When You Wish Upon A Star - April 2016 (Updated 28/03)

[66Caunce]

Well, we've FINALLY booked to return to the Kingdom of Magic and Orlando in 2016. Some of you may recall I started a pre-trip earlier this year, detailing my (quite dull) savings and flight price searches on an almost daily basis. Unfortunately, after saving my first £1k, I lost my job in the first week of March. We also moved house, further North out of Blackpool town centre. I then ran an unsuccessful campaign to become a local councillor in May. Fast forward to now, July, and I've finally secured a full-time post after four months off working for the local Council. The post hasn't started yet but as I received my offer of employment through the mail, posted it back off all signed and filled in, I took the plunge and booked our trip.

Cue nine months of saving!

Introductions:

Me (Adam, 30 at the time of travel)
This will be my third trip to the land of the Mouse and, after a gap of 15 years between the first and second, I'm hooked enough to bring the next gap down to just the one year.



My partner (Ian, 25 at the time of travel)
A care worker and will be in the third year of his degree when we travel. We've got our fingers crossed we won't have to adjust the dates but we won't hesitate to do it if he has assignments due.



And the obligatory photo of the two of us together in a Christmassy Epcot:



Last Visit:

Last time we stayed at the Rosen Inn on International Drive. Here's a few pictures of the lobby:





We dined quite close to home when not at Disney and became evening regulars of Applebee's and breakfast regulars at the infamous Ponderosa (we liked it!):







What We've Booked:

Erm, not much, really. We've just put a deposit down on a Disney hotel for a week and the park tickets. Last time we went, we stayed for the full 14 nights on International Drive. This time, I did some maths and worked out that a stay on Disney property would probably work out the same as a week on I Drive, especially with the full Disney Dining Plan. So, we've booked seven nights at Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa with the Table Service DDP thrown in for 'free'. We've paid the £100 deposit on the total cost of £1793 for two of us through OrlandoAttractions.com. They worked out cheaper than Disney direct and, as you'll see over the coming months as I build this holiday by myself without a Travel Agent, I don't like to pay full price for anything when there's no need to.

Now, I mentioned I'd done some maths. Here's how I worked it out:

Working back from the £1793 quote (at current exchange rates that's $2800), we estimate we spent approx $150 a day on food and drink last time. We dined at Disney in our seven days there last time so that bumped up the total spend with some evening meals hitting the $80 mark. And we bought A LOT of bottled soft drinks whilst in the parks as it was so hot (amateurs). So that's $1050, taking the cost of the hotel down to $1750 as it's all included with our latest booking.

We get Memory Maker thrown in for free, which we paid for last time. That's $169. That takes the hotel down to $1580.

Add in the $200 Disney gift card, which is an amount we'd almost certainly have spent on souvenirs anyway and that takes it down to $1380.

We even bought Magic Bands and sliders to decorate them last time so I'm rounding that down to $1300. Going even further, we spent $50 on a Mears cab from the airport - this time it'll be the Magical Express so I'm calling the final total $1250. I make that about £800.

But spending £800 on an I Drive hotel is quite a lot, Adam, I hear you cry. You're spending more by staying at Disney. Most people say the DDP doesn't mean you can break even on staying elsewhere.

Well, if I were to include the fact we used at least two Uber cabs a day to get from I Drive to Disney last time we were there, at approximately $50 a day, that's a further $350 we would have spent by staying off-site. That takes the total down to $900, about £575. Hooray! That's more like it. As non-drivers, it makes financial sense for us to experience the magic at Disney rather than off-site!

As the only thing we have booked so far is the first week hotel and park tickets, I have a lot to do over the next nine months.

At the moment, I'm searching flight prices once a day (again) and the cheapest return is coming up at £389 indirect via Gatwick. I love the prices I'm seeing. I only hope they are similar when I'm in a position to pay for them at the end of this month.

What we have done:
❤ Paid deposit on one week Saratoga Springs stay with Disney tickets and Dining Plan

What we still have to do:
❤ Change Ian's passport to his married name
❤ Buy Travel Insurance.
❤ Book flights
❤ Currency
❤ Book Universal hotel
❤ Book ADRs
❤ Book Discovery Cove/Busch Gardens/Seaworld
❤ Book airport hotel
❤ Book Heathrow to Gatwick transfer
❤ Plan our itinerary
❤ Book a Seaworld tour
❤ Book I Drive hotel
❤ Book weekend before activities

There's much more than that but I don't want to overwhelm myself at this early stage.

Next date for my diary: 31st July - book flights and travel insurance

Contents

Flights
Plans:
Day One
Day Two
Day Three

[Loulabelle18]

Aww wondered where you'd disappeared to. Sounds like you had a bad time to get through but have reappeared with even more exciting plans! Glad you're back, looking forward to more detailed plans xx

[66Caunce]

Originally Posted by Loulabelle18

Aww wondered where you'd disappeared to. Sounds like you had a bad time to get through but have reappeared with even more exciting plans! Glad you're back, looking forward to more detailed plans xx

See more...

