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Old 7 Jan 18, 07:37 PM  
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katizim
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Join Date: Apr 16
The Once-in-a-Lifetime Trip Report - Easter 2018

We are a family of 10 visiting Florida as a group for the first time. In the interest of prosperity and reading this back in years to come, I am hoping to write a full trip report - but due to some of our jobs, we don't wish to named or have our photos on here. We're also not visiting Disney World at all this trip. I appreciate this may be boring for some people, but I promise to try and make it as interesting as possible! We are a very close family and getting to go together is a first for us. It was all made possible because of a very, very good deal...

The people:

Me, KM:
I'm KM. I'm 30 years-old (turning 31 during this trip), perpetually single, and the main driver behind this trip. I well and truly have the America bug. I first visited Florida in 2003, after my GCSEs, and have been completely hooked ever since. This trip will be my 25th visit to the States, and I hope to visit all 50 states by the time I'm 50... Only 29 to go(!) I am most looking forward to the mac n' cheese burger at The Cheesecake Factory. As well as us all being together, obviously.

My dad, the Grandfather of the trip, AE, and my mother, the Grandmother of the trip, JG:
The parents are AE and JG. AE is 71 and JG is 69, but both very young at heart. They both love the states and have visited, they think, 30 times - with only 14 states left to visit before they've done them all. I really think they'll do it, too. AE would love to buy in Florida once he (eventually!) retires from working full-time. I fully support this decision, naturally. AE and JG are most looking forward to being as a family and enjoying ourselves.

My sister, JK, and her partner, DI:
JK and DI are both 48 years-old. There is a large age gap between us, yes. Think my parents got a case of Empty-Nest Syndrome, hence I was born. JK went to Florida and Las Vegas in the 90s, pre-children, but also visited New Orleans with me last year after I won a trip for two. JK is most looking forward to the sunshine.

My nephew, JK's son, GA:
GA is 23 years-old. GA first visited Florida with me in 2013 and has also become hooked by its' charm. GA has visited Florida (3x) and Las Vegas in that time. GA is most looking forward to surprising RU when their mum shows up (more on that later!)

My nephew, JK's son, JA:
JA is 16 years-old. JA hasn't been to America before... is it wrong of me to be a bit jealous that he's getting to see it for the first time? JA doesn't know what's going to hit him, and I just know he'll love it all. JA loves shopping for sports-wear - he's a bit of a trainer addict - so I'm sure all the malls and outlets will be right up his street. JA is most looking forward to going to a basketball match.

My nephew, JK's son, RU:
RU is 8 years-old. He doesn't know that we're going to Florida. He visited last May with his brother, GA, and I, when we had a sneaky week squeezing in Discovery Cove, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Clearwater, Kelly Springs, and some shopping and eating. RU could not believe he was in America and, for the first couple of days, kept checking with me that he was actually there. On the first morning, at 3AM, he woke me up to go in the pool. When he surfaced again at a more reasonable 6AM, we went in the pool, where he made the assessment that 'Florida weather is like being in a butterfly house at a zoo'. I thought that encapsulated it well. RU doesn't know that he is going and won't know that his mother and DI will be coming too (more on that later, too). If I were able to ask him what he's most looking forward to, I'm sure he would say that he's most looking forward to going to America for the second time and being able to boast to JA that he's been more times than him.

My nephew, my brother's son, WT:
WT is 24 years-old. He is the cousin of GA, JA and RU as he's my brother's son, not my sister's. WT has been to Florida once before, as well as Las Vegas - but much prefers Florida. WT is into most sports and so is excited about the basketball match, as well as the theme parks and rides. WT is most looking forward to the heat and food.

WT's girlfriend, JL:
JL will be 21 years-old when we travel. She and WT have been together for a few years and JL is now very much part of the furniture. JL has been to Florida and Las Vegas with WT previously but is also very excited about this trip. She's most looking forward to 'everything - probably Universal, but the food too, and the music in the pool'.


So, now that the introductions have been made, I shall now divulge the details of the trip.

