How early is too early? An EBPC/DL/DCA PTR

[ShellB8585]

Hi Everyone welcome to my first ever PTR! ​

I know this is a little early – some may say too early but I’m rather excited and already getting things booked up so thought I’d share with you. I am an obsessive planner when it comes to holidays and it works out great for me as it means my holidays don’t only last the 1/2/3 weeks I am on them but the whole time from booking to arriving home again. I cant be the only one can I? We are booked on the Eastbound trip through the Panama Canal from San Diego to Galveston October 2015. Trip reports and pre trip reports on here have gotten me through some long dull days at work. Reading them on my lunch breaks (yeah right ) always cheers me up so I hope I can return the favour for at least one person with mine.

Let me introduce you to our cast – Myself, Shelley, I will be 30 in May and celebrating with a trip to Disneyland Paris (for which I also intend on writing a TR) & this cruise. Love everything Disney but my new fave is DCL after we were introduced to it’s captivating Magic in 2012.
My very own Prince Charming Carl 28 who thoroughly supports my Disney addiction. He will try to play it cool at times but don’t let him fool you - he’s as addicted as I am

Here’s a photo of us on our first cruise:

Our current itinerary

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16-Oct – The adventure begins with a drive to Heathrow stay at Sheraton Skyline
17-Oct – Fly to LAX
18-Oct – Disneyland
19-Oct - Day to explore area
20-Oct – Disneyland
21-Oct – Drive to San Diego
22-Oct – Day in San Diego
23-Oct – Embarkation of Disney Wonder
24-Oct – At sea
25-Oct – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
26-Oct – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
27-Oct – At sea
28-Oct – At sea
29-Oct – At sea
30-Oct – At sea
31-Oct – Cruising the Canal on Halloween
01-Nov – Cartagena, Columbia
02-Nov – At sea
03-Nov – At sea
04-Nov – Cozumel, Mexico
05-Nov – At Sea
06-Nov – Disembarkation and fly home


As well as celebrating my 30th we also wanted something to celebrate the end of the work on our house. We bought it July 2013 and have been working non stop to bring it up to date. Still going but hopefully we’ll be done by the end of this month. So 2015 is about travel, relaxation and quality time with each other.

It took a lot of debate coming to the decision of this cruise. We hadn’t been to WDW since 2012 and I was feeling a little “homesick” but we know we are definitely going in 2016 with some of our fave family members (and WDW doesn’t really fit in with that “relax” theme) so cruise was decided. Now I really want to go to Alaska but DH only wants to cruise in warm weather so, after a huge amount of debate (mostly with myself). We decided on this cruise and booked 27th May 2014.

Ok, enough of an intro, I don’t want to bore and lose you before we really start.... TBC

 

[ShellB8585]

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I work for an online retailer and the winter is very quiet for us. It’s good for me as it means I get more time to plan my vacations (we’re allowed the downtime providing we still get our work done ). Maybe bad for you as there will be almost daily updates I expect. It gets super busy in the summer so will need to do as much as I can now.

336 days until we board the Disney Wonder!!

I have noticed there are still some cheaper Halloween costumes around but I am in two minds Do we pack Halloween AND Pirate costumes? Just Halloween as we have done pirate before and this may be the only Halloween Cruise we get to do? Or do we sneakily use pirate for both – you know in a Curse of the Black pearl sort of way? what would you do?

The issue being that we are flying from the UK and will only have 1 suitcase and 1 hand luggage each for a 3 week vacation and costumes take up a lot of room!

331 until we fly to LA

The British airways flights are out and are about £400 more than this year – not so that might mean we have to cut back on something else and I have a feeling one of our Disneyland days may have to face the chop

I think we will hold out on booking any flights until more prices are released. I was hoping for BA as they seem to be the only airline company to offer direct flights to LAX and from Houston to Heathrow. We’ll have to see…

 

[dglilbit]

How fun! I am going to follow your PTR!

In regards to the costumes, I'd just do the Pirate costume unless y'all are looking to participate in a Halloween contest. If you want to pack another costume, could you ship it to your hotel to be there when you arrive?

