My first attempt at a pre trip report for our first Disney World trip

[annegirl]

I went through and took pictures of all of the things I've made, bought, and collected over the last couple of years leading up to this trip. This is what I meant in the last post by overboard!

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Here are the outfits so far. In this picture you can see the new Birthday shirt I did for Abi to wear on her birthday on the way to the BBB and during the day if she ever feels like taking off the dress for a while.
Also, the other new ones are the Animal Kingdom ones. I am making matching twirl skirts to go with those shirts.

The Minnie dress was brand new but from a garage sale. I had looked at it and was thinking about buying it days before I happened to notice it at a house when I was looking for a bike for Abi. It was on sale for 20 at the store, 15 online, and I got it for $1!!
I decided to go ahead and just get it for Maddy and have her wear it on Abi's birthday rather than get them both this costume.
Madeline will also use it for Halloween this year. So cute.

Now I just need to decide if I'm really going to use all of this for the Welcome basket and special 'pixie dust' prizes throughout the trip or if I will save some of it for Christmas as well...

 

[Overexcited]

Looks great! You Have been busy! I love it!

 

[annegirl]

Last Saturday night we had our weekly Disney movie night.
This week we watched UP. I used an idea from the movie night forum here to make balloon cupcakes and we had hot dogs, fries, and hershey bars as well as some Grape Soda!
It was a fun night.
You can check it out on our blog here...

UP

 

[Joyciemc]

Wow, that is a lot of stuff! It is all very cute, and I'm sure will make the trip even more special for the girls.

I check out your UP! movie night pictures- loved the cupcakes and now I am craving hot dogs

 

[onescgirl]

Just read up on your PRT, looks great! I love your autograph book, so cute!

I'm glad your going to Chef Mickeys now, it's my kids favorite restaurant.

I would spread out your gifts each day on trip. I did this & my kids LOVED waking up each morning to see what they got. To this day they say that was one of their favorite things about WDW. I'm doing it again this year & I know they will enjoy getting the gifts. But, since they're 10 yrs old now, I doubt they will believe it's really from Tinkerbell. It was so much fun when they believed she was delivering the gifts when we slept.

 

[annegirl]

Wow, that is a lot of stuff! It is all very cute, and I'm sure will make the trip even more special for the girls.

I check out your UP! movie night pictures- loved the cupcakes and now I am craving hot dogs

It's funny how many movies we have ended up having pizza or hot dogs for! This weekend is 101 Dalmations so... hot dogs here we come again.

 

[annegirl]

Just read up on your PRT, looks great! I love your autograph book, so cute!

I'm glad your going to Chef Mickeys now, it's my kids favorite restaurant.

I would spread out your gifts each day on trip. I did this & my kids LOVED waking up each morning to see what they got. To this day they say that was one of their favorite things about WDW. I'm doing it again this year & I know they will enjoy getting the gifts. But, since they're 10 yrs old now, I doubt they will believe it's really from Tinkerbell. It was so much fun when they believed she was delivering the gifts when we slept.

Thanks for the input. I think I will do that. It is wonderful how she just believes in all the magic of everything at this point. It makes everything so much more fun for us to watch her experience things.

 

[annegirl]

Because Abi loves Alice in Wonderland I wanted to make her an Alice dress. I used a couple of different patterns pieced together as well as my own ideas and some inspiration I've seen before. It was a lot of fun to make although the first time I ever sewed a zipper.. I have always found away around that before so .. it's not perfect but I like it!

The next dress is the one I just finished. It will be for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on her birthday. It is modeled after the pink Cinderella gown. Again it is not perfect. I am very much the beginner when it comes to sewing.. but I am really happy with the way it turned out.

 

[Joyciemc]

I just fell in love with those dresses a little bit. So creative to use Cinderella's pink gown. Love the pick ups on the bottom!

Can you make a bigger one?

 

[BabyEeyore]

I seeing Cinderella's pink dress! I think it's so unique wearing that instead of the blue gown. I say this knowing that my DD is going to be wearing the blue gown when we go. But I have NO sewing experience whatsoever yet. The dresses turned out wonderfully!!

 

[annegirl]

Thanks for the comments on the dresses!

This past weekend for movie night we did 101 Dalmations.

You can check it out on the blog (as usual). I just hate to upload them to 2 different places.. laziness on my part I guess.

101 Dalmations

 

[BabyEeyore]

I love your 101 Dalmatians night. We painted the inside of our milk glasses with some melted chocolate, too, when we did ours. I love your other ideas, too. I'll have to keep those in mind next time we do this movie. My DD is only 21 months old so I'm going to cycle through the movies again when she's a little older (and we're done with the movies we have).

