Hard Rockin' in the Wilderness - Pre-trip

[Bozza]

I started a trippie once before and didn't get very far. Anticipating writing a trippie, I took some notes last year and did nothing with them. So this it - this is going to be my first beginning-to-end, packed-with-photos and witty-as-you-like (or-don't-like) trip report.

This trip report will be all about...

Me - Darren - 36.

This is, I think, my 12th visit to Florida. I first went with my parents a little over 20 years ago, and it has kinda stuck. I tend to go one year, satisfy my addiction, go elsewhere in this wonderful world, before getting the yearning to return. However, this will be my 3rd year in a row with a visit to Orlando.




My daughter - Madison (aka Mads) - 5.



Madison is lucky enough to be taking her 3rd trip to Orlando. The first was when she was 13 months when Madison's mother and I enjoyed the pre-Christmas period in Orlando with our just-walking little girl. She doesn't remember too much about that.



The second trip was last July, again with Madison's mother and myself. A curious trip in that we had separated a few years before and the divorce papers turned up the day we set off for Gatwick. Mads lives with her Mum but we have joint custody meaning I have Mads approximately half the time. Despite the failings of her parents, I'm pleased to say Mads is a very happy, caring and bubbly little girl. She's absolutely lovely and I'm very proud of her.

Bouncing in Sea World:




"This Beverly is lovely Daddy, try some"




Chillin' at the Hard Rock:




A Princess in her carriage at The Grand Floridian:




Happy people in a happy place:




My partner - Wendy - 33.



Wendy and I went in August 2006, a last minute trip we squeezed in between work projects. We had a brief flirtation with Hurricane Ernesto, lots to eat (especially in Boma) and lots to drink (especially in Jelly Rolls).

In the 4 years or so Wendy and I have enjoyed time in Australia, Jamaica, Cuba, New York, Egypt and, as above, Orlando.

In Brooklyn, 2007:



Also, as above, last year saw the strange situation of me holidaying with Madison's Mum whilst Wendy spent time on a 'live aboard' on the Red Sea doing lots and lots of scuba diving.

Wendy and co with a dugong (a relative of the manatee) in the Red Sea:



This holiday is a big occasion - primarily because it is the first holiday that the three of us will be spending together which, by implication, means the first holiday Madison will have away from her Mum and, of course, she loves her Mum to pieces. It's also a big occasion because I don't know how many more holidays with Mads will be possible in the future.

Madison and I were possibly going to take this trip, sans Wendy, at Easter but Madison felt she wasn't ready for a holiday without her Mum so I was waiting for her to feel comfortable with the whole proposition. At some point earlier this year Madison told me she felt ready, so I started looking. Now, Wendy is not a huge fan of Orlando. Don't get me wrong, she enjoyed our trip there but is very much a "the world is a big place, and I want to see it" kind of gal. She's seen some of it, I've seen quite a bit of it but there's a whole heap more out there still.

We contemplated Kenya or Thailand for this trip but after much kayak-ing and missing out on some flights I should have booked, I found myself booking some Continental flights direct with the airline, and that was that. For a number of reasons, we had to settle for 11 nights which I'm not unhappy with - it's long enough as Mads will undoubtedly miss her Mum at times.

A bonus of flying with Continental is that we'll get some more Virgin miles to our respective Flying Club collections, although as I type this I reckon my silver status is likely to be lost later this year.

With a 10am-ish Monday morning flight, a night at a hotel at Heathrow was kinda essential, and having got used to kicking off Gatwick holidays at the Sofitel, I think it's a nice way to get into the holiday mood early. The Crowne Plaza looked nice and has decent reviews. It also has a pool which Mads will love so I booked through Holiday Extras. It was easy to identify the hotel as one of their 'mystery' options and the educated guess turned out to be correct. £70 for a room and 15 night parking seemed a huge bargain relative to prices of the Sofitel at Gatwick.

After the flights, the next thing I booked was our Disney hotel - 7 nights at the Wilderness Lodge were booked at Expedia.com, who were offering better prices than anywhere else at the time, including our own UK flavour of Expedia. Almost everyone speaks highly of this resort and it will be nice to be but a short boat ride to the Magic Kingdom.