 

[ShellB8585]

How fun! I am going to follow your PTR!

In regards to the costumes, I'd just do the Pirate costume unless y'all are looking to participate in a Halloween contest. If you want to pack another costume, could you ship it to your hotel to be there when you arrive?

Welcome along!

My hubby agrees with you totally! this is already going to be expensive enough and with a little face paint we can go from pirate to the cursed of the black pearl

 

[ShellB8585]

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We’re getting ever closer

We have been working super hard lately – 5am – 7am on the house, work all day then working on the house until midnight. The best thing is that the end is in sight then it’s all about holidays and I cannot wait!!

So it is agreed we will just take the pirate costumes and a little facepaint to go a little zombified for Halloween. (Don’t worry, I have no intention of being too realistic – I am no makeup artist!)

Good news is we have booked our condo for our Anaheim stay. It looks as though it’s just a 15/20 minute walk to the parks and looks a beautiful little place for our 3 nights.

The first & last time we were in Anaheim was January 2010 for our Honeymoon when we stayed in the Sheraton. We really loved the location and proximity to the parks and the hotel was great. The first night our flight arrived at 4pm and I hugely under estimated how tired we would be on arrival. I made a reservation at Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria as a nice start. Big mistake – we were falling asleep by the time our mains came out. So we got it boxed and took out.

We don’t want to make that mistake again so we thought we would go with self-catering. This way we can drive to the condo via a supermarket (I know there are a few around) and chill out the first evening to get over the time difference!

Here are a couple pictures taken from the owners website –


I certainly think it fits the bill!

It also means we can have leisurely mornings without having to find somewhere to have breakfast.

I expect we won’t book our Disney tickets until the Halloween party dates are released. If we only get one day I am thinking it would work out better to get a 1 day 1 park ticket to do DCA in the morning and early afternoon then the Halloween party ticket for DL later afternoon/evening. I think this would maximise our time in the parks anyway.

Carl would also like to go to some form of sporting event. We went to an LA Kings game last time and we thoroughly enjoyed it so it would be that again or NBA or NFL if there is anything going on around that area when we’re there? We’re not entirely sure of when all the seasons run?

Anyway that’s enough for now as I have to get back to work!

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, Disneyland Paris AND 2 cruises - you are a lucky girl! You know how to celebrate your 30th birthday in style

I am right there with you for excitement level - we just booked our 1st cruise (although not as elaborate as yours!), a repositioning cruise for end of Sept 2015 from Vancouver BC to San Diego for 4 nights, so excited! Myself, hubby and our 2 kids (who will hopefully be occupied most of the time by all the kids club activities LOL) Looking forward to sharing PTR excitement with yourself and everyone

 

[ShellB8585]

Happy 2015!!

Sorry I haven't been around lately, it's been a busy Christmas period!! hope you all had a good one?

We have just come back from Scotland where 2 of our closest friends tied the knot, a beautiful way to start a new year!

Welcome bcwife76

The second cruise was going to be to celebrate our anniversary - when we got married we promised each other we will never buy gifts/cards but instead we will always give each other 100% of our time with a trip of some sort - last year we fitted our new kitchen but we did do it together so half way there! This year we're going for a long weekend in Dublin . However, we have decided to cancel the 2016 cruise as DH wants us to go snowboarding with some friends in Dec and my cousins have invited us to WDW in Aug 2016 so we will most likely do another long weekend somewhere here in Europe. It's the flights prices to the US that stop us, if it weren't for that I'd be there as much as possible!!

We love DCL but it has already been 3 years since we were last at Magic Kingdom and 5 since the other parks and we're feeling "home"sick.

Congrats on your first cruise!! I can't wait to have children as I know they will be Disney a holics and DCL do a great job for families - they are also great for us adult only cruisers too. Nothing really compares to that Disney magic you will love it!

The good news is flight prices had gone down by about £300.00 before the sale BUT we still aren't ready to book, as it is all being booked separately if we need to cancel (and the only reason that would happen is if I became pregnant) we would be out of pocket so we will definitely hold off until the end of May!

