Super Six and the 'Big Birthdays' Trip *Edit w Photos* - Pre-Trip Report - Jul/Aug 2022

[Experiment626]

The Introductions

Hi! We've loved reading your Trip Reports, so it seems only fair to introduce ourselves in our first official pre-trippy!

So here we are in our matching XMAS pyjama glory! This is the most recent photo of us all.
(Side note: Getting them to agree to matching pyjamas has taken *years* of persuasion AND I have already been told that under no circumstances will there be matching Disney shirts *pout*.)

Me/Mum (Turning 40), Hubs/Dad
and our kiddos; H (21), L (18), G (13) and O (11)

This will be our first Disney trip as a family of six, after being fortunate enough to do multiple extended family trips to visit Mickey over the years.
2014 was our last trip and there were 15 of us!
Sadly we realised recently that both G and O have hardly any memories of the holiday, so that's when we knew it was time to come back.

And What better time, than the year of the Big Birthdays!?
August is my 40th birthday month. H turned 21 at the start of the year, and L turned 18 at the end of 2021.
L is getting ready to head off to university when we get back, and H is already talking of potentially not joining us on future family holidays - so this one seems extra poignant for us!


The Plans

14 nights Disney/Universal Trip

Overnight Premier Inn (Bath Rd) at Heathrow
- We've booked a family room (sleeps 4, for Hubs, me, G and O) and a twin for H and L.

- We paid for the meal plan to have an evening meal in the hotel's 'Thyme' restaurant the night before, and for 4 adult buffet breakfasts in the morning (Kids eat free)
Although this doesn't feel particularly creative, it felt like great value, and it should take some of the stress out of our travel days.
We will be encouraging G and O particularly to fill their boots, as they usually won't eat on the plane.

We're flying out of Heathrow T3 with Virgin on the 11.30 flight.
(New for us, as we're used to long-haul from Gatwick
We shall miss the V-Room)

Off-resort stay, 4 bedroom villa.
A mid-trip overnight stay at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal
We've booked two standard Queen rooms, and intend to get a roll-out for one of the boys (bookable for an extra fee, on arrival). G and O will stay in with us, and H and L will share again.

This little addition is another first for us, so we'll see if it ends up being worthwhile. In the end it was the free Unlimited Express passes for the two days that clinched it for me. I think I have become slightly paranoid at the prospect of Disney being so busy this summer, so the possibility of less queuing was a VERY attractive one!


We got our 14 day Disney tickets purchased through Attractiontickets. They had a deal with complimentary 50th anniversary magic bands which the kids liked the sound of.
No genie+ - are we mad? We're going at the busiest time, but haven't been sold yet on Genie+ based on reviews. We're open to adding it, if we get there and think it's needed.

Universal tickets

Still debating on whether to add Busch Gardens... (hmm... unsure)


The Priorities

Now Hubs and the kids will tell you that their goal is to simply get on as many rides as possible (with the understanding that we're going at peak time, and will spend a lot of time queuing.) They are hard-core theme park junkies.

My goal however, is to soak up the Disney atmosphere (I particularly love the fireworks), have PLENTY of pool and water park days, eat well, and partake in a decent amount of Orlando shopping!
Our differences of priorities has, in the past been fun to navigate

[Goldia]

I love the cute matching PJs photo. My kids would never agree to it and have also never agreed to matching t shirts at Disney either.

It sounds like you're going to have a great trip. 2014 was our first Orlando Disney holiday - there's loads of great new rides for your DH and kids to enjoy. I'm looking forward to reading all about your plans.

[Experiment626]

We're getting closer!

We have recently celebrated moving into double digits for our July/Aug trip, and I'm officially at the point where I can get excited!

I think my Husband and kiddos might be starting to get fed up of the incessant Disney talk (I'm hoping they won't be Disney-ed out before we arrive )

The removal of the mask mandate on the plane and at the parks has definitely added to the celebration. Depending on how things go, we may still choose to mask-up on the plane, but knowing we don't HAVE to, is quite nice.
Now all we need is for pre-trip testing to go away, and things will certainly feel much simpler (I can dream)

Since writing last, we've ticked a few big ticket items off our list. We're officially all paid up (wooohoo!)
Travel insurance is done. Airport parking is done. And we've received our Disney tickets.


In another little mini-overnight trip, we decided to slot in an overnight stay at Clearwater Beach, and have booked the Hyatt Regency.

In case it's interesting for any other fellow larger families, we've gone with two rooms; a 1 bed Queen Suite and a Deluxe Queen (twin room)

The Queen Suite technically sleeps 6 adults, with 2 large double beds, and a sofa bed. We will have Hubby and I in one double, and G (13) and O (11) can fight over who gets the other double vs. the sofa bed. Strangely I suspect they'll both want the sofa bed! Its definitely become more difficult since they became too big to want to share a double!

