Team Groves are Florida Bound! October 2017 pre-trip

[Merligan]

All sounds fab. Reserve at Town Center is our absolute favourite place to stay and the villa looks amazing, you are going to love it,

Xx

[Queen_Elsa]

Following! We're looking at a villa for next year if I can persuade DH to go again!

[hattyho]

Great to see this, I really enjoyed your last trip report. We're going at the same time as you so you might hear me whispering "look it's Miley and Grayson from the DIBB!"

[berniegroves]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

Great - thanks for sharing. I can't wait to see the next bits

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Thanks for reading Wobbles.

Originally Posted by Merligan

All sounds fab. Reserve at Town Center is our absolute favourite place to stay and the villa looks amazing, you are going to love it,

Xx

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Thanks so much. I was worried about Reserve at Town Center as it was an unknown, but you did put my mind at rest with your experience of it. Thanks so much.

Originally Posted by Queen_Elsa

Following! We're looking at a villa for next year if I can persuade DH to go again!

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Hello!
Do DH's really get much of a say in it?
We love staying in a villa as you get so much more space and privacy.
But then I would like to stay onsite for a few days next time.

Originally Posted by hattyho

Great to see this, I really enjoyed your last trip report. We're going at the same time as you so you might hear me whispering "look it's Miley and Grayson from the DIBB!"

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Ah that is so lovely to hear. I write the reports for us to keep as a family and look back on. But it is so lovely to hear that other people have enjoyed them or found them useful.

How exciting that we are going at the same time. If you see us you MUST say hello. I would be so excited to meet another Dibber!
Who are you going with/where are you staying?

[hattyho]

We fly on 9th October and are staying on site at Saratoga Springs. We stayed there on our last trip and absolutely loved it. It's me, hubby and our 2 boys who will be 6 and 8. We hired a double buggy in 2014 when the boys were 3 and 4 and it was the best £100 I could have spent.

[berniegroves]

What's left to do:

Quite a lot is sorted out now, most of the big things at least. But there are still a lot of little tasks that need to be done.
I still need to sort out the API’s and the ESTA’s and Miley needs a new passport as she has had hers for 5 years now.

The big to-do is obviously our park tickets. Or more specifically ‘what’ park tickets we want. Disney is a MUST. I could not go to Orlando without setting foot in Magic Kingdom and obviously both Miley and Grayson love the Disney characters.

Universal and IoA are also a MUST for us as they are mine and Simons favourite parks. On our pre-children trips we spent many evenings in these parks soaking up the atmosphere and riding our favourite rides.
Simon loves the big coasters, RRR, Hulk and DC and he is terrified of Dr Dooms freefall which makes no sense to me as I find it really lame. Lol.

Islands of Adventure was a surprise hit with the kids last year and they loved it there, seuss landings they enjoyed and Miley adored the Flight of the Hippogriph ride which she rode again and again and again!

And they loved the characters, all the ones they met in IoA were outstanding.

And for me the WWOHP is a major highlight. I am a HUGE HP fan and have read the books numerous times, so sitting in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley with a frozen butterbeer is perhaps where I am happiest.

I loved Diagon Alley last year, but we really only had a flying visit because Simon doesn’t really like HP and the kids had no clue what it was all about! I loved the Escape from Gringotts ride and literally smiled the entire time.
So imagine how excited I am that my kids now like Harry Potter! About a month after we came back Miley asked to watch the first film, I let them, knowing she would tell me if something scared her. But they both loved it and they watch the first three films on a regular basis. So I think they will loved these areas next time and I think the Hogwarts Express in particular will be a big hit as you can see some of the characters. I am literally so excited!

So once again the question is do we try to add on any other parks? Namely Seaworld and Discovery Cove. At the moment I think we probably will. We went to Seaworld once last time and Miley in particular loved learning about the Dolphins, Turtles and Penguins, and I loved finding out more about the rescue and rehabilitation work Seaworld do. They have free Halloween events on in October and so I think that would be fun also.

And Simon is keen to return to Discovery Cove, without the dolphin swim, as we found it so relaxing and peaceful last time.
But at the same time it may stretch us too far with the Disney parks, waterparks and universal parks too. I don’t know, we’ll see.

A couple of extra ‘to-dos’ will be booking fastpasses and also ADR’s.
Last trip was the first time we had booked an ADR. I know, I know, shocking, I had been to Florida 4 times and never booked an ADR. So it was a whole new world to me, and to be fair even then I played it pretty safe. We weren’t sure if the kids would like meeting characters and we didn’t want to do really formal sit down meals because we knew that just wouldn’t suit us as a family (Grayson will not sit still for very long! ).
So we booked Crystal Palace (#eeyoreismyspiritanimal), Chef Mickey’s, Akershus Princess breakfast and Hollywood and Vine Disney junior lunch. And we also booked Whispering Canyon Café as an extra because the food looked so good!

We really loved Crystal Palace and Whispering Canyon Café.

Chef Mickey’s character interaction was outstanding, but the food was a bit nothing.

Simon and I did not enjoy Hollywood and Vine, the kids loved the characters, but it took a long time and the food was the worst of all the meals we had.

