Grown Up Schmown Up II: Fully Loaded - The Unadulterated Fun Continues

[lottie89]

*THIS TRIP HAS BEEN CANCELLED - but feel free to read for inspiration!*

Welcome to the pre-trippy for our second 'once-in-a-lifetime' trip to Florida.

I'll put a little index here because if my last one is anything to go by, there will be quite a few updates over the next year!

Part 1. The cast, the decisions, and the first booking!
Part 2. One year to go
Part 3. New job - dreaming of the high life
Part 4. Making the high life a reality
Part 5. Another new job!
Part 6. Teeny tiny little update

Part 7. I know what we're going to do today!
Part 7a. Day 0
Part 7b. Day 1
Part 7c. Day 2
Part 7d. Day 3
Part 7e. Day 4
Part 7f. Day 5
Part 7g. Day 6
Part 7h. Day 7
Part 7i. Day 8
Part 7j. Day 9
Part 7k. Day 10
Part 7l. Day 11
Part 7m. Day 12
Part 7n. Day 13
Part 7o. Day 14
Part 7p. Day 15
Part 7q. Day 16
Part 7r. Day 17
Part 7s. Day 18
Part 7t. Day 19
Part 7u. Day 20
Part 7v. Day 21
Part 7w. Day 22

Part 8. Disney tickets and cruise paid off!
Part 9. 299 days to go and first hotel booking
Part 10. Grand Flo, here we come!

[lottie89]

Here we go again! - 396 days to go

Does anybody really ever go once?!

We'll start with the cast and then I will let you know where we're up to with trip number two!

Meet the cast


Lottie, currently 24 but will be 25 when we go. Chief planner, Disney/America/food obsessed, thrillseeker, cocktail-lover. Fourth trip, second as a 'grown up'. Web Trading Analyst at Cath Kidston.


Ed, currently 26 but will be 27 when we go. Used to not be interested in planning but has got more into it since the first trip. Also Disney/America/food obsessed, thrillseeker, cocktail-lover (can you see why we get on so well?). Third trip, second as a 'grown up'. Manages restricted funding at Greenwich & Bexley Hospice.


Thumper, currently 3 but will be 4 when we go. Purchased in DLP in December 2010 and has been around the world with me and to Florida with us in 2013. Loves holidays and playing with our kitten.

So that's us!

Deciding to go

Our first trip together in May 2013 was better than we could have ever imagined, and we knew that we had no option but to go back. We decided to leave it two years to give us enough time to save and enough time to miss it!

Before we went we thought our first trip was going to be a once in a lifetime deluxe blowout, and while we knew the second trip was going to happen, we assumed it would be a 2 week, one location value or moderate resort trip. Our first trip was supposed to be the only super duper fancy one.

How wrong we were.

We started thinking about booking trip 2 in late 2013, when Disney released their cruise prices. At this point we abandoned all hope of attempting a more subdued holiday and just decided to go all out again. The cruise last time was so incredible that we felt we couldn't go back without doing it. We realised that with some careful saving and wise spending, we'd actually be able to manage an equally extravagant trip for around two thirds of the price of our first.

We'd learnt so much from our last trip that we decided to set ourselves the challenge of taking trip 1, refining it, making it better, getting it for less money, and creating trip 2: fully loaded.

Lessons learned and plans for next time

So first things first - the lessons we learned on our first trip, and what we're going to change about this trip to ensure that it really is fully loaded:

1) Crowd levels and chance of rain increases as you get later in May - we are going about 10 days earlier this time, Friday 17th April - Friday 8th May. The weather will still be dry and hot and we will miss any American spring break crowds as Easter is on 5th April in 2015. Most UK schools go back on 20th April, so they will all be leaving as we arrive.

2) Three weeks is the bomb - so we're doing it again!

3) Getting back on a Monday morning and going back to work on Tuesday is horrendous - this time we are going Friday to Friday, so we will get back on the Saturday morning giving us the whole weekend to recover and unpack.

4) Plan the trip over a bank holiday to get a free day of annual leave - no brainer, same again. Using 15 days of leave for 16 workdays.

5) Changing your holiday time and time again once you've booked it is a pain - we're going to decide for sure on our plans before we book, and stick to them! The only changes we will be allowed to make are upgrades (flights, rooms etc) if we manage to save more money than we'd hoped.

6) We love table service restaurants, but the Dining Plan doesn't fit with our eating habits - instead we're purchasing an Annual Pass so we can get Tables in Wonderland. That way we can eat what we fancy and get 20% off the whole bill, including cocktails! I've done the maths and at the very least we will break even on the pass, food and merchandise, but it looks like we will probably save around £200 - £400. Plus the psychological effect of having 20% off food and drink will be great.

