The OMG-my-husband-is-so-frickin-awesome Pre-Trip Report

[RobynPrincess]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I guess you're thinking what is this mad woman on about?? I mean, we all know how awesome my hubby is anyway (I know, pass the sick bucket) but he has kinda outdone himself now...

If you have read my PTR for our October trip 'The One With All The Birthdays' you will know that this year I turn 30, on July 2nd in fact. Now I've never had any desire to visit Orlando over my birthday (4th July craziness) so we arranged a big trip with my parents and in laws who almost all turn 60 this year too. For my actual birthday we are heading to London for afternoon tea at The Ritz *swoon* and I'm having a small gathering at the weekend following. I knew Sy wanted to take me on a mini break for my birthday, somewhere with a hotel that's a bit special for a few nights somewhere in Europe. I know this because he told me - you see I'm not a fan of surprises, its probably cause I'm too much of a control freak I love that he came up with the idea himself but then got my input a bit on where I would like to go etc. So off he trots looking at places online. He was looking at 3 nights somewhere at about £200 per night plus travel costs and spending money. Well then I start to search online, just to get ideas you understand and of course I just had to check Orlando prices, would be rude not to... Well would you know we could go to Orlando for a week for the price of 3 nights in Europe?! But that was before my birthday and not after - which was fine by me (even better if you ask me as the schools here in the UK don't break up till mid to late July so Europe gets busy after my birthday). Before you know it he was the online holiday booking form at work checking he still had enough time for a week off considering the amount of time off he would be taking in October. He DID have enough time off! Woohoo! So then out came the creditcard and a trip to Orlando was booked

So I'm going to Orlando erm, NEXT WEEK! For the grand total of £710 for 2 flights, and hotel. Sadly there wasn't enough availability in any DVC resort, we could have halved it and spend some time onsite and some off but there were only 4 nights in the middle available at SSR and so we decided that rather than move hotels 3 times we would just get a mid-range offsite hotel that was on offer on the flight's own website So we are staying a week half way up International Drive at the Avanti Resort, it gets good reviews online and it was such a bargain price so it can't be too bad.

I'm slightly nervous by how busy and hot its gonna be, I can sense we will be having a lot of down time in the afternoons. I had a look at the crowd calendar and its at 9/10 one of the day - YIKES!



Coming up, daily plans!

 

[RobynPrincess]

Some plans...


In most cases I've tried to plan the fastpasses close together so if we are feeling too hot or its too busy, we can pop back to the hotel without having to miss some of our passes.

Thursday 12th
We are flying with Monarch to Sanford, bit nervous as they aren't the best but hey, as long as they get us there safely its not the end of the world. We leave London at 10am local time and we arrive at 2:50pm. Still working on the car hire but will be picking that up once we land and then hopefully arrive at our hotel by 5pm, earlier if we can but I'm fully aware of the immigration queue and how bad it can get (though its not as bad at Sanford as MCO). The plan will be get showered and unpack and then go find some food, and stop off at Walmart to grab some drinks. Depending on how tired we are I have made some fastpass reservations at MK but if we are too tired we just wont use them. Jungle cruise, Big thunder mountain and Splash mountain.

Friday 13th (eek!)
AK gets the lowest crowd predictions so that's where we are heading. We will no doubt be up early unless we managed to stay awake the night before so have made fastpass+ for FOTLK at 11:30am followed by Dinosaur at 12:30pm and then Kali at 1:30pm. If we are flagging we will head back to the hotel for a nap. AK is open till 9pm so we could go back later on

Saturday 14th
MK
Fastpass+ for Pirates at 10:45am, Haunted Mansion at 12:15pm and Splash at 7:50pm. I have also made an ADR for the Garden View Tea Room at 4:55pm for some yummy afternoon tea

Sunday 15th
Epcot
Fastpass+ for Spaceship Earth at 9:35am, Figment at 10:55am and Soarin' at 12:05pm. Also have a lunchtime ADR at Chef de France at 1:50pm Depending on how hot and bothered we are we may head back to the hotel to chill out for a bit in the afternoon and head back to Epcot for the evening, will see how we feel.

Monday 16th
HS
Fastpass+ for Great Movie Ride at 12:35pm, TSM at 1:50pm and ToT at 3:35pm. I'm also hoping to try drawing a character in the Animation Academy and catch a show of Beauty and the Beast. Not 100% sure about Fantasmic, I couldn't make a reservation for it and I don't fancy queuing up for an hour beforehand so we might just have to wait till October.

