Yo Ho, A Disney Life for Me - Summer 2020 pre trip

[Buggles94]

Hi Abby
When is the Disney balance due? We are staying in a villa so I'm a bit worried that even if we get to go we won't be allowed in as not onsite! However, we did buy annual passes last October (with hopes of going back in February and July!) so I'm wondering if they will let AP holders in - fingers and toes tightly crossed! Think they will extend AP or give money back for lockdown so need to look in to that at some point...
Just been looking at Tokyo Disney Seas today as wondering if trying a new Disney is the way to go. We love Disneyland California so a trip from there to Hawaii might have to be in future plans. I think you said somewhere that next year has to be bigger and better if this year doesn't go ahead - completely agree

[caitlinsmummy]

Kate! 😯 Chocolate sauce is a must with churros. Looking forward to the pics of the waffles ans the France night. That menu sounds amazing!

How are you getting on with your Disney marathon? What film are you up to? I ended up watching both Aladdins last night and the cartoon Beauty and The Beast! Tonight will be the live action 😁 xx

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Hi Abby
When is the Disney balance due? We are staying in a villa so I'm a bit worried that even if we get to go we won't be allowed in as not onsite! However, we did buy annual passes last October (with hopes of going back in February and July!) so I'm wondering if they will let AP holders in - fingers and toes tightly crossed! Think they will extend AP or give money back for lockdown so need to look in to that at some point...
Just been looking at Tokyo Disney Seas today as wondering if trying a new Disney is the way to go. We love Disneyland California so a trip from there to Hawaii might have to be in future plans. I think you said somewhere that next year has to be bigger and better if this year doesn't go ahead - completely agree

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The balance is due at the end of May, it's 8 weeks prior to travel that we are supposed to pay roughly £6,000. So it's a fair chunk of money. The flights seem like such a long time ago as we paid for them last August (indirect Lufthansa via Frankfurt). I did think that if there are only a few people allowed in parks it would likely be on site guests and APs. Well, we will have to wait and see if that's the case.

Japan was one of the places I'd been considering for next summer as we would love to go East, we're big fans of studio Ghibli movies and the lure of Japan is big. But, if this summer doesn't go ahead I know I will want to go back to Orlando and do it properly.

Maybe you're right though the idea of a few days at Disney California followed by Hawaii is also very appealing! Argh, I'm crappy at making decisions at the best of times, when I don't know what's going to be happening in the world it's even harder to make a decision.

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Kate! 😯 Chocolate sauce is a must with churros. Looking forward to the pics of the waffles ans the France night. That menu sounds amazing!

How are you getting on with your Disney marathon? What film are you up to? I ended up watching both Aladdins last night and the cartoon Beauty and The Beast! Tonight will be the live action 😁 xx

See more...

She was very insistent on the chocolate sauce and it made for a super breakfast the next day! The menu planning has kept us going when we're not watching movies.

I'm glad you're getting your monies worth out of Disney+. We watched the sword in the stone this morning. It was ok. I really liked 101 dalmations yesterday, I haven't seen that old animation in ages, the live action 90s remake is pretty faithful to the original. It was great and Cruella De Vil is a great villain. Tomorrow is Mary Poppins so we're in for a treat with that. In fact the next few are all going to be good. As it's Jungle Book after MP.

[Goldia]

More Food!

So this pre trip seems to be turning into a food report, but since I love eating and taking photos of what I'm eating and we've already established I'm massively self indulgent when posting on my pre trip then it kind of feels right.

Meantime, it's been another rollercoaster in terms of the will-we, won't-we debate about the holiday. We're on an up and then a down within the same day. Yesterday I was feeling more confident about the trip this summer as it seems that other countries are starting to relax their restrictions, but only time will tell I guess.

Back to the food. Ok, I shared an advance photo of the hilarious churros. They did look silly didn't they?

First up though is a shepherds pie. Not quite sure now why I thought you'd want to see this, but it's the first photo in the folder for sharing, so here you are.

Plus here am I with a cider!

Kate and me made a chocolate swiss roll. This is half of what was left after our first pudding!

A cocktail to wash it down? Why not? This is an espresso martini that I couldn't be bothered to shake to get the crema layer so it's just mixed in the glass.

