A Smidgeon of Disney - Pre Trip Report - Sep/Oct 2017

[Fuellady]

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A Smidgeon of Disney – Pre-trip Report Sep/Oct 2017

Seeing as we are now in single digits until we are off on our next Florida adventure, I thought I should get started on the pre-trip report. There are only 3 of us going on this trip, and here we are.

Meet the cast:

Me, Lynda – Author of the plan, always trying to pick up tips for our next trip.

DH, Neil – Instigator of holiday booking, main driver, needs to have a holiday booked to look forward to.

DD, Eilidh (16) – Loves shopping. Has been vegetarian for over a year now, and this will be her first trip to Florida since turning veggie. (Yes, she did bake the cake in the pic with her )

We normally have our other daughter Shannon with us as well, but she is at Uni and doesn’t have time off in Sep/Oct so much to her disgust, she won’t be joining us this time. She has sent me a series of "sad" Gif's since we told her we were going without her

When and How:

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get off work during the school October holidays this year due to other staff holidays. We have managed to get most of the first week of the school holidays, but it does mean that our first week is in term time. We fly on 27th September for 14 nights.

We normally fly from Aberdeen but this time we found good flight prices from Inverness. We did our usual Netflights and Skyscanner searches and Delta was showing good prices. We checked the Delta website and they had the same price so we decided to book direct with them. We live half way between Aberdeen and Inverness so the travelling time to the airport is the same.

We have 2 changes (3 flights), which is quite normal for travelling to America from where we live. So, we leave Inverness at 6.20am, arriving at Amsterdam at 9.00am. We then have a 1 hour 35 minute layover before boarding our next flight to Atlanta at 10.35am. When we arrive in Atlanta at 2.25pm, we only have 1 hour 30 minutes before our flight to Orlando. This will be tight for clearing immigration but we’ve done similar routes with the same layover time before so we’re not too worried. A bonus of landing in Atlanta is that it is the Delta hub, and they have flights to Orlando every hour, so if we do miss our connection we should be able to get the next one out. All being well, we will leave Atlanta at 3.55pm, arriving in Orlando at 5.25pm.

On the way home, we leave Orlando at 2.20pm, travelling through Detroit then onto Amsterdam, arriving back in Inverness at 10.20am the next day. All for £358.37 each, we were really pleased with the price.

Airport Parking:

We are a bit spoiled with this normally, as the company we work for has a depot less than a mile from Aberdeen airport and we usually park there for free when flying from Aberdeen. However, as we are flying from Inverness this time, we have to pay for airport parking. We have discovered that the facilities at Inverness are completely non-existent… no airport hotels, and a complete monopoly by the airport on parking. We still haven’t booked it yet as we are totally grudging paying between £80 and £90 pounds for 2 weeks parking. We will have to book soon though, there is literally nowhere else to park. Inverness really need to up their game with the facilities if they want to be taken seriously as an international airport.

Accommodation:

Our preferred accommodation is always a villa. We have stayed in the same one several times in the past, but it has now been sold. Last year when Neil and I visited Orlando ourselves, we stayed in a villa at Creekside which was a new area for us, but we really liked it. We checked with the owner of the villa we stayed in then, but it was unavailable. So, the hunt for accommodation was on.

We decided that even though we had enjoyed staying in Kissimmee last time, we wanted to be back in Davenport this time. I put a shout out on the Dibb villa search section, but nothing suitable came back within our budget. We eventually found a website called Magical Florida Homes which had some really lovely villas on it. After chatting by email with the management company, we had narrowed it down to 2 villas, one on Aviana and one on Calabay Parc. They were both lovely, and the same price - £1100 for 2 weeks.

We decided on the Calabay Parc villa for 2 reasons – Firstly, we have stayed previously at Westridge and Hampton Lakes, both near Calabay Parc. Every time we drive past Calabay Parc I always think it looks like a really lovely development and I’ve always wanted to stay there! Secondly, the Calabay Parc villa has a south facing pool, and the Aviana villa had a north-west facing pool. Since we plan on spending a lot of time by the pool this trip, this was quite important to us.

