After 12 years away we're going back to the magic - may 2015 *updated 18/5/15*

[Elsa42]

Well as the title states after 12 years away we are finally going back to the magic and I've never been so excited for anything! I’m sure everyone is bored by now of reading pre- trip reports for May 2015 and i am slightly late doing one but I thought I’d give it a try and see how we get on. The last time I visited Disney was when I was around 9 and back then we didn't do any planning and no firm plans were really needed (as far as I can remember anyway) so this time round it’s been a whole different experience. The whole point of this trip is to celebrate two big birthdays. I’m turning 21 this year and my mother is turning 50 so thought we would celebrate by going to the most magical place on earth. We plan to stay for 14 nights, I know I have missed a lot of the big days such as 180 and double digit day but I will still write updates for that part of the trip.

Let me introduce you to the cast:

This is me (Chloe) with my mum Heather. I’m 20 years of age but will be 21 when we’re in Disney I’m a trainee veterinary nurse and love all things Disney. I know most people will hate the next sentence but I literally love frozen and it has slightly taken over my life. I couldn't pick a favourite Disney film as I love them all for different reasons. Rides I’m looking forward too are Jurassic park at universal, it’s a small world and pretty much all of the log flumes, I know I’m super thrilling with my ride choices.




On to my mum (heather) she is 49 and will turn 50 shortly after arrive back from our trip. She loves Disney and another big frozen fan. (Sorry everyone) She has been to Disney 3 times previous but the last time she went was with me 12 years ago. She doesn't have a favourite film and her ride choices would probably be similar to mine. (We will be going onto more exciting rides than it’s a small world I promise)

This is my aunt (Caroline) she is 45. She has been to Disney before but for the life of me I can’t remember when. I should probably learn more about my cast: S. She’s more adventurous when it comes to rides so hopefully she will be able to convince me the bigger rides are alright to ride.



So I guess I should start with how this trip came about. This will be my 3rd trip to Disney with the first being when I was 5 and the second when I was 9. After this trip I never really brought up the idea of going again. I thought our once in a life time trip had been complete. It wasn't until 2012 I started mentioning what a great idea going back would be for our big birthdays. Of course my mum brushed it off and I took that as a “keep dreaming” but the second time I mentioned it I got a completely different response. Mum thought it was a great idea and the saving started from that point. We wanted to ensure we could save enough money before booking so the actual trip wasn't booked until June 2014.

When to go

So the first big decision we needed to make was when to go. At this point I hadn’t found the Dibb so I couldn’t use everyone’s helpful tips. Our family friend that goes to Disney every year suggested times in which the American children are back at school which works for us perfectly due to taking holidays from work. We narrowed it down to either May or September. After a big discussion we decided May was the right time for us to go and it comes around a lot quicker too! We planned to go for 14 nights.

Where to stay

We were looking at moderate hotels as the deluxe are just out of our price range. All the moderate hotels look great and it was a hard choice on where to stay. At this point in booking the holiday I didn’t really get involved in planning which looking back now is quite shocking as I spend most of my spare time on the Dibb. We had decided on the Coronado springs hotel which I’m extremely happy with so we went ahead and booked with Disney so we will be staying here for 9 nights.


Now I know I said we were going for 14 nights and we only booked 9 at the Coronado springs. We had been looking into a Disney cruise and after a lot of research we decided to book a 3 night cruise on the Disney dream towards the end of the holiday!

[rinroo]

Great Start, Cant wait to read the rest of your plans.

I had my birthday in Orlando last year it was brilliant.

[mrmoo123]

Great start, we are may dibbers too! I cannot wait!

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by rinroo

Great Start, Cant wait to read the rest of your plans.

I had my birthday in Orlando last year it was brilliant.

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All thank you, hopefully will be updating soon 😄 was your actually birthday while you were there how did you celebrate?

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by mrmoo123

Great start, we are may dibbers too! I cannot wait!

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Thank you! I know it's getting closer and closer it will be fast pass day before we know it!

