If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

[Guest]

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”

Walter Elias Disney

Links to get to you straight to other parts of the Pre-Trippy:
Part 2 - The Big Reveal
Part 3 - ADR Time! (Post 1) (Post 2)
Part 4 - Funny Money & Disney Nights
Part 5 - Down to the Nitty Gritty
Part 6 - A little frivolity!
Part 7 - Hard Rock Baby!
Part 8 - Oops! I did it again! (Post 1) (Post 2)
Part 9 - Double Digits and un Upgrade!
Part 10 - Lounges and little else!
Part 11 - Puddings, Parking, Points, Pounds & Piercings! (Post 1) (Post 2)
Part 12 - I'm Getting There!
Part 13 - I'm Running out of Days!
Part 14 - It's all going a bit Pete Tong (and a little Harry Potter Magic!)!
(Post 1) (Post 2) (Post 3)
Part 15 - Single Digits!

Part 1 - 140 Days
Apologies, Explanations & Introductions

First off, I feel I must warn you that I have a slight tendency to waffle for England (I write like I speak!). So at the more tedious and painful moments of what’s to follow, please feel free to skim through to the photos, of which there should be many (I know you dibbers love a photo or two! ).

Secondly, I feel that I should make something of an apology/explanation to those dibbers who remember me from about 8 months ago, which is when I rather suddenly and abruptly made the decision to remove myself from the dibb, having spent the best part of about five months writing up my trip report (I’d got to Day 14 of Let The Memories Begin from our May 2011 holiday and it had taken me bloomin’ ages!). However, with my departure, went my trip report & pre-trippie. I did, in fact, go ‘Dibb cold turkey’ in one swift click – it’s been a tough few months I can tell you, I’m sure coming off crack cocaine has got to be easier than my daily need for a fix on the dibb (I’m assuming, by the way, that’s not where I’ve been these last few months, holed up in The Priory! )!

I shall try and keep this brief. Cliff, my OH, has worked for the family building business for the last 20+ years (his family, not mine) and, as we all know, for such a long time, the building trade had a very good time of it (certainly where we live in sunny Essex anyway!). This was all to change, of course, with our economic downturn of a few years ago. Actually, the business carried on doing ok and was just about surviving, it was more a case of how it was being run that was becoming more of a problem. Cliff had spoken about getting out and starting up on his own on a few occasions but, finally, last September, having not been paid for the previous 6 months (although somehow his parents managed a luxury 6* two week cruise at this time, swiftly followed by first class flights to a holiday to Singapore, but it’s probably best that I don’t get started on them! ) we made the scary decision to get out and go it alone.

Since our first daughter was born over 10 years ago, I have been fortunate enough to enjoy the privilege of being a stay at home Mum, something which I know isn’t for everyone, but it’s a job that I absolutely relish. To cut a long story short, all of a sudden I realised that for the foreseeable future I wasn’t going to have the odd hour here and there to enjoy a cup of tea in front of the dibb during the day, updating my trip report or catching up on everyone else’s. As I’m sure a lot of you know, starting up your own business is a stressful, time-consuming and worrying time and we really did have to focus on getting everything sorted. Not only that, but I was also going to be doing the company books and accounts as well as some initial marketing, so I made the decision to just delete my trip report from the dibb, thinking that not having it there at all would be the easiest way to try and get on with everything else.

More than that though, whilst writing my trip report, I was receiving so many kind and lovely comments from other dibbers on an almost daily basis, all of which I tried to respond to, and I didn’t want to leave my report there for people to take the time to comment on, only for their comments to go ignored. I hope this makes sense.

Still with me?

So, the business got off to a slow but good start and things were starting to look good with Christmas approaching. Unfortunately, this is where life dealt us all a big blow. On Christmas Eve Mum called to say that Dad was suffering with chest pains and that they were waiting for an ambulance to take him to hospital. We live in the same small town as my parents and also my sister (we’re an incredibly close family and my two girls are the same age as my sister’s boys and so are in the same classes at school which is perfect!) so I straightaway collected my sister, who was very shaken up and not able to drive, and the two of us raced to the hospital and actually ended up arriving there before the ambulance.