The villa has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and of course, it’s own pool. From the photos it looks like it has a really quirky lay out which I love and it is all fresh and modern as it has recently been renovated. Not a plastic plant in site either! It’s probably too big for just the 3 of us, but it’s nice for us to have our own space.

Car Hire:

We usually book through Alamo Brits but found them to be really expensive this time so we booked with Alamo through Virgin instead. We found this to be really easy, the website leads straight from booking onto online check-in and skip the counter. We have booked an Intermediate SUV for the 2 weeks for £412. Virgin also allow 2 drivers, so we have Neil as the main driver, but I will probably have a go on some short journeys too.

Plans:

So the plan for this holiday is mainly relaxing, shopping and eating. However, we have bought 2 day Magic Your Way Disney tickets with fun visits and park hopper. We decided (well, Eilidh and I did! ) that we should at least have a little bit of Disney on this trip, hence the trip report name “A Smidgeon of Disney”. We managed to convince Neil that we could maximise these 2 days with a one night Disney hotel stay as well. I think it was the 2 days free parking that won him over, he really grudges $20 a day for parking! So, towards the end of our first week, we have one night at All Star Movies, booked direct with Disney for £94. This also gets us a Magic Band each and of course, I was able to book our Fastpasses at 60 days out.

The plan for these 2 days is roughly as follows:

Day 1 – check into hotel as early as possible, probably around 7am to get our Magic Bands then head straight over to Animal Kingdom for early magic hours and hopefully our first go on Flight of Passage. I wasn’t able to get a Fastpass for this in the morning so we will be braving the crowds first thing. After we have ridden Flight of Passage (hopefully), we have our first Fastpass for Dinosaur at 9.25am, then Expedition Everest at 10.30am. We will then have a mooch around and maybe ride anything else with a short line then head back to the hotel to relax by the pool for a few hours. We will have had a super early start this morning and we have a late night planned so we will need to recharge our batteries. It also seems a shame not to make use of some of the hotel facilities seeing as we are staying there anyway.

The only time I could get a Fastpass for Flight of Passage for is 5.55pm, so we will head back to Animal Kingdom for this before going to Magic Kingdom for the evening. I’m going to try the 10.37am trick on the day though, so if we get an earlier FP+ then I will cancel this later one to save us having to go back to AK.

We plan to spend the evening at Magic Kingdom, because we (I) NEED to see Happily Ever After. We will try to pick up individual Fast Passes one after the other on the night, but the main aim is to see the fireworks. Magic Kingdom is so lovely in the evening, I will just be happy to be there. Depending on how tired we are, we are keen to stay on after the fireworks and maybe do some rides then after the masses have exited the park. Then we will go back to All Star Movies for the night.

Day 2 - The next morning we will be up early again, when we will check out of the hotel and head straight for Epcot. We are hoping to go straight to Test Track at opening, as our first Fastpass is for the new Soarin’ at 9.55am. We chose Soarin’ for our Tier 1 Fastpass because we haven’t seen the new film yet, so we’re really looking forward to that. After Soarin’ we have a Fastpass for Spaceship Earth at 10.55am then our third one is Mission Space at 11.55am.

We would like to spend some time around the World Showcase next, and hopefully if the queues aren’t too long we will manage to have a go on the new Frozen ride, another that we haven’t done. We always say that we’re going to explore the World Showcase more, so hopefully this time we will spend a bit more time there.

Once we are finished in Epcot, we will head over to Hollywood Studios and hopefully manage to pick up a Fast Pass (or at least a shortish queue) for Tower of Terror, my all time favourite and Toy Story. I wouldn’t mind going on Rock n Roller coaster either if I get the chance, but I think I will have to ride this solo if that happens.