It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I didn't sign on so had to rely on ever-inventive ways of getting money into the household pot. I fought for our deposit back on our old house and, after initially being offered nothing, got 90% of it back. I transferred TopCashback funds that had come through for various schemes like signing up for Life Insurance just to get the cashback and I'm currently claiming my pension contributions back from a short-lived job I had with the NHS. I also did a tiny bit of agency work.

I still need to complete last year's trippie! I'll try and do a day a week.

[66Caunce]

Flights:

I've been obsessively checking flights from any UK airports (and Dublin) for over a month now.

For the first two weeks, I simply didn't consider leaving from any airport other than Manchester. A night in an airport hotel, then board our flights. As we live in Blackpool, Manchester is our closest airport so it seemed like the logical option. Flights were coming in at around the £480 mark, indirect.

Then, one weekend, I had a bit of spare time so started searching on Skyscanner for flights from Dublin. They were coming in at about £380. Fantastic. I told Ian and we were set on a night in Manchester to visit my parents, a flight to Dublin, a night there, then onto MCO. Except the more I looked at it and thought about it, the more I thought it was a pain to do the flight itinerary. The flights were Manchester to Dublin, then Dublin back to Manchester, then direct flights with Virgin to MCO (and then the reverse on the way back, finishing in Dublin). With a hotel in each location and food/drink and something to do in Dublin for a day, the total was coming in at about £480 - £500 each. This was doable however we wouldn't want to take the last leg of the trip. We'd want to collect our luggage in Manchester and go home, not taking the Dublin flight. After much Googling, it seems this is perfectly possible, but it's pot luck whether Virgin would short-check our bags to Manchester not Dublin, especially as they are increasingly aware of people doing this to avoid higher fares. It all seemed too risky, particularly as we wouldn't know if we were successful until we were at Orlando airport on our last day. Add in the fact we'd have to take Ryanair out to Dublin, either just taking hand luggage or paying extra to take our massive bags for shopping whilst out in the States, and the cost also became counter-intuitive.

I didn't like the idea of having that at the back of my mind for the entire holiday so it was back to the drawing board. Now, we're the kind of couple that like an airport or city hotel before flying. And, as we're planning on flying on a Monday, we have the weekend before to travel somewhere at our leisure and perhaps explore a city for a day or two before our flight out to the US.

With this in mind, I then searched for flights from all UK airports last weekend and we're currently settled on Glasgow. These flights are coming in at £390 indirect via Gatwick and Heathrow. We spent our first break away together as a couple in Glasgow in 2013 so I'm now thinking we could make a weekend of it again. We'd both finish work on the Friday afternoon and then get the train up to Glasgow, staying in an airport hotel for three nights. We could get the train into the city centre each day and have a 'pre-holiday holiday'. As I also used to live in the city, I have a fondness for Glasgow that perhaps others don't share.

At the moment, that's our plan - a weekend in Glasgow before flying out to Orlando. The only bit of this plan I don't like is the outbound journey - we'd fly from Glasgow to Heathrow then have to get the National Express coach to Gatwick before flying direct to Orlando. It's easy on the way back, it's all through Gatwick.

So, I'm kinda still looking. I keep the Skyscanner tab open all the time and each morning I refresh the page to see the latest flight prices from Glasgow. They've stayed pretty stable for a week. However, at the weekend, I'll run my search from all UK airports again and look at alternatives.

If we do go with Glasgow, the flight times are great. We like to get to our destination as early as possible so we don't waste a night of our stay and leave as late as possible for the same reason. With that in mind, a very early start in the UK gets us into Orlando for 3.30pm on our current flights of choice and we'd come home at 8pm, giving us a full day to make use of before having to travel to the airport. Both of these were luxuries we didn't have last time. And, as neither of us suffered from jet lag at all last time, we should be able to make full use of both first and last days.

Last Visit Memories:

A selfie taking at our hotel window on departure day:



Goodbye to The Shining corridor:



And our room from the outside!

[berniegroves]

Exciting times.
I hope you manage to find a good deal on the flights you want. Indirect is such a good option for Orlando as it can save a fair amount of money. I'll only consider direct at the moment because our kids are so young.

SSR looks amazing! Do you know where you want to stay on your second week? I loved being on Iternational Drive because you could walk places.

We are there 5 days after you arrive. :-)

[66Caunce]

Originally Posted by berniegroves

Exciting times.
I hope you manage to find a good deal on the flights you want. Indirect is such a good option for Orlando as it can save a fair amount of money. I'll only consider direct at the moment because our kids are so young.

SSR looks amazing! Do you know where you want to stay on your second week? I loved being on Iternational Drive because you could walk places.

We are there 5 days after you arrive. :-)

See more...

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for our plans

We loved I Drive too and we stayed at the tacky end. Coming from Blackpool it felt like home

Neither of us have ever stayed on Disney property before so we're very excited.