Simon did not enjoy Akershus and my initial reaction was to say I didn’t enjoy it either, but I think we were unlucky with our tablke placement as we were tucked out of the way and we saw one princess and then had to wait a LONG time for the others to come around.

The kids had finished their food and we were just sat waiting. Then to top it off at the end of the meal Simon realised he had left the wallet in the car so he had to leave us there and go back and get it. This took a really really long time. I am a very anxious person and this played havoc with me as it was just me and the kids left in the restaurant with the staff waiting to let the next people in. So it was a bad end to the meal and it ended up taking a really REALLY long time. So I think we were unlucky and had a bad experience and I remember the food being really good. So I’d like to try this one again, but Simon doesn’t want to.

Its taken me a long time to decide which ADR’s we would like to book, but as it stands this is our list.

- Crystal Palace Breakfast (Booked)

- Tusker House breakfast (booked)

- Trattoria Al Forno breakfast

- San Angel inn lunch (booked)

- Whispering Canyon Café

- Ohana’s dinner

- Be Our Guest lunch

Saana and Akershus are still on my maybe list.

We are also planning on booking the Pirates League for both kids, Grayson loves the look of this and Miley has said she would like to be a mermaid.

On Miley’s birthday I am hoping to be able to book her into Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I’ve never liked the scraped back look that most of the makeovers seem to have, but I just know she would love the experience, so I feel mean not letting her try it.

And I am really hoping more dates are released for the Tiana Riverboat ice-cream party, as she is Miley’s favourite princess and this would be a lovely treat for her birthday. At the moment they only have dates up to the end of July. Boo!

And as we are there in October we want to try the MNSSHP. The kids have been watching vlogs of families doing this and they are very excited about the prospect of all the candy! And of meeting lots of characters. I’m thinking we will try and get tickets for the 12th October but I haven’t fully decided yet.

I also need to decide on costumes for the Halloween party. I am unsure if we will all dress up as a family, or if we will just dress the kids up.

The worst part of our holiday last year was getting through immigration with all our hand luggage and two tired kids (they were troopers though – just tired and heavy!). The family in front of us also had two children and just as much hand luggage but had made better choices than us. Both parents had cabin cases which they were pulling rather than shoulder bags or rucksacks. And both kids had trunkis. One child was sat on their trunki scooting along nicely. The other child was being carried by the dad and their trunki was balanced on top of the Mums cabin case which she was pulling along. Whereas Simon was carrying a rucksack and the airport shopping bag and Grayson! And I had my large shoulder bag and both kids rucksacks. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but each bag had so much stuff in, including laptops, tablets, cameras etc, they were soooo heavy!
So I was watching this family infront and promising myself that next time we would do better. Lol!
So I need to get myself a cabin case and both kids a trunki.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I have waffled a lot about nonsense, I am certainly not a writer, but there you have it.

Next up will be a rough idea on our plans so far. And then hopefully i'll be organised and take some photos of the shopping I have done so far

Thanks for reading. xx

[GALE88]

Sounds like you have another fab holiday planned. I read your last trip report and really enjoyed it.

[TC Devon]

So jealous. Think we let the kids trash the house on Friday and you show me your Disney planning folder 😀 X

[smithlane]

Your plans sound brilliant, I love the look of your villa. My 2 kids were exactly the same as yours at their age. DD was bitterly shy until she really knew you but DS was the complete opposite, it's funny how they can be so different. Now at 14 & 12 they are still the same.
I would love to go to Florida in October/November time but as kids are now in secondary it will have to be once they've flown the nest! Only 6 more years 😂

[berniegroves]

Originally Posted by hattyho

We fly on 9th October and are staying on site at Saratoga Springs. We stayed there on our last trip and absolutely loved it. It's me, hubby and our 2 boys who will be 6 and 8. We hired a double buggy in 2014 when the boys were 3 and 4 and it was the best £100 I could have spent.

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I am very tempted by SS and OKW. I like the idea of being so close to Disney Springs. We were going to look at it for this trip when it would have been in 2018. But then DH said we could go this year and so we had to be more budget conscious

I'm holding out hope we can stay onsite for a week next time.

Are you doing a trip report?

Originally Posted by GALE88

Sounds like you have another fab holiday planned. I read your last trip report and really enjoyed it.

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Ah thanks so much. Its so nice to hear people enjoyed my ramblings.

Originally Posted by TC Devon

So jealous. Think we let the kids trash the house on Friday and you show me your Disney planning folder 😀 X

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haha. My florida spreadsheet won't mean much to anyone else, but it makes sense to me

Originally Posted by smithlane

Your plans sound brilliant, I love the look of your villa. My 2 kids were exactly the same as yours at their age. DD was bitterly shy until she really knew you but DS was the complete opposite, it's funny how they can be so different. Now at 14 & 12 they are still the same.
I would love to go to Florida in October/November time but as kids are now in secondary it will have to be once they've flown the nest! Only 6 more years 😂

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Thanks for reading. We are so excited to stay at Treefields Reserve, it looks so lovely.

People have said that DD is so shy because of my parenting but then they meet DS and are lost for words. lol!

It always good to have a plan! We went in April/May last time and that was lovely too.