Little things to make the kid's trip a little more special

[Casken]

Somewhere on this board I saw a thread where a mom made boarding passes for her kids.

Have you done anything to make your kid's trip to Disneyland even more special?

 

[prncssmel]

We made Going to Disney kits for my little cousins for the plane or car ride: autograph books, Disney coloring books, crayons, stickers, pens, bascially whatever Disney stuff we could find at the $ store.

Some other good ideas I have seen: personalized tees, baskets of goodies at the hotel, pin trading starter kits.

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

Here's the link to the DISign section of this board. It has tons of things that people have designed that you can print out and use for Disney trips. It has things like T-shirt designs (You can request a personal designs with a certain character and/or your kids' names on them), boarding passes, door hangers, etc. It's a great site!
http://disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=105

 

[Misskitty3]

I always bring little Disney themed "stocking stuffer" type gifts for my kids. After they are asleep each night in the hotel, I put out one of the little gifts for each of them and top them with a sprinkling of light green glitter. Every morning, the kids wake up and can't wait to see what "Tinkerbell" left in their room over night.

Some of the things I have brought are:
glow in the dark necklaces
Pirate of the Car. toys
Various princess & Cars stuff

 

[prncssmel]

I always bring little Disney themed "stocking stuffer" type gifts for my kids. After they are asleep each night in the hotel, I put out one of the little gifts for each of them and top them with a sprinkling of light green glitter. Every morning, the kids wake up and can't wait to see what "Tinkerbell" left in their room over night.

Some of the things I have brought are:
glow in the dark necklaces
Pirate of the Car. toys
Various princess & Cars stuff

I love that idea with the glitter. How cute!

 

[toni1227]

I like that tinkerbell glitter idea too! I might try that! I had looked into the baskets or treats that the GCH (or any of the Disney hotels) CM's can leave in your room but they are SO expensive!!!! 2 cookies and milk for $18! plus tax and service charge. I could just buy 2 cookies and suprise them myself.

Most of the baskets were $80 and up!

I got them each a backpack for the trip on the plane. I got them coloring books, sticker books, crayons, disney PEZ dispensers, snacks in a ziplock, some dvds for their portable dvd player, each a new nintendo DS game--for my DS I got him Phineus and Ferb DS game (which is a disney cartoon) and Disney Princess DS for my daughter.
I have not really found a lot of disney stuff though to suprise them with in the room. I need to make a trip to the disney store.

 

[Brady's Mom]

I have not really found a lot of disney stuff though to suprise them with in the room. I need to make a trip to the disney store.

Try the dollar store nearest you. I can usually find really great stuff there - Dinsey puzzles, Disney coloring books, glow sticks and have even found Disney stickers. All for one dollar!

 

[CanadianPaco]

I always get their own disposable camera. It can keep them busy when in line and you really get a different perspective in Disney! Basically from the hips down though!

 

[toni1227]

I got the glow sticks. In fact I went to 2 different dollar stores and they had different things. Dollar General and 99cent store. I got bracelets, necklaces, wands, caps (the glow sticks all fit together to make a baseball shaped cap), and glow hair barettes.

The disposable camera idea is great!

 

[Misskitty3]

The last time I was at Michaels, they had a ton of Disney stuff in their Dollar section.

 

[nancy drew]

Also check the Target dollar section for Disney stuff. I loaded up a few months ago when they had Toy Story, Monsters Inc, and Incredibles stuff. Then bought a few more items when they had Cars themed stuff. I'll use some of that for each of the plane rides, and perhaps save some for when we get back to the hotel and aren't sleepy yet.

 

[iluvdiscruises]

We went to WDW in Jan and for each day that we were there, I wrapped a little Disney gift. They included Disney toothbrushes (from our dentist!), light spinners that I found on ebay, Disney hoodie sweatshirts ($4 from Walmart!!), Crayola Color Wonder packs, $1 stuff from Target, etc. It was a really fun way for them to have something to look forward to each day. We also did a few for the plane ride. I am going to DL in June and plan to do the same thing, even though we will do lots of non Disney things too on this trip.

Oh, and I think the best thing I got was Energizer flashlights (Cars, Princesses, they also had HSM3...) on lanyard things...my kids played with them in the hotel and used them at night at the parks in their stroller. Bought those in the grocery store...

 

[kimis]

We take our grandchildren as they turn four years old for their birthday. We make it as special as possible. It starts with a disney day at our house. We send invitations to the special guest of honor and the cousins. Everyone comes to grandmas. We eat disney?? food in an all disney decorated house. At each childs place is a gift bag with disney items for them to take home. I make a Mickey Mouse cake and a Princess cake (for the girls). During dessert we inform the kids that the guest of honor will have a scavenger hunt. We hide disney items around the house. The final item is a princess gown with accesories or a Woody outfit for our grandson. By then they have figured out that it is their turn to go do DL with papa and gma.

In the car they get a disney bag filled with disney things to do or watch in the car on the way to our Magical trip. They also get a disney lunch bag with their favorite snacks in it. One of the things on the scavenger hunt would be a blanket and pillow so they are all set in the car.

