We arrived home a week last friday (11th) after spending 2 weeks at St Pete Beach. As we have been to Disney for the past 3 years, we decided to see another side of Florida and stay at the beach. I must admit that i was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough to do for 2 weeks with 3 children, but i had nothing to worry about as we had a fantastic time.

We flew from Manchester with Virgin. The flight was fine and the IFE was working both journeys, but i must say that as we normally fly with TCD, that i was expecting something a little more special. If i had to choose from flying with TCD or spending an extra £1000 to fly with virgin, i would choose TCD. Thumbs up for Virgin though for there accomadation of people with Autism. As my son is Autistic, we were able to check in and board with upper class so we didn't have to wait in long lines which my son finds very frustrating. When we landed in Orlando, surprise, surprise it was pouring down with rain!! Nevermind we hoped it would stop before our 2 hour drive to St Pete. Unfortunatly the rain didn't stop, it got worse and it took us almost 3 hours to get to St Pete. When we finally arrived the sun was shining and it was very hot. When we checked in we were given a family suite with a courtyard view. We could see the beach from outside our room. However, we decided to upgrade to a beach view room on the 8th floor and the view was absolubtly stunning. I really have never been to such a beautful place in my whole life. The hotel was on the beach and the sand was like white sugar. I had to bring some home in a bottle just so people could see how beautiful it really was. The gulf temperature was 85 so when we went in the sea, it was like stepping in a bath. The children absolubtly loved it and it was such a change to be able to relax rather than rushing around theme parks and standing in lines for rides. The sea was very calm and clear and you could see manatee's and stingrays swimming close by. We had to show the children to do the 'stingray shuffle' to make them aware how close we were to them. We were there during the July 4th weekend. In the evening the beach became busy with people waiting to see the fireworks. The gulf was lined with boats letting off the fireworks. There was such a lovely atmosphere. People played guitars on the beach and the was a real sense of unity. Even though we are British we were made to feel part of the celebration. It was such a special evening and we felt really happy to be part of it. I will remember it forever. Some days we spent relaxing by the pools and on the beach and other days we went out for the day. We had two trips to Busch Gardens. We have never been there so it was really good. My son went on all of the big thrill rides. Thankfully he persuaded his dad to go on those with him though!!! I really though that for thrill seeking rides that Busch Gardens is better than Disney and Universal. We got speaking to an english lady who told us that she was staying in Orlando and the rain had been torrential and that Disney had closed the water parks. We couldn't believe it as we hadn't seen a drop of rain since we travelled down from Orlando. During the second week we visited Lowry Park Zoo. It was absolubtly brilliant. My daughter got to hand feed giraffes, which are her favourite animals and she was delighted. We had such a great day, there were lots of rides and things to do. I really recommend a visit if you stay near the area. We did a couple of dolphin cruises. One was at St John's Pass, which is an amazing place, and one at Clearwater. These trips were wonderful. We had dolphins swimming alongside our boat. We went past lots of celebrity homes, including, John Travolta, Hulk Hogan and Nigel Mansell. Wow.I have never seen such grand homes in my life. We also got to visit 'Compass Island', which is a tiny island where we got off the boat to collect shells. There was a treasure hunt for the children. They found lots of gold coins. It was great fun! The highlight of my daughters holiday was when we went to Clearwater Marina to visit 'Winter the dolphin'. Winter had to have his tail removed as it was caught in a crab trap. He has had a prosthtic tail made for him so he can swim again. The story of him is on the website and is very touching and definatly worth reading. We had such a lovely day there. The children learnt a lot about marine life during our stay at St pete Beach. They were fascinated with sand dollars and loved walking up and down the beach collecting shells and corral. My youngest daughter got to paint some sand dollars during an activity at the hotel so it was nice to bring one home that we knew was safe to bring (it had been bleached). We didn't touch the ones that lay on the beach as they learnt that they were still living organisms. There was so much to do at St Pete. There were lots of activities on the beach and a playground for the children. There was a massive inflatible water slide next door aat the Tradewinds which was so much fun. For me i enjoyed swinging in the hammocks on the beach and listening to the waves. It was absolubte bliss. On my birthday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. It was my favourite meal of the holiday. It was gorgeous. The cakes were so big i had to photograph them. Three of us shared the chocolate tower cake and there was still some left over!!(i could just eat it now). On the last day of our holiday, we drove down to DTD to check our luggage in and have a shop. My daughters were delighted and we ended up with 9 disney bags full of goodies to take home on the plane!! Theres nothing like a good bit of retail therapy to end your holiday. To sum our holiday up it was absolubte paradise. We came back and actually felt like we'd had a holiday. We had time to relax and lots of fun too. It was such a refreshing change and i highly recommend it. However, as we are all so addicted to Disney, we shall hopefully be returning next year.

Zoe