It's a Game of Cat or Mouse! - Pre-Trip

[Hitchy7]

Ok Guys here goes…. My main aim for this pre-trippie will be to give me the kick to make sure I complete my actual trip report which I failed to on our last visit to the mouse! Plus to see if any of you lovely people have anything to add or offer up we could try!

First off I’ll introduce you to the tribe

There’s me and it will be my 6th trip to the most magical place on earth



DW will be making her 5th trip



and before she kills me ... Here's a 'nicer' photo from our holiday last year!



DD11 will be on trip number 4!



DS10 (still only 9 but will be 10 before we go!) also trip number 4



DS9 (still only 8 but again will be 9 before we go!) also trip number 4



DS7 trip number 3 (I’m not counting his trip in DW’s tummy!)



And last but certainly not least DD6 (Not yet 6 but will be before we go)



I’ve upgraded the kids ages so I can try and keep some consistency from this pre-trippie to the actual trip report so it’ll only be my ramblings that confuse the matter!

Bit of the back story. We’ve been booked since May when we paid the deposit on our fly drive. We have opted for indirect flights again as we have found it works best for us. We are flying on 2nd August 2018 for 17 nights from Heathrow to Orlando International via Newark with Delta. We booked this through Florida Masters.

We had a villa at Tuscan Hills on our last trip that we found through the Dibb but sadly they were unavailable for our dates. Instead we have managed to find another villa at Tuscan Hills through homeaway.com. We like the familiarity of going back to the same place as we know the area and the roads we need when getting about.

As for tickets, well Disney 21 day is a must, after that we have managed to secure a very good deal which has allowed us to get Universal and Seaworld tickets. Last time out we followed the advice on here of staying a night at a Universal hotel to get the FOLP so we would like to do the same. We currently have 2 rooms at Royal Pacific for 1 night to try and do the same. (Again back to the same hotel so we know our bearings!)

We plan to start the holiday as we always do with Breakfast at Cape May, there will be another character meal at chef Mickeys at some stage during the holiday too! These 2 are our favourites and are a must!

DD6 is probably the most excited mainly for Big Thunder as she wasn’t big enough the last time so it is all she is going on about, we usually aim for MK on our first and last day so a FP for this is currently on the agenda when we get to that stage.

We aren’t the best at keeping secrets so we’ve never been able to have a big reveal for the kids, we are secretly planning and scheming in the background though to get 4 nights at one of the Disney hotels, it’s looking like Carribean Beach Resort but that won’t be confirmed just yet but it gives us chance to plan a reveal, ideally we would like it to be an ‘extra’ Christmas present.

I think that just about covers it up to this point only to explain the title……

We have all these plans but lots are now in doubt as one of our Kittens managed to break her leg so in the last week we have faced some very hefty vet bills. The poor little thing misjudged her jump onto the scratch tower and didn’t have enough space between her landing site to re adjust. It all started with an out of hours trip to the vet followed by x rays. They are hopeful due to her age and the fact it’s a ‘clean’ break with a stent and bandage the bone will knit back together without the need of an operation which we’ve been quoted as between 2k and 4k! We have had a re-bandage as she started to come out of the original and then less than 24 hours later another trip to the out of hours vet who again had to put the third bandage on!
Here she is looking very sorry for herself



(third time lucky this stays on!)

So unless the vet costs stop going up it will not only put paid to lots of these plans but possibly all of our tickets meaning no visit to the mouse! We’ve quite often toyed with the idea of going to Orlando and not doing Disney but having booked everything and planning to this stage it’s not good to have the feeling it’ll be snatched away but our cats are part of the family so they come first….. and worst case the mouse will have to wait a year! SO at the moment it really is touch and go as the title suggests it's cat or mouse!

Thinks that’s pretty much it for our plans to this point but hopefully I will updating with some good positive news in the next 5-6 weeks!

UPDATE

So after writing this whilst I am away working by the time I have gotten round to actually posting there have been developments. The vets have said we need another x ray 2-3 weeks after the accident which is going to be the beginning of December, but in typical fashion for us we have booked 4 nights at Art of Animation!

I am very excited for this as I basically chose this resort as I think the theming looks ace and has some very cool photo spots not in the parks, hopefully anyone who has stayed can increase my excitement by confirming how good it is!

Even better than this we now have 5 weeks to plan our first ever reveal to the kids! I have the idea of a kind of treasure hunt that they have to all find an answer or clue that won't reveal the answer until they all have their part. I also plan to theme similar to the resort so Cars, Nemo, Lion King and Little Mermaid related.

I've got the idea just need to some meat on the bone now!

Thanks for Reading guys!

[Button17]

Thanks for sharing xx

[Pussycat Doll]

Great planning, poor kitty though, hope everything goes ok.

[Goldia]

It sounds like you have an awesome trip planned. I hope your cat gets better soon.

Art of animation isn't somewhere we have stayed, but it looks great. Do you watch Tim Tracker on you tube? He did a resort tour there fairly recently that had loads of information about the resort and the pools and all the cool photo spots.

[Hitchy7]

So we have reached 59 days to go... 3 days away from our 60 day window for our days we are staying on site and 'think' we have everything now sorted apart from booking fastpasses!

Thankfully our cat has made a full recovery and there was no need for an operation on her broken leg, she has achieved VIP status in the house and is treated like a princess!

There have been a few changes to our original plans flights out of our control mean we are now flying via JFK not Newark which I am quite happy about.

Our plans for the parks leaves out LEGOLAND (which we weren't too fussed about on our last trip) but hopefully covering all the other main ones!

Hotel wise... We have our villa at Tuscan Hills, 4 nights at Art of Animation and 1 night at Royal Pacific for Universal and Islands of Adventure.

Character meals we have Cape May on our first morning as tradition for us. Sadly there will be no visit to Chef Mickey's this time
But... we have added Vine 'n' Dine for a Fantasmic dinner package and also Tusker House where we went on my 30th Birthday... um... a little while ago!

I think that brings everything up to date other than one little development... We're booked to go gain Christmas 2019!
It's with my parents for 2 weeks leaving 21st December! We have deposit paid on a villa... you'll never guess where! (yep Tuscan Hills!) Deposit on 14 day Disney ticket and Deposit on flights. Both my parents will be retired by then and it's not that long after this holiday so we'll be sticking just to Disney... maybe SeaWorld but those plans are for another time!

If you've stuck it this long thanks... I promise the trip report will be photo heavy!