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Old 24 Jan 20, 07:42 PM  
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#161
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
Wow Kelly, how exciting. I bet you're buzzing. It'll be great to fly out after Christmas, you get to have all your normal at home Christmas traditions and then off to Florida for new year. Have you told the kids yet, or is it going to be a surprise?
We are it will be a none Disney trip like May but we still have plenty to do and hoping this one will be much more relaxed (she says whilst planning what to do )

It's the perfect timing to be honest. We haven't told them, in fact we're hoping to keep it a secret till Christmas Day not sure how that's going to plan out tbf but we shall see! I Will do a bigger post with more info probably tomorrow but don't want to fully overun this report with it xx

Originally Posted by jothp View Post
How exciting. It will be really lovely to be there for new year. I'd love to be able to say we had two trips booked but I don't think that will ever happen for us. Enjoy the planning
It will although I'm not looking forward to the crowds! Thank you, just found your report and subscribed too x

Originally Posted by Floridadreams View Post
I imagine it does take the sting out of the holiday blues! We normally start chatting about our next holiday on the way home after our summer trip to the UK on the ferry so we have the same thing. In fact, the kids found it so weird last year when we didn’t do that (because we had this booked and they didn’t know yet!) that we had to come up with a cover story. I told them their Dad was organising the next summer holiday - they were convinced they were going to be in a tent in the garden 😂
Good luck for Monday - keeping everything crossed!
It does, especially when it wasn't planned Aww bless them I think my kids would think the same if I said Chris was planning ours. Thank you xx
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Old 24 Jan 20, 08:13 PM  
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Elsa42
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Oh wow that’s super exciting! Two trips in one year 😁 plus it means twice the amount of planning! Look forward to your post with more information!
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Old 24 Jan 20, 08:25 PM  
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Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
Take a look at this ...

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/plan...ew.php?p=64624

Wow that will be amazing! We arrived in Orlando for our 2nd WDW holiday on December 30th 2010 & spend New Year’s Eve in MK which was amazing. Although we had some sad memories as my farther in law had passed away earlier that year it was a great holiday & helped my wife & her mum get over their first Christmas without him. You will have a fantastic time we would certainly visit at that time of year again.
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Old 24 Jan 20, 09:39 PM  
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Originally Posted by Elsa42 View Post
Oh wow that’s super exciting! Two trips in one year 😁 plus it means twice the amount of planning! Look forward to your post with more information!
I know! It's a first for us although it is 7 months difference (same as our 2018 and 2019 trips xx

Originally Posted by MikeH23 View Post
Wow that will be amazing! We arrived in Orlando for our 2nd WDW holiday on December 30th 2010 & spend New Year’s Eve in MK which was amazing. Although we had some sad memories as my farther in law had passed away earlier that year it was a great holiday & helped my wife & her mum get over their first Christmas without him. You will have a fantastic time we would certainly visit at that time of year again.
Aww that's great to hear thanks Mike, I've been worrying about the crowds etc. I'm so sorry to hear that but I'm glad that it helped them deal with their first Christmas without him. It'll be nice to hopefully experience the 'cooler' weather X
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Old 24 Jan 20, 10:13 PM  
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New Year Trip Announcement

As you may or may not know, we now have ANOTHER countdown ... for December 2020

I was at Uni on Monday and hit a complete block with my work so I was procrastinating and browsing FB on my phone I seen a post on a FB group that said someone was contemplating flights to Tampa in 27th December - 7th Janaury for £1100 for 2 adults and 3 children ... obviously I had to jump on and have a look. I took a screenshot and sent it Chris half expecting him to say no. I used the caption of

"Are we booking up?! It'll come out of next years holidays allowance so you wouldn't need to worry about that x"

With us going for 19 nights in May he's using 3 weeks holiday so has been conscious he won't have many left. Expecting him to shoot me down he commented how cheap it was and asked a few questions and started looking himself

I met up with a lovely girl from our Disney Instagram at Starbucks so I was late getting in. Once I did we sat and chatted about it and Mr Grump said it would be best if we came back at the weekend if the price wasn't much different as it would give us 12 nights instead of 10



We had settled on 28th December as it was slightly cheaper than 27th plus it gives us Boxing Day to get everything sorted before have to travel to the airport. We wanted to return 9th January, however flights were only released until 8th. After a bit of googling I seen that BA release their flights 355 days before so that night at midnight the 8th prices would be released. I poised myself to the chair and we stayed up till midnight.

Midnight came and went and nothing ... 12.15am ... nothing. I was getting annoyed and I was so tired after a long day at Uni, I thought I'll do one last check before we go to bed and they had been released

We settled on a FlyDrive as:

a) We need a car anyway
b) You can pay a deposit rather than paying the flights up front

The flights were around £1200, we then added on the car hire with Avis. We've gone for a Intermediate SUV (same as what we had in May) and it's worked out at £1500 for the 5 of us for flights and car hire for 12 nights

This is more than our bargain deal in May last year (£1500 for 9 nights, flights and accommodation and airport transfers) but it is over New Year and longer duration, plus including car hire so it's still an amazing deal.

