Harry Potter, a bit of MNSSHP, Shades of Green - Fall 2017 Pre-Trip AND TRIP Report!

[Travelgrrl]

Harry Potter Scrapbook - SPOILER!

(If you haven't read book 7 or seen Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, skip this post too!)

My sister (53) is reading the books and watching the movies for the first time, and she's just finishing book 5. I had to hold my hand over Dobby's grave when I showed her this page. I'm particularly proud that I found these shell stickers (including one that had real sand in it) to place by the cardstock image of Dobby's grave by Shell Cottage. Because the scrapbook has pouches for the paper inserts, it protects large and clunky stickers like this.



Well, that's it for the scrapbooking posts! On to other aspects of trip planning: rides, food, family activities, wardrobe, and surprises for the kids! (For instance, I printed out "Platform 9 3/4's tickets" to hand out to our crew when we enter King's Cross station. Will post the image soon if you'd like to do so, too!)

 

[macraven]

Here reading along

 

[Travelgrrl]

Thanks, Macraven!

 

[Travelgrrl]

You may have noticed the presence of a certain silver haired lady in some of the previous photos. That's my mother, who'll be 91 on our trip this fall. She doesn't use a wheelchair day to day, but only on long outings with tons of walking - like theme parks. She can stand in queues and get on rides no problem, so we've found a folding wheelchair works great for her. She'll be only doing Disney on this trip, with a visit to Cinderella's table and Pirates League, as well as two MNSSHPs. (The first, she'll be a 1950's Mouseketeer like the rest of us, the second time we'll be Alice in Wonderland characters and she's going as the Queen of Hearts.)

Here's Mom at the venerable age of 87 on our last trip, with makeup and accessories from the Pirates League!

 

[macraven]

You have a beautiful mother

She has to be a SuperMom on the rides

 

[Travelgrrl]

You have a beautiful mother

She has to be a SuperMom on the rides

Awww, thanks! She likes rides like Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid (where you can ride on a smooth conveyor belt) but she has been on Dinosaur!, Soaring, and other more daring ones. We don't want to wear the hide off of her too much!

 

[schumigirl]

Lovely picture of your mum!

It's nice to see them still enjoying a full life at a grand age........I can't keep up with mine when I go visit her! She's 82 with the energy of a 5 year old!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Here's our itinerary for our September trip!

A great number of our group arrives at Shades of Green on Wednesday, and will be doing Disney for a few days until my younger sister, my niece, my Mom and I arrive on Friday. The four of us plan to just chill out at the resort that night, and I have gift bags for the 4 smaller children and my tween niece. I also have a Harry Potter quiz with a Time Turner necklace prize, and a few gifts for my sisters and the thirtysomething girls.

Saturday is Universal! Two others, including one child, will be joining the 3 of us (little sis, niece and I) there, and we'll be shuttling from SOG for the day. The shuttle only makes one trip and costs $10, which is reasonable, but 8 AM - 6:30 PM is a VERY long theme park day for me. I'll have to have many a relaxing Butterbeer stop! We ladies have coordinating Harry Potter themed outfits, which I'll detail in a further thread.

I made "Platform 9 3/4's Hogwarts Express" tickets to hand out on when we set out for the day (will post them later).

Since we don't have early entry, we'll be entering at the other park and going straight to Diagon Alley. In fact, we plan to focus almost exclusively on the Wizarding World this day, as we three ladies will be attending two more times, and the child who is coming for only one day wants to experience this. I've taken notes on the interactive wand spell locations and tips for making the most of this - I'm pretty sure I'll be geeking out as much as the 8 year old and then 13 year old!

While our small group is at Universal, another dozen of our group will be having breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, and then doing the Pirate's League. (This seems like a lot for a 91 year old, but hopefully she'll get a rest afterwards!)

Saturday, we head to the Poly for the character breakfast, then relax by the pool until time to get into costume for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! As I said, we're wearing identical costumes as 1950's Mouseketeers, and I'm here to tell you that our costumes are ADORABLE. This was my idea, and I found several photos of people wearing this as a group costume. Generally, they had white t-shirts and the font was wrong blah blah blah. I found the perfect shirts online, we ordered them in the right sizes for 17 people, and ordered custom names in a "Disney" font for everyone and added patches that say "Mickey Mouse Club 1957" on them. I'm really looking forward to being in a massive group with matching costumes!

