Tag: disney

Travel Essentials Part 1

Em

I finally feel like trips might ACTUALLY be going ahead from the U.K. at some point – so much so, we’ve actually started booking again! – so with that in mind, I want to share with you some of the essentials that I’ve been gathering for trips.

Some of these I’ve had for many different trips over the years and some I’ve picked up since my Disney World trip in 2018 after watching many videos and getting lots of tips from bloggers. I’m sure there are others and I’d love for you to add any you have in the comments but here are mine! These are primarily for Florida related trips, but some can be used for ANY trip.

ADAPTERS! If you’re not travelling from the US, you will most likely need some kind of plug adapter. It seems like most rooms, even in the Value resorts at Disney have a TON of USB ports now which is great except that not all of your stuff – say hair straighteners and the ever expanding array of different cords that Apple are making for their devices – will fit in a USB port, so adapters it is! I got these Wenger ones from Swiss Store and they came in a European and US set and have lasted really well so I highly recommend.


LUGGAGE STRAPS! No matter how hard you try, it’s always possible you’ve got the same luggage as someone else. You think you’ve chosen the cutest, most unique suitcase and then you’re standing at the carousel and see someone else’s case is the same! I imagine this happens even more with Disney luggage. So if this has happened to you, grab a luggage strap that stands out! My parents bought these ones for us when we went on our first family cruise, but I know there are more modern ones with TSA approved locks on them.


SUN BLOCK! This should be first on the list once you arrive always! It’s going to be hot out there. No matter what time of year you go it is hot. It will sometimes be really rainy, there may be clouds, you might get a hurricane or two, but there is always hot sun. I mean, this is the weather forecast for this week. FEBRUARY! Look at those temperatures!

I’m quite fair-skinned so I like factor 50. I also HATE applying sun cream but there’s no way I would go without. So a reliable “once a day” is what I use.
P20 factor 50 is the best for me. It lasts up to 10 hours (including dips in a pool) from one application. It only has 2 disadvantages:

  • You have to put it on at least 15 minutes before sun exposure and it can take a while to dry, so it might mean setting that Disney alarm a little earlier
  • It can stain lighter clothes. Be prepared for this or wear darker clothes!

Both of these pale in comparison to all the added benefits. It has high UVA/UVB protection and you can put it on once and have an entire day at Disney without stopping to worry about reapplying.

My family and I would get up in the morning, cover ourselves in P20 before we did anything else at all and then wait for it to dry. Then we would get dressed and head out for breakfast. It became the routine. And in 2 weeks, none of us even got a slight sunburn, just a nice tan.

For the face, I recommend The Body Shop Skin Defence. Again, factor 50 (if you prefer or can handle lighter protection, the Vitamin E range has factor 30.) This is much lighter and better for your facial skin and better if you want to wear make-up on top.

MASKS! Of course next up is masks. We don’t know when these will NOT be needed so get some! A lot of research tells me to get different types so that your face/ears etc don’t get uncomfortable. And be sure to find ones that YOU find comfy. For Disney currently they need to be at least 2 layers and need to fasten securely round your face and ears (ie no gaters.)

I prefer the cloth style masks, ideally with the nose grip, but not necessarily essential. I am, however, going to take a few disposable ones just for if I’m riding on any super fast or wet rides because a wet cloth mask is just not doing its job and I don’t want to lose any cloth mask that I’ve paid for when it flies off on a fast ride!

Masks by BostonBakedTees

My favourite place to look for masks is on Etsy. There are some amazing ones available, well made and very cute Disney designs and by purchasing them, you’re helping out a small business too! The ones pictured above are from an American based Etsy seller called Boston Baked Tees and there are lots of UK based sellers too. However, Disney do sell their own in the parks so that’s always an option. The recommendations I’ve seen are to ideally take 2 masks per day. If you’re only there for a couple of days you probably already have this many. If you’re going for longer, maybe take some and wash them, which is my plan.

The other item I’ve seen highly recommended is a mask chain. Essentially it’s what you might see someone hanging on to their glasses, but this way you hopefully won’t lose your mask when you take it off or accidentally put it down in something gross. Again, Etsy did me a service with these!

mask chain by hannahdaisydesigns

If you’re staying on property and you DON’T want to take a 3 masks for every single day of your stay, you will want to be able to wash your masks on a night and reuse them which brings me to my next item.

LAUNDRY! Travel wash for your room to wash your masks and any other items and Tide To Go instant stain remover pens to take with you into the parks in case of any food incidents on your favourite Minnie top or the Disney Bound you’ve been working on for months! You can get a pack of three Tide pens for a very reasonable price on Amazon and the Travel Wash is less than £2 at the moment! Stock up!

