Prepping For Disney

Preparation IS Key!

Our last visit to Disney was with our friends The Robinsons who have been a few times so they knew all the spots to hit, and what not to miss and what to skip when. . . . well they were like our tour guides.  But this time going solo and then meeting up with friends who are from WAY out of town I thought I had better get to planning.  So after deciding we were going to be coordinating our trip to coincide with The Holmes family, I started reading 'The Unofficial Guide To Disney' 2012 edition.

This was one of those books that came highly recommended, I mean even Clark Howard loves it, so you KNOW it's got to be a good one.  And there are several things about this book that really did help us to plan our vacation, for example they have an expansive chart which lists/ranks hotels in the area based on overall satisfaction, room quality and distance from the parks - down to the minute, which may seem a bit excessive, but we were thinking about the end of the day leaving with a car full of exhausted screaming boys, this seems like a VERY logical factor to consider!  We originally were going to stay on property cause there were 'deals' that include the 'perks' of staying on property like the free bus and the eating plan, BUT after we did the calculations we SAVED way more booking off property and we decided that since we were saving so much and since we don't anticipate eating THAT much, we will use the money saved to pay for parking each day at the parks.  Although there will be free transportation provided through the Double Tree in Downtown Disney, where we booked, we think it will be SO worth having our own car, with the ALL that comes with taking 3 kids to the parks and NOT have to deal with the kids in transit and the stroller and coolers, and. . . . and. . . .  and!!

This is a GIANT couple thousand page book which goes into GREAT detail on just about EVERYTHING Disney you can imagine, from restaurants both inside and surrounding the parks, to Down Town Disney, Lake Buena Vista, shops, hotels, resorts, spas, water parks, transportations, rental homes, and it even touches on Universal and maybe Sea World, I may have made that last part up, can't remember.  But it had WAY more information than I needed but I could see how it could come in handy if we were traveling with adults or older children.  It does have GREAT tips for touring with little kids, which I have full intentions of doing a few, like for example, you know those little circle key tags you can buy in packs at Wal*Mart, well you write any VITAL information on them should your little one get away from you like your name & Cell number, hotel you are staying in room number etc. . . and then lace it into their shoe laces - BRILLIANT!!  I really think this book is worth a look, I got mine for a steal on Amazon right before Christmas but I think using one within 3 years of your visit would be 'up to date' enough, and I would check the library or Good Will next time.

The other big 'selling' point about these books are the 'touring plans' in the back, which after years of research gives you suggestions to maximize the number of attractions and shows you see during your visit.  I definitely think had it been crowded while we were there I would have attempted to stay on track with these schedules, however seeing how it was very open, we sort of just did what we wanted and where we were.  However the one thing I just LOVED about this book was the lesson on how to maximize your Fast Pass and Rider Swap Pass usage.  THIS was EPIC!!  It also gave tips on which rides you needed to make Bee Lines for because they know that (for example) even on slow days Toy Story Mania in Hollywood Studios 'sells out' of Fast Passes by lunch - which in deed is what happened while we were there too!  Now they try to up-sell you customized plans and more detailed crowd information for an additional $12 on-line and through the App store, but I just went with their free WDW Lines App which features a list of each parks hours for that day as well as the "BEST PARK" & "PARK TO AVOID" rating as well as an estimated level out of 10 for crowd level each day, for example as I type this it says CROWDS are 8 out of 10, so here's hoping for better crowd levels next week!  The thing that annoys me about this App is that in order to see ALL the current wait times they want you to subscribe for the a fore mentioned $12.  BUT never fear I found MORE Disney Apps!!!

There's An App For That

So like I mentioned I got the 'companion' App to the guide book which is called WDW Lines, but other than the vitally important 'Best Park', 'Park to Avoid' and 'Crowd Estimator' this is sort of a bust unless you want to pay.  SO I was elated when I stumbled on the next App, it is "Disney World from 'The Undercover Tourist' (we were familiar with his/her work from all the YouTube videos we watched) and now THIS is a great looking App.  It also provides an overall rating using 'green', 'yellow' and 'red' rating system ~which DO match up with the other App's best & worst park, so they can't both be lying, right!? ~ And what I also love about this App is that NOT only does it give detailed info about park hours and Magic hours, it also gives you a list of each parks Parade AND Show times as well as where to see them PLUS the estimated wait times of each ride and ALL of that is included in the FREE App!  Thank You Undercover Tourist!!!

The Last App I downloaded is a bit more simple it is just a set of 'digital' maps of each of the four parks, it doesn't do anything 'interactive' so to speak, but I figure it can't hurt to have a copy of the parks on my phone, it is called WDW Parks Free.  Oh, yeah I also downloaded and App to The Disney Store, but that was more for another reason, but I am sure it will come in handy!

Feeling The Love Man
So as you may or may not remember my girlfriend Melissa showed me how to do the Mickey Head tie dye shirt which we all coordinated and wore on the same day while we were down there and we had SO much fun making them and then wearing them, that I thought I would do it again.  So luckily I actually had a newborn size white short sleeve shirt for Dax, and a 12 month white short sleeve shirt for little miss Harper, and believe it or not I also had on hand three 4T white short sleeve shirts left over from LAST years Christmas pageant, so all I had to go out and buy was a multi pack of adult men's undershirts and a youth large shirt for Emma, so that worked GREAT!  Plus Michaels had a 50% off one item coupon which I used for the 'ULTIMATE tie dye kit' which had EVERYTHING you could you ever need for tie dying and then I had read that the Soda Ash helped to make the colors more vibrant so I bought a pack of that.

