Walt Disney World Day 2

This morning we got up bright and early so that we could get to Animal Kingdom. Due to not booking our fastpasses at the 60 day mark, we didn’t have a Flights of Passage fastpass, so we were attempting to rope drop it, and it was actually a success! Although the queue looked scary as we walked all the way down to Harambe Theater, we hardly stopped moving and actually did the ride in under an hour – plus as I’ve only ever done fastpass for it before, it meant I got to see the cool inside queue for the first time.

Once that was done, we could relax a little and got breakfast at Creature Comforts, then we took some photos at the Tree of Life before going to meet Russell and Dug. It was possibly the cutest meet I’ve ever had, and as it was my first time meeting Dug I was really excited, especially as they loved our Wilderness Explorer outfits. After that, we went over to Expedition Everest and rode it twice, once as single riders and the second time using our fastpasses, then we wandered around for a bit before settling on having lunch at Yak and Yeti (QS).

We ended up sitting at Yak and Yeti for quite a while, just enjoying some shade and time off our feet, and then from there we went over to Africa for Festival of the Lion King, then went back to Dinoland and practically walked onto Primeval Whirl, then met Donald in his Dinobash outfit, before going to meet Micky and Minnie, which we had fastpasses for.

After that, we happened across Pocahontas meeting near the Tree of Life while we were heading back to Africa, so we stopped to meet her, and then went on to our final fastpass of the day at Kilimanjaro Safaris – although our ride was somewhat delayed due to the animals blocking vehicles on the roads – but we did get to see the lions really clearly and hear them roar!

Once we were off the ride, we had a mad dash back to the hotel to meet Chelsea who had arrived while we were being held up by rhinos or whatever was delaying the safari! We headed into Magic Kingdom for some dinner, a quick spin on the Peoplemover and a look through some shops, and then got the monorail back to the resort ready for some rest and recovery!

Tomorrow we’ll be hitting the RunDisney Health and Fitness Expo as well as the parks, so stay tuned!

January 10, 2019Lottie Leave a comment

Preparing for A Disney Cruise

Today is a very big day, Pascal!

No, I’m not leaving for a Disney cruise today, but I will be this time next week, and I can’t wait to be back on the sea, sailing on the Disney Dream.

This will be my second Disney cruise, and having had the experience from my cruise last year, I feel somewhat more prepared than I did last time. I know what to expect now, I know what I wish I’d done differently on my last cruise, and I’m ready to have the best time at sea feeling fully ready for it! If you’ve never done a Disney cruise before and need a little guidance, or are just interested in seeing how I do it, here are a few of the things I’ve done to get ready for this sailing:

Deciding how to decorate the stateroom door

The stateroom doors on Disney cruise ships are metal, so anything magnetic sticks to them and people really take advantage of this by decorating their doors to the max! We didn’t decorate our door last time, so I really wanted to get involved this year, and ordered some personalised decorations for our group so that we have even just a little something! It also makes things so much easier when you can’t remember what number room you’re in and all the floors and doors look them same..

Researching ports

For our Mediterranean cruise last year, I didn’t do ANY research on our ports or excursions, and relied purely on the rest of my group to decide what to do. Sure, I still had a great time and I was pretty happy doing whatever, but this time I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos of Castaway Cay in preparation!

Packing important things

As well as the usual holiday essentials, and the cruise booklet that you are sent in advance of your trip, there are a couple of things that I would highly recommend packing for a smoother cruise experience. Pack a lanyard or passholder for your room key if you don’t want to carry a bag all the time, I like to bring a travel cup (like the refillable ones you get at the parks, or a travel mug type) to fill up with drinks on deck so you don’t have to use a paper cup every time, and if you are going to decorate your door, don’t forget the decs!

Download the Disney Cruise app

Although it doesn’t do much before your cruise, once you’re onboard the ship and connected to the wifi, the Disney Cruise app becomes your guide to the boat, with daily schedules and timings, plus it has a cute messenger feature where you can chat to your group on the boat!

Plan your outfits

Even if you don’t meticulously plan your holiday wardrobe like I do, there are a couple of things you should prepare for. Every Disney cruise has a Pirate Night, where dressing up is highly recommended – seriously, everyone does it! – so you won’t want to miss out on that, and some sailings also have optional formal or semi-formal nights so plan accordingly. I’ve also planned a special outfit for the sailaway party as ours was cancelled on the last cruise so I want this one to be more special!

Have you ever done a Disney cruise before?

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January 7, 2019Lottie 8 Comments

The Perfect Cabin Suitcase

For someone who travels quite a lot, I’m almost ashamed to say that I have never used a cabin-sized suitcase until now. Whenever I’ve travelled hand luggage only I’ve kept myself to backpacks and holdalls, and while that has always been fine for me as I don’t do it often, I figured that as I now have the advantage of using Matthew’s staff travel to get super cheap flights, I’ll be going hand luggage only quite a bit more from here on out!

Another thing that swayed me was how adorable this suitcase is, so I decided to treat myself to the Minnie Mouse suitcase by American Tourister from the Disney Store website, and isn’t it a beaut?! I already have a large American Tourister case which I got for Christmas last year and I LOVE, so I knew that it would be a great investment.

Its a hard shell case with four wheels, and a built in 3-digit combination lock that the zip pulls click into, so you can secure it without having to worry about having a lock that needs a key.

The inside of the case it just as pretty as the outside, with its pretty pink and blue lining and details, and what I love about the AT cases compared to other brands I’ve seen is that it was a proper zipped divider that fully separates the top section of the case, and also has a big pocket built into it, which is the perfect size for 3-4 pairs of Mickey ears. The main compartment also has a little side pocket, which is perfect for charging cables and other little bits, and the strap keeps everything nicely packed in place!

The first outing of my case was my Disneyland Paris trip last month, and I easily managed to fit all my clothes and other bits for 4 days and still have a good amount of space, which given that I was packing summery clothes means I don’t think I’d have any problems packing 3-4 days of thicker wintery clothes.

The size of the case of course meets the size requirements of a cabin bag with most, if not all airlines, and I had absolutely no problem fitting it into an overhead locker on my EasyJet flight. The case wheels like a dream so walking through airports is no problem at all and it is just the cutest case ever, so if you do ever check it into the hold then you’ll have no problem spotting it on a luggage belt!

American Tourister do quite a big range of Disney designs, as well as normal styles, which you can usually get cheapest on Amazon. As I mentioned earlier, I also have a large Donald Duck suitcase which is the perfect size for a 2 week trip and just as amazing as this one, so I definitely sing the praises of all of their cases!

If I don’t make another little trip before then, the next trip this case will make will be to Walt Disney World in January!

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October 7, 2018Lottie 5 Comments

Disneyland Paris Day 4

This post is coming a day late because Friday was such a long day and I needed yesterday to recover, but anyways!

This morning I left Matthew behind in the hotel (he had some work related stuff to sort out, I’m not just a mean person) and headed into the parks for early magic hours, bypassing the big queue of Disney hotel guests by using the designated annual pass holder entrance! As I had limited time before going back to meet Matthew, I decided that I only wanted to queue to meet Donald, and then spent the rest of the time taking advantage of the park being much quieter for taking photos.

At 10am, when the park opened to the rest of the guests, I left to head back to the hotel so that we could finish packing and check out – I had planned to get the shuttle bus but didn’t check the timetables so rather than waiting 25 mins for the next bus I walked back, which did only take 20 minutes so I was pretty impressed with that, plus the weather was lovely!

Once we’d checked out, we headed back to the park with our cases, leaving them at guest storage by the park entrance for the day, and then we went back into the Disneyland park. We started with Pirates of the Caribbean, which was basically a walk on, and then walked through Fantasyland, grabbing lunch at Bella Notte, and then went for one last ride on Star Tours before switching parks and going to Studios.

There, we walked onto Flying Carpets, and then also walked onto Studio Tram Tour before doing Tower of Terror for one last time.

We then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring, as Matthew has never been to any of the Disney hotels, so we walked through Disney Village and did a lap of the lake, stopping to poke around Sequoia Lodge and Newport Bay Club, where we sat and had a drink and a snack in one of the lounges, before finally going back to collect our cases from storage and head back to the airport.

It might be a see ya real soon moment, but now we’re annual pass holders I think soon will probably be very soon, DLP!

September 16, 2018Lottie 4 Comments

Paris, I’m coming back!

Happy Thursday y’all! (I had to check that it’s actually Thursday because working from home means I have no sense of what day of the week it is!)

I’m in a pretty great mood today because last night Matthew and I booked ourselves a little trip to.. Disneyland Paris! Eeek!

Believe it or not, I actually haven’t stepped foot into a Disney park at all this year, and I honestly have found it much harder than I thought I would – especially after spoiling myself with so many trips over the last few years! Anyway, with Matthew officially starting with easyJet on September 17th, we had wanted to get away on a little trip in the week before then, and had played around with the idea of a couple of places in Europe, then last night he called me up and said he’d found a pretty good deal on 4 nights in Paris, and next thing I knew it was booked!

We’re staying offsite, which I’m actually quite excited about because I haven’t actually stayed offsite before, and as I’m getting an annual pass (yay!), I plan on squeezing in a whole bunch of trips in the next year and doing them as cheaply as possible, I know that offsite is gonna be the way to do it. I’m so psyched to be becoming an AP holder again, especially now I’ll be able to take advantage of Matthew’s staff travel to fly super cheap and go more often than I have done before!

It’ll also be our first trip to Paris together, and believe it or not, only actually our second time in a Disney park together! I haven’t been to Paris in almost a year, and as that was for a RunDisney weekend it wasn’t really a proper park trip, so I can’t wait to just be in the parks with my favourite person and not have to worry about running a half marathon the next morning!

Oh, and did I mention it’s only 25 days away?! I’m so excited!

August 16, 2018Lottie 3 Comments

Things to do on Disney Cruise Sea Days

I’m in shock with the realisation that it’s been almost a whole year since I went on my first Disney Cruise. Where has that time gone?! Disney Cruise Line opened my eyes to a world of holidays that I’d previously considered boring, and now I’m just buzzing to get back on the next ship in January!

One thing that I’ve been asked quite a few times is ‘what do you even do on a cruise when you can’t get off?’, and to be honest I always used to think the same before I actually experienced DCL, and now I live for sea days and all the fun that comes with them. Disney ships are a Dream, full of Magic, Fantasy and Wonder (see what I did there), and there are so many things that you can do on board, aside from lounging at the pool, to fill your days from waking up to passing out.

Character meets

Sea days are the best days for character meets, as they’re the days that they put the most characters out during the day. As well as the standard meets that you’ll be able to find the times for on your navigator, there are often special meets put on which you can book in advance of the cruise, such as Frozen and princess meets.

Kids club openings

While normally I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near a room full of kids, the kids clubs are without a doubt the coolest places on the ships, with themed areas like Andy’s Room, Pixie Hollow and Mickey Mouse Club. These clubs are strictly kids only, but during scheduled ‘open houses’, anyone can go inside to see what’s going on and admire the adorableness!

Catch a movie

If you’re in the mood for a movie, you can either hang out by the pool and watch what’s on the big screen at Funnelvision, or if an outdoor screening doesn’t take your fancy, you can go to the onboard cinema! It’s bigger than most of the screens at my local cinema, and it even plays some of the newest film releases.

Fill your boots!

Sea days are the best days for food. Well, you’ve got more opportunities to take advantage of all that free food that’s included in your booking. You could snack on nuggets and pizza between buffet meals, and don’t forget the self-serve ice cream machines..

Try out the gym

After all that food, you might not want to move, but if you haven’t lived on ice cream all day and fancy it, the onboard gym is fully kitted out for your workout needs.

Pub? Pub.

Pub quizzes, bingo, talks and so much more goes on in the pubs and clubs on the ships, so there’s always something going on for you to do.

Exploring the ship

Sea days are the perfect time to just explore these amazing ships, so have fun!

August 2, 2018Lottie 3 Comments

A Look Around Aulani’s Deluxe Studios

Staying at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii has been an absolute dream of mine for years now, and part of me still can’t believe that I’ve actually ticked it off the great Disney bucket list now.

During our stay in paradise, we actually stayed in two different rooms, both of which were Deluxe Studios, which is the second level of room at Aulani after a standard hotel room. There are several options in terms of the view you can have – standard view, garden view, pool view and ocean view – and we spent 6 nights in a standard view and our last night in an ocean view. Put simply, the better the view, the more you pay, whether that’s in cash or DVC points.

Each deluxe studio sleeps up to 4 people, with a regular double bed and a sofa that converts into a double bed, and there’s a large bathroom and a little kitchenette which is equipped with a fridge, microwave, coffee maker and toaster. They also all have a balcony/terrace area with chairs and a little table so you can sit out and enjoy the sunshine.

Of course this is still Disney, so the decor of the rooms perfect, including the amazing Mickey table lamp and hidden Mickey bedspread..

But also just look at the view that we had from our ocean view room on the last night:

Can I go back now please?

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June 14, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

Scooting Around San Francisco

When we were in San Francisco back in April, we made an incredible discovery that changed our trip. Scattered all around the city streets are electric scooters, and although we dismissed them as something rather odd at first, on the second day of our trip I decided to Google what was going on.

These scooters are available to rent by the general public, and its sorta like a cross between Uber and Pokemon Go. There are three companies – Bird, Lime and Spin – who have scooters in the city, and all you need to do is download their apps to get started (some will require your driving licence number). Each scooter has a GPS tracker, so you can use the app to locate nearby scooters, and then when you find one, you simply scan the QR code on the scooter to unlock it, and you’re good to go!

It costs $1 to unlock your scooter, and then its 15c a minute to ride, and you’ll be told when you unlock your scooter how much battery it has left so you know how far you can get before you unlock it. Their super simple to operate – you just give it a few manual pushes with your foot, then hold down the little accelerator button on the handlebars to activate the electric motor, and there’s a brake fitted to the handlebar too.

Riding around the city on these scooters is the most fun! Technically, they’re only supposed to be ridden on the road in designated cycle lanes as they’re actually road legal vehicles, but most people use them on the pavements. They don’t handle the infamous San Francisco hills all too well, but if you’re journey is fairly flat then you won’t have any problems! And when you’re done, you just leave your scooter wherever you are, lock it through the app and you’ll be charged for your time.

If you’re a local, you can also use these scooters to make a bit of cash by becoming a ‘charger’ – the companies use normal people to collect up scooters when the batteries are running low, and pay about $10 per scooter that they charge up!

I honestly really wish we had more things like this in the UK – I guess they’re the scooter equivalent of a Boris bike, but its way more fun being on a scooter! These companies operate in quite a few cities in the US, so if you’ve got a trip coming up, definitely hit their websites and find out where you might be able to get a scooter!

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June 3, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

Travelling with Revolut

When you’re a regular, or even a non-regular traveller, there’s nothing more annoying than either having to get all your travel money exchanged into cash, or risking foreign transaction charges on most of your cards if you have to use them while you’re away, and even if you have a card that doesn’t charge, there’s that nagging worry about losing or having cards stolen while abroad, and if this sounds familiar to you, you need a Revolut card.

Revolut is, in fact, a mobile app, and the only way you can get a card is through the app itself. Essentially, its a pre-paid credit card: you simply link a debit or credit card to the app and use that to top it up by whatever amount you need, and if the card doesn’t have enough on it, the transaction will simply fail, so you’ve always got the added security of knowing that if there’s nothing there, nothing can be spent.

But what makes Revolut different to any other pre-paid card is what makes it ideal for travelling – you can exchange money right there on the app, and get the best rates as it uses the central bank exchange rates, rather than those that retailers use to make money out of your holiday money needs. For example, as I’m writing this, Post Office are currently offering 1.2961 on USD, whereas Revolut has 1.3401! Once you’ve topped up your card with cash, you can hit the exchange button, select your desired currency and watch what the exchange rate is doing as it updates every few seconds, so you can wait until it goes up a few 0.01s to get a little bit more for your money, and once your money has been converted to whatever currency you want, that means you’re using the correct currency for the country you’re in, so no foreign transaction charges! Plus, any leftover currency can be converted back just as easily as you switched it in the first place, so you don’t have to worry about selling your money back to a bureau de change or hiding it away until your next trip.

Another great thing about the app is that it notifies you as soon as you’ve made a payment, so you can see what you’ve spent straight away, with a clear description of where you spent it and don’t have to guess from ‘pending transactions’ where your money has gone. Its also got nifty features like being able to split your bill with another Revolut user, and also a selection of other things on offer, so its a really handy thing to have!

Apart from the cost of the card, which is £5 plus £3 delivery, Revolut is completely free (unless you choose to go Premium), so compared to so many other credit cards that have annual fees etc, its a steal, but don’t just take my word for it, download the app for free for all the information!

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May 22, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

48 Hours in San Francisco

San Francisco is one of my favourite cities in the world, and has been since the first time I set eyes on it 8 years ago. Its the sort of city where even the graffiti is beautiful and despite swearing the whole time you trek up those super steep hills, you still can’t quite hate them because there’s always something pretty to see along the way.

On our trip to Hawaii, we had a two day stopover in San Francisco, and as it was Matthew’s first time in the Golden Gate City, I wanted to make sure he got to see and do everything that you should do when in San Fran, and although we didn’t quite manage everything we thought we would (thanks jet lag), I thought I’d share my sorta ‘ultimate guide’ for doing San Francisco in 48 hours!

Before you visit

There are a few things that you should definitely book in advance in order to not only make your trip smoother while you’re there, but also save yourself a bit of money. Firstly, you should book Alcatraz in advance, and I’d really recommend trying to get on the earliest sailing of the day to beat the crowds and get a jump start on the day. The other thing I would recommend purchasing in advance is the San Francisco Explorer Pass, which gives you access to a number of SF’s biggest tourist attractions. You can choose either a 3, 4 or 5 attraction pass, which of course you can decide on for yourself, but don’t worry, if you need to do more attractions than you have a pass for, the pass also gives you discounted entry to most of the attractions as well.

Be sure to wear some comfortable shoes, because this plan will keep you busy busy busy!

Day one

Utilise the inevitable jet lag and start the day off with your early morning trip to Alcatraz – trust me, the view is worth the early morning. There’s no set time limit that you have on the island, but if you follow the provided audioguide then you’ll probably spent a good 2 hours or thereabouts, and boats depart every 30 mins so you never have to wait too long for the next ride back. From Alcatraz Landing, walk along the Embarcadero to Pier 39 where you can visit the Aquarium of the Bay (an Explorer Pass option), explore the shops and pier activities and watch the sea-lions in the bay – they can keep you entertained for hours, trust me!

Continuing along the Embarcadero, walk down past Fisherman’s Wharf to the main Boudin Sourdough factory, where you can do a free factory tour (it only takes about 10 mins but there’s free bread so y’know) and then get lunch from the cafe downstairs, preferably something that comes in a bread bowl because that’s so San Francisco, but all of the food there is amazing. While you’re at the waterfront, you’ve got some other tourist attractions at your doorstep, including Madame Tussauds, the San Francisco Dungeons and Ripley’s Believe it or Not, which are also included on the SF Explorer Pass. If you’re into chocolate, I would definitely recommend you walk along to Ghirardelli Square, and then head back to the Powell/Mason Cable Car Turnaround for a true San Francisco experience.

The Powell/Mason car runs all the way to Union Square, and its $7 one way (you’ll need this in cash), or you can buy a day pass, but once you’ve only really gotta do it one time. You can ride this cable car all the way up to Union Square, putting you right in the hustle and bustle of the main shopping district. In the square you’ve got Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, and the streets surrounding have everything from the high fashion of Chanel and Hermes, as well as Westfield Shopping Centre, Sephora, Disney Store and a whole tonne of other stores, so you can shop until you drop.

Call it cliche, but if you’re in Union Square around dinner time, you’ve got to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Yes, there’s probably one of these in every city in America, but this one is located on the top floor of Macy’s, and there’s a roof terrace where you can sit out and eat dinner while watching the world go by in Union Square below! Psst! If you can make a reservation in advance, do it!

Day two

Save yourself one attraction on your Explorer Pass, and spend the day getting around the city and seeing the big sights on the hop on/hop off bus. Depending on where you’re staying, there are a whole bunch of stops you can start your journey, but some major places are Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf.

The bus will take you around the whole city, with stops including Pier 39, Coit Tower, Chinatown and most importantly, it will take you over the Golden Gate Bridge to Vista Point, where you can get off and take as many photos of the incredible landmark as you like while you wait for the next bus, and believe me, the views are stunning. You can obviously get off wherever you like, but I highly recommend exploring Chinatown, and if you’re not too allergic to stairs, the views from Coit Tower are also amazing. There are also stops near the Asian Art Museum, California Academy of Sciences and the SF Museum of Modern Art, so this is the best way to get to all the attractions you might want to visit. The buses run all the way up until 5pm, so you can spend all day seeing the beauty of the city, and the live tour guides give you so much information and fun facts.

So obviously you don’t have to follow my advice one bit, but hopefully this has given you a little bit of inspiration, and if you do visit I hope you love the place as much as I do!

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May 9, 2018Lottie 3 Comments

My Beach Makeup and What Stayed Put

Its the classic dilemma for girls. Summer poses a whole new problem when it comes to makeup, because gone are the days of winter drying out everyone’s skin like there’s no tomorrow, and instead its the challenge of finding products that won’t melt off your face during the warmer summer days, but can also stand up to a bit of water, whether that’s from swimming in the sea on a beach day, or just the Great British summer showers (read: heavy rain that shows up right when we think its finally getting good).

This year, I was faced with this issue a little earlier as going to Hawaii in April meant I had a little less time to perfect my product choices, but it also meant that I could test run some products before the little summer that hits the UK – which seems to be happening right now – actually kicked in. Some of what I took with me were items that are regulars from my makeup stash, and others I took on recommendation from the Twittersphere, and they all went through a somewhat rigorous test in the 27C heat of Hawaii. But would they all make the cut for future wear?

Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray

I bought this on recommendation from a number of people – I actually bought the travel sized one, y’know in case it wasn’t any good and I didn’t get stuck with a big bottle that I’d spent a lot of money on, but actually the travel sized one is still pretty sizeable which made it seem like pretty good value for money! This product is an absolute trooper. I sprayed it over products that I know aren’t waterproof and knew would probably wash off within minutes and amazingly they held up so well, leaving me bronzed and highlighted even after a whole day on the beach.

NYX Proof It! Waterproof Eyeshadow Primer

I took this with me because I know how well it works. This is the eyeshadow primer that I use every day and I actually believe it to be a miracle product – it turns any eyeshadow waterproof and I’ve even tried running swatches under a tap before and saw absolutely no shadow movement with this badboy, plus at £6 a tube its a steal.

Makeup Forever Aqua XL Waterproof Eyeliner

Call me crazy, but blue eyeliner is my jam, and I’ve always been a Barry M girl but have never been able to find a suitable replacement for my now discontinued favourite shade of pencil, but I stumbled across this one in Sephora last year, and when it claimed to be waterproof as well it was like killing two birds with one stone. The pencil itself is surprisingly soft, so very little pressure is needed on application, and it also blends well which can be fab, but I worried seeing how soft it was that it wouldn’t survive in the water, but was thankfully proven very wrong – in fact, when I swatched it in Sephora before buying, it was several days before that blue line faded from the back of my hand even with daily showering and handwashing.

Too Faced Better Than Sex Waterproof Mascara

So this was another recommendation, and having never tried the cult favourite in its non-waterproof form either, I thought now was a great chance to see what all the fuss was about. Again, I bought this in the travel size tube to save a bit of money until I decided whether or not I liked it. The mascara itself surprised me as I’ve religiously stuck to Eyeko Black Magic for a number of years now and had never found another mascara that gave my lashes the same natural but wow look that Black Magic does for me, but despite being a very different shaped brush, I really liked how this product made my lashes look, so I was buzzed to test it out in the water. Unfortunately, that’s were it fell flat on its face. I felt like just looking at water had it running, and although I wasn’t crying black or anything like that, on more than one occasion I left the poolside looking a bit panda-ish. I’d probably buy the mascara again in its normal formula, but I felt a little let down by this one..

Benefit Gimme Brow

Gimme Brow is not my every day eyebrow product, but I do use it from time to time, and as I feared a little that my usual dipbrow wouldn’t hold up, I took this out with me as well. Now my Gimme Brow was pre product recall, so I don’t know how it differs from the new formula that was re-released recently, and I don’t think either claim any sort of waterproof capabilities, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well this did. I still used my regular dipbrow, but then went over it with this, and I still had decent looking eyebrows at the end of each day, even after being in the sea and the pool, and what more could I ask for?

Other shoutouts go to my current favourite foundation, The Ordinary Serum Foundation, for being SPF 15 so keeping my face a little more protected, and Benefit’s Dandelion Shy Beam and Sun Beam liquid highlighters for giving me a subtle shimmer and glow which held up well thanks to the UD setting spray!

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May 7, 2018Lottie 7 Comments

Flying Long Haul with Norwegian Airlines

Its no secret that I travel a lot, and one of the reasons that I’m able to do this is because I’m always looking for ways to cut the cost of my trips so that I can see the world without seeing negative figures in my bank account, so when we started to look at our flights to San Francisco for our recent visit, we were all about finding the bargain.

I’d been hearing a lot about Norwegian Airlines, so when they came out top on our searches in terms of the best price, they were the obvious choice for us, and both Matthew and I were pretty excited to fly with an airline neither of us had travelled with before. So what was it like?

Well, the reason that Norwegian can offer such amazing prices is because pretty much everything is an add-on if you go for the basic fare – checked baggage, inflight meals, choosing your seat in advance of check-in, even earphones or a blanket for the flight costs you a little bit more! Now if these options don’t really bother you all that much, this is a great way to save. I, for example, cannot stand plane food, and I never eat the hot meals that I’m given on long haul flights, so not paying for a hot meal during our flight was no issue at all for me, and saved the awkwardness of turning down the chicken or beef options and having to explain to the cabin crew that seriously I’m fine without any food.

That said, however, if you do not book a meal in advance, you have to be prepared for the fact that there is no trolley service on the flights. That’s right, even the drinks trolley is privy only to those receiving hot meals, and there’s none of those little bags of teeny tiny pretzels. What is on offer, however, is the Snack Bar. The Snack Bar is accessed through your in-flight entertainment screen, and you choose what you want, swipe your card through a little slot in the screen, and in a short amount of time, a member of the cabin crew appears with your purchases! Through this system, you can also order drinks, duty free and those earphones and blankets I mentioned earlier. Sure, this takes away face to face time with the staff, but like with everything else, if you’re not fussed with all the bells and whistles, its not particularly detrimental to your flight experience.

The in-flight entertainment didn’t have a huge number of options, but they did have a good selection of recent movies as well as those movies that you’re always happy to watch over and over, plus tv shows and kids options, so something for everyone.

Something Norwegian really has on its side is being the new kid on the block. According to my plane-geek father, the aircraft that we flew to San Francisco on had only been in service for a month, and you could really tell – it felt so much fresher than planes I’ve flown on with Virgin Atlantic or British Airways. Their long-haul fleet is made up of Boeing 787 aka Dreamliners, which are packed with fancy tech like windows that dim rather than having blinds, amongst many other things, but are also better for the environment.

