Ben and Libby's Adventure to Neverland! October 2011

[oh_darling]

Warning: Just to let you know oh faithful reader, this is going to be an insanely excessive pre-trippie as I’ve been waiting a very long time to write it and I’m not holding back!

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, to the wonderful world of Ben and Libby’s Adventure to Neverland The title for this trippie was actually my DBF’s idea as in his words, “we never want to grow up!” so cute and so very true!

I was trying to wait until our countdown was at 200 but I'm just too darn excited. So, lets get going with the cast!

The Cast

First of all there is me, your author. Libby, 23 years old at the time of writing, will be 24 at the time of the holiday eeeek! Recent graduate, America-obsessed, lover of everything Disney, I am the overly pushy driving force behind this holiday

This is me, all dolled up for a burlesque night (I wish I was glam enough to wear red lipstick everyday!)



The other cast member is Ben and as there’s just the two of us I thought I’d spare you the whole DBF thing and just call him Ben as it’s easier! He is currently 22 and will be 23 at the time of the holiday as he is my toyboy Slightly less recent graduate, hesitant but growing more keen by the second convert to all things American, also loves Disney and boyish things like basketball and Xbox games.

This is him.



Ain't he cute?

We have been together 7 LOOOOOONNNGGG years just kidding, it's been lovely We are that sickening kind of couple who are also best friends and we pretty much do everything together and never get bored of each other! I love him very much

This is us!





(Apparantly we don't take photos together very often as these are clearly all from the same day...)


The Backstory

So. I’d love to launch into this pre-trippie with the story of how we booked our flights as is the norm but unfortunately for you the story actually began wayyyyyy before then

Let me take you back many, many moons ago to my youth. I was lucky enough to have very lovely parents who took me and my brother to Florida lots of times when we were younger. These holidays were the best times of my life, proven by the fact that the strongest memories of my childhood are Florida-based. And I really do have the worst memory in the world! However, from what I can remember, we always stayed in villa’s, had lovely big cars and did all the parks in decreasing amounts til the final trip, where we just did a select few. I do remember the first one, in about 94 I think, we were in a hotel on I-Drive, did every single park every single day and only paused to get McDonalds hot fudge sundaes on the way home to eat in bed Good times! I might see if I can fire up the ancient scanner on my Dad's computer and scan in some vintage photos to add interest to this section.

My last trip was when I was 16 and had just got together with Ben so was like a lovesick puppy all holiday. I can only imagine how annoying this was for my parents but that’s young love for you! Since then, a combination of me having holidays with college/uni or not being able to have time off uni means we haven’t had a family holiday since then

My parents have been back a couple of times, they don’t do the parks though, they just rent an inappropriately large villa and spend their days sunbathing (Mum) and fishing (Dad). They are actually going in May this year on their own, but to the coast, not Orlando, which I cannot comprehend but I wish them well!

So fast forward to a few years ago. Me and Ben had been together a while, we’d had a little holiday to DLP in 2007 which was ACE but I began to get withdrawal symptoms for Florida. Just little things really, like sometimes I’d buy a deodorant and it would remind me of a holiday (WEIRD I know) or I’d see a travel program about Florida and get all nostalgic. This was coupled by the fact that my obsession with America in general was getting quite frankly out of control.

I’ve always loved it, grew up reading Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club books (anyone remember these?) and this was strengthened by our trips out there. I just love it! So in 2009 while at Uni, I began innocently googling holiday prices, ignoring the fact we were both at Uni with absolutely no dollar. I had a little dog-walking business going that was making me a bit of money as I had no time for a job but seriously no where near enough money for a holiday!

One glorious day I stumbled across the Dibb. I read all the trippies and pre trippies and trip planning pages whenever I had a second to spare, posting comments where I could (hence the amount of ears even though I haven't had the holiday yet and still have over 200 days...keen or what!) Reading the trip reports became my little escape and I promised myself that now was not the time but we would go as soon as we could

Modern Day!

