The Halloweenqueen prepares to be Not So Scary! My Small World Story 8/7

[Halloweenqueen]

This wasn't going to be easy! I'm the PumpkinPrincess, the TrickorTreat Temptress, the Countess of Candy....okay, I know, I overdo it a little.

Let's just say I LOVE Halloween. I love to decorate and collect. I'm a horror movie buff. Just thinking about October gives me the warm fuzzies.


So why a trip report? ..... Because they are so much fun! .... So here we go...



I've found that half the fun of a Disney Trip is all the preparation and anticipation the months before you leave. The reservations, ADRs, tickets, and the packing remind me of my wedding many moons ago. All the preparation for a brief moment of time, to make everlasting memories. That is one tough job, but so much fun!

A Disney trip can feel like a full blown, three act play. There are so many components that make that play a success. DIS and Tour Guide Mike were my drama coaches during the months prior to our first Disney adventure last June. I'm happy to say our vacation was a complete success.

How do I know? It seems like Disney enters at least one conversation daily with my children. Just last night, while I was putting my youngest to bed, we heard a firework in the distance. My little three year old daughter asked if it were fireworks from Disney. When I told her no, Disney was too far away to be heard, she replied "I want to see the fireworks at "The Cot" (Epcot) tomorrow".



We will be there again soon, baby!




So why so soon, you ask? Simple...Haunted Mansion. I soon discovered during my June vacation planning that it would be closed during our trip. This was the one attraction I was looking forward to most. Come on, I am the Halloweenqueen! You could say I'm a little obsessed over October 31st.



Halloween '06








KarenRN spoke of Jersey week in her trip report and I realized the NC equivalent would be right around Halloween this year. The kids would only miss one day of school. I'm blessed with an easy-going husband who quickly agreed that we would shorten our two week June vacation to 10 days and go back to Disney in October. I've always wanted to go to Universal's Halloween event and Disney's version sounded perfect for my kids.


We had our dates...Oct 26-31. Now on to the juicy details.

 

[KathyRN137]

Well now, I was wondering how long you would be able to resist the call of the pre-trippie!!

Love your lawn decorations!

(Oh, and the tombstones, lights, and blow-up thingies are great, too!)

Kathy

 

[Halloweenqueen]

That picture was a dress rehearsal before a party. The decorations just look tacky during the day. I need to find a photo on my photobucket account that shows all the jack o lanterns at night.

Night is when a yard haunt comes alive.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I was just going to mention on your completed report that you should start a pre-trip! Hooray!

101 days! (We'll be there the same time!)

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Good morning!


We had our dates, so our next order of business was where to stay. My parents and sisters were planning to come this time around, so we had to think BIG.

The vacation home was perfect in June. We had loads of room. The kids all had their own bedroom. Grumpy's Grotto had 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. I wondered if we should look into staying at a bigger place in October. I spent days searching online and sending emails to potential home owners.

I just kept coming back to Grumpy's. We knew the house was great. We knew the location. Why not have the kids double up? There would be plenty of room. We could stay there for $179 with pool heat a night. Where else could 11 people stay so comfortably and inexpensively?

Luck for us, Grumpy's was open for our dates. I happily contacted the owner and managment company and sent our desposit. Side note: The management company is the tops! We forgot our daughter's baby blanket at the house and they expressed it to us! Thanks Steve and Dee!!!

So we had a place to stay. Now what would be our daily park plan?

We are driving down on Friday. My parents and sisters are all taking different flights that get to Orlando around lunchtime on Saturday. I knew that trying to do something on Saturday would be iffy. So I decided we would forgo a park on Saturday and save us (me) the stress. The kids can play in the pool and we can relax.

Tourguide Mike suggests a "big" beginning and "big" finish to any Disney vacation. I wanted to make our Saturday night special. What to do? I thought of booking one of the Wishes cruises again, but knew we would have plenty of opportunity to see Fireworks in the parks. I thought of going to Fantasmic, but couldn't get my head around spending $840 for a night at MGM.