[Elsa42]

*UPDATE*

Tickets

So now we get onto tickets and where we plan to visit. First of all we will of course be visiting all of the Disney parks including the two water parks (hopefully) as we booked through Disney we received the 14 ultimate day tickets for Disney and these also included the mini golf which we are planning on visiting for a round, that is if we can prize ourselves away from the parks. We also plan on spending a few days in universal. I love harry potter and I literally can’t wait to go to universal for this reason. I am currently making my way through all of the films and I’m sat reciting the whole movie which is making my mum go slightly crazy I also can’t wait to do some of the old school rides or as most people on the Dibb would probably refer to them as “the waste of time rides” all the rides I remember going on when I was younger were at universal and I’m excited to relive some of these memories such as ET, Jurassic park and twister (I know it’s pointless but it’s got to be done). We haven’t as of yet brought any universal tickets but it is on my list to do. We have also made the big decision to completely miss out SeaWorld and discovery cove, because we’re going on the cruise we do lose 3 days in the parks. The park itself has changed so much since we last visited including the shows that I feel I would be disappointed when returning. We won’t however be missing out by not going to discovery cove as there is a cruise excursion we plan on booking (hopefully)

Flights

When it comes to flights we knew we wanted to fly with virgin and virgin only. We’ve used them quite a lot in the past and knew we would be happy to fly with them. So now that we had decided who to fly with it was just about booking our flights. The holiday had been booked in March 2014 but we kept holding off for the flights. The flight prices were showing at £880 in March and although we knew we would probably end up paying slightly more by going with virgin we decided to hold off and see if the prices would drop any more. Luckily for us after 5 months the prices dropped down to £500pp and we knew this would be the best deal we were able to get so booked them there and then.
A couple of months after booking the flights the charge per person was introduced for choosing your seats, as we all wanted to sit together and didn’t want to stress when it got to the 60 days before we decided to book our seats both on the outward and the return journey and luckily managed to get in the bubble for both which after reading about your experiences here on Dibb I quite excited to try.


Our plans

So let’s move onto the more exciting part of the planning (well for me anyway) what we plan to do whilst we are there. Now at this point I had started to use the Dibb a lot more and it was all of you lovely Dibbers that helped me make my decisions so if their bad ones your all to blame I should probably point out at this point that although I am the main planner of the holiday I do leave all of the bookings to my mum. I plan and tell her what needs booking and she books it for me. A great team effort I must admit. I’ve already spoken about what parks we are visiting but I should probably add that we do want to take a quick trip to celebrations. We all feel it will be a nice chill out afternoon and a great break from all the crowds.

The first decision that needed to be made was which character breakfast we wanted to do. We had decided that we would just visit one, I can’t actually remember why that decision was made but it seems like a bad one to me, anyway i managed to narrow it down to the following:

• Tuskers house in animal kingdom
• Crystal palace
• 1900 fare park
• Ohana’s

After looking at reviews, the menus and Dibbers trip reports I had decided that tuckers house was the one for us.



Next up was restaurants, because we had booked with Disney we also got the free quick service dining plan which we are very happy with and I’m looking forward to trying all the food they have to offer. However after coming off the cruise there are a couple of days without the dining plan so we have decided that a couple of sit down meals would be nice. I’m very much into the themed restaurants and found it quite difficult to pick between them all, again I managed to narrow it down to the following:

• Be our guest
• Beaches n cream
• Coral reef
• T-rex
• Rainforest café
• Ohana

I gathered the rest of the cast and after looking at the restaurants i'd narrowed down and all of their menus we decided to try coral reef, I must admit that the giant fish tank did persuade me slightly as i am fascinated by it and we loved the theme of this restaurant.



T-rex again the theme of this restaurant just looks great and the menu has loads of meal choices.



And of course be our guest. We would be crazy not to want to try be our guest, i know people have had mixed reviews about some of the food but it isn't just about the food its about the experiences you get whilst being in the restaurants as well. I know that as well as us most other people going in may will be trying for ADR's here so i'm trying not to get my hopes up too much with this one.



The final thing that was on the list to book was the backstage tour at animal kingdom. This is something I’m really quite interested in and my mum was quite keen to get this booked.

So I guess that’s all for now, the next update will be from our 180 days and an update regarding the ADR’s we managed to book. If you are still reading thank you. I do hope it isn't too boring for everyone and please if you do have any suggestion i am happy to hear them, until next time

[sheluk]

That all sounds great and not long for you to wait now either!

We are doing 3 nights on the dream next year so can't wait to hear all about it

[iheartwdw]

Fab plans so far, we are also doing the 3 night Disney cruise this summer - I can't wait!

Laura Xx

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by sheluk

That all sounds great and not long for you to wait now either!

We are doing 3 nights on the dream next year so can't wait to hear all about it

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Thank you! i know i really cant wait now!

[DisneyMadMummy]

Lucky ###### being their for your 21st!

We go next year for my mum's 50th I'm hoping to suprise her with a few treats in between all the crazy! Tehe.

Looking forward to reading more.

DisneyMadMummy xx