Wishing on a Star August 2018 Update 1, Update 2 Insta360 review, Update 3 A Surprise, Update 4 FP

[Niki T]

Update 1 90 days to go So What's the plan? Click here
Update 2 83 days to go Playing with the new Insta 360, click here
Update 3 A Surprise
Update 4 FP Day
Update 5: The diet isn't going well, but the packing is
Update 6: We go NEXT WEEK
Update 7: The last update pre-trip - probably

As we fast approach our DDD (Thursday ) and have paid off the last of the holiday and holiday extras, I thought it was about time we wrote our pre-trippie. Where shall I begin?

The Cast...

Hopefully, this will be the last time I introduce just the two of us, but history has taught us to expect the unexpected so who knows? If that all sounds a bit vague you can read our other trippies using the links below...

The Magic Cure August 2017
An Impromptu Adventure August 2016
3-0h 3-0h, it's off to Florida we go! August 2014

For anyone not interested in reading 3 lots of reports I'll sum it up: our previous two trips have been booked late (April time) each following some sad events, although we can now happily report we are no longer facing the sad times and are very much looking to whatever the future holds. I'll start with me, Niki, 34, teacher and Disney enthusiast. This will be my 16th visit to the mouse (excluding DLP which I have visited 4 times - once with 40 teenagers in tow - talk about brave!)

DH, John, 37, engineer. Often teases me about taking solo trips to "catch up" but I think that may end in divorce and he knows it! This is his 12th trip with 7 DLP trips under his belt so I'd say we're pretty even? Either way, it's safe to say, Mickey has all our money!

Here's a selection from last year's trip...

We leave behind our two cats, Tigger and Oliver, our turtle, Pepe Le Pew and our fish tanks. Not quite sure who will be up to the task our caring for our fur babies and other beasties, but I'm sure we'll sort it out...we have a huge family between us.

So what is the plan?

Well, we had decided last year we would be refocusing our family plans and there would be no more pregnancies, which meant while we were there we were already planning 2018. In fact, here is one of my fave pictures from the trip as it was taken I swear I could feel 10 years worth of stress starting to lose its grip!

While at Universal last year we did the $5pp AP upgrade, which means the Universal part of the trip would need to come at the start of the holiday and be concluded by 16th August, however, we could only leave after the 10th August as we have one of my best friend's weddings, so our dates ended up:
11th August - 28th August

Travel:
We've chosen to fly AL again as we've always had a great experience with them. So fly MAN-DUB-MCO. We have a 5 hour stop over in DUB, plenty to time to get through immigration which has only ever taken us 15mins, so we're booking the new 51st and Green Lounge for €35pp. We usually upgrade our meals on the plane, but are opting for the lounge instead as it's new and I think it will be a nice place to pass the time.

Flights were booked in September at £610pp, which we thought was a decent price for summer season. I have seen some great flight prices on the dibb, but we are pretty fixed on flying into MCO, so that wipes a lot of them out. We are happy with the price as it's the lowest we've paid since 2004! 2009 came close at £650pp direct with First Choice, but we quite enjoy the connection in DUB, especially as on the way home it gets us home later which means bedtime comes quicker !

We are planning to uber or lyft once we are there as car hire plus parking charges at RPR would be way more than we'd pay on these. Last year, all the trips we took cost less £40!

Travel total: Flights plus guesstimate uber £1300 (I doubt we'll spend £80 on uber)

Accommodation:
10th August at Radisson Blu at MAN. We used Tesco Clubcard vouchers so £49 (we'll be doing an early dart from the wedding evening)
11th-16th RPR, bit sad we're not doing PBH this year, but just haven't seen it for the right price. Our hotel stay here has cost £1000 after we haggled with TC to price match
16th-20th Dolphin for £469. We booked with Netflights
20th-28th BLT using our DVC points. If you want to be finicky on the price we paid for this I'll divide our initial outlay by the 49 years of the contract (£183) and added on our annual dues (this year they were £600)

We are really looking forward to BLT as we haven't had lots of choice on the last couple of trips. BLT is our home resort and we are doing a lake view, hopefully we can secure one on the north side and get a partial MK view. Here is a pic from BLT taken a couple of years ago...

Accommodation total: £2301

Tickets:
Universal AP purchased last year for $10 total, £7.50 at least years exchange rate
Disney passes were also upgraded (or bridged) to AP. As DVC members we got the platinum pass for the price of the gold pass,The platinum AP cost us $99.98 (£77.50 at least years exchange rate). The AP we have include MM so no upgrade needed there.

We've also bought tickets for MNSSHP £109 making these the most expensive of the holiday. This year we are going as Carl and Ellie

Total: £194

Extras:
51st and Green €70 (currently £63 - although it will be payday before we book so there is likely to be some fluctuation)
HEA desserts party £100

Here's a pic from last year

Frozen desserts party £109

No pics of the fireworks as we watched through our funky glasses

Total: £172

Plans for food:
If you've read our other reports you'll know we are big into food. We mainly eat QS meals at Disney but have a few ADRs. Our plans for nice meals are as follows:
Universal: Cowfish, Antojitos and Red Oven. Today, we've also decided to add Jake's to the list for the first night...we'll see, it may be best laid plans and all that.

