lisaj's 4 years in the planning 3 weeks holiday to USA

[lisaj]

It all began four years ago. I never had any intention of going to USA (TOO FAR) and no intention of visiting WDW (don't like theme parks) and was never going to fly until my children were at least school age (they were at that time 5 and 20mos). My DH is a compulsive collector of tokens out of our daily newspapers. Doesn't really matter what the prize is, bless him it keeps him entertained through the long cold evenings and that's only an english summer. :goodvibes

DH had been on a trip away with work and when he got back opened his post and he had won a holiday! First thoughts were 'oh yes you read about these cons all of the time' then it sunk in that we had actually won a holiday through our paper (notice HE cuts out the tokens but WE won the trip.) :rotfl:

So they sent us a brochure and we could choose any location for the four of us as long as we took it in October 2003. Looked at Greece but I like my children to be able to flush their paper down a toilet (never been to Greece eh?), Italy but the children don't like pasta or pizza at this point then see USA. Two choices in Florida either CSR at WDW or a hotel on I-drive. We chose the CSR because we knew nothing about Florida and the WDW tickets were included in this one!

Used the phrases 'only for the children' and 'chance of a lifetime' a lot to justify this choice and the 9 hour flight to our relatives. We had already booked a holiday for the month of August (when we found out we'd won) and that was to the exotic area of Northumberland. Those of you who know the UK will know this is one of the most beautiful and unspoilt areas of England but the temperatures are cold, actually you rarely manage to take your fleece off even in the middle of Summer.

So, to cut a long story short we made it to Florida. Interesting flight there with a child of 20 months who didn't sit still for 9 hours but hey CSR was beautiful and by the end of the week we were hooked on USA, WDW and Mickey. We vowed as we left that come hell or high water we'd be back.............................................. ....

[lisaj]

We started saving almost as soon as we returned. Initially we hoped to return for a fortnight to CSR or to two moderate hotels for a week each. We couldn't afford to return before 2005 but I had just been promoted and couldn't book time off in October (we loved the weather this time of year and had decided to come back in 'Fall' again). 2006 was no good as our DD was due to start school in the September and it didn't seem fair to take her out of school for a week in addition to the school's half-term week just 6 weeks into her school life. So we end up planning for October 2007.

By the beginning of 2005 I am doing some serious brochure and web browsing. We start to think we may afford three weeks, two weeks at CSR and one week at St Pete's. Being a whittler (Yorkshire term - means worrier) we dither over the cost but then July 2005 and things change. My DH was working in London at the time of the bombings and a work colleague was killed. We decide you only live once and even if we have to borrow money for the first time ever (we don't count the mortgage!! LOL) we will have the holiday of our dreams. :love:

By the end of 2005 we have decide to have 1 week at CSR, 5 days at St Pete's and 1 week at a deluxe resort. We think at this time we will probably choose the AKL as it is so much cheaper in our brochures than the other deluxe resorts, although secretly i dream of the GF. We saw it last time, just the location and I really wanted to be there!

Our brochure is due out in May 2006 when we can book for October 2007 and two weeks before the brochure is released we have a fantastic surprise. My lovely Mum and Dad have decided to pay for us to stay for the last week but ONLY IF we upgrade to the resort of our dreams :banana: :banana: well naturally we do the decent thing and agree to take their money and stay at the GF. Mum sees the brochure and decides that we would be better booking a lagoon view room as they are celebrating their 40th anniversary and want to treat us! They don't want to come as they don't want to travel but want us (and more to the point their only two grandchildren!) to have a holiday to remember.

May arrives and we manage to book just what we want, one week at CSR (standard room) five days at Tradewinds Grand Island at St Pete's and the final week at GF with a lagoon view. :woohoo:

We don't fancy driving in the USA (big cars, worrying insurance and strange roads) so we book a car to Gatwick, transfer to the CSR, car to St Pete's and back and a day trip to Kennedy Space Center. That was 18 months ago and the countdown began in earnest.

[Avivasmom]

What awesome parents you have...St Pete is really nice my SIL lives there.

