Our very own 'wreck-it' Ralph

Having lost our 15 yr old Staffie Busta back in August we decided that now was the time to start looking into another dog. We went down to the rescue shelter yesterday and absolutely fell in love with this chap. He's very petite and at first we thought he was a girl and found ourselves considering a girl as we loved him so much, the shelter guessed him to be about 4 but he's very young looking and has many puppy traits as well as size.

He's fantastic with kids, we socialized with him for a while to see how he would respond to the boys and he's brilliant.
We bought him home within hours of meeting him and once at home he's never failed to let us know he was the right choice. He's impeccably well behaved, doesn't want to be on the furniture and loves his bed, slept there last night and he's even had a bath. He's down as unclaimed, I really can't understand it as someone has taken the time to train him, he's not boisterous at all, in fact he's very very gentle.

He's very calm for a staffie, loves other dogs and walks very obediently by your side. The only thing I can say about him is that he likes teddies and is checking out all the Christmas ones and even tried to take a mickey beanie to bed last night so that's on his Christmas list.

We've named him 'wreck-it' Ralph though we're hoping that he doesn't take to wrecking things at all.

Disney Cruise Line

As always, like any other Disney World nut we are forever in planning mode, as our holiday approaches fast we're already thinking of the next one. This time we're thinking of something a little, well in reality a huge bit different.

We're thinking of visiting the West Coast but with the added variety of a Disney Cruise. I love the idea of this but I can't find any prices past 2013 yet. And it'd be 2014 maybe even 2015 before we have enough saved up.

What are your hints and tips on DCL? Maybe you've done a cruise that ended or began in LA, maybe you have videos you'd like to share?

Thanks

Big news from the World of Mouse

Well, last week Disney announced they'd bought Lucasfilm, and as a household where Star Wars thrives we're excited by this announcement. Our youngest is 4 tomorrow and rather than visiting the Mouse et al, all he's bothered about is the Jedi Training Academy! I await very impatiently any expansions and further news regarding the future of Star Wars...

In other news, I'm absolutely dismayed that Disney have decided to do away with the Main St Bakery, MK and make it a Starbucks! What are they thinking?!
Every trip we stop off for breakfast in the bakery, I wouldn't care so much if they were just changing the coffee to starbucks but to do away with all those goodies is a travesty! An outrage! Now, I've read many comments and only 2 or 3 have had something positive to say. Walt would surely turn in his grave.

I'll no longer be walking right down the middle of main st usa, I'll be crossing over onto the other side of the street, not in protest but to avoid the smell of coffee that'll now ooze onto Main St rather than all those yummy smells :(

So what's your thoughts on these 2 changes? please share

93 days to go

Wow, just 93 days to go!

Sorry I've been a bit quiet of late, things have been crazy hectic and stressful but it all helps to keep the countdown flying by.n the

Our balance is due for paying on the 2nd so we need a trip to the bank to move the savings around and then it's just the park tickets and esta's to sort.

Tickets wise we've decided on the 14 day ultimate and 2 park bonus tickets to get us started and we'll see how the saving goes (with Christmas being in the way of saving) and add in Seaworld. We've considered Legoland too but when we look on their schedule it looks like not much will be open!

Then I'll have to start a list of all the restaurant offers and new places to try... must try one of those donut burgers from the Teak Neighbourhood Grill

Where would you recommend?

A very brief update

Wow, it's been a few weeks since I last posted, sorry about that but it's been all kinds of crazy here!

I've had my birthday and this added a couple more Jim Shore Disney Traditions to my collection, ever growing and I may need more space for them soon, rather than one place they may end up all around the house.
And, I've just had an English Language end of module exam, thought it went well but who knows...

So, we're down to 106 days today and our payment deadline is looming, obviously we are starving ourselves and have given up on life completely in order to pay this off - well not quite but we would if we hadn't already got it all organised.

That's about it for now, a very brief update.... but as always I'm always planning, and now have 2015 firmly in my sights

A 3 day extension

So I rang the travel agents to try and extend our 14 day trip to 16 as with almost 2 days of traveling it seems like a 12 day holiday. Problem being, that I hadn't realised that it would mean arriving in London on a Sunday and this would mean less connections available to bring us back up home. 8 hours in Gatwick, jetlagged and with 2 kids was a no no, but rather than just make do with the 14 nights we've ended up with 17! This will of course mean saying offsite for those 3 extra nights, but we found a really good price for the Holiday Inn Resort LBV, and means having to juggle our 14 day expiry park tickets but who cares, an extra 3 nights away from a dreary and frozen Britain and I'm sold.

So we now have 7 nights in Jambo House at the Animal Kingdom Villas, 7 nights on The Boardwalk and 3 nights at the Holiday Inn in LBV.

Updates you don't like?

This morning I have the Tiki Room song stuck in my head... 'all the birds sing words and the flowers croon, in the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room' and this got me thinking. The first time we visited WDW was in 2005, and at this time it was The Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management. As a family we loved the Tiki Room attraction and Zazu and Iago but now Disney have returned it to it's original show and we've been left very disappointed by it. An attraction that was a must do on our list is now way less entertaining.

What update or change of attraction has left you, let's say underwhelmed?