Campbell Clan Tour June 2008 - Background & Planning

[Jack Daniel's]

Trippie Index

I have to really apologise for the length of this , I go into far too much detail, but to be honest, I spent a solid 6 months planning and I don’t have - by far a photographic memory so you can imagine if all this is smouldering at the top, how much I could write if I actually thought about it, lol. Please enjoy!

Pre-ramble:- Planning for this trip to the mouse started back in early December `07 when it was decided that changing back the left over Dollars from last years holiday would loose us to much £ as the $ was a better rate than when I bought our spends for that holiday back in April 07 so we decided the cash was burning a hole in our pockets and any excuse really to get back to the magic would have done us. This cash was enough for all our spending money for the two weeks there so all we had to think about was the flights, accommodation, car hire, park tickets, nothing the bank manager can not sort out when the time comes, I couldn’t let a simple thing like how were we paying for it come march stop our fun. We decided to go the same month as last year so June it was, after much dibbing, trips to travel agents and web quotes we decided a package from Thomas Cook was coming up the same as booking everything separate (should have done car hire sep though) so an exciting visit to our local branch was in order, (lets take a breath and I think I will split this chapter here, its looking long already and I aint started yet)

Thomas Cook – We went in knowing we wanted to stay on property as last year CBR was brilliant and loved the extras you get whilst on property but we wanted to try another resort, I had already been looking on trip advisor and through the Airtours catalogue as it was through them we have had both our last trips, I thought we would save some cash by going to a Value resort as these do look fantastic, I (we )decided on Pop Century but I wanted a fridge in the room at an extra cost of about £10 a day if there was one available, we hummed n hawed, ohhhh n aaahhhhd and decided that a Moderate resort would justify the extra cost as they had a fridge included plus the other included amenities would make it worth it plus the transportation to DTD by boat would be so magic, we walked out with a quote for either POR or POFQ starting the 1st week in June – Sat 7th – Sat 21st, for the both of us this came to £2300 inc. car hire insurance, this was £400 more than we paid the year before at CBR but as we had also quoted booking separate this was about the price we were looking at with TC so was happy to pay this, undecided at the time which resort to choose we went home to Dibb and ask advice what resort to choose, we went with Riverside as I liked the sound of the lounge and the fishing on Ol` man island.

Getting the time off – As with most company’s, ours will not honour any holiday requests that are not authorized even if a holiday has been booked, something about requiring cover, so as others had the 1st + 2nd week booked off already we could not start ours on Saturday the 7th but was given the green light for Saturday the 14th to Saturday the 28th, no problem I thought as I remember the TC lass say there was a flight every Saturday through the season, after getting the authorization we needed I called up the branch too book the next week, well, this is were things change, the price jumps as there are no economy seats left, only Premium cabin and also the other costs go up as much too, from £2300 > £3266, almost a grand more, eekk, what do you do, realistically we have to go these dates now as any later and we are hitting July which was not an option so we had a short chat “ yeh or ney , , , , , , aye go for it” so that’s where we were at, starting to plan for this our 3rd trip to the magic together

Next Chapter Coming up

[Jack Daniel's]

Continued...
Itinerary & ADRs – Me “Joe” being the chief planner it was my job to make all this happen, smoothly with no arguments or hissy fits, from last year I remember how difficult it was for me to get ADRs at the 3 month 90 day stage so set about drawing up a rough plan, looking at EMH mornings I set about placing in our Disney park days then looking at places for Lunch and Dinner around these.
I wanted this holiday to be a bit more laid back with tours and non Disney experiences as our previous 2 trips were cram packed every day which is good for the sights but not on the body so it was decided (well I did) that we would leave out Universal parks this year as there had not been much change in them and the extra 2 days would come in handy for our laid back holiday, I don’t think that would come to mind when you see our itinery.
Time was really getting on now and it was approaching mid December were the 180 + 10 was almost here, I was on the phone to TC every day trying to get my Disney reservation number for Dining but they would not give me it, I went in for them to ask why I needed it then they tried to sell me the DDP for £500 each, I was not interested, even though some nights we would be in Disney restaurants I couldn’t be doing with the hassle of the DDP, after explaining to them I was looking to book tables they still refused to give me the number so I had to call without it. I managed to get all the ADRs I wanted 16 in total except one, V&A Chefs Table, not available the day we were going so I just made a regular booking for the dining room.
I had an interesting time calling WDW-DINE, many a call was made, 1st off, the lady would not take a booking as I had no Disney 12 digit reference number, so I went away and called back to get another CM who was nice and took my 1st 10 days, well she took the 11th too but it would not let her, at least she tried, once the last few days came up to the 180 marker I called again to get a CM who simply could not understand me, I have a Glaswegian accent but its not strong and if I
S P E A K S L O W L Y & L O U D L Y
you may just get what I am saying but she couldn’t, so asked if I could hold the line, she put me onto the foreign language line, total insult, I called back to get a CM who’s ears were not painted on and she took my last ADRs but to be honest she couldn’t quite get me and took guesses at what I was saying, this will be in the report as to what happened,
Just to make sure, I listed all ADRs with times, places, names, everything and mailed WDW asking for these to be confirmed for which I got a reply saying all was well, this will be disputed later on in the trip. God im rambling, lest have a cuppa and I will cut this rather large chapter, sorry people.

