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Old 29 Jan 20, 03:41 PM  
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#21
Floridadreams
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With only 10 days to go (well 9 days and a matter of minutes according to the Dibb, but who's counting! ) I thought I'd give an update on our plans.

So we fly at 3pm on Saturday 8th February from Dublin with Aer Lingus, arriving at MCO for 19.25. I am hoping for a speedy transfer to our first hotel, Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. There we will sort out our tickets (we have email ones that we need to exchange) go for food if we need/can face it, and then head to bed. The rest of the plans are as follows

Day 1 Sunday 9th: Universal Studios for opening, heading straight to Diagon Alley. With the express passes we are hoping we can walk on whatever we want, so I don't really have a plan after HP I expect we will falter mid afternoon having been up early, so we'll head back to the hotel. Then go for dinner in Citywalk

Day 2 Monday 10th: Islands of Adventure for opening, heading straight to Hogsmeade if we didn't visit that the day before. Pretty much a similar plan to Day 2, except that we aim to take a mid afternoon break (after getting on Hagrids) and head back into Universal Studios for Mardi Gras

Day 3 Tuesday 11th: Volcano Bay for the day, then dinner at Citywalk

Day 4 Wednesday 12th: Checkout of RPR then head to whichever Universal park we fancy. Around 3pm go to Floridays to check-in. Once sorted we plan to go to Disney Springs, get some Magic Bands, and have an early dinner ready for our early start the next day

Day 5 Thursday 13th: Up early for opening at Hollywood Studios in the hope of bagging a Boarding Group for Rise of the Resistance. Then we have FPs for ToT (well the other three do, I'm a wimp!), Indiana Jones and Star Tours. I'm hoping to modify the times on these as we go, because our Star Tours one is from 3pm! We also have an ADR at Oga's Cantina for 4pm (one of the surprises we have kept!)

Day 6 Friday 14th: A very mobbed day in Magic Kingdom! We have BoG booked for 1.30pm (another surprise) and then our fps are for Space Mountain for the kids, then BTMR and Peter Pan's flight. Unfortunately the fps run from 3.30pm to 6.10pm so we have no chance of picking up anything else. It is also the reason I say it will be mobbed. We have decided to just go in around 12 do what we can, and then leave after our last fp if it is too busy. We have another day in MK so that is ok

Day 7 Saturday 15th: Non-park day! We have an ADR for O'hana at 10.30am (this the kids do know about!) and then we thought we would do a bit of resort hopping on the monorail and head back when we've had enough

Day 8 Sunday 16th: This is Animal Kingdom day - a park which our daughter and I are really looking forward to, but no-one else seems that interested! Anyway, they're being dragged along. We have fps booked for Expedition Everest (for the kids again!), the Na'vi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris (which I had to convince the boys to go on ) We are hoping to pick up Dinosaur while there, and plan to do FoP at the end of the day - having read about this strategy on another group and deciding this fitted our family much better than rope drop! We plan lunch in Satu'li Canteen

Day 9 Monday 17th (Presidents Day): We are heading to Epcot, with fps for Turtle talk with Crush, Mission Space and Soarin'. We plan to eat our way around the world and the Festival of the Arts. But, we are going to buy a gift card with a set amount on it and I have told the kids we are leaving when it is spent!

Day 10 Tuesday 18th: A quieter day today with time for the pool or to wander over to Vinelands. Then we are heading to Animal Kingdom Lodge mid afternoon to do the scavenger hunt and see the animals. We have a 6.45 booking for Sanaa (the last of the surprises)

Day 11 Wednesday 19th: Is our second trip to HS - we have said that we can do an early start for rope drop if we don't get on Rise of the Resistance the first day, but I am seriously hoping we do not have to, and I can enjoy a cocktail at Sanaa! Anyway, this day we have fps for ToT for the kids, then I managed to secure some of the first fps for Smuggler's Run and then we have fps for Rock n Rollercoaster for the kids. The slot for that finishes at 2.20pm when we hope to head over to Epcot (Boarding Group allowing) and hit Festival of the Arts and any countries we didn't get to on our first visit here.

