"holiday to the Mickey Mouse" Pre-trip report Page 3: in-room decorations and GIFTS!

[Rachandgarry]

Hey there, hi there, ho there its a Disney kind of day.... here comes my first ever pre-trip report! This is page 3

Link to page 1

Link to page 2

The Who (not the band, obviously hehe)

Me: Rachel, 36. Fave attraction: Stitch Live, fave character: Sulley.
DH: Garry, 36. Fave attraction: will ask him tonight, but I think it will be Big Thunder Mountain, fave character: probably something obvious like Mickey Mouse lol!
DS: Matthew, 5 and 1/2. Has Autism, Learning Disabilities and Sensory Processing Disorder. Fave attraction: Its a small world. Fave character: Winnie the Pooh

The When: February 9th - 12th 2012

The Where: Sequoia Lodge

The How: By car from Bristol, on Eurotunnel, in one go.

The What: A last minute 3 night stay to surprise our DS who is absolutely desperate to go back! Takes after me I think!

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Other than going on vacation holiday, I also love doing craft work. I don't have a particular hobby per se, and I don't have the talent patience to scrapbook, but I love making cards and photos and that sort of thing. I'm creative but I'm not artistic. A facet of my personality that people either love or hate, is that I am very black and white/all or nothing; this has its good points, like I will not stop until something is achieved, and a job will always be done thoroughly....and its bad points - like I will forget to go to bed at all some nights because I 'just have to get this last bit done' and I can drive people mad with my insistence on perfection.

Like a lot of people on here, I liked the idea of getting some little presents for DS for either on the way, or when we arrive, or for during the trip. Also, the last time we went, it cost us a small fortune in the gift shop lol so I thought that if I can buy some toys etc here in advance at reasonable prices, then I could head that problem off and save some money. HA! That plan would have worked if I just hadn't got carried away with the buying of said presents WHISTLES. Even now I still have the option of putting some of the items away for a later trip (we're going again in June) but will I? Doubtful, lol..... I can't help it I just want him to be happy!!

Anyway, the idea of having some presents with us spurred me on to thinking wouldn't it be nice if I could arrange something special to be in the room when we arrived - like a cake, or a bunch of balloons or something..... then I looked at the prices and feinted. Well not literally, but almost... After a brief search on the internet I found the 'In room celebrations' that the Disney florist in Orlando does - http://www.disneyflorist.com/category/occasions/inroomcelebrations/display. I love the idea of Mickey's Grand Welcome, and the Mickey and Pals Big Birthday celebration.... I thought I could combine them to make a 'Mickey and Pals Big Grand Welcome'. A lovely and talented lady on the Creative Disigns board made some templates to recreate the Grand Welcome and I can see what it entails from various threads by guests who have had them. How hard could it be?

So far, I have made and printed hundreds (literally ) of graphics and am in the process of collecting presents that I can put in each box. There is going to be a present from Mickey, a present from Minnie, a present from Donald, a present from Winnie the Pooh and a giant welcome box present from Lightning McQueen. Its all stuff he can use while we are on the trip, but I might have gone the teensiest weensiest bit overboard . Me?? Surely not lol.

I haven't made the boxes yet, and although everything is printed, I still have to laminate it or stick it on the appropriate item. I'll try to take some photos of my progress so far, and add them in later.

I have a big Welcome banner, and lots of character graphics to hang in the room.

So in the big welcome gift from Lightning McQueen I have:

- Cars fleece blanket
- Cars jellies
- small Cars backpack
- a L. McQueen filled with candy
- a Cars 2 hat, scarf and gloves set
- a Cars t-shirt (home printed)
- a Cars 32 piece jigsaw
- a pack of Cars monopoly Snap cards

This will be packaged in a Cars toy box, then wrapped in cellophane with some Cars balloons coming out of the top!

in the Mickey Mouse gift I have:
- a signed framed photo of MM (what do you mean it looks like my handwriting?! )
- a pair of Mickey pyjamas
- a little Mickey projector torch
- Clubhouse sticker set
- home made ABC book
- 2 Mickey t-shirts (home printed)
- small book with sound effects

in the Winnie gift I have:
- little soft bath cuddly toy with a bag under it with bubble bath and a sponge
- home-made autograph book
- W t P stickers
- a mix and match game
- Winnie the Pooh PECS set

in the Donald gift I have:
- a home-decorated Donald sippy cup
- Donald chocolate coins
- Donald milkybar and milkybar buttons
- Donald Feather wash (home made label on a small bottle of baby head to toe wash lol)
- Donald mini gingerbread men (home made label on Asda gingerbread men)

in the Minnie gift I have:
- Minnie and Daisy spoon and fork set (doesn't look girly)
- Minnie's Magnificent Make-You-Clean (again, home made label on a bottle of baby head to toe wash lol)
- Minnie chocolate coins
- Minnie milkybar and milkybar buttons
- home made shapes book

I've also bought some bigger toy presents that I will wrap up and he can have one each morning and one each evening, hopefully to prevent him needing to go in gift shops during the day (see page 2 for explanation of why Matthew going in to the gift shops is such a disaster). I have 3 Cars2 playsets (small, but in massive boxes so he'll be overjoyed lol), a Slinky Dog toy, a Peppa Pig colouring trolley on wheels, a Buzz Lightyear dressing gown, and a Buzz Lightyear t-shirt.

