Things can only get better now April 2022 - will we make it to Disney?

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I have an essay due, well overdue and it's so incredibly difficult I'm procrastinating with this

We have booked OKW! Direct with WDTC - an expensive way to do it but with the peace of mind that we can get our money back if we cancel. We've also booked AOA for our first night - it was coming up cheaper than the Hyatt MCO and our flights mean we should be getting to Orlando early afternoon (keep everything crossed for this kids we have not got a good track record on transatlantic flights - last time we were due to arrive on an early flight we got to OKW at 11pm - our plane was delayed by lightening).

So all going well itinerary is:
9/4 - 10:50 LGW-MCO landing at 15:10 (fingers crossed - apologies to anyone on this flight if my bad luck hits)
Uber to AOA staying in a Little Mermaid room.
Theming here will be lost on our party I expect but hoping to get a good dip in the pool and pick up a QS tea. My brother is staying here for the duration in a family suite as he has 3 kids, two of whom are older teens and the second bathroom is going to come in handy.

10/4 - Has to be a MK day right! Disney transfer our luggage and we are booked for 5 nights at OKW - we have a 1 bed villa booked and I'm so excited - been on touring plans picking out which room to request.

We haven't bought tickets yet - I'm wondering whether to add them to our WDTC booking or go through Attraction Tickets - do we still get the discount if we add later?

We are going to do Universal as well
15/4-17/4 we have booked Royal Pacific Resort - figuring that the fast pass would be needed in April.

And then on 17/4 we pick up a car - and transfer to a lovey villa we have booked through VRBO for all 8 of us. Thinking some time in the malls will please the teens and also considering trying to get to see some sports over there. We'll have 14 day tickets to Disney and Universal. Fine detail hasn't been planned yet.

Out of park restaurant recommendations would be gladly received!

Just need the good people at US Gov to confirm that our teens will be able to travel and I'll start getting really excited.

Ordered these this morning to give me a bit of a Disney fix.

Might cook some waffles at the weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary..

Oh and Alton Towers was.. okay.. we did write to them sharing some frustrations we encountered and advising they visit the Mouse for some ideas on better food offerings and customer service, they gave us a voucher for a return stay at a significant discount - just pondering when to/whether to go..

And finally in other travel news we've got Eurostar tickets we need to book by the end of the year - the kids and Jason don't want to do DLP Apparently you can do too much Disney?

Now I feel I need to think about clothes - where and when do people travelling in Easter buy summer outfits? I haven't seen much in the sales. Last time I went at Easter I had to pay full price for some bits. As a woman of Cardi heritage that really did sting.

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Still procrastinating. Have researched getting to the airport. Looks like there is a 5:50 train from our local station that gets to Gatwick at 7:25 - perfect! We have done airport hotels before and we don't sleep at all - last time we said we'd rather get up in the middle of the night and drive because at least we get some sleep. Train for the 4 of us with our railcard seems to be about £100 return - can't book next April yet but put in similar dates in March. A room with parking works out a little more than that and if we go the night before we have to fork out for dinner as well.

Must stop looking at plans until a) I've finished this bloody essay and b) I know for sure the teens can travel. Don't know what I'll do if they can't. Isla's school sent out information about covid vaccines on Friday and she should be getting her first jab in a couple of weeks. Dylan will still be 11 when we travel so not a concern. Keep thinking they can't ban teens from travel to the US indefinitely can they? Everything crossed for a positive announcement on the details soon..

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I just booked park tickets! Feel my optimism

We bought combined tickets from Floridatix using discount code YAY5 to get 5% off - which made me feel much better about parting with 2 months salary for theme park tickets! Hopefully they will arrive sharpish and we can link up with MDE and book park days - I can't see us having any issue getting the dates we want but Jason is fretting about this.

We have also booked RPR and a villa - I can't really remember what we booked villa wise, but it has a pool and the gazillion beds we need with so many teens which is what matters, Jason and my brother are happy.

I've bought a couple of T-shirts for me in the sales. Not sure when to start shopping for the kids - they keep growing - but it's only 6 months away now?