Day 12 Thursday 20th: Magic Kingdom for our second visit. We have fps for HM, Its a Small World (a must do, but we refuse to queue!) and BTMR again

Day 13 Friday 21st: We have kept free to see where we want to go, but I suspect we will be Universal bound!

Day 14 Saturday 22nd: Travel home day but not until 9.15 pm! So we plan to check out of Floridays and hope that we can leave our bags there, then either head into one of the Disney parks or Disney Springs. Then home

So that is the plan. We are being quite fluid with food plans as we really don't know what we will fancy, or how much budget we have left! I do have a list of possible restaurants, which I will post another day.

We are getting so excited now it is ridiculous! Our daughter has her own countdown going on, and I am getting through the ironing, and list making so I can start packing. I really cannot believe we are actually doing this

Edited at 04:39 PM.
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Old 29 Jan 20, 05:10 PM  
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caitlinsmummy
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I am so excited to see this. Your plans look great, your going to have an amazing time! if you remember sign up to the restaurants before you go, it will help keep the bills cheaper and also gives you different options

Look forward to seeing the restaurants you want to visit too xx
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Old 29 Jan 20, 05:33 PM  
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#23
Floridadreams
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Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
I am so excited to see this. Your plans look great, your going to have an amazing time! if you remember sign up to the restaurants before you go, it will help keep the bills cheaper and also gives you different options

Look forward to seeing the restaurants you want to visit too xx
Thanks Kelly. I have the sign-ups on my list for next week, along with printing out ESTAs (the new ones with middle names!) and the hotel vouchers, tickets, etc following your amazing food report
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Old 29 Jan 20, 05:52 PM  
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minnie52
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How exciting! Your plans sound fab! Looking forward to reading your restaurant ideas! And still some lovely surprises for the kids to come! X
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Old 30 Jan 20, 03:55 PM  
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Floridadreams
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I thought it might be a good idea to do my restaurant list today, before the madness of packing takes over my time next week!
We are staying fairly flexible with restaurant plans, as we have no idea how hungry/tired we are going to be, or what our budget is going to be looking like. We have allowed around $200 a day for four of us, so hopefully we'll manage that with a good mixture of restaurants. So, here goes!

Universal: our first four days we are staying onsite at RPR, we also plan another day at the Universal Parks whilst we are offsite. We have a number of places on our list of possibles for while we are here, including park QS and Citywalk/hotel restaurants. These are:
Cowfish at Citywalk – we all love our sushi and the kids love burgers so this seems the perfect restaurant for us!
Toothsome Chocolate Emporium at Citywalk just for the sundaes, but we’ll eat a little savoury first
Voodoo Donut is also on the list here, obviously!
Jake's Bar at Royal Pacific for ease and because I have only heard good things about the food here
Leaky Cauldron or Three Broomsticks in Harry Potter – as massive Harry Potter fans one of these has to be visited!
Luigi's Pizza
Bumblebee Man's Taco Truck – if a cheap meal is needed!
Krusty Burger I suspect will also be needed, along with a Lard Lad’s Donut
San Francisco Bakery for cookies
Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoopendus
We also plan to do Mardi Gras food

Disney: We have six park days plus a couple of Disney Springs visits. We have ADRs for:
Oga's Cantina
Be Our Guest lunch
O'Hana Breakfast
Sanaa dinner
Other places on our list of possible visits are:
Disney Springs
Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar - mainly because I like the idea of sitting here people watching!
Earl of Sandwich
Wolfgang Puck Express
Morimoto Asia Street Food (I’d really like to do Morimoto TS but doubt we can stretch to that!)
Blaze Fast-Fired Pizza
The Daily Poutine
The Polite Pig
Hollywood Studios – we have one and a half days here, but I have a number of options for food depending on where we are when we are hungry and what we fancy eating
Docking Bay 7
Ronto Roasters
Woody’s Lunch Box
Backlot Express
Magic Kingdom – we have two full days here, but one day we have lunch at BoG. Again I have a few options as above, although we also plan quite a few snacks while here
Columbia Harbour House
Casey’s Corner
Cosmic Ray’s
Animal Kingdom – one day here
Satu’li Canteen is a must from what I have read so I don’t care where we are when we are hungry or what we fancy, this is where we are having lunch!
For snacks I also have:
Yak & Yeti lounge
Mr Kamal’s Kiosk for the loaded fries
Kusafari Bakery
I'm not sure we're going to fit all of this in!
Epcot – we have one and a half days here and plan to eat our way around the Festival of the Arts and the other kiosks etc. I have glanced at the menus for the festival and there is quite a lot on there that I fancy, but I’m happy to wing it when we are there. Going against all advice for a Disney break I know!
I also was hoping that Space 220 was going to be open by the time we visited, but sadly it is looking like it won’t be open until March!

