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Old 27 May 19, 10:52 PM  
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Liah123
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My very first trip report! Pre-Trippie/ Background

I am finally putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys to be exact!) and I am starting my very first trip report! I have spent hours trawling through the many different trip reports and posts on The Dibb but have not attempted writing something myself. Back in 2016, I had every intention of writing a brilliant report but I never managed it! Since then, over 2 years ago, I have unfortunately been struck down with a severe condition, known to all as The Disney Blues. This is despite a 5 day break to Disneyland Paris in December 2017, which I might add was totally freezing! It was a great trip, but didn’t do a lot to satisfy the insatiable need for Walt Disney World! As you may have guessed, I now again have purpose! We are booked!


Who am I? My name is Laila; I am a 28 year old single mother to my Beautiful 6 year old daughter. I am a checkout assistant, with small dreams when it comes to everyday life! All I wish is to raise a strong, intelligent feisty daughter, who always knows she is loved and cared for. So far, I am doing a good job! My D and me are a team, we spend every day together, with almost no break from each other as I am home educating her. It is a good job that we enjoy each other’s company! She shares my love of Disney and has, from a young age, been exposed to the joy of the Disney Parks!
When she was 14 months old, she took her first trip to Disney. I wanted to take her to California first, where Disney theme parks began, so that is exactly what I did! She obviously doesn’t remember the experience, but I certainly do!





We packed in a lot on that holiday and my little trooper took it all in her stride, something which she continues to do to this day. Her favourite things were meeting Sulley (yep, she loved this massive scary monster!) It’s a small world, Ariel’s ride and the freedom to run around as fast as her little legs could carry her. We also visited San Diego Zoo, and to this day she truly believes that she held a baby Panda! (Thanks to photo trickery!) 2013 was a long time ago and we all feel it!

During our childhood, my mum worked so hard to take us (younger brother and sister included) to Florida and beyond. We had amazing trips to Disney World, Disneyland California and Disneyland Paris and being able to experience all of those things together is something that I will be forever grateful for and also something that I want to pass on to my daughter.

After 2013 we took a trip to Disneyland Paris in May 2015. It was Mum, me, younger brother and sister, oldest brother + partner + 2 kids. It was an awesome trip, with some low points added in but I shall not expand on that; “It’s in the past, it doesn’t matter!”



Next up was Mum, Me and DD only. All the way to Florida in September 2016! First trip to the sunshine state and again, DD took it all as it came! We had a moderate onsite hotel – Caribbean beach resort, regular dining plan and to end it all, a Disney cruise on the end! It was truly magical and also a little bittersweet that we had left my brother and sister at home.




2017 was our freezing trip to Disneyland Paris, a little different to the boiling hot Bahamas of 2016! We got to experience a near cancellation of our flight because of snow, freezing rain – and lots of it! But what made it all worth it was seeing Disney at Christmas! I had never seen any Christmas stuff at Disney before and it was breath-taking. This trip was Mum, DD, me and my younger brother. We left younger sister at home with her brand new baby! Again, it was awesome!



So, that leads us to where we are today. It is now 2019, and it has been far too long since I have had something big to look forward to! Now that we have a holiday booked, the days seem brighter and I feel like I really have something to aim for! Let’s talk about how this holiday came about.
Mum, younger sister (who I will now refer to as Z) and I started talking about getting away for a few days this year. T (My Daughter) and K (Z’s Daughter) are now 6 and 1 so we want them to experience more things and who doesn’t enjoy a short break! It started off as a few days in Great Yarmouth. We were planning on driving up, spending some time by the sea, visiting family and then possibly going in to London. This idea didn’t last for too long.
It soon progressed on to a short Cruise from the UK. We thought it might be nice to head to the Mediterranean for a bit of sun. Mum and Z were hoping to go in May, which would have been impossible for me to afford so I was planning on staying at home. I didn’t mind though, me and Tiah were thinking of going camping in the New Forest so we would still get a holiday! We were searching for prices for them and it was probably going to cost around £750/£850 each for them. Guess what comes next?
The conversation moves on to Walt Disney World! We started looking up prices for September of this year and realised that it wasn’t actually going to be totally extortionate. We all started feeling excited! One morning, I was drinking my cup of tea and looking up holidays as you do and I noticed that the prices had been raised, which to me, meant that I wasn’t going. We decided to stop looking and go back to it a few weeks later. We also suggested booking up and then cancelling my part of the holiday if I wasn’t going to be able to afford it. September was the best option for us because Z’s daughter K will be turning 2 at the beginning of October so we wanted to get her in for a cheap trip!
On the 18th of February I had a text message from Mum:
“Holiday booked 5th sept to 19th sept Disney Florida”
At that point, I was at work and had only sneaked a tiny peek at my phone so I went in to full blown panic mode! I didn’t know if I could afford it, I didn’t know if I could book the time off work and I didn’t even know that we were close to booking! It was a very painful 2 hours until I got home to talk about it! I had a chat with my manager at work and he confirmed that I should be able to have the time off so I submitted the official request which was confirmed a week later.
When I got home Mum and Z were bouncing off the walls! We were finally going back! So we were talking about it and I asked that T be kept in the dark about it for as long as possible. I wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to save enough money to pay for it first. Well this didn’t last for too long! It was March the 10th when she found out – I will expand on this in a little while.

