"There is no place we'd rather be!" - July 2015

[mrsstitch]

Woo Hoo! We get to to go again. You cannot (well most of you probably can!) imagine how overjoyed we are to be returning in 2015. We missed out 2014 due to needing to spend some ££ on the house - patio and fire & fireplace. This meant summer 2014 was a trip to Legoland and Devon. Both were fine, but the weather let it down hugely. DH's words at the end were "Never again!"

In April 2014 we knew we wanted to return in 2015 and awaited patiently for the DDP to be released. On the day of release we started looking around and getting quotes. Not wanting to wait too long, we booked a couple of days later, Old Key West for 2 weeks with the DDP.

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Photo from google

We booked through Charter Travel - they were slightly cheaper than direct with Disney. We missed the DDP in 2013, and table service meals were very expensive when the children ate next to nothing! We chose Old Key West - I've always liked the look of it and wanted to try it. We loved Port Orleans, Riverside last time, but fancied a change. We wanted a resort that would give us the DDP instead of QSDP. We were torn between OKW and Saratoga Springs - finally choosing OKW as the rooms seemed slightly bigger, plus hopefully a balcony!

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Photo's from Disney

Once accommodation was sorted it was a bit of a wait then until the flights were released - August/September. We wanted to book 2 nights at one of the Universal hotels at the end of the holiday. In 2012 we bought single day tickets on the gate for IOA only. It was a long day and we came away thinking it had been a bit of a waste of money. The queues for most of the rides were horrendously long and we vowed we wouldn't return unless we were going to stay over and get those FOLP, and early entry.

So we needed a 16/17 night stay. Flights were released and DH was a fiend watching all the sites and comparing prices on a daily basis. A few weeks later and we were no further on - direct with Virgin was horribly expensive. BA was better, but still more than we wanted to pay. Indirect was not significantly cheaper to be worth the extra hassle - and then Norwegian Airlines released their prices. For direct flights in the height of summer we thought they were reasonable - £850 pp. The dilemma no was that they only fly on Saturdays - so do we go for 14 nights only, or 3 weeks? The flights with Norwegian actually worked out cheaper for us to go for 3 weeks than 2 weeks!

Oops - with a push of the buttons that was it - we'd booked 3 weeks in Florida! Whoop - ee!

So the cast:
Just the 4 of us;
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Me, 42 and lover of all things 'Floridian!' Disney is my happy place. Im not keen on the rollercoasters, but love the heat, sun, people watching while DH & DD1 coaster along. Me & DD2 prefer the tamer rides, shops and watching the world go by!.

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DH. 44 when we go, lover of all things 'American.' Becoming a little wary of the 'big' coasters, but will accompany DD1 on the rides she wants to go on. Loves everything that Disney/Universal and Florida has to offer - food, weather, an escape from real life! We plan together - its probably one of the only things we actually don't argue over!

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DD1 - Emily, 10 when we go. Loves the coasters, buffets and the weather. She is a lucky girl and has been to Florida many times.

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DD2 - Evie, 6 when we go. She's a princess in her head, loves dressing up and has at least 5 favourite princesses. If Evie could live in the Disney bubble permanently she happily would.

Update to come - daily plans & ADR's

[KittyBlackDog]

Nice start and you are in double digits until you go!

[The Bobbo's]

Great start. X

[mrsstitch]

Originally Posted by KittyBlackDog

Nice start and you are in double digits until you go!

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Thanks for reading xxx can you believe I missed our double digit dance! Last time (2013) I was completely on the ball and woke the house up with some very loud Lion King songs! Gutted - one day it was 105 days then suddenly 97!

[mrsstitch]

Originally Posted by The Bobbo's

Great start. X

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Thanks for reading

[mrsstitch]

So we are just over 30 days away and its just about all we can think about! Me and the girls getting through the next 4 weeks of the school term and DH the next 5 weeks of work.

We've had a productive weekend and completed some of our last minute jobs;
*Paid for Royal Pacific Resort
*Paid for car hire
*Printed off all vouchers that we have so far
*Organised travel folder
*Updated GPS with current and up to date maps

Very satisfying knowing we are so close! So what are we up to for our 3 week adventure I hear you ask - heres our itinerary;

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It is quite a plan! 18 months in the making with as much information as I think we'll need. It had to be quite detailed as we booked our ADR's so long ago, and I always worry if we don't have the reference number they won't let us in! Having not had any experience of using MDE I know I have completely overplanned and won't actually need it as MDE will give us all of the information we need for every day. It is still nice to look at though and think through (it has had many tweaks!)

