A Veteran and a Newbie - May 2022 Pre-Trip Report

[pyrrock]

Hello! Long time Dibb lurker and first time trippie poster here. After reading so many enjoyable trip report and pre-trippies over the years, I thought I’d try my hand at my own...so here we are!


Introductions

All good trippies start with an introduction to the travellers! First up, we have myself, Emma, the ‘veteran’ and primary planner.

Horse rider, engineer, Florida fanatic. I’ve been very lucky to have been on seven previous Orlando trips, with my first trip back in 2001 at age 6.

I’ll be 27 when we travel, and this will be my first trip as the sole planner (although I have had a very involved role as Chief FP and ADR booker for past trips!). Orlando is very much my home away from home and I can’t wait to feel the wall of humidity from the first step off the plane again.

Next, we have the ‘newbie’, my partner, J.

28 when we travel, J is a petrolhead, coaster sceptic, barbeque enthusiast, and is most excited about all of the yummy american food that I’ve been talking about for the past seven years. As suggested by the title, this will be J’s first trip to the states, and I’m crossing all my fingers hoping that he’ll be bitten by the metaphorical Florida bug. After a bit of a disastrous trip to Alton Towers a few years ago we found out that J does not enjoy roller coasters, so I’ll have my work cut out for me to try and prove that there’s a lot more to Orlando than just drops (except for the rope variety) and going upside down.


The Trip That Never Was

Back in early 2020 I started tentatively planning a trip for early summer 2021. I’d been saving up for a Florida trip since I left university and had a decent budget to play with - a planner’s dream! I had big dreams of free dining plans and staying onsite - however, things didn’t quite go the way I was expecting them to and the dining plan offer never materialised. Despite everything going on, I did end up rather optimistically booking a BA flydrive for May 2021. I got a great price (£1300 for return flights LGW to MCO and 15 days convertible hire with Avis), and also booked 7 days at the Swan along with 14 day WDW Ultimate tickets, and the Ultimate package at Discovery Cove.

I then put the planning on pause until the situation improved and I felt more confidence booking things...which, as we all know, didn’t happen either! I officially cancelled the trip in late February 2021, and luckily got either a full refund or voucher credit for everything I paid so far.


The New Plan

I was feeling pretty discouraged and pessimistic following the cancellation, and was telling everyone - and myself - that I wouldn’t be booking any more trips until we had confirmation that we would be able to travel. In April, the available budget also took a bit of a hit when this little troublemaker came into our lives...

Meet Maisie! With the new addition to the family came some additional expenses, the largest of which was the need for a bigger car (a 3 door corsa would not be quite big enough to transport around an adult Dobermann without some serious gymnastics to get her in and out of the back seats). This cost came from the same pot as the holiday savings, which put any future Florida plans firmly on the back burner.

However, planners will always plan, and I couldn’t resist doing some dummy booking on the various travel agents and airlines, just to keep an eye on prices. One night in late June, whilst cuddled up on the sofa with Maisie, my searches turned up a reasonable price and after a quick conversation with J (“would I be crazy if I booked this?” “just book it if you’re happy with it!”) I ended up pressing that book button and we officially had a trip in the plans!


The Details

So, the details. As mentioned, the budget had pretty much halved compared to what was previously available which meant that on site was no longer on the cards without seriously affecting the budget we had available for park tickets and meals. Both J and I are of the mind that the hotel is just a place to sleep, and with the dwindling perks of staying on site, we were both fine with staying somewhere a bit cheaper.

We will be staying for 15 nights at the Rosen Inn at Pointe. I stayed here many years ago (back in 2005!) and had a more recent stay at the Rosen Inn by Sandlake in 2019, so am familiar with the hotel and feel good about our choice. We’re looking forward to having a good selection of restaurants (particularly Millers and Buffalo Wild Wings) within easy walking distance as well as all of the other fun activities (Wonderworks, Icon Park, minigolf) that I Drive has to offer.

We will be flying with Virgin direct from Heathrow to MCO. Our flight out is on a Friday, and we will be returning on a Saturday (landing back in the UK on a Sunday). One of the main reasons why I booked this package was that the cost included Economy Delight seats on our outbound flight (economy classic seats on the return). As J is very tall (6’4”), the additional legroom will be a big bonus to helping him get comfy on the long flight. I have also paid extra for exit row seats on our return.

