2 Days until Disneyland!

Posted on Oct 12, 2015 in Crafts, Travel |

For a 34 year old woman, some would say I’m far too excited to be going to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure with two other 34 year old women – and no kids.  The three of us are varying levels of Disney fans, and the fact is that none of us have been to Disneyland in years.  We have also never been there during the Halloween season with the ride overlays and fall decor.  To boot, I’ve never even been to California Adventure.  So we’re doing this.  IN 2 FREAKIN’ DAYS!

Planning

Initially, the plan was for all 5 of us in my group of best friends to go.  Unfortunately, Jennie having kids and that added expense plus Katie’s tight budget after visiting some family back east meant they were out.  So the planning was left to Rachel, Lorenza and I.  Since Rachel had seen the winter holiday overlays but none of us had seen the Halloween overlays, we decided to aim for October.  We also wanted to make sure that Disneyland would be in the midst of the 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration.  We began trying to narrow down the dates and such back in May to allow plenty of time for us to request the time off from work and save up our spending money.  We decided that renting a car would be better than putting the miles on our own cars, and proceeded to look into where to stay and how to get the most bang for our buck.

Travel

Disneyland Travel Package GoodiesI tapped my annual pass holding cousin Chrissy (check out her blog Adventures in DIY) for information on how best to enjoy both parks.  She gave me some insight on where we might be able to look for deals.  We hadn’t yet settled on anything when Lorenza found that Costco Travel offers Disneyland packages that are pretty decently priced, depending on the hotel you select.  She did a lot of research and put together prices, then I did some more research on the hotels using Trip Advisor reviews, and we decided on Hotel Menage (partly because of their 24 hour pool) and booked the package!  The prices Costco Travel had for rental cars were also outstanding, so I went that route to book it as well.

The great thing about the Costco Travel package is that it comes with added bonuses.  In addition to the hotel for the appropriate amount of nights and 3 days of park passes for each of us, we also each get a voucher for a Character meal, a Photo memory, an extra Magic Morning in one of the parks, an arcade credit at ESPN Sport Zone in Downtown Disney, Diamond Celebration luggage tags, Diamond Celebration ticket lanyards, and a special Diamond Celebration pin!  Once the travel package physically arrived, I dug in and found that there’s also a discount card that gets us other various discounts at Downtown Disney and another nearby shopping center.  Score!  So we know that our first order of business will be to go to the designated gift shops to pick up our lanyards & pins before our Minnie & Friends breakfast.

Accessories

Haunted Mansion Doombuggy EarringsI have a decent collection of Ariel and The Little Mermaid stuff, but nothing really wearable.  After much stalking on eBay I was finally able to get a Disney Loungefly The Little Mermaid Slouch Backpack that’s no longer sold anywhere, and a Disney The Little Mermaid Ursula Rubber Bracelet to go with the Kiss the Girl rubber bracelet I already have.  I went back and forth on making some accessories or just buying some, and in the end buying some new hair bows and earrings from Hot Topic won. I settled between the accessories I had that one day would be focused on Ariel, one day focused on Ursula, and then the 3rd day… I was at a loss.  I’ve put so much time and energy since 1989 into loving all things The Little Mermaid that I was stymied on what else to do!  Hitchhiking Ghosts iPhone CaseSo, I went back to the holiday at hand – Halloween – and went full on Haunted Mansion for the 3rd day’s wardrobe.  Complete with Hitchhiking Ghosts iPhone case, Doombuggy earrings, and Hatbox Ghost hair bows using some vinyl cut with my Cricut and some printable Shrinky Dink material I’ve been holding on to!  I was hoping to use the Print then Cut feature of the Cricut for the Shrinky Dinks, but I think the material is too shiny for the reader eye to see the registration marks, because it wouldn’t cut.  So I cut them out by hand instead. (click on the pictures to enlarge them)Haunted Mansion Hatbox Ghost Hair Bow

 
Mickey Quarter Holders for Pressed Penny MachinesI already posted about our DIY Disneyland Water Bottles that I made, and I embellished some little tubular containers to hold quarters for all of Rachel’s pressed penny collection needs.  We read that there are more than 40 machines throughout the two parks, so I picked up 2 of these little tubes from JoAnn Fabrics and just put some simple Mickeys on them.  Originally I had more detailed Mickey faces, but they didn’t cut out well due to the thin lines.  So I went with the mouse ears silhouettes.

Of course, I made some t-shirts for Lorenza and I as well… but you’ll have to wait until after we get back to see those 🙂

Final Preparations

Would You Rather? Disney EditionFrom where we live, it’s about a 6 hour drive to Disneyland, depending on traffic, stops, and speed limits.  To keep us busy, I used the instructions from Or so she says… to make the “Would you Rather”? Disney Edition Travel Game.  I didn’t go all out and have mine spiral bound, just used a hole punch and a zip tie to bind it.  All there is left now is to pack!  I’ve got my lists of stuff not to forget all ready to go.  I’ll be re-reading all the tips & tricks I pinned on my #DisneySide pinterest board.

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