My Favorite Disney Resources

Another Wednesday, another Disney World post.  Today, I want to share with you some of the resources I've been relying on to help me plan our trip.  I use a variety of books, Pinterest, YouTube and a few blogs, not to mention two incredibly helpful Facebook groups.  I'm going to talk about all of these and guide you towards the sources I've found most useful the past few months.

First and foremost, a great resource is your travel agent if you're fortunate enough to get one.  My travel agent is absolutely wonderful, and she never fails to answer my questions, no matter how ridiculous they are.  It's part of your travel agent's job to help you and guide you, so don't be afraid to reach out and ask questions!

As soon as Bryan agreed to go to Disney World, I immediately bought two guidebooks.  I couldn't help it, that's how my parents plan trips, so it's how I plan trips as well.  At first, I was just going to get one book, but I wanted the official guide to Disney and an unofficial guide.

Birnbaum's book is the go-to guide for most people when it comes to planning their Disney trip.  It's even considered the official guide.  For that reason, I knew I wanted to have it to see what Disney has to say about itself.  The amount of information is staggering.  It starts out with basic information, including sample itineraries based on how many days you'll be there, pricing and tips for traveling with children.  It is important to note that Birnbaum has another book entirely for children, so if you are taking your children to Disney World, that might be a book you want to invest in.

Each hotel is given its own information as well.  There's a description, including beautiful photographs and information about the restaurants and activities available at each hotel.  It is important to note that the hotels at Disney are much similar to resorts.  many of them have far more than just hotel rooms, meaning you'll want to scope out what's available at each hotel when making your decision.  Like I said in last week's Walt Disney Wednesday post, you can visit the hotels even if you're not staying there, which is why this information is important as well.  It gives you a chance to plan out which hotels to visit and explore.

What I use this book for the most is the information about each park.  There's a chapter for each of the four parks with descriptions of the rides, shows and restaurants.  "Hot Tips" are scattered throughout the book as well, imparting on the reader little tidbits of information to help make his or her trip just a little better.

Another part of the book I used a lot was the food chapter.  I've struggled a lot with picking out where to eat (more about that when I talk about each individual park).  This is one of the many resources I used when deciding on food.  It gives a brief description of every restaurant, both table and quick service, along with any places you can get snacks throughout the park.  They indicated average price, along if it service breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks (or any combination of the four).  This chapter also includes a breakdown of type of food, so if you have children who like ice cream, you can find where to get the best ice cream throughout all four parks.

The other book I got was the Walt Disney World Unofficial Guide.  I wanted this book because, like the name implies, it's the unofficial guide, so it's not published by Disney World.  Therefore, I figured it was going to have more honest information.  This book also covers the area around Disney World, including a little bit about Universal Studios and other activities to do in the Orlando area.  So if you're looking to do some non-Disney days, this book would definitely be helpful for you.  There's so much fantastic information in this book, I don't really know where to start.  One thing that's great is a "Small Child Fright Potential Chart", where it outlines rides that children who are easily frightened should probably avoid.  What I love the most about this book is it rates each ride as it would appeal to the following age group: preschool, grade school, teens, young adults, over 30 and seniors.  This was extremely helpful when Bryan and I were trying to pick some of the rides.  There were a few rides we thought would appeal to us, but when we looked at these ratings, I discovered that these rides were more for children.  There's also an overall rating for each ride as well.  Each ride and attraction also has some touring tips, along with when you should visit to encounter the shortest lines, duration, along with the scope and scale (minor attraction, major attraction or headliner).

Once again, the restaurant information in this book is wonderful.  Each restaurant has how many credits will be used on the dining plan, cost range, when to go, ratings based on service and friendliness, if there are alcoholic beverages, etc.  Like I said before, there's an overabundance of information in this book, which is why it's a fantastic resources to have in your library as you plan your trip.

