Free things at Magic Kingdom

Can you believe it!!?? There are actually all kinds of magical extras built into that expensive park ticket, you just have to know about them to ask for them. I am sticking to Magic Kingdom today, although some of these freebies are universal across the resort.

1. Buttons. The first one you should ask for, either at your hotel or at guest services at the park, are celebration buttons. If you book with a Disney authorized agent, they will let the cast member know when they are booking your package if you are celebrating anything on your trip. Some of the options for buttons are first visit, birthdays and honeymoon or anniversary.

 Even if you don't have any of these special events happening during your trip you can ask for an "I'm celebrating" button. I've even seen people write in their unique celebrations such as high school or college graduations. The buttons draw all kids of special attention and cast members and guests alike will congratulate you or tell you happy birthday. Be warned, if you meet Peter Pan wearing a birthday pin you ARE going to be scolded for growing up.

2. Water. Its so important to stay hydrated in the parks and any of the quick service restaurants will give you a free cup of ice water, which you are really going to need on those hot summer days. Just walk up and ask, they quite often have them filled and ready to go for you. The drawback here is that Florida water can have a bit of a sulfur taste, and that isn't helped when you get one of the pre-made cups that has begun to taste a bit like the cardboard cup it has been sitting in. The easy fix for this is to keep some single serve powdered drink packets in your park bag. I find that I can get 3-4 cups of water out of just one packet and its so worth the trade off of not having to carry around a buch of heavy bottles of water all day.

3. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Cards. As you head in to the Magic Kingdom the first area you will enter is the town square. Look to the back left for the fire station. Here you can sign up for a super cool interactive game that is played at magic portals all around the Magic Kingdom. 

Head on in and get your free Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards and map. Even if you aren't ready to play the game yet the cards make a really great free souvenir for the kids. They are like little Disney character baseball cards :)

4. Pixie Dust. Just across from the fire station you will find the Barber Shop. You can actually get your haircut here and plenty of people do! They have a super cute "my first haircut" package that comes with souvenir Mickey ears. If you aren't in the market for a haircut though, stop in anyway and ask the nice lady at the counter to give you a little pixie dust. Just maybe make this stop first thing in the morning so the dust doesn't end up in your bed!

And don't think that this freebie is just for the kids...lots of adults believe in Tink too!

5. A Pirates Adventure. In adventureland, near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there is a little building housing another interactive game that can be played only in adventureland.

Its a great game and the lost boys have always enjoyed playing it. 

The maps make a great keepsake to remember their trip.

6. Pin Trading.  Ok, this one doesn't actually start out free, but I have a great tip to make it super affordable. You can buy all these great pins in the park for anywhere from $5-15. I usually go on Ebay before out trip and just buy a huge lot of them for around $15, you can't control what you get but that doesn't matter....because almost every cast member in the park wears one of these

and they will trade up to two pins with each guest in your party. Its a lot of fun to find different collections and pins that you love. 

7. Transportation Cards. Anytime you are using any form of Disney transportation, ask the cast members if they have Disney transportation cards.

This is another fun one for the kids and you can get them on the monorail, the ferry boats and the buses.

8. First Aid. All of the parks have a first aid station that will give you band aids, ice and single doses of over the counter medicine for free,

That's my roundup of freebies for now. It's nice to know there are so many of them! Disney really does go above and beyond to add all kinds of extra magic to your family vacation.

See ya real soon!

C

The Perfect Park Bag- and how to pack it!

I expect a lot out of a park bag. It has to be cute, hold a lot of stuff, fit comfortably, and come off easily when I'm getting on a ride.  It has to show my love for all things Disney, it can't cover my shirt designs. I have to be able to get to it easily to put things in or grab my phone. I've been on a long search for the perfect bag. I will even admit that on one trip I rocked the dreaded "fanny pack" although I called it  "hip pouch" to make myself feel better about the whole situation. Honestly, it was really my favorite bag, it didn't cover the front or back of my shirt, it didn't give me headache, it was so easy to grab stuff from, I kept my watch attached to it so that was easily accessible and I didn't have to take it on and off for rides. But alas...fashion prevails and the Facebook comments of my friends and family have forced me to abandon my beloved hip pouch and search for more socially appropriate options.  I landed on this option for awhile

It was a good option, not great, but it worked for awhile. I love being able to get character autographs on it. It gives me a way to keep them that I prefer over the autograph book. I even made a drawstring version of this for the lost boys. I don't like it for functionality, though. I was constantly having to stop and pull it off of my back to grab things. Its super deep has no compartments, that made it tough to find anything. And while I love the color for autographs, it really does show pretty badly if anything get on it.

