Our Two Weeks in Sunny Florida!

[Neeny17]

Hi and welcome to my pre - trip report! I know it's quite early yet, but I just couldn't wait! Right! First up with the cast:

Me (Nina) age 18, huge Disney fan, favourite character is Mushu.

DB (Callum) age 14 (will be 15 when we go) completely obsessed with Star Wars, Lego and animating.

DM (Marion) age undisclosed . Tolerant of my Disney obsession.

DF (Michael, aka The Grinch) pretends to be cynical of everything Disney, cute and magical. Looking forward to the food we'll eat.

Dates: 19th August - 4th September (cutting it close for Mum and Callum to get back to school and work- luckily something I won't have to worry about any more)

Accomodation: A villa.

Places and things:

14 day Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure tickets

1 Day Disney hopper passes (compensation from a minor bus collision we were in last time we were there)

1 Day at Kennedy Space Centre

An airboat ride

Also, me and Mum are hoping to be able to volunteer for a couple of days at the Give Kids the World Village. This was my idea:after reading some lovely Wish trip reports on her I thought it would be a really worthwile thing to do.

Our Disney Day (the day most planned by me, tee hee)
Animal Kingdom from rope drop to closing:
Safari
Kali River Rapids
FOLK
Finding Nemo Musical
Character Hunting (hoping I can be brave enough)
Possibly EE (it'll just be me and Dad; Callum and Mum had a bad experience last time when my Dad tricked them into going on by saying "It's just like Big Thunder Mountain I promise!" )
Oh and Rainforest Cafe for lunch

Downtown Disney:
Earl of Sandwich
Design a Tee
World of Disney
Days of Christmas
The Lego Shop (sigh)

Hollywood Studios:
Tower of Terror
Star Tours
Art of Animation
Fantasmic!

Not much planning has been done for the Universal parks because we've never been there before, but we already definately know that we want to go to Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Zeussland sounds good too and, well all of Universal looks good actually. If anyone can think of anything else that we should do whilst there and if you can recommend any good Universal rides then great! Thanks!

By the way, this is a picture from when we were in Florida in Summer '09 (our first time). See how we've changed in 2 years!:

TTFN!

 

[Neeny17]

Nothing much more has happened on the holiday front, except for the usual speech about tightening our belts and my parents making a budget plan. So, I figured I might as well tell you a bit about us.

First of all my parents: they've been happily married for twenty years and enjoy joking about how they'd never split up because no - one else would take them. My dad loves pretending to be mean and frequently calls me and Callum his little leeches. Our nickname for him is The Grinch and our mission is to find him a Grinch t - shirt in Universal. However, he is actually quite sweet (most of the time). He is a sheet metal worker and doesn't really like it so the holiday is the best time of the year.

My mum is a wonderful woman who tries to keep the peace in the household but can have a bit of a short temper, meaning that she and my brother argue a lot. Mum works as a HLTA and ICT whizz in a primary school and she really likes her job, though gets frustrated with the lack of ict time during the day (meaning she often has to stay on.

Callum is going through the terrible teens (and has been since he was about 10 ) He is often argumentative, annoying and can have a really bad attitude (which explains the clashes with my mum). He has dyspraxia which means that he has problems with some school stuff (especially maths) and gets picked on a lot. It doesn't help that he is quite small and skinny, plus has no self esteem when it comes to his own strength (he can almost pick me up)It makes me really angry when he comes home from school with another story about how certain boys in his class have hurt him/taunted him/tried to sabotage his work. He's got a bit better at sticking up for himself recently, but mostly just tries to hang out in the library to stay out of trouble. He is in year 10 at the moment.He is a complete star wars nut and LOVES lego, Indianna Jones and Doctor Who. However, his biggest passion is making stop - go lego animations. He is really looking forward to riding Star Tours 2 and going to the Lego Shop in DTD.

