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4 May 19, 02:14 PM |
#1
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Imagineer
Join Date: Apr 15
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Making a Florida Fanatic – July/August 2022 Pre-Trip Report
FOR REPORT INDEX CLICK HERE Making a Florida Fanatic August 2020 (then 2021, then 2022 ) Pre Trip Report Coming back after four years away... ……………………………………… Back in Spring 2017. I was pulling battered wine boxes out from under my parent’s bed I was staying at my parent’s home for a while, on leave from work after abruptly ending my first marriage. I'd lost access to the photographs for my last trip report and in the back of my mind, I was beginning to acknowledge that I could never face going back to Florida. Disney, 1991 – Liberty Boat I searched until I found the set. Our old Disney pictures were stacked neatly in a sellotaped wine box. When I found that box, I felt relieved. Returning to the excitement of Florida is like revisiting sacred family memories but I’d lost sight of that by avoiding the more recent ones I’d made there. The photos altered my perspective by reminding me that my childhood memories couldn't be tarnished by the ones I'd made when I was married. ………………………………………
This trip began in Summer 2018. I’d worked on a few big projects and Michael had the patience of a saint, whilst I turned our living room into an office for my work. I asked if he’d like to go on a cheap holiday to celebrate the end of my hard work and his tolerance. It was at this point that Michael confessed that he’d never been on holiday before. ‘How do you feel about visiting Florida with me in 2020?’ It just gets blurted out and, of course, he’s onto me and my Florida obsession by this point in the relationship and he says:- ‘Yeah of course’ Obviously, I make sure he’s absolutely serious first and then - Quick return to the Dibb to announce that I’m back and I have a new countdown – I start planning. Introductions please *drumroll* <<<<<< Samantha, 33. I am the planner, note taker, photographer, guide, visionary. I am most looking forward to spending more time in Animal Kingdom and watching my partner’s face when we fly above the clouds. >>>>>>>> May I introduce Michael? . 40. He likes Harry Potter and vaguely remembers a few Disney films. He’s had the entire Star Wars collection forced on him for his improvement (erm). Michael has become a keen follower of the Disney Food Blog. He’s one of the most generous people I have ever met. ……………………………………… Making a new plan... Which brings me to the few considerations and challenges for this trip. Michael is a holiday virgin and, obviously, I want this trip to pave the way for repeat trips . It would be wonderful if Michael wanted to return to Florida. So, my plan will incorporate things that I think he will want to do again. Early 2019, we started with… three weeks. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I get a holiday every three years. Three weeks does it for me. Not two. I think I'd plan my whole career around this privilege. It’s now 2022… Three-year waits for Florida are part of my everyday life. Countdowns keep me ticking in a stressful job. But, for Michael, even waiting a year to book was exhausting. Michael had started to get a little twitchy just before 2020. By the time we booked our restaurant reservations in February 2020, a sense of gloom had diluted and descended over our excitement. ……………………………………… Let’s look at hotels then… I decided to stick with my tried and tested plan which is a one-week stay in a Universal hotel and two weeks staying in a single Disney Deluxe resort. Roll forward to 2022 … As Disney recovered from the pandemic, they announced the reopening of the Animal Kingdom Lodge! And we're back on track! Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (Google images) Some Dibbers may wonder that we’re not looking at villas and outside-the-parks time for a month stay, but that’s just not us. Royal Pacific Resort So, the holiday arrangements are as follows: Finally, we got around to looking at our airport hotel. After a successful stay last time, I decided to rebook the Radisson Blu at Manchester airport. I love a pre-holiday hotel. It makes the build up so much more exciting and technically extends my holiday time. To make it even more exciting, we have actually booked an airport-view room this time (since I'm not paying for two rooms on this occasion). Let’s talk flights… I have something of a Premium Economy addiction. I'd had it once and I keep stretching my budget to fit it in. I’m hooked on queue jumping. Covid-19 Changes Update: We noticed, by accident, that our seat allocations had changed. Following Virgin's changes to their fleet, there is no longer a bubble and we are now seated in the main Premium Class Cabin. It's a bit rubbish to be sure. However, unlike other aspects of the holiday, it's a perk I've never had before. So I won't miss it on the day. Discovery Cove
