Return to the Magic- Our Pre Trip Report

Yes we get to Coronado on Sun 14th for 12 nights. Took a while to decide, we loved OKW but wanted somewhere different this time. My DD (age 19 next year) didn't fancy the sofa bed at Saratoga so we had a good look at the moderates. I thought Coronado sounded as if it had more food and drink options and less bus stops than Carribean beach, it also seems to have a more grown up feel. We upgraded to DDP cos we do like our table service restaurants! I've looked at lots of you tube videos and am following the refurb with interest!!
Very excited to try somewhere new - we'll see you there!
 
One of my first purchases for our trip has arrived! I have a new pack-a-mack type raincoat... with Olaf on!! It's so cute and much nicer than the one I bought for last time! I love it!

It's totally normal for a 30 year old to have an Olaf raincoat, right?!
 


Urgh! I hate the waiting for flights!

Last time, the flights were a price we were happy with, and as we booked in September, we booked our flights and our package on the same day, and we were happy, happy, happy.

Now I'm waiting, and wondering, and pricing up lots of options, and second guessing myself and I hate it! I just want to have my flights book and then I can relax... but they're so expensive, and Virgin haven't released their pricing yet (I'd love to fly with them this time, as BA keep disappointing us, but DH keeps saying "it's just A-B: deal with it!")

Gah! Should I keep the booking or cancel and book everything with BA or Virgin or someone else? ARGHHH!
 
Where do you need to fly from? Thomas Cook do Stanstead or Manchester and are reasonable or you could look at Thomson. Just a thought! I don't think you would save anything with a flight inclusive package. :boat:
 


Ideally, Gatwick. We're 45 minutes from it on a direct train. (We're south of Gatwick). Stansted is so much further and harder to get to. We've looked at the Thomas Cook flights, but we'd need accommodation for the night before departure and the train would be more expensive so we have to factor that into the cost.

Other option is flying via Dublin from Southampton which is even more convenient than Gatwick.
 
Have you looked at Thomson Dreamliner. They have some reasonable prices from Gatwick around your dates. You would have to talk to Disney about altering dates slightly. You would also have to factor in transfers as they fly to Sanford not MCO (quicker immigration!) Also add luggage!! We've booked them from Newcastle - don't mind too much about transfers as going to Universal first.
Hope you get something your happy with!! :yay:
 
Still seems to be coming in around £2k for the two of us with them, and obviously we'd have to factor in a transport cost from Sanford as you said, plus any extra cost from Disney's perspective.

I'm sure we'll get something, it's just the waiting I don't like! We're not stuck with BA this year (we had a voucher to use last time so we had to fly with them), and I suspect their prices will have to come down when the other airlines release their pricing.

We're keeping an eye on the partner airlines who codeshare with the big two as well, and will probably give Disney a call after the 11 month mark to see if they can offer us a decent price if we add a flight onto our package as well.
 
The waiting is hard, but as your dates become more available with other airlines releasing, you should start to see more prices and they should start to drop.

I have signed up our dates for the Sky Scanner price alerts for Gatwick & Dublin direct flights. So far, only Iberia have released prices for direct flights from Gatwick, which are currently working out around £2,300! And that is before we even add on flights to Gatwick! :scared1:

Ideally we want to fly direct from Dublin to save us a flight to the mainland, dummy quotes with Aer Lingus were bringing up some good prices for similar dates for this year when I original started looking months ago, but they haven't released yet for Sept 2016.
 
Hi! I've gotten way behind again :guilty:
We returned from Orlando about a week ago (Universal and a day in MK) and I just realized you're now less than a year away from your trip :cheer2:!! So exciting! And happy belated anniversary :flower3:
I obviously can't help you with flights lol but I can wish you good luck. Have you looked any more at the signature restaurants? We've eaten at 2, Hollywood Brown Derby in HS (really liked it) and Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club for our anniversary (LOVED it!!) I know you think are meals are really big lol, and the sig. restaurants are definitely more expensive, but they are very nice to eat at for special occasions. We're taking the kids to Narcoossee's in Nov. since you can watch the fireworks from their deck, and DH & I plan to try a couple more signatures when the 2 of us go in January.
 
Can I just say: Avios SUCK!

We've had a household BA Executive Club account for a couple of years, and a household Avios account. We were told it was really easy to combine points, swap which account their in, etc, etc... WRONG! That's only possible for personal accounts- no-one told us when setting up our household accounts (DH and I can earn some things separately, so we have separate accounts that we had combined) that we would no longer be able to combine points from the two separate accounts.

30K in BA and 15K in Avios combines to £300 off our WDW flights: not to be sniffed at. Go to BA, 3 clicks and our accounts are separated and ready to receive points... go to Avios. Print form, fill in form, need to live chat them twice to get email address to send to and to figure out what our three separate account numbers are (because nowhere does it actually tell us our account number for the household account), now DH is scanning the form to send to them and we have to wait at least 48 hours for them to process this account separation so we can send the Avios points to our BA account. What a blooming faff!

Needless to say, we will not be creating a new household account with Avios, and BA are getting all the points!
 
Had a bit of a stress las night when DH decided he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back... when I'm due to book our flights on Monday. All sorted now (I think) but not sure he'll be wanting another trip after this one. I've already got things in mind to make sure I get back to WDW, however, so not stressing about that now.

In other news, I am 99% sure we will be booking our flights first thing on Monday when Virgin open our return date. I've been stalking prices all week, and it looks like they are coming in around £900 a head, which is more than we wanted to pay, but that's currently £700 cheaper than BA and even cheaper that indirect with BA, which is ridiculous! But I'd like them booked (and then DH can't back out!!)

Fingers crossed we get in on time. :)
 
Hope you're able to get a good price on Monday! The cost of a WDW holiday is a bit scary and can really mount up if you go frequently. Perhaps you'll need to have longer gaps between them. You could always try DLP for a cheaper Disney fix inbetween. August 2016 at Coronado is going to be fabulous ( lovely weather, beautiful clean rooms, regular buses and helpful CM's) at least that's what my crystal ball is telling me. :tinker:
 
On Virgin's site at 8am as new prices came online. Glitch, glitch, glitch- and all the cheap fares are gone for our return date. Currently trying to book indirect on the way home, but that's glitching too. Not a happy bunny. :( Just keeps telling me they're having issues, but when I called this morning at 8.05am, they couldn't help. :(
 
@micksn - Yeah. I'd had nightmares during the night about trying to book the flights and watching them disappear, and then it happened for real.

Nothing booked now, and DH suggesting maybe we should go somewhere else instead and cut our losses with WDW. I need some pixie dust! pixiedust:
 

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