So I finally managed to finish my last trip report and it only took me 7 months to do it, if you would like to have a read of that one then the link to it is at the bottom of the page.
So how come I am writing yet another pre-trip report so soon after finishing my last report? Well after the last trip with all the grandchildren my husband and I decided that we wanted to return on our own but thought as Ben and Stacey were getting married in September 2015 in Cyprus then this would be our holiday for next year and normally we like to go in January/February time so thought it would be too soon after Cyprus to go in 2016 so January 2017 it was! .
Well as soon as we arrived back in England in September 2014 from our big family holiday to Florida we had to go straight online and book our holiday to Cyprus. We booked a fly-drive for Steve and I and the girls just had flights, also I found a lovely villa on the usual site I go on which is owners direct. So we were all sorted and left the rest of the planning to Ben and Stacey.
Well I have to say talking to Ben and Stacey about how the wedding plans were going was like getting blood out of a stone, all they would say was deposits have all been paid and they were getting married on the 10th September 2015.
Christmas came and went and life went on as usual until one Tuesday in February when they came in shopping while I was working late and started talking to me about nothing really then off they went. Once I had got home and changed I sat down and we heard the key in the door, Steve and I both looked at each other and said were we expected any of the kids and we both said no. Well they walked into the room looking really glum, at that time I could feel my heart start racing as I thought they were coming to give us really bad news.
Well it was and it wasn't, they started talking and said that they were going to have to cancel the wedding as Stacey would be unfit to fly. At first it didn't click but then a big smile came on their faces and Ben then said we are going to have a baby.
Well we are of course over the moon however the hardest thing was yet to come, we had to keep it a secret as she didn't want anyone else to know until she hit the 12 week mark. Easier said than done as all our family and friends that had booked really needed telling. This was done so they could have a choice of keeping their bookings or cancel them.
We decided to cancel ours, however the girls were just flights and as they were non transferable and the girls wouldn't use them we lost the money on them and the deposit for the villa, however ours was a fly-drive and when I spoke to a young man on the phone he said if I was to cancel then it would cost me another £150, however we could use it for another holiday but had to use it by September 2016. He said we had until June to decide and we left it at that. Well a couple of weeks later I decided to go online and have a look at holidays, well Steve did say there was only one place he really wanted to go and that was back to Florida, with this I set about looking for a fly-drive and Villa's. At the same time I thought I would ask Lorna if she wanted to come with us because then at least we could use her ticket but she said no as she wanted to go back when Louise went back.
So there you have it a very long winded reason as to why we are going back and now I shall start the pre-trip report.

Introduction


Well now who will be going this time?
Well like I said it's just the 2 of us.

There's me June (50)



Also there is Steve (57)



Well even at our age we still love Florida and Disney.

So as mentioned we are going on a fly-drive however we are going with British airways in this



We have never flown with them before so this is going to be different, and we are going to be driving something like this



Thankfully not the beast this time. lol
These have now all been booked and we fly out on 16th January at 11.45am.

I am thinking that as we fly so early and it's a Saturday really not sure on what the traffic around the M25 will be like and I am a little worried we will get stuck in the traffic so I am thinking about booking this for Friday night.



This way we can go out for a meal then just chill for the evening, not sure if they do twilight check in but if they do then we could perhaps check our bags in that night so another thing less to worry about.

Next on the list was the Villa. At first I was thinking about a hotel but found this lovely place on Owner's direct.



I got in touch with the owner and the dates were free so now the deposit has been paid on that. It is a little closer to Disney than the last 3 places we have stayed but still just off the 192 and nearer to Old Town.

Still to look at is Travel Insurance.
Memory Maker
Park Tickets
Money.
Esta's are still valid so don't need to worry about them.
API's have already been completed.

Will update again very soon, as I wrote this a while ago and haven't had time to put it on until now.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Update 2...

