Walking Softly and Carrying a Big Stick: A TR-Approved TR: We're Back, TR started!

[VBsHustla]

Hello! This our first attempt at a pre-TR/ TR. We couldn’t think of a better way to start writing about our trip than consulting our favorite book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so this first post contains many allusions to Alice, which we actually find quite appropriate. We hope you love it, and we thank you for joining our mad tea party. We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad. Or you wouldn’t have come here.

We apologize if this starts out a bit awkwardly. We don’t know how to begin a conversation with people we have just been dancing with.

Details
Who: Cast of characters: Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!

Jen (1/3 of VBsHustla) – Like the White Rabbit, Jen makes outrageous demands of her counterparts: “Mary Ann! Mary Ann! Fetch me my gloves this moment!” Often encounters a piece of rudeness more than she can bear; often creates a piece of rudeness more than others can bear. First visited WDW at age three, after a thwarted attempt at age one, where she had to make a pit stop at the emergency room on the way to the airport and was instructed not to fly due to an ear infection.

Laura (1/3 of VBsHustla) – Laura was anything but a regular bee; in fact, she was an elephant. She had gone so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way. First visited WDW as a baby and has been hooked ever since.

Elizabeth (sometimes affectionately referred to as Leonard, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people) (1/3 of VBsHustla) – Elizabeth is one temperamental flamingo. She may bite. Flamingos and mustard both bite. And the moral of that is – birds of a feather flock together. Only mustard isn’t a bird. And Liz is rather frightened of birds. And dinosaurs. First visited WDW at age one.

Mom – Mom of Jen, Laura, and Kevy, who will not be joining us on this trip because he will return to college before we leave.

Dad aka Pandy – Dad of Jen, Laura, and Kevy. Shares ginger hair with Liz.

Here is a photo of us with our friends Chip and Dale:


From left to right, Jen, Chip, Laura, Dale, and Liz.


TR (honorary) – Born in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth President of the United States. He was a professional historian, naturalist, explorer, author, and soldier. He first walked softly and carried a big stick in Disney World on October 1, 1971, when the Hall of Presidents (and the rest of the Magic Kingdom) opened.

Here's a photo of TR discussing the preservation of American wildlife:


What: Our trip to DW!

When: August 27 – September 2, 2008

Where: Grand Floridian (one room for Jen, Laura, and Liz and another for Mom and Dad)

Why: Because we like you!

How: Seven-day park hopping and DDP-ing

Coming up next, our plans and ADRs.

 

[VBsHustla]

Our ADRs:

Breakfasts:
Chef Mickey's
Kona Cafe
Crystal Palace

Lunches:
Le Cellier
Liberty Tree Tavern

Dinners:
Mama Melrose
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Plaza Restaurant
Tutto Italia

Others:
tea at the Grand Floridian

We're also excited to try the CS in Morocco. Here's a pic of us dancing in Morocco:


And here we are dancing in the MK:


We also made a countdown calendar:


Coming up next, a photographic journey through our past trips.

 

[Disney Brat]

Hi! I followed you over from the tie dye shirts thread! You are off to a great start, can't wait to read more!

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Great start! I love the count down calendar. I have something smiiliar in mind so I was excited to see yours too.

Cute family!

Cant wait to read more.

By the way, totally love the TR approved TR angle. Can't wait to hear if TR approves anything else!

 

[VBsHustla]

Hi! I followed you over from the tie dye shirts thread! You are off to a great start, can't wait to read more!

to our TR! Thanks for responding, we were extremely excited to recieve a response!

We'll be posting details of our tie-dyeing process soon.

 

[VBsHustla]

Great start! I love the count down calendar. I have something smiiliar in mind so I was excited to see yours too.

Cute family!

Cant wait to read more.

By the way, totally love the TR approved TR angle. Can't wait to hear if TR approves anything else!

Thanks and welcome! Whenever we're in the TR forum, all we think about is Theodore Roosevelt, so we couldn't resist! We're hoping that TR will have a great time with us. Thanks for reading!