I have first grader and including our trip this Nov..I will be taking her out of school for a week and do not see anything wrong with it...they are learning and having family time...good for you for doing it.


Cannot wait to read more.

[lisaj]

Thanks for replying, looks like you are the only one reading but hey this is still keeping me entertained! glad St Pete's is nice, its really hard to choose a resort from a travel brochure.

At 18 months to go I started buying travel guides and searching the net. Became addicted to the Unofficial Guide and Passporter, Allears and disboards. Found that I could get answers to all my initial questions without 'coming out' and asking the questions myself.

At this point we had more exciting news, my beautiful Australian cousin who emigrated in 1986 at the age of 13 and is now living in Adelaide, married to an American and with two sons thinks that maybe she and her eldest son can join us for the first week. Now Wendy is the nearest I have to a sister. We email like crazy and our children are a similar age. When she left I was 18 and she was 13 and we haven't seen each other since.

Both her boys have autism but her eldest is in mainstream school and doing very well and was able to travel to WDW with her. Sadly it would be too much at present for her younger son and her husband agreed to her travelling without him and he would stay at home for the week. What a man he must be!

We spent most of the Winter planning and re-planning our itineries. Our children got into the act and also corresponded (her eldest son age 7 and my DD 5 currently have a little romance going on by email). The only booking to make at this time was our flight seats at 336 days before travel.

Then we ordered the planning DVD and as Wendy was unable to get a copy we sent ours on to her. At this point her youngest son (also 5) became obsessed with the DVD and she couldn't take her eldest without bringing her youngest. She decided to try a trip with both boys to Queensland to see how her youngest handled the trip and make a final decision after the holiday.

Bad luck for me was that she felt unable to travel such a long way with her youngest son so cancelled her trip. It was a blow but we are hoping to try again in another 4 years.

Now the decisions were solely down to us so we researched the menus for each restaurant and myself DS and DD started to make a shortlist. DH refused saying 9 months in advance was far too early to make decisions.

Can't you tell he doesn't read these boards.

[saving2go2dis]

I'm reading, too!

[lisaj]

I'm reading, too!

Thank you. :goodvibes

Well, the list of favourite restaurants was pretty predictable. DD wanted every princess meal. DS wanted to go to the Concourse Steakhouse (he could remember seeing it from the monorail last time round), CP (but he doesn't want his friends to know that he still likes Pooh at 9 - so uncool :rotfl: ) and the Rainforest Cafe.

We vetoed fish restaurants (only DH likes) and Mexican restaurants (only I like) and English, Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants (we have too many of them in the UK and it wouldn't be anything different.)

When we visited in 2003 finances were pretty tight so we ate all breakfasts at the Maya Grill at CSR and most evening meals at the Pepper Market only eating counter service in the parks with the exception of the Crystal Palace which we booked on arrival.

We had looked at the DDP when we booked our holiday but decided against it for two reasons 1) it is more expensive here in the UK than you pay in the USA and 2) we like a big breakfast and evening meal with little in between. Therefore we would want two table service per day and the DDP wouldn't work for this.

By the time we hit the 180 + 10 stage for our first week we had made our final choices. We decided to eat every morning at the Maya Grill. We really enjoyed their buffet breakfast last time and found it to be good value for money compared to UK prices. (Although from this and other sites it appears it isn't such good value in USA :confused3 ). Also both children tend to be sick on journeys if they are hungry, not the best start to a day at WDW :lmao: )

We didn't book a meal for our first evening as if flights are delayed we will miss it. We aim to have a meal at the Pepper Market or in the parks if we arrive on time and aren't too tired (unlikely) or room service if not.

Night two we decided to go to Akershus as it is my birthday three days before and we decided Mummy should have her birthday cake at WDW. As I love Snow White (so sad at 38 I know but I always planned to be her when I was grown up!) we decided to order a cake with her on if possible and my DD thought that the only place to have a Snow White cake is at the princess meal.princess:

Night three had to be a restaurant from my son's list and so we went with WCC at WL. We chose here as he liked a photo of the skillet he saw on disboards. Also, if we are not too tired we plan to visit MK afterwards for the evening parade and fireworks.

