It was a relatively chill day today, really. I did most of my packing yesterday but had a few things to do today! I did struggle to sleep last night. I think I have pre-travel jitters, but I know I will be fine when we get there, so I only had about five hours of sleep, which isn’t brilliant! First things first, a trip to Lakeside!

As I said yesterday, my parents told me of a surprise birthday and Christmas present: a MacBook Air! They bought it for me, and today I went and got it! So I left home around 0915 and made good time to Lakeside. I got there in about 35 minutes! First things first, it was time for a coffee! As many of you know, I love my coffee, and Starbucks is my favourite, so I sat there and grabbed my first Christmas drink: Toffee Nut Latte. It was awesome! I sat there, took in the atmosphere, and actually really began to relax, which is impressive as I have struggled the last few weeks!

Once I had enjoyed my coffee, I headed to the Apple Store to pick up my MacBook Air! The staff were really friendly and helpful! After that, I headed to M&S as I needed to grab lunch as mum was heading to my sister-in-law’s baby shower, as my sister-in-law is due at the end of December. Here is a picture of the table!

Mum was there the whole time, and it lasted about three hours! I headed home and started to set up my MacBook Air. Let me tell you, it is fantastic! I love it! It will help massively with updating my blog for our trip and doesn’t make a racket! I spent 3 hours setting everything up! During that time, the final bits arrived for my pack: my facewash and a pair of swimming shorts as I will need them this time for Discovery Cove, and I WANT to go to the swimming pool on site as I missed out last time due to self-image issues, I will push myself to go there this time!

When Mum returned, we checked into our hotel room for tomorrow at Hilton Garden Inn; we are on the 4th floor, so, look forward to a room tour tomorrow! With that out of the way, I was finally done! I packed everything and triple-checked that I had everything. I will do a final check tomorrow before we leave for the hotel! We had dinner, and I had a fairly chilled evening!

And with that, we are ready to go! We are flight-ready, packed, have all our documents, and are ready to go! I cannot believe how quickly this has come up! It feels like yesterday I was saying 100 days to go! Tomorrow will be my pre-travel day. I will take you with us as we head to the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow, where we will be ready for our flights!

Let’s do this!!

So, I had a nice leisurely day today! I can feel the excitement building up in me now! Although weirdly, I also feel a bit scared. It’s strange, I have already been to Orlando twice now, and I already know what it is like! So, I’m not sure why I feel this! But still, we need the break, and we are both looking forward to it!

Both Mum and I did our packing today, too! We both got our suitcases out and started to put things together. Luckily, I have some experience now, so it wasn’t too bad, and Mum didn’t struggle too much either! First things first, we went on a trip to Sainsbury’s to get some last-minute stuff; I needed some pyjamas and toiletries, and Mum just needed some toiletries. We got a small pint of milk for the hotel, too, so we could have a cup of tea when we got to our first hotel on Sunday!

With that all done, it was time to pack! I mainly had everything I needed to do it; I just needed a few things washed, so I did that while we were packing! I have some experience these days, but it is still not great! Here’s my attempt:

And this is Mum packing! She seems to be doing a better job than me!!

With that done, we packed our carry-ons and what we wanted to take with us on the plane and to the hotel on Sunday night! We used the same bags as last time, which were perfect. I also updated my laptop, which I will explain later; I didn’t need to do it!!

As you can see, Mum has two bags; as mentioned before, we are flying with Virgin Atlantic, and this time, we are going premium, allowing us to take two bags of 23kg per person! So Mum is using the case she used in September last year for some stuff and a new big case! This will allow us to take more goodies back with us, as last time we struggled! If needed, I will get a new suitcase out there, but we believe Mum’s small one will be enough!

While we were doing that, I went through and printed off our travel insurance documents, our ESTA’s which I had to renew this year, Mum’s was fine though, and finally, the accommodation details. This time, we booked through Attraction Tickets as they are apparently Universial’s UK partners! They have not failed us before! We wanted paper copies to make sure! We ensured we both had our passports and were pretty much done! I also finished off the Fly Ready stuff needed for our flights on Virgin Alantic’s website, which basically required me to put where we’d be staying for the 2 weeks, which I assume is for US border and customs.

