So we both started the day pretty early; jet lag hit us both! I tried to counteract this by going to bed later, but it did not help! I woke up at 0600 (1100 UK time), and Mum woke up around 0700, which is not too bad for her! Our first stop today was heading to Walmart, and as usual, it was awesome! The only problem is we kept buying… We ended up having to buy a big sports bag to get our shopping from the Uber to the room! Insane really! We spent $271… oh dear!! Here are some pictures from today’s shop.

As usual, we couldn’t help ourselves!! With that done, at least we have everything we need for our two-week break, we will probably have to head back at some point! For the earlier part of the afternoon, we just relaxed and had lunch, which was nice. For the rest of the afternoon we headed to City Walk and had a walk around! Mum hadn’t been and felt slightly out of our element! We jumped on the free bus and headed over

I hadn’t been there since January, and clearly, they are doing a lot of work there! I assume this is because of the new theme park, Epic Universe, which will open in May next year. We went there to see what restaurants they have there so we could pick a few to go with. I have decided to go to the Italian restaurant for my birthday on Thursday as I love Italian food! We booked a table for 1900!

We had a walk around and found plenty of choices! The plus side here is we can take the bus from the hotel to City Walk for free, so we won’t even have to get an Uber. We will, of course, explore other parts of Orlando, don’t you worry! Speaking of Epic Universe, they have a preview of the theme park and stock you can buy, which, of course, I did! I got a cushion star, which reverses and turns into an item box (only those who play Mario would understand!) and a Luigi cup! Here are a few pictures.

Epic Universe looks awesome, and I cannot wait to explore it. Unfortunately, America will not be on the cards next year! So my trip will have to wait! Finally, we decided where we would have dinner, and there was a great pizza place called Red Oven Pizza Bakery, where they make the pizzas fresh! Here are the pizza’s we had:

I managed to eat all mine! Mum had to save some for tomorrow! After finishing dinner, we returned to the hotel and chilled for the rest of the evening. We are heading to The Florida Mall tomorrow as the weather looks quite naff! So join us again tomorrow!

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!

Today marked my last shift at work, too, so I had to temper my excitement as I had to focus on my job. So now, I am sitting in my room drinking a cup of tea, with no shifts left to do, wondering where that time has gone! I am already starting to feel my excitement rise just sitting here and typing this out!

Over the past few days, I have been making last-minute preparations for my holiday! First, I bought some plugs that work in the US, so I can charge my devices at the hotel and use any UK devices I need; I also purchased some trainer socks because socks and shorts are not a great look!

I have been chatting with some experienced Orlando/Florida holiday staff members while working this week and have learnt a great deal along the way, so thanks to my colleagues who helped guide me and point me in the right direction, it has alleviated my stress a little!! I had a call from the TUI rep in Orlando this afternoon; I found it a bit weird that a Florida number appeared on my phone! However, she sounded super friendly and helpful.

As I fill with excitement, I can’t help but feel nervous too! As I have said, I have never travelled this far before, so I am left wondering what it will be like and if I am missing anything. Also, I have never actually been to an Airport aside from work, so I am also worried about check-in and security; I have been trying to work out how long it will take to get through security and the people I spoke to said about 3 hours, so I will need to make sure I leave my hotel at a decent time to head to the airport.

Then, of course, there is the worry about what I need to do when I get there, I have transport from the airport to my hotel, but I am worried that I will miss them or if I go in the wrong direction. I guess this is all natural to worry about, but I wanted to pencil my feelings down! But overall, I am really excited and can’t wait to get there!

Over the weekend, I’ll be posting blogs about my packing process and taking some pics along the way to look out for that! Please, as ever, if you have any advice, then let me know; I am all ears!

See you tomorrow!