Somethings we do at the park.....
*they get princess/pirate buckets (now it is a treasure chest) delivered to
the room
*we do the Mr Pat E Cake birthday party.
*we tell them at each resturant that it is their birthdays
*at night as they are bathing/brushing teeth something disney is left on their
pillows ( disney story book, disney flashlight ect...)
*they get to pick one item for a souvenger
*depending on the time of year like Christmas time they get to see Santa
*we take lots of pictures and when we come home I make them a scrapebook
of their own trip
*they get an autograph book and camara in their "car bag" so we do a couple
character meals so they can meet their favorite characters

This all sounds like a lot of $$$$ but it isn't. I know how many years in between birthdays so I buy a little at a time. I get most of the items at dollar stores, dollar bins at Target and walmart. It just takes time to do it on a budget. Good luck

 

[charmama4]

We take our grandchildren as they turn four years old for their birthday. We make it as special as possible. It starts with a disney day at our house. We send invitations to the special guest of honor and the cousins. Everyone comes to grandmas. We eat disney?? food in an all disney decorated house. At each childs place is a gift bag with disney items for them to take home. I make a Mickey Mouse cake and a Princess cake (for the girls). During dessert we inform the kids that the guest of honor will have a scavenger hunt. We hide disney items around the house. The final item is a princess gown with accesories or a Woody outfit for our grandson. By then they have figured out that it is their turn to go do DL with papa and gma.

In the car they get a disney bag filled with disney things to do or watch in the car on the way to our Magical trip. They also get a disney lunch bag with their favorite snacks in it. One of the things on the scavenger hunt would be a blanket and pillow so they are all set in the car.

Somethings we do at the park.....
*they get princess/pirate buckets (now it is a treasure chest) delivered to
the room
*we do the Mr Pat E Cake birthday party.
*we tell them at each resturant that it is their birthdays
*at night as they are bathing/brushing teeth something disney is left on their
pillows ( disney story book, disney flashlight ect...)
*they get to pick one item for a souvenger
*depending on the time of year like Christmas time they get to see Santa
*we take lots of pictures and when we come home I make them a scrapebook
of their own trip
*they get an autograph book and camara in their "car bag" so we do a couple
character meals so they can meet their favorite characters

This all sounds like a lot of $$$$ but it isn't. I know how many years in between birthdays so I buy a little at a time. I get most of the items at dollar stores, dollar bins at Target and walmart. It just takes time to do it on a budget. Good luck

can you adopt me??? those are the wonderful memories that gma's and papa's do best!!!!

 

[firefly87]

I like that tinkerbell glitter idea too! I might try that! I had looked into the baskets or treats that the GCH (or any of the Disney hotels) CM's can leave in your room but they are SO expensive!!!! 2 cookies and milk for $18! plus tax and service charge. I could just buy 2 cookies and suprise them myself.

Most of the baskets were $80 and up!

Toni1227,
I agree on the price of the Disney baskets being outrageously $$$! In Sept. '06, we stayed at the DLH and was able to have something delivered to our room that was inexpensive. I called and ordered Mickey Shortbread cookies and Mickey Rice Krispy treats a la carte at about $2.00 each. I got 6 of each, so for a dozen it was $24.00 plus tax and whatever other extra charges there were. They were waiting in our room when we got back from dinner. On the way to the room I stopped by Compass Bookstore and bought some individual milks for us. Waaaaaaay cheaper than ordering the milk with it!!!!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

We also do the Tinkerbell surprises. Every morning my son wakes up to a special treat somewhere in the room from Tink. He liked getting the goodies but also loved searching for where she "hid" them.

 

[alexandria674]

What I remember is when I was a little girl, my grandma would countdown the days by getting one of my barbies and getting them a new princess dress. One trip we made up a "Ariel" game, so she got my barbie and made her look like a mermaid, the next day, in the pink dress she wore, and so on until finally, the day we went to Disneyland, she had Barbie dressed like Ariel on her wedding day.
Another thing is, on the way to Disney, we would sing Disney songs.

 

[fairykin]

I bought disney themed backpacks for each of our 3 grandchildren.
And filled them with
a mini etch a sketch eraser { you can find them at target}
disney themed books
mini goldfish packages
string cheese
and a little stuffed mickey to hold on the plane.

they were HaPpPy

 

[ballarinamom]

With help from a fellow Disser, I had a postcard mailed from a fairy Godmailer. Someone vixiting the park bought a postcard and mailed it to my daughter a month before our trip. I then made a trip countdown chain. We also arranged for a character phone call the night before. They called around bedtime. We woke up the next day and got on the plane. I always purchase new Disney Jammies and apck them in my bag. If we stay at DLH, I ask guest services to deliver it to the room. They put it on her bed with balloons and an autographed character photo. In November we stayed at Desert Innsince we paid for DMIL to join us. I ran ahead and put it on the bed with some "pixie dust". I was very fortunate because anothe disser had mailed me an extra autographed photo they had. So dd has never missed her new jammies and photo!

Also, through out the year, she collects Disney Dollars from the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa, etc.... She loves saving the cash and starts thinking about what she's going to look for!