Holiday, celebrate ......

I am pretty lucky to work for an employer who has a good holiday entitlement and after an interesting day at work I decided I needed to book me some of that; as so far all I had booked was a week off in May and of course the time off for Florida.

So there I am with my holiday form all colour coded so that I knew when my bosses are off so I don't book the same time as them; and the excitement must have been too much as I'm throwing dates in all over the place and then a random thought pops into my head

Airline seats and Fastpass+ booking date! Now thankfully I have my trusty holiday countdown next to my desk (you're not surprised are you?) and that day is on a Saturday. But not just any Saturday but a week 4 saturday!!!!

Now for those of you who don't work for Sainsburys you don't know how important this day is in my job, basically I help to make sure that all of the new starters across 180 stores get activated (basically so they get paid) and I take this responsibility pretty seriously - I mean I am even working on my birthday as it's a week 4; normally the only ones I don't cover is when I am in Florida

But, I am making an exception and I have booked off a week 4 because after all I have far more important things to do like decide what time I want to go on Toy Story Midway mania......I may even have used a little bit of gentle persuasion on James; although I am sure me and Emmie Lou will make our holiday as magical as we possibly can I am not sure James will be as interested in our choices

If I had my way, we would all have fastpasses to meet the fairies and none for Indiana Jones and Lights Motors Action because after all I know deep down he wants to meet them again. So with the park hours having been updated again, we now have a few weeks to do our planning and this will give them a little while for work to sort out week 4 without me

Until next week xxx

Are you serious?.....

Talking to my boss today about holidays and she said she is off to Florida next year and told me which weeks so that I didn't book my holiday for the same time and then the unexpected came out of my mouth.....I'm not sure we will be going next year

Oh my goodness, even I was stunned it came out of my mouth but I have to face facts and think unless I win the lottery or work everyday for the rest of the year I don't think I will be able to afford it.

So the question has to be asked why did I find myself ordering the 2015 brochure even though I know it's just another way to torture myself about not being there. You see in just about every element of my life there is a little bit of Disney, whether it's planning a trip, my jewellery, my stationary, clothes and so the list goes on

I asked James if he could imagine how different our lives would be if we hadn't made our first trip to Florida back in 1998; my first thought was maybe we would be a little saner (that's doubtful). But I have come to the conclusion that they must put something in the water because it's completely addictive.

I love reading peoples posts on the forums saying that they are planning the trip of a lifetime not knowing that they may become one of those people that just click with Disney and find it to be like a magnet drawing them back year after year (I sometimes think I hear it calling me but I have been assured they are just voices in my head and I'm a little strange)

So, aside from selling an organ or putting James up for auction on eBay how could I save enough pennies to do Disney every year? Our work does a share save scheme which you can pay money into monthly and then either take cash or shares at the end of it and I have found this is a good way to save.

But I guess it would just need to be discipline, every month instead of treating myself I should be saving - I could put some stuff that has been sitting in the cupboard and not seen the light of day forever up for auction because if I haven't needed it by now, chances are I don't need it

I've read people giving up a luxury, like a daily trip to Starbucks and saving that money but for me that would be no citrus coke and we all know that's not going to happen.....so I am going to have to think on this one; because to me a year without Disney is like Wimbledon with no strawberries

I'm off to investigate the cupboard.....fingers crossed I make it out by next week xxxx

Love it or hate it.......

Disney have been saying that it's a small world for over 50 years (a fifteen minute ride listening to that is enough to give me nightmares let alone 50 years) but it's one filled with lots of different kinds of people with different opinions

This was evident in our house this weekend when I told James the rumour that Disney might be closing the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (yay!!!!!); they have already announced that American Idol Experience is closing in January 2015 and Indy is also slated to close.

Now I am not sad to see it go as I've seen it once (maybe twice) and that's enough for me but James loves it and will go and see it each time we go so he was a bit sad..... what I didn't tell him was the rumour that they might be replacing it with a Star Wars themed area otherwise he might just go and start the demolition himself.

