Five Little Ones Take The Adults, A Pre-Trippy

[Lisa29]

***Updated with crafty items, posts 106 and 115***

Well, I have been umming and ahhing for a while over whether to try and do a pre-trippie or not but I have decided to go ahead and do one to add to the excitement!

I am Lisa, I am 31 and I LOVE Disney and all the planning that goes with it. I will get on with the introductions and pictures in a bit as there are quite a few!

The one with a little bit of background
This will be my seventh trip, the first being in 2000. I have been very lucky in that each trip has been different, either it being other people’s first trip, our honeymoon, or our eldest’s first and second trips at 11 weeks old and then aged just over 2.

We were supposed to have a big family trip in 2008 at Christmas but my sister and her fiancé had to drop out as she was 37-ish weeks pregnant when we travelled. This left just the rest of us 8 adults and 1 baby going. We had a brilliant time and said that one day we would all get there together.

Myself, DH, DD, my parents and my other sister and her boyfriend then went again in 2010 and again had an amazing time. We got to stay in a 2 bed at Kidani Villas, had 2 nights at Vero Beach, a night in the Marriott Cypress Harbour, a night in Royal Pacific Resort and then 5 UNBELIEVABLE nights in a grand villa at Bay Lake Tower. Despite having family to go home and see, we were gutted at having to come home and spoke about when we would return.

We hoped to go in 2012 but decided to go with 2013 to have more time to save. We discussed it as a family and decided that we were all going to go so the saving and planning started!

The one with the where and when
My Dad works shifts so we were tied to his holiday dates. We were hoping he would have time off in September, October or November and luckily he did so we were able to go with September 25th to October 10th.

We spent lots of time in 2011 pricing up Saratoga Springs with free dining for 2012 to get an idea of prices and were just hoping the offer would continue for 2013. Thankfully it did and we were able to book 15 nights in two 2 bedroom villas with 14 day tickets and free dining with the $200 gift card at Saratoga Springs, direct with Disney. Cue lots of excitement!

I will come back to more of the planning as I should really start on some introductions!

I need to figure out photobucket so will start a new post for the intro’s…….

[Guest]

Hello looking forward to reading more. Im going to start a pre trippe soon but have no idea were to start

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by Tink 1982

Hello looking forward to reading more. Im going to start a pre trippe soon but have no idea were to start

See more...

Hi Tink! I was the same but just decided I was going to give it a go. I will refer back to the MANY brilliant reports I have read to get some ideas!

I am just trying to figure out photobucket at the minute but can't work out how to get the pictures in there. Think I will have to wait for DH's help with that.

Thanks for reading.x

[Guest]

Looking forward to it and getting to know you all. Ive got a 1 year old as well as a 3 year old. So we'll probably be planning a lot of the same stuff to do

[Lisa29]

Right, I am stuck with PB so I am going to do the intro's and will add piccies in a few days when I can get some help from DH.

The one with who everyone is
I apologise now as we are a BIG family group. There are 15 of us in total, 10 adults and 5 little ones.

Here goes!



Me, as I mentioned before, I am Lisa and I am 32. Absolutely love everything about Orlando and wish we were able to go more often. Maybe one day! This is my seventh trip.



DH, Phil, 32. He loves Disney when we are there but can’t get excited beforehand. He has a little bit of input in the planning but really can’t get his head around booking ADR’s at 180 days out! This will be his fifth trip.



DD1, Madison who is 4 but will be celebrating her 5th birthday whilst we are there. She loves dancing, swimming, Snow White, swirly dresses, Disney holidays, Center Parcs holidays, reading and all things girly. This will be her third trip.



DD2, Kaley who is 18 months old but will also be celebrating her 2nd birthday on holiday. She is my little baby and loves Winnie the Pooh and her doll and pushchair. She also loves sitting down and ‘reading’ a book and will not leave my sister alone. This will be her first trip.



My Mum, Lorraine, 54. She is absolutely amazing and everything she does is for us or her grandchildren. She also loves Disney and saves up year round to be able to go back to Orlando every year. Mum is most looking forward to seeing her grandchildren walk up Main Street together. Mum has been on 10 plus trips, can’t remember the exact number.



My Dad, Mick, 56. Is also amazing and does all he can to make sure that my Mum is happy along with the rest of us. He is more than happy to keep going back to Disney as long as they do something different each time. Dad has been the same amount of times as Mum.



My youngest sister Danielle, 27 when we go. Is like me and my Mum, loves all about Orlando and the planning involved. She is the favourite Aunt! This will be her eighth (I think) trip.


