AD - Press Trip | I had such a great weekend at @p AD - Press Trip | I had such a great weekend at @pottersresortsfivelakes with @slwilson84. It was an action packed three nights with a full activity and entertainment programme, great food, lovely drinks and beautiful surroundings. 

The staff go above and beyond to make everyone feel at home and they ensure that everyone has the best time possible. I don’t think I stopped smiling all weekend.

The best thing about Potters holidays is that everything is included in the price you pay. Four meals a day, all your drinks - including wine, Prosecco, most spirits and soft drinks - great accommodation and so many activities. 

I’ll write a full review soon but for now here’s a little Reel of our weekend
I always have a lot of questions about accommodati I always have a lot of questions about accommodation when we stay anywhere as a family so I thought I’d share this little tour of our room at @windjammerlanding which was a pretty perfect place to stay.

It’s the ‘Ocean View Two Bedroom’ which was like a little house, with an upstairs and downstairs, built into the hillside. Both rooms had outdoor space and their own shower rooms. Such a great option for a family.
A little photo dump from our holiday in St Lucia. A little photo dump from our holiday in St Lucia. We’ve been back a few days now but still miss the heat, the food, the pool, the constant sounds of wildlife and the lovely people. It was such a great holiday and I’m sure we’ll be back one day.
And just like that, Athena is 12! What a joy it is And just like that, Athena is 12! What a joy it is watching her grow and what a wonderful young woman she is becoming. We could not be more proud. Love you Pickle, have a great birthday.
We’ve just got back from two glorious weeks in S We’ve just got back from two glorious weeks in St Lucia staying at @windjammerlanding and it was just the holiday we needed. Two weeks of sunshine and relaxation in what must be one of the most beautiful islands in the world. 

We can’t wait to go back again in the future. Here’s just a little snippet of our trip.
AD - Press Tickets | We had such a nice day at @na AD - Press Tickets | We had such a nice day at @national_motor_museum despite the rain! The children loved the Little Beaulieu play area and we loved exploring the National Motor Museum and Top Gear exhibit before having a ride on the monorail! We went on an old open topped bus, explored the Beaulieu Manor House and loved the gardens. 
Beaulieu is always a great day out - whatever the weather. This summer they have a whole ‘Summer of Fun’ planned, with activities most days - parades, bird shows and hundreds of sculptures within the grounds too. If you’re looking for a day out this summer definitely think about heading to Beaulieu.
AD - Press Tickets | Tonight we took the kids to t AD - Press Tickets | Tonight we took the kids to their first concert - but it was so much more than just a concert! @abbavoyage is incredible. With CGI ABBA and a live band, it’s like being at an ABBA concert 40 years ago but with modern lighting, effects and sound. ABBA look and sound real, it’s a mind blowing experience.
The set includes all the songs you know and love as well as a few less familiar ones.
You can’t take photos during the show which actually made a refreshing change. A whole arena focused purely on the show and soaking up the moment. It’s definitely something the four of us will always remember.
Now, I’m off to sing Dancing Queen all the way home.
AD - Press Trip | We had such a great day at @phdo AD - Press Trip | We had such a great day at @phdockyard today. They have a fantastic Ultimate Explorer ticket that lets you visit all the attractions as many times as you like for 12 months - and after a day at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard we can see that you need more than one day to really do everything!

We explored HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose Exhibition - which is incredible! We also saw where ships are built and restored and spent time in Action Stations where the kids climbed and did an assault course.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is such a fun, educational day out with something for all ages - we can’t wait to go on their harbour tours next time we visit!
AD | WIN!! Would you love to win a holiday? To cel AD | WIN!! Would you love to win a holiday? To celebrate #100YearOfARoads National Highways have launched their #ARoadsToSummer competition! It's all about celebrating summer holiday moments, time together, fun in the sun, days out and more.

So why not be in it to win it? To enter, all you have to do is send @nationalhways a DM on here with a photo or video of your favourite holiday moments. You can also comment on their Facebook or Twitter #ARoadsToSummer posts with your holiday photos. I've shared a few of our favourite photos to give you some inspiration.