Star Wars should hold a special place in my heart as it was during a screening of the Empire Strikes Back that James proposed (trust me not my choice of film but I was being the supportive girlfriend and it wasn't a proposal per say but more of an agreement that we were getting married) but anyway even after that the only thing that I find mildly interesting about the whole thing is the Ewoks - which are pretty cute

Personally I think they should take a bulldozer to both Indiana Jones and Lights, Motors, Action but sadly the powers that be don't seem to be listening; I am sure that with the creative team they have at Disney they could find something way more interesting to do with the space

Hollywood Studios has never been a full day park for me, I love Toy Story Midway Mania (but think the standby queue is just ridiculous), Walt One Man's Dream, The Art of Disney Animation and Fantasmic are all amazing. And if you fancy getting a little wet The Little Mermaid show is quite cute (great on a hot day but very unexpected)  but apart from that I could really give it a miss

Although I am sure if you asked James he would find loads to do, which gives me plenty of time to chill out with a cold drink somewhere nice and air conditioned while he goes off and does his thing. So maybe a difference of opinion is a good thing every now and then......

Sorry so short this week, it's only Monday and I feel I have done a full weeks work so it's off to bed for me; until next week xxxx

Umbrella's at the ready.........

It would appear that British summertime has finally made an appearance which invariably means a day of sun and then a day of showers; as most of my family know I hate getting wet so the thought of walking home in the rain isn't filling me with joy.

So why is it different on holiday? No, I don't like wearing a poncho (to be honest I don't think they have actually come out of our case in a couple of years) so an umbrella is always a good thing - but then again I don't like carrying it around just on the off chance so what is the answer? (Apart from James carrying it and I'm sure I can imagine what he would say if I asked him)

The good thing about WDW is there is always something to do if you are not one of those people who will head to the park whatever the weather. One thing to remember is how quickly the weather can change, the normal summer afternoon shower will probably only last for about half an hour (I say probably because we all know the weather does it's own thing)

These photo's were taken 5 minutes apart in Magic Kingdom

What are your options.....as I said you could head for the parks anyway (or stay if you are already there) as this can sometimes lead to shorter queues, you can use the time to take in an indoor attraction or just take a few minutes to relax

But if that's not your thing what else is there to do.....explore a resort, catch a film, go bowling, or shopping at DTD ( you just need to think that a whole lot of other people maybe planning the same thing so it could be busier than you expect)

In all of the times we have been going rain has only made us leave a park twice, once the first time we took Emmie Lou and when we went to Seaworld there was the most horrendous storm (trees down, signs blown over, people being urged to seek shelter and ankle deep rain - and of course I had to be wearing a pale coloured top!!!)

A rainy day at Epcot

The other time was when we were waiting patiently for Wishes and the first bars of the music began  and it started raining lightly, but less than 30 seconds later it was like someone had turned a bucket upside down. Now I love Wishes, to me it is simply magical but even I was not going to stand out in that rain to watch and the rest of Magic Kingdom felt the same - no one left the park but just about every inch of covered space was full

We all have expectations of having great weather while we are on holiday, but you just need to be mindful that sometimes Mother Nature does like to throw a spanner in the works - but if as Crush would say " you go with the flow" you will have an amazing time whatever happens

xxxx

Oh, how I've missed you....

Isn't it strange how you don't realise how much you've missed something until you have it again.....as with every holiday there is always that item of food or drink that just takes you back to your holiday and once you have it again you just want it more!!!

As the lovely Emmie Lou will tell you I have something of an addiction to citrus coke (this is the closest thing I can get to coke with lime here) so when I found out they had a coke freestyle machine that had the option of lime coke zero at Bluewater I was on a mission to get me some of that!

What exactly is a coke freestyle machine, basically it's a drink vending machine where you can mix your drink; so if you fancy strawberry sprite zero or orange flavoured coke then that's what you can have

So as we were there this weekend picking up a birthday present the first stop of the day was Five Guys burgers for a drink......it's £2.50 for unlimited refills; my first choice was raspberry coke zero which tasted exactly like my favourite frozen drink from WDW and reminded me of a rainy day at Epcot (it did taste like it mr marchant!)

Next choice for me had to be coke zero lime, whenever we go to Florida this is one of my must have purchases from Walmart (a couple of weeks ago I was distraught when I couldn't find it on their website - turns out I was just being a numpty and looking in the wrong place). There is nothing like coming back from a long day at the theme park and opening an ice cold can of lime coke!!!

My last top up was strawberry and raspberry sprite zero which kind of tasted like jolly ranchers which is another obsession of mine but that is a whole different story which I will save for another day......I wasn't the only one who like this machine as Emmie Lou got herself some vanilla coke zero. I'm sure this will become a firm favourite when we are in need of an American fix now all they need to do is put one a bit closer to home!!!

I am looking forward to creating my Walmart food shopping list for this year which will definitely include lime coke but until my holiday comes round I will be more than likely found at Bluewater sipping an ice cold drink (unless I win the lottery and I will have a freestyle machine installed in the kitchen!!!)

xxxxx