Honestly, I had no real complaints at all about these flights, in fact, I found the concept refreshing; simple, efficient and cost effective. We paid £325 each for return flights to San Francisco which was a steal, and although we did pay on top of that for baggage, it still worked out so much cheaper than flying with anyone else. I would absolutely fly Norwegian again!

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May 5, 2018Lottie 2 Comments

See ya real soon, Aulani

Well it’s that bittersweet time where I’m sat at an airport gate wishing I wasn’t about to board a plane, but here we are.

This morning we woke up with the sunrise through the balcony doors, went for a walk around the lagoon and then sat out eating pop tarts for breakfast in our dressing gowns for the last time. Once we packed up and dropped our bags at bell services, we headed down to the adult only pool to nab good sun loungers, then went for a loop round the lazy river.

After one circle, we took our tube up the mini volcano in the centre of the resort to try out the slide, which was actually really fun but man did we mess up the landing! We somehow managed to flip ourselves out of the double ring as we hit the water and both ended up with so much chlorine up our noses.. We recovered quickly with another loop round the resort, then got out and grabbed some lunch.

The rest of the afternoon was spent poolside, getting as much vitamin D as we could while it lasted, and then we went to the Luana Lounge, which is an area where guests who have had to check out of their rooms earlier in the day but don’t leave until later can go to shower, change etc, then we just went to sit on the big comfy outdoor armchairs situated on the big balcony overlooking the resort from outside the main reception area until it was time to catch our shuttle to the airport.

Aulani, you have been wonderful. It has been a dream of mine to visit here for so long, and I cannot tell you just how perfect it has been, and how much the photos don’t even do justice to this stunning place. There will be lots more Aulani content to come, but now we head back to San Francisco for a 12 hour layover until we fly home, so stay tuned to see what we get up to!

April 30, 2018Lottie 2 Comments

Ocean View

So there wasn’t a blog post yesterday as Matthew and I were both a little unwell, so all we really did all day was hang out and relax, which was pretty nice because it meant I spent most of the day drawing and designing, it just wasn’t really enough to write about!

This morning, we got up and packed up the room in preparation for changing rooms for our last night. There wasn’t a full week available in the standard view studios when we booked, but there was a night in an ocean view room which we wanted to see anyway so it was sorta win-win!

I left Matthew to finish packing and I headed down to the resort’s Laniwai Spa as I had booked myself a massage as a little treat from me to me. I got to the spa an hour before my time as they have a relaxation garden, which is an area of outdoor hot pools, loungers and other wonderful relaxing things which is only accessible to those having spa treatments, so I got to hang out there before I was called for my massage.

Now I have to admit, this was my first ever massage, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but wow has that set the bar.. I was made to feel so at ease by all of the staff, and the massage itself was incredible.

After I was done, Matthew and I took our bags to bell services to hold until our new room was ready, and we went to Ko Olina to get some pizza for lunch. When we got back, our room was ready so we collected our bags again and went up to the room.

Unfortunately, a lot of the afternoon has been spent dealing with a bit of an issue with our room charges, so that’s made things a little stressful this today and they’re not yet resolved, but hopefully we should get them sorted tomorrow, and we’re still here for most of the day tomorrow so we can fit in the things that we didn’t have time for today.

Our evening was spent enjoying the ocean view room and watching the sun set from the balcony. I don’t think I’m going to be ok leaving this place..

April 29, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

Hawaiian Rain

Today was the first day that we actually managed a lie in. Cue hallelujah chorus.

When we did get up, I went straight down to the pool, while Matthew had a bath. I got us two sunloungers by the resort’s infinity pool, and took in as much sunshine as I could until my heat rash started flaring up again, then had to cover it up with a towel – bah humbug – but we stayed there pretty much all day, so I don’t really have too much to report!

What we did experience for the first time, however, was Hawaiian rain. This hit us just after lunch, and much like Florida rain it just bombed it down nice and heavy for a bit, and then cleared up again, and then a few hours later did the same again. Being British, we were totally unfazed by the matter, especially as we were under an umbrella that was keeping all but the end of our loungers nice and dry, but other guests were grabbing all their stuff and running indoors! I mean, it was still pretty warm, so I don’t really get this reaction, but it did make the pool nice and quiet for us.

At about 5pm we went back to the room to shower and change then made a quick visit to the resort’s Laniwai Spa so that I could book myself in for a massage on Saturday, then we went over to Ko Olina Center for some dinner and ice cream. As the sun started setting, we walked back to the resort and took up a spot by the large fire pit to watch it disappear behind the palm trees.

At the fire pit we listened to Uncle Ophi tell a traditional Hawaiian story, then we went for a quick walk down to the now dark beach to look at the stars – there’s no light pollution here which is so nice. And that was pretty much it for our evening!

April 27, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

What can I say, it’s been another day in paradise!

This morning was the latest I’ve woken up all week, thank goodness, and I started off my day with a trip to the gym. Call me crazy but I love visiting gyms in Disney resorts, so this was another tick off the bucket list, although surprisingly I wasn’t overly impressed by this one as I thought it lacked some equipment that other gyms have had. The great thing about Aulani, however, is that they have a whole bunch of fitness classes, a lot of which take place on the beach, and while I won’t be able to take part in all the ones I had hoped to thanks to the recovering broken ankle, I plan on doing a few before we leave.

We had breakfast on the terrace again, and then headed down to the beach where we set up camp for the morning. The typical blogger in me spent a good amount of time utilising the beautiful scenery to get photos for some upcoming blog posts, much to the confusion of onlookers who were probably thinking ‘why is that girl arranging makeup in the sand?’ but hey ho.

Our plan for lunch was to eat the leftover pizza from yesterday, but on the way back to the room I had to stop for a Mickey snow cone! I mean, it’s shaved ice with some flavouring so it hardly spoiled my appetite for the pizza and it was so cute!

I accidentally had a little nap after lunch, although I’m starting to realise that this sort of thing is totally acceptable on a beach holiday. For the afternoon, we headed down to the pool, and it was so warm I could practically see my skin tanning by the second. We spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening by the pool, just hanging out, drawing and doing a little planning, then finally headed back inside, via the shop, of course..

As well as my tan, I seem to have developed a kinda nasty heat rash down the side of my left leg, so I’m hoping that subsides by the morning!

April 26, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

Lazy Days

This morning started off with eating blueberry pop tarts for breakfast on our little balcony/terrace in the sunshine and it was wonderful.

After breakfast, we went for a walk around the lagoon to see the resort from a whole new angle, and wandered back slowly around the pool area before going to the market in Ko Olina again as we’d already run out of sun cream.. The market also has a huge range of hot food available to order, so we picked up a pizza to share, which we took back to the room to eat.

Considering I was up at 2.30am this morning, and then again at 5.30am, I thought that after lunch would be nap time, but I actually felt pretty awake, so I left Matthew to nap and I went to explore the resort with my camera. As soon as I stepped out of the building, there was Shellie May hanging out in the garden, so I stopped for a photo with her – my first time meeting one of the bears!

I spent a good amount of time exploring the resort taking photos, and also walked back around the lagoon and took a peek at the neighbouring lagoon, which was just as beautiful. I missed out on meeting Goofy at the pool on the way back, but there’s always another day for that! Of course I stopped by the shop on the way back to the room, y’know, just in case the stock had changed from yesterday..

When I got back to the room, Matthew was up and we packed a bag to take to the pools. We snagged some sunloungers in the adult only section of the resort, but then headed to the lazy river for a bob around in rubber rings to stay cool, and then got out and went to the adult only hot tub, a two tiered infinity pool looking out over the lagoon – bliss..

Back to the sunloungers to chill out, and after an hour or so of relaxing in the quiet over the 18+ zone, we got some dinner from Mama’s Snack Stop, sharing some coconut shrimp by the pool. We also decided to invest in a refillable resort mug to share because it seemed like a lot to get one each considering we don’t really drink many fizzy drinks, but the stations have iced tea options too so we figured it would one would be worth it.

I headed down to the beach for a little bit just before sunset – most of the families had left by then and there was only a small handful of people left in the water! As it got darker, we headed back to the room as finally my crazy early start was getting to me!

April 25, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

Discovering Paradise

You guys, Aulani is so beautiful. I keep pinching myself.

Jet lag had me up before 5am, despite trying to force myself to keep sleeping. We started the day with the only activity we had booked in advance, which was the character breakfast at the Makahiki restaurant. After checking in for our meal, we were sent to line up for a photo with the main mouse himself, then taken through into the restaurant. We were seated right next to a huge koi pond at the edge of the outdoor seating area and the view was just stunning.

Breakfast was a buffet, with everything from Mickey waffles to fried breakfast items, even pre-stacked little eggs Benedicts, but there were also more traditional Hawaiian dishes available too. Needless to say it was all delicious. While eating we were visited by Minnie and Pluto, and there was also live entertainment from a lady who sang and did some audience participation with the kids and families in the restaurant.

After breakfast we left the resort to head to the shops. The area we’re staying in is called Ko Olina, and it’s basically just resorts, a golf course and a few holiday homes, but there’s a little ‘town center’ of a few shops and restaurants, and we just wanted to go to the market to stock up on some food for our stay. In our room we have a fridge, microwave and toaster, so we bought all our breakfast items for the week, plus a few snacks.

Once back at the resort, we had a couple of annoying back home things to sort out – we exchange on our house this week so we had to get home insurance sorted. I left Matthew to read the fine print and headed to the gift shop for a bit of shopping, then when we were both done we finally headed down to the beach.

Now the beach at Aulani is actually open to the public, but unless you’re staying at one of the nearby resorts it’s not really easy to get to, and you’d never know from how quiet it was. I mean, Bournemouth beach back home is probably busier on a sunny day in April! We got some sunloungers then headed straight for the water as it was pretty hot out, so much so that the sand was burning out feet!

The water was fairly still, being more of a lagoon than an open beach, so the waves crashed on the reefs in the distance but there was hardly any rippling where we were. We spent the next few hours alternating between our loungers and the water, then got a little peckish so headed back inside for some snacks and a cool down.

I’m finding the concept of a relaxing holiday quite difficult to get my head around as I’ve pretty much never done the whole ‘go somewhere warm and just lay out in the sun’ sorta holidays, so I keep feeling like I should be doing more, but at the same time I’m loving it. I had a little nap as my early start was getting to me late afternoon, but when I woke up I wasn’t feeling very well (probably heat, tiredness and dehydration all hitting me at once) so I ended up going to bed at about 9pm, but I have to keep telling myself that that’s ok, I’ve still got a week of this paradise.

April 24, 2018Lottie 2 Comments

Aloha Aulani

This morning we were up super early once again to get to San Francisco airport for our flight to Hawaii which was at 9am. We boarded our United Airlines plane, got ourselves settled for the 6 hour flight, and then the captain announced that there was a problem with one of the engines of the plane, and while it was still legally acceptable to fly with this minor problem, he was refusing the aircraft and we all had to disembark.

Now United have had a lot of bad press lately, but I would just like to say how incredibly impressed I was with how everything went from that moment onwards. Within minutes of us all getting off the plane, trolleys of bottled water and snacks appeared at the gate for passengers to help themselves to while awaiting further information. As there was no immediate update, we asked to be transferred onto a flight scheduled for later in the day, but the lady we spoke to was kind enough to not only book us onto that later flight, but also keep our booking for this flight open so that when an update came out, if our original flight would take off earlier than the new flight, we could still get on it, which was amazing.

Luckily, a new aircraft arrived for us in just over an hour, and despite taking off 3 hours later than planned, we arrived in Honolulu only 2 hours after our original arrival time, so we didn’t miss out much at all. As we came in to land, we actually flew over Aulani, so my first sight of the resort was from the air and it was stunning!

We got an Uber to the resort, where we were greeted with fresh flower leis and cool citrus infused water and checked in by some lovely cast members who made sure we got buttons. For the first six nights of our stay, were in a standard view studio, then our last night is in an ocean view studio, so from this room we don’t have much of a view besides some greenery and a little water feature, but we do still have a little balcony type patio.

After checking out our room, we realised how starving hungry we were, so went off to explore and find somewhere for some dinner, opting for the Off The Hook Bar And Grill and some Disney classic chicken tenders which we ate in the shade with a view of the pool. The resort is so stunning, I can’t believe I’m actually here and I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.

After eating we did a quick scope of two of the gift shops, and I’ve already spotted a few things that I want.. Then we headed back to chill in the comfort of our room with the sun still shining in, relax in the softest dressing gowns ever provided by a hotel and get an early night to recover from the long, slightly stressful day of travelling.

I can’t wait to update you with what we get up to tomorrow!

April 23, 2018Lottie 3 Comments

Hopping On and Off San Francisco

This morning was not such an early start, although I still woke up before 7am. I took the opportunity to eat the cheesecake that I’d taken away from the Cheesecake Factory the night before, because if you can’t eat cheesecake for breakfast in bed on holiday, when can you?

Once ready for the day, Matthew and I started to walk to Sarah’s hotel, but along the way managed to pick up two scooters which made the trip to Union Square a lot faster! The plan for today was to make use of the hop on/hop off bus that we had tickets for, and see as much of the city as we could with the ease of not having to navigate to many places ourselves. We rode the bus from Union Square and around the route through the city til we reached the Golden Gate Bridge. Being on the top deck of an open top bus made the ride across the bridge crazy windy but wow do you get a feel for how impressive that thing is. We got off at the Vista Point viewing stop for some photos, and then got on the next bus to continue the tour.