The best six entries will each win a £500 @nationaltrust holidays voucher! SO what are you waiting for? Dig out your favourite holiday photos or take some new ones to share!

The #ARoadsToSummer competition runs from 24 July to 10 September 2023. Winners will be announced in September 2023.

Good luck!
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Florida, Travel · February 23, 2019

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Disney World is a holiday of a lifetime – although so many people go and then cannot wait to go back. But going to Disney World for the first time takes so much planning that it’s hard to even know where to start.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

We started planning our trip to Disney World when LP was born, seven years before we actually made the trip. It was a holiday I had spent my whole life dreaming of and I knew that if I didn’t make a plan and start saving then it just wouldn’t happen. However you do Disney World it’s an expensive trip and so it’s never too early to start saving and planning.

With that in mind I thought I’d put together our tips and advice for planning your first trip to Disney World.

Decide you are going to Disney World.

It sounds daft but whether you decide you are going next year or in five or ten years make that decision and work towards it. Some people have no aspirations to visit Disney World. If you are not one of those people – make a plan.

Work out how you are going to pay for Disney World.

We set up a savings plan of just £50 a month with the aim of going to Disney World by the time LP was ten. In that time we would have saved £6000 – a big chunk of a family trip to Disney World. This is why planning in advance is important. £50 a month is achievable but for most families finding £6000 in one go isn’t ever going to be possible. You might also have annual bonuses, annual tax rebates or your child benefit could be put into savings and forgotten about for a few years. Any Disney holiday will be easier to plan if you know you’ll have funds available to pay for it and a budget in mind.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Decide when to visit.

We always go away at the start of the summer holidays but US school holidays and public holidays mean that the end of the summer holidays is actually the quietest time to go to Florida. If you have the flexibility to go at different times of the year – or in term time – that could reduce the cost of your holiday.

Decide if you want to stay on the Disney resort or in a separate villa/hotel.

This is a question we kept coming back to and I wrote a whole post about why we ended up staying in a villa. This question will play a huge part in the planning and if you know the answer the Disney planning gets a whole lot easier.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Do you want convenience or a lower price?

Booking as a package direct with Disney or a travel agent could be the easiest option – but booking all the parts of your holiday separately could work out cheaper. You can use sites like SkyScanner to monitor flight prices and Disney World always have offers on with free dining plans or free nights available.

Do you need a hire car?

If you’re staying on the Disney resort there are transport options available to get to the different parks. There are also parking charges even for hotel guests staying on the resort if they have their own hire car. But, it does mean days out to other places in Florida will be harder – and may require you to hire a car just for a day or two.

Do you want to just do the Disney parks or do you want to see more of Florida too?

Doing just the Disney parks is a cheaper option – especially if you have a Disney hotel package as there’s free transport, you’ll probably have a meal plan and you can pretty much not spend anything extra apart from on tips and souvenirs. But, if you want to see more of Florida there is plenty to do outside of the Disney resort.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Book Disney park tickets when they’re on offer.

Disney often have 14 days for the price of 7 deals on – and booking direct with Disney gives you added benefits of Memory Maker and Fast Passes included in the price. But, if you buy a package through Disney that includes the park entrance this is something you don’t have to worry about as they’ll sort it all for you.

Make an itinerary of your Disney World holiday

But be open to change plans if you need to dependant on weather or how tired the children are. Looking at an expected queue table and fireworks timetable can help with what parks to visit on what day.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

You can visit more than one Disney World park each day.

The transport between the parks is great and if you are driving to Disney it costs a minimum $25 a day to park. But, you can keep your receipt and show it at multiple parks – you only pay the fee once per day, not per park. So, if you want to visit one in the morning and one for the fireworks in the evening you can without being charged double.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

The Disney parks also have great transport links between them.