Still Speaking Itinerary here, now I have placed 1 breakfast, 4 lunch & 11 evening meal ADRs, I can fill in the rest of the blank spaces in-between, now last year I wanted to do a Disney dinner show but all were fully booked by the time I called so thought I would get in there and book one, well, I booked Mickeys backyard BBQ and read loads of reports about how you need to arrive early, so this was noted, next was the “Spirit of Aloha” Dinner show, chose Cat 1 seats on the front row, glad I did as kaz does not like to miss out. With my chart starting to fill I turned my head to tours, so I booked the Backstage Magic Tour, Wilderness Segway Tour, Backstage Safari Tour, on a roll I look outside of Disney and booked the Express VIP tour at Seaworld, Sharks Deep Dive at Seaworld and Shamu rocks pre show buffet.

At this point I had quite a nice looking itinerary with shopping days and water park days planned, nice and relaxing, well in my eyes if there is time to shop there is time to play so those shopping days turned into shopping afternoons and I managed to pack in yet more excitement, so a couple of mails to Orange Blossom Balloons and we were booked for an early morning Hot Air Balloon Flight, sorted, something kaz and me has always wanted to do, another one was an airboat over an alligator infested swamp, so again a few mails to Boggy Creek Airboats had us set for morning ride, still not content with this rather bulging plan I fancied doing a driving experience for myself so looked into the Richard Petty Driving Experiences at the Walt Disney World Raceway, I got booked onto the Rookie Experience which I was dreading for the climb through the window, I aint no spring chicken, lol, to top that driving morning off I asked a shooting range if I could fire a weapon being a visitor to the country, got the nod so was also set for that, when you think I could not book anything else I snuck in an evening at DTD to see La Nouba @ Cirque Du Soleil, this would be a first for us, infact this trip is full of 1st which is good.
Anything else you may ask, dying to go to the loo by this time (sorry people) I looked into a sky dive @ Sky Venture on I drive across from Wet n Wild, this would only happen if two things came together, 1. if we could be bothered on the day as we would be at Wet n Wild to relax, 2. if I lost enough weight before the holiday as the experience has a maximum and I was above that for my height, it was a possibility but you will find out in the trippies.
Did I mention that during all this planning that was solely left to me so dream up I organised surprises for kaz to get in the 1st few days and one at the end of the holiday, all were a complete surprise which included gifts from the Disney Florist, Memories by Betsy and a cabana @ Aquatica, this was for our last day and im so glad I did, it was as hot as the surface of the sun, sunburn did follow.

Tickets – After sorting the plan all I needed was the tickets to do it all, I decided to get the 14 day Ultimate Disney Tickets I got last year as I would of needed admission all the way to the last day, I purchased these from the Disney store with a combination of vouchers I purchased from ebay and cash, they were on a special 14 days for price of 7, snapped there hand straight off, think I saved about £25 with the eBay vouchers, next was the SeaWorld tickets, luckily on entering there online store I was greeted with 7 day ticket offer at kids price, so I took two SeaWorld and Aquatica combo tickets, onto maple leaf website I bought gatorland and wet n wild tickets to finish off my list.

Next Chapter, pictures soon promise

[Jack Daniel's]

Continued...
Costs so far – I had spent the budget of a small country by now but I know if will all be worth it, I booked our seats together on the plane as was told that we would be together but that could mean across aisle or in front, not paying £600 to sit beside a random for the 9 hour flight so a not so grudgingly £22 was parted so I could choose which seats to be in, I opted for seats 6a & 6b which were near the exit door on the left side of the plane were they normally offload us, so was happy there.
I also bought a new camera for this trip as the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 I took last year was a bit bulky for slipping into the pocket so I went for the nice Lumix FX33 @ £200, sold the TZ3 for £100 so new camera for £100 really but bought a 8GB SDHC card for it and 5 spare batteries for which I did need, the shoulder camera bag I had from last year done just fine, enough space for 3 spare batteries, a couple of 4GB SD cards and some sachets of sun cream. Bought another camera, this one waterproof, A Vivitar 6200 think its called, worked well with stills and motion video, I pre purchased the photo pass CD and bought lots of sun cream and other not needed junk for the trip, like, midge spray, midge bite stick, 1st aid kit, extra batteries, nothing that I could not have gotten at half the price in Wal-Mart, but no, I drag them across the atlantic, Im sure there’s loads more to tell you but feel myself I am dragging this one a bit so will continue to the summery now.



