It's A Small World - A Never-ending Pre-trip Report

I'm back from my vacation and finally catching up.

Welcome back. I hope you had a magical trip.

The last week of work has been dreadful.

I am sorry that work has been rough.

Sounds like your race is right around the corner!

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow.

Very exciting!!!

Yes, an also a little scary.

The Apple watch sounds like an excellent investment for what you use it for.

I absolutely adore it.

The Mickey is too cute.

I got a software update yesterday and now have Minnie. Both Mickey and Minnie also talk now.

All your other plans are coming together nicely.

I am pretty pleased with the progress me made.

How fun to add a Halloween trip!

I am really excited about this.

Corinna
 
Welcome back. I hope you had a magical trip.

It was so amazing! As soon as I can I'll be starting a TR.


I am sorry that work has been rough.

Thank you. Someone quit while I was away so now we're short staffed. Not good.

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow.

Safe travels :) hope you have a fabulous time!!


I got a software update yesterday and now have Minnie. Both Mickey and Minnie also talk now.

How cute!
 
I am back from Disneyland Paris and my first ever Run Disney event/ 5K. It was truly magical. Graham said that I came over the finishing line with a smile as big as the one of the Cheshire Cat. Here is a little pre-view photo. Apparently the official race photos will take another week or two.

https://flic.kr/p/MzicXm][/url]

The plan is that I finish the trip report for the May trip, which will take another couple of weeks and then I will do a trip report for this trip on A Tale of a Thousand and One Trips. By then I am hoping that I have the official photos. I will post a link when I am good and ready.

Corinna
 


Congratulations on the big accomplishment!! Looking forward to hearing more about it. I saw the course map and that was a great course mainly through the theme parks for the 5k. Maybe I will look into it for next year!
 
Congratulations!!! Glad you had a good time as well :) looking forward to hearing all about it.
 
Congrats on your first 5K! How exciting for you! I'm looking forward to hearing about the weekend.
 


Congratulations on the big accomplishment!!

Thanks.

Looking forward to hearing more about it.

I have started to type this up. All going well, I should be able to get this started on 9th October.

I saw the course map and that was a great course mainly through the theme parks for the 5k.

Most of the course was amazing. The last kilometre was both quite taxing and very boring.

Maybe I will look into it for next year!

We are planning to go again next year. My friend Michelle joined us from Florida and she has done some Run Disney events in the USA. She pronounced this one the best of the lot.

Congratulations!!!

Thanks.

Glad you had a good time as well :)

I had a wonderful time.

Congrats on your first 5K! How exciting for you!

Thanks. Now I have to stretch my wings a little. I am planning to do a 10K locally in May and I have got it in my head that I want to do a half marathon before I turn 50. We will see how this will pan out.

Corinna
 
With one Disneyland Paris trip over and the details for the next one all finalized, it is now time to turn my attention to the November trip. Our cruise documents were issued a couple of days ago and this focused my mind. So today, I went on My Disney Experience to check if my window for online check in has now opened, which it has. So I took care of this. For Vero Beach, this was pretty straightforward as there are very limited options for request. I have gone with upper floor and near an elevator for this. Saratoga Springs was a little more complex. As per the recommendation of @Paula Sedley-Burke, I have gone with Congress Park and also specified that I want to be near the walkway to Disney Springs. This should work out great for us. I also like that the quiet pool in this area is a proper quiet pool. I am sure Graham will get plenty of use out of this.

I was also able to make my Fastpass reservations for the cutover period when I can enter the park with my party ticket before the party officially starts. This required some serious juggling. I was quite surprised how much that process has changed since I made my reservations for last year. Initially I though booking one Fastpass at the time, would make things easier, but that did not turn out to be true. This ended up being a major pain. In the end, I was quite happy with what I ended up with. I ended up changing my reservation for Jungle Navigation Co., Ltd. Skipper Canteen from the Tuesday to theSunday as this fits in better with my plans. I managed to fit in Fastpasses for Peter Pan’s Flight and for meeting Mickey. On the Tuesday, I have Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I figure that between the two parties, I should manage to get a chance to ride Pirates, Haunted Mansion, It’s A Small World and Buzz Lightyear standby.