Covid-19 Changes Update: Of course, after moving our holiday to 2022, we were hit with a £180 price increase (basically, more than the money saved from our Blue Friday deal). Michael thinks we could buy our own dolphin at this rate. The Food Stuffs Shockwaves were sent through the household when I placed responsibility for booking ADRs into Michael’s inexperienced hands. Even my mother, who hasn’t been to Disney since 1991, understood the gravity of this judgement. Covid-19 Changes Update: I mean, it was definitely our low point when the reservations we had agonised over were cancelled one by one. We got to agonise over whether we would ever see any of our reservations again. Disney were very tight-lipped about any possible dates for allowing reservations again and add to that the limited availability of reservations to allow for social distancing, I think we did really well to rebook very similar restaurants. Dollars and spending We bought the bulk of our dollars in January, before the Brexit deadline. We bought $2590 for £2000 from Sterling FX, at an exchange rate of 1.2954. All cash. The Boring Bits Insurance the first time was with Thomas Cook, who organise this through White Horse. Yes, I know, insurance with travel agents is usually a bad idea. However, in this case, I did my research and went for one of their premium options, after reading through the terms carefully. You never worry about insurance terms, until you need to. It’s not worth the risk. Woooah! Wait! What? What happened to the last trip report? The last trip report stopped midway into the first Disney week - roughly half way through - immediately after the end of my marriage. As part of this separation, I lost access to all my photographs and notes – I understand they’ve been destroyed – and this has made it impossible to carry on with the show. COMMENCING 27th APRIL 2019 - Finally booked! - See the announcement here UPDATE 4th JULY 2019 - Have just looked at Discovery Cove prices for our dates and they're an absolute fortune! After some good Dibb advice, I've decided to wait until November for the Blue Friday sales. See the full thread here. UPDATE 8th JULY 2019 - Michael sent me a message today to remind me that our countdown is now in the 300s . UPDATE 22nd SEPTEMBER 2019 - We have moved our holiday to Virgin after the collapse of Thomas Cook. The trip report has been updated throughout with all the details - including new holiday dates for the summer! UPDATE 24th SEPTEMBER 2019 - Hooked up to My Disney Experience! UPDATE 28th SEPTEMBER 2019 - ESTAs submitted and approved! UPDATE 30th SEPTEMBER 2019 - Blissfully now in the 200s . It's coming down fast! UPDATE 30th SEPTEMBER 2019 - Booked into the Radisson Blu at Manchester Airport for our pre-flight stay! UPDATE 25th NOVEMBER 2019 - Discovery Cove booked! UPDATE 3rd JANUARY 2020 - Dollars sorted! Mostly cash with a Caxton FX card this time. Michael insisted that we open the envelope at the same time. UPDATE 7th JANUARY 2020 - Delighted to be in the 100s now . Michael is ecstatic! He's fretting over the timings for ADR bookings and giving daily countdown updates. UPDATE 4th FEBRUARY 2020 - It's ADR day! Trusted Michael to make the bookings and he did very well. Just three more restaurant bookings to make and then I have some fab spreadsheets to show you all . UPDATE 7th FEBRUARY 2020 - Final ADR booked today. Michael secured California Grill this afternoon. Check out the trip report for some nifty spreadsheets! UPDATE 12th FEBRUARY 2020 - After checking every day, ADR prodigy Michael was able to book Le Cellier finally! Fabulous that we were able to secure this booking after so long of not having access to reservations for this restaurant. I know some Dibbers were a little frustrated with this, so hope you all get sorted. Michael has cancelled Coral Reef and moved Teppan Edo across. All hail Saint Michael! UPDATE 7th MARCH 2020 - Michael sent me this message today. It's our Little Big Book of Magic UPDATE 21st MARCH 2020 - Just thought I'd check in with you all. Obviously, we're on tenderhooks right now, in light of the outbreak. Michael won't talk about the holiday. Our plan is to wait as long as we can to keep our plans. Ultimately, we will simply move the holiday if we're forced/able to. I fully intend to celebrate double digits if we're still on a countdown by then. Stay safe! UPDATE 9th APRIL 2020 - Well we're still here! Obviously it's a little early to predict the future. However, since we're approaching double digits (106 days!) after a LOOONG wait to get here I thought we might as well check in with you all. Funnily enough, despite the uncertainty, we're feeling a little of the double digit excitement (both of us!). We've had an email from Virgin reminding us that our holiday is still on (fingers crossed Virgin make it through this!). Praying to the Disney god now folks! UPDATE 16th APRIL 2020 - We hit double digits today! Yes our hopes are dwindling and Michael has refused to start a new countdown if we have to reschedule. However, we've both agreed that this day, nearly four years in the making, has been earned regardless. So we're celebrating anyway with pizza and chicken wings. Our Double Digit Dance of Defiance thread can be viewed by clicking here. UPDATE 3rd June 2020 - After Disney's gutting announcement about cancelling the DDP, the last of our restaurant reservations were removed today. UPDATE 3rd June 2020 - Confirmation from Michael's employment that we will not be able to get time off for a 2-3 week holiday during the school holidays next year or the year after (he's a foster carer with 2 weeks respite allowance). It's this year or never right now! UPDATE 4th June 2020 - Wow. What a roller coaster it's been! Virgin have announced that they will start flying to Orlando from the 20th (even though the borders are still closed at both ends). Plus this is only London right now, so we don't know what that means for us. UPDATE 4th June 2020 - Virgin have emailed us, asking for us to decide, by Monday 8th, if we're planning to go ahead with our holiday. Disney have NOT confirmed, yet, whether we will be entitled to money back for our free DDP. UPDATE 5th June 2020 - Our insurance has confirmed with us today that they will cover us for Corona virus if we still choose to travel. Our insurance will still be invalid if the government doesn't lift the travel restrictions. UPDATE 4th June 2020 - My parents have given us $2,500 to cover the cost of our food, in the event that the DDP doesn't lead to a discount/refund. It was meant to be a