4th times a charm & 18 Months in the making - November 2021 trip report - Long Version!

[AJ86]

Hi All,

I know this is a little long, so I have also created a short version for those that don't want to read for the next month! Please click here

So here it is again, my next pre trip report! I didn’t think I would be writing one so soon, but that Disney bug just won’t let go!

So a little introduction…

Me / Andy / Planner / chief annoyer / big kid - I book business travel for work, so I am always looking at holidays and new places to go. I also work from home, so no prying bosses eyes to look over me!
My wife / Mrs H / Eye roller / Loving wife – My loving wife, works in a busy boring office, dealing with admin stuff. She is amazing to me, always willing to go along with my plans and will leave the travel planning to me.

This will be our 4th trip to Florida together…
Trip 1 – Honeymoon staying at the Cabana bay for 6 nights followed by a Royal Caribbean cruise in November 2015.
Trip 2 – June 2018 for 10 days staying at the Port Orleans French quarter for 5 nights followed by the Staybridge Suites at Sea World.
Trip 3 – September 2019 staying 5 nights at the Port Orleans French quarter, 1 night at the Royal Pacific and then 8 nights at the Disney All Star Movies

If you would like to read my September trip report click here!

I started this pre trip report back in 2020 when I first thought we would be going.

So as before I liked keeping a little diary of what’s been going on leading up to the trip, so sit back and relax and enjoy the ride!

Days prior to the 27th March 2020
Both me and my wife have been pining over Disney, every time we see an advert or something on Instagram we look at each other with our sad faces. Don’t think it really helps that I follow every park on Instagram, along with a load of other bloggers.

We have 2 weeks booked off in November for our Anniversary so firm dates in the diary. We are always thinking of different places to visit, but we have been lucky enough to tick most places off our list. Just like Moana - It calls me, Disney here we come!

27th March 2020
As I write this we are in the midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic, near enough everywhere is out of bounds and my only form of leaving the house is our weekly shop.
I work in travel which at the moment is not the best place to be! I am one of the fortunate ones in my company and have been kept on keeping it ticking over for when this is all over and done with.

As there is zero work to be done I am constantly looking at Disney holidays in the hope that the world will have returned to normal come November.

If you read my previous pre trip report you will see I did a lot of things out of order and it looks like this holiday is no different. So before I have any flights sorted I find myself booking a night at Heathrow. I have some reward points with Radisson, and this covers my stay at the Park Inn Radisson. Not the greatest airport hotel, but its ok for what it is and considering its free even better. Its also a flex rate so if plans change, I’m no worse off.

14th April 2020
From today I have been furloughed until the end of September, so I have no idea what the future holds for me at the moment. At my firm there is around 300 of us and left manning the fort is around 50, I am on 80% of my wage and a lot of free time on my hands. I am still fairly confident with our November plans, so I plan to use some of my time off to look around at what is going on in Florida.

26th July 2020
Feeling optimistic about travel now we have travel corridors in place, I book us a week in Greece! 6 days in the sun at an All inclusive resort sounds like heaven in these times! How wrong could I be…. Europe is taking another hit, travel corridors are closing and a lot of the Greek islands are a no go. So I reluctantly cancel the holiday with BA and apply for a credit voucher for our deposit.

16th August 2020
My work today announced they are making redundancies, halving the workforce from 300 down to 150, so I get the dreaded email to say my role is at risk, and that I will find out in the next 45 days how I fair. To console the loss of our Greece holiday and me possibly being made redundant we want to go away again somewhere in the UK, so we decide on somewhere we have always wanted to do for a while, but have always decided on an overseas break.

On the 12th September we are doing the North Coast 500 - which you can read the trip report here.

The bit of good news before we go is that I have survived the cull and that my furlough will be extended to the end of October.

21st September 2020
We are back from holiday, and had a lovely time away, weather played ball and it was a great break away.

However more bad news is on the horizon, I get another email from work saying that they can’t sustain to keep us all on furlough as travel is not going anywhere fast, so they are doing another round of redundancies. Once again, I get the dreaded letter to say my role is at risk, they are reducing the headcount by half. I then get the email to say I'm gone! I have the usual consultation meetings for them to go through the process, but my last day with them will be the end of November

6th October 2020
We have given up on the idea of Disney for this year, boarders are not being reopened Florida’s covid cases are way up, So I go ahead and cancel our reservation at the hotel at Heathrow. Luckily, I hadn’t booked anything else so we are not out of pocket for this Holiday.
There are lots of really good Black Friday deals on and I’m really tempted by some of the deals on with Virgin, they are offering 50% off redemptions using Virgin points, I have enough to get us return flights to Florida in March for my wife's Birthday, so knowing that we can cancel with a £30 loss each I book us flights to Orlando!
The end of November comes and as does my redundancy. So, I am now unemployed.

