I must be crazy! - An October-November 2016 Solo PTR - Update 10/9 2 Weeks to Go - That's a Wrap

[SnowWhiteOz]

Welcome everyone to my second PTR! ​

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If you don’t know me I’ll go through the basics below or if you have some time spare feel free to check out my current TR (Tan and rested and alone (Almost!) – An August 2015 Solo TR ) and Dining Review (I don’t *like* food; I Love it – A Solo August 2015 Dining Report ).

About Me –General

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I’m 28 years old and I’m originally from Melbourne, Australia but currently live in our nation’s capital, Canberra. I’m a public servant and work for the federal government in Indigenous Affairs. I love to travel, have been to over 25 countries, and, if I’m in a country with a Disney park, I will always go.

About Me – Disney Edition​

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Favourite Park: Tie between WDW and HKD
Favourite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Favourite Character - Princess: Snow White
Favourite Character - Non-Princess: the Genie
Favourite Disney Movie: Aladdin

As per my previous trip report before my recent trip to WDW I’d been to every other Disney park so it was a chance to cross something off my bucket list (visit every Disney park on the planet ). ​

My trip this year was planned as though it was going to be a once in a lifetime trip but I knew deep down that it would be the continuation of a lifelong addiction to Disney!

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I had an amazing time but one week in Disney was nowhere near enough and I felt as though I’d only just scratched the surface.

So I got home after my trip and began writing my TR and DR to keep the magic alive while I was stuck back at work in my cubicle . Which is all well and good until you’re over half way through each report and realise that it will be over sooner rather than later ​

So I decided that to keep my spirits up I’d plan a fake trip just for fun. This kept me not only occupied but also in a Disney frame of mind.

And of course then inevitable happened. The fake trip suddenly sounded so awesome in my mind that it just had to become reality! ​

So that’s why we’re here – to plan for the super mega awesome fun time solo trip – or my 30th birthday present to myself!
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[SnowWhiteOz]

Table of Contents
* 56 Weeks to Go *
* 55 Weeks to Go *
* 54 Weeks to Go *
* 53 Weeks to Go *
* 52 Weeks to Go *
* 51 Weeks to Go (Or is it?) *
* 50 Weeks to Go *
* 49 Weeks to Go *
* 48 Weeks to Go *
* 47 Weeks to Go *
* 46 Weeks to Go *
* 45 Weeks to Go *
* 44 Weeks to Go *
* 43 Weeks to Go *
* 42 Weeks to Go *
* 41 Weeks to Go *
* Mini Update! *
* 40 Weeks to Go *
* Hong Kong Disney Extravaganza *
* 38 Weeks to Go *
* Surprise Stay *
* 37 Weeks to Go *
* 36 Weeks to Go *
* 35 Weeks to Go *
* 34 Weeks to Go *
* 33 Weeks to Go *
* 32 Weeks to Go *
* 31 Weeks to Go *
* 30 Weeks to Go *
* 29 Weeks to Go *
* 28 Weeks to Go *
* 27 Weeks to Go *
* 26 Weeks to Go *
* 25 Weeks to Go *
* 24 Weeks to Go *
* 23 Weeks to Go *
* 22 Weeks to Go *
* 21 Weeks to Go *
* 20 Weeks to Go *
* 19 Weeks to Go *
* 18 Weeks to Go *
* 17 Weeks to Go *
* 16 Weeks to Go *
* 15 Weeks to Go *
* 14 Weeks to Go *
* 13 Weeks to Go *
* 12 Weeks to Go *
* 11 Weeks to Go *
* 10 Weeks to Go *
* 9 Weeks to Go *
* 8 Weeks to Go *
* 7 Weeks to Go *
* 6 Weeks to Go *
* 5 Weeks to Go *
* 4 Weeks to Go *
* 3 Weeks to Go! *
* 2 Weeks to Go! *

 

[JustCor]

Following along!

 

[Alice Sr.]

Totally get it, been under the Disney spell since day one. Guess I didn't realize how lucky I was to be only 3 (flight) hours away. I see a Annual Pass in your not to distant future, the next thing you know you will be a DVC owner. Have enjoyed your other TR's so glad you found a way to extend my reading opportunities!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Totally get it, been under the Disney spell since day one. Guess I didn't realize how lucky I was to be only 3 (flight) hours away. I see a Annual Pass in your not to distant future, the next thing you know you will be a DVC owner. Have enjoyed your other TR's so glad you found a way to extend my reading opportunities!