While drifting through the thrift store I stumbled on this little fella....

Its a crossbody, which makes me think it will upset the flow of my shirts, but I can always pull it off quickly for a photo. It's also a lot easier to get into, so that may be the trade off that I have to make. It doesn't have any compartments but it's also not as wide as my old park bag so I'm hoping that will help me keep things organized. I have a tip on that for you later as well.

My biggest problem with this bag is that it distinctly "un-Disney." So I grabbed some scrap fabric and set out to fix that.

I'm not sure how well the autographs will show up, I will have an answer on that later this week. But I'm hoping it might finally be the answer to my perfect bag problem.

I'm headed down with Hubby and we are leaving the lost ones behind this trip. I love an adults only trip because there is so much less to carry! When I go without kids I just need a few things in my bag.

Snacks

Phone and Chargers

Wallet

Disney Essentials

Park Toiletries/First Aid

I have found that ziplock bags are worth their weight in gold on a Disney trip! Since most of the bags I like don't have a lot of compartments, I use gallon sized ziplocks to keep like things together.

If we aren't on the dining plan, we bring a lot of snack food into the park and eat through that until dinner. It's an excellent way to make a Disney trip affordable. I take granola bars, trail mix, crackers, peanut butter filled pretzels and roasted edamame. There are tons of great, easy and healthy options to keep you full and energized through the day. Since Disney parks offer free ice water, I don't usually pack bottled water, I don't like how it weighs me down! But since Florida water usually tastes pretty awful, I do bring single serve drink flavoring options. We don't like super sugary drinks, so one pouch will usually do 3-5 cups of water for us. I get lemonade and just a little bit of it helps to knock the sulfur taste off the water.

My park toiletries and first aid bag has sunscreen, feminine products, a brush, ponchos, cough drops, advil, and a few different stomach medications.

I also make sure to have my magic bands and sharpies. I need both of those on every Disney trip!

I take a much smaller wallet with just my license, credit card, annual pass, insurance card and of course my starbucks card. It's always s good idea to keep a little cash on you just in case, but most everywhere on property takes credit.

I also find that my phone battery dies pretty quickly in the parks so I keep a portable charger in my bag.

Other than hanging some hand sanitizer off the side, that's about it, I've been working on minimalizing my contents for quite awhile just to keep the load light.

See ya real soon!

Family Movie Night

Around here we love a good family movie night. We usually watch a Disney movie (I will pause here so you can get over your shock) and I try to make some kind of food that goes with whatever we are watching. With Mulan we had fried rice, Lilo and Stitch was Hawaiian pizza....you get the gist.

Last night we broke with Disney Tradition and watched a movie that I've been anxiously waiting to show my boys pretty much since we brought them home from the hospital.

Ahhh, the classics, am I right?

Bear is a huge baseball fan, the soundtrack of my life is a ball bouncing off my living room wall and hitting his glove over, and over, and over, and over.......  So I was super excited for him to watch this.

Monkey Man isn't quite as into the sport but I knew he would get a kick out of the predicament the boys get themselves into and all their crazy plans.

I really couldn't come up with a themed dinner for this one, but I have known for ages what I would make for dessert.

S'mores brownies!

I added melted butter to the graham cracker crumbs to create a crust at the bottom of my brownie pan

Then I mixed the brownies according to the directions and put them in the oven. About 3/4 of the way through the baking process I pulled them out and topped them with marshmallows. They came out pretty great!

Park Photography Tips- Character photos

Ok I have to say it....I LOVE CHARACTER PHOTOS!! I love the magic of Disney park characters, I love their authenticity and joy. I love the way they interact with kids and grown-ups alike. There are a few tips to getting the extra special shots, rather than just the "I posed with Mickey" variety. And as always, my top tip is Memory Maker, mostly because they get all the first interaction shots and while you could take those yourself, with Memory Maker you actually get to be in the memory instead of just watching it from behind your camera, which I think is just so important. I love pictures and I love to have a million memories captured but life is so much brighter when you aren't looking at it through a lens.

So now that I've climbed back down off my soap box....

You are, of course, going to want the formally posed shots of your family with your favorite characters.

I'm obviously a big fan of Alice, we got this shot on one of our annual fall vacations, I'm waiting to catch her with the Mad Hatter...he's my fave.

My hubby and the lost boys love The Jungle Book, this is a shot taken with my phone by one of the character handlers.

For me the most fun shots are the candid ones. Even if you can't see their faces, you just have to love the first time your little ones get to hug one of their heroes.

