It's the Budget Trip - April 2015

[moosha]

Well, I said I wouldn't start the new pre-trip until I finished this year's report, Florididdypop Volume 2 (which can be found here if you haven't happened upon it yet.) However, with 200 days to go until next year's holiday, waiting until now is positively last minute for me. I am also using the excuse of having given away a big Art of Animation shaped spoiler in my most recent trippie to be able to say, well I'll just get on with it then seeing as I'm struggling to keep the deets secret anymore .

So, you probably already know us by now, but if not here's a quick re-cap of the cast:



Me: Michelle, will be 36 when we go. Disney / Florida obsessive, chief planner, holiday drill sergeant. First visit to Disney World was in 1986 when I was eight. Have been probably / around ten times since, including three with Mat (our wedding at the Wedding Pavilion / honeymoon in 2001 and two trips with our girls since then in 2012 and 2014)
DH: Mat, will be 38 when we go. Very much on board with the whole Disney / Florida thing having been slowly brainwashed by me since his first visit in 2001
DD1: Seren, 8. Huge Disney / Florida fan and is still very much into the Princesses / Fantasyland etc as well as now starting to brave the bigger / scarier rides. Favourite characters are Stitch and Belle
DD2: Freya, will be 7 when we go. Loves all things Disney especially Frozen and Cinderella. Also loves Despicable Me. Favourite characters are Marie and Rapunzel. Was a bit of a scaredy cat this year but next year she will reach the 48" ride milestone so hoping to drag her on Forbidden Journey, Primeval Whirl etc.

Ok, so the backstory to bring you up to speed on next year's plans. In 2012 we took the girls for the first time which was absolutely magical. We stayed at the Yacht Club with deluxe dining plan and it was a 'no-expense spared', 'once in a lifetime' kind of trip as I'd used a generous inheritance to take my family for the first time.

We saved up to go back at Easter 2014 and got a good deal with Disney for two weeks at the Wilderness Lodge with free dining plan which we paid to upgrade to deluxe again, having had a very good experience with the Disney dining two years before. We also added a sneaky extra week at the newly opened Cabana Bay. Our experience at the Wilderness Lodge and with Disney dining this year was disappointing. The Disney part of the holiday was missing some of the pixie dust this year and we vowed that we wouldn't stay onsite on our next trip due to the crazy prices and falling quality in our experience. We also decided that we were done with the dining plan for the foreseeable future as our restaurant experiences were generally disappointing this year as well. We'd had a great week at Cabana Bay though, and had really enjoyed being able to be flexible with how we spent out time (no ADRs or Fastpass+), and had enjoyed eating offsite too. We'd really enjoyed our time at Universal but said if we were to stay at one of the resort hotels again, it would have to be one of the deluxes with the Unlimited Express passes, as much as we had loved Cabana Bay.

So by the time we were travelling back to MCO at the end of our holiday this year, I had an idea of what I'd like to do on our next trip, which we were planning for 2016. We'd spent a couple of days in New York City before travelling on to Orlando, and really felt we hadn't had enough time there. As we'd visited NYC for the past three years in a row, we planned to return in 2015 in between our 2014 and 2016 Florida trips.

Once we were home though, I couldn't get the idea of going back to Orlando in 2015 out of my mind. If we were flying to New York anyway, then surely a cheap offsite fortnight in Orlando was a possibility. I very tentatively sent Mat a text one day while he was at work saying something along those lines, expecting to get a curt 'not until 2016' in response, but his reply when it eventually came was a shocker: 'Why don't we just do Orlando next year and not New York?' Now Mat is the biggest lover of all things NYC going, he'd move there tomorrow if he could. He's obsessed with New York blogs in the same way I can't drag myself away from The Dibb and easywdw.com. So you can imagine my surprise that this was his response. He'd obviously been bitten by the Florida bug. But it made sense; the hotel we stay at in NYC is very expensive but we wouldn't stay anywhere else in the city. I knew that I could find us somewhere decent to stay in Orlando, offsite, that would seem like a bargain in comparison. And yes, Disney is expensive, but we'd do plenty of cheap offsite eating, get a good deal on flights and limit ourselves to a fortnight rather than this year's epic 27 days. 2015 was therefore named the budget trip from that point and I got to work.

