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Old 23 Jan 22, 03:25 PM  
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miked1e
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The one with the Celebrations - Pre-Trip - May 2022

We are now starting to get excited about our May '22 plans, thinking it is going to happen... maybe slightly different... but it will happen and we will be back in our Happy Place as a full family of 4 for the first time.

The title is very much a working title, and may change before we head off

We are away for 19 nights from 17th May to 5th June!

Us

This is us on a recent family holiday to Wales... enjoying the beach in typical UK weather (it was New Years Day).



Mike (me) - Main planner and big kid. Turning 38 during this trip and looking to Vlog this holiday! Tasked to get head around Genie+

Holly (DW) - Massive Disney enthusiast and professional blog/vlog watcher. Really looking forward to being there as a family of 4 for the first time.

Bobby (DS1) - Will be turning 5 whilst on holiday. This will be his second visit to Orlando. Probably looking forward to Jurassic Park @ Universal and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway!

Stanley (DS2) - Will be 9 months old when we go! Of course, his first visit!

This will be our 7th trip together DW and I having been 07,08,10,12,15,19 and we did have a 20 trip cancelled.

Celebrations

So why the title of the pre-trip... We will be celebrating 2 birthdays whilst out there, plus Stanley's first visit and also our 10th anniversary (in July but we are pushing the boat out with the plans as a celebration of this).

Plans so far

So this brings us to the plans that we already have in place with almost 100 days left til the holiday!

Hotels

Radisson Blu Manchester Airport - 1 night Exec room with runway view and lounge access. As a tradition we now always stay in the Radisson the night before any holiday despite living only 30-40 mins away. We just love how it starts holiday early and just take away the stress of an early morning journey before the flights.

Hyatt MCO - 1 night in standard view room. Due to the flights we are staying first night in Hyatt MCO. Never stayed here before, but really looking forward to experiencing it.

Hard Rock Hotel - 5 nights in Future Rock Star Suite. DS1 would love this room and gives us space as a family. Last time we stayed at HRH was our honeymoon back in 2012. Love being walking distance to the parks, but a little concerned at this point on the building work that is going on right now!

Disney Polynesian Village Resort - 11 nights in standard view room on the dining credit package. Again, a first in this hotel... was between this and Wilderness Lodge but with a double buggy and 2 young kids then we think this would be the best option for us with access to our 2 favourite disney parks... MK and Epcot.

Flights & Car

We booked a flydrive with VH before 11 months out, and having watched flight and car hire prices since then I am glad we did!

We are flying Virgin Upper Class both ways and have 16 days car hire for full size SUV (with Alamo) with full gold VH insurance (or whichever it is) which we are picking up the 1st morning after our stay at Hyatt MCO.

This is one of the reasons why we are staying at Hyatt MCO. As will have a couple of drinks on the plane, so won't be able to drive when we get to MCO. Also with hope of being conditionally approved for Global Entry we want to get this done straight away at the airport!

Driven in the States twice... once across Tennessee, and then in our California road trip in 2016.. approx 1800 miles.

Really excited to have a car in Orlando for the first time!

Parks

Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay will be the first part of our holiday!

We will probably split our time between the parks and come back during the day for some pool time at the hotel.

We also have a cabana booked at VB for the day before check-out. Really excited about this as we went to VB first time back in 2019 and absolutely loved it. This time we will be spending a full day here and know DS1 will love the kids area.

Disney parks - 14 day ultimate tickets. We are early risers so will rope drop most parks and normally stay there for the full day. We have a baby jogger double which both kids love, so if we stay full days then we have the shade and place for them to sleep.

However, I expect some days we will be back at Poly pool during the early afternoon especially when at MK or Epcot.

Seaworld - Not been here since 2012. Excited to get on many of the new rides, but more so watching the shows with DS1. Having watched Youtube videos he is really excited to see the Shamu show!

Restaurants

Still to finalise the list, but must-dos for us include:

Hard Rock Cafe
Cowfish
Toothsome
Space 220
Ohana
Homecomin
Teppan Edo
Chef Mickey
California Grill
T-Rex

Still to do

When we get 60 days out then booking the above restaurants and hopefully Savi's workshop for DS1 to build a light saber on his birthday!

