Pre-Trip A first, a last, and a galaxy far, far, away... (Now with bonus London TR!)

🐝 BEE IS GOING BACK! 🐝 BEE IS GOING BACK! 🐝 BEE IS GOING BACK! 🐝

So, this title might be a bit misleading. There are actually several firsts planned for this trip, and a semi-first. But "A first, another first, yet another first, a sorta first, and a last" doesn't roll off the tongue (or fingertips) so well.

For now, I'll leave you with the cast.

Me (Bee): 30
DW (M): 30
M's mom (MIL)
M's dad (FIL)
M's brother (BIL): 27
My brother (Jay): 24

And a countdown!
Our next trip  

EDIT: Now we're doing a Passholder preview and going down early for two nights, then flying home, then proceeding with our regular trip as planned. So, here's THAT countdown:
CRAZY PEOPLE DO A PASSHOLDER PREVIEW  
 
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bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We're 55 days away! Since we have a little downtime over the summer we are trying to make sure we have everything we need for the trip.

Target has women's swimwear on sale right now with free returns so M and I each ordered a bunch to try. Hopefully we each like at least one suit and can be done with the search. 🤞 I WILL swim in that Creepy Clown Pool!!

We found these adorable handheld fans in a store in our local mall called Flying Tiger:

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They are quite powerful despite their small size!

Also on the list are boring things like socks and sunscreen. And I hope to buy a new pair of sneakers before with go with enough time to break them in.

M's parents are visiting next week for the 4th of July. We will hopefully discuss our plans to meet up at Disney. They don't have a resort reservation yet and they may have a hard time getting one because of Star Wars and Food and Wine. Guess we'll see! 🤞
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5, cont.

Our destination: The Victoria & Albert Museum!

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Outside there is a gorgeous courtyard and fountain.

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And you can get food and drinks!

We totally took a page from the Food and Wine Festival book and ate on a trash can...

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We didn't take many photos in the museum, but we did have fun in the shop!

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These tiles' coloring reminds me of certain parts of the Grand Floridian

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Then we learned we had taken a side entrance into the museum. THIS is the big one:

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We really liked the museum and will definitely allocate more time for it next time we're in London! Since this was our first time there we did a little bit of a lot of things to try to experience as much as possible. Next time we'll try to stay longer and spend more time in certain places!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5, cont.

We took the tube to our next destination.

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Took this for friends S and J (the ones we visited in Japan) because they live sort of near Fukuoka and it's the airport we used to get to Tokyo.

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We had tickets for...

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I managed to get THE LAST TWO orchestra (stalls) tickets for the matinee! We bought our other tickets well in advance of our travel dates but I waited to get these until two days before we left for London.

Inside:

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The view from our seats:

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Since we were early and we were seated on the end we just stood nearby so everyone else in the row wouldn't have to climb over us. We also walked around the stalls to see other views of the theater.

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We both enjoyed the show, but not as much as we enjoyed it on Broadway a few years ago. Still, it was cool to see the original English language production!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5, cont.

After the show we were hungry for dinner so we found a nearby Thai place (yes we ate Asian food nearly every day of our trip to England...).

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FOOD:

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This might have been my favorite meal of the trip! The eggplant side dish (bottom right) was my favorite item but everything was suuuuuuper delicious!

We decided to take the bus (shocker!) to our next destination.

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No, not here

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Not here either

We waited a very long time for the bus due to a huge traffic jam, and it was evident that this was not just normal congestion. We learned the cause of the delay when we turned a corner and saw an absolutely horrible car accident. I sincerely hope everyone was okay, but the vehicle looked very, very bad. :(

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PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure if I'm insanely jealous of you or if I think you're extremely CRAZY for going to GE for opening day!! May the force be with you on that one! ;)

Illuminations..... ahhhhhh, I have so many mixed feelings about this show ending. This is the first Disney show I remember watching growing up. I even remember before it became Reflections of Earth and the green lasers they used during the previous show. We watched it at least once per trip, yearly and always sat between Mexico and Norway, eating churros. Well, margaritas now as adults ;) I LOVE the soundtrack and the images on the globe and basically just the general idea of the show, that we're all one world. We thought our last viewing was going to be this past January so we watched and cried. We booked another trip for September into October and thought for sure Illuminations would be done by then. Well color me shocked when they announced the last showing would be during our trip, on the day we had already planned to be at Epcot! I'm sure there will be margaritas drank (drunk?) churros eaten and ugly crying, mostly from me but both my Mom and my sister have already admitted they will likely cry too since this is a tradition for us dating back to the early 90s. It will be bittersweet for sure!

I'm excited to read about your adventures!!!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm not sure if I'm insanely jealous of you or if I think you're extremely CRAZY for going to GE for opening day!! May the force be with you on that one! ;)
Believe me, I KNOW I am crazy for wanting to go opening day! Especially since getting up early and going to big crowded events is NOT something I would normally do! But since our trip coincides with the opening I think I'd regret not going and always wonder how much fun I missed out on! Also, my trip to Tokyo Disneyland and experience with those crowds is making this seem manageable by comparison. :hilarious:

Illuminations..... ahhhhhh, I have so many mixed feelings about this show ending. This is the first Disney show I remember watching growing up. I even remember before it became Reflections of Earth and the green lasers they used during the previous show. We watched it at least once per trip, yearly and always sat between Mexico and Norway, eating churros. Well, margaritas now as adults ;) I LOVE the soundtrack and the images on the globe and basically just the general idea of the show, that we're all one world. We thought our last viewing was going to be this past January so we watched and cried. We booked another trip for September into October and thought for sure Illuminations would be done by then. Well color me shocked when they announced the last showing would be during our trip, on the day we had already planned to be at Epcot! I'm sure there will be margaritas drank (drunk?) churros eaten and ugly crying, mostly from me but both my Mom and my sister have already admitted they will likely cry too since this is a tradition for us dating back to the early 90s. It will be bittersweet for sure!
I cry every time I see it anyway, so I am SURE that I'll cry on this trip, especially our last night! Glad you'll get to see it one last time!

I'm excited to read about your adventures!!!
Welcome aboard!
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
We're 55 days away! Since we have a little downtime over the summer we are trying to make sure we have everything we need for the trip.

Target has women's swimwear on sale right now with free returns so M and I each ordered a bunch to try. Hopefully we each like at least one suit and can be done with the search. 🤞 I WILL swim in that Creepy Clown Pool!!

We found these adorable handheld fans in a store in our local mall called Flying Tiger:

View attachment 385377

They are quite powerful despite their small size!

Also on the list are boring things like socks and sunscreen. And I hope to buy a new pair of sneakers before with go with enough time to break them in.

M's parents are visiting next week for the 4th of July. We will hopefully discuss our plans to meet up at Disney. They don't have a resort reservation yet and they may have a hard time getting one because of Star Wars and Food and Wine. Guess we'll see! 🤞

SKECHERS... you will barely have to break them in, and my feet never hurt even at Disney!
 

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