Me: I'm 18 years old and am in my 2nd (and last) year of college. In fact I'll be picking up my A Level results the day before we fly out to Florida. I'm quite glad because it'll mean that I won't have to spend the whole trip worrying about my results. I won't be going to University, but I'll be trying to get a job as a runner in the media. I'm very scared and excited about doing this and just not being in education. I really love reading and will happily curl up for hours with a good book. I also like films and listening to music. In fact itunes is probably my biggest vice. I'm on the Dis a lot, often lurking on trip reports because I get nervous that I'll sound stupid. I'm mostly looking forward to out Disney day.

Actually, we have sort of planned the first couple of days of the trip. Just an outline:
Travel Day
Get up at about 4am (eek!) and I believe our close friend Liz has offered to drive us to the airport . Get breakfast whilst waiting for our flight which is at about 10am.

*Nine hour flight later*

We'll probably land at about 2pm Florida time. Get our rented car and drive to the villa via a Walgreens or whichever shop comes first to pick up a few essential items (tea bags, snacks etc) and by the time we get to the villa it will probably be 4pm (just guesstimating), but to us it will feel like its 9pm. Last time we made the mistake of falling alseep at about 7 - 8pm and woke up at 3am, so we'll try to stay awake this time.

Day 1
Go to our favourite buffet breakfast 'The Golden Carrall'! We loved this place last time and are very keen to try it again. After stuffing ourselves the plan is to go to a supermarket and stock up for the week. After that we may go to DTD. But the first couple of days are mostly getting used to the time difference and getting familiar with the area. After that we have no idea!

If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions or comments please, be my guest! I need someone to enthuse to about this!

 

[Neeny17]

Mum and Dad at the pond before christmas.

Callum on christmas day.

Me and Callum on christmas day.

Me after the Running Club christmas dinner.

 

[Neeny17]

Hi I know I haven't been on here in ages (not on this thread anyway ) and if theres anyone reading along then I'm sorry. The update is that we've fully paid for the holiday and bought all of the tickets!!! This is a big deal for us because it means that we're actually 100% sure that we're going!!! The tickets that we have bought are:

* Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure 14 day unlimited access.
* Kennedy Space Centre tickets.
*The Pirates Dinner Show
We've also decided to go to Boggy Creek for an airboat ride. We already have our one day Disney hopper ticket and because of the Disney freak that I am I've already planned that day down to a T . It is to get up early and get to Animal Kingdom for rope drop, then straight to the safari to catch the animals whilst they're outside. After that, the Kali River Rapids and if anyone *cough* dad *cough* want to go on Everest then they are free to do so.
I am also planning on seeing Festival of the Lion King and the Finding Nemo show as I found both amazing. I also want to get in some character greetings as I've (mostly) got over my silly fear of them. We plan to have lunch in The Rainforest Cafe and see the parade as we missed it last time. When AK closes we'll be dashing to Disney's Hollywood Studios for me and dad to go on Tower of Terror and to go on the new Star Tours ride (mainly for my brother the Star Wars nut ) but mainly to see Fantasmic as that was another one we missed.
In other news, we have got some of our dollars because the exchange rate has been so good and my lovely, adorable Grandad or Danna as we call him, gave me and Callum £150 each !!! This is him:

So we're building up a nice little kitty. Anywho, thats all so see ya next time!

 

[Neeny17]

Hi! I know I haven't updated in ages, but I'm here now. I've been busy with my A Levels and then getting over the stress of doing them. The results come in on the 18th - thats the day before we go so the trip will be either (for me) a celebration or a comiseration. fingers crossed for the former. Anyway, my Uncle wanted to see a trip itinerary so we now have a tentative one!

Friday 19th August - Fly out at 9:30am from Gatwick. We're doing online check in so won't have to get there as early, but we'll still have to get up at about 3am. We'll arrive in Florida at about 2:30pm (thats American time). Its a nine and a half hour flight by the way. We'll pick up our hire car and villa info then go there via a supermarket to pick up some essentials.

