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Old 2 Aug 18, 02:09 PM  
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vics18
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"We gotta go back Marty!" The Lippy's WDW return - Jan 2019 *tiny update 6/1/19!*

Hello!

Welcome to a new trip report.


As usual I have been debating whether to tackle a trip report this time around. They are so time consuming, as I’m sure lots of you who’ve written them will agree – not to mention that on our last trip I found it so hard to find time to make any kind of notes. I also worry a little bit about putting all this stuff out there on the internet with no control over who reads it (have I watched too much Black Mirror? ) Of course on the flip side, they make such wonderful memories to read back and remember so many little details that would otherwise have been long forgotten.
So, anyway here we are! Obviously I have decided to go for it, so let’s plow on.

Here's a little bit about us!

I'm Vic. I work in the NHS (part time since having Charlotte). I love Disney. Always have, always will!






My husband is Martin, works for a Utilities company. He hasn't had a lifelong love of Disney like me, but his love for it grows with each trip, especially our last trip with Charlotte. He is now almost as obsessed with being in WDW as I am and can't wait to get back.






Our little star, Charlotte. Aged 2.






She loves Disney - her favourite character is Dumbo, she also loves Donald Duck, Stitch and Minnie Mouse. She has developed a love of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell lately, and asks for that book most nights at bedtime. Over the last few weeks she's really started getting into the Princesses too, so that's a whole new world for us to explore this trip!
I can't believe how much she has grown while looking at pictures from our last trip, which was only really 8 months ago! She is bright, chatty, hilarious, kind, a little bit crazy - we love her to bits and are so proud of the little girl she's turning into.


As you last left us we had returned from our December 2017 trip, Charlotte’s first ever trip to WDW. (If you missed that you can find it here if you so wish.) We had the most amazing time, Charlotte was so good (most of the time) and took everything in her stride including both flights. She was generally a little star and we were super proud of her. Seeing everything through her eyes also made us love Disney and Disney World even more (something I thought wasn't possible!) We were discussing when we would come back before we even got home!







Both Martin and I absolutely loved being in Florida for all the holiday stuff – Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the Christmas Tree Trail, all the special food, the fireworks, the decorations – I could go on but it was just magical.






I absolutely adore Christmas so it was amazing to be there for it all. We were also so lucky with the weather, it was lovely and hot but not too humid for Charlotte. However, coming home and trying to get sorted for Christmas was a teensy bit stressful (to say the least). I hadn’t bought much before we went, as I thought we might get some good gifts while we were out there. We didn’t! So I had loads of shopping to do when we got home. I’m usually well sorted for Christmas by end of November, so this did not go down well with me.
We decided Jan/Feb might be a good time to visit – hopefully cooler weather still, relatively lightish crowds, and something lovely to look forward to in that horrible January funk! We also would love to experience Festival of the Arts at Epcot (if they bring it back for 2019 – fingers crossed they will.)


Where to stay was the next question. We are total “on site” coverts after staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so knew we wanted to stay on property again. We particularly liked the look of Wilderness Lodge, although I did worry the theme was a bit samey as AKL! Total first world probs I know. Anyway, we had a load of Virgin air miles so decided to book flights and accommodation separately this time around. We plumped for some dates and the flights were released in March. There weren’t any actual reward seats, so I used miles plus money and was really happy with the price we paid for them. Only thing with doing this, was that our dates were now locked before 2019 hotel prices were released from Disney.

There was plenty of availability in standard rooms at Wilderness Lodge, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc and even some decent prices at the Beach Club and Boardwalk Villas, which we were pretty interested in. However, April rolled around and the free dining plan was released for the beginning of 2019. For our dates the standard rooms were suddenly few and far between! However, Attractions Tickets Direct had a great price for a garden view room at Beach Club. I waited until later that evening to see if Disney could eventually get its website to work (eyeroll). When I finally got in, they didn’t have any more in the way of standard room availability and their Beach Club garden view room was significantly more expensive than ATD price, even taking into account the gift card and better cashback with Quidco that we would get from booking direct with Disney. I contacted ATD to ask if they offered the giftcard, and they said they didn’t but would knock £150 off the price instead! So we bit the bullet and booked 14 nights at Beach Club in a garden/woods room with free DDP and Disney park tickets.


