The Am I Even Allowed a Pre-Trippie This Early? Pre-Trippie

[Guest]

I know, I know, I am getting a bit ahead of myself in writing this pre-trip report, not least because (a) we haven’t had our holiday this year yet and (b) knowing us, everything will change a million times before we actually travel in August 2011. Yes, that’s right...2011, not 2010. See what I mean about getting ahead of myself!

Nevertheless, I’ve decided to write it for a myriad of reasons, namely

• To keep track of where I am with planning
• To keep a running total of costs (I’ve seen another dibber doing this and I think I should try it, although I imagine the amounts might end up being terrifying)
• To hype myself up as much as possible ( like I need to!)
• To avoid what I should really be doing, which is cleaning the house and doing ironing - this could be the real reason, actually.

So, where to start?

For anyone who hasn’t met us before, I suppose I should introduce us.

THE CAST



Hi. I’m Rachel and I’ll be 37 a few days before we travel. I’m Disney and Dibb obsessed; there aren’t many days when I don’t log on here on an evening. I’m probably what’s technically called a Florida bore as I could talk about Florida and Disney for hours... if my family allowed me too... which they don’t.

I love all rides from the wildest coasters to the mildest children’s ride. I also love the shows, parades, fireworks, you could say I get my money’s worth out of my park tickets. As you might have guessed, I’m chief planner and can spend hours poring over busy day guides and restaurant menus.



Second-in-command (ahem!) is OH, Andrew who will be 44 before we go. He doesn’t mind rides in general but won’t go on anything too fast or high – though this doesn’t apply to rides at water parks. He also draws the line at anything that goes upside down. Not that we mind as this makes him an ideal candidate for baby minding, stroller pushing and bag carrying and saves us having to mess about trying to put our bits and pieces in a locker while we ride. He enjoys the ambiance of the theme parks and will often be found chatting to a random stranger when we got off an attraction. He loves big trucks and often tries to find a way to truck-watch while we’re away. Andrew doesn’t do planning but appreciates how my planning contributes to a great holiday and pretty much goes along with what I suggest.



DS1 – Dan, who will be 17 a couple of days before we go (wow, that seems old!). Loves coasters and thrill rides. Currently, he’s pretty much your average monosyllabic teenager, although he does become animated when talking about music. Surgically attached to his i-pod, I’m not sure I’d recognise him without headphones in. He’s actually pretty nice for a teenager, despite the fact that’s he’s completely banned me from talking about holidays to him until the day we go



DD, Hannah, 12 when we go. Likes all rides, though says in every queue that she’s too scared to ride (then loves it and wants to go straight back on). Loves Tinkerbell, Winnie the Pooh characters, collecting autographs and pretty much everything else, though I’m thinking by the time we go that might have all changed as she’ll have turned from 11 to 12, moved to secondary school and might have grown up, eek. We’ll see though, as at the moment she thinks she’s Peter Pan and strongly opposes any idea of growing up! Can be a bit whingy when she doesn’t get her own way but is usually lovely and helps out loads with...



DS2 – Tom, currently 2 but will be 3 and a half when we go. The newest addition to the family... and don’t we know it. Mini-dictator, bossy boots and bundle of energy although out of the house he pretends to be shy. Likes Mickey, Tigger and Pooh Bear but is terrified to go near them. That could all change though as he gets older. Keeps us all on our toes!

Then, there are hopefully going to be a couple of surprise guests, but I’ll get to that shortly!

[Guest]

THE HISTORY

We first visited Orlando in August 2005 using a matured savings plan that I took out when Dan was born. This was to be our “once-in-a-lifetime-trip”. Yeah, right! We stayed for three weeks in a Comfort Inn, off I-Drive which was ok, clean enough, we were happy enough there. We chose not to drive and relied on the hotel’s complimentary shuttle bus service which was ok but it took quite a long time to get to the parks, making each day a long day. Still we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time! This was in my pre-Dibb days and unbelievable as it seems to me now I hadn’t heard of ADRs, Celebration, Downtown Disney, Boardwalk resort and didn’t realise you could eat in Disney hotels. We ate lots of burgers, nuggets and pizza as this seemed to be the only choice at counter service places.

We did some planning in that we followed a busy day guide and hit the big rides first and we did get a lot done in Disney, Universal and Seaworld. We didn’t care much for Busch Gardens as it was hot and busy and we spent most of the day standing in queues. We also visited Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Wonderworks, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede and Titanic on our “rest” days.

Fast forward four years and we were ready to go back. In fact, more than ready. We booked a similar holiday again, this time staying three weeks at the All Stars Music. Our plans were nearly scuppered when OH was made redundant but luckily he found work and fingers crossed he keeps it! In the meantime, I discovered the Dibb and spent hours, days, weeks reading up on Orlando. I found out about the DDP and more importantly a FREE DDP that was available when we were visiting. I visited a lot of websites and discovered that by booking DIY – even with the loss of our £400 deposit, we could still save a fortune. I duly cancelled Orlando with Thomas Cook and rebooked with Disney and Delta airlines. In the end I didn’t lose my deposit either as Thomas Cook transferred it to a week in Portugal at Easter 2010 – we travel tomorrow!