When it comes to digital resources, I have used two websites extensively.  The first is WDW Prep School.  The amount of information on this website is absolutely staggering.  I like to look at the breakdown of information based on park.  It's important to note that the information about the attractions is a little bit lacking, more information can be found in the Unofficial Guide.  It just includes a brief description, duration, height requirements, suitability for various ages and when to visit.  The food information is what I heavily relied upon from this website.  While brief, it breaks restaurants down by breakfast, lunch and dinner, so you may see the same restaurant appear more than once.  What I really enjoyed were the pros and cons for each restaurant.  This is great information that could help be a deciding factor when trying to pick a restaurant to visit.

Another website is one I've just come across recently: Mouse Travel Matters.  My favorite part of this website is the Top Ten Lists.  It's important to note that not all of these lists have to do with Disney World itself, but all of them are Disney themed in some capacity.  Right now, since it's close to Christmas, a lot of the lists have to do with Disney themed gift giving, which is also important information to have if you have loved ones who enjoy Disney.

There are plenty of YouTube channels dedicated to Disney World, and it can be overwhelming trying to find ones that have the best information.  For the most part, there are two channels that I like the most: TimTracker and DIS Unplugged.  Both have fantastic information as they explore the parks and give you their opinion on food, rides and other experiences.

One thing I like about DIS Unplugged is the reviews of each of the hotels.  While photographs are helpful, it's even more helpful for get a virtual tour of sorts of the hotel when trying to make decisions.  DIS Unplugged also gets the inside scoop in upcoming attractions (such as Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy's Edge).  It also has information about parks around the world, the cruises and special events such as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  For a taste of DIS Unplugged, check out the video below.

          

The other YouTube channel I like is TimTracker.  TimTracker is a husband and wife duo who live in the Orlando area and visit Disney World frequently, almost every day it seems like.  Whenever they go, and by them I mean mostly Tim, he usually has one goal in mind, and takes viewers through that experience.  For example, he went to Hollywood Studios once to see the new Incredibles themed food and entertainment.  While he's in the park, if he hears about something new that's going on in the park, he makes sure to check it out and share his thoughts with his viewers.  I love the humor and amount of information, along with the honesty.  If Tim doesn't like something, then he's going to be sure to let you know.  Check out one of his videos below.

         

Finally, one of my favorite resources is Pinterest.  Like I've said before, I absolutely love Pinterest, and there is an absurd amount of information out there, and I have quite a bit of it on my Pinterest board.  I have information about each of the parks, Memory Maker (which I'll talk about in a later post), food, packing, travel tips and Disney Springs.  It's a lot of information.  Some of it might lead to the previously mentioned blogs, but there are plenty of other blogs and websites I've pinned as well.  What I love the most about Pinterest is that I can make various sections and organize the information in a way that works best for me.  I was going to make a binder with all the information, but I eventually just opted to keep it a Pinterest board to save paper and space.

I hope you find these resources useful as you continue to plan for your trip.  If you feel like I've left something out, please leave a comment and let me know so I can look into it and add it to either this post or a later post.

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Thankfulness Challenge

I know people usually start their thankfulness challenges at the beginning of November, so I'm about three weeks late to the game, but better late than never, right?  Studies have shown that if you take the time each day to write down or even just think about something you're thankful for, your entire attitude and outlook on life will change in just three short weeks.  It's amazing how something so simple can be so life changing.

Back when I tried bullet journaling about two years ago, I did this, and it really did make a world of a difference.  I learned to find the joy in the little things in life and that no matter how bad my day had been, there was at least one good thing that had happened to me that I should be thankful for.  It could something as simple as waking up on time, my favorite episode of a show was on television or that I got to play with my dogs for a little while when I got home.  In fact, when doing a thankfulness challenge, I encourage you to focus on the smaller things, the things that don't seem as significant, because these are what you're more likely to encounter on a day to day basis.  If you focus on those, then you will ultimately be able to find more happiness in your life.

I also encourage you to be as specific as possible in your thankfulness journal.  Instead of saying, "I'm thankful for my mom", be a little more specific.  Say something like, "I'm thankful for my mom because she always listens to me when I'm upset."  This forces you to reflect a little bit more and think about how that person, event or object really is significant in your life and impacts it.

