The Second Trip Of Many - Pre Trip

[neilhd]

PRE TRIP:

Okay, here goes!

Cast Members:
Neil (Me) - 30 (will be 31 by the time we go). Head of the family, man of the house. What I say goes (yeah, right!).
Eleanor (Ele) - 32. Beloved Wife and chief shoe-buyer.
Jessica - 12 (will turn 13 whilst we are there). Loves rides and her Ipod. And clothes. And her mobile.
Joe - 3 (and-a-half). Cutest boy the world ever did see.

Departing on: 22nd August, 2009.
Returning on: 5th September, 2009.
Staying At: Oak Plantation Resort, Kissimmee.

PRE-TRIP:

Well, this was certainly unexpected! Last year we went to Florida for the first time. We flew to Atlanta and drove down as we saved a lot of money that way (£800). You can read that report from the link in my Sig ("The First Trip Of Many" - see I knew what I was letting myself in for even then!). Whilst we were there we fell in love with Oak Plantation, and Florida as a whole and decided to buy a timeshare there. We knew we wouldn't be back for a couple of years, but we can exchange it to use it all over the world.

Fast-forward to March 2009. We were starting to miss Disney and Joe was becoming even more Mickey-Mad than he was before. There was no way we could afford another trip to Florida, so we booked a 3-night stay in Disneyland Paris, staying at the Hotel Cheyenne. This was also largely because Jessica had to miss out on a school trip to DLP as it clashed with my brother's wedding that she is a bridesmaid at. You can read that trip from the other link in my Sig.

But we were still without a summer holiday. We were wanting to go somewhere in the UK, but had left it a bit late with the timeshare to exchange it, especially with the recession biting and lots of people staying in the UK meant the availibility was non-existent. And we were still yearning for Florida. Ok, we were going to DLP for a Disney fix, but Florida is so much more than that, and we really wanted to go back. It was just too expensive.

But then, whilst monkeying around on the British Airways site (just to prove to Ele it was too expensive and that we couldn't go, you understand?) I noticed that if we went later in the month, the prices dropped a lot. By going the last week of August and first week of September, the price for all 4 of us to go to Atlanta was only £1500. We could probably just about afford that! And we could use our Airmiles for car-hire, and one week of our accommodation would be free anyway... hmm! We did some further searching and discovered that American Airlines would get us direct to Miami for only £100 more. This made sense as it's a lot closer than Atlanta and would actually work out cheaper overall (no hotel on the last night and less petrol). We were almost poised to book this when Ele suggested we call Airmiles to see what they could offer us as we had about 16,000 airmiles. That turned out to be the best call we ever made. By using 15,000 of our airmiles they could get us to Miami directly with BA for a grand total of £500 for all of us! We booked it there and then. Jess
would have to miss the first day back at school, but that's just a handing-out-timetables day anyway. And she'll be a jetlagged zombie on the first proper day back as we land on Sunday morning and she'll have school the next day, but Florida overrules this! We were going to leave it as a suprised for Jess and tell her we were going to Spain or something, but we lasted about 5 seconds with this before confessing all!

So we are going! Yaaay!

Car hire was found to be fairly reasonable (£430 for a 7-seater 4x4. I wanted one of these last year but had to accept a step down as there was nothing else to be had when we arrived!). After a lot of searching around we decided on booking our first night hotel in Miami at the Marriot Doral - a very posh-looking place with several enormous golf courses. Not that we play golf or anything - it just looks nice. We stayed in a very nice Marriot last year in Atlanta so wanted to try another one... and this place was actually quite reasonably priced and very close to the airport, too.. Our timeshare week (we have a floating week) was used for one week of accommodation and the second week was purchased at an incredibly good rate. The only bad thing is the park tickets... last year when we went Joe was free as he was under 3, and the exchange rate was about 2:1 so we paid about £530 for park tickets. This year he has to pay and the exchange rate is awful, meaning the tickets are the most expensive thing on the whole holiday. Still, the exchange rate is going in the right direction and the prices are coming down a bit! And with the improving rate our spending money will go further than we thought. I'm planning on taking as many dollars as we did last year so we don't have to watch too carefully, and the way the rate is going we'll actually have more!

So, we'd managed to book 2 Disney holidays in the space of 2 weeks during the worst recession in a billion years. If you think this makes us slightly mad, I would disagree. It makes us completely mad.

There's a couple of things we'll be doing different this time round. Last year we did Seaworld and this year we won't (though Manta looks amazing!), and we'll be going to Busch Gardens this year as a secret birthday suprise for Jess. She really wanted to go last year as she is coaster-mad but we didn't do it. And as her birthday happens whilst we're there (on the 29th August) I think we'll take her. Maybe we'll do a helicopter ride as well as we never got around to it last year.

