A Disney Dream is a wish your heart makes October 2016 pre trippie! *UPDATE 18 OCTOBER 2016*

[bambikate]

Who doesn't love a good pun, right?

Hello!

Welcome to my pre-trip report!

Shortcuts to the good stuff:
Introductions, the general plan and choosing a hotel
Booking our flights
Booking our cruise
Restaurant bookings and flight changes galore
Cruise activities, fastpasses, MNSSHP, Behind the Seeds Tour, Tim Tracker and coming up next time...
Mini update

3 Days to go update!

So, I've never done one of these before and I don't know who's in the market to read all my inner ramblings but I'm actually really excited to be starting one so whoever you are, hello and I hope you enjoy!

If you haven't read any of my trip reports before, they come highly recommended (by myself ) and can be found in my signature below...

I've also made videos of our last 4 trips and these can also be found here









So I supppose I'd better start with a brief introduction!

My name is Kate, I'm the spreadsheet loving, Disney obsessed planner, procrastinator and worrier, this will be my 10th trip to Florida and I'm just as excited about this one as my first.




Andy, my hubby, super hard worker, a (great) big (bushy) beard, lots of (Disney) tattoos and starting to get involved in the planning his 8th trip



Izzy, our eldest, will go on ANY ride, total roller coaster junkie, both hands in the air kinda stuff, this will be her 6th trip



Imogen, our youngest, super confident funny little girl, another roller coaster junkie and is desperately hoping she grows two inches in a year so she can finally go on Everest, this will be her 5th trip.





Our ideas

So we've been wanting to book ever since we came back in May this year but we had so much up in the air and I am embarking on a big commitment study wise next year so had to wait for my college dates to be released before we could plan anything.

Now that we were armed with a specific list of dates we definitely couldn't do, we narrowed down our search and decided on OCTOBER 2016!

We wanted to take advantage of the free dining offer so we just needed to narrow down which onsite hotel to choose...

Now, if money wasn't an object I would be writing all about our upcoming trip to the Poly next year (my favourite resort ever) but it just wasn't affordable this time.

One day... one day...



At first we just wanted the cheapest one with free dining and we would then upgrade to free dining, which was Caribbean Beach Resort.



When we noticed that the price difference between Caribbean Beach resort and Saratoga Springs resort (by the time we'd upgraded the dining) was only £293 more, we decided that it was well worth the extra money given that we would have a kitchenette and a balcony and we loved Saratoga last time we stayed there.








The "Dream" in the title of my trip report...

We have been obsessing over Disney Cruises online, reading about the amenities, looking at trip reports, watching youtube videos and we were 100% convinced, totally hooked, we just HAD to go on one!

We decided a good taster cruise, having never done one before would be the 3 day Bahamian cruise on the Disney Dream. I knew it had to involve visiting Castaway Cay and seemed like a relaxing end to a jam packed holiday.







We are all SO EXCITED! We've never done anything like this before. I'll get into the finer details once we've booked this element but for now let's just say it's going to be amazing!



The basic plan

Travel to Gatwick
Fly to Florida
13 Nights at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa
14 day Ultimate tickets
free Disney Dining plan
free Memory Maker
free $100 gift card
3 Night Bahamian cruise on the Disney Dream
Travel Home

Up next... booking the accommodation and cruise

[Guest]

Brill!
Will you fly straight home after the cruise or have another night somewhere?

[EllieP]

Looking forward to this. We are staying at SSR next July for our first onsite stay. Looks amazing and we are really looking forward to it. We usually do a villa stay but are mixing it up next year.

[lovedisney89]

This all sounds so exciting! I love your trip-reports so I'm glad you decided to do a pre-trippy

[collybird]

I am so glad to hear you've booked! Looking forward to reading all your plans.

What made you opt for SSR over OKW? We are staying at one of the villa resorts for the first time next year and I'm always interested to hear people's thoughts on the two.

