"Three" thats the magic number!

[space cadet]

I love reading trip reports, All kinds of them! I love getting ideas from them, i love learning things from them, I love the memories they bring back to me, I love ooh, we've been thereing at them! So I thought I would finally have a bash at doing one myself. I will apologise in advanced, I tend to think I'm really funny, apparently my family think I'm not! How ruuude!

So who are we? - The cast

Me - Sian 38, will be 39 by the time we go. This will be my last birthday, I think it would be greedy to have anymore!

Planner, organizer, buyer, spender. I love all things Disney, Minnie being my favorite I am loud, opinionated and have a short fuse, but have a self confessed heart of gold, i will help you out if I possibly can, and I am bloody funny! I AM! *stamps feet* I am also a founding member of a roller derby team! Ooooh!

I am a receptionist/general dogs body at a children's centre.



Mark - 39, 40 when we go. Snigger Ha In your face!

Funder, payer, only bloke in a house full of women! Laid back, virtually horizontal, 80s old school glam rocker with a serious case of Peter Pan syndrome, leaver of things until the 13th hour.

Self employed painter and decorator.

Olivia - 8 and still will be.

Ruler of the roost, drama queen, princess, absolute sweetheart. Member of her schools Eco committee and will string you up if you don't recycle! Lover of Disney, just outgrowing princesses but Tinkerbell and Mulan remain firm favorites.





For those with a sharp eye amongst you will have noticed there is a fourth member of our family - we keep her locked in a cupboard and feed her pizza under the crack. Joke!

Chelsea - 18 and not coming with us! :0

Eternally mortified by her cooler than cool family, owner of the messiest bedroom in the history of forever! Attends college (please note I say attends not studies) going on girls holiday next year instead. Although has left her options open and "might" still join us! Yeah right ok!

Disney history

This will be our third trip, and there a three of us going, see what I did there with the title of this trippie?!

Our first trip was in May 2009. Thanks to my mum we came into some unexpected money. I have always longed to go to the magic, it HAD to be Florida I have no interest in DLP. Mark needed some persuading but between me and the girls the poor sod had little chance really did he! So we booked a "once in a lifetime trip" yes yes I get the irony of that now!

We booked a package with THG, flew virgin and stayed at the Quality International Plaza on I Drive. Mark was/is the sole driver as I found my license in a cereal box, and really shouldn't be allowed to drive in my own town where i know where i am, let alone somewhere on the wrong side of the road! We did all the parks, including DC as Chelsea's life dream (at 14!) was to swim with dolphins.



Our second trip was May 2011 this time we chose a villa in the Davenport area, as we found living in the one room for two weeks quite stressful at times! ! 2 days after we booked during a conversation with Marks BFF, you know the type, "oohs theres lovely, we'd love to go there" "ooh well come with us then" our friend and his son were added to the booking. It would be nice for Mark to have some male company, and his son is the same age as Olivia so it worked well. It was wonderful having a private pool as the kids could just get in whilst the boys had a couple of buds, and i did some cleaning/washing/prepping for tomorrow! how did that happen! sneaky boys!



So we had always discussed going back, our friends were happy with just the once so will not be joining us again, and Chelsea is off doing her own thing now that she is a grown up! I have always wanted to visit in October to see the Halloween/fall decorations. I started pricing up packages and DIY but my gosh, prices are ridiculous!

Mark snapped his cruciate ligament playing football last year, silly boy! He had surgery to replace it and was laid up, off work for the best part of 3 months this summer. Being self employed, and me only working part time, that stung a bit! Being the doting wife I am, during this time I took myself off to Debenhams for a new benefit blusher - it was a necessity, honest! And I just happened to stumble into the Virgin Holidays concession there, which just happens to be on a completely different floor, at the opposite end if the building from where I actually needed to be anyhoo I left with a reasonable quote, for May again - I KNOW! from VH! shocker! And being a cheeky so and so I also blagged free V room if I booked that weekend. I went home to discuss with Mark, this might not be unusual to most, but our last trip I booked online then thought to tell him after the event! He banned me from having days off work sick after that! We were sat in TGI Friday having a celebratory meal within 2 hours! Win!



We fly Virgin from Gatwick on Tuesday 20th May 2014, we have always flown on a Thursday, but Tuesday worked out cheaper, plus flying on the Thursday would mean flying out on our 10th wedding anniversary and driving home from the airport on Olivia's 9th birthday. By flying on the Tuesday, we will be home 2 days before her birthday which she is not happy about, as both times we have been she has had a birthday there!

We have a allocation on arrival villa within a guaranteed map area. We are happy with this as we spend so little time at the villa, I would rather spend the extra money needed to specify a villa elsewhere.

We are using the "free" car that came with the package, supplied by Alamo and have no intention of upgrading.

When booking I spoke to the agent about the possibility of adding Chelsea at a later date if need be and she said that all we would need would be an extra flight, as there would be room at the villa and in the car for her regardless. Obviously they cant guarantee the price or even a seat on the same plane, but we will deal with that as and when.

I have renewed Olivia's passport as hers had expired and she recently had an audition for a commercial to be shot in Spain, (she is a drama queen in all aspects of the term!), so felt it better done sooner rather than later as you never know!

