Hello Walt Disney World Florida!!!!!

So after a year of planning, saving, packing and lots more planning, the end of January is finally here and the Turners are off to Walt Disney World Florida. Tomorrow we will leave for the airport to stay over night at Gatwick South Premier Inn hotel ready for a early start on Thursday to Orlando International with Virgin Atlantic.

I will be spending 2 weeks staying at the Disney Port Orleans Hotels with my husband and our 3 daughters. This isn’t our first time to Disney we first travelled there in 2005 for our honeymoon and also in 2007, however it is our youngest daughter’s first time so this will be a very special holiday indeed. What is new for us though is this is the first time we have tried the pre bookable  quick service dinning plan. I have read some great reviews, it has been great knowing that a lot of our food has been  taken care of.

One big change we have discovered this time is the ability to plan a lot more prior to leaving home with the introduction of the “Magic Bands” These all new bands have officially been rolled out this month and will replace the “Key to the world” card previously used for Disney Hotel guest.

As I said your planning starts before you even leave home by logging on to the new “My Disney Experience” website. When you first use this site its very similar to a social networking site you create your profile for all guests , you can view all your hotel and park ticket bookings. You can then start to plan your trip starting with designing your “Magic Bands” by choosing from 7 bright colours, and having your name or nickname branded on each on of them. For international guests you collect your band on check in.  From here you can pre book a range of Dining restaurant’s (including character meals) and before  you travel it allows you to reserve fast passes for a number of the busy attractions for the duration of your trip. It really is amazing!

How can you use your “Magic Band”?

*To access your hotel room.

*To Enter the all Disney Resort Theme parks, Downtown Disney and Water Parks.

*Fast Passes.

*Making purchases from any Disney outlet and to have you shopping delivered to your room.

*Finally to redeem your Disney Dining plan credits.

SO with the world going crazy over technology and social media you can see where they have got their inspiration from for this all new “My Disney Experience” and why it is so popular.

So with all this information at our finger tips we have pre booked our favourite Character breakfast at Main streets “Crystal Palace”  for 8am on our first morning 1 hour before the park even opens, this is our Turner tradition something we have always done on our first morning. We have also booked Chief Mickey at the Disneys Contemporary resort which is a first for us but came highly recommended by a friend of mine. Along with all this we have managed to get early fast passes for a lot of the big and busy rides including Tower of Terror, Soarin and Toy Story Midway Mania.

So on top of all the this magical excitement we have booked at Walt Disney World we have also booked a 3 park ticket to cover SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. We have given Universal a miss this year as we feel Busch Garden has a bigger variety of rides and attraction to suit my daughters different ages better so no ones gets left out. I am particularly looking forward to visiting Aquatica for the first time. When we travels in 2007 this park had only opened   the week before and it was madness so it will be nice to see this I am really looking forward to trying out their Dolphin Plunge slide it looks great.

So that’s what we have to look forward to although I think I may need a holiday to recover when we return, its certainly not going to be a relaxing two weeks on a sunbed.

I will now be out of the office until 8am Saturday 15th February 2014, Should you have any queries or would like to make a reservation please call the main sales line on 0800  408 6200. Or feel free to email me for when I return.

“HAVE A MAGICAL DAY”