Making good use of our park hoppers, we will then go to Magic Kingdom because I finally managed to pick up a dinner reservation for Be Our Guest. I’ve been trying to get this for our last 3 trips, so even though it’s a bit of a silly time (4.35pm) I snapped it up as soon as it became available. It would have been better if I had managed to get this reservation for yesterday when we are in Magic Kingdom anyway but nothing has come up for that day. And we can’t go to Magic Kingdom tonight as it is a halloween party night, so no Happily Ever After. After dinner with the Beast, we will head back to the villa for a rest after our very busy 2 days.

We also have 2 “fun visits” with our tickets as well, and we have decided to use them both on water parks instead of mini golf. We haven’t visited Typhoon Lagoon for years, so we will have one visit there and one visit to our favourite water park, Blizzard Beach. We haven’t decided on definite days for these visits yet, but we will spread them throughout our holiday.

Other plans: We don’t have any other firm plans, we are just going to play this holiday by ear (and weather) most of the time, but rest assured there will be much shopping going on. We will also visit Celebration where I think we are going to hire bikes and have brunch, but not at Market Street Cafe as we were a bit disappointed in it last time. I think we will try the Town Tavern instead.

We would like to visit Clearwater Beach for a day as well, as we really enjoyed our trip to the beach last June. We have toyed with the idea of having an overnight stay here, but since booking the Disney hotel stay, it’s more unlikely we’ll do this. We’ll keep looking at hotels there, and if we see a bargain, then who knows… we would like to see the sunset there, so we’re not ruling out an overnight stay yet.

Other possibilities are the zombie experience on International Drive and maybe mini golf. We will definitely be spending a lot of time at our villa pool as well. Oh, and of course, there will be several trips to Walmart which we love.

Food:

Of course lots of food will be consumed on this trip, we do love our food! Traditionally, our first meal out is to Chilis before our big Walmart shop. However, Neil and I really didn’t enjoy our meal last time at Chilis so we have decided to give it a miss this time. So I think our first meal will be breakfast at the new IHOP at Berry Town Center, en-route to Walmart. We haven’t been in an IHOP since our first trip in 2010 so we are looking forward to this.

We have heard great things about Teak Neighborhood Grill, so we want to give it a try. This will probably be a dinner, and looking at the menu, I’m not sure what Eilidh will have here. This restaurant is on our Dine4Less card which we got free with our Disney tickets so definitely worth a try.

Another one that’s not so great for Eilidh is Longhorn Steakhouse. We HAVE to go here, it’s our absolute favourite. She seems quite happy to have a starter and pudding here though.

We all love Olive Garden, so we will have at least one visit, probably more here. There are plenty of vegetarian choices for Eilidh. We recently found out that guests get a complimentary peppermint cake as well, but we have never been given this so we will be making sure that we get it this time! Thank you Redrach1903 for bringing this to our attention.

Millers Ale House – We’ve visited Millers twice in total, once we had an amazing meal and once we had a just ok meal. However, they have a vegetarian menu available if you ask for it, so we will have dinner here at least once so that Eilidh doesn’t have to eat mac n cheese or pizza!

Dennys – A must for me for breakfast. I had absolutely the best breakfast here last year so a repeat performance is definitely required.

Bob Evans and Perkins will almost certainly make the list… these muffins from Perkins are amazing…

And of course, our reservation at Be Our Guest… I’m really excited for this, Neil not so much. He thinks it is overpriced for what it is, he’s probably right but I think it’ll be worth it for the experience if not the food. I think I’ll have the braised beef and Neil will probably have the beef or pork. Eilidh will have the ratatouille. Then we’ll decide if we need a pudding afterwards.

So I think that’s about it… more than on any previous trip we’ll just be winging it day to day. I do love to have a plan but since our 2 Disney days have to be planned to the “nth” degree, I’m happy to just see how it goes for the rest of the trip. Will it work? I guess we’ll find out…

Thanks for reading…. And see you soon for the first instalment of the actual trip report as I am hoping to do it live…. Wish me luck!

