West To East 3 week (and a bit!) Birthday Bash! July 2022

[smithlane]

Very excited about this, I love all of your previous trippies!
Nearly 4 weeks is the dream

We went to California in 2019 and fell in love, we didn't make it to Disneyland though . If you get time, Knotts Berry Park made a really fun day out, also the Warner Bros Studio Tour!

Can't wait to read all about it

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by smithlane

Very excited about this, I love all of your previous trippies!
Nearly 4 weeks is the dream

We went to California in 2019 and fell in love, we didn't make it to Disneyland though . If you get time, Knotts Berry Park made a really fun day out, also the Warner Bros Studio Tour!

Can't wait to read all about it

See more...

Thanks so much - we've got Knotts Berry Park on our planned itinerary at the moment. Heard some great things about it

[Leyfy]

So yesterday I did my ESTA - all good, just got to get Phil's done now.

With some advice from some lovely people here on The Dibb I've booked Affordable Town Car Company to pick us up at LAX and drop us back there a week later. I've also been persuaded by some people on here to swap our day at Universal for Six Flags as he likes the look of that park more and we will be doing Universal in Orlando.

Doing a tentative bit of holiday shopping as well - during January sales I spotted these Crocs (I know... crocs! They do look okay though!) on sale for £9.99:

I've also decided I'm going to raid Decathalon for some cheap cycling shorts to wear as they are definitely more comfortable and breathable than the cotton shorts I've had before and, after a couple of years of lockdowns, I'm not entirely convinced my old holiday clothes will entirely fit!

We've also seen the great news that Key West has opened up to cruise ships again! I think our plan next year will be no theme parks and a longer trip to the Keys, but it will be great to go there just for a little while. I'm looking forward to the cruise, we have a balcony room again and having already sailed on the Carnival Conquest once I kind of know what to expect now?

I've just got to book our Disney California tickets (which will be in the next couple of weeks as their park reservations aren't open yet) and then we will be sorted

(Oh, and if Mr. Biden could drop the testing requirements before we fly I'd also be quite grateful! We can but dream! )

[Leyfy]

So this week this happened:

I'd been umming and ahhing about getting the park hopping option, but as we only have three days in the Disney parks I thought (for an extra £30-odd quid each) that it was worth it. I got the tickets from undercover tourist in dollars using my Halifax card (so no conversion fees) as they were the cheapest option. Really easy e-tickets and managed to get all of our park days sorted as well on the app.

So apart from a couple of balances that need paying off it's just countdown to July!

[katebush95]

Love your trip reports and so pleased that it’s all coming together for you, and how exciting that you are packing so much in!

We’re going to Orlando in November after a very long absence and cannot wait. My DH is a big real ale fan, so if Phil has any tips on the best places to get a ‘proper’ pint in Orlando that would be fab 😍 we’re staying in a villa at Highlands Reserve with a couple of nights at HRH in the middle of the hols x

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by katebush95

Love your trip reports and so pleased that it’s all coming together for you, and how exciting that you are packing so much in!

We’re going to Orlando in November after a very long absence and cannot wait. My DH is a big real ale fan, so if Phil has any tips on the best places to get a ‘proper’ pint in Orlando that would be fab 😍 we’re staying in a villa at Highlands Reserve with a couple of nights at HRH in the middle of the hols x

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Ah thanks so much! Phil's favourite places to get beer on Idrive is definitely The Pub, but he also really likes the bar at Royal Pacific. He tends to go for the lighter IPAs in Florida as it's hotter than home. He also says avoid Duff beer

At the moment he is most excited about going to LA so he can sample all the new beers over there!

[katebush95]

Originally Posted by Leyfy

Ah thanks so much! Phil's favourite places to get beer on Idrive is definitely The Pub, but he also really likes the bar at Royal Pacific. He tends to go for the lighter IPAs in Florida as it's hotter than home. He also says avoid Duff beer

At the moment he is most excited about going to LA so he can sample all the new beers over there!

