We have booked our Disney Park Passes🙌🏻🙌🏻

So our latest ‘adventure’ was to try and get our heads around the new Disney Park Pass system. Let me first say that I think we were quite lucky in the fact that we aren’t traveling until December, but because we had a hotel reservation and park tickets linked to My Disney Experience, we were able to book on 22nd June, 12:00 midday 🇬🇧 time.

As we are not the only family going on this Christmas trip we had to get our heads together and come up with an itinerary, of sorts, so that we could all book the same parks on the same days, luckily we have a holiday WhatsApp group.

When we logged on we got this image …..

We had the new Disney World pink castle image for nearly TWO HOURS 😩 but we were determined to hang in there ( and not press refresh).

This image then appeared on our screen…,,,

This counts down from 10 minutes. We managed to actually book the parks we wanted really easily from there. Unfortunately, one of the families were not so lucky and having waited all that time it would not let them book 😱. After many hours of being on hold to America their son managed to sort it (phew).

So…. our plans are:

Day 1: Hollywood Studios 🎬

Day2: Hollywood Studios (when the other two families arrive).

Day3: Animal Kingdom🦁.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom🏰

Day 5: Magic Kingdom (Christmas Eve). 🏰

Day 6: Epcot (Christmas Day) ❄️.

Day 7: Animal Kingdom 🦁

As of writing this we are unable to book any Advance Dining Reservations (ADR) which is usually 180 days before the first day of your trip. The only one we really want to book is Oga’s Cantina in Hollywood Studios but with how things stand in Florida, anywhere that makes more than 50% of it’s takings from alcohol have to close due to Covid-19.

Fast Pass + reservations are usually available to book 60 days prior to the first day of your holiday if you are staying onsite and 30 days if you are staying offsite. Fast Pass + are not available at this current time but who knows what is going to happen in the next few months.

Our fingers (and toes) are crossed that flights from the UK are able to go to MCO airport in Orlando 🤞🏻✈️.

Stay safe and stay tuned for more updates. Thanks for reading, The Allen Family x

An update on our Christmas 2020 holiday to Florida.

From a previous Christmas holiday in 2015

So.…… up to now we have been contacted by http://virginholidays via email to see is we still want to go on our holiday, to which we replied yes of course! You have to complete an online form to say whether you want to continue with your holiday; rearrange or cancel. They did not mention anything about the lounge at the airport, but that is not a deal breaker and I will ask about this nearer the time.

We have paid for our park tickets in full now as you had to have this done by June 10th (I think) as they were not selling anymore Disney Park tickets for the foreseeable future. My husband, Craig, always shops about for the best deal and for the past few years we have used http://orlandoattractiontickets and bought a Disney – Universal Switch Ticket which is the best value for us. This ticket does allow us to park hop at Disney which, up to now, is not allowed in this present Covid-19 situation, but things may change. The Universal ticket is for the three parks (Universal Studios, Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal’s Volcano Bay).

We have linked our Disney Hotel and park tickets to My Disney Experience and we ordered our MagicBands. We usually just get the free, block colour bands (see photo below) but this year we have ordered ones with characters on.

MagicBands from previous years.

We are now just waiting to hear about the reservation system that Disney is bringing in; you need a reservation and a valid park ticket to enter the park. There are no dining reservations at present and you cannot book any FastPass+ at the moment but we will see what happens nearer the time.

Again, many thanks for reading our blog, should you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to comment below.

Take care and stay safe, The Allen Family x

Christmas 2020 – Hotels We Are Staying At

Hello and welcome back to our blog, lovely to have you here 🙂

My husband is a big Star Wars fan and even though we visited Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in October 2019, the Rise of The Resistance ride was not open and neither was the new Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway so we are planning to do 7 nights at a Disney hotel and then stay 7 nights at a Universal hotel.

The Disney hotel we have chosen is Pop Century. Why? you may ask, well for a number of reasons:

1. It has been a while since we last stayed there.

2. It is on the Disney Skyliner path, which is something we have not used yet.

3. It is classed as a value hotel, which is one of the cheaper hotels on Disney property.

4. The rooms have recently been updated.

We have often thought about staying at one of the moderate or deluxe Disney resorts but when we travel there does not seem to be any added benefits of paying more for a hotel room you are rarely in. The Disney Dining plan is something that can be offered for free if you stay at a better hotel but this I not offered at Christmas and Halloween when we tend to go.

So why don’t we stay off property and make it even cheaper? Well, if you stay on Disney property you can take advantage of being able to book your FastPass+ 60 days before you travel whereas, if you are off property it is only 30 days before you travel. The best rides go fast even at 60 days! I would prefer to pay that little bit more and have a more enjoyable park experience. You also get Extra Magic Hours if you stay on property, which is where only those guests staying a Disney hotels get to enter the parks an hour before it opens on set days or stay later. There is also the free Disney Magical Express from Orlando International Airport (MCO), this whisks you from the Airport to your hotel with all of the Disney magic. You do have to make sure that you book this to secure your place. This link explains everything: https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/guest-services/magical-express/

We are then going to take an Uber or a Lyft to take us to The Loews Royal Pacific Hotel on Universal Property. This is an awesome hotel and we have stayed here many times. The reasons are many but the main ones are free Unlimited Express Passes for the length of your stay; early park entry and it is a walk or a boat ride away from the parks.

If you would like any info or tips please let me know,

Thanks for reading, TheAllenFamilyAdventures

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