Double Trouble Does Disney TAKE TWO August 2018 - updated 28/7

[loola30]

Loola30’s Pre-Trip Report August 2018

Mini Index:

• Previous Trip Report - (Double Trouble Does Disney April 2016)
• Introduction, Flights & Accommodation
• ADR Bookings
• Boring bits, extra bits & really stupid bits...
• Fastpass Day!
• Universal bookings & Final Bits

Hello! Well I finally managed to complete my trip report from last time so I thought I would be a bit more dedicated this time and actually attempt to write the pre-trip as well. I’m always a little unsure about how much detail to write in a pre-trip and what people might like to know so I thought, hey ho, maybe I’ll just include it all! So here goes…

Firstly, I should probably re-introduce ourselves.
Me – Jenny, 36, chief planner AKA Admin Yasmin.
DH – Ian, 36, goes with the flow. Drives to the airport. I thank God he’s laid back
DS1 – Ben (no glasses), 6. Loves all things super-hero.
DS2 – Harry (glasses), 6. Loves all things dinosaur.

This will be my 5th trip, DH’s 4th trip and Ben & Harry’s 2nd. Our previous trip was back in April 2016 and documented in the trip report link above. We had an absolutely brilliant time so thought we would do it all again albeit with a few critical (and expensive) tweaks Last time we were off-site and term-time. This time we’re onsite and school holidays Oh and fingers crossed Harry will be able to see all the 3D stuff this time as he's had his eye op.

Before & After

Here’s what we have planned so far:

August 18th – September 2nd

Accommodation:
Last time we were there I casually suggested that we visit the Boardwalk area. DH thought it was just a little detour I was scoping out the area for our next holiday! We looked round the 3 main hotels there and I settled on either the Beach Club or the Yacht Club. After reading through numerous reviews and knowing that the only guarantee of a full balcony would be at the Yacht Club, we settled on this as our 2018 accommodation, once I'd explained it all to DH ("yeah, ok then, sounds great"). I booked on 1st April 2017, the day after free dining pre-release. We’ve opted for a garden view room in the hope that if we are sitting out on the balcony we will have a slightly better view than a car park or service area. It cost us £6,000 exactly with Disney direct (inclduing park tickets) but I went through Topcashback and got £252 back, which came through a few weeks after booking and I promptly turned into dollars. We are staying here for the first 11 nights.

We will then be staying at the Royal Pacific Resort for the last 3 nights. We had one night here last time and enjoyed it so much, we decided to extend it this time. We are yet to book this as I'm saving up my Tesco Clubcard vouchers to use at Hotels.com. Assuming the 3 nights costs about £640. I'm hoping to pay around £250 after exchanging all my vouchers. Not a bad deal We wil then need to get our 3 park explorer tickets but that can wait for the moment.

Airport hotel & parking:
As always we are staying at the Premier Inn, Gatwick North Terminal. I managed to get this hotel for a fantastic price of £36! I’d pay double that and still think it was great value, so when I saw it for this price I jumped straight on it. I’m still not sure what time we are going to be getting there as 18th August is my Mum’s 60th birthday, but either way we’ll be going to the airport hotel that night, even if it’s at 11pm after any meals out etc…

We also got a cracking deal on valet parking on Gatwick that worked out much cheaper than the sleep, park, fly package (which is what we’ve always done for our other holidays). We managed to get 16 nights of parking for £58.55 including free cancellation (which we needed to have just in case – this will become apparent when we come to the flights).

Flights:
As I may have mentioned on here previously, I’m an avid Virgin Atlantic miles collector. I don’t accumulate these through flights, simply through my normal day to day spending. Whilst I understand this means I sacrifice things like Topcashback and cash back credit cards to gain these miles, I still think it’s a cracking way to get summer holiday flights for much less than paying out cash. We fly from Gatwick and my preference is always to go direct.