It transpired that my Dad was having a heart attack and the fabulous, fabulous staff at the hospital got him straight into the theatre, inserted a stent and fixed him up good and proper within 40 minutes. This was 24 hours after poor old Prince Phillip was admitted to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge to have the same procedure done and apparently the ambulance crew were debating whether to take Dad there or not. We were later able to have a bit of a joke about trying to keep up with the royals and how we could have kept Her Majesty company in the hospital Family Room!

So having started off 2011 full of excitement about our upcoming holiday to Florida (my Dad turned 60 in March 2011 treated all of us to a Disney holiday in May!), followed by what was a truly magical two weeks in Orlando, the year unfortunately turned somewhat stressful towards the end, culminating in a frankly bloody awful last week of the year! The good news is that my Dad recovered well and was out of hospital within 5 days (he was more distraught at the thought that he’d ruined everyone’s Christmas than his near-death experience, which of course wasn’t the case at all, we just wanted him home safe and well). The even better news is that after having three months off work (he was semi-retired after selling his business a few years ago anyway) my Mum has managed to not murder him, so 2012 has got off to a good start I feel!

Anyhow, I do hope my ramblings go some way to explain my sudden departure from the dibb. I’ve missed you all and I’m really looking forward to immersing myself in the dibb once again. Before I left, I was so enjoying the trip reports of Amy (LovesDisney), Chelsey (ChelseyLeigh), Sophie (Mouse Mess) and Emma (LadyEmz), who had all been out to Florida at a similar time to me, and also the pre-trip reports of Tracey (Chaffey) and Libby (of Ben and Libby fame). In fact I think my last post before I signed off was to wish Libby and Ben ‘bon voyage’, so I know that I’ve got a lot of catching up and reading to do when I find the time! And of course, how can I not mention the fabulous Sarah Woods, who has inspired me in so many ways and gave me so many ideas for my last pre-trippie, there probably aren’t enough hours left before my next holiday for me to catch up on Sarah’s pre-trippie, but I shall give it a good shot! Sorry, I know there are many others that I haven’t mentioned, but I hope to catch up with all of you over the coming weeks and also get to know some ‘newbies’ who have arrived in the time that I’ve been gone!

Anyway, before I explain why I am here writing another pre-trippie, let me break up some of this senseless wittering with some photos to introduce you to this year’s cast! I’ll start with our DDs as they’re far easier on the eye than either Cliff or me! Here are some from our holiday last year.

















As you can see, I’m a big fan of PhotoPass!

Isabel is now 10 and is growing up quicker than I’d like. She’s almost as tall as me (which isn’t hard to be fair at 5ft 4” but she’s showing no signs of slowing!) and is constantly hungry. Her favourite words are “I’m starving” (normally half an hour after a meal) and “epic”, which would appear to be the current ‘in’ word doing the rounds at school at the moment, and absolutely does my head in! Just like her father, Isabel is very laid-back and nothing in life really bothers her (unless the fridge is empty!). She’s a lovely girl, kind-hearted and thoughtful and very amenable so will go along with whatever anyone suggests. She’s almost as obsessed with Disney as I am and adores the big rides, the bigger the better, and there’s no ride that she won’t go on. Favourite character is Belle.

Amelia is now 8 and is thrilled to discover that she will be tall enough to ride Hollywood Rip Ride Rock-It this year, after not quite making the cut last year! Yes, we have two daredevils for daughters, which I must admit makes for a fun holiday, although I’m not sure how much of the new Fantasyland expansion this means I’ll get to enjoy! Amelia has a brilliant sense of humour, with far too much sarcasm for someone so young and is also fiercely loyal! She’s our little poppet and is the cuddliest thing ever! Favourite character is Rapunzel.

