"If you book it, they will come!" Team Jamerica Reunited - August 2015 The Pre Trip Report

[JoJo88]

“If you book it, they will come” Team Jamerica Reunited - August 2015

The Pre-Trip Report

Hello! It’s me again! Despite saying I probably wouldn’t write another report this year, here I am, back again for the fourth time! I honestly didn’t plan on writing another report. As anyone who has written one will know, they take a serious amount of time and effort, and with the last one especially, I felt a lot of (self-imposed) pressure to get it finished, which is difficult when you’re struggling to find the time to do so.

However, having a report for our last three Florida holidays, and knowing how much I wish I had one from our very first trip back in 2009, I couldn’t resist. Also, pretty much like childbirth, the pain endured during the hard labour is forgotten once it’s all over and you have the finished product in front of you.

I often wonder which of the two things is more rewarding

To those of you who have read my previous reports, I salute your optimism in thinking you might find something original here, I promise you, you won’t! Those of you who haven’t stumbled upon the Jamerica reports before, ignore what I just said, stick the kettle on, find a comfortable seat, you’re in for a real treat, or at least you will be once I’ve written it! Hey, if you believe in a 6ft talking Mouse, you’ll believe anything right? Incidentally, if you don’t want to wait for this report, the previous three can be found in the following links:

Living in Jamerica, The Bud Light Years - October 2011

Returning to Jamerica - November 2013

It's Jamerica kids, but not as we know it - August 2014

So, who are we? I’ll keep it brief as we haven’t changed much from last year.

I’m Jo, 40 years young and the catalyst behind all these holidays.

I’m married to Simon, 39 by the time we go, and the perennial fundraiser.

We still have two boys, Adam, 12 and Daniel 9.

I’m including this video for no particular reason other than it makes me laugh, and it’s my report, therefore I can!



It’s from Adam’s birthday party earlier in the year, and that’s Adam trying to knock Daniel over, only for one of Adam’s friends to come along and show him how it’s done properly…… It pretty much sums up the relationship between my two! For anyone looking for something different for a birthday party, try bubble football, as a spectator I haven’t laughed so much in ages!

(I'm hoping that the video shows without having to link through to another website. If it doesn't, and anyone knows how to do it, I'd really appreciate some assistance )

And finally, to give a little explanation to the title, for the first time in four years we will be joined by the Grandparents, my parents Brian & Linda.

Over the last few trips we’ve managed to shake the Grandparents off, one by one, leaving Grandad at home in 2013, and both of them at home in 2014. However this year we thought it would be nice to let them out for some fun, and reunite Team Jamerica in its entirety

Them joining us was quite a simple process. For the first time in forever (come on, own up, you sang those words!), I managed to secure this year’s holiday while we were still on the last one. Usually I have to work on Simon while he’s deep in the throes of the post holiday blues, but I used a different tactic this year. Thanks to the exemplary service and attention of Bryan in the Royal Pacific Resort club lounge during happy hour, I was able to extract a ‘yes we can come back next year’ from Simon without too much effort at all.

And if Bryan is still working in the lounge this August, I shall be sure to tip him accordingly, he saved me a good few weeks of grovelling, amongst other things

Once I’d secured the ‘yes’ from Simon, but not before discussing it with him first, I fired a quick email off to my Mum asking if she and my Dad would like to join us. Silly question – if I book it, of course they’ll come!

So, what have we booked and when do we go?

As with last year and for the next undefinable amount of years, we are tied to school holidays. Potential fines aside, we are not prepared to take Adam out of secondary school for a holiday, and selfishly he won’t let us go without him…. We’re thankful that we have been able to go during term time three times while they were both in primary though, and I certainly don’t take for granted that we’ve been able to experience Florida, and Walt Disney World, in our opinion at its best, during the early winter months. It’s quiet, the weather is cooler and more reliable, and to be in the parks when they are decorated for Christmas (or to a lesser extent Halloween) is just perfect.

November 2009

October 2011

November 2013

And not to feel left out…
August 2014

That said, although we approached last year’s August trip with some trepidation, the unrelenting heat, busy parks, thunderstorms and inflated costs, we were pleasantly surprised. Yes it was hot, sometimes unbearably so. Yes it was busy, and yes it cost a little more, but we adapted. We spent a week at the beach, and then a week in Orlando, skipping Disney, but choosing to stay onsite at Universal instead, thus reducing the cost of park tickets and negating any crowds thanks to the unlimited express passes you get with an onsite stay. We coped with the heat by getting to the parks early, returning to the hotel during the midday sun, and then returning to the parks in the evening. And the thunderstorms/daily rain? Well, we got lucky. We had a few of the typical summer downpours, but certainly not daily like we expected. The main point I’m trying to make is that by being prepared for all the negatives, we were able to work around them, and the end result was a fantastic fortnight of Florida fun! But I’ve no need to go over last year’s holidays as you’ve already read all about it, haven’t you?

