Tencennial: August 2022 Pre-Trip Report

[moosha]

I’ve left writing this rather late so hopefully I will remember enough interesting details about the journey from booking until now to make this worth reading.

We are setting off for Florida in less than 50 days and are lucky enough to be doing so for the second time in eight months after lots of cancellations which you can read about in the pre-trip report from December 2021’s trip here.

For anyone who’s new to my reports we are:

Me: Michelle, chief planner and trip report writer. Lover of Animal Kingdom, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and SpiderMan (the ride). Can be found relaxing with an adult beverage and taking in the Disney / Universal sights when not being the family Drill Sergeant at rope drop

DH: Mat, does the driving on our holidays. Loves all the classic Disney stuff, less of a fan of what Universal has to offer, mostly just goes along with what the rest of us want to do on holidays

DD1: Seren, 16, Disney obsessed, just finishing GCSEs and counting down the days until the trip. Little kid at heart, can’t wait to meet all the characters and watch the parade and cavalcades, thrill ride lover



DD2: Freya, 14, proper teenager, emo, big fan of The Mummy, Hagrid’s and basically all the thrill rides. Doesn’t want to ‘waste time’ meeting characters or watching parades and will not currently go near a Disney t-shirt. Wants to spend the holiday dressed in black. My two absolute favourite photos from December's trip are of Freya looking super happy and excited and forgetting about how difficult being a teenager is:





Three of us (except Freya) are vegan (she is pescatarian.) Being vegan requires a little bit of extra planning with an Orlando holiday as not all Disney / Universal restaurants cater for vegans, and very few offsite restaurants do.

Here are a couple more photos from December’s trip:











This August trip is three weeks and is a bit of a mish-mash. The accommodation started with a booking with Disney for the Yacht Club made during the pandemic travel restrictions, hopeful that we would actually get to go having cancelled a couple of Disney bookings. We lost last summer’s trip obviously so this was its replacement. When we had to cancel our next attempt - October half term at Universal - we did the thing of moving the cancelled flights / car package with BA to a future date rather than cancel and make a new booking. New flight and flight / car package prices with BA for this summer were horrifically priced at the time so after some helpful Dibbers pointed out the fact we could move the package as BA had cancelled on us and keep the decent prices, we got on it and ended up with a good (for post-pandemic craziness at least) deal on our flights and car hire. It was a bit of a faff because at the time it was so difficult to get through to BA since so many people were cancelling / rebooking but worth it to save some cash.

So the plan. Originally we were doing our usual: few days chilling at Sapphire Falls, Disney portion of the trip (11 nights at our then favourite resort Yacht Club) and then this time we had decided to put our onsite Universal park time with Express Pass at the end of the Disney stay. This is because touring parks at Universal with free Unlimited Express Pass is so much less stressful than touring Disney parks with all the hoops they make you jump through (Park Passes, ADRs and the dreaded G word…but we’ll get onto that.) We had decided that our usual method of chilling at Universal parks and then going into the Boot Camp of Disney makes Disney feel more stressful, so we thought we would get the more complex Disney part done first and then relax into Universal. We had also decided to do a couple of days at the beach / coast at the end of the trip because the girls requested a few days to chill at a pool / beach.

The girls at the Yacht Club in 2018 (they were babies)



That was the original plan. Let’s go through each part and see how it evolved between last summer and this summer. At first I had our flights and the Disney chunk in the middle booked and needed to fill in the other hotels around it.

Three nights at Sapphire Falls became four nights at Aventura when we decided we fancied a little bit of a change. Obviously this is really only a little bit of a change as the hotels are literally a few steps from each other. We all love Sapphire Falls and will still use the facilities there, especially the pool (Universal allows pool hopping remember) and probably the Strong Water Tavern but we fancied a change with the rooms. We love the food court at Aventura and fancy trying out the rooftop bar too.



Eleven nights at Yacht Club became five nights at Yacht Club.