**
My cousin, Marie, 21. She is Dan’s plus one and another favourite of Madison and Kaley. She is looking forward to everything after hearing about it from us and is happy to go along with whatever Dan likes as they are so similar. She is very happy to be 21 so she can enjoy drinking around the World! This will be her first trip. **She doesn't wear hats like this, just tries them on in shops!



My brother, Ryan, 25 whilst we are there. He also really likes Orlando, especially the eating out and shopping. He is very excited to go this year. This will be his fifth trip.



My sister in law, Ryan’s wife Bethany, 25. She really likes Disney and is helping with the planning. Is like me and doesn’t like the big rides so ends up being the bag holder. This is her second trip.



The final member of our trip is Ryan and Bethany’s daughter Piper. She is 6 weeks old in this picture, smiling at her Daddy. She is very cute and we all just want to hold her at the minute. This will of course be her first trip.

I haven’t checked it is ok to include my older younger sister and her family so I will just mention them. They are Michelle, Jamie and their two daughters Sydney and Kori. They booked to go to Disney last year on the Friday afternoon and went on the Sunday! This will be their second trip together as a family.

I feel it is only fair to point out that I only mentioned that Ryan likes shopping but we actually all (besides my Dad and DH) like shopping and are looking forward to this quite a lot!

The one with a bit about their birthdays
I mentioned Ryan, Madison and Kaley will be celebrating their birthdays whilst we are there. They actually all have the same birthday! I don’t think Ryan minds too much sharing his birthday with two little girly girls. I will just have an 18th and 21st to look forward to on the same day, not very good planning there!

[Lisa29]

Ok, I figured out PB on the app on my phone but can only do pics from what is on my phone so I will add pics of my Dad, Marie and Bethany as soon as I can.

[Guest]

Great intros! Your kids are lovely

Piper is soo cute. Ive just been made an auntie too this week. My little nephew Hayden is 2 days old. Its so nice being an auntie all the cuddles none of the work!

[Lisa29]

Thank you. I love the name Hayden for a boy, congratulations on being an auntie!

[Lisa29]

Right, I will get on with some of our plans.

The one with the flights
We had decided quite a while ago that we wanted to go from Manchester as it is closer and easier to get to. However, when the prices were released for flights for our dates, Manchester was ridiculously expensive. My mum, Dan, Bethany and I were checking daily to see if they came down at all. They didn't and gatwick flights with miles and money were cheaper. We were trying to weigh up the pro's and cons of both and decided that after paying out for a more expensive overnight hotel and more expensive parking, plus the very long drive, we did not want to go from gatwick.

So we kept waiting and checking and then finally in December, the prices were under £600 for the first time so I booked ours and called Ryan and he booked theirs. We are on the 11am flight from Manchester, the last time I checked online, this is the airbus.

Typically, on the Thursday after booking the prices came down even more so Mum and Dad booked theirs and then Dan and Marie did a bit later on the same afternoon.

The prices went back up again so Michelle had to wait to book theirs. The prices just kept going up and up so they ended up having to book on the later flight out but got on our flight home. Luckily, they got a really good price for premium economy on the return so they have the added benefit of that. We are of course a teensy bit jealous of this!

I hope I don't regret it but I was told that if I booked Kaley as an infant, as she turns 2 whilst there, she would get a seat on the way home at no extra cost. So I have paid an infant price for her and me and Phil will take turns holding her. I booked extra legroom seats too so hopefully this will help a bit! I just didn't realise that these seats were at the back and I had wanted to be closer to the front. Hopefully Ryan, Bethany and Piper will get bulkhead seats and then Mum, Dad, Dan and Marie will get seats closer to the front so they can get off first and get our luggage!

Does anyone have any tips for having a just about 2 year old on their lap? I am hoping with lots of distractions and wandering the plane she will be ok.

The one with the hotel and parking
I kept checking online through topcashback for any good offers on meet and greet parking and saw one for 39.99 for park and fly with a further 10% off plus cash back so booked it. I paid the £2 extra to be able to cancel so paid £37.99. Can't remember how much the cash back was, a couple of pounds I think, so I was really happy with that.

My Mum booked theirs about a week later and got the same price. They are taking Ryan and his family with them. Dan's boyfriend is taking them to the airport so no need for her to book.

Michelle stayed at the Premier Inn North last year and said it was a nice hotel and convenient so when we saw that we could book for £41 for the night before, we got that booked too. Again I got a bit through topcashback. We didn't pay for the dinner and breakfast as we will have breakfast at the airport in the morning. We may have dinner there, it depends on what the traffic is like on the way up.

****************************************

Well, Madison is due to finish dancing soon so I will leave it there. I have lots more plans in place and some bits I ordered have been delivered today so I will be back soon with some more updates.

Thanks for reading x x

[Lisa29]

Ooh, didn't mean for that to be a link to TCB - hope that is ok?