We were undoubtedly quicker this time, and that’s for sure; we are slowly becoming seasoned! We had dinner, pizza, which was nice and settled in for the night! Now, on to the surprise! Mum and Dad bought me a MacBook Air for my birthday!! As you might know, it’s my birthday next week so it was a present surprise when they told me they’d got it! So tomorrow, I head to Lakeside to pick it up! So I didn’t really need to update my laptop as I’ll be taking my MacBook Air! It will undoubtedly make updating my blog easier, and I have always wanted one! So thank you, Mum and Dad!!

So that’s packing day 1 done! I am about to head to bed, ready for day two. Tomorrow, I’ll be packing the last few things, such as the toiletries I am currently using and some clothes I have ordered. Plus, I’ll be heading to Lakeside to pick up my MacBook Air, so join me tomorrow for part two!

So, let’s get started, shall we? I have learned a lot from my holiday in January, so this process was slightly more straightforward than when I first did it! I started the day downloading all the movies and TV shows I wanted to watch on the flight out there on my new Samsung Tab S9+. This helped me during January’s flight! I have had to pack today as I am working three days from tomorrow, so best be prepared!

Next up, I got my suitcase back out, battered from the last flight. As you can see from the picture above, I still have my old luggage tags in my case; it just reminded me of my holiday in January! I checked the netted part and realised my Apple Tag had run out of battery, so it was time to head to Sainsbury’s to get a new one.

It was a scorching day today; I guess the weather is preparing me for Orlando! Anyway, while I was here, I got toiletries for the trip. I learned something from my last holiday and didn’t buy big bottles, just the travel minis. It was 3 for 2, so it saved me a few pounds!

Much better, eh? I am starting to look like a proper traveller now! So I got a clear bag to fit them in and have everything I need for the hotel on Friday and the initial day in Orlando. We have plans to visit Wal-Mart when we arrive, but it’ll depend on how late we get into Orlando and how tired we are!

Next, it was time to do some washing. I had to wash my shorts, shirts and a few more bits of underwear. Luckily, it was warm enough today that they dried pretty quickly! Now that I had done that, I put my pants, socks, and then my shirts into my suitcase. It feels much lighter this time, but I guess I don’t have two weeks’ worth of clothes because we are only going for one week! It should help us bring some goodies back!

The next part was me putting my towel in, as the ones at the hotel (at least in Adventurer) were too small. I placed it in the second compartment along with my swim shorts (I will bypass my fear!), sunglasses from last time and my body puff for cleaning. The toiletries will be put into my hand luggage for the hotel on Friday then I will put them in my suitcase so there are no problems at the airport! I also put a few spare clothes in my carry-on, so I have spares in case my bag goes missing.

I haven’t fully packed my carry-on bag yet; I will do that on Friday morning before we go to the hotel. We are staying at the Hampton by Hilton Hotel on the North Terminal at Gatwick Airport, recommended by a staff member. We have twin doubles (better than the other one we had booked, which was just single twins) and breakfast included, so we don’t need to stress about getting on our flight!

Well that’s my packing done! I had an email from TUI yesterday confirming that our flights were planned and ready, which means they won’t be affected by the air traffic control outage experienced last week, so that was good to hear! Also, our rep emailed us who will stay at the hotel should we need support, which is great!

I can’t believe we are so close now!! It felt like yesterday that I booked this surprise holiday for Mum, and with everything she has been through since her brain bleed, we weren’t even sure we’d be going! But thanks to Addenbrookes, who saved Mum’s life, Mum can enjoy a relaxing holiday in a place she has always wanted to go! I have three more shifts to do; then I will be ready! I am getting excited now! I just got to push through 36 hours!

So that’s it for now! Today, I managed to get my packing done and ready. Friday, I will finish my carry-on luggage. We are prepared to go! My next blog will be Friday evening at the hotel in the UK for Pre-Travel Day, so I look forward to it!

So this morning, I got up and finished off. Firstly I took a trip to Sainsbury’s to get some essentials. Then, I got myself some pyjamas for the trip. It was quite a stressful morning as the stress was piling up.

Basically, I bought a lot of toiletries that I thought I could take, but upon reading official sites and the TSA website, I discovered I couldn’t take some of the stuff I bought, not even in the hold luggage. So I got stressed and had a bit of a moment. After speaking to my folks, however, it eased my mind a bit! So this is what I bought:

What I found out during my research is that in America, the TSA (which is like our border force) will only allow you to take a cumulative amount of liquids in your hold luggage; that limit was 1 litre, so of course, combined with my mouth wash, shampoo and shower gel (not pictured) I hit that limit, and of course, this stressed me out as I really don’t want something a simple as that causing me trouble at the airport! I also found you can’t have any deodorant, which makes sense as it is flammable. So when I get to America, I will have to make a quick trip to Walmart for these essentials! Who’d of thought it’d be so stressful to pack? I even found out you can’t even put an electric toothbrush in your hold luggage due to the battery, so it’ll have to go into my hand luggage to be scanned, which will be ok! Correct me if I am wrong, though; it’s all new to me!!

