1st WDW Trip and 1st holiday as a 5! October 2018

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Eccle

Sounds great! I only ever seem to read positive things about Garden Grill, it's on my list to try!

I'd also really like to go to Yachtsman Steakhouse. Could you upgrade one of your children to the adult dining plan (I think you just need to pay the extra for an adult park ticket with free dining), and then pay out of pocket for the signatures for the kids?

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I have to say The Yachtsman is probably suited to me better than any others. I have been drooling over pictures of the Porterhouse this morning

Thanks for the suggestion. I have been doing the maths this morning. Obviously Benjamin doesn't get any credits being under 2. I looked at changing Emma's to an adult ticket which is only £20. If we used Emma's adult credits for us (6 would be at California Grill) and paid for her meals I have calculated that we would save £45 in total. Just in case we end up being to tired on the MK day and missing California Grill I'm not going to bother. If we had two smaller kids and maybe staying on site for a fortnight then I think it would be worth it to do more signatures.

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Cloggy37

Your ADR’s look great, you fly out the day after us exciting.
Although our ADR is not until Weds, (as we don’t get to Disney until Mon 15th Oct) which I am dreading .
Great pre trip report.

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Thank you. I had been thinking I may struggle with some of ours too but there was loads of choice of times. I hope yours goes well. Good luck!

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Gill247

Fab update and so pleased you got all the ADRs you wanted! You have made some great choices!

Our ADR day was also yesterday and got everything we wanted, although I still have a to decide and book a couple of TS. Just so many choices, but I booked the biggies.

If we don't spot you at the Beach Club we may see you at Be Our Guest on the 14th as we have the same breakfast time!

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I'm glad yours went well too. I am keeping an eye on your pre-trippie waiting for your choices to be posted.

I'll make sure I come and say hello at BOG although I have no doubt you'll see us around the Beach Club. I'll be the one with the clip board held up in the air, shouting loud a loud speaker with my little tribe marching behind

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Jen3675

Loved reading this! Would be interested to have a running budget!

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I've quite enjoyed writing it. I love reading back through the trip report I did for our honeymoon now and again so thought a trip report would be a great way to capture our first proper holiday with the kids. God knows how long it will take me to write it though!

Budget: well as you probably read at the start this was supposed to be a fairly budget trip However, it has become fairly eye watering but only because ever since I retuned to work from paternity leave just after I booked the first part of this holiday I have been really lucky that there has pretty much been as much overtime available at work as I want. It isn't usually so freely available so I have smashed it and been adding to the holiday fund as I went. I have pretty much worked 8 in and 1 off since then and have only starting letting up in the last month or so now that the holiday is just about covered. I just hope I haven't made a rod for my own back as this holiday would be impossible to replicate even every other year

At the moment the overall cost is £11,260.20.
This includes everything from flights, hotels, villas with pool heating, Full size SUV, all our park tickets, MNSSHP, airport parking, the second hand push chair etc. We are budgeting £4000 for spending money in addition to the above which I think will be plenty for food, fuel, parking and a few treats for the kids while we are there. We do intend to have a few bottles of wine or cocktails the first week on site although we are not big drinkers. Now that I have come this far I won't skimp on a few quid here and there whilst we are there so if we go over that by a bit then I won't worry much.

The only things that will tothe overall cost are a couple of things I still have my eye on... HEA Dessert Party and an Illuminations cruise

[Milpston]

One of my last mad moments!

So I couldn't help myself. I have modified my Akershus Banquet Hall ADR to slightly earlier at 16:55 on Wednesday 17th October.

This will give us a bit more breathing space to get to The Yacht Cub dock for an Illuminations Cruise.

The lady on the phone was very pleasant. Sodas, waters and snacks are included with the price of the cruise. She offered to put me though to private dining but I declined. I will probably call them nearer the time to get a bottle of something delivered for the cruise.

I did get her to make one other little reservation for me though.

She made me a 13:00 reservation on Sunday 14th October for Benjamin's first hair cut (hope he grows some more ) at Harmony Barber Shop on Main Street. It comes with a little hat and certificate so I think it will be nice and is only about $25 I think.

The hair cut we just pay on the day but the Illuminations cruise has to be paid for at the time of booking. I thought today was as good a time as any to book as the exchange rate isn't too frightening.

I had really thought about saving the cruise until we were off site but as it's so close to the Beach Club I decided against it and we'll now have the option of a drink if we fancy it

Our first week is getting fairly chocca already so we will have a nice change of pace for our last two weeks. I will probably go ahead and book a HEA dessert party but would like to book that for one of our last nights. I'll probably go for November 2nd if and when that becomes available.

[Gill247]

Oh wow, the illuminations cruise sounds amazing! What a lovely special night that will be.

Originally Posted by Milpston

I'm glad yours went well too. I am keeping an eye on your pre-trippie waiting for your choices to be posted.

I'll make sure I come and say hello at BOG although I have no doubt you'll see us around the Beach Club. I'll be the one with the clip board held up in the air, shouting loud a loud speaker with my little tribe marching behind

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haha I laughed so much at the clip board! I was just contemplating how to take my plan, and wondering about laminating etc,

[Eccle]

The Illuminations cruise sounds great.

I may be tempted for the HEA dessert party for our next trip, it seems a nice low stress way of getting a good view (and I loved HEA)

[Milpston]

I liked the idea of the cruise. I'm sure in reality it will hammer down with rain, the kids will be miserable and I'll wish I hadn't wasted the money but I can't plan for that. This was the first thing I haven't had to talk Sally into. I mentioned it in passing and a couple of minutes later she came wandering in with my credit card and a phone. I didn't need telling twice!

I think I may take high vis waistcoat with me just to finish off my tour guide outfit!

[Milpston]

Emma has been talking about the fireworks and the castle since we went to DLP last year. The idea of being in a stampede half way down Main Street with her not being able to see anything is enough to make it a 'must book' for me. I'm keeping an eye on the Disney website but they are only showing until the end of October at the moment. I think I'll get it booked at the first opportunity for our last night if I can.

[Milpston]

So I have just added one more ADR. I had been thinking of adding it for later in the second or third week of our trip and each day that I have been looking there has been no tables for 5 available for either breakfast lunch or dinner.

This morning I was having a check through each day working from 29th October backwards and an opening appeared on 20/10/2018 for lunch. This is our first day off site but we have it as a rest day so thought it might be nice to pop into MK for lunch on our chill out day.

I may check and see if there is any way I can modify this to later in the holiday if anything pops up but I'm happy enough to do it on this day.

So we have an 11:50 ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table. Emma will just love it.