See more...

That’s fantastic thank you 😊 I’ve made a note of those x

[Leyfy]

Time for a little update as we are now comfortably below 100 days! Eeek!

Having got our Disneyland tickets, advance reservations were made:

Monday 25th July - Disneyland
Friday 29th July - California Adventure
Saturday 30th July - Disneyland

Hoping having the hopping ticket we can have a look round California adventure at least. They will be full-on park day no doubt!

Secondly, someone posted on the Carnival cruise line facebook page than you can pre-book things using your on-board cruise credit. Due to several cancellations etc (like everyone!) we've got a massive $800 of on board cruise credit! So I've booked the drinks package for us both, an excursion to a beach resort in Cozumel and an internet package so I can upload all of the lovely photos!

I still can't really believe this trip will happen ... to be honest I wont until we are sat on the plane!

[Leyfy]

We are 8 weeks away and things are starting to firm up and take a little more shape!

Firstly, I've paid the balance off on our cruise so I just need to wait to check in on the 18th of July online to print off our boarding documents.

Phil and I were talking about our days on international drive, and I was really tempted to book Discovery Cove as we've not been since 2015. Means we also get SeaWorld tickets so we will definitely pop in there one day. Bit of backwards and forwards and that was added on.

I was doing some research about the LA part of our trip and noticed that the Warner Bros studio tour had great reviews. I am a huge Friends and Big Bang Theory fan, and it looked right up my street! Tickets were a very reasonable price, so got that booked up too.

Lastly, with Phil being a MASSIVE Star Wars fan I wanted to get him a reservation at Oga's Cantina when we are at Disneyland. Unfortunately, the day I wanted (the first day we were in the park) I *totally* forgot to go online at 2pm and book an ADR! By the time I remembered (about 5pm) they were all gone! Grrrr! So I thought I'd get us a reservation for the Friday of that week instead, and the ADR window was today! 2pm rolled around and I managed to get a booking for 12.55... Then couldn't get the page to accept my details and UK phone number... ! Ten minutes I spent faffing with the computer, trying to get the reservation to go through with absolutely no luck. In desperation I loaded up my phone and tried to log in using the app. Luckily a few more times were still available and ... Hurrah... !

So that's made me happy

Only other ADRs I would like are at WDW for California Grill and Yachtsman Steakhouse, but they don't open for another two weeks or so.

[Leyfy]

Okay, tbh I know this is probably the most *muted* pre-trip report I've ever done!

That's because with everything hanging over us with covid testing etc I still wasn't 100% we would get there as both of us were working up until 2 days before we go. However, with the news that covid testing is being lifted from this weekend it finally feels a bit more real!

Coinciding with this was our ADR date today for Walt Disney World. We'd had lots of discussions about what we wanted to do, having had trips in the past where I'd booked higher end restaurants every night, I wanted at least a couple of more 'casual' days. As we already have a reservation for Oga's Cantina back in Disneyland, that was something to cross off as well. I did want Narcoossee's, but apparently it is shutting for a lengthy refurbishment, so I had a look at a few other dining options at the Grand Floridian. We settled on Citrico's for our first night in WDW and the California Grill is always our aim for our last night. Phil had requested trying City Works at Disney Springs, which *may* have something to do with the fact that they have 90 beers on tap!

We also have a bit of a tradition of going to the Yachtsman Steakhouse, as this was our first ever signature restaurant from our first trip together in 2013, so that was added for nostalgia reasons.

I wasn't sure if our ADR window opened at 10am or 11am, but I was there on the app and online refreshing waiting for the reservations to become available. 11am they finally did let me book and I've got dinner reservations:

11th August - Citricos
12th August - Yachtsman Steakhouse
15th August - City Works
16th August - California Grill

So, mission accomplished!

Also this week I paid of the balance for RPR for our two nights at Universal.

Oh, we've also added a sneaky day on at Discovery Cove as we've not been since 2016!