Yo Ho, A Disney Life for Me - Summer 2020 pre trip

[collybird]

Countdown under 200 now! When 180 days is in sight it feels much more real.

Trying to wash away my Disney blues and Dibb avoidance now Christmas is over, we'll see how that goes!

[ShezMcQ]

What a lovely pre-trip report and its great to see pics of the kids growing up. Bet it brought a tear to your eye to go through all the old pics

I've only heard good things about LH although have never flown with them. We've booked Aer Lingus this year from Glasgow and we're really looking forward to the pre-clearance. Not looking forward to a four hour layove in Dublin on the way back though... hoping there's a lounge or something!

Have you got your other hotel nights sorted yet? If going to focus on Universal, I think Cabana Bay would be a great choice. Quite cheap and plenty of space in one of the Family Suite rooms. I think we may go for that one the next time we do a non-Disney trip. Endless Summer looks good too.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by collybird

Countdown under 200 now! When 180 days is in sight it feels much more real.

Trying to wash away my Disney blues and Dibb avoidance now Christmas is over, we'll see how that goes!

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yippee it's under 200 days. It does all feel more real now and I've been worrying about the ADRs and all the hotel moves, which I need to update everyone about in the pre trip. But, I've been focusing on writing up the 2019 report.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and a fun new year. Although I know you work long hours in December so I daresay you could just do with a bit of a rest and a long nap.

Originally Posted by ShezMcQ

What a lovely pre-trip report and its great to see pics of the kids growing up. Bet it brought a tear to your eye to go through all the old pics

I've only heard good things about LH although have never flown with them. We've booked Aer Lingus this year from Glasgow and we're really looking forward to the pre-clearance. Not looking forward to a four hour layove in Dublin on the way back though... hoping there's a lounge or something!

Have you got your other hotel nights sorted yet? If going to focus on Universal, I think Cabana Bay would be a great choice. Quite cheap and plenty of space in one of the Family Suite rooms. I think we may go for that one the next time we do a non-Disney trip. Endless Summer looks good too.

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I didn't really think of the kids as being that little on our first trip but they look so small in the photos now. Max was a little boy embarrassedly dancing with Belle, now he's a giant very nearly 6 foot and he'll likely stand as tall Chewie when he eventually stops growing.

The Aer Iingus flights all worked out good for us in the end with the pre clearance, but it sure felt like we were cutting it fine on the outbound journey racing through the airpirt is not fun and is not the start of the holiday you want. A pain you've got the long layover on the return though, that's when you just want to get home, get a load of washing on and get to bed.

I've got 2 nights of hotels that I need to book up. I'll do a hotel update for you all soon as I do want to get the other nights sorted and I could do with some advice and opinions. I've seen a few people recommend cabana bay, but the nights we need to book up are the first two of the trip so fall in July and as we have the seasonal annual passes we can't get into the parks until August

[Sparksy72]

Brilliant pics of the kids, they have grown so much! Life is just way more fun when you have an Orlando (Disney/Universal) Trip to plan!

I love the ‘try all new restaurants’ challenge, it’s a brilliant idea. That was my favourite part about having the dining plan last year, picking TS restaurants and not stressing about the cost. We had some amazing meals at places I would never have normally picked.

Your flights were a great price too, we have flown on Lufthansa via Frankfurt and they were great, one thing I would say is that Frankfurt airport is HUGE!

I’m looking forward to following along, we will also be back in Orlando in August! Bring on the cocktails and sunshine Michelle x

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

Brilliant pics of the kids, they have grown so much! Life is just way more fun when you have an Orlando (Disney/Universal) Trip to plan!

I love the ‘try all new restaurants’ challenge, it’s a brilliant idea. That was my favourite part about having the dining plan last year, picking TS restaurants and not stressing about the cost. We had some amazing meals at places I would never have normally picked.

Your flights were a great price too, we have flown on Lufthansa via Frankfurt and they were great, one thing I would say is that Frankfurt airport is HUGE!

I’m looking forward to following along, we will also be back in Orlando in August! Bring on the cocktails and sunshine Michelle x

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They really have grown a lot. There are going to be a lots of new restaurants for us this year, I think unless I change my mind again

I've read that Frankfurt airport is very big. I hope we do alright with our connection, I went for a longer layover, there was a later flight out of LHR but I went with the earlier one so we have over 3 hours if the flight out is on time. Surely that will be enough? I hope so.

See you in August

[Sparksy72]

I think changing your mind is perfectly acceptable!

