Gryffindors and the Orlando Homecoming

[Excitedx4]

Ok, so here we are! Finally back to this section of the Dibb. It’s felt like such a long time since we were in Orlando when in reality we were only there in 2019. Let’s get going with the who, the where and the why!

The Who
We are the Griffins, hence the title and the reference to Harry Potter. Hopefully the virus that shall not be named (see what I did there) will not spoil our plans and everything will go smoothly. You may of read my previous reports. I’ve done a full trip report in 2017, and a food report in 2019. I love reading all the trippies from Dibbers and annoyed with myself I missed out on doing our other trips as I love reading them back. Our first trip was back in 2013 when the boys were little, 2 and 8! It was a last minute booking via Thomas Cook only 4 weeks before travel staying at Clarion Inn LBV doing Disney and Universal and when I discovered the Dibb. Subsequently been after that in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

I am Danielle aged 36 and this will be my 11th trip to Orlando. Having been 5 times with my parents when I was younger. I am the planner and organiser of the trips. I work in Education and currently in a High School but I am starting a new job just after Easter, still in education but moving into a college setting for SEN students which I am really excited about. I love our holidays and I’ve really missed them over the past few years. We moved house mid pandemic in August 2020 and we’ve not had a holiday since October half term 2019 when we went to Barbados, so this is a long time coming. In fact, we have a few holidays booked this year. We fly to Tenerife next week which I’m also excited about but a Florida holiday just hits differently doesn’t it!?

My husband is Dave, this will be his 7th trip. He is so chilled out he is practically horizontal, he just goes along with all my plans. I sit and tell him all about what we have booked, he nods along but I’m 99% sure he isn’t even listening! He went once when he was around 15 and all the others with us as a family. Dave is Head of Business for a car company. Works mega long hours and our holidays are real quality family time together!

DS1 Evan will be 18 a week before we go. He completes his A-levels in the summer so we will be away for results day. When we get back he will be starting his Accountancy apprenticeship with Grant Thornton and we are so proud of how well he has done to secure this role especially given his disability. Evan has Cerebral Palsy and is a full time wheelchair user, he cannot walk at all. This will be his 6th trip and he is really looking forward to it! He took himself off to Spain in the Feb half term and travelled alone (my mum lives there). He booked himself a flight without even telling me, he said “Mother don’t worry, I’ve booked a taxi to the airport and special assistance there and back it’s all sorted”. I was so nervous of him doing it on his own but he was absolutely fine and it shows by travelling so much with us it has given him the confidence to go and do it alone at 17 with a disability.

DS2 Jacob is 11 and will be when we travel. When we get back from holiday he will be starting at high school which he is looking forward to. Jacob is my chilled out child as opposed to his highly strung brother! Jacob has finally reached the 54” and we go to Alton Towers a lot and ride the big ones now he is 1.4m. He is excited to ride all the big coasters as he has never been big enough before, going last time when he was only 8.

They love each other….honestly!

The Where
So this holiday all came about when I seen one of my Dibb friends on Instagram had booked her flights to Florida (Newtoorlando) back in September, so I decided to have a sneaky little look myself. We did have a holiday booked for 2020 which was cancelled so we still had a voucher to use from that booking. We didn’t even bother looking or booking for 2021 but 2022 surely things had to change especially with the vaccine roll out. Anyway I had a look, we usually fly into Miami, we’ve only ever flown into MCO once back in 2016. 2013 was Sanford and all the other 17,18,19 have all been Miami. It’s always cheaper and it’s an easy drive up to Orlando. The case was the same this time I looked so we snapped up flights LHR-MIA direct outbound and indirect home via Madrid with Iberia all booked with BA. 15-30 August landing back on 31st August ready for me to be back at work 1st September, as we have to work inset days! I added on 3 nights in Orlando at Doubletree Hilton Seaworld to make it a package and only paying £150 deposit. I think the package was just over the 2.2k mark for all 4 of us given the prices of flights it was a decent deal, not earth shattering but a price we were happy with.

We live 20 minutes from Manchester airport but the prices from there were terrible. We are on the early 10.40am BA flight to Miami and land around 3pm. Instead of staying over which we usually do we are going to head straight up to Orlando.

