There’s usually no need to book, we’ve never had to wait very long for a table. There’s a huge atrium inside the hotel and at the restaurant you feel as if you are sitting outside, it’s styled on the old town of St Augustine. The waiters serve drinks and you help yourself to the buffet, it’s difficult to choose and you want to try everything; our particular favourite is the lobster bisque, then there are salads, chicken, fish, steaks, vegetables, pizzas - you need to be hungry when you get there and you really have to leave room for dessert!

It’s all reasonably priced too so it doesn’t break the bank to take the whole family. It’s a little bit more expensive in the evenings and Sunday lunchtimes. After dinner you can take a walk round the Atrium, there are waterfalls and tropical plants, streams with live alligators and turtles in them and a part of it is called the Everglades which the kids loved.

There’s another restaurant here called the Old Hickory Steakhouse which we have yet to try. On the other side is ‘Old Key West’ with a restaurant on a sailing ship set in a lagoon. There are some nice shops for gifts, clothes and jewellery and several bars to relax with a drink before dinner. On occasions there has been a live show in the entertainment area in the centre and we have also seen a wedding taking place there which is a lovely setting. In the winter there is an ice skating arena which always seems a little incongrous in Florida but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After lunch it’s best to plan to do nothing more than lie around the pool. We like to visit Gaylord for lunch early in our holiday when we are up and about early. Our next visit hopefully will be Christmas Day!