I’m am sure you will be totally fine at Frankfurt airport. 3 hours is loads of time We were with another family and we didn’t rush, we stopped for snacks and a bathroom break and even looked for magazines in the news agency so full disclosure, I only pretend jog for a Disney bus however in this particular instance I realised that if I didn’t do my old lady jog/shuffle that we might miss our connecting flight! Spoiler alert we made it!

Summer in Orlando is the best and I can’t wait! Cocktails here we come

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

I think changing your mind is perfectly acceptable!

I’m am sure you will be totally fine at Frankfurt airport. 3 hours is loads of time We were with another family and we didn’t rush, we stopped for snacks and a bathroom break and even looked for magazines in the news agency so full disclosure, I only pretend jog for a Disney bus however in this particular instance I realised that if I didn’t do my old lady jog/shuffle that we might miss our connecting flight! Spoiler alert we made it!

Summer in Orlando is the best and I can’t wait! Cocktails here we come

See more...

That's good as I'm normally indecisive. Last year I didnt meddle at all with the ADRs and they stayed as booked at the 180 day point, none were swapped, none were cancelled and none were added. Not even any times changed. That's practically unheard of on here, but I guess it was a good plan for us and included everything I wanted to show mum and dad so no need to make changes. This year I feel will be different.

I'm glad you made your flight. I'm not a jogger at all, I can do a great fast walk but I really hate it when there's a bus at the stop and the others all say run no thanks, not me. Perhaps I would have had to do an old lady shuffle too if it was to avoid missing a flight

Yep, bring on the cocktails. I'm in

[Goldia]

Airport hotel and the other Extra hotels

I’m back with an update of the other hotels I’ve booked. To recap we have 22 nights due to the super cheap flights which if you’re thinking will end up costing us a fortune in hotels and food then, well, you’d be absolutely right.

We fly on Sunday 26th July and return on Monday 17th August. The CBR booking is from Tuesday 28th for 14 nights. So, that leaves, pre travel day airport hotel, 2 nights at the beginning and 6 nights at the end still to book up.

At the beginning of September lovely OB1 sent me a message saying someone had posted about Premier Inn offering good rates for next year. I pounced on that straight away. It's a real beauty of a hotel isn't it?

On 2nd September I booked up the Premier Inn attached to Terminal 4 at LHR. We are actually flying from terminal 2, but it was a steal at just £33.50 for the night and I figure we’ll just catch the train over to the terminal in the morning. I was really grateful for the tip off and then started thinking about the other hotels.

I had a plan that went through various incarnations

• Extending the CBR booking to the full 22 days, but even though we love the DDP I think this would have been too much food for us.

• Booking a Universal hotel for part of the remaining days to use the express passes, back when I was mulling it over I’d not fully appreciated how handy they were. Since then I’ve written up the universal part of our 2019 stay and remembered how marvellous the express passes were. Also, I knew that our seasonal annual passes would expire 365 days after they were first used so they will run out on 12th August 2020. Therefore, the Universal hotel would have to be before WDW. It seemed like a complete waste of money to book such an expensive hotel for the travel day as we land at 7pm so there would be no express benefit.

• Booking a WDW resort we’ve not stayed in before as a treat, this idea has been festering for a while as I’ve read about other people renting DVC points as a way of staying in a deluxe resort but a little less pricey. I had my eye on Wilderness Lodge or Beach Club as I figured the monorail resorts were way out of our price range.

• Booking an I Drive hotel for a cheap stay and doing Universal from there so that we could visit some of the yummy off site restaurants we’ve not been to for a while. We stayed at Rosen Inn International in 2017 and it was perfect for Universal and all the restaurants were within walking distance.

After mulling it over for a couple of weeks I decided that what I really wanted was to stay at a deluxe resort.

I started off by sending a lot of messages to poor Colette (Collybird) she’s been so helpful over the years. I hold her responsible for the idea of bringing my parents and talking me off a ledge when I found things tough. I do know that asking a Dibber whether we should book extra’s on an Orlando holiday is not going to elicit a negative response, I suspect that’s why I sought her advice .

I told her we had a whopping 22 nights she agreed with me that the others might get a bit sick of an extended Disney DDP stay and that the best plan was to do Universal first and book an I Drive hotel, as Disney has to be last so there’s something to look forward to. Great idea save the best to last . Also I really wanted to copy Rescuer’s idea of I Drive at the beginning with a lovely IHop/Denny/Perkins breakfast the first day as you’re always up with the larks on the first day.