surprise, but my parents hated seeing how stressed we were over the holiday. I ugly cried. Three holiday issues down, three more to go... fingers crossed for our hols. UPDATE 22nd June 2020 - We were able to book park passes for all of the days we are in Disney! Thanks to neilhd for your tip with this. You can see us waiting to get onto the Park Pass System here or read about it in the report. UPDATE 22nd June 2020 - Have also noticed that Animal Kingdom Lodge is still not showing an opening date for this year. Feeling very apprehensive about this as we do not want to downgrade our resort stay. Assuming that we get to go at this point! UPDATE 25th June 2020 - Very sad to confirm that we now have no choice but to move the holiday to next year. We did this with Virgin today and will rewrite this trip report in the coming weeks. We've had to lose the Animal Kingdom Lodge, due to lack of availability for our new dates. We've moved over to the Grand Floridian instead. UPDATE 26th July - Today has been a very sad day, as we tried to occupy ourselves at home on what should have been our travel day. I felt sick at times but it's nearly ten now so the worst us almost over. My feelings have been nothing compared with Michael's. We're off to York this weekend to combat the blues. UPDATE 19th February 2021 - Today w had to be honest with ourselves and accept that our holiday probably isn't going ahead again. We've arranged to move it to 24th July 2022 UPDATE 21st July 2021 - With just four days until our second cancelled holiday date (I forgot to change my countdown), I've finally got around to moving Discovery Cove for the second time. We're now set for 27th July. UPDATE 21st July 2021 - Honestly, at this point, I started to lose the will to update this list. Edited at 04:58 PM. |
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4 May 19, 02:35 PM |
#2
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Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 09
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What a lovely pre trip and reference to your earlier visits.
Like many dibbers on here, your experience is not about a fastpass or restaurant, its all about memories..., awakening those in the past and laying down new ones for the future. Fondest regards to you and have a great time Disney332
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4 May 19, 06:53 PM |
#3
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Excited about Disney
Join Date: Jul 12
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I remember your last trip report. Really happy to hear things have worked out so well in the end. Sounds like you have an amazing holiday planned!
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2004, 2005, 2008 (we got married!) 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 x 2, then a mysterious gap….. 2022 x 2, 2023 (California!) and next up 2023 Christmas at WDW! |
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4 May 19, 07:06 PM |
#4
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jun 09
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Sounds fantastic and you sound much happier than before!
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4 May 19, 07:20 PM |
#5
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Surfing at Typhoon Lagoon
Join Date: May 14
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I don't post much but I remember your unfinished report and your posts explaining why. I just wanted to tell you I'm so pleased you are doing well
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4 May 19, 07:22 PM |
#6
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Imagineer
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I’m so pleased that you have found happiness again after such a terrible time. How exciting being able to show your new partner all the wonder and magic of Disney, I’m sure he will be a fanatic once he has been to Disney. I look forward to reading along.
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5 May 19, 09:42 AM |
#7
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 15
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So glad you are back Samantha- I enjoyed reading your previous report. Really pleased you are now happy and moving on with a new Florida adventure to look forward too. We are there the same time as you next year so Ill keep my eye out for you! X
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Bahama Bay, Hard Rock Hotel and Contemporary Resort Oct 2016 POR & Beach Club 2018 Cabana Bay, Polynesian, Solara Resort 2022 Endless Summer 2023 |
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5 May 19, 04:19 PM |
#8
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VIP Dibber
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So great to see you back and settled down. Hope you have the best trip!
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2015 and 2016 available on my old threads -Wrestlemania Food report 2017 -2014 first trip 4 years late! -NYC/Orlando 2018 food report -NYC Trip report 2018 -Halloween 2019 food report -Berlin 2022-Munich 2023 -Norway 2023 -Belgium at Christmas 2023 |
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6 May 19, 12:14 AM |
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slightly serious Dibber
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So glad you're going home xx
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6 May 19, 07:48 AM |
#10
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VIP Dibber
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It sounds like you're going to have an amazing trip.
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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