Well, this is awfully long and I'm only 3 days in. For illustration, here's a pic from an earlier brunch at the Poly, with tropical Disney dresses. Younger sis, Mom, older sis, with niece across the laps. Aloha!

 

[macraven]

Here's our itinerary for our September trip!

A great number of our group arrives at Shades of Green on Wednesday, and will be doing Disney for a few days until my younger sister, my niece, my Mom and I arrive on Friday. The four of us plan to just chill out at the resort that night, and I have gift bags for the 4 smaller children and my tween niece. I also have a Harry Potter quiz with a Time Turner necklace prize, and a few gifts for my sisters and the thirtysomething girls.

Saturday is Universal! Two others, including one child, will be joining the 3 of us (little sis, niece and I) there, and we'll be shuttling from SOG for the day. The shuttle only makes one trip and costs $10, which is reasonable, but 8 AM - 6:30 PM is a VERY long theme park day for me. I'll have to have many a relaxing Butterbeer stop! We ladies have coordinating Harry Potter themed outfits, which I'll detail in a further thread.

I made "Platform 9 3/4's Hogwarts Express" tickets to hand out on when we set out for the day (will post them later).

Since we don't have early entry, we'll be entering at the other park and going straight to Diagon Alley. In fact, we plan to focus almost exclusively on the Wizarding World this day, as we three ladies will be attending two more times, and the child who is coming for only one day wants to experience this. I've taken notes on the interactive wand spell locations and tips for making the most of this - I'm pretty sure I'll be geeking out as much as the 8 year old and then 13 year old!

While our small group is at Universal, another dozen of our group will be having breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, and then doing the Pirate's League. (This seems like a lot for a 91 year old, but hopefully she'll get a rest afterwards!)

Saturday, we head to the Poly for the character breakfast, then relax by the pool until time to get into costume for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! As I said, we're wearing identical costumes as 1950's Mouseketeers, and I'm here to tell you that our costumes are ADORABLE. This was my idea, and I found several photos of people wearing this as a group costume. Generally, they had white t-shirts and the font was wrong blah blah blah. I found the perfect shirts online, we ordered them in the right sizes for 17 people, and ordered custom names in a "Disney" font for everyone and added patches that say "Mickey Mouse Club 1957" on them. I'm really looking forward to being in a massive group with matching costumes!

Well, this is awfully long and I'm only 3 days in. For illustration, here's a pic from an earlier brunch at the Poly, with tropical Disney dresses. Younger sis, Mom, older sis, with niece across the laps. Aloha!

View attachment 240218

Well worth a second posting

Absolutely beautiful in all ways!!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Thank you so much!

 

[Travelgrrl]

I think I left off on Sunday, with our first MNSSHP. The following day, sadly, a large number of our party has to leave, so that's just a resort day, and helping people get off to their airports and saying goodbye. (Plus I intend to SHUT DOWN the MNSSHP the night before and sleep in!)

On Tuesday, it will be the second MNSSHP, and there will still be 7 of us in attendance, dressing as Alice in Wonderland characters. My niece has the same name as the protagonist, so she'll be a slightly goth version of her. Others will be the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, another Alice, and my elderly Mom has a great Queen of Hearts gown. That left me as Tweedle Dee (I refuse to be DUM! )

i plan to wear a yellow t-shirt and red crinoline over red shorts, and I'll make a version of the long white collar and blue bow tie. (Perhaps embroidering "Tweedle Dee" on the collar if I'm extraordinarily ambitious.) I didn't want to wear the traditional multicolored beanie with flag, so when I saw this Day of the Dead headdress on clearance, I knew it would provide a better version. I found a sparkly pencil and snapped off the part with writing on it to make a small post, on which I affixed a yellow felt 'flag'. Then I painted Modge Podge on the felt and curled it around a couple of spice containers until it dried and Voila! A rippled flag!