Our holiday was fab. In fact more than fab; this truly was the holiday of a lifetime! We spent 26 days in Orlando, staying at a variety of hotels – All Stars Music, Port Orleans Riverside, Saratoga Springs Resort, Royal Pacific Hotel and Animal Kingdom Lodge and I loved each and every one of them. We went to all the Disney parks, Seaworld, Aquatica, Universal (with front of line passes) and we even went back to Busch Gardens – this time with an express pass – and loved it. We ate at some lovely restaurants, visited Boggy Creek, Dined with Shamu and swam with the dolphins at Discovery Cove. This time we saw Downtown Disney, Celebration, the Boardwalk and had a lovely, lovely time.

I would have loved to have returned to Florida in 2010 but OH was ready to see somewhere else so we compromised on California, which then turned into an LA / San Diego / Vegas trip. More details can be found here...

California here We Come Pre trippie 2010

Which brings us to 2011. Originally, we weren’t planning on another Florida trip until 2012. However, OH and DD are keen to watch the Olympics when they are in London so we’ve decided that we’ll spend some time travelling in the UK and maybe squeezing in an Olympic event or two along the way (watching, not competing, lol). I couldn’t wait until 2013 so we decided to go to Florida in 2011. I’ve been watching for prices for ages now, hoping that free DDP would be available for August and I was so excited when prices finally started coming out. Initially we thought we might have to get a room for five at one of the deluxe resorts, but then I priced up a two bed villa at Saratoga Springs and was happy with what I saw. When I realised that we could have up to eight people stay there for the same price as the five of us – with free DDP – we asked my Mam and her partner if they wanted to come.

Now, in around 18 years of being together they have only been on holiday abroad once – to Turkey when they first started seeing each other. My Mam hated it! Since then they have been to Scotland a couple of times but they haven’t been on holiday for a lot of years. We have asked them a couple of times but she has always refused. However – and I’m not sure if this is the reason or not – recently my Mam’s youngest brother (there are 12 of them!) went to the funeral of one of his friends who had died quite young. He came back from the funeral and told his wife they were definitely going to visit Australia this year (they had been saving for some time) as “you never know what is going to happen”. Less than three weeks later, my Mam’s brother died, very suddenly and unexpectedly aged 50. They never got to go to Australia. At his funeral, this was discussed, many times and at one point I said to my Mam “You should see more of the world” and whereas usually she says “oh, I’m not bothered about that”, unexpectedly she just said “I know”.

So, when I asked her if they wanted to come with us, she said yes, no, yes, no, yes for a while before eventually saying yes.

So, our two new members are:

My Mam, Ann, 58 when we travel, though she’ll kill me for telling you that. She hates having her photo taken so I don’t even know if I can find a decent one of her. She stresses about travelling so I’ll have to do as much as I can to make it easy for her. Not sure how she’ll take Florida. I hope she’ll enjoy it but I really don’t know. I am hoping she will come to the parks some days but they definitely won’t be going at it full on like we do.

Her partner, Kev – 50-something. Ex paratrooper who has been all over the world. He has been to Florida before but not WDW and it was a long time ago. He has a great sense of humour and will keep everyone entertained but as someone who has never wanted kids of his own I’m not sure how he’ll take two weeks non-stop with ours!

So, hopefully they will come with us. I really hope they don’t change their minds and today my Mam gave me £100 to start saving for their flights so it’s looking ok.

[Guest]

THE PLAN

When we were looking at dates for next year we initially thought about going for three weeks as we usually do. However, that means flying at a weekend or taking longer than three weeks as you need to add an extra day on the return leg and Andrew was limited to three weeks off work. So we decided to go for 16 nights and decided upon 2nd August (a Tuesday) until 18th August (a Thursday). That means that we have a couple of days grace either side to search for flights, even if that means staying an extra day or so in a cheap hotel.

Also, we are fairly flexible about where we fly from and where we fly to. We are happy to consider airports other than Orlando if they work out cheaper and Andrew so loves driving in America he is happy to drive. He even said he was happy to fly into Atlanta or even New York and drive down – it all adds to the adventure, doesn’t it! Also, we would definitely go for an indirect flight if it saves money.
So, we have to wait until September to see where we are flying from / to but I took the plunge and booked the accommodation this week.