Come Christmas 2017 the flights had been live for about 3 months but the prices were frankly ridiculous. At one stage they were asking over 4k for the 4 of us to fly economy. Now I like the product that Virgin offer and I think they are great for kids with a good reward system, however, I do not think economy flights are worth that. So I waited. One day in January I was playing about with the website, as you do, and up popped 4 Upper Class reward flights direct to Orlando! At this stage I had 500k of miles saved up. The only downside was the only option for return was to come back premium economy indirect, via Boston and landing into Heathrow. This would mean needing a taxi, faffing about with car seats and the pain of indirect. In the end we decided it would be worth it to have the Upper Class flights going out and that I would just keep looking for direct flights coming back so that we could land in to Gatwick and take our own car / car seats. The price for these flights was 390k of miles and around £450pp in taxes. We even got the 4 front nose seats Whilst I was chuffed to be flying Upper, particularly on the 747-400, I still wanted to find direct flights back

Finally at the start of March there was suddenly a flurry of direct reward flights that popped up for MCO-LGW. Thank goodness I was at home at the time as they were there in the morning but not in the afternoon! We booked economy reward flights back, paid to reserve two pairs of two at the back of the aircraft and got 70k of miles and £350 refunded to boot. Sorted

Next Update - ADR Date

[Eccle]

It sounds a brilliant trip you have planned, and amazing on the upper class flights, I thought they were almost impossible to get in school holidays!

I'm just starting to plan for august 2019 and looking at Beach or Yacht Club and some nights at RPR as well, plus some time in a villa, so I will be interested to read your trip report! I had never visited the Boardwalk area until our last trip and loved it, we haven't done onsite before

[loola30]

Originally Posted by Eccle

It sounds a brilliant trip you have planned, and amazing on the upper class flights, I thought they were almost impossible to get in school holidays!

I'm just starting to plan for august 2019 and looking at Beach or Yacht Club and some nights at RPR as well, plus some time in a villa, so I will be interested to read your trip report! I had never visited the Boardwalk area until our last trip and loved it, we haven't done onsite before

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Thanks! We can't wait.

You're right - I thought they were impossible too! So much so that I sat with the upper reward flights available in front of me for a good few minutes before I realised they were for 4 people for our dates - what a stroke of luck! To be fair to Virgin I've seen a few different options for our dates including premium and economy rewards. I am on and off the website and app a lot though. Everytime I check my emails or ebay store sales I also check VA too

[loola30]

ADR Date - February 20th 2018

As with anything on this trip, I went about picking our park days and days for our TS meals in a very methodical fashion! Firstly, we sorted out where we wanted to eat and then, when the DIBB park hours were released, tried to slot them into times we were planning in those parks. We also took into account EMH that we wanted to do and recommended park days. I also cross-referenced this with a couple of other crowd calendars and made sure they were all vaguely in agreement. Prior to ADR date I tried to book ADRs for all my chosen restaurants for the next couple of days, just to see how easy or difficult it was to get the booking I wanted (told you it was a bit methodical ). I was then able to produce a final list, put them in order of popularity and create an order in which to book the ADRs when my window opened at 11am on Feb 20th.

So bear in mind I leave for work at 11.15am, which meant I had 15 minutes to book 11 reservations….

• 11.00am the window opens.
• 11.14am done.

Every reservation, at every time I wanted. Is there a more satisfying inbox than this one?

So our rough plan is taking shape as follows:

Sunday 19th August
Fly out. Magical Express. Grab a couple of snack items from the marketplace. Crash out

Monday 20th August
Animal Kingdom 8.00am – 11.30am

Tusker House Character Breakfast 9.30am

After character breakfast at Tusker and then a couple of fast pass rides, we’re aiming to leave the park early and go and explore Stormalong Bay, perhaps hire a Surrey bike and have QS lunch / dinner before another early night. My previous trip report has come in really handy to take a look back at our sleep / waking times over the first few days to plan accordingly.