We had originally talked about going at the end of the summer holidays once the US schools are back, but this year's temperature in May hit the 90s and we realised we wouldn't be able to handle the August heat. So we're sticking with the tried and tested Easter / April period. Again in 2015, the girls' school holidays fall slightly different to the state school holidays, and we know it's always better to go as late as possible in April to try and avoid as much of the Spring Break crowds as we can. So our dates will hopefully work in our favour with crowds.

So where should we stay?

A couple of months before our 2014 trip, I'd had a bit of a wobble over staying at Cabana Bay, worrying about the lack of Express passes. I'd had the idea of spending part of that week offsite at a cheaper hotel, and then two or three nights at one of the Universal deluxes so we could get the passes. This was when I was expecting Diagon Alley to be open, thinking we would need the passes because of the crowds. I couldn't get the maths to work because it was a busy week so rates were high. In the event, once I knew Diagon Alley wouldn't be open, we decided to stick with Cabana Bay (thank goodness - we loved the hotel so much!) The benefit of that research though was that I knew where to start with hotels for this trip.

A hotel I had really liked the idea of was the Hilton at Bonnet Creek: close to Downtown Disney, cheaper than Disney hotels and with a fab pool / lazy river that the girls would love. It just so happens that Expedia had some good discounts on hotels when I revisited the hotel for next year, and topcashback were offering an extra several percent on Expedia hotel bookings at the time. So I booked it for 10 nights.

(Photos from Hilton's website)











As I've already said, we knew we wanted to stay onsite at Universal and we knew it had to be at a deluxe to get the Unlimited Express passes. For me, it was an easy choice; I knew I wanted to stay at Portofino Bay as I had fallen in love with the hotel via a blog post on easywdw.com: easywdw/uncategorized...nd/#more-12681

Here is one of Josh's beautiful photos of the hotel from that blog:



Portofino Bay is the most expensive Universal hotel though, so I was prepared to go with Royal Pacific or the Hard Rock. I explained the situation to Mat, showed him the rates and Josh's PB blog post. The rates weren't actually that different between the three hotels, maybe because I was looking so far in advance, maybe because our dates are at a slightly quieter time than Easter week, and maybe because we were looking at four nights (a tip I had picked up from Hannah - hannikins' - pre-trip; four nights works out much cheaper per night than three nights at Universal.) The rates for Portofino Bay just didn't look too bad, but even I was surprised when Mat said 'just book it!' Yay!

So we had our fortnights' accommodation booked and were just waiting for flights to be released (we were now at about 11 and a half months out.) I had a niggling feeling at the back of my mind that not staying onsite at Disney was going to affect getting any popular ADRs we wanted / Fastpass+ for popular rides / getting a FP+ at Be Our Guest for lunch, and I started to consider what I'd seen on other forums described as a 'throwaway campsite night.' Basically people were booking a cheap night at Fort Wilderness to get a resort reservation for MDE and Magic Bands. They would then stay offsite and never actually check in for the throwaway night. They had the benefit of Magic Bands, free parking at parks for two days and the perks of making FP+s at 60 days and ADRs at 180 days + 10 (if you link a Disney park ticket to even a one night stay, the FP+ and ADR benefit extends for the length of the tickets rather than just the one night of the resort reservation.) I wasn't planning to make a booking that I wouldn't use but I started to think about adding a couple of onsite nights to the beginning of the trip to get the benefit of those perks.

Being a budget trip and knowing how much we have fallen out of love with the deluxes, it had to be a value resort and we knew just the place. We had really enjoyed exploring at Art of Animation this year and the girls' faces had lit up when they saw the Big Blue Pool, so AoA it would be. There was no way we were paying for one of the suites which worked out the same price as the Contemporary (the only deluxe we would consider staying at because of being able to walk to MK.) The girls had loved the Little Mermaid area at AoA though, so we were happy with the standard rooms, and I booked two nights onto the beginning of the holiday. So I'm looking forward to being able to make the most of the onsite benefits while only needing to stay onsite for two nights. And the girls were very excited when we told them we were staying at Art of Animation.