Tuesday 17th
TL
I'm thinking we will head to TL early, maybe do a ride or 2 but probably just hang out in the lazy river and the wave pool. If we get there for park opening we will probably have had enough by about 2pm and head out again, back to the hotel to change and make our way to AK. Fastpass+ for Dinosaur at 4:50pm, Kilimanjaro Safari at 5:50pm and Kali at 7pm. We also have an ADR for Yak and Yeti at 6:15pm (Kali runs from 7 till 8 so should be plenty of time).

Wednesday 18th
Our last full day
Start the day over in Epcot. No fastpasses there though as in the afternoon we will head over to MK.
Fastpass+ for Festival of Fantasy Parade (don't want a repeat of March!), Jungle Cruise 8:20pm and - get this - 11:20pm meet and greet with Anna and Elsa!! Don't ask me how I managed to snag that one, but I did! I'm very excited We also have an ADR at the Plaza at 5:20pm.

Thursday 19th
I haven't made any fastpasses for this day, going to play it by ear over the week and see where we want to return to for a few hours. Our flight leaves at 4:50pm, we will need to be at the airport by 2:30pm so we will need to leave Disney by 1:30pm just to be on the safe side. We may decide to skip visiting a park at all and just spend the day by the pool in our resort, who knows.

Friday 20th
Arrive home at 6:50am

I've already packed the cases. I can't quite believe I'm going to be in Orlando this time next week!!

 

[ScottishDisMam]

Wowzer, you are a very lucky girl! You'll have a great time and I hope you'll find time to do a trippie when you get back! Well done Sy!

 

[BudgieMama]

How exciting! Following along!

 

[darthtatty]

wow lucky you.
Id love a last minute trip, one day

 

[dixonsontour]

Have fun

The avanti is next to Friendly's isn't it?

We flew Monarch cheap and cheerful on our late deal in 2012- no complaints.

On the way out I got a seat on my own (DH got DD) one of the best flights i've had!

 

[PJB71]

Wow fantastic news Robyn

Your DH must of earned himself some real brownie points

 

[RobynPrincess]

In case you didn't know who we are, he's a pic of us on our last trip in September. Our first morning at 1900 Park Fare.



I'm almost 30 (duh!) and Sy is 32 in September. I'm into the make believe side of Disney whereas Sy is all about the behind the scenes stuff.

We are pretty much sorted here now, I mean I still have a list of things to do that's an arm's length long (boring stuff like empty fridge and bins etc) but the cases are packed, we have a sitter ready for the cat and we are almost on holiday mode Sy just as 1 day of work to get through tomorrow.

Still need to put some movies on my iPad though seeing as Monarch doesn't have seatback TVs to keep us busy, will make sure that job gets done tonight... Sy didn't get round to it last time and I was mighty annoyed LOL

We are heading over to my In Laws tomorrow once Sy is done 'working from home' as they live about 15 mins from the airport, gotta drop the cat off first with our friend who took pity and said she would have him for the week (she's also having him in October, I just hope this 1 week puts her off hehe) will probably have dinner at the in laws, then bed at a decent time seeing as we have to be up at 6:30am.

Managed to arrange a last min meet with our friends who live in Orlando for Friday evening. We are meeting Carrie and Mark at Tilted Kilt on I Drive :-/

 

[RobynPrincess]

Oh boy he has earned some big, big brownie points

I'll def be doing some sort of TR

I'm not 100% if its next to friendly's, but that's more cause I don't know where friendly's is!

I'm not really looking forward to the flight but as long as it gets us there safe it can't be TOO bad...

 

[Wills]

Wow lucky you. You have some lovely things lined up to do for your birthday and now this holiday too. And of course not forgetting your trip later in the year.

I'm so pleased I've found your trippies on here, used to love reading them on the dibb. Looking forward to hearing all about this trip

 

[SilentK]

Just found your report, can't wait to read the rest.

Happy belated birthday! It's my turn next year, September. I said if it has to happen it's happening in Disney!

 

[RobynPrincess]

Wow lucky you. You have some lovely things lined up to do for your birthday and now this holiday too. And of course not forgetting your trip later in the year.

I'm so pleased I've found your trippies on here, used to love reading them on the dibb. Looking forward to hearing all about this trip

Aww thank you! Its nice to know i'm missed

Just found your report, can't wait to read the rest.

Happy belated birthday! It's my turn next year, September. I said if it has to happen it's happening in Disney!

well exactly, its gotta be the only place to do it