Back to the magic take two! November 2022 Pre-Trip report

[MamatoFelix]

Sounds great! Looking forward to reading.

I love Disney history, Expedition Theme Park on YouTube have some interesting videos 🤓

I’m pretty sure you can book your park days without having paid the full amount as long as you have a reservation number linked up to MDE. We’ve booked through Disney and have done this but I’m sure you can do the same with Virgin? 🙂

[Bondy007]

Check out other books by Susan Veness, I’ve just read her Hidden Magic of Walt Disney Word 3rd Edition. And will shortly be ordering the other 2 to see what I’ve missed!
Assuming the others are in the same format, this has a timeline for changes in each park. Fascinating looking through what’s changed over the years.

Great plan so far. I’m going to put together a proper pre trippie at some point for our August 2022 trip. I’ve already posted version 1 of my spreadsheet plan...

[katebush95]

Originally Posted by MamatoFelix

Sounds great! Looking forward to reading.

I love Disney history, Expedition Theme Park on YouTube have some interesting videos 🤓

I’m pretty sure you can book your park days without having paid the full amount as long as you have a reservation number linked up to MDE. We’ve booked through Disney and have done this but I’m sure you can do the same with Virgin? 🙂

See more...

Thank you we'll go back to Virgin again and ask 👍

[katebush95]

Originally Posted by Bondy007

Check out other books by Susan Veness, I’ve just read her Hidden Magic of Walt Disney Word 3rd Edition. And will shortly be ordering the other 2 to see what I’ve missed!
Assuming the others are in the same format, this has a timeline for changes in each park. Fascinating looking through what’s changed over the years.

Great plan so far. I’m going to put together a proper pre trippie at some point for our August 2022 trip. I’ve already posted version 1 of my spreadsheet plan...

See more...

Thank you I'll have a look for those. I'm gradually building my Disney book collection up ☺️

[katebush95]

I thought I’d do a little post as it’s a milestone number of days now until we go. We’ve not really done much more on the planning front, but I have been enjoying picking up a few Disney items in Primark such as this bag:

And these mugs:

And I’ve also watched Saving Mr Banks for the first time which was an amazing film and I can’t believe I haven’t watched it before!

I’m going to do a car boot this weekend as I’ve decided to de clutter and put all the money into a ‘saving for Disney’ tin to see how much I can make in the 500 days I have left 😆

The news on the diet front isn’t good, I just can’t seem to get motivated 😢 It hasn’t helped that we’ve had to postpone our planned Greek holiday from July to September and so I don’t have anything immediate to aim for. I do have a couple of weekends booked in August around the North Yorks coast, both in cottages with lovely sea views so that should be nice and relaxing 😎

One thing we’ve been discussing is whether to have our Universal nights at HRH or RPR? Can anyone who has stayed at both recommend one over the other for ease walking route to the parks and Citywalk, general atmosphere etc?

Anyway that’s all for now happy planning everyone!

[smithlane]

This is all very exciting, it will be here before you know it!

You have exactly the same offsite restaurants I have on my list that we love, although Longhorn and Panda Express are a must too.

Saving Mr Banks is hands down my favourite Tom Hanks film, I could watch it over and over again. I cry every time

My OH is a big golfer and plays multiple times every holiday. His favourite golf courses are Celebration and the Waldorf Astoria.

Looking forward to reading more of your plans

[Shkyler]

Just stumbled across this, love it!
Highlands reserve booked for June 2022 (everything crossed)
Just booked one night in the RPR for the express passes - check out travel republic for the low booking deposit option.

3 stone to lose - and the rest at this stage 🙈

Hoping to do the Florida Mall, LBV factory stores, the 2 outlets, Disney , universal, Kennedy and all the restaurants you just listed!

So good to have something to look forward to

[halloweenbaby2]

Just caught up with your pre trip and sounding good,
Tripp suitcases are really good and they have a sale on at the moment. I used to get mine through Debenhams but sadly no more, however you can buy direct from Tripp.
We've only ever stayed at Royal Pacific but I'd recommend it as its a really nice chilled hotel. The walk from the hotel to City Walk is about 10mins hut the boats run regularly too I also love that you do bag check before getting on the boat too.

[katebush95]

Originally Posted by smithlane

This is all very exciting, it will be here before you know it!

You have exactly the same offsite restaurants I have on my list that we love, although Longhorn and Panda Express are a must too.