I don't think I should write these things down in future; they seemed a lot less when they were just in my head lol..... how, I wonder, are we going to fit anything else in the car?? Most of them I bought reduced in the sales. Most of them.

this section is to be continued here, because I just know I've forgotten some bits lol...

 

[tinks_1989]

aw this is brilliant how exciting are you sure he will sleep with all that excitement x

 

[Rachandgarry]

Well this is one of the things I had started to wonder.... I'm wondering about setting an alarm really early and doing it for when he wakes up, but there are a couple of issues - 1) I doubt he will, but what if he thought Mickey had been in the room over night and didn't like the idea.... 2) what if he wakes up earlier than my alarm, how the heck would I do it?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh I don't know what to do. I'm sure there is a right way, but I might not have found it yet.

Any thoughts or ideas would be very welcome!

 

[Nubbedy]

Sounds fantastic - he is so lucky. Wish I was a bit more creative myself. Look forward to seeing pictures.

 

[tinks_1989]

Well this is one of the things I had started to wonder.... I'm wondering about setting an alarm really early and doing it for when he wakes up, but there are a couple of issues - 1) I doubt he will, but what if he thought Mickey had been in the room over night and didn't like the idea.... 2) what if he wakes up earlier than my alarm, how the heck would I do it?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh I don't know what to do. I'm sure there is a right way, but I might not have found it yet.

Any thoughts or ideas would be very welcome!

I think you should defiantly try and do it before he goes in the room to say something like mickey checked all the rooms nd thought tho one was the best and wanted him to have it! Could you get him to wait in reception with his dad or pretend you left something in the car so they woul have to go back to it? Xxx

 

[Rachandgarry]

LOL, allllll change! Have revised our trip plans slightly, a bonus of which is that I'm not going to have such a problem getting this sorted. Woo hoooo!

New plans are (going to be) in Part 1 of my pre-trip...!

 

[Rachandgarry]

So, my Mickey and Pals Big Grand Welcome seems to be shaping up reasonably well. I put a couple of stickers on wonky, and it would seem that I have no natural ability to cut out circles accurately but heh - he's only 5, and its chocolate so a long-winded inspection of the packaging is not likely! Sorry this is so photo-heavy, but I'd like to include pics so I can look back and see what I've achieved (she says full of hope!). So here goes:

For the packages from each of the characters, I didn't really want to spend a massive amount of money, but still wanted the impact to be there and for him to really sense that character in it. The boxes you can see here are the boxes I am going to use, but I'm going to decorate them in the colours of each character as they do in the Mickey and Pals birthday celebration package.

The main welcome from 'Lightning McQueen' does have a few nice goodies in it, and all the bits you can see will be in the toy box and then some helium balloons will rise from it:

This is DH modelling the hat (size 3 - 6 years, well it was till bighead DH stretched it grrrrrrrrrrr)

The Mickey gift is quite full too, those are the green pyjamas from the disney store:

The Donald one is fun:

I didn't have much for this box, so I re-labelled some bubble bath and a new water bottle:

then there's the Goofy one, the Pluto one and the Minnie one:

Again, I was a bit short on things for this box, so I re-labelled bubble bath and sweets again lol:

The Winnie the Pooh giftbox isn't ready yet, as that is going to have the autograph book in but I haven't finished it yet, and some stickers when they arrive from Amazon.

I'm making some t-shirts, so when they are done they can go in the relevant boxes too. On the journey there, we're going to give him this, with an invitation from Buzz Lightyear to come to DLP:

(obviously just the dressing gown, not the table and tablecloth as well hehe)

Then, in an attempt to stem the need for going in to gift shops, he's going to get a present each morning and each evening (if he behaves of course!). These also double as toys for while we are there, but that he can still use when we get back. Here are 3 of the presents, Cars playsets from the Disney store reduced to £5 each, which is quite good really. We got a colouring trolley, a Cars jigsaw, some foam numbers and letters, a Cars 2 train playset thing and a Slinky dog. (some of those sound a bit young for him, but his learning disabilities have put him way behind, probably about 3 years behind his peers in a lot of things)

Then, on top of this, I have personalised some general chocolate coins (doubt we'll eat them all this trip, but they will be fine for June as well), some milkybar chocolate, some jellytots - and the thing I am most pleased with is the train chocolate. This was all Christmas stock reduced in Sainsburys, but the expiry dates are September 2012 so that is fine. The big red coins were down to 15p each and the train chocolates were 40p each. Hopefully you can see the train, one is front up, and the other 3 are face down to show the graphics I did. I think they've come out so well and look like proper park sweets haha!

