A warning about princess costumes in the parks

[PRINCESS VIJA]

OOOH, I love the idea of using the white tennis shoes. We will do that when we go. We are going in December, and I was planning on bringing layers so she can keep warm. I told her I would sew some of the dresses for her, she wants to wear a bunch. Now I am in trouble though.... I mentioned the Pirate cruise and she wants me to sew a Wendy dress for her to wear then, so I am going to be doing alot of sewing! Snd DS now wants to wear Darth Vador when we go to MGM.


I have to agree that it would be way too hot to wear the dresses in Florida heat in the summer. We just had our princess party here and the some of the girls were ready to jump out of their dresses 1/2 hour after putting them on. DD loves cindy's dress and just kept it on.

Thanks again for the idea of the white shoes, I think it will be a great project for me and DD.

 

[dreaminofdisney]

I just got my little "princess" Princess tennis shoes from Payless. The say "princess" on them , have a pink crown and three of the princess's in hearts on the side. They should be perfect for our breakfast at CRT and MMNSSHP. I couldn't imagine putting her in those costume shoes. I want her to be comfortable. Not complaning. And as far as the dress goes I always planned to bring a spare outfit. Come on mom's let's all think ahead here. We are the parents. They are the children. They are still learning and it is our job to HELP THEM. They may think they will want to wear it all day, but....we all know how that goes. It upsets me that some parents would not be smart enough to bring spare clothes or even be willing to go back to the hotel to change. Have some compasion!

 

[cheeringmom]

and I saw these adorable Princess pj dresses-light weight, not to itchy comfortable looking and thin I think this is the way we will go. They look like real dresses with the frills on the botom, but not too bulky

check out link

http://disney.store.go.com/DSSectionPage.process?Merchant_Id=2&Section_Id=13926&Product_Id=140578

 

[trracers]

The last time we did the CRT Breafast, my Sleeping Beauty changed right after we ate (she was 4). This year she is 5 and is talking about wearing the cinderella dress all day. I think she will get hot, so I will definitely bring her a change of clothes. We wear ballet slippers with the dress, even here in town (halloween parties, trick or treating, etc) and she just plays with the shoes at the house. I can't imagine taking your kids to the happiest place on earth and then making them miserable....

 

[Kimberle]

I took 1 look at those shoes & refused to buy them for dd. I bought her the dress & crown. I wouldn't wear those shoes, how could she!

Her dress touches the floor. She will wear her white nemo sandels. I'll have our stroller, so I'll have plenty of room for a change of clothes! Besides, where're just a quick boat ride away from our room.

 

[frannn]

DD1 (or she will be 1 when we go) loves to ham it up, so i bought her most of the princess costumes when they went on sale. I guess the infant costumes are a bit less cumbersome than the older children's. They are like cheap onsies with a tulle skirt and tulle short sleeves. I did buy those horrible shoes, but DD doesn't walk yet, so I will leave them on her for as long as she wants. She also has the tiaras. I have the outfits planned for the character meals and MNSSHP. As soon as she wants them off, they will come off. I have plenty of beatiful princess sundresses, sandals, and now princess sneakers, courtesy of the DS sales and Payless. I plan to have a complete change of clothes in her diaper bag. Her clothes and shoes are small enough to fit in her bag, but she's already in 12m-2T, so next year, it will probably only be 1 or 2 costumes in the luggage....

 

[1melanie]

Do most of the little girls dress up for the CRT breakfast? I wasn't planning on it for my 4 year old, but would hate for her to feel bad because everyone else was dressed.

Melanie

 

[trracers]

When we went it was about half and half. The girls seemed to be happy either way! At first it seemed odd to see DD walking through the MK in a SBeauty dress, but she got lots of complements and enjoyed it. She changed right after breakfast.

 

[deb305]

I too was suprised tp see all the princess dresses in the park at our Jan WDW trip. DD 4.5yrs said she was glad she didn't wear one of hers in the park. She's just as paranoid as her mom, her main concern was getting it caught on some ride and being hurt. We did bring her Christmas dress in Jan for dinner with Cinderella at GF. She enjoyed looking unique, and being as dressed up as the princess.

 

[evilqueenfan]

Last year I spray painted a pair of ballet slippers for DD to wear under her princess costume. I bought spray paint for leather at Michael's Craft Store. They turned out beautiful and her feet were happy!

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Off topic, but a friend of mine has a son who insists on wearing his batman cape everywhere. Even to church. He's her third son--I guess by the time the 3rd comes around you just pick your battles

 

[cindy_k]

Originally posted by kilee
My sister did this at her wedding ($2000.00 dress--- $5.00 shoes).

<B>Happy Feet -- Priceless</B>

 

[NotUrsula]

Just FYI, any shoe repair shop can put rubber street soles on ordinary ballet slippers. It doesn't cost much, and it allows the shoes to be worn on concrete without destroying them. They were all I wore in college, when I walked all over the planet. (Big campus!)

As any parent with a child in dance will tell you, leather ballet slippers can be spray-painted multiple times, and even glittered. It is easy to change the color to match the dress.

 

[laurie31]

Thanks so much for the ideas about decorating tennis shoes and ballet shoes! I am one more mom who refused to buy the DS shoes - I can only imagine how painful they'd be after a short time!

