6 Do Disney, Universal & Cruising Sept 16 Pre Trip

[Ariel princess]

Welcome to our 2016 trip report!

We’re going back!

It’s been 3 years since our last trip to the happiest place on earth and it feels like a distant memory. 2013? Who remembers that! If you are glutton for punishment hop on over here to read our 2013 trip report.

I have been waiting patiently to make a start on the pre trip. I like to do it fairly close to the trip and with just 17 days to go and a few short days away from saying ‘we go this month’ now is the time.

So, let’s have a recap of who we are, what we've been up to in the past 3 years and meet the latest members of the cast :P

Caroline - me! Lover of all things Florida and Disney and pretty chilled when it comes to what we do. All dressed up for a day at the races



All dressed up and ready to go to the races. This was taken on the balcony of our old flat in Canary Wharf - fantastic place to live so long as you don't mind seeing people work out at the gym in the bank offices across the road. I actually got binoculars out 1 day :P

Christian (C)- Laid back and will go with the flow if it means an easy life.



Same day, same balcony, different pose :P It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year so you can image Cs delight at getting the underground and train to a baking hot Ascot!

Here we are on our last trip in 2012 at the Happiest Place on Earth looking younger, slimmer and with less lines



Something very special has happened since our last visit...



Newly engaged! Wish I could go back in time and have this moment all over again

We got hitched earlier this year after C popped the question on my 31st birthday in the Cotswolds. A year to the day on my 32nd birthday we tied the knot in the very same venue. It was a wonderful day and everything we hoped for - 50 of our closet family and friends in a beautiful setting including Christians family and friends who flew over from Gran Canaria and Holland.







We have also purchased our first house and have moved out of Canary Wharf and now live further South East on the Greater London/Kent boarder. We moved in properly this year and it’s taken a bit of adjusting to not living in the ‘big city’ anymore but we love it. Funnily enough we always say we feel like we live in the country….yet we’re still inside the M25 :P Anything feels like the country after London!


Moving in!

My wedding gift from C was something I had wanted for a few years…..a puppy! Meet Lady the Miniature Long Haired Dachshund. I know i’m a biased sausage dog mummy but isn’t she cute?



She has such sad eyes but is a happy little thing - so long as she never loses sight of us, gets to eat what we are having and has tummy rubs 24 hours a day

I have turned into 1 of those people who post endless pictures of their kids on Facebook and you know what? I don’t even care! She’s too cute to not share with the world hehe.

Whilst we have missed Florida, i had been 3 years in a row and C twice in a row and we did feel ready for a change so we enjoyed some other adventures during our ‘Florida break’.

We went cruising on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas…..



We honeymooned earlier this year in Tenerife (lovely and warm in January)………..



We had a near miss on the way back from Crete...



We have been sightseeing around Canterbury and Whitstable...



We spent a lot of time in our favourite place in Devon and Cornwall……….



And we visited Christians family and friends in Spain and Holland……….




Looking back we have had quite some adventures over the past few years but we’re now looking forward to a 2 week holiday in the Sunshine State!

So who is joining us on this trip? Well, my fantastic parents are back for the ride!


This popped up on my phone one soggy, cold, wet UK day!

Not only are they back for the ride but it’s thanks to them that we are going. We had all been saying we should go back again but had nothing in the pipeline. Then over a year ago C and I were back home visiting my parents. We went for dinner and they said they had a surprise - that they would like to take us to Florida, along with my sister and her boyfriend and go on a Disney Cruise. So we said, nah, we’re not really bothered but thanks anyway…………………….

Mum and dad love Florida and spend quite a lot of time there each year and had really enjoyed some Disney cruises with my brother and his family and wanted us to share the experience with them too. Needless to say we were all very excited and as they had mentioned it to my sister first she had been itching to talk about it but couldn’t until I knew the surprise :P

Which brings me onto my sister Sally, who those of you who are familiar with my reports will remember. She is my big sister, disney geek, and lived and worked in Florida for a while. She is the one you need to ask if you want to go to the loo, in fact she’s already told us that if 1 of us needs the loo at a park we all go….though i’m hoping that doesn’t mean in the same cubicle :P


Me, Mum and Sally

Also coming for his first time as an adult is Sallys better, i mean other, half Richard. Richard will go the loo when told for an easy life :P He’s lovely and very easy going though not sure if he knows what he’s let himself in for especially when Sally starts mentioning ‘matching t-shirts’


Richard, dad and Christian

So that’s the cast - me and C, mum and dad and Sally and Richard.

The plan

It’s going to be a jam packed one! We are there for 2 weeks and are doing Disney, Universal and a Disney cruise on the Dream. VERY excited for this.

We all meet at the Marriott Courtyard hotel at Manchester Airport on Thursday 15th September in the evening no doubt full of excitement! We travel the next day direct with Virgin, pick up our car and head to the house.

We will be staying at my brother and sister in laws house again which is beautiful. We stayed here on our last trip after it had just been built and we’re really looking forward to staying there again - thank you J&C for having us!

Here are a few pics we took of it 3 years ago...






