Our WDW adventures and Magical Happy Halloween Cruise: DAY 14 completed 01/10: pg 10

[irongirlof12]

don't ya just lurve ebay! shopping for the holiday is fun looking forward to hearing all about the 'secret stuff' on your return

 

[TotallyAngelic]

don't ya just lurve ebay! shopping for the holiday is fun looking forward to hearing all about the 'secret stuff' on your return

Hi

Just noticed on your countdown that you are going to Venice - we were there last October and had a wondeful time! It is stunning and so atmospheric! I can highly recommend a restaurant / bar called Baccaro Jazz for great food, atmophere and a nice glass of pinot grigio!

 

[Cyrano]

Great installments

 

[disneyangel]

Another two great catch ups

Hope the ebaying is going well

 

[irongirlof12]

Hi

I can highly recommend a restaurant / bar called Baccaro Jazz for great food, atmophere and a nice glass of pinot grigio!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I remember back in July having some rather unpleasant thoughts along the lines of "because I have looked forward to this holiday for so long, something is bound to happen which is going to cause problems" - basically because the law according to s*d very much dictates that if you are looking forward to something for a very long time, something unexpected will rear it's ugly head and throw a spanner in the works. Lo and behold, we were 7 weeks out from our holiday and the spanner showed up in the shape of medical issues for yours truly. Now I am not going to go into details (for once) as people may be eating, but lets just say the three phrases "womens problems" and "waterworks" and "I wish that I had done those pelvic floor exercises" and leave it at that.

So there then followed a string of GP appointments and various pharmaceutical potions but the problem has so far eluded any form of medical intervention and I remain

a) very uncomfortable
b) very concerned that this condition I appear to have found myself in may well require hospitalisation and warrant a lot of poking and prodding
c) even more concerned that this will impact on my long awaited and eagerly planned for holiday which is only 33 days away.

so ever hopeful that a miracle may happen I continue to plan and prepare, albeit with a little less enthusiasm at times when I feel a bit worse for wear.

Ebay had been a mixed blessing - On the positive side I can shop without leaving the house. On the negative side, I am more prone to making disasterous impulse buys and then having to send things back when they don't fit. I purchased a tuxedo for DS but failed to do the obvious thing of measuring his vital statistics before I bought it. Even though he is only 14, and I ordered age 16, it was way too small, in fact, I swear it was intended for the hobbit community it was that small. So back it went, and I ended up out of pocket almost £10 for the postage in both directions.

However, I have successfully purchased some rather dashing pirate trousers for DH, and some bits for his and DS's Halloween costumes. I have also been desperately trying to win a particular semi-formal dress for myself, but have remained thwarted by last minute bidders who have either bidded over my budget for the dress or who are just much better at last minute bidding (I blame my slow and aged computer). However, there is some light at the end of this particular tunnel, and today the dress was coming up again in my size, but the auction was due to end when I was out, so I just threw in my maximum bid and came back expecting once again to have had my a** well and truly kicked in the bidding wars - only to find that I had won the auction and I now have a very nice semi-formal dress (if it fits when it arrives - remember the law according to s*d is working overtime in my life!)

I suppose I should let you have a look at it now.....oh go on then ........

I just hope it is formal enough for semi-formal if you know what I mean - as a first time cruiser you don't really know what to expect.

Well thats about it for now - I am due at the GP on Wednesday and hopefully one way or another I will get something sorted - in the meantime it's on with the Ebaying and the sewing and the finger crossing that I will make it on this holiday! If you have any spare pixie dust floating around please send it in my direction..........

 

[Cyrano]

Sarah sending you

 

[Pinky166]

I hope you are feeling better soon Sarah.

Your dress is gorgeous!

 

[The Fetherstons]

Sarah you dress is lovely

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts, positive vibes and

I am keeping everything crossed for my appointment tomorrow!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Well yesterday I spent the day in the hospital (gynae) where I had an untrasound scan. Fortunately the scan result was completely normal, which thankfully rules out anything too serious, but it hasn't solved the problem, as we are back to square one with no cause for my symptoms! I have now been referred to the urology dept for some more tests. Great fun hey!

On a positive note (or is it?) we are now in the twenty-something days to go" zone and I really need to start getting my finger out and getting on with some serious holiday preparations! Time is ticking along really quickly and 4 weeks tomorrow we will be boarding that plane

I feel a trip to the fabric warehouse coming on........

