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Old 30 Oct 22, 06:50 AM  
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Gill H
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Once, Twice, Three Times A Doodad: Orlando 2022 - Pre-trippie

Welcome to our trip report! For those who haven’t read my trippies before, I’m Gill...



I'm married to Peter...



and this will be our third visit to WDW.



You can read about our two previous trips here:

Gill and Peter H's Orlando trippies

as well as many visits to Disneyland Paris...

Gill H & Peter H DLP trippies - Ensemble!

plus a couple of Disney cruises and other holidays.

Gill and Peter H's trip reports - general

First of all, a little background info, and an introduction to a holiday that has changed shape more often than the Genie!



After 27 years of life in London, we moved to South Wales to take care of my parents, back in January 2020. Of course, we couldn’t know at the time that the world was about to go completely bonkers due to a little thing called covid.

While we were unpacking our removal crates, we were also planning our much-anticipated visit to Japan, which was booked for November 2020. As things turned out of course, that wasn’t possible, so we postponed it to November 2021. And just as an emergency backup, we eventually booked ourselves a very small holiday to Walt Disney World. It was going to be just for a week, probably offsite, and on a very tight budget, in January 2022.

As the months rolled on and Japan showed no signs of reopening to the outside world, we eventually cancelled our holiday, and decided to look again at our WDW booking. Slowly it grew to a 10 day trip, and then two weeks. Instead of offsite we went for Pop Century. And the idea of a day or two at Universal snuck back in, eventually resulting in us booking a night at Sapphire Falls.
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WDW: Port Orleans Riverside Dec 10; SSR Nov 14
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Old 30 Oct 22, 06:56 AM  
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Gill H
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Then life threw us another curve ball. You may remember that at one point, the US authorities were requiring visitors to take covid tests before they flew home from the US, as well as before they entered the country. We decided we simply couldn’t take the risk of having to isolate in Orlando for 10 days at the end of our trip. Apart from needing to get home to my parents and our lovely cat Cookie...



it would be difficult to take more time off work. And even if our insurance would cover everything, the thought of being stuck in a hotel room for 10 days was not appealing.

So reluctantly we postponed our January trip to November 2022 instead. (We don’t do heat, so it had to be winter!) Unfortunately this meant we missed out on the 50th anniversary UK offer, as there were no rooms left in the right categories.

So we decided what the heck, and changed from Pop Century to Port Orleans French Quarter. And our booking at Sapphire Falls became a night at Royal Pacific Resort, since we do enjoy the free Express passes.

Through all this, our Travel Counsellor Helen had been an absolute star. Never too busy to come up with more options and do all the complicated sorting out. We can’t say enough good things about her and the amazing service she provides.

Our flights were booked with BA from Heathrow, and had been transferred to the new dates. But then we had a little unexpected money, and decided that we would upgrade our seats. Helen came up trumps again, advising that Premium with Virgin was coming out considerably cheaper than World Traveller Plus with Heathrow for our dates. And not only that, but the outgoing flight was much earlier, and the home flight much later, giving us more time in Orlando. That’s a win in my book.

So now the only thing left to arrange was all the peripheral stuff. We booked a train to London for the day before the flight, and a room at the Premier Inn Terminal 4. This was on the basis that we would be able to walk to Terminal 4 and get a shuttle to Terminal 3, at a fraction of the cost of a hotel nearer T3.

Then a few weeks ago, along came the announcement of the latest train strike dates, one of which – wouldn’t you know it – was the day we had planned to travel to London. So we looked at alternative options. Travelling the day before would involve an extra night in a hotel, and wasn’t ideal due to work and other factors. Going by coach was possible, but we’d need a taxi to the nearest pick up point, and the cost of this plus two single fares was around £160. Eventually we contacted our friendly local taxi driver to enquire about an airport transfer. He offered to take us from our home in South Wales to our hotel in Heathrow for £200, so of course we jumped at the chance.

The strike also gave us some concerns about our ability to get from T4 to T3 by shuttle the following morning. Our flight is 8am and we are advised to be there for 5am, and we know that transport doesn’t get back to normal very quickly after a strike day. So we cancelled the Premier Inn, and have now booked into the Hilton Garden Inn Terminal 2/3, which enables us to walk to T3. Yes, it’s more expensive, but one less thing to worry about.

In a final twist of fate, the train strike day has now changed, but it’s too late now as we’ve cancelled the train, and frankly I don’t care, we’re not making any more changes!

So that is the torturous story of this trip – phew! Well done for reading this far. But why the title? What the heck is a Doodad?

Well, if you have read our first two Orlando trippies, you will know that we have done Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party on each of them.



Twice last time, in fact.





And this time we’re doing one on our final night in Orlando.

But much as we love the party, we find the title difficult to say, and always end up calling it “Mickey’s Very … Christmas … Doodad” or eventually just “Doodad”.

So our first trippie was called “Mickey’s Very Christmas Doodad” and the second one, celebrating the arrival of magic bands, was “Return to Doodad: The Bands of Power”.

And for our third title, we’ve drawn inspiration from the old Commodores song. Sing it with me now… “You’re once, twice, three times a Doodad, and we love you!”

And so I leave you for now, hoping for no further changes, at least until we land in Florida! See ya real soon, and may all your Doodads be merry and bright.

>>Pre-travel Day

INDEX
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WDW: Port Orleans Riverside Dec 10; SSR Nov 14

Edited at 01:02 PM.
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Old 30 Oct 22, 08:43 AM  
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Taffy1959
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Love reading your trip reports and so pleased you’re finally able to return even though you’ve had to make a lot of changes.
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Old 30 Oct 22, 12:04 PM  
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Lizzim
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Gill, I’m so glad that you and Peter are finally getting to go back.

Have any amazing time! 😁
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Old 30 Oct 22, 12:16 PM  
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katebush95
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Fabulous! We may see you around the parks x
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Old 31 Oct 22, 07:01 PM  
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Goldia
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Crikey, look at your countdown! I hope you have an amazing time and I can't wait to read all about your adventures.
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Old 31 Oct 22, 08:43 PM  
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I'm looking forward to reading your trip report. As for the changes - they're what makes it more exciting! I'm a big fan of them myself - always something needing booking & researching. Have a wonderful trip.
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Old 31 Oct 22, 11:11 PM  
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We did the same! Every time it was cancelled, I added something else on
HGI is a really nice hotel, the restaurant is nice too and not badly priced for an airport hotel (no booking needed). The walk to T3 is helped by a few moving walkways and is easy to do.
Have a beignet or 2 for me at FQ!
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Old 3 Nov 22, 08:36 AM  
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Hope you have a great trip not long to go now, we used Helen at TC too
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Old 3 Nov 22, 08:50 PM  
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Have a fantastic time you two
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