I did this outside and honestly thought I would be done in no more than 3 hours - HA!!  Seriously how am I SUCH a bad estimator or time needed, but over the course of three days I was able to get it done.  Now IF I had thought about it, I would have taken photos of each step for you, BUT lucky you, there are other WAY more efficient bloggers who HAVE actually done that so just google Mickey head tie dye & you'll find several sample/examples of step by step how to guides.

Quick How-To

1. Make a Cardboard cut-out of a Generic Mickey Head, I used the same size for all the larger shirts and then used various lids and cups to make the two baby sized shirts.  Using pencil trace around the Mickey Head on the top chest area of the shirt.
2. Using wax coated dental floss stitch around the traced Mickey head making sure to leave thread on the end you began on, I found the easiest way to do this is to tie that end around a rubber band and just do the up/down sewing and then pull it TIGHT so as to have a small poofy Mickey head poking out and the rest of the shirt hanging down.
3. Use a BUNCH of rubber bands to create a dye barrier there, for the larger shirts I did about 8 or so, which made about a 1" barrier and for the smaller shirts I did about four or five which made 1/2 to 3/4" barriers.   * I traced ALL shirts first, THEN I sewed all shirts next, you can do however you want but I wanted to be DONE with each step completely before moving on to the next.
4. Holding the poofy mickey head lay the T-Shirt on a flat surface a just twist in a circle in a pinwheel type fashion.  Use 3 rubber bands to secure the shirt, which will create six pieces of the twist.  And don't FREAK about SUPER securing the shirt, loose twist will help to facilitate maximum coloring.  And remember it's tie dye there is NO one right way.  Just make sure the Mickey head is still sticking up from the shirt. *do yourself a favor and get a multi pack of multi sized rubber bands from wal*mart for $0.67 having WAY more rubberbands will definitely help
5. Choose your color schemes - I decided I wanted to have 'His' and 'Hers' shirts since when we get with my friends family there will be ten of us and a direct split of 5 guys and 5 girls, she has three daughters, so my super tie dye kit actually came with 9 bottles but I decided I would just do 3 colors for each shirt and tried to choose colors that when/if they blended together would make nice colors as opposed to brown! *While at Wal*Mart to pick up your rubber bands go over to the kitchen section and get a set of plastic funnels, otherwise attempting to get that powder fine dye INTO the bottles will make you want to punch a kitten - NOT that you would, but well just trust me.  They aren't more than a dollar or two and SO worth it!!!
6. Soak them shirts!  Well this could be done while you are considering and mixing your colors but I don't feel like going back and retyping it in the #5 spot.  But like I said I purchased my soda ash at Michaels and it had two packets in the little box so I just dumped both packest in my 5 gallon bucket and filled it with hose water till it looked well mixed I then added all 10 shirts and any additional water to fully cover all the shirts and then forgot about them for no less than a half hour.  *since I had 'his' and 'her' shirt colors and various sizes to worry with I used a color code system in the rubber banding portion of this guide (see step 4) but if you aren't doing separate colors this will not matter.  I just wanted to be able to identify every shirt as I pulled it out of the bucket.
7. GLOVE UP, and don't waste your time with the cafeteria flimsy plastic wrap style gloves that come in the kit, rummage through your house till you find a pair of laytex medical type gloves, these will hold up the best!!  Now get a shirt out of the bucket and ring it out as much as you can without compromising the rubber bands too much. Then over some type of protective barrier (pizza box, dog food bag, painting plastic) start dying those shirt.
8. Dye the Mickey head first!  I hold the rubber band barrier and let the Mickey head fall forward and let the dye flow with gravity squirting on the head side of the barrier bands and squeezing as needed to distribute the dye, then once I believe it's sufficiently dyed I use a fold over style sandwich bag and another rubberband (why not right).  But get this secured because you don't want it to drip or run down onto the rest of the shirt. *repeat for all shirts changing colors for Mickey Heads and genders
9. Using and alternating fashion use your three dye choices to fill in each piece of the T-shirt pinwheel.  Make sure to do top and bottom and then for each section really burry the tip of the squirt bottle in and squeeze like crazy, you want to ensure adequate color coverage.
10. Place each shirt in their own plastic grocery bag and tie the tops then let set over night.
11. *IF you have left over dye, which I did then do this step* Place all 'like' shirts (read boys or girls color theme) in the stainless sink and remove the rubberbands but try to keep the shirt in its spiral formation and check for any large spots of un-dyed area and then squirt some additional dye on and let sit for an additional hour or so.  Do this for ALL the shirts so they are all 'cured' the same amount of time.
12. Rinse with cold running water, rinse again, rinse one more time and then repeat!!  I rinse the majority of the shirt first, waiting until I see the water run clear, then I remove the plastic around the Mickey head portion and rinse again and again - it's a process!!  Then I throw all the 'like' shirts in the washer and wash on a quick wash setting with Cold/Cold and then dry and Ta-DA - Mickey Head Tie Dye shirts!!

Here's the two babies shirts (never thought of laying them all out to get a group shot, but whatever!)

Tie Dyed Fingers = GOOD work!!

Baby Dax's mini-sized Mickey tie dye 

Baby Harpers Baby Girl sized Mickey Tie Dye

Okay, okay - I know I am a bit biased since it was MY blood, sweat, tears, patience and time that went into these, but have you EVER seen anything so cute?!

And if you and your family or a group are headed to Disney PLEASE, please take the time to make these, you will NOT be sorry you did!  I promise!  They are SO cute, so original and it makes it SO easy to round up all the members of your party!!  And keep in mind this is only my second time ever making these so it does NOT require ANY special skills or previous knowledge!!