TRIP OVERVIEW / WDW SERIES

Welcome to the start of my Walt Disney World Series! Throughout the series, which will probably run up until my trip, I'm going to be looking through the planning process, useful tools and sites that I've used to help with planning, what we're going to be doing whilst we're there, what I'll be taking with me in my park bag, and many other exciting aspects to the holiday! I've had so much fun planning and getting ready for this trip, I couldn't resist documenting it on my blog. I thought it would be a nice little reminder for me to look back on too. To kick the series off I thought I'd start with an overview of our holiday - when we're going, where we're staying and a few non-Disney bits that we're doing - before I start going into more detail of specific aspects throughout the other posts.

If you've been following me for a while and have heard me mention the holiday before, you'll probably know that my boyfriend Cameron surprised me with it for my Christmas present, but actually ended up telling me a few weeks before Christmas as he knew I'd want to get planning. I'm incredibly lucky to have such an amazing and generous boyfriend - it's something I certainly don't take for granted! And I am beyond excited to finally get to go to WDW, it's something that I honestly didn't think would happen before having children. We're flying out in the morning on Monday 1st May, and arrive in Florida at around 2:30 in the afternoon on the same day. We'll be there for 14 nights, and leave around midday on the 15th May, and get back 6am on the 16th. Cameron has never looked into Disney holidays before, so obviously needed a little help when it came to booking it. He went to our local Thomas Cook and booked it all through them with the help of a lady who's been 4 times, so she knew what he needed to be booking which was very useful! He's a little picky when it comes to hotels, and didn't particularly like the look of any of the Disney ones (which I can't really complain about seeing as he's paid!) so decided to stay off-site. Honestly actually given the choice I'm so pleased that we're staying where we are, the hotel looks incredible, and it just gives us a little break from Disney when we need it. 

(www.rosenshinglecreek.com)

We'll be staying at the Rosen Single Creek hotel - which is a short drive away from all the parks on the Universal Blvd, and it actually provides free shuttles to and from the parks, as well as some other popular tourist destinations which is perfect as we don't need to worry about getting around, and factoring in paying for shuttles etc. The hotel also has 12 restaurants, so it gives us a bit of choice if we want to stay and have breakfast there, or chill at the hotel one evening and know we don't need to worry about where to eat. We've got a couple of non-Disney excursions planned as well, so staying off-site just means we're at a good central location  to get to other places. I know it'll be nice for Cameron to escape the Disney-ness if he needs to!

(www.rosenshinglecreek.com)

In terms of what we're gonna be doing - it's pretty much going to be a full on park holiday. We won't be going into the parks on the day we've travelled, but I have booked dinner at Disney Springs, so we'll probably just explore around there in evening and try to stay awake! Then we'll be starting our first full day on Tuesday 2nd. I'll go through our full itinerary in another post, but we've got 2 full days planned at Universal, a shopping day at the malls, and a day deep sea fishing which was my Christmas present to Cameron - along with a night-time airboat tour through the creeks - the whole rest of the holiday we'll be in the Disney parks. I thought it would be nice to book something for Cameron that didn't revolve around Disney, and although I won't be fishing as I don't particularly agree with it, it's something he really loves to do, so I'll just chill on the boat with a beer! I'll go into how I booked the excursions in my tickets post later on in the series.

I think that's pretty much it for the introduction to the series - I've finalised all my planning now, and sorted out all of our reservations so I'm ready to crack on with the rest of the series. The next post will be 'How I've Planned My First Time Trip & Useful Planning Tools' - I've received a few emails from some of you wanting to plan your trips - and I am honestly a novice at this point, and am kind of winging it with how I've planned as I really have no idea - but I think I've managed to come across some pretty helpful resources so hopefully they'll be of some help for you! 

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you're looking forward to the rest of the series!