Hi Guys!

I've had such a busy few months and I'm just getting back into updating my blog so I thought the best way to get back into things would be a simple update on some new Disney items I've added to my ever growing collection this month, as it was my birthday at the start of the month I am lucky enough to have lots to share with you all, where possible I have included details on where to buy, hope you enjoy!

Fist of all, it would be wrong not to share this wonderfully unique gift from my sister, its a custom Funko pop vinyl figure, which was made for me by a lady called Penelope in Canada. I was totally not expecting this at all, and as a huge collector of pop figures i was really impressed with the quality and detail, especially the little Duffy dressed as Stitch.

As it was a gift I'm not sure what the cost of this was, but if you'd like to look at more of her work she does have an Etsy store called Nerdmitage, which you can find here!



Next up is this beautiful Peter Pan ornament, which was a gift from my dad, again this was a totally unexpected gift but I am so happy with it, i was lucky enough to get a Peter Pan traditions figure for Christmas so it looks like I am building up quite the collection of memorabilia of my favourite lost boy. This is from a company called Nao, and each piece is made in Spain. It's not something I had ever seen before and not a style I may have chosen personally, but i think it's beautiful and something I will really treasure, its currently on Nao's website for £114.75 and can be found here!



As I mentioned before February happens to also be my birth month, so imagine my excitement when it not only fell on a Tsum tsum Tuesday, but that the theme this month was Pixar! The February tsum tsums were a mix of 2 Pixar films, A bug's life, and Wall-E, luckily I am a fan of both films, so couldn't resist the opportunity to take a trip to the Disney store on my birthday and collect the whole set, they are £3 each, and I was able to use my DLP dream Annual pass to get a 10% discount, so happy birthday me!



Two more Funko pops joined my ever growing collection this month, the Fantastic Kylo Ren from Star Wars, which was a gift from my friend Lottie, and this adorable Flik which I picked up at the Cheltenham True Believers Comic Festival, I am so happy with both of them, and though I'm running out of space to display them I cant wait to get the others from each series to go with them.



While visiting the True Believers Comic festival I was also lucky enough to meet a fellow Disney fan who is also an amazing Cosplayer, Tris Trinket, or @magicandmouse on twitter, it was so nice to meet someone with so many similar interests and someone fairly local too. Though we didn't get much time to chat we got on great and I was even gifted these two hair bows as a birthday present, thanks again so much! If you're interested in seeing what she gets up to you can find her site here.



Finding Dory was the one film i really wanted most for my birthday this year, luckily after being generous enough to pay for a custom pop figure, my sister knew how much I wanted this film and picked it up for me too. It was the sequel I felt Nemo deserved and although it was a long time coming it was definitely worth the wait. Out of the new characters in the series the baby sea Otters are probably my favourite, though I really liked Hanks character and what he brought to the film, can't wait to snuggle up and have a cosy night in watching this one.



Another purchase from the Disney store, a gift from my lovely friend Eleanor this animators plush of Kristoff from frozen, I had been eyeing up the animator dolls when they first came out with the frozen set but decided it wasn't something i had the money of space to collect, so when I got the chance to take this plush home it was an obvious yes, full retail price is £14.99 but I believe most stores have them on sale at £10 right now so a great time to grab one.



Another gift from my friend Mclovin is this beautiful Disney villains colouring book, the pages look amazing and I've picked out some of my favourites below, cannot wait to get cracking on this one.



And that's about it for now, there are some more items I will be sharing with you shortly, so if you like what you've seen so far be sure to check back for part two =)

Hi guys!

So its quickly approaching the end of February already and that can only mean one thing, the Disneyland Paris 25th anniversary is now less than 50 days away! I'm sure im not the only one who is starting to get really excited now, and this week the buzz has started building in the parks to as the first of the new merch hits the shelves.

I've been keeping up to date with the merchandise through ED92 and Disneyland berry and thought it would be a good time to share my wishlist with you all, I'm sure more stuff will appear between now and April, and I'm equally sure I'll end up spending a LOT more than I intend to, but that's half the fun no?

Please note; the pictures used in this post are not mine and have all come from ED92 and Disneyland Berry!

