The Fee Is Forty Lets Do Disney Sept 2018 **FINAL UPDATE 20/09**~ Pre-Trip Report

[Sweets]

Welcome to the Fee Is Forty (and drags the men of the family around for the hell of it) Pre Trip Report!
<insert midlife crisis being fired out of a party popper here>

Disclaimer: The Trip Report name may change but it’s all I have at the minute, so I’m rolling with it.


You see, I wasn’t coping well with the thought of turning 40 this year. So I did what any sane Dibber would do and used it as an excuse to book a trip to the mouse, chose the accommodation and itinerary and basically just milk it for everything it’s worth while my husband looked on helplessly. Reader: He had no chance

I love reading everyone’s trip and pre-trip reports so I thought it would be nice to spill all of my plans and worries and questions here for our Sept 2018 trip.

So here we are!




CAST

Me/Fee - Turned 40 this year. Did I mention that? I’m the dibber, the planner, booker, researcher, some would say ‘stress head perfectionist’, indecisive decision maker and Disney and Harry Potter nut. I'm happiest on holiday or planning a holiday with a cocktail in hand. I don't like heights but will try most rides. But I'll try them all after a couple of cocktails...


Chris (DH) - 44 (ish - he’s mucccccch older than me though). The laid back manchild, who will happily eat and drink anything put in front of him, loves big fast rides and only really knows the basics of where we’re going or what we’ll be doing but he is massive Star Wars fan and he if he has his way this is how he’ll be dressed for the duration. Slippers’ an all.

Dylan (DS)- 17. The baby of the family, who happens to be the tallest. Often referred to as Dilly Pops. Oh, he loves it. Not one for roller coasters or rides with big drops, but loves to get fully immersed in the parks and is happiest in the pool. Can be laid back like his Dad or stubborn like his Mam. That’s always fun. Picky eater but willing to be a little more adventurous this trip. We’ll see…





This is us on our last trip just before we got soaked and I had to walk around for an hour with a baggy damp gusset. That was nice.

My beautiful daughter isn't coming this year as she now has a family of her own - also known as 'the dog sitters'.

Look at my beautiful grandson!

BACKGROUND

So just to give you a bit of background, we had our first trip to Florida in October 2012. We travelled as a family of 4, including my daughter, and we travelled from Manchester with Virgin (Ec), having booked with Charter Travel. We stayed at POR with QSDP and had an overnight stay at HRH which we all loved. We did Disney and Universal/IOA on that trip. We didn’t hire a car and relied on Disney transportation and taxi/uber for our trips off site. It was magical and we were hooked.

Next up was a trip in 2016, no DD that time either as she was studying and working. And dog sitting obvs.
We stayed at HRH for a full 2 weeks in late August, early September and did all parks apart from Disney. After our first tip I was desperate to get back to Orlando and compromised with a no Disney trip with the cunning plan that we would go back and do Disney for my 40th. Chris agreed and so that was that.

Again, we didn’t hire a car on this trip and relied on uber (and pre-booked airport transfers) for the whole trip and this worked perfectly. We ate offsite a lot and did some shopping. It was great. We booked and travelled with Thomas Cook from Manchester and we upgraded to PE.

Both Chris and Dylan say this was the best holiday we’ve ever been on, despite the hurricane scare. We all love HRH and the ability to pop back and forth from the parks and laze by the pool. It was a really really great holiday.

THIS YEAR

This year we’re staying at the Yacht Club for 2 weeks.

THE YACHT CLUB FOR TWO WHOLE WEEKS!

As we're staying at the Yacht Club we also got free DDP. Having only had QSDP before this is our first experience of DDP and the whole ADR thing. I did book CRT for the first trip but this is of course a whole different ball game. But more on that later.

We fly on Saturday 22nd September with Thomas Cook (Ec) and we booked with Charter Travel. We plan to stay overnight the night before the flight and travel across to Manchester from sunny South Shields by car.

