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Old 14 Oct 16, 04:33 PM  
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Minnie4Mickey
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Our Orlando Vacation - Pre Trip

Well, with under 2 weeks to go and a lot of spare time on my hands now I’ve got my new job sorted (still waiting for the start date) I thought now would be the perfect time to start my pre-trip report!

This trip originally started with just the family and was booked back last year before me and my boyfriend got together. There are 14 of us going in total including my parents, my brother and his family of 5, my sister and her group of 3 and also my cousin.

My boyfriend has now also added on to the holiday so most of the trip report will be based around what myself and him have planned, we want to go off and do our own thing without always trying to keep up with the group as it will definitely get a bit hectic.

So on to the cast…

Me, Kimberly: The planner/ Organiser/ Dibber/ Instagrammer of the trip. I’m 22, I LOVE Orlando and the states in general, this will be my 14th trip to see the mouse (if I remember correctly). I am over the moon to be going back to my favourite place after an almost 2 year break!

Kevin, my boyfriend: He is pretty laid back, has left me to do most of the organising, happy to do most things especially if it involves food and sun. He’s only been to the US twice, once to New York and once to Florida, he hasn’t been to Florida for 11 years, so he’s excited to see all of the changes. He’s 20, so I love to remind him how he's considered a "minor" so won’t be able to have a drink with dinner .

Here is a picture of us on our first trip together, we had a long weekend in Dublin, so Floida is going to be our first “real” holiday together.


Where it began

I was fortunate enough, with a special thanks to my parents for being able to go to Florida as much as I did when I was a child. My parents first visited in 1990, they went with my 4 siblings as I wasn’t born yet and it’s safe to say they caught the bug (especially my dad) he and my mum (Debcon) travel and go on cruises a fair bit, but dad is always happiest when he’s going to Florida.

We came back from a family holiday to Majorca last August, my cousin got married there and we truly had an amazing family holiday. Holiday blues hit hard when we returned and one evening when my brother and sister were visiting us, we began pricing up Florida. We knew we wanted to go towards the end of October, so we could coincide with the school half terms. We ended up booking for the 27th October 2016 which also happens to be my dad’s birthday. With his love of Florida you can just imagine how this is the best ever un-intentional birthday present for him.

These are 2 of my favourite pictures I managed to capture when I visited for Christmas in 2014, the best feeling ever is when you see this sign for the first time again:



The plan so far

The plan is to head to Gatwick early afternoon on Wednesday 26th October; I have a half day booked at work that day, my last day at work for over 2 weeks! So we will probably leave Reading around 2/3pm. We are staying at the Travelodge South Terminal and then flying out the next day, we are going to do the twilight check in/ bag drop and then go for a meal close to the hotel.

We don’t tend to eat at the airport because the quality of the food is never justified by the price, we have found a local pub that has become a favourite of ours when we fly from Gatwick it’s called the “Ye Olde Six Bells”, the food is lovely and we have never left unsatisfied.

Flights:

We did play around a fair bit with dates, because originally we had wanted slightly earlier but we got a really good fly-drive package through Travel City Direct. As my dad didn’t want to wait any longer to book we agreed to 14 nights flying direct with Virgin Atlantic, leaving LGW on Thursday 27th October and returning on Friday 11th November. A flight for the each adult was £625. In total there are 11 adults, 2 children and an infant coming with us.

Originally we had been booked on to the later 1:15pm flight, however when my mum phoned TCD to add my cousin on the holiday, the lady on the phone asked if we wanted to be moved to the earlier flight at 11:15am free of charge, mum was never going to turn down more Florida time

Note – this may be one of my last times flying with VA if all goes well with my British Airways Cabin Crew training.



Accommodation:

As you can already tell our family is quite large, so we were always going to struggle when looking for accommodation. We had been looking at both onsite and offsite options, but onsite was coming up too expensive, so my dad said to make it more affordable for all of us, he will pay for a large villa for the 2 weeks.

We were all over the moon at this, such a generous offer! Previously we had stayed at a lovely villa in Kissimmee on the Windsor Hills community, however we knew this one wouldn’t be big enough for all of us but we still wanted to stay on Windsor Hills as we like how close it is to the parks and the community area of the villa is lovely.

