Adventures of an Ex Cast-Member and Disney Virgin ~ 10 Day Countdown

[ariel2006]

The Long, Long Countdown... How to get through 11 agonising months of waiting! From 337 days to 81, passing the time.

So this is the last of our Countdown events that have already happened, and then the excitement starts for what is to come

KATY PERRY CONCERT
Who - Sophie and myself
When - 12th - 13th May
Why - Sophie' Christmas present
Where - Birmingham

When the tickets for Katy Perry were released I knew Sophie would love to go, as would I. With Christmas coming up I knew tickets would be a great present. Unfortunately I was a little late to the game and there were only seats left up in the Gods but I thought it was better than nothing, and plus Taylor was our Main Event, KP was just the warm up (that came after haha). I decided to go for tickets in Birmingham as I had taken Jas to watch Cirque there and it was easier to get to than London, and a whole lot cheaper.

I decided to book us a hotel as it was to far too head back that night. Here is where I made a mistake. When booking the KP tickets I thought it was at the NIA and I knew there were a few hotels just across the road and a whole area of restaurants making it really convenient. Plus being in charge of my little sis I wanted to feel safe and not have far too go. However the show was in fact at the NEC, quite a distance away. So I started looking at new hotels, and found the Hilton which was located just across from the NEC. So I booked us an Executive Room giving us access to the lounge. Jason agreed to drop us off, he was then going to go up to Manchester to see his niece for the night and then pick us up the next day. We had a plan.
For Christmas I had wrapped the tickets up and put them in a massive box with lots of pieces of polystyrene. Firstly she opened an envelope and inside a little booklet telling her we were going to stay in the Hilton, she was very happy but a little confused as to why I had chosen Birmingham. She then found the little parcel at the bottom which she opened, and cried like a baby. She was so happy, and so grateful, she couldn't stop crying. I was so glad I got the tickets, it was so worth just her reaction alone





On the Tuesday we left around 10am, stopped enroute for a quick Burger King for lunch (the first in many years and Sophie's first EVER!), and made it to the Hilton just before 2pm. We said goodbye the Jason and checked into our room which was very nice. Sophie had no idea I booked the Executive Lounge so we wondered up there and she was nicely surprised. The lounge had a selection of cookies, nuts, soft drinks and a coffee machine. We had a drink and a cookie and then headed down to the pool for a swim. One of the main reasons I had booked this hotel was for the pool as Sophie is a major water baby! After some enjoying the pool, sauna and jacuzzi we had showers and headed back to the a Executive Lounge for Afternoon tea. We had a few sandwiches, some little cakes and a coffee, it was all very nice.



We headed up to the room to get ready and then headed back to the now very busy lounge for a quick glass of wine. The lounge was empty every time we went in it apart from when they had the free alcohol, it was packed, there were no spare seats at all.



The walk to the NEC was so quick and simple, it was a great location. We noticed how differently dressed the fans were to the Taylor Swift fans. There were no elaborate costumes or girls dressed to look like her, lots of people were very casual in jeans and t-shirts, it was quite a different scene.
We got a drink and Soph her obligatory merchandise and went and took our seats way, way back. They actually weren't too bad, and there were a lot of seats further back than ours.
We weren't overly impressed with the warm-up act (Icona Pop) but Katy Perry was fab. The concert was a lot of fun, great staging, great costumes, we both really enjoyed it.





After the concert we headed back to the room and watched a film and munched cookies in bed.

On the Wednesday we got up fairly early and went for some breakfast in the lounge. They had a good selection including hot food, cereal, fruit and pastries. We then naughtily went straight to the pool (what would Mum have said ) and enjoyed a bit of time there before heading back to the room to get ready.



Just before 12 we headed to the lounge to wait for Jason to pick us up at 1. Whilst we waited we indulged in some more snacks of course.
We were shortly on our way back home.
It had been a great little trip and lovely to spend time just the two of us. We are really close, but we are normally with Mum or Jason or Kate is with us too so it was nice just us two sisters. We definitely would watch Katy Perry again, but next time we plan to try and get better seats. But at least for now we can tick her off our 'Must see' list.