Okay, this is enough for part one! I’ll add some more into my travel essentials part 2 in another post! Do you agree with the items on my list? Are they on your essentials list too?

Lockdown Shopping Syndrome

Em

I’ve no idea if that’s an official term, but if it’s not, I’m coining it now. And I’ve been suffering from it. I know I’m definitely not the only one either! My best friend and I also call it #AddToBasket. It’s definitely an issue!

In the absence of other things to do / places to go, my poor bank accounts have taken a massive hit with perhaps some of the most random items I have ever purchased in my lifetime! (At the start of lockdown I bought a cello… A CELLO! I still intend to learn it properly, I just haven’t had the motivation)

A lot of the items I’ve bought though have been Disney related. Some have been just fun things, some have been for planning purposes and some have been little things that I think will be useful on a trip! So i thought I’d share a few here.

1. Loungefly Bags and Minnie Ears

I started my Loungefly backpack collection a little while ago, and keep adding the odd one. Some really cute ones have come out since lockdown began such as this Mulan one

this Cinderella anniversary one

and this fab light-up Tangled bag.

As for Minnie ears, I totally blame Molly from All Ears for my obsession! I used to have two pairs. Now I have MANY. From Disney store, from Etsy…. I just keep seeing cute ones! Agh! Help!

2. Minnie Mouse Main Attraction Mugs

The Minnie Mouse Main Attraction mugs (try saying that five times fast!) are part of a bigger collection of Loungefly Bag/Ears/Pin set/Mug/Minnie Plush, one of which has been released each month since January each based on a different Walt Disney World attraction.

After attempting to get an occasional backpack or set of ears (and I 100% mean attempt because these items going on sale at 8am and are typically sold out by 8.03am!) I decided on the mugs. They are stackable, but I decided to keep them in their boxes because they look really nice.

Minnie Mouse Main Attraction Mugs (and in front, wax melts with scents from the Magic Kingdom from SeillanMórShop on Etsy)

3. Walt Disney World Transportation Planner

I spotted this on Etsy and thought it would be really helpful when planning how to get between the parks or to different restaurants.

This was, of course, before park hopping ended, but I still just love it, especially as my husband has a fond love for London Underground style maps.

From Etsy seller WDWFocus

4. Disney Dinner Plates!

This dinner set from George caught my eye and now it’s our main dinner set! Even my husband likes it and I thought I’d have to talk him into having Mickey on his plates! (Note the hidden Mickey I made for my Instagram pic 😂)

Disney dinner service from George at Asda. Photo from my Instagram @gibsonsdodisney

These are just a few of the things we’ve bought! Have you found yourself shopping more? Found any lovely Disney things? Share your purchases!

New Trips on the Horizon!

Em

As a result of all the rescheduling, I now have three trips in pretty quick succession!

I have a solo trip – my first at WDW – booked for September 2021. I’m very excited about this! I have some stuff that I really want to do, but nearer the time, I’m going to be asking people for some ideas of what they want to see me do and post videos! Should be fun!

The second trip is going to be booked for January 2022. This has been on the cards for a while now, my BFF trip with my best friend Claire. She has been to Disneyland Paris a few times and we have been together and had so much fun, but she has never been to Florida and we are making the trip together. We cannot WAIT!

And then, of course, trip number three is the oft rescheduled family trip, which we are hoping to go for Easter 2022.

As I result, I’ll be making good use of the Platinum Plus annual pass that I bought but luckily never had chance to activate! I’m going to be getting myself a Universal annual pass too for those three trips alone will save me money!

My first trip is now less than a year away. I’ve saved up for a nice flight too. Fingers crossed they’ve opened up to let us in to the country by then!

Long time no blog!

Em

It’s been a while! I need to be more organised – not like I haven’t got time on my hands!

The last time I talked about our family holiday to Walt Disney World, we had had to reschedule it from July 2020 to October 2020.

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, and to use a phrase much repeated, with an abundance of caution, we decided to move it even further ahead to February 2021 and as it happened we were glad we did because then the US closed its borders to the UK to all but non-essential travel, without basically two weeks quarantine on either side.

So, we moved it back to February 2021, not knowing how things would be then, and because we weren’t sure whether we would really get our money’s worth, with character greets and all that stuff being off the table, we downgraded from the Beach Club to a suite at the Art of Animation, a resort we know we love.