Cliff (OH), hanging on to his last couple of months of his 30s by his fingernails, so will be 40 by the time we go. Cliff is so laid back he is practically horizontal, very easy-going and happy for a quiet life, which normally means just keeping his 3 girls happy (ahh bless!), hence the reason of our return trip this year! Cliff loved our Disney holiday last year and is really looking forward to this upcoming one, however he is by no means as obsessed with Disney as I am and is happy for me to take care of all the planning. Having said that, I did tease him the other evening when I heard him talking about ‘ADRs’, so I’m obviously rubbing off on him if he knows the dibb lingo now eh?! Cliff probably wouldn’t admit to having a favourite character, although we were all sooo disappointed for him last year when we visited Universal Studios and hung around for ages at the end of the day waiting to meet Homer (having spoken to about 5 different CMs who had all pointed us in different directions as to where The Simpsons could currently be found), only to be told that it was just Bart that day! So it would be nice if we could get a picture of Cliff and Homer this year!

And then there’s me, your author for this trip. Kate, 34, although I look in the mirror these days and feel like the last 6 months have unfairly aged me by about 15 years! I’m a natural-born worrier and so plan and plan to within an inch of my life so that I’m hopefully prepared for any eventuality! I adore the bones off my family and there is nowhere I would rather be than walking down Main Street with them. The four of us all love holidays but, for me, I can’t see us going anywhere else in the near future but WDW. Disney fits us perfectly and, from the moment I arrive until it’s time to leave, I am smiling like a gormless simpleton! My family tease me, but I remind them, that it’s this simple yet happy expression I sport that I’m convinced helped to get us a place on the Animal Kingdom Parade last year and also straight back on Forbidden Journey at WWOHP without queuing, among other treats lol!

Anyhow, here I am with my beloved. Cliff and I very rarely have our picture taken (for reasons that will become quite clear – I’ve mentioned my gormless simple face, which unfortunately comes across in all of our holiday snaps as well, I look like an excited cocker spaniel, and Cliff, bless him, has a rather ‘weathered’ look having managed building sites for the past 20 years, and as Amelia pointed out to him the other day when he returned from having a haircut and in reference to his receding hairline “why has your forehead grown Daddy?”. He also seems to adopt a pose that the girls like to call his ‘handbag arm’, where it looks as though he is always waiting for someone to plop a bag onto his arm? !) and so we embraced PhotoPass last year with good humour!



Do you like how Disney managed to colour co-ordinate the Castle with my top for the photo though?!

My favourite character is Donald Duck. We saw a lot of Donald last year and each and every time he was always on top form, making us all chuckle, plus we got to be on Donald’s float in the AK Parade, so that Duck holds a special place in my heart!


See, the 'handbag arm' is back!



And lastly, a couple of family shots.





Check out the shine on that forehead! I clearly take sun care more seriously than I'd realised!

Like probably so many of you on this forum, I live, eat and breathe Disney. I go to bed at night wondering if I should bring forward the time of an ADR slightly, or thinking should I add WCC to our plans as well as ‘Ohana, as the girls really did love it there last year, oh but then I’d have to swap something else round, and should I perhaps plan to stay in for the whole of July/August and not risk leaving the computer once, just so I can guarantee getting our table at the Wishes Dessert Party again for October? You see, it’s quite an obsession!

When we returned from Florida last May, I immediately wanted to return and it was all I could think of in the following months. Then, of course, we had the stress of the business to deal with and so that pushed Disney to the back of my mind a little for the next couple of months, followed by planning for Christmas and then poor Dad on Christmas Eve, which of course totally pushed everything else from my mind altogether.

2012 arrived though and I knew that Dad was doing well and so I relaxed a little for the first time in a few weeks. The business started to pick up again after the Christmas shut down period and so I tentatively approached Cliff with the suggestion that we might be able to return to Disney this year. As soon as we have any money whatsoever, I’m terrible, it’s like it’s burning a hole in my pocket. Fortunately, for the sake of our mortgage and the fact that we have a family to clothe and feed, Cliff is somewhat more practical. He is far from tight, but does have a far more sensible approach to money than I do, so when I approached him with my Disney suggestion, he didn’t say that it was out of the question, but he did say it would be a bit careless to go booking such an expensive holiday right now. “Let’s see where we are in a few weeks” was how he left it.

Now I read that to mean ‘we can book a holiday in a month’s time’ (! ), so off I happily went to start looking at Virgin’s flight prices! February arrived and so I sat down with Cliff and told him how much we’d be looking at flight-wise etc. He was just as keen as I was to book a holiday but was still reticent about committing to such an expensive holiday and was waiting to get a couple of big contracts confirmed, which he told me would hopefully be within the next month.

