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

[Travelgrrl]

This is the other image I used, though here it's not cut into the button shape:



I think this is sad little Winky - Book 4!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Earlier I mentioned that I plan to bring "Hogwarts Express" tickets to hand out to members of our party when we first enter King's Cross railway station on our first Universal day. (And a few extra ones for new friends from the line, perhaps!)

I'm very interested in seeing the "Pepper's Ghost" illusion at the train station, and plan to hang back and see if I can get a video or photo of others in my party crossing the brick wall onto Platform 9 3/4's. And maybe they'll be able to get a similar shot of me doing the same! I've seen videos that others have shot, and... it's magical!

Here's a copy of the tickets that I made, in case anyone else would like to make some for a surprise at the parks, or just for scrapbooking:

 

[macraven]

Nice work !!!

Now wait for the pms you might receive for receiving one

I know some readers would stand in line to be the "new" line friend

 

[Travelgrrl]

Just to be clear, that's a version of the actual ticket used in the movie productions, from the official HP "Artifacts" book; not one I drafted myself. I'm crafty but not THAT crafty!

However, I put about 9 on a page on heavy card stock, cut them out, and they look fabulous! Easy to carry and hand out, a nifty little souvenir.

 

[Travelgrrl]

A few thoughts on how I like to tour. I'm the OPPOSITE of the folks who make ADRs for fancy places to eat. My way of visiting theme parks is to grab a pastry and coffee in the AM as I'm dashing to the parks early, ride attractions like mad, then eat something quick at a fast serve eatery at 10:30 or 11:00, before the lunch rush. Then tour like mad until early afternoon, then go back to the hotel to swim or rest, eating something quick for dinner, and then touring all evening.

Although I love fine dining and have been lucky enough to travel and eat many wonderful local cuisines, at Disney or Universal, I want to go on rides and see shows! Or even sit outside and people watch. I hate to 'waste' time having a long dinner, I hate to rush to be on time for lunch or dinner reservations. (All props to people who DO like those things, and can enjoy the specific splendors of wonderfully themed eateries; its just not for me.) I figure I can have fine dining on my own time, but chances to ride amazing rides is fairly impossible to re-create at home.

My older sister does like this, and has ADRs for the Castle breakfast etc for our trip. in the past I've eaten at several fun WDW restaurants, but honestly the worst trip I ever took was one where we had Free Dining at WDW. Even using several of the chits for the Castle breakfast, we still seemed to do nothing on the trip but rush from one ADR to the next. By the end of the week I was gifting meals to random people in line with me.

So! No plans for fancy restaurants for me for this trip. I do hope to eat lunch at both the Three Broomsticks and the Leaky Cauldron (which I understand are walk up eateries) and maybe we'll meander over to Toothsome's on one of the days when we're beat yet still waiting for the Shades of Green shuttle. The rest of the time, we'll be going on rides, baby!

 

[FoxC63]

Since I'm going to try to illustrate my PTR, here's a little shot of my niece in a Harry Potter robe that older sis hand painted. You just know that kid's a Slytherin.

View attachment 237507
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[FoxC63]

LOVE it! I'll be following along and look forward to more! That dress - amazing! Love everything about it. Your scrap booking puts mine to shame but also gives me so many ideas! I think we might be sisters Give your family a big hello and mom a kiss for me she just pulls on my heart strings

 

[Travelgrrl]

Well, I was off to another state to visit older sister, with a bit more vacation planning thrown into the mix. My sis has elaborate Alice in Wonderland costumes from a previous Disney visit, so we dug out Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit for our 2nd MNSSHP.

And now back to Universal and Harry Potter stuff!

As I mentioned, I have tons of little gifts for the children coming - mostly Disney things for the 3 little girls, but the older boy and the tween girl will be going to Universal so I wanted a mix of Harry Potter stuff for their gift bags. I simply went to Ebay and put "Harry Potter" as a search term and "All Categories" and then once the bazillion results came up, I changed the setting on the upper right from "Best Match" to "Priced Lowest To High".

I have gotten MANY very cool items this way: Harry Potter ties and patches for cosplay, little stuffed Harry Potter keychains and Lego mini figs, Harry Potter magnets, and most of all, Harry Potter jewelry! Each thing has cost less than $4 with free shipping, with most costing less than $1! If you don't mind waiting a month or so for your item to arrive from China, it's well worth it to check these type of auctions out.

I have purchased several time turner necklaces(book 3), a SPEW necklace (book 4), a Slytherin-like snake bracelet, a Dumbledore's Army necklace (book 5), an amazing cord and charm Harry Potter bracelet, a Deathly Hallows necklace (book 7) and even a Resurrection Stone ring (book 6)!

Here's an example of how amazing these look; the quality has been top notch on every 60 cent thing I have won. I plan to wear this with my Marauder's Map dress and I also got one in silvertone for my niece for our first day, and first time going to Platform 9 3/4.

 

[FoxC63]

Costumes sound fun!
I like purchasing the patches and sewing them on rather than ironing them. It's easier to remove and I can put it in a scrapbook page or put it on something new. I've even sewn them on DS backpack.

 

[Travelgrrl]

Gah, I GLUED the patch on my shirt, though I guess I could cut if off later for scrapbooking (Unless I hold onto the shirt for future Harry Potter Bounding)! I also glued the patches on the 17 Mouseketeer shirts - I was waaaaay too lazy to sew, or even iron, 17 of them on.

