Monthly Archives: July 2017

Disney, Travel

January 7, 2017

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Since the half marathon was cancelled, neither one of us had to wake up with an alarm on this day – which is one of my favourite things in the world 🙂

I believe we slept until about 10am, and woke up feeling refreshed. I actually might have slept even later…

We took our time getting ready, and ate some of the snacks we had in the room for breakfast. We had no plans until supper, and we had planned on this being our day away from the parks, so we decided to head to Disney Springs for awhile. I packed only the essentials in my purse for the day – wallet, camera, fuel rod, bottle of water and lots of snacks haha –

As soon as we arrived in Disney Springs, we realized we hadn’t actually ate any real food all day and we were hungry, so we went to make Luke happy with a stop at Earl of Sandwich.

After eating, we went to Amorette’s to check it out. They had so many delicious-looking things there, I wanted to sample one of everything!

There was also a really cute Christmas tree still up in the store, so of course I had to take a picture of it…

And of course, we did buy a few things…

We took our time, walking around the Disney Springs area. I really like how it looks 🙂

I found the Harley store, so I took this picture and sent it to my mom. Her and my step-dad own Harley’s, so she was excited about it.

After doing a bit of shopping (my mom had a birthday a few weeks after this trip), we decided we were cold and finished with Disney Springs. This day and the next were not the Florida weather we were expecting!

*Yes, I took this earlier in the day, and yes those are in Celsius*

We headed over to the bus stops, and found the one heading to the Polynesian. We didn’t wait long before we were off. This was the first time for both of us visiting this resort – wow! I really loved the feel of this place, it’s definitely on our short list for bucket list Disney hotels.

It was around 3:30-3:40pm by this point, and Trader Sam’s was due to open at 4pm. We decided to go and get our name on the wait list since it was somewhere we both really wanted to check out.

After enjoying some libations at Trader Sam’s, we headed upstairs to check in for our supper reservation – at ‘Ohana!

After our supper, we had planned on sticking around, and possibly heading down to the beach to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. I, however, had ate way too much and wasn’t feeling the greatest (and the same for Luke), so we decided to call it a night and called an Uber to take us back to Old Key West.

This was by far the most relaxed day of our trip, and I didn’t take many pictures at all. Sometimes, in the middle of a vacation, I just need a quiet day 🙂

Next: Epcot Part One

 

 

 

 

Disney, Food Review

Earl of Sandwich – Supper – January 27, 2017

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After finally getting to meet Captain America and Spiderman, we decided to call it a night – after eating of course! We headed out of the park and over to Downtown Disney, walking until we reached our destination: Earl of Sandwich!

We had ate at Earl a few weeks earlier when we were in Orlando, and it was close to the top of Luke’s ‘must-eat’s’ while in Anaheim.

We didn’t switch it up much on this visit, and I ordered the exact same sandwich I’d had in Orlando – the Holiday Turkey: Turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise $6.99. Of course, I asked for it without cranberry – I’m just not a fan.

This was just as good as the last one I’d ate earlier in the month! I’ll have a really hard time ordering anything different on future trips – the combination of turkey and stuffing is just perfect 🙂

Luke also decided to order one of his favourites from our meal at Earl of Sandwich a few weeks earlier, and got the Hawaiian BBQ: Grilled chicken, ham, swiss, pineapple and BBQ sauce $6.99. He loved it once again!

For some reason, I also insisted on ordering one of their Pepperoni Pizzas: Tangy pizza sauce, Italian seasoning, mozzarella & pepperoni on our Artisan bread. $6.99.

This was ok, but from now on I’ll just stick to my beloved Holiday Turkey sandwich 🙂

We made both of our sandwiches into combos, which meant we each had a fountain drink and a bag of chips. The cost was an additional $2.99/each.