1. 25th Duffy and Shellie May plush - Now I'm actually lucky enough to have known a few people who were in the parks on the first day everything went on sale, so I have secured a Duffy already and hopefully he'll be with me shortly, but I'm crossing everything that when i get to the parks in April there's still a Shellie May left for me, i adore their varsity style jacked and love the bright colours, I've recently got my hands on a 20th Duffy in the same style so can't wait to have them all together.

   
2. Autograph book - this one wasn't an automatic in for me, I spent a while convincing myself I needed it, having just got a new autograph book for season of the force which has plenty of space I was reluctant to shell out for a new one, but the more I look at it the more I'm convinced it will be one of my first purchases, basically it's just beautiful, I love steampunk Mickey and Minnie, and I'm a sucker for all things metallic/shiny/glittery, not sure how i'll decide which book to use when, but it's a certain purchase.



3. 25th T-shirt - I'm torn on this one, I know I want one, I'm just not sure which one yet, and I don't think I'll make my decision for definite until seeing them in person in April but these are the two that have really caught my attention, they're from the "sporty" range, and i really like the colours, I wear dress down at work every Friday and love to use it as an opportunity to show my Disney side, just wondering if grey is a better option for the office!

           
4.Photo Frame - Until 2016 I'd never bought a photo frame from DLP before, and now, well now I'm a bit obsessed with them! They're such good quality and great way to show off your treasured memories, I love the bright colours and the steam punk costumes so hopefully if i can get a good picture of Mickey and Minnie in their 25th outfits, this frame will be coming home with me.


5. Train set - probably the least realistic item on my list is the new train set, again its in the same bright blue colour scheme as the rest of the items I've chosen, and has images of the characters on the carriages. It's 129.99 and something I can't really explain why I need to own, i just do! I've been eyeing up the Christmas version for a few years so maybe this will be the year i finally crack, though getting it home may be a problem.


What about you guys? Got any of the new 25th stuff on your wish list? Drop me a comment and let me know what you're thinking of buying on your next trip!

I'm really lucky that I have so many people in my life I can share my love of Disney with, but one of the people I enjoy sharing it with most is my Niece! And it's not only Disney we share an interest in, we're both big Lego fans, so recently bought the Lego Princess Anna and Kristoff's Sleigh play set and built it together.

The set retails for around £19.99 - £24.99 in most toy stores and supermarkets, but due to a miss labelling we managed to pick it up in our local branch of Toys R Us for £16.67, bargan!

The set was quite simple and features Oaken's trading post, Anna Kristoff Sven and his sleigh, and has approx. 175 pieces, it's kit number 41066 for anyone who's interested, in total it took about 30 mins to construct with my niece doing most of the work, so a great little set that's not too complex for younger master builders.

Here are some pictures of the finished article.

 

If you'd like to see how we put the set together, click here to check out our first construction video!

What do you think? Are you a Lego fan, or a Master Builder yourself, I'd love to hear from you what sets you're building or wishing for!

Welcome back to the third and final part of the Run Disney series for 2016's inaugural Disneyland Paris half marathon weekend if you've missed them, you can catch up with parts One and Two using the links!

Sunday September 25th, the big day was finally here and again I was greeted with another painfully early alarm! As it had worked so well for the 5Km I again set up everything the night before so everything was ready to go and I could get to my corral nice and early, unlike the 5 Km the half was chip timed and had a pace requirement, which was something I was pretty anxious about. Luckily from following the US run Disney races I knew the pacers would only start after everyone had crossed the start line, so the closer to the front of my corral I could get the more time I would buy for myself to get clear of the pacers.



On my way to my corral I saw my friend Gaëtane who's content you can check out here; Blog & YouTube who was nice enough to come and join me, I had arrived a lot earlier today so the wait in the corrals was a bit longer and I was a lot more anxious so having a friend to distract from everything else going on was a massive help. The corrals were set up in the same way as the day before but with an additional corral added to reflect the higher number of participants. The race started a few mins late, but before we knew it it was our turn to start.


The course for the Half took us through the studios first and then on to Disneyland park before leaving at the back by the Indiana Jones ride to run round Val d'Europe before re entering Disney property at the Hotel Santa Fe. Not only was the course different, there were a lot more character photo ops and they were much better managed than the 5K, so Thank You to the run Disney team who listened to the feedback and made the changes so quickly!