I spent hours on the DIS and TGM for ideas. I read terrific trip reports and decided on a nice dinner at OHana. We could watch the Electric Water Pageant and Fireworks from the beach after dinner. I made the ADR right away. Then I heard of the Haunted Hayride at Fort Wilderness. It is difficult to find information about it, but I found a video on Youtube. It looks perfect for my family. The Sleepy Hollow story is one of my Dad's favorites. My plan now is to go early Saturday morning and try to get tickets for the Hayride after dinner. Hopefully I will get there when the ticket office opens and get a time that works for us. If not, we will watch the fireworks.

We will be travelling on Friday, which happens to be Matt (Dad's) birthday. Our dinner at OHana is going to be a special birthday dinner for him. I plan to order a birthday cake a couple of weeks before our trip. I'm sure Disney will whip up something special!


The t-shirts from our June trip were a big hit. I plan to make children's shirts for everyday. Adult shirts for special events. I'm going to make little invitations and party favors for each day's theme or event. Of course, OHana is an easy theme. Everyone is going to get matching leis. The kid's t-shirt design will be this...

So this is the plan for day one in Orlando. Sounds like so much fun!!!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I just realized I haven't introduced my family.

I am the lucky mom of 5 great kids. Dad is a nuclear engineer and I'm a stay-at-home mom. We live outside Charlotte, NC, but Matt and I were born and raised in Ohio.

Our oldest, Will, is 9. He is a brainiac, like his Dad. One cool kid. He has many autistic characteristics, but hasn't been formally diagnosed. His doctor thinks Asperger's syndrome. He is in the gifted/talented program, which has been a great help in dealing with his OCD, ADHD issues.

Next comes our daughter, Annabelle, who is 8. We adopted Anna when she was one year old from Stavropol, Russia. Anna is going to be the next Diana Sawyer. She is my girly girl, who has a "passion for fashion". Anna was a very sick little baby when we adopted her, but you would never know that today! She only goes to speech therapy twice a week now.

Maxwell is our youngest son. He is 8, a month younger than Anna. We adopted him when he was not quite 4 years old from Dongguan, China. Max has a severe form of cleft lip/palate and has had several surgeries. He is very delayed in speech. He is one of the most compassionate people I've ever known. He is all boy, but has the most tender heart. It is very difficult for people outside our family to understand him, so he sometimes becomes very frustrated.

Lillian is 7 and is our super speller. I wouldn't doubt that she will be on the national spelling bee in a year or two. We adopted Lily when she was one from Nanning, China. She has a lesser form of cleft lip/palate and has a slight speech delay.


And finally, our baby, Holland. Holly is 3, but tells everyone she is 8, like her hero, Annabelle. She hangs out with her older siblings, trying to do anything and everything they do.

Here we are in June...

That's my gang! More to follow!

 

[praisehisname]

I'm in! Looking forward to hearing all about your plans!

Denise

 

[KathyRN137]

I'm so happy that you're going to be at the Grotto again; it seems perfect for a big family!

BTW, when I mentioned the "lawn decorations" on my last post, I referring to the kids!! They all looked so cute!

I love the idea of 'Ohana as a special first-night meal/activity, especially if you can pair it with the haunted hayride.

Did you try the Camping at Disney board for info on the hayride? Perhaps you can get some tips there.

I'm so excited to try 'Ohana for the first time, too! (We're going on our last day, though.)

Happy planning!

Kathy

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Wow, I totally neglected my report! I discovered something new and it is my current addiction...Virtual Magic Kingdom!

I've been spending way too much time on VMK lately. I'm so behind in my trip report reading and my kids haven't eaten in weeks!

Say hi, if you bump into me there! I'm QueenofHalloween there. Must be a Halloweenqueen already lurking the park.



Back to the trip report---


We have out dates. So we have a place to stay. We know who is coming with us. We have our first day planned. Now what?


ADRs, of course! Picking places to please 11 people wasn't going to be easy. I did an exhaustive search online and in my trusty books. I was determined to get them right the first time. I rescheduled and cancelled so many in June they probably have me on a list somewhere for problem callers. We had OHanas for Saturday and I wanted one ADR for the remaining 3 days.

