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5 Nov 19, 10:13 PM |
#11
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Excited about Disney
Join Date: Jun 13
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I just thought I would pop on to see if you had written your pre trip report and here it is I am planning a place holder booking for 2021. Nice to see the ‘history’ of your trips.
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6 Nov 19, 08:39 AM |
#12
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Apprentice Imagineer
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Hi, I've been eagerly watching the vlogs by Molly at AllEars.net she has done some great challenges at the parks. I really like her trying to get on all the attractions using FP for each attraction videos and I'm thinking we've got to give this a go next year.[/QUOTE] Ive watched a few after you recommending. Look forward to reading along and planning these challenges |
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6 Nov 19, 02:12 PM |
#13
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Imagineer
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You need to inform me about new reports Abby I can't keep up
Loving the trippie name and I really can't wait to follow along All subscribed now so I won't miss anything xx
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Kelly x
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7 Nov 19, 09:21 PM |
#14
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Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
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Aah that's so lovely I'm glad you're excited to join me on another year of planning for Florida.
I'm definitely going to have to plan a Molly challenge, although I expect I will not do anywhere near as many FP as she does. sorry, I'll give you a nudge next time. You haven't missed anything though, just loads of waffle from me about how the trip came about. I only started on the weekend and you're here already. Essentially it was a foregone conclusion that we would be back to Orlando again next summer and somehow I managed to waffle on about it, you know what I'm like! Next up I need to tell you all about the flights as that was something and that all leads on to more hotels...Very, very exciting.
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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7 Nov 19, 09:42 PM |
#15
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Imagineer
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Ahhh but I love Abby waffling it's so informative and makes me smile. Got to say I loved seeing the photos of the kids over the years, so nostalgic xx
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Kelly x
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8 Nov 19, 07:57 PM |
#16
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VIP Dibber
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Another great pre-trippie Abby. You've made a great start. You may remember that we have booked August for next year due to the DDP stopping at the beginning of October, so I'll be joining you for your pre-trip report updates just about in real time, as we go on the 11th August (I think we may just miss you though 😔 )
When we were there last month we swopped our Universal tickets to seasonal passes for $49pp, we originally (only!) paid £225 per ticket so not too bad considering we will manage to use them for all 3 parks as our Hard Rock booking is 22-25 Aug so Volcano Bay is back included. 😆 Looking forward to finding out a bit more in the next instalment. Bye for now. Kat x
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DLP: Hotel New York-2008 & Hotel Cheyenne-2013 WDW: Villa - April 2011 & Villa - April 2014 WDW: Onsite: OKW! - October 2016 & 2018 WDW: Onsite: HRH/POFQ - October 2019 WDW: Partner Hotel: Hilton LBV @ DS & RPR - April 2022 DLC: LA - San Fran inc: DLC & Universal - Aug/Sept 2023 |
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8 Nov 19, 08:57 PM |
#17
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Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
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Phew because I've come to realise that I cannot tell a short story it's always the epic version from me!
Ooh Kat, I hope you had a fab trip. I can see you've got an exciting new countdown, heading off to NYC. Have you been before? It's a fab city, I'd love to go back actually. And...We may well overlap this summer! I got the most bargainous of flights that means we are in Orlando for 3 weeks! I'll do a proper update about the flights soon, oh I hope we get the chance to meet up for a cocktail. You did really well with your upgrade to APs, ours are only the 2 park tickets, so we don't get Volcano Bay.
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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8 Nov 19, 10:02 PM |
#18
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VIP Dibber
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Yes I’ve been to NY before. Once when I was 20 and again at 40 with some girlfriends that all turned 40 at the same time.
My DH and two girls haven’t been though so I’m looking forward to showing them around as like you say it’s such a great city. It would be great if we could make a meet up work?! Fingers crossed. 🤞🏼 Kat
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DLP: Hotel New York-2008 & Hotel Cheyenne-2013 WDW: Villa - April 2011 & Villa - April 2014 WDW: Onsite: OKW! - October 2016 & 2018 WDW: Onsite: HRH/POFQ - October 2019 WDW: Partner Hotel: Hilton LBV @ DS & RPR - April 2022 DLC: LA - San Fran inc: DLC & Universal - Aug/Sept 2023 |
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9 Nov 19, 05:26 PM |
#19
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Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
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Oh brilliant, you've had some very different trips to NY then. Great to go with your girlfriends. My best friend has been to NY a couple of times, it's her favourite city and I really think we should go together for both of our 50th birthdays, got a few more years yet for that though!
