Soraia goes solo - December 2017 - Pre-Trip Report

[soraia]

Hello once again

With just under 2 weeks to go until my next trip to the land of the mouse (and my first solo voyage!) I thought it was about time I started on a pre-trippie!

Some of you may have read my offside food report from October. That was always meant to be a relatively cheap offsite trip, and I realised that meant I wouldn't be making it to WDW for a few years and that was just NOT okay!

That got me thinking, and a plan started to form in my head. I've always hated New Years. There, I said it. I just find it such an anti-climax and there's always this pressure about the day. So I thought - why don't I just escape to my favourite place on earth and at least do something that makes me happy over New Years?!

I realised very quickly that this would mean a solo trip as, of course, people will always be with their loved ones/families/partners over New Years and so it was likely that none of my usual group would be able to make it.

Undeterred, I booked pretty much straight away as soon as free dining was released and have spent the subsequent months wondering whether I've made the right decision.

Don't get me wrong - I'm obviously very excited, but I've also never gone on holiday anywhere on my own so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very nervous about doing this solo.

That means the cast for this trip is just me and you'll have to put up with all my nervousness and potential wobbles throughout the trip report!

Soraia (32) - Orlando obsessed; planning enthusiast and cheese lover!

The Plan

I'll be going to visit my family in Portugal over Christmas and then flying back to London on the 28th ready for my flight to Orlando on the 29th December and staying for 9 nights, returning on the 7th January.

I spent most of these last few months checking for various combinations of flight and hotel deals and ended up booking my flights with Expedia who had a crazy deal including direct Virgin flights and 1 night's accomodation at the Rosen Shingle Creek on my first night for a great price. I'd always heard good things about the Rosen Shingle Creek so decided to go for it. I'm looking forward to seeing it, and apparently they have really cool Christmas tree displays!

I'll report back!

When we were in Orlando back in October I ended up upgrading my Universal tickets to an annual pass so knew I wanted to spend a few days there on this trip to take advantage of this. I fell in love with the RPR when I was there and ended up booking 2 nights on the 30th December (which cost an arm and a leg ) but it does mean I get FOLP during the busy season, and that I'll be at Universal for New Years!

I then check into POR on the 1st Jan for 6 nights, including QSDP and the $200 gift card.

I subscribed to Touring Plans and have made a request to get a room in the Magnolia Bend section which they'll fax through a few days before so fingers crossed I get it!

I'm really looking forward to seeing the parks all decorated for Christmas (even though it'll be after Christmas!) as I've never been at this time of year before!

Food & Entertainment

You'll probably know from my food report that I love my food so will no doubt be overindulging again on this trip. There is SO much I can't wait to eat! Expect to see a LOT of food pictures in my report

As I'm on the QSDP I haven't made too many ADR's as I want to just go with the flow and see where the day takes me. I'm actually looking forward to trying some of the quick service places, in particular:

• Satu'li Canteen at Animal Kingdom (I'm also dying to see Pandora for the first time!)
• Blaze and D-Luxe Burger at Disney Springs
• BOG breakfast (I've only ever eaten there for lunch)

The other ADR's I've made are for lunch one day at Homecomin in Disney Springs. It was one of my highlights last time we were there and the fried chicken was DIVINE so I wasn't going to miss it this time around!

GET IN MA BELLEH!

I've also made a dinner ADR for 'Ohana as in all of my trips I've never managed to go there as it's not the rest of my usual group's cup of tea so this is my chance to actually try it out (and finally get to visit the Polynesian as well!)

I'm also hoping to venture over to Mall at Millenia at some point to get my B&BW fix and also a cheeky visit to the Cheesecake Factory.

On New Years Eve I've booked a ticket to go and watch Blue Man Group. It's another thing that never appealed to my friends in previous trips, and I thought it would be quite a fun thing to do on New Years!

At Disney, I'm planning on seeing all the different fireworks and especially looking forward to seeing Happily Ever After for the first time, as well as Rivers of Light.

I have a rough plan of where I'm going to be each day and have booked some FP's just to make sure I can get on the headliners as I know it'll be really busy in the parks. Apart from that, I'm just going to go with the flow each day. I'm hoping the fact that I'm alone means I can zoom around in the crowds, but I may be kidding myself! I actually don't do so well in big crowds of people so this trip report may just be one big long rant from me

So that's about it! I have no idea what to expect at this time of year, and also the fact that I'll be alone will be completely new to me but hopefully it doesn't all go Pete Tong!

If there are any other dibbers out there at that time who are in a similar position and want to meet up for a coffee or something, let me know! Or even if you just see me walking around, please say hello

Right, I suppose I better go and get the suitcase out and start thinking about packing...

INDEX is here

[Pussycat Doll]

Sounds great, I'll look out for you!

[bella9]

You're going to love all those beautiful decorations which should be up for all of your trip - certainly for most of it.

Looking forward to tagging along and hearing all about your wonderful trip.

[jools1302]

Have an amazing time it will be different being on your own but i am sure you will thoroughly enjoy yourself doing everything you want to do 😁😁

[Goldia]

I loved the food report and so I can't wait to see what you get up to solo. I hope you have fun!

[Jaspercat10]

Wow good for you looking forward to reading along 😁

[DisneyDreamer81]

I loved your food report - already looking forward to reading about your solo trip! I'm sure you're going to have an incredible time

[debojahh]

Hope you have a lovely time. Really enjoyed the food report so looking forward to this!

[stecee]

We flew out at a similar time to you back in '05 and we found that after new year, the parks were a lot quieter.
I hope everything goes well for you and am looking forward to reading all about it.

[unixgirl]

Sounds like a brilliant trip - BMG is fantastic :-).