One of the best ways to get a good character experience is to find some common ground with the character, and talk to them....even if they aren't "face characters" (the characters who talk) they still really get into the conversation. You'd be surprised at how many ways they can communicate without words.

On one trip I decorated our magic bands...in this shot Tigger notices the magic band that is decorated in his honor.

And he makes sure everyone knows how much he loves it, in his own bouncy-trouncy way of course!

We met Peter on a birthday trip. Peter makes a big deal out of a birthday...because he HATES them!Birthdays mean you're growing up, after all. Here he is giving us a lecture about the horrors of becoming a grown-up. I hope he got through to my biggest lost boy...cause he's growing up to fast!

If you want a specific shot, the characters will almost always do it....as long as it is appropriate and something relatable to their world. The princesses, for instance wouldn't do a Charlie's Angels pose with you, because they don't know who Charlie's Angels are. But Pan...he will DEFINITELY do a Pan pose with you. Especial if you have the pose painted on your shirt!

I love character kisses, myself.

The main thing is just to get into it and have fun, even though you're a "grown up"...because where else are you going to get to have a chipmunk dance party?

or be intimidated by the dark side??

Or get tackled by one of your childhood faves??

Or take a selfie with the boy who never grew up??

 Get into the magic and have fun!!

See ya real soon!

Park Photography Tips- USE Memory Maker

In This part of the series I want to give some tips on how to get the most out of your memory maker. It can be easy to spend the money on this and come home with hundreds of great pictures. It can also be easy to make the investment and come home with only a handful.

The first thing you need to do is always remember to have the photographer scan your magicband when you are done taking photos. They are pretty good about not letting you forget but sometimes in the hustle and bustle you can get away and all of those great photos won't get linked to your account. Also don't forget to scan your band at the photo displays after all of the rides that take photos and/or videos. After you have done this once, its a good bet that your kids will take over this particular responsibility and you will find yourself with 3-4 of the same image loaded on your account! But you will be ok with that...because of the faces.

Once you've ridden a time or two you figure out where the cameras are and can do fun stuff like this

And then there are those times when your exhausted kid falls asleep on a roller coaster , and you HAVE to preserve those memories!

Obviously, the more you make use of park photographers, the better return you are getting on your investment. Photographers will be stationed at character meals, character meet and greet spots and at various "key" points in the park.

(just as a psa, I look like I'm grabbing my sisters tush here, I'm really just holding the stroller!)

Any time you see a photographer stop and ask them to take a few shots.

They are always up for some fun

And speaking of fun, make sure to ask the photographers if they can do magic shots, any photo at Disney World is magic, of course.....but nobody goes over the top like the Mouse.

In the next instalment we will check out character meet and greet photos.

See ya real soon!

Park Photography Tips- get memory maker

In this series I will give some park photography tips. I am in no way a professional when it comes to taking pictures, but I have managed to create some magic in Disney parks. Most of that magic came when I put the camera away and got to live in the moment with my family and let someone else do the work.

Get Memory Maker

When traveling with family its easy to snap lots of great shots of the people in your group....let's be honest here, if you're the mom, it's easy to snap great shots of just the OTHER people in your group!

When I sat down to look at the photos of our last family trip, I noticed that at least 3/4 of the shots I was in were selfies!

Enter Disney photopass photographers and Memory Maker!

The Memory Maker package is just $149 when you pre-purchase it before your trip, which actually seemed like a pretty steep price to this frugal princess, but after I got home and looked at the beautiful photos captured by the photographers I wish I had paid the price and had access to those memories without the watermarks. Sure, you can purchase the photos individually, but at $15 each I couldn't pull the trigger on that.

The Disney parks photographers are always happy to take photos of your party with your camera or cell phone, but they take their shots first. We all know that with kids, the photograph stamina runs out quickly! Also, all of the great candid stuff, like that first moment when they meet their favorite character, is going to be on the park photographers camera. We got some nice posed shots on our media, but we missed the moments like this....

The other thing you're going to want that comes with Memory Maker are all of the ride photos. I will be honest here and tell you that I never thought I would be a ride photo girl, my mind was changed by the precious, excited, terrified expressions of my boys.  You will notice a lot of people snapping photos of the screen display in the gift shop, but how can you live with this grainy image of your child's face the first time they ride Everest??

 Or the fifth time that they ride??

The victory on their little faces when they conquer a ride that used to scare them is priceless. A screen shot simply won't do.

It's clear that these photos that are full of potential don't make for good blog photography. They aren't scrapbook quality or "mantle material." In my next entry I will showcase some great shots that came with my Memory Maker package along with tips on how to get the most for your money when you purchase it.

See ya real soon!