HOLIDAY TO CORNWALL
Who - Jason and myself, Jason's brother, sister-in-law and niece, various family and friends
When - 30th May - 6th June
Why - Family holiday / Darcys 2nd Birthday
Where - Perran Sands, Cornwall

There won't be a huge amount of detail or pictures here so don't worry, I won't bore you too much. Last year Jason's brother and sister-in-las Mike and Fran booked a caravan at Perran Sands for a week for a holiday and to celebrate Darcy's 1st birthday. Jason joined them but unfortunately I had to work, but made sure I had it booked off in plenty of time for this year. It was a nice simple trip, they had a 3 bed caravan booked for a week, Jason and I stayed Saturday to Wednesday and then spent the last 3 nights in a tent on site (which we had to buy down there as we had forgotten, for the 2nd time, the tent poles). Various members of Jason/Mikes family and Fran's family and friends visited during the week, we had lots of BBQ's, spent lots of time on the beach despite the rubbish weather, played mini-golf and just generally chilled out. So that's it for this trip.




Our tent...

... I wish, this, is what I'm going for next year!


So that brings us to now... And in a few short weeks I will be heading off on our next little adventure before our BIG adventure in 77 days. I will do a little pre-trippie for our cruise in 3 weeks as this is a bit if a special trip and I am VERY excited

[ariel2006]

Originally Posted by *Lauren-J*

Loving your "mini" update! Lots of exciting things along the way to your WDW holiday! We have a trip to London and a week to Tenerife before we're back to WDW! Keep it coming!

See more...

Thank you

Sounds like you have some great stuff planned too Although I would give up everything else if I had to to go back to Florida, it is nice to have things to keep you going along the way. Makes the wait more bearable. Just.

[ariel2006]

The Long, Long Countdown... How to get through 11 agonising months of waiting! From 337 days to 81, passing the time.

Let's Take A Little Trip to Arendelle - A Pre-Trippie within a Pre-Trippie



CRUISE TO NORWAY
Who - Mum, Sophie, Grandma, Grandad, myself
When - 26th July - 2nd August
Why - Sophie's 18th Birthday
Where - Norwegian Fjords

How the trip came about -
So we always knew we wanted to do something special for Sophie's 18th, we just didn't expect it to come around quite so quick. One minute we were at WDW and she was dressing up in Princess dresses and Safari Guide outfits, the next she is almost an adult, going out to music nights with friends. It truly scares me how fast the time has gone.

My little baby sis has gone from this...



... To this...




