CAN I GO THERE?

Queues to get into Walt Disney World. Long lines at Universal Orlando’s new roller coaster. Heavy traffic on I-4. To all appearances, it’s business as usual in central Florida’s vast tourist playground, and we’re hugely relieved to witness the return of the region’s lifeblood. At the height of the pandemic, we could have driven along Orlando’s main motorway blindfolded and not hit a thing. Now, the traffic jams are back.

When we first went into lockdown last year, the silence of Disney’s fireworks was deafening. We’re so used to the sound of the pyrotechnics from the nearby Magic Kingdom that it was disorientating to have them muzzled. As of July 1, they will be back. Practically everywhere you look, there are signs of a return to the non-stop hum of this dazzling destination’s many beguiling

Britons are currently not allowed to enter America

on holiday. The UK’s amber-list rules apply on return from the US,

including home quarantine and testing.

Virgin Holidays (0344 557 3859; virginholidays.co.uk)

offers a seven-day Universal Orlando holiday from £965pp, including flights and a three-park explorer ticket, based on travel in

December 2021. attractions, from the theme parks to the state parks. Face masks are disappearing outdoors as the vaccination rate soars; social-distancing markers are fading into oblivion; and Orlando International Airport is reporting nearrecord domestic levels as the summer season hits high gear. Some restaurants and a handful of the smaller attractions won’t open again, sadly, but new ones are opening, and the I-Ride Trolley is trundling along the tourist corridor of International Drive once more.

Even better, we can pop into Disney Springs again for a welcome drink or two. No, we don’t think the pandemic is over. But, if we keep on this path, we are well on the way to normality. And not the “new normal”, either.