Tuesday 21st August
Disney Springs morning
Hollywood Studios 1.00pm – 5.00pm

T-Rex Café 11.15am

We’ll get the bus over to Disney Springs to collect our $200 gift card and then have an early lunch at T-Rex. This is the restaurant that stood out for Harry last time. The food is ok and it’s very, very noisy in there (particularly seated in the ice cave) but he is dinosaur mad so we’d be crazy to not do this one again. We’ll then head over to HS to do a couple of fastpasses and a show or two before having a QS dinner. We’ll probably eat at the ABC Commissary as Ben loves the look of the ribs there!

Wednesday 22nd August
Epcot 9.00am – 6.30pm
We’ll spend most of today in Epcot and probably have a QS for lunch (recommendations for where are gladly welcomed). The idea is to grab a breakfast snack in the YC marketplace most mornings and then have our QS credit and TS credit for our two main meals. Today we’ve chosen Coral Reef for our dinner. This was my first ever Disney restaurant when I was 11. At the time it was a character breakfast and Mickey Mouse was in the tank in scuba gear! I don’t think that happens any more but this restaurant brings back wonderful memories and the boys will love the aquarium.

Coral Reef 5.30pm

Thursday 23rd August
Epcot 8.00am – 9.30am/ MK 3.00pm – 6.00pm
We’re having a split day today. We’ll hit Epcot for the EMH then come back to the pool for a couple of hours. Being able to walk / boat back from two of the parks so easily was also a massive draw of the Epcot resort hotels. We’ll then head out again for a QS at Capt’ Cook’s at the Poly (ssssshhhh, don’t tell DH I’m having a look round the Poly…), and then head to MK to use our 3 fast passes. We’ve then got a TS booked at Ale & Compass. I’m yet to read any reviews of this apart from Tim Tracker saying the food made him sick so, erm, well I’m a little unsure on this one to say the least. It won’t be far to travel back to our room anyway!

Ale & Compass 7.30pm

Friday 24th August
MK 8.00am – 11.00am / HS 3.00pm – 9.00pm
The plan today is to do EMH at MK then find somewhere to have a bit of a ‘brunch’. I’m wondering about Gaston’s Tavern now that they have some nice looking sandwiches - still thinking on this though. We had ummed and ahhhed about our fastpasses in HS but the change of tiers made us think that booking a Fantasmic dining package might be the best bet. Then it would free up a tier one for Toystory Land and also give us the same great seating that we had last time as Fantasmic is one of our favourites! Considering Hollywood and Vine was our worst (and most expensive) meal last time, we opted for Mama Melrose. However, we could only get a 3pm reservation so we’ll have a bit of an odd day with our meal times today. I’m sure we’ll manage though!

Mama Melrose 3.00pm

Saturday 25th August
We’re planning on having a day off from the parks today to just laze about in Stormalong back and have snacks / QS whenever the mood takes us. We have got a reservation at Beaches and Cream though as the boys are desperate to try the kitchen sink. We went last time for ice cream only and they were fascinated with the whole flashing lights / “a whole can?!?” jazz surrounding the kitchen sink that they want a piece of the action. They are also genuinely convinced they can finish it between the two of them I’ll be sure to post pictures of how they do…

Beaches & Cream 1.40pm

Sunday 26th August
HS 8.00am – 1.00pm / AK 3.30pm – 7.30pm
Another higgledy piggledy day today We’ll be straight over to HS for the EMH and then we have an early lunch planned at the Sci-Fi diner. This is a bit of a Marmite restaurant and people seem to love it or hate it. I love the theme of it, I love sitting in a car, I love the burgers, I love the milkshakes, the boys loved eating and watching Tom & Jerry – think we are fans!

Sci-Fi Diner 11.00am

Once we’re finished with our early lunch we’ll be back to the hotel for a couple of hours of chilling out before heading over to Animal Kingdom. Our aim is to fastpass Flight of Passage and Dinosaur back to back with 3-4 and 4-5 fastpass slots. Then, at around 4.30, head to AKL for a 5pm reservation at Sanaa (hopefully in a window seat!). At around 7pm we’ll hop on the bus back to AK to do the safari in a fastpass slot, just as it’s cooling down. Who knows what will happen on fastpass day though!