Alongside the day mum bought me lunch to celebrate my holiday, we got a Five Guys delivered, which was quite a nice treat after getting so stressed out! After that, I relaxed a bit and focused on my packing. First, I added my pyjamas and some of the stuff I bought. I placed them in a bag and put them in my suitcase. I also grabbed charger cables for my iPhone and iPad alongside my razer blades and electric toothbrush head and placed them in the zipped pocket.

After the stressful morning, I have finally completed my packing. I think I got everything; I literally went through this about three times to ensure I have everything I need!! If I miss anything, I’ll have to grab it in America or the airport’s departure lounge.

With the stress of the day, I did have good news: my bid was successful, and I have been upgraded to economy delight, which gives me more legroom and priority check-in. I picked my new seat with this upgrade; I was torn on which one to have. I had the option of a window seat or even more legroom at the front of the bay. In the end, I chose to sit in the window seat so I could get some awesome pictures of take-off and landing for my memory and this blog too! If you were wondering, I bid £70 for the upgrade, which seemed reasonable! I am really getting excited now!! So here is my case, all zipped up and ready to go for Tuesday!!

Finally, to top off the day, my brother and sister-in-law Facetimed me to wish me well for my journey; we had an excellent 30-minute chat about my trip and how they were getting on. They reassured me a lot, so now I can start to get excited. Of course, there are a few things I am worried about, but I am sure as I go through the process, I’ll understand it a bit more!!

Tomorrow I will be blogging about my Pre-Travel day here. As I said, tomorrow’s plan would be for me to go to the Premier Inn on Bath Road, which is outside Heathrow Terminal 3, which will make the travel day more manageable as I can grab an Uber from the hotel to Heathrow. Shout out to my Dad, who is driving me there tomorrow!

See you tomorrow! Time to get excited!!!

First things first, let’s get my suitcase and open it up! As I said at the beginning, I am very new to long-haul holidays, and what I need to pack, I chose this suitcase as it had good reviews and stated it was big enough for two weeks holiday, plus it’s red, and that is my favourite colour!

I have also activated my Apple AirTag and placed it in the netted part of the suitcase this is so that I can keep an eye on my case in case it goes missing and to make sure it’s in the right place! I chose the AirTag because it connects to iPhones worldwide. In America, they mostly use iPhones due to the iMessage feature to communicate, so it should be easily located should it get lost!

So now that the basics are sorted, it’s time for me to begin packing! I am taking a bigger towel with me, as usually hotel towels are pretty small! I started packing my pants and socks, ensuring I counted as I went. At least at the Aventura hotel, they have washing facilities, so I can wash stuff if I am short! You can see my blue towel at the back there! I need to write a list to ensure I have everything I need! I also have some trainer socks there for my shorts as socks and shorts don’t go!!

Now finally, today, I need to pack my shirts; I found out while I was doing this that I have primarily black shirts!! So will probably warm up like an oven while I am out there, but oh well! While doing this, I ensured I had enough clothes for the next few days, which would be pretty embarrassing!! I folded my shirts so all 14 shirts would fit on the right-hand side of the case. That way, I can leave the top part with other things I need, like chargers, wash bags and so on! I think it looks pretty neat! I have also added my travel adaptors to the netted bit of the suitcase.

This took me most of the morning, with me being inexperienced, but I think it turned out alright; I had some family come around in the afternoon. Hence, I could not do all of it, but tomorrow I need to head out to the supermarket for the last few bits I need, like pyjamas and some wash stuff to take with me. So join me tomorrow for part two!! I am getting excited now! My Auntie and Uncle gave me some solid advice for managing my trip next week which has helped reduce my stress a little! Also, weirdly I had an email from British Airways saying I am booked on their flight which is weird as they cancelled my flight in September. I have checked my Virgin Atlantic ticket, and it shows me on that flight, so god knows what will happen on Tuesday! I don’t feel too stressed, as it will work itself out in the end!

Anyway, thanks for following along – see you tomorrow for part two!