The One With All The Birthdays.... a Pre-Trip

An Introduction (or, who the hell is this mad women rambling on and on)

So, before I get too carried away with myself I guess I better do some introductions

I think most people know me by now, I'm the mad obsessive planner. As my user-name suggests, my name is Robyn, I'll be 30 when we fly. My birthday is actually in July but I have absolutely no desire to ever head to Orlando in the middle of summer or peak season, so its somewhat of a belated celebration for me. I'm a big Tinkerbell fan, I think she's tiny but fierce! I couldn't choose a favourite Disney movie, there are FAR too many to choose from, though the Little Mermaid was the first film I saw in the cinema so it holds a special place in my heart. I can't pinpoint when exactly my obsession began, I first went to Walt Disney World as a teen but the obsession was already set in by then. The Disney Channel was a permanent fixture on our TV much to my dad's disgust.

This is what I look like...

Then there's my hubby, Simon or Sy. This is what he looks like...

I often say he's so laid back he's horizontal He's very easy going and will pretty much go along with any plan I make. I like to think its cause my plans are so awesome but most probably cause he will do anything for an easy life hahaha! He will be 32 when we go. His dream is to be an imagineer, he loves knowing the back story to everything, how it works, why it is the way it is - think its the architect in him. He likes the classic Disney Characters best. He said he's finding it hard to choose a favourite Disney movie but he does love Up (it was the first Disney movie we watched together).

Next up are my parents, Sian...

and Bill.

They are both celebrating their 60th Birthday's this year. My mum in March and my dad in October (but before we get there). My mum will tell anyone that she is 28 though so I'm sure to get a slap for mentioning her real age on here Funny story about that, we all went on a TV show here in the UK called Eggheads. Its a quiz show that you go on in teams and take on the 'Eggheads' who are basically brainboxes. We went on as a family, Sy, both of our mums, Sy's brother and my brother in law (I was there too but that was only as an extra in case someone was taken ill). At the beginning of the show you have to introduce yourselves, say your name, age, job etc. Well my mum told everyone she was 28 years old with some years experience... She ended up trending on twitter as the mad woman who told everyone she was 28 but clearly much older! HAHAHAHA! Whoops...

Anyway, I digress. My parents took me to WDW for our first trip when I was a teen, my granddad said he was going to take me but he died suddenly before we were due to go I was very, very close to him and that was the year we had adverts with a little girl and her grandpa in WDW. My aunt offered to take me as my parents didn't really want to go however we all ended up going together and we were all hooked from that very first moment. We only went for a week and did Universal, Seaworld, Wet and Wild, plus Disney and Shopping. Oh boy, it was a BUSY week! But we loved every second and we were all hooked. We went back a few times as a family over my teens, and then my parents have come back with me and Sy twice, this will be the 3rd time we all go together as adults.

Then comes Sy's parents...

Anne...

and Cliff...

Anne turns 60 in August (Cliff celebrated his 60th last year, he's the old sensible one). I'm not 100% sure Anne and Cliff were that excited to visit WDW on their first trip. Sy had just been for his first visit (our honeymoon) and he had the bug BIG time, so we convinced them to come with us along with my parents in 2010. I think our excitement rubbed off on them a bit and they were excited, though I think they were humouring us a little They had such a fab time that they agreed to come back again in 2011 with just us (my parents couldn't come that time ), 2012 with their friends Steve and Jude (plus us and my parents), and again now 2014 They visited the Keys in 2012 so we are relying on them to tell us where all the good places to go are They do love Disney but its more just being in Florida that they love, Anne loves wildlife especially birds, and loves all of the different species that can be found. Cliff is a bit like Sy (or maybe that should read Sy is a bit like his dad) in the way that he is very easy going and will go along with pretty much any plan, as long as the plan doesn't include shopping

[Sections of this post have been edited by the Administrator for confidentiality.]

The Plans!

The original plans were to fly out the last two weeks of October and stay a week and a half on our own into November. However the school holidays times in the UK are for the last week to two weeks of October and thus has made the flights uber expensive We have to make use of the holidays as Simon's mum works for school so we were a bit worried to say the least... We monitored flight prices for a few weeks and into the sale however they were still over 900 pounds ($1450 ish) each We couldn't really afford that much, we had a few lengthy discussions about it and Simon's parents said that we should think about going without them as the week before was so much cheaper. Of course we didn't want to do that but it was coming to the stage of either going without them or not going at all What a total bummer! We kept an eye on the prices further in the vain hope that they might come down but it wasn't looking likely... and then...