Don't tempt me! I'd move to the States in a heartbeat if the right job came up (as long as it was either in California or Florida!) and I would be at Disney every weekend with all the AP and DVC trimmings!

But for now a second trip (albeit a longer one) will have to do

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

56 Weeks to Go
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So the countdown to my next trip has officially begun. After coming home from my last trip with a serious case of the post-Disney blues I attempted to keep them at bay writing up all my reports and making photo books and annoying all my colleagues with stories that began with “At Disney”.
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But that didn’t seem to do the trick in the way I had hoped. I have another trip planned at the end of the year to visit friends living in Bangkok but even the planning for that wasn’t exciting me in the same way that planning a Disney trip had. So I began dream planning out a trip for next year.
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I’ve been saving up my airline miles and almost have enough for return business class flights to Los Angeles (yay!) – I have more than enough for a return economy trip but I figure I may as well use them to travel in style.I figured this would cut down the cost of any dream trip.
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But back to the planning. I wanted to fit as much as possible in this dream trip so I looked at dates that would allow me to experience WDW in both Halloween and Christmas mode as well as the food and wine festival at Epcot. The plan became having two full weeks in Disney as this meant that I could catch the final week of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and the first week of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. And with a few days at Universal prior to experience Halloween Horror Nights this imaginary trip was starting to sound awesome.
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The more I was planning the more I really wanted to do it. I figured that I could gift it to myself as a 30th birthday present. My birthday would be not too long after the proposed dates and what better way to leave one decade than to go all out at Disney!
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I also wanted to try something new so I started looking at doing a cruise during the trip. I spent a week looking at cruises and after a particularly hectic week at work last week I decided to go for it. To do the trip and to do it right.
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So long story short the first component of the trip has been booked and I will be going on my first ever cruise! And on Disney Cruise Line (even though Royal Caribbean or Carnival would have been a lot cheaper)! I’ve paid my deposit so this trip is officially a go and the countdown has begun .

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To have a fun way to countdown to the trip I’ve decided to bake something once a week in the spirit of the trip and off Disney – this will keep me excited and will keep my colleagues happy as long as I’m feeding them! I'm a bit of a baker and have had my own business in the past (I've just been too busy lately to actually do it properly). This week's theme was cruising


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And that’s all for now. Stay tuned for all the planning involved in this mega trip ​

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

55 Weeks to Go

There hasn’t been too much planning for the trip this week – because I figured I should probably start planning for the holiday I’ve got booked for Christmas this year!

I’m going to be spending two weeks in South East Asia to visit a friend who moved to Bangkok at the start of this year. I’ll be visiting Singapore, Bangkok, Myanmar and Hong Kong. Hong Kong you say? Yes. It’s one of my favourite cities on the planet and bonus; I can start the year of Disney off on the right note with another visit to Hong Kong Disneyland! It will only be for the one day again but that’s more than enough for a park that size seeing as I was only there a few years ago.



I’m also going to be trying a new theme park while on my trip and that is Universal Studios in Singapore. Haven’t read much about it yet but I can’t pass it up and I got a great price on a ticket so I’m excited.

So this week has involved booking all my internal flights and starting to book hotels – which I should probably get a move on for as it is over New Years .

I did a little planning for the mega trip by working with my Dreams Unlimited consultant Kerry . Kerry helped me book my cruise and now we’re working together on planning the Universal component of the trip. Hopefully next week I’ll have an update on what I’ve got planned for exploring the Universe.

And last but not least here is this week’s cupcake –after kicking it off last week with the cruising theme (nautical butter cupcakes) this week we move to the Animal Kingdom for some animal print lemon cupcakes.



