Pretrip: putting family in disney mood

[julsmom]

How does everyone get their family in the "magic mood" pretrip? Other than planning, packing of course. Do you do disney movies? Disney games? Any planned activities? Just wondering...

 

[gianna2006]

I put together a countdown chain with my kids to help them visualize how many days are left. Then as we get closer, we watch Disney movies, the WDW planning video, and (our favorite) look at pictures and home movies of past trips when they were younger!!!! With just over three weeks left, we are in full magic mood swing....with Mom's mood being more giddy than the kids!!!

 

[house_of_princesses]

I always get my dds the current edition of Birnbaum's for Kids, a few Disney $$ and some pins to trade. Then we take out the plastic storage bin that holds all our WDW tourist gear: light up spinny things, lanyards, Daisy, Minnie and Donald hats, etc.

One month out we also start taking 'power walks'. I tell the girls we have to get our legs and feet in shape for all the walking we'll be doing at WDW. They love those walks! And while we're walking we inevitably start talking about where we want to go first, which character is a must see, etc.

 

[PLibster]

We do the same thing with the power walks! In fact, last evening we were walking and a thunderstorm quickly came up and we ended up running back to the house. I told my kids that it would be worth it. At that rate we would be ready for the Disney thunderstorms, .

We also do the countdown calendar.

 

[laceemouse]

Watching the Disney vacation planning video always works for us!

 

[Payton&Jaxon'sMom]

With only 11 days left til we leave, we are in full Disney Mode!! I think I am a little more giddy than anyone else! Some of the things that we do to get in the mood are: the countdown calendar, the kids gets Disney Dollars for holidays and we save change in a clear plastic jar so that DD can see how much we are saving for the trip, we also watch Disney movies, the planning video and videos of past trips. This year since we are going 2 weeks after Easter DD and DS got Disney theme Easter baskets with personalized Disney towels and t-shirts, Disney pajamas, water bottles, fans, coloring books, stickers, crayons and even a stuffed mickey and minnie mouse with disney dollars. In the plastic eggs for the egg hunt were disney dollars. Each of them now have $85 in Disney Dollars. We are all ready to go just a few more things to pack!!!


Jackie

1990 - Caribbean Beach Resort
1997 - All Star Sports
2002 - Offsite
2006 - Pop Century: Family Vacation 17 of us from Ohio, 10 from Texas and 5 from Florida

 

[dsnycrzy]

We have a countdown calendar and we are exactly 3 months away. We have started watching our disney movies, watching our camcorder tapes from the past. We have found some Disney crossword puzzle books at Dollarland that they do and some we've found online. We have started going over our daily schedule a little at a time and squeezing in our dining plans. Every Sunday starting a month out I start making Mickey pancakes or waffles or even mickey poached eggs. I have the computer on playing "live 365.com", the disney station all day and night and the kids walk around singing (or asking what movie that is from). I read them funny things, good ideas and trip reports off of this site. They get into it really as soon as school is out but I live for 2 costly things a year, Christmas and our WDW vacation. So I'm Disney amped Jan until we leave and when we get back I'm Christmas amped and that goes on all year around

 

[las3888]

My DS is only 14 mos old, so too young to really know what's going on, but I have been playing some Disney CD's that I have. It has the music from "it's a small world" and lots of other Disney favorites. He probably hasn't heard them enough to make alot of connections when we get there, but it's still fun for me! I can't WAIT until he is old enough to watch the Disney movies...that will be alot of fun.

I have also been making a point of taking DS in his stroller most days for a decent chunk of time.

I scour the disboards everyday...just getting into Disney mode!

I print the menus for restaurant possibilities and DH and I share a drink and pore over the menus while we plan our days.

I swear planning can sometimes be more fun than the trip itself!!!

 

[ToyStory#1fan'sMom]

We don't leave until September and we've already began watching Disney movies so ds will become more aware of characters other than Toy Story and Monsters, Inc!

I just requested an autographed picture from the fansite which should help with the atmosphere around here.

I'm up for more ideas!
Kate

 

[julsmom]

Does anyone do any Disney games? I was thinking of having a weekly disney game & movie night until disney arrives. I know there is a trivial pursuit game but is it any good? I would love to find a book or website with Disney trivia. At Barnes & Noble they had a book with Disney WORLD trivia but I love the trivia with movies too.

 

[jerryndonna]

What are Disney Dollars and where do you get them?

 

[lindakmonty]

What are Disney Dollars and where do you get them?

Disney dollars are adorable dollars made by disney to be used at disney. I bought mine at our local disney store, but you can also buy them at wdw and even your resort. They are fun for the little ones. My ds5 can't wait to use his disney $ to pay for things himself . they are equal... use $1 to but a $1 disney dollar BUT:

if you look on ebay... they are collectible. I saw a disney $50 selling for $177!!! and the auction wasn't over yet. I think they only made 500 and the disney stores only have 1's,5's, and 10's! Hope that helps

 

[Priorityonecb]

This coming Sunday we will be 38 days from our trip! I am going to make a fun dinner, followed by playing Disney Haunted Mansion Clue....with a planning session following that. We will do one park a week, with a different meal and Disney game (we have Monopoly, Guess Who, Clue, Yahtzee) and plan each person top 5's for each park! Fun, fun, fun!! By the time all our Sunday's are up...it will be time to go!

 

[Suzanne74]

We play Disney Scene It? My dd4 loves this game and often beats us

We also have the playhouse disney CD and I downloaded the music to Spectromagic and other Disney songs. We have been there before though - if not, I wouldn't have done that...

There was another post of doing hidden mickey's everyday with the countdown # on it which I thought was adorable. If you have anyone looking for a little extra on their trip - the hidden mickey book is a lot of fun for kids and adults. We loved it our last trip.

I have to admit - the power walks are a GREAT idea. I am taking that idea and running with it, literally

 

[Priorityonecb]

We also do the power walks every night after dinner...we do it anyway but it's great Disney training as a bonus!

For my Disney dinner nights I am thinking...

Mickey head shaped meatloaf- Magic Kingdom night

Any other ideas for the other parks??

 

[julsmom]

Dinners are tough! For desserts, you could do mickey head rice krispy treats or "puppy chow" (101 dalmations). you could have "hawaiian night" (lilo & stitch).


DD 5

 

[RNLUVSDISNEY]

Does anyone do any Disney games? I was thinking of having a weekly disney game & movie night until disney arrives. I know there is a trivial pursuit game but is it any good? I would love to find a book or website with Disney trivia. At Barnes & Noble they had a book with Disney WORLD trivia but I love the trivia with movies too.

We have Disney Scene It and it is really fun. Starting at 80 days I gave the kids stickers to put on the calendar at every 10 day mark and on those days we have to do something disney.

 

[mikymouse]

We did our own version of Hidden Mickeys.... Putting Round Coaster on top of our head at dinner.....Three pancakes on the plate..... snow mouses....it became a fun games to see who would fiqure out the next way to reminder everyone of Mickey Mouse.

 

[katgarbars]

We have Disney Magic Kingdom game, it is from Hasbro. You race around the Magic Kingdom to see who can visit their 5 rides first. The board is like a 3-D image of the park at DisneyWorld. It totally puts us in the mood. Which can be a problem when it is a long way until the next trip. But it also helps relive memories.