You'll have great fun with your family, how old are your girls? Will they be interested in sightseeing or shopping? Or maybe both? I'm going to post about the flights now and you'll see that we overlap at the end of our trip and the start of yours...
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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9 Nov 19, 05:51 PM |
#20
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Thread Starter
VIP Dibber
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Flights
Right then, onto booking of flights. As soon as the July August glitch cheap flights thread popped up on the Dibb I was subscribed hoping to bag a bargain. I am not loyal to any airline and will happily travel with whichever one is the cheapest. My criteria are fairly set though. 1. I want to fly from a London airport. 2. I want to arrive at MCO. I don’t want airports all over Florida as I don’t want to have to drive out there and we have no interest in hiring a car. 3. I don't mind direct or indirect. 4. I’m reasonably flexible on dates, but it does have to be in the summer holidays. We tend to go for Tuesday flights as they are cheaper than the weekend. 5. I’m not too fussed about getting booked up as soon as the flights are released. I know if I’m patient the flights will appear. 6. I don’t want to pay more £600 each really. This is what we've paid in the past and so each year I hope to keep at around that figure. In 2014 we flew direct with Virgin, that flight was all part of the package for the trip. Virgin have never been the cheapest option since. In 2016 we had United indirect via Washington Dulles. We ended up sitting on the plane at Dulles waiting about 2 hours for it to take off to MCO as it was grounded due to storms in MCO and they didn't want more planes coming in to the area. So, that part wasn't fun, but we got there in the end. On the way back it was handy as we could use the resort check in on travel home day and just get rid of the luggage, even though we checked in to our final destination of London as the first flight was internal with a US airline we could use the resort check in facility. The flights were booked in the November. In 2017 we flew with BA from LHR to JFK as we had the 4 nights in NYC, then from JFK to MCO and for the return we did indirect via Miami. This was a great deal booked in the BA September sales. But, on the way back we had a race through MIA and although we made it to the plane our luggage didn't and I had a fearful 24-36 hours wondering if Max's precious Big White Doggie (cuddly toy) would make it back safe and sound. He did. Never again was he relegated to the hold luggage. In 2018 we waited until January and booked indirect with Aer Lingus via Dublin so we had the pre-clearance. I really didn't think we would make the connection as we were delayed leaving LGW and we raced through Dublin airport, but make it we did. The pre-clearance was great and once again we landed into MCO as domestic passengers. This was our 3rd time and I'd forgotten what arriving to the immigration hall was like. In 2019 we had Mum and Dad with us and I was pleased to get direct flights with BA booked in the October. It was nice to not have the hassle of indirect as we'd had our close calls and our lost luggage previously, but oh boy that immigration hall, luggage collection and then the monorail is not something I particularly want to repeat. It was grim. So, onto this year and I ended up booking flights earlier than I’ve ever booked them. We had only been back from Orlando 10 days and I saw there were lots of posts on the glitch thread about Lufthansa deals. I checked it out and they were coming out at £500 each for dates that were near enough what I wanted from London and into MCO. I had a quick chat with Dave, which basically involved me saying "wow these flights to Orlando next summer are cheap" and him saying "hmm" to which I responded "shall I book them?" and he replied "do I get a say?"... I suppose not. So do you know what? I booked them, in August. I just sort of thought that under £600 was my target and that I would be foolish to wait for a better deal as this was £100 less than I had hoped for so a saving of £400. Remember that... The flights came out at £1994.16 for the four of us, it doesn’t include luggage or seat booking. It’s indirect of course, via Frankfurt. The dates are Sunday 26th July to Monday 17th August. That means 22 nights, our longest ever trip. I knew that the Lufthansa booking included tax that we could claim back for the kids. This was a pretty easy and very quick phone call which ended up in me being refunded £160, so in the end the flights cost £1834.16 which is £458.54 per person. I’m really pleased with that. Now, the reality of it is that the bargain flights and the saving of £400 will end up costing us lots more money as I’d only booked CBR for 14 nights so of course I’d need to book up an extra 8 days of hotel, but that was something to worry about at another time. CBR was booked from Tuesday 28th July for 14 nights so we either needed to extend the booking or book 2 nights prior and 6 nights after at other hotels. I decided that we should stick with just the 14 nights at CBR and I phoned WDW added Dave and the kids to the booking, upgraded the 14 day tickets to 21 day tickets and upgraded from QSDP to DDP. Next I had to think about what hotels to book up for the other nights and that will be a tale for another day.
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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