One thing that I am agonizing about at the moment is whether or not we should be visiting Universal this time round. Graham is quite keen and I would love to see the two Harry Potter areas. We could fit this in. Apart from the two parties, I am hoping to see Celebration, head to Orlando Premium Outlets and potentially the Florida Mall and explore Disney Springs. We can check out Celebration on the day we head from Vero Beach to Saratoga Springs. We can easily fit in Disney Springs before one of the parties and potentially do Orlando Premium Outlets in the morning before the other party. That gives us two full days, which we could use for Universal. We can always visit Florida Mall on the way to the airport. What is making me doubt if we should do this is the cost of Universal tickets. Actually the cheapest way to do this would be buying two 14 day tickets that can only be sold in the UK. This seems to be a bit of overkill especially as I am not sure that we would actually find enough to do for two days as neither of us will do the big rides. On the flipside, it is Graham’s birthday next week and I am at a bit of a loss as to what to get him so this would solve this problem.

Other things that are still outstanding are booking car hire. Much of this depends on whether we will do Universal. If we do, the best option is to keep the car for the Orlando part of the trip. If we do not, then we can drop it off once we arrive from Vero Beach. We also still have to excursions to book, but that is just a question of getting around to it. We know what we want to do and may tackle this over the weekend. The last thing that is outstanding is getting the standby tickets back. I was going to sort this out yesterday, but apparently you can now only get them 60 days ahead of time rather than 90 so I have to wait a bit longer.

Corinna

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I was always very excited about my quick Halloween solo trip to Disneyland Paris, but now that there are more details available, I really can't wait.

Halloween Mini Parade:



Goofy Meet and Greet:





Mickey and Minnie Meet and Greet:





Marie in her Halloween finery:



Maleficent Meet and Greet:





Daisy Meet and Greet:



Daisy switches out with Stitch, which makes me even more excited.

Jack Skellington Meet and Greet:





However, the biggest highlight for me will be this guy:



I also looks like they added a lot more decorations. I wonder if I will actually make it to any of the rides. I will have two full days plus I am hoping to be at the park by about 18:30 on the day I arrive, which should give me the chance to maybe meet Jack, who will be out until 19:00 and do a couple of rides. Extra Magic hours are at Disneyland both days I am there so this potentially gives me 12 hours in the park on two days. That should be enough.

My main focus will be the characters and appreciating the decorations. I always want to see the Villain's show and the Halloween parade at least once. Everything else will be a bonus.

Corinna
 
Just catching up. Arrived back yesterday had a great time.

You have some fabulous trips coming up. Brilliant you have the delightful Vero beach and Saratoga Springs. I do hope you enjoy. It is nice to be able to walk or get the boat to Disney Springs. The shopping there is amazing. I found the Pandora store lethal lol.. Plus sprinkles..

With that DVC/Passholder 20% diecount on merchadise and some food just released it's all good!

Why not re Universal. Have you ever done a horror night?

DLP looks amazing with the halloween theme. How cute are those outfits! I hope you get all your meet and greets. I was pleased to get Sofia the first. She has been on my list for some time. She was on the cruiseline. But Marie keeps avoiding my autograph book! I must get her and I love that halloween outfit.
 
Oh! The Cheshire Cat!! That would be a character line I would get into myself!! And I am not a big character meet person at all...

I have been to Universal twice now for a day visit with a two park ticket (which is vital now as you need to have access to both parks to see the Hogwarts Express). I would say for someone who loves Harry Potter, I would definitely recommend going there. There is plenty to see and explore with the two areas. Also, that time of year, especially if you can go there during the week, it should be fairly empty with short lines. When we were there the first week of December in 2014, we waited for nothing, everything was a walk on.
 
Yes, I would love to read about your adventures! Your comments here and on on @franandaj's TR are always so amusing to read. And I always love to see pictures of DCL ship and the back to back Dream cruise you did sounds just fabulous!


How nice I didn't think anyone would be interested but I will write a small one up! Thank you for your sweet words.
 
I'd love to heat about a B2B Dream cruise at Concierge level. You guys told me about the Vanellopes tip! Brilliant! I hope there is one on the Fantasy!

Started writing it! I wish I could work out how to put photos direct into a post though using my ipad. You and Corinna spoil us with amazing photos. Mine are nothing like that but I have a few I would like to include.
 

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