The 1st Holiday with the Kids! – Pre-Trip

**LLKJDisney** · 18 Feb 09, 10:26 PM

The Cast

Me – Kerry (30) will turn 31 on the holiday. Chief Planner, complete Disney freak and will not go on holiday anywhere else, as nowhere else even comes close.

Lee (30) – My husband of 6 years and partner of 15! Complete know it all, who is never wrong hence his nickname of ‘nobby know all’. Also loves Disney and turns into a big kid from about a week before hand.

Cheryl (25) turning 26 on the 2nd day of the trip. Sister-in-law who is also a complete Disney nutter. This will be her 4th trip to the World.

Russell (27) who also has a birthday on this holiday and will turn 28. Doesn’t really say a lot but does grunt now and then. He is my favourite Brother-in-law. Although he doesn’t show it he also loves Disney and all that comes with it.

The Munchkins!

Courtney (3) – She is my niece and also Cheryl’s, Lee’s and my Goddaughter. She has stayed at our house nearly every weekend since she was a week old, even has her own room at our house. Has just starting to get into Disney, loves Goofy, Simpson’s and Dora.

Lauren (1) – Cheryl and Russell’s baby girl, just turned 1 on Feb 3rd. into everything at the moment, just started walking. Eats anything! Into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger & Pooh and La La (teletubbies)

Jacob (9mths) – Mine and Lee’s son and life! Always smiling, very picky eater and hates sleeping during at nightime! Just started moving about but not in the normal way – he shuffles around on his bum. I am convinced he will cut his 1st tooth during the trip. He too loves Micky Mouse Clubhouse.

Well that’s the gang and although all the adults have visited Orlando many times, I have a strong feeling that this trip will be very different to all the others!

This trip came about in a rather strange way, having not had a holiday since December 2006 (which was Russell & Cheryl’s honeymoon). I really wanted to get back to see my favourite mouse during 2009. However, Lee was against this idea at first, due to Jacob’s age and money. Then after a discussion with Russ & Cheryl we decided to get a few quotes and see where we stood. Lee then suggested that we ask Courtney’s mum and dad if they would let her come with us. After doing the sums, the best time of year would have been September but this is when Courtney was due to start school, so this was a no go. The trip was then put on hold and not discussed for a few months mainly due to Lauren’s birth and Jacob’s impending birth.

Then in March out of the blue, Lee gets a call from his work telling him he is being made redundant. He worked for the company for 10 years and worked his way up to management but unfortunately this counted for nothing. So there we were, 2 months away from the birth of our 1st child, I was due to start maternity leave in a couple of weeks and Lee had no job. A trip to Florida in 2009 became the least of our worries.

Anyway to cut a long story short, certain procedures were not followed when Lee was made redundant so he was able to sue the company. Despite this being a long and stressful experience it was worth it as the company settled out of court a few weeks before the industrial tribunal was due to take place. The aim was always to obtain enough money to pay for me, lee, Courtney and the baby to go to Florida in 2009. Fortunately this happened and we had the money.

In between all this our baby boy was born, on the 21st May 2008 (10days late!). Jacob Lee was here and our lives were complete. We tried for five long years for a child, the last 3 going through intense fertility treatment. After our first shot at a full IVF programme, the news that we were finally pregnant was broke to us on 7th September 2007 and our whole world changed completely and we are now the proudest parents of a very special little boy. Lee always planned to have 3 weeks to a month off work when the bay was born however due to the circumstances of his job he had the first 7 months of Jacob’s life off. He could not find a job in his industry (Leisure) and it was looking like we would have to use our Florida money to survive but then at the beginning of December, Lee finally got a job as a Postman! Totally different job to what he had done before but we couldn’t afford to be picky. The position was part time but it paid a hell of a lot more than the £60 a week jobseekers allowance.

Once Lee got a job we had a chat with Russ and Cheryl and did a few sums and the trip was back on! YIPEE. The only thing we had to do now was decide when to go. After a bit of thought I came up with the idea of going in the last week of Feb’09. The reasons for this were.
· The trip would cover 3 of our birthdays, which meant we could take advantage of Disney’s 2009 offer
· The weather would be warm but not to hot for the kids
· The parks would not be too busy
· Flights were quite cheap
So after several debates we booked a fly drive with Virgin, flying on the 23rd Feb from Manchester.
We then booked the Villa through Brownfield’s on the Dibb and I have to say that her service prior to the trip has been excellent and I am really looking forward to staying in the Villa. I cannot praise Caroline and Nick enough so far for all their help where the villa was concerned. So a huge thank you.

That was it then, we were booked up again and although nearly all our family members said we were wasting our money taking the babies, we didn’t care, as although we knew they wouldn’t really remember anything about the trip, we would always remember the look on their faces!
That’s a big part of why we decided to do a trip report as they, and we, can look back on it in years to come.

I am writing this with 4 days to go and I am all packed and ready for the off on Sunday as we are travelling up to the Marriott to stay there on the Sunday night. However we can’t leave until the lads have played football on Sunday morning, I am praying they don’t break anything!

Thanks for reading, I promise my trip report will not be as long but a lot happened prior to this trip. I intend to use photo’s but have never posted any before so will have to muddle my way through it.

See Ya Real soon