After a bit of searching mum managed to find a lovely 6 bed villa, which has a master room, 2 double rooms, a mickey mouse twin room, a princess twin room and a pirate twin room, it also has a living area upstairs which has a pull out sofa bed. Along with the bedrooms there is a garage converted in to a games room, a private pool and kitchen. The villa ironically is next door to the villa we normally stay in, so we quickly got this booked up.




We have a pretty busy schedule including all the Disney Parks, Water Parks only Typhoon Lagoon will be open due to the winter months but this is my preferred park anyway, Universal Studios & IOA, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and I’m also hoping to get to Kennedy Space Centre.

We will stay with the group on a few occasions, most likely try to visit the same parks on the same day as them as my dad and brother are the ones doing all the driving, but myself and Kevin will likely split from the group most afternoons, so we can head to Disney Springs or the malls to do a bit of shopping.

Kevin is a personal trainer, however he has massive appetite and we are both massive foodies. We have a number of places on our “must eat” so we are hoping to fit as many of these places as we can and I will update over the next few days.

For now we do have all of our park tickets booked and paid for, the only thing we still want to add on is HHN and MVMCP.

Plans
- Offsite Food Choices
- ADRS
- Daily Plans
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Orlando 16 - Food Report
We got engaged trip 19 - Food Report

Edited at 11:47 AM.
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Old 14 Oct 16, 07:45 PM  
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amymiller
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Sounds like this is going to be a fab holiday. How lovely to go as such a big group and have all the family enjoying being in Florida together.

Looking forward to reading more!
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Old 16 Oct 16, 03:31 PM  
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The villa looks fab!
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Old 17 Oct 16, 09:27 AM  
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Minnie4Mickey
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Originally Posted by amymiller View Post
Sounds like this is going to be a fab holiday. How lovely to go as such a big group and have all the family enjoying being in Florida together.

Looking forward to reading more!
I'm really excited. Only 9 days to go! It's going to be a bit crazy with so many people, hence why we plan to go on a few occasions, but it should still be amazing. It will my 7yo nephews first visit, he is so excited!

Originally Posted by TeamJEM View Post
The villa looks fab!
The villa looks lovely, never had any problems with Windsor Hills in the past and it's so close to all of the parks!
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Old 17 Oct 16, 09:53 AM  
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ADRs / Daily Plans

We don’t have many ADRs booked, because we will be paying OOP and Disney restaurants are pretty expensive if you’re not on the DDP.
We also only have a very rough plan for each so far, most of our plans are fitting around our ADRs and the fact we have Discovery Cove booked. Other than this, we will take each day as it comes and decide what to do the night before.

Magic Kingdom/ Be Our Guest – Saturday 29/10

Fast passes/ we only just received our park tickets, so have left it quite late for fast passes. So far we have:
- Splash Mountain
- POTC
- Peter Pan’s Flight
Beauty and the Beast is my all-time favourite Disney film, I’ve seen soo many mixed reviews on the food here, but we booked this one more for the experience and because I need to get my hands on the “Grey Stuff”.

We were quite lucky and managed to get a reservation on our first attempt, we didn’t fancy the evening meal here, so got a lunchtime booking for 1:15pm.




Discovery Cove/ Yachtsman Steakhouse – Sunday 30/10

We have Discovery Cove booked for the Sunday; I’m really excited to do this. This is something the whole group is doing; some of the party have opted for the non-swim though.

That evening me and Kevin have a reservation at Yachtsman’s Steakhouse for 8pm, I’m really looking forward to this as we are both massive steak fans.




Animal Kingdom/ Tusker House / The Boathouse – Monday 31/10

We have a reservation booked at Tusker House for 8:00am, I’m really excited for this as it is our first time visiting here and I’ve read some decent reviews on the Dibb.

We managed to get Fast Passes for:
- Expedition Everest
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Kali River Rapids (my fave ride ever! )

We also managed to get a reservation for The Boathouse at Disney Springs for 7:30pm. I’ve read some mixed reviews on here about this one, so we have decided that we will go to DS a couple of days beforehand to scope it out, and we may cancel this and eat elsewhere.




Epcot / Beaches and Cream – Tuesday 01/11

As it is my nephews first time to Florida, we really wanted him to try a Kitchen Sink, as you can see there are a fair few us going on the trip, so I’m sure between us all we might be able to finish it . We managed to get a reservation for 10 people at 3pm. So the group will split this day, but beforehand we have chosen Epcot as our theme park choice.

We only got fast passes for:
- Soaring (we also got TestTrack for later on in the holiday).



