Getting in the Christmas Mood at Disney: A Dec 2013 Pre-Trip Report

[DisMomJill]

We are nearing the 45 day mark, and I have ordered the last of the Disney gift cards so I can pay off our balance. My TA probably hates me because I'm paying with a bunch of $50 gift cards.

This is my method to save a little bit of money, in case anyone is interested:

1. I order slightly less than $475 worth of discounted target gift cards from giftcards.com, going through quick rewards for the cash back. The cards are discounted 4%, plus I get 1% back.
2. I then order 10 Disney gift cards from target.com. I pay for the majority of the balance with the Target gift cards. The remainder is paid with my red card so I can get the 5% discount.

I lucked out on my first order, and I got the 5% off even though nothing was charged to my red card (I had gift cards to cover the whole amount). After that, I had several orders cancelled, and I'm pretty sure it was because I was trying to get a discount without charging anything to the red card. Oh, and I'm charging the target gift cards to my Disney Visa so I can get points for the purchase Yes, the method is a little convoluted, but I think it is worth the savings. I'm going to figure out the savings soon, and I'll post here once I do.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

hopped over from my PTR and joining in! love all the sewing your doing! my DH would be so happy if I sewed some princess dresses that could actually go in the washer instead of having to be handwashed, but people keep giving us ones covered in glitter instead! Love the picture of younger DD in her Minnie dress--that smile is too precious!

 

[budafam]

Are you the one who was able to snag the Crystal Palace ADR I cancelled for 12/5?

Nope, not a Crystal Palace fan

 

[DisMomJill]

On Monday, I sent my TA the final list of gift cards. Yesterday, I got confirmation that we are paid in full!!!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Woohoo!!

 

[serene56]

wish I can make FP+ selections.

Are you aware that Its a Small World is closed from Dec 1 thru the 12th?

 

[DisMomJill]

wish I can make FP+ selections.

Are you aware that Its a Small World is closed from Dec 1 thru the 12th?

What I saw indicated that is is closing on 12/2, so the plan is to ride it at least two times that day. The good thing is that if it is closed on the 1st, DD won't really know she is missing it since she doesn't remember much from her first trip.

 

[DisMomJill]

Well, I added another ADR to our trip. We are now eating at the Garden Grill on our Epcot day because I really needed one more thing crammed into that day. SMH. I did a replan, and it actually isn't that bad. Spaceship Earth will now be our last ride after we eat. I moved our FP+ up an hour for the character greeting and soarin, and everything else pretty much stayed the same.

My allergies have been in high gear, so sewing has been on the back burner for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to get back to it tonight, so maybe I'll have more pictures to post soon.

 

[DisMomJill]

Real life update here since I don't really have anything to post about the trip. Warning: photobucket is not cooperating, so the pics are huge.

First, last night I made a skort for my DD to wear for her preschool's pumpkin patch tomorrow. I experimented a little, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Right now, it is safety pinned on the side since I was just making sure the elastic was a good length. I'll finish that up tonight so it'll be ready for her tomorrow.


Second, DD had a school field trip to a local farm ("farm" is used very loosely). So here are some pics from that.




And finally, DD and I went to the state fair because we had tickets for The Lion King musical. While we were there, DD rode her first roller coaster, and she LOVED it! I'm a very excited mama because it looks like I'm going to have a roller coaster buddy now. She was measuring right about 44", so I"m hoping for at least a small growth sprurt before we go to WDW so there won't be any questions about EE. No pics related to the musical , but here are a couple from the fair.



Ugh, I seem to have missed downloading some pics from the camera. So I may have to come back to update.

Tonight I am planning to work on a skirt for DD to wear when we go on the sleigh ride at FW. I am also making longer Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella skirts because DD insists that the princesses wear long dresses, not knee length ones. So I'm making longer skirts so she can wear them for Halloween (she keeps going back and forth on which princess she wants to be). And I'm debating whether or now I'll pack them for Disney.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Love the Halloween skort! I love that you make her skorts so you don't have to worry about underwear showing. Do you use a pattern or just wing it? (Also love the "mom! You're killin' me!" pose )

The farm and fair look like they were fun!