[DisneyDreamer81]

Aah your plans sounds amazing! I am dying to do one of the cruises after reading so much about them on here

[Disney_Diva]

Yey so happy to spot this!
Sounds like an awesome plan, love the idea of the cruise too!

Xx

[VonnieBee]

Yey loved your previous trip reports and videos so happy to see you doing a pre-trippie... I love reading them and wish I had the patience to write one myself. We were there in May this year too...our first time...and it was amazing! We stayed at OKW and finished of the holiday with a cruise (not Disney) but it did go to the Bahamas and it was just amazing...our wee girl was 4 at the time and absolutely loved it. Its the perfect relaxing way to end a busy holiday to Disney. We've booked up to go again in October 2016 too...we've caught the bug! lol We're heading back to OKW...no cruise this time though unfortunately as this was a cheeky holiday as we weren't planning to go again until 2017, I look forward to reading all about your plans xxx

[bambikate]

Originally Posted by mancdisney

Brill!
Will you fly straight home after the cruise or have another night somewhere?

See more...

We are leaving this open at the moment dependant on flight prices, if the price drops to stay an extra day then we will

Originally Posted by EllieP

Looking forward to this. We are staying at SSR next July for our first onsite stay. Looks amazing and we are really looking forward to it. We usually do a villa stay but are mixing it up next year.

See more...

Fab! It's a lovely resort we stayed there last year.

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

This all sounds so exciting! I love your trip-reports so I'm glad you decided to do a pre-trippy

See more...

Aww thanks so much! Yes I think I'll update this weekend. Just debating room types on the cruise at the moment and waiting for my Virgin Atlantic cards to arrive for the big purchases...

Originally Posted by collybird

I am so glad to hear you've booked! Looking forward to reading all your plans.

What made you opt for SSR over OKW? We are staying at one of the villa resorts for the first time next year and I'm always interested to hear people's thoughts on the two.

See more...

Thanks so much To be honest we would have probably preferred OKW, simply because we've never stayed there before so it would be somewhere different, however, have you ever noticed they are around the same price normally then all of a sudden one of them is massively expensive? OKW was on the last page even after GF /Poly and Contemporary? Perhaps only Grand Villas / 2 beds left?

Where are you staying?

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

Aah your plans sounds amazing! I am dying to do one of the cruises after reading so much about them on here

See more...

Thanks so much Yes, us too!

Originally Posted by Disney_Diva

Yey so happy to spot this!
Sounds like an awesome plan, love the idea of the cruise too!

Xx

See more...

Thank you

Originally Posted by VonnieBee

Yey loved your previous trip reports and videos so happy to see you doing a pre-trippie... I love reading them and wish I had the patience to write one myself. We were there in May this year too...our first time...and it was amazing! We stayed at OKW and finished of the holiday with a cruise (not Disney) but it did go to the Bahamas and it was just amazing...our wee girl was 4 at the time and absolutely loved it. Its the perfect relaxing way to end a busy holiday to Disney. We've booked up to go again in October 2016 too...we've caught the bug! lol We're heading back to OKW...no cruise this time though unfortunately as this was a cheeky holiday as we weren't planning to go again until 2017, I look forward to reading all about your plans xxx

See more...

Aww thank you very much!

Wow sounds fab! You should do a picture trippie if you don't fancy all the writing? It's very addictive isn't it? Ahh amazing! Who doesn't love a cheeky trip?

[collybird]

Originally Posted by bambikate

Thanks so much To be honest we would have probably preferred OKW, simply because we've never stayed there before so it would be somewhere different, however, have you ever noticed they are around the same price normally then all of a sudden one of them is massively expensive? OKW was on the last page even after GF /Poly and Contemporary? Perhaps only Grand Villas / 2 beds left?

Where are you staying?

See more...

Funnily enough we're staying at OKW but I'd have actually preferred SSR! The proximity to Disney Springs softens the blow of poor QS options.

We're in a 2-bed as we're taking my mum for her first visit and the living area of at OKW is SO much nicer than SSR. There's a little more space in the laundry area too (this is apparently v. important )