It took me a little while to decide on a resort and then actually chose a hotel (read: convince Chris the cost of a deluxe resort was entirely justified and nothing else would do for my 40th...).

We loved POR when we stayed at Disney last time but I wanted to try somewhere different. I also wanted to stay somewhere that felt even more special than our first visit. We loved the close proximity to Disney Springs that POR offered and we had really enjoyed strolling around World Showcase in Epcot which turned out to be one of our best ever days on our first trip.

This was also the day that we ended up getting locked in Epcot after an evening spent at the World Showcase and had to run to catch the (last?) monorail and then final bus back to POR and worried we would have to walk back at stupid o'clock, but that’s a story for another day…

2 of my favourite pics from that trip and that actual day.

I considered Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge for a long time. The animals at AK and the overall look and ambience of both resorts had me toing and froing. But it was the ease of getting to and from Epcot and HS sealed it for me. I knew it had to be an Epcot resort stay and so that is when I settled on the the Yacht and Beach Club. I just had to decide which one...

After much Dibb research and oohing and aahing I finally chose Yacht Club over Beach Club purely because of the guaranteed balcony. I *love* the look of Beach Club and I’ll admit I felt, initially, that Yacht Club might be too stuffy and not ‘Disney’ enough. But the pull of the balcony was too much.

This will be me, whether I am waving at a tree or a rooftop, I will be waving full of joy.

I shopped around for prices and eventually booked with the lovely Kate from Charter Travel. Kate has been great answering my questions “Can I have an upgrade to PE without having to remortgage my house yet?” (nope) and won’t hesitate to book with them a third time.



We have a standard view booked but I’m going to cheekily request a room with a view via touring plans and see what happens. Get your tootsies crossed for me.



So that's that.
Two weeks at Disney's Yacht Club, our first time on DDP and first time using the new fast pass system.

With a countdown that feels like it's now flying by, I still have some stuff to do and decisions to make so thank you for reading along this far and I hope you'll follow along as I make more plans

Next up.. pre travel day plans, ADRs, fastpasses and other stuff.

[Sweets]

PRE TRAVEL DAY

We fly on a Saturday and we’ve decided to drive to Manchester on the Friday and stay overnight

Chris finishes at 1pm on a Friday and Dylan at 1.30pm (alright for some ) so it’s just me that needs to take a half day or try for an early finish so we can set off.

The plan is to leave before 3pm. I am being extremely ambitious with this considering that’ll leave Chris and Dylan less than an hour to shower and get changed and make sure they’re good to go. Yes, of course it’ll be them fannying on. Not me. Nope

Hopefully the cases will be all packed and ready to be popped into the book of the car. I'll have the hang luggage bags sorted too so it should literally be a matter of getting in the car.

I won't be able to leave without taking a picture of my dogs so that I can cry about how much I miss them until I return. This was from 2 years ago when I had just woken up on pre travel day. Look at that face. She knows.

We’ve decided to drive again this time because we’ve travelled by train before but the journey back was too painful. We'd landed at about 7am or so if I remember correctly and we had missed the 7.30 train and so had to wait for the 8.30 one. We were all sat waiting for it like…

And then when we got on the actual train we were a sight to behold. Think tipped back heads, slack jaws, dribble and a bit of snoring thrown in and you have a idea…


This year I’ve booked the Radisson (Chris has no idea, of course) with Expedia and if it comes up cheaper elsewhere (it won’t) or if we decide to stay somewhere else (unlikely) then I can cancel.

I'd already had this booked a few months ago with Travelrepublic. But when I checked the other day it had been cancelled I don’t recall getting a notification which is a bit annoying but never mind.

I immediately checked all of the usual sites and Expedia came up the cheapest at £160. I know I should just book a Premier Inn but because we don’t fly until 12:20pm, I’m liking the idea of a bit of a lie in, bit of breakfast and a leisurely stroll to the check in desk. (I'm also spoilt and love hotels and love to go to the extreme )

Eeeeeee I’m excited!

