Do I? Don't I? PTR

[Tash87]

Ok, so after months of planning and reading everyone's PTR I have finally decided to stress myself out with my own pre trip report

Hello to anyone reading this
I have been to Orlando several times, with my husband 3 times ( once was our honeymoon ) and with our daughter in tow 2 of those trips. Her first trip was when she was just over 2 so now that my son is 2 we decided it would be rude not to take him We are being very sneaky and taking him 2 weeks before his 3rd birthday .....no park tickets for him.

So this trip myself, my husband, our 7yo daughter and son for his first trip and boy what a trip we have planned

We Have a deluxe family room booked at gatwick Hilton for the 11th November. It was an offer too good to refuse.

Then the following day we fly out to Orlando and arrive at the hotel I have been dreaming of for years.
Disney's Grand Floridian Lagoon view room with Dining Plan.
This is the first time staying on site and on DP.
The kids don't know where we are staying, so that is a huge surprise and I cannot wait.

We have 10 nights booked there and then 3 nights booked offsite at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. This is somewhere new to us and we cannot wait to try it out. I think this will be our new ' home from home ' ( we couldn't possibly afford the GF every time )

We have all our ADR's booked. I will bore you with them another day

We have 14 day universal tickets too as the kids are obsessed with minions so we had no choice . I'm not too happy cause MK is usually a first day tradition but the kids really want to go to universal. We have a breakfast adr booked in MK for our first morning so might have to cancel that nearer the time.

Anyway will update on anything holiday related and when I remember all the things I forgot to mention.

Sorry for rambling on and thank you for reading.
Terri X ​

 

[Tash87]

 

[Canooknic]

Nice!! Have a great trip.
We stayed at the Hilton the night before we emigrated to Canada and it made life so much easier! Are you able to do twilight check in with your airline?
It was nice not having to worry about suitcases in the morning!

 

[Tash87]

Thank you.

We fly with Virgin and plan to use their twilight check in . We are parking at the official gatwick car park so intend on taking our overnight bits back to the car in the morning. Our flight isn't till 1:00pm

 

[Canooknic]

Good plan! We had our night stuff in our carry-on (which turned out to be an absolute blessing because one of our boys decided to puke just as we landed so our "we've arrived" photo has him in PJs!! Lol)

 

[Tash87]

Oh no, that was lucky you had them, otherwise your ' just arrived ' photo would have him in sicky clothes.

I am taking a change of clothes for the kids in our carry on luggage in case of any mishaps. I never have before so I've been lucky.

 

[Tash87]

Yesterday I realised that Bonnet Creek check in is 4:00pm so this ruined my plans for that day.

So after checking the WDW app I was able to change my adr's to different days, so now we have 2days in AK ( really wanted to add an extra day but couldn't fit it in ) and on our check out day from GF we are going to MK and hopefully bell service will hold our luggage.
Can anyone confirm that they will hold our luggage?

Really pleased with the new plan

But obviously it's a planners prerogative to change it again ​

 

[Tash87]

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

Liking the plans so far Was planning on the Hilton myself for me and DW next year too and didnt know about the twilight check in so will be interesting to see how the experience goes for you. Very jealous you only have 78 sleeps to go. Our countdown is around 460 ish now

 

[Tash87]

Thank you.​

It will be our first time staying at the Hilton and using twilight check in, so hopefully it will go as smooth as it sounds

When we booked we had 400+ days to go and it has flown by . We don't have a trip planned for next year so when you still have a countdown I won't..... I will be the jealous one then I will be no-where to be seen on these forums ​

 

[Tash87]

American themed dinner tonight
11 weeks from now we will be waiting for dd to finish school before our trip to LGW​

 

[Tash87]

Lola ( my daughter ) and myself went shopping today,
Oops ​

 

[Tash87]

 

[Tash87]

The stickers are for Lola to decorate her trunki. I haven't found any boy'ish ones for Jenson yet.​

 

[Tash87]

I had to seriously restrain myself in primark as they have so many Disney, Marvel and Harry Potter tops.

I went with hopes to get the little ones some Disney t.shirts but was really disappointed, they seem to have more for adults now

Also measured Jenson this morning and he was 38.5 inches with no shoes on....he needs to have a growth spurt, PRONTO. Really hope he gets to 40 inches so he can go on the next level of rides

Hope you're all having a lovely bank holiday weekend ​

 

[Tash87]

So, after not being very successful with buying the kids Disney tops I had a look on the Disney store UK and they have a sale on!

I got these tops for £3.99 each.

They love them
​

 

[Tash87]

A couple of things to report on from the last few days.

• On Friday my travel company emailed me to say that now I can sign up for a My Disney Experience account and link our holiday with our confirmation number.....Okay, thanks for that but I've had our holiday linked in for maybe about a year now

• We have been watching the exchange rate daily and I told myself that as soon as I can get $1.30 for £1 I am going to break open my savings tin and change it, so at the weekend I opened my tin and had £433 this is MY shopping fund. Not loads but great for a money box with just coins in ( and some notes ) Hubby is waiting to exchange our main spending money, this is a little bet we have between ourselves. I know it works out to be pence but one of us has to get the better deal. Now the exchange rate has increased slightly...typical ​

• 1 week until I make our FP+. Think I need to get my butt together and work out a plan of what we would like. ​

 

[Jon84]

Great PTR, not long now!

 

[Tash87]

Thank you

Need to get my act together and sort out FP. I made a rough plan but since then I've changed our plans 1000000 times ​

 

[Jon84]

You'll make a plan then change it when you get there!! Ours always tends to move about, we might get to a park really early and walk on standby for our three fastpasses so end up changing them to something else later in the day.