Our first Magical Experience *** Update 11th May***

[lolli31]

This is my first ever attempt at this so I hope I do it right...

So here we are, I never thought I would ever be muttering the words "we're going to Disney World" ever...

A few years ago I sat down with my parents and we all agreed that one day we would like to take Megan (my daughter who is 7 at the moment) to Disney World, we wanted it to be before she was too old for Princesses (although if she turns out like me will be never) but once she was old enough to understand what an amazing holiday we were having, so we agreed that this would be when she was 8, then it was left for a few years to simmer in my mind.

Then last year it was bought up again so we started pricing the trip up for August 2016, so every few months I would look online and wish the actually dates we wanted to travel would come up online so I could get an actual price (still waiting for flights lol).

So then July 2015 came and out of the blue my mom turns round and says why don't you price it up for May 2016, so I did and liked the price haha.
Then it became serious, looking at hotels, dining plans etc, and then we decided against having a dining plan, thinking there was no way we would eat that amount of food to cover the cost (we may be big but it isn't from eating too much or the wrong things, we just don't move enough in my opinion), we would stay at an all star resort to keep the costs down and that was where we ended the conversation.
A few days later, myself, Megan and my mom were sat at home bored (worse thing for me is being bored, this is when I am most likely to log online and spend, spend, spend) so we decided to go into town and go to a few travel agents to grab some brochures.
This is where the fun begins.
We walked out of the first travel agents with a holiday booked on the 27th May 2016 for 2 weeks at Caribbean Beach Resort including the Quick service dining plan, oopps we better go home and prepare to tell Dad.
He was fine about it all and wasn't at all surprised that we had booked it.

So flying will be me, Laura 33 (34 at time of holiday), Megan 7 (8 when we fly)

and my parents (they are a little shy so will remain as mom and dad (they will be 57 and 58 when we fly out).
Megan is a grandad's girl so will more than likely be stuck to him, yey for me because then I can run off and jump on the rides they will not go on.

[lolli31]

After looking at everything there is sooooo much to take in.

As it stands at the moment these are the main things we want to do.

Disney Parks
Disney water parks
Discovery Cove (Megan and I swimming with dolphins, mom and dad not)
Universal & IOA.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for Megan
Cinderellas Royal Table for us all.

We return home on mom and dads wedding anniversary 10/6/2016 (16 years) so I am hoping to book CRT for 9/6/16 around 9pm as I read somewhere that from inside the castle you have an amazing view of Wishes. So hopefully getting that booking I also want Megan to go BBB around 5pm on the same day for her princess treatment so she looks the part in the castle for the meal.
After BBB I will try aswell to FP Anna and Elsa, I know Megan will love this.

I think now after reading thedibb all day everyday that I am starting to understand the FastPass system but only time will tell.

[lolli31]

I have spent hours upon hours trying to fit everything into our itinerary, and then Touringplans was recommended to me, oh my golly gosh it is amazing and personalising your plan was such a godsend.
I now have rough ideas for the way we will travel around each park, the average waiting time and the average walking distance at the pace I know we will more than likely walk at so I can plan meals, breaks and rough times for FP's.

I have also printed of maps for each park to try and familiarise myself with some landmarks and also shows food places and bathrooms.

So this is the plan
27/5/16 we arrive into Florida late afternoon so wont be doing a lot, maybe go to Hotel , Epcot or Downtown Disney for dinner.
Here is our hotel:

I am going to request a room in Jamaica so fingers crossed.

28/5/16 Early start at Magic Kingdom, Meet Tinkerbell and Mickey, Main street Bakery pick something up for breakfast and snack on before lunch, Today we will try to concentrate on the right side of the park and Meet Anna, Elsa, Cinderella, Rapunzel, meet Ariel in her Grotto and try to book Be Our Guest for Lunch, after lunch go on the enchanted tales with Belle, then go on any rides we missed that looked fun, after this I want to end the day at the splash n soak station so Megan can play here, she loves these types of things and we loose her for hours and will cool her down, while she is doing this I will stroll over to Space Mountain.

29/5/16 Another early start at Animal Kingdom, I am hoping to book FP's on Kilimanjaro Safaris around half 9, explore where the wildlife express train takes you, then onto the Kali river rapids, meet a few characters, few more rides and go to lunch at Restaurantosaurus followed by a nice stroll around the discovery trails (walk off a few calories of lunch)

30/5/16 Yet another early start, but I read from a few people that the first few days your awake early so We are going to Discovery cove.

Have booked a room for us all at Royal Pacific Resort so we can take advantage of the early entry and front of the line passes.

As we will have been at Discovery Cove all day, we will already have our costumes, may as well jump in that pool.


31/5/16 spending the day at Universal (more on this later because we wernt originally coming here until 6/6/16)

1/6/16 Im having a lazy morning and a lie in, after using touring plans and seeing the entertainment times I knew there was no reason to come early when we wanted this to be a late night. so will plan to arrive around 11am, i have said we will start the day off at Disney Junior but need to find out if you meet the characters before or after the show, if before we possibly wont stick around but if after obviously we will have to, few more rides, while Megan, mom and dad go and watch Indiana Jones I will stroll off and que for TOT, go for lunch at Backlot Express, after lunch I ll send family off to StarWars while i go on Rock N Roller, then meet up for Beauty and Beast, frozen sing along (because I love to sing the songs, I wont hide it haha) few more rides then have dinner at Rosies before watching Fantasmic.