One of the bonuses of going during the summer months is not having to worry about the boys missing school. Even though we did it a few times, it always gave me uneasy feeling, so it was a relief not to worry about that. I was always honest with the school anyway and told them, therefore avoiding the challenge some friends of ours faced recently when they tried to call in sick for their own children, from Heathrow Airport! Every time they dialled the school number a tannoy announcement boomed across departures, making it somewhat tricky to pretend they were calling from the side of a sick bed!

So, knowing we were going back in August, once we’d got home, unpacked, found the cat etc, I began the painstaking task of searching for flights. I spent a ridiculous amount of time scouring every website I could think of, and flights were eventually booked in late September following a tip-off on the Dibb – Pillinger Travel were offering some great prices for summer fly drives. A few emails & telephone calls, and a steaming credit card later and we were all booked up. Six flights and a 7 seater car, all for under £600pp departing on Thursday 6th August for Tampa. Perfect right? Well not quite. The flight might depart on Thursday 6th, but we don’t actually arrive in Tampa until Friday 7th. We have on overnight stop in JFK on the way. Not only that but the flights depart from Manchester, and living in the South means it’s a fair trek. Not so much of a problem on the way out (with an airport hotel booked for the night before the flight), but the drive home two weeks later is going to be pretty painful for Simon and my Dad…..

As for who we’re flying with, I’m not entirely sure! I’ve been told two different things by two different people at Pillinger. But it’s either Delta or Virgin and I really don’t care which. All I do know is that I’ve pre-booked all our seats on the Delta website without having to pay, whereas with VA you do have to pay, and yet on my Pillinger booking details I appear to have a VA flight number! Either way, I’m not too worried as long as we get there, and I’m quite looking forward to the slightly shorter transatlantic leg, even if it does mean another flight the following day…..

Once the flights were booked I was keen to secure the only real ‘definite’ that we had, which was a week at Universal’s Royal Pacific Resort, specifically club level, at the end of the holiday.

I’d been keeping a weathered eye on the prices on various websites, but went with Virgin in the end as they were the most competitive at the time, under £200 per room per night. They also offer a few other freebies as well as free parking, which is worth $140+ so not to be sniffed at. RPR was booked the day after the flights – I don’t muck about!

One other must do was a return to Clearwater. Daniel was desperate to show his Grandma & Grandad around as he had loved it so much last time, and actually preferred it over the week in Orlando.

However, we decided on just the three nights this time, as although we’d all thoroughly enjoyed our time there, the local flying, biting, mosquito sized population of Clearwater had enjoyed me just a little too much, creating the biggest ‘low’ of last year’s holiday, and so we thought a few nights (with better preparation!) would be enough. Flying into Tampa made this all the more convenient and so I’ve recently booked the Hilton at Clearwater Beach for our first three nights.

I’ve booked on a flexible rate in case we change our minds as I love the look of the Hyatt Regency and I’m hoping if I’m vigilant enough I might stumble across a reduced rate somewhere

That just left three nights in between Clearwater and RPR to fill. We wanted to spend this time in Orlando somewhere, but as most of you will know, the choice of accommodation is endless. We narrowed it down to the Lake Buena Vista area, simply because it’s close to Downtown Disney, which I’m hoping to visit this year, and also we thought we might even squeeze in a one day visit to a Disney park, probably Hollywood Studios. However, this is looking very unlikely now – my parents had already said they weren’t bothered about going to Disney so it would’ve just been the four of us. Simon isn’t bothered either way, the boys aren’t overly enthusiastic either and so it would be a lot of $$$$ just for me to get my hands on one of these:

No visit to HS is complete without a visit to the Writers Stop for a Carrot Cake Cookie!

