Two Muggles and the 17 Nights of Sorcery - The Prequel (GONE LIVE!)

[Daysleeper40]

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

FINALLY!!

I have been waiting literally YEARS to start this trippie and I can't tell you how happy I am to be typing right now. I guess the polite (and traditional) thing to do first is introduce the cast:

First up my lovely OH Mark who I will mainly refer to as M throughout. He is aged 34, a coaster fanatic, loves all things Seaworld & Universal -

...and then there is me. Name is Fi, age 31, love all things Universal, Seaworld and Busch Gardens. Teeny bit of a Harry Potter fanatic (ok - I've read all the books at least 30 times and can I just say about Snape - I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!) -

SO... where to begin?

I suppose a bit of background is in order. M & I have been together for 8 and a bit years and we have been on plenty of great holidays together. One does stand out as a tiny bit special though - the Florida Extravaganza of 2007. Link to the Ooo-de-lally Tour Trip Report is in my sig if you care to read about our last foray into the delights of Orlando. If you can't be bothered then let me just tell you - it was fantastic

To cut a long story short we have been wanting to go back ever since but purposfully left it this long to:

a) Save up enough money to make it one hell of a trip and
b) Allow lots of new attractions to pop up in our absence so we have loads of new experiences on this trip

We have done a lot of planning (and spending) in preparation and now it is only two weeks till we jet off I think it is time to unveil the grand plan to anyone who happens to be reading this. So without further ado - here it is!

**I am going to include links for information purposes - I found trip reports really helpful in planning our first trip back in 2007 and ate up any info I could get. I am hoping this trippie will help a few first-timers in the same way**

Duration: 17 nights, flights and accomodation booked through Virgin Holidays

Tickets:

14 Day Disney (we don't want or need 14 days but it was on a deal for the price of 7 days)

14 Day Flex Ticket Plus

Blue Man Group

Discovery Cove including Dolphin Swim

...and various behind the scenes tours etc that I will go into more detail in a minute.

Accomodation: Gatwick Sofitel & Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City

Transport: Anything but a hire car. We will drive to Gatwick and use airport parking, use the I-Ride Trolley for International Drive, hotel transport to Disney, Disney Buses / Monorail, Busch Gardens Express, walk to US / IOA... and use Taxi's when we want to. We REALLY don't like driving on holiday!

Itinerary:

Sunday 8th May - Twilight check in and overnight stay at the Gatwick Sofitel. Dinner at Giraffe.

Monday 9th May - V-Room is first order of the day and then all being well we take off at 13:00. Arrive in Orlando and take the Virgin bus to our hotel. Dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.

Tues 10th May - BIG day planned:
8:10 shuttle to Epcot and then onto...
Typhoon Lagoon in the morning
Hollywood Studios in the afternoon
EPCOT in the Evening
... return shuttle picks up from EPCOT at 9:45

Wed 11th May - EPCOT all day with dinner at Coral Reef or San Angel Inn (I currently have reservations for both as I can't make up my mind!)

Thurs 12th May - I-Drive / Shopping / Crazy Golf. Cinema trip in the evening.

Fri 13th May - Where better to spend Friday the 13th than Magic Kingdom??

...and that there is Disney done.

All right, all right, calm down... I know that statement is probably not going to come naturally to a lot of you but fact is - we aren't massive Disney fans and just prefer the other non-Disney parks. Honestly - I think the magic will be happening elsewhere on this trip

We have our 14 day Disney tickets so the option to spend more time is there... can't see it happening though with all the other stuff we have planned:

Sat 14th May - US & dinner at Citywalk (I'm thinking Latin Quarter)

Sun 15th May - IOA... HARRY POTTER DAY!!! WOOP WOOP Blue Man Group in the evening

Mon 16th May - Discovery Cove

Tues 17th May - Seaworld including Sealion Up Close Tour thingy

Wed 18th May - BGT including Tiger & Orangutan behind the scenes tour

Thurs 19th May - Seaworld including Beluga Interaction Program. I'm gunning for dinner at Bahama Breeze... M wants to go to the cinema. Gah!!

Fri 20th May - BGT including Serengeti Safari. I predict dinner will be at Denny's.

Sat 21st May - US, dinner at Citywalk

Sun 22nd May - IOA - HARRY POTTER DAY!!!

Monday 23rd May - Aquatica and maybe Wet n Wild. Cinema trip in the evening

Tues 24th May - Seaworld including Behind the Scenes Tour

Wed 25th May - Bonus Day - whatever we fancy

Thurs 26th May - Leaving Day... BOOO!! (probably a bit of shopping on I-Drive)


So that's it... the culmination of about four years of thinking & talking about what we wanted to do on our next Florida trip. Turns out we wanted to do quite a lot and do you know what... we are doing it all!

I know this is quite a full on and relatively extravagant plan but we don't know when we will next go back so we wanted this to REALLY be one to remember. Discovery Cove wasn't in the original plan but we just couldn't resist... and all the behind the scenes stuff just sort of evolved over time. I couldn't tell you what I am looking forward to most (well - today it is the Beluga experience but yesterday it was riding HULK, and the day before that I got very excited about going to Sweet Tomatoes again) apart from QUALITY time with M of course.

Anyhow - that's probably more than enough info for my first instalment... I will be back with some more of my pre-trip ramblings but right now I am off to check out backpacks online as M is desperately in need of some new hand luggage and he's fast running out of time to get something

Talk about ending on a cliff hanger

 

[jockey]

Your plans sound great

 

[Daysleeper40]

Your plans sound great

Thankyou - I am very excited now it is only a couple of weeks away!

