Righting the wrong...

Thankyou all for the amazing welcome!

I've got such a big grin on my face that you're all as excited about planning my trip as I am! And you're right Nancy... the fun of planning a trip is second only to being there.

So here's what my trip is looking like:

4 days at Disneyland and 1 at Knott's Berry Farm. I haven't spent so much time at the 'Land before but being there the weekend after New Year I'm expecting it to be pretty busy so four days will give me plenty of time to see and ride everything. On the upside, I'll get to see the Christmas decorations and parade which I've never seen before! I'm really excited to see the new Fantasy Land, especially Fantasy Faire (cause in my heart I'm TOTALLY a princess!) and also Cars Land which wasn't there the last time I visited. The thing I'm looking forward to most of all though is seeing World of Color! I've watched youtubes of it and it just looks SO magical. I'll be staying at Park Vue Inn (have stayed here on all my previous trips) - it's a simple but nice enough hotel and is directly across the road from the Disney entrance which means no extra walking at the end of a long day. I've never been to Knott's before so am hoping for some good coasters there.

From LA, I fly to Mexico City for a few days then head east through some Colonial cities (Puebla, Oaxaca, San Cristobal) and then get to indulge in one of my favorite things in life... visiting ruins. I'm fascinated by the ancient world and have seen Celtic ruins, Roman ruins, Greek ruins and Egyptian ruins and will now be adding Mayan ruins to the list at Monte Alban, Palenque, Uxmal, Coba and Tulum. From here I'll head down into Belize (Caye Caulker for some island time and San Ignacio for the jungles) then onto Guatamala (Tikal for more ruins and Rio Dulce for more jungle then Antigua for a week).

Onto Honduras (Copan (have I mentioned how much I love ruins?) and Roatan Island) then into Nicaragua (Granada and Ometepe Island) followed by Costa Rica (cloud forests at Monteverde and Arenal then San Jose). The home stretch is Panama (Puerto Veijo, Bocas del Toro, Boquete and Santa Catalina) before finishing in Panama City.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all but I just can't wait! I read a book called The Full Montezuma by Peter Moore (an Australian travel writer) 10 years ago, about his trip through CA and immediately wanted to see all the places he'd been. Unfortunately life got in the way (long term illness) but now things are back on track and I can fulfill a long held dream!

From Panama I fly to Orlando for two weeks - 8 days at the World, two at Universal/Islands for some Harry Potter love and one day at Seaworld (with a couple of park free days to rest my poor feet). I really can't wait to see how much the Disney parks have changed since I was last there in '99... so many new rides (Expedition Everest!) and parades as well as hitting my old favorites (Rock'n'rollercoaster!). Being such a long trip, I'm going to have to watch my pennies and travelling on my own means I'll be staying off site. Haven't decided where yet so any recommendations would be great .

Thanks again for the warm welcome - it's nice to feel part of this grown up Disney lovers family!

Hi Kat!

I first went to Disneyland when I was 20 and when I showed my 12 year old baby sister all my photos she immediately started planning for the day we'd go there together. The dream finally came true when she was 28 and I was 36 and we decided to add a little extra magic to our trip. We made t-shirts that said Princess Neen (my sister's nickname for me) and Princess Dee for her, bought a tiara (me) and a ye olde princess pointy hat (her) to add to the look and spent several wonderful days parading around, waving like Disney royalty and having the amazing CM's greet us with bows and addressing us as "your majesty".

One of the things I love about Disney is the opportunity to indulge my inner child and on that trip I let her run riot and didn't stop smiling the whole time!