Flight Roulette Pre Trip Report 2014

[wizzo]

The cast of characters for 2014’s effort are as follows….

Paul (wizzo) - Peacekeeper, author and bearer of the wallet. (notice we’re still not doing ages!)
Lynn (Lomaddy) - Shopper, cocktail drinker and long suffering wife (she made me write that last bit).
Lauren 10 (Ripriderocket) – Still a swimmer, 1D fan (god help us all), Minecraft fanatic.
Maddy 7 (Maddymouse) – Still the smallest, still pulling funny faces and also Minecraft fanatic.

Follow this trip as it happens on Twitter @tweetwizzo


I promise we don’t look this “special” in real life!

If you’re new to my trip reports, then welcome. If you’ve read the rest and are a sucker for punishment, welcome back. Normally at this point in a Pre Trip Report I wax lyrical about having this trip booked milliseconds after returning from the last one. As some of you will be aware, that was never going to be the case this time. We went to Florida twice in 2012 knowing that 2013 would be moving year, and indeed it was. In May last year we moved about half a mile from our previous house and a couple of rungs up the property ladder.

It was a big move for us and meant Disney money was spent in a more grown up manner. It’s been a busy time over the last year and if I’m honest, part of me was glad for a little break from ‘the magic’. I’m not saying we were fed up, far from it but I just ‘wanted to want it’ again, if that makes any sense? Lynn won’t agree with that last statement and that’s not a bad thing. We had been 8 times to Florida in 5 years but we’ve had a year off and are REALLY chomping at the bit to get back now!

If you’ve read my reports in the past you’ll know to expect an esoteric mix of schoolboy humour, Victor Meldrew style moaning and (I hope) colourful renditions of the bizarre things that happen to us on the other side of the pond. If you haven’t read my previous trip reports they’re all HERE.

I must warn you that I don’t hold back. No stone is left unturned. No toilet incident left unwritten! I have no qualms in telling you that my sense of humour is childish at best, bum clenchingly near the knuckle at worst. I’m the kind of person that can’t hear the mention of the wine producing grape ‘Semillon’ without sniggering and “I’ve got a cheeky little Semillon Chardonnay” just sounds like a line from TOWIE to me!

You get the picture. Squeaky clean Disney fun this won’t be. A warts and all tale of Florida, fun, frolics and ≈≈≈≈ ups it more than likely will be!

Enough with the preamble and on with the details. We’ve got accommodation booked already. Our opening 7 nights will be in Saratoga Springs (flying out on the 9th August). This 7 night stay is accompanied by the free dining plan of course (I’m too tight to pay Disney Hotel rates without dining for free).

See updates below, this is now an 8 day Disney stay and it's at the Yacht Club!

We’ve dined around the world a lot in recent years and for us, a weeks’ worth will be quite enough. ADRs have been made at Chef Mickeys, Cape May Café, Tutto Italia, Hollywood Brown Derby, Be our guest and T-Rex Café. Our Disney booking also includes 21 day Ultimate tickets too. I’ve let the cat out of the bag! Yes, we didn’t go in 2013 so we’re making up for it by going for 3 weeks this year. Actually our other accommodation is a villa on Sunset Lakes for 16 nights. That’s right…………..23 nights baby! We’re also planning a night or two away from the villa and we will head to the Gulf Coast (as we have done before) for a little beach action somewhere in the middle of the holiday.

We’ve already sourced tickets for both Universal parks, Busch, SeaWorld and Aquatica from FloridaTix, taking advantage of an offer they had a few weeks ago giving 5% off what was already a pretty good value combo ticket.

Regular readers will know just how tight I am when it comes to flights. This will explain why we’re going away in August, the busiest time of the year and I still don’t have flights booked. I love a game of flight roulette and this year is no different. I’m still holding out for a bargain. Unlike previous years, Branson’s mob aren’t even on the radar. I’m not paying silly money to fly direct and I’m quite happy to ‘2 stop’ if the right price presents itself. More on this saga as the weeks/months continue I’ve no doubt. Needless to say I’ve got a tracking spread sheet setup and I’m searching Kayak roughly 12,000 times a day. This all sounds very much like every pre trip report I’ve ever written with accommodation booked long before flights.

Which reminds me! I must go back and edit previous trip reports which include holidays with my parents where I liken my Dad to Rolf Harris! That’s probably not the best comparison to make these days. Funny how times change! Let’s hope he’s found not guilty for my Dad’s sake! Otherwise his budding career as celebrity lookalike is well and truly over before it has even begun.

The nice, caring readers amongst you will be glad to know that I’m not eating Buffalo Wild Wings’ hottest wings this year! If you haven’t read my last report, it didn’t end particularly well. Enough said on that.

We’re intending on doing the penguin encounter at Seaworld this year. Now that Maddy is old enough to swim with a dolphin at Discovery Cove she was given the choice of meeting a dolphin or a penguin and she chose the latter. I thought this was an inspired choice as it’s also about a quarter of the price.

