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

[Th1nkT1nk]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Eating Around the World

I’ve decided that even though there is a lot of uncertainty it’s nice to be able to think of happier things and hope for the best so I’m carrying on with the planning. Thanks so much to everyone for the encouragement and for wanting to join in with a bit of Disney Escapism.

Last weekend I reinstated the Eating around the World meals we had last year before the trip. We started with China and I made Lemon chicken and egg fried rice.

Dave and me also had Margaritas which I appreciate isn’t particularly Chinese but it’s what we fancied and it's what I had the ingredients for so no Tipsy Ducks in Love with this meal.

After we had eaten (and had a Marg!) I said that it would be good if they could all be part of the planning, Dave rolled his eyes. I said I wanted their input on some things. The conversation went a little bit like this,

Me “This year we have an opportunity to go to the Halloween Party as we’re there for the first party night” holds her breath wondering what the reaction will be
Kate “Yesssssss” phew
Max “Huh”
Kate (to Max) “You’ll love it as you get loads of chocolate”
Max “Fine then” that was the totality of his enthusiasm and interest
Dave “What’s the catch?”
Me “Well, there are two that I can think of first it’s Halloween in August and I’m not sure how Halloweeny we’ll be feeling in August and the second is it’s the first night which is bound to be really busy” figured I'd just get the fact that it's not Halloween out there straight away, although in the end this didn't seem to be a problem
Dave “Is it basically just going to the parks at night?” he knows there must be something as I don't normally ask them what parks we should visit and when, but he can't quite figure out the right questions to ask
Kate “It’s brilliant there’s parades and fireworks and candy and characters. Plus we might not get another chance to go as we might never be there at that time again.” she's a trooper, even better that I didn't have to prime her to be on my side, I could come across as not minding either way while she did the whole we've got to go spiel. I'm now keeping very quiet, as by this point I realised I didn’t really need to say much as no one really needed convincing.
Dave “If it’s just going to the parks at night then sure. There must be a catch.” Err, what should I say, of course I really should mention the cost, but I didn't...this is what I said...
Me “Some people like to dress up in Halloween costumes.”
Dave "You know I'm not dressing up" I hadn’t really ever hoped for dressing up though so fair enough.

And that was it, decision made, Kate had won everyone over, me included as I hadn't been sure but seeing her so excited about the idea was fab. I said that we could maybe save it and go in October sometime, but she quite rightly pointed out we may never go in October so let's do it while we have the chance.

Ok, so I didn’t mention the cost but no one asked if there was a price tag. Is that naughty? Probably, but as of yet I haven’t actually bought the tickets as I don’t want to spend more money until we’re more confident we aren’t going to have our plans thwarted.

Since the meal Kate has taken a big interest in the holiday and has been wanting to ‘talk Disney’ quite a bit, which is fab She decided she needed to pick a magic band colour which sort of had me freaked out as of course MDE has all the hotels linked so she would see that it wasn’t just CBR booked. But I managed to login to the CBR booking without showing the other bookings. Of course when she spotted the different themed bands she wanted one of those and settled on the rainbow one.



This is another thing I haven’t actually ordered (read CV uncertainty) but given it’s only $10 I may just do it anyway and not worry about losing the money as she asked about it again today.

We also had a chat about what her must do’s are. This year she is not too bothered about getting an autograph book and meeting characters . She picked out all the rides she wants to do and was a bit disappointed that Spaceship Earth won’t be open.

She also wanted to put the dates of the trip in her phone and I told her we had CBR booked for 16 nights and there were surprise hotels for the last 6 nights. I caved in pretty quickly though and told her that we were going to be at Boardwalk and then AKL . She was more excited that she was in on the secret and knew something Dave and Max didn’t know though than about the super long trip and the bonus hotels . She then asked which restaurants I’d booked up so I ran through that with her and said I was saving House of Blues for our final day, which she thought was pretty fitting as we ate their on our travel home day in 2018.

Yesterday it was Italy.

Kate and me made Chicken Parmigiana which I have never made before, but we all agreed this was pretty tasty.

We also made some Tiramisu cupcakes, these were really tasty, they are in red, green and silver cupcake cases (as we didn’t have white).

For our cocktails we had Espresso Martinis. Yum.

Kate and me did some outfit planning and she sorted through her clothes. I explained I was hoping we’d do hand luggage only and that we would do some washing out there. I suggested 7 pairs of shorts and T shirts would be enough. Everything came out of the drawers and in the end she settled on 9 T shirts that she absolutely must have and 6 pairs of shorts, along with one dress and one playsuit. She also wants to bring 3 pairs of trainers (one of which would be worn on the flight) I said I’d hoped not to have to pack any and just have the trainers we are wearing as our feet are the same size and we could swap, but she didn’t like this idea . We’ll see if we can fit it all. To be fair her clothes are teeny tiny and take up next to no space so she probably could fit all the shoes. We also had a look at all the Minnie Ears and settled on just 3 to take with us this year.

