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Old 24 Jul 19, 01:14 PM  
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AJ86
Excited about Disney
 
Join Date: Apr 19
Pre Trip Report – Can we go to Disney, Can we go to Disney, Can we go to Disney, Ca - September 2019

I do love a good trip report, think they are great ways to pay back after all the question answering I have asked, and if my ramblings can help 1 person then I will be happy!

So about us, there is me Mr H or Andy – I’m the travel planner when I’m not working I am always looking at and planning us holidays, so makes me chief, creator of spread sheets, planner, decision maker and more importantly hint dropper.
Then there is my wife Mrs H, she is amazing to me and will go along with my crazy ideas and do the things I have planned be it with some eye rolling involved.

As a couple we have been 2 times together to Florida, my wife has been a few more times as a child. Our first trip was for our honeymoon staying at the Cabana Bay for 6 nights before going on a cruise in November 2015, and second trip was June 2018, we spent 10 days, 5 at the Port Orleans French Quarter and then 5 at the Staybridge Suites at Sea World.

Please excuse the following rambling, read as much or as little as you like and I won’t be offended if you stop half way through. This is a little diary shall we say from the thought through to booking. It’s a long one so hope you are sitting comfortably! Sorry for the lack of pics, I’m not really one for being in front of the camera (Unless I’m at Disney!) and I’m sure you have all seen the stock photos of the places I am taking about!

Pre 17th May 2019
For the months before this I have been woefully looking on the Disney app looking at queue times and seeing how busy parks are, what rides are up and down and what has been closed to weather.
My Wife I guess is also getting pretty board of me recounting stories of trip reports I have read on here and recalling memories of what we did last trip. This is my also not so subtle way of dropping hints and putting the thought of another Disney holiday out there. Not that anyone should need pushing to go to Disney!

17th May 2019
We both have firm holidays dates booked at work, 2 weeks in September.
So the holiday planning begins, I look at all sorts of places, cruises, Asia, but my search always brings me back to the same place Florida. I look at some flights and hotels but not really in the position to book anything yet. We are having a new kitchen so funds are a little tight and more convincing needs to go to my wife.
As part of my search I go looking for park tickets and see an offer with Attraction Tickets Direct, around £15 cheaper each than Disney and you also get $20 each gift card. The offer is around for a couple more days so time to drop some more hints!

20th May 2019
I am sat at work looking at my screen, then that little voice comes into my head ….whooooo oooooo Disney ticket offer oooohhh. Argh ok, I work from home so no bosses around to tell me off, I go to ATD and see the offer is still on. Their marketing team are doing a great job with the count down timer and limited availability splashed here and there. Sod it, I grab my wallet and head to Quidco for a bit of cash back and before I know it I have placed £50 deposit on two 14 day Disney tickets, memory maker, $40 gift card and a load of other nonsense I will never use.
Ok, next step to tell my wife. I wait until after dinner until she is properly fed and watered and de stressed from a day at work, and casually drop it into conversation. I try and justify it to her with the fact parking is no longer going to be free at hotels next year, the tickets are cheaper than Disney and the free spending money, so it would be silly for us not to go this year! Not sure that she is convinced and that she thinks I have just paid out nearly £800 on park tickets.

23rd May 2019
It is a slow day at work and I go on the hunt for some flights, Virgin only have a handful of seats left, and only 1 flight running on a Saturday which is weird. BA have 2 flights both with plenty of seats. Next direct options would be Thomas Cook, TUI and Norwegian.
TUI are stupidly expensive for flight only and I don’t want to do a package with them.
Thomas Cook are not too badly priced but after recent news about financial difficulty and that they are putting the airline up for sale I am not 100% sure I want to book with them.
Norwegian next, I have flown with them when they first ventured into long haul, bagged some really cheap seats to New York, brand new Dreamliner. This time I see that the flights to Florida are going to be operated by Hi-fly, and after some digging I find the plane they have leased is a 19 year old ex Sri Lankan airlines A340. Just a note if you are planning on flying Norwegian and found on a Hi-fly aircraft look into upgrading to premium, you will get to bag a lie flat business class seat for a good price!
Looks like it is going to be BA out of Gatwick for us which at the moment is going to be £1063 for the 2 of us including a bag. I know £500 each is about average, but I’m still on the look out for cheaper options and look at indirect flights out of Heathrow.
Out of Heathrow there are some options around £300 mark which is not to bad and I would rather spend the £400 we save as spending money rather then fly direct, so binned the idea of BA from Gatwick and looks like its going to be United, Delta or American from Heathrow.
Heathrow works well for us anyway, we are in Hertfordshire so around a 45 min drive to Heathrow.

28th May 2019
I think my wife is coming round to the idea as well, as while getting ready for work this morning she brings the subject up and asks about what hotels we would stay at, progress!

Back at work and being half term week things tend to slow down a little, this gives me a chance to look busy by researching and planning out more of the Florida trip. Chances are I will book flights from Heathrow, and its not far from us, but the M25 can and 99.99% of the time is a car park so we like to spend the night prior in a hotel. So I go looking for overnight hotels and car parking as booking in advance as you all know you tend to get the cheaper rates.

So my second and third out of order booking is at the new Hilton Garden Inn at Terminal 2 for around £100 and car parking at Heathrow long stay T2/3 for £85. Both of these bookings are refundable so no money lost should we not go.

So far I have
1. Airport Parking
2. Hotel at Heathrow Airport
3. Deposit paid on Disney tickets.

So if all else fails we can have a night at Heathrow Airport and leave our car there for 2 weeks!

