Pirates, Jedi & Characters, Oh My! (aka... an excess of planning pays off!)

[dawne98]

love love love your TR and your DD is just too cute!

 

[HalloweenNut]

love love love your TR and your DD is just too cute!

Thanks Dawn!!

 

[castmemberb4]

Hello HalloweenNut

I followed your link from the Poly thread.
Just got home from work for the week, it's a short day after 3 long ones.
I'm lounging on my couch with a pitcher of white sangria in the fridge,
and am starting your TR from the beginning.

I'm sure I'll be back to ask questions and make comments.

 

[HalloweenNut]

Hello HalloweenNut

I followed your link from the Poly thread.
Just got home from work for the week, it's a short day after 3 long ones.
I'm lounging on my couch with a pitcher of white sangria in the fridge,
and am starting your TR from the beginning.

I'm sure I'll be back to ask questions and make comments.

Ask away! I sure wish I was at home with drink in hand right about now - or at the Poly would be even better!!!

 

[mousiemom]

AWESOME! you did such a good job with your planning and that chart scared me!!! loved the comparisions on the bldgs. in china very cool. My dh is also a graphic designer and we also are halloween lovers and have an abundance of halloween decor. i will share your website with him. yall need to go disney during october and do the halloween party! very impressed with your attire too! great job! very exciting for your dd! very lucky! keep planning those disney trips, everyone of them will be different. we took our dd on her 1st trip when she was 2 and she is now 11 and has been on 25 trips. love looking at all those memories when she was so little. worth every penny!

 

[HalloweenNut]

AWESOME! you did such a good job with your planning and that chart scared me!!! loved the comparisions on the bldgs. in china very cool. My dh is also a graphic designer and we also are halloween lovers and have an abundance of halloween decor. i will share your website with him. yall need to go disney during october and do the halloween party! very impressed with your attire too! great job! very exciting for your dd! very lucky! keep planning those disney trips, everyone of them will be different. we took our dd on her 1st trip when she was 2 and she is now 11 and has been on 25 trips. love looking at all those memories when she was so little. worth every penny!

Thanks mousiemom!!! No need to be scared of the chart, seriously! I had thought hard about going during the Halloween party but even if we went for the end of Sept. it would have taken too much time during the busy season leading up to Halloween when I'm working on props and starting to set up. Maybe one year! Not sure when we'll plan another Disney trip - I'd love to go back but this really was a trip of a lifetime for us. Can't believe you've gone 25 times - WOW!!

 

[mamamary]

Loved reading your trip report. What a great trip you had.

 

[HalloweenNut]

Loved reading your trip report. What a great trip you had.

Thanks mamamary! Glad you liked it! I look back on the photos and still can't believe we were able to do all the things we did. Now I'm working on the video!!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Just got caught up on your TR! Great job!

Absolutely loved reading and seeing the pictures of your DD with Mulan!

 

[mousiemom]

That's true, we start setting up for halloween the end of sept. too. yes, disney is my obsession! we are lucky to live 8 hrs away so we drive every time. my dh and i have been 30 times but the dd 25. thank god she still asks when are we going to disney? it started for me when we went on our honeymoon to wdw in 99 and i've been hooked ever since. but i love the dis cause we are all disney nuts!!

 

[HalloweenNut]

Just got caught up on your TR! Great job!

Absolutely loved reading and seeing the pictures of your DD with Mulan!

Thanks Dave! Other than a brief visit with Pocahontas at camp Minnie Mickey this was Maggie's only "face" character but she was great!! It was funny with my DD - she didn't really speak to the other characters much without prompting. I think it was the fact they didn't speak to her! Lots of great interactions though and by the end of the week she was talking their ears off.

I read about your planned solo trip to Disneyland - sounds exciting!

 

[leica06]

I finished reading your trip report this morning - I love all the photographs, and I'm sorry you didn't make it back to the Haunted Mansion. We are going back (in 35 days!) and that's on our must-visit list because it was closed the last time we were at WDW.

One question - do you have another photo of the autograph book you made? I would love to see it. I thought your planner looked awesome, i'm trying to condense mine down to one page for quick reference.

 

[HalloweenNut]

I finished reading your trip report this morning - I love all the photographs, and I'm sorry you didn't make it back to the Haunted Mansion. We are going back (in 35 days!) and that's on our must-visit list because it was closed the last time we were at WDW.

One question - do you have another photo of the autograph book you made? I would love to see it. I thought your planner looked awesome, i'm trying to condense mine down to one page for quick reference.

Thanks!! I'll try and grab some photos of the autograph book and post later tonight. It worked out great and the characters loved it.

 

[HalloweenNut]

OK, it took me a bit longer to get around to it but here are some pictures of the custom autograph book I did up for my daughter.

I created the file in Adobe InDesign, a desktop publishing program, simply because that's what I'm used to. I imagine someone could do something similar in Word or another program. The fun part was, after I had made a list of all the characters we may possibly meet, searching the internet and gather images to use. I mostly searched images in Google and since I was doing it in black & white, searched for coloring page "x". The "x" being the character's name. I then went through my font collection and selected a lettering font for each character that would match their personality.

[EDIT] I should mention I didn't design the cover but used one created by someone else. I think I found it through a link on the DISigns group.

The book is 8" x 8" and printed on a pack of letter sized multicoloured cardstock I got at Staples. My initial thought was to do it in black & white so I could print it on my laser printer at home but the thicker cardstock, while it went through the printer ok, tended to smudge a bit so I ended up taking the file to a print company and had them print it up using my supplied paper stock. They then trimmed it and cerlox bound it with a clear plastic cover. I think they charged me $30. Not necessarily the cost-savings I was going for but oh well.

In the end my DD loved it and the characters loved it too. I think they really liked the larger size as it was easy for them to hold on to and write. They also liked to see the images on each page. One big hit which I think I mentioned was the page I did for Pirate Goofy since I knew we'd be seeing him for sure after The Pirate's League. I couldn't find an illustration of him but used a pirate treasure chest and the font I used is the same as the Pirates of the Caribbean. He LOVED it and led to some really fun interaction!

Here's some sample pages...

Here's an example of the generic pages I put in at the back of the book for any characters we might meet that I hadn't planned on...

 

[Moodyzblu]

Nice job !! That came out great.

 

[JayhawkFans]

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report.

 

[HalloweenNut]

Thanks Moodyzblu & JayhawkFans!!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love it so far!!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I'm extremely jealous of your DD. She got to fight Vader AND ride the speeder bike! They really should let adults participate in Jedi Training.

And I love her Vader halloween costume! She could have had her own VW commercial!

I agree. I think they should have adults participate. Anyway, I enjoyed it.

 

[HalloweenNut]

I love it so far!!

Thanks WDWJonasGirl! I'm not sure what more to add to the trip report other than we're all missing Disney and especially the Polynesian! We were out for dinner with my parents on the weekend (it was their 50th anniversary!) and we were saying how much we loved the Poly. My mum would want to go back even just to stay at the Poly and not even go to Disney.

I'm currently working on putting together a video of our Disney vacation and will post the link here once I'm finished.