If you book it you will go. Disney Sept ‘19 Pre trip report

[sha9]

I know that title seems a bit obvious but it kind of fits with how we ended up booking this years trip. I’m not sure if I’ll do a full trip report but more than likely will do a dining one as usual so I thought I’d do the pre trip report anyway.

For anyone who hasn’t read any previous trip reports of mine we are me, Lisa and my sister Marie, two spinster aunts who have been going to Florida together for more than 20 years now.

Took me some time to decide on the right picture from last year. I had about 3 to choose from.

So this year is a little different than others as Marie has started her own dog grooming business and we weren’t sure whether we should book or not. We discussed it and booked Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort with free dining when it was released on the basis that Quidco cashback covers more than the deposit so we wouldn’t lose out if we cancel.
I’m not one for waiting and seeing as I’m a terrible saver so need to be booked. My theory is we can stay at a basic hotel with just Disney tickets and eat at cheap restaurants if we have to. Of course I’m hoping we don’t have to .


I'm now going to update this post with what's actually happening regarding the following! That way anyone reading the final trip report won't have to wade through 12 pages of nonsense .

Flights

We were able to get Virgin reward flights for about £325 each economy out and PE back, money we already had saved. So on the basis that if you book it you will go, we booked it! I managed to get the seats at the back which are just two seats and although it’s not ideal for immigration I feel a bit more relaxed about it this year.
Edited to say I've since changed the seats to the "bubble". We had to pay £35 pp but we've managed to get the back row and hoping it means an earlier exit from the plane and into immigration. Not likely we'll manage PE on the outbound as we need 20,000 miles and we have about 7500 between us!

Hotel

Well we’ve been back and forth on this. We booked CBR originally as our preferred resort, Old Key West wasn’t released yet. We had upgraded dining as we prefer table service meals. When OKW started showing up on the Disney site I called them and was able to change no problem but with the discounts on OKW & SSR getting less every year it was quite a difference. We reflected on it over Christmas and worked out that OKW was going to be a bit of a push. So at £900 of a difference CBR and sticking with QSDP is the new plan. We did consider the free nights offer but free dining is worth more to us. Plus we would lose the $200 gift card so had to take that into account.

Edited to say we have now settled on Coronado Springs in a preferred room. That was all that was available when we decided to make the switch and the Skyliner was really putting me off CBR as well as the ongoing construction with the Riviera resort. CSR construction will be finished soon and the resort looks amazing. We've also booked 2 nights at the Dolphin at the end of the first week for it's proximity to DHS.

Theme parks

We didn’t do Universal last year as we only went for a week and I honestly didn’t miss it. I’m not sure we can stretch to it this year with the price of tickets and I think I’ll be ok with that. Disney at a more relaxed pace is so attractive after rushing about in a week last time.

Edited to say we are now doing Universal . We managed to get the 2 days with 3 free tickets at a good price and thought it would be rude not too!

Food

Well this may be our first time on QSDP, something I never thought I’d do. But then things have changed in the quick service dining world. There are loads of places in Disney Springs we keep trying to get to and never manage so this might be the time.

We will do a few table service though. We have a Landry Card each both of which will have a $25 birthday reward when we go so we’ll do Yak & Yeti for sure, maybe twice.
We also have the gift card which we’d normally use to cover tips plus another $100 refer a friend one so I’m thinking we use the $300 for TS dining. There are loads of restaurants we love though so it won’t be easy narrowing it down! At the moment I’m thinking Liberty Tree Tavern, maybe Homecomin’ and then maybe Chefs de France, I’m not sure. We paid OOP for Le Cellier last year and I still feel guilty spending that amount so I doubt we’ll do a signature unless we upgrade.

We go during Orlando Magical Dining month and last year did Sharks Underwater Grill at SeaWorld. It was $35 for a 3 course, set menu plus you could stay int the park afterwards. We didn’t have many options for what day we could choose being there only a week but we’ll be 15 nights this year so I’m hoping we can do this again on a night the park is open later.

Meals actually booked are: QS - umpteen Be Our Guest breakfasts and one lunch, ABC Commissary and Restaurantosaurus both for dinner.
TS - Liberty Tree Tavern dinner, Garden Grill breakfast and The Yachtsman dinner. We’ll also do Yak & Yeti TS at least once, maybe twice. Sharks Underwater Grill booked.


So that’s it so far. We’ll hire a car but that’s not booked yet. We’ll consider Universal and possibly upgrading to DDP (or switching back to OKW) but it’ll depend how things go.

Car Hire

Booked in the end with Avis via the British Airways site. When I booked it was £371 for an intermediate SUV. Had I held off I would have got that price from Hertz (our preferred choice) however it's booked now and cancellation is not free. I'm sure it'll be fine.
Update: bit of a debacle as I accidentally cancelled the car hire. Decided we would just hire for a week picking up from the Dolphin and booked Magical Express for arrival. Couldn’t settle at not having a car and this is the last year we’ll get free parking so have booked an Intermediate SUV with Hertz for the whole trip.