01 January 2021
Come the new year we realise that we won’t be heading to Florida in March, more lockdowns and negative tests required. So I cancel the flights to Florida and take the hit of £60 for the cancellation.
I also go on applying for anything and everything that comes along, I do get a job at Ocado in their warehouse, loading up vans and lorries with customers shopping, its very physical and I am averaging 18,000 steps a day, a far cry from me sitting in my cosy home office!

2nd February 2021
I’m a sucker for an airline sale, and British Airways have a decent sale on, so once again I attempt trip number 3 to Florida. I was going to book economy to Orlando for 2 of us including a car it was going to work out around £950. I do some playing around with their website and find a cracker of a deal, London to Orlando via Miami in Club world and the same on the return, a group D car with Avis for just over £2000! So I waste no time in booking and use my voucher from my earlier cancelled holiday as part of the deposit, and with their flexible booking policy if I need to cancel I will get a voucher for the £300 deposit paid which I know I will use at some point. So here is to 3rd time lucky!

3rd February 2021
Travel seems to be going well with the road out of lockdown and the number of vaccines starting to being administered I am hopeful that we will be able to go away in November, but I was saying that around this time last year so lets see!
As I am feeling optimistic I have gone ahead and booked us a night at Heathrow before the flight at the Premier Inn on Bath Road.

1st May 2021
Couple of good things this week, it’s my birthday, which is celebrated with a day off work, lots of cake and a Chinese takeaway.
I also get great news on my birthday and I have been offered a new job! So good bye Ocado! I’m now selling luxury holidays, so back to travel, let’s hope I fair better at this company!

15th June 2021
I need to start filling in some blanks, so I hunt for some accommodation, and have seen how highly recommended the Rosen Inn lake Buena Vista is in here. A quick look on hotels.com and I find 13 nights available for £650 which I think is a bargain! I know the crossroads development may cause a bit of traffic havoc, but the fact it’s so cheap, no parking or resort fees makes it worth while

5th July 2021
So today I get a lovely email from British Airways with important in the header…. oh no!

I was originally booked to travel London - Miami - Orlando on both the outbound and inbound flights. My internal flights have now been cancelled and rescheduled so that would give me 4 hours to wait around on the way out and 8 hours to wait around on the return in between flights.

I wasted no time on getting hold of the holidays team on their live chat and the wonderful agent said with no fuss at all that he will rebook me onto the direct service instead. What a result! If I booked the direct flights now in club world they are coming in around 10k for us both, so a whopping 8k more than I originally paid!

20th September 2021
Today the US have announced that from early November they will reopen the borders! Hooray! There is no firm date yet, but I am praying to the Disney gods its is the 1st November ready for our trip on the 6th.

21st September 2021
I have read all the various rumours online about when the borders will reopen, and I know my luck that it will be the day after we travel, so as a backup I use my virgin points to book us a back up set of flights departing on the 13th November, returning from New York on the 27th November. So if this plan goes ahead we will see the thanksgiving day parade in New York!

14th October 2021
Still no news on when the borders will reopen, and I then get a dreaded email from BA telling me they have cancelled the outbound flights! So that’s me moved on to my 4th attempt at a trip to Florida on the 13th November, just hope Virgin don’t follow and cancel their flights.

15th October 2021
The US announce that they will reopen the borders on the 8th November, So I waste no time at all in cancelling my hotels and car parking for my original holiday and rebook the Rosen Inn Lake Buena Vista, airport car parking, a stay at the Staybridge suites at Heathrow before we fly and I contact Andy to see if he can help with car hire. So far everything I have booked is refundable with a small fee. Its only my Disney tickets, after hours tickets, Flights to New York and testing I need to sort out.

25th October 2021
Now that testing has been announced and Virgin haven’t amended the plane type or times for at least 72hours I take it as a good sign and book the last bits, so Orlando to New York flights with United, my Disney tickets with Attraction Tickets, the Christmas After Hours tickets and finally our fit to fly tests with Breath Assured.

So park reservations made, ADRS sorted, menu items perused. Looks like we are hopefully set to go, just need to not leave the house for the next 3 weeks so we can test clear!

Hope you enjoyed my pre trip report 18 months in the making! I am looking forward to starting my trip report and will update with anything that comes along in between now and then!

[mostlybobbins]

... and there's me thinking that I should keep my Pre-Trip short! I'm following your path, Andy! Off to write my own now.

[AJ86]

Originally Posted by mostlybobbins

... and there's me thinking that I should keep my Pre-Trip short! I'm following your path, Andy! Off to write my own now.

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haha, It should have been short if my trips had gone ahead as planned! Thought I had been writing it for 18 months so might as well share it!

[anji]

So glad you're getting to go at last and hope you have an amazing time!