But it wasn’t long after that that we all had a family discussion and decided that we had rather save the money for the trip we had originally planned for and hopefully we will be able to make that in 2022, so we cancelled it. Ready to rebook for two years’ time.

I have to admit to you – I cried after I let my travel agent know. I’ve been looking forward to going back ever since I left. It was less than two years and now it will be almost four, but each time we move it, the countdown is a little less.

And we are not alone in having to do this, we know that. So sending solidarity hugs to everyone in the same boat.

Budgeting / Saving

Em

Obviously everyone has their different way of saving up for a Disney trip. There is no doubt about it, Walt Disney World – and everything once you get there – is a costly endeavour. There are ways to budget, and ways to not spend the earth, but if, like us, you’ve decided that a few extras are on your itinerary or you just want to find a way to save up, I wanted to share the way we’ve been saving up.

Stephen and I opened up a joint Monzo account. If you are not familiar with Monzo, it is an digital bank account (there are others available such as Starling and Revolut) within which you can separate your money from your main balance into pots for your various spending/saving needs.

  • Example of a pot***
*** tips to be talked about in another post

We have both had individual Monzo accounts for just over a year now and we have been together for 19 years, married for almost 17, and this is the first time in all that time that we have been able to effectively manage our money. Previously we have nearly always used overdrafts, credit cards or just generally been in debt. Now we are OUT of debt and managing our money really well, so I want to just put that out there first things first! (This is not sponsored by Monzo, I just wanted to say why we use it!!)

So we opened up the joint account and all of our spare money each month (WE HAVE SPARE MONEY THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!) goes into this account. Then I have made pots for each individual thing that we needed to save for on the trip. The great thing about the pots is, once the money is in there, it can’t accidentally be spent. You have to physically move it to the main balance to spend it. Also, you can lock up a pot until a fixed date too so that you can’t even move it for a while.

So, for example, here are the things we are saving for. There were some other items on the list but as we have already saved up and paid for them, we’ve deleted or renamed those particular pots.

We are hoping by doing this, we shouldn’t come unstuck when we arrive. We have put away a little spending money for ourselves and the girls too, but what we love is that the girls have their own little savings accounts which work in a similar way and they have been putting a little of their own money aside too, by saving a bit of their own weekly allowance! They are already doing better than us!

Dining Plan Upgrade

Em

During our planning, we have discovered WAY too many restaurants that we want to try, as well as other dining experiences and character dining experiences that are included on the Disney Dining plan, so we have decided to upgrade to the Deluxe Dining plan.

This could have been a bit of a pricy upgrade, but since we booked with free dining* we have only had to pay the difference between the regular and Deluxe plans.

Here are some of the restaurants and shows we have included within our plan:

  • Ale & Compass
  • Cinderella’s Royal Table (Character)
  • Festival of Fantasy Dining Package at Tony’s
  • Columbia Harbour House
  • Sanaa
  • Be Our Guest (Character)
  • Garden Grill (Character)
  • Rose & Crown Dining Room Fireworks Package
  • Tiffins Festival of the Lion King package
  • Tusker House (Character)
  • Cape May Cafe (Character)
  • Ohana (Character)
  • Crystal Palace (Character)
  • Toppolino’s Terrace (Character)
  • Storybook Dining (Character)
  • Hollywood & Vine (Character)
  • Restaurantosaurus Burgers & Sundaes
  • 1900 Park Fare (Character)
  • Beaches & Cream
  • 50’s Prime Time Cafe
  • Yak & Yeti


The character dining experiences can be a bit costly – although a lot of ours are breakfasts which are great value, even when paying out of pocket – but when you’re short on time or if meeting characters is important to you, a character dine can kill two birds with one stone with meeting them and eating at the same time, not to mention potentially not having to spend time waiting in lines for ages in the Florida heat. Also, some of the meals have some of the rarer characters that you wouldn’t meet out in the parks which is an added bonus!


* With free dining, you get the Quick Service Dining Plan for free if you are staying in a Value or Moderate resort, and the Standard Disney Dining Plan for free if you are staying in a Deluxe Resort or Deluxe Villas. There are some exclusions so be sure to check before booking.

Wherever You Lay Your Head.

Em

Last year, we stayed in Disney’s Art of Animation resort. It is classed as a “value” resort, meaning it is one for those of us on a tighter budget, but let me tell you, we LOVED it.

A fantastic restaurant, Landscape of Flavors – where the only negative for us was the constant looped soundtrack of what appeared to be only about six songs!!) a fab shop, a MASSIVE main pool which you could sit in on an evening and watch Disney movies on a big screen, and other little pools throughout the resort.

