Tag Archives: countdown

10 things I’m looking forward to at Tokyo Disney

I can’t believe its only 10 days til I leave for Japan!

Strictly speaking, we won’t actually hit the parks until the 12th, but I’m counting down til Friday as that’s when I leave for the airport, then I’ll be travelling for the whole of Saturday, arriving in Tokyo at midnight.

So with 10 days to go, here are 10 things I’m super excited about:

1. Tokyo Disneyland hotel

We were crazy lucky to score a room at the Tokyo Disneyland hotel for the duration of our stay, and it looks INCREDIBLE, plus it puts us right across from the park entrance to Disneyland!

2. Park food

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As a Brit, its a common knowledge that Americans do food better than us, but Japan takes it to a whole new level! We’re really excited to try as many different foods, and as much as possible stay clear of Western food to soak up all the Japanese we can.

3. Merch, merch, merch!

There’s a reason I’ve been saving for this trip for months: the merchandise looks amazing! Tokyo Disney has such a huge range, and most of it is exclusive to Japan.

4. Tokyo DisneySea

Of all the secondary parks at all of the Disneylands, Tokyo DisneySea seems to boast the most unique experiences. The Japanese are big on The Little Mermaid, hence the sea theme, and there are loads of totally different rides, unseen at any other park.

5. That monorail though

Just look at the little Mickey windows!

6. The outfits!

Speaking of unique, in Tokyo we’ll be seeing our favourite friends in a whole new wardrobe!

7. Toon Town

I love Toon Town in Disneyland California, but I haven’t been there for 5 years so I’m suffering major withdrawal!

8. This double decker carousel

That’s right, double decker!

9. Fantasmic – Japan style!

Again, lets see if the Japanese can do it better!

10. Seeing that castle..

Yep.

°o°

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1 Day to Go! Ahhhh!!!

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Oh my gosh, its tomorrow!!!

I’m literally sick with excitement (not cool), but gotta keep looking on the bright side!

So we’ve checked into our flights online and printed our boarding passes, the house has been blitzed tidy and all that’s really left to do is pack..

Mickey, here we come..! °o°

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Days til Disney Countdown – 14 days to go! (With Elsa, Anna and Olaf!)

There are loads of fun ways to count down the days til your next Disney trip, from big cross-off calendars to movie marathons.

The girls and I, however, decided that in order to share the countdown with everyone in the group, we’d have a bit of dressing up fun..

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To celebrate 2 weeks until our trip, we’ve spent our day dressing up as our favourite characters and re-inacting scenes from the classics – using a little artistic licence in places!

We printed our outlines of Mickey, and each decorated a few each 🙂

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Frozen is the girls’ (and everyone’s, really) favourite film at the moment, so this was an obvious choice for the first day of the countdown, and while Bella lacks Elsa’s ice white hair, Soph is a spitting image of Anna. Liv, meanwhile, plays a silly little Olaf, and yes that’s a sweet potato nose due to a lack of a carrot!

Two weeks til Disney!!! 😀

°o°

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4 weeks to go!

YAYAYAYAY!

4 weeks is so soon!

Eeek!

So here’s what we’ve got done in preparation for our trip this week:

1. American visas – sorted!

2. Magic bands customised for some of us – because of the size of our group, we’re on two separate bookings, so we just need to link those on My Disney Experience and we’ll be on our way!

3. Flights confirmed, and we’ve signed up for Virgin Flying Club.

4. Alterations to dining reservations made – we had a member of our group pull out of the trip and were unsure how to amend this, but when we called Disney they said that other than a few restaurants, it doesn’t matter if one less person shows as our table size would still be the same, but I don’t know if this would be the case for everyone.

5. Airport parking booked!

°o°

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50 Days Countdown

Eeek! Today marks 50 days til our Disney adventure begins and I’m beyond excited!

And while seeming like an eternity to wait, at the same time, there isn’t a lot of time to go, so here are a few things that everyone needs to make sure they get done in the last 50 days:

1. If you’re staying in a Disney resort, now is the time to start personalising your Magic Bands. If you don’t know what a Magic Band is, now is the time to learn! They are a rubber bracelet that every guest receives, and act as your room key, park ticket, Fastpass+, the list goes on.. So what do I mean by personalise? Well, they come in 7 different colours, and you can pick! You’ve got until 5 days before your arrival to personalise your band, and if you don’t, you’ll receive a generic grey..

2. Start stocking up on those essentials – glow sticks, suncream, pre-packed souvenirs, snacks etc.

3. Practice walking – while this may sound a little silly, preparing yourself for the amount of walking you’ll do in the park is wise, especially if you’ve got little ones. Take advantage of beautiful weather and walk instead of driving for shorter journeys; you’ll help save the environment, get fitter and prepare yourself for the Disney World parks.

4. Wear in your shoes – as above, you’re going to be doing a lot of walking, the last thing you need is uncomfortable shoes leaving you and the kids with blisters that will ruin the rest of your trip.

5. Ensure your clothes are holiday ready – if you’ve got clothes that haven’t made it out of your wardrobe since last summer, you might find alterations or repairs are needed, and you don’t want to find that out as you’re putting them into your suitcase the night before!

6. Make sure your Goodie Bags are packed and autograph books are at the ready!

7. Ensure you’ve got chargers, spare batteries and spare memory cards for all your tech: cameras, phones etc.

8. If you haven’t done so already, make your Advanced Dining Reservations

9. Get your spending money sorted – whether like us you need to convert pounds to dollars, or just want to sort out the kids spending money, the sooner the better!

10. Lastly.. Get the kids excited! Create a countdown calendar and get everyone to take turns crossing a day off, watch Disney movies, show the kids pictures of the parks and hotels, they’ll love it 🙂

Go, go, go!

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Pre-Disney Movie Marathon

If, like us, you booked your Disney holiday very much in advance (over a year in our case!), it can be hard to keep that initial ‘WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!’ excitement alive, especially with little ones.

Countdowns are great, but over 350 days can lose their impact, so are probably best saved for the final run up, but I wanted something to keep my girls excited for our trip, and also ensure they’re fully educated on Disney films and characters (I always worry, coming from a generation who were raised on the classics, that kids these days don’t know of some of the lesser known, older gems such as Hercules and Atlantis), so I came up with..

A year long Disney movie marathon! You could obviously shorten the length of your marathon, depending on how long it is until your holiday, but for us it worked out to one Disney movie a week (we started with 43 weeks to go), taking us right up to our departure!

Movie Night Girls

Once a week I pick the girls up from school, we pick a film, I make popcorn and snacks, and we get cosy on the sofa to enjoy the film. The girls like picking the film, and if they can’t agree on one between the three of them, they take turns to choose, and I just like re-watching my favourite childhood films – I get a lot more of the references now – and having the excuse to buy Disney DVDs (check out how I get FREE DVDs here!)

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