 

[ShellB8585]

Hi all (all 2 of you following along ) First a little real life update - sorry for my absence this month has been hectic.

As per my previous post we were away in Scotland Over New Year which was beautiful (if the weather was a little miserable)- just look

then away for a 70th Birthday Party in our childhood hometown then we went to Dublin for a long weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary where we drank and ate and ate and drank (ok ok this was a little boozy but "when in Rome" or Dublin, or on Holiday anywhere for that matter.

It was our first trip to Dublin and we're already trying to figure out when we can go back.

This relaxing cruise can't come soon enough!

Since all those things are out of the way I am finally in full throttle Disney planning mode. And whilst Disneyland Paris comes first I am focusing on the cruise currently!!

so back to the - as you know we cancelled our January 2016 cruise (although I cannot promise I wont instead book a summer cruise if they come back to Europe ... have to wait and see) Because of this I have allowed myself a bit of a bigger budget this year. I have emailed to see if the Anaheim Condo is available for Saturday 17th as well for an extra night there which means we can do 2 Disney days!!!! But ... the most exciting (for me anyway) is I have finally decided to upgrade our room from 09C (deck 2) to a 06A (Deck 5). I have been thinking about this since the day we booked but kept saying maybe the next one . Then I thought why not this one? With 8 days at sea we'll get the most use out of it this time over any othertime sooooooo I have finally decided to take the plunge, so to speak. So a few upgrades going on. DH isn't on the Disboards so I may not tell him a little Pixie dust for him at least

Next thing on my planning list is car hire from arrival at LAX to drop off at SAN on the Wed. We have decided it's probably the best option for us freedom wise and we enjoy driving in the states I am contemplating another upgrade DH would love - a convertible mustang It can be his birthday present now to find the cheapest deal...

 

[SailingScout]

Hello! My family and I will be on this cruise with you! I'm starting to get really excited now that the year has finally arrived...looking forward to following your report!

 

[pierresgirl]

Looks like fun and a great way to celebrate your big 30! The rental property looks beautiful! I went to Paris last sept by myself and loved it I wish I got to go to DLP, maybe if my kids were with me. My dh is celebrating his 50th on our cruise, Disney does it with style!

 

[ShellB8585]

Welcome to the PTR pierresgirl and SailingScout.

DLP is nowhere near as good as the parks in the states, its run by a different company and there are a lot of things that could do with changing - I believe it has lost money every year since it's been open . Rumour is Disney are going to buy back more shares and take more control which I think most everyone who has been is hoping for. It would also inject some new life - fingers crossed!!

Having said that, if you accept it's a different experience and love Disney you will love it regardless. I do DH is not as keen and I have had to promise him this will be the last visit for a while. This will be our 3rd trip and whilst I would always prefer WDW and DL, DLP is closer so it's easier to get to for a short trip. If you ever do go to DLP and are from the states I would recommend booking through the UK site as we get discounts you otherwise wont get.

Happy 50th to your DH!

SailingScout I must admit I was excited when we booked then it sort of died down but now I can see it everyday on my year calendar at work I am really excited again!! still 39 weeks though!

Some good news today. The Condo is available for the Saturday so we get to extend our holiday

So now what to do about Disney? I think our time/money maybe best spent getting a 1 day park hopper to use on the day the parks are open longest then tickets to the halloween party another night. That way we get to do both in the most cost effective way I think Of course I wont know for sure until the halloween party tickets come out, If there isn't a date that ties in with the other things we want to do it may have to be a 2day single park ticket. Decisions decision

I have also found the cutest carry on luggage from DisneyStore UK -

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What do you think? I love it but its a little small H48 x W29 x D24cm approx when hand luggage could be H56 cm, W45 cm and D of 25 cm and I need all the space I can get with a 3wk vacation. The question is could I get away with having one of these as hand luggage and maybe 1 slightly bigger?

 

[pierresgirl]

I actually moved to the US at 5 from Southampton, then back from 16-20 but in High Wycombe. Paris is only an hour flight from S'ton so when my mum & I were there I got bored so took off. The suitcase is super cute!