We got this flight and hotel package for £2,100 via Virgin Holidays. Whilst this is a bit more than I would typically budget, I’m happy with this. As stated in the report title, this is for May 2022.

Our car hire is booked separately, with Alamo via Virgin Atlantic. We have an intermediate SUV booked with fully inclusive insurance and free additional driver. This cost just over £600, and was significantly cheaper than other suppliers. A couple of days after I booked this the price doubled, so I’m glad that we’ve got this locked in for a relatively reasonable price. We’ve used Alamo on previous trips and I like the ability to choose the car yourself (I’m sure J will have some strong opinions!).

Following this week’s exciting announcement regarding entry to the US, I’ve also booked the Premier Inn M4/J4 for the night before our flight out on their fully flexible rate (£49) as I don’t fancy negotiating the M25 before on our travel day! I’ve also placed a £10pp deposit on Universal 3 park tickets (£568 total) with Orlando Attraction Tickets, which includes free Gatorland tickets. I went to Gatorland on my most recent trip, and I think it’ll be a good break from the theme parks.


So that’s what we have so far! I will be booking Disney tickets and SeaWorld/Discovery Cove Tickets once any DC Black Friday deals are announced (I have a £50 credit with Attraction Tickets from the cancelled trip, so I’ll either use this on WDW or Discovery Cove depending on what deals are available).

Thanks very much for reading - I’ll update once the plan is fleshed out a bit more in the next month or so!

Update 1: Parks and Recreation


Emma.

[Goldia]

This sounds like a fab trip. We've stayed at the Rosen Inn International and it was a great location for all the restaurants on I Drive. I hope you both have a brilliant time.

[cornishfrogboy]

It looks really good .. and in the current climate, I would be pleased with the prices.

Happy planning!

[DisneyArab]

I don’t have a trip currently planned, but it’s so exciting reading pre-trip reports again and the excitement of other people’s trips. Have a great time planning 👋

[margyloveswdw]

Nice to read a pre trip! Feels like we are getting somewhere.

Sounds like you have a lovely trip planned.

[caitlinsmummy]

What a lovely trip you have planned. I think you'll like the Rosen Inn International. We stayed there in 2019. Very close to I-Drive and within walking distance of quite a few restaurants, also straight out onto the I4 for Disney xx

[Charlangela]

Your trip sounds well planned already. Can't wait to read more. I really hope you can convert J to Orlando. I'm sure he, and you, will have the most amazing time.

I think we'll be there the same time as you

[pyrrock]

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments (and apologies for taking so long to respond!). I really appreciate you taking the time to read and reply.

Originally Posted by Goldia

This sounds like a fab trip. We've stayed at the Rosen Inn International and it was a great location for all the restaurants on I Drive. I hope you both have a brilliant time.

See more...

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

What a lovely trip you have planned. I think you'll like the Rosen Inn International. We stayed there in 2019. Very close to I-Drive and within walking distance of quite a few restaurants, also straight out onto the I4 for Disney xx

See more...

Yes, I think the thing I'm looking forward to most about the hotel is how convenient the location is! There are so many delicious looking places within walking distance, and having things like the adventure golf courses and Wonderworks so close will be great if we want to kill some time on an evening. I'm also looking forward to having the Pizza Hut right next door - perfect lazy food if we're exhausted after a long day!

Originally Posted by Charlangela

Your trip sounds well planned already. Can't wait to read more. I really hope you can convert J to Orlando. I'm sure he, and you, will have the most amazing time.

I think we'll be there the same time as you

See more...

Yes, we will be! I think we land a couple of days before you do. I'm really really hoping he likes it - even if I can't convert him to the parks, I'm hoping I can convert him to the US as I'd love to do more trips over there to see other states.

[pyrrock]

After a bit of time without much going on, I'm back with an update! Double digits now - getting close!


Flight Changes


As you might have seen in the Trip Planning forum, Virgin are having a lot of fun moving schedules and aircrafts around at the moment. I first found out about this at the beginning of January when I was checking the Virgin Atlantic app and realised that I didn’t recognise our seat numbers for our return flight. Given that I paid extra for these (as they are exit row seats), this was rather concerning! After a (minor) panic, I found that they’d changed the plane from an A330 to an A350 and had thankfully kept our exit row seats. The flight time had also changed to be leaving Orlando earlier (booooooo!), but I was excited to get to fly on a new aircraft.

