Beauty & The Beast take THE CHIPS & Co on thier first Mickey Adventure - Nov 2014 - Pre Trippie

[cintabelle]

I have made an Index for my Pre Trip Report, so you can find updates quickly & you don't need to scroll through the Chit Chat. Hope you enjoy my Planning...








The Family

Accommodation & Flights

Itinerary - Days 1-5

Itenerary - Days 6-10

Itenerary - Days 11-15

Belle's & Mrs Potts Long 'To do List'

Food Glorious Food

Keep Calm - Slight change of plan

Advanced Dining Requests

MVMCP

Shop til U drop

A little Disney warm up

Ticket Traumas

Three Biggy's Booked

Special Birthday Treats

Holiday Clothes purchased so far

ADRs are booked!

A Big Holiday Purchase

A dress fit to meet a Princess

Exciting News! Pre trippie within a pre trippie!

Invites by The Lovely Sarah

Let the 'Paying' commence

Mini Break in Chester

Very Important Update... DD Dance!

My Birthday Surprises - Holiday Kipling!

A Special ADR is booked

Cuteness Alert! Charley Chip in her Cinderella Dress

We are in the 70's - Photo's & Bling

The Perfect Last Day

The 60's - The PERFECT Dress!

The 50's - The practical planning & all things Girly!

1D Nightmare!

The 40's - $$$

Disney Nail Art Designs

The 30's - More Holiday purchases and new additions to my Holiday shopping list

The 20's - The exciting new addition to the plan!

The Teens - Fast Passes & Disney on Ice

Important decisions to be made.. help needed! (Nail Art!)

Single Digits - IL Divo sing Disney & Sparkly Converse

Day 4 - Final Countdown & Halloween

We fly tomorrow - Anniversary Meal


INTRODUCTION & MEET THE FAMILY

I have FINALLY finished my 1st ever Trip Report... (Yeah! ) We went to Florida in November 2012 , I started the trip report in 2013 and finally finished it in March 2014! I would like to say good things come to those that wait... However, being my first trip report, I feel there is lots of room for improvement!

Here is Beauty & The Beast, 5th Wedding Anniversary, if you want to have a peek!


So I have decided to start a Pre - Trip report for our next trip. I promised myself I would not start this pre trip report until I fully completed the 2012 report!

Hopefully I will have learned from my mistakes and I can create a Master Piece this time around!

I am currently planning two trips, a 2014 trip with Family and a 2015 trip, to celebrate my 40th! (I really can't be turning 40... I think I am trapped in the mind of a 20 year old)

Now being a trippie novice, I think I will just stick to my 2014 pre trippie report for now! ... But watch this space, if I get into the swing of everything, there might be no stopping me!

2015 teaser... I am hoping to stay at The BoardWalk and Grand Floridian, as it's a Special Birthday! I am just waiting for April, when Disney release their packages. I am hoping for free Disney Dining but if it isn't available, it won't stop me from booking. If anything I think it will just allow me more flexibility. I just need to be REALLY nice to Hubby from now till April! (Only 4 weeks - I think I can manage that!)

Ok... So I think I need to explain my choice of Title! I certainly need to clarify, that I in no way think I am Beautiful! Likewise, I do not think my Husband is a Beast... But he is my Big, Gentle Giant with the Biggest Blue Eyes and Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney movie EVER!

The 2nd part of my title suggests that we are not making this trip alone! This will be a Family affair. My Wonderful Mum turned 60 last year and we had some great celebrations but we also planned a Family trip to Orlando. We couldn't make it work for 2013, so we planned and have subsequently booked for November 2014.

I think it's time I made some introductions...

Myself - Jacinta (Belle) - I will be 39 when travel (I really need to change the 3 to a 1)



This will be my 5th trip to Florida and with each trip I have just fallen more in love with the place. So much so... Last year we had a change and we booked a Luxury 5* holiday to Mexico (a lot of people's dream holiday), yet as I sat on the runway to leave I was just so disappointed that I wasn't on the Virgin plane that was sat next to us. It was the Manchester to Orlando Flight! I would have given anything to have been able to swap planes at that point!