So as we are now in August and a lot of things have happened since we had to cancel our Cyprus holiday and rebook our Florida holiday. The main thing is that Ben and Stacey are now married.
Stacey wanted to get married before she really started to show so we had 9 weeks to organise a wedding, luckily enough the hall that they had booked for the reception when they came home from Cyprus just happened to be free on the 10th April so they changed the booking date to then and then they managed to book the Archbishops palace registry office in Maidstone for that day as well. The event went off lovely we couldn't have asked for such a lovely sunny day. Here are the lovely couple and the families they have now joined.





So back to planning and sorting out our holiday and
I decided to pay our fly-drive in full so that has now been done and as soon as that was done I thought I had better get cracking on the travel insurance. We both needed pre existing medical conditions, me for my Arthritis and Steve for his heart, after checking on money supermarket for comparisons I finally chose Get going travel, they had everything we needed and although they were not the cheapest I thought that £166 was a good price.
I have also been thinking about our last day and the fact that we have to vacate the Villa by 10am meaning that we will have to keep our luggage in our car and after our van had been attempted to be broken into last time we didn't want to have the risk of this happening again, so I sent an e-mail to the owner asking if there was any possibility we could stay until 1pm, after a very short time the owner replied and said that that was fine and there was no extra cost.
So we have now paid the Villa up and also the fly-drive is paid for, also the travel insurance has been found and paid for. Well this planning is going really well. This report feels a little boring compared to the last one but I will carry on with it.

So what is left to do?
Oh yes it's spending money, Luckily we did come home with some so saving's already started. So in May the Dollar started to rise so we decided to go and buy some, now as I work for Tesco I can get an extra 1% on what is advertised however it must have been a bad day for them as it didn't work out better at all so we went back to Thomas Cook and for £500 got $1.498 which at the time I was happy with just going to wait a while for some more as it has started dropping. At the moment we have $956 Dollars saved and it is now a waiting game to get the rest. Oh I do love the smell of Dollars.

So the next big thing is the Disney Diet, well it has to be done. For one thing it will really help my knees and they do play up every now and then more so with the weight I have put on just recently. I really need to lose 3 stone but as much as I would love to achieve this I really don't think I would be able to do this in that amount of time. Will let you know how I get on every so often.

Will update again later tonight as Have already written it.

See you soon.

Hi June
I posted on your conclusion trip report yesterday. Won't duplicate it here though. I'm sure you'll get around to reading it.

Just pleased to have caught up with you again and look forward to reading this new pre trip for January. After your busy family florida holiday, a trip for two sounds perfect. I only know of one family who have been in January and they loved how much easier it was at that time of year.
Any way you seem to have made a good start getting things booked already. Plenty of time to plan some extra's for you and you DH.
Will there be cakes in this pre trip I wonder enjoyed all the crafts and cakes in the last report.

Congratulations to the newly weds and for their fab news.

Awesome holiday you have too, look forward to reading the plans progressing

Hello again, and thank-you for joining me again. It is all systems ahead now for our holiday, will try and update my report soon but had a big problem with my laptop on Saturday night, all I will say is that it died a horrible death while I was in the middle of playing a game it just died, needless to say all my report write ups were on there so now got to rewrite it again.
We have been in January twice now and after our trip in September was just to humid for me so January seemed the best choice. Really cannot wait.
Thanks for reminding me I think I have a cake to make for Hannah but that's not until end of September. Not going to do any craft things as don't think we need them however never say never I may make luggage labels.
Thanks again and see you real soon. xx

Thank-you for joining me again CazP, this won't be as long as my last pre-trip but I would like to try and show what it is like for 2 over 50's enjoying Florida. Hope to update more real soon.

You're welcome
I'm only 41 but mum's coming with us next year and she'll be 63 - age doesn't matter at Disney

Sorry to hear about your lost trip reports June.
Just a suggestion to avoid future accidents, if working on something important email a copy of it to your self as you go along, then if something goes wrong you can still log in to it via your email from any device.
Can understand what you are saying about September humidity, hope January suits you better.

Like I said I put post on the end of your last trip report, not sure if you
read it yet explaining why it's taken me so long to catch up; but glad to have done so.

