My AP-ALOOZA Continues (WE RENEWED!!) ~ NEW TR link posted!

[khertz]

Hey are you still planning to go to Disneyland Paris on your Europe trip later this year? (Have I already asked you this??). I'm starting to plan next years trip which we plan to spend 3 days at dl Paris.

Thank you so much

We are! I have really been agonizing over the decision because the Italy part itself it already 10 days and adding DLP makes it 12. I know I will be so ready to get home to Paxton at that point! But Italy is my dream trip, and I talked Dustin into it, and he really wants to do DLP, so we are going to do it. I know once we go, I won't regret it, but I'm going to miss Paxton so much!! 3 days would probably be good. Since we are only doing 1 day, we are concentrating on the main park and not visiting the Studios. It sounds like they are getting a cool Ratatouille attraction and restaurant there soon!

On to your update...

So glad Aria did so well at HDDR, even with a short nap. Kids can be so unpredictable with how they wake up from a nap and how they will do the rest of the day! I haven't gotten there in my TR yet, but on our MNSSHP day, Paxton woke up in the most horrible mood ever and I thought for sure our night was going to suck, but it was wonderful! I keep trying to convince DH to do HDDR and that Paxton will love it, but so far I haven't been able to sell him on the food.

The carriage ride looks like a lot of fun. Do they only offer than during the holidays at FW? Probably would still be cool the rest of the year, but I'm sure the main draw of it is seeing all of the Christmas decorations that the campers put out!

 

[Imagineer5]

Yeah, we never had an issue getting/using paper Fast Passes while wearing Magic Bands either. CMs didn't blink an eye.

Bummer that Aria was so unhappy to be woken up, but I'm glad she recovered. Sounds like Hoop-de-doo was a big hit! We need to do that someday. I've heard so many great things about it, but we've never made it over there.

Perfect way to end your day with the ride through the lights and tiny Wishes.

I'm glad you didn't have issues getting FP's either then! I kept reading how CM's were so rude (on here) that i was worried.

Yes HDD was really great! It was a wonderful first day & night!

Just found your new TR, so excited to read along. I can't believe how big Aria has gotten.

Thank you!! Now my turn to get caught up on yours! I know, isn't it amazing? From a little 8m old crawler to a nearly 2-year old! And more to come!

We are! I have really been agonizing over the decision because the Italy part itself it already 10 days and adding DLP makes it 12. I know I will be so ready to get home to Paxton at that point! But Italy is my dream trip, and I talked Dustin into it, and he really wants to do DLP, so we are going to do it. I know once we go, I won't regret it, but I'm going to miss Paxton so much!! 3 days would probably be good. Since we are only doing 1 day, we are concentrating on the main park and not visiting the Studios. It sounds like they are getting a cool Ratatouille attraction and restaurant there soon!

On to your update...

So glad Aria did so well at HDDR, even with a short nap. Kids can be so unpredictable with how they wake up from a nap and how they will do the rest of the day! I haven't gotten there in my TR yet, but on our MNSSHP day, Paxton woke up in the most horrible mood ever and I thought for sure our night was going to suck, but it was wonderful! I keep trying to convince DH to do HDDR and that Paxton will love it, but so far I haven't been able to sell him on the food.

The carriage ride looks like a lot of fun. Do they only offer than during the holidays at FW? Probably would still be cool the rest of the year, but I'm sure the main draw of it is seeing all of the Christmas decorations that the campers put out!

For DLP where are you thinking of staying? I have done a little research and it sort of sounds like DL with the "good neighbor" hotels though not as much in walking distance. The prices seem a bit outrageous just from the quick perusal of the website.

I'll have to read up on the Ratatouille ride and restaurant!! sounds awesome!

I'm surprised he isn't interested in the food?! Andrew loved it, and I even found something to eat, but overall it was more for the fun of the evening (and hey, free drinks!)

It looks like they do carriage rides year round at the Fort Wilderness, but for the holidays they change it into "sleighs" so yes definitely can be done all year!

