Lion's and Snakes and Clowns (Oh My!) (Hannah's 1st Trip to Disneyworld!) NOV 18 Pre-trip report
 

Hi Everyone! :D:D:D

So I'm sat here binge watching RuPaul's Drag Race (late to the party but I'm now on season 4 so no spoilers please!) and drinking wine and it suddenly hit me ... Disney is in 5 days! :eek::eek::eek::eek:

SO, I figured now was a good time to start my pre-trip report! The plan is to use this post to introduce the dynamic duo and outline our trip ahead of our travel day on Wednesday (Still can't quite believe it's already here!)

Without further ado, I present to you:

THE INTRODUCTIONS! :wave::wave:

I'm Steph (aka Smudge), I'm 25 & designated trip planner,
my jobs include:
- Holder of Important Documents
- Head of Financing
- Keeper of the Coloured Coded Spreadsheet
- Researcher of all things (I owe you all a Huuuuuuge thank you!)
- Chief Reporter
- and last but not least, Head of Reservations

I am an all round nerd, avid Marvel lover, Disney Freak, Proud Slytherin, Christmas Enthusiast and all round crazy person! :spin::spin::spin:

I've had a pretty rough two years (which once again, huge thank you to everyone, especially those on the weightwatchers, mental health and general chat threads for listening to me rant/whine/explode) and so going back to my happy place is making me want to run around in circles screaming! :pgig::pgig:

Disney Background: I've been to Orlando 4 times in my life (contrary to my mother's belief - I'm fairly certain the one time I went in utero doesn't actually count) but this is my first time staying on site, first time with a dining plan and first time going without family (I'm considering it my first "grown up" Disney trip), so I'm very excited to put a new spin on the Disney experience.



You'll be hearing from me a lot so apologies for the madness already!

Next up is Hannah:



Also 25, not massively into comics but loves old school classic disney and is a pure Gryffindor (not everyone can be perfect I guess)

Hannah has been my Jiminy Cricket since 2011 when I had the fortune of sitting next to her in a first year uni lecture.

She is the chief putter-upper-of-my-nonsense on this trip (and most other days of the year tbh), so I definitely think I got the better job! :D:D

Hannah has never been to Orlando itself or any Disney park anywhere ever, so I'm supper excited to introduce her to my favourite place on Earth!

And now, on to the Trip:

THE ITINERARY

Our trip starts on the 7th of November and ends on the morning of the 25th. We'll be spending two full weeks onsite at Disney and then 3 nights onsite at Universal.

We've got the DxDDP and 14 ultimate tickets for Disney and then the 3 park tickets for Universal with FOLP from the Hotel.

THE FLIGHTS

We're flying MAN-MCO direct with Virgin (VS75) and for the first time ever (like ever, ever not just to Florida) we're flying Upper on the way out!

Unfortunately, there weren't any seats free to upgrade our tickets on the way back so we're flying economy home but Idon't mind virgin anyway so I'm not too sad about it (VS76 on the 24th landing on the 25th)

THE HOTELS

Funny Story (but not actually all that funny!) we were originally booked to stay at AKL but, as anyone who was around on the accommodation threads at the time knows, they closed the pool there and as I have a club foot and would be using the pool on rest days, we didn't fancy having to walk to Kidani every time we fancied a swim so we took the move offered.

So now we're are booked in to stay at the Boardwalk instead! - Whilst I'm sad not to be staying at AKL, I'm excited to try the Boardwalk and now have an excuse to go back again :pgig::pgig:

We're staying in a Garden Room from 7/11 to 21/11 and will mostly be staying on Disney Property with the exception of some shopping.

The second hotel is our Universal hotel, which is RPR - originally, I was excited for this mainly for the FOLP at the parks but the rooms look gorgeous so I'm actually quite excited to stay just for the hotel now - this will be our base camp for the last three nights of our trip whilst we go mingle with the muggles at Universal.

THE DxDDP

As mentioned above, this is a Disney first for me as well as Hannah so we decided to splash out a bit and upgrade to the Deluxe plan as there were quite a few signatures we wanted to try and we like sit down meals as opposed to QS ones.

The Final (at least I think it's final) list of reservations we have for this trip are (deep breath!):

Breakfasts:
- Crystal Palace
- Cape May
- Tusker House
- Ale and Compass
- Garden Grill
- Bon Voyage
- Cali Grill (Brunch)
- The Wave
- Ohana

Lunches:
- Skipper Canteen
- Beaches & Cream
- Sci-Fi Theater
- Grand Floridian Cafe
- Liberty Tree Tavern
- Yak and Yeti
- Tutto Italia

Dinners:
- Trattoria Al Forno
- Cali Grill
- Flying Fish
- Yachtsman
- Jiko
- BOG
- Citricos
- Teppan Edo
- HBD
- Narcoossee's
- Homecomin'
- Tiffins
- La Hacienda de San Angel
- CRT
- Eating and Drinking around the world

Woooaahhh, writing that in one place makes it sound like a looot of food! (and we still have a spare credit each!)

If that wasn't enough, we also have some extras booked (now I realise why we're calling this our last big holiday blowout!):

- Food and Beverage Pairing (Scallops and Wine)
- MVMCP

And last but not least, I love surprising my loved ones so I've arranged a few for Hannah which include:

- HEA After-Fireworks dessert party
- Frozen dessert party
- Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! dessert party
- Disney/HP Gift box (I'll post an update with this in when I've assembled it!)


SO, I think I've rambled on long enough at this point for an initial post, hope you guys weren't too bored and look forward to bringing you along (virtually :d:) with us on our trip!

I'll try and post a full day-by-day itinerary before we go but the next 4 days are going to be mental so I might end up uploading that after we get there :thumbs-up

And on that note, I'm off to bed:zzz::zzz:

Night Dibbers, I'll be back to report soon and until then I'll leave you with a picture of the nails I had done today for my holibobs!



Loads of Love,

Smudge xx