I know Alice in Wonderland has been done to death, but I'm not feeling badly since our first MNSSHP costumes are pretty cool, and also because God is in the details. We'll be accessorizing that shizzle!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Even when I had tons of money to travel, I was always a bargain hunter, figuring that if I spent less per trip, I could travel more often. Now that I'm caring for my Mom, I work less and earn less, so it's even more imperative for me to save money! Today I was chuffed to sell three costly items on Ebay, and earn a great deal towards my trip.

Also, older sister let me know this week that Shades of Green released its Military Rate for Universal tickets for the rest of the year - if you buy one day's ticket, you get three days free! This was a savings of $100 for me over the cheapest rate I've seen, so if you have a family member who will join you on your trip who is an active or retired member of the military, check out the tickets, which are on the SOG website! You don't need to be staying at Shades of Green to qualify, and each qualifying military member can get 6 tickets a this price (as well as reduced rates for SOME of the MNSSHPs this fall and of course Disney tickets).

When I left off, I had lightly passed over our first Universal Day, where we plan to really focus on the two Harry Potter lands. I'm wearing this Marauder's Map dress, which came in nice zaftig sizes and is pretty modest, as it's fairly long and not low necked. I plan to wear shorts under it anyway!


It has an adorable built in crinoline, a lovely squared neckline with black lace edging, and the back laces to fit perfectly. Plus, check out the back ruffled underskirt!



My sister has a T-Shirt that says "I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good" (which starts the Marauder's Map working), and my niece has a T-Shirt that says "Mischief Managed" (which makes the map's magic disappear).

The color is the dress is much darker, like an old parchment, and has aging marks on it. Should be fun to wear!

 

[macraven]

Absolutely adorable !

 

[Travelgrrl]

Well, adorable on the professional model, in any case! Looks decent on me and is comfy and that's a major concern for me at theme parks with lots of walking. I wince when I see young girls in high heels at Disney or Universal - Ouch!

 

[Travelgrrl]

To continue our Pre-Trip itinerary, we arrive Fri, go to Universal Sat, breakfast at the Poly and MNSSHP on Sunday, resort day on Monday, and then Tuesday, our 2nd MNSSHP. Wednesday, little sister, my niece and I attack Universal with a smaller group, and the remaining members of our party go to Disney! The three of us going to Univeral are wearing a version of this:



I took a pin striped long sleeve blouse, shortened the sleeves and evened up the hem, and ironed a Ravenclaw patch on it. (About $3 online with shipping; I also got a Gryffindor one for my sister and a Slytherin one for my niece.) The necktie is also a Harry Potter one that is screen perfect for Ravenclaw, also about $4. Will just wear with capris.

My sister ordered similar Gryffindor and Slytherin ties for them, though theirs have the house crest in the end of the tie as well. Just a bit of "Harry Potter-bounding" without being too costume-y. Since there will only be three of us this day, and the Shades of Green shuttle schedule means a long day in the parks, we hope to not only re-see a lot of the Wizarding World things again, but also start exploring the rest of the two parks!

 

[macraven]

You have a really good eye

The clothes look professional

 

[Kivara]

I love all the outfits, but that Marauder's Map dress is AMAZING! Can't wait to read more & see more pics! You sound like a fun bunch!

 

[schumigirl]

I love that dress!!!

That type of style is fabulous too........it'll look good on. Yes, clothes have to be comfy with all that walking around........

 

[Travelgrrl]

Thanks, you guys! I have the spirit of Snape with me as I craft things for the trip!

 

[Travelgrrl]

I figured when my sister, niece and I are in our house crests shirts and ties, we probably would need some SPEW (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare - Book 3!) buttons, so I made a version for me and my niece. I only had two 'Make Your Own Button" kits, so: Sorry, Sis!

I just printed off a correctly sized image onto cardstock, popped off the back of the acrylic button and used it for a template to cut out the image, placed it inside the acrylic shell, then put tiny dabs of glue around the edge of the backing before I popped it back in place. They are hilarious, and also huge: