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Old 20 Jan 19, 12:49 PM  
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eleele
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Summer Hols in Feb 2019: Pre-trip report

I'm not overly happy with the title of this trip report but I will explain how it came about and reserve the right to change it at a later date!

After our amazing but short trip to POR in December 2017 I was experiencing my usual bit of cabin fever in the winter months after we came home and was trying to find a cheap family holiday for August in Europe that wouldn't interfere too much with my lovely August hospital appointments.

I was mainly searching for a nice town or city Switzerland, Germany or Austria and I even looked into buying an inter rail ticket to travel around all three but the prices were coming up as sky high for Europe and nothing was hitting the spot.

I always keep an eye on Disney World resort prices (anybody with me on this?) and got to thinking that maybe we should skip a European holiday this summer and go back to Florida again with the proviso that we'd have to wait a year and go in August 2019 in order to save up for it.

With this idea in mind I searched possible hotel and date combinations and for a while it looked doable. But there was a big catch!

DH went to Florida a million times as a child and he is over it! He only agrees to go now because I love it so much. He therefore grumbles and moans on a regular basis about how much money we spend on holidays and what we could do with that money if we stayed at home instead.

Also, our eldest son goes to a private school and our youngest will start there in September 2019 so expensive foreign holidays will be a no-no for a few years while they are both there at the same time (until my 50th when I'm planning a blow-out)

So with that in my mind I was on the hunt for something cheaper than two weeks in August and I found it!

The compromise is one week at the lovely Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal in February!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that a school holiday week at Sapphire Falls was coming in at £2.5k with Virgin! After monitoring the ridiculous price fluctuations on Virgin Holiday's website and working on DH I booked it!

Note: sometimes the prices went up and down several times a day on Virgin Holidays so never take the first price you see as being the best and yes I was that obsessed that I was checking all the time but I'm sure that lots of Dibbers have been there and done that as well! )

So here we are in January with six weeks to go, holiday is booked, passport and ESTAs are renewed, currency is purchased after a panic about that b***dy Brexit vote last week and Premier Inn is booked for the night before the flight.

All I have to do is buy our Universal tickets and we're good to go.

I even kept all our summer clothes in a separate drawer in our bedroom rather than putting them away for the winter to make packing easier. I would have had the suitcases out by now but DH puts his foot down about this and makes me wait until two weeks before we leave - spoilsport!

Last Christmas because we concentrated on the Disney Parks we only went off property once to get the boys' Christmas presents at Mall at Millenia so this time we will do all the things we missed out.

I know I want to eat at Panda Express, Toothsome and the Hard Rock café, I want to go to Disney Springs at least once and we have to go shopping to the outlets. I toyed with Discovery Cove but as there are no good weather guarantees in Feb I decided it wasn't worth the risk and if the weather is bad we will have wasted a day.

I also intend to go to MK for one day (argh! - I'm so excited about this!) and also pop in to the Grand Floridian as I love the look of the place and it features heavily in my 50th birthday celebration plans

So I will get a small Disney fix and that will have to be enough to last me a few more years!

But, staying at Sapphire Falls means we can spend more time at Universal during Mardi Gras! This looks like it will be so much fun and I cant wait.

Another good thing about staying for a week at Universal is that it's more appealing to DH and the boys. We all love Harry Potter and can't wait to go back on the Hogwarts Express. I might even get my butt on a roller coaster this time, or maybe not, I am a big chicken after all!

Well I've rambled on enough, hopefully it won't take me a year to complete this trip report

Coming up: Travel day and the Premier Inn at Gatwick.

Whoohoo!

Edited at 04:25 PM.
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Old 20 Jan 19, 03:27 PM  
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Goldia
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Ha ha, I can't believe you've got 2 pre trips on the go for the same trip! Now that is taking the pre holiday planning to the next level.

I love the idea of this holiday. A shame your DH is not so keen on Florida anymore. Mine is of the opnion that there is whole lot more the world to visit and we shouldn't go to Florida as regularly, but of course he is wrong!

Not long now until you are off. I look forward to reading about your adventures.
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Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 20 Jan 19, 05:04 PM  
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eleele
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
Ha ha, I can't believe you've got 2 pre trips on the go for the same trip! Now that is taking the pre holiday planning to the next level.

I love the idea of this holiday. A shame your DH is not so keen on Florida anymore. Mine is of the opnion that there is whole lot more the world to visit and we shouldn't go to Florida as regularly, but of course he is wrong!

Not long now until you are off. I look forward to reading about your adventures.
Hi! Haha, in my defence I started the other pre-trip in July and I can barely remember what happened yesterday let alone six months ago. I was quite surprised to come across it earlier on today, I have no memory of writing it whatsoever. (I'm also the dimwit who bought a Pandora charm in Disneyworld for my DH to give me for my birthday and then forgot all about it)

My DH gets very stressed with family travelling, he'll be a different person once we are settled in our hotel room.

I've quite enjoyed the low level of planning for this trip with no ADRs or fast passes to book. I'm hoping it will be more typical of a European holiday with lots of pool time, shopping and eating out rather than being a military operation.
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Old 23 Jan 19, 02:55 PM  
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Sounds lovey I will enjoy reading along

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Old 24 Jan 19, 10:21 PM  
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eleele
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Originally Posted by mick View Post
Sounds lovey I will enjoy reading along

Joan
Thank you
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Old 12 Feb 19, 09:03 PM  
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I laughed outloud at the ‘bought a pandora charm for my dh to give me’ part!
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Old 20 Mar 19, 12:45 PM  
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Wow, we were also at Sapphire Falls that week . Hope you had a great trip. How perfect was the weather? We just loved that it was hot without being August hot and that it was warm enough to not need cardigans or even long trousers in the morning or evening.

Sapphire Falls is such a lovely hotel, February was our second stay there and we’ve already booked to go back again next February .

We actually did six and a half park days during the week (two Universal and four and a half Disney) which was full on and the parks were so busy. Hope you enjoyed having a more chilled week. We are cutting out Disney next year and focusing on Universal and having more downtime with a couple of Disney fixes like you (Disney Springs etc.)

Looking forward to reading all about your trip .
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Old 6 Apr 19, 09:15 PM  
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eleele
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Originally Posted by moosha View Post
Wow, we were also at Sapphire Falls that week . Hope you had a great trip. How perfect was the weather? We just loved that it was hot without being August hot and that it was warm enough to not need cardigans or even long trousers in the morning or evening.

Sapphire Falls is such a lovely hotel, February was our second stay there and we’ve already booked to go back again next February .

We actually did six and a half park days during the week (two Universal and four and a half Disney) which was full on and the parks were so busy. Hope you enjoyed having a more chilled week. We are cutting out Disney next year and focusing on Universal and having more downtime with a couple of Disney fixes like you (Disney Springs etc.)

Looking forward to reading all about your trip .
It is a gorgeous hotel and the weather was so good, I even came home with a slight tan! I have to say though that Universal wasn't enough for me so our next time to Orlando will be back to Disney I much prefer the full-on activity of Disney, Disney, Disney all day, every day! But if we ever did come back to Universal for a night or two it would very probably be to SF rather than one of the other hotels.
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