Okay….that’s the bare bones for you. I’ll do regular updates as and when things change (which could even be the holiday dates if these flight prices don’t change! ).

That only leaves me with the now obligatory rules for the upcoming trip…….


We will be childish.



We will make full use of the condiments bar.



We will de-mist our masks prior to entering the water.



We will limit Lynn’s Coronarita intake.



We will get Maddy a fish!


We will get soaked. It’s fun!


We will be childish.



We will overdose on plastic cheese



We will come out and dry off now and again.


We will tell Maddy that It’s a Small World goes upside down again!



We will sit and watch the world float by.



We won’t wee in the pool!



We will steer Lynn away from Grey Goose Slushies.



We won’t destroy one of the body’s more delicate muscles in Buffalo Wild Wings!



We won’t see wait times like these!



We will endeavour to burn off some of those calories!



We will move to the end of every row.



We will remember to facetime home no matter how much fun we are having


We won’t embarrass ourselves in Krispy Kreme



Continued………………..

[wizzo]

We will take time to chill out.



We will enjoy every mouthful.



We won’t make any Mother in Law jokes! (We will)


We won’t drink cocktails in the afternoon!



We will ‘Man up’ when our privates hit that cold water!



We won’t let the seagulls eat my Funions!



We will be prepared.



We will be childish.



We will take spare clothes.



We won’t buy a Disney towel because we don’t have any spare clothes!



We will endure Sketchers with style, grace and good manners.



We won’t beat some of Maddy’s records



We will improvise and overcome adversity like true dads should with British ingenuity! i.e. we (I) won’t lose the waterproof camera in the sea.



We won’t photobomb…………….Lynn!


We won’t have a pushchair (stroller) to ‘Mind’



Oh I give up! She loves her cocktails!



And finally………………

We’ll believe one last time?



Regular updates to follow!

Thanks for reading.



*****Update 3rd April 2014*****

Okay so less than 24 hours after naming the pre trippy "Flight Roulette" the enevitable happened and some flights appeared on the Kayak radar and they are booked!

The price is still more than we paid to fly direct last time (term-time) and we will be 2 stopping. On the plus side, we've booked with American Airlines who we've used and liked before and our trans atlantic flights are British Airways anyway. AA were £1000 cheaper for the four of us compared to booking the same flights direct with BA. Madness.

To get the best price we've altered the dates slightly so not only is it cheaper but we're going a day earlier now too! Make that 24 nights! BOSH!

Of course if the teachers don't put a PD day in for the 2nd September we may have a fine to pay for missing the first day of school but I'm hopeful that the lazy barstools... err... I mean... wonderful educationalists of our school will. If not, I'll ask for my money back should they have a strike, burst water pipe or any other type of day off in 2014/15

Right so the route of choice this year is Newcastle-Heathrow-JFK-Orlando and repeat on the way back.

To be honest I'm glad to fly from one of our local airports, that drive back from Manchester is a killer after crossing the atlantic and is normally acompanied by a hotel stay so we've saved there too.


*****Update 9th April 2014*****

Due to us arriving a day earlier than originally planned we've tagged an extra day on a the start of the holiday at Saratoga Springs (with free DDP) making the trip 8 nights SSR then 16 nights villa!


*****Update 22nd April 2014*****

Once again, due to our earlier arrival I've managed to change our Chef Mickey's ADR to the first morning at 7am (to take advantage of that jetlag) and we've decided to start our 21 Day Disney tickets off that day too. We're going to get an ealy start in Magic Kingdom. It means we won't have Disney tickets for the last two full days of our holiday but given that it's Labor Day weekend then we think it's a good trade off. We will have Universal/Seaworld etc as a fall back or we could end up at the beach again like our last trip. Time will tell.

American Airlines have changed the schedule of one of our flights too. So we have 25 minutes less time to change in JFK on the way out. We now have 2h05m to change planes. I'm still confident that will be fine (that statement will come back and bite me on the @rse I've no doubt!)

We will now arrive in Orlando at 5:30pm which isn't bad considering we're '2 stopping'

*****Update 27th April 2014*****

New house, new location for the countdown calendars.

103 days to go!



*****Update 4th May 2014*****

For any of you who have read my previous trip reports, you'll be aware that we do change plans a lot in the build-up to the holiday and today has been a classic example of this.

Last night we discussed if we should get some quotes from Disney to upgrade our hotel booking, just in case we could get a reasonable upgrade somewhere. So this morning I gave Disney a ring and got quotes to change from Saratoga Springs to a variety of deluxe hotels around WDW. Some of the prices were ridiculous amounts of money to move for 8 nights. Some were an awful lot more tempting. It was a close run thing between enjoying a savannah view at Animal Kingdom Lodge again or a return to the Yacht Club to take advantage of its fabulous proximity to Epcot and Hollywood Studios and cracking pool.

Following a family meeting this morning, the best hotel pool in Disney and the ability to walk to the parks means I've changed our booking and we're now spending our first 8 nights in the Yacht Club!

