Disney Fever Thursday

People, I need one of the following, in this order of preference:

1) A winning lottery ticket. Winning as in like...$5000 or more.

2) A great big blessing of an influx of Travel and Cake customers so I can make more money

3) Someone extremely wealthy to pseudo-adopt me as someone that they want to spend money on.

4) An intervention (which really is so far down on my list of what I WANT that I shouldn't even put it here as a choice).


Now, #1 and #2 is not because I'm just a greedy crazy woman. Really I'm not. I'm happy with my lot in life. Contentment is not something I usually struggle with.


But I have GOT to tell you.

I am DYING to get on another Disney Cruise. Like...on the new Fantasy ship that had it's inaugural sailing last week.


Currently, we have a WDW coming up this Spring. Totally psyched about that. Then plans for 2013 currently look like Hawaii. Which will be my first trip there, which I am sure will be awesome (except for the exceptionally long flight with a then-5 and 9 year old).


Which is fine. Who would complain about going to Hawaii, right? Well...it's all fine and dandy except that it means that I probably won't get my booty on another Disney cruise until...

Two-Thousand-FOURTEEN.


And, ya'll might sign me up for that intervention when you hear me say, that makes my HEART hurt. Seriously!!


If #1 or #2 happened, I {might } be able to figure out a way to squeeze in a Disney cruise between now and 2014.


Alright, I know, I'm totally deluding myself. But, I cannot put into words how much I want to get back on a Disney Cruise. Any ship will do. I really really really really really wish we could afford this scenario:

Spring 2012 WDW
Christmas 2012 Disney Cruise
Summer 2013 Hawaii
Summer 2014 Another Disney cruise.


Now, I know I am BLESSED beyond words to likely be doing three of those four things. I know that some people may never do ANY of these things.

I know. I know. I know. I'm just telling you.


I listen to my kids whine, so ya'll can listen to me whine for just a minute, right? :)



But ohhhhhh.... If I had won that mega millions..... even if I had to split it with 500 other people.... I could be booking a Christmas 2012 cruise right now.


Instead, I need about 10 families to book about a $6000 vacation with me or I need to bake a boatload of cakes (ha, boatload. cruise. heehee) to get on a Disney ship this year. Even then, I suppose there is still real life to help pay for.


{But if you happen to fit the profile for #3, I'm here. Totally open to you gifting me with a cruise. My Birthday is in May you know!}


I'm just sayin'.


So. Who wants to go somewhere? :)

Disney Fever Thursday

One of the things about a Disney trip is the character interaction. There's nothing quite like the experience of your child meeting their favorite character.

I would say, hands down, that the character experiences on the Disney Cruise are far better than the ones at the park. Simply because, the time and locations are clearly printed in the Navigator (daily schedule) that you receive each night.... it's a beautiful, air conditioned environment (unless you're up on the pool deck or upper deck meeting someone!). Often, several are gathered at one time.

Last year, there was a Princess gathering in the atrium of the ship at 930a.m. We went down to get in line around 9a.m....among the first in line. Then at 930, Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, Bell, Ariel, and Princess Minnie all came down the grand staircase, and we took our turn with each one. (It was like a receiving line at a wedding!).

We were first in line for a Mickey and friends gathering as well. Take the time to watch this video, it really is so sweet. And the characters are so fun. You'll see Minnie dancing around, Chip hanging on the bannister, and Dale off playing the grand piano. Notice too Chip's interaction with Hannah at the end. It is so precious. This was one of my favorite moments on the entire cruise. Magical!!!!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

A new twist on Tie Dye

I love doing fun crafty things. I love doing tie-dye stuff. I think it's a throwback to VBS or church camp or something like that. It's always been something I enjoyed.

Last year, I learned how to make these Mickey tie-dye shirts. I made FOURTEEN of them for our cruise (our family, and some friends). Took for.ev.er because I had to sew the mickey shape, pull it tight, wrap it with rubber bands, etc etc. But they looked good!

I found a new technique that I wanted to try. It is originally called Batiking (I think) and it involves putting something on the shirt that is dye-resistant, then doing the dye. Originally it involved wax I believe...can't even imagine what a mess that would be!

Anyways, I found directions (on Pinterest) to use this blue-gel glue. Apparently, the blue-gel elmers is the way to go. I cannot attest to how any other glue would work, but I can tell you the blue-gel elmers worked!