Our total bill came to $29.11. We did not use my annual pass – I can’t remember if we forgot about it, or if they just don’t accept it there. Either way, it’s a relatively cheap meal for something so great 🙂

 

Empties

Empties – February – June 2017

I was trying to do this every 4 months, but this one is for 5 months because I was lazy and didn’t want to take pictures at the end of May…and then of course it took me half of July to get around to writing this post…

The first time I documented my empties was back in September 2014 over on my old blog. I did it off and on for the next year or so, but just recently started doing it as more of a quarterly thing. If you’re interested in seeing my old posts about this, you can see them here:

Now, on to the things we finished off during this 5 month span. Worth noting – I was diagnosed with psoriasis during this time, and have just recently started using normal shampoo again (interspersed with medicated shampoo) – so you won’t see many empty shampoo bottles (but don’t worry, we did shower over the past few months!).

The bin was fairly full, as it should be when we’re talking about a five month span.

Hand soap (all from Bath & Body, of course…). Scents finished off:

  • Sea Salt Citrus (I love citrus scents)
  • Fresh Sparkling Snow
  • Citrus Sun Shine
  • Vanilla Bean Noel (such a classic!)
  • Winter Cranberry
  • Candy Cane Bliss
  • Winter Candy Apple (not my favourite, but Luke is a fan)
  • Sparkling Alpine Woods (this bottle was huge!)

Herbal Essences Conditioner – not the best conditioner out there, but it’s cheap and we have a surplus of it.

Aveeno Baby Body Wash – I had bought this when I got my leg tattoo since you are instructed to wash with unscented soap. It’s went back into heavy rotation since it was mild enough to use with my psorasis.

Cooling Mint Jelly – this is similar to Lush’s shower jelly (which I love), except Lush’s is far superior in every way.

Empty Lush bag – I don’t remember what this was exactly, but I know it was either a bubble bar or a bath bomb.

Toothpaste – I love the original Colgate so much. It’s the one we always had in the house growing up, and now I insist on a tube of it always being open in our house.

Q-tips – I use these for everything – removing nail polish, removing makeup, etc. etc etc.

Bread & Butter Face Clean – this was Luke’s, he seems to be a fan.

Ecopure Man Aftershave Balm – Again, Luke’s. I didn’t hear any complaints and he finished off the bottle, so it must have been ok.

Avon Skin So Soft – Basically Avon’s version of Veet or Nair. I have no idea where I got this from, I don’t think I know anyone who sells Avon. Is that even still a thing?

Bath & Body Works Hand Sanitizer – We actually finished off two of these things! Normally they just go missing before we can finish the bottle…

Coolway Boost Repair Treatment – It appears this company has gone out of business, so no sense in giving a review on this.

Nivea face cream – I use moisturizer a lot – even more since being diagnosed with psorasis. This was nothing special, but it did it’s job.

Vanilla Body lotion (foil sample) – I kept this foil sample on my desk at work, and used it up over the course of a few days. It smelled nice.

Perfume samples – I love perfume, and own a few too many bottles of it… I’ve been trying to get through my collection of these little samples lately, and was able to finish off 6 of them over the 5 month span.

  • Prada Candy Florale – I prefer the original Candy, which is one I own a full size bottle of. This one was still really nice though!
  • Calvin Klein Reveal – meh. Not my favourite, but it was wasn’t terrible either.
  • Diesel Loverdose Tattoo – one of my favourites, I also own a full size bottle of this one.
  • Ralph Lauren Midnight Romance – this one was ok – again, not my favourite and not one I need to own full size.
  • Narcisco Rodriguez For Her – this was nice! I’ve liked all of the samples I’ve tried of this brand, but for some reason do not own a full size of any yet…
  • Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream – I own the original Daisy perfume, and this one is similar to that one. I do love the Marc Jacobs full size bottles though 🙂

Luke also finished off one larger sample:

  • Yves St. Laurent La Nuit De L’homme – Luke loves this one, and owns it in a full size bottle already 🙂

Our basket for the next quarter is already starting to fill up 🙂

 

Disney, Wedding

Using Our Room Block

Now that we finally have our room block set up, anyone who was looking to reserve a room at a value resort can now do so for our reduced group rate!