Thoughts turned to the remaining 12 nights’ accommodation and I was a bit iffy about booking privately as we usually stay onsite at Disney for 7 nights and then the remainder of the holiday in a villa booked via the Dibb or privately. I was a bit apprehensive booking privately with the C19 cover whereas if we booked via BA on the package we would receive the money back. I googled, researched, and went back and forwards looking at private villas, hotels, condos, townhouses, my eyes were definitely square! I decided on a townhouse at Regal Oaks, we have a nice patio with hotub and a brilliant shared pool. I’m 100% convinced you don’t tan very well through those cages over the villa pools so I wanted a shared pool and it also means Jacob can make friends as the villa is a bit isolated for Jacob, he makes friends so easily.

So we had booked flights and accommodation via BA, flights LHR-MIA, MIA-MAD-LHR. Accommodation 3 nights Doubletree at Seaworld and 12 nights at Regal Oaks in a 3 bed condo.

Now onto the dreaded car hire. Bearing in mind this is back last September. We usually do a flydrive via BA but the car prices were horrendous! Looking at the car sub section people were getting better deals off Airports so I had a little mess around and booked 1 day 1 way SUV car hire from Miami dropping off in Orlando with Sixt, pay at location $217, picking up another from Hertz at the Disney Kissimmee location for the remaining 15 days dropping off at Miami Airport for Nissan Rogue or similar for $630 pay at location. Much better than the £1500 we were getting quotes for.

The tickets! We’d all decided we didn’t want to do Disney (we were not doing it in 2020 either). We haven’t been to Universal since 2017 so we were all about the Universal this time around. And we wanted to do non-swim ultimates and do Seaworld, Busch and Aquatica. I waited until Black Friday week and set about getting us some good deals! Discovery Cove ultimates were secured via Floridatix for £435 for 4 people. We are doing DC on our last full day 29th August as it made the price come down considerably also. Universal tickets plus KSC came in around £1100 via OrlandoAttractionTickets. All of these are on deposit bookings right now and have protection on them just in case.

So that was the flights, accommodation, car hire and tickets all booked on deposits. Now for the changes!
Flights, home one connection time changed so rang up BA and put on to the direct AA flight home. Had a wobble about the Doubletree Hilton as really bad reviews online so phoned up and had us changed to Endless Summer Dockside for our first 3 nights which I’m so excited about! Added on a 1 night stay at RPR for the express passes in our 2nd week also. Having a bit of a wobble about the Regal Oaks booking as those are not too favourable at present but Dibbers are very complimentary about Regal Oaks so I’m going to keep this, I think. I’ve also been so paranoid about the car hire as I’ve secured a really good price I’m second guessing do I have all the insurances (I do) am I going to get there and have to pay loads extra, etc, etc but I know it’s just me being paranoid as usual. I need to take a leaf out of Dave’s book and chill out! What will be will be.

And finally, the why

Because we can!
If the past few years have taught us anything it is to live life in the moment.

So our trip looks like this;
14th August- Drive to LHR stay at Premier Inn
15th August- Fly LHR-MIA 10.40am, pick up car and drive to Dockside
15th-18th August Dockside
18th-30th August Regal Oaks 3 bed condo
22nd-23rd August Royal Pacific Resort
29th August Discovery Cove
30th August Fly MIA-LHR
31st August Land in LHR
We will not have day plans set in stone at all, we want it to be a more relaxed affair and for this I am so grateful we are not doing Disney as this Genie+ and Lightening Lane palaver gives me a headache. I used to think Disney was a military operation but now with these additions it really is! I don’t want to be up at 7am in the morning to be booking ride times. Our boys are older now and not really interested in Disney. Evan admitted he only wanted to go for the dining plan, which is obviously no more!

Like I said we have not been to Universal since 2017 so we are really looking forward to doing the new additions, Hagrid’s and Velocicoaster, they look amazing Also we will dip into Volcano bay at some point too.

We did a dolphin swim at DC in 2017 also which to be honest I didn’t think was worth the money, however we’ve got non swim ultimates this time for a cheaper price than the 3 park ticket which we were going to buy anyway so we’re looking forward to this. We will be going to Seaworld and Busch for the coasters too which both boys are looking forward to and Aquatica.

The 3 boys have tickets for Kennedy Space Centre. This place does not interest me at all so when they go off to KSC I am going to do a tour of the Disney hotels using the transport, just absorb the atmosphere in the lobbies and pick up a few snacks in the resorts.

As we are so close to Old Town at Regal Oaks we are going to do the car shows, we say we’ll do this every year and we’ve yet to get there. We would also like to visit the beach, we are thinking Treasure Island as they have a disabled walkway on the beach to get down to the sea.

