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Old 9 Nov 20, 06:54 PM  
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DorsetSeasider
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6 Do Disney... And a bit of Universal... And a day at Kennedy!

So this is my first real attempt at a pre-trip report, I have read so many others and love to see what and how people are organising things.

As a family this will be our third trip to Disney, we seem to have developed a pattern of going very three or four years, although this will be attend we continue I don't know, it is such a big commitment and we do enjoy seeing other things also around the wider world. Within the family there is myself Mike, hard working DH, Sarah my DW who is much more of a Disney fanatic than me and our DD who loves Disney but not as much as Sarah!

Our first trip was back in 2014 and was just the three of us, we stayed at the CoCo Hotel on International Drive visiting various Disney, Universal and Seaworld Parks throughout the two weeks and spent a day lazing at Discovery Cove for good measure, somehow we also found a day to get to Kennedy and we went home knackered! That trip was through TUI flying PE and therefore via Sanford and we got thoroughly lost on the way to International Drive!

Our second trip in 2017 was with British Airways as I managed to get a ridiculous deal in Club and we stayed at the Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando. I organised a pick-up from MCO and we Uber'd our way around to the various parks, although this time we only did Disney and Universal. We also dragged along our surrogate sister who had never been to WDW but had previously been to DLP with us when DD was much younger and loved it. A lot had changed health wise for DW also and we we pushing her around the various parks in a wheelchair, but we had been able at Disney to get DAS for her which made life so much easier with the ride planning. This was a bitter sweet trip for us though as whilst we were in Orlando our Dalmatian Poppy passed away .

Anyway that brings us to this trip and so much has changed since then, DD will be 21 when we go and has had a few relationships which have gone south, but is currently with a nice lad, who despite having never really been on many theme park rides has committed to coming with us we are of course hoping that IASW does not send him over the edge! Additionally we have a couple of friends who have been out a few times before who will be joining us, hence the 6 Do Disney, anything else would to be too complicated a pun for me to figure out. Unfortunately the health issues for DW have not gotten any better, in fact they are worse and we will will be taking her own mobility scooter out with us, but it saves me having to push her around and gives her the independence to zip around as she likes. We will be seeking DAS again as it is not just mobility that is the issue.

The planning for this trip started a while back in idle discussion, you see it is our 20th wedding anniversary in October 21 and DW is 50. Originally we had planned a trip in October 21 itself, and then we got talking to our friends whose DD headed off to university this year and they started pondering if they might come along. We were happy to consider this, as whilst we would manage, it is always nice to have more in the travelling party. Whilst they were thinking about it, DD got quite indignant that we had not invited her and we pointed out that she was welcome to come but this time would have to pay her own way (I have covered it in the past of course). We also suggested that she would need someone to share a room with! At the time we were expecting a friend, but they are all of the age where they are getting into relationships and her bestie who was probably going to come decided that she was too loved up with her beau, so it was looking off the cards, then of course COVID nailed the world so all our planning went on hold.

Roll forward a few months and with lockdown eased (at the time! ) our friends were over for lunch and drinks one weekend and we had another chat about it, should we shouldn't we, how much was it going to cost, who do we go with, the usual things and we still didn't come to a conclusion. Because we had considered using Virgin I decided to task DW to contact Virgin Special Assistance to find out about how we might go about booking and getting a suitable room for her needs. We considered both Disney and non-Disney hotels and unfortunately whilst we would have loved to stay at a Disney hotel, cost wise it just wasn't worth it especially as there would be no DP etc. So what followed was another lunch (and some drinks ) with friends with the DW armed with a notepad full of scribbles which allowed us to discuss in more detail what we might do. Again no commitment either way, although DD had now broached the subject with her other half and they were in as well! Slight snag though, due to her job we would not be able to go until November 21. The following week DW spoke to Virgin again and got a quote through to have a look at, had a few IM's backwards and forwards between us all and then I just decided to throw caution to the wind and rang Virgin and just went for it, deposit down and that's it... !

So this time we are going with Virgin in November 21, flying PE on the 10:40 flight from LHR into MCO and staying at the Rosen Plaza on International Drive with tickets to WDW, Universal and Kennedy, so excited... !
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Old 13 Nov 20, 05:49 PM  
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So like so many others time to make some minor changes! With all this stuff about needing to book into parks by days, I was not sure whether buying the tickets through Virgin Holidays was the right approach, so in the process of removing them from the booking and will be booking the tickets through Attraction Tickets, bonus is we will get a set of Exclusive Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge MagicBands, plus a discount for being a dibber!