The next photos were not taken as I forgot true food report style. It was another BBQ you'll have to trust me that it was good. This was on Easter Saturday.

I did remember to take a photo of the drink though yes I know, it's typical. Cosmopoilan, yummy.

Next up Easter Sunday and Kate and me had hot cross buns for breakfast while watching a movie.

We made chocolate brownies as our Easter treat.

Moving on a couple of days and we're onto the Mexican meal. First of course is the photo of the churros before being baked (I found a recipe that didn't involve frying). As you can see shaping them wasn't easy

Here they are after being baked. Not too shabby! The kids were desperate to eat them, but I wouldn't let them.

Of course, if you're eating Mexican then you're drinking Margaritas.

We made salsa and guacamole.

Chicken fajita mix.

Mexican rice and beans.

It was a real treat.

Now for the final churro photo after they've been dusted with cinnamon and sugar.

Kate had convinced me we couldn't have churros without having chocolate sauce.

The next morning Kate had a brainwave and decided what we needed with the leftover chocolate sauce was waffles and ice cream. So, that's what we had for breakfast.

At some point after that we made chocolate chip cookies.

Then it was Friday night and I decided what we needed was Pizza and Prosecco. Kate and me found a recipe for non-yeast dough and made the pizza. They are bit of a funny shape, but again tasted goo.

Next was the French meal. This was another corker

Baked-camembert-tiger-bread-tear-and-share.

Slice the tiger bread top off. Dig out two holes for the camembert.

Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with garlic.

Chop the top of the bread and repeat oil and garlic.

Cook on high for about 15 minutes. Cheesey heaven

Main course was steak and frites.

Dessert was a chocolate and orange tart.

The drink for tonight was a martini.

Since the weekend we've had fairly boring meals. Nothing really photo worthy apart from yesterday's pudding which was a Key Lime Pie. Instead of making the pastry again though I chose to make a biscuit base the same as I would use for a cheesecake (the chocolate tart had a pastry base and I didn't fancy having to make pastry again).

It was a bit fiddly to serve though, as you can the portion on the left collapsed a bit!

It tasted good though.

So that brings us up to date. I'm back at work now, well working from home, so less time to plan and prepare meals. But I think my waistline is appreciative of that.

I hope everyone is keeping well,

Take care

x

[Sparksy72]

Hi Abby, some amazing meals, you have obviously been super busy in the kitchen! I love the look of your key lime pie, that is on my list (we are doing lots of baking currently ) I’m pleased to see you are keeping up the cocktail tally

[collybird]

It makes me chuckle that you’re posting the cocktails alongside your meals, you are in full trip report mode.

I had Kate’s duvet cover at my mum’s house.

The churros turned out well in the end and your waffles look very yummy, as do your cookies. I am genuinely concerned that my uniform isn’t going to fit when I go back to work.

Oh wow, I have to try your Camembert tiger bread.

We've had a pretty awful week of meals, I've forced myself to work through the various panic buys that were in the freezer. It's hard for me to motivate myself to cook when I'm not excited about the end result so I am looking forward to having something much yummier next week.

[MrsSilverStar]

That Camembert and tiger bread looked to die for! Love the cocktails and food report!

I feel you all on the weight gain issue - I’m now counting calories again on MyFitnessPal in a desperate bid to rein it in a bit! And we’re only allowed alcohol three days a week now...I never drank regularly before lockdown!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

Hi Abby, some amazing meals, you have obviously been super busy in the kitchen! I love the look of your key lime pie, that is on my list (we are doing lots of baking currently ) I’m pleased to see you are keeping up the cocktail tally

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It was fun to do over Easter. Back to work this week and the meals have been a lot less interesting. The key lime pie was good, very limey! The cocktails go down too well I'm afraid

Originally Posted by collybird

It makes me chuckle that you’re posting the cocktails alongside your meals, you are in full trip report mode.

I had Kate’s duvet cover at my mum’s house.

The churros turned out well in the end and your waffles look very yummy, as do your cookies. I am genuinely concerned that my uniform isn’t going to fit when I go back to work.

