I’m sure we’ve forgotten something… April 2019

[Rescuer]

I’m sure we’ve forgotten something… Pre Trip Report

So I think I might embark on another full trip report. I really enjoyed writing the last one so you will all be stuck with more of my ramblings popping up!

The Cast:

Me: Disney and Universal obsessed it seems and normally the chief planner.
DS (11): Disney and Universal obsessed and planner in training.

DF: Has been to Orlando before but not for a few years. Her partner has very little interest in an Orlando holiday.

And the thing we have forgotten… Dh, no trip for him this time as April is not good for him getting time off.

The Background:

Df and I are both teachers so we are off for just over 2 weeks in April. We started discussing that it might be nice to do something and take DS with us. We originally looked at Disneyland Paris for a few nights but just felt what we were looking at was not good value at all and around about the same time BA had an offer on which was 35% off Universal resorts. Way too tempting when we priced it up. We almost booked for 8 nights but decided at the last minute to look to see how much more it would be to add an extra night, a grand total of £12 each, no brainer really. It’s the first time I’ve booked a package with BA but we were really happy with the price and it was nice just paying a deposit rather than everything at once.

The Plan:

School holidays at Easter.

2 nights at the Rosen Plaza on I-Drive. We love this hotel and it’s our go to offsite hotel. I didn’t think there was any point in paying Universal prices for arrival night and staying here means we can have a shopping day, must to the disgust of ds, before our park adventure starts.

3 nights at RPR for the express pass. Our plan is to dedicate this time to rides, however, there is a grad bash event on our second day and the parks close at 6 so we are planning on heading to either HRH or Portofino to do a bit of pool hopping and have dinner at Sals at the Portofino.

4 nights at Aventura. Looking forward to trying this, it’s a new hotel for us. Ds is super excited it has an ipad in the room and that he can log into our Netflix account on it to stream on the tv, as if there is time for that. This means that we are 4 days without express and 4 days with. We plan to have another shopping day maybe to the Florida Mall during our stay here.

Extra – So I had been keeping an eye on annual passholder rates for the top 3 hotels and RPR came up £240 for one night in the middle of our Aventura stay so I have booked that as Orlando Informer were painting a picture of doom and gloom for crowd levels for these dates as it’s the week of Good Friday. This will give us 2 additional days of Express Pass and if DF has had enough of us by then she can have the room to herself at either Aventura or RPR.

Flights:

Flying with BA via Gatwick. Looks like we are on non-refurbished flights there and back.

Tickets:

Ds and I have annual passes which we upgraded to in the Summer. We have preferred which I think have already paid for themselves in terms of discounts on food and merchandise. I ordered DF a 14-day ticket from Attraction Tickets Direct when the had an offer on.

[caitlinsmummy]

How exciting! It's not long now, your plans look fab and I can't wait to follow your trippie xx

[JanetteP]

Sounds fabulous - I'm going to upgrade our tickets to annual passes in May, ready for our second trip in October. I will definitely have a look at the prices for RPR as an annual passholder - hadn't thought of that - thank you. I've just purchased the annual pass for pictures too as they were on special offer. Looking forward to your trip report.

[Goldia]

Only a month to go, you must be so excited. You'll be able to tell us which out of Easter and Christmas is busiest, you're doing us all a favour really!

I'm glad you're doing another full trip report and I can't wait to read all about your adventures on this trip. It will be very different to the Christmas all Disney trip with DMiL. I hope you have an amazing time.

[collybird]

Sounds fabulous, DLP prices are eye-watering aren't they?! It's mad that your countdown is down to 30 days, where did February go!?

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

How exciting! It's not long now, your plans look fab and I can't wait to follow your trippie xx

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Thanks for reading - I can't believe it's only 4 weeks away now

Originally Posted by JanetteParker

Sounds fabulous - I'm going to upgrade our tickets to annual passes in May, ready for our second trip in October. I will definitely have a look at the prices for RPR as an annual passholder - hadn't thought of that - thank you. I've just purchased the annual pass for pictures too as they were on special offer. Looking forward to your trip report.

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The annual pass has been great value for us. We spent a week at Universal last summer so the 10% off food with the preferred pass really mounted up.

We have the annual photo pass as well, it's great, just discovered that there is more than 1 background available for the ET Bike photo.

Originally Posted by Goldia

Only a month to go, you must be so excited. You'll be able to tell us which out of Easter and Christmas is busiest, you're doing us all a favour really!

I'm glad you're doing another full trip report and I can't wait to read all about your adventures on this trip. It will be very different to the Christmas all Disney trip with DMiL. I hope you have an amazing time.

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Yay. I'm not sure if I'll be able to compare the two, although I'm hoping our first part of our Universal trip will be quieter than our 2nd half.

I'm happy to try another trip report as its only 9 nights, not sure at all about one for the 20 nights in the summer.. You are right this will be a very different trip but it will still be lots of fun.

So Star Wars - are you there for that opening?

Originally Posted by collybird

Sounds fabulous, DLP prices are eye-watering aren't they?! It's mad that your countdown is down to 30 days, where did February go!?

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I could hardly believe some of the DLP prices, I'd like to go back but at those prices it didn't really make sense. It's come round so fast and I dare say summer will be the same, then its your turn!

[Rescuer]

More Details:

Fairytale Personal Shopper: I have enlisted the help of Beth again to fuel my mint chocolate addiction and she managed to get me some more peppermint bark from Ghirardelli. Ds has some Lego that he couldn’t get here and Alex and Ani keep having sales on the HP stuff – I can’t be held responsible when that happens. I’ve been fairly restrained so far.

Transfers: Still to do. We have used Florida Magical Transportation and Quicksilver before and both were good. I’ve been looking at Skippy Transportation which is a wee bit cheaper and gets good reviews. I need to get this sorted. Although we will use Uber when there and between the Plaza and RPR I’m a bit more reluctant to use it to and from the airport.

Ride Challenges: All 3 of us have set ourselves a ride challenge. For me it is to conquer Rip Ride Rocket for the first time, I’ve been through the secret playlist and I’m thinking either Gloria Gaynor ‘I will survive’ or Muppets ‘Moving Right Along’.

For Ds it’s Hulk, bless he really wants to do it but I’m not sure he will muster up the courage. His choice, I do think he’d love it. He’s all set to come in the line and then decide. At that point he can either ride or wait in the family room on the other side of the platform. We shall see.

For DF it’s Dr Doom, she remembers this as a terrifying experience when she was young, I wouldn’t say she is keen to do it but DS is ok with this so she has agreed with him that she will do it.

[Th1nkT1nk]

Sounds like a lovely trip planned... not long at all now. Will enjoy following

[caitlinsmummy]

I'm going to use Beth again too I think 😊 I'm wanting so low fat sauces that cost a fortune over here, plus I'm keeping an eye on the Bath and Body Works sales. She was great last tim.

I think that's a fab idea about the rides. I hope you all manage to do them! Xx

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Th1nkT1nk

Sounds like a lovely trip planned... not long at all now. Will enjoy following

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Thank you. Really can’t wait now although as it’s not disney and I’ve not planned much I’m feeling very underprepared 😂