The do-over: Take me back - updated 16/03
 

:wave::wave::wave:

Finally under a year to go on our countdown meaning it's definitely now more than acceptable to start a proper pre-trip report!

Our last trip was August 2017 & we had an amazing time. We stayed just under 3 weeks in a Nemo suite at AOA and loved the resort. We did a 1 night stay at RPR in the middle for Universal, a dolphin swim package at DC and squeezed in a day at Seaworld too. We were joined but my lovely sister & brother in law for the last 10 days & most importantly we got married :inlove:




It was a bit of an all out trip because we didn't think we'd be going back anytime soon, there's so many places on our travel list we're yet to tick off. But the pull of Florida was too strong & before even leaving we'd agreed we'd go again 2021. That obviously changed rather quickly & after seriously contemplating DVC we decided we'd do one more 'free dining' trip if the price was right.

Roll round to April when we were impatiently waiting for the free dining to be released with the the usual rumors it wouldn't be and various dates being thrown around which came and went. Eventually Disney came good & although more limited than previous years we were soon booked :spin:

I did spend the morning on release day doing lots of price comparing or spreadsheeting as darling husband called it but in the end direct with Disney came out on top so the following was secured

October 25th to November 4th
Caribbean Beach Resort: now in Port Orleans Riverside. £350 But guaranteed Murphy bed
Quick service dining
$200 gift card
14 day tickets

for the rather fair sum of £3200. A nice little bonus of £155 through Quidco too (eventually! that was a bit if a saga :nonono:) which gave me a £160 for Amazon towards Christmas bits.

Keeping it to a tighter budget this time it's a Disney only trip which we're all thrilled about! Quick service instead of Table service to give us more flexibility and save us a small fortune on tips. Wow they added up last time :erm: With a shorter stay we wanted to maximise our park time and hoping the qsdp will help with that too.

But it's a long flight for a 10 night stay and neither of us had a problem with the kids missing the week of school after half term. They're both bright hard working kids with very good attendance otherwise & will be in years 9 & 5 so not major exam years or anything. Setting our return date as November 8th or 9th instead of the 4th there was no question of what I would be booking to fill those days

Our very 1st Disney Cruise :D



4 nights on the Disney Dream November 4th-8th.
Booked on release day again for £2200 in an extended verandah room on deck 5. It all looks absolutely amazing & I'm so so excited. The kids have no idea either, they still think they'll be back in school for the Tuesday :pgig: at the moment we're not planning to tell them until we're as close to the port as we can get without them realising. we'll now be doing an Easter egg hunt with a reveal at the end, so excited to do this

I'm pretty rubbish at keeping secrets mind and so far the list of people that know include my family, my colleagues, daughters skating coach, hairdresser, nail tech, the electrician that came over last Tuesday, the cafe lady at the Ice rink & of course our family dogs. Useless! Can't keep anything from this cutie



It's not quite in keeping with it being a budget trip but it certainly meets the Disney only criteria so we'll just overlook the other bit ;)

At the moment I'm busy saving spending money, reading through cruise tips and hints, keeping an eye of refurb updates for CBR, wasting too much time on here and researching quick service options.

I'll be using this report to help me keep track of everything and will more than likely stick to a weekly update so I don't bug people too much. For now I'll leave you with our mugshot from DLP where we had our annual visit to in August with our best friends, it was near the end of a long day so not our greatest look :pgig: Happy Disney planning

Yayyyyyyy! So excited for you xxx

You're first! Not long at all now xxx

Cannot wait - it'll make January go so much quicker! Xx

I'll just be sat here all jealous & cold looking longingly at our long countdown! I've been freezing at work today, in desperate need of some sun.

We've been lucky enough to have a couple of holidays this year & lots of lovely weekends away but next year other than a girls holiday in May I've got to wait until Florida. Sad times xx

We've had a midweek break at Center Parcs, long weekend in London and about to have a couple of days in Lancaster to see my sister but that is it - missed the summer holidays when I changed jobs. It will all be worth it when I board that plane! Xx

Just a quick mini update from me. Work has been hectic & one of our dogs very poorly meaning everything has just been a little crazy lately.

But we do now have flights booked & if nothing else I'm relieved I no longer have to look! So our plan is now as follows

24th October: check in at Gatwick Hilton
25th October: fly direct to Tampa at 9.40
arrival 14.10 & pick up car, Category F through Avis
check in to Caribbean Beach
4th November: drive to Port Canaveral to board Disney Dream
8th November: disembark Disney Dream
check in to Hilton Clearwater
9th November: fly at 19.25 Tampa to Gatwick

Flights, car hire, airport hotel & Clearwater hotel all booked as a flydrive package for just under £2200 which I think is good for everything. Only airport & cruise parking left to arrange now really.

Bit sad we wont be going back to Disney after the cruise as we 1st planned but the cost was spiraling & Clearwater is on the bucket list so think it's a good idea. MVMCP tickets seem to be going up each year & it looked so busy in the Vlogs, a chilled out 36hrs at Clearwater is just what I think we'll be needing before returning back to real life.

I promise a much more interesting update next time :spin:

Well aren't I an impatient little bee



Airport parking sorted! Meet & greet South terminal for £77 Thanks to the black Friday discount code. Happy with that price & means we can drop our car off the night before then jump on our 1st monorail of the holiday to north terminal for the hotel. Yay

Found it! Will be following along. You have obviously changed from CBR to POR - are you still doing the cruise? We did this in 2013 and it was so amazing!

Yes still doing it & so excited! We weren't planning on telling the kids but bizarrely J saw some adverts for cruises & kept talking about doing one. Will be doing an Easter hunt reveal next month for them, can't wait x