Can we not just drive there? January 2013.

[rudolph911]

The Pre-Trippie

I will get my apologies in first. This might peter out and just get abandoned half way through. Don't invest too much of your emotions into my little story. If it is anything like my previous holidays I'll be all about the camera for the first few days, and then get sick of carrying it around for the rest of the holiday. I will not accept begging letters, pleas, cajoling or threats to finish this off if it is a thing that I don't finish it off. Bribes on the other hand are a totally different story.

Anyway, I think these things usually start with the cast.

Travelling on this surprise Christmas present trip are DW Anne-Marie. Age: 30 something. Seemingly, birthdays spent outside of the country that you are from do not count. It still didn't stop her expecting presents from me on those years mind you, But that's her story and she is sticking with it!


Next up is me, Noel, or DH in Dibb speak although DW might not agree so much with the D bit! I will be 34 yrs old the week before Christmas and despite being out of the country a few times for my birthday, I am counting them all! You won't be seeing too many pics of me on these reports, or any at all as I can't seem to figure out how to do it but I plan on spending much of the time upside down and in the air.


Next up is Nathan, 11 years old and the first time he is going stateside. On our honeymoon 2 years ago, AM and I went to Florida on our honeymoon. More about that later but when asked in passing was there anywhere he would like to go, he said that our honeymoon sounded good and he wished he could have gone.



Finally, the cast is completed by our little (darling) terror, Darragh, who will be ripe old age of 10 months and 24 days old when he takes to the skies for the first time ever! Right now I am being screamed at as I won't let him pull out all the wires leading into my computer. I am a bad Daddy!



There are several reasons why we took on this trip. The first one is because we want to and what more of a reason do you need. Earlier in the year, I was at home just surfing the web, and I hit upon the skyscanner site. I was wistfully looking at all the places in the world that I would like to visit, when AM said look up flights to Orlando. Just for the craic. We were a little surprised with the price that came back, and although not cheap, it had a few less zero's at the end of the price than we were expecting. So after a bit of fiddling with dates and a little further research, we were booked. Skyscanner is now on the forbidden list of my P.C.'s browser, as is AM from the computer room when I am blissfully and wistfully browsing the web. She is convinced that I am using this rule to surf the naughty sites but I can assure you that is not the case.

Secondly, work is tough at the moment. We both work for the same organisation and work shift patterns, a mixture of nights and days. In order to take care of child minding, we have had to work opposite shifts as for some reason, all the creches in our area have a ridiculous objection to being open at 3 o'clock in the morning, which is when we need them. This means that we have no days off together and there are stints where we quite literally only meet eachother at the door for a minute or two as one of us is on the way in and the other on the way out. Money was tight when AM was off work on maternity and truth be told still is, but we bloody well work hard enough to not get some little bit of enjoyment back from it so we are going for it.

The next reason why we are going, and the biggest one of all is Nathan. He has really come on in leaps and bounds the past year and we want some way to show him our appreciation for his efforts. He has made a big big effort in school this year and the results are starting to show. His world was turned upside down 2 years ago when I married his mother and then turned upside down again (does that make it the right way up again) when little Darragh came roaring and screaming into his space last February. In the build up to Darragh's birth, Nathan was not best pleased but his heart melted as soon as he saw him. Since then, and I never thought I would honestly be saying this, but he has been a rock for both AM and myself. There have been days over the weekends when I have come in off nights, AM is gone to work and I am due in at night again, when Nathan comes in to the room and both he and Darragh disappear for a few hours. After a few hours good rest, young lad is fed, changed and watered. They might still be both in their p.j.’s at lunchtime but both are as happy as a pig in the proverbial, which thanks to Nathan, Darragh is not sitting in it.

And the last reason why we are going is to keep a promise. We got married on the 31st December 2010 and honeymooned in Florida. We flew to Miami on the 7th January 2011, took a week long cruise in the Caribbean and then did 10 days around Florida, taking in Key West, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Sawgrass. When we got to Orlando, we were quite surprised with how expensive the park tickets were. We settled on doing the Universal parks and Seaworld. Apart from the cost of the tickets, we wouldn’t have been able to do justice to WDW in that space of time anyway. We made a promise to ourselves then, that we would return with Nathan and take in WDW when we came back. We also made the promise to Nathan when we returned home and gave him $20 to save for this holiday. Now that the time has come and we are looking to keep that promise, we have an ankle biter going with us as well. Taking him now is cutting down on the prices as if we were to wait longer than when he is a freebie or as good as, this trip would be a non-runner.

