My 2014 WDW, NY, Europe and who knows where else PTR

[gogo65]

So, I was going to put off writing this until I at least got back from my trip to Mexico in march, but things have started to happen, so I need to get it down on paper so I can ponder and ask my friends for some advice

Considering I have no idea what or where we are going I hope it isn't to boring
this is going to be four separate trip reports in one, because each of my family will be doing something different so a bit of background

The who....
Me
A forty something mum of two. Love Disney to bits and so far have managed two trips to DL, three to WDW and one to DLP, planning on getting to HK and Tokyo in the near future.
DH, will be the big 50 this year, Doesn't like Disney but likes great rides, so manage to convince him to come.
DS nearly 20, also loves rides but is a bit to cool to like Disney works full time as a third year apprentice electrician
DD nearly 18, loves Disney and the USA and would desperately love to spend some time in the US. She will be commencing university this year.

Last year DD and I went to WDW for the cheer leading world championships and she will again compete in 2014 (at WDW), this time we thought we would all go and the DH and I will continue onto to Europe for a holiday, sending the kids back home
So we are 15 months out, when I got a phone call from one of the mums today, they were booking a cruise on the allure of the seas prior to the world championships and did we want to come
DD must travel with the team, so she can't come, DH wants to keep his leave for Europe so said NO, DS said it would be a bit embarrassing for him to go on a cruise with meSo it left just little old me
Fast forward two seconds.....a cruise with my girlfriends and no husband or children, I can think of worse things, right
So I have to let them know by Monday if I'm a yes or no.

So after worlds at the moment th plan is to go to NYC for a few days, then DD and DS will fly home and DH and I will continue to Europe and from there we have no idea. I have been to Europe four times and DH hasn't been at all, we will be going to Europe with friends and again one has never been to Europe, so we will need to keep everyone happy
We are planning on booking all our flights on FF points, so I need to be ready to book in April, so itinerary needs to be sorted by then, remembering that I will be away all of march, I need to get it sorted now

So the plan is
11/4 fly to fort lauderdale
13/4 cruise on allure of the seas till 20/4
20-23/4 Orlando area/ universal
23/4-29/4 WdW
29/4-2/5 NYC
2/5-24/5 Europe somewhere

So here I am 15 months out, planning another trip but I know I'm not the only crazy on here,

So the big question should I book on the allure of the seas? I did a RC cruise in 2011 from Rome, which I loved(no DH or children, just my best friend), so figuring I'll love another one.

 

[Minniemum]

It's a no brainer...Go for it!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Wow, what a wonderful sounding holiday. If I was going away for a month and a half, I'd be planning this far in advance also.
I think the cruise sounds wonderful. You'll be in relaxed holiday mode right from the start.
Beautiful family by the way.

 

[aussie shaz]

You are making me so jealous!

I could do without NYC, and Europe, I'd even give up the cruise, but I so want to go to WDW.

Your kids are gorgeous, and how lucky that you have such a talented daughter. So glad that they still like Disney at that age. It gives me more years to get to WDW!!

By the way, I'd definately do the cruise

 

[Travel Mum]

Without any doubt, do the cruise!! We cruised on Freedom of the Seas which was awesome and I'm sure Allure will be fantastic!!

 

[gogo65]

Wow, what a wonderful sounding holiday. If I was going away for a month and a half, I'd be planning this far in advance also.
I think the cruise sounds wonderful. You'll be in relaxed holiday mode right from the start.
Beautiful family by the way.

Thanks wanderlust, I'm am forever planning my next holiday, but hadn't quite thought I would need to make decisions this far our!
Very true about being relaxed for the whole holiday if I start off with the cruise, however my other option would be a short cruise and a few more days in WDW , although my friend really wants to go on the allure, so think I will be happy with either!

 

[gogo65]

You are making me so jealous!

I could do without NYC, and Europe, I'd even give up the cruise, but I so want to go to WDW.

Your kids are gorgeous, and how lucky that you have such a talented daughter. So glad that they still like Disney at that age. It gives me more years to get to WDW!!