The details are:
Disney’s All Star Sports Resort: 04/09/2019 – 19/09/2019
14 day Disney Park tickets
Free Memory Maker
Free Magic Bands
Cast: Me, Mum, Z – my baby sister, T - my beautiful 6 year old (will be 7 at the time of the trip) and K – my gorgeous niece and Z’s 1 year old daughter

Since booking our holiday, we made the decision that we would like to fly in the day before; I booked up a night at the Best Western hotel at MCO airport so we could get to the parks early on the 5th. This would cost us around £96 for the 5 of us (Me, Mum, T, Z and K) not a bad price! Shortly after, we decided to ask Disney how much it would cost to add a night at the beginning of our stay. This came out at around £104 so we cancelled the best western and booked that on! We are now up to 15 nights at Disney!


Earlier I was talking about my younger brother (who will from now on be referred to as H) He lives with his girlfriend G, and he loves Disney just as much as the next person! Mum asked him if he was going to come and he said that he would love to. There were lots of obstacles for him to get through before he could fully commit. They needed to sort care for their dog, book time off work and check finances. All of the above were slowly ticked off this list and he booked up!

Once H had booked up, our excitement levels tripled. We kept asking T questions about Disney World and dropping tiny hints about it. One morning, Mum and I noticed that she had gone very quiet. At this point, we were talking in code about the holiday. I looked up at her and asked her if she had a secret. The little smirk on her face told me yes. We pressed her to tell us what she was thinking and she kept saying that she didn’t want to be wrong. After a while, and after I took her off on her own and asked her again what she knew. She said in the smallest voice “Holiday” so I asked her where, she replied with “Disney” And so, she knew! Apparently she hadn’t wanted to say anything because she thought she would be wrong. She had kept it to herself because she didn’t want to face the disappointment!

We let her know that it was going to be Disneyland Paris next year (2020) and to not let on to H and Z as they probably wouldn’t be able to come. Well this lasted about a day, if that! H came round, and Z came back from work and they started asking her what her secret was. She told them she was going to DLP and that it was next year. Well, H left soon after this conversation. Z started asking if T would pay for her to come too and then T started getting upset because she didn’t have enough money to pay for her as well! This is why we let her know that in fact, H, G, K and K were all going to come with us and that it was actually Walt Disney World we were going to, not Disneyland Paris! She still thinks that this holiday is next year though!

Now that we were all in on the secret, Mum and I started focusing on booking up some flights, without talking in code. We wanted to fly from Bristol because of the closeness of the airport and the convenience of only being a short drive away from home at the end of the holiday. My budget for flights was small (£700 at the most) and after a while, we realised that flying from Bristol would just not be possible. We searched and searched online and called so many different companies but we could not get a low price. I started looking at indirect flights out of London Heathrow. This was coming out a much more reasonable price, even with an overnight hotel and coach trip added on.

We ended up booking through Carlton Leisure. We got indirect flights from LHR changing at New York – Newark on the way there and Houston – Texas on the way back. We have never flown indirect before, and I am actually looking forward to it! Now that our flights were booked, we turned to looking for transport to LHR and an overnight hotel. We booked a National express coach for the afternoon of the 3rd of September. Cost for all 7 was £128. Then we booked a Travelodge stay at £104 for two rooms. Easy Peasy! We will have to pay for transport between the airport and the hotel, at £4.50 per person each way. I already have travel insurance through my bank so both T and me are covered by this.


And so here we are, 99 days to go and a big surprise for T coming! I really hope that I can keep up with a trip report, I think it will be a great way to keep our memories alive! Also, I hope it isn't too confusing with me using initials for everyone on our trip!

Thanks for reading

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Old 28 May 19, 11:08 AM  
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AJ86
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Exciting times, bet you can't wait! I am looking at coming mid to end of September and can't wait (even though i haven't got anything booked!)
Enjoy the planning, keep us updated with the plans and look forward to seeing your report up when you come back!
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Old 28 May 19, 11:54 AM  
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Jules32
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Ah lovely pre trip report looking forward to your full report.
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Old 28 May 19, 03:48 PM  
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A great pre trippie I’m looking forward to reading along

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Old 3 Jun 19, 09:54 PM  
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Liah123
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Originally Posted by AJ86 View Post
Exciting times, bet you can't wait! I am looking at coming mid to end of September and can't wait (even though i haven't got anything booked!)
Enjoy the planning, keep us updated with the plans and look forward to seeing your report up when you come back!
Thanks! When are you going to book up? are you going to do a trip report aswell?
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Old 3 Jun 19, 09:55 PM  
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Originally Posted by Jules32 View Post
Ah lovely pre trip report looking forward to your full report.
Thank you! I hope I can keep up with it!
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Old 3 Jun 19, 09:55 PM  
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Originally Posted by mick View Post
A great pre trippie I’m looking forward to reading along

Joan
Thank you I have read so many reports on here that I hoped I could write something people would enjoy!
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Old 7 Jun 19, 08:23 AM  
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Thanks for taking the time to share - can’t wait to read more. Have a fantastic holiday!
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