The 'I need to see the sun again' Trip February 2018

[sallybunny]

This pre-trip report wasn’t supposed to be starting until 2018. That was when I should have been booking the free DDP for an all singing, all dancing 3 week extravaganza holiday in 2019. Then February hit. I really don’t get on with February. All the fun of Christmas is long gone and Summer is a looooong time away. And I always get ill. Two days in bed with the Dibb makes people do funny things. Like booking cheap flights for February 2018 when they’re browsing Kayak and happen to see flights for 1A2C for £926. Direct. In the half term holidays.

I’d promised the boys a return trip in 2019 for my 40th birthday. The original plan was to go in the summer holidays and have one week on site and one week in a villa. Then I quite fancied going to the beach for a few days as well. And a night (or two) at Universal. And the plan grew and grew until it was too expensive to contemplate but with the price of flights we needed to make it worth our while going. You all understand that conundrum.

And while this was the plan, I’m meant to be renovating my house so the funds aren’t really there for a huge great big holiday. But we want to go back so badly!

Then I started to wonder why we actually do holidays to hot places in the summer when it’s quite nice here. If we were going for a week then we needed a quiet park. And I need a winter sun holiday.

So the decision was made and flights were bought. We’ll be flying out on the 10th February with Norwegian for 7 nights.



Then I thought about where we were going to stay. Initially I thought going budget and offsite but once I'd worked out the cost of car hire, food, parking and the time it takes to get around then onsite was a far better plan. Plus all the driving tires me out and being on my own with the boys means I need all the energy I can get! Plus a like a little drink occasionally... We'll be using a mix of buses and and boats and monorail and Uber.

I've booked 7 nights at Saratoga Springs in a studio with DDP. I'll be making a room request for a room close to The Paddock pool so that it's close to somewhere for drinks, pool down time and the bridge to Artists Palette, boat dock and other pool. Something I've learnt from holidaying on my own is that it pays to be close to the facilities and to not have to drive!



I've done all the ADRs already so we'll be eating...

Tusker House breakfast



I'm going to see my bestie!



Be Our Guest breakfast



Garden Grill Breakfast



Whispering Canyon lunch


Akershus lunch


O'hana dinner (we'll be popping to Trader Sam's before)


Teppan Edo dinner


And Jungle Skipper Canteen for the last lunch


Lots of other planning is going on so uodates will be coming as more happens!

[Kidd McFluff]

Sounds like a great plan. Excellent price on flights.

[sallybunny]

I couldn't believe the flight prices! We're getting very very excited now and it looks like Doug might just squeak through onto the bigger rides...

[Goldia]

How exciting. Not long until you book your fast passes, only a couple of weeks.

[Taffy1959]

Sounds fab and lovely photos of you and your boys

[penguin19]

Sounds great!

We've pretty much done the same thing (we wanted a warm place in Feb half term and couldn't resist the prices !)

We are also staying at SSR (DVC points borrowed ) and eating at Ohana and Garden Grill breakfast so maybe see you there ! 😉😎

[eleele]

I like your style of holiday planning! I agree that it's nice to go for holiday sun in the winter when it's so miserable here. My trouble is that I get so bored in the long school summer hols; really twice a year (at least) is the only way

[sallybunny]

Originally Posted by Goldia

How exciting. Not long until you book your fast passes, only a couple of weeks.

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Fast Pass day is TOMORROW! I'm so very very excited now!

[sallybunny]

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

Sounds fab and lovely photos of you and your boys

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Thank you! I tried to pick nice ones.

Originally Posted by penguin19

Sounds great!

We've pretty much done the same thing (we wanted a warm place in Feb half term and couldn't resist the prices !)

We are also staying at SSR (DVC points borrowed ) and eating at Ohana and Garden Grill breakfast so maybe see you there ! 😉😎

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Squeeee! We might well see you there! If you do see us, definitely say hello - I might need a grown up to talk to...

Originally Posted by eleele

I like your style of holiday planning! I agree that it's nice to go for holiday sun in the winter when it's so miserable here. My trouble is that I get so bored in the long school summer hols; really twice a year (at least) is the only way

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We do little trips in the Summer hols as the weather is generally alright. So a little bit of camping, trip to friends and this year a couple of days at LegoLand! But I agree that two Florida holidays a year would be far better!

[Kat11]

Aww that all sounds lovely! I like your choice of ADRs there's a nice mix.

Have a lovely time. 😀

Kat