 

[Cyrano]

Sarah

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Today is the day that we can finally say - we have one month to go! Four weeks today we will be at the airport and raring to go! Five weeks today we will be at Port Canaveral, ready to board the Disney Magic and hopefully embark on the trip of a lifetime (and I am not going to be talking about what we will be doing six weeks today as it is far too depressing)

I still have an extensive "to do" list, which I am chipping away at slowly with the help of Ebay. My semi-formal dress arrived yesterday and it is perfectly acceptable, although it doesn't quite look the same on me as it does on the Ebay picture, but I think it will do the job. I am still hoping to snag a pair of semi-formal dresses for the DDs from a seller on Ebay who sells a lot of lovely Italian prom style dresses. Still need tuxedos for the DSs and that will need sorting over the next couple of weeks. The Halloween costumes are progressing well, and I am still working on our pirate skirts - but I am a lot more chilled about the whole scenario and that is a miracle in itself!

My trip to the fabric warehouse resulted in me picking up some halloweeney (is that a word) fabric which I am using to make some Fish Extender gifts for the girls in our group. I have 13 girls in my group, and 12 boys - and while it is easly to think up gift ideas for the girls - it is really difficult to think of Halloween themed gift ideas for the boys - so if anyone has any suggestions I will be eternally grateful.



So thats the state of play re. the to do list and I should now really be turning my attention to some sort of itinerary for our week in WDW:

PARKS - we have base tickets for this trip and we are not "hoppers" by nature, so it just needs a bit of research into the busy day guide etc and we should have a plan. As we only have 5 days, we will be sticking to Disney, and plan to visit each park for one day, and then vote for our favourite on the last day - and I anticipate a bit of friction here as with 4 teenagers it is very unlikely, nigh impossible that our bunch will all agree! On the Friday we plan to shop in the morning, and have a leisurely lunch, before MNSSHP in the evening, so effectively another Magic Kingdom day. We may also visit one of the Universal parks on the Sunday after our cruise but that remains to be decided upon at this moment in time (we fly home on the Monday)

DINING - Some of you had better sit down before you read the next sentence.......... So far as dining goes we don't have any fixed plans ( oh no - is that gasps of horror I can hear) - we tend to be go with the flow types and don't make dining arrangements in advance as we find that too restrictive. We plan to eat at Whispering Canyon on our last night in Florida, but we will book that when we get to WDW - we have always done this and have never been disappointed or unable to get a table, so it works for us! We also generally eat off-site more than on-site, and plan to visit the Orlando Ale House and Logan's Roadhouse for two of our evening meals (thanks Verity for the recommendation!). Our dining experiences are also hampered by having in our family two of the most fussy eaters ever encountered, and this necessitates studying menus with the intensity of a lawyer checking over a legal contract before any final decisions are made.

So I am sorry to disappoint you all, but thats the extent of the planning so far (and I can feel myself being evicted from the DIS as I write that), but I am sure it will all fall into place and I will have a more detailed plan of attack in due course.

So what am I most looking forward to - the list is endless! Just being back in Florida and WDW after 3 and a half years will be wonderful in itself, but I suppose if I had to write a list, it would probably look something like this:

1. Spending quality time with my wonderful family, something we don't get to do enough of with our busy lives. Relaxing, chilling out and escaping from reality - isn't that what it's all about!

2. First ever cruise on the Disney Magic, meeting up with our wonderful friends the Balster family, and the other lovely DISers from our meet thread.

3. Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween party - something I have always wanted to do.

4. Riding POTC with the new (or not so new now) adaptations and links to the POTC movies.

5. All the attractions I haven't yet experienced: Expedition Everest, Soarin, Monsters Inc, Toy Story Mania, and there's probably a few more.

so today I have yet another hot date with the sewing machine, in between operating the Taryn (DD) taxi service and if the weather stays nice we may take a walk on the beach later. After writing all of this some relaxation is definitely called for.........

 

[Pinky166]

Sarah your trip plans sound great....I never used to plan much or make any ADR's but are trying it this timne round as we have the dining plan.

I am sure you will be ready in time, everything will just fall into place.

 

[bombhead444]

We don't do adr's either we might try the cali grill for our ann meal as i've heard good reviews but if not we will be going to Logans Roadhouse it is a great restaurant with a relaxed and very friendly atmosphere and being able to shell free monkey nuts and put the shells on the floor is great.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I can't believe we have only 16 days until we leave for our holiday - after looking forward to the magical date of 18th October 2008 for over 18 months, I am now wishing I had a rewind button, or at least a pause button. I also can't belive that 12 days have passed since I last posted on this pre-trip report and I have really not achieved much more since then. I should really be ashamed of myself!