If you do feel compelled to write down what you're thankful for each day, which I highly encourage you to do, Sources of Strength has a fantastic (and free) printable thankfulness journal you can check out.  I've worked with Sources of Strength at my old middle school, and it's a wonderful program that teaches students and adults alike the ways they can overcome anxiety and depression by using the resources around them to build a network of support.  While my self-care board on Pinterest is severely lacking, I did create a small section for thankfulness journaling, which has some wonderful resources.  If you're a person who likes to bullet journal, you can find some thankfulness themed pages in my pages section of my bullet journal board.

My mission for you in the week leading up to Thanksgiving is to think of at least one thing you're thankful for every single day.  I also want you to take it one step further.  If it's a person you're thankful for, take the time to reach out to them and tell them that and tell them why.  This week, we showed our students a video about the importance of doing just that in advisory and how that can make a world of a difference when it comes to your own happiness.  I know how awkward it can be, I'm the type of person who likes to do nice things without people knowing so I don't have to be thanked, but it is nice to feel a little bit of love every once in a while.  You can find the video below if you want to check it out.

         

So, let's recap: studies have shown that listing what you're thankful for each day can change your entire outlook on life in just three short weeks.  In order to do that, I encourage you to start a thankfulness journal of some kind, and you can find some ideas on my Pinterest boards.  For the next week leading up to Thanksgiving, I challenge you to think of one thing you're thankful for each day, and if it's a person, make sure to tell them!  Make sure to let me know how it goes in the comments section below.

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How to Prepare Yourself for a Disney World Scrapbook

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure where to put this post; I almost did a "Work in Progress Wednesday" instead (it would have been my last one until after my Disney World trip in February).  I decided to do this post now so the rest of my Disney posts can be related to the parks.  That doesn't mean this will be my only Disney World scrapbooking post, but it'll probably be my only one for quite some time.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Christina, your trip isn't for three months, why are you getting scrapbooking materials ready now?"  Well, the answer is quite simple: why not?  In my mind, it's better to start sooner rather than later, especially when you know you're going to have a huge monstrosity of a project to tackle.  It has also given me the opportunity to start collecting supplies at a slightly cheaper rate as I see them appear (but more about that later).

Right now, I'm in the pre-planning stage of my scrapbook, because I have no photos to actual scrapbook from my trip.  I'm simply collecting ideas and some supplies (okay, a lot of supplies) based on the rides and activities I know Bryan and I are going to do at Disney World (which is definitely something I'll be talking a lot about later).

One thing that's important to know about me is my unhealthy addiction to Pinterest.  I seriously love it and can't get enough of it.  It's actually a bit of a problem because I don't see it as social media (even though it technically is), so I'm on it all the time without realizing just how much time I've wasted.  With that being said, of course I created a Pinterest board.  At first, everything was dumped together as I jumped from board to board that other people created, pinning every single idea or cute clipart that I came across.  Within two days, I had over a thousand pins to my board, and there was no rhyme or reason to how they were pinned.  I needed a better system.  Thankfully, Pinterest realized this a while back and created sections, which is a part of the platform I've come to love and use extensively.  I set aside a huge chunk of time and created sections for every little thing I pinned.  I created sections for characters, parks, rides, movies, locations and even one for our hotel.  It didn't take long for me to have over 90 sections on my Scrapbooking Disney board.

A quick glimpse at just a small portion of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

What's in each section varies based on the section.  As you can see from the picture of my board above, there's only one lonely pin in my 101 Dalmatians section, which is because those characters (ie: Cruella de Vil) really only comes out for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but I saw that journaling card, thought it was cute and pinned it, just in case.  There's nothing wrong with pinning something; it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

The Lilo and Stitch section of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

A lot of my sections have a wide range of different types of pins.  I found some websites that sell adorable Disney scrapbooking materials (mostly paper), so I pinned different paper pads or open stock paper to see if I want them later on down the line when we get back from our trip.  You can see that in the above screenshot from my Lilo and Stitch section of my Pinterest board (the first two pins).  I also pinned any layouts that I like relating to that section.  Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to use every single layout that I've pinned; I just like having options.  I might take bits and pieces from different pinned layouts, or I might create something entirely different.  I have no idea, it will depend on what I want represented on that particular page.

