The build up to booking...
What a turbulent month it's been in terms of Disney planning. What with all the furor of 'is there going to be free DDP this year?' to the false release date of the 5th April, to the numerous (ridiculous) quotes received up until the day before we booked.
I got a quote from VH on the 5th for us all, and even after discovering the 7% flying club discount, this was coming out about £400pp more than I wanted to spend on our holiday...
I was wondering about the Dufflers as they have airmiles to spend from their last VA flight and considered as to whether it would be perhaps cheaper for them to book with VH... their airmiles equated to around about £380 worth of VH vouchers. It was definitely something to take into consideration.
Once the actual date for dining release was confirmed as the 19th April, me, Mum and Debsy arranged to meet at Mum's on the Saturday 21st to book.
DDP release and beyond...
I was at work, but was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard this day. I was looking for both a full package (flights, Universal & Disney) and an 11 night hotel/ticket/dining package ATD, as we all know, were the first to release and were coming up pricey.
Me and Neil: Standard with DxDDP £3828
M, M & OB: Standard with DDP £3962
Dufflers: Standard with DDP £4558
Decided to wait for Disney... I was a little disappointed with Disney's prices if I'm honest. Particularly given the unexpected jump in prices by £143 per room when DDP was released. After finally navigating the site (which was down for most of the day - will they ever sort this out?) I retrieved my prices which were acceptable with cashback and the £25 bonus, but I still had a niggle.
Me and Neil: £3740.18
M, M & OB: £3690.20
Dufflers: £4252.76
The package prices that trickled in on Friday were way over and above what I wanted to pay.
Virgin Holidays:-
Me and Neil: £6360.60
M, M and OB: £7480.89
Dufflers: £9220.61
My Magic Holidays:-
Me and Neil: £6880!
M, M and OB: £7991
Dufflers: £9740
Charter Travel:-
Me and Neil: £5748.25
M, M and OB: £6451.80
But these were without Universal tickets. I didn't get a price for the Dufflers with Charter, as they wouldn't have been able to use their airmiles.
Then, I received an email from Simon @ Orlando Attractions with these amazing prices for the Disney part of our holiday.
Me and Neil:£3686
M, M and OB: £3637
Dufflers: £4188
Where do I sign? Simon was fantastic, and very accommodating with some minor changes I made. For example, mine and Neil's original quote didn't include DxDDP which we definitely wanted, and we also wanted to downgrade to a standard room. We may upgrade to a King next year, we'll see how £ goes.
Booking day...
After what felt like forever, and obsessively checking the Disney website to make sure that standard rooms at CSR weren't running low, the day of booking, Saturday 21st April dawned nice and sunny for us.
I headed round to Mum's who was already super excited and ready to book.
Mum had fully expected to be ringing around travel agents that morning but I assured her I had already done the legwork.
Debsy arrived at 11am but shared she was going to wait to book, as the Dufflers are currently in the process of selling their house and she says she wants to pay off the whole lot so it's done.
I rang up Orlando Attractions and got through to Tom, who asked for our names and dates of birth to be sent through and then. we waited. This was me and Debsy waiting, my phone was glued to my hand.
Tom eventually rang back after an hour (
longest hour of my life
) sharing that they'd had IT issues - what a nightmare. I felt terrible for being so impatient. He also shared they'd had in excess of 250 quotes.
Anyway, everything went through for us, he took the deposits and we booked!
In true style, we had some fizz to celebrate the occasion:-
And I finally breathed a sigh of relief after a turbulent but exciting week. A job well done.
Now we just have to book our flights and Universal hotel come the autumn, but I'm going to have to be extra vigilant and check like every day for the flight+hotel deal I want with Expedia. But for now, I can relax and look lovingly and excitedly at my brand new shiny countdown. Here we go again!