We did, however, have a good chat about what we wanted out of this holiday and when would be a good time to go. The Disney Free Dining Offer had been extended until 7th March and, having never stayed on site before, this was something that we thought we’d quite like to try. The character meals had been a huge hit with all of us last year, as had dining at the different Disney Resorts and so this was a big pull. However, we’d had the most beautiful villa at the Windsor Hills Resort last year which, not only allowed us to get to Disney property within about 15 minutes (we got to AK in 7 minutes one morning!), but gave us such a huge amount of space to enjoy at the end of a busy day and, more importantly, our own pool and spa, which the girls absolutely relished!

We knew there was no way that the four of us could spend two weeks in one hotel room, so I started pricing up how much it would cost us for two weeks staying in a two bedroom villa at SSR. With the free DDP I was pleasantly surprised to see how reasonable the quote was, but we were still undecided between off-site villa or on-site with Disney.

What was a lot easier to decide was when to go. May had been absolutely perfect for us last year. The weather was really hot (just how I like it!) and the crowds really low. However, we knew we wouldn’t be able to get away that early in the year this year and we definitely didn’t want to do the summer holidays. September was ruled out as Cliff’s business partner’s wife is due to give birth then and we couldn’t have both Cliff and his business partner away at the same time. However, I’d always read so many good things about October. The crowd levels always seemed good and pretty similar to May, weather wise perhaps not quite as hot as May (which worries me slightly) but I’m hoping this year will be a scorcher (! ), plus I really wanted to visit at a time when we could do MNSSHP.

We’re very lucky at the girls’ school that they still allow 10 days authorised absence each school year (I know a lot of school don’t allow any at all), just so long as it isn’t taken within the first 2 weeks of a new term. So the middle to end of October was looking promising. Now I just needed the go-ahead from Cliff.

With March fast approaching, I was starting to feel as though my Disney dreams were slipping away. Cliff had loads of work ‘in the pipeline’ as it were, but was being held up by planning and building regs. We were still undecided as to whether we’d take up the Disney offer, and with the 7th March just around the corner, I was starting to panic. Plus I desperately wanted to have everything booked well before April so that I could be completely organised when it came to booking ADRs at my 180 days (I’d only discovered the dibb 5 months before we went last year and it then took me another month or so before I learnt about ADRs. We did manage to get some lovely reservations but this time I wanted to approach the booking system with military precision to guarantee satisfaction lol!). Also, we hadn’t mentioned any of this to the girls yet and, in my mind, I had everything worked out how we would surprise them at Easter, which was also fast approaching.

Anyway, one Monday, I’d collected the girls from an after-school club and was getting dinner prepared when I heard Cliff arrive home. I knew he’d been at a business meeting that afternoon and asked him how it had gone. He just grinned and said “Go on then, just book it”.

Rather than squealing with excitement after hearing the answer that I’d waited months for, I stood there with a worried look on my face and said “Oh my goodness, have I just worn you down after all my going on at you? Don’t say that unless you really mean it!”

Cliff laughed and said that he wouldn’t have said it unless he really meant it and that yes, we really could book our holiday to Disney! I actually felt very emotional and it was all I could do not to cry. I threw myself at him (not in the biblical sense, it was only 5:30 in the afternoon afterall and the girls were upstairs!) and tried not to let on to the girls that anything was going on, which was actually a lot harder than it sounds as I had to carry on with normal stuff like cooking dinner and doing homework, when all I wanted to do was get on to Virgin’s website and book our flights, I was grinning like a madwoman all night!

In the days that followed we decided that whilst we’d really like to stay on-site at some point in the future (we’re already talking about a possible split-stay SSR and villa holiday for 2013 to see how we like it!) our heart for now really lies with a villa holiday. We booked the flights with Virgin flying from Gatwick to MCO at 11:15am on Wednesday 10th October and returning on Wednesday 24th October at 6:15pm.