I suggested my idea of DVC rental as I really like Wilderness Lodge. I’d also thought of maybe Animal Kingdom Lodge as Max thought this was the resort we were going to when I surprised them at the end of the It’s all about the mouse trip (we had a Royal room at POR). We’ve never been to AKL as it’s so out of the way and I’ve not bothered to book an ADR there. Colette rightly pointed out there were lots of lovely restaurants at AKL and staying there we’d be able to sample them. She suggested the split stay might be the best option as we could try out two resorts. Her suggestion was WL at the start as a bit of relaxation, then the I Drive stay for Universal, then CBR with DDP then AKL at the end. She finished off by saying “DVC is a real steal”. I think Colette’s idea is actually a better plan than what we have ended up with, I really should have booked what she told me right then and there!

Over the next week I became obsessed with the DVC rental idea. We stayed at OKW as a free dining booking in 2018 and it's the only deluxe resort we've stayed at, so far .

I looked at all the rental websites. I discovered that Boardwalk was much cheaper to rent than Beach Club and as it has the same perks being walking distance to both HS and Epcot plus the access to all the restaurants on the Boardwalk this became a serious contender.

By now it was mid September and Colette reminded me that booking a studio via DVC was going to be tricky and that I should be thinking about the 11 month booking window if I wanted a studio . Now, I’d love a one bedroom but the flight savings were really going to not be a saving at all if we chose a one bedroom so yes I did need to get myself organised if I had any hope of renting a studio.

On David’s DVC store I looked at lots of different options for hotels and the points and $ cost was clear and easy to follow. I needed to pay $119 deposit up front and they would see if there was availability at the resort and also a member willing rent out points.

Eventually I settled on a plan. It looked like this

Pre Travel Day Saturday 25th July – Premier Inn booked. Has to be done now. Especially with an early flight. In fact, even with a late flight it has to be done .

Travel Day Sunday 26th July – cheap hotel, I Drive or somewhere similar. Nevermind about missing the magical express we can get an Uber/Lyft to the hotel.

Day 1 Monday 27th July – check into a Universal Hotel using my clubcard points for a cheap night in a hotel with the express passes. Use the passes all day Monday and Tuesday.

Day 2 Tuesday 28th July – check into CBR after having a full day at Universal. Already booked. It’s not a problem that we wouldn’t be visiting a WDW park as we wouldn’t normally go to a park on the WDW check in day due to travelling, plus we have 21 day tickets. Spend two weeks at CBR with the DDP. Perhaps Uber over to Universal if we feel we didn’t do everything in our first two days as the passes run out on 12th August.

Day 16 Tuesday 11th August – rent DVC points for three nights at Boardwalk, prioritising Epcot and HS and then three nights Animal Kingdom Lodge, visiting AK and MK.

It was a good plan, apart from a fatal flaw which I will explain below . I’m exaggerating for comedic effect it was a pretty good plan and there is a flaw but it’s hardly a disaster. Have you spotted it?

Did I share my planning ideas with my husband or children?

Nope, course not . They wouldn’t have been interested anyway.

Who did I share the plans with?

Colette of course

On 8th September I told her of my plan and like the true dibber that she is she told me not to hang around, register my interest and see what happens. She thought Boardwalk and AKL were great choices. I explained we’d fit in the Universal visits and stay at the beginning of the trip as the passes will run out before the DVC stays.

On 9th September I made a David’s DVC booking request. Actually it was two booking requests. First for Boardwalk villas for a studio for three nights from 11th to 14th August and the second for Animal Kingdom villas for a studio for three nights from 14th to 17th August. The online form was easy to fill out, as it’s two requests I had to pay two deposits. I got an email response back really quickly welcoming me.

On 11th September David’s told me that there was availability at BWV but they didn’t have a member who could rent me the points, they offered up alternatives, I said I’d wait. They asked if I wanted to make the AKV rental contingent on the BWV rental and I decided against this idea and told them to go ahead when the booking window opened.

On 15th September I had an email from David’s telling me they had secured the AKV booking and that I had to pay the balance of the bill. Just one day after the 11 month booking window opened I was so excited. As I’d already paid $119 as a deposit it cost me an additional $763 for the three nights. That’s $294 per night or roughly £230 which I thought wasn’t too bad for a deluxe hotel.

On 16th September I had my first DVC booking all sorted. The email confirmation had come through, the AKV booking was in the bag and was already showing in MDE. It’s for Jambo House from 14th to 17th August as requested in a deluxe studio. No one else knew about it, apart from Colette and OB1, they were both really pleased for me . Ha, ha! And now you guys of course. Dave, Max and Kate still don’t know. So, shh, keep quiet as I’m going to keep it as a surprise.

Then followed a period of time with me having to be patient and wondering whether I was going to be successful in getting the BWV rental.