We didn’t want to lose our pretty decent package when we were thinking about cancelling YC after we came back from our December trip, and since minimum package is five nights, that is what we’re doing. We wanted to cancel / reduce our Yacht Club booking for two reasons: 1. We enjoyed staying at the Polynesian Village so much in December that we wanted to switch out some of the nights to that resort and 2. We wanted to reduce our time onsite at Disney after our December trip because…well mainly because of Genie+ and how stressful touring the parks was. It took a good few days of persevering with calling Disney to amend our Yacht Club package but we got there in the end after being quoted waits of several hours a few times. Staff shortages and the fact Disney have combined all their call centres into one in Tampa meant it took longer to sort out in January than it should but we got there in the end and the CM I spoke to was lovely. So we kept all our benefits for our five nights at Yacht Club (14 day tickets for price of 7, $68 dining credit per night for the five nights, $200 gift card, welcome hamper and free Memory Maker) and I had already made a new booking for four nights at Polynesian Village for straight after Yacht Club. It took quite a while for availability to come up; Poly is definitely tricky to book but I’m glad we persevered. I would say Polynesian Village has overtaken Yacht Club as our favourite Disney resort. I’ve always loved the theming, atmosphere and facilities but having stayed there for the first time, we loved the new Moana rooms too.





I’m not a fan of waiting around for Disney transport so the fact we can now walk to three parks across our two Disney stays makes me happy. We would always walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios from Yacht Club anyway, but we also really enjoyed the walk to Magic Kingdom from the Poly in December. Going to ignore the fact that it’s going to be a lot hotter this time and keep fingers crossed that the depressing new DVC tower construction doesn’t affect the walking path to the Grand Floridian anytime soon.

After our Disney stays we are moving to Endless Summer Dockside for four more chill days. This is what was originally our beach / pool portion of the trip but a) I couldn’t find any hotels I was happy with in any resorts on the east coast of Florida (it had to be east coast because originally this part was at the end of the trip on the way to Miami airport) and b) this may have been a request by the girls but I know that none of us actually like beaches and all they need is a really decent pool. Plus the beach resorts on the coast seemed to be lacking in decent vegan food so I decided staying in Orlando for these chill days was a much better option, since we’d still have the option to visit parks, CityWalk, Disney Springs etc. We now have Universal annual passes and are blocked out of Volcano Bay for the first week of our trip so will definitely be making use of being able to go there while we’re at Dockside. And you really can’t argue with the prices at Endless Summer, especially in comparison with the expensive beach resorts on the coast.

From Dockside we then move to Portofino Bay for two nights to do three days at Universal parks with the included Unlimited Express Passes. We have stayed at Hard Rock Hotel for our last five Express Pass trips but in December we decided we don’t want to come back until the rooms are refurbished as we’ve had pretty tired / dirty rooms the last couple of trips and it’s such an expensive hotel we don’t want to feel unhappy staying there. So it’s back to Portofino for the first time since 2015.



We were going to do a night at Vero Beach on the way to Miami but I wasn’t completely happy with that, especially with the hotel I had booked. We’ve now cancelled that, had a re-jig and added in something super exciting between Dockside and Portofino Bay that we’re much happier about. We’re flying to Nashville for one night to see My Chemical Romance and will have most of the two days to have a bit of an explore too as it’s somewhere we haven’t been before. The girls and I love the band, went to see them in Milton Keynes three times in May and then Freya and I went to Paris for two days to see them earlier this month, thinking that would be the end of that. Logistically getting to an American night of the tour didn’t seem feasible but I’m so glad I got it to work out and in an appealing city too. Exciting!

Here's us at one of the Milton Keynes shows and Freya and I enjoying our quick trip to Paris:





We’re going to drive down to Miami on the last day of the holiday as we really want to go back to Miami Beach having had a not great experience the last time we were there in 2017. We loved the architecture etc but were there in Spring Break and did not have the best time…it was eye-opening to say the least. You can read about that trip here. Here's us on South Beach during that trip:



I’ve booked 1 Hotel South Beach which looks amazing but our booking is about the same price for one night as our Aventura and Dockside bookings together (8 nights) so I might go back to the drawing board on that one.