And we'll almost certainly be going indirect. I see some people's budgets for flights and look like this . I want to get them dirt cheap, sub-£400 if possible. We then spend the money saved on a day or two in a UK city before the flight

I've just had a phone call from my new employer though which has thrown a spanner in the works for booking flights this month. Fear not though, I'll tick something cheaper off the list, maybe our next hotel

[66Caunce]

Our Plans:

I've been using this year's park hours to give us a head start on the planning. I imagine they'll be pretty similar to next year's but, if not, I kind of like making little adjustments to our plans as it keeps me busy with things to do.

With this in mind, my next 16 posts will be detailing our rough itinerary each day. We're planning on staying for 16 nights this time, 2 more than our last visit. I should just state our plans are based on flying from Glasgow. This could change to anywhere in the country depending on prices on the day of booking. Yesterday, i got a call from my new employers stating that I can't start my new job until a DBS check has been carried out and returned to me. They expect this to take a further two weeks. This has impacted on our plans as I won't be able to book flights at the end of this month now. Instead, I'll probably book our Universal hotel stay - more on that in a week or so - but it all depends on how much I end up with in my first pay packet.

So, on with the plans...

Day One: St Annes

This is a Friday so I'm planning to work 9am - 5pm. I presume Ian will end up working, too, although he might arrange an earlier finish or even the day off. His working hours are 8am - 5.30pm and, although we live in Blackpool, he works in the next 'town' of St Annes. My new job is located in Blackpool town centre, a 20 minute walk from where we live. At 5pm, I'll catch a bus down to St Annes to meet Ian after work.

We'll go to the local Wetherspoons for tea and I'm planning to invite his mum and stepdad too. A nice family meal and a few drinks later, we'll get the bus home and be tucked up in bed by midnight - three weeks off work ahead of us.

Last Visit Memories - The Hotel Lobby

All decked out for Christmas:





The gift shop:



And the desk:

[EllenClaire]

Brilliant start I cant wait to hear how your plans all come together, and good luck in your new job

[berniegroves]

Originally Posted by 66Caunce

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for our plans

We loved I Drive too and we stayed at the tacky end. Coming from Blackpool it felt like home

Neither of us have ever stayed on Disney property before so we're very excited.

And we'll almost certainly be going indirect. I see some people's budgets for flights and look like this . I want to get them dirt cheap, sub-£400 if possible. We then spend the money saved on a day or two in a UK city before the flight

I've just had a phone call from my new employer though which has thrown a spanner in the works for booking flights this month. Fear not though, I'll tick something cheaper off the list, maybe our next hotel

See more...

We used to stay opposite Wet and Wild, so not far from the all you can eat buffets and gloriously tacky gift shops. lol

I'm sure staying on-site will be amazing! For a minute there i thought we'd be able to do it on our next trip, but we've decided to wait until our kids are a little older.
I'm not surprised you're excited.

Yep, the cost of our flights made my eyes water! I have now wiped the figure from my mind so that i can sleep at night. But with a 2 year old and 4 year old we needed the convenience.

You are making me feel very unorganised! We are going a week after you and i don't have our day to day plans worked out yet. I haven't even decided which parks we will be doing. I better get cracking!

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip

[66Caunce]

Day 2: Blackpool

A lazy Saturday in Blackpool prior to our trip to Manchester the next day. Am I the only one that counts days off before a holiday as part of the holiday itself? I think I might be as I've never seen anyone else do a trip report this way. This day has a dedicated page on my plans - I can add Things to Do to it as and when they crop up which I find really handy. By the time the day arrives, I'll have a long list of Things to Do which will keep me busy.

I imagine the day will look something like this: a lie-in, until maybe 10am, followed by the usual shower, shave and dog walking. Most of the afternoon will be spent doing the tasks on the list and final bits of packing. I picture a tranquil four or five leisurely hours to pack but we'll see how peaceful it actually is...

In the early evening, we'll pop to our local supermarket, Sainsbury's, for some last-minute supplies for tomorrow. I mentioned in an earlier post that I don't like paying list price for anything. Well, even this supermarket shop has been covered - I've taken out a life insurance policy with Sainsbury's that pays a £60 gift card after I've made my fifth monthly payment of £5. When the gift card arrives, I'll cancel the policy, so I'll have paid £25 for a £60 gift card. It should arrive in December and will be put aside for this specific shop (although it may get used once before for a booze shop as I don't think we'll spend £60 on hotel supplies).

We'll then get home for about 6.30pm and order a takeaway. I'll be looking at ways of reducing this cost in the new year. There are usually a couple of codes floating around for HungryHouse or JustEat, or Groupon deals where you buy a £10 voucher for £5, failing that I get a weekly text from Dominos and Papa John's offering money off. Whoever we go with, I always make sure we get the few pence through Quidco.

Takeaway and a film will end our last full day in Blackpool for nearly three weeks and we should be tucked up in bed by midnght.

Last Visit Memories - Cirque de Soleil and The View From Our Hotel

Selfies at the circus:





The view from our hotel: