Our First October Trip - Pre-Trip Report - Trick or Treat Bags Done (04/10/09)

[Pegasus928]

Right then here we go.

As I have just noticed it is 10 weeks today until we leave for the Sunshine State I thought I would put together a Pre-trip Report. I have never done one of these before - mainly because we never really have that many plans in place before leaving and just tend to take each day as it comes. On this occassion however we are going with a couple of Disney Newbies, so we are trying to make sure we fit in everything we can to ensure they have the holiday of a lifetime.

So without further ado - here are the introductions.

Me - Kenny (38). Loves theme parks in general. Big fan of the coasters and anything else that is regarded as a 'thrill' ride. Grumpy fan by default. The kids decided this as I was the only one who didn't have a favourite last time we went.



DW - Elaine (38). My childhood sweetheart, best mate and love of my life who I have known (and loved) since birth. We will be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary whilst in WDW this year. She has also been responsible for phoning up for our ADRs and everything else that needed booking. Self confessed Tiggeraholic.



DS - Bradley (14). Has a diagnosis of Aspergers and ADHD - so this makes for challenging holidays. He doesn't do coasters, doesn't like crowds or queueing or waiting for his dinner. We spend a lot of our energy trying to get him to try new things - with varying degrees of success - and it is hugely rewarding when he finds something new that he likes to do. Stitch and Simpsons fan.



DD - Taylor (11). What she wont do when we are in Florida probably isn't worth doing. Did the Skycoaster, Slingshot and Skyventure when she was just 6. If I am honest the only reason I go on most of the coasters is because of Taylor dragging me onto them. Says she can't wait until she is old enough to Skydive for real. Pluto fan.



Grandma - (getting on a bit). Has been to WDW with us on all but one of our trips and loves it. Cried the first time she saw the Castle and loves to take herself off from the crowd and do her own thing. Not sure what this entails but pretty sure it doesn't involve coasters or thrilll rides.



Sister and Husband - Caroline and Darren (34 + 38) First time to The World and more excited than I can explain. Has pretty much left all the planning up to us and are happy to go with the flow - although they did give us a list of things they would like to do if we could fit them in. Caz loves Dopey, but Daz has no real preferences yet - however that may change once he sees the princesses. Below is a pic of Sis with me and Grandma as it's the only good one I have . I couldn't find any of Daz but I will rectify that if I can get hold of one.



Nephew - Jack (5). Another first timer and the youngest in the group. He likes all sorts of things Disney related, such as Cars, Power Rangers, Toy Story and Transformers. Keeps ringing me up every time he watches the planning DVD with something new to add to the list.



There is one final member of our family who - unfortunately - cannot come with us. His name is Mason, and he is our 1 year old Cocker Spaniel. This will be the longest we have left him for, but he will be spoilt rotten when we get back with gifts from the Dog Bark Bakery in Celebration.



So that is us.

Planning for this trip has been going on for the last 2 years, when Sis told us that they wanted to come with us.
We will be staying offsite, as always, and have a nice big villa booked.
Flights will be from Manchester straight into MCO with Virgin. We have always flown Virgin to Florida and have, so far, never had any problems with them. Hopefully this will continue on our next trip.
As I have already said this trip is a first for us in that we actually have some plans in place. We don't know how this will work for us as we normally just take every day as it comes. But we have such a lot that we want to fit in we figured the only way we could do this was to set it down on paper and see how it looked.

So - here is how our holiday looks so far.

DAY	DATE	MORNING	AFTERNOON	EVENING
Wednesday	14-Oct-09	Fly to Orlando MCO Airport		Downtown Disney / Walmart
Thursday	15-Oct-09	Magic Kingdom for opening		T-Rex - Booking for 4pm
Friday	16-Oct-09	EPCOT (Dopey) Lunch at Biergarten		Old Town Car Rally
Saturday	17-Oct-09	IHOP / Mall Trip		Bahama Breeze / Wishes
Sunday	18-Oct-09	Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure. NBA for dinner.
Monday	19-Oct-09	CP Breakfast / Magic Kingdom	Villa for chill out and change	Whispering Canyon / Boat Trip
Tuesday	20-Oct-09	Lazy Morning / Mall Trip		Texas de Brazil
Wednesday	21-Oct-09		Vanessa Carlton / Reflections of Earth
Thursday	22-Oct-09	Seaworld - Dine with Shamu - 3.30pm
Friday	23-Oct-09	Downtown Disney / Balloon Ride / Boats / Quest / Kitchen Sink
Saturday	24-Oct-09	IHOP for breakfast / Animal Kingdom		Old Town Car Rally
Sunday	25-Oct-09	Celebration / Farmers Market	I-Drive / Friendlys / Pirates Golf
Monday	26-Oct-09		Hollywood Studios and Fantasmic
Tuesday	27-Oct-09	Villa / Pool Day	Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
Wednesday	28-Oct-09	IHOP / Universal / Islands of Adventure / Margharitaville		Universal Horror Night
Thursday	29-Oct-09	Park Return Trips - or anything that wants doing again		Old Town Bike Rally
Friday	30-Oct-09	Park Return Trips
Saturday	31-Oct-09	Virgin Check-in		Fly back to Manchester

