[NatCat]

So, like everyone does, we intended this year's January holiday - our first ever holiday, let alone our first ever Disney holiday - to be our 'once in a lifetime' trip. We figured we would go all-out and stay onsite and have a Dining Plan and all in all just enjoy being in Disney World, because this was going to be the only time we'd do it! Yeah. Well. That lasted . . . up until we got home in February, whereupon we immediately starting looking for prices for next year.

But first, before I use the term 'we' too many times without you knowing who that it entails, the people!

Me: Nat! 22 (23 by the time we go), technically in charge of the trip but only because I like planning more than she does! We got engaged in January (at Hollywood and Vine, with the help of Mickey!), but we spent that trip with a lovely American friend who helped us with things like: navigating a Walmart, tipping, and reminding us which coins were which. This time it's just us two lovebirds, so we've been calling this trip our 'engagement celebration' trip! I love all of the Disney cats, but especially Marie, the Haunted Mansion and Big Hero 6! I also have pretty severe social anxiety and am on a waiting list for autism assessments, so we take Disney one day at a time as we figured out what my bigger triggers were in January!

Her: Haz! 24 (25 by the time that we go), and my favourite person in the world! She loves Dumbo, Mary Poppins and It's A Small World, and anything small and cute. She has a couple of mobility problems that mean that, although we used a combination of wheelchairs and her crutches in January, we plan on hiring an ECV from an outside company this time. She also has an incredible sweet tooth and is the reason that we will probably end up consuming at least a cupcake a day.

So! The Plan.

Originally, we wanted to go back next January; we loved the crowds, and the weather, and both of us are former performers and we absolutely loved the Epcot Festival of the Arts! But the more we thought about it, the more we worried about how big the crowds for Galaxy's Edge would be, and the more we thought about how we'd like to have made more use of our pool, and the more we thought about how nice it would be to see Disney all done up for the holidays--

And we ended up booking for early September this year instead! For a lot of reasons; it's not as popular with the threat of hurricane season, it worked out fairly cheap, and - my favourite reason - it meant we could see all of the Halloween things and do a MNSSHP too! We booked a whole package with Virgin because we flew with them last time and loved them and liked the price when we did some research.

So, the specifics: we are flying from Manchester on the 4th September at 09:55! We have a night booked at the Radisson Blu before that so we can just have a nice idle walk to the airport in the morning; last time we were dropped off by a family friend (neither of us drive) and the drive and the traffic and the wait played havoc with my anxiety, so this time we wanted the reassurance.

We have the 14 day Park Hopper tickets, but we're actually staying until the 20th! Last time we felt like we only got half a day out of our tickets on the last day (we did have a very nice morning at Magic Kingdom, though!) so we thought we'd make sure we could make full use of them, especially with the Halloween Party making MK close early a few times!

And we're staying at Pop Century! We stayed at All Star Music in January because it was the cheapest, and we were in the Broadway Section (as Musical Theatre People, we couldn't not!). It was a really nice resort, and everyone was lovely, but the buses were . . . a less pleasant experience. We both love over the top theming and the huge icons, and we've heard lots of good things about the food court too! We did briefly discuss doing Port Orleans instead, but we're honestly not luxury people, and the big bright statues, the in your face theming and being able to walk over and look at Art of Animation (which I never got to do last holiday and really wanted to!) won out in the end.

Some things we want to make the most of this time compared to our first 'once in a lifetime' trip!:

- Try more food! We were on the DDP last time and we're on it again this time, but we left with one Table Service credit, nine Quick Service credits, and something like thirty Snack Credits! We didn't make a dint in our list of snacks to get at all, so hopefully we'll be better at that this time! For Haz, who is an incredibly fussy eater, this could also be read as 'try different food'!

- And for me, I'd like to try more rides! My anxiety got the better of me for a lot of Fast Passes I thought I'd be able to do; and though I'm not a heights person or a speed person and I definitely won't be undertaking Rock'n'Rollercoaster any time soon, I'd like to at least try Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Splash Mountain! If I tell you I wimped out of riding Dumbo because I'd been so frightened on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, you'll understand what level of wimpdom I'm coming from here.

- Make the most of the Early Morning/Evening Magic Hours! Because we were a party of three last time, we all had to wait to be up and ready, and we generally didn't start our day until around lunch time. Haz and I intend to do the very opposite of this this time - up early, maybe come back to the resort for a nap or a swim in the middle of the day when it's hottest and most crowded, and then head to parks again for the night!

Anyway, that's where we're at right now! With 184 days to go, we have our dining reservations to book in four days (wish us luck! We have a shortlist but I'll be back to update on what we get and what we don't; really hoping for a Storybook Dining as I couldn't get one for our last trip!), and then it will be a long wait to be able to book our FPs!

We also need to: finalise our travel insurance, decide which ECV provider we'll be going with and book that, do some holiday shopping (always good to stock up on those Primark bits and pieces as they come in as you never know how long they'll last!), decide what day we'd like to do MNSSHP and get our tickets for that, and maybe - just maybe - book some of the tours or events! Haz has surgery on the 12th of March, and we're hoping she'll be able to have another surgery to improve her mobility before we go in September, so she'll have lots of bed rest to think about anything else she wants to do!

I really wanted to do a Trip Report this time as I love reading them and I thought it would be nice to look back on after the holiday (and everyone in real life is tired of my only topic of conversation being Disney World), so fingers crossed I can keep this one updated and keep up with actually writing the report once we're out there!