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Old 17 Jan 20, 10:25 PM  
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disneyfangirl01
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The One Where the Childless Millennials Do All The Things - Pre Trip April/May 2020

The One Where The Childless Millennialls Do All The Things
Pre Trip Report



This is my first Disney trip without my family, and therefore the first trip I have ever planned alone and in turn in turn the first ever Trip Report I have written! After two years of research, trip report binging and an almost religious commitment to YouTube videos and vloggers, (I’m looking at you Tim Tracker, Disney in Detail, DFB, L&R Dreaming!) I almost feel like I might, just maybe, have some kind of idea what I am doing. Although that will have more than likely just jinxed me!

Role Call

So, who is the cast of this merry trip I hear you all ask? We are a party of two, myself Lauren, Chief planner, Disney obsessed extraordinaire! As mentioned before, this is my first trip without my parents to WDW. As you may be able to work out from my signature we where regular visitors to Florida growing up! My first trip I was 18 months old and I have been pretty hooked since then!


(I am the littlest one, next to my brother who is 5 years older than me )

Yes I promise I am only 18 months old in this picture! (I am now just under 6ft, Yes I am tall, the weather up here is the same as down there, no I wont get that jar for you of the top shelf in the supermarket)

This will be my 10th visit to WDW and my 11th to Florida. I think, I have had to patch this timeline together through old pictures and dated pins, so considering when I was 18months old I looked about 5 wasn’t particularly easy! Albeit I haven’t been to see the mouse in 10 years!

I am an animal loving coaster and ride junkie, I don't think I've seen a ride I wont go on on just yet.

Most looking forward to – Snacks!
Least looking forward to – Having to go home!

My darling OH, Dan. What can I say about Dan….he is literally the Yin to my Yang. When I am super highly strung, have to be in control and every micro detail and stressing out he is the beacon of calm! He is super relaxed and laid back. Dan is big star wars and marvel fan and has, perhaps unwillingly, embraced my love of all things Disney! We have really enjoyed watching some of the new live action Disney films last year with Aladdin being a clear stand out for both of us, and he likes all the Pixar films too!

While despite my best efforts to get him to watch Disney vlogs with me have all failed (apparently he would rather me surprised) he is really looking forward to our trip. Potentially because he has never been to Disney before, in fact he has never even flown long haul before! That’s right ladies and gents, we have a Disney Virgin!*alarms and sirens go off*

Before me and Dan got together he had never been abroad before so we did a week all inclusive holiday to Turkey, and while it was lovely I don’t really think it’s the type of holiday we want. I am so looking forward to sharing Disney with him and hope he enjoys it as much as I do, this may be a good time to mention Dan doesn’t know if he likes rides…I know to us seasoned theme park folk this seems completely alien, knowing him I think he will be fine on most things but the bigger rides and coasters may take a little more persuasion for him to try, I am sure the money we have spent on this trip he will be willing to try most rides *laughs nervously*





Most looking forward to – Building a droid (spoiler alert, we are doing to droid depot.)
Least looking forward to – Long Haul Indirect flights.

As a couple we will be celebrating 5 years together shortly before we depart, and at the time of travel will be 26 & 27 respectively. That’s right people we are a couple of childless millennials going to Disney (if you know, you just know)

Character I think Dan is most like – Pumba, hear me out on this one, Dan is super relaxed, full on hakuna matata mode, most of the time!
Character Dan thinks I am most like – Lilo, very dramatic and loves animals! (I can’t argue with this one)

The Main Event

Taking all of the above into account, it being Dan’s first trip I wanted to do as much as e possibly could, so we are doing 22 nights strange number of nights I know but I can explain….sort of. When I booked our flights the price was significantly cheaper to come back the next day rather than the standard 21 nights. HOWEVER…..yes, you know where this is going don’t you. Thomas Cook then went bust anyway so really it’s of no other benefit now than to give us an extra 24hrs in Disney. Which I almost certainly will not sniff at!

Flights

So, as previously mentioned we had TC flights direct from Manchester for £1009 for both of us. Economy outbound and PE return. I was really happy with these flights, reasonable times and a fraction of the cost Virgin wanted, okay the service is usually better for Virgin but we where more than happy with TC.

