The Ultimate Star Wars Experience - February 2020 **the final countdown**

[RachaelC]

This is my first ever pre-trippie and will be followed by my first ever trip report as I've never really thought before that my holidays would be interesting enough to write up before, until now... So here goes.

Who are we?

I'm Rachael, aka Mum, aka Chief Family Organiser. The first time I went to Florida was 1989 and I've loved it ever since.

The second member of our cast is Rob, aka Dad. Rob's first trip to Orlando was in 2007 courtesy of Tesco Clubcard points (in the days where you could practically fund a trip just through the bonus points on Birds Eye frozen beef in gravy) and he loved it too. Which is handy as we were engaged by that point and if he hadn't liked it there then this story may have had a very different ending. We subsequently went back at least once a year until 2016.

We're joined by Ethan, 9, whose first trip was at the tender age of 6 months. He is a total Star Wars nut and he regularly engages us in lightsaber fights in every day life. It's not a surprise that his favourite holiday destination is Orlando.

Finally, bringing up the rear is Holly, 1. This trip will be her first Orlando experience and we can't wait to take her. She doesn't know it yet, but she will also be a big Florida fan.

The Ultimate Star Wars Experience

A friend who works for Virgin Holidays sent me a text message on Wednesday morning, with this link in it...

virginholidays/the...ars-experience

Immediately it was obvious that the 2 boys in the family would absolutely LOVE this trip and before I knew it I was on the phone to VH and they said they would email me a quote. Then, 4 hours later I'd booked it.

This is very unusual behaviour for me, I usually overanalyse to the nth degree, re-do the budget ten zillion times to check that we can afford to go away without committing to living on beans on toast for 10 months beforehand. I'm not sure what came over me - is this a good indication of the beginning of a mid-life crisis?

The Details

We're flying from Gatwick on the 15th February on a special flight just for the people taking this package - I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I'm hoping than Han Solo and Chewie will be at the helm.

We are then spending 7 nights at the Caribbean Beach Resort with the QSDP and a few special events taking place:

There's a special Star Wars Dessert Party one night (I think it's the day after arriving)

We get a Star Wars themed meal somewhere one night and get to hear from one of the Imagineers who designed Galaxy's Edge.

We also get an exclusive one hour in Galaxy's Edge before the park opens - this should be EPIC!

I think that's covers everything that we get included - the rest is up to us. We'll just spend the whole time at WDW, and rely on the transport systems there which will be a big departure from our usual trips - we generally hire a villa and drive everywhere.

Some initial thoughts

Are we crazy taking a just-turned-two year old to this?
How will be cope spending 7 nights all sleeping in one room?
OMG could I be any more excited despite the above?

Oh, btw, the only people that know about this trip are you, me and Rob, so please don't tell the kids if you see them