 

[DisMomJill]

Love the Halloween skort! I love that you make her skorts so you don't have to worry about underwear showing. Do you use a pattern or just wing it? (Also love the "mom! You're killin' me!" pose )

The farm and fair look like they were fun!

I use the Perfectly Preppy Skirt pattern by Scientific Seamstress. You can make it as a skirt or skort, and the skirt portion can be gathered, pleated or circle. The attached shorts can also be more like bloomers with elastic in the legs. I love all of the options. Not only do skorts cover up the underwear, they also stay in place. When DD wears a skirt, it is all over the place and sometimes ends up under her arms. I don't have that problem with the skort!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Thanks! I'm going to have to look at that pattern. My youngest LOVES wearing skirts but I get so tired of finding shorts to wear under or telling her to pull her skirt down!

 

[LB1122]

LOve the fun on the pumpkin farm.

Love the skirt as well. I hear you with the shorts thing. daughter has not totally learned how to sit like a lady when wearing them...but LOVE skirts

 

[DisMomJill]

So I spent most of my evenings last week working on more skorts. I don't know if I mentioned it, but DD insisted that princesses wear long dresses so the knee length skort I made just wouldn't work. Since I had enough fabric remaining, I started making long Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty skorts. I was also making one with some Christmas light fabric. Well, on Friday night, I was attaching the Cinderella skirt to the yoke with my serger, and I ran over a pin . Something broke (I haven't had time to really look to see what it was), so now my serger doesn't work. So I had to go back to just using my sewing machine which means no more pretty seams. I was absolutely sick . Anyway, I did manage to finish the Cinderella skort. I had DD try it on on Saturday morning, and she told me there was a problem. It wasn't very twirly. SMH. I did manage to control myself, and I didn't hurt the poor child. After all of that, we went and spent the morning at the local arboretum because they were having a Halloween event with trick-or-treating, face painting, and a petting zoo. The picture below is a pretty good example of the faces I got when I wanted to take her picture.


Yesterday, I spent the afternoon sewing a peasant top for DD with some ghost fabric that she insisted on getting when we went to the fabric store on Thursday. It was on sale, plus I had a coupon, so I relented. I somehow messed up the neck casing because I was trying to finish quickly, so that is what I'll be working on tonight. Hopefully I'll have a picture to show tomorrow.

Other than that, not too much going on. We are less than 5 weeks out from out trip, and I only have 2 free weekends remaining. My sewing to do list is way too long, and I'm not sure if everything will get done. I need to finish planning our days and make a to do list of everything (non-sewing related) that needs to be done and bought before we leave. I think I'm going to be in panic mode soon because time got away from me!

 

[DisMomJill]

Today I have spent some time mapping out our day at Animal Kingdom.

One of my favorite memories from our last trip was at AK. We actually didn't do a whole lot when we were there, but the day ended in a great way. I had originally planned a before park opening ADR for Tusker House, but I ended up changing it to a dinner ADR. DD was pretty tired, and I didn't really want to try to get her up early enough to make it to the park early. So we got to the park after it opened (not sure what time because I didn't take any notes for that trip), and we started off with the Safari. DD really enjoyed it, which wasn't really a surprise. The next thing I remember is eating at Flame Tree BBQ (yum!). DH went to see the bird show, and DD and I met some characters. There were some great interactions (all except for Daisy Duck). We met up with DH again and attempted FOTLK. I ended up having to take DD out because she was getting pretty fussy. After that we headed over to the Safari ride again. The parade was going on, so it was pretty much a walk on. DD and I rode it three times in a row. As soon as we got off, she kept saying "one time", wanting to ride it again. When we came through the third time, the CM in the stroller area said if it was still open when we got off that she would just let us cut through the stroller area. Unfortunately it wasn't open so we didn't get to take her up on that offer. After that we headed over to Tusker House to see if we could get in early. That wasn't a problem, and we ended our day with a nice relaxing dinner.

So now that I have kind of recapped our last AK experience, I'll move on to our plans. I will say that I just realized that I didn't add break for a dinner at Flame Tree, so I'll need to rework it a little. Also, as a caveat, if DD doesn't make the 44" mark this will change quite a bit because I have EE planned many times!


