April 2013 - Our last hurrah! - Pre Trippie

[Hannikins]

It’s all in the name…

I always struggle to think up a name for my trippies. You want to give people an idea of what to expect and you want it to stand out from the crowd so people remember it’s yours. For this trip I didn’t have that problem, it was always going to be “The Last Hurrah” since that is how we’ve always referred to this trip.

Travel back with me if you will to a warm Orlando evening in 2009, our last of our holiday in fact, and Adam and I are taking a walk down the river at Port Orleans Riverside resort…

We discussed how fab the holiday had been, what an amazing few years we had ahead while we (I) planned our wedding and when we would possibly find the time to return. We’d been bitten by the ‘Disney Bug’ you see.

We knew there would be a wedding and honeymoon in 2011, certainly no funds for a holidays in 2012 (hehe! how wrong we were!) so that really only left 2013 as the earliest opportunity. 2013 would mean Adam was 31, i.e. ANCIENT to my 24 year old self! With this in mind we joked that it would probably be our last chance to visit Disney before we looked to start a family. We joked about this and the idea of trying to make a little “Walt” or “Ariel” on the trip… I’ll leave it there ;P

ANYWAY from that point on we always referred to this trip as “The Last Hurrah” As time passed we realized we are far from ready for that stage in our lives and should we be blessed one day with the possibility of a little Walt or Ariel (no, I’m not serious…. but don’t tell Adam!) then fantastic…. But not until I’ve at least been the Tokyo Disney in 2014….. and possibly the west coast again in 2015…. Yeah, as you see, not happening anytime soon ;P

[Snowball24]

Bless you, at 24 you have loads of time ! Its great having kids but certainly enjoy the time before you do, its never the same again!

[Guest]

See you in Tokyo ;-)

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by Snowball24

Bless you, at 24 you have loads of time ! Its great having kids but certainly enjoy the time before you do, its never the same again!

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lol I'm 28 now... but that's what your late 30's is for right?!?!

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

See you in Tokyo ;-)

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ooo are you going in 2014 too?

[Hannikins]

June 2012 - Maths was never my strong point be here’s the overview of my plan!

We returned from New York and DC in May under a cloud of gloom, I had nothing to PLAN! This hadn’t happened in years! With this desperate need to plan I started to test the waters with Adam on the possibility of a florida trip in 2013, after all, hadn’t he PROMISED we could in 2009, men have such selective memories don’t they ;P

We talked about what we’d like to do, and after I’d vetoed Adam attempts to include Clearwater or SOMEWHERE not in Orlando (I’d love to go but without a car… well maybe “next time” ;P ) we ended up with the following:

• Spending longer at Disney
• Staying onsite at Universal

We don’t want much then ;P

We decided that although we’d liked May the rain had been a complete bummer so we’d try for a little earlier hoping that meant slightly less rain. After consulting plans we decided on approximately the third week in April

And for the budget? I had to bring all accommodation, flights etc in for less than £1,500… PER PERSON!

So I started to DIY…

I came up with a rough plan

• Disney 7 nights (Disney first so I wasn’t completely sad when we left!)
• Universal 2 nights
• I Drive 7 nights

This came to £3560…. Well that’s close enough to £3,000 right?!?!

Adam didn’t think so, it was back to the drawing board.

We visited lots of travel agents next, Thomas Cook had treated us well in 2009 but not so much on this occasion. First Choice were about the same and Virgin were down right ridiculous. This was turning into a nightmare. In 2009 we had a similar plan and that cost us £1750 oh how times had changed!

A week later, after excepting our fate and on a complete whim I visited the virgin store again and cheekily asked if they would price match my DIY holiday price (which was now slightly less!) AND price match the ticket prices I had meticulously researched. It must have been a bad week for them target wise, because THEY AGREED! We had a plan!

• Virgin flights 18th April – 4th May
• 7 nights Saratoga Springs with Free TS DDP & $300 giftcard
• 3 nights Hard Rock Hotel (you see I’ve added another night in there ;P)
• 6 nights Enclave Suites
• All transfers between hotels

Total Cost – Virgin cost £4757.28 …

Minus Price match discount of £859.28 ….

Gave us a grand total of £3898

Ok so this was more than the original but it did include tickets this time £688 pounds worth in fact! So the total was really £3210 so not a million miles off!

