On the 26th January we received an email from Charter Travel with something I was secretly hoping for - a flight schedule change! Originally we were on the later flight, but now we're scheduled to leave at 10:30am instead, giving us an extra 2 hours or so in Orlando

After I received notification of this I got back onto them and requested my Virgin reference number. We like to book the rows of 2 at the back so a) we don't have to climb over a stranger for the loo the whole flight and b) a stranger doesn't have to climb over us for the loo the whole flight.

I logged in straight away only to find that our usual seats, 61A and 61C were taken BOTH WAYS! So we had to break tradition and go for seats on the other side of the plane - 61H and 61K on the outbound flight, 62H and 62K on the inbound.

I'm still super pleased they weren't all booked though! I understand this was a pretty boring update, but it's all I can offer until the big ADR day comes around (April 7th).

There will however be a sneaky Disney Store Japan haul coming soon, I will reveal all when my package has arrived (including how I ordered!)

Yay you have another trip planned! it just crosses with ours, we are hoping to fly out around the 20th September and back around the 7th or 8th October (still haven't booked flights).

SSR looks amazing, definitely jealous great ADR lists too, we want to try crystal palace this year too.

Looking forward to updates!

Just caught up with all your exciting plans Looking forward to your Disney Store Japan haul, I'm intrigued! xxx

ohhhh can't wait to see your parcel!

I'll be popping up a post tomorrow! xx

I know, I know - I promised an update ages ago! I am a bit lacking on spare time at the moment - Lewis and I have officially gotten the ball rolling and have started looking at new build developments in our area to buy our first home! It's exciting and scary all at the same time.

A couple of months ago I decided to place an order with the Japanese Disney Store through a website I use to buy things from the USA - ShopandBox. Basically what you do is create a wishlist of items that you want from a particular country, and when you're ready to order you submit that wishlist. ShopandBox will then assign you to a "boxer" who will order the items for you, repackage them so shipping is cheaper and send them on to you.

For my Disney Store order, I was assigned to a boxer named Hiro (how ironic!) and he was great - the items arrived with him the day after I'd ordered, he shipped them a day after that and they were with me within a week of submitting my order.

Here is what I got!



I am totally in love with them! My intention was to keep the bag for my Disney trip but I've been using it every day since getting it. Fingers crossed it doesn't fall apart before October!

As of today, we are a mere 189 days away from flying. It still feels forever away, but at the same time it's whizzing by.

Our ADR day is a week on Thursday, and I'm at work so I'm leaving it up to Lewis to get things right! I was really starting to panic that MNSSHP dates wouldn't be released before our ADR date, as we wanted to book California Grill on a party night to see the perimeter fireworks from up there. Thankfully though these have now been released and it won't be (hopefully) an issue.

Here is what we have mapped out so far:-

October 3rd - Travel down to Manchester, overnight stay (not sure where yet, we loved the Radisson but it's quite £££).

October 4th - Flight has now been changed yet again from 10:30am to 11:00am. Magical Express to SSR, evening in Disney Springs with a quick service meal.

October 5th - Pre-park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace. Spend the morning in MK, catch Festival of Fantasy before heading back to the resort for a nap/pool time. Magic Kingdom has EMH tonight so will probably go back out late evening to enjoy them.

October 6th - Epcot. There are EMH in the morning on this day but we think we'll give them a miss after a late night the day before. Dinner will be at Chefs de France.

October 7th - We'll be enjoying breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe before heading over to Magic Kingdom. There is a MNSSHP this night, so will head back to the resort mid afternoon before coming out for a meal at California Grill to enjoy Hallowishes.

October 8th - Animal Kingdom. EMH in the morning on this day, so we'll probably take advantage of that. Again, we'll probably head back to SSR in the afternoon to relax and change before having dinner at Sanaa that evening.

October 9th - Hollywood Studios. EMH in the morning, whether we'll use them or not is a different matter considering there isn't too much there anymore (particularly for me who doesn't do RNRC or ToT). Lunch or dinner at the Sci Fi Diner, finished off with Fantasmic or Star Wars fireworks, providing they're still on when we go.

October 10th - Animal Kingdom. Lunch at Yak and Yeti, and will spend some time exploring the park in the evening and enjoying Rivers of Light.

October 11th - Epcot. We'll probably spend the morning/early afternoon eating our way around the Food and Wine Festival before a later dinner at Via Napoli. There are Extra Evening Hours in the park on this date, so we'll use these to our advantage.

October 12th - Animal Kingdom, followed by dinner at Jiko. We'll probably head to Magic Kingdom afterwards to enjoy the Extra Evening Hours.

October 13th - Breakfast at Be Our Guest and lunch at Skippers Canteen. Back to the resort for a swim in the afternoon before our first experience of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

October 14th - Rest day. Will spend the morning hanging out at the pool, head out for some mini golf in the afternoon before an evening at Disney Springs. Dinner at Raglan Road followed by Cirque de Soleil.

October 15th - Morning at Typhoon Lagoon, followed by Hollywood Studios. Dinner at Trattoria al Forno, before watching Fantasmic/Star Wars fireworks back over at the Studios.

October 16th - Half a day at Epcot, once again eating our way around Food and Wine Festival. Following this is a second night at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

October 17th - Full day in Magic Kingdom and dinner at Ohana. We'll probably head back into the park afterwards for our last look at Wishes/Electrical Parade/Celebrate the Magic.

October 18th - Morning at Disney Springs before travelling home

We had originally planned to do a day at Universal this trip, but tickets for both parks for one day would come in at around $300 for both of us, which we thought just wasn't worth it. This is why we've decided to do two MNSSHP nights instead! We've also knocked out our usual mall day, as we can easily order anything online to the resort.

So this will be a full on Disney trip! I can't believe we have 3 extra days compared to what we're used to and I still struggled to fit everything in

Love the plans. Two party nights, you'll get an epic candy haul!

Sounds great! How are you finding planning around the early closures on party nights - we are going in Sept/Oct and haven't been this time of year before, I feel like we might miss late nights at MK!

I thought it was going to be really difficult (we haven't been this time of year before either) but we've managed to sort out our MK evenings on nights that aren't party nights or on the nights we're actually doing MNSSHP. I think the only day that we're doing MK and not attending MNSSHP is the night we're eating at California Grill, so we'll probably do a bit of resort hopping before for a drink or few!

Haha I never actually thought of that! So exciting