Sanaa 5.00pm

Monday 27th August
MK 3.00pm – 9.30pm
We’ll be going to Wilderness Lodge today for a lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café. I’m not into all the hijinks and silliness that this restaurant offers but DH and the boys would LOVE it. So I’ll suck up my dignity and get involved haha! Maybe I’ll ask for ketchup just to show willing….

Whispering Canyon Café 11.45am

Then we’ll catch the boat over to MK at about 2.30ish to do some fastpasses before our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest. This was another one that I deliberated over with it now being two TS credits, but at the end of the day, when all is said and done, and I thought about it very carefully, I just want to meet the Beast!

Be Our Guest 6.30pm

We’ll stay in the park after this and hopefully head up to the train station platform to see Happily Ever After. I’m wondering though if this will be close enough with all the new projections? I do hate being squashed in crowds though, particularly with the boys in tow

Tuesday 28th August
MK 10.00am – 4.00pm
We’ve decided to spend the day at MK again today as we never got to do everything last time we were here. As this is a party day and closing at 6, most of the crowd calendars have this as a low crowd day. Perfect to hit a lot of the rides then! We’ll grab QS in the park as we are eating at the Yachtsman tonight – probably one of the meals I am anticipating the most!

Yachtsman 6.30pm

Wednesday 29th August
I’ve left today a bit up in the air really. We’ll have used all our TS credits so it will be a QS day, meaning we are not tied to any particular park at any particular time. I don’t want to have a late night as we’ll be leaving early for Universal the next morning so maybe, for ease, we’ll spend the day in Epcot and the boys can have a proper mooch around the Innoventions pavilion as they really enjoyed it last time

Thursday 30th August – Sunday 2nd September
These are the days we’ll be at Universal. I know that I want to try the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium restaurant but I believe you can’t make advanced reservations. DH has also noticed that the Cheesecake Factory is at the Mall at Milennia, so I imagine we’ll be popping in an Uber across there one evening too.

Toothsome Chocolate Emporium

That is the extent of our Universal eating plans. Sometimes I do think Universal is so much easier… But then I know I’d miss all the planning!

So that’s the plan so far. It seems like a lot of food on paper so I can’t imagine how much it will be on the plates!

Next Update - Boring bits, extra bits, stupid bits

[GALE88]

Sounds like you have an amazing holiday planned, I hope you all have a great time!

For QS in Epcot we had probably one of the best QS meals of our holiday last year in Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. If you like hummus, cous cous, flatbread etc it's really good. My kids went for plain burgers (they're unadventurous!) and said they were the nicest burgers of the holiday.

[loola30]

Originally Posted by GALE88

Sounds like you have an amazing holiday planned, I hope you all have a great time!

For QS in Epcot we had probably one of the best QS meals of our holiday last year in Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. If you like hummus, cous cous, flatbread etc it's really good. My kids went for plain burgers (they're unadventurous!) and said they were the nicest burgers of the holiday.

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Ooh thank you! I'm off to have a look at the menu

[JanetteP]

Your plans are great - would love to stay at the Yacht Club, I will be checking it out when we go to the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Have a great trip - and well done with those flights.

[loola30]

Originally Posted by JanetteParker

Your plans are great - would love to stay at the Yacht Club, I will be checking it out when we go to the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Have a great trip - and well done with those flights.

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Oh fantastic - please share a review of it once you've been! I do like food pictures

[Eccle]

Your dining reservations sound great, there's a few of those I hope to try.

On HEA, things could change by August, but we watched from the enclosed area in front of Casey's Corner, really good view and everyone stayed seated so no crush of crowds. I think part of it is being used for club guests now, but if you can get in there I would recommend it

[chazb]

Fab pre trip report. We loved tangerine cafe st Epcot for our qs in 2016 and I’m trying to fit in this time too. So lucky your flying upper class. Have a wonderful trip x