First Laid Plans.

March is often a month that we end with a sigh of relief. It is crammed full of family birthdays, often Easter and a Mother’s Day, that make it expensive and busy.

We’ve survived another and with my niece heavily pregnant there was a brief time when her booked cesarian on the 28th of March would add another birthday to the huge list, but at least the delay of her new daughter’s arrival until next week sees us enjoy a respite by a week for the years to come.

We were out for tea last night with Rebecca, Tom and the boys and as often seems to be the case when the weather brightens a bit and we all (nurses aside) get a long weekend off, thoughts and chat turned to plans for our holiday in October.

For the first time we chatted about preferences, parks and plans. Having done Volcano Bay without us when we went to Daytona Beach and they stayed in Orlando, in May 23 there was a request from Rebecca to do that again this time as they were very impressed.

Food wise, Teak Neighbourhood Grill may get a place on the plan having been skipped the last couple of times. We’d been a heck of a lot and our last visit to eat there, when Louise stayed home to look after her Mum, was, let’s not beat about the bush, a bit poor.

It was still in the lingering grip and aftermath of Covid, the place was dead and our server hopeless. It very much deserves another chance as it has blown our socks off on so many previous trips.

Sickies is already on the plan. It is the eatery of the moment it seems and Louise and I have loved it on both occasions and very much would like Rebecca, Tom and the boys to experience it.

I’d like to get us into Beaches & Cream if I can. We haven’t been since it was extended and hopefully that will make an ADR easier to come by. Tom, Freddie and now Dougie are the biggest ice cream fanactics in the world so a Kitchen Sink has to be on the cards.

The ADR that seems to be most elusive these days is Space 220. I’m under no illusions that you go for the theming and experience and pay heftily for it, but the boys would love it and so if by any chance we can get in, we’ll try to do that too.

In a vain attempt to keep costs down I am trying to limit on-site sit down meals. There will probably be a Fantasmic Dinner Package to be done, but other than that, oh and maybe a character meal of some sort, hopefully we can eat off site more often than not.

It never seems to work out that way, but hey, we come this way but once, so I’m not going to sweat it.

I say that having attended a family funeral last week where we said goodbye to a lovely chap who was taken by cancer at just 55. The injustice and cruelty of that is indescribable and if something like that doesn’t tell you to not worry so much about saving money I don’t know what does. Who knows how long we’ve got to spend whatever we have/can earn.

Dining plans cannot be finalised for many months yet of course, until I think mid-August. Am I right in thinking you can now see all available slots for eateries on My Disney Experience rather than have to speculatively plug in endless different dates and times in the vain hope of striking lucky? That will be a massive help if that is the case.

For our May trip there is little to plan beyond what is already done of course. I paid for the car hire this week, thinking as I did, would we really *need* a car but it’s safer to have one and of course essential from and to the airport so we may as well have one in case we fancy a ride up or down the coast to see what is there.

Everything is paid up apart from the remaining 50% balance on the accomodation which we pay at check in, so all we have to do is wait for the next few weeks to hurtle by whilst at the same time trying in vain to shed a few pounds. I can’t tell you much harder that is at this time of life.

It feels like I haven’t planned a theme park trip for ages. I am rusty and out of practice and a little anxious at the prospect if I am honest. With a party the size of ours, with two small kids, we are not built for commando style early arrival and late leavings so we shall have to swallow the bitter pill of Genie+ and just take what we can achieve on a day by day basis.

I have a good amount of time to get back into the swing, do some research and watch some vlogs so we’ll probably be OK.

Hopefully you lot can help me along the way too!

Till the next time…….