I'm hoping its still quite flexible in areas, particularly out CS choices can be changed and adapted. This year we have gone for a mix of favourite places to eat along with some new ones.

Old favourites;
Tusker House - first morning tradition
T-Rex - the girls love it!
Whispering Canyon - DH's favourite
Chef Mickey's - a family favourite
California Grill - Our favourite signature restaurant
Teppan Edo - one of the restaurants where the girls actually enjoy the food!
Crystal Palace - Tradition again
Boma - DH's second favourite

New places;
Be Our Guest - well you can't not book here!
Hollywood and Vine - hoping that as the girls are older they can stay awake later and we can go and see Fantasmic for the 1st time!
The Garden Grill - A DIBB recommendation. I've read lots of good reviews for this and I like the idea that they use the food they grow themselves
Kona Cafe - couldn't bring ourselves to book O'Hanas this year as we've not had the best experiences on our past 2 visits, but we really like the Polynesian resort so thought we'd try this instead
1900 Park Fare - a new breakfast location to try!
Yak and Yeti - another DIBB recommendation, particularly from xAimeex, whose reports from here make it look so yummy! Can't wait!
Beaches and Cream - This has been on our 'to do' list for Years! I'm hoping we finally make it this time!

So thats our ADR list. Our counter service meals are flexible depending how we feel and how the day is going. We'd like to pop back to Port Orleans as we really enjoyed their food court - especially the Make Your Own Pasta! But we'll see how we feel on the day!

Staying over at the beach is new for us. We've only ever done a day trip before. Siesta Key was my choice (DH would have chose Ana Maria Island). No idea where we'll be eating here, any suggestions? This will be a couple of days to chill out and relax after 2 weeks of Disney. We are all looking forward to this!

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Then finally onto Universal. I vowed that we'd not go to Universal again if we weren't staying over and accessing FOLP. The queues just get silly and we missed out on a lot of rides on our last visit making the day a waste of money (we paid on arrival for a single day single park ticket). Our eldest Emily has this year read all of the Harry Potter books, seen the films and we took her to the Studio Tour in London, so she's all primed for taking full advantage and enjoying these areas to the max! So a stay was crucial! We booked 2 nights at RPR before we booked the flights and so when we booked the flights we had 3 nights left with no accommodation. We couldn't book 3 extra nights at RPR and so after reading moosha's TR 'Florididdypop Vol 2' and the fantastic experience they had at Cabana Bay we thought we'd try and book there for our last few nights. We got the dates we wanted and hopefully we'll be down to using 1 suitcase by this point and it won't cause too much hassle! I know we won't have FOLP, but hopefully we would have done everything we wanted over the 2/3 days that we are at RPR and will make use of the fantastic pool area, shopping, and again chill out before we have to come home - savour the moment - you know? Places to eat will also be flexible, we have included where we'd like to go - if the day goes to plan!

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Happy planning everyone! It really is the fun bit! Next job - packing!

[KittyBlackDog]

Your countdown is looking fantastic! Bet you are all so excited.

We've got 4.5 weeks left of school and are only 2 weeks behind you. It's getting so close!

Love all your spreadsheet planning and your update of your great organised weekend. It feels really real when you start to print stuff off and get THE folder ready 😃

[mrsstitch]

Originally Posted by KittyBlackDog

Your countdown is looking fantastic! Bet you are all so excited.

We've got 4.5 weeks left of school and are only 2 weeks behind you. It's getting so close!

Love all your spreadsheet planning and your update of your great organised weekend. It feels really real when you start to print stuff off and get THE folder ready 😃

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Thanks for reading! Yes hugely excited and feels very close now-I like this part of the build up-the anticipation
Enjoy the next few weeks of your build up-not long now!

[CazP]

Love your trip plans
We check in okw exactly a year after you! Look forward to seeing what you think of it

[adrian-sara]

Loving your plan, I am still torn about whether to include a beach day when there is so much to do at the parks. Great idea to include Cabana Bay, the water slides look fab!
Sara