It feels like it has been a while since I started one of these travel or holiday blogs. In fact, it was only last October, so I suppose it wasn’t that long ago, at nine months. As the title of this instalment is T-81, that means we’re just 81 days away from departure. At almost three months out, I’m getting in quite early here with this blog. There’s a good reason for that. This is going to be a massive trip for us.
For the past year, I’ve been hoarding my holiday allowance, and we’ve been saving financially as hard as we can to make this particular trip a reality. We’re not going away for just a few days, which is more typical of our holiday style. No, for this trip we’re pulling out all the stops. We’re going to be on holiday in Florida for a whole month. I somehow managed to convince my boss to let me have no less than five consecutive weeks off work. We’re going to have a fantastic time, or die trying.
So, why such an extended holiday? Well, the kids are getting older, and our bodies—mine especially—are steadily deteriorating. Jae is on the verge of getting her driver’s license, which is already a daunting prospect. The truth is, we don’t think another opportunity like this will come around again, so we’re striking the proverbial iron while it’s still hot. Although we don’t see Joey flying the coup anytime soon, Jae may well do so. For the past few years, she has been giving serious thought to a gap year in Australia once her studies are finished. For all we know, this will be the last ever Morgan family holiday with all four of us in attendance, so we decided to make it count.
At 4-5 weeks, the duration of our stay in Orlando isn’t entirely chosen at random. The last time we were there was in 2018. We stayed in Florida for about six weeks—two weeks in Orlando, then a brief cruise, then another two weeks in Orlando. We’re essentially repeating the same trip, although this time without the intervening cruise.
As was the case in 2018, we’re splitting our time in Orlando roughly down the middle. For the first couple of weeks, we have all-access passes to all the Disney theme parks. In the second half of the trip, we have all-access passes to all the Universal theme parks—including the newly opened Epic Universe —although our passes grant us entry into that park only once. If we are to visit that theme park a second time during our stay, a distinct possibility, we’ll need to fork out more.
Our itinerary is a complex jumble of theme park visits, carefully crafted to maximise our fun given the anticipated crowd levels. As should be clear by now, we have a deep affection for Orlando and all its theme parks. That said, it will be a full-on experience, as it was the previous time, and the times before that. We’re older, the kids are older, and it’s been seven years since we last visited. I don’t mind admitting to a bit of trepidation this time around. Sandy and I have visited the Orlando theme parks numerous times over the years. And, of course, we lived in Jacksonville, Florida, for around six years and visited the Orlando area repeatedly during that time.
The reason I’ve started this blog so far out is simple. Given the lengthy trip, there has been a lot to organise and thus much to write about. There are numerous moving parts to this trip, and it has been a complex logistical challenge thus far. There was a lot of fenagling involved just to reach the decision to commit. Here are some of the considerations we had to factor in:
- Jae is still in technical college, so we had to consider what was possible there.
- I had to get the right amount of time off work—not a foregone conclusion since I haven’t been with this company for that long yet.
- We had to ensure it was all financially viable, calculating permutations and schedules to within an inch of their lives.
- The time of year we planned on going was critical.
- We had to secure sufficient accommodation.
- Arrange flights, including special assistance for managing Joey through the busy airport procedures.
- Airport parking.
- Luggage allowance, factoring in the likelihood of bringing back far more than we take.
- Organise a rental car—something big enough for all four of us adults and accompanying luggage.
- Purchase theme park tickets.
- Digital lifestyle issues, such as laptops/tablets/phones, storage for GoPro & photo camera footage, chargers, power banks, leads, mobile phone eSims, etc.
- Travel and cancellation insurance.
- Calculation of budgets, spending money for us and the kids, activities and how much they were going to cost us, etc.
Some of these logistics required payment in part or in full upfront. It took several months of consideration before we finally reached the point of commitment. The purchasing of flights and accommodation punctuated that boundary. It was only after reaching that point that we could discuss the trip openly with the whole family. The last thing I wanted was to whet everyone’s appetites, only to dash everyone’s hopes if it became evident it wouldn’t be possible.
We did eventually reach the point of no return, and the entire boulder was set into motion. Things have calmed down a bit now, but getting to this point wasn’t entirely plain sailing.
I had struck up a conversation in a Facebook group with a lovely lady who is the owner of the rental villa we have since secured for the duration. Dealing with her was very easy, as she was so easy-going. However, when it came time to make payments, I had to deal with her management company, which handles the rental property logistics, including cleaning, booking, and other tasks. Things went well with them initially, but soon deteriorated over a misunderstanding.
They wanted me to wire them a deposit, which was fine. I contacted my bank and organised a transfer of the funds. Moving money from A to B isn’t rocket science. It’s something we do routinely. Unfortunately, from their point of view, there are more ways to send money, and they wanted me to use a particular method. When they instructed me to wire them the money, what they meant was to use a ‘bank wire’, which is not the same as a ‘bank transfer’, the method I defaulted to.
The day after I completed the bank transfer, they started to get annoyed at not having received anything, and even started to demand that I ‘wire’ the money. I wasn’t about to send the money again and run the risk of losing what I had already sent, so this created some tension between us.
I later learned they were cautious about ‘bank transfers’ because there are circumstances in which that can be reversed after the fact. In the event, the type of bank transfer that our bank used didn’t allow for such reversals, but I guess if you’ve been bitten before, this could be a touchy subject for you.
Once the misunderstanding was laid bare, I decided to defuse the remaining tension by making a ‘wire transfer’ for a duplicate deposit amount, which they received instantly and put them at ease. I would imagine they might have considered me a potential scammer up to that point, and I could see their point. I might have been similarly wary in their position if the roles were reversed.
A couple of days later, they confirmed receipt of my original ‘bank transfer’ deposit amount. After a month or two, I completed the remaining payment in full, so the issue is now resolved.
Another complex aspect of logistics was purchasing the theme park tickets. Interestingly, if you are in the US, some ticketing options are unavailable, but we Europeans can access them. These are 14-day all-access passes. Typically, US residents can only buy tickets for 5-10 days at a time.
Various outlets sell the special two-week tickets, but they aren’t all born equally. The price difference between them can be pretty substantial. There are also often coupons and discounts that come and go, making it a challenge to ensure you’re getting the best value for money.
I spent weeks inspecting the various sites, chatting and emailing with their customer support teams, and trawling Facebook groups to familiarise myself with the industry. Ultimately, I’m confident that I secured the best available deals.
This kind of logistics is the sort of thing I tend to excel at. You should see the complex, multi-tab Excel spreadsheet I have to track everything! It shows what we can do on which days, how much we’ll spend, how busy it’ll be, how far we’ll drive, and so on. I have tracked things like where we’re sitting on the flights, how much we’re saving and what the resulting daily budget will be if we save more or less by a specific date, etc. I can see all the attractions and rides we can do, as well as all the character dining options, and so on. It’s a wonderful thing, but I guess you have to be into that sort of thing.
There’s a ton more to describe, but I’ll leave this entry here for now. See you on the next instalment.