I was very lucky Lizzie and received some fab pressies!

I don't think Franklin has fully recovered from the rabbit mask, he he!

I hope it goes smoothly too!

Laura Xx

How did this happen?!



Laura Xx

Just caught up laura...omg you're going upper! I could just pop with excitement for you, that's like a holiday on its own! I'm so jealous haha. Enjoy every last minute!

Your party looked amazing, Franklin is such a handsome boy.

I can't believe you've only got a week to go...do a live trippie for all us miserable people sitting in work pleeeeeeeeease?

xx

I can't believe that we are in the fancy seats still! Hope we don't stand out too much! It really is going to be like its own little holibobs!

Franklin is a real cutie, I'll pass on your compliments

I don't think I could squeeze a live report into the itinerary, but I will try and post a couple of updates. You'll be there before you know it! Eek!

Laura Xx

Last Minute Bits

I have been a busy bee and trying to sort out lots of the last minute bits that we haven’t gotten around to doing yet. I keep on feeling like there is something else that needs doing that I have forgotten about , but I am hoping that it is just the nerves of planning such a big holiday with so many hotel changes and a cruise to organise at the end. Does anybody else get the same feeling when they are getting close to going away?

I have been trying to finalise all of our plans and double checking that none of our ADRs and FP+ clash and that we are happy with them all. It is hard not to be too regimented when there are so many planning temptations! I have tried to allow for some rest / free days, but I have also booked some Fastpasses in case we change our minds – it feels like it is going to be harder than on our last trip to Orlando to be spontaneous, when there was still the old style FP around. Now most of the itinerary has been sorted, it has meant that I can copy this over into our cue card plans. These are just a shrunken down, mini versions of what we will be up to every day and with copies of the ADR reservation numbers on, so that I can keep them in my bag and make sure that we don’t forget anything. I chop them into cue card sizes and back them on some pretty coloured card. I did these for our honeymoon and they came in handy, especially if we did want to make any tweaks as we could see where we had bookings and what could be moved. I will post a pic once they are finished, so you can laugh at my obsessive planning .

Another part of my OCD holiday planning tendencies is to write a huge packing list with absolutely everything on it that we need to take or could possibly need! I finished this off, as well as a list of the clothes that we are taking . Now, don’t laugh, but I tend to plan daily outfits!... only so I don’t pack too much and know that we are only taking what we are going to wear. I do one for me and one for Nathan and also finished these off this week now – update to follow on final purchases! My last little pre-planning was to make some Mousekeeping envelopes so that we could put some dollars in them before we go. They aren’t very crafty, but I did try to jazz them up with some Minnie stickers .


Some of the planning, including our packing lists, clothes lists and Mousekeeing envelopes.

A real spanner in the works to all of my planning has been a last minute change to park hours . I managed to snag a before park opening Crystal Palace ADR, but now MK is due to open early and we will no-longer be able to stroll down an emptyish Main Street for photos. Do Disney not realise that people plan their days months in advance based on ADRs and opening hours?! I was really tempted to cancel this, as some of you might remember that I am not a fan of Pooh bear and only really booked for the early park entry. However, Nathan has persuaded me to keep this, as it is a new place for him and we still need to be up earlyish as we are due to collect our hire car that day also – we are planning on getting a bus from MK to the Swan. I am still not 100% sure, but I know that I will love it when I am there and we have an early breakfast BOG ressie to get those coveted pictures – Disney best not mess with this one! :angry:

We received another very exciting envelope… our cruise documents! It is a very fancy booklet, with a little section that holds your luggage labels, perforated contact information for friends and family, as well as personalised pages for all of your booking. We have decided to hire some of the jumbo tubes to float around the sea on for the day in advance, alongside bicycle hire for an hour to explore the rest of Castaway Cay on. These are $10.75 each per person and sorting them out in advance means one last thing to do whilst we are there and another thing that can be paid for beforehand to help keep an eye on the budget when we are there.


I wish that all post was this amazing!

The airport taxi has finally been booked. It has been a bit of a faff actually as the company that we were originally going to book with who were coming up as the cheapest (Ł105) were not answering their phone or responding to emails? We get a leaflet with their costs on through the door quite frequently and I haven’t heard that they have closed down, but we didn’t want to go with someone that didn’t seem very reliable. I really don’t want to be standing at the airport after a long and depressing plane ride home for no-one to turn up. We have instead booked with another local company that have quoted Ł110 and have been very quick responding. For the sake of Ł5 I am happy to have peace of mind, plus they only have seven seaters so I don’t need to worry about squishing all of our suitcases around us now! Another excuse for excessive shopping!