As with half the things I do, I decided to do a Mickey shape. Why not, right? This was going to be a birthday gift for one of our little friends.

I had a friend/client pick up some of those auto-emblems for me on their last Disney trip and I've never stuck it on the car. I've found it is very handy for tracing on shirts!

In this case, I did a bead of glue all the way around the face of the emblem,

then flipped it over in the center of my dry shirt to make a transfer of the shape....

I then went back over the shape with a better bead of glue.

Let the glue dry for several hours. Prepare for tie-dying as you wish. I like the spiral look. To do that, you pinch in the center of the shirt and twist in a clockwise motion, twisting tight. Put several rubber bands around your twisted shirt to hold it in place.

Prepare dyes in the colors of your choice...I find three is a nice number for spiral, because then where they overlap...theoretically...additional colors come out. I slightly dampened my spiraled shirt and then started putting the dye on. You want rubber gloves for this part!

I have yet to get colors to come out as bold as they initially appear....of course a lot of the dye washes back out when you squeeze/rinse. I like to use these bottles for this process, and just saturate the shirt in sections in our stainless steel sink.

After your shirt is dyed, squeeze out the excess and remove the rubber bands. Then go lay it somewhere to dry (I layed it on a garbage bag in the garage). This lets the dye soak in really well.

When I layed the shirt out, I decided that the Mickey didn't pop quite as much as I wanted...because of the tie-dye that I did instead of just dying it a solid color. So I went and got my squeeze bottle of red, and after sticking a walmart sack in between the layers, I just added more red to the inside of the Mickey.

After the shirt is dry, fill your sink up with warm, soapy water and dunk the shirt in there. Agitate it a little bit and give it just a few minutes. While it seems a little redundant to let the shirt dry (setting the dye) and then dunking it in water, this will remove the glue. Then throw it in the washer and dryer as normal. (I threw mine in with some old towels that needed washed, so if extra dye got on anything in the wash, it'd be no biggie).

Here's how it turned out! I like it! Next time I will slightly dampen the shirt BEFORE I twist it, which allows the dye to soak in a little better (which is what I did with last year's shirts). I was nervous about the Mickey outline getting soft again before the dying process was done.

Give it a try! Fun project! You could do words, shapes, etc. You can tie-dye it like I did, or soak it in a solid color of dye...whever you like! I'm anxious to try some other techniques!!!

Disney Fever Thursday

Gasp! In the midst of surviving a rainy Spring Break, taking the girls swimming, and trying not to wheeze from what seems to be chlorine inhalation (the indoor pool always make me wheezy when I get home), I almost forgot that it's Disney Fever Thursday!

Today I am going to give you some good tips for travelling with munchkins.

1. Do not spend all the time leading up to the trip telling your three year old 'We're going to go see Mickey!!"....because when you arrive and are soaking in the THRILL of walking down Main Street USA, seeing the castle for the first time, etc... your three year old might be totally unimpressed and looking around going "Where's Mickey?!". Been there, done that, had to go find the mouse immediately so we could THEN get on with the excitement of it ALL.


2. Do not go to WDW without some sort of attack plan. It's huge, and you can't just randomly roll out of bed, show up, and do whatever. Ya gotta have a strategy. No you don't have to have every minute planned, but you have to have a plan in mind. That's where a helpful travel agent like ME comes in handy. :)


3. I've noticed this year that Hannah is the right height to be in my blind spot. She'll be standing just behind me but my elbow/arm makes me not able to see her. She's also ridiculously social. For the trip this year, I ordered personalized wrist-bands. Those rubber, debossed ones. I got two of them for $12 including shipping, they say "Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust" on the front, and "Mom Cell#@@@-xxx-1234" on the inside. So IF we get lost or separated, they can tell a cast member how to get ahold of me. Neurotic mommy moment? Maybe. Just better to be safe than sorry! I ordered mine from www.wrist-band.com


4. Stay onsite. And if you can swing it, stay at a deluxe resort. WDW is all about location, and the deluxe resorts are either on a monorail or within walking to distance to the park. We have always stayed in the Magic Kingdom area right on the monorail. This makes life sooo sooo much easier when you have a little one. You can just head back to the hotel for some rest time, get out of the heat, and swim for awhile too. It really helps to have downtime in the afternoon. I think people who drag their 3 year old to the park first thing in the morning and stay there till it closes deal with a lot more meltdowns than we do! :)


5. I was recently asked to list the three things I must do on a Disney trip. The answer varies per family member I suppose. The girls would say: Ride Small World, Have a Mickey Bar, go Swimming, meet characters. My answer would be: Ride Aerosmith Rock-n-roller coaster, eat at Ohanas, and take pictures in front of the castle.

Disney Fever Thursday

It's Disney Fever Thursday my friends!!! Today I want to share with you a few Walt Disney World facts! Some little tidbits you might not know.

1. I have many clients who do not realize how big WDW is. Did you know, it's about 40 SQUARE MILES, which is about the size of San Francisco?!


2. WDW employs over 60,000 people. They are called Cast Members.


3. The pool at Disney's Beach Club resort has a sand bottom. It holds 750,000 gallons of water and it is the largest sand bottom pool in the world.


4. Spaceship Earth, the big silver ball at EPCOT, weighs over 16 million pounds.


5. Annually, nearly 6,000 cell phones, and 18,000 hats are turned into Lost and Found. They receive an average of over 200 pairs of sunglasses turned in each day as well.


6. The Disney monorail has about 14 miles of track in service.


7. WDW is a happy place. But I wouldn't go there over Easter weekend...where Magic kingdom has been known to reach 'capacity' and have to stop accepting guests for part of the day! Personally, we think May is a great time to go!

Disney Fever Thursday

Welcome to the second installment of Disney Fever Thursday. Why are we Disney nuts? Here is a photo tutorial....

The rides are a lot of fun...

We look good on a Disney cruise :)

Riding surrey bikes is something we've only done at Disney, and it was such a hoot.

The shows on a Disney cruise are amazing...broadway quality.

WDW is full of things to do to make magical memories...like a kiddos first ride on Dumbo.

The character interactions are priceless....

...no matter what your age!

You get to let your little explore the world of fantasy and princesses.

You can see fireworks every night!!!

And you can get creme brulee as a dessert on a 'fast food meal' on the dining plan. Seriously? Creme Brulee? fast food? yum.

And...because it's our home away from home!

Vaca recap #6- the final vaca post!

Whew! There's been a bit of a lapse since I started this vaca recap! Sorry about that! I'm behind on blogging! Here's the final Disney Cruise 2011 post for you!!!

If you missed any of the other posts, here they are
Vaca Post 1
Vaca Post 2
Vaca Post 3
Vaca Post 3.5
Vaca Post 4
Vaca Post 5

After we got back on the ship, we showered and got changed to go to the matinee of the final show "Believe". During that time we also did some packing. The crazy thing about the last night of the cruise is that while you are wanting to go do lots of fun things, you also have to get all your stuff packed up! You have to put your suitcases out in the hallway by 11p.m. for the porters to take, and keep a carryon bag behind so you can have your pjs, etc to put in there. So you are trying to get everything thrown in the bags, while setting aside the clothes for the next day and making sure it doesn't get thrown in the bags, etc. It is craziness!

It is especially crazy when they are going to take your suitcases and check them at the airlines for you. That means, with the liquid restrictions, that you have to put any of your big toiletries in the suitcase and do without the next day or just leave it behind. Fortunately, we were going to a Disney resort, so we just threw everything where it would fit, and planned to do some laundry and repacking at the hotel that night!

Anyways, so we went to the matinee of 'Believe'. This was a very sweet show. A girl wanted her scientist dad to just be silly with her and believe in magic for just a few minutes. Of course he couldn't, and she was upset. He got some help from some magical visitors... imagine if you will the three ghosts of "A Christmas Carol" being replaced with three magical figures brought to make him "Believe." At the end, the last visitor showed him a vision of his daughter all grown up and dancing with her Prince Charming. That was a good kick in the pants for the dad to go back home and enjoy the sweet young imagination of his little girl. It was really good!

The guy who played Hades the first night was the Genie in this show, and again he did a great job!


He called upon Mary Poppins to stop in and visit.


A fairy godmother of course was involved.

And at the end, a very magical Birthday party for the little girl ensued.