We're going back!



Aside from watching some vlogs and coming up with a very rough lists of restaurants we wanted to try, not much more planning was done as we had some other nice things to plan/look forward to!
Martin turned 40 in May and we had a lovely few days in the Lake District.


We explored The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness




And the pool and spa!


Had a lovely meal on Martin's birthday night


The view from our room!






We had another “first” holiday too – this time a first for all of us, our first cruise! My cousin Lyndsay got married on board P&O Ventura in July 2018. The cruise was a week and visited ports such as Gijon, La Coruna, Porto and St Peter's Port.












My beautiful little flower girl with the bride


We met the Captain!

Let's just say we loved cruising - and are actively researching Disney cruises!
Charlotte also turned 2 while we were on board so there were lots of celebrations!















Us with my parents, brother, sister in law and niece Sophie after Charlotte's birthday meal

I don't know how we're going to top this birthday to be honest! It was such a lovely day, she got spoiled by everybody - all my family who were on board (immediate and extended - there were a lot of us!) and the staff. We splashed in the sea and played at the beach in Gijon, had so much fun at the sailaway party then a beautiful meal on board, with a yummy birthday cake. After the meal we saw dolphins swimming and playing alongside the boat!

The cruise departed from Southampton (home of Paulton’s Park – Peppa World is located here) so we decided to drive down to Southampton early and visit Paulton’s Park on the Saturday before setting sail on Ventura on the Sunday. I cannot recommend Paulton’s Park enough – it was such a lovely park, immaculately well maintained and clean with loads of fun stuff to do (mainly for littler kids – there wasn’t too much in the way of thrill rides).












After a 4 hour drive home from Southampton on the Sunday, it was a mad dash to get washing done and everything sorted before we headed back down South on the Thursday for a weekend at Chessington World of Adventures with fellow Disney addicts Brett, Jo and Marceline! I'm sure most of you will know them from their TRs.
We got talking prior to our last trip to WDW as we would be there at the same time, Jo and I particularly became good friends, and speak via WhatsApp most days! We were really looking forward to seeing them all again.




We had such a good time, Charlotte and Marceline were best buddies and so cute together.





It was great to spend time with them all and we look forward to doing it again soon!







Chessington was great, much bigger than I expected and lots of rides that the girls could do. Charlotte was particularly enamoured with the new Gruffalo River Adventure ride, and has developed something of a Gruffalo obsession!





So that brings up pretty much up to now. It was ADR day last week, and despite both the Disney app AND the website breaking at some point when I was trying to book (not to mention my credit card being rejected and me getting a security text message to confirm all the transactions were mine) I’ve managed to get the reservations we wanted. There were several new places we wanted to try, plus some favourites from our previous trips that we wanted to revisit. No doubt there will be several changes before we actually go, but some we’ve booked include: Via Napoli (Charlotte is all about pizza); Yachtsman Steakhouse; Cape May (for breakfast); Tusker House (for lunch); Boma (dinner – we can’t resist visiting our home from our last trip!); California Grill and Akershus breakfast (Charlotte has suddenly got “into” the Princesses so can’t wait for this one).


More Mickey waffles please!


There’s a few quick service places we want to try: Satuli Canteen; Woody’s Lunchbox and the new Chicken Guy restaurant opening this month in Disney Springs. No doubt we’ll also be back at Blaze pizza because all 3 of us loved it last time.


We’ve only booked a car for 1 week of our trip this time. We thought we would see how we got on without one, and as the car rental garage at MCO nearly saw me and Martin getting divorced on our last trip, we thought getting the Magical Express to the hotel would be a better and more relaxing option this year! We’re picking the car up at the Dolphin, so we can walk over after a bit of Boardwalk Bakery breakfast and no doubt immediately go to the outlets or Florida mall haha!


We think we will probably go to Seaworld for 1 day, as we know Charlotte will love seeing the animals and fish.I really want to ride Mako too! No Universal for us once again, as we just don’t feel it’s worth the money for us until Charlotte is older.

