Michelle's Travel Plans

So as I prepare for the start of my journey to WDW it set me thinking, what preparations do people make prior to their trips? What do others endure to get to the magic? I know I do quite a bit of pre-travel preparation so I thought, over the next few days, I would share some plans and if I have missed anything, please please please tweet or email me to help fill in the blanks!

So as I live 4000 miles away from the magic, I have to start with the prospect of a long flight, which those who know me, know I am not a good passenger. So to ease this phobia I travel to the airport the day before, do twilight check in and then it's to the hotel to wish away the time for the next days flight.

This year I have done a DIY package rather than leaving it all to a tour operator. So I booked my flights with Virgin Atlantic and stumped up a massive £2,500 ($3,750) to fly direct in to MCO. I know it sure is a lot of money but it is a direct flight and I have upgraded to fly premium class, just basically because it comes with additional luggage, legroom and usually the ability to get off the plane first and hopefully be one of the first through immigration. Also it is during the UK summer holidays and prices are always at a premium then.

Once at MCO first plan of action is getting the hire car. I always complete online check as it avoids the clerk trying to sell insurances, upgrades and sat navs that I don't want or need. So who is my car hire provider of choice? Well, I booked the car hire ten months in advance and the best price was Alamo. However I was a tad disappointed that following changing a few details on my booking the price jumped up and their clerk told me the price was in $ when in actually was in £. This means I have had a £240 price increase. I obviously wasn't happy and as I type I truly hope the manager in Orlando will review this as he promised but more about this in a later blog/rant!

Makes coffee delicious for $2

So I have been reunited with cases (no I don't send them on the second trip to avoid taking them on monorail), I have the car and the next stop is Walmart. I know it isn't the poshest of places, but I simply refuse to pay $3 for a small bottle of water when I can get 5l for $2. So I stock up on water, mascara (I know random but sooo much cheaper), hazelnut coffee creamer and all the good stuff I love but can't buy in the UK without pay 4x as much.

So It will now probably be around 5pm. I will have been awake 15 hours. Tired. Grumpy. Facing Florida humidity. So best course of action would be to drive to hotel, check in, unpack and collapse. Oh no! As soon as I am unpacked I will be out and straight to the Polynesian Resort to eat at Captain Cooks, then (all crossed) meet up with Ashley from WDW Happy Place podcast. 

So that is the first day... even typing has exhausted me!

Jenni's Going To Disneyland!

A Disney free year? Never! 2013 was supposed to be a Disney free year and in fact it was one of my New Years resolutions! Matt and I had been to Disneyland Paris four times and Disneyworld once last year so it seemed a good idea to have twelve months off and go on a beach holiday instead. The problem is I don’t like lying around on beaches or by the pool or being hot so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. But I did try; I collected brochures, did lots of googling and went on all the discount holiday sites. But nothing felt right. Which was why I couldn't resist running some figures for a trip to Anahiem. Who was I kidding thinking I could have a Disney free year? So following a quick text to Matt with my workings out the decision was made, we were going to Disneyland California!!

We set a budget of £3500 to include flights, eight nights in a hotel, five days in the park, a day in Hollywood and a day at the beach. I'm not great at sticking to budgets so I'm hoping to win the lottery very soon!

The first thing to decide was when to go. We had visited Disneyworld during the Christmas season and loved the decorations and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party but I wanted to experience something a bit different. Halloween season seemed to be a good choice as the parks would be decorated and we would be able to spend an evening filling a bag with sweets at the Halloween party! That gave us a date range of 13th September to 31st October but how would I decide on the final dates? This turned out to be much easier than expected as after checking the refurb list on www.touringplans.com I found that Big Thunder Mountain was down until 30th October!! I love BTM and there was no way I was flying for 12 hours to not be able to ride it. So it was decided; we would fly out on the 29th October, go to the Halloween Party on the 31st October and return home on 6th November.

With the dates sorted it was time to make a major dint in the budget and book flights. I was hoping to find a bargain but decided after checking reviews of several cut-price flight sites that I didn't trust them! It's not worth saving £200 if the flights don't exist so I focused on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Both came out as £600 return price each but as Virgin had slightly cheaper extra leg-room seats and better flight times it was another easy decision.

So with the flights booked there's no turning back, I now have eight glorious months of planning ahead of me so I hope the lovely readers of the Minnie Minxes Blog will enjoy reading all about it.

Next month - blog part 2 The Hotel Conundrum