Updated * Just keep swimming - 2018 here we come again!

Tessiebear · 12 May 18, 10:54 PM

Ok so this is my first pre-trip report, I’m a regular follower of all the wonderful indexes on here and as someone that likes to talk I thought I’d give it a go!

Cast - so there’s me Teresa, 46 affectionately (apparently) named Dory by my hubby due to my awful memory. I am the planner, colour co-ordinated and hyperlinked organiser, list maker, list of list maker (basically confirmed OCD with anything organising) and a somewhat Disney mad mum, with this being my 6th visit. Then theres my sidekick (hubby) Barrie aka “grumpy”, Scottish, 45, on his 5th visit, Barrie has an unhealthy attraction to hand sanitiser and is known amongst friends as Mr health and safety, he will know every statistic of airplane crashes which he’ll regale during the flight every time we go away and then once arrived will proceed to highlight every risk with any ride especially those that go fast or go upside down, but ET doesn’t get to escape unscathed either! Honestly he appears funny to most of our friends and family but me and the boy tend to disown him at times like this. Then there’s the main man, my boy Callum (C) this will be his 4th visit (last time for us all was 2016) and he is the reason we are back this year as he’s just turned 18 and last year threw in the old chestnut “well it’s my 18th next year I can’t not do Disney in my special year” so here we go again (not that I needed asking twice so was a handy excuse). C will just have finished his A level exams before we go so will be ready to chill! Me and C go on absolutely everything, real thrill seekers, grumpy not so much although he absolutely loves Disney and universal as much as the next person. Me and C even rode Rip ride rocket on our last visit just as a storm came in despite grumpy advising us he was monitoring a storm on his app (this was nothing unusual as he done it everyday even with nothing forecast and warned us of unnecessary risks of storms) so we ignored him and joined the queue anyway partly in the rain and then as we took off only for lightening strikes lighting up the sky causing the ride to be closed down for the night as we finished on it, the ride was amazing, and C apparently chose “I will Survive” as his song to play (pretty apt,) although somewhat wet and scary Mary with the lightening but we got a real buzz as we got off, grumpy on the other hand was far from relaxed as we skipped back to him after. Also the Scottish accent it appears is not always understood in Florida and ET ride likes to call him Barnie every time we ride, even when he virtually spells it out on check in, and Starbucks called him Bobby and last time even Barbie (he stil hasn’t lived that one down yet!). We love everything Disney/universal and plan to do everything in our two weeks we can physically squeeze in! Adding to the excitement, this visit we also have good friends and Disney/Florida virgins coming with us. Sarah, 52, who talks the hind legs of a donkey and with no exaggeration, if she has not spoken to absolutely everyone else in that plane by the time we land and at least invited two other families to meet for drinks/dinner at some point during our stay she must be ill! Sarah is extremely excited for the holiday, and can’t wait to be immersed in the whole Disney bubble. Then there’s her hubby Mikey, 53, who is also our lead driver whilst out there, Mikey is the total opposite to Sarah, with a very dry sense of humour, who hates Sarah talking full stop but especially to strangers. Mikey has not yet been disneyfied and is keen to do other stuff apart from theme parks, which hopefully we have factored in, and then there’s their son Nathan, 18, who has been friends with Callum since primary school. Nathan wants to work in film as a career, is a total film buff and an incredible artist, especially with marvel characters, and he is up to do everything but especially Universal and IOA and wants to catch a film at city walk. And finally there’s daughter Bea 10! This is where my extra excitement kicks in as I’ve never done Disney with a little girl and so since we booked over a year ago we always sing/dance a little mickey song whenever we meet (which is often) and have been doing the daily countdown every day since we booked! Bea has never done a coaster before, but thinks she wants to do them all so will see how we go. We have had a couple of planning meetings to date as a sevensome, and we all got the opportunity to request our top wants, grumpy was Epcot and gun club, C was Busch Gardens, Sarah was Discovery Cove, Mikey was a beach, outlet shopping and hooters!, Nathan was cinema at city walk and Universal/IOA, Bea was anything princessy and me was enough time in Animal Kingdom which is my fave. I seem to have secured all the wants into our itinerary so far and we have purchased 14 day ultimate Disney and Universal 3 park tickets as well as discovery cove swim for us all and a booking for bibbety bobbety boo secured for Bea and the gun club reservation for the four boys. We all got the free dining QS plan on booking, but have recently upgraded just Sarah’s room to DDP which we have shared the cost of pp, this enables us to have 8 table service credits each. We have ADRs secured at BOG for a qs breakfast and lunch on separate visits, tuskers character breakfast, rainforest cafe, T Rex, Sci Fi Diner, The Boathouse and Le Cellier, and are just waiting for our 60 day fast pass window to open to get that aspect sorted. We fly in July and are traveling with virgin, with our outward seats already reserved. Now whilst seasoned disneyers who always try to fit absolutely everything we can in where possible, we are aware that heat, jet lag, sleep and various other impacts may effect some of us at times and not others, so the idea is we have a packed itinerary in place for each day, especially to assist best use of time and fp allocation bookings etc but some/all of us can dip in/out as we choose with no problem as required if we are flagging/need mid day rest etc. So that’s us, ready and waiting for the single digit dance!