We’re flying into Orlando which we haven’t done for a few years as we prefer Tampa, and out of Miami so we could spend time there. We’ve arranged to collect our hire car from Aventura the morning after we arrive and drop it off in Miami Beach city the day before our flight as this made a massive difference to car hire prices. We called them today to see if prices for airport collection had come down and they wanted an extra £2k to do that so I guess not. It looks like a taxi to the hotel from MCO is coming up around $40 so we’ll just stick with that as it eliminates the stress of collecting the car after a long travel day as well. We also need a bigger car as Group F cars are too small for three week’s worth of luggage if you’re us (we struggled with our luggage for a week fitting in in December). I’m sure they’ve downgraded the cars in each category since before the pandemic. Anyway, BA wanted £1600 to upgrade to a seven seater so we’ll suck it up and be creative with packing light (oh I make myself laugh) and trying to get everything in in any way we can.

Plans:

Being August, we’ve mainly booked one late afternoon table service meal to give us a break from the extreme heat and potential rain situation. We didn’t do great with the heat the last time we went in August as we are heat-wimps but at least we know what to expect this time. We found we needed the afternoon break for A/C and another shower.

Restaurants I have booked:

Raglan Road
Vivo Italian (CityWalk)
City Works
Boma (dinner)
Sebastian’s Bistro (Caribbean Beach)
Jaleo
Topolino’s (character breakfast)
‘Ohana (breakfast and dinner)
Yak & Yeti
Grand Floridian Cafe
Homecomin’
The Edison
The Cowfish

and I’m also going to book House of Blues when it becomes available on OpenTable or Disney. We’re also going to Spice Road Table which apparently doesn’t take reservations anymore.

We’re doing Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party while we’re at Polynesian Village which was Seren’s request. She even offered to forfeit birthday presents to be able to go. We really enjoyed our first experience of MNSSHP in 2018 so hoping this is as good. Unfortunately I still haven't finished my 2018 report so haven't yet written about the last time we went. I honestly should get better at this trip reporting.





As I mentioned earlier, we really didn’t enjoy Genie+ on our last trip so the plan is to avoid purchasing it this time. I explained what was so rubbish about our experience with Genie+ in our highs and lows from December here. The plan is to use early entry, park closes and deluxe evening hours to get everything done and if I have to I will buy ILLs for Flight of Passage, Cosmic Rewind and maybe Rise of the Resistance as the individual lighting lanes are definitely more user-friendly than Genie+.

Starting to get excited now and I’m so happy we don’t have to test for this trip as that was pretty stressful in December. I need to crack on with firming up our daily plans (although we’re not planning to be too rigid) and making lists of what to take but apart from booking the taxi to Heathrow and back and coming up with a decent name for this trip report, there isn’t too much still left to do.

[McBMicky]

I've really enjoyed reading all your trip reports over the last few years so really pleased you will be writing another! Your trip sounds amazing. We are also going in August for 2 weeks... preparing to melt but hoping crowds are a little lower. We also won't be buying Genie plus as we are a party of 11 so costs would be ridiculous!

[Buggles94]

Sounds like lots of exciting changes to this trip and not long now! We were also lucky enough to be in Orlando for Christmas and thinking there will be lots of differences in the summer Have an amazing time!

[smithlane]

Ooh Michelle this sounds like a cracker of a trip!
What are your dates? Maybe we’ll be in Orlando at the same time! We’re there between 20-27th August 😊
I’m so torn about what to do about Genie+, I seriously need to get my head around it but we may end up needing to purchase it as we’re not staying on site so don’t get the extra hour perks.
I will probably ILL for Flight of Passage as I HAVE to ride that one!

[moosha]

Update:

We fly tomorrow! How did that happen? This countdown has flown by so quickly over the last month or so and I've been so disorganised (even more than usual) which has meant a massive panic to get ready and packed over the last few days but I just wanted to add in a few changes to the pre-trip report at the last minute.

One of the reasons for the last minute preparation and packing is that last week we were in Lake Bled in Slovenia for my sister's wedding. What an absolutely stunningly beautiful place. We will be back and would highly recommend. Here's Freya swimming in Lake Bled and myself, Seren and Freya as bridemaids.