Now I have to admit, I am an OCD Planner! I make lists & plans galore... Think Military Precision Planning! We recently had our first Family Disney Planning night and I had prepared packs for everyone! I even had highlighters and Mickey Post it Notes, so that everyone could make notes! My Brother even joked that he had been to meetings with his MD, that involved Millions of Pounds and they didn't contain as much detail as my Disney Planning Packs!

What they don't realise is this is only the START! This is just for the initial plans... We haven't even started on our ADRs!

This holiday is a new challenge for me, as I am planning not only for me and Paul but for my family, including 2 young children. So I have had to adapt my plans a little. We would happily be at a park for rope drop and not leave till gone 10pm but I know this isn't going to be practical with young children.

Here is my Florida Top 10 - I tried to do a top 5 but it was just too hard!

1. Wishes (makes me cry every time)
2. Discovery Cove - with or without the Dolphin Swin, it's just such a relaxing Day
3. The Beach House on Anna Maria were we stayed in 2012 (hoping to stay again in 2015)
4. Hollywood Brown Derby
5. Funnel Cakes
6. The Boardwalk at night
7. Shopping!
8. Disney Animation at Hollywood Studios
9. Splash Mountain (my favourite ride ever)
10. The atmosphere of CityWalk at night (love Margaritaville)

My Wonderful Husband - Paul (The Beast) - He will be 36 when we travel



This will be Paul's 3rd trip, his first being our Honeymoon in 2007, where he also fell in love with the place.

Paul totally gets the amount of planning that is needed to make sure the holiday runs smoothly but he is very happy to leave all the planning to myself. He kindly reviews my plans and adds his two pennies worth at the end but doesn't really appreciate the daily and hourly conversations about ADRs, shows, parades, busy days...

He found it highly amusing when I was handing out my planning packs to my shell shocked family! I think he was just grateful that someone was sharing his pain!

Paul's Florida Top 10 he would have quite happily just given me 5 but I pushed for 10!
1. Breakfast Buffets
2. Manta @ Seaworld
3. Rip Ride Rocket
4. One Ocean - Seaworld
5. Driving home for parks at Sunset
6. Blooming Onions
7. Cheesecake Factory
8. Illumations @ Epcot
9. Looking forward to Transformers ride (not done this before)
10. Watching his wife's face watching wishes (Arghhhhhhh)

My Beautiful Mum - Sandra (Mrs Potts) - it would be rude to discuss age but the title kind of gives it away!



My Mum had never been to Florida, in fact the longest she is flown is 4hrs. She is a nervous flyer, so is a little concerned about the flight.

However she is going to have her 2 grandchildren with her and I can imagine that a 3 & 5 year old on a flight will soon make it fly by!

My Mum owns more Disney DVDs than me and she is not far off owning every single one! She like the oldies and Cinderella is one of her favourites.

Although Mum has never been to Florida, she joined the Dibb and very quickly another planner is born! Paul says - Like Daughter like Mother! I have created another Disney Monster apparently! Lol

She is even telling me things that I didn't know ... She is my partner in crime when it comes to the planning!

The flights are in her name (as she has treated us all to the flights) and she was getting very worried about being responsible for booking our flight seats! Fortunately, she has worked out that the day we can book our seats is a Sunday, so she will be popping to my house to do it. We will be paying for seats together.

My Mum LOVES all things Christmassy, so of course Mickeys Christmas Party is a must do on this trip and I can't wait for her to see it all!

My Brother - Kieran (Lumiere) - 35

My Sister in Law - Sharon (FiFi) - 36







Kieran and Sharon have never been to Florida either, they have travelled to the states before, when they visited New York.

They have pretty much left all the planning to me & Mum, Kieran's only request was a trip to Kennedy Space Centre.

We had our initial Family Planning night a couples of weeks ago and I think they were taken aback by the amount of planning needed. I mean how do you explain to a newbie that you need to book some restaurants 6 months in advance!