Tessiebear · 27 May 18, 08:08 AM

Quick update- so had the best week ever, firstly when we part upgraded to DDP last month we were unable to secure a BOG dinner reservation as all were booked, so I’ve been checking each week for any cancellations knowing a table for 7 was unlikely but low and behold one became available and if that wasn’t enough pixie dust it is for the last night this restaurant is a one table service credit before Upgrading to a two, super happy, will finally meet the beast 😬. Then I noted my tuskers breakfast reservation date was now available with the ROL package so a quick amendment there and we were sorted. Finally yesterday was FP booking day and whilst it took me all afternoon to secure and then amend timings to suit our plans each day we managed to secure everything we wanted for every park including 2 sets of FOP (one day flight and one night so we can enjoy pandora at its best). Super excited now, just a couple of small bits to organise and we are ready, woohoo!

12 May 18, 10:54 PM	#1
	12 May 18, 10:54 PM Tessiebear Getting to know the DIBB
Tessiebear Getting to know the DIBB Join Date: Apr 18	*Updated Just keep swimming - 2018 here we come again!** Ok so this is my first pre-trip report, I’m a regular follower of all the wonderful indexes on here and as someone that likes to talk I thought I’d give it a go! Cast - so there’s me Teresa, 46 affectionately (apparently) named Dory by my hubby due to my awful memory. I am the planner, colour co-ordinated and hyperlinked organiser, list maker, list of list maker (basically confirmed OCD with anything organising) and a somewhat Disney mad mum, with this being my 6th visit. Then theres my sidekick (hubby) Barrie aka “grumpy”, Scottish, 45, on his 5th visit, Barrie has an unhealthy attraction to hand sanitiser and is known amongst friends as Mr health and safety, he will know every statistic of airplane crashes which he’ll regale during the flight every time we go away and then once arrived will proceed to highlight every risk with any ride especially those that go fast or go upside down, but ET doesn’t get to escape unscathed either! Honestly he appears funny to most of our friends and family but me and the boy tend to disown him at times like this. Then there’s the main man, my boy Callum (C) this will be his 4th visit (last time for us all was 2016) and he is the reason we are back this year as he’s just turned 18 and last year threw in the old chestnut “well it’s my 18th next year I can’t not do Disney in my special year” so here we go again (not that I needed asking twice so was a handy excuse). C will just have finished his A level exams before we go so will be ready to chill! Me and C go on absolutely everything, real thrill seekers, grumpy not so much although he absolutely loves Disney and universal as much as the next person. Me and C even rode Rip ride rocket on our last visit just as a storm came in despite grumpy advising us he was monitoring a storm on his app (this was nothing unusual as he done it everyday even with nothing forecast and warned us of unnecessary risks of storms) so we ignored him and joined the queue anyway partly in the rain and then as we took off only for lightening strikes lighting up the sky causing the ride to be closed down for the night as we finished on it, the ride was amazing, and C apparently chose “I will Survive” as his song to play (pretty apt,) although somewhat wet and scary Mary with the lightening but we got a real buzz as we got off, grumpy on the other hand was far from relaxed as we skipped back to him after. Also the Scottish accent it appears is not always understood in Florida and ET ride likes to call him Barnie every time we ride, even when he virtually spells it out on check in, and Starbucks called him Bobby and last time even Barbie (he stil hasn’t lived that one down yet!). We love everything Disney/universal and plan to do everything in our two weeks we can physically squeeze in! Adding to the excitement, this visit we also have good friends and Disney/Florida virgins coming with us. Sarah, 52, who talks the hind legs of a donkey and with no exaggeration, if she has not spoken to absolutely everyone else in that