The Holiday Of A Million Dreams - Pre Trip-Report (Part 1)

[Guest]

CAST:
Cara (me) – Disney nutta and chief holiday-planner

Matt (my hubby) – fellow Disney nutta and big chipmunk fan


It’s exactly six weeks until hubby and me go back to Orlando and experience a trip that’s been three years in the making – or as it’s called in our house, ‘The Holiday of a Million Dreams’. We last visited WDW in 2004 for our honeymoon and had the most amazing trip, but after returning, we realised that there were literally dozens and dozens of things that we wish we had done during our fortnight there, that completely got overlooked.

So we got to thinking… what if we were lucky enough to spend three whole weeks on Disney property – what would be our definition of Disney luxury during a 21-night stay? We had lots of fun discussing the hotels that appealed to us most, restaurants that we would like to dine at and special backstage experiences that we would be keen to take part in. Originally, it was just a fun ‘what-if’ scenario, and then we thought to ourselves… why not? We don’t have kids, we don’t go out and party every weekend any more – in fact, we don’t do a lot of very much with our money at all. So why not save our socks off and live the dream? And that’s exactly what we did!

We officially started planning in September 2005, putting ideas together and making a list of must-dos. One sticking point near the beginning was which hotel to stay at. We had previously stayed at Pop Century (which we loved every minute of!), but we were curious to see what things were like on the deluxe side of Disney. However, money certainly wouldn’t stretch to 3 weeks in a top of the range resort. So we reached a compromise. We had a list of six hotels that we wanted to stay in and (call us crazy if you want!) thought it would be fun to ‘hotel-hop’ during our three weeks on property, spending either 3 or 4 nights at a time in each location. We both agreed that the hotels are an attraction in themselves and both jumped on the idea to ‘spread ourselves about a bit’! The final hotels (in the order that we will stay in them) are All Star Movies, Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Riverside, Polynesian and Animal Kingdom Lodge – we’ll literally be starting out in a value resort and working our way up to two deluxes.

We were able to book our hotels in mid- 2007 and were lucky enough to get the exact dates we wanted, plus a lagoon view room at the Polynesian and a Savannah view room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We also got our flights booked up with Virgin, leaving from London Gatwick.

We purposely decided to spend our next trip at WDW in October, because we’re both HUGE fans of Halloween and wanted to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. So we got tickets for the 16th October party night, along with tickets for Universal’s Halloween Horror Night on the 9th October.

Another thing we were really keen to do was take part in some behind the scenes Disney tours. So we are currently signed up to do the Backstage Magic Tour, the Backstage Safari Tour and the Around the World on a Segway tour. We have one tour for each week that we are there.

Next on the list was a night of serious entertainment and we went with a trip to Cirque Du Soleil at Downtown Disney. Matt and I both enjoy watching circus performers (especially the acrobats), so this really appealed to us. We have tickets to watch this on the 7th October.

On our last visit, I was lucky enough to swim with dolphins at Discovery Cove. Matt didn’t take part, as he can’t swim. But since coming back, said that he wished he’d done it after all, as 99% of the interaction is in the shallows. So, we added Discovery Cove to the list, but this time, with Matt joining me on the dolphin swim. I’m especially excited about experiencing this together, as it was a real highlight for me back in 2004.

Since booking our trip, we’ve also discovered that the Food and Wine Festival is taking place at Epcot, so of course, we’ll be dropping by for some serious international cuisine. In fact, food is playing a MAJOR role in this trip for us. We both LOVE going out for dinner, and although we’re not the most adventurous when trying new foods, we love themed restaurants. So, we made (another!) list, deciding where we would like to eat the most throughout our holiday. It might not be luxury dining in our case, but it’s fun with a capital ‘F’… Rainforest Café, Planet Hollywood, T-Rex Café, Whispering Canyon Café, Bongos, Sci-Fi Dine-In, Prime Time Café, Teppan Edo, O’Hana, Boma, Chef Mickey’s and many more. A big part of our holiday budget is being spent on food – I don’t even dare to imagine how much weight we’re going to put on during this trip, but hey… it’s Disney, who cares?!

I’m planning on posting an update each week until we leave for Orlando, so next time I should have a confirmed 100% definite itinerary (this thing has changed more often than Posh Spice’s hair-do!)… and then when we return at the end of October, I’ll be posting a full trip report, complete with lots of photos. Hope you enjoy!

[ely3857]

Looking forward to the updates and I think your very brave hotel hopping that much, I cant think of anything worse than constanly packing a suitcase while on holiday!



Jodie

[wickesy]

Sounds like a fantastic trip you have planned, you will love the Savannah view at AKL! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back.

[Guest]

Wow great plans! Look forward to your trip report not to long now!