All our ghosts have been dying to meet you Pre-Trip: Update & costume tweaks 9/20

[abbybeth]

What a precious cat!

We'll be there that same week and I think we're also planning on MNSSHP on the 3rd.

I love your Beauty and the Beast shirts. I'm guilty of already planning my outfits too. And hoping my son doesn't outgrow all his cute Disney clothes so we can coordinate.

maybe we'll bump into each other at MNSSHP!

I probably shouldn't have bought both shirts, but BaTB has always been my favorite Disney movie and I get so excited when I find merchandise for grownups.

Nerd? I don't see any signs of any nerdiness on this thread...or on the Dis, for that matter.


That calico cat is just beautiful. I had a cat with that kind of colouring and markings. She was a grand cat.

Nope. No nerds here!

Their cat is so sweet - all she wants is love and attention (and she will talk at you until that happens!) They've had her for a bit over a year now I think and just adore her.

 

[abbybeth]

Since I'll be here to entertain you for the next 149 days or so (not that we're counting down or anything) here are a few of the other characters you'll want to meet. Or avoid. To each their own.

Zoe



Zoe is my 6 year old calico monster kitty. She could care less about Disney other than the cat treats I used to bring home (that are apparently discontinued ) She is full of personality and attitude and routinely carries on conversations with Ryan & I. She's also incredibly helpful with sewing projects.

If your definition of "helpful" is sitting in the middle of things and stealing fabric scraps to stuff under the bed.



"I don't always help, but when I do I make sure it's destructive."



Right now the plan is for a friend of ours to catsit while we're gone, but as we've been talking about their trip they've decided that it sounds like fun and want to join us for part of it. Soooo ..... we might lose our catsitter. To a Mouse. Seriously folks, I can't make this stuff up.

I don't really care for the idea of putting Z in the kennel - the ones we have around here have really, really tiny cat cages and I'm just not interested in putting her in a 2'x3' space (including litter box area).

Nobody puts baby in the corner, err .... tiny kennel.



The Scalliwags



As I mentioned earlier, my parents will also be in the World at the same time we are. We aren't vacationing together, but do plan on meeting up. We will be dining with them at Chef Mickey's and will meet up for a little bit at MNSSHP. Beyond that, who knows. Our park touring styles couldn't be more different as I tend to be pretty commando-style and they're much more laid back.

My mom loves Tinkerbell, my dad loves Jiminy Cricket. My mom sent me this great picture from their trip last week of my dad checking out Pinocchio and Jiminy in the Hub.



Timmy



We met Timmy here on the DIS when we were planning our 2007 once-in-a-lifetime trip and met her in person that fall. We've all stayed in touch through the years, thanks in large part to Facebook. My parents met her for breakfast last week and we'll all be able to get together this time around. For being a bunch of strangers behind computers, you really do meet some of the nicest people on the DIS!

Monica & Alex

My friend Monica & her DH live in Miami. She and I have been friends for over ten years, but haven't met in person yet. We belong to the same sorority, but different collegiate chapters (mine was in Michigan, hers in Florida) and met through an online community. They will be driving up from Miami to do some Food & Wine time with us on our arrival day and we are SO excited!

Leanne, Paul & Lisa

These are our friends from Scotland. We also met them through the planning of our 2007 trip. It's story time now, boys and girls, so gather round! The 2007 trip celebrated both my birthday and my parents wedding anniversary. My dad, thanks to the DIS, found out that you could rent a boat to go out on the lagoon and watch the MK fireworks and planned on booking that as a surprise for both my mom and I. Due to the fact that I probably should have been an investigative reporter or detective, I managed to figure out what he was booking at the 90 day mark and was sworn to secrecy. At that point we had a decision: the price of the boat ride was the same whether you had 1 person or 10 people. Did we want to share the ride with others to bring the cost down? Did we want to keep it to ourselves? I (half)jokingly told my dad we should find a family from Scotland to join us.

So off he traipsed to the UK boards and after some heckling from the English folks, we found a couple of nice Scottish families who were up for adventure. Ultimately, it conflicted with plans for one and worked out perfectly for the other.

So not only did my mom get a surprise fireworks cruise, but we surprised her with a whole bunch of new friends!



If you go around in a horseshoe from left to right: I'm in the front, Leanne (Paul's fiancee), Linda M.(mum to Paul & Lisa M.), Lisa S. (married to Cody), my mom Lynn, my dad Fred, Cody (married to Lisa), Lisa M., Paul M.