I sorted out all of our ESTAs and APIs at the same time, so it’s nice to know that they’re all done (our ESTAs expired this June and we hadn’t had to pay for them last time, so it was a shame they couldn’t have stretched out a little longer!).

Next was the villa. I must have spent hours searching for villas and looked at literally hundreds of different resorts. In the end though, we came back to Windsor Hills. We just loved it there last year, it really couldn’t be beaten in terms of proximity to the parks and it has a lovely feel to the resort. Want to see a couple of photos?





It’s a five bedroom villa, so plenty more than we need, with its own pool, spa and games room. Plus, we knew the girls would love the double bunk room! We’ve paid the deposit and just need to pay the remaining balance in August. I’ve also arranged to pay an extra £45 to keep the villa until 4pm (although we’ll probably be gone by about 2pm) on the last day, rather than having to race out the door by 10am. We arranged this while we were out there last year and it was brilliant and worked far better (for us anyway) than doing DTD check-in, so I’m really glad to have that sorted out already.

So, there you have it. I can’t believe we’re really going back this year and feel so lucky to be doing so. I’m so sorry to have waffled on and on (I did warn you) but I just wanted to explain where I’d been all this time, I hope you’ll welcome me back with open arms!

I love planning and I have so many things to share with you – our ADRs, countdown charts, Disney Nights – so I hope you’ll join me in Part 2 for The Big Reveal to find out how we told the girls! I promise my future posts won’t be quite so long as this one!

It’s good to be back!

Kate xx

[niccynoo66]

it is so lovely to see you are back and going again !
I had got loads of inspiration from reading your last trip reports ( we went at easter) and we would love to go back
Sorry to hear about your bad bits , hope you have a much better year xx

[Guest]

Originally Posted by niccynoo66

it is so lovely to see you are back and going again !
I had got loads of inspiration from reading your last trip reports ( we went at easter) and we would love to go back
Sorry to hear about your bad bits , hope you have a much better year xx

See more...

Ah, thank you for such lovely comments. It's good to be back!

I always got so much inspiration and ideas from reading everyone else's pre-trippie's and trip reports, so it's nice to think I gave the odd useful idea here and there!

Whilst last year didn't end too well, we're a positive and fortunate family and have lots to look forward to for 2012!

I hope you had a super holiday at Easter and get to go back again very soon.

Kate xx

[murdi]

Wow, you deserve a medal for that post. Well done.

[PrincessRebex]

So glad you decided to do another trippy!

I remember reading your last trippy and it was very good

Also... WE ARE GOING AT THE SAME TIME!

Although I am flying with British Airways, I might see you out there! I started my pre-trippy months ago as I was far too keen to hold back!

Looking forward to reading more plans!

[yellowrose78]

Loved reading your report, thanks

[JoJo88]

Wonderful pre-trippy Kate .

It's great to see you back, I recognise your girls so I must have read your previous report. Sorry to hear that things have been a little iffy for you but glad that everything is back on track.

Some of what you wrote so reminded me of myself, especially 'let's see where we are in a few weeks' absolutely means 'you can book in a month'

Off to read your next installment x

Ahhhh, I'm a bit premature, I went back and was desperately clicking on PART 2 thinking it was a link I'll, er, go and busy myself doing something useful in the meantime... *whistles while walking away...

[sarahewoods]

Hi Kate, welcome back! so thrilled to see you are planning a new trip, and we will be there at the same time.

Sorry to hear of all your problems, and very happy to hear everything is smoothing our for you guys.

My pre trippie is no more... i'd had enough of it, mixed with lots going on at home. I still come on here, as this is where i love.

I can't wait to hear all your up and coming plans.

Take care xx

[Guest]

Wow, what an 'epic' pre trippie
The "handbag" arm really made me
Really looking forward to this one as you seem a bit like me - just last night I woke up at 3am wondering if we could/should try and fit in a visit to SSR in case we'd like to stay there next time ("I mean we could pop in on our way home from our DTD evening, or maybe on the way there? can you walk? it would be easier not to be carrying bags... etc etc.)
Enjoy your planning - I know I do!
Kitty

[anniebee65]

Hi Kate! Be as wordy as you like, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it