1-2. Expedition Everist (twice if DD is tall enough and likes it)
3. Kilimanjaro Safari
4. Tusker House (ADR at 10:20)
5-6. Camp Minnie-Mickey (two spots b/c touring plans didn't give it much time)
7. Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost
8. Discovery Island Character Landing
9-10. Expedition Everist (FP+ 1:00-2:00)
11. Pangani Forest Exploration Trail
12-14. Kilimanjaro Safari (FP+ 2:00-3:00)
15-16. TriceraTop Spin
17. Expedition Everist
18. Finding Nemo (assuming there is a 5pm show)

And there you have, a very busy last day filled with things I think DD will love. DH will probably see the bird show while DD and I are doing character greetings. And he'll sit out on all of the EE rides. The good thing about this day is we should be able to get all of the unique events in easily. If we cut out anything, it'll be some of the duplicates.

Now I think the only day I haven't described is out full MK day (which is acutally the day before our AK day). I'll try to get to that some time this week.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Oh--it made me so sad to read that your serger broke! I made some bibs for our youngest's daughters preschool and have been saving the money I made from that for a serger. I've been looking on Craigslist for a used one but haven't seen one I like yet. I can't wait to have professional looking seams one day! (Why does it matter since no one sees them? I don't know--but it does! )

DD looks so cute in her Cinderella dress. I love the face painting! Cute cute!!

I also have a sewing list I need to get on. Besides disney sewing, I am making two quilts. I've never made one before and this first one is taking me forever. Can't wait to see the shirt you made!

Your AK day looks fun. It's my least favorite park but I think we've got all the things we skipped last time scheduled. And we're starting and ending with ADRs that should be fun.

 

[DisMomJill]

Oh--it made me so sad to read that your serger broke! I made some bibs for our youngest's daughters preschool and have been saving the money I made from that for a serger. I've been looking on Craigslist for a used one but haven't seen one I like yet. I can't wait to have professional looking seams one day! (Why does it matter since no one sees them? I don't know--but it does! )

I was trying to go slowly and removing each pin before I got to the blade. I was so irritated when I hit that one, especially since I was just beginning to get the hang of using the serger. I haven't looked at it yet to see if maybe I can fix it myself. I'm just afraid the repairs will be as much as a new one since the brother 1034d I'd less than 200 on Amazon.

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This morning I remembered a brag story from Saturday that I forgot to tell. After DD got her face painted, we headed for the petting zoo. We didn't get far when she said "oh no, I forgot to give her a piece of my trick or treat candy". So we stopped and she got a miniature Hershey bar from her bag. We went back and she gave it to the lady who painted her face. I was a proud mommy.

I finished the top last night, but DD wasn't cooperating for pictures. Hopefully I will get to take some this afternoon.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using DISBoards

 

[DisneyFan50]

I arrive on 11/29 and will be there to 12/7! See you there! Christmas at Disney here we come.

 

[DisMomJill]

Just a quick sewing update. First, here is a photo of DD in her ghost top.

And tonight I finished the long Sleeping Beauty skort and the Christmas lights skort. This is a picture of the lights one that DD will wear on the sleigh ride. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for a top to wear with it.

Tomorrow I think I will start cutting out the pooh a-line dress that I have planned. And after that, I need to get back to the Sofia dress. The thought of doing the scallops on the skirt are making me procrastinate, even though I am using an excellent pattern as a guide. But this will be my first time following it, and new patterns always make me a little nervous.

Now for a non-sewing topic. I recently realized Mickey and Minnie aren't meeting together at MK anymore. I am very disappointed because I was hoping for another pixie dust moment like we had on our last trip. I was also hoping for better pictures. I was holding DD last time because I didn't know how she would react. Unfortunately that was not conducive to good pics. So, do Mickey and Minnie meet together anywhere else?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using DISBoards

 

[STLMickeyMom]

all your sewing projects are so cute! I love the ghost shirt--adorable fabric and looks so cute on DD! the lights skirt is perfect for the sleigh ride, too. can't wait to see the sofia dress. both my girls, even our oldest who is very into superheroes right now, have been oooing and awwwing over the sofia costumes we've seen in the stores.

as for mickey and Minnie meeting together.....I thought they used to meet together at AK, but i'm not sure where or if that is still correct or not.