityWalk, costs £82 per adult and £77 per child.