P.S. If anyone can recommend restaurants with good veggie options, we'd be grateful for some suggestions

[Tink 45]

Sounds like a fab plan!
The idea of relaxing, shopping and eating sounds like a dream! We have tried this before, no park plans at all but it only lasted about 5 days then we gave in!
Have a brilliant holiday x

[DisneyDaffodil]

Looking forward to reading along. We are hoping to visit Clearwater for the first time next year on a coach trip, so looking forward to that. Have a wonderful time

[Goldia]

Ooh Lynda you really don't have long to wait now. Your plans sound fab. Action packed at disney for 2 days with relaxing either side.

I'm dying to see the new fireworks too. Fingers crossed your fast pass plans work out for you. We've had some great luck with this in MK before, 7dmt, splash, btmr...it somehow feels more magical at night doesn't it?

We loved the new Soarin when we saw it last year, but if you can try and get middle seats as we were on the edge and the picture was a bit curved...

I can't believe you don't plan on squeezing in fantasmic though, it's my favourite night time show!

I have no idea about where to head for veggie restaurants, sorry.

Hope you have a wonderful time.

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by Tink 45

Sounds like a fab plan!
The idea of relaxing, shopping and eating sounds like a dream! We have tried this before, no park plans at all but it only lasted about 5 days then we gave in!
Have a brilliant holiday x

See more...

The dream plan is indeed to relax, shop and eat... all as much as we can! It's hard to do no parks isn't it? I'm glad we have our Disney days to look forward to. Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Looking forward to reading along. We are hoping to visit Clearwater for the first time next year on a coach trip, so looking forward to that. Have a wonderful time

See more...

Thank you for reading. Clearwater is so lovely, and I would imagine it to be a much more relaxing day going by coach. We will drive... that reminds me, I must go and print out directions

Originally Posted by Goldia

Ooh Lynda you really don't have long to wait now. Your plans sound fab. Action packed at disney for 2 days with relaxing either side.

I'm dying to see the new fireworks too. Fingers crossed your fast pass plans work out for you. We've had some great luck with this in MK before, 7dmt, splash, btmr...it somehow feels more magical at night doesn't it?

We loved the new Soarin when we saw it last year, but if you can try and get middle seats as we were on the edge and the picture was a bit curved...

I can't believe you don't plan on squeezing in fantasmic though, it's my favourite night time show!

I have no idea about where to head for veggie restaurants, sorry.

Hope you have a wonderful time.

See more...

You're right Abby, Magic Kingdom is much more magical at night We've also been lucky in the past with picking up extra fastpasses, so fingers crossed for this time as well.

Good tip for Soarin'... we will definitely try to get some middle seats.

Sorry, Fantasmic isn't one of our favourites... we saw it once and really aren't bothered about seeing it again.. don't hate me

I think we'll just have to wing it with the veggie meals... I can see Eilidh eating a lot of puddings or pizzas this trip!

Thanks for reading

[midtec]

Lynda we look forward to reading all about your trip when you come back. Fantasmic is one of our all time favourites, everyone’s different I guess so we don’t hate you lol. We’re booked to go next May, very exciting.

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by midtec

Lynda we look forward to reading all about your trip when you come back. Fantasmic is one of our all time favourites, everyone’s different I guess so we don’t hate you lol. We’re booked to go next May, very exciting.

See more...

Thank you for reading. It's a live trippie so I'm trying to post most days

Thank goodness we're all different or there wouldn't be so many different things to choose from.

How exciting to have a trip to look forward to. I've heard May is a great time to go.

[OB1LukeLucas]

Hope you have a great time, I bet Shannon will send you many more sad faces throughout your holiday! Hope you find some nice treats for Eilidh. Did you manage to find a better parking deal? Looking forward to getting caught up on your trip.

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Hope you have a great time, I bet Shannon will send you many more sad faces throughout your holiday! Hope you find some nice treats for Eilidh. Did you manage to find a better parking deal? Looking forward to getting caught up on your trip.

See more...

Thanks for reading Eilidh has decided not to stick to veggie during the trip, entirely her decision, so it has made eating out easier.

No, we didn't find a better parking deal, we paid £83 the day before we left

[Excitedx4]

How have I missed your trippie? Off to have a read 😃