We didn't stop for every character as we had already seen some that weekend, so Missed Spider-Man and Captain America at the start of the studios we also skipped Chip and Dale and Marie from the Aristocats.

The course first allowed us to run through the Light Moteurs Action stunt show, and through the back of Studios tram tour, and this was such a unique experience that you really wouldn't ever get any other way, seeing everything up close was incredible and I'm so glad we got to do this! we then ran round the back of Studio One and then doubled back to run through the studio, through toy story play land and Place de Remy and then towards the Disneyland Park, stopping quickly for this photo with Mr and Mrs Incredible, which as a HUGE Pixar fan I couldn't resist.


Once in the Disneyland Park the atmosphere was again amazing, made even better this time by the friends and family who had lined the right hand side of main street to cheer everyone on.

The route took us straight into discovery land from the bottom of main street and round behind space mountain as before, when we got to the Jedi Training academy it was the turn of Vader and 2 of his troopers to meet runners.


Again the course cut through the backstage area behind Buzz Light-year's Lazer Blast and brought us out in Fantasy land by the small world gates, where the path splits to go towards the castle stage the story book float from Magic on Parade was parked up and Royal couples were taking it in turn for Photos, we timed this just right and got to the front in between change overs and got to meet Cinderella and Prince charming as well as Belle and Beast, it was great to get so close to a parade float I've admired for years!


Further through fantasy land the course took us past Alice's curious labyrinth where we got to join the most wonderful tea party with most of the Alice crew! Being able to meet Cheshire Cat before his Halloween debut was pretty special, but to have the March Hare turn up as well was totally unexpected.


The course then went through to frontier land, where we found this handsome chap, Robin Hood, unfortunately my photo pass pics have gone missing so I don't have a brilliant picture with him, but meeting him was an experience I'll remember for a long time even without the pictures!


In adventure land we met Aladdin Genie and Abu having literally just missed Jafar, Jasmine and the Sultan, and then at the back of adventure land we met Dug Carl and Russell, again for a massive Pixar fan this was a huge moment for me, they were better than I had imagined.


Once we left the park there was still plenty to see and experience with lots of live music along the course, this was the bit I had worried about most but actually there was so much support, regular water stops and so much entertainment that the kilometres seem to stack up fairly quickly. When I got to Kilometre 15 I happened to look across from where we were running and saw the top of the Sally and Lightning billboard on the Hotel Santa Fe, that was it we were nearly there, I was actually going to do it.

Once we got back to Santa Fe there were about 5 or 6 Kilometres to go until the finish and although they seemed to go on and on forever the support from cast members, guests, friends family and runners who had already finished was incredible and really made those last kilometres achievable!


Again at the end Mickey and Pals were waiting for us, and then we got handed the most incredible medals, that moment made each of the 21.1 Kms worth while, I got my finisher photo and went for a well deserved afternoon at Inventions with friends.


I cant believe its been over 2 weeks since that run, the more time I have to reflect on everything I experienced and all the great people I met that weekend, it honestly was the best experience, I'm so glad I did it despite all the training and anxiety every kilometre really was magical, and if they'd let me, I'd already be in my corral for next year!



So that's the Run Disney experience, or my experience at least, did you run, do you wish you had or are you signing up for next year, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments!

See you at the start line?

Hoodsie xx

Welcome back everyone, this is part 2 of 3 of my Run Disney experience attending the inaugural half marathon weekend at Disneyland Paris, if you missed part One you can catch up here!

Saturday September 24th 2016, an early start in the hotel Santa Fe, my alarm went off at around 5:45 am ready for the 5km race, luckily I had the common sense to get all my rce stuff ready the night before so all my clothes were out ready, my gear bag packed and my race bib pinned in place, no one wants to be messing around with safety pins when they're still half asleep!

Now I'm not a breakfast person, especially when I run, which I know is really backwards but that's how I've been running up until now and I've had no issue yet so we're just going to work with it. I did grab a few snacks to put in my gear bag for after the race and one pan au chocolate for before hand, I got ready and left my hotel room read to walk to the start.

