Let's do it all again - April 2017 Pre Trip Report

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Florida 2017
Let’s do it all!

Pre Trip Report

So, here we are again!

First of all thank you to everyone who posts on here, once I know we’re going back I spend so much time on this site, I love reading about other peoples trips and experiences, it really does help with our own planning!

You might want to grab yourself a drink, this is a long one!

You have been warned!

So, we knew we were going to go back in 2017, we’d decided whilst we were in Florida in 2015! It’s good to have something to look forward to, and knowing you’re planning on going again makes it a little easier when you have to head home!


The cast this year is just the same as last year, but in case you’re new to my reports, or you’ve forgotten what we look like, here we all are!

First up are Alex and I

Mum & Dad

Marilyn, Wayne & Julia

Alex & Will

I will warn you now, there is a lot of planning info in this part of the report, feel free to scroll past, I won’t be offended!



Knowing we were planning on going back in 2017 was a good feeling, I did go into full planning mode, but not until the flights were released, as there’s only so much you can do until you have flights booked!

We talked about Florida all the time, and every time any of the Florida gang were together we’d talk about it, both what an amazing holiday we’d just had and also how much we were looking forward to going back. Little Alex was super excited because he knew that by then he’d definitely be tall enough for all of the rides! haha! Bless him, he was so sad when he couldn’t ride the Hulk or Manta in 2015!

Alex and I had quite a busy 2015 and 2016 to be fair, we had loads of weddings to go to, and September 2015 Alex turned 30 and I booked him a surprise trip to New York, so that was amazing, and definitely helped with the Florida blues, ha! We’d also bought our first house together, and got a puppy! Busy busy!

Here's Frank as a puppy

Before we knew it the Flights were out, and Julia and I definitely went into full on Florida planning mode! It was May/June 2016 and we were checking BA and Virgin prices daily!

Here's a little bit of an insight into my planning!

On 12 June 2016 the whole of the ‘Florida gang’ met up at Wayne and Julia’s house for an ‘America meeting’ we found flights and decided on dates 11/04/17 to 30/04/17
With BA the flights for those dates were £585.62 per adult flying from LGW-MCO then home from TAM-LGW

When entering the dates online for all 9 of us it came up as costing loads more! Dad called them and the guy on the phone said there were only 4 seats left at that price! He took all our details and said he’d call back on Monday. We gave him Julia’s number as she’d be home to sort it.

He called Julia on the Monday and poor Julia spent an hour and a half on the phone with him! She told him we could fly with Virgin for £525 (which was a price we’d seen, but that was for LGW-MCO and MCO-LGW rather than flying back home from Tampa)! Anyway, he matched Virgin’s price! So for £525 per adult we got the exact flights we wanted, and we get to fly home from Tampa which will be easier for us as we’re spending the last 5 nights of our holiday down on Treasure Island! Plus he gave us seats all together, without having to pay to pre book them! Definitely recommend calling them if you’re a large group!

So, the countdown officially begins!

302 days until Florida!

June 2016 little Alex turned 9, and he was tall enough for all the rides now! So there was only one thing to do to celebrate his birthday…..a trip to Thorpe Park! Alex and I went with them and we had a great day, little Alex was so excited to be able to go on ALL the rides, and it was perfect Florida preparation haha!

Now that the flights are booked we started looking for villas. Julia and I emailed loads! Mainly only ones on the BellaVida Estate in Kissimmee as this is our favourite estate. We got loads of quotes but didn’t book anything straight away! I then started planning a weekend away for Alex’s birthday, as we’d not been away since New York in September 2015! I arranged it as a surprise for Alex, and all the Florida gang came along too, apart from Marilyn. We had a great weekend, spoke about Florida a lot, and realised we really should get our Villa booked!

After our weekend away I emailed a load more villa owners for quotes, I found some amazing brand new villas on Storey Lake Estate, judging by the map it’s not too far from Smokey Bones on the 192, and this is a perfect location for us. I also emailed a load of places on Treasure Island, as we needed somewhere to stay for 5 nights there too.