(I did plan out the cupcakes this week – I have 56 different WDW/Universal based themes and 56 different flavours planed out so fingers crossed I can keep it up!)​

 

[Bellabully]

Hello!
Jumped over here after finding your 1st trip report, which I am really enjoying reading! I am going to be at WDW roughly same time, 11/3/16-11/12/16. Hopefully, going to book 11/1/16-11/3/16 at Universal Studios, then move over to Beach Club. It is on my bucket list to take solo trip, but I have DD 12, who would be distraught beyond words if I went to Disney without her . It will also be a birthday trip for me! Love, love, love your cupcakes!! How clever! Keep up the reports, you have a wonderful style of writing.
Shelly

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Hello!
Jumped over here after finding your 1st trip report, which I am really enjoying reading! I am going to be at WDW roughly same time, 11/3/16-11/12/16. Hopefully, going to book 11/1/16-11/3/16 at Universal Studios, then move over to Beach Club. It is on my bucket list to take solo trip, but I have DD 12, who would be distraught beyond words if I went to Disney without her . It will also be a birthday trip for me! Love, love, love your cupcakes!! How clever! Keep up the reports, you have a wonderful style of writing.
Shelly

Thanks for reading along - I appreciate the feedback.

Solo trips are great fun but like you DD I'd be distraught if my parents went without me too and I'm in my late 20s!

And yay for birthday trips - I'm using mine as an excuse to go all out this trip (you only turn 30 three times at most right? )

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

And yay for birthday trips - I'm using mine as an excuse to go all out this trip (you only turn 30 three times at most right? )

Enjoying your trip report and your food report and your pre-trippie! I am really psyched for you about adding on a DCL cruise! I have been on 2 DCL cruises and you will totally love it! In 2014 I went with 5 girlfriends to celebrate our 50th birthdays, and it was a trip of a lifetime! I dream of doing WDW solo one day - maybe I should go ahead and make a mock plan so that I will have to do it! Keep on writing!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Enjoying your trip report and your food report and your pre-trippie! I am really psyched for you about adding on a DCL cruise! I have been on 2 DCL cruises and you will totally love it! In 2014 I went with 5 girlfriends to celebrate our 50th birthdays, and it was a trip of a lifetime! I dream of doing WDW solo one day - maybe I should go ahead and make a mock plan so that I will have to do it! Keep on writing!

Wow you're reading all three? I don't know whether to be impressed or concerned that you have that much of me in your brain!

I'm definitely looking forward to the cruise - I've always been apprehensive about going on one (the whole being stuck on a boat thing and not being able to get away) but I've decided that it actually sounds much better than all my fears - especially with people like you telling me how much fun they are!

And definitely mock plan a solo trip - but be careful because mock planning leads to real booking!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

54 Weeks to Go​

Another week and one more thing locked in. I’ve been working with Kerry from Dreams Unlimited on the Universal component of my trip and have finally decided on where I’ll be staying.​

I had been tossing up between splurging on the Royal Pacific Resort and saving a few hundred dollars and staying at Cabana Bay Beach Resort. I do love the theming of Cabana Bay but was concerned about the noise level as apparently a lot of families chose it as their resort. With Royal Pacific I wasn’t sure it was really worth an extra $60 odd a night for just one person. ​

After lots of consideration I’ve decided to stick to the deluxe theme for this trip and have booked a three night package at the Royal Pacific Resort in the standard king room. I figure if I’m going all out on the flights, the cruise and the Disney component of the trip I shouldn’t skimp at Universal.







At this stage I’ll have three days in LA before flying across and going straight to Universal. It will mean that I’ll miss out on using MDE on the way in but the trip seems to flow better doing Universal first rather than trying to fit it in somewhere in the middle.

I’ll be there the week before Halloween so the plan will be to add on a Halloween Horror Nights ticket for one of the nights on top of the 3 day Park to Park ticket included in the package.

In other holiday preparation news I’m now in week three of a running program. I’ve set myself a goal of doing the Castaway Cay 5km while on the cruise and a half marathon before my birthday. I never been a fan of running but am now able to run 3 whole minutes without stopping (which is terrible I know but I’ll get there! ).​

I’ve also finished booking everything for my trip in December/January and have booked my tickets for Universal Singapore and Hong Kong Disneyland so it will definitely be a year of theme parks! ​

And finally, on to this week’s cupcakes. This week I’ve taken inspiration from one of the pavilions in World Showcase and their upcoming thanksgiving – Canada. These are peanut butter maple cupcakes – how much more Canadian can you get than maple right?

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[Elevationist]

I'm here, I'm here! Loving your plans so far... This sounds like it will truly be a DREAM vacation!

What dates are you looking at being in WDW? I ask because I have booked my next solo trip at the Beach Club for October 22-28. (PTR in signature, if you're interested!)