 

[Imagineer5]

On to our spectacular Magic Kingdom day!! Normally I like to book a before-park-opening breakfast but for some reason I had the MK opening at 8AM this day so I decided to switch it up and try CRT for lunch (we had done breakfast and dinner before but not lunch). In the end, I luckily noticed the MK wouldn’t open until 9AM so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Roaring Fork instead. The NON breakfast in the park turned out to be super fortunate….just wait and see!!

Oh and one quick note – this was the first trip that I didn’t have photopass. This was mainly due to my August photopass pics seemingly being misplaced for MONTHS and I finally got them right before this trip, but I just didn’t want to go through that again, and because DH was really getting upset at stopping at every photopass photographer (rolling my eyes) so I gave him a break. I do however plan to get it for August & October.

Back to Friday morning! We were up at out of the room by 7:15 – our afternoon showers making the mornings a little less chaotic! Aria was in her princess dress – we had FP+ reservations to meet the princesses and then of course had CRT to look forward to! A couple pics in the beautiful lobby –

Then we made a quick stop at Roaring Fork where Andrew got an American platter of some sort and I tried out the (delicious) bananas foster waffles – MMM I ate my whole plate! Aria had some from both of our plates along with a banana and then we were on our way. Now, for some crazy reason we decided to drive to the MK this day, we had California Grill reservations in the evening and somehow both our brains were muddled – we brought the car to “save time” though the smart thing to do would be EITHER 1- use the boats or 2- at least bring our change of clothes for dinner into the car. LOL. Anyway…so here is a monorail pic, from our silly morning plans.

Once through bag check, I had to go to guest services to exchange my AP vouchers for AP cards and also purchased a TiW card ($100, but more than paid for itself in the next 3 days!). This all took maybe 5 minutes and we were near the front of the line waiting to enter the park – it was about 8:20 at this point. Now, for those that have read my previous TR’s, I always get a picture of Aria and me walking up to the castle on an empty MK morning. I was worried about getting that picture today since it would be streaming with people. But I tried not to fret too badly, so we got a couple pics of Aria out front and then went back to Andrew –

I was looking at my phone thinking we had quite a ways to wait until the park opened when a CM came from the other side asking if anyone has a “REAL” camera …. ??? After a moments hesitation we held up our Canon SLR camera and he motioned us to come forward – he asked us to take a quick picture to show if it worked (and we were totally befuddled at this point) and once doing so he ushed us under the ropes and said we were going to be the photo family of the day! Wow! Never heard of this, but he basically said he was going to take pictures of us in the empty park and then we’d be at the front of the line for when the park opened. Super cool! So here are some of the pictures that he got –

About halfway up Main St. we stopped and he asked us a few questions – what our favorite park is, favorite ride, restaurant, how often we visited, etc and then said to go enjoy the empty park!! What did this mean?? I got my walking to the castle pic in an empty park!? We were on cloud 9 at this point!

After a few pictures we decided to go line up at the Fantasyland rope, hoping to get in a ride on Peter Pan, grab some FP’s for Ariel, and then do a few more things before we had our first FP+ at the Princesses.

First stop was peter pan, we had to park the stroller so ended up being about 10th on the ride. This ride Aria covered her face with her hands and then buried it into my side – uh-oh?! Was she turning out to be afraid of the dark?? Luckily no tears but she didn’t really seem to enjoy it! After this we hopped over to It’s a small world which she did enjoy

Next up I wanted Andrew to see how excited Aria was to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway (Aria’s first height requirement ride – she made it for our August trip and really enjoyed it!).

 

[Imagineer5]

Next up was another of her favorites – Dumbo! I love how this gives her a chance to play a bit, and then she loves the ride too! Here she clapped to the music and laughed the whole ride. What fun! BTW, there was no wait for the ride, but we let Aria play for about 10 minutes before heading out.

After this, we used our pretty unnecessary FP’s for Ariel – there was really no wait but oh well – and enjoyed this ride though Aria started burying her head again until we got to the singing parts. At Ursula she totally covered her face with her hands. Still no tears though and she was okay otherwise.

