And then there were seven! A live trip report may 2018 - updated 8/4

[chazb]

Hi everyone and welcome to my pre trip report of our 2nd Florida holiday with the children.
I did attempt a trip report from when we went in 2016, but I lost our notes when we got home and found it hard to complete.
I am thinking of doing more of a live trip this time, mainly the food, with a few things we have got up to in the day too, but will see how we get on.

Let me introduce everyone

I am charlie, 32 years old, a stay at home mum and massive Disney fan. Looking forward to this trip so much and have really enjoyed the planning.

This is adam 33 years old, has his own floor laying business and the funder of these trips. Bless him he just nods along to all my ideas. Disney is not really his cup of tea, but after the last trip I have managed to convert him and he absolutely loved it last time. Adam has been not very well for about a year now and 2 weeks ago, we got the diagnoses that he is a type 1 diabetic. He now has to inject insulin 4x a day and is starting to massively change his lifestyle. I am slightly nervous about going away now, but we will be ok, it is just a massive change.

Phoebe is 5 years old and our eldest. She is a very happy sweet little girl, who does not stop talking. She loves all the Disney princesses and is most looking forward to riding the seven dwarves and flight of the hippogrif at universal.

Darcey is 4 years old and is our cheeky headstrong one. She loves everything to do with Disney, makeup and anything girly. She is also excited that she will be able to go on a lot more rides this time round.

Then we have my mum and dad, sue and mark. They enjoyed the trip in 2016 and were so excited when we asked them if they wanted to come back with us again this year. My mum doesn’t go on much, but is happy to people watch while we go on the bigger rides and my dad will pretty much go on everything.

And finally we have no 7, our new gorgeous boy Finley.

Finley will be 1 in 3 weeks and 13 months when we go. Finley is such a good good boy and such a chilled baby. He does not walk or even stand up yet but he loves to bum shuffle everywhere and is very fast when he wants to be. I can’t wait to take him to Disney and show him all the new experiences.

So we booked in 2017, as soon as the dining came out, I rang and paid the deposit and then went into labour that night and had Finley a couple of days later, he was too excited about the holiday and decided to come 3.5 weeks early.

We have booked 12 nights on site staying in a2 bedroom villa at Saratoga springs with the free Disney dining plan and $200 gift card. I have requested to stay in the grandstand as that is where we stayed last time and we loved it.

We then have booked 3 nights at royal Pacific at universal where we will get the express passes.

Monday was fast pass day and I got everything I wanted.

Here is our day to day plan




Thurs 17th may

Kids will go to school as normal and adam will prob also work. I will go to my slimming world meeting where I will have my last weigh in before holiday. Adams dad will come round in the afternoon as he is staying at ours while we are away. As soon as the girls are back from school we will be going straight up to Gatwick where we are staying at the premier inn. I got this for a bargain £31 for a family room and have also booked the 2 course meal deal for me and adam which came to £52 including breakfast for all of us, so we only have to pay for the girls and Finley’s dinner. We have booked meet and greet parking so will phone the, when we arrive at gatwick. Have booked a table for 18.00, so after dinner will be bath and an early night.




Fri 18th may

Travel day. I am such a nervous flyer and also worried about how Finley is going to be, so quite worried about how today is going to go. We are flying with Virgin and will probably not get to Saratoga till around 7pm, so we will grab something to eat at the quick service, unpack and just chill in the room. If any of you read my travel day on my last trip report, my main thing to do is bring spare travel clothes. As me and adam stepped off the plane, phoebe was sick all over herself and my dad, and has we had already left the plane they wouldn’t let us back on and I had a complete mummy fail by bringing no spare clothes.

Sat 19th may

Today we are going to animal kingdom for extra magic hours, which is 8am. Today we have fast passes for dinosaur, Kali river rapids and nav’ii river journey. We are going to have lunch at rainforest cafe and be paying op for this using the Landry card. In the evening we are going to Disney springs to have dinner at Wolfgang puck or blaze and collect our $200 gift card.

Sun 20th may

I have booked the early morning magic event this morning for a surprise for everyone. We are able to go on seven dwarves, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh from 7.45-09.00as many times as we want. At 0900 we will queue up to see the 4 princesses at fairytale hall and then go and have our breakfast that is included in the early morning event. We also have BBB booked for the girls today.
Fast passes are enchanted tales with belle, space mountain and Cinderella and Eleanor (in case we don’t have time to do both in the morning).
We then have dinner at Epcot tonight at chefs de France.

Mon 21st may

Today we have breakfast at 8am at garden grill. We will then go straight to soaring after breakfast.
Today’s fast passes are spaceship earth, mission space and test track. We will spend some time exploring world showcase and I really want to watch the voices of Liberty. An early dinner tonight is at coral reef before getting an early night.

Tues 22nd may
Today we are back at magic kingdom. I have booked fast passes for BTM, splash and pirates. I have also booked the dining package at Tony’s for the parade. I know this restaurant gets mixed reviews but looking forward to trying it and getting a good spot for the parade. In the evening I have just booked the girls into the new Pixar play zone for the evening. This looks like lots of fun. We are thinking that we will grab a quick service from one of the monorail resorts for our dinner.