By the way, I'd definately do the cruise

Haha AussieShaz
I'm sure you will get to WDW eventually, definitely worth the effort!
I do love a bit of europe though as well, and haven't been to NYC in 25 years so looking forward to that
Yep DD is amazing(not biased at all) and gives me the opportunity to go WDW on a regular basis

 

[gogo65]

Without any doubt, do the cruise!! We cruised on Freedom of the Seas which was awesome and I'm sure Allure will be fantastic!!

Agree travelmum, I cruised on navigator of the seas and loved it, so I'm sure allure will be fantastic, just very bigggg

 

[PrincessInOz]

Are you still thinking about it? Really??? Go, and don't forget to collect $200.

 

[gogo65]

So finally an update on the 2014 trip

Unfortunately my friend that wanted to do the cruise pulled out, she is planning on coming over with her daughter, so I wasn't really sure what we were doing.
However, have made some headway.

My other friend who we are continuing to Europe with, wanted me to fly with her to the US, so after frantically booking FF seats exactly at 10am this morning, waiting for the seats to be released, we managed to book our seats to LA, although we couldn't get seats on the Friday the 11th April, we managed to snag two seats to LA via Brisbane in business class on Thursday 10/4.
So DD will fly over on Monday 14/4, direct to Orlando. DH and friends DH will fly on 18/4, and I have no idea when DS will come over as yet.

So the plan so far is arrive in LA on 10/4, and from there no idea
We may stay and visit DL for a few days or head to Orlando early

But the best thing is I have a flight booked, so I'm officially in the planning stages and it is less than 12 months away

Plenty of other planning in my head is happening though.
10/4-14/4 DL or WdW
14/4-21/4 Daytona beach or somewhere in Florida while DD is training
21/4-22/4 universal studios on site (with team to sure where we are staying but most likely RPR)
22/4-28/4 WDW for world championship
28/4-2/5 NYC
2/5-7/5 Paris
7/5-9/5 Venice
9/5-21/5 Croatia
21/5-25/5 Rome
25/5 fly home

So now my job is waiting for freqeunt flyer seats to be released, so we can firm up the itinerary.
There is something so exciting about booking flights no matter how long in advance they are!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Good job on snagging FF seats! And Business Class at that!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Sounds wonderful!

Well done for getting business class flights - very jealous.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Sounds great plans - NB I can recommend staying in this apartment in Venice - "Palazzo Schiavoni" http://www.palazzoschiavoni.com/en/apartments.htm. We stayed there 2010. I recommended to friends who had a great visit there in 2011. This is the apartments not the hotel which may be run by the same family (not sure) but doesn't sound anywhere near as good. Its only 10 mins walk to St Marks Square but in a quiet area and not too far from the vaporetto stop (or could catch local water taxi to almost outside door if you had a lot of luggage). Doesn't have own laundry (well ours didn't) but only 5 mins to one of the few laundromats in Venice. Their bigger apartments have 2 separate bedrooms, the smaller only one separate bedroom and double sofa bed (suited us as we were only 3). Had beautiful furnishings and decor -costs might be spiralling now though-we got a good deal.

I think you are covering a good selection of Europe for the first timers with you. Have fun. DD should do a 6 month exchange in 2014 to the US linking her time in with the championship-being in year 2 Uni in 2014 is the right timing in her degree! Most Unis have generous support scholarships to help fund living costs whilst on exchange.

 

[gogo65]

Good job on snagging FF seats! And Business Class at that!

Thanks PIO, I'm getting to be an expert at getting FF seats, but peak time is so stressful, the first weekend of the April school holidays is always a nightmare, so happy we managed to get them , even though we have to go via Brisbane

 

[gogo65]

Sounds wonderful!

Well done for getting business class flights - very jealous.

Thanks wanderlust, I just flew business class home on from LA and loved it, obviously would never do it if I had to pay, thank heavens for FF points!!

 

[gogo65]

Sounds great plans - NB I can recommend staying in this apartment in Venice - "Palazzo Schiavoni" http://www.palazzoschiavoni.com/en/apartments.htm. We stayed there 2010. I recommended to friends who had a great visit there in 2011. This is the apartments not the hotel which may be run by the same family (not sure) but doesn't sound anywhere near as good. Its only 10 mins walk to St Marks Square but in a quiet area and not too far from the vaporetto stop (or could catch local water taxi to almost outside door if you had a lot of luggage). Doesn't have own laundry (well ours didn't) but only 5 mins to one of the few laundromats in Venice. Their bigger apartments have 2 separate bedrooms, the smaller only one separate bedroom and double sofa bed (suited us as we were only 3). Had beautiful furnishings and decor -costs might be spiralling now though-we got a good deal.