So our dates are 10th - 12th April at Art of Animation, 12th - 16th April at Portofino Bay, and 16th - 26th April at Hilton Bonnet Creek.

Flights:

We have flown Virgin for all three of our Florida holidays since 2001, and we also flew with Virgin last year when we went to New York. We like Virgin. I wasn't really looking to fly with any other airline. Just before Virgin's prices were released for our dates, in the interest of shopping around to follow the 'budget' theme of this holiday, we had a look at BA whose prices for our dates were already available. BA's prices were quite a lot less than comparable dates close to our trip were coming up on Virgin. BA were doing a sale that was to end about two days before Virgin would release our dates, so I couldn't really wait it out and compare prices. Aargh. I had to either book BA before the end of the sale, happy with the prices they were offering (and not torment myself by checking Virgin's prices once I'd booked.) Or hold off and hope Virgin offered prices I was happy with. I was back and forth for a couple of days, not sure what to do. I was really reluctant to go with a different airline. I wanted to go with Virgin. I didn't want to book with BA and be disappointed, and wish we'd just gone with Virgin. I was so close to holding off and booking with Virgin once their prices were released, even if they were a good few hundred pounds higher. But then Mat, who usually just lets me get on with booking holiday stuff and goes along with whatever I choose, said 'this is a BUDGET trip so we should book with BA and just never check Virgin's prices.' So that's what we did. I am really happy with the prices which I don't have a breakdown of now, but I know we paid £2,176 in total for four of us to travel economy on the outbound and premium on the return (yes it's a budget trip but I simply cannot travel economy on an overnight return flight. No way.) I'm really happy with the price which is over £1000 less than we paid last year, but I'm a little sceptical about flying with BA. I was also a little bit annoyed with myself the day after we booked to find that, having discussed the predicament on the Dibb at the time, another Dibber with the same(ish) dates had got pretty much the same prices with Virgin after all, so I probably should have held my nerve. Never mind, it'll be a new experience.

I pretty much have our days planned out already, because I'm using easywdw's crowd calendar for most recommended parks, and basically just avoiding EMHs like the plague. I also have our restaurant plans ready for ADR day on 12th October, so I will be updating this with daily plans and restaurants very soon.

Update: Plans / Places to Eat

[Lisa29]

Yay, you've started!

The trip sounds great so far. Portofino bay looks beautiful and I haven't even seen the rooms!

Waiting for the flights is awful. We are thinking of just going with whoever is cheapest!

Looking forward to more x

[ayles300]

Plans look good!
We always go for the cheaper flights between BA and Virgin but BA have always been a lot cheaper every time so not sure what Virgin is like but can't fault BA.

We arrive a few days after, hopefully weather will be great, love May but this year was so hot, very hard doing the parks, so giving April a try hope I don't regret it

[moosha]

Originally Posted by Lisa29

Yay, you've started!

The trip sounds great so far. Portofino bay looks beautiful and I haven't even seen the rooms!

Waiting for the flights is awful. We are thinking of just going with whoever is cheapest!

Looking forward to more x

See more...

Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Lisa . I was definitely sold on Portofino Bay before I'd seen the rooms. Every photo in that blog post of the exterior / public spaces is stunning. I can't wait to see it in person .

Going with whoever is cheapest is a good plan, but you're right, waiting for the flights is a pain. Only a couple more months until you can book yours though, right?

More will be along shortly (trying not to abandon the current trippie too much!)

M x

Originally Posted by ayles300

Plans look good!
We always go for the cheaper flights between BA and Virgin but BA have always been a lot cheaper every time so not sure what Virgin is like but can't fault BA.

We arrive a few days after, hopefully weather will be great, love May but this year was so hot, very hard doing the parks, so giving April a try hope I don't regret it

See more...