What we have tried to do is to plan it so that we don't have too many late nights followed by early mornings. We have also left a couple of nights and mornings free and will decide nearer the time - probably once we are there - how we plan on filling these.
20th October will be our wedding anniversary and we are planning on eating at Texas de Brazil after seeing some very positive reviews on here. We have already signed up for the news letter so are hoping to get some vouchers before we go. Our original plan for this day was to do a celebration cruise and watch Wishes, but as there is no Wishes on that night we had to adjust. So now we are doing that on 19th after having dinner at Whispering Canyon.
So far the only thing we haven't got a definate booking for is Dine with Shamu - but that will be sorted in a couple of weeks.

And that is about it for now. Please feel free to have a look over our plan and let us know if there is anything I have overlooked or if you think there are days when we are trying to do much (or not enough )

I will also try to keep the post updated if we manage to fit anything else in.

[natalielongstaff]

Wow ! great pre-trip

[Snowy-girls]

Hi Ya Kenny,
So glad to see that you are doing a pre-trippie,which will hopefully be followed by a full trippie .
I think your plans sound great,but can Elaine really only fit in one trip to Bahama Breeze to get her Ultimate Pina Colada fix ,i think you may have a problem there .(make sure she has one for me ).

Lot's of stops to IHOP .

Wed 28th Oct,seems a very packed day-especially with you doing the Uni Horror Night.Maybe just do the one park out of UNI+IOA instead of doing both .And then do the other a different day say the 18th where you have both planned again,just a thought .(hope that makes sense ).
We had a spare day and went back to UNI+IOA to get done what we did'nt on single day trips there+we still never got done what we wanted.
It could work out to be a very long,tiring day especially with the children.I also found the park that we went to after the first chosen one to be packed/long queue times,so was missing out on rides again.

Oh i hope you get Dine With Shamu booked ,make sure you keep on looking for you day to pop up .

I love all your pics,nice to put a face to your name .I think it's pretty obvious where Grandma ends up on her time alone-canoodling with Donald .

Well done Kenny .x.

[Pegasus928]

Originally Posted by Snowy-girls

Hi Ya Kenny,
I think your plans sound great,but can Elaine really only fit in one trip to Bahama Breeze to get her Ultimate Pina Colada fix ,i think you may have a problem there .(make sure she has one for me ).

I'm sure one of our free nights will include a repeat visit to BB

Originally Posted by Snowy-girls

Lot's of stops to IHOP

We went here for the first time last trip and it was one of the first things on the plan this time around.

Originally Posted by Snowy-girls

Wed 28th Oct,seems a very packed day-especially with you doing the Uni Horror Night.Maybe just do the one park out of UNI+IOA instead of doing both .And then do the other a different day say the 18th where you have both planned again,just a thought .(hope that makes sense ).

That does make sense yes - and is definately something we are conscious of. We will play each day as it comes and see how the group is feeling. We have plenty of days were we can go back - and as we also have annual passes it wouldnt be a big deal to just 'pop in' for an hour or 2 on our way back from somewhere else.

Originally Posted by Snowy-girls

Oh i hope you get Dine With Shamu booked ,make sure you keep on looking for you day to pop up .

Elaine is already on with that one

Originally Posted by Snowy-girls

I think it's pretty obvious where Grandma ends up on her time alone-canoodling with Donald .

What a truly shocking thought

[mandymouse]

Your trip sounds fab Kenny, I hope you all have a fantastic time

[Lizzybear]

Sounds like a great trip in the planning, may see you around the parks as we're there 11th-20th I work with autistic children (mainstream setting) and can definitely relate on the trying new things... Tough but very rewarding

[suzycute]

Sounds like you have a very varied trip planned! It will be great to see it all through the eyes of people who haven't been before.
Have a great time

[Pinky166]

A great PTR Kenny. Lovely to put a face to your name.

I think your plans look fab (other than the day Michelle mentioned) but as you say you will adjust it when needed.

Is Dine with Shamu not available to be booked yet then? That seems quite late for them to release the dates?

[wilma-bride]

Great pre-trip report Kenny - can't see the photos at the moment as I'm at work but will look again when I get home.