If you’re staying on resort you won’t need a car unless you’re looking to venture away from Disney. There are boats, monorails and buses making travelling between parks – and to Disney Springs and the water parks – as stress free as possible. Plus, they’re free for anyone to use who visits Disney, not just hotel residents.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

If you don’t have a Disney dining plan, plan snacks.

We ate breakfast and dinner each day but snacked during the day instead of having lunch. It saved time, kept our energy levels up and, because we bought snacks outside of the parks, saved us money too. We bought packs of snacks from the supermarket – mini cheese crackers, bags of mini cookies, Fruit Rolls and GoGo Squeez.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Download the Disney App as soon as possible.

Once you’ve booked your holiday – download the app. This is your first port of call when starting to plan your Disney holiday and it’s how you book FastPasses for rides and restaurant reservations.

Disney FastPasses are amazing.

You can book three FastPasses a day for rides and character experiences and once you have used them you can then book another one. So, if you want to really do as much as possible, you could book three FastPass rides early in the morning – at 9am, 10am and 11am – but then book another as soon as you’ve queued for the third one. However, we found three rides with FastPasses and then jumping on things with a low queue was enough for us – we rarely booked a fourth FastPass on the day. Also, some rides are so hard to get FastPasses for that you just have to let it go – and either spend your life looking for FastPasses and get really stressed out over it or just decide you cannot possibly do everything.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

I took the second option and was so relieved as soon as I realised I actually didn’t need us to go on every ride. We still had an incredible holiday and the rides at Walt Disney World are such a high standard that all of the rides will be amazing – even if you don’t get to go on all the big name ones. You can book FastPasses way in advance of your holiday so once you have a loose itinerary in place it’s worth starting to look at FastPasses.

Work out what rides you can go on.

When planning FastPasses make sure that your children are tall enough for the ride. This helped to narrow down our options. You can also use different sites to work out what the most popular rides are – as they will be the ones with the biggest queues that it’s worth trying to get FastPasses for. We checked back every few days and swapped around the FastPasses but we didn’t get obsessed with it – although that is easily done.

Disney Memory Maker is also amazing.

There are photographers everywhere in the parks who take photos for you. This is something really worth having and really worth making the most of. Look out for photographers at each of the parks and be prepared to queue briefly for them – there was never a very long queue to have photos taken unless it was at a character meet and greet.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

Magic Bands aren’t mandatory.

You can link up credit cards and park tickets to a Magic Band to just swipe the band as you go. It can work to gain entrance to the park, zap in for your FastPass on rides and to check in with the photographers. But, you can just use your pass ticket. If not staying on the resort it’s an extra expense that you don’t need but you might like to have. We ended up just getting one that Dave wore to make checking in with photographers easier. However, if you stay in the resort hotels you get them included in the price of your stay and they also work as your hotel room key.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

If you don’t have a Disney Dining Plan, eating at the Disney restaurants is REALLY expensive.

This is probably to make the dining plans look more appealing. But, we paid $400 for a meal for 4 adults and 2 children at Cinderella’s Royal Table and $240 for the same amount of people to have a buffet breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. If you don’t have a dining plan I would recommend eating outside the resort and saving the restaurants for special occasions like we did. Also, the character dining experiences don’t have the Memory Maker photographers with all the characters so although you are getting to meet the characters you won’t have lovely photos like you will when you meet them in the parks – something we wish we’d known beforehand.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

If you have a Dining Plan you can book restaurants in advance.

I can imagine this being much like the FastPasses – quite stressful at times. But, there are always restaurants available so book what you want to book or what you can book and then focus your energy elsewhere. You can also book restaurant reservations without a dining plan and these are either paid upfront or on the day depending on the restaurant.

Planning your First Disney World Trip

As you can see, a Disney holiday takes a lot of planning. There are so many different things to think about but when you get there everything falls into place. Whether or not you have dining reservations at the top restaurants, FastPasses for the latest rides and meet and greets with all the favourite characters you will have a fantastic time. I am envious of everyone experiencing the Disney World magic for the first time – it really is something you will never forget.

Planning your First Disney World Trip
Planning your First Disney World Trip

In: Florida, Travel

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