Chilly's Happy Ever After PTR (Updated 28/10/15)

[Chilly]

Welcome to my long awaited new Pre-Trip Report! By the time this trip comes along it will have been over 5 years since I was last at WDW. This is an extra special trip though as I will be taking my baby girl for the first time and I'm very excited to see the parks through the eyes of a child.

So here are the basic facts...

Who: Claire (34), Mike (34 by then), & Freya (2 by then)
Where: Wyndam Bonnet Creek Resort
When: 9th November for 2 weeks

INDEX
Background Info
Who are you?
The Trip Details
Blinging up Baby
Big Fat Plan - Part 1
Big Fat Plan - Part 2
Planning Almost Complete
The FINAL Plan (Well Maybe) - Part 1
The FINAL Plan (Well Maybe) - Part 2

 

[Chilly]

This will be our 5th trip to WDW (Mike's 6th as he went as a child), we have also been on 2 Disney Cruises, been twice to DLC and once to DLP (again Mike also went as a child). I always wanted to go as a kid but my evil parents wouldn't take me. I first fell in love with Disney in California, Mike and I did the golden triangle of LA, Las Vegas and San Francisco in 2005 and the minute we got back I said we needed to book Orlando for the following year. We headed to Orlando for the first time in September 2006 and had a wonderful holiday (you can read all about it if you have time, link in my sig).

It was during planning that trip that I found the DIS and learnt all about Disney maths, this meant I was able to talk Mike into another trip in 2007 (again link to TR in my sig).

During planning that trip I learnt about Disney weddings and while there persuaded Mike that a Disney wedding would be perfect for us. We weren't actually engaged at that point and I had to wait until July 4th 2008 for him to propose on the balcony of the castle in DLP. Our 3rd trip started on Christmas Day 2009 when we arrived in Orlando for our wedding and honeymoon (very long TR in my sig).

More Disney maths meant our 4th trip happened in October 2010 to make use of our APs (TR available, link in sig).

Leaving WDW on the last day was very sad knowing we wouldn't be back for a long time. That wasn't the last of our Disney related trips though, just 6 months later we were back at DLC were it all started after our friends wedding in Las Vegas (TR link in sig).

That is where I thought our Disney holidays would end though as we planned to buy a bigger house and think about starting a family. Best laid plans and all that meant that didn't happen and we both got itchy feet. I told Mike he could pick where we went but being the amazing hubby he is he picked a Disney cruise to Alaska, something that was high up on my bucket list (You know the drill, TR in sig).

And that really was the end of our holiday adventures, instead we moved counties and had our beautiful baby girl. I have been desperate to take her to WDW but knowing we won't ever be able to go as often as in the past I had to decide when best it would be to go. I decided on November as I didn't want it to be too hot or busy, it is low season and the Christmas decorations will be up and as a bonus the food and wine festival is also still on while we are there. Freya will be 2 when we go which I thought was a good age, not too young so hopefully she will love the rides and characters but also still free.

(It's actually 181 days now, I got delayed starting my report!)

 

[mandymouse]

Great start Claire, so looking forward to hearing all about your plans, you must be sooooo excited

 

[Chilly]

Great start Claire, so looking forward to hearing all about your plans, you must be sooooo excited

There aren't enough dancing bananas Mandy.

 

[Chilly]

A bit more about us. Mike and I met on September 21st 2000, at the beginning of our second year of university meaning we are approaching 15 years together. We both studies Journalism at Lincoln University but neither of us have ended up in that field. I do work for BBC News but in an admin role (scheduling manager) where as Mike is a Project Manager for KPMG. From uni we moved to Reading where we lived for 8 years and then made the decision to move to Essex, Mike's home county where we would have more family and friends to support us once we began a family. Buying a house proved a bit of a longer process than we had hoped for but we finally picked up the keys to our new home in January 2013. It was an extra special day as we found out we were having a baby on the same day. Ever since then we have been doing the house up as it needed a lot of work doing to it. The majority is now done and we are turning our attention and money to the garden. Freya came into our world in September 2013 and time has been flying by ever since, until recently that is. Now that we are getting down to the nitty gritty planing phase of the holiday time seems to have really slowed down, still 6 long months to go.