Th walk from the Santa Fe to the parks is actually quite short and remarkably simple, this was actually the first trip where I had ever walked to the parks before and I was surprised just how easy it was, even more so as I was in one of the last blocks at the back of the Santa Fe right by the bridge to cross from the Cheyenne! It felt very strange to be up and about so early in Disney and even more so to be walking to the parks in the dark, but the closer I got to the village the more runners I started to see.

First a quick stop in the expo hall to drop off my gear bag, this is a clear plastic bag you're given when you collect your race bib which has a space to put a sticker with your bib number on it, its a drawstring bag a bit like the JD sports ones which you can fill with anything you want stored during the race, for example I had a few post race snacks, a sports drink and my hoodie I'd worn for the walk down, these were then kept on racks in the expo hall for you to collect after your race free of charge which was a brilliant idea and enabled you to get straight into the parks after your race.

In the expo hall I caught up with Axel, you can check out his content here and then went out into the holding area which had porta potties and pre race photo ops, this was directly behind the Newport Bay Club hotel, and I did think the music was rather loud considering how close we were, if you were stopping in the hotel and we disturbed you I'm very sorry! From the holding area there were 3 lanes with lit up inflatable markers to show which entrance to use for each Corral, you were assigned a corral on your bib and could move down a letter to run with friends but weren't allowed to move up a letter. Each pathway took you through towards the start line into the final holding area to wait for the race to start at 7am.


The wait for the 5 Km race to start didn't seem too long, there was a bit of a buzz and everyone was really excited to see what was ahead of us, at the start line was a stage with 2 race presenters helping to motivate people and tell us what was going on and count us down to the start, and further back in the corrals were big screens showing what was happening on the stage. In hindsight, I wish I'd got to my corral earlier, the sooner you get there the closer to the front you'll be, and although people were squeezing through to get closer to the front, if you turned up late this wasn't an easy job.



Before we knew it our turn came to start running, the course left the Disney village to run through fantasia gardens and down main street, and from the moment we stepped into that beautiful Disneyland park the support from the cast members and volunteers was incredible. Honestly they're support alone would be enough to push you round the support, considering the early start time it was a little overwhelming to see just how many cast members were out clapping and cheering, so if you were one of those cast members - Thank You!

As you reached the bottom of main street the photo opportunities began, the course took you past the castle stage where Jafar, Cruella and Hook were waiting for photos, then back up and past the Annual Pass office where you could have your photo taken in front of the castle.


Next the course took us through Discovery land, round the back of space mountain to the first Kilometre marker and round to the fenced off star tours, once you got round to café hyperion Chewbacca and R2-D2 were outside the doors to Jedi academy with a photo pass photographer.


From there a short back stage section took you to the small world gates of Fantasy land where Pooh and friends were taking photos outside bella note, and through fantasy land to see Mary Poppins and Bert near the carousel. The course then gave you the chance to run through Sleeping Beauty's castle which honestly was exactly what I had been waiting for!

After Fantasy land came frontier land, which is one of my favourite parts of the park at the moment, as we ran round the corner I saw woody was meeting and knew I had to stop, it was only once I got closer I realised Jessie was with him too, honestly a dream come true. The queues for characters weren't too long on the whole, but I didn't feel they were very well managed, lots of people were taking a long time with the characters and it really slowed things down, it also meant character queues had to be closed and re opened to ease the flow of runners, another reason to get in your corral early! Once I got to the front meeting Jessie, while dressed as Jessie was an incredible experience and as you can see the photos came out great!


After frontier land another backstage passage brought you into the studios where roger rabbit was meeting guests in Toon town and Remy, Emile and Linguini were meeting guests in Place de Remy and then the course cut through toy story play land and then finally past the tower of terror and past rockin roller coaster before leaving the park toward the finish line.


At the finish line the Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto were taking it in turns to meet the runners for Hugs and High 5's dressed in their finest track gear and runners were presented with their Medals and a goody bag of snacks.


So that was the 5Km and what an amazing experience it was, I cant wait to come back and do it again next year!

"Take a magical run on the most enchanted course on earth!"