Obviously shopping is already underway – as usual Charlotte will have the best wardrobe. Trying to cover all weather eventualities as it seems there’s no way to predict the January temperatures! If we get warm days and cool nights I’ll be happy, so fingers crossed!
We have, of course, signed up to Beth at Fairytale Personal Shopper and have already ordered some things to be sent to her. She's fantastic and such a lovely lady, highly recommend her!

Think that’s all I have to say for now. FP+ day is in November, so we will firm our plans up around then no doubt!
Thanks for reading along!




Edited at 01:29 PM.
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Old 2 Aug 18, 11:10 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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Hurray, as you know I am very happy to reading this and am super excited that you will be treating us to another trip report!

You guys certainly have been busy since your last WDW trip, I have loved following along with your adventures on IG And it's crazy how much Charlotte has grown up in those 8 months, they change so quickly at this age!

Oh wow, I am somewhat green-eyed at you staying at Bach Club... its the dream! And as you are out there over my birthday I request you drink some sort of delicious cocktail for me!

So excited to see the planning for this trip unfold, please share all the shopping along the way, I do love me a Disney clothes haul! xxx
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Old 3 Aug 18, 02:27 AM  
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DVCBT
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Thank you! We always LOVE working with you!
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Old 4 Aug 18, 02:47 PM  
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disneywiseowl
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Hi. I’ve just read & loved your Dec 17 trip report. Your Charlotte is adorable. Thank you so much for sharing.

My daughter & I are flying from Manchester on Jan 26th 19. We’re hoping the weather will be ok as I’ve booked Discovery Cove! I’m an Optimist. 🙂
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Old 4 Aug 18, 04:59 PM  
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vics18
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Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
Hurray, as you know I am very happy to reading this and am super excited that you will be treating us to another trip report!

You guys certainly have been busy since your last WDW trip, I have loved following along with your adventures on IG And it's crazy how much Charlotte has grown up in those 8 months, they change so quickly at this age!

Oh wow, I am somewhat green-eyed at you staying at Bach Club... its the dream! And as you are out there over my birthday I request you drink some sort of delicious cocktail for me!

So excited to see the planning for this trip unfold, please share all the shopping along the way, I do love me a Disney clothes haul! xxx
Haha thanks Lisa. Think I can arrange to have a cocktail or two in your honour

Xxx
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Old 4 Aug 18, 05:01 PM  
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vics18
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Originally Posted by disneywiseowl View Post
Hi. I’ve just read & loved your Dec 17 trip report. Your Charlotte is adorable. Thank you so much for sharing.

My daughter & I are flying from Manchester on Jan 26th 19. We’re hoping the weather will be ok as I’ve booked Discovery Cove! I’m an Optimist. 🙂
🕶 not ☔️
Oh thank you very much that's very kind of you!

Amazing! I toyed with the idea of Discovery Cove to be honest, but think we will wait until next time when Charlotte will be a little older and able to enjoy more. It's such a wonderful place. Will keep everything crossed for good weather for us!
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Old 9 Aug 18, 09:24 PM  
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Lovely pre trip! We are flying out of Manchester on 24th January - we'll be sure to say hi if we see you 😊 we love a dibbers meet up. Think we managed 4 last holiday! Xx
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Old 12 Aug 18, 08:18 AM  
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Originally Posted by MinnieMrsA View Post
Lovely pre trip! We are flying out of Manchester on 24th January - we'll be sure to say hi if we see you 😊 we love a dibbers meet up. Think we managed 4 last holiday! Xx
Thank you!
Haha yes please do! x
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Old 12 Aug 18, 11:51 AM  
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clochette
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I can't believe how much Charlotte has grown! Looking forward to reading along.
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Old 18 Aug 18, 10:53 PM  
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EJSakaAnna
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Yay! Glad I’ve found this .

Love the update, a bit more detail than just seeing your IG photos.

I can’t believe how big Charlotte is now, why do they grow so fast?! The cruise looked amazing, what a way to celebrate your 2nd birthday haha!

Very jealous of your Beach Club stay xx
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