My Birthday trip with My Mammy and the Mouse ! DLP Aug'15. Single Digit Dance and Secret Cinema

[princess lola]

Single Digit Dance!
I can't believe it is 4 days until we head off to DLP and my oh my I have a few updates and a big change of plan!
Firstly I feel bad this post is text heavy so here's a picture of me and my mam in funny headbands!

So my plan has changed ever so slightly but everything is now confirmed which is great!
I don't know if anyone has been following but my OH James was originally driving us to Luton, this is when he would have been unemployed but that's all changed ... He now has a new job as Head of Automation on the Jersey Boys UK Tour (we both work in theatre).
We were both soooooo pleased when he found out (lying on our sun beds in Morrocco lol) as he usually works as stage management and Automation is an avenue he has always wanted to explore more! Plus he is now technically his own boss on a very busy show so it is such a great step up!

Change of Plan

This meant a big change for us too because it meant my mam will now be driving to Luton. This is great as she's a confident driver and she sees it more of a road trip then a chore hehe.
My next job now then was to work on airport parking and a hotel, we fly on our last day at 9.20pm so ideally I wanted a room that night so we can drive fully refreshed the next morning and as both of us are on our holidays there is no need to rush!
I looked at Luton parking, the original low price on the website is deceiving and instead when I entered our dates I was quoted £40.
Next I looked at hotels, the Ibis and the Holiday inn were both coming in at just over a £100 each without parking. Hmmmm not ideal.
I left it a few days and had a think, I continued to google and found that if you book with the Hilton Garden Inn approx 10 min from Luton you get free parking, but I couldn't book online because it wouldn't let me book my room the day my parking was up. Ahhhhhh.
I rang the booking hotline and thought I'd try my luck, the woman I originally talked to was so confused but we got there in the end and it is now all sorted.
We are all checked in online with our boarding passes on our phones all technical and also sorted is dining reservations, we eat quite late so there was no problem making them at the times we wanted.
Sooooooooo ... To bring us back to there's no rush home ... As we are staying over night in a hotel we thought about filling the 'extra day' we had accumulated by visiting my in laws in Rochester Kent and drive home from there adding another day to our holiday.

New Plan

Day One Tuesday
Leave 6.00am
Drive to Hilton Garden Inn Park Car
Taxi to Airport and flight 15.20pm
TGV
Check into Hotel
Dinner 9.30pm Cafe Mickey

Day Two Wednesday
Disneyland Park Day
Dinner at Blue Lagoon 8.00pm

Day Three Thursday
Walt Disney Studios Day
Lunch at Chef Remy 12.30pm
TGV
Flight at 21.50pm
Check into Hilton Garden Inn

Day Four Friday
Drive to Rochester
Day out with Inlaws
Drive Home

Star Wars Secret Cinema
I've been getting really excited all week and now I'm at bursting point and I think it's really 'sunk' in as I've had a lovely weekend in London at the Star Wars Secret Cinema!
Now to anyone who is going
DONT READ ANY FURTHER, I REPEAT SPOILERS !
You Basically buy tickets to watch the movie but in a more 'interactive setting' with sets and costumes and actors it's a whole immersive setting, I'll use some pics from online to give you more of an idea, no phones or electronic devices are allowed inside as they're worried you'll be too fixated on them to. Enjoy what's happening around you (best idea lol) so I've attached some press shots.
You are not given the location so you get emailed a meeting point somewhere in London and you are given a dress code, now my OH hates dressing up so there's no way he would have done it and tbh we didn't make much of an effort but there was mandatory tattoos and scarves for our group so we could be identified!


We all met at Canada Water Tube and proceeded from there and taken to like an army depo were we were to declare our belongings, from there we were taken inside to a warehouse were stuff got real!

We were briefed about our mission (to join the Rebel Alliance) and become Jedis in training, we were then sent running (literally) through the maze of a warehouse to 'catch our flight out of this world' where we were sent still running, ducking and diving to another part of the building to be briefed on fight skills.
Next it was onto a transporter which was invaded by storm troopers looking for Jedis and then we were let loose (after we had landed of course) to a tattoine style dessert land which we could freely roam until the movie started.
I was in awe the whole beginning with the costumed actors and the runnin and chasing had got me soooo pumped up and excited by the time I had got off into the dessert land I was like a small child at Christmas (or Disney for that matter!)

The first thing I saw was R2D2 rolling past being chased by C3P0 chatting away to each other, we then proceeded to the bar were we had a drink and tried chatting wookie with Chewbacca.

We were given strict instructions to trade for spice packets to get us onto our flight to see the movie, so when Hans solo had finished wielding his lightsaber around we caught him to get our spices!

We ate and drank and just mooches around with everyone taking in the atmosphere, there was so much happening it was almost over whelming but in a good way!
Soon we had spent 3 hours in the other world and it was time to set off on our flight, we were loaded onto another transporter taking us to a different planet but something went wrong and as we exited the plane we quickly realised we were on the Death Star !
Storm troopers were everywhere and Darth Vador was close behind everyone, what happened next was an epic fight between good and evil and basically they acted out the first movie A New Hope ready for us then to proceede to watch the second Empire Strikes Back.
Me, James (my OH) and two of our closest friends had an amazing time and it got me sooooooooo excited for Disney!

[Guest]

Exciting! Eek!

[Jedi Princess]

Congratulations to your OH on the new job.

The Secret Cinema sounds fabulous.

Your ring is lovely

[princess lola]

Thank you both and thank you Jedi Princess I got engaged in the Disney Cruise in November xxx