Undecided on the exact plan for the rest of the day stopwise, we went all the way back round the city til we hit Pier 39, grabbed some lunch in one of the restaurants there and with some food in us it was a lot easier to settle on a plan. We managed to nab a scooter each from around the area, and rode ourselves to Lombard Street (although we had to push the scooters up the ridiculous hill that is Lombard) to see the famous zig-zag road, then scooted back to Fisherman’s Wharf where we bought a quick drink and hopped back on another bus, completing a full loop back to Union Square but then continuing back round a few more stops as we had another adventure planned.

Sarah and I had really wanted to find two things in San Francisco: the rainbow crossing and the rainbow house, and it took some walking but we managed to do both. The rainbow crossing was pretty easy to find, but the house involved many many super steep hills and I still can’t believe we made it up there alive – it was a long walk!

Absolutely knackered, we got an Uber back to the Embarcadero and got dinner at In And Out Burger, then had a true San Francisco experience of riding the cable cars from nearby all the way back to Union Square, where we finished up the day visiting the Disney Store before saying goodbye to Sarah for the rest of our trip and heading back to the hotel.

We fly to Aulani first thing tomorrow morning!

April 22, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

A Proper San Francisco Day

Today has been a pretty great day. Our jet lag actually helped us out quite a lot, as we had stupidly not remembered to book Alcatraz in advance, but as we were up at 5.30am, we could get to the ticket office for 7.30am (courtesy of a very chatty Uber driver) as they release some on-the-day tickets and we got onto the first tour of the day with no problem at all, grabbing breakfast between buying tickets and boarding the boat.

Alcatraz was really interesting – I admit I didn’t know all that much about it before today other than the basics, but there’s a lot to learn even if you do know a bit about it! We started off watching a mini documentary about the history of the island, then walked up to the cell building where audio guides are provided to guide your whole way round and through the building and sharing a tonne of interesting info along the way.

Once we’d seen everything we wanted to see, we got the boat back to the city and walked along to Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, stopping for a bit of time to watch the sea-lions, then continued along the waterfront to the Boudin sourdough bakery to walk around the mini factory tour and then grab lunch in the cafe there. SO GOOD.

Next on the agenda was the Walt Disney Family Museum, which we got an Uber to. The museum is in a really pretty area just outside the main city, and we spent a good amount of time learning even more about the wonder that is Walt Disney. As the museum was quite close to the Golden Gate Bridge, we decided to walk from there along to a grassy park area near the bridge, which gave us stunning views of the landmark, although it was quite a walk there and back to a place where an Uber would pick us up from again, but along the way we did discover something pretty cool..

So the night before and during the day today, we’d seen a number of people riding this electric scooters, but also they could be found just lying around the streets, so while we were walking I decided to google them to find out what the deal was. Well they’re kinda like Boris bikes crossed with Uber – you find a scooter, activate it with your phone and pay for the time you use it. Well, we also happened to come across one, so there was some scooter riding involved, but I digress.

We Ubered back to Sarah’s hotel, where she and I disembarked for a trip to the Sephora round the corner, and Matthew left us to it and met us in Union Square to go for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Macy’s.

We were all so knackered from the early morning and busy day that we could hardly keep our eyes open at dinner, let alone tackle those enormous portions so we picked at what we could and I took my cheesecake to go and we got back to the hotel as quick as possible so I could finally get my feet up!

April 21, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

Hello San Francisco

Well gang, another adventure has begun, but as most of today was spent travelling, this is really just a check in to say that we’ve arrived in San Francisco, which is one of my favourite cities in the world and I’m so happy to be here.

We flew with Norwegian for the first time (full scoop on what it was like when I’m back!), it was a 10 hour flight but it flew by pretty quickly as it was essentially a 10 hour catch up with Sarah and my god can we talk for England..

We landed at Oakland airport and got a train into San Fran, checked into our respective hotels and then Matthew and I walked to Sarah’s and we grabbed Panda Express for dinner (another favourite of mine) and headed back for bed as our bodies were feeling the fact it was 4.30am in the UK!

Stay tuned for two more days of jam packed San Francisco fun before Matthew and I head off to Aulani!

April 20, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

What I’m Packing for Aulani

Its holiday weeeekk!

On Thursday we jet off on the start of our adventure and off course that means my suitcase is already pretty much full, and as I haven’t really shared all that much in the way of outfits, I thought I’d show you some of the things that are filling up my case.

This trip will be the debut of the amazing Donald Duck suitcase that Matthew bought me for Christmas. Its the first four-wheeled suitcase I’ve had, and while this might not seem like anything particularly strange, its meant a completely different packing experience for me!

Outfit planning has also been a different experience for me as I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I’ve been really enjoying picking swimsuit/cover-up combos, including this Sleeping Beauty inspired look featuring a pom-pom edged cover-up of my own making!

Outfit wise, I’ve mainly kept things subtle on the Disney front, but I’ve got accessories from a few of my favourite Disney small businesses, including my new favourite headbands from Closet Geek

I’ve got so many swimsuits packed, ranging from one-pieces to bikinis, and I have a feeling I’ll be spending most of my time in them!

And these are just a handful of the extra bits and pieces I’ve got on my packing list! I’m trying to pack fairly light to allow space to bring back lots of goodies, but I do still have to get a few things and pack shoes and such, and I haven’t even starting on my hand luggage yet!

Don’t forget that I’ll be daily blogging the whole trip, so you can keep up with my adventures on here, but Instagram will also be the main place I’ll post updates while I’m out there, so be sure to follow along!

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April 16, 2018Lottie 2 Comments

My Aulani Must Dos

Credit: disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com

So I can officially say that I go to Aulani THIS MONTH now, and its actually only like two weeks away which is crazy and I feel somewhat unprepared, but mainly just so stupidly excited that I spend a lot of time squealing. I’ve wanted to go to Aulani for so many years now and I honestly never thought it would happen, or that it would be a once in a lifetime trip, but now Matthew and I are DVC members, I’m so happy that I can actually visit this paradise on earth without selling a major organ.

Planning wise, we’ve kept it fairly low-key. Although it wasn’t originally intended to be, this trip is our pre-moving-house relax and refresh before everything goes completely mad, so I don’t want to have every second planned to a tee, but in the last few weeks we’ve been doing a bit more research on what the resort and surrounding areas have to offer, and I’ve compiled a list of a few things that I want to make sure we do while we’re living it up in Disney paradise.

Mickey shaped snow cones

The most iconic food in Aulani will get in my belly (you know, once I’ve got the perfect Instagram shot)

Go to the spa

So I have never actually been to a spa or had an actual massage, and I feel like I’m seriously missing out on this experience, so where better to do it for the first time than in Aulani’s full service spa? I feel more relaxed just thinking about it..

Sunrise and ocean yoga

I’m that super weird person that loves to check our gyms and fitness options wherever I go on holiday, and I cannot stay away from a Disney resort gym, but Aulani not only offer yoga classes held on the beach at sunrise (which I’ll definitely be doing), they also have a yoga class held on the lagoon floating on surfboards! I mean, I’ll probably fall off, but I’ll be giving it my best shot.

Exclusive merch

Y’all know I’m a sucker for some good Disney merch, and apparently about 90% of the merchandise sold in Aulani is exclusive to the resort, so I can’t wait to buy some unique beauties. PS. I’ll be doing a giveaway or two after my trip, so stay tuned!

All the water activities

Matthew and I have already scouted some amazing looking activities to fill our days with, including nearby Wet’n’Wild waterpark and Maunalua Bay for parasailing, banana boating, jet skiing and more, so while we’ll be chilling big time, there’s also gonna be a lot of fun going on!

Photos galore

I always take so many photos when I’m in a new place, and I can’t wait to explore the resort and document it in photos, not to mention the fact that Matthew is going to have to put up with being my personal photographer so that I can also appear in a bunch of these photos – I mean, Insta needs and all

I’m just so buzzing to get out there and get some sunshine and warmth and Disney magic!

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April 7, 2018Lottie 1 Comment

My Aulani Wardrobe Wishlist

So as of Monday, its officially less than 8o days until our trip to Aulani!!!! (I normally hate more than one exclamation mark but one just isn’t enough to show my excitement)

Even when we first booked the trip, we only had about 100 days, which is pretty short notice by my standards, so of course I was immediately struck with the thought that I’d need to start planning outfits asap. Well, I’ve been a little sidetracked with other life stuff going on, and the fact is, I really haven’t put that much thought into it yet, not helped by the fact that I have put myself on a pretty strict spending ban for the whole of January and February while I continue to worry about paying off Christmas, various birthdays and booking everything else involved in this trip.

Problem is, whenever I put myself on a spending ban, I instantly start to window shop, and find more things that I want when I can’t spend than I do when I can, which is typical me, and of course I’ve started to think about my Aulani wardrobe. Cue wishlist..

So despite already having a bunch of cute swimwear, I’ve got my eye on more! I’m having a little dip in body confidence post-Christmas, so I’ve mainly been looking at one pieces, but just because its not a bikini sure as hell doesn’t mean swimsuits can’t be cute! I love the waterfall cut of the blue halterneck from Glamorous and I can definitely see myself lazy around on the beach in that, and I love how fun this cut-out striped piece from River Island is – its definitely got some island vibes to it! And finally, I’m a sucker for pastel and candy stripe, and while I don’t have a chest quite like the model in this swimsuit (I mean, wow!), this Missguided design has my face looking like a heart-eyes emoji.

There’s something about going somewhere warm and beachy that always make me think maxi-dress. I really love this one from Dancing Leopard, and also love the style of this red starry-print mini dress too, I think they’ll both be perfect for wearing to dinner at the resort.

And of course, I’ve gotta have my accessories! How stinkin’ cute is this coconut cocktail bag from Skinnydip?! I feel like that was made for this trip. I also figure that seeing as its technically a Disney resort, I’ve gotta bring some ears with me, right? I was searching Etsy for some more floral crown style ears, and came across this pair from MadMadamMimCo which I think are so perfect for a island look, without being too in-your-face Disney – not that that’s ever a problem for me!

I’m also hoping that I’ll be able to throw a few things together myself for this trip, but as I’m still in the early stages of planning (just without much time to go!), there’s still lots of thinking to do!

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January 31, 2018Lottie Leave a comment

Places I’d Like to Visit in 2018

After an incredible year of trips in 2017, this year seems to be lacking a little. Apart from going to San Francisco and Aulani in April, I have no other plans for the year; no Disney parks, no international races, nothing.

I can’t complain. Last year was truly incredible, but the purse strings need to be tightened as Matthew and I will have a lot coming up over the course of this year, and we will have an amazing time in April, but my wanderlusting little brain needs some sort of stimulation, so instead of broadening our horizons, for the rest of the year we’ll be staying within the borders of the UK and hopefully doing a few little weekends away and staycations instead.

I’m almost ashamed of how little of the UK I’ve really visited, and there are so many places that I’ve always said I’d like to go to, so here’s a few of the destinations I’d like to tick of the list this year.

Brighton

I don’t know if I ever went to Brighton as a kid, but I’ve really wanted to in the last few years. I guess the fact that I already live in a seaside town meant the beach wasn’t so much of a draw as it can be for many, but to me its always just looked so pretty and Instagrammable and I think it would be a really cute weekend break.

Bath

Ok, so I have been to Bath before, and I actually went just before Christmas with work, but as that was just a few hours in the city centre, it left me wanting more!

The Eden Project

This is another one I’ve done before, but Matthew has never been and I’ve always loved it, plus there are so many cute Cornish places we could also visit to make a few days out of it.

The Lake District

I am from pretty much as south as south gets, so the north isn’t somewhere I’ve really explored so much, well that is until I met a boy from Manchester! As we’ll be going up that way in the next few months to help Matthew’s mum move house, he suggested we take a little trip up to the Lake District which is somewhere I’ve always fancied.

Cambridge

To be honest, I don’t know what draws me to it exactly but I’ve just always liked the sound of Cambridge, so I’d quite like it if we can make a little trip this year.

This might not seem like much of a list, but this year is full of uncertainty for us and as crazy as it sounds, we don’t really know what will be happening six months down the line, so stay tuned!

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January 18, 2018Lottie 12 Comments

Things My Travel Disasters Have Taught Me

I always say I’ve had the travel bug from a young age. I was very lucky as a child that my parents took my sister and me to so many different places and I have experienced so much of the world already, and that need to see it all has never gone away.

Now in all my years of travelling, you wouldn’t expect that everything’s always gone 100% smoothly, and you’d be right, it hasn’t. There have been plenty of slight holiday malfunctions and mishaps over the years, but as a child a lot of these didn’t seem like problems – probably because my parents always did a pretty good job of covering them up – but in more recent years, my travel nightmares have led to a lot of discovery.

Even if you’re travelling hand luggage only, make sure its a suitable bag

This is a fun story from a year ago now. I went on solo trip to Disneyland Paris and after a wonderful weekend away I got to the airport to discover my flight home had been cancelled. The airline were nice enough to get my on another flight, but this was at a different airport which I had to get a coach to, and then after walking the entire length of the airport to the gate for the second flight, that one was also cancelled. Long story short, I spent the majority of my day walking back and forth through a huge airport, and the bag I had chosen for my weekend’s worth of stuff? A shopping bag, kinda like a bag-for-life/Ikea blue bag style thing with a little grab handle, so I couldn’t put it on my back or over my shoulder, and my hand hurt so much by the time I got home – 9 hours later than I should have.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from airport staff

On a flight to Japan, my sister and I had a VERY tight transfer time in Dubai, and by very tight I mean too tight. Thanks to a delay in our first flight, we wouldn’t have had enough time to make it to our next gate, so we did the somewhat sensible, someone stressed-fuelled thing to do and ran through the airport shouting for someone to help us. Well, we ended up on one of those little golf-cart things that the airport staff use and got shuttled right to where we needed to be, just in the nick of time!

