That "once in a lifetime" trip! :D

[faulknerm]

Hiya Marc
any planning since?
booking transfers and the airport hotel for the night brfore we fly this weekend! Goin to do my PTR early dec. we're nearly at the 100 day mark! cant wait til it gets down to double digits!

I booked our Paris transfers with EZY a couple of weeks ago - although John had us pencilled into his diary for months before, lol. Think he thought I was mad asking to book transfers for March in September!

Not sorted anything out for this side yet, but my mum lives fairly close to the airport so we'll probably just book a normal cab for that I reckon.

My PTR has been dragging on for nearly 4 months now so I'm going to try and rationalise it into a plan of action...watch this space!

 

[faulknerm]

100 days!!!!

Woohoo...I can't wait! And only 35 days until I can tell Sarah all about it.

 

[faulknerm]

Plan of action

As promised, I've now organised all of the plans made over the past 102 posts into a rational plan of action for the 6 days that we're spending at DLRP in March. Now that we've reached our DDD (Doube Digit Day) it seemed the right time to make some sense out of the Chaos.

Who

Me (Marc), 21, first trip
Mum (Viv), 42, first trip
Dsis1 (Sarah), 13, first trip
Dsis2 (Abi), 6, first trip

Where

Disney's Cheyenne Hotel, DLRP

Me travelling from East Yorkshire, Sarah from Derbyshire, Mum and Abi from Cheshire - all setting off for the magic from Liverpool Airport.


When

1st-6th March 2009 (6 days, 5 nights)

Flight departing @ 07.25
Return flight departing @ 17.40

I'm setting off on 28th February to pick Sarah up and then we're all staying at my mums for the 1/2 nights sleep that we will get.



Whilist we're there

Monday - Drop our bags off and straight into the parks!!
Tuesday - As above, a full day spent enjoying all the parks have to offer
Wednesday - Day in Paris seeing a few sights - obligatory photo's next to the tower
Thursday - Back to the parks for more magic!
Friday - A more leisurely day, soaking up the atmosphere and generally seeing the sights around DLRP
Saturday - Our last fix of Disney in the morning before setting off for the Airport


Travel Arrangements

Local taxi picking us up from Mum's house bright and early on Monday, dropping us off at Liverpool Airport

Flight from Liverpool to CDG with Easyjet

EZYShuttle picking us up from CDG, dropping us off at the Cheyenne

Wednesday - Train from DLRP into Paris, Metro to get us around to see the sights and then train back "home" again.

EZYShuttle picking us up after lunch on Saturday, dropping us off at CDG

Flight from Cdg to Liverpool with Easyjet

Local taxi from Liverpool Airport back to my Mum's, where I'm leaving my car


Extra Magic

Neither Sarah nor Abi know about the trip. I'll be telling Sarah at Christmas (well, boxing day - when I see her) as it's part of her Christmas present from me. We don't plan on telling Abi at all, so hopefully she wont find out until we pull up outside the Hotel.

Food etc.

Still a WIP - I have a few idea's of where I'd like to eat, but it's got to be a group decision really and as half of the group don't know about the trip yet I can't make any firm plans.


Think that just about covers it. As and when anything else is confirmed/organised I'll add it into this post.

 

[markpsych]

Great plan

After so many visits, I often wish I could experience that 1st time vibe again.

We did a day out in Paris one trip and it was fantastic. Watch those metro doors though....they close very quickly.

Have fun!

 

[kizzabel]

yaaay marc 92 days!
great planning so far!
thats handy that ye're so close to the airport. we're 2 hours away but going to stay up beside dublin airport the night b4 we fly.
so excited!

 

[faulknerm]

Oh well, I couldn't resist putting some kind of eating plan together! lol

Obviously subject to change after discussing it with the others, but this is my current thoughts -

Monday - Breakfast at LJL airport, casey's for lunch, Toad Hall for dinner.
Tuesday - Hotel breakfast, snack type lunch - possibly McD's or maybe even rendezvous, BBWWS.
Wednesday - Hotel Breakfast, lunch out in Paris somewhere, Dinner out in Paris somewhere.
Thursday - Hotel Breakfast, Au Chalet de Marionette for lunch, Chuck Wagon for dinner.
Friday - Hotel Breakfast, Annettes for lunch, La Cantina for dinner.
Saturday - Hotel breakfast, snack from Cowboy cookout for lunch before setting off for the airport.

If we go for rendezvous (or some other "full" type meal) for Tuesday lunch we'll probably be looking at the second BBWWS. If possible I'm going to try and get a GMFL breakfast for one day, although realise they're hard to get now...

There's still loads I'd love to fit in, especially the Steakhouse, so there will probably be lots of swapping and changing depending on money and appetites

 

[mommy2ash]

sounds good so far. on monday i would swap caseys and toad hall around. caseys is usually opened till park closing and toad hall will be closed much earlier.

 

[faulknerm]

Thanks for the tip!!

Casey's may well get swapped for something else anyway, but I'll slot Toad Hall in for a lunch.

 

[faulknerm]

Okay, confession time.