Other than that we will be taking it at our own pace. Our next door neighbours are also out in Orlando at the same time so we will be meeting up with them at some point to do something together.

We are aware with Evan being 18 this could be our last family holiday together so we hope to go out with a bang. We are also hoping we will be celebrating on the 18th August for Evan’s results, even though his apprenticeship is an unconditional offer so nothing is hanging on the balance but still will celebrate his hard work over the past 2 years!

Now just waiting for Biden to drop the pre departure testing before August, fingers crossed as Jacob and I are spending 15 nights in Spain and fly home 10th August before flying back out to Florida for another 15 nights!

[Excitedx4]

Well we will definitely be upgrading our universal tickets when we are over there for me and DS2 as we have booked a little sneaky trip away in the October half term! Another pre-trip report pending 🙌🏻✈️👻🎃

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Well we will definitely be upgrading our universal tickets when we are over there for me and DS2 as we have booked a little sneaky trip away in the October half term! Another pre-trip report pending 🙌🏻✈️👻🎃

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Yay. Bring on the 2nd pre trip report!

Your plans for the summer look great. We looked at the doubletree but like you I wasn’t keen on the reviews which is how, like you, we’ve ended up at Dockside.

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Yay. Bring on the 2nd pre trip report!

Your plans for the summer look great. We looked at the doubletree but like you I wasn’t keen on the reviews which is how, like you, we’ve ended up at Dockside.

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I’m looking forward to the Dockside, I’ve just contacted them asking for an accessible room also. Then our sneaky trip we’re doing Surfside so I can compare the 2! I’m so looking forward to this year 🎉🎉

And you guys are getting in the hatrick! Just hoping Biden scraps the LFT’s now 🤞🏻

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

I’m looking forward to the Dockside, I’ve just contacted them asking for an accessible room also. Then our sneaky trip we’re doing Surfside so I can compare the 2! I’m so looking forward to this year 🎉🎉

And you guys are getting in the hatrick! Just hoping Biden scraps the LFT’s now 🤞🏻

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Will be interesting to see which one you prefer.

Sure they will sort you with an accessible room, I’m sure in their site that was available to book. Are you going for rooms or the family suites?

Fingers crossed for three in a row 🤞

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Will be interesting to see which one you prefer.

Sure they will sort you with an accessible room, I’m sure in their site that was available to book. Are you going for rooms or the family suites?

Fingers crossed for three in a row 🤞

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Just rooms as we are only there for 3 nights when it’s the 4 of us and the first night is our arrival day when we’ll just drop into bed. We move to a 3 bed townhouse then for 12 nights. If we were at Dockside for longer we would of opted for the family suite. Then at Surfside it will just be Jacob and I so we will have a bed each then so no need for the suite. The suites do look brilliant though when I seen them on the cheers ears vlog!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Just rooms as we are only there for 3 nights when it’s the 4 of us and the first night is our arrival day when we’ll just drop into bed. We move to a 3 bed townhouse then for 12 nights. If we were at Dockside for longer we would of opted for the family suite. Then at Surfside it will just be Jacob and I so we will have a bed each then so no need for the suite. The suites do look brilliant though when I seen them on the cheers ears vlog!

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That sounds great. The rooms look so bright at both hotels. A townhouse will be lovely for the 4 of you.

We’ve 8 nights at Dockside and the aph rate made it a good deal for the suite. Sure Joe will appreciate some space away from us when he is stuck with us for 22 nights 😂

[Excitedx4]

Definitely need a bit of space when you’re together for over 3 weeks! Good call on the suite the extra money will be well worth it 😊

[Libby B]

Following along as I am interested in Regal Oaks for my next trip. I have stayed at Encantata resort before which is part of the same group and loved it but I am interested in the Old Town /Celebration area as I think we are going to Uber/Lyft and walk a bit rather than get a car!

Great pre-trip report - I bet you are all excited!

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Libby B

Following along as I am interested in Regal Oaks for my next trip. I have stayed at Encantata resort before which is part of the same group and loved it but I am interested in the Old Town /Celebration area as I think we are going to Uber/Lyft and walk a bit rather than get a car!

Great pre-trip report - I bet you are all excited!

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I’ve watched a few vlogs on YouTube of old town and looks like a good lively place at nighttime and within walking distance of regal oaks! Seems popular with dibbers too regal oaks 😊