I love the magic of Disney and would love to be able to afford to go every year but I do also love going to new places. Mike would probably rather go on different holidays but he puts up with Disney for me and secretly I think he loves it too. He definitely isn't one for sunbathing on a beach so an active holiday is his preference and he loves all the rides and the food. A Disney cruise is probably the ideal holiday for us, great food and entertainment, characters and a new city to explore everyday. I just wish they weren't so expensive. Next year Mike has amazingly sacrificed his choice of holiday so that we can go on any cruise I want in 2017, he did this to help incentiveise me to keep on my weight loss programme that I started in January.

Obviously this is Freya's first trip to WDW so we don't really know how she will react. I have made plans but I know I might be throwing them in the bin when we get there. I think she will love the rides. So far anything we've taken her on she has absolutely loved. I showed her Spectromagic on YouTube and she seemed to like it, I plan to show her more videos as we get closer. So far her attention span isn't long enough for Disney films but i'm hoping to try and show her at least a few before we go. I don't think she will like the fireworks so they don't feature heavily in our plans, I think I will get her some ear defenders nearer the time. I am hoping to get some wonderful character photos but i'm not sure how she will react. She loves her Minnie Mouse toy but recently if we've characters at parties or soft play she hasn't been keen. The one time she did like a character was her very first encounter when we met a Minion last summer.

 

[poppyberry]

How exciting! You'll have a great time. I had a Disney Wedding in 2010 and had my DS in 2012 and DD in Jan this year. DS has already been to WDW twice, one at 16 months and again at just over 2. He loves rides and characters you are going to have an amazing time, it adds a new dimension to the magic seeing it through the eyes of your child.

We are going to DL in Nov and back to WDW next May, I've tried to do as many trips as I can afford before DS starts school in Sept 16.

Your DD is lovely.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Checking in. I looking forward to read all about your plans and then about the trip further down the line.

Corinna

 

[dixonsontour]

Great you are heading back. I first Took my dd at almost 2 and had a lovely time.

 

[Chilly]

How exciting! You'll have a great time. I had a Disney Wedding in 2010 and had my DS in 2012 and DD in Jan this year. DS has already been to WDW twice, one at 16 months and again at just over 2. He loves rides and characters you are going to have an amazing time, it adds a new dimension to the magic seeing it through the eyes of your child.

We are going to DL in Nov and back to WDW next May, I've tried to do as many trips as I can afford before DS starts school in Sept 16.

Your DD is lovely.

Checking in. I looking forward to read all about your plans and then about the trip further down the line.

Corinna

Great you are heading back. I first Took my dd at almost 2 and had a lovely time.

Thanks for reading along guys, will post more info on our plans next week.

Today I tried to ring Disney to book something but the wait time has been silly so will have to try again tonight.

 

[BudgieMama]

Following

 

[LiquidSunshine]

Following along!

 

[Chilly]

After we had our baby girl I knew I wanted to take her to Disney as soon as possible but knowing we wouldn't be going every year any more, when to go was a big deal. We didn't to go too early or too late, like Goldilocks we wanted it to be just right. So it needed to be before she was 3 as that would cost more f we waited. If we went before she was 2 we could save even more but then we'd be in the heat and crowds of the summer plus we'd have to put up with our wriggle monster on our laps for 9 hours on the plane which didn't sound appealing. That narrowed our options down to from October to around March if we wanted to go when it wasn't too hot. As we wanted to go as soon as possible we then narrowed it down to October or November. Or Halloween V Christmas. As we figured Halloween might feature in the future if we went during October half term November won. We decided the earlier in November the better as that would be warmer and we wanted to avoid Thanksgiving. We looked at the calendar and thought flying out on Saturday October 31st for 2 weeks would work as we would use less annual leave by flying on a Saturday. I then realised however that by going then we would be away for my father in laws 70th birthday so we would need to rethink. His birthday is on a Monday so we figured his party would be the weekend but if we waited till the following weekend to fly we'd be coming home on Thanksgiving weekend so the end of our holiday might be pretty busy. We therefore decided to use more leave and fly out on his birthday so we would leave Orlando as soon before Thanksgiving as possible making our dates Monday 9th to Monday 23rd. This was all decided in October last year and immediately mentioned to my mother in law what we were thinking so she'd know for party planning purposes. Fast forward to Christmas and a couple of days before the flights would be coming out. I'm chatting to my brother in law and future sister in law who is a Virgin Air Hostess and telling them about it all and they suddenly realise they have booked their honeymoon for November and it covers the 70th Birthday, oops. That means in a way we are free to book whatever we want but in the end stick with the 9th as the flights were a lot cheaper that day. However both FIL and MIL are bitter about the whole thing even though they want to go away with all the family for the weekend and said November would be too cold so September would be better.

