Walt Disney World for the First Time - Pre-Trip Report!

[Holstar]

I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing about doing a pre-trippie for a while now, but now that we're almost six months out (six months and a day!) now seems the right time to start!

Cast:

Me - Hollie, 24.

I'm studying Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University, and in 2014 I'll start my PGCE in Primary Education! I currently work for John Lewis.

DBF - Ben, 25.

Ben is a freelance composer, and, he's sort of new to the whole Disney thing. Really, I sort of feel sorry for him... I don't think he was expecting to date a Disney mad cat lady!

My Girls...

DN - Daisy, 14.

Daisy is my eldest, and my baby! Daisy will be 15 when we go, and despite trying her hardest to be a cool teenager, she's as Disney mad as me!

DN - Jasmine, 11.

Jasmine is our little one. She's just started secondary school, and out of the three she is the most shy and quiet.

DN - Chloe, 9.

Chlo is our little firecracker. She doesn't stand/sit still for a second and is always on the go!

Supporting Crew:

Furbabies - Tobin (4) and Oscar (1)...

 

[Holstar]

Where? FLORIDAAAAA!

When? 23rd of August until the 10th of September 2013.

Staying? Walt Disney World Yacht Club, Waterview Room, 23rd of August until the 3rd of September and then Oristavilla (http://www.oristavilla.com/) from the 3rd until the 9th of September. And, possibly, pushing back flights by three days to squeeze in a couple of days at Vero Beach (but shushhh... don't tell anyone about that bit!)

Doing? Disney, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, sitting on the beach and shopping!

Eating? Everything! I joke, I joke (well, sort of) but, we'll be on the Disney Dining Plan!

Flying? Virgin, Manchester - Orlando International. Departing 11:00am 23/08 and returning 7:00pm, 09/09.

Things that are booked/sorted:
* The Holiday - phew! It's a package holiday with Travel City Direct, so it's all done (well, sort of) in one big go. Paying for it is another matter!
* Flights - booked through TCD, all sorted!
* Passports - done and arrived!
* ADR's - completed, 24th of February

Still to organise:
* Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party
* Photopass
* ESTA's for Daisy, Jasmine and Chloe (ours are valid until January 2014)
* Insurance
* Car Hire
* Buy new suitcases
* Buy new clothes for the girls
* Diet... Blah.
* Discovery Cove tickets (including Aquatica?)
* Figure out if we want to/can afford to extend our stay by a few days at Disney's Vero Beach (okay.... I've figured out that I want to!)
* Possibly upgrade return flights to Premium Economy.

That list is longer than I thought it was going to be.....

xx

 

[Claire Bear]

Hello Again!

Love the pictures of your Disney crew! Your to do list is quite long but having seen your schedule etc you seem very organised so it'll be fine! Thought our holiday was expensive but yours must be through the roof! But hey you only live once so if you want to extend your trip and you can then why not!

x

 

[Holstar]

Well, booking (or, attempting to!) ADR's online is genuinely the most frustrating experience I've ever had.

Travel City Direct gave us a call a couple of days ago with our Disney reference number, and I then called the Disney Dining Reservations line to double check that this was correct and the right number - it was, yay!

She told me that when the time came to do it (today, about 35 minutes ago), I needed to go to www.disneyworld.com and make sure I was completely logged out, as it wouldn't work if I was logged in

So, this done, I then had to go to the Dining Reservations tab, and she said I would be good to go from there - except, you need to log in, in order to enter your Confirmation Number and confirm that you're a resort guest....

So, logged in, now, it can't find a reservation for me. I eventually get onto the US planning site, and messing around with searching for reservations I realise that it's under my partners name and not mine. So, back we go, and now it tells me that it can find my reservation and it's already been recognised and I should go and make dining reservations.

There's now a little tick telling me that my dining plan has been recognised and giving me the option to go ahead and booking using this existing resort reservation! Fab! Except, when I then select our dates and time, it tells me that it's more than 180 days out and I need to log in (already logged in) and update my reservation details.

I've been going around in circles for the last 35 minutes... logging in, logging out, trying different sites... and repeat. It's so frustrating! It'll recognise the number, then it won't, then it'll tell me I can go ahead and book dining reservations because it can see I have a resort booking, and then it'll tell me that I don't have a resort booking.

I feel a little bit....

I'm just sat here twiddling my thumbs until 12pm, and I'll have to do it over the phone.

I know, I know, I shouldn't let small things bother me. But, I sort of knew this wouldn't be straight forward based on all the trouble everyone else has had. And, I was really dubious when I spoke with WDW Reservations when they told me I needed to log out before doing any dining reservations (because, from doing dummy bookings, I knew this would be the first thing I'd need to do!).

Blah. Bad start to the day! But, rant over

xx

 

[WDWFL2013]

I had that run around yesterday and ended up calling too.

What did you book?