Rachel's Next Adventure

I was recently (finally!) recontracted at work - meaning i'm not a full weekend worker anymore! I switched my Sunday to a Monday and i've basically cried tears of happiness ever since. Just under four years of working all weekend was a bit of a killer, especially with my fiancé's only days off being Saturday and Sunday! But now we finally have a day off together and I can't wait to get out and rediscover the area we live in! Beamish We've never been here together! And neither of us have been since School so we're looking forward to looking around (eating cinder toffee) , taking photographs (eating cinder toffee) and spending the day together (eating cinder toffee) . Blue Reef Aquarium My fiancé has wanted to go here for a while, but with it's early closing time we've never been able to with not having a full day off together. South Shields We've not been here for years! With never having a day off together we'v...

My fiancé and I saw The Secret Life Of Pets last night, here is his review. The Secret Life of Pets, by the same people who brought you Despicable Me and Minions, is a CGI-animated movie about a dog named Max who gets taken in by a woman named Katie in her apartment in Manhattan. Max is friends with all the other local pets who hang around with each other when their owners aren't around. The title and strap-line of the movie (Ever wonder what your pets do when you're not home) is a little misleading because there is nothing to signal that the actions in the movie represent a normal day for the characters, although the events apparently do take place during one day. Max has his life turned upside down when a new dog named Duke gets taken in by Katie and Max gets jealous and starts being mean about Duke, who then starts being mean to Max in return, which results in a trip to the park where they both lose their collars and end up caught and going to the pound....

Hakuna Matata I was really upset to find out before my DLP Trip that this would be closed during our entire stay! Hakuna Matata is probably my favourite place to eat at Disneyland Paris now after the food at Cafe Hyperion and Casey's Corner changed between a couple of my trips (they're really not as nice as they used to be). Hakuna Matata is a small restaurant in Adventureland and its only really open in high season, which is a shame because the food is so nice! They have two indoor seating areas - one side named after Timon and the other after Pumbaa. Café Hyperion Cafe Hyperion is the biggest restaurant in the parks and is open every day. It stays open until around park closing time meaning it's the easiest place to grab a bite to eat while you're in the parks. I don't like how it's been rethemed to Star Wars, I miss watching Disney/Pixar shorts and the Lion King Show, but I guess if you have a small Star Wars fan, they probably enjoy watch...

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Just a small, quick update with our Japan trip planning - it's really not going very well if i'm honest! Tokyo Disneyland We still can't book our tickets yet! Just two weeks to go! Hotel Sunny Nippori Is now available! So we'll be cancelling our final night hotel and switching to Hotel Sunny because its right next door to Nippori Station and the hotel rooms are lovely. Plans We've still got a couple of slow days on the schedule but we've added Kamakura, Kawagoe and Yokohama to the list, along with Sanrio Puroland. Here is the timetable so far, but it still needs a lot of adjusting and finalising. We've been so busy with work and dealing with the house on top of June being a really busy month with my birthday, trip to Disneyland Paris and Sunnycon all in the space of two weeks. Yen Up to now we only have around £400 worth changed into Yen, but its still a couple of months away! PASMO I found out Pasmo cards so we'r...

Last year my fiancé ordered our Tokyo Disneyland tickets from the official website, but as they don't ship to the UK we had to order through a website called Tenso. My fiancé has written up a guide to help you use Tenso for any of your Japan shopping needs! Tenso ­- A guide So, say you want to order some stuff from Japan, only to find that you can’t get the items delivered to your country as they only deliver within Japan! This is quite a common occurrence, especially if you are ordering things like tickets to Tokyo Disneyland. Thankfully, that’s where Tenso come in! http://tenso.com/en/ A brief overview of the services The way Tenso works is they give you a Japanese address to send your items to, then when they receive them, you confirm the items in your Tenso account, pay the shipping from Tenso to your country and then they send your item(s) to you. They even offer a package consolidation service so you can get multiple packages delivered t...

