Obi Wan Kenobi
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2004
- Messages
- 3,938
1) Pre Trip report.
After a couple of years without a holiday trip (due to ill health on my part) It is time to organise the annual Florida visit.
Cast:
1) obi Wan Kenobi
Payer of all things, 54 years of age, a Diabetic and due to that, now suffering with Charcot Foot and arthritis, Mobility has gone from 100% to 10% in two years. However, still refusing to give in to it and still working hard (hence being able to pay for holidays)
2) Gamesmaker C
Spender of all things
48, long suffering wifey of Warkman. Loves walking and helping out as a Gamesmaker at the Olympics
3) Legofan
11 years of age, precious son, just got a great score in his 11 Plus and awaiting March for his school allocation Loves Lego, Pokémon, Star wars and various other cartoons and DS games. A child of his generation, DS in one hand, tablet in other :-0
Ruminations
So, one of the casualties of my disability was the loss of a very well paid job and 9 months out of work. Things had to be tightened and one of these belt tightening things was our villa in Florida. Painful, but mortgage on house more important than pleasure, especially not knowing if or when I could be in a better health for work.
For the first time in 18 years, we are starting with a clean piece of paper.
Now this should be easy, but it wasn't. with all the options open to us, there was a lot of different views of what the holiday should be.
a) Accommodation
Gamesmaker was quite relaxed about where we stayed, used to the size of a villa, that was no1 on her list.
Legofan wanted his own room and a pool, but knowing him, a few uses of it and that would be it lol
Me? well, I have to admit I was torn, to be perfectly honest, I don't know how or if we will visit the USA again, after two years of pain, I don't want to look that far forward, just if I can, we will go to the USA in 2014 and beyond. But if this is our last visit as a family, then I wanted it to be special.
We first looked at villas, from via VH, Co-op travel and BA plus independent travel agents and WDW travel themselves.
We were looking also at Disney and Universal studios properties, with some of these on a par price wise to villas My favourite though were not!!!!
Grand Floridian, even through WDW travel, an eye watering £4,872 and my other favourite Yacht and beach club coming in at £3,900!
At this point in time, we were heading out to a villa, not yet chosen, so we started to look at flight prices as we were right on the 330/336 days from return
Now, our local airport does not fly direct, and all the indirects BHX-DUB, BHX-AMS, BHX-GDG
all the business class flight prices were coming in at around £6,000 with one or two stops.
So, back to our perennial favourites Virgin Atlantic. Now again, the choice is Gatwick or Manchester, apart from my hatred of Man Utd, Manchester airport does not have the same Virgin facilities in terms of a clubhouse as Gatwick and the prices are usually within a few pounds of each other
One reason for flying business is if you have been flying, up early from your accommodation and the jet lag, with little or no sleep on the flight, you end up driving like a zombie from the airport and quite frankly, that is a danger to everyone else in the car.
Also, we think our holiday starts at the hotel the night before and the flight is an integral part of the enjoyment.
So, looking at Virgin Atlantic, our preferential choice, put our dates in and a price comes up of....£6870.40 EEEK! was this going to be the year of no business class flights?? NOOOOO! :-0
So, checked BA, expecting them to be within a pound of Virgins as normal (Delta, United and American all in the £6-7,000 mark)
and both are having a sale to 22 Jan
put our dates in and...It was only (subjective only) £4,802.43! sweet
This got us thinking about what prices could Virgin Holidays do as a package?
First of all, we looked at the villas names resorts, and the costs were around £3278 but for economy flights. so went through a dummy booking and the price with Upper Class?
wait for it.........
£9,606.87!!!!!!!!!
Even Disney was truly ridiculous (to me, but there are plenty that pay it, if they can afford it good on them)
So another VH dummy booking for POR with UC seats came out to...£9,177.83!
However I then went back to the Darkside AKA British Airways holidays.
Their cost for a villa, same resort as VH? (Highlands Reserve) £5632 with CW seats, excellent price compared to VH!
Then had a look at POR with CW and the cost (river view) came out at £6749
WE then sat down and discussed it further.
First of all, on top of the Villa cost, you would need to add:
£350 pool heating
£500 security deposit (yes, you get it back eventually)
Disney car parking of £100 ish
Extra petrol for driving to and from a further away location
Against POR was one room only
But you also get transportation, free parking on Disney sites and parks, theming.
Plus, instead of Legofan being on his own in the villa pool, he will be able to play with other children in the resort pools
Also, one elephant in the corner, if I cannot get out one day, due to over exertion in the parks, DW and DS can hop on a bus to the park, whilst I am not alone at the villa but propping up the bar or pool area
We kept looking at the prices, hoping VH would move (Even contacted them by phone which the never returned our call one way or the other after we gave them the BA price)
Suddenly, the BA prices started to move and yesterday the CW seats for our dates disappeared! Noo! left it too late?
But no, they came back after 1 hour, so that was it. Slapped down the credit card, lay down £1,000 deposit and we are booked!
BA CW on a 777 both ways, with Revivals lounge, and lounges each end, and 14 nights POR in a water view room
But of course, this is just the start, still got to arrange car hire, Friday night Gatwick hotel room and car parking and another discussion over do I get a wheelchair or not.
I don't want to, as to me its giving in to the disability, but DW knows I cant do the distances required on my gammy leg. That's a battle still going on. Thoughts please if you have been in the same situation
I will update as we get closer to the trip
thanks for reading this far (promise, actual trip report will be more pictures, less words
After a couple of years without a holiday trip (due to ill health on my part) It is time to organise the annual Florida visit.
Cast:
1) obi Wan Kenobi
Payer of all things, 54 years of age, a Diabetic and due to that, now suffering with Charcot Foot and arthritis, Mobility has gone from 100% to 10% in two years. However, still refusing to give in to it and still working hard (hence being able to pay for holidays)
2) Gamesmaker C
Spender of all things
48, long suffering wifey of Warkman. Loves walking and helping out as a Gamesmaker at the Olympics3) Legofan
11 years of age, precious son, just got a great score in his 11 Plus and awaiting March for his school allocation Loves Lego, Pokémon, Star wars and various other cartoons and DS games. A child of his generation, DS in one hand, tablet in other :-0
Ruminations
So, one of the casualties of my disability was the loss of a very well paid job and 9 months out of work. Things had to be tightened and one of these belt tightening things was our villa in Florida. Painful, but mortgage on house more important than pleasure, especially not knowing if or when I could be in a better health for work.
For the first time in 18 years, we are starting with a clean piece of paper.
Now this should be easy, but it wasn't. with all the options open to us, there was a lot of different views of what the holiday should be.
a) Accommodation
Gamesmaker was quite relaxed about where we stayed, used to the size of a villa, that was no1 on her list.
Legofan wanted his own room and a pool, but knowing him, a few uses of it and that would be it lol
Me? well, I have to admit I was torn, to be perfectly honest, I don't know how or if we will visit the USA again, after two years of pain, I don't want to look that far forward, just if I can, we will go to the USA in 2014 and beyond. But if this is our last visit as a family, then I wanted it to be special.
We first looked at villas, from via VH, Co-op travel and BA plus independent travel agents and WDW travel themselves.
We were looking also at Disney and Universal studios properties, with some of these on a par price wise to villas My favourite though were not!!!!
Grand Floridian, even through WDW travel, an eye watering £4,872 and my other favourite Yacht and beach club coming in at £3,900!
At this point in time, we were heading out to a villa, not yet chosen, so we started to look at flight prices as we were right on the 330/336 days from return
Now, our local airport does not fly direct, and all the indirects BHX-DUB, BHX-AMS, BHX-GDG
all the business class flight prices were coming in at around £6,000 with one or two stops.
So, back to our perennial favourites Virgin Atlantic. Now again, the choice is Gatwick or Manchester, apart from my hatred of Man Utd,
Manchester airport does not have the same Virgin facilities in terms of a clubhouse as Gatwick and the prices are usually within a few pounds of each otherOne reason for flying business is if you have been flying, up early from your accommodation and the jet lag, with little or no sleep on the flight, you end up driving like a zombie from the airport and quite frankly, that is a danger to everyone else in the car.
Also, we think our holiday starts at the hotel the night before and the flight is an integral part of the enjoyment.
So, looking at Virgin Atlantic, our preferential choice, put our dates in and a price comes up of....£6870.40 EEEK! was this going to be the year of no business class flights?? NOOOOO! :-0
So, checked BA, expecting them to be within a pound of Virgins as normal (Delta, United and American all in the £6-7,000 mark)
and both are having a sale to 22 Jan
put our dates in and...It was only (subjective only) £4,802.43! sweet
This got us thinking about what prices could Virgin Holidays do as a package?
First of all, we looked at the villas names resorts, and the costs were around £3278 but for economy flights. so went through a dummy booking and the price with Upper Class?
wait for it.........
£9,606.87!!!!!!!!!
Even Disney was truly ridiculous (to me, but there are plenty that pay it, if they can afford it good on them)
So another VH dummy booking for POR with UC seats came out to...£9,177.83!
However I then went back to the Darkside AKA British Airways holidays.
Their cost for a villa, same resort as VH? (Highlands Reserve) £5632 with CW seats, excellent price compared to VH!
Then had a look at POR with CW and the cost (river view) came out at £6749
WE then sat down and discussed it further.
First of all, on top of the Villa cost, you would need to add:
£350 pool heating
£500 security deposit (yes, you get it back eventually)
Disney car parking of £100 ish
Extra petrol for driving to and from a further away location
Against POR was one room only
But you also get transportation, free parking on Disney sites and parks, theming.
Plus, instead of Legofan being on his own in the villa pool, he will be able to play with other children in the resort pools
Also, one elephant in the corner, if I cannot get out one day, due to over exertion in the parks, DW and DS can hop on a bus to the park, whilst I am not alone at the villa but propping up the bar or pool area
We kept looking at the prices, hoping VH would move (Even contacted them by phone which the never returned our call one way or the other after we gave them the BA price)
Suddenly, the BA prices started to move and yesterday the CW seats for our dates disappeared! Noo! left it too late?
But no, they came back after 1 hour, so that was it. Slapped down the credit card, lay down £1,000 deposit and we are booked!
BA CW on a 777 both ways, with Revivals lounge, and lounges each end, and 14 nights POR in a water view room
But of course, this is just the start, still got to arrange car hire, Friday night Gatwick hotel room and car parking and another discussion over do I get a wheelchair or not.
I don't want to, as to me its giving in to the disability, but DW knows I cant do the distances required on my gammy leg. That's a battle still going on. Thoughts please if you have been in the same situation
I will update as we get closer to the trip
thanks for reading this far (promise, actual trip report will be more pictures, less words
)