We've upgraded our Universal passes so we have access to Universal till May 2021 so no need for those tickets. Although Chris and the kid's passes are Seasonal passes which means we can't use them until the 4th January but we're fine with that as we still have 5 days to use them.

We ummed and ahhed about Disney but in the end came to the decision that we can't justify the cost of the tickets, particularly when we're spending 19 nights there in May so we won't be purchasing Disney tickets. Instead we'll head to Disney Springs and do the Christmas Tree Trail. On 30th December we'll park at Disney Springs and get a bus to the Poly or the GF where we'll get a quick service meal and get a spot on the beach to watch the NYE fireworks at MK (they do them 30th and 31st)

Mr Grump really wanted to do Busch Gardens this time but we decided not to, so we plan to get the SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica 14 day tickets (with free parking).

We've now struck Wild Florida off the itinerary in May and decided to do it in December/January instead.

So 27th December around lunchtime we're getting a train from Darlington Station to London Kings Cross, then the tube from St Pancreas straight to Gatwick. We've provisionally booked the Premier Inn South Hotel, but we're waiting to see what the prices of the Travelodge are when released. We'll twilight check in our cases then get the shuttle to our hotel and have dinner.

Flight is 12.30pm on 28th from Gatwick to Tampa, arriving in Tampa at 5.25pm. As we wanted to do Busch Gardens anyway it made more sense to book into a hotel in Tampa for 2 nights than drive back from Orlando. We've booked the Baymont by Wyndham which is right next to Busch Gardens, it provides a free breakfast and free shuttle to Busch Gardens.

29th December - Busch Gardens for the day

30th December - Busch Gardens morning, around 2pm we're going to drive to Orlando, pop to WalMart and get a big shop then go and check in to our Dibb Villa. We've booked a 4 bed villa in Emerald Island, it looks amazing. I'll get some pics up when I start the new trip report but it's honestly stunning. We'll unpack then head to Disney Springs for 6/7pm and make our way to the GF or Poly for QS meals and fireworks on the beach.

We haven't really got any plans for the rest of the holiday yet, but I imagine it will involve shopping, a day at SeaWorld, a day at Aquatica and Wild Florida. We will then do 3-4 days at Universal as we aren't booking a hotel for Express Passes this time.

We fly back from Tampa 9th January 2021 at 7.30pm, arriving in Gatwick at 8.25am. We'll then get the Gatwick Express from the airport to St Pancreas, then the train back to Darlington (hoping we'll manage a couple of hours sleep on the train back!

So there we have it, another total bargain We haven't told the kids and don't intend to either. We're going to reveal to them on Christmas Day, I'm hoping having a couple of days to get his head round it will be better for Noah than the reveal on the actual day in May when he threw up, poor baby x

Edited at 08:15 AM.
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Old 24 Jan 20, 10:24 PM  
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Your trip sounds amazing! Both of them!
Just so your aware the Gatwick express doesn’t go to or from st Pancras it’s from London Victoria so you will need to make your way across London x
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Old 24 Jan 20, 10:30 PM  
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Originally Posted by D1sn3yf4n View Post
Your trip sounds amazing! Both of them!
Just so your aware the Gatwick express doesn’t go to or from st Pancras it’s from London Victoria so you will need to make your way across London x
Ahh thank you so much. I think I'm getting confused with the names I know Mr Grump said we can get a tube directly from St Pancreas? We've been watching vlogs and one of those used the Gatwick Express

To be honest we are so nervous about this trip as we're used to driving to the airport, but from our home to Gatwick it would be over 5 hours and there's just no way we could manage that on the way home, 2 1/2 hours from Manchester is just about doable We have no idea about the airport, the hotels or anything so we're feeling very out of our depth right now xx
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Old 24 Jan 20, 10:41 PM  
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We live in south London so always go from Gatwick, so I can help if you need it!
We normally book the Hampton at Gatwick, it’s connected to the north terminal and you get a free breakfast!
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Old 24 Jan 20, 10:51 PM  
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I’ve just checked and there is a train that goes from st Pancras to Gatwick it’s just not the Gatwick express! Sorry if I confused you!
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Old 25 Jan 20, 01:21 AM  
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Arghhhhh another trip! Not jealous honest... It sounds amazing!

We flew from Gatwick a couple of times when we travelled down on the train from Durham - you want the Thameslink train from St Pancreas They run pretty frequently (but don't terminate at Gatwick so just check which one you need in advance). They are nice trains and a decent price too
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