Night four is another free night as this is our day for Kennedy and again we're unsure of our return time.

Night five is CRT. No problem getting it and night six is LTT. Guess who chose each of them?

Our final night at CSR we decided to go to Boma. (my choice loved most of the reviews and I still secretly wanted to visit AKL).

I had wanted a week there and a week at GF at one point but my DS was adamant he wasn't returning to Florida without a trip to CSR :rolleyes1

We got all our ADR's for our first week within ten minutes of the times we requested which was fantastic.

Told DH we could leave the meals at ST Pete's until we arrived - haha, now we had decisions to make for our final week before the date came to book these.

[mrsksomeday]

Great pre trippie!! WOW, so much time in Florida, I am jealous :rotfl:. We have never been to CSR, we might have to check it out now.

Patiently waiting for your next installmentpopcorn::.

[lisaj]

Great pre trippie!! WOW, so much time in Florida, I am jealous :rotfl:. We have never been to CSR, we might have to check it out now.

Patiently waiting for your next installmentpopcorn::.

Thank you. I feel a bit more confident now three of you have kindly replied. I might even be brave enough to post a dining review when we return! :)

[lisaj]

Just before we got to the date for booking our final week's ADRs we seemed to hit a lot of food posioning reviews about Chef Mickey's - we weren't sure whether to take heed or not, after all 180 days is a long time out but it did put us off and so we had to make a change. needless to say as soon as we'd booked our other ADR's the reviews all changed to good reviews. :lmao:

We wanted to book seven dinners during our stay at GF and six breakfasts (no breakfast on final day as we want to check our luggage in early at DTD so will probably go for room service before we go home).

We decided to book breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe for the two mornings that we want to take advantage of the EMH as they start serving early at 7am. We decided to go to 1900 Park Faire for two mornings and then we will run the risk by giving the children 'a biting on' (another Yorkshire phrase) and then getting the monorail to the MK to eat before the parks open. Once at CRT and once at CP.

We decided to eat at 1900 Park Faire on our arrival date as we aren't sure of the time we'll return from ST Pete's and booked a second trip to 1900 PF for dinner later in the week in case we have to cancel the first trip :confused: the main problem with having a car transfer, until we arrive we don't have the times to hand.

We wanted to make the most of the monorail while at Gf so decided on Ohanas and Concourse Steakhouse.

Needed another 'boys' meal to even things out against the Princess Meals. Well, at the time of planning the world cup was on and here in the UK we had an advert on TV for a certain sports brand featuring some big name footballers including Beckham at an Oktoberfest type meal. This meant that my DS was desperate to go to Biergarten. Have tried to break it to him that we will not get our table of 8 with four 'soccer' players joining our table. :lmao:

We also booked Rainforest Cafe at AK and then for our final night we will return to Crystal Palace.

Hoping that we have picked well from the menus and reviews we have read here. :woohoo:

[lisaj]

:eek: We have decided not to plan our days other than our meals. We have a 'hot list' of things we want to do before we return. It includes meeting Cinderella and the Incredibles, seeing the HSM2 show at MGM, visiting the water parks. Riding the bikes at CSR, crossing by boat from GF to MK, going on a dolphin boat trip at St Pete's.

The children both agree the first thing they want to do on day one is go on Small World, Dumbo and Winnie The Pooh - probably because it is one of the few things they can remember from last trip.

I couldn't resist so many things I have found on these boards. I contacted memories by Sarah about a basket but by the time of order it had changed to Memories by Betsy. She was very helpful and the children should have two baskets waiting on arrival. :yay:

We have booked tickets to MNSSHP as soon as they came out. Then last week we ordered our costumes to be delivered to our resort. It is ridiculous that they are cheaper to buy in USA and have delivered than we could hire them here for one night!

We have ordered groceries (for park snacks and drinks) from garden grocer.

I pre-ordered my photopass CD.

