A Project complete and last holiday post for a few days

I worked hard yesterday to complete the weekly pages apart from the last week of the year which I can't do until new year's eve.

I set out to complete a page each week of the year so I didn't have to scrap the whole darn year in one go and I am pleased I completed it. It was tough at times but I know I will love looking back on it in years to come.

Will I do it again? At the moment I feel like it is a no, but I know how much I enjoy them when they are complete so, we will see. I may see if I can do a simpler format. Maybe.

Anyway here are the last few pages.

Week 49

Left hand side

Right hand side

Week-51

We went to the cinema today to see 'The Greatest Showman' and it was terrific. A really good film, great music, awesome choregraphy, good story and with Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron you can't really go wrong.

Today I am thankful for

completing a challenge I set myself even though I wanted to give up many times

I have another insallment of our holiday - our first full Disney day but I am going to take a break until after New Year's day before posting more. The photos are taking an age to resize and to be honest, I just want to scrap.

The rest of the holiday will follow in 2018. Thank you for bearing with these endless holiday reports and sticking with it - if you have.

Thursday 30th November 2017

Start time 7.10

Start miles 17168

End time 7.42

End miles 17182

Total miles travelled. 14

A magical first day

Well this was weather we had not seen before at Disney. IT was beautifully warm but still quite foggy. We were up early and went to breakfast at 7.15. It was our first experience of breakfast at Riverside Mill and it was a positive one. It was very busy, much busier than the Caribbean Beach had been, but it flowed smoothly and I loved my bounty platter. I was so lucky to be at Riverside. It was one of the few places on property that served French toast rather than waffles or pancakes.

We headed off promptly to the Magic Kingdom. We parked at the TTC and were planning to take the boat as this is our new tradition but somehow, because it was close and open, we ended up taking the monorail. The new system of bag check works so well. You are checked. Score you go on the transport at the TTC which seems to space things out much better. Like that idea.

We had opted to go to the Magic Kingdom today as it was closing at 4 for a cast party. We figured a lot of people wouldn't waste a park pass on the park as it was open for such a short time. Turns out we were right ... And some.

As we arrived I was thrilled to see the park decked out for Christmas, although it was still a little hazy for nice photos. I planned to return and get the shots I wanted later. See, I have patience sometimes. We stopped and had our photos taken. We have free Memory Maker this year and so it is a good chance to get some pictures of us together that are NOT awkward selfies. Some of them were even ok.

Having paused to watch the Trolley car show on Main Street (we also saw it later from Town Square) we headed round to Adventure land as we had 9.30 - 10.30 splash mountain fast passes. As we walked by the Jungle Cruise, with the festive overlay making it the JINGLE cruise of course, there was no queue, nothing, not even a little one. We walked straight on. Amazing. It was very good too. The jokes were seasonally cheesy and it was good to see it with a new overlay. And it was quiet – there were 8 of us in our boat and we were one of the busier boats!

We walked round to Splash Mountain and we walked right on. We didn't even use our fast pass, thinking we would ride it again within our hour time. I have never seen splash with no queue.

Sadly the ride stopped three times, twice for quite a lengthy period of time and resulting in the lights going on. It did restart and we did get soaked ... Far wetter than usual ... So although we still had our fast pass we decided not to use it. We headed round to pirates of the Caribbean and there was no queue for this either. And, as the photo pass pictures shows – we had a boat to ourselves! It was turning into quite a bizarre day. Three rides, all walk ons. Pirates was as good as always ... It is one of our favourite rides. We had some cool photo pass pictures taken there too.

Well all that fun and adventure left us peckish and it would be rude to be In Adventureland and NOT have dole whip. They had recently introduced dole whip on pineapple upside down cake. Rude not to try and it was delicious. The park was incredibly quiet, quieter than we have ever seen it. I am ashamed to say we have never ridden the magic carpets of Aladdin... Well we have now. Good fun.

We ambled back to Main Street as the fog had cleared, the sky was blue and the sun was hot. We watched the trolley car show, which was a lovely festive themed offering, and we took lots of pictures. The displays in Main Street were fabulous and I loved the Mickey shaped wreaths on the lampposts. We watched the trolley car show which was also beautifully seasonal and in all of this there were almost no crowds at all. It was uncanny. We even stopped and chatted to one of the citizens of Main Street and because I had my Mother of Cats T shirt on she meowed Jingle Bells to us.

