Road To Financial Recovery

daisy_1571

I live 'up north', well north from half the country 😆, and agree its nice both south and north however i understand the pull of florida having gone many times. The rides, shows and sights are AMAZING, the food is all fine and understandable (we aren't adventurous eaters, we like what we like 😀), the driving is easy, the weather is amazing apart from Sept which we found to be quite clammy outside and after several visits we found May and April too hot for us, March was fabulous- hot enough for brits to class it as hot (we were in shorts and tshirts and floridians were in puffy jackets and shivering 😆) so it was fine for water parks but not too roasting for queueing (which by the way theres always stuff going on to entertain you as you wait but the busier the park obv the more time you are queueing compared to doing the fun stuff) then we went end January and found our sweet spot (we are older again now so like the heat even less). It was maybe a little cool to be lying about in the water parks but we didn't go to any that visit, but the parks were sooooo quiet compared to March, I can only imagine the craziness of july/August and xmas.

So yes, I heartily recommend it as a holiday destination with kids probably 8 or 9 and older (younger than that they miss out on an awful lot of rides due to height restrictions plus often don't understand the amazing-ness of what they are seeing and very young can get scared of these huge characters that they usually see as tiny things on tv) BUT......

we have also decided theres no way usa are getting any more of our money than they have to at the moment (and that was before this latest madness), its likely to be years I think before theres less threat of trouble from these m@g@ lot that seemed to be causing problems in some parts of florida to tourists and aside from that I think you are right it wouldn't be great timing for school work.

Maybe whilst you are stuck with school holidays, treat it as a long term destination? For the next couple of years you can occasionally buy some dollars, maybe put some in birthday and Xmas presents each year, perhaps put some money into a regular saver year on year so you are building up a pot of money without missing it whilst you wait and look forward to it?

Mands

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963265#Comment_81963265

It's clear you are re-thinking this. What do your partner and the little one think? As an aside: I read your diary from the start a while back and assumed the 'little one' was tiny. I'm mildly horrified to see references to high school coming up! Anyway, that's a me problem.

You aren't sure, what about them?

And if you did pivot would you get a lovely holiday somewhere else for the money?

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965939#Comment_81965939

haha I will always see her as a little one even though she’s growing up super fast! The trade off would be to go away after her SATS for a week abroad, not quite Orlando but somewhere that we are comfortable with and all on board with it.

the little one couldn’t care whether it’s Skegness or other side of the world lol 😂 she’s easily pleased. My partner is very much terrified of the world tensions thing and flying to America, me I’m not so concerned about that part.

FootyFanDan

@daisy_1571 as always your posts give me such good for thought 😊. If I’m I’m been honest with myself I’d always seen Florida as the place to go but could ever afford. Once that financial position changed I was straight on it without a second thought (selfishly I know) . There wasn’t really a thought about the complexity of some of it and how daughter would handle the heat and queues.

The world tensions thing doesn’t bother me as much as it does my missus and the daughter is content anywhere she can chill in a pool😂.

I think one thing is evident is I just never researched enough. We’ve decided we will definitely go at some point but for us it will be a once and done. So we will review that. The info around times of year is super useful we were due to go end of September

weenancyinAmerica

Have you considered going to a town not too far from where you live but that has a pool for relaxing. I might make for a less stressful trip.

I would stay away from my country till at least 2027. Our elections are coming up and things will be getting upsetting here till after the end of the year. Our current president does not like tourists.

daisy_1571

Hahaha, aw thats so cute, one and done hahaha haha. We thought that too ! 9 times and thousands of pounds later and we still say we'll go back for one last time hahaha hahaha

We get The Brits Guide to Orlando book as it always has new information. Theres also various forums on faceache I think., my sisin law is on a few and you get up to date info.

My top tip is, treat it like a military operation. Plan your fortnight, know what days you are going where, get to the parks early, either be prepared to stay aaaalllll day or go away in the middle and go back, accept you aren't ever going to be able to see everything.

People who faff around and decide each day what will we do today in the style of a normal holiday will not get the best out of it

Dxx

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81966521#Comment_81966521

haha the amount of people I see saying this, it is absolutely going to happen one day and when it does then we will make it the very best experience ever and go into it fully researched and planned. Fate just so happens to be adamant it isn't happening this year. We are doing a lot of work with the current little ones (sorry @Mands 😂) current school and her new school to ensure transition is smooth and the extra support she needs, that it would feel like we were taking the pee if we then took her out of school for two weeks right at the start of the year. It is such an important period for her, maybe had it been further down the line i might now have been too fussed, but I want her to have the best chance to settle properly.

FootyFanDan

Happy Friday All, my body clock is totally out of sync as I worked last night and now will be wide awake having slept through the day. I am looking forward to the weekend, Wednesday night after work I stayed up late to try and prep myself for the change of shift and ended up managing to get up to date on a lot of my work stuff. I need to set in place some boundaries and stick to those to try my best to keep up

This weekend I am hoping to get a tip run in, we do have plans to go to a local circus/stunt show this weekend as we won free tickets so that should be a fun few hours. Tomorrow is a football day, but I will be driving should be low spend day.

Joint expenses this week have been payment for a school trip and some after school clubs. Plus postage on a package to return (this reminds me I have a voucher i need to spend, for jeans I returned past the cut of time). We also have added the next weeks petrol and food into the pots ready to use.

I am wide awake so I think I will maybe watch a series for a while before trying to get a few hours sleep, although I slept til around 2pm so that should be interesting.

We have decided the trip is to be postponed, I processed refund on the attraction tickets this morning, and thanks to Monzo, somehow the money hit account today. Our intention is to use some of this to fund a short holiday in spain in the May school holiday. We have managed to find something pretty cheapish. I guess this depends on world events really though with fuel. The remainder of the funds will be used to fully fund a starter emergency fund, and also some house things. There will defo be a sum remaining so we need to be wise how that gets used. We will utilise some of it to fund some things to do over the summer period too.

Hope everyone has a good weekend whatever they have planned.

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81966095#Comment_81966095

I think we are going to look to spend a week in Spain, we went a couple of years ago and we all loved it and vowed to return last year (prior to me impulsively booking elsewhere) I must say daughter has not stopped talking about looking forward to go back to places she experienced before. This will give us the holiday and break whilst also allowing us to then fully consider the Orlando experience in a few years.

Dakota_Rose

That period of time settling in to a new secondary school was pretty crucial we found. The routines and friendships are all so new and take a bit of getting used to.

I hope you got some sleep so that you can enjoy your weekend.