Wed 23rd may
Today is a chilled day (finally) we are going to go to one of the water parks. First we will grab breakfast at Wolfgang pucks. Tonight we are going to Epcot and have fastpasses for Nemo and frozen and have a reservation at the rose and crown and hopefully get to sit outside to watch illuminations

Thurs 24th may

We will spend the morning at the pool. At around 3pm we will go over to Disney springs for an early dinner at G-Rex restaurant. Then we are spending the evening at magic kingdom. We have fastpasses for buzz, Tomorrowland speedway and under the sea. At 8pm my mum has booked for us all to attend the happily ever after dessert party with plaza garden viewing. I am so looking forward to doing this.

Friday 25th may
Today we are again having a chilled morning. In the afternoon we will be going over to the grand Floridian where I have booked us adults and Finley to have afternoon tea and the girls to have a tea party with Alice and the mad hatter. I have got a fastpass booked in MK for Tinkerbell, but we will see if we use it. Tonight I have booked Californian grill as a surprise for adam. My mum and dad are going to have the kids so we can have a nice night out and enjoy the fireworks again.

Saturday 26th may
Today is our HS day. We have a breakfast booked with the Disney junior characters at 8am. We did this last year and the girls loved it and we all thought the food and character interaction was fab. We will then go straight over to Toy story mania as the fastpass line is not open when we go. We then have fast passes for Rock and roller, tower of of terror and star tours. We are hoping to catch frozen singalong, Disney junior and little mermaid show while we are there. In the evening we have booked something that I am so excited about discovery cove paradise nights. It looks so good and again me and my mum have booked as a surprise for every one else.

Sunday 27th may


Another chilled morning in the pool and then we may go over to Disney springs to grab some lunch. We are then spending the afternoon evening at animal kingdom. I have fast passes for flight of passage, the safari at sunset and river of light. We are going to have dinner at yak and yeti tonight too.

Monday 28th may
Today is Memorial Day so we are just going to spend the day at the hotel and pool. We do have a breakfast booked at Bon voyage at 8am and then we have dinner at whispering canyon cafe at the wilderness lodge.

Tuesday 29th may
Today is our final day at Disney and we are currently planning on spending it at MK but if we would rather go back to another park I am happy to do that. We have fast passes for haunted mansion, 7 dwarves and buzz today. We have also booked lunch at be our guest and then we have dinner booked at the Edison in Disney springs.

Wed 30th may

Today we move over to universal for 3 nights. We are being picked up at 6.30am and will drop our bags, grab a quick bite to eat when we arrive and go over to the park that has early entry. We want to get into Ollivanders early as the girls have really got into Harry Potter this year and would love a wand. We will then spend the rest of the morning in the children’s bit at universal. In the afternoon we are going to go to one of the outlets for some shopping and then come back and have a play in the pool. Today we will either eat at cow fish or NBC grill.

Thurs 31st may
We will spend the day exploring one of the parks and try and get most things done in this park. In the afternoon we will go back and have some fun in the pool. In the evening we will get an Uber to premium outlets and have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Fri 1st may
Today we will spend the day in the opposite park to what we did yesterday and again try and get most things done. Another afternoon spent in the pool, maybe trying one of the other universal hotel pools. We will theneat at city walk at the other restaurant we didn’t eat at on Wednesday. I may also have to get a cheeky milkshake from the choclate emporium.

Sat 2nd June
Our last day 😭😭😭! . We will check out and leave our bags and then spend a couple of hours in the park redoing any rides we want to do again or haven’t done yet.

So there is my pre trip report. Sorry there are not many photos and not lots of info about how I booked things. If any plans change I will be back to update but if not I will be back in 54 days on our pre travel day. I’ll leave you with a few (lot) of my favourite pics from our last trip in 2016.

[juliab]

What a beautiful family you have. Your trip sounds amazing you must be all getting so excited now not long to go!

[Disneygirlxx]

Thank you for sharing
I am so excited for u
Not long left 😀😀

[JanetteP]

Super pre-trip report - hope you have a lovely time, looking forward to reading along

[Guest]

What a lovely trip you have to look forward to. Your children are absolutely gorgeous! What beautiful photos.

[Kat11]

That all sounds brill. Have a great time. I'm looking forward to following along when you start your trip report. 😃

Kat

[Inky]

Sounds great. My DD was chosen at Ollivanders for the wand experience . It was so good as she reenacted the scene where the wand chooses the wizard.

[Goldia]

How exciting. It sounds like you are going to have an awesome trip. Good luck with the idea of a live trip report. I hope the next few weeks go really quickly for you.

Have a fab trip.

[chazb]

Originally Posted by juliab

What a beautiful family you have. Your trip sounds amazing you must be all getting so excited now not long to go!

See more...

Thank you so much, yes getting very excited now. Thanks for reading x

[chazb]

Originally Posted by JanetteParker

Super pre-trip report - hope you have a lovely time, looking forward to reading along

See more...

Thank you so much and thanks for reading x