darthtatty
Been There, Done That, Going Back!
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
The plans
Cast=Me-Nicky 37. The holiday doesnt begin until I see the castle, love water rides, dislikes simulation rides. Fav park=MK
Matt-39 Star wars fan-loves star tours, hates water rides. fave park is DHS
Luke-11 Star wars fan-loves star tours, loves everything fast and fun. fave park is DHS
I never got round to writing a pre-trip report so will just add a few bits in about planning.
This is our 3rd trip, we had planned to go every five years. we went in May 2004 and again in May 2009. we were meant to be going to OZ to see my brother and his GF but after returning my husband decided we needed to go back again sooner. Our son was due to leave primary school and after 7 long years-years full of problems. we needed something to help us get through his time there and to celebrate it finally being over! This is why we chose an August trip to WDW. we are also very unlucky in life and something bad is usually happening to us. Everytime we get one problem sorted another one just as bad pops up.
So for us this is our life line and helps us get through the days.
Now as its an August trip I was worried about lots of things-the heat,crowds, transport,flights, our room etc we were most looking forward to visitng WWOHP and the revamped star tours.
we had originally planned to go on the 4th August 2011 but after looking on the Dis-many said the last two weeks of August was best. So we changed the date to 11th August 2011. Thankfully we did as the 4th August flight was cancelled due to aircraft problems-it did leave a day later but im glad I didnt miss 1 day of my holiday.
we have stayed at Disneys Contemporary resort on our past two trips and decided to again this time. I know is not the best themed resort-it does need updating. however for us its more about the location due to our requirements. our son is in a wheelchair and although the buses arent too bad - they're a pain with all the lifts/ramps/harnesses/drivers etc. So for us its better to be somewhere we can walk to MK or hop on the monorail. Before we ever went to Disneyworld we had planned on staying at each resort-however I dont think that will ever become a reality.
we usually do something extra each trip-this time it was the Blue man group and a nights stay at a Universal hotel-we chose HRH. so we booked this and brought the universal tickets directly from Universals website as they offered the best prices.
we plan to visit seaworld-I had intended to skip it this time but Luke wanted to go so we added it in. we planned to buy the tickets on the gate as we'd get 50% off for Luke and one of us as a carer.
we booked with Virgin-the price was as expected. it had gone up a lot on last year (we check each year to make sure we're up to date with the prices) we also got free dining included.
we booked the V-room seeing as it was due to open before we went.
we'd also looked into booking directly with DIsney and CO but their prices were more than Virgins. everything seemed fine...........
This was until Virgin went to confirm our wheelchair accessible room with a roll in shower.
we'd had one on our last trip, however this time we were expected to pay nearly £750 more for it this time. Now this wasnt something that was a luxury to us but more of a need to make our life easier. It turned out Disney had repriced their rooms and now in the garden wing there were two room prices-those with the car park view and those with the garden view. unfortunatly for us the roll in showers were in the garden view rooms which were more expensive.
virgin hadnt found out about the room repricing until they went to confirm our room. yet they still expected us to pay for the increase! we were not prepared to pay the extra-The holiday cost had already increased for the year and we felt we were now getting a lower value holiday than previous. we also argued that as they hadnt know perhaps they should waiver the fee for us and the fact that there should be roll in showers in all price brackets. we were able to have a wheelchair accessible room but not a roll in shower. They refused to budge so we were left with a car park view room and a bathroom with a bath and a hand-held shower. Not ideal but the only option we were given was to cancel and pay more with someone else or give virgin more money. Like I said though I felt that the holiday was now of a less value than previous years so we just kept it as it was.
The view doesnt really both me......usually,as we're hardly in the room. (see how the view comment may change in a few days time)
plans-
Day 0- Travel to Manchester, eat at Little chef on the way, Stay at Crowne plaza
Day 1- V-room, flight, check in, kona cafe, MK?
Day 2- chef mickeys, Mk
Day 3- downtown, T-Rex
Day 4-Universal, Bubba gumps HRH
Day 5-IOA
Day 6-DHS, Mama melrose fantasmic package
Day 7-Ohanas, Epcot-Via Napoli,Coral Reef
Day 8-Animal kingdom, Tusker house. WCC dinner
Day 9-MK-Crystal palace breakfast
Day 10-DHS-sci fi
Day 11-kona cafe breakfast, Epcot-Biergarten
Day 12- Seaworld, Chef Mickeys
Day 13- Blizzard beach, Downtown, Ohana
Day 14-MK CRT dinner.
Day 15- Chef Mickeys, travel home
So those were our plans.
we usually just plan full days at the parks and then go with the flow when we are there.
I felt like we had made loads of adrs and wasnt sure how we'd manage but I knew we could cancel if we wanted.