This will be our room for the trip


The first week is mainly Disney. We are doing all the parks except Animal Kingdom which is our least favourite and we are tighter for time than usual. For the first time ever Sally, Richard, C and I have booked at overnight stay at Universal for the front of line passes. We shall be sharing a room so that’s going to be interesting! Sally and Richard are also doing Halloween Horror night that evening but i’m a wimp so C and i will spend some time in Citywalk. My parents weren’t fussed about this so i think they’ll take some time to chill out away from us for a night

We then have a few more Disney and shopping days before we head off on a 4 night Disney Dream cruise. We disembark on the Friday and we head for home later that night…..but let’s not dwell on that part!

The plan currently looks a bit like this:

Pre Travel Day
Travel day
Day 1 Magic Kingdom
Day 2 Epcot
Day 3 Mall at Millenia
Day 4 Hollywood Studios
Day 5 Epcot food and wine
Day 6 Typhoon lagoon / shops
Day 7 Outlets / check in Universal
Day 8 IOA
Day 9 Whatever we haven’t done!
Day 10 Cruise
Day 11 Cruise
Day 12 Cruise
Day 13 Cruise
Day 14 Cruise and home

Thats a rough plan but those familiar with my other trip reports will know we’re a half day kind of family. Out early, back by lunchtime, chill by the pool then head somewhere different for the evening. So the plan is mainly for what we have fast passes for or what we’ll be doing in the morning.

Sally has been booking fast passes and we have the ones we hoped to get (except Frozen which we knew would be a long shot) and whilst we have a plan for the parks we do have several evenings and a few mornings in the middle ‘free’ for things we want to do but will see what the weather is like, what we haven’t done yet etc.

Restaurants will be a mix of old favourites with some new ones thrown in….though that’s mainly on the cruise! Sally is vegetarian so we’ll have a visit to longhorn for a good steak one night but otherwise we’re sticking to firm favourites such as cracker barrel for breakfast, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, Unos, Gaylord Palms and we’re hoping to try the Toothsome Chocolate Factory if we can.

The second part of our trip will see us sailing away on the Disney Dream and we are all very excited! We received an email from Disney the other day saying we are going to be celebrating Halloween on the ship so no doubt that will be a lot of fun and my 'scary' ears I ordered from etsy have arrived

On our last trip we went to Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party



Love this picture of my dad



This year we will be celebrating it on this...



Overall im sure it’s going to be a fantastic trip, now we just have a pesky few weeks to wait and then if the following weeks whilst we are away could go super slow that would be wonderful :P

We have a busy few weeks ahead and Christians mum arriving a few days before we leave to settle in and start bonding with little Lady and she'll be looking after her and the house whilst we're away. We are having a bit of work done around the house before we go and we are off to see Aladdin at the weekend at the theatre, very excited for this, I booked it in February as thought it would be a nice start to the official Disney countdown as I can now say we go THIS MONTH!

Thanks for reading and joining along on our adventure! Cx

[holidayrep]

Thanks for writing this up Caroline.

I'm Sally and I'm the older sister who gets frustrated at toilet breaks. I'll be adding in bits I've forgotten.

It's also 3 years since my last visit when I flew over, totally heartbroken from Australia to see my parents and the mouse.

3 years later I'm living back in the uk and have been with Richard for the past 2 years. Thank god the last loser dumped me otherwise I wouldn't have had the chance to meet Richard.

We are long time aquaitences who finally realised we were bloody perfect for each other. Both supporting the same rubbish football team and both love politics.

2 years on Richard will get his first taste of the mouse as part of our family. He last went in 1988 so I have warned him there has been a couple of changes

For us leaving out cats behind is hard.

Meet Kirby and Lily. Half brother and sister we rescued them 18 months ago. They are 12 and house cats, although they like a chill in the garden.

We have found a lovely lady from a house sitters site so she will be arriving the day before to settle
Into the house.

Richard mother passed away last week so this holiday can not come soon enough and will be a welcome distraction

Richards mum actually sang as part of the candlelight processional a few years ago and we are planning a moment there to think about what a lovely lady she was.

As Caroline mentioned Richard is laid back and a good job as I'm not and need him to keep me calm.

We have hired 2 cars including a minivan so on a day to day we will be all going in the same car to the parks with me driving. I love driving out there!

So bye for now but can't wait to tell you more.

[4holibobs]

Just noticed we have a similar countdown (from what to wear on travel day thread)... We'll be at Manchester airport at the same time, although we're flying out on Thomas Cook.

Have a great trip!

[holidayrep]

Thanks guys. Not long now! So excited!

[Ariel princess]

Originally Posted by 4holibobs

Just noticed we have a similar countdown (from what to wear on travel day thread)... We'll be at Manchester airport at the same time, although we're flying out on Thomas Cook.

Have a great trip!

See more...

Aw have a great trip and if you spot us come say hi :waves: xx

[orlando10]

Hi
Looking forward to reading more, we had a Halloween on the high seas disney cruise in October 14 and it was fab, the decorations on board are gorgeous, don't forget to take something to decorate your cabin doors.

Have a fab trip x

[Ariel princess]

Originally Posted by orlando10

Hi
Looking forward to reading more, we had a Halloween on the high seas disney cruise in October 14 and it was fab, the decorations on board are gorgeous, don't forget to take something to decorate your cabin doors.

Have a fab trip x

See more...

Hi there, we had an amazing cruise! So much fun and you were right, the decorations were fab, we took plenty of photos for here xx