Chef Mickeys – Friday 04/11

We got a reservation at 7:15am, once we have finished here this is another day the group will split, me and Kevin are hoping to do a water park/ shopping day and the rest of the group are thinking either Magic Kingdom or Hollywood studios.



The rest of the group have also got an ADR for The Rainforest Cafe at Disney Springs, however me and Kevin are going to visit the one at AK later on in the trip .
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Old 17 Oct 16, 11:47 AM  
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Minnie4Mickey
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Offsite Food Choices

Teaks Neighborhood Grill

I’m desperate to try and fit in a visit here, the burgers look amazing! I am 100% a fan of the sweet and savoury mix, so the Cronie or Doughnut Burgers will probably my choice here.

Me and Kevin are planning to come here one evening after a day in US or IOA.



Keke Breakfast Café

I posted a thread back last year when we booked the holiday about the best offsite breakfast places, Keke’s was recommended by a few Dibbers and after looking on their menu and seeing a few people eat here on their food reports we’re hoping to visit at some point.

I really like the look of their Pecan Turtle stuffed French toast and the Banana Nut French Toast
.


Cheesecake Factory

I’ve been to the CF in Vegas and Kevin has been to one in NYC, so have both put it on our list for Florida. The food here is incredible; I love the Bang Bang chicken and Louisiana Pasta. I follow Cheesecake Factory on Instagram and they recently posted a picture of their new flavour Cheesecake, it’s Hazelnut Crunch and looks amazing!


Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel is a firm favourite of ours, we always visit here a couple of times when we go to Orlando. The pancakes are to die for, my mum didn’t come with me on my last visit so I bought a box of their pancake mix along with a bottle of their syrup home for her, we ate them on Pancake Day. I also like their “eggs in a basket” it’s so good!


Giordanos Pizza

This will be another first for us, seen so many good reviews on here and the pizza looks incredible. We’ve done a bit of research and they have one near celebration and this location delivers to our villa so we are hoping to order a take out the night we arrive.

Deep Dish Pizza


Longhorn Steakhouse

Again this is another firm favourite of ours, we ate here for the first time in 2013 and we’ve never had a bad meal (touch wood). We did wait over an hour and a half for a table once, they forgot to put our name on the list, but they offered us free appetizers, drinks and desserts to apologise.

The Chocolate Molten Lava cake is what I’m most excited for!

There is a definite reoccurring theme of sweet items on my “must eat list” (I eat fairly healthily at home and exercise regularly so love to treat myself on holiday).


Toothsome Chocolate Emporium

This place looks amazing! I would love to go there for a full meal, but failing that I will definitely go for just a milkshake! They look so yummy!


Hash House A Go Go

This is somewhere we will defintely be visiting. I've been to the one in Vegas and after showing Kevin the pictures we now have a bet, he thinks he will be able to finish a whole meal to himself and he thinks he will have room for a dessert.

The Chicken and Waffles will be his choice:

However, I quite like the look of their "flapjack/ pancakes"


These are just some of the places I am hoping to visit, we will most certainly be going back to a few of our other favourites including Bahama Breeze, Red Lobster, Outback and maybe one trip to Denny’s for breakfast.
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Orlando 16 - Food Report
We got engaged trip 19 - Food Report

Edited at 11:51 AM.
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Old 20 Oct 16, 06:55 PM  
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H_C-2017
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Great plans! Love the food choices and pics - definitely got some of those on my list for next year - the stuffed french toast looks so good!


Enjoy your holiday
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Old 21 Oct 16, 09:41 AM  
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Minnie4Mickey
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Originally Posted by H_C-2017 View Post
Great plans! Love the food choices and pics - definitely got some of those on my list for next year - the stuffed french toast looks so good!


Enjoy your holiday
Thank you, it's so close now! Getting really excited. Can't wait to indulge and not be at work
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Old 22 Oct 16, 11:25 AM  
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floridasarah
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Ooh my goodness those food pics are making me so hungry! And that new Cheesecake looks luscious I am going to have to put that on my list for Easter.

I am looking forward to this report it will be very interesting as I love a villa report and there are so many of you.
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Old 23 Oct 16, 12:05 PM  
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Originally Posted by Minnie4Mickey View Post
Thank you, it's so close now! Getting really excited. Can't wait to indulge and not be at work
You must be so exited!
Let us know what food places you enjoyed
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