We actually booked the Treasure Island accommodation before the actual villa! When we stayed on Treasure Island in 2015 we stayed at the Bilmar Beach Resort, the hotel is right on the beach and it’s lovely, but when you work out the cost per room (4 rooms) plus all the taxes and resort fees they add on, it’s not cheap, it wasn’t too bad when we stayed before, but the prices for 2017 had definitely gone up! So i looked for some villa’s and apartments that we could all perhaps share. One villa looked lovely, but you had to book it for a minimum of 7 nights, and they wanted $4135 for it. Then I found Beach Side Palms, right on the beach, a little further up from the Bilmar, and that meant a little closer to Caddy’s on the beach, which is a beach bar/restaurant that we love to go to. So, located right between where we’d be spending our days one side, and our evenings the other side, it seemed like the ideal place for us. They had enough rooms available, so we got booked up!
Mum and Dad booked ‘Fishtail Palm’ $735, Wayne, Julia, little Alex, Will and Marilyn have ‘Royal Palm’ $925 and Alex and I have ‘Traveller Palm’ $525 (all before tax) I know our room including tax is $593.25


5th October 2016 and it’s 188 days to go!

I set up a Florida 2017 group chat on WhatsApp! And informed everyone that we only had 8 days until we could start booking any ADR’s we wanted! As usual with this group of people the chat is silly, and there are jokes a plenty! Mainly from Wayne and Big Alex! All I wanted were some honest opinions and ideas! haha no chance! So I went ahead and booked Ohana’s Best Friends Breakfast, as we did this last time and we all loved it! William (hopefully) will love having his breakfast with Mickey again! We also decided that we’d book the Minion Breakfast at Universal, but I’ve not done this yet, so really should get it booked before it’s too late!
I also booked the Sci Fi diner as I think the kids will like it.

1st November 2016 and the WhatsApp Florida 2017 message is in action again!
Message from Julia: ‘Villa booked’! yay!

The villa we decided on is one of the new ones at Storey Lake. They’re still building on the Estate but all the villas are done, and I think it’s all due to be finished by the time we arrive, but it’s no bother if it’s not. The villa looks stunning, and it has a pirate themed cinema room! All the bedrooms look perfect, good sizes and good sized beds! I’m not sure I’m going to want to leave the villa! The price was supposed to be $5464.43 but he gave us a discounted quote of $3692.74 for a 2 week stay. Booked, deposit paid, balance to be paid in March 2017.


A lot of detail/costings coming up….feel free to scroll by!

2nd Jan 2017
I spend a huge part of my day looking at car hire and different options for us!
Now, we definitely need cars for our 2 weeks in Orlando, however, the last time we went to Treasure Island we just left the cars in the hotel car park and didn’t use them the whole time we were there. So, I suggested we pick the cars up at MCO as usual, use them in Orlando, then drive to Treasure Island, drop everyone off at the apartments with all the luggage, and then Dad and Wayne go off to Alamo at the nearest airport (Tampa or St Petersburg) to drop the cars off. Then get a cab back to Treasure Island.
I priced up all sorts of combinations of car hire, cabs to/from airports etc etc.
I think we all agree it makes sense, I searched all sorts and checked the dibb and also emailed the owners of the place were staying at on Treasure Island 🌴 to see what they recommend.

They replied and said the best Alamo drop off for us would be at St Petersburg Airport. They said you could get a taxi from there back to Treasure Island. And then use supershuttle to get us all to Tampa airport for our flight home. That's what other guests of theirs have done. It's exactly what I found while waiting for their reply!

Car hire prices look like this:

7 passenger mini van from MCO 11/04 dropping off at PIE on 25/04 is $891.22

Supershuttle/execucar from PIE to Beach side Palms for 2 people is $45
Or there are cabs on site for between $35-$45

Supershuttle from Beach Side Palms to TPA (Tampa airport) for 9 people is $100

If we hired a 7 seater mini van for the whole time we're there then it'd cost $1211.81 so it's $320.59 difference (obviously that's just for one car)

Today I also looked at ticket prices for the parks. I read loads of stuff on the dibb and one website that comes recommended for tickets, and that's orlandoattractions.com they are slightly cheaper than attraction tickets direct, but I couldn’t see that they do the Orlando flex ticket.