2/6/16 have a day at Blizzard Beach

3/6/16 Arrive early for opening, go on most the rides and look around the exhibits, Thinking of taking the boat round to Beaches and cream but heard you can get the mini kitchen sick elsewhere. Then explore the showcases (Ive heard the frozen ride will be in Norway 2016 so hopefully it will be there when we go) and buy few bits and bobs for lunch. Not sure how long this will take us so not really setting times in stone here (but think I will need to FP Soarin at some point.
I have split Epcot into 2 parts on Touringplans incase we decide to explore some of the showcases on our first night.

4/6/16 planning a full day around our resort, Going to book Megan onto the Pirate cruise because she loves a treasure hunt, we don't have a garden at home (we live in a flat - not a high-rise ) so i have to plan them for at my parents house, she dresses up in her pirate costume and follows the map and clues i do (first time I was up hours staining paper with tea bags, never again) will be nice to play in the sand at our resort and sunbath around the pool.

5/6/16 day 2 of Magic Kingdom, so the plan is to cover the right side of the park (I cant understand how people like to run in zig zags just to fit rides in, I dont think my little brain could cope) main street bakery again for breakfast and some snacks, rides, rides and more rides, Lunch at Pecos Bill, and then watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

6/6/16 Maybe a day on Idrive, Megan asked if they had a lazerquest in Florida, so I found a lazer tag at Wonderworks on Idrive, I can probably talk parents into this because Megan wants it lol, I have never done anything like it (Megan did this with her dad when they went on holiday this year) and also maybe look at Florida Mall.

7/6/16 spend the day at Typhoon Lagoon

8/6/16 go to Seaworld for the day.

9/6/16 not sure what to do during the day but should booking go ok here is the plan, arrive at Magic Kingdom around 16:30, take Megan to her BBB booking hopefully around 5pm, couple of hours there for photoshoot afterwards, FP megan to meet Anna and Elsa once dressed up, hopefully my parents will que with Megan so I can go off and ride Big Thunder Mountain then back to the castle for CRT and fingers crossed a view of Wishes.
Then watch Celebrate the magic.

10/6/16 our going home day, Im already very sad about this.
I think we will go to Downtown Disney and buy some gifts to bring home, then pack them in a suitcase, eat lunch at Downtown before being collected by the Magical express.

So far that is the plan, only Discovery Cove and Universal are set in stone so anything can happen between now and when we travel, new rides, ride closures and may have to swap a few days around, who knows.

[chazb]

yeah ! your doing a trip report.All sounds good so far! x

[lolli31]

Originally Posted by chazb

yeah ! your doing a trip report.All sounds good so far! x

See more...

You inspired me, and hopefully any questions I babble on about in my posts may be answered haha x

[lolli31]

Now if you can recall I mentioned Universal in the Itinerary and said I would chat about it later on.

Originally we were going to Universal on the 6/6/16 and doing both parks in 1 day (we still are only spending 1 day)but with out express passes to experience most rides we would not even be able to stop and have breakfast or lunch (used touringplans again)with the express passes I was able to fit lunch in and planned a breakfast on the go on way to the park so was going to book the express passes ontop (extra Ł180 approx for express pass that lets you use it once per ride ) then people kept mentioning if you booked a night at a Universal hotel you get the unlimited express passes (approx Ł256 for the 4 of us) so can go on the same ride again and again if you like that type of thing.
So I priced up a hotel on the 6/6 and was coming in at over Ł250.
I then priced it up over different dates dates and found on Travel Republic it cost Ł219 for us 4, costing less that the price of the Unlimited express tickets with a Ł1 deposit.

So once we leave Discovery Cove we will check in to the Loews Royal Pacific Hotel go and have some dinner on City Walk and thentake advantage of the early hour at Harry Potter World, I now need to get Megan to watch the Harry Potter films (may ask Grandad and he seems to be the only person she watches films with) we used to have a movie night every Tuesday and watch a film before bedtime and eat pizza and sweets, may have to start this back up once school starts.

Universal also have character wake up calls, not sure who would be more excited, Megan or my dad.

[littlejem1]

What a great start, your daughter will love it.

[lolli31]

As we will be travelling home on their actual anniversary I am hoping to plan 9/6/16 as their anniversary for meals etc, travel agent has sent a note to Hotel so hopefully from what I have heard they sometimes arrange for a character phone call.

I was going to have some flowers delivered, but this would need to be the day we arrive so that we can look at them for 2 weeks rather than 1 day, but then I was going to have a cake delivered on the 9/6 but decided against it because of the delivery charge and the price of the flowers was a bit out of my price range.

I also priced up the special packages or a cabana at Discovery Cove, I liked the idea of a dolphin delivering a personalised buoy but it would have to be delivered to Megan not my parents, but after a lot of emailing (I like to ask amlot of questions) Discovery cove told me I could be boring and just order the personalised buoy (Only $20) in Guest Services, they would prefer you order before your arrival day as it gets buys, $20 I can justify especially when I surprise them that I am paying for CRT.

I may also pick up some things from Idrive shops but will bring cards from home and give to them on the flight home.
I spoke with Virgin and they gave me a number to call if I wanted to arrange champagne (neither drink the stuff) or a cake so I may see how much a cake is (just because I like to embarrass them hehe).

[lolli31]

Originally Posted by littlejem1

What a great start, your daughter will love it.

See more...

Thank you, I hope so.

[Guest]

We (me, hubby, my sister and our 8 year old Megan!) will be there from 26th May - 12th June next year! Very good move getting DC for 30th - that is Memorial Day over there and the parks are heaving so DC will be a breath of fresh air! We are also doing Universal overnight but got a good deal on club level from Venere.com