Our Big DVC Anniversary Trip. The Pre-Trip

Awwwwww thank you so much for the love for my dress

Another update from me

Paris was wonderful - it was very, very hot though, we spent a fair amount of time doing not a lot watching the world go by with a drink It did make me think of our trip to Florida though, Paris doesn't seem to believe in air conditioning - at least in Disney you can escape into a shop when you're baking hot!

Things for our trip are ticking along nicely. Car hire is now booked, just went for the cheapest option possible with Alamo Brits to include me as an extra driver. Must remember to sign up for Alamo SaveTime to escape the hard sell at the desk

We now also have our MNSSHP tickets. Booked online with AP discount The costumes are getting there, managed to find Sy some red shorts (well sort of, had such trouble finding plain red ones that I ended up buying him some red trousers that I'm going to have to alter). Also bought some white gloves now we just need a white shirt for him (which he has though might buy a new one anyway!) and a yellow bow tie and ears. Me however, I still need to make my petticoat. I'm not really looking forward to it as I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing lol. There is a little part of me worrying about some kids seeing us dressed up like that and saying 'mummy, why are they dressed up as fat mickey and minnie?' :-/ I do love dressing up but hate to be the fat couple dressed up that look stupid lol.

Online Check-in is done and dusted. I didn't make any requests as the options I was given werent something I wanted. I'd like to request near to lobby at AKL and high floor at BLT, anyone know of the best way for me to do that? Help gratefully received!

We now also have a hotel booked for the night before our flight at Hilton Gatwick That is big thanks to a good friend who was able to get us a fair discount PS57 for the night payable on arrival. The hotel gets mixed reviews online, it would seem some of the rooms are refurbished and lovely whereas some are old and tired, I'll be asking for a refurbished room when we check in The hotel is right at the airport so we will check in the day before and then head over to dump our overnight bag and head back into the terminal for some dinner at Giraffe, then relax in the room. I do NOT want a repeat of last time and my husband has been warned on the penance of death not to keep me waiting this time

As per my last post, I've been busy sewing again I've made a skirt out of the fabric in the last update (without a pattern I might add, I feel rather pleased with myself hehe).

I've made a dress (this was with a lot of help from my mum though so I cant take full credit )

I've also adapted 2 other dresses (though one isn't quite finished,) I'll get pictures of them when I can 1 was a bit too short for my liking and the other is an old dress that I've used bits of to make a new dress

I've started to make another dress of the really complicated pattern that I made 2 out of last year too, I've only got as far as cutting it all out so far - now I need help from trusty mummy What would we do without our mums eh? Hehehe

This is the fabric for the complicated dress...

Well, I think that's all there is to update for now. I will come back when the MNSSHP outfits are finished and hopefully get a picture of us both in them! Still not sure what shoes I'm going to wear with mine... Everything is booked and paid for, all the ADR's are booked, the plan is done (though will probably have endless edits ). All there is left to do really is get enough spending money together (PS800 left to save though more if I can manage it) and will the countdown to go down! Hopefully by the time we go we will be official DVC owners

44 days and counting!!

Thanks mrhub!
Can I do that even though its borrowed dvc points from a friend?

25 days to go!

Well, I've had an exciting few days. Not only was I able to book almost all of our Fastpass+ but today when I logged on I was told to hurry and customize my magic bands! Woohoo! They are now winging their way to us

Goes without saying really that I chose pink hehe I would have gone for yellow but I really hate black and yellow together, it reminds me of wasps and I am petrified of them - yes I know that's a pathetic excuse I chose blue for Sy, I totally didn't check with him first but it was okay cause when I asked him he said he would have chosen blue anyway, phew

I am crazy excited for these, which is weird cause when they were first announced I was totally not up for them, like at ALL, I guess I bought into them with the excitement of everyone else rubbing off on me!

I am currently staying at my parents' house looking after their foster daughter and her baby while they are away for their anniversary (my parents foster young mums under 16 and teach them how to be mums). Anyway, I dunno if I am alone here but I just can't sleep in someone else's bed? It's different on holiday as I'm in a generic bed rather than a bed that belongs to someone, if that makes any sense at all. So anyway, at 6am after about 3 or 4 hours of broken sleep I picked up my iPad and started to surf the internet, and what do I search at 6am? What else, Disney websites! I started the usual forums and once I had read them I somehow ended up on the dark side but I am so pleased that I did as I stumbled on a rather exciting piece of information...

What you are looking at there is a fastpass+ reservation for LUNCH at Be Our Guest! This isn't open to many guests however there was a link to try out your reservation number to see if you were eligible to book and I was The reservation is on our first full day in Orlando at 12:20pm. We are off to 'Ohana for dinner so hopefully won't be too full to eat ourselves silly later (Anyone remember that shrimp shells and tails plate from May?!)