 

[VBsHustla]

Jen, Laura, Mom, Dad, and Kevy took many trips throughout the years. Liz is our cousin and came with us sometimes. We stayed at the CBR our first trip, but we can't quite remember it. After that, we stayed at the Beach Club for most of our trips, until two years ago, when we decided to try the GF.

Here are some pictures from our past trips:



Laura is in front, Jen is in back, with Mom and Kevy. Here we are in a ride of some kind or perhaps the airport? We vaguely remember this, but can't place it!



Laura is on the left, and Jen is on the right. Here we are on the People Mover! One of our favorite rides (truly!) As a child, Laura refused to have her hand held while traveling down this moving platform and once insisted upon riding the entire ride again because Mom had held her hand on the way down.



Laura on the left, Jen on the right. We always loved staying until park closing! Except for when Ursula would attack during Spectromagic.



Waiting to enjoy a sundae!



Clearly our parents needed the DIS in 1990! While it is a perfect ride, who would wait in a five hour line to ride Dumbo at that hour?!



Jen apparently adored those hot orange socks!



We loved these little Toon Town homes and miss them terribly!



Here we are at the old Chef Mickey's! Jen is on the left with her unmatching socks, and Laura and Figment are on the right.

 

[VBsHustla]

Baby Kevy giving us a lift (with Jen on pedals).



Another nighttime spin on Dumbo for Dad, Jen, and Kevy.











We really miss posing with the old Toon Town!



Goofy and Jen, both in weird costumes!



Bouncing with Tigger!



Parisian Minnie.



Headed to Stormalong Bay!



Laura and Kevy swimming in Stormalong Bay.



We're huge patriots and have always loved Liberty Square!



We loved the old method of meeting characters, with no queues or minders and the added bonus of strangers in your pics!



Kevy outgrew the need for pedal assistance!

Also, may we ask what on earth these cows were doing in the middle of what appears to be Toon Town?!

 

[Disney Brat]

THanks for the warm welcomming!! I loved seeing you pics from your past trip!

 

[VBsHustla]

Here are some pics from our August 2006 trip. We stayed at the GF and went during free dining, which we're doing again this year!













Last year we went to WDW in July and stayed at the Dolphin (which was not nearly as great as staying at the GF). Below are some pics from our July 2007 trip.

 

[VBsHustla]

Here are some picture's from Liz's childhood visits to WDW.

The photos from her first visit seem to have been misplaced, but here she is posing in the Mickey ears she got on her first trip posing with her mom (Aunt Eileen to Jen and Laura)


Here are a few from the trip she took later on:

Posing in Liberty Square (From L to R: Friend Laura, little brother Thomas, and Liz)

In the America Pavilion in Epcot enjoying the old-style character meeting with nice strangers in every shot.


Posing again. Enjoy the hideous hats, shoes, and fanny pack. Ick!

In front of the castle (Thomas in front, Laura trying to catch him, Liz looking weird in the back)

Freezing in front of the old Christmas shoppe in MGM

 

[VBsHustla]

Thanks to the wonderful spiral tie dye thread over on the DISigns board Tie Dye Instructions for Spiral Mickey Shirt, we were inspired to make tie dye Mickey tee shirts a few weeks ago! And, also thanks to that thread, we had fantastic instructions that allowed us to do so! Here are photos and commentary describing our process:



We used Hanes 100% cotton men’s crew neck undershirts, and are very happy with the fit. The shirts went through the washer and dryer twice each before we traced our Mickey heads on the shirts. The Mickey head came from a pattern posted over on the tie dye thread that we printed out, and then traced onto cardboard.

Jen traced the Mickey head cutout onto each shirt with a pencil.



Then Liz basted (sewed in a simple “in and out” of the fabric) on the pencil line of each Mickey head with waxed dental floss, pulling the floss tightly as she went along.



Be sure to pull the floss as tightly as possible. You will end up with a puckered tiny Mickey head sticking up from the main fabric of the shirt.


We then placed about one-and-a-half inches of tightly wrapped rubber bands around each Mickey head, beginning right on the line of floss.