However, Virgin had not finished changing schedules, and when I checked our booking again last weekend, we are now back on the A330 in the original seats I selected back in June! The flight timings have also been altered slightly, although in our favour this time with the outboard flight leaving ~40 mins earlier, and the return flight just under an hour later.


Theme Parks

As I mentioned previously, I had already booked Universal 3 park tickets through OAT, and was waiting to see what deals would be available on Black Friday. Luckily there were some good ones! I ended up booking 14 day WDW magic tickets (£568) as well as Discovery Cove Ultimate Swim tickets (£332), both through Attraction Tickets. I am SO excited about these - I have never been to Discovery Cove before, and J and I are both really looking forward to the experience.

I also booked some extras for Busch Gardens in their Black Friday sale. As I mentioned previously, J is not a big roller coaster fan (whereas I am a certified adrenaline junkie) so I took the opportunity to buy the Unlimited Quick Queue + Iron Gwazi for myself. I’m hoping that the queues won’t be too bad in May anyway, but given the cost ($35) I thought it was worth it to minimise the time J would have to spend on his own. I also booked us both All Day Dining Deals under the buy one, get one half price offer ($67.50 total). As we’ll most likely be there from opening through closing we would have had to buy at least one meal each anyway, so I think we’ll be able to get our moneys worth here.

Now for something J does not know about…(J if you’re reading, please stop! )

J loves sloths. When we’ve visited zoos here in the UK, he’s always said that sloths are his favourite. He also really loves animals.

I had originally planned to book Amazing Animals as a surprise but given that our schedule is absolutely jam packed as it is, I didn’t think I would be able to find time for a separate activity without missing out on something else that we want to see. So after seeing that the sloth encounter was available under a Black Friday deal, I couldn’t help myself and booked us on it ($80). I’m really looking forward to this, and hope J enjoys his surprise!

In other exciting news, I paid the WDW ticket balance yesterday and received the dispatch confirmation from AT today…so my lunch break was spent booking our WDW park reservations! It’s really starting to feel like things are coming together.


Non-Park Activities

One thing I am really keen to do on this trip is to see some things outside of the parks. On past trips with my parents, we’ve often done an overnight stay at Clearwater/St Pete’s (which was lovely!) but neither J nor I are particularly ‘beach’ people. I do, however, absolutely love manatees. When I visited Key West in 2017, we were able to see two manatees playing in the water by Mallory Square which was absolutely magical and one of my favourite memories. So we’ve decided that our overnight visit on this trip will be to Crystal River.

I am VERY aware that May is not peak manatee season, so we won’t be seeing the crowds of manatees, however I’ll be happy just to see one. I currently have the Days Inn Crystal River booked (£72), and am planning to go on a manatee snorkeling trip early morning the day after our overnight stay. I haven’t booked this yet, but am keeping an eye on my preferred company and there is still lots of availability for our date. After our snorkel, we plan to head over to Homosassa Springs State Park and see some of the ‘real’ Florida.

I’ve never been to Crystal River before, so if anyone reading this has and has any recommendations for good places to eat/things we should try and see, please let me know!

The other main non-park day that we have planned is a trip over to the space coast to visit KSC. I haven’t been here in over 15 years so I’m excited to come back here with adult eyes and explore it all! This was also something that J had said he was interested in seeing, so I wanted to make sure we found space (no pun intended!) for it on our trip plan. Seeing as we’ll be over on this coast anyway, I’m also hoping that we’ll be able to do a combined sunset/bioluminescence kayak trip.

Other bits

Our next planning milestone is to book our ADRs, the first of which is in just under two weeks! Some of the restaurants I’m hoping to get are going quickly (Homecomin’ seems extremely popular!) so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to find the reservations we want.

I am also yet to book airport parking (we may be able to get a lift to the airport) and keep flip flopping between keeping our Premier Inn booking or changing to the Hilton Garden Inn at T2/3 (I love the proximity to the terminal, but I don’t know if it’s worth the extra cost!).

Finally, our ESTAs were submitted and approved back in October (always a big relief!) so the only thing left to do in terms of entry to the USA is booking our pre-flight tests. I’m currently holding fire on that in the hopes the requirements ease, whilst also keeping one eye on availability just in case.



And that’s about it! As always, thank you so much for reading - next update to come in a few weeks with some (hopefully!) positive news on the ADR front.

Emma

[Charlangela]

Plans sounds fab! We are also newbies to Discovery Cove. What date did you decide to do there? We went with the 15th for a chilled Sunday.