My dd's also can't stand "itchy" things - dd4 was Minnie last Halloween and we put a black leotard under the costume and solved the itch problem. My MIL is making their princess costumes from "non-itchy" material for our trip and I bought t-shirts for them to change into back when TDS had their big sale. Little one will have a Cinderella shirt that says, "Magical dreams do come true" and older one will have an Ariel shirt, so maybe I can talk them out of their costumes after breakfast, as they can still be wearing their favorite princess

I am saddened to think that a mom wouldn't think to bring a change of clothes for a child in costume, but horrified that one would refuse to let a child change! Some magical memory that poor child will have

I didn't know what to do about younger dd - she had been insisting that she MUST have glass slippers to go with her costume. I think her ballet slippers sprayed silver and with a sole added would please Her Highness Older one is Ariel in her wedding gown and (thankfully) we don't know what footwear she's got on I'll get the white tennis shoes for her I'll make laces from silver ribbon and decorate with silver fabric paint! What fun!!

Laurie

 

[KIS]

Do that many kids wear costumes in the parks? If my daughter, who loves all that pretend costume stuff sees it and has none, she will be very unhappy.

If she wears it, she will be uncomfortable very quickly. She has her eyes set always on the Tinkerbell ensembles because she was Tinkerbell last June in her preschool's rendition of Peter Pan. Now, she wants to have one with sleeves for the winter.

In all her costumes, she usually lasts about 10 minutes in a costume at home. For her play, she was itching to take it off after an hour. I already assumed, given her history, that she'd need to change clothes from one of those costumes into a tee shirt and shorts or jeans (I have yet to figure out clothing and weather tendencies for the late April weather of our first trip).

I might tell her she can only bring one costumes wear for our first night Chef Mickey dinner. She will probably get it dirty. She will probably get uncomfortable and beg to change. After that, she won't mind skipping it during the rest of the trip.

Then, she might opt for minnie mouse ears alone, or something a little saner. But, if she sees the majority of the young girls in the park in a costume, she might be more ambivalent. So, what do the majority of the young girls do? Costumes or no costumes?

KIS

 

[trracers]

I don't remember seeing alot of girls in the parks in costume on any of my trips.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I think it is hit or miss. When we went last time, there were just a handful of girls dressing up. This year DD wants to dress up for every park a different princess. I'll have to balance that out.

 

[strawberryblonde]

It does start to sound as though every little girl there is in costume but at most it would be one out of 50 or so. The costume stands out and gets noticed (which is why they want to wear them ) so you will notice them throughout the parks but not feel leftout. Take some costumes along on the trip and let your DD decide. Have a spare outfit in your backpack or have her wear a tshirt and shorts underneath.

My DD (3) chose to wear her minnie dress for two straight days. It is all cotton and short enough for comfort. She wore her sandals. She got alot of attention from other guests, CM's and even characters in the parade (one princess mouthed "I love your dress"). We had her sleeping beauty dress along and she wore that over her shorts outfit to CRT. She chose to wear it on a ride or two after breakfast and then she wanted it off (day was heating up). She didn't ask to wear that costume again for the rest of the trip.

A saw a couple of girls at CRT with "fishing style" hats. A pink princess one and a purple tink one. Their mom had brought fabric pens and all of the princesses had signed their names. Adorable and clever! I plan to "steal" this idea .

For Halloween this year, I just picked up a clearance dress at Dillards. Reg. $80 marked down to $15, light green with a touch of purple, fairy hem line. Looks just like a tinkerbell dress to both my DD and me. DD already has a magic wand in her dress up box. Because it is a "normal" dress and not a costume, it should be more comfortable for her.

Happy planning

 

[laurie31]

I think less than half the kids at a princess breakfast are dressed in costume. I'm sure only a tiny fraction of those in the parks are.

I was only planning for my girls to wear their costumes to the breakfasts. I told them they can wear them afterwards if they want to, but I expect they will want to change. They will also be wearing them to MNSSHP, but I'll bring a change of clothes along then as well, just in case

I probably wouldn't even be doing costumes for the breakfasts, but we are going to the character meals to celebrate their birthdays (PSB for dd6 and CRT for dd4) and the costumes are gifts from Grandmama

I doubt a child would feel left out by not having a costume on in the parks I know there are stories of girls who want to wear their costumes all day (and my younger one may fall into that category!) but I think most kids would get tired of wearing them after a while.

Laurie

 

[piglet33]

Originally posted by frannn
DD1 (or she will be 1 when we go) loves to ham it up, so i bought her most of the princess costumes when they went on sale. I guess the infant costumes are a bit less cumbersome than the older children's. They are like cheap onsies with a tulle skirt and tulle short sleeves. I did buy those horrible shoes, but DD doesn't walk yet, so I will leave them on her for as long as she wants. She also has the tiaras. I have the outfits planned for the character meals and MNSSHP. As soon as she wants them off, they will come off. I have plenty of beatiful princess sundresses, sandals, and now princess sneakers, courtesy of the DS sales and Payless. I plan to have a complete change of clothes in her diaper bag. Her clothes and shoes are small enough to fit in her bag, but she's already in 12m-2T, so next year, it will probably only be 1 or 2 costumes in the luggage....

I did the same exact thing for my DD, who will be 11 months for our trip in October. We're going to MNSSHP 2x, and a Disney Cruise so I bought whatever Princess dresses the DS had on clearance. I think I wound up buying 1 Minnie Mouse and 5 Princess dresses. Most of the dresses cost between $1.99 and $4.99, which is great since she'll be outgrowing them soon. The only thing I didn't buy were the shoes since I also thought they wouldn't be comfortable even if she is in a stroller part of the time.