The Bunny Has Nothing On Us: OKW, The Magic & The Kaucher Family's Easter Vacation

[PrincessForLife]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. I've been really busy planning and working on organizing everything for my DH and I's short WDW trip coming up in a week. After that's over, I'll have the full run down on the progress of planning the cruise and also a full report on my adventures making the FE and gifts! Stay tuned and I'll see you all real soon!

 

[PrincessForLife]

Happy Almost Spring Everyone!



It's been such a long time since I've added to my PTR and since I have today off and lots of news to report, I thought I'd catch up on everything that has happened in the past couple of months. It's been very busy at home and work, plus, my DH and I did a short trip to WDW for a little break. We had a great experience with the MagicBands and My Disney Experience. Let's start with a short review of the MyMagic+ system and MagicBands.


First of all, I was very skeptical about the MagicBands, but I have to say that I love them! It's everything you need for your vacation and more! Even though you only have a limit of 3 FastPasses per park, it didn't bother us. We still managed to get on every ride that we wanted to without waiting forever. (It also helped that we were there on a very slow day) We didn't have to worry about pulling out cards to get FastPasses and we didn't have to worry about losing the FastPasses themselves. It was also great for meals and merchandise. You just "match Mickey to Minnie" and wait for the green light. It's quite brilliant. We didn't have any problems reserving the rides like some people did, but hey, they are still testing!!


See? I bought the Mickey Rice Krispy with the band!!

I think the best thing about the MagicBands is that you can customize them in any way you want. I was checking out the MagicBand extras that you can buy in the parks. Disney offers all kinds of things to personalize them to your style. Some of the popular items include snap on charms, fabric covers, and slide on character charms. Everything looked pretty cool but I wanted customize mine on a budget. I heard about people painting their MagicBands so I tested it myself. I took a bright pink nail polish that changed to a bright red in the sunlight and added two coats. After that, I added rhinestones to the Mickey in the middle of the band and some around it as well. I think it turned out pretty cool and it still work just fine even with the rhinestones! I highly recommend customizing it yourself so you don't have to spend between $10-20 in the Parks.







Since we have 2 different bands coming for the night stay before the cruise and the 2 night stay after, I'm going to customize in 2 different ways. For the trip before we all have yellow bands so I'm probably going to either make it a Winnie the Pooh band or take my glitter nail polish and make it like a sparkly bangle since we are going to Victoria & Albert's that night. The second band I'm getting is blue and I plan on making it a Frozen-themed band. I have some rhinestones and snowflakes that are intended for nails (that I'll never use on me) and some great green-blue polish that will compliment! We haven't received those bands in the mail yet, but I promise to post pictures when I finish them!


Here's how mine turned out!!


Now on to Fish Extenders!!



I have been quite busy with my Fish Extender gifts as well as the extender itself. I'm on a budget and decently crafty so I decided to make my own extender. I took the measurements from the DisBoards page and adjusted it to our needs. Originally it was going to be 3ft for only 2 pockets. It seemed a little too long so I shortened it. For the fabrics, I went to Joann Fabrics and searched through the clearance and remnants baskets. There I found a great dark purple for the base and a lighter purple for the pockets. I also got a couple remnants of heavy interfacing to stiffen up the pockets and base. I cut everything to the approximate dimensions that I was thinking of, added interfacing, and assembled.







I also found some blanket edging with a Princess theme and plastic jewels border that only cost me $0.25 per yard each on clearance!!





The finished dimensions include:

Base: 26 inches x 11 inches

Top pocket: 8 1/2 inches x 7 1/2 inches

Bottom pocket: 7 inches x 7 1/2 inches

I also bought a wood rod for a couple bucks and I'll cut that to size and add some ribbon I have laying around. For the decoration and names, I went through one of those free Disney graphics people and then printed them on fabric sheets to iron on the extender. I'm super excited to put this up on our fish! I think it looks awesome!!


Finished!!

As for the gifts, I'm not going to reveal too much since I know there are a couple people from our cruise that are a part of the exchange. All I can say is that I have only 3 more to make for the first item and I'm experimenting with Magic Kingdom maps for the second part. It's all going to be topped off with fruit snacks! Every is probably going to be giving Easter candy so I thought I'd do something different!

Can I say that I'm also extremely excited for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival?!? I'll end with a couple pictures I got from the monorail when we took it for a spin earlier this month!









I can't wait! Happy Spring!!

 

[JKSWonder]

Look at you, with your cute embellished magic band! I love it! We all have different colors for our magic bands for our August trip, but you definitely just inspired me to do little something extra for each one. Definitely rhinestones for me and some sort of stickers or glitter enhancement for the kids.

And your FE came out really nice!

 

[PrincessForLife]

Look at you, with your cute embellished magic band! I love it! We all have different colors for our magic bands for our August trip, but you definitely just inspired me to do little something extra for each one. Definitely rhinestones for me and some sort of stickers or glitter enhancement for the kids.

And your FE came out really nice!

Thank you! I've seen some other people use sharpies on the bands but I don't know if it would rub off a little since it's just a silicon band. Since nail polish worked well, I was thinking of using printed pictures or stickers on the band and then putting down a layer of mod podge to preserve it....I guess clear nail polish would work too!

When you get the bands, roll them and snap it onto the tightest setting and leave them sit like that for a couple weeks. They come a little 'deformed" meaning that they aren't quite a perfect circle which makes them a little uncomfortable at first. With a little wear, or tight rolling, they will fit great by the trip!

 

[JKSWonder]

Thank you! I've seen some other people use sharpies on the bands but I don't know if it would rub off a little since it's just a silicon band. Since nail polish worked well, I was thinking of using printed pictures or stickers on the band and then putting down a layer of mod podge to preserve it....I guess clear nail polish would work too!

When you get the bands, roll them and snap it onto the tightest setting and leave them sit like that for a couple weeks. They come a little 'deformed" meaning that they aren't quite a perfect circle which makes them a little uncomfortable at first. With a little wear, or tight rolling, they will fit great by the trip!

Thanks for the tip on re-shaping the bands...will do! I am concerned about making these things as comfortable as possible for the kids, especially my son who complains about everything from the seam on his socks to the position of the pocket on his shorts. That boy made me buy him new sneakers last summer after 20 minutes in Animal Kingdom because he complained that his feet, in shoes we had used before many, many times, suddenly "hurt". Don't want a repeat of that stuff this year.

 

[PrincessForLife]

Thanks for the tip on re-shaping the bands...will do! I am concerned about making these things as comfortable as possible for the kids, especially my son who complains about everything from the seam on his socks to the position of the pocket on his shorts. That boy made me buy him new sneakers last summer after 20 minutes in Animal Kingdom because he complained that his feet, in shoes we had used before many, many times, suddenly "hurt". Don't want a repeat of that stuff this year.

Lol. You're very welcome! So silly!

And if he doesn't want to wear it everywhere, the snap has a super strong hold so you can also put it on the handle of your bags too!

 

[PrincessForLife]

Hi Everyone!

We are finally back from our MAGICAL vacation! If you would like to follow the trip report, here is the link!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3267343

I hope to see everyone there!