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-   -   The Big 50 trip May ‘22!- Pre-trip report (https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1174116)

collybird 10 Oct 20 07:39 PM

Oh Lisa, I have missed so much :wavey: I didn’t realise you had started a new PTR. I’d been looking out for updates on your cancelled trip thread. Silly me! :blush:

I had been thinking about the puppy and wondering if you ever took the plunge, Leia is lovely and so big! Love her name too. How has she settled in?

Anyway, I’d been noticing your posts about the Dolphin and have been wanting to pick your head about it for a while, and now I can. ;)

To cut a long story short, we have booked 2 trips for next year. September and an extra November trip for 10 nights, which will just be me and Mum. Obviously, we couldn’t book Disney for November, but I saw you had got a good deal at the Dolphin with Travel Republic and the cogs in my head started turning. THEN I found a package with Virgin for the Dolphin that we were happy with so took the plunge.

I was thinking we would switch to a Disney resort as soon as they are available for November. But then I made a Dolphin plan… Now I am kind of set on it. We won’t have a car and Mum isn’t a fan of Disney transport, so being able to walk to two of the parks is going to be a huge perk for us. As is all the restaurants nearby, I don’t think my mum could think of anything worse than eating in a resort food court every night.

Comparing prices for earlier in the year it looks as though Dolphin will be comparable to CSR. Would I really want to sacrifice the Dolphin’s location for the stress of buses everyday?! :erm: Plus, mum couldn’t care less about Disney theming, I think she would appreciate the Dolphin more.

BUT there’s a huge part of me that feels the trip just won’t feel the same if we’re not in a Disney hotel :( The Magical Express would be handy for us too. I had planned to get a Minnie Van from the airport (RIP), a Mears cab just doesn’t start off the holiday the same way. How did your time at the Swandolphin feel?

Reading this back, it seems as the Dolphin is the clear winner for me. But, the return of the Dining Plan may entice us back to a Disney resort :confused2

I know you can’t tell me what to do, because you’re in exactly the same position as I am but it feels good to share (waffle haha)!

sha9 10 Oct 20 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by collybird (Post 14674917)
Oh Lisa, I have missed so much :wavey: I didn’t realise you had started a new PTR. I’d been looking out for updates on your cancelled trip thread. Silly me! :blush:

I had been thinking about the puppy and wondering if you ever took the plunge, Leia is lovely and so big! Love her name too. How has she settled in?

Anyway, I’d been noticing your posts about the Dolphin and have been wanting to pick your head about it for a while, and now I can. ;)

To cut a long story short, we have booked 2 trips for next year. September and an extra November trip for 10 nights, which will just be me and Mum. Obviously, we couldn’t book Disney for November, but I saw you had got a good deal at the Dolphin with Travel Republic and the cogs in my head started turning. THEN I found a package with Virgin for the Dolphin that we were happy with so took the plunge.

I was thinking we would switch to a Disney resort as soon as they are available for November. But then I made a Dolphin plan… Now I am kind of set on it. We won’t have a car and Mum isn’t a fan of Disney transport, so being able to walk to two of the parks is going to be a huge perk for us. As is all the restaurants nearby, I don’t think my mum could think of anything worse than eating in a resort food court every night.

Comparing prices for earlier in the year it looks as though Dolphin will be comparable to CSR. Would I really want to sacrifice the Dolphin’s location for the stress of buses everyday?! :erm: Plus, mum couldn’t care less about Disney theming, I think she would appreciate the Dolphin more.

BUT there’s a huge part of me that feels the trip just won’t feel the same if we’re not in a Disney hotel :( The Magical Express would be handy for us too. I had planned to get a Minnie Van from the airport (RIP), a Mears cab just doesn’t start off the holiday the same way. How did your time at the Swandolphin feel?

Reading this back, it seems as the Dolphin is the clear winner for me. But, the return of the Dining Plan may entice us back to a Disney resort :confused2

I know you can’t tell me what to do, because you’re in exactly the same position as I am but it feels good to share (waffle haha)!

As soon as I cancelled the last element of this years trip I decided to let the PTR go!

Leia is settling in fine but she’s a Prima Donna! Needs lots of attention!