Last time Chris drove, we stayed a Premier Inn, parked at T1 meet and greet and it worked well with a couple of coffee stops on the way home. That’s the plan this year, but with economy rather than PE I am a little worried that Chris might be too tired to drive - and I’ll be too scared to drive after a long flight. I also can’t find a similar deal on parking (paid £35 last time and it’s coming up at £120 this time) so that’s something that still needs to be booked.

Seeing this in black and white is making me see that I probably need to cancel the Radisson for something more reasonable and use that money to book the car parking…

Why doesn’t money grow on trees?



Still to cover… ADRs, FPs, clothes and other stuff.

[kellyreathomps]

Love it so far, we're at Beach club next year so excited to hear about you're stay. Also a big 👋🏻👋🏻 From sunny North Shields!

[Jedi Princess]

Great read, looking forward to your updates👍

[Kat11]

What a brill pre trippy! The YC looks amazing!

We've booked the train for our trip in Oct back to the North East as I'm also one to worry about driving. We did this last time but we had the opposite problem to you in that we could have got an earlier train, but had to wait for our pre booked one! (We are chancing it again, hopefully it'll work out?!) Anyway this time I've booked it 1hr 45 after landing time and booked First class which should be a little more relaxing with its reclining seats and coffee/tea.

Looking forward to seeing your ADR choices and any updates!

Are you going to do a trippy... Hope so!

Kat

[Sweets]

Originally Posted by kellyreathomps

Love it so far, we're at Beach club next year so excited to hear about you're stay. Also a big 👋🏻👋🏻 From sunny North Shields!

See more...

Eeee not far, just across the water
I really love the look of the Beach Club. I can't wait to have a nosy about x

Originally Posted by Jedi Princess

Great read, looking forward to your updates👍

See more...

Thank you hoping to put something together about my ADRs because them and FPs are stressing me out x

Originally Posted by Kat11

What a brill pre trippy! The YC looks amazing!

We've booked the train for our trip in Oct back to the North East as I'm also one to worry about driving. We did this last time but we had the opposite problem to you in that we could have got an earlier train, but had to wait for our pre booked one! (We are chancing it again, hopefully it'll work out?!) Anyway this time I've booked it 1hr 45 after landing time and booked First class which should be a little more relaxing with its reclining seats and coffee/tea.

Looking forward to seeing your ADR choices and any updates!

Are you going to do a trippy... Hope so!

Kat

See more...

Hiya! I was set to book the train but Chris was adamant he wanted to drive and he reminded me of how knackered we were. But to be fair we were knackered in the car!
First Class will be perfect and will really help the journey back for sure.
I think my ADRs are quite weak at the minute - it's so overwhelming.
I said the last 2 trips I'd do a trippy but never got round to it. Maybe this time... x

[HevaDuck]

Feeling excited reading this I'm thinking of booking train this year instead of driving we'd need to take 2 cars anyway as 6 of us but making me think again you get off that plane and you just want to be home but that drive from Manchester is awful arrrggghh then with the train there's still a taxi from the station! Need to make a decision soon as carparking keeps going up! We're North East too just down the A19 in Billingham 👋

[Sweets]

Originally Posted by HevaDuck

Feeling excited reading this I'm thinking of booking train this year instead of driving we'd need to take 2 cars anyway as 6 of us but making me think again you get off that plane and you just want to be home but that drive from Manchester is awful arrrggghh then with the train there's still a taxi from the station! Need to make a decision soon as carparking keeps going up! We're North East too just down the A19 in Billingham 👋

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Hey! Not far at all. I work in Stockton a couple of times a week so not far from you. 😁

I’m so excited too. I keep getting in a tizzy with all of the stuff I have to think about

I understand about deciding between the train and driving. It’s a pain! x

[samhugs]

Good plans Fee, I can’t wait to watch it via instagram.

[Sweets]

Originally Posted by samhugs

Good plans Fee, I can’t wait to watch it via instagram.

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Hey Sam! You know for a fact I'll be on insta story all of the time Not long for you. I hope you're going to spam my feed too x