Thank you to you all for your kind wishes and lovely comments on last week’s post. If I could I would invite you all to the wedding but I’m tight so I won’t. That looks like it will be in 2020 by the way, which is a pleasingly long time off giving us some time to eBay our every possession to fund a wedding that a Russian Oligarch may find opulent (probably).
Louise has been working this weekend tending to the weeping sores and boils of the Bolton community which has meant that the enormous responsibility of putting the xmas decorations fell onto the shoulders of Emily and I. Louise normally does it as that is simpler than us doing it and then her re-doing it all shortly afterwards. She is quite particular about such things and to be fair it pays off as out tree always looks lovely.
So I did the wise thing and just did the heavy lifting of locating the tree, assembling it and moving around all the furniture to accommodate it in the nominated space. I then bowed out gracefully and left Emily to execute this year’s colour scheme.
She did well and the final result passed the ultimate test and not one bauble was moved. As we found the suitable baubles to match the instructed colours we did of course come across some blasts from the past.
The fact that a delicate bauble has survived pretty much intact in our house for fifteen years is a Christmas miracle. Some though have not fared quite so well and the ravages of time, so familiar to my aging body have not been kind.
Safe to say he did not make the tree this year. The theme was not shabby woolen tat.
Once complete Emily captured the dogs posing in front of it.
Don’t worry, they got the doggy treat Emily was dangling above them to get them to pose like that.
My four-day working weeks continue and it is lovely to think that I now only have eight more days at work until my long festive break. I may spend the entire fortnight in my dressing gown and a food coma.
As we move closer to Christmas then our holiday moves into sharper focus too. We’ll need to be getting our Disney park tickets early in the new year so that we are in position to do our FastPass + bookings in February. I think we’re going to go with one of those Magic Your Way things as we only have four days in Disney. Did I mention that we have a lot to cram in? Those 4 day hoppers are currently around £312 whereas a 14 day ultimate is about £100 more each. Normally I like to have the flexibility to be able to pop into to Disney at any time but with time so tight and the price difference it just isn’t worth it.
We can pick up the Universal tickets just before we leave with no such incentive to have them 60 days before we get there. I wonder how long it will be before they cotton on to that.
By the way, after I highlighted the cabana nonsense a couple of weeks ago, did anyone see the news about the “express” bus service being offered at WDW? $15 a day per person to get some sort of VIP experience. Now, we always hire a car, as that independence is really important to us, plus we like to venture out and about off site a lot and to be honest I like driving over there in what is usually a lovely motor. So the thought of paying extra for that sort of thing is not something we’d ever do, but it’s another extra earner that doesn’t really feel right to me. Is anyone thinking of using that?
From what I’ve read one thing that might be worth using the service for is that they intend to go through some backstage areas to speed up journeys. That might be interesting to see, but I doubt it will be taking a route through anywhere too interesting or sensitive. For a family of four, I’d venture that for $60 a day you could Uber your way around the parks, could you not? Anyway, I suppose if some people do use this new thing it will lessen the load on the normal service which may be helpful.
Anyway, time to go and walk several animals and then think about what is for tea. Louise has been taking it easy at work all weekend but she’ll expect to be fed when she gets in.
Till the next time……
Mkingdon's Blog 
Rumour has it the 14 day ultimate will be dropping in price dramatically at the turn of the year. £290 was on offer for one day last week. If that’s where they drop to again then that will be cheaper than your 4 day hopper.
That would be nice!!
tbh I would actually use the new express bus service, at least for MK – the walk from the further away bus stands there to the park entrance in blazing heat doesn’t create a good start to my day, and is even worse at the end of a long tiring day, and this type of holiday has enough walking in it so i’m all for shortcuts
That makes sense and I guess it will all depend on how MUCH quicker/nearer it works out to be. We’ve only used the buses once on a trip and ended up hiring a car for the second week, so it’s clearly not for us, express or not 🙂
The express service is only for going from one park to another. It will save some time during peak times as you won’t have to go through bag check again at the next park or queue for ages to get in. If you use the express service for your length of stay its only $24 per person.. so then not bad for 14 days worth… The buses will use the same route that the vip tour buses currently use so you won’t see anything you are not supposed to see.
Thanks John, that’s helpful to hear from someone who knows what’s going on, unlike myself! 🙂