The Woods Wonderful Holiday to WDW Nov 2010 Pre-Trip

[sarahewoods]

The Woods Wonderful Holiday to WDW Nov 2010 Pre-TripPart 1 – An introduction 277 days to go

Hello Dibbers, first of all, can I say that I have never done a pre-trip report before, or any other report for that matter, so you will have to bear with me. This will be our first ever family holiday abroad. We have been camping a few times, but have you ever tried to book a tent in with Virgin…. . Well I know we have along way to go to get to 3rd November 2010, I think it's something like 277 days to be accurate. We have been going, and then we haven’t and so on for just over a year. But WE are definitely going now

I am going to attemp to update this in parts, so hopefully, so you can follow our planning. Hope you stick with me and don’t get bored, so here goes, let first introduce our clan:

Me - Sarah - 35 will turn 36 during the holiday. Mother to all that follow including DH…lol I love all things Disney and have done for quiet some time now. My favourite charactor is Minnie Mouse. When my Mum and Dad visited in 2001, I so would have loved to go. I told myself back then that some day I would take my family to Florida. I hope in the process of the planning I don't turn everyone into gibbering wrecks. I so need this holiday to be perfect. Thereofore i am going to make this as special for all of us and planning every last detail so it can be.


Nick – DH - 34 ( Will be 35 when we go) He goes along with everything just for a quiet life; he is our official ‘crazy’ family member. Crazy, what does she mean? No seriously, he suffers with his health, but all is well after a dreadful 2009. He pretends that he is not excited, but I know he is… This will be his 2nd visit to DIsney, However his first was to Disneyland California. He loves roller coasters, so is hoping to ride some good ones. His favourite Character is Tigger

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Bethany – DD1 – 13 (Will be 14 when we go) She is the moody teenager that we all have, but is lovely when she is not sulking. She loves movies so will especially like Hollywood Studios and Universal. She will be turning 14 next month, her favourite is EEyore.


Brandan – DS1 – 12 is such a lovely young man. He is very sensitive and he is one of the reasons why the trip as been on and off so many times, partly because he is petrified of flying. He loves roller coasters, so he will be trying everything he can out. his favourite is Donald


Charlotte – DD2 – 6 Charlotte is our blonde bombshell. She is a lover of all things Disney and cannot wait to see Cinderella. She will be 7 when we go. Don't let those blue eyes fool you... her favourite is Daisy


Max – DS2 – 4 (Will be 5 when we go) the baby of the clan, and our little terror, he is another one of the reasons for on and offs, as we were worried about the flight and entertaining him. He loves Playhouse Disney, and wishes he were going tomorrow, his favourite is good old Mickey


Now you sort of know a bit about us, I will start. It all began about the 8th Jan 2009, when we decided to go to WDW. We decided we would go with our friends and neighbours. There were going to be us 6 and 3 of them staying in a 5 bed villa. Well it was only a matter of time until we all got cold feet on sharing, and the fact that our children were very young, and their son was 14. We all decided that it would be better if we went in 2 separate villa's.

The planning continued and then fast forward to beginning of March and Nick was taken ill. We didn’t know when he was going to come out of hospital, and everything to do with his mental health was quite bad, so we decided there and then we would cancel. He was in hospital for just over 4 weeks and when he came home at the beginning of April he was a changed man. He was on new medication that worked really well. Well in all this time, I became very miserable; I still wanted to go but knew I was been selfish so I put it to the back of my mind.

More to come...

Love Sarah

If you want to just read the posts and not the replys click on the link below, otherwise continue down each page
Part 2 here

[JamelUK]

Hey Sarah!

OMG! ANOTHER DIBBer who is going the same time as we are!
Its gonna be a bit of a party - should we phone ahead and let Mickey know?

Anyhows - great effort on your pre-trip :

Give my regards to your DH - Not yet been hospitalized for it, but have suffered the rollercoaster of Manic Depression myself on and off and I still need to check in my head from time to time.

Have a good 'un!

[kjb442]

I hope you all have a great time. Happy planning !

[sarahewoods]

Hiya, just put our pictures into it... didnt realise how to do them before.
Manic Depression or Bipolar as its better known now is what nick has, it has such a stigma attched, life is hard. Hope you continue to be well, i know how bad it can get xx

[sarahewoods]

The Woods Wonderful Holiday to WDW Nov 2010 Pre-Trip

Part 2 The Planning continues 276 days to go

Well its now end of August 2009, and all I have thought about all summer is Florida. Max and Charlotte cannot understand why the plans changed and they are always going on about it. We took the children camping during the summer holidays, and as much as we all enjoyed it, come on your joking aren’t you? I mean who wants to camp in torrential rain? There has got to be something else on the horizon.


