It’s finally time to start planning again. I know I know maybe too soon BUT I’ve had a wave of positivity and therefore I'm ready to start planning again. It may not be completely what we expected but even if we can go back to the magic I’ll be happy.
We had a cruise booked for 2020 which of course we cancelled. Disney’s Cruise Line isn't currently running and its expected to not start running until at least March 2021. We know its a long shot but you never know what will happen between now and then so for now… we are going on the Disney Dream.
SO what happened with our cruise. Well the final balance was due in May 2020 and we just knew we weren't going to be doing to Disney this year. I rang disney and explained there's no way we would be able to come and could we change the booking to next year. I'd read that concierge is non refundable and non changeable so hoping this would be ok. It was absolutely fine, the cruise was changed to next year free of charge around the same dates and we even got to pick a better room! Sorted.
Lets go back slightly to how the cruise came about. This holiday we wanted to make sure we didn't just repeat the same things as 2018 just because we enjoyed them so much so we decided to try and build a slightly different holiday. We started to price up between the 3 night and 4 night Bahamian cruises with a balcony as we both enjoy being able to go out morning and evening and look at where we are. We were trying to decided what to do when Ryan hit me with something completely different. The words that came out of his mouth next shocked me “We should go Concierge” I actually thought he was joking. Turns out he wasn’t. I check and rechecked the prices and what extra’s were included before we decided we were doing it!
We have done a lot of research into whats included with Concierge. We know some people will think its wasted money however we were really keen to try and not sure this will be a possibility in the future so we thought grab the chance while we can.
A list of the perks we can find are as follows:
-Before embarking we can book activities sooner than other guests
We can embark the ship any time we want so we are hoping to get there as soon as embarkation opens and be some of the first on the ship. Normally we use the disney transportation which gets you there around 1/1:30pm so we are hoping we can now make the most of this day.
-Once on board your taken by one of the Concierge hosts, who takes you to Concierge Lounge to give you drinks (champagne!), food, and a folder containing a personalised itinerary listing our activities for the duration of the cruise.
-Fridge in the room stock with water and drinks
-You can also order any food from the restaurants that evening to your stateroom through room service.
-Extra Wifi
-Provided with robes and slippers in our room
-Upgraded bath products
-Access to the private concierge lounge (free cocktails) and sun deck
-Pillow Talk Program: Guests of our Concierge Suites may choose from pillow options including hypoallergenic, feather and therapeutic memory foam.
Its booked for the middle of our holiday so we get some park time followed by some rest and relaxation before getting back to the madness for more park time.
I’m really hoping the cruise start running again. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Onto Flights. I received a text from my friend on black Friday to ask if we had checked flight prices. To be honest I hadn't even thought about it. I mentioned it to Ryan and he said if we find a good price to book it. I briefly looked but decided to wait until the following day.
Onto the following day where I sat on the laptop all day researching. Trying different voucher codes and looking between prices. Ideally I wanted a similar price to what we got for 2020.
British Airways had a Black Friday deal with 20% off BUT you couldn't add car hire onto the package which we need. I looked at car hire separately and it worked out a good price. I then looked at British Airways with the car hire and flights and it worked out around £70 more than this year so we were pretty happy.
Virgin was a no go at £880 for both of us without car hire. We decided to take the flights with the 20% off and sort car hire out at a later date. That was until be found out that you had to pay the full amount when only booking flights. If you book flights and car hire you can pay a deposit. Which for now with the current situation works better for us.
We decided to just go for it and book both the flights and the car hire. We were looking at which car to get, previously we had booked the Ford Escape however this was coming out more expensive so we went for the Ford Explorer. Which looks huge and we are super excited. We received a discount for booking together and 7 days for the price of 5 on the car hire. We also got to pay the minimum deposit rather than the whole price.
So we have Direct flights from Gatwick to Orlando MCO September 2021 in economy seats, flying back economy to Gatwick Direct flights with a Ford Explorer for the whole trip for £610 per person. I’m really happy with this price. Its only slight more than we had planned this year and we now know its booked. I’m also wondering in the new year as more people want/allowed to travel prices may increase.
The deposit was £150 each and final payment isn't until August 2021 so we have plenty of time to see whats going to happen and whether our plans come together.
Thats it for now, look forward to updating soon!