From this:

to this:

and

I made some small pyramids, that I can put something small in as a good morning Matthew kind of thing:

The trains:

and the "Jellytots by Jessie".... I thought it sounded sweet, like a perfume name. DH said (after I'd finished it all) that I should have called them 'Jessietots'. Nowww he tells me this! Hee hee!

I can't wait until I can see everything packaged up and put together, I love this sort of thing and it really gets me excited to go to DLP! If you've managed to stay with me through this monstrously long post - well done lol - and thank you. I haven't done this before, but its really quite nice to do. My MIL frowns on me "wasting so much time on silly sorts of things" but to me they aren't silly. Matthew doesn't have the character interaction in exactly the same way others do, and actually I can't always tell what he thinks at all, so I just want to make sure that I've done everything I can to make it magical for him. And whether he understands that Mickey has done all this, or not, doesn't really matter. I am enjoying doing it, and hopefully he will feel fully immersed in the warm cosy blanket that is being at the House of Mouse.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Great report, so much planning and attention to detail.

 

[Rachandgarry]

Hiya

My creative efforts were on the back burner for a few days since I made the t-shirts, because I have had a horrid cold (which actually feels like some deadly flu, but the doctor insists it is just a cold. Harumph. Does she not realise how poorly I feel???) but I finally got around to finishing up the gifts for the 'Mickey and Pals Big Grand Welcome' that I'm doing for our arrival. As soon as we get to the room, they will be put on the bed, around the slightly bigger Cars box, which will have a bunch of helium balloons attached to it, and a welcome banner on the wall (going to make that tomorrow). Here's how they turned out, I'm quite pleased...

The Cars box (contents will be inside obviously)

The rest of the pressies:

from Mickey:

from Minnie:

from Pluto:

from Goofy:

from Donald:

from Winnie the Pooh (prob Matthew's favourite character), and this has his autograph book in it:

Its a good job we're driving over and not trying to get this lot on a plane, eh? Hee hee.

I'm so excited!!

 

[tinks_1989]

Oh wow you are so creative well done you! I wish I could do things like that! X

 

[tinkerbells mum]

these are absolutly amazing!! you are going to have such a magical trip. i'd love to wake up or come back to the room and find any one of those gfts, boxes or chooclates!!

 

[Rachandgarry]

Oh wow you are so creative well done you! I wish I could do things like that! X

Thanks hun!

these are absolutly amazing!! you are going to have such a magical trip. i'd love to wake up or come back to the room and find any one of those gfts, boxes or chooclates!!

Thanks! That is the reaction I'm hoping for from DS, so fingers crossed!

The best thing is that no-one has replied with "ummm, are you completely insane???" LOL!

 

[Jeffs76]

You are suach an amazing Mother!

 

[Rachandgarry]

You are suach an amazing Mother!

That's a really lovely thing to say

My own mum was amazing, my best friend... she was kind, but also lots of fun and very silly, and sarcastic. She died when I was just 18, and I miss her input all the time - but I like to think if I can be a tenth as wonderful as she was then I'll be doing ok. I have the most hilarious piece of video of her doing the voice for my teddy bear - it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it, its brilliant.

I am so excited for this trip, I can't stop smiling lol!

 

[angel_nix]

Absolutely amazing, can you adopt me please!!

Some fantastic ideas (that I might steal a few of!) and one very happy little boy (and no doubt some tears from Mum!) xx

 

[Rachandgarry]

Absolutely amazing, can you adopt me please!!

Some fantastic ideas (that I might steal a few of!) and one very happy little boy (and no doubt some tears from Mum!) xx

I'm sure my DS would like a sibling, lol...

Thank you, I'm so hoping he likes it! We'll never go anywhere like this for his birthday because it is August, and that would always be too expensive and too hot, so I figure I may as well do the whole presents thing for a different reason - and what better reason to celebrate than arriving at DLP!?

 

[Sarah28]

this is possibly the most magical and amazingly thoughtful gifts I've ever seen! I truly wish you all the most happiest trip ever, and I can't wait to read about it!

 

[Rachandgarry]

this is possibly the most magical and amazingly thoughtful gifts I've ever seen! I truly wish you all the most happiest trip ever, and I can't wait to read about it!

Aw thanks, that's such a nice thing to say

Am so excited now - one week to go! Woo hooooo!!

 

[Princess Clayre]

Wow what a fantastic job you've done. The boxes look truly fantastic, Your son is a very lucky boy!

You did make me smile when you keep saying 'I was a bit short in this box'; You have loads of stuff! It's a good job your driving

Have a great time.

 

[Rachandgarry]

Wow what a fantastic job you've done. The boxes look truly fantastic, Your son is a very lucky boy!

You did make me smile when you keep saying 'I was a bit short in this box'; You have loads of stuff! It's a good job your driving

Have a great time.

Thanks so much.

I know....you have no idea how much of the boot it all takes up - my DH is 'tolerating' it .

Funnily enough, I rang the RAC yesterday to sort out European breakdown cover and he asked me if we would be towing anything and I just chuckled and thought 'the amount of presents I've packed, quite possibly!'