Finally we spent a bit of time looking at the menus from the World Showcase restaurants and deciding what we are going to do for each of our Eating Around the World meals. It was so much fun

It has been great taking a break from worrying about the World, of course that’s still there but as we are all doing what we can and there isn’t anything else that can be done I just decided to focus my energy on other things rather than reading endless news stories and opinions.

I think the Eating Around the World will help to bridge the gap between now and fast pass booking day. We are 19 weeks out as of today, so there's a little over 2 months until FP day. It is also lovely to have Kate on board to talk to about the holiday

See more...

I love the idea of eating around the world as a build up I may steal that idea. We sort of used to do this once a week to get dd used to trying different foods, so I might get back into the swing and try to disney-fy it!
Thank you for keeping us posted with your Disney plans. It’s happy to read - I am someone who uses Disney research and planning as my daily escape from stress etc... it’s making it very difficult to find anything to de stress with at the moment as there’s so much doom and gloom!
Kate is clearly your Disney ally I can see my dd(8) being exactly the same when she’s a bit older ... I’m doing my best to train her up from an early age

[caitlinsmummy]

Your eating around China meal looks so nice

Loving how the conversation went. The way I see it is, they didn't ask the price so no need to divulge it, you haven't lied as no-ones asked

Awww great choice Kate, Noah's choose the same band and even better she's in on the secret. I'm so glad you can trust her, Caitlin would break her back to tell Chris and the boys we went to the cinema recently and went to Pizza Hut, I told her not to tell Chris as he'd whinge they didn't get one. What did she do as soon as we walked through the door.

Dad guess what we had for lunch Couldn't hold her own water that kid I tell you

The chicken parm looks lovely, you could give Olive Garden a run for their money. When's the next one Abby?

I still can't get over you doing hand luggage only! Can't wait to see what you end up choosing.

So glad you've had fun making more plans. I'm pretty sure everything will be fine by then Xx

[Sparksy72]

What a great idea to keep up the holiday excitement levels your meals look delicious, we love parmigiana and the margaritas looks fab too!

I love the MNSSHP conversation- Kate is quite obviously her Mother’s daughter and to be fair, if no one asked about the price, I would not have brought it up either

It’s been a lovely reprieve to read a happy pre-trip report thank you

[minnie52]

As others have said have enjoyed reading your updates- it has proved a good distraction from the news these last few days.

The chicken parmigiana looks delicious- I am off to find a recipe to hopefully do myself next weekend!

[Fuellady]

Aw, don’t feel bad for sharing your updates with us Abby. I love how Kate is so invested in all of your plans, it must be lovely having a “partner in crime” to chat about it all with.

Great idea doing the eating around the world again - both Chinese and Italian look fab. Cocktails too - added bonus! 🍸

Well, that was easy re the MNSSHP night. Kate definitely swung it with the others, her enthusiasm must be catching! Good idea holding off on getting the actual tickets though, until things are more certain.

Looking forward to seeing where you’re off to next with your meals around the world. Hopefully the planning will help keep your mind off other worries.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Em4owen

I love the idea of eating around the world meals. I think we might try it too 🙂

See more...

It was great fun trying out new recipes, but essentially it is an excuse to talk Disney

Originally Posted by Th1nkT1nk

I love the idea of eating around the world as a build up I may steal that idea. We sort of used to do this once a week to get dd used to trying different foods, so I might get back into the swing and try to disney-fy it!
Thank you for keeping us posted with your Disney plans. It’s happy to read - I am someone who uses Disney research and planning as my daily escape from stress etc... it’s making it very difficult to find anything to de stress with at the moment as there’s so much doom and gloom!
Kate is clearly your Disney ally I can see my dd(8) being exactly the same when she’s a bit older ... I’m doing my best to train her up from an early age

See more...

You should do it, the time between ADR day and FP day can drag so its fun to do silly things like this. I'm sure you can win your DD over to the Disney-side. Good idea to start the training young. I think that's what worked with Kate.

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Your eating around China meal looks so nice

Loving how the conversation went. The way I see it is, they didn't ask the price so no need to divulge it, you haven't lied as no-ones asked

Awww great choice Kate, Noah's choose the same band and even better she's in on the secret. I'm so glad you can trust her, Caitlin would break her back to tell Chris and the boys we went to the cinema recently and went to Pizza Hut, I told her not to tell Chris as he'd whinge they didn't get one. What did she do as soon as we walked through the door.

Dad guess what we had for lunch Couldn't hold her own water that kid I tell you

The chicken parm looks lovely, you could give Olive Garden a run for their money. When's the next one Abby?

I still can't get over you doing hand luggage only! Can't wait to see what you end up choosing.

So glad you've had fun making more plans. I'm pretty sure everything will be fine by then Xx

See more...

I agree it's not a lie. I suspect he realises there is an extra cost, but figured it was pointless asking as the deal had already been signed and sealed by Kate. I thought of your Noah when she picked that band, it is cute. I think I'll go for a themed one too, but I can't decide whether to go for one of the white ones, or the black with red bows. I also fancied the princess one.