 

[annegirl]

I just changed our reservation.

After hearing so many people say that you could get free dining for your entire stay if you checked in while it was going on I decided to check the numbers. I just thought that if we added 3 nights onto our trip and got rid of our 20% off our room that it wouldn't save money.

Then a little while ago I started thinking about it and decided to check the numbers. I was pretty sure it would be cheaper and we'd be there longer.

I was right.

So I just added 3 nights onto the beginning of our stay giving us a grand total of 13 nights! We got the quick service dining plan free so I was able to then just upgrade that to the regular dining plan. We still have our 10 day tickets to the parks.

I saved us about $250 dollars!

I cannot believe it. I am still processing this and trying to figure out what I need to do from here. I am such a planner that it's almost frightening to have to re work a few things to figure out what we are going to do those days!
Also, my parents already got their plane tickets and I couldn't get a hold of them to talk to them about it so..
I'm hoping they can change their flight while still saving money but I'm not sure if they can. If they can't I hope we can still have connecting rooms once they get there and that they won't be too sad that they weren't there when we first get there.

Wow.

 

[annegirl]

Now that the initial shock has worn off a little.. I need to figure out what we are going to do for our additional 3 table service credits. I quickly checked some of the ones we talked about doing but none are available... I'll keep checking.

 

[Joyciemc]

That's fantastic news! Have fun re-working the schedule, maybe it'll be more relaxing time, or more time to see something you were planning on skipping. A good problem to have!

 

[Overexcited]

That is great!

 

[annegirl]

My parents are unable to change their flight without it costing more than they would save with the free dining so the plan is that they will still fly in on Sunday while we get there on Thursday.
We have decided that we won't tell Abi that they are coming until they show up so that part of it will be a little belated surprise.
We really don't want to do too much of the parks or characters before they get there because I know my mom really wants to experience that with Abi and myself and I want that too.

I think that we will take advantage of those extra days to relax and gear up for the busy ten days!
Thursday we'll get there and check in and just enjoy being there.
Friday I think we may go to Hollywood studios but I'm not sure. That night we were able to get reservations at Narcooses. I hadn't even thought of it before because of it taking 2 TS credits each but when we were discussing new reservations last night and finding that so many weren't available, Doug said he wanted lobster.
I googled 'best lobster at Walt Disney World' and there were a lot of people who said Narcooses.. so we'll see how that goes.
Saturday I think we will just hang out at the resort all day and swim! I know Abi will love that.
I think that will be nice to be able to relax and take a slow pace for a few days after the long drive!
We're not sure yet what we will do with our last TS. Doug has no interest in any of the other popular restaurants that were available (at AKL and Ohana) so I might see if there is any way I can exchange that TS for 2 CS or something. Does anyone know if you can do that?

 

[Overexcited]

My parents are unable to change their flight without it costing more than they would save with the free dining so the plan is that they will still fly in on Sunday while we get there on Thursday.
We have decided that we won't tell Abi that they are coming until they show up so that part of it will be a little belated surprise.
We really don't want to do too much of the parks or characters before they get there because I know my mom really wants to experience that with Abi and myself and I want that too.

I think that we will take advantage of those extra days to relax and gear up for the busy ten days!
Thursday we'll get there and check in and just enjoy being there.
Friday I think we may go to Hollywood studios but I'm not sure. That night we were able to get reservations at Narcooses. I hadn't even thought of it before because of it taking 2 TS credits each but when we were discussing new reservations last night and finding that so many weren't available, Doug said he wanted lobster.
I googled 'best lobster at Walt Disney World' and there were a lot of people who said Narcooses.. so we'll see how that goes.
Saturday I think we will just hang out at the resort all day and swim! I know Abi will love that.
I think that will be nice to be able to relax and take a slow pace for a few days after the long drive!
We're not sure yet what we will do with our last TS. Doug has no interest in any of the other popular restaurants that were available (at AKL and Ohana) so I might see if there is any way I can exchange that TS for 2 CS or something. Does anyone know if you can do that?

I don't think you can trade them in. There is always a chance of a walk up that day. Sounds like a great way to start your vacation, easy does it!
I am so jealous!

 

[annegirl]

Here is the link to the movie night...


A Bug's Life

 

[annegirl]

I have read things that lead me to believe that Tinkerbells Treasure has been changed to something else... is it still there? Does anyone know if the store still exists and if you can still wake up Tinkerbell?