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Old 1 Jan 19, 09:03 PM  
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Goldia
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The Bare Necessities Summer 2019

Welcome to another one of my trip reports.



I love writing about our plans for holidays and what we get up to and I’m lucky that some of you enjoy reading them and are prepared to give advice and tips.

We will once again be off to Orlando in the summer and the full details will unfold in this and later posts. As many of you know it takes me a while to tell a story and I don’t think I’ll be able to give all the plans for our summer 2019 trip in this post, but I will set the scene. This is going to be a pretty special trip. I'm very excited

Firstly, the title of the trip report. Goodness it seemed like there were many potential titles…

I ended up thinking about Disney songs and maybe using them for the title. I really liked the idea of ‘Go the Distance’ as Kate loves the Hercules movie and we do seem to clock up some miles on our holidays, but this is already a trip report title, so I moved on to other ideas.

I thought about using ‘I just can’t wait to be there’ as who doesn’t like the Lion King and the countdown always seems to take forever.

I then thought of ‘Almost there’ from The Princess and The Frog, a fantastic movie, plus themed to the resort where we will be staying so a double tick for this title.

But, in the end I landed on ‘The Bare Necessities Trip’. Now each time I think of this trip I will have that brilliant song going round in my head, perfect!

So, what are our Bare Necessities for an Orlando trip, here are just a handful in no particular order:

1. Over-eating
2. Setting the alarm for earlier than we do for work
3. Characters
4. Fireworks
5. Cocktails
6. Not being able to fit in everything we want to do
7. Walking, a lot of walking and then some more walking
8. Torrential rain
9. Planning everything to the nth degree and then throwing the plan out the window
10. Freezing cold air con
11. Getting frustrated with the buses
12. Laughing (ok more like screaming) on rides
13. Making more magical memories

Anyway, I’m distracting myself…I haven’t even introduced us all!

Who will be going?

We have been to Orlando 4 times now, but always just the 4 of us.



This year we have 2 extra additions to the cast. My parents will be coming with us. I’m excited to share Orlando with them, but also worried about the fact they may not like it. I have tried to explain to them that not enjoying themselves isn’t an option.

There will be me, Abby.



This will be my 2nd Disney trip of the year as I’m also off on a quick DLP jaunt with DD!



Ha, ha that sounds good, it’s not often that I’ve been able to say I’ll be on my 2nd Disney trip of the year (in fact I’ve never been able to say it!) so I will be making the most of that this year. I love all things WDW and find it really difficult to settle on a favourite park or attraction as they’re all my favourites. I think that if pushed I would have to say MK is my favourite park and that Splash Mountain is my favourite attraction. It was our first ride last summer.



My favourite night time show is Fantasmic and my favourite day time show is the Lion King.

My DH, David, has definitely had his fill of WDW and Orlando and would probably be happy to never return again, but he is not in charge of booking the holidays!



His favourite park changed to AK last summer, we did end up having a few brilliant days there. I doubt he would be able to give a sensible answer for favourite attraction or show or anything. He most looks forward to the food.

Max is now 14 and was 9 on our first trip to the mouse. He loves all the thrill rides. His favourite park is TL. Hopefully he will be able to make it onto Summit Plummet at BB this year as he’s never quite plucked up the courage before (nor have any of us and I certainly have no desire to). He likes not smiling in all the photos (unless he is being mean to me).



This photo was taken when he was spinning me on the tea cups.



His favourite ride would be RnR or Expedition Everest, he doesn’t like the screens at Universal and much prefers actual rides. He went on Rip Ride Rockit multiple times as a single rider, once was enough for all of us.

Kate is 12 and this will be her 2nd trip to a Disney park this year.



She still loves to get an autograph book and meet all the characters, which is great as I don’t think the boys would tolerate it otherwise. She also preferred AK last year. I think her favourite ride is Splash Mountain, but this does change. Her favourite show is probably Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. Both the kids think this show is hilarious and they would happily go every time we visit MK. She is looking forward to getting back to Universal and seeing all the Harry Potter areas over there.

