PudseyChancer
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
How do! 
As it's four weeks today that we'll be making our way over the Pennines to Manchester airport ahead of our first family trip to Orlando, and the excitement level is rising to almost unprecedented levels, I thought I'd start our trip report and introduce me, my gorgeous better half, and the terrible twosome, Isabelle and Billy.
I'm Dave (PudseyChancer), and here en route with Caroline to DLP last year, which was our first holiday together. Some of you are my friends on facebook, and have probably seen my fixation with all things Florida, Leeds United, and booze. Facebook does have a downside in that it gives dorks like me an opportunity to bore others who've had the misfortune to accept my friend requests until they finally find the 'remove friend' option. The upside is that it got me back in touch with my gorgeous missus Caroline after almost twenty years, Caroline was my first girlfriend way back through the mists of time when I was 16 (seems almost elderly by today's standards!), we both went our separate ways only to get back in touch via facebook in May 2009, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Our motley crew is made up of Isabelle and Billy, captured here in one of their more sedate moments. Neither have any idea that we're going to Florida, to amuse myself I often show them photo's of WDW and the rides as Caroline despairs in the background, they're both desperate to go and have suggested going in a couple of years when the holiday fund has reached an acceptable level, though that in itself is a laugh, given how regularly we dip into it for essentials like car parking change, fish and chip money, and my £2 football accumilator...
(Hmm... hope Caroline doesn't read this!!)
We all had a great time at DLP, and the next obvious step was to start thinking about a trip to Orlando. I've been fortunate to go several times previously, (this will be my fifth trip), and after staying onsite at All Star Sports last time, I knew that I'd want to stay onsite this time round. Caroline has never been to WDW before, but I'd bored her countless times about Orlando, WDW and Universal, so she just humoured me and left the organisation up to me. I initially looked at the moderates, specifically POR and POFQ, as the theming quite appealed to me, plus I liked the fact that there were the boats to and from Downtown Disney. That all changed when I clapped eyes on the offer at OKW, which given it was virtually the same price, but included free dining - Key West is a place that I'd love to visit, so this being the next best thing, it was a done deal, and we booked to go on the 14th August.
It was at this point that I realised we had still to book flights, a minor detail I thought, and began checking flight prices with BA and Virgin on a regular basis. Despite the fact that TCD had gone bust the day after I returned from Florida on my last visit, it never crossed my mind that the flights would have been so ludicrously expensive. I was tied to buying flights through Thomas Cook as I get vouchers through work every month, and at that point, had saved £1000 - but the flight prices were coming out more than I had paid for the whole holiday the last time I went! As I monitored the prices rising even higher on a daily basis, we made the decision to change our dates to September, and go cap in hand to the school, who fortunately agreed to grant the kids absence.
We managed to get flights for just under £2k flying into Sanford, and booked a transfer through to OKW. We just about had enough with the vouchers to get flights, Universal park tickets, and a pre-travel day stay at Bewley's, where we also stayed before our flights to DLP.
I then started to look into ADR's and putting together some sort of plan for our two weeks. Having never really put too much thought into eating out on previous trips, it did strike me as being quite ludicrous trying to plan almost a year in advance, of where we would be on a given day, and even more ridonculous, where and what we would like to eat. Other challenges we faced were that whilst Isabelle would quite happily eat anything and everything placed in front of her, Billy would be considered adventurous if he ate anything with any flavour whatsoever, indeed, people were seen throwing their hats into the air the day he liberally doused his chips with tomato ketchup!