So obviously that did not work out, que a very stressed out me come TC’s D day trying to look for new flights for our strange dates. Cut a long story short our new flights are indirect with Virgin & delta outbound, direct inbound.

MAN-JFK-MCO Economy

MCO-MAN Premium Economy

So, now flying indirect outbound, not a terrible layover only 2.45hrs in JFK which I guess is fine, as If we where unlucky we could be stuck in immigration at MCO that long. But only issue is it doesn’t get us to MCO until 10.30 pm – Let’s hope we can get some sleep on the plane!
Oh and I had to pay and additional £200 for the pleasure. Not the end of the world but never the less not ideal.

We live within 20 minutes on MAN, so no need for a hotel and we have booked he escape lounge at T2, not the best lounge in the world but It was reasonably priced and I am hoping it will be pretty quiet but at least some where to grab a little food and some Dutch courage for Dan for the flight!

Accommodation

So where are we staying for our odd trip?

For the first 11 nights we are staying at Universals endless summer, surfside inn. I know there has been a range of reviews and opinions on this but we like the overall look of the hotel, and we where planning on staying offsite on IDrive, as I booked way before it even opened I got a pretty good deal so to be on IDrive and still have transport links and convenience of being ‘onsite’ it was a no brainer for us. So that’s 11 nights, standard room (sadly no funky picnic bench for us).

The remaining 11 nights we are heading up to Disney and staying at Coronado Springs with upgraded DDP. I have loved the look of this resort since it was refurbed and although I would love to be at a skyliner hotel, the thought of the shower curtains at CBR make me feel physically sick (I must add this is nothing against CBR, more that I am just very strange). In fact I actually had to shift the whole holiday back a week because CRS was not available the dates I wanted when free dinning was released and I just couldn’t do CBR.

However, I am not totally looking forward to the whole internal bus system and I am little worried it’s going to take forever to get anywhere. If anyone has stayed here please give me some advice as to what area would be best to request for bus reasons!

Now this is where I think I maybe messed up a little, 11 nights at Disney means we loose 3 days on our Disney tickets but overall I think we have done the best for us and our budget, hoping to fit enough in to not feel like we wasted those days but I would be lying if I said this is our last trip – well…… not my last trip anyway (LOL)

Activities

So if you are not already questioning why we are staying at universal for 11 nights when most people stay around 2, you probably are now I have pointed it out!

Let me answer that for you, while at endless summer we are planning to not only do Universal but Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica too. Meaning when we go to Disney we are only focusing on Disney parks. A lot of our budget went on tickets and I am not sure we would do them all again on our next trip, nor will it probably be so long but as this was Dan’s first time and mine in a very long time and we, (when I say we, I really mean me, Dan does literally no planning) wanted it to be special a bit like a once in a lifetime trip but It’s not like I’m not already planning my next trip in my head already! This way we will have sort of done a bit of everything and then decide what we really want to do the most when we return in the future.

Personally I am looking forward to Busch gardens a lot, I have been once I the past and really enjoyed it as I love animals and coasters! And also Aquatica, as I have never actually been here!
Dan is very excited that he Is going to be building a droid when we visit GE, I was really happy that two people can sort of do it together, although I want him to build it and do all the stuff I am really glad I will get to experience it!

We are also planning to do the safari tour at Busch Gardens where you get to feed the giraffe’s. I did this a few years back and really enjoyed it, giraffes are my favourite animal and I think it is pretty reasonably priced for the experience!

Car Hire

So I just told you how I wanted to stay onsite for the transport and now I am talking about hiring a car? Yeah, let me explain….. I say this like there is a really good reason but basically it started that I don’t really want to get the shuttle to Busch Gardens so we looked at hiring a car for the day, which turned into 4 days...
So we has booked a Intermediate SUV with DFCH, thanks Andy, for mid way through the holiday so we can utilise it to do Busch and some shopping and to drive down to Disney come changeover day and take it back to the DCCC.

I have since cancelled it twice and now re booked it saving over £75, and upgrading to a Standard SUV Thanks again, Andy!

