Holiday Planning

Holiday planning is in full swing here in crazy cat lady towers!

Now as per usual I am heading off to my happy place in September - Sunny (hopefully!) Orlando.

This year we are going for the last 2 weeks of September and the 1st week of October so a little later than usual for us as we normally go for the first 2 weeks of September, but it falls in time for the fabulous Halloween celebrations as well as the food and wine festival at Epcot

Halloween Decs outside Magic Kingdom

We are doing the trip as cheaply as possible as per usual because I'm broke and the dollar is so bloody awful that the cost of food and shopping is going to be higher.

So far we have booked:

• Coach travel to London Gatwick - booked for the day before travel £17.50 for all 3 of us :) Paid in Full
• Travelodge Central Gatwick - booked family room for the night before  travel and includes an all you can eat breakfast £62 for all 3 of us Paid in Full
• Flights out - with Thomas Cook - booked using skyscanner - cheapest direct flights out at £200 per person including meals and baggage Paid in Full
• Hotel and Disney Tickets via Disney - we are staying at the Clarion Inn in Lake Buena Vista with 14 day Disney tickets - even though we are going for 3 weeks we don't need to have 21 day passes as we have plenty of other things to do (Hello Halloween Horror Nights and Busch Gardens!) Total cost for 3 adults - £1737 so around £550 each, however over £300 of that is on the Disney tickets so the hotel for 3 weeks is like £250 per  person - admittedly that is 3 of us in a room with 2 double beds. Paid £350 with balance due July

Left to book:

• Flights home - currently these are looking at coming in around £220 per person with Thomas Cook
• Coach home from airport - around £25 per person
• Universal, SeaWorld, BuschGardens tickets - currently around £200 per person for 14 days unlimited tickets to all of them plus free transport out to Busch Gardens

I am also wanting to get Universal Halloween Horror Nights which are around $100 each and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at around $80 each.

Food money we tend to budget around $10 a day - which sounds very low but we also each put in $50 to a kitty and do a big Walmart shop - out hotel room has a fridge and microwave so we will be having breakfast in the room most days and taking snacks and drinks out with us. We tend to only eat one big meal during the day and some days that might be Golden Coral (around $12 at lunch time for all you can eat / drink and damn the food choice is amazing) or Cici's (around $7 any time all you can eat pizza, salad, pasta, desserts and drinks - and there are always vouchers around to use to get a discount there) or it might be dinner at the food court in the mall (around $6) or even a McDonalds ($4). So whatever is left off one day's budget can go towards a nicer meal another day. 

We will eat a few times in the parks as well so we wont be starving

So the budget for food is like £250 each due to the shitty dollar rate - I keep hoping it's going to go up but it hasn't so far boo!

Spending money wise I will be taking as much as I can with me as I like to go shopping and buy shoes and clothes out there - but as I have been there so many times I dont go big on souvenirs so really I'll be taking around £500 spending money and my credit card :) 

I've booked my annual leave off from work and now it's all about paying the balances and and saving!