Then it was off for our last night at dinner. I wasn't really psyched about the menu, nor the long table service...but I wouldn't miss a chance to say goodbye to our waiters. Romy from India and Emmanuel from Mexico had taken such great care of us all week. They were so great with the girls, and you could tell they really had a desire to make us happy. Wonderful guys. By the end of the week, you kinda feel a little attached to them, so it is sad to say goodbye. I hope God blesses them 1000 times over in their life.

Our room hostess, Wana, also took excellent care of us and was so sweet. They work so hard!!

We dropped the girls at the kids club for awhile so we could finish the packing. When we picked them up, Hannah was busy playing with her friend Anna and did not want to leave! It was so cute! We said goodbye to a few other people we had met, then went back to the room.

A Disney cruise would not be complete without getting some Mickey Bars delivered from room service. We ordered those, and some cookies to pack in our carry-on to snack on the next day. Their cookies are sooooo good.

Debarkation comes early. They need you OUT of your stateroom by 8a.m. and off the ship by 9a.m. We ran up for some breakfast around 7a.m., then came back to the room to grab our stuff and go find a place to relax in the lobby. Once the ship cleared customs, the line to get off was so long! So we just people watched and saw some friends, etc. Once we finally got off, we saw this sign. This sign always makes me sad:

We took the Disney bus to our resort for the night, Saratoga Springs. Thank the LORD that they had a room ready for us when we got there, because we had some VERY tired girls on our hands. We had planned on going to downtown Disney to spend some time, but we really needed to get Hannah a nap before my grandma came to visit and do dinner with us. Brooke went to DTD with gma and gpa, and the three of us snoozed at the hotel after lunch for awhile.

My grandma and her 'friend' john came. Hannah was in a squirrelly mood and wouldn't take a picture;

We hung out in the villa for awhile, then went down to the pool. Great Grandma and john watched the girls swim for awhile and we chatted some more. Then we had a yummy quick service dinner there at the resort. After they left, we finally got a chance to go to downtown Disney for awhile.

Waiting for the bus:

The Lego store. We let each girl fill a cannister of legos from this giant wall of bins of every lego under the sun. And then, Hannah dropped hers and legos went everywhere. I'm sure it wasn't the first time that has happened! So we picked them up, got them TAPED SHUT at the checkout, and left.

Our pool area. After we were done at DTD, we took the girls back to the pool for awhile. It was dark, and we had it nearly all to ourselves, which was so fun!

The next day, we just flew back to KC, got a rental van and drove home. It was a nonstop flight, and I can't tell you how great THAT was. I wish Wichita offered nonstop service to Orlando.

And THAT, my friends, ends the 2011 vaca recap. I would think you all want to go on a Disney cruise now too! Hey guess what, I can book that for you ;)

Vaca recap #5...and a winner!

Whew! It was a crazy busy weekend! But now, I am choosing to sit here and blog instead of take a shower. That's saying a lot, because I went to Zumba this morning and sweat profusely. You should really appreciate this blog post!


Before we delve into the "BEST DAY EVER!", I should announce the 300th post giveaway winner! ELIZABETH NOLTE! She has like, a jillion kids, so she might have to get a personalized necklace/magnet of her dog, but whatever the case may be -- get in touch with me Elizabeth :) Congrats!

So when we got back to our room and ready for bed on the night of the "at sea day" -- this is what we found...

I had asked a guest services person at DCL to help us try to get one of the private cabanas booked (long story). They are a huge splurge...$500 for the day for six people. An HOUR before we got on the plane to fly to Orlando, we got a call from DCL that a cabana had opened up! We debated for a few minutes, shuffled some other things around, and took it! There are only about 24 cabanas on the whole island, so they are a hot ticket for sure!

$500? What are we getting for $500 we wondered the day before cabana day. This little hut and info sheet left on our bed answered that question: Private cabana for the day with comfy furniture, ceiling fan, music. Private beach area reserved for cabana guests. Fresh fruit, unlimited sodas and bottled waters. Complimentary Coppertone products. Complimentary sand toys and snacks. Bike rentals (which we didn't use), tube rentals (which we did use), snorkel equipment (which we didn't use). We were happy just vegging in our very own corner of paradise, we didn't want to go ride bikes or snorkel and leave our happy ($500) spot!