Need to add the rest of the family to my Disney accommodation booking - only me on it so the deposit was low - I'm planning to wait and do this when we absolutely definitely know we can go. I'm feeling like I'm 80% confident at the moment. Isla has had her 1 vaccine dose, I'm assuming my nephew has and my niece is 18 so will be fully dosed up. It's sounding promising.

Things to do:
US to confirm we can travel with teens
Plan itinerary with DB
Buy holiday clothes for the kids
Add rest of the family to Disney bookings and pay balance
Book train tickets to and from LGW
Book park days
Arrange cat sitter

I think that's it - lack of dining plan and fast pass really is cutting down the planning! I might need a new suitcase as I broke the zip to one in a lift at Hard Rock Hotel in London...

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So I thought I'd do a quick update after the fantastic news yesterday! Of the 5 children in our party one has now turned 18, one is 16 and one is about to turn 14 and so I was really nervous that they wouldn't be able to travel. The USA finally released details of entry requirements and all under 18s travelling with fully vaccinated adults are to be treated the same as those fully vaccinated!

So now I can get properly excited and tie up all the loose ends on the trip knowing that the last hurdle is us all being well and testing negative 3 days before departure.

Our tickets arrived!

A little disappointed that they are the 'old' ones and not the 50th anniversary ones - going to get some funky magic bands to make up for it . We got these through Attraction Tix with a 5% discount, still eye-wateringly expensive but this is to be our absolutely last 'once in a lifetime' trip and the first, and I suspect last time we are going to do Universal and WDW in the same trip.

I've linked the tickets to MDE and booked park days for the first week - I can't yet do anything with Disney Genie, which tells me I haven't linked my tickets - the phone app looks a bit of a mess and not terribly easy to navigate, lots of time before we go and hopefully will improve - impatient to try the new thing!

So left to do we have -

• Estas
• Travel insurance
• Add rest of the family to the Disney hotel booking and pay the balance
• Buy holiday clothes
• Buy new suitcase
• Book ADRs
• Book train tickets to the airport
• Book covid tests
• Work out a plan to get from MCO to WDW on arrival day

I'm toying with trying to get our OKW booking as a DVC rental - not sure how easy that would be at such a busy time, I'm going to work out the cost difference and decide if it is worth the bother of trying. We can cancel with WDW until quite close to the booking time so...

We've looked at restaurants and still aren't sure what to book. I'm tempted by Olivia's, I'm not dead keen on the Space 220 place but the others might be, other than that I think we may stick to QS and lounges. I'm so excited about Blaze and Polite Pig

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Last few days were a bit stressful weren't they - thankfully the concern about children being asked to quarantine was finally resolved and we are now (almost) certain we will be able to go - keeping everything crossed that illness and other disasters stay away from our family and travel in general!

I've been looking at travel insurance, multi-trip works out cheaper than single trip (no idea why) which means there is no point buying that until a month before we go as you can't start it more than a month after you buy it and we're going nowhere until 9/4.

We've booked our park days and paid off the credit card.

My lovely mum has taken my niece and nephew for their first covid jabs. My niece has started her first job, she has an apprenticeship working in a pharmacy - apparently some customers have been really rude - what is wrong with people?

I looked at the cost of booking OKW through renting DVC points - if I go through Dave's then it's a saving of £550ish over our cash booking with Disney - if we can get availability - that's an awful lot of cocktails.. still feeling a bit nervous about it though - not sure why? I think the only thing that would stop us travelling now is a positive covid test or some other illness before we travel and our insurance would cover that..

Isla turned 14 today! Growing up so fast, she is such a lovely kid, she wanted to go and see my mum and stepdad today, they decorated with balloons and got crackers in for afternoon tea! Last year we could only see them outside and for a while not at all - last Christmas we did presents in the garden around the firepit - it was so cold - think the next 12 months is going to be emotional as we reflect on what has changed. Thank god for the vaccines and those amazing scientists and volunteers that stepped up to the trials.

Still to do:

• ESTAS - Done
• Book train to LGW Now all going in a minibus which is booked
• Book tests
• Book insurance Done
• Add everyone else on to the WDW booking Done, and paid balance
• Order magicbands - waiting to see the cost of the new ones and also need to consider the DVC points option..
• Buy clothes for the kids
• Buy a new suitcase (or 2, not actually sure what we have) Got a new Tripp one in January sales
• Think about travel from the airport - is ordering a Lyft still straightforward or do we need to pre-arrange something?
• Watch all the DFB YouTube videos!