The entire group has kept in touch. Leanne & her fiance Paul have had a beautiful little girl: Eilidh. Lisa & Cody have had a set of handsome, identical triplet boys: Nicholas, Parker and Andrew. We were hoping that Cody, Lisa & the boys would also be able to join in, but I guess we'll all be forced to plan another trip instead!

 

[arianrose]

I've been busy trying to figure out how to catsit my (very old) babies. They're on so many meds that we need someone to basically be available all the time. We did find a great boarding place (that doesn't use those awful tiny cages!) but when we left them there for a weekend, one of the cats came back with pancreatitis.

And my cats loved to "help" with my sewing, too. Usually by holding down my fabric while I tried to cut.

 

[abbybeth]

I've been busy trying to figure out how to catsit my (very old) babies. They're on so many meds that we need someone to basically be available all the time. We did find a great boarding place (that doesn't use those awful tiny cages!) but when we left them there for a weekend, one of the cats came back with pancreatitis.

And my cats loved to "help" with my sewing, too. Usually by holding down my fabric while I tried to cut.

With prior trips I either had her stay at a friends or with my parents (that was before they adopted their current cat) or had a very trusted friend stay at my apartment with her. I am just not comfortable dropping her off somewhere. She's my baby and I couldn't bear the thought of her getting sick or being worried/stressed or stuffed in a tiny cage with barely any room to even turn around!

Z is usually up for holding down my fabric. She also has quite the knack for helping me rearrange quilt blocks ... when she sees me laying them out, she'll wait for me to get them all down then take a run at them and slide her paws underneath for maximum scatterization!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Zoe is so cute!!

We have a professional furbaby minding service that we use. Our two kidlets will stay at home and will be visited twice a day. The service sends someone out to feed them, brush them and play with them. They usually stay for about 20 minutes or so and will bring in the mail, take out our trash, water our indoor plants and open/close curtains. It works out the same as if we put the two cats into a cattery.



That's a lovely bunch of people that you'll be catching up with at WDW.

 

[Alysa]

Hello! Love the report so far! I thinkyou are acually leaving the day we arrive. I was just going to say I'd love to see a photo of the t-shirts - love them! My daughter actually made a bookmark for our B&tB movie night like the stained glass one. Looking forward to reading more!

 

[OrangeJuice]

Finding someone to care for the cat always makes it challenging. Thankfully I have family and friends around that I can usually count on. Don't know what I would do without them.
We would like to spend 2 weeks in the world next year to celebrate graduation but I don't know how we'll convince enough people to care for our cat for 2 weeks.

Love you Illuminations cruise story Sounds like a great way to make new friends.

 

[abbybeth]

Zoe is so cute!!

We have a professional furbaby minding service that we use. Our two kidlets will stay at home and will be visited twice a day. The service sends someone out to feed them, brush them and play with them. They usually stay for about 20 minutes or so and will bring in the mail, take out our trash, water our indoor plants and open/close curtains. It works out the same as if we put the two cats into a cattery.



That's a lovely bunch of people that you'll be catching up with at WDW.

I haven't been able to find anything like what you've described - that would be a nice option. She's really attached to us and leaving on vacation is disruptive enough - I don't like the idea of stressing her out even more by taking her to a kennel. My parents took Somber to one during their trip before this most recent one and she basically refused to eat and meowed herself completely hoarse while she was there. They felt awful

We're all so excited to meet up with everyone from the cruise (minus Lisa & Cody) We all feel so lucky that we've been able to keep in touch and it will be wonderful to spend some time together again face-to-face. Ryan hasn't met any of them, so it'll be nice to introduce him to my crazy Disney internet friends

Hello! Love the report so far! I thinkyou are acually leaving the day we arrive. I was just going to say I'd love to see a photo of the t-shirts - love them! My daughter actually made a bookmark for our B&tB movie night like the stained glass one. Looking forward to reading more!

I went right over and read through your pre-trippie this morning! I love the bookmark your DD made, it's so pretty! I'm a sucker for just about anything BATB and I'm sad that most of my original movie merchandise has disappeared!

Finding someone to care for the cat always makes it challenging. Thankfully I have family and friends around that I can usually count on. Don't know what I would do without them.
We would like to spend 2 weeks in the world next year to celebrate graduation but I don't know how we'll convince enough people to care for our cat for 2 weeks.

Love you Illuminations cruise story Sounds like a great way to make new friends.

I guess if she was 'just a cat' it would be easier to find a care solution, but when they mean so much more than that and truly are family members, it changes your standards I think. More people are usually willing to help than you think ...

