Another Trip Home

[margyloveswdw]

With less than 48 hours before we are due to take off I thought I’d better start my pre trip report! I have written a handful of reports before but have never left it this late! A lot of this has to do with trying to decide whether or not to do one. I think you can guess my decision

As fellow TR authors know, it is a big commitment to undertake to do one and as a reader of them it’s very frustrating when you are enjoying one and it never gets finished ….no names….but on the other hand it’s great to read back over them and I am sure that pleasure only increases over time.

Now, you must understand, I am nowhere near the calibre of mkingdon, wizzo, jameluk to name a few who immediately spring to mind, but I hope you, the reader, enjoy my experience of our favourite place and hope that I don’t get too bogged down in the detail!

Anyway…..onto the actual report:
Who?
I am Helen, aged 37 and this will be my 14th trip to the Florida house of mouse
DH, Ian, 39 who is on his thousandth trip (ok so I exaggerated, realistically somewhere around 20)
Here we are on our last trip in February this year….just for clarification, the one in the middle is not me or DH



We are fortunate enough to go regularly but this will probably change as we are about to put our house on the market and (hopefully) move to a grown up house…..

When?
We leave for our 20 night trip from grey, cold Manchester Airport bound for sunny, warm Orlando on Friday 26th October at 11am on VS75. We are travelling in PE and (from memory) I think we are going on a 747 and have requested seats in the upstairs bubble.

Where?
8 nights in Disney’s All Star Music Resort
7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy
5 nights in Disney’s Bay Lake Tower

First priority was booking the Disney Cruise (in fact the whole holiday was based round a 7 nighter) - that was one hell of an expensive way to spend a Friday evening in February (PE flights and cruise booked all at the same time) . We agreed that the other bits would follow whenever but ‘just having a look at hotels' the following day resulted in us being unable to resist an absolute bargain price on Expedia of £45 per night for All Star Music for the first 8 nights of the trip. This turned out to be the cheapest we could find barring Super 8 Motel/Red Roof Inn/other motel which look like hangouts for murderers/people on the run (do I watch too much American TV?! ) This just left the 5 nights after the cruise which we tried (for the 3rd time) to book our home DVC resort of Bay Lake Tower and finally …result….

This will be our 2nd Disney cruise; we loved the 4 nights we spent on the Wonder in November 2010 but it just wasn’t enough time to explore the ship and see/do everything so we have decided to try 7 days. We booked the cheapest stateroom category available and when we received our cabin assignment a few weeks ago we were delighted to find we had been upgraded to a stateroom with a veranda. We are due to visit St. Thomas (US Virgin Isle), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Castaway Cay along and spend 3 days at sea. We have not booked any excursions this time but intend to get off the boat in each port and explore a little ourselves. I have a Fire and Ice Pedicure booked which sounds very glamorous and DH has some sort of golf thing booked. Other than that we intend to take in shows, do quizzes, drink cocktails, eat, try out the aqua duck and most importantly relax.

So that’s the basics; we also have 2 lots of car hire booked. One from the Airport for 8 days which we will drop off at Port Canaveral and then another one to collect from the port for 5 days and return to the airport. In a change for us, we are going for an SUV rather than a compact as it wasn’t that much more expensive.

Ticket wise I have an annual pass which is on its 2nd trip and DH will be getting a DVC annual pass renewal but if he can’t as his ran out a few months ago (not sure how renewal works), he will likely get another annual. The cost of a 21 day versus a DVC annual is negligible. There are only Disney Parks on the agenda this trip so no extra expense there.

We haven’t really got a plan as such ; we were planning on going to Typhoon Lagoon in the first few days but it is now closing the day after we arrive so that is looking unlikely. We have tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and will also visit the Osborne Lights as they start in our last few days. If you ever have the chance to see them they are amazing

I am hoping to go to Celebration on Halloween to see the houses all dressed up and there – only ever drive round before and it is sooo pretty. We will try and catch all the evening fireworks/parades in the first 8 days but that will depend on tiredness (DH works from 4am so it takes him a good few days to adjust!).

We have some ADR’s booked (Saana, The Wave, Raglan Road, La Haceinda and Maya Grill) as we were thinking of adding the dining plan onto the 5 night stay but I don’t think it will be worth it now. We have not yet cancelled any of the ADR’s but may do after the cruise – I have a feeling we might want less posh food IYKWIM.

We are really looking forward to this trip (as per usual) but for me, after spending our last 2 trips with family joining us, I can’t wait to spend 20 whole nights just me and DH, alone, with no-one else’s feelings/likes/dislikes to take into consideration. I think he’s dreading it

All that is left to do now is pack!

[making49]

Have a lovely holiday, sounds like a great plan, looking forward to reading the TR.

[Guest]

Have a lovely holiday

[margyloveswdw]

Originally Posted by making49

Have a lovely holiday, sounds like a great plan, looking forward to reading the TR.

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Thanks and I'll try and get it done soon!

Originally Posted by geoff193

Have a lovely holiday

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Thank you!

[kitsmum]

Have a wonderful time!

[Guest]

terribly excting stuff!

cant wait to read more