Food critics toast finishing the last meatball
So, it was back to the Dis to view reports, and to Allears to read the menu's and we came up with the following:-
Saturday 11th - arrival and exploration of DTD
Sunday 12th - MK with our first evening meal at Kona Cafe
Monday 13th - Animal Kingdom with OOP breakfast at Rainforest Cafe
Tuesday 14th - Typhoon Lagoon with evening meal at Raglan Road
Weds 15th - Disney Studio's with lunch at Sci-Fi Dine-in
Thurs 16th - MK again with breakfast at Chef Mickeys & evening meal at Whispering Canyon
Friday 17th - Blizzard Beach
Saturday 18th - Breakfast at CRT and then on to Epcot, evening meal at Via Napoli
Sunday 19th - Epcot with evening meal at the Yachtsman Steakhouse
Monday 20th - Disneys Studio's
Tuesday 21st - Kids to choose, with evening meal at Nine Dragons
Weds 22nd - Universal
Thurs 23rd - Universal
Friday 24th - spare day with evening meal at Hoop De Do Review
I'll have to be creative to fit in some shopping time, unbelievably Caroline can't stand shopping, whereas I feel duty bound in maintaining good trade relations with our American cousins, and regularly deposit large sums at Ralph Lauren, Levi, Lacoste and Nike whenever I cross the Atlantic. Whether or not I manage to stretch to an iPad is looking less and less likely, but like Martin Luther King, I have a dream.
The only thing left is to mention our rather childish plan in revealing the depths of our deceit to the kids - it's been an absolute killer keeping this trip a secret, it's been really tough with all the extra hours at work, there's been loads of times when I just wanted to blurt it out and let the kids in on it. To be honest, I'm really glad that we haven't, so we've told the kids that I'm working away from home and am staying overnight in Manchester. I'll be making my way over on the Friday afternoon, (train ticket from Leeds to Manchester Airport, an amazing £7!!!), and Caroline will pick the kids up straight from school and drive them over, to surprise me by visiting. We'll then give the kids a letter from Mickey inviting them to come see him and all his pals at WDW...
So there it is, the culmination of a good year of secret planning, hours and hours of overtime and lost Sundays, but with the end result of a holiday at WDW. So forgive me as I grow ever more excited by being just three weeks away from finishing work, and four weeks away from a fantastic holiday in WDW, and a chance to relax totally and spend a full fortnight with my three favourite people in the world...
The relaxation starts at Bewley's...
See thee later!
As it's four weeks today that we'll be making our way over the Pennines to Manchester airport ahead of our first family trip to Orlando, and the excitement level is rising to almost unprecedented levels, I thought I'd start our trip report and introduce me, my gorgeous better half, and the terrible twosome, Isabelle and Billy.
I'm Dave (PudseyChancer), and here en route with Caroline to DLP last year, which was our first holiday together. Some of you are my friends on facebook, and have probably seen my fixation with all things Florida, Leeds United, and booze. Facebook does have a downside in that it gives dorks like me an opportunity to bore others who've had the misfortune to accept my friend requests until they finally find the 'remove friend' option. The upside is that it got me back in touch with my gorgeous missus Caroline after almost twenty years, Caroline was my first girlfriend way back through the mists of time when I was 16 (seems almost elderly by today's standards!), we both went our separate ways only to get back in touch via facebook in May 2009, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Our motley crew is made up of Isabelle and Billy, captured here in one of their more sedate moments. Neither have any idea that we're going to Florida, to amuse myself I often show them photo's of WDW and the rides as Caroline despairs in the background, they're both desperate to go and have suggested going in a couple of years when the holiday fund has reached an acceptable level, though that in itself is a laugh, given how regularly we dip into it for essentials like car parking change, fish and chip money, and my £2 football accumilator...
(Hmm... hope Caroline doesn't read this!!)
We all had a great time at DLP, and the next obvious step was to start thinking about a trip to Orlando. I've been fortunate to go several times previously, (this will be my fifth trip), and after staying onsite at All Star Sports last time, I knew that I'd want to stay onsite this time round. Caroline has never been to WDW before, but I'd bored her countless times about Orlando, WDW and Universal, so she just humoured me and left the organisation up to me. I initially looked at the moderates, specifically POR and POFQ, as the theming quite appealed to me, plus I liked the fact that there were the boats to and from Downtown Disney. That all changed when I clapped eyes on the offer at OKW, which given it was virtually the same price, but included free dining - Key West is a place that I'd love to visit, so this being the next best thing, it was a done deal, and we booked to go on the 14th August.