The Minnie Mouse section of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

You'll notice on my pages that there are a lot of blank notecards.  I very rarely used to journal on my scrapbooking pages; I often just put the pictures and some embellishments down and called it a day.  Now, however, I've gotten more into journaling to capture the emotions, information and memories associated with the particular photos.  Obviously I won't use all of the journaling cards I've pinned (the Minnie Mouse one alone has four different journaling cards).  Like I said before, I just want options.  Once I have my Minnie Mouse pictures and know the colors I'm going to use for that layout, I'll be able to better select a journaling card that will work with the page.

Feel free to check out my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board in all its glory by clicking here.

Pinterest isn't the only way I've started preparing for my Disney scrapbook.  I've started buying some supplies.  Almost all of my supplies have come from a secondhand scrapbooking group I'm a part of on Facebook.  It's a great group and a wonderful place to get embellishments and supplies for amazing discounts.  Of course, it doesn't work if you just want to buy one or two things, since you also have to pay for shipping, but if you want to buy a lot and build up your stash, it's a great place to start.

Some of my generic Disney World scrapbook embellishments.

Some of the embellishments I've bought so far are fairly generic, like the ones above (how cute are those little Mickey Mouse buttons!?).  I know quite a few people stay away from licensed and event-specific things such as these, but my mentality is: I'm only going to make one Disney World scrapbook, I might as well make it the most Disney-est thing I've ever created.

Some of my Disney Princess scrapbook embellishments.

Now, there are some risks with buying things for a vacation that's three months away.  The most obvious is the fact that I don't know exactly what I'll need.  For example, I won't know if we're going to see Aurora, Cinderella or Snow White, but I still have stickers for all three of these princesses.  It's a dangerous game to play, but they were also incredibly cheap (much cheaper than if I had bought them in the store), so to me it was well worth the risk.

Paper I've started putting aside for my Disney scrapbook.

Now, the paper is a significantly smaller risk.  Some of the paper I already owned.  Take the purple with the blurred lights on it.  I bought that ages ago because I thought it was gorgeous, but I didn't know what I would use it for.  While flipping through my stash looking for something else, I saw that paper and realized it would be perfect for the Tangled lanterns at Magic Kingdom (more about that in a later post), so I pulled that paper out and put it to the side.  The paper with the hotel keys came from a paper pad and seemed great for our hotel, so I put that to the side too.  I'm not going to pretend that I didn't buy some paper too.  How could I pass up the paper with the little frogs on it?  It's so perfect for Tiana, I simply had to have it!  This is all the paper I have right now, which is fine with me.  I don't need to have everything set aside, this is simply paper that I have an idea for for when I get back from my trip.  I know that I'm going to need so much more, but I'll worry about that later.

In addition to collecting supplies, I've also been watching the "A Most Magical Scrapbook" class by Shimelle Laine.  It is something you have to pay for it ($25), but it's over 40 videos, and you have complete access to them, which means you can watch them as many times as you want.  If paying for scrapbooking videos isn't something you want to do, which I totally get, Shimelle also has a YouTube channel that includes a Disney scrapbooking playlist.  It's only a few videos, and it doesn't include any of the videos in her "A Most Magical Scrapbook" class, but they're just as wonderful and informative.  She breaks down how to select pictures, paper and embellishments and make a large scrapbook flow together.

Even though my trip is three months away, I've already started the tentative planning for my scrapbook.  I know this scrapbook is going to be a huge undertaking, so there will be plenty of posts about it in the weeks after my trip.

Tune in next week to learn about the decision making process Bryan and I went through while picking our hotel and the bumps we had along the way.

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