It is Christmas Day and we are hanging out with Woody. You know, Woody from Toy Story. It briefly occurs to me that I am talking to a man pretending to be a cartoon character pretending to be a toy pretending to be a man. The thought quickly passes. My sons ask for Woody’s autograph. He obliges.

It is day two of our visit to Walt Disney World and already reality seems a long way away. Walt Disney spent his life trying to create fantasy lands, places to escape to, places he and other humans could control. Here in Orlando, years after his death, his dream is perfectly realised.

Disney World was on the List. Surely you have a List, too. Dads do, don’t they? From the moment my eldest was born seven years ago, I’ve been ticking off the items — play him Revolver by the Beatles, give him my Action Man, watch The Love Bug together, take him to Stamford Bridge. I suspect your list was a bit more highbrow. But if it didn’t have Disney on it, then it wasn't, I am afraid, much of a List.

I’ve been looking forward to going to a Disney park since my wife Nicky said that she was pregnant. And I wanted it to be one of the American ones, too. I am sure Disneyland Paris is nice enough, but Disney is America to me. I am not convinced the French really care if you have a nice day.

Now one problem with the List is that you get impatient. You feed them dim sum when they’re not ready, you sit through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and with one question at the end they reveal that they were too young to understand that ordinarily cars don't fly.

Another problem is that their taste isn’t the same as yours.

So with Sam, aged 6, and Aron, aged 4, did I blow it?

No. No. No. Disney World is awesome. It is spectacular. It is hilarious. It is fantastic. It is, it is... No, I didn’t blow it.

Everyone who met my two boys during our week-long stay said “they’re the perfect age for Disney”. And this is both right and wrong. It turns out that every age is the perfect age for Disney — four and 44. The reason? Walt Disney World is much more than a theme park. It’s more like a city. To start off with, there are four parks — the classic Magic Kingdom, the futuristic Epcot, the Disney-MGM Studios lot and the Animal Kingdom Park. But what I hadn’t realised was how much more there was to the whole experience.

Friends had told us that they struggled to find somewhere good to eat. And it’s true that eating in the parks is not an uplifting experience, even when enlivened by the arrival of Tigger and Piglet. But outside the parks, in the resort, Disney plays host to a range of excellent restaurants. My wife and I enjoyed three top-notch evening meals, which managed to be relaxing even with the children in tow. A warning: Americans book for these three or four months in advance.

It wasn’t just the food. Some of the best parts of the holiday were outside the park as well. We spent a day by the shore at the Wilderness Lodge, a huge Disney hotel. And one night, after dinner, we cycled together on a family bike round the Boardwalk area. The Boardwalk area? A set of restaurants and shops designed around water to look and feel like an idyllic 1950s seaside haven. There was a man entertaining the crowds with magic tricks. There wasn’t a stray piece of rubbish anywhere. You have to like artifice to enjoy it, but the attention to detail was toweringly impressive.

Now, I have to confess that one reason it seemed so nice out of the parks is that the parks themselves were intense. At Christmas they were heaving with people. Making for the exit after fireworks takes forever. There are long queues for the big attractions. The queues aren’t the end of the world with proper planning. The free Fastpass system allows you to cut in line for big attractions at least two or three times a day. But if you are allergic to crowds this will not be your idea of fun. (Staying in one of the 31,000 Disney hotel rooms — ours was in the Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa — makes life a lot easier.)

The parks were heaving with people for a good reason. They are very special. These guys know what they are doing. I loved the movie stunts at the MGM park but rather to my surprise, I found my favourite was Epcot. The Soarin’ attraction, which makes you feel as if you are flying over the Golden Gate Bridge and swooping over mountains, was terrific. As was the attraction that allowed the children to talk to Crush from Finding Nemo.

The children, unsurprisingly, loved the Magic Kingdom. Sam enjoyed the big roller-coaster-style stuff, Aron preferred more sedate attractions. We all enjoyed the 3-D film, Mickey’s PhilHarmagic. But it was the 6ft-high Disney character actors, dressed in their costumes, that truly appeared magical to the children. Sam was never quite sure whether to believe in them or not. He collected the autographs, enjoyed meeting Mickey almost as much as I did, but only when he met his hero, Aladdin, did his resistance crumble.

And my resistance? Frankly I didn’t have much to start off with. True, Disney is not for the cynical or the downbeat. It’s McCartney rather than Lennon, Blair rather than Brown. You have to like the fact that there is a cartoon character embossed on your bathroom soap.

And a Christmas visit is not for Yuletide traditionalists either. If it’s a spritual or solitary Christmas or Easter you are after, don’t go to Disney. But if, like me, you are the up-beat type with a high tolerance for the products of global capitalism, and you are more inclined to believe in Mickey Mouse than Jesus, well, what are you waiting for?

Dave Coombs’s video guide to Disney, www.timesonline. co.uk/travel

Mickey nous

1 Military-style planning. Book restaurants months in advance and map out your day.

2 Pick your moment: in October and February there are fewer people.

3 Stay in a Disney hotel: it makes life easier.

4 Don’t miss Epcot: it’s a terrific park.

5 Use the Fastpass system: it’s free and you can save yourself a lot of queueing.

Need to know:

Daniel Finkelstein and family travelled with Virgin Holidays (0870 2202468, www.virginholidays.com). Seven nights at the Saratoga Resort Villas in a one-bedroom self-catering apartment start at £644pp, including flights and car hire but not tickets to the park. Prices for under12s start at £374. A Walt Disney World park hopper ticket costs from £165 for adults, £145 for children for 5-14 days.

What’s new:

In the Magic Kingdom, Pirates of the Caribbean, which famously inspired the film, has been revamped to include Captain Jack and his nemesis Barbossa, and there’s a new Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial in Adventureland. The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor has opened in Tomorrowland, while at Epcot, The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride promises a trip to the deep in a “clamobile”.

Times recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• The UK and Ireland's 25 best Christmas events
• Chalet Chef 2010: the winners