My favourite thing I bought, well, my fiancé bought me for my birthday, was the Limited Edition Original Hipster Mickey Vinylmation, I knew I needed it the minute it was released! I have three of the Jerrod Maruyama Hipster Mickey prints already, and i'm definitely a huge fan of this series! I just wish more of it was available in Disneyland Paris. I sadly only bought two Vinylmation figures other than the Hipster Mickey as Disney are starting to phase them out in favour of Tsum Tsums. I much prefer Vinylmation to Tsums and pins! We got 11 pins and have started a small collection of them! I want to get a nice display board for them, but my first aim is to get a pin map board, i've wanted one for ages but still haven't bought one! It's currently sat in my Amazon basket with two extra boxes of pins. I finally got the Mickey head cupcake mould! I can't wait to try that out! We also got the cookie cutter set, my Mam used it when she was decorating ...

Sorry, like yesterday's post, i'm writing this on the night of June 19th and I'm basically falling asleep as I write it. Highlights of the weekend - Hanging out with friends! - Michael's bidding war! - People wanting photos of me in my cosplay! - Buying nice, new things! - Having the weekend off work in general! Sunday's Video! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

I know this is a written blog, but in all honesty, I am way too tried after this weekend to write a lot about what happened, so here is the video from the Saturday of Sunnycon 5! It was the first time i've cosplayed and I cosplayed as Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6, i'll be posting a blog post about my cosplay and putting it together in the next few weeks! Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

We stayed at Disney's Hotel New York for the first time from June 5th to June 9th and I thought i'd take a moment to let you all know about our stay! Firstly, you can see a video tour of our first room below! We stayed in room 2209 in Gramercy Park, and the room was absolutely beautiful! So spacious and not the worst view, I suppose, I've had worse views from other hotels. Our room was in a pretty good location, easy and quick access to breakfast, reception, the concierge and the hotel shop, we didn't use the pool or any of the other facilities. When we arrived into our room, we did hit our first problem with the hotel - the lock on our door wasn't working! We stopped by the reception desk who told us they'd send someone up and we could go out to the parks, but when we returned a few hours later we found that no one had been! Another trip to reception and we were told we'd need to be in this time (i'm guessing it's because our lugga...

Just like last year, i've decided to share my birthday cake with you all! I didn't seem to take any full view photographs last year but I have this year! And once again, my cake is Disney themed! My Mam ordered the print online and made the Mickey head decorations with my Mickey cookie cutters - including the ones on the outside of the cake, which she outlined with the icing pens I bought to design my brother's 16th birthday cake. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

Our last day in Disneyland Paris, for this trip anyway. We made it to Extra Magic Hours, although, not for 8am as we did our last bits of packing before we headed out to the park. During EMH we rode Buzz three times and my fiancé went on Space Mountain while I bought a few last things. We then headed back to the hotel after EMH so pack the last things we bought and put our cases into luggage storage before checking out of the hotel. We then headed straight back out to the park, stopping for lunch at Cafe Hyperion first before riding Its A Small World, Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, Pirates of the Caribbean - twice, and then heading over for our last ride - one last ride on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast, the queue was showing at 25min, but as we started to enter the stand by line, the cast member guarding the ride stopped us and gave us two Fast Passes to use there and then! I couldn't believe it! There's been so much extra magic on this trip, I really can'...

Our last full day! We skipped EMH for a bit of extra sleep and headed down to Walt Disney Studios just after 9:30am. I got into the Ratatouille Stand-by line and my fiancé headed to the fast pass line, by the time he got our FP tickets I was about to get into the indoor queuing area so left the queue as there was no way he'd be able to catch up to me by then, so he had a ride on Crush's Coaster while I wandered into a couple of shops before our Fast Pass time at around 10:45am. After our ride we opted for an early lunch at Restaurant en Coulisse before heading back over to Disneyland Parc. We went on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast, then my fiancé went on Space Mountain and then as we headed back towards the Castle a lovely cast member named Ludovic was painting a Pizza Planet Alien on the ground! We stayed to watch - the only people who did!, and he asked if we wanted to see Stitch too! It was so magical, it felt like he was literally doing it just for us beca...