The ticket that will get you in to all parks is the Orlando Freedom Ticket (Attraction ticket direct) and is £645 for an adult and £612 for a child aged 3-9
It's called the Full Monty Combo ticket on the orlandoattraction site, and it's £606.40 for adults and £580 for kids
This ticket includes 14 days unlimited access to all Disney parks and water parks, Disney mini golf, also normal golf but some charges for this will apply, free memory maker, 14 days unlimited access to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. You also get free parking at SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch.
(Attraction tickets direct don't offer the free parking)

The usual universal ticket which is called the Orlando 5 park flex ticket is £339 for adults and £336 for kids. 14 days unlimited access to US, IOA, SeaWorld, Aquatica & Busch Gardens with free parking at S,A & BG

Orlandoattractions do a 14 day ultimate Disney ticket including memory maker for £295.20 for adults and £280 for kids.

The 14 day ultimate ticket + the 5 park Orlando flex ticket = £634.20 adult and £606 kids meaning the 'Full monty combo ticket' is cheaper.

From what I could see online, the Disney tickets that we could buy on the day are:
1 day is $164/$158 for a hopper
$124/$118 for Magic Kingdom
$114/$108 for Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom

2 days (hoppers) are $278.71/$265.93
3 days (hoppers) are $359/$339.50

I looked at other ticket options too, but these seemed the best ones.

Discovery cove with dolphin swim (includes 14 days at SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch with free parking) is £216 when we're there! As it's peak time!
Then (after reading the dibb) I saw that Thomson do the essential gold ticket which is £552
On attraction tickets direct the ultimate ticket for all parks is £645. With orlandoattractions it's £606. But with Thomson it's only £552.84 and you get free food discount cards etc! No brainer!

Sunday 15th Jan, Alex and I went over to Wayne and Julia’s house, and Little Alex and I made our countdown calendars….although we were a bit late in making these, as we usually make a 100 day countdown, we went for a 90 day, and just crossed a load of the days off straight away! haha!

After reading the dibb, I noticed a lot of people were still recommending Thomson for park tickets, a few had said they even got a discount on their tickets after going into the shop. So, I popped into our local Thomson store and asked if we’d get any discount at all, considering there were 9 tickets we needed, we wanted to get the Thomson Essential Gold ticket.
The price for an adult ticket was £552.84 and the lady checked with her manager and they said they would be able to do us a discount on them.

We arranged a Saturday when we could all pop in to sort the tickets out, as we’d need to pay on separate cards so each cardholder needed to be there, we booked tickets on 25th February, and got a £200 discount, which was nice. I think we paid like £528 per adult ticket in the end, this kids tickets were slightly less.
(on typing this, I checked the original price from when I messaged the gang on our WhatsApp group and clicked the link to the Thomson site out of curiosity, and the price is now £638.35 per adult)!

Sunday 26th Feb I booked us a table at the Planet Hollywood Observatory at Disney Springs, it’s Easter Sunday so we thought it best to avoid the parks on this day, but we didn’t want to waste the day, so figure we’ll have a lazy morning and then go to Disney Quest for the last time ever! Then have a wander round Disney Springs, and dinner at Planet Hollywood! I can’t wait for the burger with mac and cheese in it! And one of their giant milkshakes! I booked it for 8 people as it wouldn’t let me book for 9 of us, it said I had to contact the restaurant to book for 9 people, but I had no luck doing that, so booked for 8 and we’ll just deal with it when we get there, Will is only 3 and will still be in his pushchair so hopefully we can squeeze him in! haha! fingers crossed anyways!

I also booked the Universal photo package today, we had it last time and we got a load of great photos, so it’s definitely worth getting, we went for the 14 day package this time so we’re covered for the whole of our stay, it wasn’t a lot more than the 3 day one. it was $139.99, which between 7 adults is a bargain!

A busy day for booking stuff…..I booked us in for the Minion ‘superstar’ breakfast at Cafe La Bamba, I’ve heard mixed reviews about this breakfast, but we’re not too fussed if the food isn’t amazing, I think it’ll be worth it just to meet the characters! Everyone loves a minion! this was $34.99 per adult, and 20 something for the kids. Dad called the USA and confirmed our time slot, as although you book the tickets for the date you want online, you then have to call up with your reservation number to get your seating time. Ours is for 9.15am, so not too early which will please most of the group!

Wednesday 8th March I ordered Mapmans map, the 7th edition, we always get one when we go, it’s a brilliant map, although our villa estate isn’t on it! Worrying! haha! I think because it’s such a new estate it’s just not showing yet, I sent a message to my friends who live out there and asked if they’d been up to our villa estate to see if it exists! They said it does, and not to worry! Phew!