Before we know it the children were all back at school. It was the morning of the 7th September 2009. Nick out of the blue mentioned Florida. We weighed up our options and did some calculations, could be manage it? You bet! I’m an obsessive planner, and list maker, we will…lol


We sat for 2 days checking different prices and Virgin looked like they offered a great package. Nick's dad, is retiring and as kindly offered to pay for the majority of our holiday. So off we went to see the local travel agents. I was like this hyperactive child grinning like a Cheshire cat. We/I told her what we wanted and she got us a great deal. We decided on 3 weeks, leaving 8th December 2010 for 21 nights. We were going to be staying in a superior villa. 21-day ultimate tickets, 2 park bonus Universal tickets. Car hire, and direct flights for a bargain price of £6618. We made sure it was ok to pay our deposit with Nick's dad, and paid a deposit of £450 there and then and sorted it out for another £360 to come off our debit card on the 2nd Nov 2010. We couldn’t believe it, for the next 2 weeks all we talked about Florida, everyone got an earache. Lol

Our to-do list was so long, but Christmas was fast approaching, so all we managed to get sorted between booking and mid January were the purchase of new cases and getting the Fairfx card. I got a good deal on the cases; they are bright orange so we won’t loose them, 2 sets of 3 for a bargain price of £179.99! Curtosity off my Mum's additions account. Or at least I though I’d got a bargain.


During this time we had also been notified that Nick’s Bipolar could pose problems for driving in Florida, and I don’t drive. This was fast becoming a big problem. Do we try and change our plans and get something on site? I asked Nick's dad if he would come with us, but he said it was not his scene, could we do it without him, if we changed it so we were on site?

The Dibb was fast taking over my life; I would sit for hours reading posts and trip reports, and noticed one particular post advertising something like 52% off stays at Old Key West with free dining. I sneakily checked prices and started getting excited. I half expected that with a family of 6 of us nothing would be available. I was wrong! I did my calculations and saw that we could stay in a 2-bed villa and have the FREE DDP. I checked different options and 3rd November 2010 for 14 nights was looking the best deal. It would be brilliant if we could do this has it would solve the problem of the driving. I checked Virgin’s site but it was almost £3500 more staying with them. So I bit the bullet and booked direct with Disney. We now only have the flights and Universal tickets to sort. I spoke to the travel agent and asked if we could change our package to a fly drive. She said it would not be a problem, and will save us loosing our £810 deposit. We what a surprise! Virgin wanted, wait for it, £4001 for just flights. Your having a joke I told her, nope, that’s what they wanted. ‘I’m sorry I told her there is no way I am paying that, when the total holiday only cost £6618.’ I also mentioned to her that BA prices are coming up at £2300. She tried something different by a pricing up the holiday at OKW with virgin, but because it wasn’t a new booking it would not give us the free DDP, it was coming in at £10300. I asked if we could just change the holiday to something else and she said that would be ok. So we will book something, not sure what or to where, but something so we can keep hold of the deposit.

Well I hope I am not boring you too much, writing was never my strongest point lol
I have an almighty list of things to do:

Things already sorted
Old Key West Resort
Disney 14 day ultimate tickets
Disney Dinning Plan
Things still to sort out
Flights
Passports
Esta
Holiday Insurance
Hilton (night before travel)
Magical Express – Mentioned we wanted it during order, not sure if we need to do anything else when the flights are booked.
Train to and from Airport
ADR’s 7th May can start
Prescription and medical letter

What we want to do
Day 1 – travel
Day 2 – MK
Day 3 – Epcot
Day 4 – IoA
Day 5 – DHS
Day 6 – AK
Day 7 – BB
Day 8 – US
Day 9 –
Day 10 – TL
Day 11 – AK/DHS
Day 12 – MK
Day 13 – Seaworld
Day 14 – Shopping/MVCP
Day 15 – Epcot
Day 16 – Home

Places we are hopefully going to eat

Cinderella’s Royal Table B
Le Cellier D
Liberty Inn L
Margaretville D
Hollywood and Vine B
Sci-fi Diner D
Restaurantasaurus L
Ohana D
Beaches and Cream D
Hard Rock Café D
Planet Hollywood D
Yachtsman Steakhouse D
Tusker House B
California Grill D
Whispering C

There are many QS places but we will go on what ever we fancy for most of them.

The plan for the next couple of weeks is to save and get some flights sorted, I know BA are coming out cheap, but do we trust them? I would not be able to fund the money if something happens to them. Well anyway we will save till March and then book what we can, here’s hoping to a good deal.

Thank you for reading…

More to come soon

Sarah xx

Part 3 here

[Irishrover]

Hi Sarah

Great pre-trippy- wow... you are very organised, even though you think you arent!

You have alot of time to sort everything out , so just plod on and dont wreck your head worrying about what could happen.

You have an absolutely beautiful familly, they will have a fantastic time.

I was a psychiatric nurse for many many years, and understand the uncertainty of bi polar, but as you say it can be very well controlled now and I hope everything goes well for your DH.

Happy Planning!

Bren xxx

[JamelUK]

Howdo again Sarah!

Good planning! We have flights to organise yet, so we have those headaches yet to come.

Like your list of things to eat - looks good.
If I may make a small suggestion, given your family crowd - have you thought about Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge? Im sure you'd have a ball there!

[sarahewoods]

Originally Posted by JamelUK

Howdo again Sarah!

Good planning! We have flights to organise yet, so we have those headaches yet to come.

Like your list of things to eat - looks good.
If I may make a small suggestion, given your family crowd - have you thought about Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge? Im sure you'd have a ball there!

See more...

Hi James, thank you for the suggestion on the Whispering Canyon Cafe. I am going to add it to our list. I agree, i think we will have a great time, xx

[Guest]

Great pre trippie, you will have a great time

[castanea1985]

Hi Sarah,
We also out when you are! We fly out on November 5th... bonfire night/day! LOL
Tracy xx