29th May – 6th June 2019

Not much to report in these few days, we have spoken about going to Disney and I think my wife is in agreement that it is now a good idea.
We both decide as well that if we are going to go back to Disney we need to start seriously working on some sort of diet. (says me demolishing a box of Cadbury’s brownies as I type this!) So go to the scales of doom and write our weights down and vow that by September the numbers will be different.
We are both on the larger size and although we do fit into the rides albeit using the pooh sized seats it would be nice not to have the panic before hand and potential embarrassment of not getting on.

14th June 2019

So I show my wife the flights I was looking at again and she give the ok and that Disney September 2019 is on woop woop!

So I waste no time at all in booking flights and so I confirm seats with Delta travelling from Heathrow via Detroit and then via Atlanta on the way home.

10th July 2019

It has been a bit hectic in these parts recently, we have been on holiday to Greece, the kitchen is nearly done, only the flooring, tiles and painting to go! So Disney has been put on a bit of a back burner. I have also had to go into London to work while the kitchen is being done, so can’t do much Disney planning with too many prying eyes. Today I am back at home so planning is back in full steam!

I have been looking at places to stay, and we loved staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter last time, but this year the prices have sky rocketed. Galaxy edge is due to open a couple of weeks before we arrive so this is not helping the situation. I have had a scout around on the US Disney sites as well and they have so much better availability and pricing that what is on the UK sites. I believe it is going to work out cheaper for us to stay off site and swallow the parking fees.

12th July 2019

I travel for work a fair amount and my company let me book via any site/agent I feel appropriate, so majority of the time when booking hotels I go via Hotels.com to take advantage of the stay 10 night and get a free night back in return. I have been saving these nights probably for the last year and a half so have a good few to use.

So after much searching for hotels the last few days, and seeing prices of the Disney hotels go up and down more often than a roller coaster I have booked a hotel for the first 8 nights of the stay.
I found availability at the All Star Music in a preferred room for around £1000, so with my reward nights redeemed it brings my total down to just over £500, so £63 a night, result! I don’t see many trip reports for the All Star Resorts so will be happy to give my verdict. So the first 8 nights are down just the remaining 5 to go. This is also a flex rate so If I see anything better along the way I will cancel and rebook.

15th July 2019

My quest to book the remaining 5 nights is on for today, I would again like to remain onsite but fear costing will be too high. looking over hotels.com again I see the Caribbean Beach Resort is available for the 5 nights at just over £1100. I use the remaining nights I have left against this part of the stay brings the cost down to a more manageable £400, so £80 a night for the CBR I think Is excellent value. This is quickly booked, so now have a decent itinerary in place, just need to pay the balance of the tickets, find a car hire and look at some Universal tickets.

16th July 2019

All change!
One of the main reasons for booking the Caribbean beach was for the fact of the skylinner and being able to get over to Hollywood studio’s fairly quickly, other than that I am not really sold on the resort, and then I read last night that they plan on opening it up end of September (I had presumed it would be open in time for Galaxy edge). So this morning I scout over Hotels.com again to see what else is available in place of the CBR. Then the All star Movies pops up, ok this is a better option I think than the All Star Music resort as some the rooms have been redone which I know we would prefer. I try to book into the ASM for the duration of the trip but it isn’t available for the first few nights. So I cancel both my stays at the All Star Music and the Caribbean beach.
In its place and hopefully my final decision I have booked the Port Orleans resort French Quarter for the first 5 nights, then the All Star Movies for the last 8, for the 13 nights accommodation I paid around £350 by using my reward nights so an average of £26 a night, not to bad!

17th July 2019

I realise today that I am within 60 days of travel, so I pay the remaining balance of my park tickets, and speak to ATD to see how long they will take to arrive, they say around 7-10 days so fingers crossed its 7!

18th July 2019

What great service, my tickets have arrived this afternoon, so I waste no time in heading over to MDE and adding them in along with the hotel details I got from Hotels.com.
Fastpasses are booked, managed to get a couple of goings on FOP as well! I have also bagged us a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest.

24th July 2019

My final pieces of the jigsaw are coming in, today I have booked my car hire with Avis, I am already a member of the preferred programme, so can just go straight to the garage to collect the car. I have also booked us Universal tickets on Under Cover tourist, buy 2 days get 3 free so why not!

So that’s about it, thanks for sticking with me if you have read this far! We are both really excited to be going back to Disney and can’t wait for the trip to begin!
I will do my trip report once back and will update you with anything that goes on!
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Old 24 Jul 19, 01:48 PM  
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Buggles94
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loved hearing how your holiday has come together - thanks so much for sharing! Will be following
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Old 10 Aug 19, 06:23 PM  
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AJ86
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Excited about Disney
 
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Originally Posted by Buggles94 View Post
loved hearing how your holiday has come together - thanks so much for sharing! Will be following

Thank you, I really can't wait to be there now!
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Old 5 Oct 19, 06:21 PM  
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disney73
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Love your detailed pre trip report, it's nice to see I am not alone in researching,then booking, then looking some more , then changing everything, it's all part of the fun😆
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Old 7 Oct 19, 03:37 PM  
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AJ86
Thread Starter
Excited about Disney
 
Join Date: Apr 19
Originally Posted by disney73 View Post
Love your detailed pre trip report, it's nice to see I am not alone in researching,then booking, then looking some more , then changing everything, it's all part of the fun😆
It most certainly is! especially when you think you have it nailed down then something else catches your eye!
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Old 10 Oct 19, 02:53 PM  
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minnie52
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Looking forward to reading along

Your way of dropping hints sounds very much like my own 😂
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Old 14 Oct 19, 02:31 PM  
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margyloveswdw
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Sounds good! Looking forward to reading all about your trip.
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Old 28 Oct 19, 12:52 PM  
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sammi71
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We are staying at All Star Music so will be interesting to compare notes
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