T16GEM
<font color=blue>I must have a funnel cake when I'
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2003
Cast MembersIntroductions and a few pictures, always easier to get on if you can put a name with a face!
Me - Gem 28 (29 by then
) Disney Addict DH - Matt 33 Loves thrill rides and American Portions!
DD - Shelby 4 Minnie Addict
DS - Harley 2 Buzz Addict
This is me and DD
This is DS
This is DH on Small World (I think) with the kids on our last trip
BFF - Lou 26 Her secret fantasy is Buzz!
Dh's BFF - Terry 29 Pluto Addict
This is Terry and Lou at MK just after he popped the question under the Castle, many tears were shed by me, might I add!
What's the Plan?
A bit of background for this trip..
We had always thought that when I was pregnant with DS that we wouldn't be able to go to the Happiest Place on Earth again until 2010
mainly because of the children being so young and us being scared of flying with them! The urge got the better of us though when we had taken DD to portugal and found that actually it wasn't that bad - she was 6 months at the time! Maybe we were trying to convince ourselves that travelling with two kids would be a breeze but anyway we booked to go on Christmas Day 2007 for three weeks, with my mom and dad and Terry and Louthe flight was ok, and we all survived.
This was to be the start of the kids holidays to WDW and this one will be their third as last October DH decided to surprise me for our 5th wedding anniversary with a two week last minute trip flying out on the 30th Jan. I was gob smaked!! Again we had such a fantastic time and it was much easier with the kids being that little bit older, there was so much more that they could do.
By the point that we returned Lou was desperate to return and we collectively decided that January 10 would be the best time to go.
Terry and Lou are getting married on the 5th September and are having a honeymoon in Cyprus, but are using the WDW trip as a 2nd honeymoon, therefore not wanting to cramp their style we are planning to rent two cars, enabling us to do things together or split off and they can do slushy romantic stuff while we are doing lots of crazy kid friendly things!
Starting to plan.
So now that we knew when we were going it was time to decide where we were going!
Feb 09
We knew that we would be flying from Birmingham indirect via Newark as there are no airlines that fly direct from BHX. It's a bummer, but as we all live 10 minutes from the airport and listen to it every single day of the year we are certainly going to take advantage of it being on the door step!
We started looking for flights booking direct with Continental, but they were coming out a bit expensive. We decided to wait a while and see whether the flight fluctuated at all. They didn't.
However, one night I was browsing the Dis and WayneG had posted about the American Airlines Winter Sale, so I started having a look at them and then DH (on the other computer) started browsing Continetals fares on NetFlights as he had just received an email from them. The price was amazing! £249 plus taxes!!!!!!!! I did a twirl around the lounge at this point 
It was nearly midnight and there was no way that we could phone Terry at that time as they would have been snoring away! So we retired to bed and hoped that the price was still the same in the morning......IT WAS!!
So we booked. Inc taxes we paid £2009 for 4 adults and 2 kids seats.So we fly out on the 4th January at 9am, Connect at Newark at 15.00 and finally land into Orlando at 18.01 - another long day
We return 25th January at 13.50 and connect at Newark at 19.00 finally getting home at 06.55. - yet another long day - not so bad coming home though!
Accomodation.
We had looked at a few villas and one particular one had caught our eye, we liked it because it's on a development where we stayed in 2007 and DH and I have also stayed there on numerous occasions BC (before children!) we like the location and it's handy for Chilis, Walmart and Sizzler and Ponderosa - all of which we like to frequent when we are there!
We had reserved the villa for 10 days while we finalised our flight plans and the owner was fantastic and very kind waiting for us to sort everything out before we made our firm booking. We paid our deposit and our balance is due on 24th October I think.
When DH and I went on our anniversary trip this year we stayed at the Best Western Lakeside, it was fine but we are so used to having the amenities of a villa, just simple things like the kids having their own room makes all the difference. We couldn't get the kids to go to bed without us going too so that was a bit of a nightmare, we are looking forward to being able to relax by the pool with a beer after they have gone to bed!
This is "our" villa!
Our Wish List for this Trip
No doubt I will add to this as we go along but this is what I can think of at the moment and from looking at my planning journal.
On our 2004 honeymoon trip DH and I took a bit of a road trip from Orlando to Miami and then down to the keys, we quite fancy taking the kids to Miami for a few days just to have a sit on the beach and a rest from the long days in the theme parks. I was thinking that we may do this toward the end of the holiday so that we are rested to come home? What do you think?
If we are going to do this I need to firm up the dates and book a couple of nights stop over, as I would rather not drive back from Miami all in one day.
I think Terry and Lou are keen on going to the keys as they have never been before so we will probably split up for a couple of days while they do that and we return to Orlando.
Harley is turning 3 on the 16th January too, so we will be doing a character breakfast for his special day. I had started thinking about CP but our kids aren't really big Pooh fans, they prefer Minnie and Mickey so we will be doing Chef Mickeys I have my phone and Outlook reminder set to tell me when it's my 90 day window! I need to make sure that I get that ressie on the day!!! As Harley is Terry and Lou's god son they will definatly be joining us for napkin twirling and Mickey Waffles!
I would love to see the gingerbread house at the GF, I;m just worried that DS might try and eat it!
Theme Parks
We are planning on doing days (notice how I said days plural
)at the following parks.
Magic Kingdom - at least 3 days
Epcot - at least 2 days
MGM (yes I know it's DHS now but whatever!!) at least 2 days
Animal Kingdom - at least 1 day
Universal Studios - at least 2 days
Islands of Adventure - at least 2 days
Busch Gardens - at least 1 day
Sea World - at least 2 days
And which ever of the two Disney Water parks is open - I'm thinking this year it will be Typhoon Lagoon as it was Blizzard Beach that was open for Winter last year?
We are planning on buying the 21 day Ultimate ticket and the Flex Plus. I'm currently monitoring the prices via the thread on the UK Trip Planning boards and with the $$ rising by the day I think we should be able to get a pretty good deal. I won't buy my tickets until I am absolutly sure that they are a good price. We used Attraction Tickets Direct last time, but there are some great prices coming about from other places now so we shall see!
Well that's about it for now folks, I am going to go and do some work! the joys of working ina shop on a sunny saturday in August - no customers!
Hope I didn't go on too much!
.
,and the villa looks lovely.x.
what planet is he on?