Saturday 11th March I received a delivery of inflatable drink holders for the pool! I ordered one for each of us, 2 flamingos, 1 palm tree, 1 watermelon, 1 pineapple, 3 donuts and 1 lime (I think that’s what it is anyway)! ha!

Saturday night Alex and I went to the Red Dog Saloon for American food! It was really good, I of course sent a picture on the Florida WhatsApp group to rub it in! It was really yummy, not as good as actual America, but yummy all the same.

So excited for Florida now!

Sunday 12th March is 30 days before we go! Which means one thing!….. Fastpasses!
Actually all I could do today was link our tickets to the MDE app, so I went onto the myparkticket website and typed in our reference number and then got the Disney ticket reference number and linked them to MDE. Easy, worked straight away (I’d read a lot of people were having problems, so I was glad it worked ok for me)
I told the group I’d done this and said to have a think about what fastpasses they wanted. We’ve actually never booked them in advance before, we mainly get tickets for universal etc, and then just do one mega Disney day, but this year as William is 3 when we travel, we know he’ll love Disney, and to be fair, as we haven’t done all of Disney in such a long time it makes sense to do it all this year!

I also sent a link for a car hire company I found on the dibb, discount Florida car hire. They have some really good prices, so Dad and Wayne will take a look at that.

Tuesday 14th March was fastpass day for Magic Kingdom! I went straight on at 11am (as our clocks hadn’t changed yet) the only time I could get for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was 21:15! I booked it! We’ve never been on it, so it’s one we wanted to do, and we were planning on staying for the fireworks anyway, so we’d still be in the park at that time! I also booked Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. We figured we’d get fastpasses for the rides that not everyone would go on, as it’s pointless getting them for the rides we’ll all go on together, as we’re happy to queue as a group, but it’s not fair leaving Mum/Marilyn/Julia and Will waiting for us when we do the big rides.

Saturday 18th March was EPCOT fastpass day! I went onto the app at 11am again, NO fastpasses for Frozen! at all!
SoI just went for Soarin’ and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Monday 20th March was Hollywood Studios fastpass day! I got Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror and Star Tours. yay!
Dad sent a message to say he’d booked the car hire with discount Florida car hire, it was £515 for a 7 seater Dodge Caravan picking up from MCO and dropping off at PIE, perfect.
Wayne and Julia then booked theirs, same deal.

Tuesday 21st March was Animal Kingdom fastpass day!
I went for Expedition Everest, Dinosaur and Kilimanjaro Safaris!

This week I put together a folder full of print outs of restaurant menus! Mum takes forever to decide what she wants to eat, so at least this way she can flick through the book and browse the menus in advance of going to the actual restaurant hahaha!

I also made a little shopping list book, that we can put on the fridge.

I ordered a Revolut card after reading on the dibb about it, I thought I’d get one, I’d got some actual cash dollars recently, and only got 1.18 but with the Revolut card I got 1.24, slightly better. I’ll also use my credit card out there, it’s just good to have a few options.

Alex had been in contact with our friends who live in Florida, and the boys were planning on playing golf out there with Dave, Dave is going to book the golf for both the Saturdays that we’re in Orlando. They played last time and loved it. So they’re really looking forward to doing it again.

Monday 27th March I updated our itinerary and realised we still aren’t going for long enough! haha! There’s just so much to see and do, and so many places we want to go eat at!

I sent the itinerary to the group, I sent a screenshot of the spreadsheet, rather than inviting them to be able to add and amend it, I really don’t trust Wayne! haha! I’ve printed out a giant itinerary and laminated all the different restaurant names, and parks, places we’ll go etc, I did one last time and we had it on the breakfast bar at the villa, we used it mainly so we knew what the plan for the holiday was (roughly) but also to make sure we did everything that we wanted to do, we don’t want to miss anything out! Wayne however loved to stick everything on the wrong day, or everything on the same day! Basically he loved to mess it up! Child!