But then you know all of us already. You don't know my parents, Jac and Tom. It's been pretty tricky finding photos of them when they aren't surrounded by grandchildren. Here they are when Max was just a baby.



This will be their 2nd trip to a Disney park (not this year). In 2000 my grandma was 80 and she booked a family holiday for us all to Paris and we went to DLP for the day. I don’t think my parents enjoyed the rides so much (I daren’t ask for fear of the real answer).

They do however enjoy holidays, a lot, in particular cruise holidays. So, I’m hoping the food and shows will be similar enough for them to enjoy. My dad said they will do all the rides we do, but I’m not so sure they will go on all the Universal rides as some of them are pretty intimidating. At least at WDW the track of RnR and Space Mountain is hidden so you don’t have time to worry about it while waiting in line. I hated looking up at the Hulk track and then having to get on the ride. We will see what they end up doing, I’m hopeful they will try out all the WDW rides. Fingers crossed they will come away loving WDW as much as we do, or at least be somewhere on the scale between tolerating it like Dave and loving it like me.

We have been on holiday with them before, this photo was from 2010 when we went to Belgium. That's Max aged 6 and Kate aged 4! How cute are they?



How did the trip come about?

The idea was born in January 2018. On Saturday 13th January 2018 my mum, Max, Kate and myself went to London to meet up with one of my brothers to go and see the Aladdin show. On the train up to London mum asked if I’d booked a holiday yet for this year. Had I?

Of course I had. We were going back to WDW and staying at OKW. I was very excited as that very morning I’d just booked our flights to Orlando for the summer of 2018. Then I may have sort of suggested she should go to Orlando sometime and she said she’d love to but how would we feel if they came with us? Well, that was it the idea snowballed in my mind.

Mum said Dad would probably end up staying at the resort the whole time. What? I did not like the sound of that. He can’t go all the way to WDW and NOT go to a park. Mum asked how Dave would feel, er yes?

So, we didn’t arrive home until after midnight, which is not the best time to announce (I mean ask one's partner about) another WDW trip but this time with my parents too.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and here’s how the conversation went. To help set the scene Dave was cleaning the oven hob and I was hovering about the kitchen trying to pluck up the courage to ask him about the holiday.

Him ‘You look like you have something to say’
Me ‘Er, yes, funny you should say that’
Pause
Me ‘I may have accidentally agreed to go to WDW with my mum and dad’ ok so you and I know that I offered to go and that it was basically my idea, but he doesn’t need to get bogged down with the details, plus introducing the idea I find it best to gloss over the gory details and sometimes actual facts do tend to cloud the issue
Him ‘Right’
Me ‘Well, mum and me were sort of talking yesterday on the train and I said to mum they should go some time and she said what about next year’
Him ‘2019?’
Me ‘Yes’
Him ‘What about the rest of the world?’
Me ‘Er’
Him ‘But we’re going this year’
Me ‘I know’
Him ‘Right’
Me … Just wait, hold your breath, no need to speak, be silent, be patient, let the idea take hold
Him ‘I have one stipulation’
Me silently YAHOO! That was it in my mind it was a done deal, he’d agreed it and we could sort out the details later
Me out loud ‘Just one?’
Him ‘Well, one that I can think of now.’
Me ‘Ok’
Him ‘I am not wearing a family name T shirt’
Me ‘That’s fine’

So, as you can imagine I was pretty excited. I may have blown my previous cover story about it all being mum’s idea with my next statement…

Me ‘Maybe the year after we can convince one of my brothers to come with us’
Him…nothing just silence and apparently the hob was clean as he left the kitchen. I decided to quit while I was (not) ahead and promptly let my mum know it was a go-er…so now it was just my dad to convince.

I then went into a planning overdrive and tried desperately to think of which resort and how to convince my dad that we should stay in a hotel as I was pretty sure he would want to stay in a villa (obviously I’d already decided he would end up giving in).

Well, of course he gave in, but that, including all the details about when and flights is another story and I think this is enough for the introduction. I will be back with further updates about how the trip came about shortly.

