I forgot to post this on the blog originally but here is the background and planning portion (written as I was planning hence the work on the kitchen being in the future even though it was finished over a year ago now)...!
So, as you may have seen from my last trip report we recently moved house and are in the process of making some changes to the layout (open plan living area, large walk-in wardrobe and new ensuite shower room) along with some more general updates to decoration.
The serious work (wall removal) starts at the end of Sept and so obviously now is the time to book a Florida trip, isn’t it?
To be fair though this trip is a bit different and has been in the planning stages for a while. Unlike our normal trips we will be travelling this time as a group of seven as we are joined by our friends Matt and Lucy and their 3 children.
We suggested a trip a few years ago but wanted to wait until the children were a good age to experience all that the theme parks have to offer. They will be aged 10 (Ellis), 8 (Hayden) and 5 (Amy) when we travel and are already looking forward to the trip.
We sat down a while ago and worked out a rough budget and it was agreed that Rob and I would be responsible for organising and booking everything….so much responsibility!
So, the booking actually started a while ago as I found an amazing villa which has everything we need. I actually paid an initial deposit about a year ago to guarantee that we would get our dates – we are staying here for a week of our trip. I also paid a deposit on park tickets a few months ago to lock the price in!
I will soon be able to book our DVC accommodation for 6 nights – I am initially booking a 2 bedroom at Bay Lake Tower but will try and swap to the Beach Club at the 7 month point as I think the children will love the pool there.
The most expensive element of the trip is the flights…..did I mention this will be our first ever trip in the school holidays? We are travelling in August and so our flights have only just been released by BA but I got a price from a travel agent for Virgin which was about £1500 more expensive than I was hoping for.
I wanted to get flights + car for around £6000 but for our ideal dates it was £1000 more and whilst I know there might be better deals later I really didn’t want to watch them and risk them being over our budget…not a problem when it is just our cost to worry about but when others are involved…..!
So, we decided to move our dates by a day and the price was £6173 direct to Tampa including a Suburban or similar…might be a squeeze with luggage on the airport run but I think we will cope.
We will have to pay to reserve seats which will add a bit extra but around £6600 for all 7 of us which I am content with – not happy as I would love a cheaper price but for peace of mind it works this time.
Our dining reservations include the following:
Sanaa
Be Our Guest (lunch)
Chef Mickeys
Teppan Edo
Sci Fi
We also booked the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for Amy as a birthday treat.
I also booked 1 night at the Royal Pacific Resort as the express passes for just one day are over $800!
Cost for 2 rooms was £522 which would give us 2 days of passes - it's a lot of money but I've booked using the £1 per room deposit so can always cancel.
I have finally booked seats! The seat plan was still wide open but we didn't want to risk not getting seats together so I have booked 2 sets of 3 (one row in front of the other) and 1 seat on the aisle across from us. Total cost for both ways = £576!
I also completed our APIs, paid the balance on our theme park tickets so they arrive in time to link and select FP.
I bought the universal photo package for $59.99 as well. So a few things ticked off the list.
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