 

[strawberry blonde]

Sounds like a fantastic trip. Have a brilliant time

 

[cannp123165]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned!

 

[irongirlof12]

your plans sound great and not long to wait now

 

[Daysleeper40]

Thanks again all

Well it has been a weird week with only 3 days at work but my god were they LOOOONG days!

It has been nice having all of the bank holidays but it does make the time when you are at work even more busy so you end up knackered anyway

Oh well - only one more week to go and we won't be working again until the last day of May!!

Today we went into town and got the final necessary items for our holiday - boring things like socks and toiletries but I have to say the purchase of the day was M's new hand luggage bag which he tell's me has perfect pockets and was also on sale at 50% off. Nice

I got some tracky bottoms to wear on the flight - not all that attractive but definatley more comfy than jeans which is what I will care about at the time.
We also went and got a £65 supply of cat food. Yep - £65 worth of their special Applaws food to keep them going while we are away. M's dad is kindly coming round to feed them and as their food is so damn expensive we didn't want to chance them running out. I swear the two little hairy people that live in our house eat better than I do!

Even though it is only a week or so away this holiday still doesn't quite feel real. I don't feel I've done nearly enough preperation but I guess it is just that everything was new in 2007 - but we mostly know what to expect this time around. I'm feeling quite relaxed about it... I'm sure that will change in the few days before we leave and I will become frantic!!

I wasn't going to include anything about this in my trip report but it feels wrong to leave it out so I wil also just say that earlier this year my dad was been diagnosed with cancer and my grandad also recently passed away. My grandads funeral is on the day that we fly and we will not be able to attend - which everyone is being very nice about but obviously I would rather be there. I have pretty mixed up emotions about a lot of things at the moment and in a way it feels wrong to be excited about or even going on our holiday - which I know is stupid but you can't help how your mind works sometimes. I think that is enough of that - I know we will have a fantastic time and if nothing else, what has happened this year has taught me to make the most of what you have.

SO on a lighter note - I think we are pretty much ready to go. I've even managed to pre-book our transport to BGT over the internet which is one less thing to do once we arrive. Still need to email the hotel and pre-book ourselves on the Disney transport and add some more funds to the Caxton card - but otherwise we are surprisingly organised... I hope!!

 

[Linda67]

Your plans look great, you must be so excited now

Have an amazing trip, look forward to hearing all about it when you return.

WWOHP is amazing and you will just love it

 

[jjk]

your plans sound great

 

[jen_uk]

Sounds like a great trip Sorry about your dad and granddad

 

[Daysleeper40]

Thanks all - I'm sure we will have a great time and now I really am excited...

because we are at the airport!!

I'm afraid I have been a bit lax with my pre-trippie but actually, because we have been planning SO LONG there hasn't been a whole lot to say over the last few weeks of the build up. We have done little last minute things and of course there was a flurry of activity at work to try to get everything sorted before we head off for essentially the rest of may!

I am not going to say too much about today or yesterdays activities as they will form part of the actual trip report but I think I might do a few quick live updates throughout the trip so I will just say that we have checked in etc without any drama and had a nice dinner at Giraffe.

We are currently having a minor disagreement over how much we are willing to pay to upgrade to PE in the morning (aparently you can't do it the night before). They are quoting £249 per person one way which seems VERY indulgent to me but M REALLY REALLY wants to upgrade and tbh - who am I to argue if he wants to pay on his CC?!

Frankly I'm not sure I could talk him out of it anyway so I'm not going to try. We will just have to see what they have available in the morning. Either way we have checked in and have our seats at the back of the plane where we wanted them if in Economy so it's all good.

So thats about it for now - trying to stay up late to get in the right time zone (have been doing this for a few days now) so have just drank a big mug of coffee so should be buzzing soon (as if I need more excitement!) - am going to go do a bit of people watching out of the Sofitel window (we are overlooking the terminal). Looking forward to the V-Room in the morning and maybe a swanky upgrade to PE. Fingers crossed for no delays and and a smooth journey...

 

[jjk]

have a fab time and fingers crosses for your upgrade

 

[Daysleeper40]

So the upgrade was pretty cool

Never been so comfy on a plane - not only did we get PE, we got exit row PE! M was very happy and it was worth the money...

We had a fantastic first day too with a waterpark and two theme parks - and may I say our plans were impecable yesterday. So we've been here one day and done Typhoon Lagoon & Hollywood Studios, and also ridden Mission Space and seen Illuminations. No horrible wait times and we managed to avoid "Tired & Cranky" all day.

We are back to Epcot today - shuttle bus picks us up at 8.10 so I'd better go get ready!

 

[tony64]

Never flown PE but have always wanted too. Sounds like all your planning has paid off.

 

[Daysleeper40]

Thanks Tony - they really have so far!

We have finished with Disney for this holiday now - second day was Epcot and third was Magic Kingdom. Both were scorching hot days and we had a good time at both parks but Epcot definately wins for me. M still likes DHS best.

We have also now been to US and IOA and the new rides / areas since our last trip in 2007 have beenjust awesome. I'm (obviously) a bit Harry Potter fan so WWOHP blew me away and I'm not sure I've ever seen M so excited as when we came of Rip Ride Rockit for the first time!!

We went to Blue Man Group this evening which was even better than I remembered it and we are now entering our week of animal interactions and extra tours.

We start with Discovery Cove in the morning so I'd better get to sleep.

Night Night!

 

[Chilly]

Snape is my favourite character as well. Off to read your report now.