Kieran is usually like me and needs to know every little detail of everything but he is quite laid back around the planning. He just asks that I don't go silly and extravagant with things (he knows me too well) as he will have to pay for 4 on what ever we decide to do. So Victoria & Alberts was out! Lol

I am hoping nearer the time, he will get a bit more involved but as Paul keeps telling me, it's difficult for someone to get involved when they haven't been before! I think it's a Male thing... My Mum seems to be managing it fine! Lol

My Gorgeous Niece & Nephew - Charley (3) & Harrison (5) - (The Chips)




I am so excited to be going to Florida with my Niece and Nephew and to see Disney through their eyes!

Charley is into the Princess's and loves Minnie Mouse. She is not a thrill seeker (well as far as a 3yr old goes!) and is a bit anxious about rides. So we don't quite know what she will ride at the moment, if anything but she will love all the characters. If she wants to ride the t-cups, she will be riding alone, as non of us can do spinny rides.

Harrison on the other hand is a total Thrill Seeker and the issue will be trying explain why he can't ride rides like The Hulk!

A year ago, he was obsessed with Cars but he has grown out of them a little bit and now it's all about the Marvel Hero's! So I know he is going to love IOA!

Although when he sees the Cars, I am sure that he will be excited to get a pic with them.

So because of these two bundles of fun, I have had to change my planning a little! I am trying to take into account that little ones won't want to be in parks all day and I am trying to fit in pool time and early Dinners.

So that's the cast and here is a pic of us ...






I don't have a pic with us all and the children, so this will be one of the first things on my TO DO LIST in Disney! (We will be purchasing the Memory Maker)

So introductions are out of the way... Watch this space for my first planning instalment!

[cintabelle]

Where to start?! ...

So with 225 days to go, how far are we with our plans?!

Well the very first thing we did was try and find the perfect Villa. We had some tough requirements for the Villa...

1. It had to be on a gated community
2. As close to Disney as possible
3. At least 5 bedrooms - Kieran wanted the kids to have separate bedrooms.
4. Ideally we wanted 3 double bedrooms on the first floor, with en suite. We didn't want my mum in a kids room, we wanted her to have a proper double bed. It's surprising how few offer 3 double beds!
5. This is a family holiday of a life time, so we wanted a really 'Nice' villa that was decorated nicely. We did not want to be allocated on arrival.
6. It had to have a large heated pool.

I was personally thinking here would be perfect...






But unfortunately, it doesn't have a heated pool! Gutted!

So as my first choice was not a goer, I turned to the Dibb and had a look at what Dibb had to offer.

I found the PERFECT Villa, it was by far NOT the cheapest but it ticked every box and I definitely believe you get what you pay for! As we have 2 little ones travelling with us, I can imagine us spending a lot of our evenings here, if we are not at Fire work displays ect. So it's important it's perfect in every way!

After I showed everyone pics, we all decided that no other one would come close and we now had our hearts set on... Drum Roll...

The Windsor Hill Retreat, at the Windsor Hill Resort. It just looks soooo lush!

Dates had already been decided, Friday 7th November 2014 to 21st November. A quick email to Natasha and the Villa was booked and deposit paid.

WE HAVE A VILLA!





The villa was booked in April 2013... I can't believe it is 12 months since we booked the villa, it only seems like yesterday.

Here are some pics of the Villa, I just can't wait be here!





















The next think we had to do was sort our flights out. We knew we wanted to fly with Virgin, from Manchester.

The flights were released at the end of November 2013. Initially the prices were coming out at about £800 per person! OMG!

I told everyone to sit tight, we would keep our eye on the prices and it may be best to wait for the January sales. We monitored the flights through Dec and there was very little change in price.

Fast forward to Saturday 21st December, it was my works Christmas Party. We were staying over at quite a swanky hotel, we had checked in and we were towards the end of our 1st bottle of Bubbly! I get a text from my Brother advising the flight prices were down to £530 & should we book!

I was tipsy off Bubbly, I would have agreed to book at any price! I was quite relieved when I checked my text in the morning, it was only £530 that I agreed to. I was actually really pleased with this price, it was the same as what I had paid in 2012!