Anyway so that was the dates sorted, flights are with Virgin to make use of our airmiles, we didn't save loads of money but i've got tons of miles so any saving is better than none. Normally we go on the early flight from Gatwick and stay over the night before but as we need to save money where ever possible for this trip we are going on the later flight which was cheaper and we'll just drive to Gatwick that morning and airport parking is all booked.

Speaking of saving money lets move on to accommodation. I had wanted to stay onsite and make use of the free dining offer as we love our food. Given that Freya will still need to go to bed a lot earlier than us we didn't really fancy a hotel room so we looked at SSR and OKW in a one bed or even better a two bed but the price was so high. I thought about it some more and also realised with free dining i'd need to book a meal every day and if we missed an ADR we'd now get charged which meant are day wouldn't be as flexible as we might need it to be. I began to look at other options and in particular Bonnet Creek which i'd heard a lot about and when I saw the price I was sold as we could get a 2 bedroom for a fraction of the cost of Disney but we were still onsite, sure no onsite perks but we could live without those of this trip. Bonnet Creek looks lovely in the photos so I hope it is just as good in the flesh.











You can't request a room in advance but I am hoping and praying the pixie dust gods will look kindly on me and we are lucky enough to get a firework view room.

So that's flights and accommodation sorted. We have also booked car hire via Alamo, we've holiday insurance via Mike's work, still to get ESTAs, haven't paid to book ours seats (hoping the SIL can help us with that), Disney tickets bought (we went for 10 day base tickets again to save some money), but Seaworld still to buy, Caxton card received and half our spending money has been loaded on to it and i'm currently in the middle of ADR mayhem but you'll have to wait till next time to hear about that.

 

[Ware Bears]

Just read this all in one go love the photo of beautiful Freya with her pink ears she so looks like you! Bonnet Creek looks fabulous and I don't blame you for staying there instead of on Disney. We always stayed offsite bar a couple of nights at the Yacht Club over New Year and never felt we were missing out.

 

[Chilly]

Just read this all in one go love the photo of beautiful Freya with her pink ears she so looks like you! Bonnet Creek looks fabulous and I don't blame you for staying there instead of on Disney. We always stayed offsite bar a couple of nights at the Yacht Club over New Year and never felt we were missing out.

Most people think Freya looks like Mike. I will try to do more photos with the ears and countdown but that one took ages to get!

 

[wilma-bride]

Yay Claire, love that you get to take your baby girl - wish I was coming. I think it makes sense for you to stay offsite, to be honest, as you would be incredibly tied if you had the dining plan and you know how fleible you have to be with kids.

Don't worry about the character thing, Daniel hated anybody dressed up before our first trip and he absolutely loved the Disney characters. I guess it's about what is familiar to them. The characters she recognises she will undoubtedly be fine with, they are pretty good about using the right approach so they don't scare the kids too.

I look forward to sharing the excitement with you onthe run up to the trip - and, yes, Freya looks EXACTLY like Mike!

 

[bex7583]

bonnet creek looks fantastic , looking forward to reading . your little girl will love it

 

[Chilly]

Yay Claire, love that you get to take your baby girl - wish I was coming. I think it makes sense for you to stay offsite, to be honest, as you would be incredibly tied if you had the dining plan and you know how fleible you have to be with kids.

Don't worry about the character thing, Daniel hated anybody dressed up before our first trip and he absolutely loved the Disney characters. I guess it's about what is familiar to them. The characters she recognises she will undoubtedly be fine with, they are pretty good about using the right approach so they don't scare the kids too.

I look forward to sharing the excitement with you onthe run up to the trip - and, yes, Freya looks EXACTLY like Mike!

I think it was definitely the right option, at first ADRs were a bit hard to come by but now i'm only in need of one. We'll see how I get on with FP+ at 30 days out.

As Minnie is Freya's favourite i've started showing her you tube videos of Minnie at WDW and she likes those.

bonnet creek looks fantastic , looking forward to reading . your little girl will love it

Thanks for reading, i'm really looking forward to exploring the resort.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am glad that everything is coming together. Bonnet Creek looks lovely.

Corinna

 

[florida sun]

Aww Claire, what a beaut your daughter is, I hope you have a magical time, and Im looking forward to all your plans and photos.

 

[Chilly]