Still, Disney visit aside, we decided to stick with the LBV area anyway, and after going round in circles trying to choose a hotel, we finally decided on the Caribe Royale on World Center Drive

We booked an apartment for all six of us, but again on a flexible rate in case we change our minds, you know, in case Simon decides to treat us to three nights at the Beach Club for example

And that really, is everything. All the other bits and pieces have been booked and organised:

Passports renewed where necessary
ESTAS renewed where necessary
Airport Hotel in Manchester
Airport Parking
Hotel at JFK
2 park bonus tickets for Universal

I’m also going to order the Star Connect Photo Package for Universal as I think it’ll be worth it with us being there for a week, and I know Adam will enjoy the ride photos. Also, it means I might actually appear in some photos! I absolutely hate having my photo taken, something Simon is well aware of so has given up trying. Therefore there are approximately 6 photos of me from our two week holiday last year, and I’m kind of sad about that, even though I hate photographs of myself…. My Mum takes the odd snap, so she’ll manage to sneak some of me too no doubt

So, to summarise, this is how the itinerary looks so far:

Wed 5th August – Travel to Manchester, overnight stay at Premier Inn
Thursday 6th August – MAN – JFK with overnight stay at airport
Friday 7th August – JFK – TPA, collect 7 seater hire car
Friday 7th – Mon 10th August – Hilton Clearwater Beach
Mon 10th – Thurs 13th August – Caribe Royale LBV
Thurs 13th – Thurs 20th August – Royal Pacific Resort club level
Thursday 20th August – TPA – JFK – MAN

We’ll no doubt be returning to our usual dining haunts:

And perhaps will try a few new ones while we’re at it:

We’re planning on a visit to Aquatica during our time at LBV. Having had access to the Disney water parks in the past it didn’t seem worth paying out extra for another water park, especially when Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach are so brilliant! However, I’ve heard great things about Aquatica so it’ll be nice to give it a go and try somewhere new

Otherwise we’re just going to go with the flow, see where the holiday takes us, and with a bit of luck we’ll have lots to tell you about. I say ‘we’, as the plan for this year is for me to give everyone else a say, after all, you’ve been listening to me for long enough! I’m not quite sure how it’s going to work out, or if the others will even stick with it, but that’s the plan so stay tuned!

Hello! It's me from the future! So far I'm up to Day 8 of the trippy and no one else has said a word, so the last bit of the above paragraph can be completely ignored

Finally, if you are out there and reading, don’t be shy. Stop by and say hello . I can only speak for myself, but I’m sure it must be true of most trippy writers – to know that your report is being read and enjoyed is a huge motivator in getting the bloomin’ things finished, which as I said at the start, sometimes can be a bit of a struggle! I’m ignoring the comment I had on one of my old reports which simply said ‘What a boring day, we done loads more’ (sic)

And on that note, thank you so much for reading along, and I’ll see you after the summer!

[KittyBlackDog]

Woop! Woop! I haven't even read it yet and I'm so excited (nearly pirates of Penzance - ala pretty woman). Going to read it in full now xxxx

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by KittyBlackDog

Woop! Woop! I haven't even read it yet and I'm so excited (nearly pirates of Penzance - ala pretty woman). Going to read it in full now xxxx

See more...

Haha! Might I suggest you lower your expectations x

[lovedisney89]

Yay! I'm so glad you have decided to do another report Jo I absolutely love your trippies! Sounds like another great trip you have planned, lovely that your parents are going along too! You will all gave a blast I'm sure x

[abiknox]

Sounds amazing. We are hoping for. Similar in march 16. I have flights secured but RPR and HRH are showing at £280 a night . No free parking and no Club level 😞 I might try Virgin. I didnt realise you could just book hotels with them. We also want couple of nights at Clearwater or St Petes but again, the hotels are seriously pricey. I think its because we are in the spring break season!

Glad the grandparents are back and that football vid doesn't get old! Do they do adult partys?

[Guest]

YAYYYYY YAYYYYYY I am so excited to see this Plans sounding good, so glad the grandparents are joining you, oh my how the boys have grown over the years, looking forward to hearing a lot more

[Wappum]

Yay, I have enjoyed your other trip reports, so pleased you are doing another! We are there around the same dates as you, but as our plans are to start the holiday at Universal and end at Clearwater with lots of Disney inbetween you will probably escape bumping into us.

[Fuellady]

Yay! I knew you wouldn't be able to resist Shame you're not going to get your Disney day, but you've got lots of other fab thing planned, so I'm sure you won't miss it. Maybe a wee trip to DTD would still be in order though

Glad you're Mum and Dad are back in the game, the boys clearly love having them around

Looking forward to the report "proper" when you return to us in August Jo

[redspottyowl]

Yay! Looking forward to one of your trip reports!

[nadya]

Sounds like a great trip-we go on the 25th .how lovely to have your parents with you agsin,we are taking my mother inlaw for the 3rd time this year.sadly lost both my mum and dad in the last year so its lovely for the kids (and us)to have these precious times with gran.