Ok so trip updates. First of all I added an ADR for Garden Grill as Seren is desperate to do this one because of the characters. The vegan platter looks pretty good but as before I’m not over the moon about the per head charge since Freya won’t eat anything. Still, it’s one we’ve never done and meeting Chip and Dale at a character meal is a first for us.

I booked House of Blues when it became available for the date I was waiting for which was only about three weeks out. I booked on OpenTable as I always do rather than Disney as Disney seem to get a very small allocation so it’s harder to book through there.

I also cancelled our Travel Republic booking for Aventura for our first four nights….after rebooking the same room on the annual passholder rate. At the time of booking the saving was about £40-£50 overall and when I first looked a couple of months ago Mat said it wasn’t really worth the hassle of cancelling and rebooking. But this week I decided £50 is almost a counter service meal or a few cocktails and every little helps, right? And maybe the exchange rate will change enough to make the saving a bit more by the time we pay the balance when we get there.

I was checking the Universal Orlando site for annual passholder rates for our other Universal stays most days throughout July as they hadn’t been released and we were getting close to having to pay the balance with Travel Republic. Annoyingly, I didn’t check for a couple of days when I was busy and missed the release so didn’t manage to grab a good deal for our two night Portofino Bay stay or anything comparable at Royal Pacific. We could have got a night at Portofino and a night at Royal Pacific with a move at around the same price as my two nights at Portofino with Travel Republic but obviously a similar price wasn’t worth moving hotels after the first night and what I had booked was a Bay View room but the Passholder rates only has standard rooms left. After all the checking for rates I was relieved when we found that the AP rates were a no go as at least we could now pay the Travel Republic balance and be sure what we were actually doing.

I did however cancel our current Endless Summer bookings when the Annual Passholder rates became available. The AP rates for these didn’t sell out as quickly from what I could tell as the Express Pass hotels as there were still rates available when I checked even though I was a couple of days late to the party. We had a one night booking with Travel Republic when we get back from Nashville late. We’re moving to Portofino the next day so it didn’t seem worth paying Portofino prices for the night when we can just move over there early the next morning and take advantage of the Unlimited Express Pass then. We saved about $20 by switching to the AP rate if I recall correctly.

Our other Endless Summer booking between Disney and Nashville is four nights and I had a standard room booked with Expedia. We had a good rate booked as I booked it ages ago. When I checked the AP rates the total saving was $4. It was quite funny after checking for rates every day that when they finally did get released it was offering a saving of $1 per night. Tempting as it was, I wasn’t going to bother switching the booking, but I did see that they had two bedroom suites on the AP rates for $50 extra per night. We’d originally decided to keep this part of the holiday cheap as we’re splurging elsewhere (hello Disney) so we weren’t going to bother with the suite. But the four of us in one hotel room for 22 nights is…a lot (particularly sharing one bathroom) so I decided it might be a good idea to upgrade this part of the holiday since the rate was decent. I think it will be well worth it for a bit more space, and although the suite still doesn’t give us a second bathroom, we’ve agreed that Freya can have the second bedroom for a bit of privacy as she’s currently at a stage where she needs some time alone. The main bedroom has two beds so Seren will also get a bed to herself in the same room as us for those few days.

We’ve arranged to meet up with some friends of ours, Sandra and Ed, who will be out there at the same time. We actually met up with them on a trip five years ago and serendipitously our holidays match up again this year. Seren used to go to primary school with their son James but they haven’t stayed in touch and I’m sure it will be a bit awkward between the teens but Mat and I are looking forward to catching up with Sandra and Ed. We had a nice free evening that matched up with their plans and she suggested we go to Olive Garden which believe it or not is somewhere we haven’t eaten before as we don’t tend to eat offsite. Luckily they have plenty of vegan food including the soup, salad and breadsticks.