September 23rd - 26th 2016 saw Disneyland Paris host its first ever Run Disney weekend, a race series designed for everyone to enjoy regardless of age or ability. Run Disney started in 1994 with the first Walt Disney World marathon and has grown from there bringing together the Disney community and the running community over 9 themed weekends a year, the focus of the races is on the magical moments and memories you will create on the course and is an experience not to be missed.

I was lucky enough, or stupid enough, to sign up for the first Run Disney event in Disneyland Paris this year and this is my experience of the race weekend from the perspective of someone who hasn't been to a Run Disney weekend before.



I arrived on Friday at around mid day having taken an indirect Eurostar that morning, our first destination upon arrival was the Expo which was held at the back of Disney Village, this is where you could collect your race bibs, party wristbands and also buy race merchandise, the expo hall was huge, and luckily for us relatively quiet by the time we had arrived though i hear a much different story from those who queued to get in at 3pm on Thursday when it first opened! My only frustration was having to queue in so many places, there was a different queue for your 5Km bib to your half marathon bib, then 2 more queue for your free race top one for each race, then a queue for merch, and a queue for photopass! Not ideal when you've got all your luggage still with you.

 
The merchandise is a bit of a sour point of the weekend, compared to the US race weekends Paris had a much smaller collection of merchandise available, I would have loved a hoodie or jacket to commemorate the weekend, but settled for a T-shirt instead. Limited pins were offered but in such small quantities they sold out in no time, i was luckily able to get the pin I wanted most, but other than the logo pin these were the only ones left by the time we arrived on Friday, no replica medal pins for me =(

 

After getting everything sorted at Expo I popped over to the Santa Fe where I stayed for the weekend to check in and drop off my luggage, my room was already ready for me so i was able to leave everything safe and just take a park bag out for the rest of the day. My room was situated right at the back of Santa Fe right by the river which worked out perfect for me to walk to and from the races each morning.



Back into the parks and a chance to Finally see Mickey and the Magician and then hop over to catch magic on parade and ride small world. Before we knew it it was time to head over to the studios for the kick off party, a ticket only event for runners and their friends and family. The even started at 7:30 but by 7 there was already quite a queue forming outside, once the turnstiles opened things started to move quickly and we were each given a special park map with a list of what was open for that evening, We saw Sulley was meeting guests on the scare floor so as a huge pixar fan this was my first stop!

 

Having seen how heavily photo pass was being promoted at the expo, and knowing how sparse photo pass photographers usually are at DLP i was impressed to see sulley ready and waiting with a photographer, the run weekend Photo pass was €40 and covered all of your race photos for up to 6 bib numbers as well as your park and ride photos from Friday until Sunday, unfortunately for anyone like myself who owns an annual photo pass you run photos could not be added to this so if you wanted them you were forced to buy a new photo pass which is a shame, but due to the number of bibs you could add i was able to split the cost with a friend and get my annual pass discount, which made it less of a pain.



After Sulley we ran round to back lot to meet Captain America, this was his first ever appearance at DLP and we were expecting it to be busy, we got there about 10 or 15 mins before his set was due to start and joined what was already a busy queue. This was the one meet of the night that in my opinion could have been better organised. Cap was due out only for 3 30 min slots, although the cast members did stop the queue once it got to a set length there were already more poeple than Cap could see in the allotted time. He did stay out and finish the queue but by the time we got to him 10 mins after his first slot should have ended he was looking rather warm and sweaty! Also i asked a cast member if Cap would be signing autographs and told no, however we saw him sign for multiple people before us in the queue, luckily I still had my book and pen with me, as i got a lot of comments over the weekend from CMs who saw his autograph at the front of my book!

 

After cap we got some food from Studio one, the food was included in the ticket price for the party and you could go up again for a 2nd meal if you wished, there were 3 meals to choose from though when we got to the till we were advised they were having issues with the pasta dish, so burgers all round, I know quite often the food in studio one gets a bad wrap, but honestly it was very enjoyable and i would eat there again.

After food we rode ratatouille as it was a walk on, the cast members were fantastic and even stopped the ride at the last second to make sure Duffy got some 3D glasses to enjoy the experience too! After ratatouille the rides and meets started to close, this was a little disappointing as it was only around 10pm and the party was advertised as running till 11:30, As i had already managed to do all the things I wanted to in the studios we took a quick trip to meet Spider-man and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for Saturday's early start.