[Guest]

ooo are you going in 2014 too?[/QUOTE]
Yep just not sure what time of year :-/ The saving starts this month :-) Will be keen to read more of your planning etc :-)

[Hannikins]

August 2012 – Plans change

While browsing the dibb I noticed a lot of threads revolving around a virgin ‘sale’ now I know you shouldn’t look at flights after you’ve booked them… but I did

THEY WERE OVER £200 cheaper…. EACH

I didn’t panic, I had a plan. I would cancel the flights from my booking and rebook them myself via virgin atlantic.

First I called the virgin store I had booked with…

They said I could simply cancel the flights and rebook them at the new price if they had the same flights prices. She would check and call me back…

… She called me back, yes they had the cheaper price available but if I wanted to do this I would need to cancel the whole holiday. This wasn’t an option because I would loose free dining AND the $300 giftcard from the Disney promo… so not really saving anything!

I wasn’t giving up. They advised I rang the call centre as they had slightly more sway…

I did and this time I would be able to cancel the flights and just pay the £35 per person amendment fee, still saving me a few bob! Although when I looked at the new price it was higher than expected. I had thought the refund would have been the flight price I had got them to price match but as the price match discount is attached to the whole holiday not individual parts of it they can practically decide how much is would be. Can’t really complain though, it was my fault I wanted the change everything and it would still save me money, I was just grateful they would even let me do it in the first place!

They tried to talk me out of it obviously pointing out that I would loose my transfers and the opportunity to use the v room but still all that wasn’t worth the £227.87 (after cancellation fee) I was now saving.

I cancelled, paid the £70 cancellation fee and booked the flights direct with Virgin Altantic.

Worth the effort? YES! my final price was now £3670.13

Without tickets that's £2978.13

I'D DONE IT! flights and hotel for less than £1500 each

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Yep just not sure what time of year :-/ The saving starts this month :-) Will be keen to read more of your planning etc :-)

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great news! I haven't even properly started looking into it yet, hoping to start when I get back from WDW. A few people seem to be going this year so I'm hoping to learn some tips from their trippies like a did for the west coast

[Hannikins]

September 2012 - a sneaky addition

When I had cancelled the flights I had been told that it was no longer a 'package' and so therefore I would be unable to use the vroom, however my booking number hadn't changed. I tried it. It didn't work. But the error suggested it was because it was too far in advance, not because it was invalid, so instead I emailed the v room booking address with my details and booking ref and low and hold we were in! That's an additional £40 added to the pot!

[Hannikins]

So we will be staying at three hotel during our trip, here’s a run down

Disney – Saratoga Springs
We had originally planned and priced up to stay at port orleans riverside again but on realizing that our favourite manors were now ‘themed’ we were a little put off. Realising that to go with POR and upgrade to DDP was more expensive than staying at a deluxe villa resort and getting it for free that sealed the deal for us.



We then only had to choose between OKW and SSR. We plumped for SSR in the end due for three reasons

• Close to Downtown Disney
• Balconies on with studios
• Bed and Sofa instead of two beds

I’m still undecided about where to stay area wise. I think I may plump for Congress park if I get the option. I like the idea of the views and the convenience of walking to Downtown Disney to get a bus to other hotels, useful for some of our likely ADR’s

Hard Rock Hotel

We couldn’t decide between Portofino and HRH as for our dates they were coming out at a very similar price. We’d visited Portofino on our last trip and thought it very beautiful.



However in the end we decided it was probably a little too quiet for us and instead plumped for HRH



Besides I liked the idea of a few margs by the pool at night, more on that later.



Enclave Suites

Pretty rash decision this one. We looked at homewood suites and rosen inn but the price for the enclave was just to darn good and we find it's location handy.



We stayed here last time after Adam remembered it being good when he went as a child. Well I got to see exactly what he did because nothing had changed since he was a child! Our room looked like this, but very tired



This might have been the worst hotel room we’d had back then, but more worryingly is that since then we’ve been spoiled somewhat so I’m hoping it’s no worse than I remember!

Who knows, maybe we’ll strike lucky and get a refurbed room. It must help when virgin have their desk in the hotel as well… wishful thinking maybe.