And sometimes this still happens...





~~~ A quick note about Sophie - Sophie is and has always been what you wish for in a little sister. Not only is she absolutely beautiful on the outside, she is such a sweet, kind, loyal and genuine person, shown through the amount of friends she has, most of which she has been best friends with since was little. She is also extremely talented, and has an amazing pure voice which brings me to tears every time she sings. And she is extremely modest and somewhat shy. She is not interested in boys putting her singing, dancing and friends first, she doesn't drink (she doesn't like it), she is not at all a typical teenager (apart from her love of shopping). She also shares my love of Disney and America and holidays and is a lot of fun so we have a great time wherever we go. That is why I love to spoil her and surprise her ~~~

Ok, so back to her birthday. Years back we always said we would go to Kenya for her 18th as she is the BIGGEST wildlife fanatic and has been since she was tiny. This is her dream destination and knowing we had 6 odd years to go we felt confident we could do it. Then came WDW, and Tennessee, and California, and by the time we knew it we had less than an year which was too short a time to save that kind of money. One day though!

So next came a new idea, and here is a bit of background to this idea...

A mini-trippie within a mini pre-trippie
We are a very close family and are particularly close with my wonderful Grandparents. We have always gone on family holidays with them, as young children to Cornwall, then to various Eurocamps, and finally we started to rent villas in France. Having not been on a holiday with them for quite some years, mainly due to our new love of the USA and my Grandmas insistence not to fly, last May Mum, Grandma, Grandad and I went on a 12 night cruise of the Baltic with Royal Caribbean on the Brilliance of the Seas.

Here we are on the formal nights


And here is our ship




I chose the Baltic as I wanted to see somewhere different, I had visited France and Spain and Italy before and Mum and Grandma had done a Med Cruise for Grandmas 75th birthday the year before. The Baltic cruise looked like it visited some beautiful places, places we otherwise would probably never visit.

After much research into each Port Mum and I mainly decided to do the hop-on hop-off buses at most ports so we had the freedom to do and see what we wanted. Plus we could tick 4 more Hard Rock Cafés off of our list this way and that was very important.

Our first stop was Copenhagen, no hop-on hop-off here, instead we walked along the waterfront to see the Little Mermaid statue which I was very excited about, we them did a lovely boat trip, followed by a walk to the Tivoli Gardens and a cocktail break at HRC.



Our next stop was the beautiful Stockholm in Sweden. Here we did a hop-on hop-off bus tour, a quick cocktail break at HRC and then on a boat tour around the bay.



We were then on to Helsinki, Finland. The weather here was pretty miserable but we managed to do a hop-on hop-off tour, cocktail break and a wonder around the big square



We next had 2 days in St Petersburg, and the main reason it wanted to do the trip. Now due to Russian laws we could only get off the ship if we got a visa, which were very expensive to get, or did a ship tour. So the first day we all did a coach tour showing all the main sites of the city including the Church of the Spilled Blood. The 2nd day the Grandparents stayed on board and Mum and I did a shopping tour, which sounds like a rubbish thing to pick to do in Russia, but basically it meant they drop you into the city, you can walk around freely for a few hours and then they take you back to the boat, so we got to have a good wonder around.





The night we were docked in Russia a Russian folk group came on board and sang and danced for us which was great and we had a midnight buffet and enjoyed the White Nights of Russia, it never got properly dark. This picture is a bit blurry but the time is nearly midnight



Next was the beautiful, old Tallinn. We had booked a coach and walking tour for the afternoon so Mum and I used the morning to walk into the walled city and have a proper look around. We stopped for a coffee in the best coffee shop, set up in a tower. In the afternoon we took the coach trip back into the city and did a walking tour around, followed by a trip out to the coast and stopped in a traditional restaurant for afternoon tea.



Our last port was Gothenburg, our 2nd stop in Sweden. Mum and I did a hop-on hop-off bus, a drink at HRC and a lovely walk by the river, through the Markets and through the park.
(I have no pictures loaded onto my IPad from here for some reason)

We had a few sea days which we indulged in spa treatments, mini-golf on the top deck, and general chilling out. Each afternoon we would spend some time in the pool and in the hot tub with a cocktail taking in the beautiful views. Each evening we would watch a show in the lovely theatre with a cocktail, followed by a lovely dinner and then evening entertainment (one night they played from Russia with Love by the pool which was lovely cuddled up on the sunbed with a drink). Mum and I dined in a couple of the speciality restaurants, and a you guessed, had plenty of cocktails.




My preconceived ideas were all quite different from reality. I had been most looking forward to St Petersburg and Helsinki, both of which slightly disappointed me. However, I fell in love completely with Tallinn, the old buildings, the city square with cafés, the beautiful architecture, the friendly people. This was all of our faves and no one had any expectation of it either. Sweden was my other highlight, particularly Stockholm and somewhere I would love to go back and visit