Jules

Thanks Jules, I have just managed to catch up with your post on my September report. I cannot quite believe just how quick this year has gone. Have to say didn't even think about sending an e-mail to myself will have to try and do that now. Haven't checked my USB storage yet so hoping I saved some of it on there if not I have the old fashion way of pen and paper
Like I said on trip report I do hope your changes are going okay. You take care of yourself and I am hoping to put the next instalment at the weekend as not working this weekend.

Update 3

Hi All really sorry it has taken me so long to update you on my report, I lost all my work from my laptop. While I was playing a game a couple of weeks ago everything went blank. I turned it off then turned it back on again but nothing I had power and that was it so I got my DD partner to have a look at it for me and he then gave me the sad news that my laptop would have to go to the big laptop heaven in the sky.
Me being me I forgot to save all my recent things to my USB storage so now I am just going to have to remember by memory just what I have do. Sorry if I repeat myself.

So what has been happening? Well I have now got all the dollars that we shall need, we have $2500 for the 2 of us and think that this is more than enough.



Well this is what it looks like. Mmmmmmm loving the smell. Also I have made a couple of purchases which is a new Kipling bag





and my new Sketchers



not sure yet if I will be making anymore purchases yet depends on how I do with my Diet.
I have finally received these



my theme park tickets, I purchased them from Floridatix again although if we decide to visit again think I will be going with another company because I really wasn’t happy with them this time.
The reason why is because I ordered them on 27th July and quite clearly put that I was traveling in January 2016 well last year they arrived the following day but this time after a week I had heard nothing so I phoned them up and explained I was traveling in January and was wondering why I hadn’t had my tickets yet, they said could you wait a couple of weeks as SeaWorld hadn’t released their tickets for next year yet. So I waited in the mean time they answered my post on Facebook saying they had SeaWorld tickets up to July 2016. With this I got back on the phone and asked why I was being made to wait when we were traveling before July 2016 with this the lady came back at me and said well you are not traveling until July I said no it is January, she said to me that it said July on the computer. She quickly changed it but said she would have to check with her supervisor. Well they came yesterday 25/08/15.
Next thing was to check them everything seemed fine but I didn’t have the memory maker in the end I went on my MDE account and linked the tickets and as soon as I put the numbers in the Memory maker came up on it so another thing sorted.

I have also decided that we are going up then night before so the premier inn north terminal has now been booked and we have also book the car into the long term car park.

Also I have now booked a couple of ADR’s which are once again we went with Crystal palace.


looking forward to a bit of this





so looking forward to meeting Winnie and Tigger, this will be on the first Monday and also for the Thursday we have booked for Tuskers so I can meet Donald.



Never done this one before so this will be a first but Donald is my favourite and Tigger my second. So I am very happy.

We did book be our guest for our last night but we both decided that we would rather have dinner somewhere else so I cancelled this last night. Plus the fact it was for 8.45pm and the restaurant closed at 9.30pm we felt it was a bit late for us.

I have to admit I am really struggling with this report this time as it’s just the 2 of us there isn’t really much to do while this time last year we were getting really excited at the thought of telling the grandchildren. I feel as if I have lost my Disney mojo.
I took Lorna to London on Monday as she wanted to go to Madam Tussauds. Have to say she loves going there and it is one place I don’t mind taking her to although we have to bypass the scream part as she doesn’t like it and also the 4D superhero’s but we did go to the Star Wars bit. Enjoyed it more this time as although it was busy this time we could actually see them and have pictures, last time we went there was no form of queueing and everyone was just pushing in but this time everyone took it in turns to have their pictures taken.
Just a couple of the many pictures we took on Monday.






Disney Diet is going slowly, but the good thing is that it is coming off, so far I have lost 8.5lb, would like to have lost a stone by the end of September but will keep you posted.
Now those of you that read my last report will have seen that I made a few cakes well have to say that I now have another to make. It will be Hannah’s birthday at the end of September and she has asked me to make her a cake, not sure what she wants yet but will put a picture on at the end of next month. Also I did a bit of craft work in my last report well I have decided to make some luggage labels so will put them on once I have decided what I am going to do.

Things left to do:
Book an extra suitcase for way home.
Book seat for both flights.
Make Luggage Labels.
Continue with Disney Diet.

Thanks for reading and will update again at the end of next month.