Then we let the shirts soak in a bucket of soda ash (Tulip brand, purchased as powder in a packet at Michael’s, and mixed with water) for 24 hours. The point of the soda ash is to prepare the fabric to better take the dye, leading to more vibrant colors.



After a day in the soda ash soak, we wrung out the shirts and then began twisting them into “danishes.” We laid the shirts flat on the ground, grabbed the Mickey head, which was sticking up, and twisted tightly around until we had circles.

Wringing the shirts out:


Twisting:


We then placed 8 rubber bands around each “danish,” to hold it in place.



We each wanted a shirt with only one tie dyed color. We used kits of Tulip dye; one had pink, turquoise, and yellow, and another had purple, lime green, and dark blue. We did not use the dark blue or the yellow dyes. We squirted the dye from the bottles provided in the kits directly on to the tee shirts. We used almost one whole bottle of dye per shirt. However, the turquoise Tulip dye is very intense, so we used only about one-third of the bottle for these shirts (we learned this the hard way after ending up with an entirely blue shirt after using a whole bottle of dye on one of the first shirts we made).



This was Liz's contribution:


And here was what Laura was mostly up to:

We simply adore a good trifle!

The tie dye thread recommended allowing the shirts to soak for around 24 hours. We let our first round of shirts soak for 48 hours, which turned out to be perfect for the pink and purple shirts, but too long for the blue.











For our second round of shirts, we allowed the shirts dyed with turquoise to soak for around 8 hours.

After the shirts had soaked, we rinsed them out (in a sink that could get messy in the basement!) as we unraveled the shirts and removed the rubber bands. We continued to rinse until the water was no longer tinted with dye.

We washed and dried (in the dryer) each shirt three times, and hope that this will be sufficient to prevent dye from seeping onto our other clothes or us! Here are the finished products:

Purple shirt (round one):


Pink shirt (round one):


Blue shirt (round one):


Blue shirt (round two):


Pink shirt (round two):


Lime green shirts (round two):


Group shots:





Overall, we are very pleased with the shirts! We are not sure who will be wearing which color yet, and we plan to probably wear the shirts on the plane on our way down to WDW! We’ll probably also still be wearing the shirts when we go to our late lunch at Le Cellier since it is scheduled for only a few hours after we land, and we don’t expect to have our luggage from the ME in time to change. You’ve got to love trying to eat during free dining – the only time during our entire vacation, lunch or dinner, that we could get a reservation for Le Cellier was our arrival day, so we booked an early flight to ensure that we would be in WDW to make it! We’ll report back on the meal and share pictures, maybe of us eating in these tie dyed shirts, when we return!

 

[teresajoy]

I'm not much or a pre-TR reader, but I am loving this ladies! I can't wait to read the actual TR!!!! I love all those old pictures!!!! They are great!

 

[Alysa]

Love love love the old photos! I have to go and scan our old slides. So fun - thanks for sharing!

 

[Disney Brat]

The shirts are great!!! Just think you guys will be wearing them very soon in WDW!!!

 

[VBsHustla]

I'm not much or a pre-TR reader, but I am loving this ladies! I can't wait to read the actual TR!!!! I love all those old pictures!!!! They are great!

Wow, we're honored that you popped into our TR and liked it! Your TR is one of our favs.

 

[DisneyCrzy]

Awesome shirts! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[VBsHustla]

Love love love the old photos! I have to go and scan our old slides. So fun - thanks for sharing!

Thanks! And welcome to our TR! You should definitely post your old pics. It was lots of fun to look through them and see how different WDW (and we!) looked.

The shirts are great!!! Just think you guys will be wearing them very soon in WDW!!!

Thank you! That's true. We're so excited!

 

[VBsHustla]

Awesome shirts! Can't wait to hear more!

Thank you! And welcome to our TR! You should make some red and green ones for your trip!

 

[VBsHustla]

We're back! We had a wonderful trip and we can't wait to get our TR started. The first installment will be coming up very soon!