The Parker family are heading back to the World!! WDW 2014

[Hayley94]

Hello lovely Dis people!
I'm venturing back on to the boards for my first ever PTR (I've lurked for a looooong time so i'm hoping i've got the hang of the whole thread thing now!)
Here's a little background:

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Me: I'm Hayley, I live just outside of London with my mum and dad and i'm currently a student baker at the National School of Bakery. I'm the biggest Disneyphile in the family, and i'm extremely excited to be heading back to Orlando next summer!

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The Family: and there's all of us! me, my mum Rose-Marie, dad Phil, sister Katie and Katie's boyfriend Chris

The Trip: We are heading over the Atlantic next July (we are constrained to school holidays as mum is a teacher) Mum, dad and I will be flying to Chicago for a 3 night sightseeing stopover then heading down to MCO to meet up with Katie and Chris, and head off to our villa!

We've been to WDW three times before (though this is Chris' first time coming with us!) and always stayed offsite, I do love having our own pool! If it were up to me then there would be ADRs and itineraries aplenty, but this is probably going to be a bit more relaxed and less planned out I'll post our plans as we make them, and there will also be a fair bit about offsite activities, and what we're planning to see outside of the World!
Less than a year until we're back!!!!!!

 

[RDP]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned, looking forward to lots of Pics!

1999-Swan, 2001- Grand Floridian, 2002-Yacht & Beach Club, 2003- Animal Kingdom Lodge,2004- Grand Floridian&Disney Cruise,2006- Off site, 2008- Dolphin, 2009-AKV Kidani, 2010-Saratoga Springs ,2011-AKV Kidani ,2012 - Port Orleans, DCL-Dream & Beach Club, 2013 - AKV Kidani

 

[Cinderella]

Hi Hayley. We are also returning to Orlando after several years away, and like you we are planning for next summer because of school. Looking forward to hearing about your plans. We are doing one week offsite followed by the second week offsite. I would have liked to have done the villa with pool option this time, but the teens are WL addicts.

 

[foxxxy83]

Looking forward to reading about your plans Hayley!

 

[tinks_1989]

Hello,

Are you torsie's friend/bridesmaid?

X

 

[Hayley94]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned, looking forward to lots of Pics!

1999-Swan, 2001- Grand Floridian, 2002-Yacht & Beach Club, 2003- Animal Kingdom Lodge,2004- Grand Floridian&Disney Cruise,2006- Off site, 2008- Dolphin, 2009-AKV Kidani, 2010-Saratoga Springs ,2011-AKV Kidani ,2012 - Port Orleans, DCL-Dream & Beach Club, 2013 - AKV Kidani

Looking forward to reading about your plans Hayley!

Hi Hayley. We are also returning to Orlando after several years away, and like you we are planning for next summer because of school. Looking forward to hearing about your plans. We are doing one week offsite followed by the second week offsite. I would have liked to have done the villa with pool option this time, but the teens are WL addicts.

Hi everyone! Thank you, it's lovely to have you all reading- our must do's are next on my to-post list, hope you're all ready for some florida dream riddled rambling

Hello,

Are you torsie's friend/bridesmaid?

X

That's me! In fact it was Tors that introduced me to the wonder of the dis!!!

 

[tinks_1989]

That's me! In fact it was Tors that introduced me to the wonder of the dis!!!

I remember from her planning journal.

 

[pampat]

Happy Planning!

Pam

 

[wilma-bride]

Hi Hayley

Just moved this over to the UK Trip Reports board. Nice to see you back on the DIS, looking forward to hearing more about your plans

 

[BudgieMama]

Following

 

[jen_uk]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[Hayley94]

Hello Disers!
In this post Christmas lull I find it particularly necessary to think of our next trip, now just over half a year (wahhh so long ) away. We now have all our flights, Chicago hotel and the villa completely sorted- just down to details now, my preferred aspect of planning!

Now here are the three things that I just can't wait to see!

ahhhhhhhhhh Skydeck wonder I think the love of heights and great views are a genetic trait- we are definitely looking forward to this!