Then we headed over to Adventureland (we were all over the place it seems!) and picked up Jungle Cruise FP’s and then rode Pirates quickly (despite Aria really not enjoying this one at all)

and now it was time to go to the first of our FP+ selections – meeting princess Cinderella and Aurora. Now at the time, I don’t think Aria was into the princesses much (now she is excited to see Cinderella and her pwincesses) haha and with the previous trips we were interested to see how she would do with characters this trip – she is so unpredictable! Of course, we get into the room with the princesses and Aria starts saying “noooo mommy no!” and tries to leave the room, so we spent the following 5 minutes waiting trying to tell her how exciting it was to meet them. She wouldn’t walk up to them but didn’t cry either, and both Cinderella and Aurora were really sweet with her.

After leaving she was in a good mood though (silly girl) and we had our second FP+ to go meet Rapunzel and Snow White, here she was slightly more relaxed in line, and I got her to go up to Rapunzel on her own!

LOL look at that face!

But Snow White was another story so I brought her up there with me. Aria now knows Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Tinkerbelle and Ariel all by name, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will enjoy the meets more next trip.

We had just about 30 minutes to go before lunch so we went to use our Jungle Cruise fast passes – I was excited to see the holiday changes but didn’t take too many pictures because I didn’t really find it to be that exciting. We still enjoyed the ride though and were totally ready to head to lunch!

 

[Dugette]

Wow, busy morning!

That is super cool about being the Photo Family of the day!! Love your pictures. Aria doesn't seem so sure about it, but she's super cute in her princess dress!

Hmmm, this burying her face on dark rides thing doesn't sound good.

Glad the princess meets worked out okay. That's cool that she knows all of them now...it will be neat to see how she responds on future trips!

 

[guinness408]

Love the new TR so far!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Wow, busy morning!

That is super cool about being the Photo Family of the day!! Love your pictures. Aria doesn't seem so sure about it, but she's super cute in her princess dress!

Hmmm, this burying her face on dark rides thing doesn't sound good.

Glad the princess meets worked out okay. That's cool that she knows all of them now...it will be neat to see how she responds on future trips!

Yes it was busy but guess that's how we roll!

The photo thing was awesome - nope, Aria was not too into it (thanks dear for the zero smiles!) but once the guy left she was happy to take pics. Grr! Oh well it was still a fun memory.

Luckily she only hides her head but still makes me sad! We were watching a youtube video of Ariel the other day and she covered her face on the Ursula part again (peeking through her fingers at the screen LOL). Silly girl!

Yes definitely excited!! We are planning a lunch at Ariel's Grotto which is a princess meal at DCA, so excited to see how that goes in May!

Love the new TR so far!!

Thank you so much more reading along!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Oooh that'd be perfect given we will be at BLT the first part of the week!! Aria gets along better with little boys than girls it seems LOL so I think they'd have a blast!!

AND Congrats on the new little one!! When is the baby due???

Cool! New Baby is due and July and we just found out is another girl (leaning towards Emma as the name) ... so guess Aria would only get along with 1 of the 3

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sounds like a great evening you had with WDDR and the Carriage ride and glad the show worked to keep Aria entertained - especially after not waking up so great.

"we were all ready for drinks…ehhm I mean dinner!" I totally understand that feeling at times. I often say mMy kids didn't drive me to drink ... but the certainly don't drive me away from it either

Good call getting TIW - so worth it especially since it counts towards all food AND drinks

Wow - that is awesome you were the photo family of the day. I heard of the Family of the Day that goes along with the welcome show, but not the photo family of the day ... good job volunteering your camera

Aria looks like she is having a blast on Dumbo!

That is a cute picture with both Aria and Rapunzel sitting on the floor

 

[Imagineer5]

Cool! New Baby is due and July and we just found out is another girl (leaning towards Emma as the name) ... so guess Aria would only get along with 1 of the 3

Awww congrats!! LOVE the name Emma, too, it's beautiful. SHe likes girls too LOL! And at a few weeks old I don't think the baby will be doing much playing

Sounds like a great evening you had with WDDR and the Carriage ride and glad the show worked to keep Aria entertained - especially after not waking up so great.