So onto the nuts and bolts of it. It all started on that faithful night when I was surfing skyscanner and found that the prices for the flights were a little bit less than our weights in gold. Doing a little bit more digging, we decided to go for it. We have organised a sky cot for baby Lucifer and 3 seats flying from Dublin on the 1st January 2013, arriving back on the 16th January. Nathan does not like the prospect of flying. As of this time, he does not know of the holiday, but on a previous holiday to Bulgaria, he was looking forward to the idea of the apartment, swimming pool, sun, sea, boats, waterparks and everything else, apart from the idea of flying so his question became what is now the title of this thread. He was promptly informed that he had the choice of coming with us or spending the week in the hotpress as we were going anyway, with or without him. He was giving it serious consideration too, the little so and so. I then told him a little white lie that a family of mice had taken up residence in the hotpress. That was the clincher. Funny thing is, he doesn’t actually mind flying, it’s the thought before hand of it that gets to him. If that question is asked again this time, I’ll remind him that there is still loads of room in the hotpress, after his mother did a run to the charity shop last week!

Next up we had to look for accommodation. Cheap and cheerful was the order of the day here. We are on a budget after all. After doing a bit more surfing we settled on the Champions World Resort on the 192 in Kissimmee. We got a good deal on it and booked it. And then we read the reviews on it. Thankfully all of our shots are up to date, Darragh has been like a pin cushion for the last few months anyway and all 3 of us have enough of the mother tongue (Gaelige) to pay the staff back if they start that Spanish no understandee de eenglish lark with us! Anyway, it’s got 3 swimming pools, a bar and a hot-tub. To be honest, if ever I am going somewhere where I am not expecting to be hanging around much, all I really demand of a hotel is somewhere decent to put my head down and to be able to wash myself in comfort. Anything else is usually wasted on me as I don’t often use the gym etc.

Next up was a hire car, again hired before the reviews were read. Through carhire3000 we have ordered a full size , Dodge Charger or similar from Dollar. I really hope we get the charger, it would be another bonus for Nathan, rather than a run of the mill Ford or Nissan, not to mention a thrill for me to drive it. Only going to be one driver I’m afraid. On our honeymoon, we hired a car from Hertz with both of us meant to be driving. Like a gentleman, I took the first day, from Miami down to Key West. While in Key West it was parked up for 2 days as everywhere was within walking distance. Rather than having DW take to the US roads for the first time in the city, I drove out up along part of the keys. The intention was to swap over up the road a bit, so that she could get used to the car when the driving was pretty straight forward. Just as we were about to do so, it started to rain. As it would not be fair on DW to start driving in the rain, I continued along. Then the rain came as it only can in Florida. Instead of slowing down, all the traffic around us seemed to be speeding up to get home out of it. Then we came across the inevitable crash, and then another, and another. After coming across 10 crashes we finally made it to our hotel in West Palm Beach. Where they kindly had the weather channel on. Which was giving non-stop updates about the tornado warning we had just driven through. Even by Florida weather standards it was seemingly a big thing. Which prompted DW to then and there declare that her US driving career was over before it had even started.



I could live with that Dollar!

So having transport and accommodation sorted, the next thing was the tickets. For the flexibility and lack of worry re dates and times etc. We went with the flexiticket plus from Attractions tickets direct. We rang them up, placed the order and paid the money. I was not happy when I got an email back saying some of the tickets were not ready yet and so would be waiting about six weeks before they sent anything at all out. I was not happy with this and rang them up and cancelled the order. To tell the truth, I was not happy having that much money outstanding to a company, at a time when we are hearing of fairly substantial companies hitting the wall every day of the week. I phoned back up after the six weeks and re-placed the order and, you guessed it the price had gone up! I made an argument that they weren’t able to fulfil the first agreement and should therefore stick by that price. The man on the phone couldn’t do that, but in fairness he threw in every extra possible so that a rake of DVD’s and everything came with the tickets! And a complimentary set of tickets to Legoland which is a big score in this house.