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Thought I'd do a wee update.
I have finished all my essays! Just the small matter of a thesis to write but I'm putting that off until after Easter. Plan to do some decorating and give everyone a bit more of my time for the next few months.

Have had Dylan off school with some sickness bug for a couple of days - LFT tests say it isn't covid - almost hoped it would be, get it out of the way before the holiday, currently 10% of the kids in the secondary school I teach in are off with it, numbers going up every day, feels like it's only a matter of time. But what will be will be - keeping everything crossed - feels like a dark shadow over everything still somedays.

I have sorted out insurance - I've changed our current account to a FlexPlus, which for £13 a month gives me worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone cover and breakdown cover as well as no transaction fees on foreign currency transactions.

Have also applied for ESTAs which didn't automatically approve and are pending - trying not to worry about that.

Getting close to 60 days out and wondering about ADRs - tempted by the Boathouse. With 8 of us going I don't think we want to book many sit down meals - finding stuff that 8 people are happy to eat might be a bit of a mission - but one or two would be nice - need to chat with my bro to see what his family fancy.

Really starting to get excited - so sick of the UK weather now - can not wait to feel that Florida sunshine!

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ESTAs are all approved!

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What to do on a rainy Sunday? Update my pre-trip report!

Dining has opened for part of our trip - we want to go to 50's Prime Time - which we have done before and had a great time - and we have a late lunch/early dinner reservation for that on one of our HS days.

Really hoping my brother and his family will enjoy it - I always get a bit stressed worrying about everyone else having a good time - db (probably quite sensibly) has pretty much opted out of planning anything and is going along with all of our plans, in one way this makes things easier - but I'm feeling the pressure to make sure he and my niece and nephews have a good time.

We also want to go to The Boathouse - but haven't managed to snag a reservation yet - hopefully something will come up for our second week, which according to Touring Plans will be much quieter.

We are mostly there with holiday clothes - I brought quite a bit in preparation for our August last year holiday - thankfully I'm the same shape and it all fits. Did treat myself to a mickey hoodie for the plane - I've read a couple of report on here saying some of the BA flights have been quite cold recently - so I'm taking this:

Will be super bulky to trapse around FL with but should keep me snuggly until I get there.

DD14 still needs a swimming costume/rash vest and shorts - if I point anything out she instantly hates it so I'm keeping quiet - may well be shopping when we get there for her..

We've ordered Magic Bands - the selection seems to get smaller everytime I look, and everyone except me found one they liked so we went ahead and ordered. I do still have one from our last trip, or I might treat myself out there. As we have a split stay I can still order at a discount if something I like comes up.

Tried to explain to my brother he could order one - he didn't really get it - why would he want one when he can use his phone? Why indeed? I'm probably a sucker for spending out on stuff I don't need. I'm normally really reluctant to buy stuff that is frivilous, especially plastic stuff - Disney does strange things to me. They are super useful in the water parks though right!

I've also seen that Disney do horseback riding - I really would like to book this - need to see if DB and his kids want to do it too - annoyingly his youngest will be too young - but DB and I used to ride often as kids (literally nothing else much to do where we grew up near the fens) and his eldest two and my kids have had lessons before. Jason is not keen, worried he'll injure himself. So will see who is up for it and try to book that soon.

Haven't booked tests yet. Still half hoping the requirements might relax - 6 weeks seems a long time in a pandemic.

DB has been able to book seats on the flight FOC - his booking must have been put through as a flexi-ticket. We can't - so waiting until OLCI.

Booked a minibus to take us all to the airport - not much more expensive than the train and a bit more relaxed hopefully. Booked Skippy Transport minibus from MCO to AOA as well - much cheaper than Mears - we'll see when we get there if it's a good decision - Google reviews are positive.


Got out the suitcases and we do need another one.

Think that's all our disney news - been playing around with itineries on Touring Plans - which I think will be really useful, especially in the first week when the parks are going to be really busy. Think we are really going to miss fast passes! It is what it is though and my goodness I can not wait to feel that Florida sunshine!