"we were all ready for drinks…ehhm I mean dinner!" I totally understand that feeling at times. I often say mMy kids didn't drive me to drink ... but the certainly don't drive me away from it either

Good call getting TIW - so worth it especially since it counts towards all food AND drinks

Wow - that is awesome you were the photo family of the day. I heard of the Family of the Day that goes along with the welcome show, but not the photo family of the day ... good job volunteering your camera

Aria looks like she is having a blast on Dumbo!

That is a cute picture with both Aria and Rapunzel sitting on the floor

I had never heard of the photo family either, and I still don't think I've read about it (going to go to a disboards search now LOL!) but it was pretty fun nonetheless!!

Yes, I do enjoy wine, and no Aria doesn't drive me to drink it but I certainly enjoy it! TiW is fantastic, not being a FL resident, we will need to continue to get AP's to get it, but it is SO worth it. At the end of this TR I want to do a financial overview just to see how much we saved / are saving by getting AP's & TiW!

Yes, Aria finally got the idea of "cheese" later on in the trip, so no smile with miss Rapunzel but it was pretty funny having her plop down next to her! Poor Rapunzel didn't know what to do.

Thanks so much for reading along! I'm going to pop over to your PTR right now! I'm kind of using this ongoing TR as a PTR for upcoming trips too LOL so I love hearing about everyone's plans!

 

[khertz]

For DLP where are you thinking of staying? I have done a little research and it sort of sounds like DL with the "good neighbor" hotels though not as much in walking distance. The prices seem a bit outrageous just from the quick perusal of the website.

I'll have to read up on the Ratatouille ride and restaurant!! sounds awesome!

I'm surprised he isn't interested in the food?! Andrew loved it, and I even found something to eat, but overall it was more for the fun of the evening (and hey, free drinks!)

It looks like they do carriage rides year round at the Fort Wilderness, but for the holidays they change it into "sleighs" so yes definitely can be done all year!

I think we are going to go with one of the "cheaper" onsite resorts just because we are only going to be there for two nights and a day, so we want as much convenience as possible! We haven't really started looking and comparing though to see which one we are going to book. DLP is definitely looking to be expensive!!

His thing with the food is he really only likes the fried chicken and the corn on the cob. He doesn't like mashed potatoes or beans or really ribs for that matter. So he is not sold on spending so much and only eating a couple of the things they offer. He's weird like that, and picky to the point of absurdity sometimes! I'm pretty picky too, but I eat most of the stuff they serve at HDD, and I've also learned to at least TRY new things now. He still doesn't want to if it sounds too weird or he doesn't like how it looks!

On to the update...

That's really cool about being photo family of the day!! I never knew they did such a thing. It's even better than just taking photos at the standard Photopass spots inside an empty park.

Even though Aria closed her eyes and covered her face a lot, it's good that she didn't freak out and start crying. At least she can sort of self-comfort when she's afraid, if that makes sense!

I had to "Awwwww..." at her freaking out for the first set of princesses! She was probably so intimidated seeing them up close! I wish we could see what was going on inside their heads at moments like that. Even though she looks a little upset in the photos, she sure does look precious with those pigtails and in her princess dress meeting the princesses!

 

[Imagineer5]

I think we are going to go with one of the "cheaper" onsite resorts just because we are only going to be there for two nights and a day, so we want as much convenience as possible! We haven't really started looking and comparing though to see which one we are going to book. DLP is definitely looking to be expensive!!

His thing with the food is he really only likes the fried chicken and the corn on the cob. He doesn't like mashed potatoes or beans or really ribs for that matter. So he is not sold on spending so much and only eating a couple of the things they offer. He's weird like that, and picky to the point of absurdity sometimes! I'm pretty picky too, but I eat most of the stuff they serve at HDD, and I've also learned to at least TRY new things now. He still doesn't want to if it sounds too weird or he doesn't like how it looks!