Oh wow, I have to try your Camembert tiger bread.

We've had a pretty awful week of meals, I've forced myself to work through the various panic buys that were in the freezer. It's hard for me to motivate myself to cook when I'm not excited about the end result so I am looking forward to having something much yummier next week.

See more...

I'm hoping this is not the only food report I get to post this year. Keeping everything crossed. The countdown now seems to be racing ahead and I really wish it would stop.

I'll tell Kate about the duvet, she'll be pleased, she always likes it when I say "Colette says..." honestly, she thinks you're awesome.

I put on 5 lb over Easter. Did I say that in the post yesterday? So, I'm kind of glad it was back to work this week and I didn't have time to bake too much and come up with themed meals. I've done my best to avoid snacking this week. I'm hoping I get to put my work clothes on soon, but we still don't have any dates for school opening. But given that last time the government didn't give any advance warning to schools and just announced the closures to the whole country I suspect we will find out we're going back to work the same time as the kids find out.

I've just done my food planning for next week before braving Tesco and I've forced myself to copy you and have some of the freezer meals too

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

That Camembert and tiger bread looked to die for! Love the cocktails and food report!

I feel you all on the weight gain issue - I’m now counting calories again on MyFitnessPal in a desperate bid to rein it in a bit! And we’re only allowed alcohol three days a week now...I never drank regularly before lockdown!

See more...

Ah, now the tiger bread baked camembert is a recipe the lady I share an office with told me! She's my work best friend and I miss her dreadfully. Anyway, I made it last year when we had my mum and dad over for the meals around the world, but I forgot to take the photo before we all dove in and this was all you got last year.

I'm glad both you and Colette liked the look of it. So easy, but so tasty.

[Buggles94]

Wow - Im hungry after reading that food report! Delicious I'm watching Imagineering on Disney + now. Love it! So hope we will get there in July but I'm starting to accept it is less likely now and if we do go I'm really not sure how social distancing is possible! However, if Disney and Virgin Atlantic say I can go I think I will Got to persuade rest of my family but think they agree... I'm cancelling my Discovery Cove tickets and probably Universal ones though as think I'll stick to the villa and Disney if it is open. Hope being back at school is going well? I'm an LSA and have been furloughed so just waiting to see when I'm needed at school again!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Wow - Im hungry after reading that food report! Delicious I'm watching Imagineering on Disney + now. Love it! So hope we will get there in July but I'm starting to accept it is less likely now and if we do go I'm really not sure how social distancing is possible! However, if Disney and Virgin Atlantic say I can go I think I will Got to persuade rest of my family but think they agree... I'm cancelling my Discovery Cove tickets and probably Universal ones though as think I'll stick to the villa and Disney if it is open. Hope being back at school is going well? I'm an LSA and have been furloughed so just waiting to see when I'm needed at school again!

See more...

I'm hungry too, I'm on strict rations this week to cutback, plus I haven't been shopping so the cupboard is bare

I'm loving imagineering too. I'm up to episode 3. I'm trying not to rush it. Me and Kate are also secretly addicted to Encore!

I think going or not going on holiday is such a personal choice, but I agree with you. Well technically, I suppose, at the moment it's actually out of our hands as the FCO advice was no travel indefinitely, so we're not going anywhere until they lift it. But, I'm fortunate that none of us have health conditions, we don't have money worries, none of my close family have been hospitalised. So we feel pretty sheltered and safe in our little part of the world. I know it's not the same for everyone but that gives me the luxury of being able to hope our holiday still goes ahead.

I think if it was our first trip I would have cancelled or rescheduled by now as I doubt it will be a full park experience. But, for us if the flight goes ahead I think we will be on it. Even if there are social distancing restrictions in the parks. I appreciate it won't be the same, but we are lucky enough to have done it all before and it would be a sort of return to normality to be able to go back. I'm sure that sounds ridiculous but it would signify that the world was getting back to normal.

Am I expecting to go? Nope.

Am I hoping to go? Yes.

Furlough is a term I don't think I'd ever heard of before all this. We will have to wait and see when schools will open. Who knows? All bets are off on when that will happen. The same kids are still completing work and the same ones are still not but that's normal too.