 

[ShellB8585]

I actually moved to the US at 5 from Southampton, then back from 16-20 but in High Wycombe. Paris is only an hour flight from S'ton so when my mum & I were there I got bored so took off. The suitcase is super cute!

AH there you go then we keep thinking of moving stateside, who knows if it would ever happen though waiting for DH to have a few more years experience with is job to make it a little easier.

Decided against the bag, it's a little too little and I want as much space as i'm allowed

 

[ShellB8585]

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Happy Thursday!
Exciting news today – I’ve PIF’d After my update the other day I have also upgraded to a 05c on deck 5 as it became available and I figured better than solid white verandah. I am super excited about our first verandah room but it may be a bit of a curse as I may never be able to cruise without one in the future! Anyone who has watched the fireworks on Pirate Night from a Verandah do you know which side you can watch from verandah?

No movement on the hire car front yet. I’m a bit reluctant to book without having exact flight times. It seems Alamo are cheapest. I think we have used them before but has anyone got any experience with them? Especially at LAX or San Diego airport?

We have booked our hotel for the 2 nights we’re in San Diego. I chose the Best Western Plus Bayside Inn, it had good reviews and much cheaper that my other option which was Wyndham. We never need much out of a hotel other than a clean room, comfortable bed and somewhere we can shower, we tend to be out and about a lot of the time. It also does free airport and cruise shuttles so that’s great 

On the assumption we will be flying from Heathrow I have booked us a night at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel with 21nights parking. This is our fave hotel the night before a flight mostly because of this enormous comfortable bed –

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So this is really starting to come together.

I don’t participate in the FE as to me it just seems a lot of hassle, I do get why others love doing it though. On this cruise something a little different has been suggested – a Christmas ornament exchange! I love Christmas as much I love Disney (DH comes a close second don’t tell him ) so this sounds fantastic to me! I have signed up however I am not very crafty what would you do given this opportunity? I have already bought a little something and I may just buy a 2nd thing when we go to DLP instead of making it but curious what ideas people can come up with…. Any?

If there is any small interest I have started my DLP PTR/TR Today too - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3374672

 

[bcwife76]

We used Alamo in 2006 from LAX, no problems for us. We dropped off near Disneyland (which is one of the reasons we chose Alamo!) It's all starting to come together eh?

 

[ShellB8585]

bcwife thank you! I think we used Alamo last time we flew into LAX but I can't for the life of me so it's great to know someone else has had a positive experience!



Sorry to have been MIA for so long! I have a lot of things being planned at the moment and unfortunately this trip is the penultimate trip of the year so it's kind of taken a back seat unfortunately. Recently I have been doing a lot of planning for our trip to Disneyland Paris. Our ADRs open up next week which has brought home how close the trip is! I am super excited . They are currently doing a swing into spring event which looks super cute. DLP will be the first time DH and I have stepped foot on Disney property (excluding shops) in approx 660days!! That's a long time and I don't ever have to wait this long again!!

I have started a new diet and have a few targets to hit at various points this year, ultimately I would like to lose 28 - 33lbs by the time the cruise comes around. I don't for 1 moment think this will be easy with everything happening - we have 1 trip a month planned starting with Dublin over Easter. I will just have to be super good when I'm at home. I may visit this PTR a little more, especially when I'm finding it tough as it will remind me why I want to do this!

I have bought myself a couple treats for reaching my first target


This means I will be able to bring you better pictures than I originally thought. I have been toying with very amateur photography for a very long time but never had wanted to commit to £££s for it. With all the trips we have planned this year I thought it was time for the next step. I don't think I am ready for a DSLR and changeable lenses etc so I have gone for a cheaper bridge camera and a new point and shoot but I'm not sure if I'm happy with the P&S yet. I guess I will just have to give it time. On the plus side they both have a great food setting so I can fulfil all those food pic needs! I did test the bridge camera taking some pictures of our renovations. Whilst most of it is not interesting for people who don't know us I thought you may appreciate the guest bedroom:



It's still very much work in progress but I am pretty sure it's going to become one of my favourite rooms!