Nathan has also gotten the suitcases down, so I am slowly sorting all of the bits out I have accumulated over the past year and putting the bits we don’t need beforehand in. We have decided to put a smaller case inside of both of our larger ones, so we have plenty of room to bring everything back in. We are entitled to THREE suitcases each in Upper Class , but I don’t think our budget will allow me to fill them all! Plus I am not quite sure how we would manage wheeling all of these to the port and the airport, alongside our hand luggage and hand / man bag? Oh well, I guess two suitcases each will just have to suffice .


My adorable Mickey case that we brought on our last Disney trip!

Dollars are the last thing to do and will probably be picked up over the weekend. I have been holding out in hope that they go over 1.55 again, but I am happy for anything over 1.5, as this is a lot better than what it was earlier in the year and also what I have based all of our budgets on. I’m sure as soon as I bite the bullet and buy some the rate will go up, so if you are after some, wait until Monday – he he!

Now for some of the fun bits that we have been doing! I have finally placed my Hot Topic order! I have been lusting over lots of the clothes and accessories on here for ages, but didn’t want to pay the ridiculous delivery charges and taxes, so I have been good and waited to do a click and collect order. It can take up to 14 days to get to store and then they hold it for up to 45 days. Hopefully it should be in store for when we have our hire car and if it is a bit early they will hold on to it for me. I have mostly chosen lots of Disney and Potter tees for me, but there is a couple for Nathan as well. I have also bought a Potter lanyard each, so that we can store our FOLP in the lanyard and not have to keep searching in bags or them. I will post lots of pictures of what I have ordered in my trippie – the total was a whopping $168 , but there was a 20% sale off of the whole website and I got an additional 10% off for signing up to their website – so it was a bargain really! That’s just reminded me that I really need to sign up to some of the other stores and restaurants that we plan on visiting to see if we can bag any other bargains and freebies. Let me know if there are any recommended ones!

We have also been having a Disney movie marathon, making sure that we watch all of our fave films before we go. Since we booked we have been watching a fair few and have completed all of the Pixar ones, which Nathan loves. We watched Frozen, Brave and Peter Pan at the weekend and I am saving some of my all-time favourites to watch whilst packing – Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. I am sure that Nathan will appreciate the girly film fest!


Some of our Disney film collection!

All of these films also intrigued Nathan to have a look and see what he could watch on the plane. He was a very happy chappy as there were quite a few things that he would like to see. Some of the films on the outbound flight include: Big Hero 6, Cinderella, Home, Into the Woods, Kingsman the Secret Service and Taken 3, so a really good selection and I doubt that I will get much conversation from Nathan as he will be busy ploughing through them all . As we fly out in July and back in August there are new films on the way back, which means that we will have to be ultra-selective and choose the ones that we are most desperate to see. On our last two long haul flights I haven’t watched a single programme – except the sky map! I just can’t seem to focus on them, here’s hoping that I will have more success in Upper Class (Eek! Still can’t believe we will be turning left! ). There is also 50 Shades of Grey on the list, but I’m not sure if this is really plane viewing? I’ll be sneaking a peak at the other passenger’s screens when I mooch up and down the aisles to see if anyone is watching this one!

Finally, I have been getting really excited after watching the Virgin Atlantic documentary… I know, bear with me! But they have been going behind the scenes and lots of this has been focused on Upper Class. It has been fab to see what the lounge looks like, the inside of the cabin and the food; hopefully it will help us look less like novices and that we fly in this class every time, as we won’t be oohing and ahhing over all of the little details.

A bit of a random, word heavy and fragmented update as we are at the point where there are lots of little bits and bobs that need sorting – I hope I haven’t put you off of reading the next instalment?! We are going to start packing this weekend and I will make sure that I take lots of pics of all of the final purchases to share with you all. I love having a nosey at other Dibber’s packing and clothes… or is that just me?

I love your Mickey case it's amazing! I also write a very detailed packing list lol, DH laughs at me but I'm always prepared and I've never forgotten anything !

I very almost placed a Hot Topic order today with the 20% off and half price international shipping! The shipping was still ridiculous though, so I'm waiting for the store that's opening near DHs Auntie in Canada to open, then I'll get an order sent there for free and she'll bring it over with her in September. Love their stuff!

Can't wait to read your report

Fab update!
Those planning lists look very handy...I may have to start typing one up!

That suitcase is so nice :-) x

Soooooooooo organised! Love your suitcase. I think we will also pack a case inside in a case so we can make use of upper class luggage! Looking forward to final updates. Not long now xx

5 days! Just FIVE days! Our friends have just got on the plane, you're next!

That packing list is absolutely mammoth ha ha!

We're doing the same with the movie marathon although we've pretty much run out already as we don't have many!

Really happy with our films for our flight too, plenty to keep us occupied!

Have a great time!