It was the weekend before Christmas, we had all gone to a Christmas ball together at a local vineyard. We were sat round the table talking, you can picture the scene I'm sure, glammed up, in high spirits, wine flowing... and up came the subject of Florida. Anne said how she was upset about not being able to come when Cliff said that she was being silly, of course they were going to come! The school were going to have to like it or lump it And anyway, a lot can happen in a year's time. (Anne isn't a teacher so its not like she would be leaving students). We were all over the moon That was it, Cliff had spoken no way they could go back on it now, and come Christmas day we booked our flights

Not only that, but we booked our flights home Premium Economy! And still a few hundred cheaper than the original 900 OMG! I've never flown anything but economy so this is so exciting!!! And what comes with Premium? More luggage! And you know what that means.... MORE SHOPPING!! YAY!

look at the swish seats...

Probably should note that its just Sy and I that are flying back premium LOL our parents are flying back before us and they wanted to save and stick with economy

We had wanted to fly into Miami and to spend time in the Florida Keys at the start of our trip, however in October they have something called fantasy festival that well, let's just say isn't the sort of fantasy festival that you would want to visit with your parents and in-laws In order to escape it we were going to fly into Orlando spend some time in Disney, travel down to the Keys stopping on the way, spend some time in the keys and then travel back up and spend some more time on our own in WDW, while our parents fly home the day we get back up to Orlando. I'm sure you will agree, that was a heck lot of driving and a bit of a waste of time in the car, however understandably we really didn't want to get to Key West while the fantasy festival was going ahead. BUT now that our dates have changed we were able to fly into Miami hitting up the keys at the beginning of our trip so saving a lot of driving around and doing the best bit at the end.

So now the plan looks like this;

Fly into Miami together, spend one night near Miami as we don't get in till quite late and it will be very late to our body clocks. Up early the next day and drive to Key West, spend three nights in Key West and then drive up to Naples, spend one night in Naples before heading to Walt Disney World for the rest of the trip.

Now this is where the next change comes in... Originally we had booked a two-bedroom value room in Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo house for the parents and a club level studio for us. We thought long and hard about this as we didn't want to leave our parents out, but we could add them as guest to our reservation so that they could enjoy the club level facilities so we went ahead and booked. And then... We carried on talking and decided that as much as we would save points and would enjoy trying club level, did we really want to spend time away from each other on our holiday? We were supposed to be on holiday together after all... Plus the value rooms are smaller than the normal DVC two bedroom rooms, there wasn't going to be much room for all of us to sit and relax together so we decided to forego it and move the reservations over to Kidani.

We have booked a two bedroom savanna view and a studio standard view, we have put my parents in the studio as they like to go to bed early and get up early whereas Simon's parents are more night owls like us, plus Simon's dad snores really loudly so at least his mum can get out the sofa bed if she needs to escape (now you know where Sy gets it from!), it was actually on suggestion from my mum to do it that way round, I wasn't taking any part in the decision other than saying we were having the big bed LOL.

We stayed in a dedicated 2 bed in 2012 with my parents so here are a few pictures of the room, so excited to stay there again!

Looking forward to having a bubbly bath in this...

We fly to Miami on the 11th of October and we get to Disney on the 16th, we are staying 11 nights in Animal Kingdom Lodge and then we say goodbye to our parents as they then fly home from Orlando While we checkout of Animal Kingdom Lodge and head over to the Villas at Grand Floridian to stay for eight nights on our own

We're planning to do only Disney on this trip. As you may have seen we have been to Universal and SeaWorld in previous trips but we are intending to take it a bit easier this time - everyone is that much older and not and as good a health Plus it can be a bit of a rush to try and fit everything in, least this way we can have a little bit of down time Sy's parents are undecided whether they might visit Universal, they also might go to Kennedy Space Centre again, there's still plenty of time to decide though. We wont be doing either, neither will my parents as they would rather save the dosh and take Disney at a slower pace.

Planned activities at Disney

As we are staying at AKL we are planning to do lots of things around the hotel, including the culinary tour and the sundown mingle - we were intending to do the sunrise Safari offered to concierge guests but we will have to say goodbye to that now ah well!

Also on the plan is a morning of golf for the boys while us girls go off to the spa at the Grand Floridian

The Marceline tour, though I'm not sure if we were doing this on our own or with our parents. Will have to give them some info about it and see what they think.

Behind the seeds tour, I know Anne really wants to do this so I'm going to do it too, not sure who else wants to join in yet.

Mickey's not so scary Halloween party, I know my parents aren't that interested in the party I'm not sure about Simon's parents. Ruth is planning on coming with us though

Watch the fireworks from Top of the World Lounge at least once!

Catch a concert or two at eat to the beat.

I've hinted strongly to Sy that I'd like to do a horse and carriage ride round Fort Wilderness so fingers cross that comes about (he keeps saying he wants to arrange a few things for me as surprises but as I'm the chief planner he finds it hard)

Looking forward to hearing more about the upcoming plans!