Just because trains are reliable, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check the timetable

This is another Japan story. Japanese trains are the most reliable in the world; they so rarely run late that you actually need a note from the train company to take to work with you to prove it was actually late. Well we never experienced a single late train, but we did assume that all trains ran super regularly, when in fact the train to the airport only ran once an hour on the day we needed to take it, and we got there 5 minutes after a train had just left. Another mad run through the airport..

Set yourself a reminder alarm on any train journey

So I don’t know about anyone else, but when I’m super stressed out my body likes to shut down and make me sleep whenever the opportunity arises. Well this occurred once after I stressed about my Eurostar home from Paris being late once, and as soon as I got on the train, I fell asleep. Luckily, I kept my phone in my hand the whole time, and a friend of mine who was sat in a different part of the train had text me to ask if I was ready to run of the train at our connecting station, which woke me up, but had I not I would have missed it altogether and rode that train all the way to Brussels. Oops.

Always check the pockets of bags you haven’t used in a while

This is one of my favourite stories going back to when I was in secondary school. I was in cadets, and had used the same rucksack to take away on a cadet camp early in the summer that I used as hand luggage for a family holiday. It goes through the scanner and gets pulled for inspection, where the security guard asks if I would have anything sharp or metal to which I proclaimed that I just remembered that there were some safety pins I’d forgotten about that I would have had in there from camp. Well it turns out I also had forgotten about the pen knife that I took to camp, which the guard then pulled from my bag. Yep..

Well I certainly hope you’ve been entertained by my little cautionary tales, if you haven’t learned anything from them yourself! Have you ever had any major travel faux pas?

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January 8, 2018Lottie 2 Comments

We’re Going to Aulani!

Someone pinch me, because I can’t believe this is really happening.

Credit: disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com

Disney’s Hawaiian resort has been on my ultimate bucket list for I don’t even know how long, and being able to visit this absolute paradise was a big selling point when Matthew and I joined the Disney Vacation Club, so much so we were determined to make it our first DVC trip.

We’ve spent the last few weeks trying to familiarise ourselves with the DVC booking system, and checking day in, day out for availability in the weeks we were hoping to make the trip, but it was all starting to look a little impossible. We’d either have to change rooms every other day, or end up having to buy extra points on top of borrowing points from our next year, and suddenly our lovely relaxing holiday was turning into a stressful booking experience.. Until last night, when for some bizarre reason, Matthew was awake at 2am and decided to check the DVC website, and by some miracle a whole week was suddenly open and he booked it on the spot!

So we’re going to be in paradise at the end of April, and as well as doing a week in Aulani, we’re gonna spend a few days in San Francisco, which is one of my favourite cities in the world. I’m absolutely squealing just thinking about this trip and better still its less than 130 days away!

I’m so ready for another adventure!

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December 8, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Owning the Magic

So Matthew and I kinda did a crazy thing when we were in Florida..

I’ve been to a Disney Vacation Club presentation before; Dad and I went to one on our trip back in 2016 for the sole reason that we were sucked into talking to a rep, who offered us a $50 gift card and some free fastpasses to give up an hour of our time, and we figured why not?

Well Matthew and I did the same thing. There was a $100 gift card offered this time, and I knew the presentation was quite interesting and not pressured, so when Matthew showed some interest in wanting to go, and we knew we had a day that was relatively unplanned, we let the nice rep at the booth in Epcot talk us into it.

To cut a long story short, we were sold. We crunched a gazillion numbers, double and triple checked all of the information that was given to us, and at the end of it all it seemed like the right decision for us. It was way more affordable than we had originally thought, and we know that with the trips we’d like to make over the next few years, we’d end up saving a LOT of money. We didn’t rush into anything – in fact, we actually walked away from the first meeting and booked to go back another time so we had a few days to properly mull everything over, and that was definitely the right thing for us to do. Everything made sense and now..

WE’RE DISNEY VACATION CLUB MEMBERS!

So we now own something silly like 0.2% of Unit 65 at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, yay! Poly will be our home resort, meaning we can book stays 11 month in advance, and stays elsewhere 7 months in advance, but as well as Walt Disney World we have big plans for our membership points, including Disneyland California and my absolute dream of going to Aulani, Disney’s Hawaiian resort!

I’m excited for all the adventures that this will bring for us, as well as the fact that technically this is the first property that Matthew and I own together!

Stay tuned for more!

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November 28, 2017Lottie 4 Comments

Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 1

Well here we are folks, another Disney trip has begun!

Courtesy of the time difference, we were awake well before our alarm, and on the bus to the Magic Kingdom just before 7am. We got to MK at about 7:25, and waited in the area reserved for those with breakfast reservations, getting let in at about 7:50. Our breakfast was at Be Our Guest, and wasn’t actually until 8:50, so we took our time getting castle photos, and even had a ride on the carousel before going to the restaurant. Despite being about 30 mins early, they let us straight in, and we were actually finished with our food before our actual reservation time.

After breakfast – which was so good by the way – we had planned on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was closed, so instead we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and got on the first train out, plus I asked the cast member if we could be in the last row and she let us! From there we did Jungle Cruise, then Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and our first fastpass of the day, Space Mountain.

The park has been so nice and quiet this morning, and after Space Mountain we managed to do Dumbo, The Barnstormer and The Little Mermaid ride in quick succession, and then made our way round to do Haunted Mansion. Next on the agenda was sorting out a few bits and pieces; Matthew needed to reset his MagicBand pin and my memory maker wasn’t working properly, so we went to Guest Services, via shopping on Main Street USA. We went to City Hall but as there was a queue, the cast member directed us to Liberty Square Ticket Office, a lesser known guest services spot, and thanks to the wonderful Javier, we got everything fixed and he even gave us 3 free Fastpasses by way of apology for the issues I had with my memory maker.

To use them up, we did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Tomorrowland Speedway and Space Mountain, and then we did a lap of TTA Peoplemover and had a sit down in Carousel of Progress, which took us nicely up to our early dinner reservation at The Plaza Restaurant. The food was nice, but I wouldn’t rush to eat there again, and had we not been on the dining plan I don’t think I would have liked to actually pay what we should have done.

After dinner the lack of sleep from the night before was really kicking in, so we finished up with our last fastpass of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed out from Magic Kingdom for the night – we would have been kicked out later due to the Halloween party anyway!
Back to the resort, and we picked up our refillable resort mugs, and as we started to walk back to the room I noticed a furry friend was just outside the reception area, and in the cutest outfit too so I just had to have a cuddle! So we just spent the evening at the resort and ended up falling asleep nice and early, which was definitely needed!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day!

November 1, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

US Pre-Clearance at Dublin Airport

When Matthew and I were booking our flights to Orlando, our primary concern was getting a good price, and to save some money we were prepared to do a connecting flight.

While I would usually fly from Gatwick, southerner that I am, for this trip we could also consider Manchester airport as a setting off point, and we settled on the AerLingus flight from Manchester, that flew via Dublin. Not only did this save us a bit of cash, but would you believe this also saves a lot of time?

Sure, there’s the time it takes to do the stopover, but did you know that when flying to the US from Dublin, you actually go through an Immigration pre-clearance? It went a little something like this..

Upon arriving in Dublin, we followed all the usual signs to transfers, and followed the signs for US Pre-Clearance. Down some steps and round a corner, and you might think you’ve just appeared in a US airport, as you come to a room filled with the same immigration desks and machines as you’d encounter at your final destination.

As we had our Estas, we could go straight to a machine and get the printed receipt, then take our passports to a desk to get stamped, and we were through into the terminal. This probably took no more than 30 mins – and it was quite a peak time at 9.30am!

So what happened when we arrived in Orlando? Well we just walked off the plane and went to baggage claim – job done!

We probably saved about £100 each by doing this stopover, and given that we arrived in Orlando quite late, it was so nice not having to queue for anything, so I would definitely recommend this option, and better still, Manchester should be getting pre-clearance in about 2019!

October 31, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Another Disney Trip Bucket List

In two weeks time, I will be on my way to Manchester in preparation to fly out to Orlando!! Yes, I know I’ve been to WDW once already this year, but I’ve worked my butt off to pay for this trip and its my first proper holiday with Matthew and our first Disney trip together and I could not be more excited.

What I love about Disney is that even having been before, on every trip there is always something new, or something I’ve never done before, and even just the usual magic that gets me so excited every time, and this trip is no exception. There are a bunch of new things I’ll be experiencing on this trip, as well as some firm favourites, and here are just a few that I’m buzzed for:

Pandora – on my last two trips to WDW, I’ve observed the cranes and developments of the newest addition to Animal Kingdom, and on this trip I’ll finally get to see the beautiful creation that is Pandora. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind of it not living up to my expectations!
Food and Wine Festival – this will be my first time going to F&W at Epcot and I’m so hyped to eat ALL THE FOOD.
Bon Voyage breakfast – speaking of food, I’ve been internally squealing about the newest character breakfast since it was announced, and I can’t wait to be finally doing it!
Taking cute photobooth photos in DinoLand – Sarah and I found the photobooth in Animal Kingdom back in Feb, but I’m planning on being the ultimate cheese couple and dragging Matthew in there so we can have old school photobooth print-out photos
Toothpaste wall photos – being the Disney basic girl I am, I am of course buzzed for wall photos, but would you believe I’ve yet to take photos at the toothpaste wall?! Of course I’ll also be doing the other walls too (hello bubblegum wall) but this is one I’m particularly excited for.
Mickey’s Not So Scary – I am going to trick or treat til I drop! This will be my first ever Halloween party and while I’m not the biggest Halloween fan normally, I can’t wait to see all the exclusive shows and parades, plus all the amazing characters!
Blizzard Beach – my last two WDW trips have been during the early months of the year, so I haven’t been to the waterparks since 2014. I rarely spend a whole day in a waterpark anyway, but I’m excited to be going back.
New outfits – you don’t have to know me that well to know I LOVE planning Disney outfits. For this trip I’ve got all new looks and I am LIVING for some of them!
A new Disney gym – we’re staying at Coronado Springs for this trip, and the resort has its own gym! If I’m staying at a resort with a gym I always go for a nosey and a workout, call me crazy!

I’ll be in WDW from October 30th-November 14th, and if anyone is around give me a shout!

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October 15, 2017Lottie 9 Comments

Things I Would Do Differently on my Next Disney Cruise

Yep, I’ve hardly been back from my first Disney Cruise and I’m already thinking about the next. No, I’ve not got one booked, but I’ve got some plans and ideas, which led me to think about some of the things I learned on this trip, and what I would do differently next time.

Properly research ports and excursion options

I opted for the ‘take each day as it comes’ approach on this cruise, which lead to a nice chilled trip and lots of hanging out on the ship, but I think next time I would want to spend more time going ashore and visiting some of the amazing locations that Disney Cruise’s visit.

Spend more money

Due to having other trips coming up this year, I had to keep to a fairly tight budget in terms of onboard spending. Next time, I’d like to do a few more of the paid experiences on the boat such as dining at Palo, treatments at the spa and have a few cheeky cocktails by the pool!

Wake up earlier

Disney beds are always the comfiest beds, and on the cruise ships that’s no exception, so it was all too easy to sleep in every morning, and while cruising is all about relaxing and not having to always get up early, I sometimes feel like a lie in is a morning wasted, and I want to experience more of the morning activities!

Show more appreciation to the servers

I cannot commend all of the cast members on the ship highly enough, they absolutely raised the bar for me, but the servers were really incredible. You have the same server and assistant server every night, and this means they really get to know you, and you get to know them too. They are all so lovely and hard-working, and while at the end of the trip you get to show your appreciation with tips, next cruise I think it would be really nice to also pack small little gifts for the servers who make the whole experience so special.

Do more activities

Cheesy as it sounds, I kinda regret not going to a game of bingo, and I wish I’d been to some of the interesting talks that they had going on. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast just hanging out on deck and meeting all the characters but I’m all about getting the full experience so next time I think I’ll be trying out more different ways to spend the time.

Have you ever been on a Disney Cruise?

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October 2, 2017Lottie 3 Comments

Disney Cruise Log: Til We Meet Again

Following our unexpected sea day, our last full day was spent docked at Marseille, but as the weather was far from lovely, we opted to stay on the ship.

I actually started my day bright and early and was in the gym for 7am, then went for a short run around the jogging track on deck 4, then headed back to the room where our room service breakfast arrived shortly afterwards. Once we’d eaten and got dressed, we went to hang out in the Promenade Lounge for a little while, and then I decided to go to the onboard cinema and watch Beauty and the Beast

Lunch was our final trip to Cabanas, making the most of the buffet, and then we did make our way out onto the deck in the end, sticking to the 18+ area which was nice and quiet. Eventually we plucked up the courage to strip down to our swimsuits, despite the cold, and thought we’d found the courage to do the ship’s more extreme water slide, the Aquadunk, but once the four of us were up there, both Sarah and I chickened out and it was just Chelsea and Tilly who experienced the floor dropping out from underneath them! We all quickly recovered from that in the hot tub though..

Once it was about 4:30pm and had started to rain, we all abandoned the hot tub and went to change for the evening. Before the show we queued to meet Minnie and then Mickey who were out for their final time in their sailor best, and then took our seats in the theatre for Disney Dreams.

