Rearranged October 2020 itinerary

AdmiralJack · 19 May 20, 11:10 AM

Finally after any number of emails and countless hours waiting on lines i shouldnt have probably been on, we managed through to Virgin and get our 3 week holiday for October this year, moved to October next year.

We go as we always do, for 2 weeks in Orlando and 1 week in Clearwater. We always book the hotel in Clearwater ourselves, driving back up to Orlando to fly home, so Virgin just end up booking us a 3 week Outbound/Return fight as well as our hotel for the first 2 weeks.

On this occasion we were intending to stay at the All Star Sports, primarily so that we didnt have to drive at all (only one person in our party always ends up doing all the driving) other than the drive to and front Clearwater; any travel off Disney property would have been via Ubers.

However, Virgin advised that for our party of 5 adults it would have been an extra Ł1500 for the same hotel-no doubt due to it being the 50th anniversary next year. All of which resulted in us falling back on our old favourate, the Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando on I drive. The plan to not need a car in Orlando has been replaced by an "Everyone set up a Direct Debit and pay Ł10 each per month into a Taxi fund" plan.

The booking for our favorite hotel in Clearwater, Shepards, has been changed with no fuss and no extra cost.

We were fortunate that we had not purchased our Universal or Horror Nights tickets, and that the Virgin booking for next year already includes Disney passes.

The only outstanding issue now is our attempt to get our Discovery Cove tickets either refunded, or ideally rescheduled for a date next October. Due to booking those via Travel Republic, we have had to submit a request via their Manage my booking system, so who knows.

On the one hand, its disappointing not to go this year, but pretty much the moment the lockdown came into force, we resigned ourselves to not going-and frankly, the way they just dont seem to care about the lockdown or social distancing in much of the US doesnt give me much confidence it would be wise to go this year anyway.

On the other hand, an unexpected benefit is that we will now be there for the 50th anniversary, which is not a bad thing at all.

ClaireNJ · 10 Jun 20, 02:28 PM

Glad you managed to get through on the phone & get it all sorted, we love the Rosen Hotels, cheap & cheerful, leaving more money for the Outlets

Something for you to look forward to now

19 May 20, 11:10 AM	#1
	19 May 20, 11:10 AM AdmiralJack Imagineer
AdmiralJack Imagineer Join Date: Mar 10	Rearranged October 2020 itinerary Finally after any number of emails and countless hours waiting on lines i shouldnt have probably been on, we managed through to Virgin and get our 3 week holiday for October this year, moved to October next year. We go as we always do, for 2 weeks in Orlando and 1 week in Clearwater. We always book the hotel in Clearwater ourselves, driving back up to Orlando to fly home, so Virgin just end up booking us a 3 week Outbound/Return fight as well as our hotel for the first 2 weeks. On this occasion we were intending to stay at the All Star Sports, primarily so that we didnt have to drive at all (only one person in our party always ends up doing all the driving) other than the drive to and front Clearwater; any travel off Disney property would have been via Ubers. However, Virgin advised that for our party of 5 adults it would have been an extra Ł1500 for the same hotel-no doubt due to it being the 50th anniversary next year. All of which resulted in us falling back on our old favourate, the Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando on I drive. The plan to not need a car in Orlando has been replaced by an "Everyone set up a Direct Debit and pay Ł10 each per month into a Taxi fund" plan. The booking for our favorite hotel in Clearwater, Shepards, has been changed with no fuss and no extra cost. We were fortunate that we had not purchased our Universal or Horror Nights tickets, and that the Virgin booking for next year already includes Disney passes. The only outstanding issue now is our attempt to get our Discovery Cove tickets either refunded, or ideally rescheduled for a date next October. Due to booking those via Travel Republic, we have had to submit a request via their Manage my booking system, so who knows. On the one hand, its disappointing not to go this year, but pretty much the moment the lockdown came into force, we resigned ourselves to not going-and frankly, the way they just dont seem to care about the lockdown or social distancing in much of the US doesnt give me much confidence it would be wise to go this year anyway. On the other hand, an unexpected benefit is that we will now be there for the 50th anniversary, which is not a bad thing at all.