Dream, Believe, Dare, Do - August 2022

[Girlw0nder]

Good afternoon from a rather sunny Manchester

I have wanted to do a pre-trippie for a while now, but I thought it only fair to wait until I'm a year out and my countdown has well and truly begun.. I mean after all, these 365 days will fly by

Aww look at my babies in 2015, they have grown so big, my eldest is taller than me now, or maybe I've shrunk!

Cast:

Me, Helena - Chief planner extraordinarre and massive Walt fan (I have read his autobiography around 10 times now. Well I may have missed something the previous 9...) My favourite rides are Peter Pan and Hulk!
I love every aspect of the trip and plan it to within an inch of its life. I especially enjoy watching copius amounts of DFB, Tim Tracker and reading all your wonderful and yummy dining reports, making notes as I go!
Every day's a school day!

Arran, husband of too many years and big USA fan. He loves driving in America, which is great as I don't
His favourite snack is the almighty Turkey Leg and his favourite rides are Haunted Mansion and ToT.
He leaves me to plan, and then comes in all guns blazing with weeks to spare and 'tries' to have his input... hmmm alrighty then and good luck with that!

Vincent, (16 when we go…hang on did that just say 16! ) He will have finished school by the time we jet off and this is a reward for being an all round amazing young man. He never moans and sees the positivity in every situation.
We rode Rip Ride Rocket together when he was 10 and oh boy was that one to remember! I was petrified that he’d fall out and all I had was Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ banging down my ears the whole way round! What a hoot!

Austin (14 when we go) Don’t make him hangry, you won’t like him when he’s hangry! Big Star Wars fan, saving up for a Light Saber already. Musical genius - taught himself how to play the piano and rock legend on guitar!
He’s never been the same since we took him on ToT as a 5 year old on his first trip…. Hey what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?!

ANYWAY……enough about us!

The story so far….

We hope to go around 16th August for 14/15 nights, although we are thinking of flying to Miami (cheaper price, maybe?) and staying the night there and then driving up to Orlando the next day.
I read, from a fellow Dibber that Sawgrass Mills, Miami is a great place to shop! You don't have to ask me twice!

Accommodation

We love the Disney Bubble and have previously stayed in POR (love, love, love it!) and Carribbean Beach. However, now the boys are older we cannot possibly stay room only for two weeks, we all need our space.
We are priced out of Disney now, with the least expensive two room suite being AoA, Lion King/Cars Suite at £5,500! No thank you! So we are staying in a wonderful villa in Indian Oak Ridge for less than half of that. Now if there was free DDP, then I'm sure I could have been persuaded!

I have booked two nights, Club Level at RPR, Universal, through Travel Republic. We normally do just one night standard room, but I thought this would be a real treat and we’ll get plenty of use out of the front of the line passes and the food and drinks!

Flights

We fly BA now (find them to be best value and service) and have done on our last three trips to USA, but always flown VA to Orlando, so this will be a first.

We originally booked a sneaky week at October half term to California. Taking in a couple of the sights and ending up with two days at Disneyland…. But, we eventually decided that with everything going on, this just doesn’t make sense, both financially and holiday-ly!
We just don’t think the amount of £££ justifies the quality of holiday we would get, so we got a voucher with BA and are awaiting flights for next August. C’mon!

Now, this is my dilemma… do we book flights when they come out, as I’m worried all the world and his wife are heading to Florida next August, or wait and see if BA do their usual Christmas Day/Boxing Day sale?
We have booked in this sale the last two trips, so I don’t know what to do!
I suppose if the flights are released at a price we are happy with then we should book and I will make sure that I don’t look at flight prices again…..

Must Have Snacks/Meals/Restaurants

We are MASSIVE foodies! This is the most important thing right... I mean, food in Disney and Universal is life!

In no particular order...
- Voodoo Donut
- Tonga Toast
- Blue/Green Milk
- Ronto Wrap
- Oga's Cantina
- Cheeseburger Spring Rolls
- Cowfish
- Woody'd Lunch Box
- Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
- Fortescue's Ice Cream
- Steak n Shake (It's an absolute must!)
- Chicken Guy
- Blaze Pizza
- Gideons
- Trader Sams ( child free, maybe)
- Eating and drinking around the world (Epcot)

That is a very short list that is growng by the day, it doesn't even include staples like Dole Whip, Funnell Cake, Mickey Waffles, Mickey Pretzels, Cinnabon, ... drooling already...

I will be adding our must have snacks and meals as I go along and get more ideas. Please, please, please tell me yours!
Once I have checked out August flights, which will be in the next couple of weeks, I will let you know what I've found.

That’s pretty much it for now!
I am soooooo excited that I have a countdown again and we are returning to our favourite place to make more memories as a family.

If you have got this far without drifting off, I thank you kindly!

Stay safe out there,
Helena

[jojo_3596]

Great pre trippie. We are going August next year as well ( 3rd attempt!) completely different hol planned from the original 2020 version. Like you, our boys are too old to consider 2 weeks in 1 room ( will be 16,12,10) So we are doing a few days onsite at Disney and universal but the bulk of our trip will be our first time doing the villa thing. Can’t wait to experience the best of both worlds.
Will look forward to following your planning 😊.

