The Adventure Begins - Pre-Trip Report

[tink111]

Welcome to my pre-trip report which I’m calling ‘ The adventure begins ‘

Im titling my report this because I’m hoping that once this trip happens it will be the first of many … I’m praying my boyfriend loves Orlando just as much as I do and we go back every year

After two canceled Florida trips I was unsure whether to even write a trip report, but as time has gone on I'm feeling confident about this trip going ahead… we are now at less than 4 weeks to go!

The Backstory:

In September 2020 we had a big family trip booked but of course this got cancelled! We were due to do a week in a big villa with my side of the family and then head off on our own to Disney for a week staying in POFQ. We had free DDP with this stay so needless to say in comparison this was great value!

We then booked to go in December 2021 for my dads 60th , again a big family trip! The same kind of plan - big villa for the first 9 nights then 9 nights at AKL just the two of us. Turns out we could have gone on this trip but with all the testing and lockdown rumours me & my sisters decided to cancel. Mum and Dad did make the trip and had a fabulous time!

This holidays plan is completely different to the last two as it will only be the two of us travelling. Whilst this is was disappointing it has given us freedom to book exactly what the two of us want without having the input of others!

Anyway enough of the ghosts of holidays not travelled, on to my revised plans for our March holiday - third time lucky right?

I decided to pull the trigger on this trip and book in the BA boxing day / winter sale. Having just cancelled the December trip I was eager to book another - even if this did mean booking without a Disney package deal. I had priced up many different holiday combinations and when I found one I was happy with I rang to use our voucher. The lady on the phone quoted me over £500 less than the online price so in my experience well worth calling rather than booking through their website.

Who’s going:

Like I said we’ve gone from 8 to just the two of us! Theres me, Claudia, Disney mad & cannot wait to return to Florida. We used to go every year when I was growing up so the Orlando bug kinda just stuck!
Then there’s Reubs, Not so Disney mad … in-fact he’s only been to Disneyland Paris once when he was a lot younger so doesn’t really remember it. That being said he’s pretty excited for our trip now and I think he will love the experience.

What we are most excited for:

Me - Staying onsite at both resorts! Disney fireworks, rides & parades… oh and the FOOD! And Individual Park wise Volcano bay as this will be a first to me & Hollywood as always as its home to my fave ride TOT!

Reubs- The whole Orlando experience. Park wise - Epcot as he wants to take on the around the world challenge… I’m not so sure ill be able to keep up for this one!

The plan:

We are flying from Manchester - Orlando with Aer Lingus. We have never travelled with them before so this will be a new one for us! The prices were great though and we much preferred travelling from Manchester than London as we are only down the road!
As I mentioned I had a BA holiday voucher to use for this booking and when I last booked they didn’t offer anything from Manchester that was direct so this was a nice surprise.

We will be staying in Orlando for 2 weeks doing a split stay between Disney and Universal.
For the first part of our holiday we will be spending 9 nights in Coronado Springs. We booked a water view room and already made a request for cabanas 8a/b as it looked close to everything!

Initially I was a little sad we weren’t booking AKL again but I just couldn’t justify the £2000+ difference in price, particularly without the ticket & dining credit package this time! After doing my research CSR looks perfect for us and im really looking forward to it.

On Day 10 we will move across to universal to stay at Loews Royal Pacific and will stay here for the rest of our holiday. When I rang to book I managed to get a really good upgrade price for club level so which near enough covered the extra so we decided to go for it anyway.

Ive never stayed at any universal resort and I can’t wait to stay here -the express pass bonus is awesome too! Im aware we are staying in spring break season so think these passes will be really handy.

I have booked Universal 14 day tickets & Disney 14 day tickets so we can come and go as we please to each park through the stay. Im pretty sure we will visit the respective parks whilst on site at each resort but we may dart back to MK whilst staying at Universal - I made a reservation just incase.


We are true foodies so the dining is something that I’m really looking forward to… on to the ADR list!

Dinner Reservations:

Ohana
The Boathouse
Mortimo Asia
Grand Floridian Cafe
Sanaa
Trattoria al Forno
Teppan Edo
Skipper Canteen
Vivo Italian Kitchen
Cowfish

Other Reservations:
Wine Bar George ( lunch on our Disney check out day… not sure if we will keep this)
Ogas Cantina
Boma (breakfast)

On my snack list:
Funnel Cake
Pizza / Cheeseburger Springrolls
Cheshire Cats Tail
Loaded Mac & Cheese - of any kind
Mickey Waffles
Dole Wip
Gideons Cookies
(Pretty sure this list will grow)

Not sure how I feel about the spring rolls or dole wip… but after reading all they hype I’ve got to try them!

Ive pretty much got ADR’s everyday at Disney aside from our arrival day & a day at Epcot to experience to festival food! This may be too many and I’m willing to cancel some if we find it a bit too much… but we love an evening meal so think we will do them all!

Ive only booked 2 ADRs for Universal as we will try and use Club level where we can!
We may skip the Italian at WDW and choose to go off site one night too -decisions decisions.

With only a few weeks to go we are starting to get things sorted! New suitcases, lanyards ordered for our Universal tickets, Disney masks bought for transport & we will be going holiday clothes shopping next week! My parents bought us magic bands on their recent trip too, so I will link these up before we go too!

I hope to try and post up my report each day of my holiday but if I start to be too busy with the magic I will post it once I return home in April…

The report will be mainly food based but I’m gonna try and include a few other things too so I won’t label it as a food report as such

My actual trip report will be less wordy and ill be sure to snap some good photos instead

Thanks for reading my waffle!

[levtweeney]

We love Loews Royal Pacific. I remember well sitting on the boat at the end to a very busy day, feet aching, floating to our hotel. It was so lovely to relax for those few minutes. The rooms were also nicer than a Disney moderate.

Post loads of pictures, love a good trip report. I will be following along 👍

[tink111]

Originally Posted by levtweeney

We love Loews Royal Pacific. I remember well sitting on the boat at the end to a very busy day, feet aching, floating to our hotel. It was so lovely to relax for those few minutes. The rooms were also nicer than a Disney moderate.

Post loads of pictures, love a good trip report. I will be following along 👍

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Really excited about that part of the holiday! Hoping itll be a bit more relaxed for us after disney! Thanks for reading!

[unixgirl]

I've heard good things about Coronado Springs. Enjoy your holiday.

[Twinkle-Dolphin]

Looking forward to reading more about your trip

[mick]

Looking forward to reading along


Joan

[P&S]

Sounds like a fab trip! Staying at Universal is always so great and Loews Royal Pacific is a lovely hotel A lovely walk to the parks and the rooms are so comfortable

[tink111]

Originally Posted by P&S

Sounds like a fab trip! Staying at Universal is always so great and Loews Royal Pacific is a lovely hotel A lovely walk to the parks and the rooms are so comfortable

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Great to hear things like this! Can’t wait to stay there 😊

[Goldia]

Not long now for you to wait, just 3 weeks. It sounds like you're going to have a fab trip. I'm looking forward to reading all about it.

[dismamx2]

Sounds great, can't wait to read your trip report. We did a similar stay many years ago on our first trip, 9 nts CSR in the cabanas and 5 nts RPR. We've been back to RPR many times since but never got back to Coronado, it really is a lovely resort and holds lots of great memories for us