As of yet Nathan does not know of this trip. The surprise reveal is being pencilled in for Christmas morning, when Santa presents have been seen and evaluated, and Santa cursed for forgetting the batteries again this year. When all that is done and dusted we are going to give him our present. I have ordered from sportsdirect.com (a very good, affordable on-line store seeing as you didn’t ask), a ¾ length wetsuit kind of a thing. When he is looking at this and wondering what kind of a present that is to be giving to someone in the middle of winter, he should then see a booklet underneath it which says to get his passport ready, he’s going on a plane and the tell him where he is going! He keeps pestering us as to what his Christmas present is. All we told him is that it is big and he will love it, which to be honest was not the best thing in the world to stop the pestering! Now I just tell him that there may be a bit of wee involved when he sees it!

So thats it. Bright and early New Years Day we will be hitting the road for Dublin Airport. Which co-incidentally is the day after our anniversary. I’m getting daggers for that I can tell you. Seemingly I ruined our first anniversary because DW was pregnant and I’m ruining this one by booking a family holiday to Florida for the following day. I can’t win can I? I’m sure we’ll do some little thing to mark the day. I’m especially looking forward to this one as traditionally, the 2nd anniversary is the one where I get to give her wood!

I hope to take same few notes over there and complete this trippie thingy. I hope to have something to print off and give to the lads, one as a reminder of a (hopefully) nice time, the other to prove to him that he was there and we didn’t just leave him in the hotpress for two weeks! If you see us on the plane, say hello and sorry about Darragh trying to chew on your ankles. He is a growing chap and likes his food!

[ely3857]

Oh wow!

I know how you feel with the shift things, we do the same to avoid childcare costs which would make my working pointless!

Nathan sounds like a fab lad, perfect big brother. I can't wait to hear about his reaction on Xmas morning!

We fly the day after you, if you see two hyper girls (3 & 19m) and two exhausted parents, that's us. Probably. I bet there's more than one set of our family unit wondering around WDW!

Have a fab holiday. X

[collybird]

Oh I love surprise trips! I can't wait to see Nathan's reaction, he sounds like a little star helping so much with his baby brother.

I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas and an amazing trip. Not long to go now!

[Guest]

Oh wow how lovely, I bet you can't wait to see Nathan's reaction on Christmas day, what a fab Christmas present! We overlap and are there for your 2nd week, might see you there :-d

[Pussycat Doll]

Brilliant pre trippy, Christmas will be brilliant when you reveal his present! Pussycat

[rudolph911]

Thanks for the nice comments lads. I have more things organised for when we get there, a couple of surprises and a few things lined up that I don't see on too many trippies here.

I'll check back and let you know how the reveal went sometime before we head off.

[pandanne]

What a wonderful surprise for Nathan - you need to take a photo of his reaction when he's told, and what a lovely big brother he is. Can't wait to hear about the surprises and things lined up that you've not seen on a trippie here!

Have a fabby holiday.

[rudolph911]

Well the first part of the trip to fall away has just been announced. The anti-strike that is taking place in the NHL ice-hokey has just been extended to all games up to and including 14th January, which means our tickets for Washington Capitals at Tampa Bay Lightning on the 11th is scratched.



Actually, no, it's much worse than that.



:angry:

We had planned to go to Busch Gardens that day but the highlighters may come out again and be cross-referenced with the Busy Day Guide and a new plan of action drawn up. I have been back on stub-hub, but apart from Basketball which does not really interest us, there is nothing that I can see that we wouldn't be able to take in at home.

again!

(Out of respect of little eyes and ears that may be tuned into this thread, I am being reasonably moderate in my response here, please feel free to imagine my real rant yourself!)

We are only going to be doing 1 ADR and that is at Tusker House on the 10th January. Other than that the only other Disney extra we have is the photopass +. I must figure out how to use that. It would save me carrying a camera around for the day which is something that I am prone to stop doing on day 3 of a holiday

The big reveal is still on track in any event. Nathan is still clueless about it. He is finishing school tomorrow, we are doing a flying trip to my homeplace for one night, and by the time that we are back and settled in, the whole thing will be on top of us. My side of the family are going down the line of giving him spending dollars, but are giving them to me when we are up so as not to spoil the surprise. He is going to have some jaw on him on the way back thinking that all my folks have neglected him present wise! Ah well, it will make it all the sweeter when the time comes.

After refusing to go to sleep all evening, baby Lucifer has decided he wants to go right now. Better sign off!

Talk again.

Noel

[Snowball24]

How wonderful, he will be so happy ! My son is the same age as Nathan, my daughter 8 and we are going first time next yr. We told them with some clues in October (was meant to be new years day but couldnt wait!) they were soooo excited, cant wait to hear how it goes!

[chaffey]

Hope the reveal goes as expected and you all have an amazing time