[Goldia]

The snack list definitely needs to be added to, nowhere near enough snacks there it sounds like you're going to have a fantastic trip. Good luck with booking the flights, if you're flexible with the arrival airport in Florida I'm sure you'll get a decent price. At least I hope so...that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

[Girlw0nder]

Originally Posted by jojo_3596

Great pre trippie. We are going August next year as well ( 3rd attempt!) completely different hol planned from the original 2020 version. Like you, our boys are too old to consider 2 weeks in 1 room ( will be 16,12,10) So we are doing a few days onsite at Disney and universal but the bulk of our trip will be our first time doing the villa thing. Can’t wait to experience the best of both worlds.
Will look forward to following your planning 😊.

See more...

Yay! Let's hope we get there this time!

I have to say I am soooo excited about the villa experience, like you, it's going to be a completely new thing for us and I'm looking forward to the evening by the pool, eating my Walmart finds, but most of all, ALL THAT SPACE!

I think until the boys don't want to holiday with us anymore , Disney hotels will be a rarity for us. No room and far too expensive for a family!

Flights will be out soon and I'm nervous about it... but I don't dare check yet! I'll keep you posted!

Helena x

[Girlw0nder]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The snack list definitely needs to be added to, nowhere near enough snacks there it sounds like you're going to have a fantastic trip. Good luck with booking the flights, if you're flexible with the arrival airport in Florida I'm sure you'll get a decent price. At least I hope so...that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

See more...

Thank you very much, and Oh my goodness you are absolutely right about the snacks! I'm thinking that's about 0.01% of the snacks I will attempt to consume! Elastic pants at at the ready!

Flights are almost showing for our dates, just a bit longer to wait! I'm actually looking forward to flying into somewhere different, another place and experience to tick off my list! I always think it definitely pays to be flexible, especially when £££££ are concerned!

I shall let you know how I get on! Pray for me!

Helena x

[Girlw0nder]

Having just had a day at Alton Towers, mid summer with the great British weather, I realised how lucky I am to have experienced such amazing parks in the US.

I mean we had an absolute blast, but it just doesn't compare to Disney and Universal with the cleanliness, theming down to the smallest detail, food and overall magical experience. I mean, I know I don't have to convince you lot!

For example... We got inline for Rita, Queen of Speed - the queue was dull as dishwater - it said 70 min wait... roll on almost 240 minutes later for a 25 second ride!

I kept saying, 'This time next year we'll be in the queue line for Hulk/Peter Pan/Space Mountain...'

It's certainly food for thought and places like Alton Towers could learn so much from the US parks...

Anyway... back to my planning across the pond!

[jojo_3596]

Originally Posted by Girlw0nder

Yay! Let's hope we get there this time!

I have to say I am soooo excited about the villa experience, like you, it's going to be a completely new thing for us and I'm looking forward to the evening by the pool, eating my Walmart finds, but most of all, ALL THAT SPACE!

I think until the boys don't want to holiday with us anymore , Disney hotels will be a rarity for us. No room and far too expensive for a family!

Flights will be out soon and I'm nervous about it... but I don't dare check yet! I'll keep you posted!

Helena x

See more...

I’m even more pleased we’ve got a villa booked with all the ‘Disney genie’ news. I think our 5 days onsite will be our only Disney days and we’ll spend more time exploring Orlando than we had planned.
At the minute- just the thought of lazy evenings around the villa pool with a beer and some treats from Walmart sounds like bliss!
Good look with the flight booking xx

[Girlw0nder]

Originally Posted by jojo_3596

I’m even more pleased we’ve got a villa booked with all the ‘Disney genie’ news. I think our 5 days onsite will be our only Disney days and we’ll spend more time exploring Orlando than we had planned.
At the minute- just the thought of lazy evenings around the villa pool with a beer and some treats from Walmart sounds like bliss!
Good look with the flight booking xx

See more...

Thank you!

Oh yes, right now it's all about the simple things!

I'm already thinking of 2023 at universal and ignoring Disney altogether. I NEVER thought I'd hear myself say that! But the ticket price alone is a holiday in itself!

[Girlw0nder]

Flights...

So... I've just done a trial on BA as dates up to 17th August are now showing and OH MY GOODNESS they are £1.5k each!

Couldn't get prices for Miami, anyone know why?

Tampa flights were slightly lower at £1.2k each but Man-LHR then we'd have to get to Gatwick for our Tampa flight!

Not good!

[Shifu]

I think for the first time ever I’ll end up playing the waiting game if nothing shows up as being a decent flight price after the first week/ 10 days of being released. Tricky isn’t it.
I’m due to go around the same time as you and I’m loving your enthusiasm for the holiday. Hoping some of it will rub off on me 😂 - (currently, how I feel, I’ve been more excited at the prospect of heading to Tescos in the past than I feel about Disney next year).