We stayed in the Little Mermaid part of the resort as she is my favourite and we loved this too! We were a little late booking to get a hold of a family suite but if we had booked sooner we definitely would have tried for one of those. As it was, we only got a standard room which was a bit small for the four of us, but we weren’t in it much so it was lovely.

The only downside for us was that it was a bit far from the parks. Each bus journey was just a bit too long and waiting for buses in the heat in the parks was very wearing for us. This is, of course, part of why these resorts are classed as “value” and it was our choice to take the free buses rather than spend money on Lyfts or Ubers or grab a Minnie Van.

After all of this, we made a decision for a next trip to be closer to the parks. We have booked into the as yet uncompleted brand new Riviera Resort which is two steps up and is classed as a Deluxe Villa Resort, so a couple of steps up. It is much closer to the parks which is what we wanted.

We actually had a bit left over in the budget and we were going to upgrade to a resort that was walking distance to the parks, but then we’ve decided that as we are already much closer we would use the money to treat ourselves to some more special treats instead. So we are putting that and the money we have saved with the free dining promotion and see my next post for what we are looking at treating ourselves to!

Food, food, EVERYWHERE

Em

As I mentioned previously, we are on the Disney Dining Plan for our holiday. We always take the plan, just like when we go in a regular holiday we go All Inclusive, because then we know food is sorted and paid for and our spending money can go towards extra things like souvenirs or excursions. (If you’re reading this and thinking, “dining plan? Huh??” then check out this page!!)

This time around we have got the free dining, which is a bonus and definitely something to look out for when they have it! I think it is still available for 2020 trips at the moment! (As at July 2019)

Now though, we have the mammoth task of narrowing down the food choices and planning where to eat! Did you know there are over 200 places to eat at Walt Disney World?

This is made slightly easier (and a bit sadder) by the fact we have two picky eaters in the family. Not sure where they came from – Stephen and I will pretty much eat everything. But with two fussy daughters this does at least mean we can eliminate a few places immediately.

There a definitely a couple of places we wanted to go last year that we couldn’t get bookings, like Yak and Yeti and 🤞 Be Our Guest for dinner (although we did have breakfast there and that was lovely so that might be enough if we don’t get a reservation) and we are going to try to get as many character dining reservations as possible. Those are always fun for us and beat waiting in hot lines to meet people.

So far on our ‘definite yes’ list we have:

  • Yak and Yeti (restaurant) in Animal Kingdom
  • Be Our Guest for dinner with Beast
  • Tony’s in Magic Kingdom
  • Pizzafari in Animal Kingdom (my eldest daughter loved this one!)
  • Garden Grill
  • ‘Ohana (youngest has GOT to have breakfast with Stitch!)
  • Storybook Dining – definitely want to get in with Snow White, the dwarves and the Evil Queen!
  • Cinderella’s Royal Table. Now, I know this one is pretty extravagant and possibly not worth 2 table service credits, but we have got to do it just once!
  • and there are a few more we are wanting to try too! Especially the character dining experiences. Anywhere I can sit and eat and meet characters is just great for me!

Do you have any favourites or any recommendations? Would love to hear your thoughts on eateries!

What You Should Know…

Em

Before we start, I think it’s important to point something out. I have never been the best bargain hunter – if my mum ever asked me to pick my favourite outfit in Miss Selfridge when I was young, I would invariably pick the most expensive one without knowing I had. It’s not deliberate, it’s just me.

Also, despite generally being quite possibly one of the most disorganised people around, I have a need to be organised on trips like this, with regard to food and fast passes and things, because I know that once those things are sorted we can fill the rest of the time however we want. Then I can stick them all on a timetable and the fun begins!

Hence the need for all the planning – we are not actually going for almost a year, but dining reservations are available to be made 180 days in advance of your trip, and that is 170 days from now, so that is less than half way!

What I’m saying, in a very nonsensical way!, is that our way of doing Disney is very possibly not your way of doing Disney. That’s totally okay! You may want to spend way less or even much more than us! I will endeavour to put the different options where available and I will be very happy to share any and all tips that come my way with regard to saving money.

But here are our basics and these will always happen: we will always stay in a Disney resort, because for us the benefits of staying in one far outweigh not staying in one. And we will always get the Disney Dining Plan too.

Credit Where Credit is Due

Em

I will do my absolute best to credit the source in the post whenever I find some really good info or a great tip, but I’m going to also put everything together in a master list too, so people can see where I have been going / am planning to go for my information! Keep checking back – it will get updated as I go along!

This list has now moved to its permanent spot in the main menu here: Credits