Thanks for reading and commenting. It didn't take long to find someone who's going around the same time as us .

Great to hear that you've always been impressed with BA...phew! Mat flies with BA regularly for work and says they're very good, but domestic business flights are a bit different to taking the family long haul.

I agree, end of April / early May this year was extremely hot and affected our enjoyment of the parks too. In 2012 we were there mid April and had 'normal' April weather (late 70s / early 80s and only one rain shower), which was lovely. So fingers crossed next year is a bit cooler when we're all there . If I had to choose slightly cooler weather / higher crowds vs. hotter weather / slightly fewer people, I'd personally go for the former. As we're all arriving after Easter, the crowds should have dropped by then anyway, right? (She says hopefully.)

[danisleigh]

We find BA and Virgin very similiar, I woudknt worry about flying with them. We love easter and this year is the first trip we have planned for a different tine of year... hope we like it as much.
Looking forward to reading more 😄

[Lisa29]

Yeah, please don't abandon the current trippy, I am really enjoying reading it. x

[collybird]

Yippee, you've started!

I've always found Virgin and BA fairly interchangeable. Fingers crossed you have a nice flight. I'm very impressed with your restraint at not checking out the Virgin prices, I don't think I'd have been able to help myself!

We used Josh's busy day guide last year and couldn't fault it. (Sorry Dibb!)

[moosha]

Originally Posted by danisleigh

We find BA and Virgin very similiar, I woudknt worry about flying with them. We love easter and this year is the first trip we have planned for a different tine of year... hope we like it as much.
Looking forward to reading more 😄

See more...

Thanks for reading and for the reassurance about BA .

I do love going at Easter besides the crowds but I think they are there year round :/. I would love to go at this time of year as I'd love to see the Halloween decorations and go to MNSSHP. How exciting for you, hope you have a fab time .

Originally Posted by Lisa29

Yeah, please don't abandon the current trippy, I am really enjoying reading it. x

See more...

Don't worry, I'm in the process of writing day 12 of the current trippie. I'm just going to have to spend more time Dibbing and writing to be able to get them both done x.

Originally Posted by collybird

Yippee, you've started!

I've always found Virgin and BA fairly interchangeable. Fingers crossed you have a nice flight. I'm very impressed with your restraint at not checking out the Virgin prices, I don't think I'd have been able to help myself!

We used Josh's busy day guide last year and couldn't fault it. (Sorry Dibb!)

See more...

Thanks Colette, I am feeling better about BA after getting so many comments like yours. To be honest, I didn't bother checking the Virgin prices after they were released because having another Dibber confirm they'd been able to get similar prices to what I'd paid for BA was gutting enough .

Until I wrote this report I hadn't even realised we'd got next year's flights for over £1000 less than we paid for this year's, so I'm going to focus on what a bargain we got as I feel really good about that .

Glad to hear you've had success with Josh's crowd calendars too, hope it works out as well for you this year. I think he's extremely reliable and I like the way he explains why he does / does not recommend a given day. I'm a big fan of Josh and easywdw, which may be obvious from how much I bang on about him round here. His blog posts are hilarious. I'm always saying 'Josh says...' much to Mat's amusement. Josh is definitely a celebrity in our house, I was well chuffed to get an email straight back from him when I asked for permission to use that photo .

[Dixie Dot]

We stayed at Hilton Bonnet Creek in July/ August, absolutely loved it!
Free breakfast is great, shuttle bus is amazing! much less crowded than disney buses x

[moosha]

Originally Posted by Dixie Dot

We stayed at Hilton Bonnet Creek in July/ August, absolutely loved it!
Free breakfast is great, shuttle bus is amazing! much less crowded than disney buses x

See more...

Thanks so much for reading and commenting..you're the first person I've come across who has actually stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek! So glad to hear you loved it and were impressed with the free breakfast and shuttle buses. We usually drive to the parks but will definitely give the buses a go if they're less hassle than the Disney ones. Are they the plain silver buses we spotted quite a few times on our trip? And do they offer a shuttle to Downtown Disney? x