To my credit, I did end up making the special "Tweedle Dee" collar with the name on. I considered embroidering it and got out the floss and a needle, but couldn't find a hoop so I painted them on. Turned out better than I expected and I'll photograph it once I have it sewn with the blue satin bow tie!

Here's the template I used, a still from the original Alice in Wonderland cartoon:

 

[macraven]

Sweet!

 

[Travelgrrl]

And here's the finished collar and bow tie! I say 'finished' because I tore my craftnest apart for blue satin for the bow, or even wide blue satin ribbon, and came up empty. I have over 80 boxes of crafts supplies (mostly cigar or shoe box sized) and you'd think I would have had that, but NO. So I made a little bow tie out of narrower blue ribbon with polka dots, which looks fine, I guess, though not 'screen perfect'.



Then the next day I found a large swatch of the perfect fabric in a different hidey hole (American Girl doll clothes made out of vintage doilies and hankies)! So I'll be replacing the bow with a more traditional bow tie shape, in a fluffier style, in the correct blue. Most of my costume for the 2nd MNSSHP is going to be more 'Disneybounding' than 'costume', and my fellow attendees have super elaborate Alice in Wonderland costumes, so the collar is key to knowing what mine is supposed to Dee. I mean be!

 

[FoxC63]

I like it as is! It's more personal and adds a bit of whimsical flair!

 

[Travelgrrl]

I spent the July 4th break crafting, crafting, crafting! I did try to change out the Tweedle Dee bow tie and it just looked too large and floppy, so I'm taking FoxC63's advice and going with the little polka dotted tie, as pictured.

We have a pair of (almost) newlyweds with us this trip, as my niece is getting married a couple of weeks after we get back. I figured that was close enough, and looked into Bride and Groom ears for them to wear at WDW. Gosh, they were expensive! Nice sets of Bride and Groom ears were $50 and up (waaaay up), so I figured I'd make them myself. I ordered a silver sparkly pair of ears online for the bride, and bought some sparkly tulle. I made rosettes of the tulle with a glue gun (super fast and easy) and I fashioned a veil by sewing lace to three sides of a smallish rectangle, and shirring the top. When the ears come, my idea is to hot glue the rosettes on the front, with the raw edge of the veil underneath and the finished part hanging down in the back. Will post a photo when it's done!

For the groom, I just took a pair of plain black ears and hand made a wee top hat, gluing it between the ears. I googled "Doll top hat pattern", took a gander at some of the images, make a pattern on a piece of random cardboard, and cut it out on black fabric. The material wasn't quite sturdy enough so I painted Modge Podge on it and let it dry. Then I glued it together, added a black satin ribbon hatband, and even found a few gold rhinestones to make a "Hidden Mickey" head on the band.

What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it, since I've never made a top hat nor a customized pair of ears before!

 

[macraven]

I think you should hang out a shingle and start a business

You did great !

 

[FoxC63]

VERY very nice! I'm loving it and agree with @macraven Go into business!!!

 

[Travelgrrl]

You guys are too nice! It's all wonky on top! However, this is a first time groom who is super nice and I'm sure he'll be glad to wear them, even wonky.

Ebay notified me that there's something amiss with the seller of the silver ears, but did say something to the effect that "If it's already been shipped, it'll probably arrive" so I'm still hoping. It's arrival date might be as late as Aug 18th, but I'm hoping to get them much sooner to send them with my sister who is visiting the previous week. She and the bride and groom and most of our party will be arriving two days before us, so I want the couple to have their ears as soon as they arrive at WDW.

 

[Travelgrrl]

The silver mouse ears came! I repeat: THE SILVER MOUSE EARS CAME!!!

I wasted no time in hot gluing the veil and sparkly tulle rosettes on, took photos, and went to bed. The next morning I was back at it, making more rosettes and gluing them on, and then I was happy with it. (It looked fine from the front but I wanted the back view to be lovely too.)

So here's the front view of the Bride ears for my niece:



And here you can see the veil, too. It's not as long as it looks; by the time it hangs over the back of the head, it's barely shoulder length:



ALMOST makes me want to get married. Again.

 

[Travelgrrl]

Just an update on my fundraising for the trip. I've been selling like mad on Ebay and last week I listed a book of mine from 1984, signed by an obscure but critically acclaimed author in 1988. Since the author has passed away, and because the inscription was long and interesting, I knew it was worth some money. It sold for $180!!!

Following that success, I dug in my stored books as I have another by the same author, also signed. I haven't found it yet, but I DID find a cool Twin Peaks paperback from 1991 and I thought I would run that up the flagpole, as the series is back on and there're a lot of Twin Peaks fans out there. It sold for $60! A paperback!

So that was a cool $240 (well, before Ebay and Paypal take their cut, doncha know) for the trip. I'm also selling some extra dolls from my sister who's a Doll Lady. Our goal was to raise (from the sale of the dolls) enough to buy the 2nd set of MNSSHP tickets for 7 of us that are going. This week, I passed the $589 mark for 7 tickets and got them! WOOHOO!

Two more months, and though my airfare, Universal tickets and MNSSHP tickets have been paid, I'm raising the rest of the funds for the hotel and of course, spending money for the trip. At this rate, I'll be swimming in dough like Scrooge McDuck!

 

[HillsboroHoppers]

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.

With 5 of you taking the shuttle, at 50 dollars and their schedule, have you considered using UBER to go? It may fit better with your schedule and be a similar price. Just a thought! We have become big Uber fans when traveling.