And finally I bit the bullet and cancelled the really expensive hotel in Miami Beach as I just couldn’t justify spending over a thousand pounds on one night during an already expensive three week holiday. I felt that even if we ‘treated ourselves’ we’d have such high expectations at that price and it could easily feel not worth it. The hotel I wanted instead, the Kimpton Palomar South Beach, is all sold out despite booking.com telling me it wasn’t and allowing me to go through the booking process over and over again about six times before not letting me confirm as there were no rooms available even though they kept telling me there were. So we’ve gone with the hotel we stayed in on our first (and last) visit to Miami, Kimpton Anglers. We said we wouldn’t stay there again after not being happy with it last time, but they’ve had a big expansion since then and basically built a whole new hotel onto what was already there and I’m much happier with it now. Plus it’s less than a third of what we were going to pay for the 1 Hotel so it’s all good.

Last of all Seren and I have Disney nails for the trip. Seren is over the moon with her Lilo and Stitch nails and I love my villains and tiny Mickey heads too. Thanks as always to the extremely talented and lovely fellow Disney fan Sophie for doing such an amazing job.

[jothp]

It sounds like you have a fabulous trip planned. I think I would be a little bit stressed with all the different hotel bookings.

[flo-tinka]

As me n DD are going next week after an amazing family hol with the boys to Canada and Alaska , I just checked out recent pre trips and saw yours
Hoping it is going well so far and all those moves go well. Enjoy the concert in Nashville!

[MmmBlondie]

I've just found your profile/trip reports so I'm binging what I can lol. Very excited to see you're currently out here enjoying yourselves.

Odd question - How exactly do you pronounce Seren's name? Currently pregnant with DD2 and I LOVE her name!

[moosha]

Originally Posted by McBMicky

I've really enjoyed reading all your trip reports over the last few years so really pleased you will be writing another! Your trip sounds amazing. We are also going in August for 2 weeks... preparing to melt but hoping crowds are a little lower. We also won't be buying Genie plus as we are a party of 11 so costs would be ridiculous!

See more...

Thanks so much . I was so rubbish at getting organised for the trip that I didn't get a chance to reply to comments before we went but I'd imagine if you're anything like us you did melt... it was so hot! Don't blame you for not buying Genie+ especially with such a large party but I hope you still got everything done that you wanted to do and that you had a great time .

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Sounds like lots of exciting changes to this trip and not long now! We were also lucky enough to be in Orlando for Christmas and thinking there will be lots of differences in the summer Have an amazing time!

See more...

Thanks for reading and commenting . We actually feel like it didn't seem as busy at Christmas because hours / extended hours were longer and it was like they were more prepared for the high crowds, especially at Universal and Magic Kingdom where it seemed really busy this time. Having done both back to back we were definitely more comfortable at Christmas...I actually missed feeling the chill and wearing a hoodie and would take that over sweating my socks off . How about you?

Originally Posted by smithlane

Ooh Michelle this sounds like a cracker of a trip!
What are your dates? Maybe we’ll be in Orlando at the same time! We’re there between 20-27th August 😊
I’m so torn about what to do about Genie+, I seriously need to get my head around it but we may end up needing to purchase it as we’re not staying on site so don’t get the extra hour perks.
I will probably ILL for Flight of Passage as I HAVE to ride that one!

See more...

Thanks so much Alicia . I was so rubbish at keeping on top of things here before we went but I did see on instagram that you arrived towards the end of our trip. Hope you had an amazing time...so exciting and I'm hoping you're doing a report so I can follow how it all went .

Flight of Passage is amazing...I was also ok paying for that one as it's so worth it <3.

[moosha]

Originally Posted by jothp

It sounds like you have a fabulous trip planned. I think I would be a little bit stressed with all the different hotel bookings.

See more...

Thank you . I love moving around lots of hotels especially because it seems to make the trip last longer...but I must admit there was a lot of packing and unpacking this time .

Originally Posted by flo-tinka

As me n DD are going next week after an amazing family hol with the boys to Canada and Alaska , I just checked out recent pre trips and saw yours
Hoping it is going well so far and all those moves go well. Enjoy the concert in Nashville!

See more...

Thanks so much! Hope you had an amazing trip like we did. The concert was a real highlight and we feel really lucky to be have been able to go .