The Quest For Toad - The No Queues Trip 2019 - Introduction
 

https://i.imgur.com/LuzfJ7j.jpg

Cast members

Me - (DH) – Andy
DW – Sigrid
DD1 – Steph – mid-twenties
DD1BF – Andrew – mid-twenties
DD2 – Bex – 18
DS – Xander – 15 [Severely Autistic]


Well, it had been over 13 years since the Cooke’s embarked on “We Don’t Do Queues 2006”, at Easter.

We’ve been out twice since, on the “Hey, let’s do Disney again 2008” one week trip (where we discovered we had enough Tesco Clubcard points to pay for flights and accommodation for a week in Orlando) and the “All Together Again 2013” trip in 2013 when we were able to take my mother with us again.

This time, we were heading for late August, on the philosophy that:
- Queues are lighter
- Although hotter, we’ve been out there in an Easter heatwave that matched August temperatures.

As we were stuck to school holidays (because of DD2 and DS), we had to come up with dates that fit there. In Florida, the schools go back mid-August, and this is similar in many other States, so crowds should - should - be lighter.

We'd not been out since the change in FastPasses (I'd got the hang of the old system and was very skeptical about the new one), so I wanted to have the minimum possible crowds - and with school holidays, Christmas looked unlikely to provide, Easter, likewise, and the summer holidays... well, the last two weeks of them were likely the best option.

Temperature did look pretty challenging, though, but as I said, we've been out there in an Easter heatwave that was supposedly as bad as August gets. We knew about the rain, so we prepared for it.

I went on the Dibb to get as prepared as possible FastPass-wise. DW sat me down in front of the computer with a few months to go and kept me plied with tea and Diet Coke (in seperate cups/glasses - I'm not a monster) and instructions to get prepped.

I worked out an itinerary, then a schedule within those days, got FastPasses booked the moment they became available, and learned all about tap-grab-modify.

I had intended to write this soon after returning last year, but pressures of work and writing other things took precedence. Fortunately we had an awesome number of pictures between us and that, coupled with the itinerary, helped jog my memory.

Oh - and why "The Quest for Toad"?
I promise it will make sense later. As much as anything I write makes sense...

So - here goes!

https://i.imgur.com/yF5AtLz.jpg

Sounds goid

Great to hear something positive!
May I ask where your villa is located?

Looking forward to this!

Sure. We were at Oak Island Cove. Not far at all from Disney :)

And thanks all :)

Sounds great - can’t wait!

Will be following along.

So I thought I best start at the very beginning. Read your 06 one. So strange to think How long ago that was. We also went in 06 but we were just 18 and had no clue about the dibb.

Anyway. I can’t find the rest of your reports only the first and then your 2019 one.

Help

I'm afraid that despite my best intentions, I never got around to writing up either of those trips. I did locate all the photos for them recently and was considering an incredibly belated summary write-up of them (I still have THE PLAN for each of them as well, and maybe the photos would jog my memory as to any divergences)

Thanks. Will go to the 2019 one. The first one had no photos in for me but I enjoyed it. Gonna be a world of difference in 13 years between them.
Funny how you get investing into stories.