Jordi & Lisa in Return of the Lost Appetite - Sept 2014

[AdventurerJordi]

Ahoy pals!

Welcome to our first ever pre-trip report and documented Florida visit.

We're heading back to the most magical place on Earth for the second time this September, and I'll be honest, the wait is killing us. Having made our very first trip to America together last August, we were desperate to return as soon as we landed back in England! So... after saying that we wouldn't be able to afford to go back the year after, we accidentally on purpose booked again in December! Merry Christmas eh

Quick Links

Flights, Accommodation & Car Hire

Parks Plan

Bookings & ADRs Part One

Bookings & ADRs Part Two

Halloween Party

We Bought Tickets

Double Digits Dance

Updates - Memory Maker and Keys to the Kingdom
Itinerary Days 0 - 4

Itinerary Days 5 - 8

Itinerary Days 9 - 12

Itinerary Days 13 - 15

Food Posts! - Offsite Breakfasts
Food Posts! - Offsite Things Part One
Food Posts! - Offsite Things Part Two
Update - Seat Allocation, FastPass+ and Penguins!

Food Posts! - Universal

Food Posts! - Disney Part One

Anywho, let us introduce ourselves..

The Adventurers

First up is yours truly! My name is Jordi and I'm an America-holic. I'll be 23 in May and I currently study BA Graphic Design at London College of Communication. I'm a giant kid at heart, my favourite film ever is Toy Story and I'm a Pixar nerd and newly discovered Disney fanatic. I'm totally obsessed with all things Americana and I'm certain that I've been born in the wrong country! I love all things Deep South and fancy myself as a bit of a redneck.

You can often find me looking like this...

At La Louvre




Hanging with Adam Richman



Or feeding my pal Garfield

Second is my partner in crime and the brains and wisdom behind our entire trip, Lisa! She's 22 next month and currently works as an Odeon Team Member. She single handedly planned and organised our first holiday to Florida together to a scarily meticulous level of detail, however I can't thank her enough for it because it resulted in the best two weeks of my life so far! She's been a member on here for quite a while now but she's kinda shy so only perks up occasionally

You can find her looking like this...

Slightly uneasy and she swims with the fish and rays in the Grand Reef



Brimmed with excitement at the arrival of our Denny's breakfast!



Pleased with making new feathered pals!




Together we look like this...

We've been together 7 years! High school sweethearts and all that. Last years Florida holiday was actually our first holiday together on our own and we couldn't be happier to be headed back this year.

The story behind the title of our pre-trip goes a little something like this.

We both love our food. Myself especially being a huge foodie! We're both totally in love with American cuisine and so last years trip was fixin' to be an all out food fest for the both of us. However, that wasn't quite the case! We were often so overcome by the amount of choice on offer and so tired after spending all day enjoying the parks that we're barely scratched the surface of food and restaurants that Orlando had to offer! So instead of dining out, we found ourselves back at the hotel in front of the TV with a Pizza Hut!

Soooo, this year will be totally different, we know what we're dealing with this year and will be making sure that we eat as much as we can!

So... that's us! This pre-trip will hopefully be filled with lots of goodies for y'all to browse over in the coming weeks.

Next Chapter

Flights, Accommodation & Car Hire

[DapperDisNY]

Sounds like its gonna be a awesome trip.

Ah the good ol south. Have you traveled there before? I myself have been to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Look forward to reading more!

[Yorkie Girl]

Love the pic of you and Adam Richman!

I'm sure you'll be able to make up for all the lack of appetite, from your last trip, this time

[AdventurerJordi]

Originally Posted by DapperDisNY

Sounds like its gonna be a awesome trip.

Ah the good ol south. Have you traveled there before? I myself have been to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Look forward to reading more!

See more...

No sadly I haven't but it's definitely on the bucket list! Can't beat a good old bit of Southern hospitality!

Yes we definitely will be eating ourselves silly this time!

[lfc_sarah]

Great Pre-trippie and cute couple!

I hope you manage to eat at more restaurants this time around!

[AdventurerJordi]

Flights, Accommodation & Car Hire

Okay so here goes..