One of my absolute favourite parts of the whole trip though was sitting out on our balcony (or in the hot tub) and enjoying the stunning views. As we went up to each country the channel was narrow and we passed thousands of little islands, especially around Sweden. It was a lovely sight to wake up to each morning, exciting to see what lay outside, we loved sitting on the balcony, having breakfast, drinking a glass of wine or reading a book as we sailed past all the beautiful seaside homes, the traditional shacks and beautiful greenery. We also passed under a huge bridge that we could almost touch, and past an old abandoned looking port with lots of old boats, and through some city gates. I honestly cannot describe how amazing this all was to watch.



So the reason I have shared this...
And the best part, my Grandad, the man who hates sailing and didn't want to go, fell in love with cruising. Ever since he asks us on a weekly basis when were going to book the next cruise, where were going, how long for, and if we don't get the hints enough he brings home stacks of brochures.
With Grandads constant nags and our wonderful memories of the last trip we looked at doing a cruise. I looked into an Alaskan cruise, Sophies other dream holiday, but that too was unreadable with even the cheapest cruise being nearly £2k per person, without the flights to Canada which the cheapest we could find was over £800. Plus Grandma wouldn't come as she wouldn't fly that far.

Grandad had mentioned wanting to do a Norwegian Fjords cruise a few times, and I too thought this looked great, so I started looking in to it and found a great little 7 night cruise with P&O. Now problem 1 was that Sophie had previously told us she didn't really want to do a cruise but we knew when she was there she would love it. She is very easy natured and loves everything so we knew she would have a great time and love the pools and the dining and visiting the different places. I thought of a great way around this by presenting the cruise to Sophie, not as a trip to Norway, but as a trip to Arendelle. I kept talking about how lovely it looked and how I wanted to visit and Sophie agreed as she loves Frozen. Thanks Disney, your magic works again



The second problem (well not really a problem) was that we really we wanted longer than 7 nights, but we were quite restricted with dates with Sophie finishing school and me not being able to take holidays during school holidays (my boss was very nice and gave me a few days leeway). The dates also worked out perfectly as we leave on my birthday (yay another birthday abroad), and come back the day after Sophie's 18th (my sisters and I are all born 6 days apart!) so we put up with (haha) 7 nights.

So finally Mum called up the TA and booked... But Sophie was yet to know any of this!

[ariel2006]

Mini Pre-Trippie ~ Surprise, Surprise

We tried to think up ways in which we could surprise Sophie with the trip. We knew we had to tell her beforehand else she may plan something with her friends, and plus we were too excited. Mum and I thought of different scenarios, and one night I came up with a great plan. We were going out for a swim and some dinner with Grandma and Grandad to the place I work and we decided to do a treasure hunt for her whilst we were there. I spent ages coming up with clues and rhymes that had Frozen influences and led her from one place to the next, and with each new clue a new letter. Sophie was very excited as she had no idea what was going on. Finally after our swim her final clue led us to the restaurant where a table was laid up with a gift bag. In the gift bag was a copy of Frozen on DVD and a picture from Olaf asking her if she wanted to go here with a picture of Arendelle. She was then told to spell out the letters, which spelt Azura, and told to google the word. Up came a picture of our boat. Finally she was told to get an envelope from the bar, and in it a little brochure I had made about the Cruise.













Sophie is a brilliant person to surprise as (a) she never has a clue anything is happening, and then when it is she can never work it out and (b) she is so grateful and excited by it all. So after some tears we spent dinner discussing the cruise, googling the boat and the ports. We were all very excited.





So after a slightly longer introduction than expected, here is the cruise ~

We are going on the P&O Azura. We have 2 balcony cabins booked next to each other departing Southampton late afternoon on July 26th (my birthday ) I loved exploring the ship when we first got on there last time, finding the restaurants and bars and pools.

Here is our boat...





We have 2 days at sea and 4 port days in different Norwegian towns/cities.




With our booking we got a nice little bonus of £90 per cabin on board spend (not quite the $500 we got last time but oh well), and most importantly for Mum £120 per cabin M&S vouchers (of which Mum has already spent on her cruise wardrobe, and then some).

We have been looking at all the different trips in the different ports. It will be a bit different to our last trip as their not big cities with lots of sightseeing buses so we will probably do mainly ship tours so we get to see the most of where we go.

We have booked a trip for Stavenger, a boat trip that takes you through the Fjords and under Pulpit Rock. I would have loved to have gone up to Pulpit Rock but we don't have enough time. Maybe next time!



Mum is going to book a trip for Bergen this week. We couldn't decide on the cable car or funicular railway but she found a trip that takes you up the mountain on the funicular and then a guided walk back down through the countryside.



The trip I most want to do is a troll car ride to Briskdl Glacier, but typically it's the most expensive (about £80) so were going to wait and see



The other port Skjolden doesn't have any trips I really, really want to do so we will probably book something onboard. Grandad fancies a bus tour that takes you up some really windy roads into the country but everyone else is scared of heights so I said I don't Mind going with him.





