All sit down, all sit down.....

Today is one of those very odd days when routine goes completely out of the window because shock horror the shops dare to shut for a whole day what with it being Easter Sunday; so as with every year we spend hours deciding what we can do......when James says why don't we go to Heathrow

So off we went for a little drive, well a drive and had a quick mooch around terminal five and watched the odd plane or two come into land. As I have said before I am not a fan of flying so have to work myself up to it.....or find enough to keep me occupied for at least 8 hours

Thankfully an email dropped into my inbox yesterday which helped, I love Mkingdons trip reports on the Dibb and he has gone and put them into a book which is now available on amazon which was promptly downloaded.

Mkingdon's Tales of Family, Food and Florida. Craig Williams £5.98

You can find the book here!  Fingers crossed this works as it has been temperamental (if not just search amazon for Mkingdon)

My plan is to read it on the flight; there is just one problem....sometimes I find myself laughing out loud which brings me to the thought of the week

What is considered acceptable behaviour before or on a flight?

There have been endless discussions on forums about to recline or not to recline; quite honestly I am not fussed either way....what does peeve me though is someone who reclines their seat and then bounces in it like the young man on our flight home in 2009.....I mean how could he not know I was sitting behind him?????

We also had an experience on a flight when we were in a row of 3 when the lady closest to the aisle took a tablet for a headache which promptly knocked her out; we were physically climbing over her to go to the toilet and not once did she stir so we now either pick a set of 2 seats right at the back of the plane (no on to disturb but you are last off) or fly on an A330 which has a 2-4-2 configuration (thats whats showing for our outbound flight this year)

View from the window:

The thing you have to remember about a flight to Orlando is that there will be children on board who may be a little excited, they may run up and down the aisle, they may even sing the theme song to the Power Rangers really loud because they forget they have headphones on but these little people are just as excited as you they just don't have the ability to hide it that well; who am I kidding I spend the whole flight checking the sky map just to see if we are there yet

There are some obvious things that shouldn't even have to be said like:
- When they start boarding they do it by row, don't rush to the gate and then complain that everyone is getting on before you....your seat will still be there
- Please remember someone else will probably want to use the toilet after you, so leave it as you would want to find it

There is a very tongue in cheek thread about this on the Dibb, which is titled Just for fun - a code of conduct for air travellers

The thing to remember is that the flight is less than 10 hours of your life and what comes at the end of it is a lifetime of memories, and just in case if you hear a lady laughing out loud on your future flight I apologise in advance as it just might be me

Just take a deep breath....

Last week there was an obvious lack of blogging on my behalf, I am not going to waste my time making excuses instead I am just going to tell it how it is; I was stressed!!!!! Poor James and Emma had put up with quite a lot including tears while shopping but thank goodness things are much better now.

The reason for my stress - planning; now I thought I loved planning as I can spend forever researching info for our holiday, browsing menus, checking the park hours and watching endless videos on youtube. But I have discovered planning is only fun when your heart is in it which it definitely wasn't last weekend as I was trying to plan 3 work events all taking place within 3 days.......

Sometimes there is only so much your brain can take and that was way too much for mine..... but now I am back to planning something I like as all the work events have happened and without too much hassle.

I say I plan but by no means is our holiday run like a military operation, I am not a laminated spread sheet kind of girl but we learnt by the mistake of our first trip (when we stayed off site) all I had done that time was read the smallest guidebook known to mankind and if I remember rightly I might even have done this on the plane and we missed so much and wasted loads of time.

There is so much to see at Walt Disney World that you need to do a little bit of research first, we always pick up a copy of Birnbaums guide book; but each to their own as this is kind of the sugar coated Disney planning book and doesn't give you ride ratings like the Unofficial Guide does; however that book is by no means light reading - it must be up to 800 pages plus now. You just need to pick what works for you...