By the looks of your itinerary, the only time our paths will cross is at MNSSHp but you never know - plans change

I take it you are not planning to take the little one to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal

Sounds like a great trip planned - I will be interested to see how you get on with keeping everyone happy - I struggled last year and there were only 7 of us

[fizz13]

Hi Kenny,
thanks for sharing your plans with us, what an awesome trip you've got planned there

[irongirlof12]

sounds fantastic, are you joining the texas de brazil club? if you do you will get a discount coupon, just don't join too early as thew coupon is a few weeks ahead of the day you join. I got 25% coupon, not sure if we will us it.

here is a link http://texasdebrazil.fbmta.com/membe...&InputSource=W

[Pegasus928]

Originally Posted by Lizzybear

Sounds like a great trip in the planning, may see you around the parks as we're there 11th-20th I work with autistic children (mainstream setting) and can definitely relate on the trying new things... Tough but very rewarding

Hope we see you there at some point. We will have our LGMH with us.
DS sometimes surprises us when he decides - out of the blue normally - that he wants to do something new so we are hoping there will be plenty of those moments in October.

Originally Posted by suzycute

Sounds like you have a very varied trip planned! It will be great to see it all through the eyes of people who haven't been before.

We are really looking forward to seeing their reactions to everything, and to showing them what a great place it is.

Originally Posted by Pinky166

A great PTR Kenny. Lovely to put a face to your name.

I think your plans look fab (other than the day Michelle mentioned) but as you say you will adjust it when needed.

Is Dine with Shamu not available to be booked yet then? That seems quite late for them to release the dates?

Apparently Dine with Shamu dates come out 60 days before so we have it marked on the calendar and DW is ready to get on the phone when the day comes.

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

Great pre-trip report Kenny - can't see the photos at the moment as I'm at work but will look again when I get home.

By the looks of your itinerary, the only time our paths will cross is at MNSSHp but you never know - plans change

I take it you are not planning to take the little one to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal

Sounds like a great trip planned - I will be interested to see how you get on with keeping everyone happy - I struggled last year and there were only 7 of us

Grandma has volunteered to look after the kids when we go to HHN .
As for keeping us all happy we have already decided to get 3 mobile phones when we get there, and we will all just go our seperate ways in the parks etc. if we want to do different things.
We have also agreed that we don't have to stick rigidly to the plan - and to use it more of a guide. At the end of the day we will try to fit everything in - but if people are too tired or want a day at the villa, or would rather go to a park than go shopping then we will change things around.

Originally Posted by irongirlof12

sounds fantastic, are you joining the texas de brazil club? if you do you will get a discount coupon, just don't join too early as thew coupon is a few weeks ahead of the day you join. I got 25% coupon, not sure if we will us it.

I joined the club a while ago now and have had a few vouchers through email. We put our anniversary date down as well so hopefully we may get something for that

[Pegasus928]

DW and me went out for a meal with another Dis'er last night - Dizneemad - and had a night of talking Florida and Disney
We have tried doing that with other friends of ours but can normally see their eyes glazing over after 10 minutes - so it was nice to spend the night with like minded people.
We were also talking about the weeks leading up to our trip and it is going to be a strange one this time around. I leave to go back to Qatar on 16th August and am there for 8 weeks. This means I get back to the UK the day before we travel to Manchester airport - where we are staying over night at the Radisson. Elaine will be taking care of most of the packing and preparing and I will feel like I am missing out on the 'build-up' to us leaving.
The other thing that will feel weird is that the Saturday night before we go I will be sleeping in Qatar, Sunday night is an overnight flight back to the UK so will be spent sleeping on the plane, Monday night I will be sleeping at home, Tuesday at the Radisson and Wednesday night in the villa in Florida. My body and head are going to be so messed up

[raph_b]

Great PTR

I love all the pics of you and the family

Looks like a great trip you've got planned there, great to se you're going ot Texas De Brazil, I hope you all love it as much as we did Don't forget to sign up to their email club and get a 50% voucher for dinner

And you're going to HHN on my 30th birthday!! I'm so jealous! You'll be having a better time on my 30th than I will

[Pegasus928]

Originally Posted by raph_b

Great PTR

I love all the pics of you and the family

Looks like a great trip you've got planned there, great to se you're going ot Texas De Brazil, I hope you all love it as much as we did Don't forget to sign up to their email club and get a 50% voucher for dinner

And you're going to HHN on my 30th birthday!! I'm so jealous! You'll be having a better time on my 30th than I will

Thanks - it was actually all the pics on your trip report of the food at Texas de Brazil that made me want to go in the first place - it was then just a case of convincing the rest of them.

We've never been to HHN before so are really looking forward to that - although there are a few nerves as well as none of know really what to expect. But what's the worse that could happen