A new update so soon after the last one is surely a record for me in recent months. For once though it’s not gaming related at all, so if you’re here for that, you may as well click your Back button now 
Back in August 2006, my girlfriend Lynne and I went to Disney World in Florida. It was a wonderful 2 weeks, with the odd problem here and there (more on that later). One particular highlight of the holiday was when we went to Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins, and I asked Lynne to marry me. Being a woman of intelligence and fine taste (can you tell she reads this?), she of course said yes. Ever since then, we always wanted to go back, but buying a house and saving up for a wedding had to take priority (we planned to pay for the wedding ourselves), so we knew it would likely take us 5 years or so before we could get back there.
Things changed recently when I went to see my dad. He told me that he was going to give me some money towards the wedding. Then Lynne’s mum said the same thing. Then her dad said the same thing as well! So we quickly went from saving for the wedding ourselves, to having enough money for it from parents. This meant that, if we continued to save hard, we could put the wedding money to use for a great honeymoon instead. After about 30 seconds of discussion, we decided we should go back to Disney. It seemed fitting really. We got engaged there, so we can enjoy our honeymoon there.
Of course, it now means we have to wait 13 months till we go. 13 months and 1 day to be exact. It’s sad that I know that in 13 months and 1 day, we’ll be somewhere over the Atlantic, about 4 hours into the flight. It’s an indication of how excited I am already. Strangely, I think I’m more excited now than I was before we left last time. This will be my 2nd trip to Disney with Lynne, and my 3rd overall. I was hugely excited the 1st time, as it was my first time abroad, first time on a plane, first time to America, and so on. I remember having real trouble sleeping the night before as I was so excited. I also remember enjoying the holiday immensely, though it wasn’t perfect, and that’s something that stuck with me. I’m sure that having a “perfect” holiday is impossible, but I think when you go to a place like Disney/Florida, with all the expense that it entails, you should be able to come home with no regrets. Both times I’ve been, I’ve not been able to really say that, for different reasons. The first time I went (with an ex and her parents), I regretted not doing as many rides as I would have liked. I have never really been a huge coaster fan, but I think you can’t go to a place like Florida and it’s theme parks and not go on them. Unfortunately, the girl I first went with wasn’t a coaster fan either, so we missed out on a lot of things I really would have liked, if only I’d pushed myself to go on them on my own.
The 2nd time was different though. I was less excited about the trip, simply because I was more used to going abroad then. I knew things would be familiar to me, but sharing it with someone who’d never been before would make everything seem newer to me. Lynne is more adventurous than my ex as well, so I knew we’d go on more rides this time (which we did). What spoiled it for us (albeit only a little bit) was when we went swimming with dolphins. You’re told not to put suncream on as most can be harmful to the animals there. When we got there and were given the safe cream to use, I forgot to put mine on, and Lynne only did the front of her arms. As we were in the water for hours there (though the dolphin side of it was only 30 mins long), we ended up with completely major sunburn, with me having the worst of it. My shoulders and back of my arms were burnt to the point of blistering, and it made sleeping properly impossible for me (Lynne wasn’t so bad and could sleep). We ended up staying in and around the hotel the next day to minimise our time in the sun, as even through t-shirts we could feel our shoulders melting. When we went to Sea World the day after that, it was agony sitting down to watch the shows as there was very little shade. It didn’t really ruin the holiday for us, but it put a damper on the last 4 days and meant we couldn’t do quite as much as we wanted.
This time will be different though. Even though we’ve both been and know what’s there, we’re already hugely excited about it. I think knowing what’s there will mean we can plan our holiday even better than before. We know what rides and shows can be missed, and we know what we absolutely have to see again (like Cirque Du Soliel in Downtown Disney). We’ll have more time to do other things as well now as we’ll be able to do the Disney parks quicker. We’ll definitely be going back to Universal Studios and Sea World. We’ll be going to Busch Gardens this time as well, a park that looks great fun with all the coasters it’s got. And we should still have plenty of time to go shopping, to relax around the hotel (the Dolphin Hotel, I forgot to mention that), to play on the 4 miniature golf courses, and to just enjoy being in my favourite place to be. Now all we need is for the next 13 months to hurry up and go so we can get on holiday!