The show was sweet, and I teared up here and there but for me it wasn’t as incredible as some of the other shows we’d seen in the week, but it was a lovely ending. After that, Sarah and I both went to D-Lounge for the Q&A session with Josh Strickland, the Broadway star we’d seen perform the night before, and stayed for a photo and an autograph before rushing to dinner, which for the last time was at Animators Palate.

Now I’ve loved everything about Animators Palate on this trip, but tonight’s meal was so cool. Upon arriving at the table, we were asked to draw a little character onto a template, and these were then taken away from us before the food. After we’d eaten, we got to watch our creations come to life on the screens around the restaurant as our little people danced around with Mickey and some other Disney favourites – it was truly magical!

We rushed away from dinner to the atrium to get a good spot for the Til We Meet Again show, which was sad but also slightly underwhelming as it had been quite hyped up, but it was still great to see all the amazing characters and cast members who had made our trip so special. We went to get one final drink as a group, and then all headed for bed.

…

Disembarkation day came far too quickly, and we had to be up way too early as our final breakfast was at 8:15, and as we had opted to take our own bags off the ship, we had to lug them with us. After we’d eaten we finally had to accept we were leaving the boat, and had to drag our sorry butts and luggage back to the dock terminal and join the huge line of guests waiting for a taxi.

This trip has been really special. Not only have I experienced a side of Disney that I have never seen before, and experienced it with some of my favourite people, but without a doubt I have met the nicest cast members. From our servers and stateroom hosts to character attendants and the characters themselves, I have been absolutely wowed by people on this ship. Thanks for helping me make some truly magical memories.

September 17, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

Disney Cruise Log: An Unexpected Sea Day

So today was our unexpected sea day. Long story short, due to adverse weather it was decided on Wednesday night that we would be unable to stop at our planned port of Villefranche, and instead we would spend the day at sea and instead spend Friday, which was supposed to be a sea day, at Marseille.

This meant we could enjoy a lie in after our disco antics of the night before, and although we had planned to have room service for breakfast, we stupidly didn’t check the correct procedure for ordering so instead we had to go to Cabanas. Due to the schedule change, the onboard activities were also shuffled around, so our pre-booked princess meet was now today, and having a bit of time between breakfast and that, we took the opportunity to do more browsing of the two gift shops.

The four princesses were the same as we’d met on our first sea day – Rapunzel, Tiana, Belle and Cinderella – and we’ve met them so many times now that they all recognise us! After the princesses we went to meet Spiderman again (who also recognised us), and then we split up for a little bit as Sammy went to change and Sarah went to sunbathe, and I took the chance to explore the ship and take photos of as many things as I could, then went to meet the girls up in the adults only part of the deck, where I found them sat with Chelsea and we enjoyed some drinks, sunshine and chatter.

It was past 2pm when we decided to get some lunch, opting now to sit in a slightly more sheltered area as the wind as sea was causing major hair issues. Once we’d eaten, Chelsea left to go to bingo with her family and we headed to our other pre-booked meet with the characters of Frozen. This was set up in Animator’s Palate, and I was so excited when we walked in as having just expected to see Anna and Elsa, Olaf was also there! Warm hugs were had all round.

Did I mention it’s pirate night tonight?! Every Disney Cruise has a pirate night, and this means dress up! We got changed after the Frozen meet, then started the usual routine of trying to squeeze all the characters into the evening as today they’re all kitted out in pirate attire. We met up with Chelsea and Tilly to do the chipmunks, then they went to do Minnie while we attempted some outfit photos, then reunited for Mickey, before going to the theatre for tonight’s show which was a musical showcase from Broadway performer Josh Strickland.

After the show, the rush was on to get to all the characters we wanted to see, but after realising just how long some of the lines were tonight, it became apparent that this wouldn’t be possible, so we settled for just seeing Minnie and Captain Jack Sparrow before dinner, which was at Lumiere’s. Our servers rushed the service a little bit to ensure we had time to get a good spot for the Pirates of the Caribbean deck party, and when we got up there we were so grateful to be handed blankets as it was so windy on deck!

The show included Minnie, Goofy and the chipmunks, all in their pirate best, but it was overrun by Captain Hook and Smee so Mickey just had to come to the rescue! Once the ship was saved, we celebrated with the fireworks show – did you know that Disney Cruise Line ships are the only ships in the world that are allowed to let off fireworks? Disney had to get special permission!

Once the fireworks had ended, most people headed for the bonus buffet at Cabanas, but instead we opted to go to Fathoms to see the performance group Junnk. We weren’t sure how interested we would be in them but the whole performance was actually hilarious, especially when Sarah was picked out of the audience and serenaded! After the show, Fathoms once again turned into DJ night and we partied until the tiredness set in.

Tomorrow is our last day on the boat, stay tuned!

September 16, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Disney Cruise Log: Chilling on the Med

What can I say, today has been a pretty chilled out day.. We decided to skip going ashore today; I’ve been to Pisa and Florence before so I wasn’t particularly bothered, plus apparently it was a bit of a difficult port to get in and out of, so instead we took advantage of an emptier than usual ship.

After a lie in and breakfast at Cabanas, we headed on deck for plenty of photos, then settled ourselves down by the adults only pool to enjoy the peace, quiet, and gorgeous sunshine. With the exception of getting up to pick up some lunch from Boiler Bites, we stayed on our sunloungers pretty much all day, although Sarah and I did hit up one of the water slides and the kiddy splash area.

At about 3:30pm we headed back to get ready for the evening – by now we’ve learnt how long it can take us all! Tonight was not only semi-formal night, but also Tangled night on the ship, and of course I had an outfit planned for the occasion! Once we were ready, we went out on deck to take some photos in our pretty dresses, then got down to the Walt Disney Theatre to get in line for a good seat for our showing of Tangled: The Musical.

The show was INCREDIBLE and of course because it was Tangled I cried throughout. After the show we met Rapunzel herself, and she loved my lantern scarf and we talked about having the best day ever, then went to see Tiana who brought all kinds of sass, before going to dinner at Carioca’s; just another meal I couldn’t fault, and I ended up having two desserts just cos I couldn’t decide.

After dinner we went to see Minnie quickly before going to O’Gills Pub for the Snuggly Duckling takeover. When we arrived, we were a little confused as we were made to play a twist on Bingo called Thugo, and I was a bit miffed thinking that was all it was gonna be, but then the Stabbington Brothers stormed the joint and it turned into a sorta improv/skit which was hilariously funny! From there we went to see Donald in another adorable outfit, and then we headed to Fathoms for the DJ night.

Living our best lives, as Chelsea would say, we partied past midnight until the DJ started playing songs we didn’t know and then we headed for bed.

So this was Wednesday, and while I had every intention of posting this yesterday, due to an unscheduled change of route as a result of adverse weather, yesterday turned out to be a sea day so no internet! I’ll now be continuing the last few days on a daily basis, they’ll just be shunted back a day each!

September 15, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

Disney Cruise Log: When in Rome

Good morning everyone! Today’s port of call was Civitavecchia, also known as the closest port to Rome, and I was super excited to be going ashore for the first time.

After struggling to get out of bed (they’re so damn comfortable!), we grabbed breakfast at Cabanas and then headed out on our own little adventure. Disney had shuttle buses running from the boat into the town, so we hopped on one of those and then walked to the train station to catch a train into Rome, which was only 10€ for a return ticket. The train took about an hour to get into Roma Termini, which meant we arrived just after midday, and with our return tickets booked for just after 4pm, it was go go go!

We went everywhere on foot, walking first to the Trevi Fountain, via a McDonalds for a toilet stop and with a few quick stops at some of the beautiful squares and buildings we came across on the way. The fountain was, of course, beautiful, but the piazza was also packed with both tourists and street vendors so it was a bit of a struggle getting to the front to sea the fountain, and then to get a photo without someone rudely butting in front.

From the fountain we walked to the second big thing we all wanted to see: the Colosseum. Again, the area around was full of people trying to sell guided tour and ‘skip the line’ tickets, but as we didn’t really know who to trust or not, we just got in the regular ticket line, and despite being told it was probably a 50 minute wait, I think it was no more than 20-30. We paid our 12€ and in we went without any fuss at all.

After wondering the Colosseum’s interior, and doing another loop of the outside, it was time for us to start heading back towards the station, but on the walk back we just had to get an ice-cream, cos when in Rome, right? Well when in Rome you pay 7€ for an ice-cream. Ah well, it was delicious anyway! We were back at the station in perfect time, and started the reverse journey back to the boat: train, walk, shuttle bus. There was a minor mix up with the shuttle bus but we were back aboard at 18:15.

Quick shower and change of clothes, and next on the agenda for the evening was the superheroes who were out for the night. First meet was Thor, and then Captain America, both of whom were lovely and very chatty. Dinner was at Animators Palate again and it was another incredible meal. Our servers our so sweet, and tonight they had commissioned the chef to make an off menu dish especially for Sammy as they were worried she didn’t have enough vegetarian options, so they brought out this huge veggie curry for us all to dig into, as well as our own meals, and it was amazing!

After dinner we rushed to get in line for Spiderman, who again was a very talkative guy, and we met up with Chelsea, Lisa and Carrie while in the queue. From there we all went to meet Donald, and then had planned to go to Fathoms for DJ night, but it seemed the karaoke had run over so instead we decided to postpone our late night antics for another day, all opting to go to bed instead.

What can I say, 20,000 steps walking around Rome really takes it out of you!

September 13, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

Disney Cruise Log: First Stop, Naples

Hey gang! Today we reached our first port, Naples! Due to my poorliness last night, I slept in with Sarah til about 8am, while Sammy headed off for her excursion to Pompeii.

When we finally dragged ourselves up, we grabbed a quick breakfast in Cabanas, then I dragged Sarah with me to the gym where, to my amazement, she actually stayed! Well, I worked out and she had a bit of a walk on the treadmill and did a few squats while dressed in denim shorts and flip flops, haha! The gym was fab; really spacious and lots of equipment – I was definitely in my element!

After showering and getting dressed, we decided to do a tour of the various kids clubs that were having open houses, as they’re normally off limits to anyone who isn’t of the age range. First stop was Edge, then Oceaneer’s Club (which we both could have stayed at forever) then we went to Vibe before stopping for some lunch. To mix things up, we went to Boiler Bites instead of Cabanas, and also got a slice of pizza from Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, and sat by the main pool watching Jungle Book on the Funnel Vision screen.

As the weather was getting worse and we were getting colder, we decided it was time to cave in and go back to get jumpers, before heading down to the lobby atrium as Captain Hook was due to come out, but as Sammy arrived back early from her excursion starving hungry, we went back up to the deck to get her some food and an ice cream. Once we were suitably full of soft serve, we went back to the lower decks where we bumped into Chelsea and family, and Chelsea joined us for another trip to the kids club open house – where much silliness occurred! – and then to take more photos in various locations before queueing to see Minnie, then went to change for dinner.

Despite a small power outage, the rest of the evening went fairly swimmingly. First on the agenda was the evening show, Walt Disney: The Dream Goes On, then we took photos in the atrium and queued to meet Mickey before dinner at Lumiere’s, which was another incredible meal and I probably walked away twice the size! Once stuffed, we went to meet Donald, followed by Daisy, then ducked (get it) into D-Lounge to see the Saludos Amigos Fiesta, but as it turned out to be more of a dancing lesson than a dance party, we called it a night and headed to bed for some much needed sleep as tomorrow will be a busy day!

Rome, we’re coming for you!

September 12, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Disney Cruise Log: All Aboard and A Day at Sea

Ahoy shipmates! I’m coming to you today from the Disney Magic as I’m cruising round the Med, and as there’s no signal in the sea, posts are gonna be running a little bit behind my daily updates so bear with me!On Saturday morning I flew to Barcelona with Sarah, and met Sammy at the airport after a minor mix up with terminals, and the three of us got a taxi to the dock. At the dock terminal we had to drop our bags, then go through security before checking in and getting our boarding group number, which decides when we get onto the ship. As it was number 23, and they weren’t anywhere near calling us yet, we went to meet our captain, the main mouse himself!

There was a bit of a delay getting aboard due to weather issues, but once we were on the ship our main priority was lunch, so we went straight up to the buffet spectacular that is Cabanas and filled multiple plates with the various offerings, then once we were stuffed headed down to see our stateroom and unpack – 3 girls with several outfits per day and one wardrobe was a bit of a struggle! After unpacking and chilling out for a little bit, it was time for the mandatory safety drill, which was a bit of a drag but oh well!

As the rain had stopped, we headed from the drill to the top deck to take some (actually a lot) of photos, then down to the lobby atrium to see the sail away party – although we had yet to leave port at that stage – and went on from there to explore the ship for a little while. As we are on the later dinner sitting, it means that we go to the earlier performance of whatever show is on, and it was the Be Our Guest welcome show, which gave us a sneak peak of some of the other performances that will be happening over the coming week, and then after the show we went to change for dinner, via the gift shop!

Our dinner was at Animators Palette, and I couldn’t flaw a single thing – the setting was incredible, the food was amazing, and there was even a magical visitor before dessert! After dinner, we went to meet Donald, and bumped into Chelsea while in the line, and after a quick catch up we headed to bed due to having been awake since 3am!

Sunday morning we were up early as we had a Mickey and pals breakfast booked for 8:30am. This was also in Animator’s Palette, and we saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy – and again no complaints about the food! After breakfast we went to take some more photos on deck, then went down to the lobby atrium to do the princess meet – we actually had this booked for Friday, but Chelsea’s was booked for today, and as her family weren’t bothered by attending, they let us use their slots so we could meet all the princesses twice! It was Tiana, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Belle, and they were all perfect and the sweetest!