This trip began with a countdown of 564 days and now later this month we need to start ADRs. I can't quite believe it, I really do need to crack on with the story as I badly need some advice on what to book up as I have a list as long as my arm for the ADRs.

Happy new year to everyone

I hope you all get to make more magical memories in 2019.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.

Edited at 09:11 PM.
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Old 2 Jan 19, 06:26 PM  
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Kat11
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That all sounds great. Looking forward to your next instalment, I love a good ADR post.

Kat
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Old 2 Jan 19, 07:02 PM  
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caitlinsmummy
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How exciting for you all! No wonder your so excited for this trip it will be lovely to take your parents round all your favourite things. Can't wait to follow your trippie! xx
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Old 2 Jan 19, 08:34 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by Kat11 View Post
That all sounds great. Looking forward to your next instalment, I love a good ADR post.

Kat
It will be great, you'll have to wait a little for the ADR post (not too long I promise).

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
How exciting for you all! No wonder your so excited for this trip it will be lovely to take your parents round all your favourite things. Can't wait to follow your trippie! xx
Ha, ha, it will be. Max and Kate kept saying last summer 'ooh we'll be able to show Grandma and Grandad that next year'. Although they did realise pretty early on that I would want to do all the stuff they find a bit boring and we would have to make time to fit in the shows they don't usually want to see. They were a bit put out that they couldn't just spend the holiday on the thrill rides and would have to go to the Tiki Room and Country Bear Jamboree as well.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 2 Jan 19, 08:52 PM  
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Getting Dad on board and finally booking the hotel

So fast forward a month, we’re now in mid February 2018. I chose today to ask Dad if he wanted to come with us to Orlando in 2019. We talked through a lot of the pros and cons of staying on site compared to in a villa. This was sort of vague conversation without really any decisions being made and I left if with me saying that Dad should think about what their budget would be. I wasn't overly confident at this point.

Another month and a half went by and on Monday 2nd April we were travelling to Poole for a family caravan holiday. Max was with one of my brothers and his family and Kate was with me, Mum, Dad and my nephew.

Out of the blue Dad said ‘Can we have a quick chat about Orlando?’

You know me I can’t do quick chats about anything, but my favourite subject, well there is no chance of this being a quick chat.

So I replied ‘Sure’

Now my notes of this conversation are pretty poor as we were driving at the time, it was a long journey and the conversation moved on and then when we arrived we stopped and ate lunch in the caravan park club house pub and so it was quite some time before we got into the caravan and I could write up everything that had happened.

Some of it is clear to me though.

Dad ‘How many Disney parks are there?’
Me ‘Theme parks or water parks or both?’
Dad probably already bored with the conversation and wondering why I can’t just answer the question already ‘Er, both’
Me ‘4 theme parks and 2 water parks’ then of course I listed the theme parks and tried to explain them to him
Dad ‘I saw a TV show about Kennedy Space Centre. Can we go there?’
Me ‘Sure’ Honestly, I would have said anything at the time to get him to agree to it Presently, though, we have tickets for 9 theme parks booked so I’m not sure when we would fit in KSC. I will get to the buying of tickets process at some point in the pre trip but it seems like I’ve opted for a chronological story telling, so you will have to wait to find out what we will be doing, it won't be too long though as I really need to crack on to the ADR list.

As I said I can't recall the whole conversation there was also some discussion of flights and where to stay.

In the meantime I had not been inactive on the planning front I had been trying to decide which resort would suit us best. I had spent a lot of time messaging Collybird asking her about the options and she gave some advice about which resorts could be good.

Saratoga Springs and the idea of a 2 bedroom villa at that resort was coming out on top as my favourite as it would give more space than just a hotel room. I also liked the idea of Yacht and Beach or Boardwalk as I love the locations of those resorts and they have a lot to offer (but realistically this was always going to be too pricey).

I was also eagerly awaiting the release of free dining. You may recall there were many threads in the planning forum with people guessing it would start in early April. April 6th was mentioned, but this came and went with no free dining, then people suggested 19th April.
Well, I’m sure many of you can remember what happened – the deluxe DVC resorts of OKW and SSR were not included in the launch of free dining so my main idea was out the window and I felt like I was back to square 1.