It was at this point that I realised we had still to book flights, a minor detail I thought, and began checking flight prices with BA and Virgin on a regular basis. Despite the fact that TCD had gone bust the day after I returned from Florida on my last visit, it never crossed my mind that the flights would have been so ludicrously expensive. I was tied to buying flights through Thomas Cook as I get vouchers through work every month, and at that point, had saved £1000 - but the flight prices were coming out more than I had paid for the whole holiday the last time I went! As I monitored the prices rising even higher on a daily basis, we made the decision to change our dates to September, and go cap in hand to the school, who fortunately agreed to grant the kids absence.
We managed to get flights for just under £2k flying into Sanford, and booked a transfer through to OKW. We just about had enough with the vouchers to get flights, Universal park tickets, and a pre-travel day stay at Bewley's, where we also stayed before our flights to DLP.
I then started to look into ADR's and putting together some sort of plan for our two weeks. Having never really put too much thought into eating out on previous trips, it did strike me as being quite ludicrous trying to plan almost a year in advance, of where we would be on a given day, and even more ridonculous, where and what we would like to eat. Other challenges we faced were that whilst Isabelle would quite happily eat anything and everything placed in front of her, Billy would be considered adventurous if he ate anything with any flavour whatsoever, indeed, people were seen throwing their hats into the air the day he liberally doused his chips with tomato ketchup!
Food critics toast finishing the last meatball
So, it was back to the Dis to view reports, and to Allears to read the menu's and we came up with the following:-
Saturday 11th - arrival and exploration of DTD
Sunday 12th - MK with our first evening meal at Kona Cafe
Monday 13th - Animal Kingdom with OOP breakfast at Rainforest Cafe
Tuesday 14th - Typhoon Lagoon with evening meal at Raglan Road
Weds 15th - Disney Studio's with lunch at Sci-Fi Dine-in
Thurs 16th - MK again with breakfast at Chef Mickeys & evening meal at Whispering Canyon
Friday 17th - Blizzard Beach
Saturday 18th - Breakfast at CRT and then on to Epcot, evening meal at Via Napoli
Sunday 19th - Epcot with evening meal at the Yachtsman Steakhouse
Monday 20th - Disneys Studio's
Tuesday 21st - Kids to choose, with evening meal at Nine Dragons
Weds 22nd - Universal
Thurs 23rd - Universal
Friday 24th - spare day with evening meal at Hoop De Do Review
I'll have to be creative to fit in some shopping time, unbelievably Caroline can't stand shopping, whereas I feel duty bound in maintaining good trade relations with our American cousins, and regularly deposit large sums at Ralph Lauren, Levi, Lacoste and Nike whenever I cross the Atlantic. Whether or not I manage to stretch to an iPad is looking less and less likely, but like Martin Luther King, I have a dream.
The only thing left is to mention our rather childish plan in revealing the depths of our deceit to the kids - it's been an absolute killer keeping this trip a secret, it's been really tough with all the extra hours at work, there's been loads of times when I just wanted to blurt it out and let the kids in on it. To be honest, I'm really glad that we haven't, so we've told the kids that I'm working away from home and am staying overnight in Manchester. I'll be making my way over on the Friday afternoon, (train ticket from Leeds to Manchester Airport, an amazing £7!!!), and Caroline will pick the kids up straight from school and drive them over, to surprise me by visiting. We'll then give the kids a letter from Mickey inviting them to come see him and all his pals at WDW...
So there it is, the culmination of a good year of secret planning, hours and hours of overtime and lost Sundays, but with the end result of a holiday at WDW. So forgive me as I grow ever more excited by being just three weeks away from finishing work, and four weeks away from a fantastic holiday in WDW, and a chance to relax totally and spend a full fortnight with my three favourite people in the world...
The relaxation starts at Bewley's...
See thee later!
I don't know who'll be more excited, you - or the kids when you tell them! 
Unfortunately I didn't have the courage of my convictions, Leeds weren't on my accumulator as I wasn't overly confident before the game (shame on me, I know!) 