The fireworks cruise turned out to be the highlight of that trip - hands down - and it all started here on the DIS. I think in general, the world would be a much more pleasant place if people would look for things they could have in common with others as opposed to seeking out the differences. For our group, the starting point was a love of Disney. We're from different states and countries, all in different stages of life and different socio-economic status and have forged relationships going on many years now. It's pretty cool!

 

[abbybeth]

Well folks, we've entered that part in trip planning where all the heavy lifting has been done (booking, ADRs, etc) but it's too soon for the last minute prep (with 141 days and 18 hours to go, we are no where NEAR last minute!) So what's a girl to do to keep occupied other than match her outfits to her park plans?

DIY beotches!

I'm one of those people. Please don't run away!

I will be doing a moderate amount of DIY projects in preparation for this trip. By moderate, I probably mean way more than is feasible to get done, so we'll just go with moderate. It's less frightening for my already freetime-challenged self.

• Food & Wine Passports
• Food & Wine T-Shirts
• MNSSHP Costumes
• Something for Eilidh (adorable Scottish 2 year old princess)
• Suprises for various DIS meet & greets
• Window decor

More will probably be added to the list, but that's the start of it. The biggest projects will be our MNSSHP costumes. I've already decided on who we're going to go as and have begun the process of costume research, fabric sourcing, etc. My costume will be much more involved than Ryan's, but the whole effect will be MORE than worth it. I tend to stress myself out with this sort of thing, but I love it at the same time. This will be the first year that I will break away from dressing as Belle.

2007
With the parents


2009
Girls trip - we all dressed as the 'before' version of our princess alter-egos


I did a new costume each trip, version 2.0 was much closer to the movie. I'm a huge stickler for accuracy. I also like to take on things that are a bit complex. This was a full length 1800s style ballgown I did for a Halloween murdery mystery party. Everyone was assigned a character and sent a packet of who and what they knew so they could play into their parts accordingly. I was the Vickar's wife, and quite the town gossip ... I also apparently had a thing for my horseback riding instructor and the Vickar was involved in selling bodies or something for side money. I don't remember the name of the guy pictured who was assigned the character of the Vickar, he was a friend of the party hosts, but it was a really fun evening!



I'm very lucky that Ryan is game for just about anything and always up for having fun. He isn't entirely sure who he's dressing up as, but I've shown him pictures and he's fine with the costume and ready to go with it. Love him!

This is from Halloween 2012, I made my costume, he got the necessary items for his from a party store.





His character has a beard like he does, so he doesn't have to deal with me batting my eyes and asking he shave it down just for the purposes of a costume.

It'll be a little odd not going as Belle, especially with the New Fantasyland area and the potential for a Gaston M&G, but I'm excited to be branching out as well. I'll have to come up with different costumes if we go to any halloween parties back home though because our costumes will definitely be too WDW specific for anyone to get them out in the 'real world'

Are any of you planning to go to MNSSHP? Will you be dressing up?

 

[Alysa]

Oooo! I can't wait to see what you guys dress up as!!! Any hints?

 

[PrincessInOz]

You're very creative.

I'm planning on being at MNSSHP on the 6th October. I don't think we'll be dressing up.

 

[abbybeth]

Oooo! I can't wait to see what you guys dress up as!!! Any hints?

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to reveal who we're going as on the pre-TR or make everyone wait .... I've left some very vague clues in some of the pre-TR so far (VERY vague!) It would give me more writing fodder if I include the documentation of my costume process here though ... but I've selected characters that are a bit more on the obscure end and I quite selfishly don't want to give others the idea! You're welcome to guess away for now though!

You're very creative.

I'm planning on being at MNSSHP on the 6th October. I don't think we'll be dressing up.

the 6th is our departure day

I wasn't sure about dressing up the first time, and my parents were even less sure, particularly my dad. Afterwards we were all so glad that we had gone ahead and done it. It certainly added another element to an already fun evening and started a lot of great conversations with fellow guests and CMs. You can't go wrong either way as long as you're at MNSSHP!!

 

[Nakkira]

I also may or may not have put a lot of emphasis on Food & Wine Festival, drinking around the world and having Disney transportation available to take our hypothetical future drunk selves back to our resort.


Seriously? You need a why?! Fine. You’re a demanding audience already, aren’t you? I definitely got bit by the Disney bug on the first trip, but can’t go as often as I’d like. I’ve only gone in the fall, but the weather is perfect, I adore Food & Wine Festival and love everything about MNSSHP. Boo to You gets sung year round, much to the annoyance of my cat. Ryan and I have taken weekend trips but haven’t done a real vacation together and I can’t wait to take him to my favorite place!