Bear in mind that we had only had some vague chats about going away together and hadn’t really agreed anything, that was partly because I wanted to be able to present an idea of prices so that it wasn’t just an abstract idea.

Back to the drawing board I went.

I priced up 14 nights at Port Orleans Riverside, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Port Orleans French Quarter and Coronado Springs. I also thought about a split stay with 10 nights at WDW and 4 nights at a Universal resort. I looked at so many websites and combinations.

At the end of May 2018 Dad mentioned that he’d had an email from Norwegian Airlines saying there were flights to Orlando for £175. I knew this must not be for our dates as that was way cheaper than we would get, but it did suggest to me that probably they were serious about wanting to go with us. When we looked at the email the flights were for January so wouldn’t be helpful. But, I did sit down and have a proper conversation with Dad and Mum about either Port Orleans French Quarter or Coronado Springs. I explained all about the DDP and the credits for food that can be used anywhere and not just in your hotel. I’ve since explained this about 5 more times and I still don’t think they fully get it, but it’s one of those things that sounds so confusing until you are there.

Then Coronado Springs ended up having no availability so that was off the cards.

Finally, in June 2018, we settled with Port Orleans French Quarter. We check in on Tuesday 30th July for 14 nights. We have 2 rooms with DDP and tickets included, plus of course the $200 gift card, which I believe we get 2 of but I would need to go and check the paperwork.

It was a relief that it was all booked up.

I’m really excited about POFQ it’s a small resort which will be new to us as well as Mum and Dad. I took these photos of the resort from the boat when we went to Disney Springs from POR last summer. This is the closest we have got to the resort and it will be exciting that it's a first for us as well as them.









The slide into the pool looks fab. The kids were pretty excited about this when they saw it.



Once we had booked up the room I asked Mum what things she would like to do when we are on holiday.

She had three things on her list:
1. Swim with dolphins
2. See the Harry Potter stuff
3. Eat inside the castle

At the time I didn’t have the heart to tell that the first 2 are not WDW at all and that currently we had only booked up Disney so poor Dad doesn’t get his Kennedy Space Centre and Mum doesn’t get her swim with dolphins or Harry Potter.

Well, of course since then some of that has been sorted out, but one of the (many) things I have learned from the Dibb is to not try and do everything in one trip because missing stuff out means you have a reason to go back and a chance to re-do your once in a lifetime holiday.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 2 Jan 19, 08:57 PM  
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Brilliant. We will be reading along. We've just booked a cheeky Orlando trip for late August. It just sort of happened while Mrs McFluff and I were pricing up a week at Universal Studios (just for research... we'll not book anything... how much?...really? .go on book it!... You did? Whoops!).

Nice to have a countdown again.

Planning on convincing friends to come with us for a 2020 Disney and Universal extravaganza.
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Old 2 Jan 19, 09:10 PM  
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Sounds like Dad hasn't taken too much convincing! POFQ will be lovely, we had a little look at the reception and the seen part of it when we sued the boat, it looks lovely.

Fab that you got sorted with dates and accommodation though xx
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Old 2 Jan 19, 09:23 PM  
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Another great update.

We are also booked into POFQ, we have 2 rooms booked so get a $200 gift card for each room. So $400 in total. I’m considering using them to pay for tips?

Kat
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Old 2 Jan 19, 09:26 PM  
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Originally Posted by Kat11 View Post
Another great update.

We are also booked into POFQ, we have 2 rooms booked so get a $200 gift card for each room. So $400 in total. I’m considering using them to pay for tips?

Kat
That's what we did with ours Kat, we also opted out of mousekeeping and got another $130 gift card, really helped towards the tips! xx
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Old 2 Jan 19, 09:58 PM  
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Looking forward to reading the rest of your pre trippie. Have a very similar countdown and also staying at POFQ. It will be our 2nd time staying here as loved it so much last time, it was the perfect resort.

Currently waiting impatiently for the park hours to be released so we can start planning ready to make our ADRs in the middle of Feb.
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