Timeline

Spend, Spend... no SAVE!!

With all the big decisions made and the itinerary decided on (coming up soon) we proceeded to book and purchase everything we could. M was furtively changing £'s into $'s and we were topping up our savings account whenever possible. In between the big decisions and purchases we also made good headway with all the "Little Things"...

We bought extra luggage to carry our holiday shopping home in, both got some Crocs, M got a new biometric passport, and I bought a cheap waterproof watch as am completely paranoid about missing our Dolphin Swim slot at DC!!

We bought some new summer kit, shades, and tiny toiletries. Ordered some bags from Captain Bags for carrying liquid on the plane (I'm going to want my deoderant!). The list goes on and on and we are not finished yet!

A lot of time and effort has gone into planning this trip and happily M keeps a journal so we do have a timeline of the main events:

Florida Planning Timeline

27/06/06 - Decided to go
17/07/06 - Began Research
01/01/07 - Booked Flights/Hotel/4 Park Flex Ticket online with Vigin
01/01/07 - Booked Discovery Cove (WOOOOHOOOO!!)
02/01/07 - Picked seats on plane
03/01/07 - Purchased Holiday Insurance
06/01/07 - Confirmation arrived from Virgin
09/01/07 - Confirmation Arrived from Discovery Cove
30/01/07 - Booked Dolphin Nursery Tour
08/02/07 - M new passport arrived
26/02/07 - Booked Dine with Shamu
27/02/07 - Purchased Disney Tickets
27/02/07 - Purchased Medieval Times Dinner Show Tickets
27/02/07 - M changed more $'s - hits his $1000 target
05/03/07 - SeaWorld made announcement re the new Aquatica WaterPark which cements our plans for a 2010 return trip!!
08/03/07 - Disney and Medieval Times Tickets arrive
17/04/07 - Booked Blue Man Group Tickets
06/07/07 - Transferred savings to pay holiday balance
06/07/07 - Ordered AMEX TC Card (that was a mistake - but at least we are travelling before they withdraw it!)
12/07/07 - Amex TC Card arrived
13/07/07 - Holiday Balance Paid!!
25/07/07 - Purchased funky Mickey trip report book and started writing
31/07/07 - Booked Gatwick Hilton for our pre-flight stay

It has not escaped my notice that we began our planning on 17/07/06, and finally paid the Holiday Balance 13/07/07 - almost a year to the day!

Up Next: The Itinerary