Dining

So the first 11 nights we will be eating mostly on I drive, all the usual suspects, denny’s, Ihop, Chillies etc but I am most looking forward to trying Sugar Factory! Cocktails and food here look right up my alley! We are also planning the first full day to uber to Walmart and get some snacks and stuff we can eat in the room some cereal, bagels etc to try and keep costs down where possible.

At Disney I have booked all my ADR’s, Thank you to everyone who helped me ADR day!, We have booked Crystal palace, garden grill, Ohana, BOG, Yachtsman, sci-fi, Trails end (thanks to the many recommendations from Victoria from Disney in detail!) Yak and Yeti and homecoming. I haven’t planned out all the quick service meals but I have a few I want to try and the rest we will just keep pretty casual and decide as we go long.

Oh, we also decided it would be a good idea for us to try the Kitchen sink and beaches and cream – yes that right just the two of us. We saw a YouTube video about It and Dan’s words where…..easy peasy. Don’t get me wrong, the man loves his ice cream and we have pretty big appetites but I read a Trippie of a family of 6 only just finishing it!

On the back of having pretty big appetites this is where I feel like would be a good time to bring this up…. We have lost weight; actually we are still loosing weight and plan to continue up until we go away. As of right now the, we have actually lost quite a bit of weight. In fact I am only just really realising how much as I haven’t added it together before but we have lost 100lbs between the two of us. Wow, don’t mind me just being really impressed with us!

I will update this part and let you all know how much we have lost before we go!

Fast Pass+

Our FP+ day is 11 March, already marked In the Diary and I will be making lists for that plan of action closer to the time!

So watch this space to see what we manage to bag, and what our plan is for those we don’t bag!
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Old 18 Jan 20, 06:23 PM  
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Elsa42
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Great pre trip report! I took my partner for his first Disney trip last September and we are now currently planing this Septembers trip so it must have done well 🙊 some great plans there jealous of the 22 days In Florida 🙊 some great adr choices garden grill and sci fi are great places to eat I’m sure you’ll enjoy’ looking forward to more updates
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Old 19 Jan 20, 05:52 PM  
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disneyfangirl01
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Originally Posted by Elsa42 View Post
Great pre trip report! I took my partner for his first Disney trip last September and we are now currently planing this Septembers trip so it must have done well 🙊 some great plans there jealous of the 22 days In Florida 🙊 some great adr choices garden grill and sci fi are great places to eat I’m sure you’ll enjoy’ looking forward to more updates


Thanks! It's my first time ever writing something like this, I was a little unsure about doing it as i feel a lot of people who write them up are bigger families so as long as one person can relate and enjoy it!
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Old 19 Jan 20, 08:12 PM  
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Elsa42
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Originally Posted by disneyfangirl01 View Post
Thanks! It's my first time ever writing something like this, I was a little unsure about doing it as i feel a lot of people who write them up are bigger families so as long as one person can relate and enjoy it!
Yes I do find that most of the trip reports are families so it’s nice to see someone of a similar age planning their trips. It can be easier to understand their planning as we don’t have to worry about height restrictions on rides ect! I’m all subscribed so I look forward to hearing your plans!
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Old 19 Jan 20, 08:52 PM  
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Trinacham
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As a fellow childless millennial here, I can relate and enjoyed reading
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Old 19 Jan 20, 10:14 PM  
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Floridafour
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Great pre-trip, sounds fab 👍 I look forward to more 🙂
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Old 20 Jan 20, 08:46 PM  
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Kat11
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Sounds like a great trip you have planned. Have a great time!

Kat
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Old 20 Jan 20, 08:55 PM  
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We also have 22 nights this summer and I agree it is a weird number of nights to have. Hopefully you're going to be able to fit everything in. I'm looking forward to reading along and to see how someone who's been loads of times copes with taking along a newbie!

Oh and happy double digit day, albeit a couple of days ago. I hope you've done a little double digit dance. The next dance comes along at single digit day and that is super exciting.
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
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2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 23 Jan 20, 10:19 AM  
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What a fab trip! Can I come
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Old 23 Jan 20, 10:31 AM  
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I’m a mum to six and slightly older, love seeing how the other half live ☺️
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