Saturday 20th August - Last time the Thomas Cook travel reps were inviting customers to a breakfast meeting at Pasta More to talk about all the things on offer in the area. We didn't go last time but if they're doing it or soemthing similar this time we are planning to do that. If not then it will be the Golden Carale for breakfast. After that we're planning to do a more heavy duty shop in a supermarket, then back to the villa for swimming.

Sunday 21st August - Downtown Disney! We want to do this early on in the trip, partly because the lego store is all my brother has been talking about, he's kind of obsessed with it and has made a detailed, everchanging list of what he wants, how much its going to cost and how much he will have left over for 'ordinary souvenirs'. Doing it early on will save a lot of trouble later on. Plus I need my Disney kick. Lunch will be at the Earl of Sandwich because we love it there! Later on we might have a look around Old Town Kissimee.

Monday 22nd August - Islands of Adventure! Specifically the Wizarding World. This is supposed to be Universal's quietest day so we're thinking it would be a good time to hit this area.

Tuesday 23rd August - The rest of Islands of Adventure.

Wednesday 24th August - Boggy Creek Airboat Ride and then the Pirates Dinner Show in the evening.

Thursday 25th August - Disney Day! Our plan is to get to Animal Kindom for rope drop, spend as long as we want there and then to go over to Hollywood Studios and go and see Fantasmic.

Friday 26th August - Universal Studios Park

Saturday 27th August - Lazy day at the villa and then to Old Town Kissimee for the evening Classic Car Cruise.

Sunday 28th August - Spend some time in Downtown Kissimee and have lunch there.

Monday 29th August - Universal Studios.

Tuesday 30th August - Kennedy Space Centre.

Wednesday 31st August - Either more time at Universal or Gatorland.

Thursday 1st September - Nothing planned yet. Most likely whatever we didn't do on Wednesday.

Friday 2nd September - Evening flight home.

 

[Neeny17]

This is just a quickie to say: Woohoooo! Single digits dance! Only 9 days to go!

 

[ChiCat]

OMG your family is adorable can you believe I lived in Tampa, Florida from the ages of 13-17 and never went to Disney or Universal? I've still never been to either and people keep strongly suggesting we go while we are down there for WDW but I still have no desire.

Your trip sounds so exciting though, I hope you have a blast!

 

[Neeny17]

OMG your family is adorable can you believe I lived in Tampa, Florida from the ages of 13-17 and never went to Disney or Universal? I've still never been to either and people keep strongly suggesting we go while we are down there for WDW but I still have no desire.

Your trip sounds so exciting though, I hope you have a blast!

My family are very flattered that you think them adorable, thank you! You lived in Florida? So cool! Well, the theme park tickets are very expensive so I can't really blame you. I was a bit iffy about Universal when my parents first said we were going (even though we've only been to Disney once I'm a fully converted disciple of the Mouse ) But now I've researched it more I'm really looking forward to it!

Also yay! First comment!

 

[Neeny17]

Hi! Just a quick one; firstly I am sooooooo excited! I just can't believe its tomorrow! There was a small change to the itinerary (big surprise there) and we are swapping Tuesdays activities with Wednesdays. Secondly (or thirdly?) I am absolutely terrified. The reason? Today is the day when my A Level results come in and in a few hours I'll be walking down to college to collect them.

 

[Neeny17]

Phew! Passed them all!
Communications and Culture: B
English Lang & Lit: C
ICT: D
Media Studies: C
Computer Modelling EPQ: E (yeah i know, that ones not too good. In my defense computer modelling is really hard!) but yeah, I'm really happy that I did good.

 

[Neeny17]

Hi! Just to say that we're all back safely; arrived back in the UK at about 5.30am. We had a fab time and I will be starting a trip report tomorrow. TTFN!

 

[Neeny17]

Hey! Just to say i started my TR and here is the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=42528849#post42528849