On 16th October, a month later, I still hadn’t heard anything and I saw a post on the Dibb from someone who had rented points for BWV from David’s for the following August . It seemed David's did have members with points. I’m sure it’s not as simple as all that as of course the number of points I need to rent and the number they have to lend makes a difference, but I figured I would send an email to David’s saying that I was still keen to rent the points for BWV and asking if they had any members who could lend the points now. They responded quickly and thanked me for reaching out, they said my request was still active in their system and in their rental queue. They said that none of their owners had responded to my request but they were hopeful they would have someone soon.

Just two days later on 18th October I got an email from David’s letting me know the Boardwalk Villas studio booking had been made and so I paid the $637 rest of the booking. That booking was a total cost of $756, so about £200 per night. It’s also showing in MDE .

Things were looking dandy. Nearly all the hotels were booked. We all went off to Washington DC. We had fun .

I started this pre trip when we got back from DC. I didn’t worry about the 2 nights at the start of the trip as I had a plan that involved booking an I Drive hotel for one night saving up my Clubcard points and then booking a Universal hotel when I had more points saved. There was loads of time for this so I didn’t let myself worry or give it much of a second thought really.

The frenzy of Christmas came and went.

Then over new year I started thinking about ADRs, busy day guides and park planning for the 2020 trip. And the fatal flaw in my plan dawned on me. Have you realised what it is yet?

I've mentioned it a couple times in this post. Do you need a clue? We have seasonal annual passes for Universal.

Oh dear Black out dates

That means that we cannot enter a Universal park during July .

It therefore makes booking a Universal hotel for the express passes on the 27th July utterly pointless as I wouldn’t be able to use the express passes!

DOH What a rookie error!

I knew we had seasonal passes as it was made clear to me that there were block out dates when I did the upgrade. It didn’t matter as we wouldn’t be coming over Christmas or Easter and we had time in August to fit in the Universal days. I had forgotten all of that when I started thinking about the hotels and when I came up with my plan in September last year the fact that we can’t go to Universal in July just didn’t occur to me.

Honestly, I am hanging my head in shame at the ridiculous lack of forethought .

So, what do I do?

I cannot move the DVC bookings as they are already paid in full, well maybe I could, but what’s the point as the annual passes would have run out by then anyway.

The options are

Option 1 – Stick with the I Drive plan as a cheap 2 night stay and a relaxed start to the trip, check in to CBR early on Tuesday and go straight to a park. This means we could get a yummy breakfast, chill at the pool and then go out on I Drive for dinner.

Option 2 – Book an alternative WDW resort for 2 nights, but not have park tickets or dining until the CBR check in day and have a relaxed start to the trip, inside the Disney bubble but more expensive than option 1. We could do a value resort, we’ve not stayed at all of the All Stars and so this is a possibility.

Option 3 – Extend the CBR booking to 16 nights, checking in 2 days earlier, if they have the availability. This would mean we would have the DDP and the park tickets to go into a park on the Monday as I already upgraded to 21 days tickets when I booked the flights.

What do you all think? At the moment I’m wavering between option 2 and 3 as then we could get the magical express. Now that I’m thinking about all those lovely restaurants and ADR day is just around the corner I’m leaning more towards option 3. But I’m fully open to suggestions.

As for visiting the Universal parks, we’ll just have to do that from CBR. We’ll fit them into our WDW stay, Uber over and make do without the express passes. Unless... I happen to save up enough clubcard points for a very cheap night at one their hotels during the CBR stay and we do a one night hop over to Universal and do 2 park days with the express passes. But that depends on the saving up of clubcard points.

Seriously, what do you all think? Please let me know what you would do with those 2 nights at the beginning of the holiday as I’m not sure and I’ve been dithering over the last couple of weeks.

Oh and finally at the end of this ridiculously long post, I've found out that today is a day worthy of celebration as Kat posted on the August 2020 group that the park hours for the WDW parks are now showing .

Hurrah, daily planning can now commence. Busy Day Guide here I come.

[jothp]

Lovely to hear an update about the hotels. I think if I was you, I would try to move the CBR booking forward to arrival day and make it 15 nights then book the Universal hotel on the night in between CBR and BWV.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by jothp

Lovely to hear an update about the hotels. I think if I was you, I would try to move the CBR booking forward to arrival day and make it 15 nights then book the Universal hotel on the night in between CBR and BWV.

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Brilliant another option entirely that I hadn't considered so now we're up to 4 ideas for the 2 nights

But it's a really good idea! Then I won't be paying for 2 hotels at the same time. Hmm, I think I like it