It's Gonna Be Hot! Hot! Hot! - Aug 2011: Pretrip – A little background information about the trip

[Siddex]

Pre-trip – A little background information about the trip

It’s no secret in my family that I LOVE Florida and would go there every year if I was allowed or could even afford it. But I am made to rein it in and every few years I am allowed to go back to the most wonderful place on earth! So the trip this year was my 4th the last time we visited was back in May 2008.

After dates for this trip were finalised, I began the task of finding flights, a villa (a first for us), tickets, etc, etc.

The flights were the trickiest as we were going in the school holidays and I did not want to re-mortgage the house on them! So I started tracking flight prices and playing the waiting game. I set myself a budget and many frequent reminders on Kayak and Skyscanner, all in the hope of getting a bargain flight. I did miss out on a few bargains but then one cold and dark night in January a direct flight appeared on Expedia from Gatwick to Tampa with Iberia. It transpired that Iberia codeshare with BA so in fact these were BA direct flights and all for under £500 each! So I hurriedly booked them and then we played a waiting game with Expedia to see if they could confirm the flights at the price I had been quoted. Another thing I learned, even if you are quoted a price which you then pay for, these flight resellers can’t necessarily guarantee those flights at that price! So it took about 2 days and several phone calls before I got a booking confirmation! Nervous times!

Once that was done, it was time to find a villa. The Villa criteria, was a four bedroomed villa with private fairly secluded pool, ensuite bathrooms to both master suites and within 15 minutes of Disney. Because of my relative late booking I had missed out on all the suitable DIBB Villas, so I had to look elsewhere. I made a shortlist of about 15 and then whittled it down from there, this took quite a while! Eventually I found a lovely looking Villa on Sunset Lakes and I took the plunge and booked for our dates.

Now I could sit back and relax for a while and finalise the other things as and when good deals came up. This is what I did with the car, I wanted a full size SUV this time and with a bit of to’ing and fro’ing with Hertz and some discount codes managed to bag one. I also got bargain train tickets to Gatwick airport as I did not want to drive to the airport and back (about 3 hours from our home). I also booked a couple of rooms at the Gatwick Central Premier Inn.

All that was basically left was the theme park tickets and any other excursions. After the 2008 trip we decided that we would like to do WDW at a more relaxed pace and sample the atmosphere a bit more, rather than haring backwards and forwards to each big ride to get it done. So because of that we ditched the Universal Parks and Busch Gardens (DS12 was NOT impressed!).

We had decided to do Discovery Cove this time, so when a good rate came up for that I went ahead and booked those tickets (I had worked out roughly when to put this into my itinerary). We opted for the SeaWorld tickets alongside that, so another park / day was covered. To be fair we would have ditched SeaWorld as well, if the tickets weren’t free.

Disney 14 day ultimate passes were secured shortly before our trip, no bargains to be had there I’m afraid!

I looked at ADR’s and after not really enjoying the whole Disney Dining experience or the cost in 2008 (I just find these meals so rushed), I was not going to do many of these Disney meals. I did book a couple though and these were principally ‘princess’ based! So lunch at CRT was booked for our MK day, I also booked the Princess Breakfast at Akershus in Epcot and finally I booked Corral Reef for my DM’s birthday on our last full day in Florida. Oh, I also booked the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party as a surprise for everyone. All other meals would be taken away from the parks at a much lower cost!

I knocked up a quick itinerary to see where and when to fit everything in we wanted to do. As usual this was a lot harder than it sounded, as I kept moving things around due to various factors.

The other things we wanted to fit in were an airboat ride, we plumped for Spirit Of The Swamp after some good DIBB reviews and also a shooting experience, I went for Top Gun Tours for this as I wanted DS12 to have proper instruction. So even though it was not cheap I reasoned his introduction to firearms would then be in the right environment. Finally shopping had to be squeezed in, I loaded the shopping days at the end of the holiday as our last weekend was US Labor Day and this time of sales in the US.

So, finally everything was booked, the itinerary was completed and we were good to go!

Onto the cast:

Me (Mark)

• Now 40 years young and a 4th time veteran, so an old hand at this now!
• Love the US of A, love Florida and love theme parks, so am very happy to be going once again.

Just a usual Saturday night out!

Maria (DW)

• Younger than me (think mid 30’s – as I am not allowed to divulge such information)
• A second time visitor and does not do rides but loves Disney and the princesses.
• Wants to drink wine by our own pool and go on an airboat.

James (DS12)

• It’s his 4rd time already! But is very disappointed that Universal and Busch Gardens have been chalked off this trip.
• Will go on any thrill ride as long as they are not scary – will not do Tower Of Terror again under any circumstances!

Ella (DD6)
3 years on and she is still mean and moody and liable to ‘strop’ out at any point!
But loves Disney and the characters, she is not sure about the rides though.
Would be happy swimming in the villa pool each and every day.


Jackie (DM)

• My mother, we drag her with us each year to help spread the costs and look after the kids!
• Is happy to trawl about all day following the family – won’t do many of the rides though.
• Wants to help Maria drink the wine by the pool and wants to shop – extensively!

Day 0 here

[gingermoonman]

Looking forward to reading your trip report, we are hoping to go in Aug 2014 (only 497 days) and staying at Sunset Lakes
Also looking at doing Discovery Cove, shooting and airboat ride
Nice to see you got flights at a good price

[disney owl]

good start

[mouselover22]

Hi Just joined the party with this one. Looking forward to reading your trippie and experiencing some other 'things to do' in Florida. Great flight prices for August!

[madhatter3]

Looking forward to reading this report, as i am thinking of Aug 2014 (or 15 if money does not allow).