We’ve booked 16 nights in a two bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs Resort from2nd -18th August 2011. I quite fancied Old Key West but we did really like SSR and OH liked the idea that he already knew his way around the resort and how to drive from there to various places so I went with his choice – I make most of the decisions so I’m happy to go along with him on this. The villas look lovely, although now we’re taking the parents we’ll have to concede the master bedroom with the whirlpool bath and share a room with the two younger kids, pfft!

We’ve so far booked 14 day Ultimate tickets alongside the accommodation in order to get the Disney Dining Plan. Can’t wait to start planning ADRs. It might end up a bit complicated as my Mam and Kev won’t always want to eat with us but that’s what the Dibb planner is for  I would imagine we’ll change our minds before then but at the moment I’m thinking we’d like to revisit Cinderella’s Royal Table, Akershus, Le Cellier, Garden Grill, Whispering Canyon Cafe and 50’s Prime Time Cafe as well as trying for the first time Teppan Edo, Biergarten, Sci Fi Dine In and Cape May Cafe. I’m really open to suggestion though!

We will also be booking Universal tickets and our family will hopefully stay onsite at Universal on night for the Front of Line privileges. At this moment in time I’m thinking we’ll give Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens a miss in order to save money. I don’t think we’d have enough time anyway. Also, we’re putting a further visit to Discovery Cove off until Tom is old enough to do the dolphin swim.

What else? Finances. I said earlier I was hoping to use this pre-trippie as an ongoing financial record, so I suppose I should put my first outgoing here. I have paid a deposit of £392 to Complete Orlando - £75 for the accommodation and £317 as a 20% deposit on park tickets. Only another £4500 or so to pay, eek. Plus flights, plus more park tickets, plus spending money, plus car hire, plus Hannah and Dan need new passports, plus a probable multitude of other stuff that I haven’t thought of yet. Oh my goodness. In order to pay for it we are going to have to save every penny, plus i think I’m going to have to ebay anything that stays still very long. Wish me luck!

One last thing. Hannah and Tom hopefully will have no idea about this trip until just before we go. I’ve already started hinting that we can’t afford a holiday next year as I want to keep it as a surprise. I doubt I’ll manage it as I’m a complete blabbermouth but you never know.

So, I think that’s it for now. I doubt anyone has managed to stay with me this long but it’ll be a nice record for me to read and see how much our plans actually change along the way.

So long, for now!

[Guest]

wow what a pre-trippie, sounds fab and you have loads of time to get mega excited. Enjoy the planning, look forward to reading more

[tink3]

All sounds great. It is never to early to start planning.

I wish I had been able to keep quite about our holiday, it would have been a lovely surprise for the kids.

[00swan]

Brilliant - sounds like you'll have a great time.

Think it's a grand idea to pre-trippie at this stage - it's a fab way of recording how much things cost, etc - it's so easy to forget.

[Guest]

A mere 443 days to go

Well, despite Complete Orlando saying we wouldn't receive our Disney Confirmation number until 11 months before we travel (apparently this is only the case for SSR and OKW resorts) they have actually sent it this week. Obviously, I used it straight away to log into the Disney website and there was our reservation in all it's glory, complete with the correct passenger names and inclusion of the DDP. So, that's one thing off my mind. The difference in price between Complete Orlando and Disney UK was so great that I did have my worries that it would actually be booked, but it is so that's grand

I've also managed not to tell Hannah what the plan is. At the moment she thinks we're going to Wales for a fortnight. She was quite excited by that prospect unfortunately and we were a bit worried she'd be disappointed when we revealed the Florida trip so we've had to make Wales sound as dull as ditchwater (sorry, people from Wales) and implied to her that every day will be spent hill walking. Apparently this has had the desired effect as her teacher told me that they had to write a playscript in which the parents wanted to go somewhere dull and the child had to talk them into going somewhere more exciting and she chose hill walking in Wales as her dull place. Result!

Nothing else much happening - had a bit of a look for flights available at the moment but due to going for 16 days, there's not a lot of options so we're just patiently (or not so patiently, come to think of it! ) waiting for September to check out scheduled flights. Hopefully, they'll not be TOO extortionate - though we are willing to be flexible to save money.

Bye for now...

[mickeysquine]

Oh wow...another pre trippie for me to subscribe to and glean even more info... I love it.

Even though you have another trip somewhere else before Orlando are you still excited at the thought of 2011?
A fortnight hillwalking in Wales sounds really exciting compared to Orlando lol

[Guest]

Originally Posted by mickeysquine

Oh wow...another pre trippie for me to subscribe to and glean even more info... I love it.

Even though you have another trip somewhere else before Orlando are you still excited at the thought of 2011?
A fortnight hillwalking in Wales sounds really exciting compared to Orlando lol

See more...

Actually, this is really bad but I'm more excited about Florida in 2011 than I am about California this year. I think it's because I know what to expect in Florida and California is all new and scary!

[margyloveswdw]

A great pre trip report and it will be interesting to see how it changes over the next year!

Off to read the West Coast one for this year now