From meeting the princesses, we went to change into our bikinis and headed back to the deck to chill out for a bit, then grabbed an ice cream and a drink, and then after another wander around the boat went to another buffet lunch at Cabanas. Post-buffet, we decided to take part in one of the many onboard activities: the Ultimate Disney Trivia quiz at O’Gills Pub in the over 18s part of the ship. Now I’m a pub-quizzing wiz, but some of these questions were hard! We did win one round of the quiz, but our answers to some of the more impossible questions just didn’t match up to some others so we walked away in around about 5th place.

We got over our loss pretty quickly with another ice-cream, and although still early, we went back to our stateroom to start getting ready for formal night a) because 3 girls and 1 shower = time and b) there were going to be a lot of characters out in their formal night outfits from about 4:30 onwards and we didn’t want to miss out on the photo opportunities, and it was a good job because it actually took us until 4:30 to get ready!

Dressed to impress, we went to see Donald, then Chip and Dale with Chelsea and Tilly, and then after a few photos on the deck in our dresses, we made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre for the first performance of Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story. The show was actually much longer than I expected which was great, and the storyline was very similar to one of the Cinderella movie sequels, A Twist in Time, and even included one of the same songs which was cute!

After the show we had to rush to get in line to meet Minnie in her formal outfit, and after seeing her we rushed again to catch Daisy before dinner, which tonight was at Carioca’s. Unfortunately I can’t say much about the food here as due to it being a particularly choppy night, and probably due to my bizarre buffet choices from earlier in the day, I was starting to feel a little (actually a lot) queasy.. I did order a starter and a main, and managed about 2-3 mouthfuls of each but in the end I gave up and took my leave from dinner early. I was pretty gutted as it meant I missed out on meeting Mickey in his formal night attire, but I didn’t want to make myself any worse so early on in our trip, and five minutes after a laid down on the bed I was zzzzz..

Next stop Naples!

September 11, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

What I’m Packing for my Disney Cruise

This time next week I’ll be in sunny Barcelona, getting ready to set sail on the Disney Magic for 7 nights of Mediterranean fun AND I CAN’T WAIT!

As I’ve mentioned before, this is my first ever Disney Cruise, so I’m completely out of my comfort zone in knowing exactly what’s going to happen or what I might need, which has made packing for this trip a little bit of an experiment, but here’s what I’ve got so far!

Outfits

Y’all know outfit planning is one of my strengths, but would you believe on the cruise I’ll be needing two outfits per day?! That’s right, one outfit for day time and then one outfit for dinner in the evening, so your girl got creative and I’ve picked one character for each day, and I’m going to be doing a daytime look and an evening look inspired by said character. To name a few, I’ll be bounding as Melody, Belle, Kida and Moana, and the evening outfits will also include dresses for both formal and semi-formal night, and the cruise’s traditional pirate night!

Swimwear and gymwear

Of course I’ll be taking full advantage of the onboard pools, and I’ve got a few bikinis lined up and ready to do, but I’m also planning on spending some time in the onboard gym too!

Shoes

When it comes to daytime shoes, I’m not really one to stray from my Converses and Toms, and that will pretty much be the case for this trip as well, but I’m also packing some pretty flats and some heels for formal and semi-formal night.

Tech

Camera-wise, I’m planning on bringing both my DSLR and my Sony A5000 compact so I can abuse my 55-210mm lens, but I imagine I’ll probably take most of my photos on my iPhone, and I’ll also bring my iPad for backing up photos and writing blog posts.

Day bags

I’ve been told by cruise experts that its important to have a hand luggage bag packed with any items you might need on day 1, as it can sometimes take time for your suitcases to arrive in your stateroom. With this in mind, I’ll be packing up my Mickey Mouse backpack with a swimsuit, my camera and a few other essentials just in case! I’ll also be packing my new Mickey handbag from the Disney Store, and one or two others for day trips out and evenings.

I’m really nervous that I may have missed some essentials, so if you’re a Disney cruise veteran and have noticed anything that I’m missing, or any nuggets of wisdom, please let me know!

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September 2, 2017Lottie 3 Comments

My Disney Cruise Bucket List

I feel like I’ve hardly talked about the fact that next month I’ll be going on my first ever Disney Cruise – crazy right?!

Because it is my first cruise, I genuinely have no idea what to expect, and I’ve not done a whole lot of research, which is very unlike me, so I’m essentially going in blind, but what is a trip without a bucket list?

Take a photo by the funnels – yes, I want that cliche Disney cruise photo, and any other classic photo that I can get
Visit the ship’s gym – call me strange, but I love visiting gyms at Disney hotels and resorts, so when I discovered that the Disney Magic has a fully equipped gym, I knew I’d be adding that to the list
See Tangled: The Musical – apparently there is a Tangled show on board the ship, so you bet your butt I’m gonna be there
Eat as much as I can without bursting – when all food is included in the price, you’ve gotta get your money’s worth, right?
Do all the waterslides on the boat – no, the waterslides aren’t just for kids.
Meet as many characters as I can – because is it really a Disney cruise if you don’t hang out with Mickey and the gang?
Explore every little nook and cranny of the ship – I want to see ALL of it
Take ALL the outfit photos – as per every other Disney trip, I have planned a whole bunch of outfits specifically for this trip, and you bet you’re gonna be seeing a tonne of them all over here and my social media
Party like a pirate – did you know that every Disney cruise has a pirate night? Well I do now, and I can’t wait!
Order room service, just ‘cos – all-inclusive perks..
Hang out with my best friends – as well as the excitement of my first ever Disney cruise, I’m going with some amazing people and I can’t wait to spend this time with them! Best trip ever!

If you’ve ever been on a Disney Cruise and have any tips or advice, please drop me a comment!

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August 13, 2017Lottie 8 Comments

Shiny Shoes and Street Food

On Friday, Matthew and I took a semi-spontaneous trip into London, having been in Luton in the morning for a job interview. We caught the train from Luton Airport Parkway into St Pancras, and after going to see Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross – rookie mistake during school summer holidays cos it was pretty crazy! – hopped on the tube to one of my favourite places in London: Covent Garden.

It was gone 2:30pm by the time we actually got there, so lunch was really first on the agenda, and we decided to forgo our usual go-to restaurants and instead we went to Wahaca – Matthew had been before and raved about it, and I was up for seeing if it was as good as he said it was. The Covent Garden branch is actually just a few roads outside of the main square, but the restaurant was easy to find and as soon as I stepped inside I was pretty excited by everything going on. The decor was fun, the whole place smelled amazing and the staff were super friendly from the offset which is always a huge plus for me.

The menu consists primarily of ‘street food’ options, which are smaller dishes designed for sharing around the table, and although there are some dishes which are supposed to be more like a main course, I wanted the proper experience. We ordered 6 dishes between the two of us:

Frijoles and tortilla chips – a creamy bean dip with crumbled cheese and a bucket of chips for dipping
Four cheese empanadas – two crispy, crunchy pastry parcels filled with the creamiest and stringiest cheeses
British steak tacos – three small tortilla tacos filled with chunks of steak and salsa
Buttermilk chicken baja tacos – two larger soft tortilla tacos filled with crispy fried chicken and salsa
Mexican style chorizo and potato quesadillas – two grilled tortilla ‘sandwiches’ filled with chorizo and crushed potato with cheese
Chicken club quesadillas – quesadillas filled with grilled chicken, lettuce and spicy salsa

All of the dishes are brought out as soon as they’re ready, so you can just dive into whatever comes first, and it was really fun to be able to pick and choose and share. My absolute favourite dish was the cheese empanadas, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since, but also the buttermilk chicken tacos and the chicken club quesadillas are both dishes that I would order again.

While we tried our best to finish, we didn’t quite clear our plates, partly because we wanted room for dessert. Again, we decided to share two options, ordering the churros and chocolate dip, and the salted caramel ice-cream, both of which were absolutely to die for! Fully fuelled for the rest of the day, we went back to Covent Garden and wandered around the shops, including the Moomin Shop where I met Moomin himself!

When we left Covent Garden, we headed for the Natural History Museum to fill a little bit of time, then walked down to another of our London must-dos, Ben’s Cookies, to pick up a selection box of our favourite cookies, then got the tube back to Victoria as that morning we had booked tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria.

It was Matthew’s first time seeing the show, having only heard Defying Gravity before, and while I had seen it once before, it has been probably about 8 years since I last saw the show. In fact, the first time I saw Wicked in London was when Idina Menzel was still playing Elphaba, and nothing will ever top that for me! That said, the show was amazing, and of course had me in tears on more than one occasion. Wicked was the first musical that I fell in love with, and Defying Gravity and For Good are two of my all time favourite songs from any musical, and back in the days where I was confident enough to sing on stage in front of an audience, I once performed I’m Not That Girl.

I don’t know if it was just the progression and development of the show over time, but I felt that watching it after so many years I found it funnier, but that could just be down to me being a little older and understanding more of the jokes. Honestly though, despite a love of all things musical theatre, Wicked will always have a special place in my heart and I was so happy to see it again after all this time.

While I might not have ruby slippers, my feet were pretty damn comfy in my gorgeous new rose gold trainers from Truffle on Asos. Would you believe I only paid £11 for them?! I took a risk wearing them for the first time ever for a day walking around London but I am blister free and there was not a single complaint all day! I don’t normally go for this sort of style of trainer – I’m a strictly Converses kinda gal – but I’m so glad I bought these, and let’s face it, they’re the ultimate blogger shoe – even Matthew keeps referring to them as my shiny blogger shoes haha! I think they’ve got back up to £14 on Asos now but I still think that’s a bargain for such comfy and pretty shoes!

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July 31, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

10 Things You Need to Know about Cove Bar

If you’re planning a trip to Disneyland and looking for the most Instagrammable places to eat or drink, then Cove Bar should probably be at the top of your list. Located on Paradise Pier in Disney’s California Adventure park, it boasts a menu of stunning cocktails as well as some pretty delicious looking food, and the most amazing views over Paradise Bay.

If I’ve just sold you, or it was already on your to-do list, here are a few things to know before you go!

There can be a really long wait, and someone has to stay in line

Depending on when you go, there can be a longer wait time than for some rides! When you get to the queue, a cast member will take a name and give you an idea on wait time, but at least one person from your party needs to stay in the queue the whole time, because if your group is called and you’re not there, then you’ve missed your chance!

You can choose where to sit

When you join the queue and give your name, the CM will ask you if you have a table preference, so if you want those Instagram worthy photos over the pier, be sure to ask for a waterside table. Other options include the bar and tables closer to the pierside.

The prettiest drinks aren’t on the menu

While you’ll be handed a menu by your server, be sure to check out the secret menu. This is where you’ll find Mickey’s Fun Wheel, Neverland Tea and more!

And the cutest drink isn’t even alcoholic

Don’t be put of visiting if you’re not that into cocktails, the cotton candy lemonade is so delicious and refreshing, plus who doesn’t want a lump of cotton candy in their drink?!

You can take drinks to go

If you want to sample the cocktails but don’t fancy the wait, you can order drinks to go. They come in plastic cups so aren’t quite so cute but I’ll bet they don’t taste any different!

Water is free-flowing

For obvious reasons, the servers are keen to keep all guest hydrated, so you’ll find your water glass topped up constantly.

There’s more than just cocktails on the menu

Although its famous for its cocktails and speciality drinks, there are some great lounge food options, including buffalo wings, sliders, nachos and more! I didn’t actually eat here, but I saw some of the food and it looked amazing and smelled SO GOOD.

Be sure to bring your passport

In the event of being ID’d, a UK driving licence isn’t acceptable in Disney. Your server may let you off, but I’ve had experiences where they have refused to accept anything but a passport, so I wouldn’t chance it.

Don’t be shy about taking photos

Literally everyone in the bar is trying to take those oh-so-Instagrammable photos, so don’t feel shy about holding your drink over the railing to get that perfect shot with the fun wheel in the background. Also if you’re not sat at a waterside table but want those photos, just get up and go over there – no one minds!

Please drink responsibly!

Servers have the right to refuse you at any time, and during my visit I saw a few guests that were probably about to get cut off.. Be sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated, especially in the summer months when its super warm!

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June 29, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

How to do Disneyland on a Budget

Pretty much the only thing that bothers me about Disneyland is that generally its a more expensive to visit than Walt Disney World, especially as it doesn’t have regular package offers like the annual free dining deal, and being on the west coast, flights tend to be pricier. Despite this, I would still 110% recommend any Disney fans visit Walt’s original park; while I don’t do favourites, this park holds a special place in my heart and I’ll never stop loving it.

Over the years, I’ve discovered a few different things you can do to cut down the cost of a trip to this magical place, and I thought I’d share them for anyone who’s thinking about a trip!

Consider non-direct flights

Depending on when you book, sometimes you can get direct flights to LAX for around £350-450, but other times they can be well over the £500 mark, but you can save a lot of money flying indirect. Also, a stopover can break up the 10-11 hour flight!

Buy your tickets at home

Yes, you can get your park tickets when you arrive, but Disneyland tickets from UK sellers like Attraction Tickets Direct generally work out a bit cheaper (plus you can use cashback websites to get something back!) and it means you’ve got your tickets ready to go and don’t have to waste valuable park time queuing at ticket booths!

Stay offsite

Unlike WDW, Disneyland has a tonne of offsite hotels that are all within walking distance of the park – some of them are literally just across the road! The price difference can be pretty amazing; I paid the same amount for a week offsite as a room for a night in the Disneyland Hotel. There’s also so many to choose from, from budget motels to well known chains, so you’re bound to find something you’re happy with.

Bring your own food

If you’re really looking to save the pennies, take a trip to a supermarket and stock up on snacks to take into the parks with you. That being said, on my last trip I spent less than £20 a day on food in the parks!