So, welcome Foolish Mortals. We hope you enjoy your stay!

The Food and Wine Festival is a great way to sell Boyfriends on the Trip!
Also, it happens to be be something I have been dying to fully experience for Years! I get to go Oct 14th-19th

 

[PrincessInOz]

I wasn't sure about dressing up the first time, and my parents were even less sure, particularly my dad. Afterwards we were all so glad that we had gone ahead and done it. It certainly added another element to an already fun evening and started a lot of great conversations with fellow guests and CMs. You can't go wrong either way as long as you're at MNSSHP!!

I know. We're travelling a long way to get to WDW and will have been living out of a suitcase for about 2 weeks beforehand. Space is at a premium in the suitcase and we probably won't pack anything to wear for just one night. Maybe we'll find something when we're in the US.

 

[abbybeth]

The Food and Wine Festival is a great way to sell Boyfriends on the Trip!
Also, it happens to be be something I have been dying to fully experience for Years! I get to go Oct 14th-19th

Yay! I'm excited for you! It is fabulous and I'm excited that I'll have more F&W time than I did my first go 'round with it. My best recommendations is to resist the urge to make ADRs at your fave Ecpot restaurants. You definitely cannot plan on doing serious snacking at F&W and still be able to have room for sit down meals. That was the biggest mistake I made my first time.

I know. We're travelling a long way to get to WDW and will have been living out of a suitcase for about 2 weeks beforehand. Space is at a premium in the suitcase and we probably won't pack anything to wear for just one night. Maybe we'll find something when we're in the US.

With your travel situation, it makes total sense! I wouldn't waste precious suitcase space on something to wear for just a couple hours. MNSSHP will be a blast no matter what you're wearing ... as long as you're wearing something so you don't get thrown out of the parks!

 

[abbybeth]

Sorry I've been a bit MIA over here. I managed to come down with whatever evil incarnation of the plague is going around this spring which ultimately led to laryngitis and has been hanging around for over a week. It seems to finally be subsiding, but it has really thrown a wrench in life!

I'm a week out from my regional championship for highland dance, so losing a week of training wasn't exactly in my game plan. I returned to dance class last night and was pretty pleased with where I was at, all things considered, but am definitely not at 100% yet.

What is everyone doing this weekend? I'm finishing up a queen size quilt for a customer, finishing a dance costume for one of my students and.....

going to see the traveling Broadway production of Beauty & The Beast!

My main Christmas present from Ryan this year was tickets to see the show. I was so surprised - I never even dropped any hints! I'm beyond excited. I was fortunate enough to see the production when it came through our area a couple of years ago, but am just as excited to go see it again because it was amazing. The show is tomorrow night and needless to say, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Oooh! Enjoy the show! That's a great present.


I'm hoping for a not too busy weekend.

 

[abbybeth]

Hi everyone! I'm alive and promise a real update with pictures and everything in the next day or two. It's been crazy, crazy busy in my little corner of the world.

The good news is that we are definitely locked in now. We have AIRFARE!!!

We (well, I) prefer to fly out of a smaller airport due to ease, convenience, size, etc. AirTran, now Southwest flies nonstop from there to Orlando and has good flight times so I've been watching fares for the last month or two trying to figure out what our best price would be. I really hate the cost of airfare and will try to jockey around as much as possible and strategize to get the lowest price I can. Once I settle on my price point and hit purchase, I stick with it - I don't continue to look and try to get price differences or anything else. That's a bit too stressful for me! Round trip for two on our dates was sitting around $500-$600 pretty consistently. With the recent transition from AirTran to Southwest, they ran a sale on flights out of the new-to-them airport (my little local airport) so we snagged flights for $99 each way! Grand total: $396 for two round trip non-stop tickets with two free checked bags each.

So at the very least, we're going to Orlando!

What are your flying pet peeves? Do you play the airfare waiting game or do you go ahead and buy once you know you're going?

121 days and 20something hours until departure!

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOO HOO!

Congrats on a great sale price for your air travel.

I wait for a sale price for my long haul and jump as soon as it comes along. I hate waiting around where it comes to air flights.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Joining in!

Love your ADRs and can't wait to find out what your costumes will be! I'll be visiting Disney at the end of October while attending a conference in Orlando and am very excited about attending my first MNSSHP! Taking the rest of the family back in January as well.