We made it to Extra Magic Hours again today, although, not exactly at 8am! We headed on Buzz Lightyears Laser Blast and my fiancé had another ride on Space Mountain. We then headed up into the Castle to look around and take some photographs before taking a ride on Pinocchio and Mad Hatter's Tea Cups before heading back to the hotel to change into shorts - it was so hot today! Even before 10am! We got back to the parks around 10:40am and headed into Walt Disney Studios, by this time all the fastpasses were gone and the stand by line for Ratatouille was showing at 75min! We decided to skip it and head over again the next morning as it's really not worth queuing for that long! We went onto the Studio Tram Tour and visited a few shops before getting something to eat at Restaurant En Coulisse and heading back over to Disneyland Parc. Once we were in Disneyland Parc we took two rides on Buzz Lightyears Laser Blast, Pirates of the Caribbean and Phantom Manor before do...

Up early this morning! We managed to make it down to breakfast just after 7am! I found the breakfast at the Hotel New York disappointing, and as they didn't have any smooth orange juice I never went back, opting for crisps and coke in the room and a extra half an hour of sleep while my fiancé got up early and went down to breakfast every morning. After breakfast we went straight down to Disneyland Parc for Extra Magic Hours where we managed to get on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast twice, and my fiancé went on to Space Mountain while I wandered around the old, neglected part of Discoveryland and took a few photos with Wall E and Eve. Now that i've looked at my notes for what we got done during EMH i'm beginning to think we might not have made it to the parks/breakfast as early as I thought! Once the Park officially opened we headed over onto Les Pays des Contes de Fées and the Casey Jr  ride over in Storybook Land before heading over to Pirates of the Caribbean a...

Our flight was later than our usual flight choice departing at 11:50am as I finish work at 9pm on a Saturday night, the 6am flight just wasn't going to happen! We got to the airport in good time and did the usual - Burger King for lunch and a trip into the Namco Arcade before heading to WHSmith to pick up some drinks and do some last minute snack shopping (I know, I know, its cheaper to buy before you go to the airport! But Nik Naks always tempt me while i'm in departures!) we'd already bought cherry drops before heading to the airport so we were already set for something to stop our ears popping. Not long before our gate was due to be announced, we found that our flight had been delayed for around 40min! :( The time dragged, but eventually we got on our plane! The flight went quick and it wasn't long before we had finally arrived in Paris! We rushed and caught the next magical shuttle (previously the VEA) to our hotel - the Hotel New York! We ch...

Today, I turned 25. I can't help but feel overwhelmed about how old i'm getting. Theres still so much I want to do and so much of the world I want to see. Follow this blog on BlogLovin' Like us on Facebook

With the weather forecast showing a lovely average of 20-24ºC during my trip (although, the forecast is changing practically every time I refresh accuweather!) I thought i'd better think about what I need to pack for my trip (writing this pre-trip!) this time round as its been quite a while since I visited during the summer! This is my list for Christmas/Winter trips so if you're not heading over in the summer, we've still got you covered with a packing list! :) Shorts Even if it's just one pair because you know how quickly the weather/forecast can change. You want to have a pair of shorts, and trainer socks for those days when it gets unexpectedly hot and sunny! Suncream* I guess this one depends on how much you burn, but its a must in high summer even if you're just using a low factor. Paris gets a lot hotter and a higher UV rating than we get over here in the UK. Spare Socks For those days it rains and you rush back to the hotel for...

Hello Kitty Cakes! It was a horrible rainy day last Wednesday, so on my way home from work I picked up a bag of cake mix (I know, I know, but I was too tired to make a mix from scratch!) and rushed home to make a set of cakes in my new Hello Kitty cake mould I ordered from eBay!. I also picked up some Wilton Cake Release from Amazon (next day delivery with Prime!) and its an absolute must have when using a silicone cake mould like this - I actually forgot to use it on the second batch so i'll show you why you NEED to use it later on in this post. Instructions - Prep. cake mix. Coat the mould with cake release. Pour in mix. Bake for approx 12-16min at 180ºC. So here is the cute mould - not bad for £2.99, right? Here was my first attempt This is what happens when you don't use cake release And here is one from the last set The mould isn't very stable (the top two won't stand and will tilt forward) so y...