So fast forward to today! I graduated from Uni in July with a 2:1 in Graphic Communication (2 marks off a 1st ) returned home to live with my lovely parents and threw myself into job hunting. And, it paid off, as driving home from my graduation ceremony I got the call of a job offer! A really good job too, actually doing Graphic Design which I wasn’t expecting! Benji graduated the year before me and had got a job too, also living with his parents so had a bit of money. So, we decided that now was the time to save for the dream, and on our return we would start to think about the future and where we were going to live etc……ADULT things!

So it was decided, 2011 was the year for Florida!



Next instalment coming up!


To jump straight to each post...


Meet the Cast!
Accommodation Pt 1
The Flight Saga
Accommodation Pt 2
Present Day!
Things we are going to book soon!
Tiny Update #1
Non Related Update #1
Tiny Update #2
Libby Meets Disney Dining!
Libby Meets Disney Dining - ADR's Day!
Planning 101
Planning 101 # 2
135 Days or "How are we paying for this exactly!?!?"
135 Days or "How are we paying for this exactly!?!?" Pt 2
107 Days or "Did Pal Mickey say he'd like to go SWIMMING with DOLPHINS! ? "
107 Days or Segways, Surprises and Cameras, oh my!
DOUBLE DIGITS BABY! 95 Days to Go!
DOUBLE DIGITS BABY! 95 Days to Go! Pt 2
90 Days to Go! Bens Surprises!
58 Days to Go! Excessively long general Florida update! - We paid off the balance!
Excessively long general Florida update #2 - Cameras, weight loss and CLOTHES!
The Itinerary

[sarahewoods]

Hi Libby, Brilliant start, can i just say, I love your hair

Your excitement shows right from the start, and just know you have going to have a fun time planning away. It's great fun isn't it.
Can't wait to hear more on your plans, take care, Sarah xx

[tink3]

What a lovely story, I am looking forward to reading more. I hope that I can fill my childrens memories with trips to Florida as they grow up.

[ayles300]

Great start and congrats on the brilliant job.x

[oh_darling]

Originally Posted by sarahewoods

Hi Libby, Brilliant start, can i just say, I love your hair

Your excitement shows right from the start, and just know you have going to have a fun time planning away. It's great fun isn't it.
Can't wait to hear more on your plans, take care, Sarah xx

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Aww thank you Mrs W, queen of the pre-trippie! I am indeed having a tremendous amount of fun planning everything, need to try and tone down my excitement though as we still have a fair while! I read all of your trippie again on the train today coincidentally, such a good read

Originally Posted by tink3

What a lovely story, I am looking forward to reading more. I hope that I can fill my childrens memories with trips to Florida as they grow up.

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I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm sure you will and they will thank you when they're older that you took them although you may turn them into manic Orlando obsessives like me so watch out!

Originally Posted by ayles300

Great start and congrats on the brilliant job.x

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Aww thankyou, thats very sweet! I'm very lucky to have a job I enjoy and most importantly it is funding this trip!

[chaffey]

Can really feel your excitement through reading, looking forward to reading more, oh and what a great year to be going to Florida

[sweetemotion]

Oooo I want to read more! That's great that you got a job in graphic design so soon too, well done!

[Loftus]

Great start!

[oh_darling]

Booking 101

So once we’d decided to go to Florida in 2011, we had to start searching, planning and BOOKING! Now, this was not really a challenge for me as I’d been planning this holiday in my head for about two years so pretty much knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was just a question of the best way to do it and if we could afford it.

As this was going to be a “Once in a Lifetime” (yeah yeah yeah you’ve all heard that before! ) or at least a big blow out as we were going to knuckle down with flats and stuff afterwards, we weren’t being toooooo strict about the old budget, but then again neither of us earns huge amounts. And we both owe a tiny bit to a little company called the Student Loans Company. So the budget by no means stretches to luxury, but we are both keen to save loads so it’s just a question of if we can afford it without hugely cutting back, we’ll do it. As you will see once I get to the list of things we are planning! So in a nutshell – budget is small but we were willing to splash out

The OKW/SSR Offer

One fateful morning while browsing the Dibb I came across the stunning SSR/OKW offers and it was like a ray of light shone through the window onto the open page on my Macbook…

Well not really as it was October and probably raining but you get the idea, it was a magical moment.

