The 'Ohana - Means Family - Means Nobody Gets Left Behind' Trip Report. *COMPLETE* About This Page:

[mattnkatsmum]

I was sorely tempted to entitle this report ‘Mattnkatsmum does Disney with Matt and Kat and Steve’ but that suggestion was met with groans, so I decided to go with the ‘Ohana’ theme, which I appreciate is unoriginal, but which sums up our trip nicely. The reality is that someone nearly always gets left behind when we take trips. This is the first time all four of us have been away together for a couple of years.

Enough about the title. On with the who? where? why? when?

WHO?

Karen 36



This is me last December in Barbados. And when it rains in Barbados there's nothing to do!

I did the ‘why I chose a trip to Disney thing’ when I did my last TR, so I won’t repeat it all here, save to say that I’m a ‘born again’ Disneyphile. It took four trips before I decided I loved Disney. For me, it was definitely a slow burn. It’s interesting because most Brits I speak to have a different approach to a WDW holiday. The trip is to ‘Orlando’ or ‘Florida’ and WDW makes up a small part of the overall holiday. Lack of planning and available information means that the average Brit turns up at the Magic Kingdom at 2.30 pm on the afternoon of July 4th. Consequently the view of WDW is a jaded one. I know. That’s how I felt too. Before my last trip, I discovered PassPorter, did my planning, stayed on site and had the best time ever. I saw the light and I am a convert.

Steve 37



Steve in his happy place.

My lovely DH is my perfect holiday partner, in other words he lets me get on with the planning, does what he’s told and doesn’t moan much . If I’m honest, Steve’s perfect holiday probably involves an exotic beach with scantily-clad lovelies serving him cocktails but that isn’t going to happen . Thankfully he sees happy wife and daughter as a fair trade off. I have a seriously low boredom threshold. Lying on a sun lounger for a week would drive me round the twist.

Matt 14

My mission this holiday is to sell Disney to Matt. Matt didn’t come with us in March as he was in school. Matt loves all things American and I think he’d like to work in the States eventually. Here he is last year at Wrigley Field.



He’s well travelled and has been to Chicago (obviously), Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando. He adores all these places, but would rather do a city break than a theme park. I’m so hoping that Matt will feel the Disney magic. I’m conscious of the fact that it is going to be quite difficult to balance the interests of Matt and Kat, so I’m hoping we’ll split up a few times and do some Mum and Son things. He’s expressed an interest in DisneyQuest and miniature golf, so maybe we’ll incorporate these. I’ve tried to get Matt in the mood by encouraging him to participate in the planning. So far that planning has consisted of researching the price of Nike trainers (sneakers) in the US.

Truthfully, I don’t know what to expect with Matt. He’s a great kid, but at a difficult age. Either he’ll embrace the Disney spirit and have a wonderful time or he’ll revert into sulky teen mode, in which case I’ll struggle to keep my thumbs away from either side of his windpipe.

Kat 3



Kat is the perfect Disney princess. She still talks non-stop about her last trip. She asks every single day how many days are left until we ‘go to Mickey’s home’. Seeing WDW through Kat’s eyes is what has made Disney so wonderful for us.

WHY?

As soon as we returned from our March trip, I knew I wanted a second trip to WDW, mainly so Matt could share in the magic. We debated buying into DVC for a month or so after returning (eventually we signed on the dotted line). Whilst weighing up the pros and cons of DVC, the free dining plan promotion came out and I decided that was just too good a deal to pass up, especially as it coincided with the time when we would have taken our second trip anyhow.

I decided to be brave and book directly with US Disney (these things do take guts when done for the first time). As I come from the north of England, my accent is different from, say, Cheryl who lives in the south. Think Daphne in Frasier [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]. You’d be surprised at how few people in the US can understand me on the phone. Particularly at WDW (making ADRs is something I have to psyche myself up for).

Anyway, I decided that the answer was to book through a US travel agent. I chose Small World Vacations as they were recommended by MouseSavers and I’m glad I did. Marion, my TA has been excellent and is particularly experienced in dealing with UK travellers.

WHY NOT ON DVC POINTS THEN?

Good question. We bought our DVC points at $101 but then got an $8 per point discount and then sold our 2006 points back to DVC for $5 per point. We’d have probably been better off taking the points, especially as we still had to pay the dues, but I decided that with the free dining, there probably wasn’t a great deal in it, so decided to stick with our original plans.

WHERE?

I would stay anywhere on WDW property. To get maximum bang for the dining plan buck I considered one of the values, but once I started crunching numbers (we are getting a very nice exchange rate over here) I decided that I could stretch to a deluxe, albeit one of the cheaper ones. We stayed at AKL in March, so the obvious next choice was Wilderness Lodge. A standard room was available. I always book the cheapest possible room, only to regret it a later date. I think that on some deep-rooted psychological level I do not consider myself worthy of more. On second thoughts, maybe I’m just cheap. Anyway, I originally booked park-hopper passes for the duration, but changed this to the one day base passes once I bought into DVC, the plan being to upgrade to annual passes once we get there with that lovely DVC discount.

The total bill for my WL stay came to £888.23 which is cheap as chips, especially with all that free food.

On to the flights. I’m in a sad place over flights right now. As we will be flying over a UK bank holiday weekend, and it’s still school holidays, all flights were extortionately priced. My carrier of choice was Virgin (the only scheduled airline who fly directly from Manchester to Orlando) but the flights were so expensive. I saved £1000 by booking a charter flight to Sanford, so we’re travelling with My Travel Airways. I’m hoping I won’t regret this decision. Right now, with the security restrictions in place, I’m worried about how we’re going to cope, especially with no entertainment or food for Kat (who absolutely will not eat airline food). I’m also praying for no delays. Que sera sera.

WHEN.

IN TWELVE DAYS. I can’t believe this trip has come around so quickly. I’ll be back in the next couple of days with my detailed trip plans.