My next task was to look at airport hotels and parking. We live in Swansea so there is no way I could suffer the stress of traveling to London on the same day we fly! Our first trip I found an amazing deal with the Hilton South terminal, second we stayed off site somewhere, I really didn't like having to get a bus/taxi after flying all night, with grumpy kids (ok and me) so wanted somewhere on site again. I found a deal with premier inn North terminal and with assurances from the Dibb that transferring between ermines is easy peasy, I booked there, with valet parking for 15 nights for £110. I will do on line check in as I really want to try the bubble and we will most likely do twilight checking as I do love to swan past the mahoosive queue in the mornings feeling very smug! I do believe that VH passengers get VIP security lines as well? I am happy to be corrected on that though.

Left to do:

Park Tickets
Estas
Adrs
Photo pass
Photo connect
Book Hard rock hotel

Mark is 40 in March and doesn't want any fuss so I though this would be a nice surprise for him to book a stay at Hard Rock Hotel for a night plus the added advantage of FOL passes is also an incentive!

I went as part of a photoshare last time, but would really like that advantages of the plus option this time. I don't feel confident enough to be in charge of everyone else's memories to run my own thoug. I know how devastated I would be if someone lost all my pictures, I couldn't live with myself if I did that!

I need to think about ADRs as it is out 10th anniversary whilst we are there and obviously we will celebrate Livs birthday too. We did breakfast at Ohanas last time which we loved, Mark wants to do that again. The first trip we did Livs birthday with breakfast at the castle and she wants to replete that. Me? I'd like to try something new. We have also done Crystal Palace, which was a shambles which none of us wish to repeat, and Chef Mickeys which was just ok. Suggestion and recommendations would be gratefully received.

Stu posted Mays park hours and Busy day guide today so I am excited all over again as I can really start planning now.

Wow that was longer than I expected! If you read all the way through, thank you! I do have a tendency to waffle!

I will update as soon as I have new information.

Thanks for reading, Sian xx

[space cadet]

Ok How do I make the pics show?

Sorted! Doh!

[space cadet]

I haven't really done anything regarding the holiday for a while, then there was Christmas and my brothers birthday straight after.

So all of a sudden we are midway through January and it dawned on me! THIS YEAR! WE GO THIS YEAR! I admit I reveled in the first wave of excitement this brought but soon the realization that I still have so much to do set in!

I got the ESTAs sorted that day, as I had been reading some horror stories on here about them!

I have started researching tickets, we have decided to only do Disney and Universal this time. Marks favorite coasters are at SeaWorld - Manta and Kraken, but that would be the only reason we would return there as we didn't really enjoy it much last time, so its not really worth the cost.

I have booked HRH and am crossing everything possible that at least one tiny aspect of Diagon Alley will be open! I love Harry Potter, to the point of obsession, so am gutted we will miss this, but hey ho, we will have to go back soon!

We have also decided to go down to Tampa to catch a baseball game. Mark loves sport. Any sport, all sport! Our first weekend the Red Sox are in town, so as soon as they are released I will get tickets for the Sunday afternoon game, as I have read they are more family friendly, Liv and I can wander off as and when!

I have booked an ADR at Ohanas for this day too

I also have an ADR at Hollywood and Vine on the day of our 10th anniversary. I'm a bit unsure of this one! The recommended park for this day is Hollywood studios, which is great as that's Mark and my favorite park, I wanted to something nice, neither of us fancy Derby and Brown and Mark isn't a fan of Italian! I wanted to get the Fantasmic package as we all love this show so that left H&V. I've booked lunch which is a character meal. I think Olivia will still enjoy it even though she's a bit old for playhouse Disney now.

TO DO:

Order Photo Connect
Order Memory Maker
Book Seats - We are lucky enough to still have free Virgin requests on the way out, so am still going to try for the bubble. We are undecided on paying to come home!
API
Tickets

[mc disney]

oooooh exciting! we go back again this year too and i've started the obsessive dibbing! (as my husband calls it!) I love reading everyones trip reports for all the great tips and ideas too ;-)

We will also be 3 this year as our oldest daughter (She's 21 and at Uni so can't get time off) isn't coming so just me hubby and DS who will be 11.
Have you stayed in HRH before? we did it last time and it was fantastic.

Have fun planning and i look forward to your updates!

[space cadet]

No we haven't stayed at HRH before, DH doesn't know about it, but Olivia and I are very excited
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment

[Fieryannie]

Such a fab read... Thanks for sharing...

We enjoyed our stay at HRH with FOLP, it did make a difference for HP...

Happy planning, look forward to any updates

xxx

[space cadet]

Not much to update as I have been busy planning Marks 40th.

My friend from work gets married on the Saturday before we fly, she called me the other night to say her htb had surprised her and booked a honeymoon to Disney for her! They leave the day before us yay! My daughter absolutely adores her, we have agreed to make arrangementsfor a meal or 2 but I really mush remember the purpose of their trip!

So the biggest update I have is that I went into virgin today and paid of the remaining balance of our booking! WOO HOO! It feels really good to know that it's all paid, just to concern myself with tickets now!

Thanks for reading, see y'all soon

[space cadet]

Oh! And Chelsea has booked to go to Zante during the dates we are away with her boyfriend, so she definitely won't be joining us.