Flights:
As a keen traveller, I regularly check and keep my eye on fluctuations of prices etc. We had spoken about visiting Florida as the whole family but it never really got past the talking-about-it stage, though I had taken it upon myself to book time off work over the Easter holidays, because I was keen to push it on. It was a normal Sunday morning in August when I thought I'd check the prices for the Easter period. JA and RU are at school, and JK works at a school, so we were trapped for dates. Imagine my excitement, then, when I found flights to Florida for £221 each return for 27th March. Yes, the flights were lengthy and via Canada with a 7-hour stopover on the return leg, but £221! We just couldn't pass it up. I activated trying to book everyone ASAP as I really didn't want to miss that price. WT and JL weren't 100% they wanted to come initially and JK couldn't take the days off work/school as she doesn't break up until 29th March. But in the interest of securing the incredible price, I booked AE, JG, GA, JA, RU and I on that flight. I later learned, through Jack's Flight Club and a thread on here, that this was a glitch price and that Air Canada may not honour it. JK, DI, WT and JL were keen to book but didn't want to book if we weren't going to go. Alternative flights weren't too prohibitive if we needed to re-book anyway, and so a couple of days later, WT and JL booked via Expedia. Unfortunately, they couldn't get the same flight as us, so are flying separately - though we will see each other at Heathrow. JK and DI needed to fly out a couple of days later because of the school holidays, which meant their flights were a lot higher than ours. I monitored prices before striking on what I thought was reasonable, and soon enough, we were all booked!
The majority of us fly on Tuesday 27th March and fly back on Tuesday 10th April. JK and DI fly out on Thursday 29th March and return on the same flight as WT and JL.

As for whether our Air Canada glitch fare will be honoured, all is looking good so far. The 6 of us on the glitch fare have booked our seats and CosmicGirl on the thread on here took her flight with no problems. We are keeping everything crossed!

Accommodation:
Whilst I may have delusions of grandeur, and I like a posh hotel as much as the next bloke, we really did not need anything fancy for this stay. We just need enough beds and showers to accommodate us all and for it to be cheap and cheerful. GA, RU and I had stayed at the Red Lion Hotel in Kissimmee and it suited our needs just fine - it was clean, cheap and the location was great. In previous visits to Orlando, we had always stayed on International Drive, but, actually, this part of Kissimmee suited us as it wasn't so busy, driving is not so stressful, and it has everything we need. We have four rooms booked and got them for c. £450 per room for the fortnight through booking.com. The resort fee of $8 per room, per day will be paid whilst we are there.


Google Images

Getting to the airport:
We are lucky to live within around a 30-minute drive to Heathrow Airport and only about 45-minutes from Gatwick. Either is easy enough for us and we really have no preference. As it happened, these flights are indirect so we are flying from LHR. In order to fit the luggage for the 6 of us travelling together, we are taking two cars which we have booked into the NCP for £80 each for the fortnight. We got a small discount through my work.

WT and JL will be getting a lift from JL's father for their flight as they are due to fly much earlier than us.

JK and DI will get a taxi as there isn't much point in parking a third car at the airport. We all land back at LHR at roughly the same time, so they will travel back with us.


Car hire:
We need two cars as we don't plan to do everything together. As the 6 of us young'uns (yes, I do include myself in this list!) are going to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay without the others, I needed to hire a 7-seater. I have driven in America before and much prefer it to driving here so I have no qualms about driving again. The prices were really high when I first looked but I found Alamo via Virgin Holidays to offer the best rate - £588 for a 7-seater for the 14 nights.
AE will also be hiring a standard SUV at a rate of £450 for the 14 nights.
The plan is that WT and GA will also be put on the insurance for a week each to give them a taste of driving in the US (and to give AE the opportunity to have a beer with dinner!)


Park tickets:
We're not Disney fans, really. I think we can all say that we have enjoyed various Disney films. But we just don't think that there is enough at the Disney parks to warrant us paying out the money to visit. I previously went to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios in 2009 and they were both very nice parks, and Tower of Terror might well be one of my favourite rides ever. But it is just so much money and we know that we love the other parks so we are giving Disney a miss.
We have previously booked with Attraction Tickets Direct, and so immediately looked to book with them again this year. I contacted them on their live chat and thought there was no harm in asking whether we could get a discount for a group booking seeing as we are loyal customers. They were able to offer us a saving of £5 each, which we snapped up.

We have the following tickets:
- 10x Discovery Cove Ultimate Non-swim [GA and RU swam with the dolphins during our visit last May and we don't think it's worth the extra £100pp. If JA wishes to do it, he will upgrade on the day]. This way we can also visit Busch Gardens and make the most of the free-parking at all of the parks
- 6x Universal Orlando 3-Park Explorer tickets (incl. one child) [AE, JG, JK and DI really aren't that fussed about the rides and it just wasn't worth the extra money for them]
Total: £3324




Google Images

Itinerary:
The 6 of us young'uns are going to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in the first two days before JK and DI arrive. We want to make the most of our time together as the 10 of us and AE and JG are more than capable of entertaining themselves and plan to take it easy. We knew it would be busy at US and IoA since we are visiting during school holidays and so I set about pricing up FOLPs. These are extortionate. I decided that the only option would be to stay at one of the on-site hotels. I started pricing them up, and these, too, were very expensive at around £900 for two rooms for one night. That's when the idea of using Tesco Clubcard and Nectar points came into it. AE and JG very generously donated theirs so that the 6 young'uns could stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for the one night. This brought the price down to £400 for two rooms for Wednesday 28th March which was much more manageable. We booked one room with hotels.com and the other with booking.com to utilise both the Clubcard and Nectar points. We will then have use of the FOLPs for both the 28th and 29th and we plan to do as much of the parks as possible during these two days. I am more excited than a 30 year-old should be for the underwater music at the pool, so I really would like to squeeze in some pool time. It's also Mardi Gras while we're there so we'd like to see the parade, if possible. We may be stretching ourselves too thin, but we'll give it a good go!