We have also booked a B&B for the night before near Southampton since I didn't really wanted to be travelling on my birthday (apart from the cruising of course). Last time we went from Harwich and stayed in a lovely B&B where you leave your car during the cruise and the man gets you a transfer to and from the port. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything like that in Southampton, and our first choice the Harbour Hotel was fully booked. This hotel looked great with a pool, and right near the port, but hopefully our B&B will be nice and not like the horror story from Libby's DLP trip Either way we will be right near the port in the morning.

We have ordered a cake for dinner on Sophie's birthday from the ship, and I have ordered some decorations online to decorate the cabin, I'm just waiting for them to arrive. We are hoping to use the Spa on this day, I have been dreaming of a relaxing hot stone massage since our last cruise.

So we are now within our 3 week countdown and with just 2 full weeks left at work before we go broken up with a mini hotel stay for Sophie to celebrate her birthday with her friends, the time will fly.

Thanks for those still following

[Guest]

Love you updates as usual, please keep them coming

[gtyrel10]

What a fantastic surprise! You are going to have such an amazing trip! This looks like such a brilliant trip to do, and it seems like the same one Disney do but for half the price well done you!

I have been wanting to do one of those Baltic Cruises for years i just love the look of all the places they take you to so its nice to finally hear from someone who has done it!

keep the updates coming your pre trippy is fab xx

[ariel2006]

Originally Posted by Fizzy Fish

Love you updates as usual, please keep them coming

See more...

Thank you

Originally Posted by gtyrel10

What a fantastic surprise! You are going to have such an amazing trip! This looks like such a brilliant trip to do, and it seems like the same one Disney do but for half the price well done you!

I have been wanting to do one of those Baltic Cruises for years i just love the look of all the places they take you to so its nice to finally hear from someone who has done it!

keep the updates coming your pre trippy is fab xx

See more...

Thank you And definitely try and do a Baltic Cruise, I cannot recommend it highly enough. And I would never have gone to any of the places on the trip probably without doing it this way, which would have been a real shame! My one big tip though would be definitely go for a Balcony room, it really made the trip

[MissVincent]

Great mini updates

[ariel2006]

Another week passes... 2 Weeks today till my birthday and our Cruise!

We decided to start preparing ourselves this week for the over-eating and cocktail drinking we will be indulging in in a few short months (and sooner for me in 2 short weeks also) by taking a mini trip.

On Wednesday I took Sophie and her best girlfriends to stay in one of the Lodges where I work, which happens to be one of her favourite places. We obviously have the Cruise planned for her 18th birthday, and the day after we get back Mum is doing a big BBQ for the family to celebrate but I knew Sophie wanted to celebrate her 18th with her friends in some way, so this was perfect, she could show off the place she always talked about.


Our Lodge


View from the first floor






Impressive fireplace


Master bedroom (the beds are to die for)



Outside our terrace

Jason and I arrived mid morning and decorated the lodge with '18' balloons and signs, birthday confetti and set up some cocktail glasses ready for the evening. We then went and set up a picnic complete with prosecco over in the Summer House.




Just a little picnic





Mum dropped the girls off at lunchtime and after running around the lodge squealing and decided which bedrooms they were having I took them for a little walk and we stumbled across the Summer House set up for them. We left them to have their picnic and prosecco and we went up to the Bistro restaurant for some lunch on the terrace.





View from terrace at lunch

After a few hours we collected the girls and took them over to do Archery and air rifle shooting, they had a great time missing the targets and making up dance routines whilst shooting!


Our little archer

They then went up to use the pool, sauna and steam room for a few hours whilst Jason and I set them up some snacks and drinks for dinner. They wanted to stay in the lodge for the evening so I had brought them pizzas, chips, sweets, snacks and made a jug of piña coladas and a pile of girly films. Jason and I did what every sensible babysitters of 5 17-18 year old girls do and left them too it and enjoyed some time sampling various cocktails in the bar and a lovely meal in the restaurant.




Lovely bar


My idea of babysitting


Coffee and petit fours

We got back around midnight to some very giggly girls who were watching of all films, Frozen! Jason and I had made Sophie a cake complete with sparkler candle so we all sang Happy Birthday.



We then left them to it and went to watch TV in our room. They stayed up till around 3am and even did the washing up before they went to bed. I'm so lucky I have such an angel of a little sister, they were all really well behaved and sensible.

The next morning Jason made them pancakes for breakfast and then they went to watch the Falconry Display. We had a few hours to kill so they went off for a picnic and some more swimming whilst Jason and I enjoyed a drink on the terrace and then our own picnic.

We all had a fab, but tiring few days, and it helped pass a little more time before our next Adventure in 2 weeks.

[gtyrel10]

What a fantastic birthday, you are such a fab big sister. Do you want to be my big sister (even though i think i am older than you but still! ).

The lodge is beautiful and i love your planned picnic you got such fab weather for it as well so that is super lucky.

xx