Looking forward to helping you pass the time until next October!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

I'm here, I'm here! Loving your plans so far... This sounds like it will truly be a DREAM vacation!

What dates are you looking at being in WDW? I ask because I have booked my next solo trip at the Beach Club for October 22-28. (PTR in signature, if you're interested!)

Looking forward to helping you pass the time until next October!

Welcome and thanks for joining in - I'm glad to have people to talk to about trip planning as I'm sure everyone at work wishes I would just stop going on about Disney

I have been reading your PTR (both of them actually) but just haven't had time to comment - I promise to be better and actually engage now that I'm almost finished my dining report and current TR.

I think I'll just miss you on your October solo trip. I'll be at Universal from 25-28 October before heading across to WDW for a week. So at this stage I'll be there from the afternoon of the 28th until the 4th of November.

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

53 Weeks to Go

This week at work was pretty hectic (and stressful) and what relieves stress more than planning a Disney vacation?

I’m still a few weeks away from being able to book flights and do DVC rentals so I’ve been instead thinking about whether I can add a few days at Disneyland on to the start of my trip seeing as I will be flying into Los Angeles. This will depend on what day I’m able to fly in (as I’m using airline miles it will be whatever day they have available – not necessarily the most convenient option ).

I’m hoping to have at least three days in Los Angeles and have been looking at the prices of three night packages at Disneyland during that time. Now the Disneyland hotels are ridiculously expensive – there are no value resorts over there – so I’ve been looking at the Good Neighbour Hotels instead. I don’t mind staying offsite at Disneyland (I’ve done it the last 2 trips) as everything is so close and in walking distance.

I’ve been trying to keep the deluxe theme going for this trip but if I do end up doing Disneyland it will definitely be at an economy hotel. In pricing it out I could do 3 nights at the Motel 6 with a 3 day park hopper ticket for $687.



In the moderate category I can do the Clarion Hotel for $718 or the Hotel Menage for $722.





And if I move up again to the deluxe category I could do the Sheraton Park for $863.



I’m thinking it will have to be the Motel 6 option or the Clarion unless a special offer or discount is offered. If anyone has experience at any of these hotels I’d love to hear your feedback.

So that’s all there is in trip news this week. To finish this off as usual here are this week’s cupcakes. I took inspiration from Mission: Space and made some planetary cupcakes which were red velvet flavoured. My colleagues at work are enjoying having sweets every week so I’m hoping I can keep this up

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[lilpixiebabe101]

Joining in. We will be there October 29th - November 7th next year!! Sounds like just an all out slam bang trip!!!

 

[Elevationist]

I definitely vote for the Clarion, at the least. There's usually a huge difference in quality between Motel 6 and Clarion, and for a difference of only $31, it's definitely worth it! I don't know anything about the Hotel Menage, but again, for only another $4? If it's nicer, I say go for it!

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Joining in. We will be there October 29th - November 7th next year!! Sounds like just an all out slam bang trip!!!

Welcome. Yay for October/November trips! Are you going for F&W or for MNSSHP?

I definitely vote for the Clarion, at the least. There's usually a huge difference in quality between Motel 6 and Clarion, and for a difference of only $31, it's definitely worth it! I don't know anything about the Hotel Menage, but again, for only another $4? If it's nicer, I say go for it!

I suppose $31 isn't too much more is it? (Although I'm paying in Australian dollars so its more like $50 for me ). I'm still hoping tacking on DLR will work with my flights but I'm still two weeks away from being able to book them using my miles so it will all depend on what the flight gods have in store for me

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

Welcome. Yay for October/November trips! Are you going for F&W or for MNSSHP?

Yes!! We will be going for both. Hitting the party on the 31st is DR's request. And my friend who will be going with us is running Wine and Dine and we will hopefully be attending the race party!

 

[LizardQueen8]

Joining in. And:

1. I love the baked treats.
2. I am terribly, terribly jealous that you have visited all the Disney parks, because that is my dream as well. So far all I've managed is WDW and DL. Also I have a Disney cruise planned. Also I want to go to Aulani. Who needs to save for retirement?
3. Birthday trips are the BEST. I did one a couple of years ago and no birthday since has been the same.
4. I've never stayed at any of those DL hotels, but I'd definitely go for one of the slightly nicer ones, myself.