For those of us who aren’t aware of the offer, basically it was on the UK Disney site, 50% off accommodation at the DVC deluxe resorts OKW or SSR with free Disney Dining I immediately got worked up and over-excited – at this point I had never even considered the possibility of staying on site, we were going to do 14 nights on I-Drive, but a split stay had always been the dream! I immediately rang Benj who thought it sounded like a grand deal but was slightly nervous that this was very early on in the planning/our careers and we hadn’t really had a chance to earn any money yet! Which was a very good point.

There was also a gaping hole in this offer – you had to book by November 1st! Which only gave us about 3 weeks. As I’m sure you can imagine, these 3 weeks were long and drawn out, full of agonising conversations about funds and overdrafts, hastily drawn up spreadsheets comparing the cost of staying at ASM/Mo without DDP against the cost of SSR with “free” DDP. According to my calculations, if we stayed at one of the value resorts and ate how I imagined we would for 6 nights, it would cost almost exactly the same to stay at SSR with DDP so I couldn’t really see how it was a deal if you get me? You may remember some frenzied posts describing our eating style (appetizers, lots of alcohol, no desserts!) and pleas of whether the DDP was right for us or too restrictive. I thought, fair enough if you were going to stay at SSR anyway then the DDP would really be free, but we would be fine with a Value resort, so it seemed like we were paying for the plan. Can you even imagine how much thought I gave this, it’s a wonder I even made it into work during this time!

I posted on here about paying with Disney and somebody kindly pointed out it would only cost £25pp to put a deposit down I think that was the clincher….about a week later, after a bottle of wine….each….we booked it! I believe Ben’s words were, “oh lets just do it” with a naughty word in the middle we decided that if in a few months time we couldn’t afford it, we’d only lose the deposit so it wasn’t a big deal. Except obviously I had no intention of cancelling anything so in my head we were as good as booked

We walked around in a bit of a daze after receiving the travel invoice from The Walt Disney World Travel Company (what a stunning email!) as we just couldn’t believe we’d booked something! Re: the DDP issues, I realised you get bread with most meals in the US so this would probably make us too full up to get appetizers. And Benj pointed out that we mainly enjoy our drinks before our dinner, not during, so this wouldn’t really be an issue. We also loved the idea of going to places we almost definitely wouldn’t if we didn’t have the DDP as we’re both too tight! So it was decided. Also, I can’t believe I was even comparing the value resorts with SSR, we loved the theming of ASM and they would have been perfect for us but the fact we got a spacious studio at SSR with a kitchenette really swung it! Although we’re on the DDP I’m envisioning relaxing mornings on the balcony eating cereal before we go to the parks – meaning we can use our snack credits on more exciting things like F&W items! So a fridge etc will be really helpful

As this section has been rather wordy, I thought I’d post some photos of SSR for anyone who hasn’t seen it. It really looks like a wonderful resort; we had the usual uming and ahing between OKW and SSR but SSR swung it for us in the end for the close proximity to DTD – we like a few drinks each evening and to be close to the rather holy sounding counter service WPE will be fabulous! Also Ben is extremely excited about DisneyQuest so that needs to be mentioned. Possibly more excited than he is about the actual parks We have had words about this.

Here are some pics of an SSR studio! Looks gorgeous, doesn't it?









How cute is this mini kitchen! Can almost see Ben preparing us coffee and cereal while I lay lazily in the bed watching American TV!

[oh_darling]

Originally Posted by chaffey

Can really feel your excitement through reading, looking forward to reading more, oh and what a great year to be going to Florida

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Hehe it is indeed! Think we will just overlap slightly on our dates! I'll keep my eyes out for you

Originally Posted by sweetemotion

Oooo I want to read more! That's great that you got a job in graphic design so soon too, well done!

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Aww thank you Just posted more, don't worry there really is an entire novel to come, I'm only on the first booking bit!

Originally Posted by Loftus

Great start!

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Thankyou Doug!