Packing – I started about 4 weeks before just to get a feel of how crammed the cases would be, more importantly how heavy the hand luggage was going to be as I hate to put any electricals in the Hold for fear of thievery or rough handling so as my list of electricals is long I was expecting my bag to be not the lightest, so I got down the gym to strengthen my fore arms and any other muscle I needed to make this bag look as light as a feather as I approach the check in desk, you know the feeling.
This year we bought 2 holdall bags with wheels from Woolworths, at £10 each this was a good deal as usually we buy solid cases which are at least £20 - £30 each, these holdalls also store away better so will prove to be a worth while buy.
I had bought 2 Laptop bags from a company called “trip”, one was a cabin trolley bag which was withing the BAA Glasgow regulations, this was a nice bag with plenty of room for the Laptop in a side entry compartment and space for other stuff, the 2nd bag I bought was a shoulder back pack with laptop compartment, reason I bought both, 1. was on offer at time and any order over £35 had free delivery, trolley was £23 I think, back pack was £12 so got back pack for £7 really, real good bags, back to the reason I bought both, Thomas Cook Airlines quote a cabin baggage size way shorter than BAA Glasgow and the Thomas Cook Branch told me they tell customers the BAA size, but what if I was stopped at the gate boarding and told the Trolley could not go, what would I do, well the idea would be is I would have the back pack stuffed in there as my flight bag but would use to put everything in if refused with trolley, you get my thinking, but on a fact finding mission to the airport a few weeks before flight I took said cabin trolley with me and tried to fit in the bag check at the check in, no were near, so for a hassle free, easy life I ditched the cabin trolley idea, even though it is such a pretty bag, in fact I may find a picture of it, I also know that I will be scrutinising every bag I see being taken aboard and moan that my trolley is as small but to be honest I could not do with the hassle if I was stopped, I do remember pointing out a bag on the way back to kaz that was the same size as my trolley going in the cabin but I just had to be happy with what I had.





Some of those things you take but never use but take anyway



The Budgie decides to help pack





Apparently all these shoes and more are needed






Last Chapter coming up...

[Jack Daniel's]

Continued... if you are still with me, well done
Surprises –
I booked a gift basket from “Memories by Betsy”
Disney Florist were to deliver flowers in a mug, tiara + glass slipper on a pillow of carnations and also a bucket with juice and sweets for me.
Backstage safari tour at AK
Cabana booked at Aquatica

Organized – I split all our money into separate zip bags for each day depending what we were up to, like a day at a waterpark may only require $150 were as a shopping day would be $400 - $500, I also took 15 or so poly pockets with emails and info related to each days activities, sounds a bit OTT but I would rather get all the leg work done before I go so I can relax in the knowledge I have it all under control.



Also try to capture any electricals in taking with me incase get stopped by customs on way back, will have this pic on laptop, not sure if its proof though



Summery – From when the trip was booked 1st week in December, I have researched, planned and dibbed solidly, before work, @ work and after work, I can say that I spent more time on-line at work planning my holiday for that complete 6 months than doing actual work, but that’s my job at the mo, do it at my own pace were as kaz`s position is so quite busy that she would never of had the time to do it so im making up for both of us. As any fanatic will tell you, this planning really does take it out of you as you pour your heart and mind into them to have as good a time as you can in the 2 weeks we have, As you could imagine all these little extras I have booked mount up and if I had not kept an accurate record I would not have believed how much I spent but this was going to be a special trip and a little thing like money was not going to put any dampener on it even though I was fast approaching DVC membership money.

So for a final summarisation we will be having a fantastic time doing what dreams are made of and we will love every moment of it like it’s our 1st and last visit.

I will try and put in more photos and less words from now on inn, both me and kaz will do a few days each for our different perspectives.

Pre-trippy up next

Pre-trippy

[purple myra]

... and i thought War and Peace was long!
excellent reading, you are very well organised... but the wee bags of money? lol

[Jack Daniel's]

Originally Posted by purple myra

... but the wee bags of money? lol

See more...

I done the same last year too, just lets me grab the money each day without thinking about it,

[purple myra]

Hey, whatever works best for you

[Guest]

You're certainly prepared

[Guest]

OMG - the money in separate wallets!
We would KILL each other!
I dont mean that horribly - just that I aim to be that organised on a daily basis - just would never happen!

[Guest]

Wow you are organised! I think the budgie was trying to stow away!