Here is a pic of the two of us on the Christmas Party... I was one Happy Girl!




WE HAVE OUR FLIGHTS BOOKED!







So I have now updated you on everything we have done so far... Dates Set, Villa Booked & Flights Booked!

We have still so much to do but it's now a bit of a waiting game...

I am waiting for the Novembers Park Guide to be released (hopefully next month) and my ADR windows to start (May). I am just sooooooo impatient! I need to be planning something!

I have a 'To Do' list of things we still need... It's quite lengthy!






My to do list so far...

1. Book and pay for reserved seats on the Virgin flight
2. Book a night at Hard Rock for EME to both Harry Potter Lands
3. ADR - Brown Derby Fantasmic package
4. ADR - Tusker House for Breakfast on 1st morning
5. ADR - Breakfast at Cinderellas Royal Table
6. ADR - Be our Guest (hopefully)
7. ADR - Narcooses - Mum is having the Children and just the 4 of us are going for a nice meal.
8. Purchase Disney Tickets
9. Purchase Universal Tickets
10. Purchase Discovery Park Tickets
11. Mickeys Not So Scary Christmas Party tickets
12. Book Bibbity Boppity Boutique for Charley Grace
13. Purchase The Disney Ribbons for everyone! (I love these)
14. ADR - Ohanas
15. Book Memory Maker
16. Order Magic Bands
17. Link everyone on MDE
18. Look into Tables in Wonderland Card


Disney Ribbons... Incase you were wondering!







It's actually quite scary seeing the list written down!

I am also sure that I will be adding to it on a regular basis!

In fact, as I am typing this I have forgot one of the most important things! I need to find a loving home for these little 2 for 2 weeks!





This Alfie & Matilda, the 2nd and 3rd loves of my Life! Alfie is 2 and a total Angel! Matilda is 6 month old and... Well let's just say, we named her appropriately!

They are not going into kennels, I am hoping to book them with someone who looks after Puppy's in their own home!

May 2014 is going to be frantic, as not only will I be booking ADRs ect... I will hopefully finalising and booking my 2015 trip!

Which will mean another Pre - Trip Report! - Hmmmm what to call it?

Beauty & The Beast Celebrate Belle's 40th!

Watch this space... My next update will be the first draft of my Dibb Trip Plan!

[rens]

LOVE the Beauty and the Beast theme of your TR!
The villa looks amazing
Happy planning and I hope you all have a great trip!

[cintabelle]

Originally Posted by rens

LOVE the Beauty and the Beast theme of your TR!
The villa looks amazing
Happy planning and I hope you all have a great trip!

See more...

Thanks so much... The Villa is a Dibb Villa & we are so excited to stay there for 14 nights! X

[vanlou]

Great start - looks like an amazing trip you have planned

[cintabelle]

Originally Posted by vanlou

Great start - looks like an amazing trip you have planned

See more...

Thanks.. I am looking forward to my first trip with the family!

[jovimum]

We have the same dates as you AND planning on doing Tusker House on our 1st morning! See you there then! ;-)

[cintabelle]

Originally Posted by jovimum

We have the same dates as you AND planning on doing Tusker House on our 1st morning! See you there then! ;-)

See more...

Awwww... Wow... We will see you and Donald in November x

[princess1706]

Love your pre trippie and wishing you luck for ADR!, that's the next thing we are waiting for.

Also love the disney ribbon, are you able to tell where you got this from please?

Many thanks xx

[cintabelle]

Originally Posted by princess1706

Love your pre trippie and wishing you luck for ADR!, that's the next thing we are waiting for.

Also love the disney ribbon, are you able to tell where you got this from please?

Many thanks xx

See more...

Thanks for reading... I hate waiting for ADRs, I think once they are booked, I will relax a bit.

Here is the link for the ribbons. http://DIBB.in/6722705

It was stationary Guru.. A fellow Dibber! I was so pleased with our ribbons and we got lots of lovely comments on them!