I need to space the meals out of we'll be finished way too soon but we're both having fun so probably next weekend. Not sure which one we'll fancy though.

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

What a great idea to keep up the holiday excitement levels your meals look delicious, we love parmigiana and the margaritas looks fab too!

I love the MNSSHP conversation- Kate is quite obviously her Mother’s daughter and to be fair, if no one asked about the price, I would not have brought it up either

It’s been a lovely reprieve to read a happy pre-trip report thank you

See more...

Yes, the MNSSHP convo was a pretty easy win in the end. I'm glad you're on my side with the keeping the price under wraps.

Originally Posted by minnie52

As others have said have enjoyed reading your updates- it has proved a good distraction from the news these last few days.

The chicken parmigiana looks delicious- I am off to find a recipe to hopefully do myself next weekend!

See more...

I'm glad to be distracting you. The recipe I used was from BBC good food. It was actually pretty simple to follow and so it's definitely one I'd do again.

Originally Posted by Fuellady

Aw, don’t feel bad for sharing your updates with us Abby. I love how Kate is so invested in all of your plans, it must be lovely having a “partner in crime” to chat about it all with.

Great idea doing the eating around the world again - both Chinese and Italian look fab. Cocktails too - added bonus! 🍸

Well, that was easy re the MNSSHP night. Kate definitely swung it with the others, her enthusiasm must be catching! Good idea holding off on getting the actual tickets though, until things are more certain.

Looking forward to seeing where you’re off to next with your meals around the world. Hopefully the planning will help keep your mind off other worries.

See more...

When Kate wanted to talk clothes today I thought it was a brilliant idea. She likes a list, can't think who she gets that from so we've written down her short list of clothes to take. She's tried to take t shirts and shorts that can mix and match to have a few different combos.

The meals were so fun to do last year with Mum and Dad so I'm glad to be doing them again this time. Plus I'm building up a nice international recipe repertoire, the cocktails are an added bonus. I'm going to try making a magical star when we have the Norway meal, mainly because I didn't fancy any of the cocktails on the menu for Akershus and saw they also sold a Magical Star so figured I'd give it a go, we've still got some good cubes too.

[MrsSilverStar]

Love the eating around the world meals, it’s such a fun tradition. I’ve just mentioned it to DH and he’s keen so I’ll have to start nabbing some ideas from you!

Love Kate’s band. I stuck with plain pink last time so I’m really excited to choose one this time.

And yes, I was hoping you’d spot my countdown 😄 it was all Mark’s idea to go back so soon, I was thrilled! Heath will be 9 so once last trip before he’s classed as an adult. Haven’t booked anything yet, waiting to see what April brings with free dining.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Love the eating around the world meals, it’s such a fun tradition. I’ve just mentioned it to DH and he’s keen so I’ll have to start nabbing some ideas from you!

Love Kate’s band. I stuck with plain pink last time so I’m really excited to choose one this time.

And yes, I was hoping you’d spot my countdown 😄 it was all Mark’s idea to go back so soon, I was thrilled! Heath will be 9 so once last trip before he’s classed as an adult. Haven’t booked anything yet, waiting to see what April brings with free dining.

See more...

How fun, I'm glad you will start the meals at some point too. Wow it was Mark's idea for the holiday, that is fab. I hope we get some interesting deals in the free dining, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[caitlinsmummy]

There's just too many choices isn't there. I'm sure whatever you choose will be lovely ❤️

If you finish the meals you can just start again but with different meals from the different countries.

Hope your all OK xx

[Goldia]

Love and hugs to all, I hope everyone is keeping safe.

Kate and Max have both asked me if we are going to be able to still go on holiday and I had to say I didn't know. They asked if we couldn't go whether it would be cancelled or whether it would be postponed. And again I had to say I didn't know.

It has been a truly awful week. While Boris talked about schools closing the school I work for won't be able to close. We have over 100 children in the vulnerable care group he mentioned and at the moment we have no idea how many of the other kids have parents who are doctors, nurses, police, supermarket workers, delivery drivers. So, while lots of kids, including both my children will have to stay off school and work from home I will still need to go to school each day.

Max could not understand why exams would be cancelled or postponed if actually all the schools will still be open. It was a very difficult conversation to have last night as I don't understand it either. On Tuesday he was at school until 9pm because he was trying to finish his Product Dedign coursework as we felt the closures were coming soon. But he's now wondering if all that was for nothing. No one seems to get that cancelled and postponed have different definitions and we really could do with more clarity about this. We have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.

I'm finding it all quite overwhelming really. Since the press conference yesterday I can't stop crying.

As of yesterday we had 28 members of staff who were isolating because of symptoms, or family members or pre existing medical conditions. So, today those of us who are still in school are going to have to say something to the year 11s about their GCSEs and the year 13s about their A Levels and at his moment I have no idea what it will be and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do it without crying.

Love to everyone and take care, oh and please read the advice about pre existing medical conditions and isolation. I'm worried that people haven't understood that this relates to people of any age.

Xxx