We have also now committed to staying at Heathrow the night before flying, so have three rooms booked at the Premier Inn for £35 per room! No breakfast booked at the moment as it may be more beneficial to book into a lounge as the flight is at 10:40. Airport parking is on hold at the minute, partly because I have a new car coming in January so would have to change the number plate information and also we are looking for discount codes either through DW's Blue Light Card or our friends Defence Card he has as a veteran.
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Old 17 Nov 20, 08:59 PM  
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Bit of an update, we had been having a bit of a conflab with Virgin about the tickets as I mentioned in my last update. Well having looked at the query Virgin asked me to send in details of the bundle I was looking at and before I knew it they price matched it and knocked £600 off the holiday. Obviously this means no exclusive magic bands, but we all have them anyway from previous trips.
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Old 18 Dec 20, 07:34 PM  
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So with the news that there is a vaccine being implemented and hoping that the Oxford vaccine will come on line soon making it available to those of use not covered in the current categories, we have continued to think about what to do whilst we are in Florida. We have decided that we will do Kennedy on the 8th November and my DD and her other half will be doing their own thing for the day whilst we are there, what they don't know is that we have got them tickets for Discovery Cove so they can chill out in a lovely environment.

Also have now sorted out the parking, I was looking at Google Streetview to figure something out for getting to the hotel and there was an advertising board for Maple Parking with a discount code on it, so I tried it and we have got Valet Parking for £91 which makes life easier due to DW disabilities and not having to faff about onto a car park bus.
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Old 22 Dec 20, 09:25 PM  
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All sounding a great plan. A 20th Wedding and a 50th Birthday is a perfect combination, bonus to have your DD with you too.
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Old 29 Dec 20, 11:21 AM  
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Following I'm too scared to rebook just yet but hoping things become clearer very soon and that your holiday goes ahead with minimal restrictions, I have a lot of optimism for November being pretty much back to normal!
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Edited at 11:25 AM.
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Old 1 May 21, 04:47 PM  
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DorsetSeasider
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So its been a while since my last update, we are still like many people, a bit on tenderhooks about hoping it will be going ahead. Questions flowing through our minds at the moment are around the hire car, we currently have an 8 seater mini-van, need a bit of extra space as we have to get a mobility scooter in for DW and whilst it breaks down to get it in the car, it still takes up space! Starting to wonder if it might be worth doing things a bit different, a small car and a decent SUV for example, the small car would be at the hotel most of the time, but allow for DD and her other half some freedom if they wanted it.
I have also changed the parking strategy, really not on board with paying Premier Inn £10 per night per car for our stay before flying so having taken consideration from others we are parking the cars in Purple Parking next door that night, heading over to the hotel and then going back in the morning to get the bus to the terminal. Also means I don't have to drive into Heathrow, which is simply hell on toast, ultimately it means that the parking is £40 cheaper per car including the night before.
Also starting to wonder about whether we stick with tickets as part of the Virgin package, they are talking about tickets being available in October, going to need to figure this out a bit otherwise there is nothing to book with through the app. Of course no sign of FastPasses coming back into play yet so it may not matter and we have not revolved solidly around restaurant bookings previously so that does not matter so much. My main worry at the moment is this park booking system, in previous trips we have only had specific plans for the first few days and then winged it from there, so if we have to book in to every park, that is going to really change things for us. Also, is anyone else stressed about Galaxys Edge and all the various rides in that area? Still reading lots of articles about people not getting onto the rides and it is going to royally suck if having travelled all that way we can't get to experience that :-(.
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Old 22 Jul 21, 10:51 PM  
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Disaster Strikes

So we find ourselves a week or so before we have to pay the full balance, normally this is the point of getting nervous about simply worrying whether we are paying for a holiday which may or may not happen. We find ourselves in a very different position however, DD and her partner have separated , he decided to end it just before their 1st year of being together, whilst she is absolutely distraught, at least it happened before they were committed to the holiday, DD no longer wants to come so we now have to unpick the holiday a bit. 1. Cancel Discovery Cove booking. 2. Cancel Car Parking for second car. 3. Cancel Hotel Room for airport. Final stage will be to update booking with Virgin, knowing that we will have to give up £175 per person deposit.

Gets worse, our friends who were coming with us, have had one disaster after another in their house with repairs and appliances to replace, meaning they are also no longer able to come, so we go from 6 to 2 .
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Old 23 Jul 21, 06:34 AM  
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Sorry to hear. You’ve definitely had your share of bad luck so you’re due some good. There is a positive side. You two will be able to go exactly where you want, when you want, eat where you want etc without considering anyone else. It does take a lot of stress out of holidays.
Hope the rest of your planning goes well. 🤞
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Old 23 Jul 21, 09:15 AM  
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Originally Posted by disneywiseowl View Post
Sorry to hear. You’ve definitely had your share of bad luck so you’re due some good. There is a positive side. You two will be able to go exactly where you want, when you want, eat where you want etc without considering anyone else. It does take a lot of stress out of holidays.
Hope the rest of your planning goes well. 🤞
Yes I agree, it sounds like you need a holiday to recover from the planning.😨
I would keep it at you 2 now and if anyone later decides to join, let them book themselves 😉
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