I keep thinking back over my Halloween costume decision, I'm not sure if it may be a bit lame. Whilst I am fairly certain I will struggle to pack Halloween AND Pirate costumes I may have a look in Walmart or something on arrival for a Halloween costume.

Do you remember my talking about the Christmas ornament exchange? I lucked out and one of the personalised Christmas decorations that can be bought from disneystore.co.uk really went down in price after Christmas so I bought 10. I would share a pic but I don't want to give the game away to anyone who I might be giving too if they come across this. You'll have to wait for the official TR .

Anyway, I'm at work atm so should really get back to it. TTFN!

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[Anemone]

Found your TR Shelley. Sounds like a really exciting trip. Following along.

 

[ShellB8585]

Welcome along Anne! I haven't been keeping on top of this TR with DLP taking precedence at the mo. Once that's all sorted I can start really planning this trip

 

[ShellB8585]

Look at those days!! We keep counting down and we're edging ever closer to the 100s and then I will really get going with the plans. We're already 129 days from when I started this! Sorry I have been a bad Dis PTR writer and MIA so long, as you know there's a lot going on this year - Dublin (again) next week, Disneyland Paris in May, 2 hen parties to organise and my sisters wedding all before the cruise so unfortunately this has been taking a bit of a back seat - Always on my mind but at the back somewhere. I have also just booked a special treat for DH for his birthday in June. In case he stumbles on this (he shouldn't) I wont give details now. I am also working on my DH and cousins to persuade a family Norwegian DCL out of Dover next year - Wish me luck!!

It's lovely to see I have had so many views though. Hi Thanks for stopping by!

I promise there will be more going on from Mid-May when I can seriously start planning and thinking about excursions etc. I think I have made my Palo decision though - DH wasn't a huge fan of dinner - He's a tough cookie to judge because he has 3 categories - "I like it" "It's alright" or "I don't/didn't like it". His favourite is the middle one and then there is his tone so it's alright on the side of like or alright on the side of unlike. Brunch was a positive alright, dinner was a negative alright (Which I take to mean he will do Dinner again but doesn't want to for a few cruises and he will do Brunch if I want to.) See! he doesn't make it easy!! To be completely honest with you I think he'd be happy to live on the delicious chicken tenders and Pizza. So I think we will skip dinner this cruise. Because I LOVE the brunch we will have Brunch on our second sea day and maybe book a second when we board for later in the cruise (I may have to do the 2nd on my own but I'm fine with that). ALSO I figure if I get the Norwegian we can have Dinner then as it will be light until about 22:30 so we'll still have great views!

I have also started a list of things I want to do on this cruise we haven't done before. I'll keep working on it and share once complete or at least a little more substantial

On our last cruise I managed to get DH to do a spa thing with me - I can't remember the name now. He thought he wouldn't enjoy it but he did so I am also trying to pick a different one for this time and wonder about the villas. Neither of us have ever had massages etc so if anyone has any experience with these I would love to hear it!!

One huge thing - we have PIF'd for the cruise However, I am having second thoughts on the Verandah - I always do this!! - inner turmoil! I suppose as we have more sea days we will use it more and I have fancied trying one out so this is probably the best cruise for it. BUT would the £££s be better spent elsewhere? Hopefully DH can make the decision for me - I always consider his word final (We laugh because all of our friends think I wear the trousers )

We still haven't booked our flights. I have read a few things lately saying the best time to book flights to the states is about 20 weeks out so that fits in nicely with our decision to book end of May. I have also been watching the exchange rate recently and it looked pretty good for us Brits last month for both USD $1.60 to £1.00 and Euros 1.35E to £1.00 but it looks as though the others are starting to get stronger again not the end of the world but kicking myself I didn't get some currency last month!

Still no car booked and I am a little nervous we may miss out on the car DH wants but I think it's best to wait until the flights are booked so we can give accurate pick up times could that save us money or would we get charged for a whole day when we pick up anyway?

Sorry PTR is so wordy! I promise tons of pics in the actual TR (If you're still with me by then) and I will upload some as we are in real planning - formal wear costumes etc etc.

TTFN folks have a great weekend

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[ShellB8585]

PS sorry about the huge pic!!

Which is no longer huge