plane by the time we land and at least invited two other families to meet for drinks/dinner at some point during our stay she must be ill! Sarah is extremely excited for the holiday, and can’t wait to be immersed in the whole Disney bubble. Then there’s her hubby Mikey, 53, who is also our lead driver whilst out there, Mikey is the total opposite to Sarah, with a very dry sense of humour, who hates Sarah talking full stop but especially to strangers. Mikey has not yet been disneyfied and is keen to do other stuff apart from theme parks, which hopefully we have factored in, and then there’s their son Nathan, 18, who has been friends with Callum since primary school. Nathan wants to work in film as a career, is a total film buff and an incredible artist, especially with marvel characters, and he is up to do everything but especially Universal and IOA and wants to catch a film at city walk. And finally there’s daughter Bea 10! This is where my extra excitement kicks in as I’ve never done Disney with a little girl and so since we booked over a year ago we always sing/dance a little mickey song whenever we meet (which is often) and have been doing the daily countdown every day since we booked! Bea has never done a coaster before, but thinks she wants to do them all so will see how we go. We have had a couple of planning meetings to date as a sevensome, and we all got the opportunity to request our top wants, grumpy was Epcot and gun club, C was Busch Gardens, Sarah was Discovery Cove, Mikey was a beach, outlet shopping and hooters!, Nathan was cinema at city walk and Universal/IOA, Bea was anything princessy and me was enough time in Animal Kingdom which is my fave. I seem to have secured all the wants into our itinerary so far and we have purchased 14 day ultimate Disney and Universal 3 park tickets as well as discovery cove swim for us all and a booking for bibbety bobbety boo secured for Bea and the gun club reservation for the four boys. We all got the free dining QS plan on booking, but have recently upgraded just Sarah’s room to DDP which we have shared the cost of pp, this enables us to have 8 table service credits each. We have ADRs secured at BOG for a qs breakfast and lunch on separate visits, tuskers character breakfast, rainforest cafe, T Rex, Sci Fi Diner, The Boathouse and Le Cellier, and are just waiting for our 60 day fast pass window to open to get that aspect sorted. We fly in July and are traveling with virgin, with our outward seats already reserved. Now whilst seasoned disneyers who always try to fit absolutely everything we can in where possible, we are aware that heat, jet lag, sleep and various other impacts may effect some of us at times and not others, so the idea is we have a packed itinerary in place for each day, especially to assist best use of time and fp allocation bookings etc but some/all of us can dip in/out as we choose with no problem as required if we are flagging/need mid day rest etc. So that’s us, ready and waiting for the single digit dance! Edited at 08:09 AM. Reason: Updated

27 May 18, 08:08 AM	#2
	27 May 18, 08:08 AM Tessiebear Getting to know the DIBB Thread Starter
Tessiebear Thread Starter Getting to know the DIBB Join Date: Apr 18	Quick update- so had the best week ever, firstly when we part upgraded to DDP last month we were unable to secure a BOG dinner reservation as all were booked, so I’ve been checking each week for any cancellations knowing a table for 7 was unlikely but low and behold one became available and if that wasn’t enough pixie dust it is for the last night this restaurant is a one table service credit before Upgrading to a two, super happy, will finally meet the beast 😬. Then I noted my tuskers breakfast reservation date was now available with the ROL package so a quick amendment there and we were sorted. Finally yesterday was FP booking day and whilst it took me all afternoon to secure and then amend timings to suit our plans each day we managed to secure everything we wanted for every park including 2 sets of FOP (one day flight and one night so we can enjoy pandora at its best). Super excited now, just a couple of small bits to organise and we are ready, woohoo! Edited at 08:09 AM.