I returned to work after my episode of "female complications" and immediately realised that working 32 hours a week REALLY interferes with holiday preparations. I don't want to be in work, I really want to stay home and sort things out, make costumes and Fish Extender gifts and join in all the fun and frivolity on my cruise meet thread! It's very difficult concentrating on your job when your head is full of "packing" lists and "to do" lists and "shopping" lists and "list" lists.........

In addition to the distractions of work, I still have the ongoing delights of various medical investigations to look forward to. Tomorrow I have my OPD urology appointment and Monday I have my OPD gynae appointment, so fingers crossed I will eventually get sorted out before the cruise.

I have worked out that I only have 4 more work shifts before we leave (although 2 of them are 12 hour nights ) which is a good thing as I still have soooooooo much to do it's unreal! I am so glad now that I booked off the 5 days before we fly - I will probably be superglued to the sewing machine until 5 minutes before we leave!

I still need to get on with FE gifts for list and sub-list. I am still waiting for one thing to arrive and am getting a bit frantic about that! I have finally bidded on and won 2 semi formal dresses for the girls from Ebay

for Taryn and

for Louise

and we hope to find 5 minutes to get the lads their tuxedos at the weekend, but time is the one thing in short supply at the moment. Still need bits for Halloween and pirate costumes, but I am trying to chill out more about that. What I can do, I will do and what I don't have time to do, I won't stress about (in theory!).

We are just off to the carriers as we got a card through saying they had tried to deliver something to us yesterday but we were not at home - I am very excited as it might be our cruise documents!!!!!!!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Well - where did I leave off yesteday - we were off to the carriers to see if the two missed packages were in fact our cruise documents - and



it was indeed those very long anticipated documents - it's official - we are going on our Disney cruise!

We then went to Asda and stocked up on all those holiday essentials - new holiday socks and undercrackers for the guys, diarrhoea medications, plasters, paracetemols and ibuprofen, decogestant, in-flight sweeties etc etc.
Returned home and I got cracking with making my adult fish extender gifts which I will not divulge any details about for fear of any Halloween on the High Seas cruisers having a sneaky peek!

While perusing my emails later in the day I came across an email from my TA which wasn't expected or welcome (at first reading) It turned out that my excitement re. my cruise docs was a bit short-lived. Dreams Unlimited had just sent me an email which stated that our cabin allocation would have to be changed as we have an under 21 year old sharing with 3 minors in one cabin - and this goes against Disney policy. So now all our documents are incorrect! Why DCL didn't realise this before sending the documents though I don't know! Why DCL and DU didn't realise this at time of booking I don't know either!

At first I thought it meant we actually had to physically change cabins - ie. me and DH not in the same cabin, and I flew off the handle and panicked a bit - and sent a snotty email to DU .

She sent me one back and explained that we didn't have to physically change cabins, just the names on the documentation. Silly old me ....

However, I am already anticipating problems at checking-in !!

It's now Friday and I have just returned from urology OPD and fortunately the results of my tests were all ok - the symptoms are also improving and the registrar thinks that it was actually caused by a bad UTI which didn't respond to antibiotics but eventually I will sort it out myself. Nothing physiologically wrong, apart from the gynae dept. (prolapse) , and he didn't even think that was too bad - no surgery required yet - so thats great news!

The other good news arising from this is that I got weighed in the clinic and haven't actually put on any of the weight I lost - despite all the comfort eating I was doing when I wasn't well! Blood pressure was ok too, which surprised me considering all the pre-cruise stress I am under

Off to work this afternoon, and then 2 days off, during which I MUST try and make a significant in-road into my "still to-do" list - although I have to be out all day Sunday with Taryn as she is in the British Dance Championships (heats) with her dance group. I might be able to sneak in some shopping along the way!

And some more good news (I am getting to like this post!) My new camcorder has just been delivered!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Good morning everyone!

I had a productive day yesterday and have finished my adult fish extender gifts for my group, and am getting on with making something for the girls, which I hope to be able to give to all the DIS girls, even if I end up making them in my sleep, on the flight, and waiting in the lines in WDW! In the evening I finished mine and Taryn's pirate skirts bar the elastic for the waist and a bit of decorative stuff to cover the mistakes!

So now all I have to make is:

pirate shirt for Stephen
waistcoat for Daniel's halloween costume
pirate skirt for Louise
skirt and top for my halloween costume
girl's fish extender gift
a few minor bits and pieces and alterations on things.

Just wondering if this is doable in just 13 days, plus finding time for more shopping, packing, panicking, tearing hair out, throwing sewing machine out of window....

On a negative note - Taryn's semi-formal (red dress in photo) does not fit her very well and there was also a hole in the dress and some loose stitching(new - but bought from Ebay) so I am hoping for a refund there - but the dilemma will be - can we find an alternative in time. Louise's dress (the blue one), which we bought from the same seller, was beautiful with no problems at all. Typical!

Today Taryn and I are off to the heats for the British Dance Championship which will take up the entire day - and we don't hold out much hope as it is their first ever competition, but as long as they have a good time that's what matters. Plus the next heat is the day we fly back from Florida so Taryn would have to miss it. The good news is there is a Primark and a big Tesco in Wrexham, where the competition takes place, so if we go a bit early we can squeeze in some shopping , silly not too really - even though I probably have way too much stuff already!

I have been examining the "touring plan" for the WDW parks which takes into account the busiest days etc, and have come up with a bit of a plan of attack - and here it is:

Sunday 19th October - Animal Kingdom
Monday 20th October - Epcot - evening Illuminations
Tuesday 21st October - Disney Studios - evening Fantasmic
Wednesday 22nd October - Magic Kingdom - evening Wishes
Thursday 23rd October - Epcot
Friday 24th October - shopping in the morning - MNSSHP in the evening
Saturday 25th - leave early for breakfast in Port Canaveral, board Disney Magic as early as possible for magical Halloween on the High Seas Cruise
Saturday 1st November (can't even bring myself to write this so I won't ...but you all know what happens) - return to Orlando - shopping day!
Sunday 2nd November - last day so ?????? Universal Studios - no tickets so we will just purchase them out there if thats what we decide to do.
Monday 3rd November - return to UK - cry a lot and sink into serious depressive state with a bad case of Disney Withdrawal Syndrome

I have also booked a Photopass CD which we will share with our friends the Balster family (Hi Everyone!), and buying this in advance has only cost us $90for unlimited photos! It guarantees that people will actually believe I was actually on this holiday as there will be photographic evidence - I am usually stuck well and truly behind the camera - although thinking on thats probably a good thing! Now all I have to do is persuade the DSs that they really DO want to pose for lots of character photos!

So thats about it for today's update ......hopefully catch up again in the week! Have a great week everyone (thats me being very optimistic- assuming anyone is actually reading this waffle!)

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Yee ha! Yee ha! It's time for our single digit dance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

only 9 more days to go until we leave the UK for Florida -




It is now getting very very as I have realised exactly what I have left to do and how little time I have left to do it in! I am also having a few problems with my symptoms at the moment which isn't helping matters. I am waiting until after the holiday for the cystoscopy - and hopefully that will finally give me a diagnosis. At the moment it is really getting in the way of my holiday prep and that is really stressing me out!

So - plans for what's left of today - finish making the gift bags for the girls in my FE group and cut out the fabric for Dan's halloween costume waistcoat.
I may also carry on sorting out the stuff in the suitcases. I have my final night shift in work tomorrow and then a late shift on Sunday, and then no more shifts until we leave for the airport!

Next weel will be a whirlwind of last minute shopping, sewing and packing, and I will be very grateful when we finally pull away from the house and I can do no more of either (although I am sure the shopping will re-commence once we hit Orlando!)

 

[TotallyAngelic]

HELP! I am in a state of complete panic! I have exactly 2 and a half full days at home ( can't count Thursday as I am in the hospital for my cystoscopy) and I still have ALL THIS to do:

make pirate skirt x 1
make pirate shirt x 1
fish extenders to finish
alterations to 2 dresses
make halloween costume skirt for me
finishing off some FE gifts
make door magnets

and have a few things to buy:

laminator and sheets to do door magnets
shoes for DH and myself
swimming cozzie for DD
few more FE bits

and not to mention PACKING!

I feel like my head is spinning...........


What am I doing on this computer when I have ALL THIS to do

If anyone has any remedy for last minute panic or any knowledge of how to slow down time, could you please send it in my direction