Waving Hello from the UK!

[Sundancer UK]

Hi all, I wont feel comfortable posting without introducing myself, so here I am!

I'm Elaine, married to Liam and mum to 4 children aged 20months to 9 years - 3 fantastic boys and a wonderful girl.
Also in our house is a lovely Labrador Tonks and our moggy cat Roz.

I have *never* owned a passport, and am hoping that my first ever one will arrive on monday! Obviously this means that we've never been on a family holiday abroad, and to be honest, we've only been on one family holiday and that was 5 years ago on honeymoon!

I have dreamed of going to Walt Disney World for as long as I can remember. Watching the Disney Club on TV and imagining got me through some rough patches as a child and I feel like there's a part of me that will be going home when I see that Magic Kingdom I've longed for

We are by no means a wealthy family, but have scrimped and saved and are managing 14 days in All Star Music, with 14 days park hopper passes. You can not imagine how happy and excited I am!

Of course it's rolling around fast now and I'm panicking about *everything* - packing, flights with 4 children, spending money, everything!

So probably you'll see a bit more of me around, and hopefully you will be nice enough to reply and help me out a little

ElaineXX

 

[Sundancer UK]

Duh - I just realised that with most of the site members being american, I shold probably have written 'vacaton' rather than 'holiday'? lol

 

[lovetoscrap]

We have quite a lot of British visitors to the site so most people understand holiday--we are just all jealous of how much time many of you can take when you come over! 2-4 weeks in Orlando would be so much more relaxing than the 5-7 days most of us take over here. Most workplaces here aren't very receptive to people taking off more than about 5 days at a time. If we took a vacation to visit England (a dream of mine) I would have 7 days to see the whole country!

Have you checked out our UK boards? We have a very active community there that can really help you out with everything you need to know about the specific UK related issues, and general planning and of course all of our other planning boards are very helpful.

 

[Sundancer UK]

Hey, thanks for the welcome!

I have seen the UK board thanks, but not looked indepth yet - there is so much to this site! I've been busy since last night reading threads

My job is voluntary (so I can also be a stay at home mum to my smallest) and my husband works for the police force so has managed to work his holiday time in to shift days when he would be off anyway. The problem here is affording it with flights and 5 new passports and all!
To be honest this really is the trip of a lifetime, I'm not sure we'll ever manage it again so we felt that one week simply wouldn't be enough to do it justice - I would be gutted if we only got to do it once and either missed stuff or rushed it all as a result.

 

[Metro West]

 

[Celidh]

Sundancer, your story very much mirrors my own. For us, this will be a trip of a lifetime. I have been saving for a few years now and can finally manage it without going into debt. My oldest will be 14 when we go, so the odds of being able to do it again before he leaves home are pretty slim. My kids have never had a proper "holiday".

I know what you mean about travelling and passports. It adds so much more. Although not in the UK, I am in Canada, so we still have a bit of a trip. I'm not sure what to tell the kids when I get their passport pics as they don't know about the trip yet. I wonder if i can convince them they need to to go to another province here in Canada. The younger two might buy it but I don't know about the oldest.

I too am so excited about the prospect of this trip. Disney is my magic place in my mind. I love Mickey. My younger son knows this and said he would ask Mickey to marry me if we ever got to go to Disney. He is so sweet. What kid wouldn't want Mickey for a dad!!

Good luck on your trip and I hope it is magical for you and yours.