Consider transport options

If you’re going to be a larger group, and the drivers are over 25, it may be cheaper for you to rent a car to get from the airport to the parks, rather than using the Disneyland Express.

If you do have a car, don’t drive to the parks

Parking is $20 a day, but plenty of hotels have free/cheap shuttle buses that drop you off right by the park entrance.

If you’re ever looking to book a Disneyland trip and need any advice, feel free to ask, or check out all of my Disneyland posts here!

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May 25, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Disneyland Day 3

Another day in the California sun! Today we were up and into California Adventure for opening at 9am, and after joining the crash of people getting fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers, stopped at Flo’s V8 Cafe for the sweetest breakfast of brioche French toast and a milkshake, then went back to get in line for Soarin’, which we only waited about 25 mins for.

Once we’d landed, our fastpass time had already come round, so we had another race around Ornament Valley, then went on a bit of a character hunt and met Nick Wilde before leaving the park to hit the RunDisney expo, via Sephora at Downtown Disney.

After all the classic expo moments – bib pickup, tshirt pickup, expo browsing – we went back to the hotel to dump my bits before going back into Disneyland, where we were greeted by Belle in the entrance area. We then headed towards Fantasyland, via Snow White’s wishing well and the teacups to take some photos, then grabbed some snacks and sat in front of the castle for a bit to eat and enjoy the sunshine.

Next up, we headed to Fantasy Faire, where we met Aladdin and then waited for Rapunzel, before picking a spot to watch Soundsational, but as the start seemed delayed, and because we wanted good seats for Mickey and the Magical Map, we abandoned the parade and instead hung out at Fantasyland Theater until they let us in, which was worth it for the seats we got. If you know me well, you’ll know this is my all time favourite Disney park show, and I’ve missed it so much so of course I cried through the whole thing. It was also Sarah’s first ever time seeing it and she did the same..

After recovering from the show, we had fastpasses for the Matterhorn, then went into Tomorrowland and did Star Tours then grabbed dinner at Red Rocket’s Pizza Port – hello pasta load – and then called it a night as I’ll be up at 4am tomorrow for the Tinkerbell 10K! Stay tuned folks!

May 13, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Reasons to Go On Holiday with your Best Friends

Today I am jetting off on yet another adventure with Sarah from Belles Moments, and needless to say I couldn’t be more excited. Its our second holiday together this year, and I already know that its going to be amazing.

I never did the whole ‘girls holiday to *insert party holiday destination here*’ when I was 18/19, mainly due to it not being my scene, but also because at the time I didn’t really have that many friends that I would want to be stuck in a cramped hotel room with for a week or two, let alone spend all day every day with.

In recent years, however, I’ve met some of the best people in my life, and learnt what real, true friendship actually feels like, and now I love any excuse to get away with my friends, and I’ve got one more girls holiday booked for later in the year, and here are a bunch of reasons why you should do it too:

They pack just as much as you

I’m a serial over-packer. I have to make sure I have outfits for every day, plus a few spare bits and pieces, then there’s all the accessories, shoes, makeup etc to go with, and its so much better knowing they’ll have packed just as much.

They double as Instagram photographers

Those not-so-candid ‘candid’ photos that you hope will hit 100+ likes in the first day don’t take themselves you know..

You’ve probably accidentally coordinated outfits

On our first day in WDW back in February, about 20 people asked us where we bought our ‘matching’ skirts. We hadn’t bought matching skirts..

They understand your quirks

They know what photos you’re gonna have to take because it matches your Instagram theme, they know the struggle you went through choosing what makeup to pack, or which camera to take photos on that day, and they might make a joke or two but they get you.

You already have a selfie set-up

Forget taking 6 photos before you find one you don’t like, you guys already know each others best sides and are well experienced in the matter.

You don’t have to have fun all the time

Well, you will, but you also know how much sleep each of you need to be able to function, and sometimes how you’ll need those earlier nights or a lie in or two.

You’re just as weak as each other

There’s no judgement when you’ve blown all your spending money in the first shop you visit, or when you’ve eaten nothing but popcorn all day.

You’ll just have the best time

I mean, they’re your best friends for a reason!

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May 9, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

Cat Cafe Manchester

Ever since my first visit to an animal cafe, which was a bunny cafe in Tokyo, I’ve been dying to visit more. Fortunately the Japanese craze quickly came across to the UK and various cafes have popped up all over the place, and when Matthew suggested that we visited Cat Cafe on our trip to Manchester at the weekend, I knew there’s no way we’d miss that opportunity!

Because the cafe works on a 50% booking and 50% walk in basis, and all the bookings for Sunday were taken, we had to hope for a walk-in slot, and we did only have to wait about 15 minutes before our name was called. We agreed to the kitty-care rules, sanitised our hands and popped our shoes in a locker, and entered what I can only describe as happiness..

The cafe was decked out to be cat heaven. There were toys and beds and cat-trees, and even walkways suspended from the ceiling for the cats to explore and escape to their hearts content. I was quickly on the hunt for a cat I could love, so Matthew was in charge of ordering drinks, and we found a little table where we could sit on the floor.

The cats were all over the place, and it was definitely cat-nap time as most of the snoozed in the sunshine, or tucked away in little kitty houses away from prying eyes. You’re not allowed to wake sleeping kitties, so at times it was hard to find a cat that wasn’t surrounded by people, but the closer you looked, the more cats you spotted! We were also really lucky to be in the cafe during kitty lunch time – and the cats knew it was coming as soon as their little tables appeared!

You pay £1 for every 5 minutes in the cafe and that included limitless drinks, paying extra only for any cakes or snacks, and we stayed for 50 mins, so paid £10 each, and in that time we each had a hot chocolate and an apple juice – but you could easily squeeze in more drinks to get even more for your money! We also saw at least 10 different cats, ranging from little to large, short-hair to super fluffy, and because the staff limit the number of people in the cafe at any one time, there’s tonnes of space and when the cats are active, plenty to go around!

This is what happiness looks like.

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April 11, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

February Disney Trip Day 11

There is actually nothing more beautiful than looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom just across the water. Honestly, our stay in the Polynesian was perfect. We sat in our room and ate peanut butter Rice Krispie treats for breakfast and could have stayed there forever.

But it was extra magic hours in MK, so we slightly begrudgingly checked out, and got the monorail over to the park. Despite missing most of the hour, we did get to see the new welcome show on the castle stage, which was very sweet, them casually strolled through the castle and into Fantasyland where we kicked off the day with a ride on the carousel – something we’d not done yet this trip. After our ride, we headed over to the Tangled toilets to shoot some photos of my outfit – The Happiest Fitness Co’s new collection – then back round Fantasyland to the Under the Sea Little Mermaid ride, which was a walk on.

Park still fairly quiet, we headed into Storybook Circus and rode The Barnstormer, then made our way round to Tomorrowland for a Space Mountain fastpass. Again, they tried to put us into the Alpha line, but I asked if we could do Omega and the cast member let us so we were happy! Then is it really a trip if you haven’t been on the TTA People Mover?! This ride has been crazy busy for our whole time here, and because I firmly believe that it should always be a walk-on, this morning made the perfect first and last ride of the trip.

As we made our way back through Fantasyland, we once again came across the Tremaine sisters, but same as yesterday, were told as we got in line that they would be finishing soon and replaced by the Fairy Godmother, who we’d already met, so our plan was foiled again! Instead, we walked into Liberty Square and grabbed some snacks at Liberty Square Market, before going on a final character meet – the boss himself, talking Mickey Mouse. Lucky we had fastpasses, cos the queue was over an hour! He told us we were the most beautiful princesses he’d seen all day, and lots of cuddles were had as we faced the reality of leaving soon.

To enjoy our remaining hour, we watched the Dapper Dans on Main Street, then spent some time on the Hub grass and even did a little bit of Move It, Shake It before we said ‘see ya real soon!’ to the kingdom. Our simple monorail trip back to the resort turned into a little bit of a disaster, courtesy of the monorail ahead of us having some technical problems, and as a result we missed our Magical Express to the airport, but after discovering that the next bus was fully booked, the hotel staff were kind enough to provide a taxi to the airport on them to ensure we didn’t have any more problems.

This, my friends, is where this story comes to a close, and I’ll be back in the UK by the time this post goes live. It really has been the most magical of trips, and while I can’t thank you lovely bunch enough for all your lovely words, the star of this show in my eyes is the beautiful Sarah, my Disney soul mate who I’ve just had the most fun with. This trip would have been nothing without here, and I’m so grateful to have her in my life ❤

Signing off guys, see ya real soon!

PS. I’m not really signing off, usual blog content will resume shortly!

March 4, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

February Disney Trip Day 8

Happy Tuesday guys! Our day kicked off in Hollywood Studios, and with quite the bang – a fastpass for Rock’n’Roller Coaster, and of course we were pretty hyped to be in the back car of the limo. Sensibly, we saved breakfast for afterwards, grabbing a drink and a snack from Trolley Car Cafe and sitting to watch the First Order March through the park.From there, we had to make a quick detour to guest relations before heading back to Tower of Terror for our second fastpass of the day. Sarah dared me that I couldn’t do it without holding on – which I always do because I’m awful on this ride – and for the first time ever, I had my hands in the air for almost the whole ride! Yay me! I got myself a celebration button as a reward.

Out of the blue, we discovered Bolt meeting in front of the Chinese Theater, so of course we stopped for a quick photo with him, then got in line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, but as we got to the front of the line to enter the theatre, the cast member announced it was at capacity and we would have to wait an extra 25 minutes for the next show, which we couldn’t really be bothered to do in the heat, so instead we went and did Muppet Vision 3D, then grabbed lunch at Backlot Express.

Bellies full of bacon cheeseburgers, we headed back to the Chinese Theater for the Great Movie Ride (cowboy, if you were wondering), then as we went to leave the park, Sarah remembered that it was coming up time for character palooza again, so we decided to swing by before we left and boy was it worth it?! Unlike the 4 character we met the other day, they brought out 11 characters, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Pocahontas appeared followed by Meeko, and the two of them met together which made my little heart so happy! Also out were Robin Hood, Pluto, Donald, Rafiki, Evil Queen, Snow White, and Smee and Prince Ali – we were so lucky to see that many! On a side note, I’m super sunburnt today, and had to buy sun cream, and I also managed to drop and smash my phone screen, so I fully believe in karma today.

Riding the palooza high, we left the park and got on the boat to Epcot, and as we got into International Gateway, we decided to hang out in the UK pavilion for a bit in order to meet Alice, then wandered round to Mexico for a bit of air con inside the temple and a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour. From there, we headed back to Future World and met Baymax again, before doing Living with the Land and the Circle of Life, and a quick Seas with Nemo and Friends, before going back to the UK pavilion for dinner.

As we waited for our Rose and Crown Dining Room reservation, we stuck our heads into the pub to see how authentically British it was, but the floor wasn’t sticky and it didn’t smell quite like a proper pub, so we definitely didn’t feel like we were in the UK! Our table for dinner was right on the lake edge, giving us a beautiful view of the now lit World Showcase as we dined on fish and chips and chicken tikka masala, cos y’know, UK tradition, and we were lucky enough to be served by our friend Milly who’s out here on the CRP, so between ordering we could discuss important matters like Character Palooza and a certain Wilderness Explorer.. We also got to watch Illuminations from our table, and while it’s probably my least favourite nighttime show, it was a pretty view for it.

After dinner, we hustled our way back up to Test Track as extra magic hours meant the park was open til 11pm, so we dived in the queue while it said it was a 40 minute wait, we were in and out within that time, before heading out of the park for the night, again opting to get on the bus to French Quarter rather than Riverside because the queue were that much shorter!

Goodnight y’all!

March 1, 2017Lottie 2 Comments

February Disney Trip Day 7

Another day in Disney paradise! We kicked off the morning with breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe, although the crazy number of people trying to get into the parks meant we were half an hour late for our reservation, but the cast members were really understanding and it wasn’t a problem at all.

After a quick explore of the hotel grounds, we caught the bus into Disney Springs for a few indulgent hours of shopping which involved a lot of Sephora (haul post to come!) and of course some World of Disney and the other shops available. Disney Springs has been developed so much even in the year since I was last there, and it’s so beautiful now with new water features and pretty new shopping areas. We refuelled with an Earl of Sandwich, then got the boat from marketplace back to the hotel to ditch our shopping bags before heading out to Hollywood Studios for the remainder of the day.

With a little bit of time from entering the park til we could use our Fantasmic fastpass, we decided to abuse our Memory Maker and get a bunch of photopass photos in various places, then grabbed some popcorn before we made our way into the amphitheater, getting almost front row seats for the magic! Now, as we discovered, that does come with a little bit of spray if the wind isn’t on your side.. Of course the show was its usual amazing self, encapsulating some of my favourite Mickey moments and even Meeko made an appearance on the boat!

After Fantasmic, we joined the crowds in front of The Chinese Theater to watch the Star Wars fireworks, which I’d really hyped up to Sarah – the non-Star Wars fan – after I was wowed by them last year, but since the last time I saw them the display has changed a little and while it was still impressive, I wasn’t as completely blown away as I was last year. Then, to avoid the crush of people leaving the park, we stepped into the entrance area of Trolley Car Cafe for a little while and let the park clear a bit before we made our way out. This proved to be somewhat of a mistake, as when we arrived at our resort bus stop, the queue was CRAZY LONG. I’m talking maybe 3-5 buses worth of people, and that didn’t sound fun to us, so instead we queued for the French Quarter bus, and walked the path down to Riverside from there, tiring us out nicely enough for bed! Zzzzzzzz

February 28, 2017Lottie Leave a comment

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