H (21) and L (18) will share the Queen twin room.

We'll probably do Busch Gardens either on our way to Clearwater, or on our return drive, since it's in the same general direction, and should be an efficient way to squeeze it in.

Our Clearwater day will be fairly low-key. During our last trip we went on Little Toot and I LOVED it! However H (21) has since developed horrific sea-sickness on every boat trip we've been on. If we decide to do something similar, it would have to be without him, so we'll have to see...
Weather dependant, I'd be happy spending all day on the beach.

We love Pier 60 in the evening.

In other booking news, I've also made reservations at Big Fire Grill, on City Walk for our Universal weekend. It was really easy to do this well in advance (no 60 day panicking!) and it feels good to have one dinner reservation in the bag.
I figure that if our plans change, and we don't fancy it, we can cancel on the day (no credit card details were taken)

Next items on the list, I need to finalise our park bookings and get those locked in.
Happy trip planning to everyone reading

[Experiment626]

Time seems to be zoooooooming by now!

We've hit the 60 day mark, and I've been counting the days until we could get some dining reservations into our itinerary! (Whoop whoop!)
Would love to hear your must-do on-site dining choices, so we can add some new ones to our list.

So far we've booked a character breakfast at Chef Mickeys and a dinner at Whispering Canyon cafe.

Chef Mickey's is a return for us, having visited in 2014. We haven't however, experienced it 'Family Style', only as a breakfast buffet, so this will be new.
The kiddos are partial to the bacon and sausages, so we'll have to see if they feel like they get their fill! Previously they'd just take trip after trip up to the buffet!

I seem to recall that their signature cheesy garlic potatoes were a solid favourite of mine in our last trip too.

As the kids have got older, I'm not sure whether they'll be interested in the character interaction. I, however, will not miss out on getting a hug if that's allowed by then.

Here we all are after our last Chef Mickeys meal. We took a quick tour of the Contemporary hotel and couldn't resist this photo opportunity.

I think we will miss having our extended family with us, this time.

Our second reservation is at Whispering Canyon Café

Now I visited here, many many years ago (maybe 1997?!) and from a look at the reviews it looks like it's still got much of the same charm that I remember! Ketchup bottles? I'll say no more...

The description on visitdisney.com says
''Round up the whole family for hearty Western fare with all-you-care-to-enjoy skillets and shenanigans!''
I remember being slightly mortified of the shenanigans as a 'too-cool' teenager, so this may have the same affect on my teen and pre-teen, but I'm confident that my husband will LOVE it. He's a big joker (and a big kid at heart)

We're not planning on eating on-site for main meals routinely, but I'd like to have a few reservations dotted across the holiday. I'm keeping an eye out for Ohana's (although I've heard this is a tough one!) and Steakhouse 71.

If there is somewhere you love, I'd enjoy any tips!

Happy planning Folks!

[Experiment626]

With our Clearwater mini break now booked, we thought we would firm up our plans for Busch Gardens.
I wasn't overly fussed with heading here, but it was a big favourite of the older kiddos and Hubs last time we visited, and they've been desperate to go back and ride some of the newer rides.

Thanks to a Dibber tip, we booked our single day tickets with Undercover Tourist, and got an excellent deal! Over 50% off gate price when we chose a mid-week visit date.

O and I were feeling a bit 'meh' about Busch Gardens, which I appreciate sounds very ungrateful. But we really weren't feeling this park and so needed a back up plan.
I don't mind coasters, but I do tend to get to the point when I'm a bit 'over it'. O is a little bit more selective with his coasters of choice, preferring no loops/corkscrews, which narrows things down a bit!

We'd debaited staying behind on the BG day, and doing Discovery Cove instead, but since we've now planned to do Clearwater and BG as a pair over a couple of days, we had to rethink. We've now chosen instead to do some of the animal encounters offered by Busch whilst the bigs ride the mega rides. This will be a first for us.

We've booked the Sloth Encounter, the Serengeti Safari,
and the Orangutan Insider Tour

Each takes 30 minutes, so we've spaced them out throughout the day, and will intersperse them with snacks and wandering around the other animals. Hopefully this will keep us both out of mischief ;-)

[smithlane]

This sounds like an amazing holiday you have planned!
My two are similar ages to your older 2 so I understand the pang of wanting to do one last family trip, I think this years maybe the last for a while 😩

I’m still undecided on Genie+ too, I need to wrap my head around it first! So much has changed since we last did Disney in 2017!

I can highly recommend the Serengeti Safari at Busch Gardens. We did it back in 2015 and DS who was 10 at the time said it was one of his favourite memories of that holiday 😊

Have a fab time!