We have been lucky as all the things we have been able to purchase in advance have been well timed to make the most of the current exchange rates.

I am a terrible whittler and have a worry list, started as the children being ill (or us) and has been added to as time goes on. At the moment it consists of hurricanes, plane delays, illnesses, bedbugs, not sitting together on the flight and currently the number one worry is the UK postal strike meaning that our tickets are somewhere stuck in the postal system with just 13 days to go. :rolleyes1 Yesterday my daughter started with a vomiting bug so now I will be worrying in case we all get it one after another and are ill on date of departure...................:eek: Still if I didn't have anything to worry about I would be worrying that everything was going along too smoothly.

Still to plan, a GF photo shoot, a cake for Akershus and two slipper's at CRT.

Our final piece of excitement came about 10 days ago. Cold evening, just got out of the bath, phone rings. Its our Florida holiday rep calling :yay: :yay: :banana: :banana: :yay: :yay:

Anyway, to digress for a minute, DS is studying Space for his project this term. Worked out beautifully as in the time he is missing at school we will be visiting Kennedy Space Centre.

Well, the rep (Jay - everything a rep should be by the sounds of him) says you know the trip you booked to KSC 'yes' well you have booked it on shuttle launch date would you like to change the date of your trip or upgrade to a launch trip. OK daft question. We upgraded to the VIP trip seeing the shuttle take off at LTT causeway if it goes ahead. It made me feel justified about taking DS out of school. :teacher: I know lots of people are against it but he is what I think you call an 'a grade student' and this is our only chance of 3 weeks together on holiday. Imagine if we get to see a shuttle launch, beat that as part of a space project. :rotfl:

Well, thanks for reading but most of all thanks to everyone on disboards. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been able to make the most of planning with a little help from my disfriends. :grouphug:

[magicaldisney11]

Hi, love the pre trip! I m easily confused concerning the exchange rate stuff even though we live literally 3 minutes from Canada. When you booked your trip do you do it right with WDW or a representative there in the UK? Is your money higher than the US dollar or lower?
As for taking the kids out of school ....I am a Mom of 4 sons and 2 of them made it to college so far without a problem and they were taken out of school for a week or more every few years for "big vacations" and ya know what? What they would have learned that week in school :teacher: wouldn't have been as memorable as their vacation in WDW. ;)

As you stated in your report, we only go around once in life :thumbsup2

[lisaj]

MAGICAL DISNEY11 We book in the UK which means we don't profit from the good exchange rate, however, tickets for MNSSHP, costumes, CRT meals etc are paid for direct to WDW and therefore in dollars.

When we came in 2003 the rate was $1.4 to £1 whereas today it is approximately $2 to £1. This means that the Crystal Palace meal will actually be cheaper for us this time than it was 4 years ago. Another example is our halloween costumes are $150 for four costumes. We would have paid £107 for them at the 2003 exchange rate but as the rate is so good at the moment it will only cost me about £75 for them.

Gives me a good excuse to buy more while we are on holiday. Think my DH thinks it means we will spend less bless him!

[magicaldisney11]

Thanks so much for explaining it to me, it helped,lol.

Silly DH's :rotfl: Doesn't he realize that it just gives you more to buy things with? I was married for almost 15 years before we divorced (and had 4 sons) and I am just now enjoying the "single" life (not dating per say-been enjoying that part- but not having to "check with" part of it.) I took my sons on a cruise this year (first for us) and now Disney (second time without exH but first time without the whole family-17 of us) so I am enjoying planning everything this time around.

Can you buy things from www.exbayexpress.com where you are? I found so many great Disney things for the trip from there which were really cheap. Drawstring bags, lanyards, pins, stuff for the plane ride (Christmas presents) all with characters on them. pirate:

[CHEK]

I'm sure you'll all have a fab time :goodvibes , don't worry about what if's!, just have FUN :banana: :banana: :banana: , we take our 2 DD's out of school for at least 5 day's a year to go to WDW. We ate at CM's this June and it was lovely, also did WCC at the WL and that was great fun :rotfl: , but by far I have to say my favourite was CP