7) Virgin Holidays are overpriced and pretty incompetent - we will be going DIY this time, with a smidgen of American travel agent thrown in. Booking the cruise with Travel on a Dream means we pay the same as booking with Disney, but we also get $50 on board spending money, and they will apply any discounts to our booking that Disney may release before we travel. No brainer.

8) The days we were hotel hopping went slower than the two weeks we spent in one hotel - this holiday will be split into four small/medium sized chunks rather than a selection of tiny chunks and one massive one.

9) We LOVE the Wilderness Lodge - so we're going back.

10) We also loved the look of many other deluxe resorts - so we're going to try something new too, hopefully the Beach Club or Yacht Club.

11) We do not want to pay rack rate for deluxe hotel rooms - for a while we were set on renting DVC points, but we much prefer the look and location of the main hotel accommodation (especially at the Beach Club), and as we eat no more than cereal in the room, the kitchenette is kind of redundant. As we aren't hoping for free DDP, we will be holding out for a room only discount instead. According to mousesavers this could be up to 40% with our Annual Pass discount, if we're patient enough, which leads me to my next point...

12) As nice as it is to have things booked, it's not always best to book early - a lot of the really good room discounts are geared towards American visitors, so aren't released until 3 or 4 months before travel. We're going to have to be be patient and keep checking, or pay a deposit to our American TA and she will add the discounts as they happen.

13) We liked flying direct - so will be doing this again, aiming for flights under £600pp.

14) We want a bit more downtime - so will not be visiting Busch this time and will make more of an effort to utilise the fab hotel pools.

15) We loved the Hard Rock Hotel and Universal Express passes - so we'll be going back, this time for an extra night!

16) The cruise was incredible - so we're going for 4 nights instead of 3. We will be staying in a deluxe inside cabin, as we only really sleep in the cabin anyway. The balcony was an awesome free extra last time but as we're trying to be reasonably thrifty, it's an extra we can't justify.

17) I-Drive was fun, but being onsite was better - so we won't be staying there at all this time, but might visit one day and tie it in with Seaworld (potentially our last ever visit, we just want to say goodbye to it), and a meal at Bahama Breeze, which we loved.

18) Quidco is awesome - anything we can book through this site, we will.

So there we have it!

And with all of the above in mind, this is how far we've got...

The ideal itinerary

Fri 17th - Fri 24th April: 7 nights Wilderness Lodge
Fri 24th - Mon 27th April: 3 nights Hard Rock Hotel
Mon 27th April - Fri 1st May: 4 nights Disney Dream
Fri 1st - Fri 8th May: 7 nights Beach Club or Yacht Club

What we've booked

Just the cruise so far! We booked this on January 19th 2014 with Erin at Travel on a Dream. The total cost of the cruise is $1533.52, booked by Erin through Disney so identical cost as booking direct, the only difference being we will have $50 of onboard credit, so that's 5 cocktails paid for!

In pounds this roughly works out to be £920. That's £115 pppn, which considering it includes unlimited food and soft drinks, a beautiful cabin, amazing service and all shows and films, is actually pretty good value. It's pretty much worth it just to go back to Castaway Cay!

This is a Deluxe Inside Stateroom - I'm really looking forward to the magical porthole!



So there you have it guys, as you can see, a lot more thought has gone into trip 2 vs. trip 1!

Now let's see if I stick to my rule and keep the plans the same!

[christybell]

woo hoo... another trip to follow, sounding great looking forward to your updates

[MissFortune]

Love it! Sounds like a great plan.

Very wise to sit down and work out the "not so greats" from last time and improve.

Looking forward to reading more updates.

[Guest]

How exciting!

Love how all the things you learned from your last trip are making the next even better! Your plans seem literally amazing!

Apparently this is our 'once in a lifetime' trip too - we'll see if that's still the case after we've been

Can't wait for more plans!

[princessjilly]

Excellent plans so far

[collybird]

Oh my gosh, this all sounds so amazing!

We are planning for May 2015 too, probably only for a week as we're taking my mum and that's enough!

[lovedisney89]

Great start! I loved your last trip report, looking forward to hearing more of your plans for this one

[Pink-princess22]

Oooh I love the fact that thumper is coming on your holiday too!

We are planning our first time and we are going friday-friday so I am so pleased it's something you have decided works best... so it means I've done something right!

Will enjoy reading your progress!

[lauz]

Great plans so far. I am still reading/ watching my way through your previous trip report, it's a really great read!