Pre Trippie - Honeymoon January 2011

[abiknox]

Pre Trip Report

Morning Everyone! This might be a bit premature as we aren’t going for 9 ½ months but I couldn’t wait to get started with my ‘Pre Trippie’! Yay. This will be my first kind of Blog/Trip report so it won’t be brilliant. I don’t have the natural writing flair that a lot of people on here have but I hope it will be an enjoyable read! I have loved reading everyone else’s!

The Cast:

Me - Abi, I will be 25 when we travel, it will be my 3rd time to Florida, I love all the big rides, Typhoon Lagoons surf pool and Seaworld!



Aaron - My husband to be who will be 24 when we go, it will be his 2nd time to Florida, he loves the big rides and the food, hehe!



This will be our 2nd trip to Florida together, we went in 2009 for a week’s holiday and have been desperate to go back ever since. The ideal opportunity arose when we got engaged in October 2009 and when asked about our honeymoon destination there was no question as to where we would be heading! Florida of course!

On our previous trip we stayed on I drive and this time round with a friendlier budget I knew I wanted us to be on-site. Once I looked at the brochures I had no doubts about where I wanted to stay – The Animal Kingdom Lodge! I started pricing up straight away and in the end settled on a 10 day stay in a Savannah room starting 31st January 2011 (only 2 days after our wedding! ). I considered not booking the savannah room as it was a pricey upgrade @ £600 and hoping we might get a freebee if we mentioned our honeymoon but in the end I decided I didn’t want to risk it so I dug deep into our budget and forked out the extra money.

The total holiday cost was £3,275 flying from Manchester with coach transfers. I opted out of the car hire when I booked as I’m not too confident (the driving would all be on me as well as Aaron will still only be 24 ). Having read everyone’s comments on driving in the US though i have changed my mind! I’m still going to make the most of the airport transfers as that means I can relax and have a couple of drinks on the plane, and im going to book car hire for the 8 middle days of our holiday. This is @ a cost of £165.00 Bargain! This worked out cheaper than paying the insurance for the so called ‘free’ car hire with Virgin! Glad I opted out of that one!

We are planning on visiting the following parks:

Magic Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Typhoon Lagoon
Blizard Beach
SeaWorld (My absolute favourite!)
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure

As we were only there for a week last time we purchased the Orlando Flex ticket and a 1 day magic your way Disney ticket with an added water park (used this for Hollywood Studios & Typhoon Lagoon). This means we have a lot of new things still to discover on this trip. I was 9 the last time I visited the other Disney parks and Animal Kingdom & Blizzard beach weren’t even built!

This time round I plan to purchase either the 14 day Ultimate Disney Ticket or a 10 day magic your way ticket (have to figure out the waterparks separately), a 1 day SeaWorld ticket (with a free second visit) and a 2 park Universal pass. I think this works out just cheaper than the Flex ticket as I’m not too bothered about Aquatica and Wet’ n’ Wild.

I’m still undecided about Discovery Cove, i would love the opportunity to swim with the dolphins as ive been told you are only in shallow water but i wouldn’t be brave enough to snorkel with the rays ect so I need to weigh up the costs and see if its worth it. Any advice would be much appreciated!

With it being our honeymoon I am also hoping to do a few extra things that we probably wouldn’t spend on at other times. These include:

Penguin encounter @ seaworld
Dine with Shamu (if its running)
A wishes/Illuminations cruise
Cirque de Soleil

Again any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I’m also planning on booking the following ADR’s

Ohana - Breakfast
Boma
Tusker House
Fantasmic Package (either Mama Melrose or Brown Derby)
House of Blue (i have my voucher from Resturant.com – thanks Dibbers )
Le Cellier
Whispering Canyon Cafe

And off site Disney:

Hard rock cafe
Chillis
Baham Breeze

So i think that covers most things, I will add later if I remember anything else! Sorry it was a long one!

[abiknox]

My pictures wont work any ideas?

[margyloveswdw]

Sounds like a great trip and congratulations on your forthcoming wedding!

Sorry - can't help with the photos!