Saving Mr Banks is hands down my favourite Tom Hanks film, I could watch it over and over again. I cry every time

My OH is a big golfer and plays multiple times every holiday. His favourite golf courses are Celebration and the Waldorf Astoria.

Looking forward to reading more of your plans

See more...

Thank you for reading along and I'll get my hubby to look into those golf courses. It's hard not to wish the time away, which I absolutely should not be doing at my age 😂

Originally Posted by Shkyler

Just stumbled across this, love it!
Highlands reserve booked for June 2022 (everything crossed)
Just booked one night in the RPR for the express passes - check out travel republic for the low booking deposit option.

3 stone to lose - and the rest at this stage 🙈

Hoping to do the Florida Mall, LBV factory stores, the 2 outlets, Disney , universal, Kennedy and all the restaurants you just listed!

So good to have something to look forward to

See more...

Ooh you'll have to let me know what Highlands Reserve is like when you've been! We're not sure how realistic it would be to Uber to places sometimes if we don't want to take the car. Thanks for the tip about Travel Republic I'll have a look ☺️ I've just bought myself some Bluetooth earphones in preparation for trying to start the couch to 5k tomorrow so fingers crossed 😆

Originally Posted by halloweenbaby2

Just caught up with your pre trip and sounding good,
Tripp suitcases are really good and they have a sale on at the moment. I used to get mine through Debenhams but sadly no more, however you can buy direct from Tripp.
We've only ever stayed at Royal Pacific but I'd recommend it as its a really nice chilled hotel. The walk from the hotel to City Walk is about 10mins hut the boats run regularly too I also love that you do bag check before getting on the boat too.

See more...

I think I used to have a Tripp suitcase and yes it was good. It's so sad that Debenhams have closed 😥 I like the sound of RPR and my daughter would quite like to try it I think as she's done HRH. Thanks for reading 😍

[katebush95]

We are under the 400 day mark so time is really flying by and while I don’t want to wish my life away I’m so looking forward to being in Florida! Since I last posted myself and DH have actually managed a couple of holidays abroad and although all the forms and tests were a bit of a bind, it was definitely worth it! We booked a very last minute week to Menorca in July which was lovely and chilled out. We’d never been before and loved the short flight and the mix of nice beaches and historical cities.

Then in September we had 10 days in our beloved Kefalonia. We hired a car and travelled all over the island and had a great time.

We also have Fuerteventura to look forward to in November and for that one DD and her DBF are coming with us, so I’m really looking forward to showing them around Corralejo.

So anyway back to Orlando planning 😆 we decided (much to my DHs annoyance 😆 ) to bite the bullet and pay Virgin for the cost of the Disney park tickets so that we could make our reservations. Whether or not we needed to do this I don’t know, but I feel better with some days booked. We’ll probably make some amendments when we get into the proper planning, but for now we have:

Sunday 6th - Travel day
Monday 7th - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday 8th - Hollywood Studios
Wednesday 9th - Animal Kingdom
Thursday 10th - Hollywood Studios
Friday 11th - Magic Kingdom
Saturday 12th - Epcot
Sunday 13th - Animal Kingdom
Monday 14th - Hollywood Studios
Tuesday 15th - Universal
Wednesday 16th - Universal
Thursday 17th - Universal
Friday 18th - Magic Kingdom
Saturday 19th - Animal Kingdom
Sunday 20th - Epcot and Travel Home 🥲

I’ve just realised that we’ve only got 2 Magic Kingdom days so I’ll definitely want to add another one. I might go on my own when the others go to Busch Gardens, which they haven’t decided a day for yet. Some days we might have the afternoon/evening in a park and other days we might have a few hours in the morning and then go back at night, or just do the morning/early afternoon. I’ve not really looked in detail at the whole Genie+ thing, and certainly don’t want to pay extra every day, but we might get it for a day or two if we need to so we can get on the headliners, if it’s possible to do that?

So for the Universal days we have booked 2 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel (yay!). We got a really good deal through Attraction Tickets for the hotel and the tickets and have only had to pay a small deposit so far. I am very very excited to see all the new HP stuff that wasn’t there the last time I was and as HRH is within walking distance of the parks I will be able to get up at the crack of dawn and go into the parks, even if the others don’t want to 😆 I know that my DH won’t want to so I can leave him snoozing 💤 in bed 😂

That’s about it so far I think 🤔 After we’ve passed the year mark it will be full steam ahead with the serious more detailed planning, so will be back with more next month 👋