Of course I have also been a busy bee sewing machine with 3 more dresses finished, Sy's red shorts made for his MNSSHP outfit. I now just have 2 dresses to finish (I have a couple more if I get time but those 2 I don't mind if I don't take with me). I have also bought a pair of trousers that I want to alter to make into 3/4 lengths.

You might notice this is the fabric I bought to make a dress out of, this isn't that dress, I just used the left over fabric in this dress

I did take the dress up after I took this picture its just a tad long hehehe

This last one has been in previous trip reports however it then shrank up by about a foot! So it was mid calf length, I hate that length of dress, it's gotta be either long or short and nothing in between. So rather than throw it away I thought I would have a go at adding some frills to the bottom, I think it looks quite good

I have decided to give Parasailing on Bay Lake a go while we are there and I am *so* excited!! Also even more exciting, Gareth is coming with me (Gareth from Hayley and Gareth fame). I've emailed Sammy Duvall and am in the process of booking for early in our trip in case it has to be rescheduled due to weather. Cant wait to go up in one of these...

Hayley and Gareth are there before us and leave on the 17th so we are going to be living out of each others pockets for the days that our trips overlap ADR's at 'Ohana and Sanaa together, and plenty of offsite eats too, we have even synchronized our My Disney Experience apps - we are that sad It was going to be even better but then they tried to escape us by changing their resort to Kidani from Jambo, I swear they did it just to escape (I am assured it's just because they want to try it out as they usually stay concierge in Jambo...)

Whilst on the subject of friends, we are super lucky that Matt, Sue and Harry have booked to go back in September and are there pretty much the whole time we are! I'm sure we will spend lots of time with them too (just so I can get cuddles with Harry hehe). They are going to be at MNSSHP the same night as us, looking forward to lots of pictures of us all dressed up! And to top off the fab friends meet, our friends Nicola and Fred will be there for our last few days, we are hoping to grab dinner with them one night before we go home.

We are also planning to meet up with some lovely American friends! Jeff and Joe we are planning to meet up on our MNSSHP night, cant wait to see their costumes and hoping to meet for a drink round the world with Ray and his wife (I'm so sorry I forget her name!).

We are so lucky to have such great friends to meet up with, I feel so very blessed

Well I think that could be it for this update. Well just one thing, I think it's safe to say that by the time we go in September we will be fully fledged DVC owners! AHHHHHHHH! SO excited!

What will most likely be my final update

With a week to go I think it's probably safe to say that this will be my last and final update... as this time next week we will be leaving home and heading to the airport

Our MNSSHP outfits are pretty much sorted. I want to head to Primark to get some little black dolly pumps to finish my outfit, I'm borrowing some Minnie ears and we will buy Sy some when we get to Orlando. I'm so excited!

All of my sewing is done apart from customizing my petticoat and 1 dress, best get my skates on really...

Parasailing is all booked for Friday the 13th (good job I'm not superstitious eh?!) Gareth and I will be flying high while Sy takes the pictures and Hayley goes off for a massage haha.

I also made another cheeky little purchase.

Even better as it was free! It was a Tesco bargain - I exchanged my Clubcard vouchers for clothing vouchers and doubled their value = free dress

I started packing this week, in fact I'm almost done. I just need to finish the washing and pack it all in the case.

Sadly I had to make a call to Virgin special assistance today my health has been deteriorating and so I have been forced to bite the bullet and take my mums scooter. I hope I don't need to use it too often, but at least it will be there in case I do need it. Its not something I am too happy about but as others have said to me, I would feel worse about holding back Sy so I just have to suck it up and get on with it.

I still need to sign up to Alamo save time. I had to send off my driving license to get a new one as I needed to update my photo, I'm starting to get a bit panicky now as it's been about 2 weeks. If its not back in time it will be just Sy driving I guess.

I've bought myself a little treat for the day before the flight too which I'm really excited about! I was surfing Groupon the other day as I had some money on my account and it has been burning a hole in my pocket so to speak When I saw a beauty package for a salon in Dorking (where my in laws live and where we are leaving our car while we are away) for a massage, mani and a pedi. What's even better is that the money I had in my account covered the cost, so its almost free Its all booked for 2pm the day before we fly, so Sy can finish work from his parents house while I go off and get pampered and isn't that how it should be anyway? Hehehe

Tonight we are off to London to see West Side Story, its Sy's birthday and his mum has treated us to tickets as its his favourite musical. We are off to Wahaca for some food first so I should probably be getting ready now... oops!

And on that note, I'm off to get ready to leave the house in 30 mins, eeek!