Schedule Global Entry appointment if / when we are conditionally approved.

Buy Annual pass for Universal - at this moment for discounts only, but we may get another trip over Easter in 2023.

Think that's about it for now, but will update this thread as we go along. Hopefully get a pre-trip vlog don to explain a little more on how we booked everything, why we booked, and also provide more details on the plans for the days!

If any questions/comments/feedback, please let me know...

Thanks for reading!
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Edited at 06:40 PM.
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Old 23 Jan 22, 03:39 PM  
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WIGGYSMUM
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Your plans sound great 👍🏻
We love a pre travel night stay at the Radisson if we fly from Manchester the ease of just walking through the connecting walkway is great
Looking forward to your vlogs
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Old 23 Jan 22, 05:25 PM  
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miked1e
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Originally Posted by WIGGYSMUM View Post
Your plans sound great 👍🏻
We love a pre travel night stay at the Radisson if we fly from Manchester the ease of just walking through the connecting walkway is great
Looking forward to your vlogs
Same… just makes things so easy. Hoping that twilight check in may be available again for Virgin morning flights.

We went for an exec room again as we did this on our last holiday for NYC… it was great. Couple of drinks in there in the afternoon when we arrived.

We then went the pool and DW had a hot stone massage.

Then did twilight check in, meal in the Collage restaurant (think that’s the name) then went back to the room and got DS1 to bed.

I asked at the entrance to the lounge about taking some drinks back to the room and they said yes

Then up early the next morning and nice walk to the terminal

We always book with parking too!
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Old 24 Jan 22, 11:43 AM  
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Sounds great Lovely family holiday and seeing it through a 5yr old eyes is just magical
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Old 24 Jan 22, 04:22 PM  
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Originally Posted by P&S View Post
Sounds great Lovely family holiday and seeing it through a 5yr old eyes is just magical
Thanks... Probably said it a million times, but we cannot wait!

It was good enough seeing it with DS1 when he was 22 months old.

But this time it is going to be something different, and especially now as a family of 4.

DS1 is small for his age, but he is now at the 40 inches mark so can get on most things across Disney. Not sure he will do any of the big rides though...
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Old 27 Jan 22, 10:59 PM  
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Sounds amazing!
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Old 29 Jan 22, 07:33 PM  
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Your trip sounds fun. I bet your little boys will have a whale of a time. It's going to be a special trip with all the celebrations too. I'm looking forward to reading along.
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 31 Jan 22, 11:50 AM  
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Another May dibber! Excellent, love the plans so far.
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Old 31 Jan 22, 12:16 PM  
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Thank you all... getting excited now almost down to double digits.

Balance to be paid off FEB/MAR
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Old 22 Feb 22, 11:46 AM  
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Well I am absolutely made up this weekend!

After not expecting too much more planning etc until 60 days out, we get a schedule change with VS and also conditionally approved for GE this weekend just gone!

We had booked UC as a little treat, however, based on the original aircraft we were booked on A332 it wasn't that much more expensive getting 3 seats in UC (2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant) compared with 4 seats in PE or E. We will not sit in the middle 3 after a bad experience to NYC a couple of years back, and preference is not to be sitting next to someone especially when we will be sharing the lap infant duties plus having everything that goes with 2 kids under 5. Therefore in E or PE we would have had to get 4 seats!

UC in the A332 was ideal as we would have 1 window seat for DW and the 2 middle 'love seats' for eldest DS and I. He has not been on a plane since NOV '19 so was also important that one of us was next to him just in case... don't think he will have any problems, but it could happen!

Moving to the A333 was not ideal as all separate seats of course!

After monitoring the new A350's coming in then I am made up to hopefully be on one of these!

We now have 1 window seat and the 2 middle seats... I know they are angled away from each other but with the middle bit open I will be right next to DS. Plus the suites look very nice compared to the A330's.

Finally, the time changes also worked in our favour as we have a sleep in this side (moved back 2 hours) and only lose time in MCO Hyatt as we are staying here our first night! Then the flight home has been moved back 1.5hrs, so more time on that last day!

Then to top it all off, after almost 15 weeks we were conditionally approved for GE and I was able to schedule an interview at MCO the first morning after our night stay at MCO Hyatt!

12 weeks today...
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