Offsite
We have ten days offsite staying at Floridays at the bottom of International Drive near Vineland. We are hoping this is where we can save quite a bit of money choosing cheaper restaurants to balance out the onsite splurges! On this list we have:
Sweet Tomatoes – for a bit of veg and healthy food
Miller’s Ale House
Friendly’s
Olive Garden
Steak n Shake
Q’Kenan – a small Venezualan restaurant next door to Floridays that has great reviews on Tripadvisor and is quite cheap
Benihana – because it is also next door
Bahama Breeze
Cheesecake Factory
Ford’s Garage
Chili’s
I also have a choice of Golden Corral, Panera Bread or Denny’s for breakfast on one of our quieter days – maybe the day that we have Sanaa booked for dinner
And, I've downloaded Uber Eats in case there is a day when we just can't be bothered eating out!
I have this list on an excel spreadsheet which is colour coded for cheap, mid range and expensive to help us with the budgeting. I also will go through the list and sign up for emails next week for the offsite restaurants, which should help too. We will see if it works!

Edited at 03:57 PM.
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Old 30 Jan 20, 06:11 PM  
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caitlinsmummy
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Wow! Now that's a list 😂 I love it. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you manage to eat and what you enjoyed the most! Xx
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Old 30 Jan 20, 06:58 PM  
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Floridadreams
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Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
Wow! Now that's a list 😂 I love it. I'm really looking forward to seeing where you manage to eat and what you enjoyed the most! Xx
We are obviously never going to get through them all! But we have options at least 😉
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Old 30 Jan 20, 07:13 PM  
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Just found this and really enjoyed reading it! Your reveal sounds great... I got goosebumps reading about it! I’m totally impressed with how organised you are ... there’s so much information to take on board for a first visit but you really seem to be really well thought out with your plans. Not long at all for you now, I’ll look forward to hearing how you get on, I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time. (I give it 4 weeks after you’re back before you start pricing up again )
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Old 30 Jan 20, 07:25 PM  
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Floridadreams
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Originally Posted by Th1nkT1nk View Post
Just found this and really enjoyed reading it! Your reveal sounds great... I got goosebumps reading about it! I’m totally impressed with how organised you are ... there’s so much information to take on board for a first visit but you really seem to be really well thought out with your plans. Not long at all for you now, I’ll look forward to hearing how you get on, I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time. (I give it 4 weeks after you’re back before you start pricing up again )
Ah thanks 😊 I’ve been planning this trip for such a long time! I really enjoyed doing the reveal and it was so worth it to see their faces! The dibbers have been fabulous at helping me to get my head around everything with all of the food and trip reports and tips. I’ve had a few pointers from my sister too who has been a few times, although a little out of date with Disney as last time they were there was before Pandora opened.
We are so looking forward to our trip now - although it still seems a bit of a dream!
And no, we will definitely not be planning our return in that short space of time - that’s when the credit card bill will hit! We’re hoping that will be nil as we’ve saved but...
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Old 30 Jan 20, 09:20 PM  
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Elsa42
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wow your plans sound great! Your going to have an amazing time! You’ll get on rides and you can look for more fastpasses after you’ve used your three! Even the days that you finish your fastpasses at 6pm still have a look as even if you get a fastpass for a smaller ride it’s better than nothing!
Your restaurant list is amazing 🙈 I’ll be interested to see which ones out of the list you enjoy! I’ve just finished up my offsite list too there’s so much to chose from!
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