I think you are covering a good selection of Europe for the first timers with you. Have fun. DD should do a 6 month exchange in 2014 to the US linking her time in with the championship-being in year 2 Uni in 2014 is the right timing in her degree! Most Unis have generous support scholarships to help fund living costs whilst on exchange.

Thanks Aussie Wendy for your wonderful tip on accommodation in Venice, will keep it in mind, definetely want to stay on the island, as the two times I have been I didn't and having to catch the boat back and forth takes away from the charm.
Choosing where to go was fairly easily thank heavens! I asked everyone what there top three places they would like to visit and went from there. My DH is very easy going and said didnt matter what I planned he knew it would be fantastic, he also knows there are many more holidays in the planning
My friends are also very easy going, we have travelled with them before on a big trip and it worked well, we did slightly different itineraries and met at up different parts of the trip, it worked well.
My friends said they would like to see Paris, Rome and Croatia.
I had Croatia at the top of my list, so that was easy. Figured it would be difficult not to do Paris and Rome on a first trip(although I have been to Rome three times in the last three years, lucky I love it!) and Venice fitted in with getting to Zagreb. I wanted to go back to Venice to stay on the island so it worked out well.
The only place we couldn't accommodate was Germany, which was the men's suggestion so they could go to a concentration camp, however we are planning a visit to the French battlefields and also looking at visiting Jasonevac, a concentration camp in Croatia. So all up, managed to make everyone happy within a relatively short time frame of only 22days for the Europe portion.

Of only I had another week or two, then Barcelona(Spain is my favourite country at the moment) and Budapest were my next two on my bucket list. Oh well just another excuse to start planning another trip
Funny how exciting it can be and still nearly a year out.

My next big decision is what to do the first 4 days after arriving into LA, assuming DD is arriving 4 days later with her team and going directly to Florida.
Do we stay in Anaheim and do a few days in DL, head straight to Orlando and spend some extra time in WDW or maybe stop in new Orleans or somewhere else that isn't too far out of the way???? Oh the decisions

 

[gogo65]

Oh and thanks for the info about scholarships, DD would love to live in the US and experience the lifestyle, something like that would be right up her alley, we will look into it for sure, I know her uni had some info about uni exchanges, but we haven't really looked into it. We have enrolled her into the elite athlete program at uni, so they may be able to give us some info. My niece did something similar with Boston uni and hockey a couple of years ago.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Oh yes-decisions decisions....now I have always wanted to see New Orleans...

 

[gogo65]

So planning is fully underway, and as you all know, plans change from day to day
But we have progress, most of our flights are booked
Lucky for us we have managed SYd-LAX, NYC-Paris and Rome to Sydney all in business class on FF points
There was one problem booking our return flights, we couldn't get a flight for the day we wanted from Rome, instead we have to stay two more days in Europe....the things one has to do
Did I say how much I love FF points

Obviously still need to book the internals, Lax to Miami and Orlando to NYC and then Europe flights when we have sorted our itinerary out.

DD's dates have changed due to Easter so they won't be competing in Daytona beach as expected, which means they are now leaving later. So my friend and I found ourself with 8days to keep ourselves busy, so we booked a cruise, we were going to do a 5 night ROyal Caribbean cruise (after originally planning going on the allure of the seas but got cancelled due to another friend....to many friends here trying to keep happy) on liberty of the seas, but then we saw the new celebrity cruises promotion with an all inclusive alcohol package free so yep you guessed it we booked a 7 night cruise from Miami on the reflection, nice balcony cabin with free alcohol, for $1200Winning!!!

Now to work out our European itinerary, hotels in NYC and europe, then once DD's dates are firmed up will start looking at ADR's in Disney and trying to work out where we will be after the cruise(when our DH's join us) and before we meet up with girls at WDW.
I only have 9months......

 

[PrincessInOz]

9 months?

That's hardly any time left!