Google Images

JA is a huge basketball fan. His team is the Golden State Warriors and unfortunately they're not playing Orlando Magic whilst we're there. However, Orlando Magic are playing the Chicago Bulls on Friday 30th March. Only the 6 of us young'uns were up for this so we booked tickets through Attraction Tickets Direct again, for a mere £13 each (WT is a huge Aldershot Town FC fan and a season-ticket holder, but sometimes he drags JL along with him... this costs her £17 per match - for Aldershot Town FC!) Yes, we're sat up in the bleachers, but, still, £13! It cost $25 to park the car at the Amway Arena, which we've also booked. I know nothing about sport of any variety, and if anyone were to have an allergy to sport, it'd be me. However, I went to a Boston Red Sox match at Fenway in 2015 and loved the patriotism displayed by the fans. It really is stirring. I imagine the basketball match will be similar and so am looking forward to that aspect. JL and I are also making it our mission to appear on the big screen, so if we get bored during the game, there's always that to focus on.


Google Images

We are visiting Discovery Cove on Easter Sunday, 1st April. I thought this would be the best day to visit a park with limited capacity and everyone agreed, so that's what we booked.

Otherwise, we have no firm plans in place. We do plan to go to Clearwater and Kelly Springs, as well as all the parks mentioned above. We'd also like to squeeze in some shopping and relaxing, too. Exact plans will be firmed-up nearer the time.

There is a spreadsheet running with the restaurants we'd like to visit. So far on the list are:
The Cheesecake Factory
Denny's
IHOP
Cracker Barrel
Texas Roadhouse
Miller's Ale House
Perkins
Teak Neighbourhood Grill
Applebee's
Wendy's
Olive Garden
Wonderland Cookie Dough Co.
Lard Lad Donuts


Google Images


The Surprise:
When GA and I took RU to Florida last May, we only booked 4 weeks before we flew, and told him via the means of a personalised Funky Pigeon card two weeks beforehand. The video is comedy gold and if we weren't so privacy-conscious/I was wearing make-up in it, I'd share it on here. He actually asked, "Why does it say Flo-rida on here?", as in Flo-rida, the rapper - youth culture at its' finest, ladies and gents. Once it sunk in that he was going to Florida, he was besides himself with excitement and the two weeks really dragged for him. He actually said to me that whilst he was out there, he wished we'd only told him the day before - though he did counter that when he realised that would have meant he wouldn't have been given so much money for his trip...
This time, we're planning to tell him as close to the trip as possible. It could be that one of us bursts before then (probably me), though we have been sat on the secret since August, so we're doing fairly well so far.

We haven't decided exactly how we'll tell him just yet.

However, we do know that we won't be telling him that JK and DI are joining us two days later. JK and DI are landing quite late in the evening on 29th March, and RU will definitely be asleep by then given how busy we will have been. The plan is that AE and JG will leave the hotel before us early on the Friday, 30th March, sneaking JK and DI out with them, and go off to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. Us young'uns will then leave a few minutes later to join who RU will believe is just his grandparents - this won't be unusual for him and won't raise his suspicions as he'll be used to us travelling in separate cars - and when we walk into the restaurant to meet AE and JG, JK and DI will be hiding until after we've ordered... and then with any luck, the staff will get on-board with the plan and allow JK and DI to deliver our drinks - much to RU's shock. We'll definitely film this and I'll try not to be the only one crying(!)


Total costs:
I wanted to finish this pre-trip report with a total of what we have paid, for all 10 of us, for 14 nights (for 8 of us)/12 nights (for two of us). I really think we've done incredibly well and that it is a bargain, all things considered.

Included in the total is:
Flights (10x)
Accommodation at Red Lion Hotel, Kissimmee
Car hire (two cars)
Car parking at Heathrow (two cars)
Park tickets (DC, SW, BG, Aq, US, IoA and VB)
Hard Rock Hotel (one night)
Basketball tickets

The grand sum is: £10,151.60

If you have read this far, I applaud you. At over 3000 words, it was no mean feat. Join us, won't you, for this once-in-a-lifetime trip!

Edited at 08:11 PM.
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Old 7 Jan 18, 10:03 PM  
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Melbatb
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It sounds like a great trip! You got some great bargins on the flights!

Putting my Canada hat on, have you done your ETAs (canadian ESTA equivalent?) You need them even if you are just transiting through Canada!
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Index of my trip reports
2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
Melbatb is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
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