Before we got off the ship, we ran into this good looking couple!:


We stopped just off the ship for the token Castaway Cay in-front-of-the-ship picture. The line to have the Disney photographers take it was a bit long, so we had one of our friends take it for us! Good job, Kev!


A ride on the island tram, and a personal golf cart shuttle, and we arrived here:


We were some very happy campers!


The corner just inside the cabana. In that closet was a safe where we could store our cameras, etc. Plenty of extra towels, and along that right side under the table was also the stocked mini-fridge that you can't see.

Plenty of comfy places to sit, magazines to read, snacks to gnosh on.

Outside the cabana, we had a lot of beach area to enjoy! Here's the view from our spot on the beach over to the "rest" of CC.

The view from our back porch!

The water was crystal clear!

Matt, Grandma, and the girls spent a lot of time hanging out on the floaties.

Papa and I spent a lot of time wandering the beach, and sitting in our little chairs with our feet in the water!

This was all part of the "reserved for Cabana guests" area

This is pelican plunge, the fun 'play area' they just built here at the island recently. we never did get over there to play, but it sure looked like fun!

We did a lot of shell-searching and collecting,

We had to DRAG Hannah away from the beach when it was lunch or rest time or time to leave.

Good picture, huh?

The tide went out, and you could probably walk out about a 1/2 mile with the water not coming past your knees!

A family of beach bums and Disney nuts!

The day consisted of playing at the beach, floating in the water, digging in the sand, and taking pictures. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. :) We threw in lunch at Cookies again (and I would have to say that I was a little surprised/disappointed that they didn't offer a different menu than they did our first day at CC). In early afternoon, Matt and his parents headed off for some jet-skiing. The girls and I relaxed in the cabana for awhile. I thought they would 'rest'...but I was pretty much wrong. Basically, I got them to drink something and have a snack and get out of the sun for a bit. Then we were back out to the beach.

To the left of our back porch was a little lagoon area that we weren't really supposed to go out too. To the right was our main beach area where we spent most of our time. There was a rope going out into the water that we weren't supposed to go past. As the day went on, more of the sandbar area started to appear. I asked one of the concierge staff if we could walk out on the sandbar past the rope to look for shells. They said yes, just not to park it out there and have a party or get in the water. The girls and i took off across the sandbar with our sand buckets, shovels, and camera in hand. It was awesome being all the way out there all by ourselves!

I found this kick-butt huge conch shell. I was so stoked! Shortly after I found it, I saw another DCL employee making her way across the sand to us. I said "you're not coming to take my shell are you?" She said she wasn't going to take my shell, but that we werent' supposed to be out that far. I told her I'd asked permission first but she seemed to think I was mis-informed. She also told me that I probably would not be allowed to take my shell onboard. Dang it. So we took a picture. It would have looked so nice in my beach-themed 1/2 bathroom:

I took more pics of the girls. Here's the best shot from the entire cruise:

Matt and his parents came back much earlier than i expected them. The jetski excursion had been cancelled because it had gotten windy.

There was a hammock by our back porch, along with a fresh water shower. Brooke and I both soaked up some serious hammock time, and I'm really wanting one in my backyard now!

By about 2:30 we were all pretty hot and sandy. We wanted to go back to the ship in time to make the matinee show that afternoon. We relaxed in the cabana for a little while and cooled off with these nice, damp washcloths that were in the fridge. Ohhhh they felt so good!

Hannah apparently loved her washcloth, because if you look closely (under Matt's thumb) you can see she stuffed it down her swimsuit. We were halfway back to the ship when I said "Hannah? What is in your swimsuit!?" and she pulled out her washcloth. It was so funny!

We ran into Daisy on our way back to the ship! It was at this point that somehow the camera got turned to some strange setting that makes everything look blue-ish. Happens every trip. I try to edit it back to happiness, but some pics are harder than others to recover from the blue-hue!

It was a wonderful day. Every day we've spent on Castaway Cay has been heavenly, but throw in a private cabana....and it ranks up there as one of the top 10 days of our lives I think! Shoot, it may be in the top 5, only behind getting married and having babies! :) It was such a wonderful day. And worth the $500? You bet.

I'll fill you in on the last bit of that day/night and our last day before we flew home in the next post! Have a great day!