We’re kind of torn about the Dolphin vs Disney too but I think it would take a hefty incentive to do Disney over the Dolphin. The location is fab. We didn’t really enjoy the resort (meaning spend as much time, we did enjoy it!) as much as we would have liked and didn’t get to the pool. I feel like the location is so good that I think it would take a great deal at the Boardwalk or free dining to switch. Since we’ve already decided to pay the cost of the Dolphin if Disney do a room discount we’d want it to be good enough to be able to stay at a deluxe for the same money rather than save at a moderate if that makes sense.

Now I feel I’m waffling!

collybird 10 Oct 20 09:48 PM

I'm pretty much of the same mindset, that it's Deluxe with a room discount or Dolphin. The dream for me would be able to snag Boardwalk (or Beach Club) at a similar price to Dolphin. Then all the boxes would be ticked!

I did think about bookending the trip with one night DVC stays at the Beach Club and Boardwalk just so we can use the Magical Express, but that's a lot of money for 'free' transport!

sha9 11 Oct 20 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by collybird (Post 14675083)
I'm pretty much of the same mindset, that it's Deluxe with a room discount or Dolphin. The dream for me would be able to snag Boardwalk (or Beach Club) at a similar price to Dolphin. Then all the boxes would be ticked!

I did think about bookending the trip with one night DVC stays at the Beach Club and Boardwalk just so we can use the Magical Express, but that's a lot of money for 'free' transport!

My dream would be a discount big enough for us to stay at a 2 bed villa at Boardwalk since Mum & Dad are coming but I can’t see that!

I suspect we’ll hire a car and just deal with the parking fee. It’ll be split between us so won’t seem so bad. With flights being the way they are with VA we’ll probably go out Wednesday and back Friday with the first 2 nights at Universal and 14 at Disney. If we end up at Disney we may just get it for the first week, if the Dolphin then I’m not sure. I don’t really want Uber or Lyft to the airport.

sha9 12 Oct 20 11:00 AM

So it seems the news of a Disney offer being released looks true. Going to be lots of number crunching over the next few days!

Kat11 12 Oct 20 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sha9 (Post 14674848)
Still not holiday related - our flights are still a few weeks from being released - but I thought I’d post a pupdate :d.

Little rebel Princess Leia joined our family last night.


Omg she’s beautiful 😍

Kat

collybird 12 Oct 20 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sha9 (Post 14676534)
So it seems the news of a Disney offer being released looks true. Going to be lots of number crunching over the next few days!

I am so excited to see that OKW is included!

I think we're still a little too far out for the DVC resorts to show for our dates but hopefully we'll be able to get an idea of the costs from earlier months. Now hoping to get a 2-bed villa in September.

Has the possibility of a villa changed your mindset a little? I wasn't something I expected to see!

sha9 13 Oct 20 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by collybird (Post 14677483)
I am so excited to see that OKW is included!

I think we're still a little too far out for the DVC resorts to show for our dates but hopefully we'll be able to get an idea of the costs from earlier months. Now hoping to get a 2-bed villa in September.

Has the possibility of a villa changed your mindset a little? I wasn't something I expected to see!

I used May as a guide for prices for OKW if that helps.

Yes and no. A 2 bed villa will cost us around £2000 more than 2 rooms at the Dolphin and without the inclusion of free dining it’s just not worth it. Added to that, the Dolphin seems to be cheaper than when we booked.
At the moment our option with Disney is CSR which would save us around £1000 on each room. If they let us keep the $300 in gift cards that makes it an even better deal. OKW/SSR haven’t been released yet anyway but it looks like a 1 bed villa would be dearer than the 2 rooms at CSR. The downside of that is Marie and I would have to sleep in the living room which to me defeats the purpose of having a villa. The upside would be the kitchen, laundry and balcony (which my Mum loves).

The issues are:

If we book a room for us and one for Mum & Dad at CSR and then switch to OKW we’ll lose the deposit for one room.

If we don’t do anything and wait to see if 1 bed villas become available and they don’t we may lose out on a standard at CSR.

I’m not sure there’s actually any advantage to Disney other than DME right now and even if FP and EMH come back we’d get that at the Dolphin.

sha9 13 Oct 20 09:32 AM

The other issue is that because it’s so far away I struggle to engage Mum in any decision making about these things!

sha9 13 Oct 20 10:19 AM

I’ve thought of more:

One bed villa means one bathroom!

Staying at Disney means we could pay for DDP if they re-introduce it. Staying at CSR means we could afford it!


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