Plus this time we will be doing Kennedy which I was gutted about missing last year when TS Fay came to town and closed it. In fact, that was my condition of going last year! I didn't need much persuading this year though...

Last time we were all both Disney and USA virgins. I'd been to Canada a couple of times about 10 years before on my own but we'd never been to the US at all so we didn't really know what to expect. And the whole thing was just amazing - we absolutely loved every second of it. The thought of going back in a couple of months now is just sooooo exciting. Plus of course we are now seasoned pros. We know how to use Fastpasses, we know how to drive on the wrong side of the road, we know our way around the parks. Luckily TheDIBB prepared me quite nicely last year too! This place is a godsend.

The final great thing about going again this year is that Joe can go on TONS more rides. He already did Big Thunder Mountain and Tower of Terror in Paris at Easter and loved them both - insisting on riding both again. I'm very pleased he'll be able to go on Test Track and Soarin' and Splash Mountain etc this year. I can't wait! Time to start obsessively reading the busy day guides and planning what to do on what day. I'm like the messiest worker in the world - bits of paper strewn all over my desk with no proper filing system either, but Disney holidays will be planned and planned properly. Lists will be made, items will be bought, EMH will be studied (and avoided!), lists of FP rides will be printed, tickets and passports will be photocopied and so on. I love planning these trips.

On with the show!

PS - After our first trip last August, I wrote the following in my Trip Report:

"I still think about the trip every day, and we long to go back. That won't happen for a couple of years - possibly even a bit longer - but we will be back one day. Whilst we can use the timeshare we bought all over the world, it's home is in Florida and I'm determined to get back there!"

Ok, so I was slightly off with my timescales! These Florida holidays turn out to be a bit more addictive than you first realise...

[Guest]

Great start... looking forward to reading more.

[Guest]

Great start, I've read both your other trip reports so loking forward to a new one!

[mossyflossy]

I remember very well that day back in March when you asked for advice on the Dibb! Yes we're all totally utterly and completely mad, but who cares?!

Do you remember the post about the tax credit windfall and what to do with the £600? You said to put it towards another holiday...well of course we had to take your advice (as you do!) and are going in October with free ddp for 6 nights and then 2 nights at Rosen Shingle Plaza at $69 a night... it'll cost a bit more than £600 but things are stable for both of us at work (OH hasn't had a payrise in years but that's a small sacrifice to make for a stable job, esp in this climate), and after a few health scares last year our attitude is to live for the moment, so long as we can afford it ).

looking forward to your full TR!

[angieanguk]

Great start - enjoy yourselves.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by mossyflossy

I remember very well that day back in March when you asked for advice on the Dibb! Yes we're all totally utterly and completely mad, but who cares?!

Do you remember the post about the tax credit windfall and what to do with the £600? You said to put it towards another holiday...well of course we had to take your advice (as you do!) and are going in October with free ddp for 6 nights and then 2 nights at Rosen Shingle Plaza at $69 a night... it'll cost a bit more than £600 but things are stable for both of us at work (OH hasn't had a payrise in years but that's a small sacrifice to make for a stable job, esp in this climate), and after a few health scares last year our attitude is to live for the moment, so long as we can afford it ).

looking forward to your full TR!

See more...

I think I can place the blame (and the bill!) for this holiday firmly at your fleet Mossy! But I'm glad I got my own back by making you go, too!

I haven't had a payrise in years either (DW gets them though) but I'm reasonably indispensible at work so like you things are quite stable.

[neilhd]

Well 2 things happened on Saturday.

1 - I turned 31 (boo).
2- Our Disney tickets arrived (yay!).

[voddygirl]

Originally Posted by neilhd

Well 2 things happened on Saturday.

1 - I turned 31 (boo).
2- Our Disney tickets arrived (yay!).

See more...

Belated happy birthday ...your holiday looks fab even more exciting since you have your tickets now

[neilhd]

So... in the grand scheme of "what can go wrong before your holiday", I didn't expect to end up in hospital for 3 days and be signed off work for nearly 3 weeks!

The cause - a nasty abcess in a place I'd rather it wan't, making sitting rather painful! It's healing well so I hope I'll be okay in 3 weeks time when we go.

[neilhd]

Couple more things sorted - Busch gardens tickets have been bought as a suprise for DD who is desperate to go! We're not telling her we're going though - it's her birthday whilst we are there so that is her birthday treat. Although the Veness busy day guide says her birthday is the worst day to go so we'll actually go a couple of days later.

And I've finally got around to doing API and ESTA. All this time off at home is helping get things sorted I suppose.

I don't feel as prepared as I did last year though for some reason!