$30,000 later... December 2016 Pre-Trip!

[Leyfy]

Welcome to my December Pre-Trip report! It's taken me a little while to get going with this, keeping in mind we actually fly out to Orlando in 62 days! Yay!

Who Are We?

For those who haven't read any of my other trip report, I am Kim and my other half (future husband in 2017!) is Phil. We went on a once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated holiday to WDW in December 2013. We've since been back... Three times!

As a little bit of background, this summer we were due to go to Orlando for a week and then on our first ever Disney cruise round the Caribbean for 7 nights. Unfortunately, on the very first day Phil was bitten by a spider, which turned into a very nasty bout of cellulitis. This then meant he was stuck in hospital for five days running up a $30,000 bill for the insurance company (hence the name of the trip report!) and we had to cancel the cruise.

Those that know Phil knows that he likes a pint, and he can often be found doing this:

Unfortunately due to the medication he wasn't allowed any beer for the remainder of the holiday and instead was pointing dolefully towards a pint of coke or a non-alcoholic cocktail! This has influenced some of the planning for this time...

Enough Of The Last Trip, What About This One?!

So basically, one day back in February I was browsing flights and saw some BARGAINS from Gatwick via Dublin on lastminute.com. £650 each!

Phil was out for the evening so I excitedly text him and he said that he'd need to check it with work first, having had all of last year off during the Christmas period. Luckily work confirmed it was fine, and the flights were still there 24 hours later. The summer trip was a bit 'blow-out', we were flying first class with BA, staying at the Boardwalk Inn and at Universal at the Royal Pacific and, of course, going on the cruise. So originally this was going to be our 'cheap as chips' (well, as cheap as Florida can be ) holiday compared to that. We planned on staying at the Rosen Inn for a bit of it (cheap and cheerful but we really like it), miss out Universal which would save us nearly £1000 and do a on-site stay at a moderate Disney hotel.

I managed to get us a booking at the Caribbean Beach hotel for 7 nights from Christmas day, so that was sorted until checked out on the 31st to fly home. Phil was a little disappointed that POFQ was coming out more expensive as he really liked it there, so I booked us two nights there to start the holiday off.

In the meantime I got myself a new job (I work in a school) and it turned out that their term dates were different and I was supposed to be at work for another two days after flying out!

Luckily my new boss was very understanding and we've managed to work a few bits out so we can still go on holiday - phew!

So we went off on our summer adventure and, obviously, it didn't go to plan! When we came home Phil said he'd like to do drinking around the world at Epcot one day to make up for the pints we missed! I said fine but let's see if we can stay at an Epcot resort area for the first bit of the trip so we don't have to worry about buses! However, they wanted silly money so I ended up getting a really good deal for the Swan for our first two nights. Next up I booked the Rosen Inn using Expedia for the middle part of the stay. Slowly but surely, 'The Plan' started to fall into place...

The Plan

Friday 16th December
Go to Gatwick and stay at The Hilton. Dinner at Amy's Restaurant as per usual!

Saturday 17th December
Fly to Orlando via Dublin with Aer Lingus. Land and get a taxi to The Swan for about 8pm WE HOPE!

Sunday 18th December
A few drinks around the world! Or in my case, a couple of drinks and definitely lots of food around the world!

Monday 19th December
Probably Hollywood Studios for the morning/afternoon or maybe Magic Kingdom. Pick up the car from Disney car care and drive to the Rosen Inn.

Tuesday 20th - Sunday 25th December
Rough plan is Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, shopping at the outlets, Kennedy Space Center (will probably do a tour at some point), MAYBE Aquatica if the weather is good. We were toying with Discovery Cove again but changed our mind in the end. We are also going to visit Celebration and Mount Dora.

We are planning on meals at:

- Bahama Breeze. A *must do* for us on Idrive. I absolutely love the Crab Pile starter!
- Tommy Bahamas. Again we love it here. When we went to New York in April this year we made sure we ate there. The portions are a lot more generous in Orlando though!
- Brick House Tavern and Tap. Thought we'd give this one a go this time. Will be a new one for us.

We have a few 'maybe's' as well.

Sunday 25th December
Check into Disney's Caribbean Beach resort. We have a Candlelight Processional package booked for the 25th at Biergarten, and ADRs at Maya Grill, Coral Reef (a first for us), Yachtsman (a firm favourite) and a Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose.

So, to sum up - there will hopefully be many more 'Phil Points at a Pint' photos:

and hopefully no photos like this:

[MinnieMrsA]

Yayyyyy so glad you have posted - I was waiting for this! Is your school breaking up on 20th Dec too? We are the only school round here still in then and it is my FP+ day for February. Annoying or what?!

I hope your trip is a lot less eventful this time - looking forward to all the pint photos! ❤

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by MinnieMrsA

Yayyyyy so glad you have posted - I was waiting for this! Is your school breaking up on 20th Dec too? We are the only school round here still in then and it is my FP+ day for February. Annoying or what?!

I hope your trip is a lot less eventful this time - looking forward to all the pint photos! ❤

See more...

Thank you, I'm sure they'll be plenty!

Yep, breaking up on the 20th at the new place. Really late this year

Just glad my old school had all the confirmed dates on the calendar and I really did book in good faith not expecting that I'd have a new job or that the dates were different!

[MinnieMrsA]

Originally Posted by Leyfy

Thank you, I'm sure they'll be plenty!

Yep, breaking up on the 20th at the new place. Really late this year

Just glad my old school had all the confirmed dates on the calendar and I really did book in good faith not expecting that I'd have a new job or that the dates were different!

See more...

Tell me about it - we don't even get two weeks off this year! As the rest of the area has broken up attendance will be low so I am surprised we haven't changed the dates. I'll have to sneakily get my FPs done that Tuesday - although I'll be jealous you are there already! ❤

[sheluk]

Yay great to read about your upcoming trip! Will look forward to seeing all the Phil pointing at a pint pics ☺️👍☝️️

[Guest]

We fly 2 days before you...hope the weather's good again this year.I'll be sure to watch out for spiders!

[andylad]

Good luck. Hope it goes well and looking forwart to the report.

[ginger ninja]

Sounds like Phil will be making up for all those missed pints Our school and a few others round here finish on the 23rd Dec! almost all finish that week around here, but we do get to go back on the 9th of Jan

[Loopylooloo]

Aww bless him - the photo with his hospital food! Lol!

Hope this trip is much better, looking forward to reading along!

[LostPrincess]

Yaaaaay, after reading your previous trip report recently I'm so glad you've got another one coming! How exciting for you. Looking forward to reading along and seeing lots more beer pointing photos