We decided to stop at the Main Street bakery, now a Starbucks of course, and get a drink. As we were in the line I heard the castle show starting and so I left Nigel to wait and I went and stood in a quiet area, off to the side, and watched the show. It was really very good and when you put Anna, Elsa and Olaf together with Mickey and Minnie for one of the scenes then you pretty much have Disney perfection in my eyes. Nigel arrived just as it was ending ... I was so sad he had missed it.

We sat and drank our drinks and then heard the dulcet tones of the Move It Shake it parade. Nigel had never seen this all the way through before; I have no idea how I had seen it and I hadn't but life is like that. We watched the floats come round the hub and the music is just so infectious. We walked round the hub as the dance party continued and it was really joyous. The music is vibrant, they get everyone up and dancing, you get great views of and interaction with the characters... It is one of my favourite things in the Magic kIngdom, and as for the end ... Vamos ... We are singing it still.

The park was still ridiculously quiet and we walked round to Haunted Mansion. We did have a fast pass for this but In Fairness it was also very quiet. I still love this ride, especially the ballroom scene.

We looked round the shops, sat and people watched and then took our places for the parade in Liberty Square. I have to say that it was even quiet for the parade. There were places right at the front up until just before it started.

The festival of fantasy parade is wonderful. .love the music, love the gigantic floats, love the dancers. Take too many pictures. Always. But I am NOT going to post many here

We headed out to Fantasy Land and even that was quiet too. We saw Mickeys philharmagic and the. Rode the Barnstormer, Small World, The Mad Hatter teacups, under the sea with the little mermaid and Winnie the Pooh all with absolutely no wait at all. Finally we used our fast pass for seven dwarves even though there was pretty much only a ten minute wait there too. The quietest I am sure we would ever see the Magic Kingdom. By then it was time to head back to Main Street, take a few last pictures and exit the park. The only place we saw a line all day was the monorail.

We had always planned to do the hotel loop and see what each of the resorts had for Christmas. In the end we decided not to get off the monorail at the Contemporary due to how busy the monorail was and the fact the Contemporary was the wrong side of the TTC. We rode round to the Poly and had a lovely time. It was beautifully decorated and we enjoyed just wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. We then grabbed dinner at Captain Cooks and I will so be going to eat there again. It was fabulous. I had the noodles and it was like a pad Thai... Delicious.

From there we went to the Grand Floridian which was just gorgeous. The tree was amazing, the ambiance everywhere awesome and the gingerbread house was incredible. Would I like to stay there? No, and that isn't sour grapes because I cannot afford it. To me Florida and Disney isn't about getting all dressed up and staying somewhere fancy,it isn’t about valet parking and long walks to your room. It isn't about fancy dining, …nice to visit, but not us... Not at all.

We had an incident when we arrived as Nigel spilt some of his Diet Coke and a lady all poshed up in a long dress was beastly. If looks and glares could kill I would not be sat writing this blog. The other was when I was sat waiting for Nigel to exit the rest room. A girl about 14 had obviously tripped over an unattended wheelchair and hurt her ankle, oh my goodness, I had a ring side view as a senior cast member, a blue shirt, arrived, was berated, called for medics and I could see the law suit unfolding before my eyes. I felt sorry for the girl and she was hurt, though I doubt it was broken, but oh my. Someone somewhere was going to pay for that one.

We made our way back to the TTC and we were both moved to tears. The people were still arriving for the cast party and we watched them checking in and receiving their lanyards for 10, 15, 20 ... And even 35 year service lanyards. The people were all dressed up, many clutching their special gold envelopes and we were filled with gratitude for what these cast members do for guests every day. Nigel, who is so much braver than I, delighted I. Saying thank you and have a great evening to them all as we passed. He said they spent all of their time making others feel special they deserved to have it wished for them too. It moved us both to tears. What a magical end to a terrific Magical kingdom day. We went home truly believing in the magic.

There was even a little bit of magic in our room. I picked up my parcel from Foultons store and gave it To Nigel in the room. He had no idea I had had it personalised ... Or thankfully how much extra I had paid for it. A perfect end ... Our own little bit of magic to take home with us.