On to the update...

That's really cool about being photo family of the day!! I never knew they did such a thing. It's even better than just taking photos at the standard Photopass spots inside an empty park.

Even though Aria closed her eyes and covered her face a lot, it's good that she didn't freak out and start crying. At least she can sort of self-comfort when she's afraid, if that makes sense!

I had to "Awwwww..." at her freaking out for the first set of princesses! She was probably so intimidated seeing them up close! I wish we could see what was going on inside their heads at moments like that. Even though she looks a little upset in the photos, she sure does look precious with those pigtails and in her princess dress meeting the princesses!

Yes that is what I am thinking - staying onsite but not at the Disneyland Hotel which looks spectacular but the price seemed to be like $600/night or something crazy. I was on the disneyland paris boards and when I was looking there was a special promotion going on where it looked like the rates were lower by going to the Disneyland Paris UK site vs. the US one (even with the awful conversion rates), but I haven't looked into it any further.

Yeah I am super picky too - HDDR would make him a special meal if he requested it (I requested vegetarian, which was a plain salmon and awful, but they did offer me a pasta dish).

Exactly - she was nervous on ALL the dark rides, but not to the point of freaking out, we just were so surprised she acted like that after never doing that on previous trips.

Thank you! At least she looked cute...lol!

 

[Imagineer5]

More of our MK day coming up!! We last left off heading in for lunch at the CRT...


We checked in and were led straight inside with just one family ahead of us for the photo with Cinderella. Aria had warmed up a bit to the princesses that I wanted to see if she would go up alone, which she did!

Happy girl waiting

Then we got in for a family shot (I have this pic at my desk!)

And were then led upstairs. We had a table right near the entrance but I liked the location looking out on the room and the beautiful windows. The shared appetizer plate was brought out immediately and was delicious (loved the honey over the cheese, just didn’t want to share it all with Andrew haha!). Aria had a little of that, plus they brought out a bowl of fruit & cheese for her and we had some little snacky things so she was pretty content. The star wand thing might have had something to do with her happiness too.

This is the shared app plate - hummus & dipping bread, a small salad w/ goat cheese, and some sort of cheese with honey over. All delicious, we polished it off!

I am thinking I had the Chicken breast, though I can’t remember for the life of me how it was (couldn’t have been awful then!) and I think Andrew enjoyed the short rib. They brought out more (free) fruit for Aria and she shared some things from our plates.

For dessert I thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate speciality, Andrew got the cheesecake (oK) and Aria was given a scoop of vanilla ice cream so we were all very happy! The princess interaction was great here as well, though I think I will wait to return until Aria is a bit older and can talk a bit with the princesses and ask questions and such.

Aria wanted to walk out so upon leaving the castle, she made my day as instead of following me out, she ran under the line ropes and straight up to Cinderella while another family was taking a photo! Of course, we didn’t get any pics as we were busily running after her, but I was still laughing (as was the family thank goodness!) and it was just too cute that she did that especially after being a bit hesitant to meet the princesses. Just wish I had a photo of it!

It was nearing Aria’s nap time – so we decided to take a quick ride on the carousel and then I put Aria down to sleep in the stroller.

Meanwhile Andrew was a FP runner and got FP’s for Space Mountain. Yes we abused our FP usage a bit here, as I headed over and got BTMRR and Splash FP’s as well, and using rider swap and low wait times overall, while Aria slept for the next 2.5 hours we were able to both ride BTMRR, Splash, Space, AND see Push the talking trashcan! Haha. And we picked up Buzz Lightyear FP’s for later too!

We switched off taking pics of eachother on BTMRR!

Me all the way in the back!

Random, but the family in the row in front of mine had a VIP tour guide CM taking them around. Made we wonder if the guy (who was probably 6 and a half feet tall) was some sort of sports star.

Here the mom is sitting with one kid, dad with another kid, and then the CM tour guide in front of them!