Message me directly for the link to our room block website 🙂

  • Once you have the link from me, this is the first page you’ll see:
  • Click on the dropbox where it says “Select your guest type”. The two options are Accessible Room (which is for those with a wheelchair/limited mobility) or Attendee (which is what I selected for this tutorial).  
  • You will now be taken to this page. 
  • You can search the dates (where you can see our discounted group rates are valid from December 27th, 2017 until January 18th, 2018 – but you must check in by January 9th) 
  • Another option is to click browse all hotels as a list. (see above picture). That will take you to this page. Ignore that $830/night Grand Floridian, no one wants to spend that much on a hotel!  
  • There really isn’t much difference between All Star Music and Pop Century, although Pop is currently being renovated and most rooms will be completely refinished by the time this trip happens. The theming at both is over the top and really fun, go check out my information on the hotels page to read more.
  • I decided to go with Pop Century for this example. You can click anywhere in the box with the hotel name, and it will bring up the available room types which you can book. (For this one, it’s only the standard view room)  
  • Now, click on the date you wish to check in. For this example, I clicked January 7th. As soon as you select a date, a green “select” button appears. 
  • Now, select your check-out date. I clicked January 14th just for this example. Also – you can see that January 5th is not available – which more than likely means the hotel is sold out of standard rooms for that night. After selecting your dates, click the green “Next” button.                  
  • Before you click Next, you will see this along the side with your information – you will need to make sure you are booking your room for the correct number of people. Also – note that the price shown on this screen is subtotal only, taxes will be added (it works out to about $13/night in taxes)       
  • It will now bring you to a page where you must fill out your personal information – name, address, email address, etc. Do this for each guest in your room. Click next, and you will be taken to another page to fill out your credit card information to book the room.                
  • Once your credit card information is entered, and you’ve clicked accept on the terms and conditions, you will see a pop-up with your confirmation number on it! You should also receive an email within a few minutes with your confirmation.
  • Once you have your confirmation, it’s time to go set up your Disney account, which you can see a step-by-step guide here 🙂
Disney

Creating an MDE Account

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Before you can book hotel rooms, dining reservations, purchase tickets, etc through the Disney website, you must set up an account (or a “My Disney Experience” account). This is very simple and straight forward, and should only take a few minutes.

  1. First, go to the Walt Disney World website.  Once there, you will see “Sign In or Create Account”, click on that (circled in the picture below for reference).  
  2. You will now be taken to a sign-in page. Click below where it says “Create An Account” (circled below).        
  3. Simply fill out your information – email address, create a password, name, home address, birth date, etc. Accept their terms and conditions and then click create!        
  4. Sign in and begin planning your dream vacation!
Disney

Customizing MagicBands

This post will assume you’ve already set up your My Disney Experience (MDE) account and have already linked your hotel reservation to it. If you haven’t completed those two steps, start there.

Also – this is based on doing this on a desktop/laptop computer, not on a mobile device or through the app.

  1. Go to the Walt Disney World website (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/) and click on the far top right where it says “My Disney Experience”
  2. You will now be on your MDE homepage, which will look something like this. As long as your hotel reservations have been linked up, you will see “Personalize Your Magicband” in blue writing, click on that.     
  3. You are now on the Magicband homepage, where you will be able to see your hotel reservations and number of Magicbands available to you (based on the number of people in your room). If you are doing split stays at hotels (as we often do), you are eligible for a new Magicband with each hotel. Click on the hotel stay. 
  4. Now scroll to the bottom of the page – you will see a list of the people you have assigned to your stay. There will be a “Customize” or “Update” button, click on that.  
  5. You can now see the colour options for your Magicband! You can also have 9 characters (letters/numbers) added to the inside of your band – it does not have to be your name!   
  6. Click save in the bottom left hand corner, and then pick up your Magicband at your resort lobby when you check in! (If you live in the Continental US, your Magicband will be shipped to your house prior to your vacation).

Worth noting – if you do not customize your band, you will receive a grey one with nothing written on the inside. You can also purchase a Magicband with a character on it once you’ve arrived (these run about $20-$50/each).