Booking at the end of June gave us a nice short 50ish day countdown but was also going to mean we wouldn't have a prime choice of ADRs. That said, we've done OK - we couldn't get Chef Mickey or 1900 Park Fare at a time we wanted but we did them last year so it's no great shakes. What I did manage to book was...

- Crystal Palace breakfast. This will be at 8am on our first day and a lovely way to start the holiday, especially as we're likely to be up bright and early.
- Teppan Edo lunch.
- California Grill dinner.
- Cape May Cafe breakfast.
- The Wave lunch.
- Boma dinner.
- Akershus dinner.

Before Akershus, Mads will be attending the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutqique at the Castle, we did this at Downtown Disney last year. I also booked the Beach Club Pirate Cruise for Mads one morning, giving her some good quality kids' time away from us. She'll also be going to the Neverland Club at the Polynesian when we go to the California Grill.

I'm a huge fan of being on-site at Universal so our final 4 nights are going to be spent there. I kept feeling we should give Portofino a go to "complete the set", Wendy and I enjoyed the Royal Pacific in 2006 and Mads absolutely loved the Hard Rock last year. I dwelt on this decision for a few weeks but, in the end, made the booking for the Hard Rock direct with Universal. Mads loved the room, the pool, the pool-slide and the "swim-thru" movies last year so I know it will work for her this year too. I booked an Annual Pass rate, and also ordered myself a new Annual Pass, as my last one had expired a while back.

I bought our 14 day Ultimate tickets from Tickets4Fun who delivered the very next day, and ordered 7-days-for-2 Universal tickets for Wendy and Madison from Expedia . In fact, when I bought the latter, I wasn't paying enough attention and subsequently bought 3. I only needed 2 due to my annual pass so seem to have a spare...ho hum.

I did try to book the Simpons breakfast but unfortuntely Universal announced they were cancelling this, so I got a place at the Cat in the Hat/Spiderman breakfast instead. I also booked dinner at Tchoup Chop

I was torn on car hire strategy between picking one up at MCO and keeping for the duration, or using Magical Express and picking up a car a few days in. I've done both variations before and they each have their merits. In the end I decided to let the Magical Express take the strain to get us to the Wilderness Lodge and have booked a car with DIBB favourite U.S. Rent A Car for a few days into the trip. Of course I've managed to get this wrong too - somehow managing to book both collection and drop-off at the Dolphin, when my intention was to drop-off at MCO on the way home. I'll need to contact them on Monday morning to try and resolve or just sort out when I pick up the car.

I've bought £300 of dollars from Travelex which I'll pick up at the airport. This will be used for small incidentals, with most of our spending going on credit card(s). I've finally got round to getting one of the Nationwide cards that charges foreign currency transactions at the bank rate so our purchases will cost less than using a conventional card.

So, that's probably it. It's about 11pm on the evening of Saturday 16th August, we'll be leaving here around 1pm tomorrow. It goes without saying that I've not packed yet - that will be one for the morning.

Having been each of the last two years means there's no great pressure to see and do everything so we'll focus on the couple of new things such as Toy Story Mania and The Simpons, as well as all our favourites. Mads seems to think she'll come on Tower of Terror, which is a surprise. It's my favourite though, so it would be great to ride it with her.

I'm very, very excited about this trip!

[Bozza]

Yikes - that's a lot of text. And a rubbish title. Oh well...

[Guest]

Luvin' it already Darren and some great pics there of the cast!
Look forward to you reporting that you've done some packing and of course to you finishing a trippie!

[Guest]

Hope all 3 of you enjoy your holiday, Mads will be fine without her mum, of course she will miss her but she is with her Dad who will take care of her :thumbs- Cant wait to see your trip report and pics

[Guest]

Have a wonderful holiday!

[Guest]

I like the title

No wonder you're excited - you're going to have an amazing trip! Can't wait to read about it all when you get back!

Have fun!

[Guest]

Great start to your trip report and some fab pictures.

Have a fantastic holiday.

[Guest]

Hope you have a great holiday!

[Steve.S]

Hi Darren,fantastic pics hope you all have a blast and have many more.

[TrueBlue]

Your daughter Madison is soooo cute, love the pic of her in her carriage. Hope you have a great holiday and i'll look forward to reading your trippie on your return.

Have fun the 3 of you's