No doubt we'll be ordering some of this...

Disney ADRs: Yachtsman, BOG (the new table service menu) and BOG breakfast on our last morning to enjoy an emptyish Main Street before waving goodbye. We've not been to either restaurants on the previous few trips so are looking forward to these.

Of course, we are looking forward to enjoying the adult side of Disney by sampling a few cocktails. Here is a selection from last time...

We are also avid pin collectors and are thinking about doing a live report which focuses around pins. Here's a sample from our collection...

This is what we'll be hunting for (along with a dwarf from 2014 - ironically Happy, who isn't making us very happy!)

We are super excited about this trip, more so than in the last few years, which brings me to our trippie's name: Wishing on a Star. No longer are we skipping off on impromptu adventures in which we hope to find a magic cure for the sadness, this trip is a positive happy story in which a young (ok, youngish ) couple skip off to their happy place in order to wish upon a star as, in this "happy place", it makes no difference who you are.

[Buggles94]

Wishing you an absolutely magical time We'll be there at the same time - not long to go now!

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Wishing you an absolutely magical time We'll be there at the same time - not long to go now!

See more...

And the same to you. Where are you staying? What are you most looking forward to?

I think for us it's definitely the food - both dieting ATM so are looking forward to no restriction

Say hello if you see us, it's nice to meet Dibbers

[Buggles94]

It's a longer stay for us this time - a villa then HRH then GF... so excited - booked the villa 2 years ago! will definitely look out for you both Really looking forward to the DDP on the last few days - struggling to get Homecomin' reservation at the moment...

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Buggles94

It's a longer stay for us this time - a villa then HRH then GF... so excited - booked the villa 2 years ago! will definitely look out for you both Really looking forward to the DDP on the last few days - struggling to get Homecomin' reservation at the moment...

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GF, so we'll be just across the lake , we'll give you a wave . It's a lovely hotel, the DVC wing is Mary Poppins themed which is my favourite ever Disney movie. Hope you get your Homecomin' adr

[DadToThree]

Sounds like an amazing plan! Will be following with interest!

I have one question though...the annual passes...what do you mean when you say they were so cheap?

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by DadToThree

Sounds like an amazing plan! Will be following with interest!

I have one question though...the annual passes...what do you mean when you say they were so cheap?

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Thanks for reading . Our AP for both parks came to $110, so $55pp. It just feels so unbelievably cheap for park passes which would usually cost nearly £1000. I do understand that we could take into consideration the price we paid for the tickets last year, but we'd had our use from those so we haven't taken that into account.

The price to upgrade Disney tickets varies hugely. We did get a DVC deal which was Gold price but Platinum Pass, even then though we were getting different prices. It depends on how they are "upgraded". We read that Disney tickets need to be "bridged" in order to get the best price. From our research this means the way the turn the ticket into a US equivalent is the key. When she was doing the upgrade in which we got the best price they had to manually type in how many visits we'd made to each park before completing the upgrade - there was a moment we thought this could be either very bad or very good for us . I assume this was to do with turning it into a US ticket, at no other time when we were getting prices did they do this. Additionally the AP only expired on 31st August not from the first day we used it, so extra bonus

Hopefully that makes sense and answers your question

[mouselover22]

Hi Niki :waves:

As i sadly finish your trippie from last year, I can now excitedly follow your plans for this year

Your plans sound fab! We will be staying at the Hard Rock Hotel from the 10th - 15th Aug I am hoping to put together a pre-trippie myself but if i don't i will definitely be keeping an eye out for you and we will come over and say Hi It's so exciting!

BLT sounds fabulous

It's lovely to hear you still sounding so positive about the future, I hope your adoption plans are going well.

Happy planning x

[yellowrose78]

Sounds like a fab trip

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Hi Niki :waves:

As i sadly finish your trippie from last year, I can now excitedly follow your plans for this year

Your plans sound fab! We will be staying at the Hard Rock Hotel from the 10th - 15th Aug I am hoping to put together a pre-trippie myself but if i don't i will definitely be keeping an eye out for you and we will come over and say Hi It's so exciting!

BLT sounds fabulous

It's lovely to hear you still sounding so positive about the future, I hope your adoption plans are going well.

Happy planning x

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Hi Hayley I'll keep an eye out for your pre trippie . Can't believe we'll be around at the same time, it'd be great to meet you, so definitely say hi...

HRH is fab, you'll have a great time. I had a lovely appletini cocktail in the bar from there a few years ago

Are you doing Disney too? Not too much longer until FP day for you if you are We're DDD on Thursday

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Sounds like a fab trip

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Thanks, we're really excited, I bet you are toi, not long now until your trip Hopefully it won't take us until April to do our report for this one