Of course the biggest factor was which parks would we visit this trip. We knew we would be going to MNSSHP twice. It was obvious that we would miss a park or two this time around. My sisters and folks left it up to me, they wanted MK to be the priority. That wasn't a problem. I asked the kids what park they wanted to return to most and everyone wanted Epcot. MK and Epcot had tons of activities that all eleven of us could do. Poor Holly only did the Honey I Shrunk Play area and the Muppets while at MGM. She did Tri-Top Spin and the animal trials at AK. It's Tough to be a Bug terrified 3 of my kids. So we decided early to make this trip 2 days at MK and 1 at Epcot.

So here are my ADRS (as of today! )

Saturday-OHana -Dad's birthday dinner
Sunday-Whispering Canyon -lunch
Monday-Akerhaus -dinner (Food and Wine Fest grazing for lunch)
Tuesday-Liberty Tree Tavern -Will's birthday dinner


Looks good, huh? I can't wait!


I bought our MNSSHP tickets next. We will buy our regular park tickets at the gate.

Now comes my favorite part....the shopping and craft portion of my pre-trip planning...next installment.

 

[KathyRN137]

I love all of your ADRs; especially LTT for Will's B'day!

We ate there for the first time last year and we had such a great experience that we're doing it again this year. I thought that the character interaction was really great....they (Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, C&D) really took time to "play" with everyone instead of just hug-pose-for-picture-autograph-and-goodbye like at some of the other character meals.

You're going to have a lot of fun; make sure the characters know it's Will's B'day!!

Kathy

p.s. I will probably need help with shirts....you're also the GreatDisneyshirtqueen, you know!!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

91 days and counting them down!!!

I have our countdown calendar up and waiting for 90 days. We will be able to start crossing off days tomorrow! I also have been printing off counterfeit Disney Dollars. We did pixie dust sprinkles last time as an incentive program. This time I'll use my bogus dollars to reward good behavior, chores, and school good works. The kids love it.


Now that I have done most of the leg-work for our trip, I have plenty of time to shop! And boy, have I been busy!

I bought the girls the prettiest princess costumes for our dinner at Akerhaus. Lillian will be in this Cinderella wedding dress. It is even more gorgeous in person!

Annabelle is Belle of course! The fabric of this dress is dreamy!

Holly is Ariel. This is so sweet!

Once the boys saw the girls in their dresses they wanted in on the action. I was able to get these Edmund from Narina costumes at a fantastic price on Disneyshopping.com. These costumes are very well made. The chain mail is very cool!

I also have been busy buying Halloween glo necklaces, bracelets, hair braids, and other "favors" for our evenings. I also bought extras for the kids to hand out. They had so much fun in June giving out our extra glow sticks.


The pool items are clearanced around here now, so I bought a few new toys for the pool.


The other activity I enjoy pre-trip is making our t-shirts. I already posted the design for Saturday night. We didn't want to have the kids wear bulky costumes for the Halloween parties so I created this design for party #1.

All eleven us plan to wear this on day one. Halloween orange t-shirt with that design. It should be easy to pick us out of the crowd!




I wanted to do something different for day two. I tried to think of a "group costume". I thought of doing characters from Snow White or maybe doing Monsters from Monster's Inc. One of the kids suggested we dress up like M &Ms, each of us in a different color. So I went with that idea, with a Disney spin. Here is a draft to give you an idea, the design is actually transparent, not red (I added the red to the example). Everyone can pick their favorite color.

The kids will get in costume in the evening for dinner and the fireworks. We love Crush, so I thought sea-green shirts and this design would be neat.

I'm going to make them this weekend. The suitcase is getting filled already!

 

[KathyRN137]

Wow!

Those look great! I need to get up to speed with my computer skilz...I think I can handle the ironing-on part, but getting up to that point is what is intimidating me!!

Did you design the Mickey & Friends "Boo to You.." shirt?? That is really awesome!

Kathy

 

[Goofyluver]

Subbing on lady!!!