We're heading up to Gatwick on September 9th for a twilight check-in, and then we'll be hopping on the Monorail to make our way over to the Premier Inn at Gatwick North for the night!

How exciting!

Flights

We'll be flying with Virgin Atlantic on Sept 10th at 13:00 with a scheduled arrival time of 17:10 Orlando time yaaaay! We arrived at roughly this time last year and found it to be really manageable. We had time to get our bearings, check in, get some food and go for an explore before turning in for the night.

The lovely 747-400 that'll be our home for 9 and a bit hours!

Accommodation

Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando - 10/09/14 - 15/09/14

Once we arrive in Orlando, we'll be spending five nights at the Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando. It's cheap and cheerful and is great for a couple like us. The location is perfect and for roughly £35 a night you can't really complain. We stayed here for the entirety of our stay last year and have decided to return this year albeit for just five nights this time!

Hard Rock Hotel at Universal - 15/09/14 - 18/09/14

We'll then be heading over to Universal to check into the Hard Rock Hotel for three nights! Again we stayed here last year but for only one night. It was an amazing place to stay! Anyone who's stayed there before will know about all the music memorabilia that decorates the lobbys and halls. The rooms are great too! It's location is perfect for visits to Universal as the parks are a short walk or boat ride from the hotel grounds. We felt that one night last year wasn't nearly long enough as we didn't have much time to enjoy all the things this place has to offer!

Art of Animation Resort - 18/09/14 - 20/09/14

For our third hotel of the holiday, we'll be staying at Art of Animation once again! (Can you see a theme here... ) Like the others, we stayed here last year but just for one night in the Little Mermaid suite. We're returning again to the same suite but for two nights this time as like the HRH, we didn't get much use of the facilities like the pool and such. I'm also really eager to explore the Cars themed area of the resort being a big Cars fan We enjoyed our stay here last year and look forward to heading back to enjoy dining in the Landscape of Flavours area and even using the pool! Being a graphic designer/illustrator, the decoration of this place really appealed to me!

Wilderness Lodge Resort 20/09/14 - 25/09/14

QUICK LOOK! A PLACE WE'VE NOT STAYED IN BEFORE!
For the fourth and final hotel of our stay, we're headed to Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort for five whole nights. I'll be honest, this is the hotel I'm most looking forward to as woodland lodge cabin things are my thing. We've been scouting the place out via people's trip videos and it looks amazing! We'll be staying in a woods view room which is rather exciting!
If you've stayed here before and have any tips for us then let us know!

Car Hire

As part of our Virgin Fly Drive package we obviously will have a rental car for the duration of our stay! Very exciting! We had to resort to Orlando public transport to get about last year after I wimped out over getting a car
However, after experiencing enough American roads I feel confident about driving this year. (I've never even driven in Europe let alone America! )

We've recently upgraded ourselves from a Compact car to an Intermediate SUV. We've also got ourselves the Platinum insurance, no underage fees and a free tank of fuel on pick up!
According to Virgin, we're expected to get a Ford Escape or similar! However, knowing how unpredictable car rental can be, I'll wait and see what we can choose from once we arrive!

Our potential SUV?



Price Breakdown

Flydrive package with Virgin Atlantic - £1681

Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando for 5 nights - £156

Hard Rock Hotel for 3 nights - £473

Art of Animation Resort for 3 nights - £162

Wilderness Lodge Resort for 5 nights - £735

So that's about it for the second part of this pre-trip!

Next Chapter

Our Parks Plan!

[Guest]

Loving this so far

[skye00]

we fly out on the 20th sept remember if you like your food the food and wine festival will be on at epcot!

[AdventurerJordi]

Originally Posted by skye00

we fly out on the 20th sept remember if you like your food the food and wine festival will be on at epcot!

See more...

Ah yes! We're fully prepared for that haha it's included in the itinerary as we just missed out on it last year! I cant wait

[vanlou]

Great plans so far - fab hotel choices too (we're staying in the same Premier Inn and at HRH for 5 nights).

Looking forward to reading more