This week has also seen us fiddle about with our ADRs too. Amongst other things, we've swapped our first morning Chef Mickeys for the character breakfast at Cape May Cafe instead seeing as we'll wake up that first morning right above the restaurant. Perfect.

Adrs for now are these (in order)

Cape May Cafe (breakfast)
Tutto Italia (lunch)
Sci-Fi Dine in (lunch)
Cape May Cafe (dinner)
'Ohana (dinner)
Teppan Edo (dinner)
Be Our Guest (dinner)
T-Rex Cafe (lunch)

These may change again now that we are are based in an Epcot resort rather than a DTD resort. As we're deep onsite now we're toying with getting the Magical Express and hiring a car when we leave Disney too. That will be a first for us.

*****Update 6th May 2014*****

It's offical, Mickey is picking us up from the airport and taking us to the Yacht Club. We've decided to use the Magical Express for the first time ever. We're going to stay in WDW for those first 8 days using Disney transportation (and shanks pony).

This pleases me greatly because I save 8 days worth of car hire and in a master stroke on my part, I have booked to pick a car up from Alamo at The Dolphin (about 5 minutes walk) on the morning that we check out of the Yacht Club. We will then have the car for 17 days, returning it to MCO!

So that's

Flights... check
Disney Hotel... check
Villa... check
Park tickets... check
Hire Car... check
ADRs... check
Russian dolls... check... check...check,check,check!

Still need to sort out accomodation on the Gulf coast for a night or two and possibly baseball tickets.

*****Update 20th May 2014*****

Lunchtime today brought a hotel booking in St. Pete for one night. We will be returning to the Grand Plaza Hotel to try and recreate one of the most perfect evenings we've ever had as a family.



We plan on going to Busch Gardens all day before checking into the hotel and having dinner on the beach again (like 2012). We'll spend the following day on the beach. Well most of the party will. I may disappear for a few hours in the afternoon to watch baseball!

Doubtless this won't be our only beach visit of the holiday.

*****Update 24th June 2014*****

Last night I surprised the girls with a little addition to this years holiday. I sat them in front of the TV and played the following video that Mickey had emailed.



Needless to say, they are beyond excited.

*****Update 14th July 2014*****

With the Disney documentaion and our Universal/Aquatica/Seaworld/Busch tickets all arriving in recent days everything is falling into place. New ESTAs have been done and I thought I better summarise our accommodation plans for this trip as they have changed numerous times and been added to in various updates and it's hard to know what we are doing from all the waffle above.

In summary, our holiday is as follows:

8 Nights Yacht Club
4 Nights Sunset Lakes Villa (or base camp as we will call it)
1 night St. Petes
7 Nights back at the villa
3 Nights Disney Dream Cruise
1 Night back at the villa


*****Update 21st July 2014*****

This could become a pre-holiday tradition. We did it last time and yesterday we made the trip to a local beach (for once it was warm) and added our countdown to the sand!

[JoJo88]

Ooooh, you fly out the day after us (or at least you plan to!). I would love to know how you search Kayak, I was doing it but perhaps only 6,000 times a day, so obviously I wasn't doing it right! Gave up in the end and booked direct flights with Norwegian. I shall be following your flight quest with keen interest

Great pre-trippy, but I must admit, your final will/won't was extremely poignant (and the picture is absolutely perfect too, and not a funny face in sight! ) Lets hope you're wrong

TFS! x

[Bubbasmum]

You're out there the same time as us. Let the childishness commence!

[Pussycat Doll]

Fantstic! Loving the plastic cheese! Pussycat

[Col&Ali]

Yay! Our favourite trippie writer is back!

Please don't "man up" literally when you hit the cold water ... that would not be good

You can't beat a bit of childish innuendo ... we can't drive past Gaylord Palms without sniggering ... ridiculous but we like it

Can't believe you've planned everything but not booked the flights! Eek!

The ladies in your life are looking gorgeous as usual

Bring on the next instalment

[ccleveley]

Spooky I searched for your name today to see if you'd done a trippy post Where's Perry and you'd posted this. Looking forward to reading the updates especially cos next year is likely to be our first August trip... And I'm fretting re flight prices already! Good luck!

Ps our girls love minecraft too - despite my scorn!

[Tarnabanana83]

Woohoo! I've been waiting for this (almost as long as I was waiting for Brett to finish Day 11! ) Brilliantly written, although I'd expect nothing less!

Strangely I'm almost as excited that you're going back as I'd be if we were going ourselves. I totally understand the 'wanting to want it', I feel exactly the same so in a way I'm glad we're not going back this year. (That's obviously a complete lie but I figure if I keep saying it I'll eventually start believing it!)

Lynn and the girls are looking gorgeous as always... I can see where Maddy gets her expressions from though!

Thanks for sharing xx

[itsrachelhere]

Woop, bring it on!

[Happyhaunt1000]

My brother from another mother... Back posting PTRs!
Balance has been restored to the universe.

Unlike the spiteful harsh comments you leave on my posts, I was taught 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all'.
Sooooo...


TFS
#dibbafterdarkcrew