Parks, Pins, Puke, Pennies...Not Enough Planning - April / May 2017

[sheluk]

Oh m gee that countdown! X

[dixonsontour]

Congratulations on Seren getting her place.

We were lucky as a pass in catchment in Lancashire means you have a place, so we knew where DD was going in October. I couldn't imagine doing it again, having an only child does have some perks!

Have a wonderful holiday.

I hope you like the Tony's package. I think if you view it mainly as for the parade viewing not that the food will be the most amazing ever you will be fine. I loved the zucchini fries. I'd recommend asking for the conservatory too.

[Buggles94]

Hi Michelle
Caught up on your trips today as we are heading to NYC very soon! Tried to get in at the Bryant Park Hotel but no availability - it sounds amazing Maybe next time...
Congrats to Seren on her fab results and have a fantastic time in Orlando - so close now!

[moosha]

Originally Posted by sheluk

Oh m gee that countdown! X

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I know, one minute it seems ages away and the next it's almost time to go and you're frantically packing and getting very excited . Your countdown looks pretty good right now too, Michelle. Have a fab trip x.

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Congratulations on Seren getting her place.

We were lucky as a pass in catchment in Lancashire means you have a place, so we knew where DD was going in October. I couldn't imagine doing it again, having an only child does have some perks!

Have a wonderful holiday.

I hope you like the Tony's package. I think if you view it mainly as for the parade viewing not that the food will be the most amazing ever you will be fine. I loved the zucchini fries. I'd recommend asking for the conservatory too.

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Thank you Stephanie. It's such a relief to finally know Seren has her place and I'm so glad we have a break of a year before we have to go through the whole thing again with Freya . We definitely all need the holiday right now I think after such a stressful, drawn out process . So glad you didn't have to wait as long as us to find out Anna had her place .

Thank you for the tips on Tony's . I agree, I think it will be worth it for the relaxed parade viewing and I'm going in with pretty low expectations re the food...maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. Definitely going for the zucchini fries though .

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Hi Michelle
Caught up on your trips today as we are heading to NYC very soon! Tried to get in at the Bryant Park Hotel but no availability - it sounds amazing Maybe next time...
Congrats to Seren on her fab results and have a fantastic time in Orlando - so close now!

See more...

Hi, thanks for reading and commenting. Hope you have a fab time in New York and what a shame you couldn't get into Bryant Park... definitely go for it next time . We're heading back there in October and I'm looking forward to it already.

I can't believe my countdown now says two days . So excited, but still so much to do . Thank you for the congrats too .

[moosha]

Quick Update

So I was hoping to do a proper update a few weeks ago but everything has been a bit hectic with the end of term / Easter holidays and spending a few days in Cornwall once the girls (finally) broke up from school on April 7th.

I've had to do a looooot of holiday shopping for those pesky girls of mine who continue to grow and grow... for a couple of weeks there I seemed to be their personal shopper heading backwards and forwards to Next, H&M and Primark for them to try on stuff at home before I headed back there yet again to swap sizes etc . I was hoping to post photos of some of their lovely Disney t-shirts and stuff but now they're going in the case and you'll just have to see them in the report .

I was very proud of my personal shopping skills when I ordered seven pairs of shoes from Sports Direct comprising a pair of water shoes each for the water parks, and three pairs of trainers, one for everyone except me : without any input from Mat and the girls. Somehow I managed to not only choose styles that they all liked, but also every pair fitted perfectly and I had only guessed the sizes. Quite an achievement I felt, and I think I should treat myself to a Starbucks You Are Here mug or five to add to my already large collection as my prize .

We have made a few last minute changes to the daily plans... when I did the fastpasses and looked at the crowd calendar we seem to be at the 'wrong' park on a few days but there's not a lot I can do about it now as we have dining reservations that I can't move which have influenced our choice of parks on each day. The joys of having to book dining 180 days out. We'll just roll with it and hope for the best .

I have cancelled a couple more ADRs as we've now booked to go back next August with free dining plan (upgraded to deluxe) so we'll visit some of the places we were going to go this year then when we don't have to pay OOP. It will definitely be nice to come home from this year's trip knowing that next year's is already (partly) booked .

At the moment I am feeling like we need to be very restrained with the spending money because of the poor exchange rate but also I don't want to be so stingy that it doesn't feel like a holiday... tricky but what can you do? I think we did pretty well catching the exchange rate when it wasn't too bad a few weeks ago, and again when we topped up the dollars today.

I used Travel FX for my main currency exchange and I was a bit sceptical with them being a broker and not accepting card payments (I had to do a bank transfer) but having found it on moneysavingexpert and them having a better rate than most of the other sites, I went with it and was really pleased with the service. I would recommend .

I can't finish this (not really much of an) update without mentioning my packing cubes . Having slightly reluctantly spent a small fortune on four different coloured sets of six packing cubes in order to make life easier when staying at five different hotels (including Heathrow) I must say so far I am really impressed. I'm only half packed but I really think the cubes are going to make life a lot easier during the trip and I must say, I've really enjoyed packing into them . I'm doing one colour per person, and then dividing them into t-shirts in one, shorts in another, underwear in another etc. The plan is that the cubes will sit in everyone's drawers still full which hopefully means I won't have to unpack and repack four times .

Thanks to everyone who has read along so far for sticking with me, I really appreciate it and can't wait to get on with the holiday and the trip report .

[EllieP]

Fab report and updates. I too am thinking about getting packing cubes so am interested to know how you get on with them. We have nearly booked for next year, just finalising bits for onsite stay. We are going end of May so will be a bit different to the usual August for us. Have a wonderful holiday and can't wait to read about it in the trip report.
Elaine

[Zomax25]

Packing cubes are wonderful! Especially when you are the one packing and unpacking for everyone.
Can't wait to read the trip report. Have a great time!

[moosha]

Originally Posted by EllieP

Fab report and updates. I too am thinking about getting packing cubes so am interested to know how you get on with them. We have nearly booked for next year, just finalising bits for onsite stay. We are going end of May so will be a bit different to the usual August for us. Have a wonderful holiday and can't wait to read about it in the trip report.
Elaine

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Thanks Elaine . Would definitely recommend the packing cubes, I found they worked really well especially since we were moving between five hotels during the trip. Exciting that you are almost booked for next year, looking forward to hearing your plans. Funny that we have always gone April / May and next year are switching to August, and you're doing the opposite .

Originally Posted by Zomax25

Packing cubes are wonderful! Especially when you are the one packing and unpacking for everyone.
Can't wait to read the trip report. Have a great time!

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Thanks for reading and commenting. I agree with you, the packing cubes were brilliant... I had to pack and unpack so many times with five hotels involved, but it never really felt like packing and unpacking when the clothes were all safely folded in the cubes. I just had to throw them all in with the toiletries and shoes .