Tuesday 28th March I started doing some Treasure Island research, we’d been a few times before, but as we’re staying somewhere different, and we’re going for longer, it made sense to have a look at what else was about. I sent the group links to a load of restaurants, mainly! (the most important thing)! Seems there’s lots of yummy places we’ve not been to yet. Got a good idea of where everything is in relation to our beach apartments, also saw that the beach trolley stops right outside our apartments, so that’s helpful considering we will be car less for this part of the holiday.

Wednesday 29th March, Julia and I went holiday shopping, got a load of stuff which is good! Primark had loads of Disney stuff! We were very childish and got matching Mickey Mouse rucksacks for the parks! I also got a Mickey Ear baseball cap (from H&M)! I love it!

There was only one place to go for lunch today, and that was Five Guys! Amazing! A little taste of Florida right there!
Of course I shared a photo of it with the rest of the gang!

Sunday 2nd April - SINGLE DIGIT DAY! Woo! Wrote up the pre trip report, usually I leave it until we’re back home from our trip, but thought I’d be a little more organised this time! Especially as I’ve gone a bit OTT with all the info! Sorry guys! And well done if you’re still with me!

It’s probably a good place to stop with the pre trip report, I can’t think of anything Florida related that happened that you need to know about, other than maybe some more shopping! Oh, I know what shopping I did do that I’d forgotten about, and that’s to order some Zhuzh tan accelerator. I’ve used it a few times now and it’s one of the only things that really helps with my sun spots/prickly heat. I heard about it on here years ago, so gave it a go, and it is really good, and I seem to get a better tan using it. I usually get a bottle of it about a month before I go, and start using it at home. But I’d forgotten to order it, so put an order in, in the hope that it’d arrive in time! There was no option for any other delivery than royal mail 2nd class.
I emailed customer services and they replied to say it was already out the door and on it’s way to me. It arrived about 5 days before we went, there customer service was fab, the lady emailing me was so nice, she said if I didn’t receive it by the Wednesday then let her know and she’ll send one out next day delivery for me. But it was all good. I let her know I got it and she wished me a lovely holiday!

Oh, and one other bit of shopping that had to be done was….. a new suitcase! Mine had been used a lot! It was one of the IT ‘worlds lightest’ cases. I thought it’d be ok for one more trip, but as I was filling the case I panicked that it may not survive this trip, so decided to get another case! We end up picking the case up the day we were leaving for the guest house! last minute.com!

The Sunday before we went I did Julia’s ‘holiday nails’ for her, she decided on a mixture of colours and the end result William named ‘Flingo’ haha! He was very interested in me doing her nails and kept asking us questions about what we were doing, so when we asked him what colour they were, his reply was Flingo! Cute! (they pretty much were a Flamingo colour)

Stash of chocolate for my friends who live in Florida!

Oh and I'm sure we all watched this too! We miss them by a few days!

Ok, enough waffle from me! Let’s get on with the trip!

Again, thanks for reading! It was a long one! Sorry….

[Gemelos]

So looking forward to reading the rest of your trip reports! Thank you for posting

[katebush95]

So excited for this I love your reports 💕

[florida girl]

The drink holders for the pool are so cool 😊 Can I ask where you got them from my lot would love them.

[Rach78]

Great pre trip and your puppy is so cute by the way. What breed is he?

[MrsG1973]

Really interesting! We are planning our first trip to Florida for Easter next year, so some useful tips!

[MrsG1973]

I have just read your whole trip report! I loved it. Brilliant! I like all your food pics and cocktail pics, that is so me! LOL I really liked your photos. I'm definitely getting me some Minnie ears

We are first timers planning Easter next year. (11 of us) I'm a bit worried now that we have gone wrong with our first bit of planning. We have booked our (DIBB) villa before our flights. But then again, we are tied to those dates, as I am a teacher and the kids have school. So, it's Easter holidays for us.

I really want to get a couple of beach days in also now I have read your trip reports.

MrsG1973

[Guest]

Originally Posted by florida girl

The drink holders for the pool are so cool 😊 Can I ask where you got them from my lot would love them.

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They were from eBay!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Gemelos

So looking forward to reading the rest of your trip reports! Thank you for posting

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Originally Posted by katebush95

So excited for this I love your reports 💕

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Thanks guys!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Rach78

Great pre trip and your puppy is so cute by the way. What breed is he?

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Aww thank you!
He's a chow chow! He has his own Instagram if you want to follow him! frankthechow

He's the best