What can I say other than

and last but by no means least:

absolute magic probably my favourite view in all the parks, this sight just makes me feel like i'm a 6 year old again

There'll be a lot of planning to do as well, as luckily 2014 will be a multiple trip year! My dad is a keen runner and has been accepted into the Paris marathon this april, so we have a 3 night break there to plan too! I'm so excited, everything is booked now, just final details to sort there too! (such as how many patisseries are on the marathon course ) We won't be going to DLRP, I've not been since I was about 5 but we'll be heading to WDW later in the year to get our fill of Disney then

Happy New Year everyone! Bring on 2014

 

[Hayley94]

Ahhh I promised myself I wouldn’t abandon this- I haven’t stuck to that well enough! 2014 has been just about as busy as it could be for me, with my uni work, real work, and lots of cake orders! I’ve finally made it back here for a planning update, and to pick out some bits and pieces both on and off site that we’ve loved on our previous 3 trips to Orlando and definitely want to revisit.

So, planning wise we have the flights for all 5 of us (which was very complicated to sort out as my sister and her boyfriend are flying to meet us in Orlando when we will be flying from Chicago), hotel for the Windy city, villa and rental car all sorted- the big thing that we still have to sort out is our park tickets. I’ve been trying to gently nudge mum on this for a while; I’m even enough of a geek that I made up a table of the different options available to us for tickets (all that uni work I was talking about and I still manage to squeeze in pointless table making, good time management there!)
I think we’ll end up with 14 day hoppers for WDW, then we’ll buy separate tickets for Universal and Seaworld (we aren’t too fussed about Busch gardens, Wet’n’Wild, Aquatica etc. So the Flexticket and other such grouped passes aren’t necessary) they should all be pre booked soon!

The only thing I’ve secured recently is our BOG reservation I went for an early dinner at 4pm so that we can experience the dinner service, hopefully catch a glimpse of the beast and experience the restaurant in a nice relaxed fashion, but still be able to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. I’m so excited for BOG!! We don’t have any other ADRs unfortunately; my family aren’t so crazy on having things planned out before we get there- they aren’t Disers!!

And so on to the must see and must do offsite attractions that await us in sunny Florida!

Tradtition no.1- Kennedy Space Center.
Yep, we’re massive space geeks! Led by mum, who since the Apollo 11 landings has been fascinated with space travel and exploration, passing the interest on to the rest of us. I find Kennedy a massively inspirational and powerful place, I even got a lump in my throat watching the launch video reel they play in the Apollo 11 control room back in’08, and standing under the Saturn 5 is just incredible, it’ll be Chris’ first Kennedy experience, but here’s a stunning photo of the rest of us in front of one of the launch pads 6 years ago, I really do not photograph well without sunglasses!

At 5 feet tall mum usually looks fairly tiny, but put her under this beast and she becomes a Borrower!

2- Seaworld
I love Seaworld. And with a new penguin based attraction there was no way in hell we could keep penguin lovers Katie and Chris away! Also we are all huge manatee fans, so we just can’t keep away. We aren’t too fussed about Aquatica though, I guess I just love Typhoon Lagoon too much to consider another waterpark!
Here’s my dad and sister completely entranced by the manatees, something that is sure to happen again! Might have to dedicate a whole day to them...

3- and finally for this post, WWOHP!
Though it was open on our last trip we never made it there as we only had a week (probably the average queue time for the newly opened forbidden journey at that time!) and wanted to spend some time relaxing poolside.
I was excited enough at the thought of the original Park, but learning that the Diagon Alley expansion will be opening this year has made me even more eager to get there! I’m a little bummed as I know that the queues will be insane but I’m a Potter nerd and I just can’t wait! (note- I was quite literally born to be a Harry Potter nut- my initials are H.J.P too!)
I’ve finished uni for the year now so I have no excuse not to be right on top of this until we go, just 53 days to wait now!!

P.S- I saw Maleficent yesterday, is it only me or is it the most unnecessary film Disney have made in years? I was really disappointed that rather than cleverly fitting in to the story of Sleeping Beauty it kind of chopped, changed and destroyed it. I thought it could have so much better, I went in with high hopes after Frozen being so amazing!