As you know, our holiday was all paid off back in October - however I still hadn't booked the flights! ...until today

It was a risk, but I took a bit of a gamble on the Easyjet flight prices and decided to hold off as long as I felt able, to see whether we could make a decent saving. I finally made the booking today and in the process saved myself £70 on what I would have paid had I booked back in October.

I know, I was mad, but it paid off in the end!!

So, that's it - everything is all paid for, booked and finalised.

 

[Lisa_C]

Excellent!! Now all you got to do is restrain yourself from spending tooooo much on ebay before you go LOL! (Big tip though is to buy from the Disney Store for "surprise" gifts for those going if you plan to do so )

I bet you are dead excited now it's all taken care of!!

 

[faulknerm]

Excellent!! Now all you got to do is restrain yourself from spending tooooo much on ebay before you go LOL! (Big tip though is to buy from the Disney Store for "surprise" gifts for those going if you plan to do so )

I bet you are dead excited now it's all taken care of!!

I certainly am excited!!

But nothing like as excited as Sarah was yesterday when she found out that we're going!

I had a card personalised for her, from Moonpig, and when I gave it to her yesterday afternoon I think she was in shock for a few seconds as she took it in - and then the screaming and bouncing started.

I don't think I've ever seen her so excited...needless to say we spent the rest of the afternoon talking about it and making plans.

 

[Lisa_C]

Awww!! Even more exciting now Sarah knows! What a wonderful gift Only just three months of waiting now.....and sleepless nights because you're too bouncy to sleep LOL!

You'll all have a wondeful time!!

 

[faulknerm]

Awww!! Even more exciting now Sarah knows! What a wonderful gift Only just three months of waiting now.....and sleepless nights because you're too bouncy to sleep LOL!

You'll all have a wondeful time!!

Thanks Lisa!

I'm even more excited now that I can talk about it and make plans with Sarah too...it's so much more fun when you can share your excitement!

I've got all of my Ebay buys out and started sorting them out...can't wait, only 64 days to go!!!

 

[Lisa_C]

Maybe I should have put "only just over two months to go" instead of rounding it up to three lol......it'll come even quicker now Sarah will be like the Cheshire Cat for the next couple of weeks (and no doubt after too)!!

 

[faulknerm]

Maybe I should have put "only just over two months to go" instead of rounding it up to three lol......it'll come even quicker now Sarah will be like the Cheshire Cat for the next couple of weeks (and no doubt after too)!!

That's only just over 2 months left to plan though!!

Picked up a bargain today in Argos...3 suitcases (28", 24" and 20") in bright red, so easily identifiable, for just £24.99!!

 

[faulknerm]

Picked up a bargain today in Argos...3 suitcases (28", 24" and 20") in bright red, so easily identifiable, for just £24.99!!

Is it too early to start my packing??

The cases are sat in the living room (as I have nowhere else for them at the moment!) and every time I look at them I want to make a start...I'm going to be far worse than the kids

Actually, I can probably make a start by packing all of the bits that I bought on Ebay for Abi - as they're going into my case, the largest, until we get to the hotel.

/off to get the bag of bits to make a start packing.

 

[Mum to Belle]

I had a card personalised for her, from Moonpig, and when I gave it to her yesterday afternoon I think she was in shock for a few seconds as she took it in - and then the screaming and bouncing started.

I don't think I've ever seen her so excited...needless to say we spent the rest of the afternoon talking about it and making plans.

Now you can get really excited!! DD loved to look at all the little video clips of the rides on the Disney website before we went and still does now! Have fun with the rest of your pre-trip planning

 

[faulknerm]

Now you can get really excited!! DD loved to look at all the little video clips of the rides on the Disney website before we went and still does now! Have fun with the rest of your pre-trip planning

I don't think excited quite covers it, lol.

I've spent hours looking at all of the video clips myself, on the Disney site and on youtube and have bookmarked literally dozen's of them to sit and watch with Sarah.

In fact, after Goodnight Mr Tom finishes I might just have to sit and watch a few more.

 

[manxtatt2]

Plans look good , im sure you are excited

I was like that 1st and the 2nd time we went

Havent decided if we will go this year or not as yet , as i need a sun holiday lol

 

[faulknerm]

I'd love a sun holiday too, as it's so long since I last had one (nearly 7 years ) but the draw of Disney was just too great!

I'm looking at the possibility of taking a short break later on in the year though, 3 or 4 days somewhere hot and sunny, but that all depends on money of course - fingers crossed for a nice bonus from work, lol.

Whilst I haven't actually "packed" anything yet, I have sorted out all of the little bits and pieces which I bought on Ebay and split them between the three suitcases. The plan is for me to take the cases for my mum and Abi down one day when Abi is in school and hide them in their loft, so that mum can pack them without Abi finding out.

The bits which I have got for Sarah are going to be travelling in my case, so that I can give them to her when we get there.

Had a bit of a minor panic earlier, as I realised that I had booked an adult Easyjet ticket for Sarah (13) - as I had to book her Disney tickets as an adult, so naturally assumed the same for the flights. I've spoken with Easyjet though and they've assured me that it's fine - so long as the passport details match then there will be no problem. Crisis averted!!