 

[Marion]

Wow! I just can't imagine planning for 11 people.... that'd be like trying to herd kittens! Your trip sounds like so much fun though... can't wait to read more

 

[rentayenta]

Please tell me how you design and make the shirts? I would LOVE to do something like for my family for our upcoming trip.


I love Halloween too! I am SO excited to decorate my new home for Halloween this year. My DD wore that same red Belle costume last year and the fabric is so soft! MY DS was Stitch and middle DD was Mulan. I need to find a pic and post it.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I'm in! Looking forward to hearing all about your plans!

Denise

Thanks, and welcome!

I'm so happy that you're going to be at the Grotto again; it seems perfect for a big family!

BTW, when I mentioned the "lawn decorations" on my last post, I referring to the kids!! They all looked so cute!

I love the idea of 'Ohana as a special first-night meal/activity, especially if you can pair it with the haunted hayride.

Did you try the Camping at Disney board for info on the hayride? Perhaps you can get some tips there.

I'm so excited to try 'Ohana for the first time, too! (We're going on our last day, though.)

Happy planning!

Kathy

Thanks for the advice about the hayride. I guess the tickets go fast and are only available the day of. Have you ever gone to the Mickey's Backyard BBQ? I just discovered that on the camping threads.

I love all of your ADRs; especially LTT for Will's B'day!

We ate there for the first time last year and we had such a great experience that we're doing it again this year. I thought that the character interaction was really great....they (Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, C&D) really took time to "play" with everyone instead of just hug-pose-for-picture-autograph-and-goodbye like at some of the other character meals.

You're going to have a lot of fun; make sure the characters know it's Will's B'day!!

Kathy

p.s. I will probably need help with shirts....you're also the GreatDisneyshirtqueen, you know!!

And this will be the day before Halloween! I bet all the characters will even be in costume. lol

Wow!

Those look great! I need to get up to speed with my computer skilz...I think I can handle the ironing-on part, but getting up to that point is what is intimidating me!!

Did you design the Mickey & Friends "Boo to You.." shirt?? That is really awesome!

Kathy

Yes, I found the graphic while goggling.

Subbing on lady!!!

Thanks!

Wow! I just can't imagine planning for 11 people.... that'd be like trying to herd kittens! Your trip sounds like so much fun though... can't wait to read more

We are even more excited about this trip now that we are Disney veterans! I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures and less crowds.

Please tell me how you design and make the shirts? I would LOVE to do something like for my family for our upcoming trip.


I love Halloween too! I am SO excited to decorate my new home for Halloween this year. My DD wore that same red Belle costume last year and the fabric is so soft! MY DS was Stitch and middle DD was Mulan. I need to find a pic and post it.

I'll be happy to make a graphic for you. Just let me know what you would like. I just finished a t-shirt for a big group going next month to celebrate a 30th b-day.

 

[packerbeth]

...

 

[KathyRN137]

No, we haven't done Mickey's Backyard Barbeque yet. I've heard that the entertainment was good (Music, Line Dancing with characters, etc.), but that the food was so-so.

Of course, I always take food reviews with a grain of salt. Besides, you'd be going for the fun more than the food, anyway!!

We might try to head over to FW to do the Campfire Program with Chip and Dale. Tricia would love toasting marshmallows, but Billy is unusually afraid of fire, so we may not be able to do it unless he sits far away from the campfire. That means we'd have to split up and what's the fun in that?

There are so many fun things to do, it's hard to choose!

Kathy

 

[rentayenta]

I'll be happy to make a graphic for you. Just let me know what you would like. I just finished a t-shirt for a big group going next month to celebrate a 30th b-day.

That is fantastic!


I would love for you to make a graphic but I have a really stupid question; then what do I do with it? How do I get it off the computer and onto the shirts?

 

[KathyRN137]

That is fantastic!


I would love for you to make a graphic but I have a really stupid question; then what do I do with it? How do I get it off the computer and onto the shirts?

I'm shirt-challenged, too!

I lurked a bit on the Design Board, but I still don't "get it"

Kathy