Costume clothes for anything?

[Lambert808]

Should I pack a dress-up outfit for my then 8yo daughter for a character meal or anything else? What other 'specialty' items do kids like to bring - like glow in the dark necklaces? Any other items I should bring, and for what? What special things do your kids pack, or did others have at WDW that you wished you had thought of?

Thanks!

 

[my3princes]

We are bringing a cinderella dress for my 4 yr old niece. She loves to dress up at home and I'm sure that a picture with her and cinderella would be a lifetime keepsake. If you can find glow bracelets or the swirly light up things either at home or at one of the Disney Discount stores you may want to bring them. They are very tempting as they are sold at every evening parade or show and if I hand them to my kids as we sit down I never hear can we get this or that.

 

[frannn]

I buy several things before our trip and bring them. All the costumes, accessories, disney ts, light spinners, fans, water spray bottles, snacks come from home. We buy souveniers from the outlets, and stuff from DTD a day or so before we leave. Having 3 DDs and having made a bunch of WDW trips, I know a lot of what they are going to ask for, and try to pick up similar stuff on ebay, the $ store, or the DS prior to going.

 

[bctripp]

I think the dress up outfit is a great idea. I didn't think about it when we went, but my 2 children were so happy they didn't even think about not having one.

 

[sk!mom]

My DD will be 8 on our upcoming trip and she will not want to dress up. It was great when she was younger, but she wouldn't want to now.

 

[gary4jenn]

on our arrival day and I let the girls (3 yrs and 6 yrs) pick out one dress at the World of Disney. They are $45-$65 each. I don't buy the shoes (waaay to uncomfortable to wear) or any other accessories. Let's face it- the wigs are hot and itchy, the cowns poke into their scalps the wands can be used to torment your sister, etc.

Then we let them put on their dresses and walk around DTD. Oh do we get smiles and comments form all the other shoppers. The girls LOVE the attention they get. At the World of Disney they have even allowed us to go into the display window (with the manequins dressed up in the princess dresses) to have their photo taken among them - tooo cute. Or they have a little bench by the exit doors in the room with the dress up dresses where you can take photos.

I am very clear, ahead of time, on what I will buy for their dress up outfits since it can easily get to $100 per child with all the "extras". Besides, you can easliy get the accessories at the DS at Halloween time or at Target/Walmart.

Then we let them wear them to the character breakfast and then we put them in the lockers afterward so they don't get too much wear and tear.

The costumes in WDW are of much nicer quality than Target or Walmart. I already have had to sew my niece's walmart cindy dress twice (in one week) and my girls have almost all the dresses from the World of Disney and they play dress up almost every day so it's a justifiable expense for us.

Its all about the fairytale and the dream!

 

[my3princes]

You should also check the wdw dresses for quality. I bought my neice the Alice dress in August. The shoulder/sleeve seem tore the very first time she wore it. It was an easy fix, but none the less not the quality you'd expect for $50.00

 

[Lambert808]

Thanks so much for all of the thoughts on this!

 

[ALostBoy]

Hi,

We took the glow in the dark necklaces we got
off of Ebay. I bought 500 and we had plenty. These
were especially great while we were waiting on a
parade. We would get our daughters to give extra ones
out to other kids around us. We had a blast with them.

We also carried costumes in for our girls to wear.
These pics will last a lifetime. Good luck.

Edit: We bought the glow bracelets not the necklaces. We then made them into the necklaces.See here

 

[Lambert808]

Alostboy - Thank you so much! What great photos those are of your girls I wouldn't have thought to look for a lot of those necklaces on ebay - great idea to give some out to others. I am sure you made those other kids evening!

 

[HaleyB]

Here is another great source for the glow in the dark stuff

http://illuminationz.com/product_view.asp?prod_id=6

My daughter loves to dress up in the parks. I always carry another set of clothing just in case. We will be bringing at least four dress up dresses with us on this trip. If she is beyond the dress up dresses age (princess dresses) then a nice fance (Easter style) dress would be cute for CRT or Storybook, and will still get her lots of extra attentiion.

 

[Lambert808]

HaleyB - can I ask how old your dd is? Mine will be 8yo when we go.

 

[orvilleair]

DD5 = 5 yrs old and DD2 = 2 yrs old

Before the trip
* Battery powered fan that lights up from Disney Store
* Autograph books
* Pins. Tried to get some pins for everyone in our group that reflected their personality (ex: DD2 = Stitch. DW = Rescuers (her favorite movie)). Anyway, internet auction sites are a good source for pins. The five year old learned about pin trading and traded her Peter Pan pin for an Ariel. Kids can trade with any cast member whom has dark green lanyards. Kids were showing my daughter their collections. It was kind of neat to watch. Pin trading was big for a lot of kids over 5.

During the trip
* DD5 used her savings to buy a Lilo costume at MGM. She loved it and got attention from other park goers. It cost about $40, and not a bad alternative to wear on hot days. She loves to play dress up at home too.

 

[riopooh]

We booked Breakfast w/ the princesses and had or 3 yo DD already to go in her Cinderella dress when my 9yo DS rather dejectedly asked if he was going to dress up to. We had a collared shirt for church along so he "dressed up" too. Just knowing we were going to the castle made us step up a little from our usual park attire (well just a little and we were back to normal by noon!)

PS We have the Ciny dress from the Disney store with very rough seams - I have to make sure I put a shirt long enough to reach the waistline in order to make it bearable.

 

[riopooh]

That was supposed to say Cindy (Cinderella) dress.

 

[Grendel]

another nice thing about dressing up is sometimes the staff will notice you and make the day more special. Last year my then 6 year old dressed up as princes Aurora and we went to the princess breakfast at epcot...well we were the first to check in and she was all dressed up and got to be the princess of the day( im sure there are several ..but she was for this batch of kids )
they let her sit in a special chair..gave her a princess hat..which all the princess singned and a certificate saying she was the princess of the day. I know these moments can be few and far between...but there really nice when they happen.

 

[shayronnie]

You can buy the glowing necklaces at Wal-Mart. Pack of 2 for $1-something. They are in the party supplies aisle.