The Unofficial guide also includes some sample touring guides to make the most of your time in the parks, but for me these are a bit too regimented although they do work for some. Personally I like to have an idea of which parks we plan to visit each day and which rides we would like to do (notice I didn't say must do!) but that is the extent of it - and the reason for this you forget to notice the little things.

Yes, WDW has 4 theme parks with some of the most incredible rides in it but if you took it on face value you would miss the detail - like the Mickey Mouse hiding in one of the houses at the Germany train set, the twinkling foot path near Spaceship Earth or the peanut impressions in the concrete in the new Storybook Circus area.

Right now I am off to do some planning by looking at pictures of desserts....as it says stressed is desserts backwards; that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

A tale of two halves....

This week has been a tale of two halves, don't worry I won't be talking about sport in the blog; I'll leave that to James. This is about my all things Walt Disney World obsession, at times it can seem like there is nothing else in my life but when I look at the bigger picture it really isn't that bad at all...

Shall I explain, this week we had a week off work which was lovely and gave us time to catch up on our housework (we know how to live) but also catch up with the important people in our lives plus take a trip to London.

Poor James, me and Emma were happy to browse bead shops while James sat and read twitter; the highlight of the day was when we found Earl of Sandwich (which just happens to be my favourite eatery at Downtown Disney) actually we didn't just find it this was one of the reasons for me wanting to go. Sadly they don't yet have the holiday sandwich on the menu yet (which is going to be available all year), so I had soup

I have raved about their chocolate brownies since last year, so to find they were on the menu at the London branch I was a woman on a mission to show Emma that they really are the best brownies in the world.

I had seen so many threads on my Disney forums about them that while we were there last year I decided I had to try one. There was just one problem; I think the americans have a lot to learn about making decent chocolate so to see that they use Ghiardelli's chocolate chunks I knew I was in for a treat and they really don't disappoint; these brownies are packed full of chocolate and chewy and gooey all at the same time.
Brownie heaven:

So, yes I do have an obsession because any normal person would not have walked past a million and one places to eat just to find what to those who have never eaten at the EoS would think it is just an upmarket branch of Subway. But then again......

This week the Disney forums have been over run with talk about the opening of.....wait for it......some new restrooms?!?!?!?!? Admittedly the new Tangled themed restrooms in Fantasyland (near It's a Small World) do look incredible; the detail is amazing but its just a restroom people you all need to calm down.

There have been countdowns to the opening and so much speculation about what was behind the walls, one thread on a forum was about 26 pages long! At the end of the day as long as the restrooms are clean, have toilet paper in them and the gap around the door isn't 6 inches wide I am happy....

Don't even get me started about the gap in the toilet doors, what is that all about??????

Shall I show you my white bits?

It's a well known fact that I am a girly girl and love nothing more than something sparkly....hint, hint Mr Marchant; well today while pondering the finer details of my packing (yes I do realise we don't go for a couple of months yet) I began thinking about what bracelet I would take with me.

Normally I go for something small and dainty but I have fallen in love with shamballa style ones; I said I liked sparkly I was thinking of taking one of them instead. There is just one issue, won't that lead to a very odd tan line? I am all for being an individual but is this a step too far?

And then my little brain went into over drive, Disney recently announced the Magic Band which you can have in place of a key to the world card - being a bit of a geek this sounds really cool to me; with this band you can:

• Use it to unlock your resort room door
• Charge purchases
• It will be your park pass
• Hold your fastpass info
• Tap to pay for your meals when you are on the dining plan

And so the list goes on, I was very excited to hear that there will be a pink one and once up and running you may be able to pay for special ones (character bands) I might never want to take it off. 

There is just one nagging little thought in my head, now I don't go really brown but you would definitely notice the tan line from one of these things, so what do I do? Go old school and opt for the ticket (magic bands are going to be optional) or say to hell with it and deal with the odd tan; after all I don't complain about the marks my flip flops leave on my feet. 

You will have to wait and see what I decide when I show off my white bits 

xxxx