Next was Splash and I don't know what Andrew was up to when I rode, but I took pics of his ride LOL

Single riders get the back of the bus I guess! (good thing on Disney rides, love the back!)

This was the FIRST (and last I guess) time we saw Push!! I wish Aria had been awake to enjoy him.

A "we were here" pic so I remembered we also rode Space! LOL

 

[Imagineer5]

Our last FP+ of the day was for the Tomorrowland Speedway as I had wanted to be sure to ride it (and my app wasn’t working to make any changes on the fly…grrr) and Aria woke up while Andrew was taking his turn on Space, so after a quick diaper & outfit change we headed over to ride the speedway. Andrew took pics since he didn’t feel like riding again

Then we hopped on to Dumbo again though this time we skipped the play area. The lines or lack thereof were amazing today!

Next up was back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz, Aria really does not enjoy this ride though so instead of playing I just held on to her and gave her running commentary so she wouldn’t be too afraid.

A couple pics on the way out

Then even though we did need to get to the car so we could go back and change for dinner, I noted a 5 minute wait for the new talking Mickey so I decided we had to check it out! What ensued was the first time Aria gave a high five to a character! YAY! She loves Mickey & Minnie and was still a bit timid about meeting him, but she bucked up the courage to high five him and I was so happy!

Back to the room we went, Andrew hopped in to the shower quickly but I just quickly changed and got Aria changed and then we were back out the door. We drove again but that was because it was only a 2 minute drive down the road and we were pretty short on time so didn’t want to chance the boat taking forever. We were excited to check out the new California Grill – it had long been our favorite WDW restaurant, and while we haven’t been able to have a late enough dinner to watch fireworks from the table recently, we were still excited for the meal.

We checked in and were led upstairs and seated all within 5 minutes and I loved our table far in the back hopefully not disturbing anyone but still with a great view of the restaurant.

Aria was in a great mood (guess stroller naps work fine!) and while we were both a bit nervous as to how she would do (she was just finishing up a horrible restaurant etiquette stage!) she was AWESOME! We loved our server and our meals! I had to start with the Washington Apple Martini, which I first had during our trip in 2004 and we have been making ever since.

We shared a flatbread to start – I think it was the oven dried tomato flatbread with fresh mozzarella, and it was delicious!

For my main dish I ventured a bit out of my comfort zone for a curried scallop dish (not on the menu right now it seems). While the flavors were wonderful, I still don’t really like scallops (it’s a texture thing for me) but I enjoyed trying something new. Andrew had the cioppino type dish, and absolutely loved it.

My scallops

Aria was having a ball playing with her napkin and eventually she watched a little from the ipad (little einsteins or something). We ordered a vanilla ice cream (lucky girl! Two of these in one day?!) so she enjoyed that for the next 45 minutes while I ate my dessert – the warm homemade fritters – and drank a nice glass of wine (probably a syrah, but don’t remember now) and just soaked up the evening. It was definitely a day for the books – we had a blast from start to finish!

A quick visit to the Contemporary’s holiday display

And then we headed out to get Aria to sleep and then we went to bed shortly thereafter. Next up – Ohana breakfast, Animal Kingdom, Artist Point, and back to the MK for Wishes!

 

[saintstickets]

Just found your TR and loving it! I'm so jealous of all the trips you have planned for this year. It looks like we will both be at BCV during your October trip! We were there last year for F&W and enjoyed it so much we are back again this year!

 

[Dugette]

CRT looks cool. We need to do that someday. Not sure when, but someday!

Ha ha, that's hilarious that Aria ran up to Cinderella! You've trained her well, I guess.

Wow, that is a good use of nap time. Triple mountain whammy! Interesting about the VIP tour guide. Don't see that often.

Cool that you saw PUSH. We never did (and never will, I guess).

Aw, love the Dumbo outfit!

Yay for high-fiving Mickey!

Looks like California Grill was a perfect finish to the day. So glad that Aria was in a good mood for it!

 

[Imagineer5]

Just found your TR and loving it! I'm so jealous of all the trips you have planned for this year. It looks like we will both be at BCV during your October trip! We were there last year for F&W and enjoyed it so much we are back again this year!

Aww thanks so much for reading along!! Once those AP's are in hand it is so tough NOT to book trips! LOL! Ooh it would be awesome to meet up!! Love F&W! My DH leaves the 10th but I'll be there til the 12th, what are your dates?

CRT looks cool. We need to do that someday. Not sure when, but someday!

Ha ha, that's hilarious that Aria ran up to Cinderella! You've trained her well, I guess.

Wow, that is a good use of nap time. Triple mountain whammy! Interesting about the VIP tour guide. Don't see that often.

Cool that you saw PUSH. We never did (and never will, I guess).

Aw, love the Dumbo outfit!

Yay for high-fiving Mickey!

Looks like California Grill was a perfect finish to the day. So glad that Aria was in a good mood for it!

I love CRT but Andrew not so much, I do try to switch it off with Akershus though so in October we'll be trying that again. I wish there was another option for a breakfast spot in the MK before park opening - we love Crystal Palace but it'd be nice to have another option.

Her nap time was awesome! Between low crowds, planning out FP's and Rider Swap we were able to do so much!

That is too bad, maybe once the kids get a little older they will bring back Push or something similar.

Yes...the next day on the agenda was Artist Point, which (spoiler alert) Aria showed that she was still a naughty toddler at some restaurants. But California Grill was SO nice, I'm glad we still have a perfect track record with our favorite restaurant!

 

[Imagineer5]

Just for fun while I am waiting for some more people to read my updates.. ... I wanted to share my latest fun mail day (yesterday) which had three "upcycles" that I had custom made. I have like 7 more on the way (i'll also show the tees that are going to be made into something). If you don't know what an upcycle is - it's basically using a tee to make an outfit or dress. I love that they are a bit more comfortable than some of the princess outfits I've been putting her in but still cuter IMO than a typical tee & shorts combo - acutally the Dumbo outfit in my last update was an example of an upcycle. Anyway so she tried on her three new outfits -

This is a Minnie tunic & shorties set

Olaf dress! LOVE this one!

And an Ariel tunic (i'm having matching shorties made since I realized I didn't have any that matched that well

While we are on the subject, here are a few that were already in her closet -

Sofia

Marie

Monster's Inc

And this isn't an upcycle but I love it so much I will have to have TWO meet & greets with Elsa & Anna (one in Olaf dress and one in this!!) LOL

AND these are what are ON THE WAY & being made!!

Having a dress similar to the Belle one being made with this Minnie tee

And a dress made with this

This one is on the way

Haven't decided yet on the styles for the next three- thinking shorties set for Tink:

This was a TOUGH one!! We are going to Universal in October, and I wanted something Harry Potter, but do you know how many tees are black or brown?! yuck! LOL! So I was excited to stumble upon this. Thinking a dress using hot pink, orange, and purples to bring out the colors.

And this was another tough one - Duffy tee shirts are impossible to find!! So, I found someone who applique's shirts with this cute Duffy with balloons, so she is going to do that on the blue shirt to the right, and then I'll have it made into something...maybe another dress.

OK that is all, for now... sorry for the crazy clothing post! This is my 2nd pasttime (behind Disney planning of course!!) so I spend a LOT of time doing this!

 

[Dugette]

Super cute! That is really neat, the whole up-cycling thing. And you definitely need APs to make sure she has a chance to wear everything!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That's funny that you just shared all the up-cycling pictures and that one item that was up-cycled was the dumbo dress in your update as I was going to comment on how cute I thought that was!

Glad you had a good time at CRT - that whole shared appetizer thing looks good! ... and yeah for Aria getting more comfortable with the princesses!

And also that she gave Mickey a high five. Last trip Peter gave him knuckles - and not only did Mickey give him knuckles back, Mickey even "blew it up" which my wife and I found hysterical.

Your meal at California Grill looks great! We always love that place ... you'll definitely have to go watch the fireworks from there on one of your upcoming trips and the view is really cool!