Author: Disney Baby

For years we only stayed on property when visiting Walt Disney World. We always purchased the dining plan with three sit down meals as well. We continued this tradition for 7 visits. The advantages of staying on property are tremendous including the Magical Express Transportation to and from the airport, ability to purchase Magic Your Way Tickets and the Disney Dining Plan. Only WDW resort guests have unlimited use of the WDW transportation System and can take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours in the parks. If the parks are overcrowded, WDW resort guests are given priority. There are additional privileges including delivery of merchandise from the park and Downtown Disney stores, beautifully themed resorts that keep you immersed in Disney 24/7, and Disney Cast Members and Disney Guest Service that is incomparable.

In 2008, my parents were unable to use their time share and asked us if we wanted to transfer it to a property near Disney. We had just been in October of 2007 but my parents had to use their time share by the end of June. We were hesitant to stay off property but we now had three children and it made sense to try it out since the accommodations were free! We stayed at the Westgate Vacation Villas and we were less than 10 minutes from the Walt Disney World Resort. The accommodations were only a year old and the space was huge! We were in a two bedroom lock off that had two bedrooms, two queen sofa sleepers, a full kitchen, a mini kitchen, a huge living room, a smaller living room, two full bathrooms, and two sets of washers and dryers. Our oldest girl was seven years old and our twins girls were two years old at the time. We loved the space and the resort. We even loved having breakfast in the Villa before leaving for the parks, cooking and eating a few dinners, and doing laundry. I know it seems crazy to cook and do laundry on vacation! Having access to a full kitchen with the three children was an advantage since they had wasted so much food during our last vacation and we could feed them what they love to eat. The best part about doing laundry on vacation was unpacking clean clothes when we arrived at home. We had never been to WDW in the summer and we were thankful to have purchased two cases of water that we kept frozen so that we could have cold water in the parks. We even went to non-Disney parks for the first time as a family! We were surprised that we found leaving Disney property each night was a nice break from everything Disney.

Advantages:
• Less expensive (okay – so there is no comparison to free but in general off site resorts are less expensive)
• Huge accommodation (on par with the size of bathrooms in the Bellagio in Vegas)
• Quick access to non-Disney parks, restaurants, and shopping
• Found it relaxing not being immersed in the Disney excitement 24/7
• Easier and faster transportation to and from the parks with our own vehicle

Disadvantages:
• None of the perks of staying on property
• We felt like we were spending more money at the restaurants on property because they were not prepaid as part of a dining plan.
• No Disney Theming
• No Disney Guest Service

With that being said, my Husband and I concluded that we really liked it because of the size of the accommodations and convenience of having a kitchen and laundry room. In addition, we have stayed at six different hotels in the Orlando resort area and all three of the Universal hotels. We really missed the Disney theming and the Disney Guest Service. All of these hotels were nice and all of the Universal hotels are themed but it is not the Disney experience. The employees at all of these hotels were courteous but as I mentioned before, the Disney Guest Service is incomparable. If you are a Disney nut then you know that everything at Disney is well thought out and scripted from the placement of every shrub to carrying out the theme to include even the trash receptacles. All Disney Cast Members are trained in the Disney Traditions and are expected to uphold those traditions. They are expected to deliver a seamless experience to the guest. The Disney experience cannot be duplicated. We really missed the convenience and atmosphere of being in a WDW resort.
Although we have enjoyed off site experiences, our next investment will be to join the Disney Vacation Club. We feel that would be the best option for our family especially since we now have four children. We would have the Disney experience and still have the conveniences of home.

Matchy-Matchy! Is it tacky? ABSOLUTELY! But matching or coordinating outfits can add some fun and extra MAGIC to your Disney Vacation and do wonders for your scrapbooking layouts. Matchy-Matchy either brings a huge smile to your face and makes you giggle or it makes you roll your eyes. If it makes you roll your eyes and you are planning on reading this entry, then you should be prepared for a little eye strain ;). Whether you are on a Disney cruise or in a Disney park, there is no better place to do the Matchy-Matchy thing. Before you make up your mind that friends and families that match or do coordinating outfits on vacation belong on the akward family photo site, take a minute to check out this entry.

Why Match?

There are a couple of reasons to match or coordinate clothes on a Disney Vacation. The most practical reason is to be able to spot each other in the parks or on a cruise. Check out Jan’s (Quiltymom’s) matching tye dye tees.

Jan said, “It’s an amazing way to find everyone in a crowd! At first DH wasn’t sold on the idea (“I have enough clothes!”), but when he couldn’t reach me by phone in DCA one day, he started looking for my shirt. Found me, too!”

CynthiaY2 (Cynthia) matches her family by coordinating with a particular color for a particular day! Cynthia sites SAFETY as a reason for coordinating colors in the park. Here is a short story that where she give us an example of choosing your colors carefully.

Safety!! In crowds as large as Disney World/Disneyland it’s easy to get seperated especially from the younger ones very quickly. If I lose sight I can always make a quick glance around and know exactly what they are wearing…the same color combination as all of us! It happened just a couple of weeks ago. It was St. Patricks Day so of course we all wore green. Well unforunatley so did everybody else 🙂 We were heading out of Magic Kingdom and we got to the circle we went left and my son went right following another “MOM” in green. We got to the curb and I noticed I couldn’t see him!!! I was in a panic as EVERYONE was in GREEN!! I told my husband and daughter to stand fast and I went to the other side of the circle. It only took a moment and my iphone rang and it was my son at City Hall in tears calling me. I stayed on the phone with him until I saw him for myself. He said “Mom I followed the green shirt!” He was so upset BUT he did exactly what I told him to do find a cast member and call ME!! So on normal days it works perfectly.

I chose these layouts from her gallery because it a great example of not only coordinating outfits by color but coordinating the color with the park you are visiting.

Cynthia’s second reason for coordinating colors:

It’s all about the PICTURES!!

Normally I begin with my daughters outfits. I look at my excel spreadsheet and see what park we will be at and what dining reservations we have for the day. Animal Kingdom is ALWAYS brown day! Our photos look wonderful with all the lush greenery and my daugher is always in an animal print top/dress. You can look through my gallery and you will notice ALL Brown.

I normally like to wear “PINK” when we eat at Crystal Palace because of Piglet. My favorite color for Ohana’s Breakfast is “BLUE and GREEN” because it matches Stitch perfectly. I tend to always wear BLUE and then Black and White at Hollywood Studios. Blue because of the hat and then black and white because of the old type movies that were in black and white. One day we are in “Color” and the next time “B&W”. 😉

Recently we all wore purple when my daughter wore her Rapunzal wedding dress. It was purple and white so we wore purple and white. When it’s the Flower and Garden I love to wear yellow at EPCOT one day. See where I’m going will all this… I try to match the event of the park, character meal, or costume of my daughter, or the Park itself.

It’s all about the pictures for me and capturing those magical memories. I’m a planner…probably a bit over planning BUT it makes my vacation stress free because I have no worries about what to wear each day and I know my photos will turn out FABULOUS!

It is all about the pictures for me too! As a scrapbooker, I have this ridculous need to have everything coordinate. My children have to not only endure matching at Disney but they have to match on special occasions too! We started the Matchy-Matchy thing on our honeymoon in 1999 by packing matching non-Disney t-shirts. We were newlyweds and it seemed like fun to match. In 2002, I bought the same Disney t-shirt from the Disney Store in 5 different colors and the same style shorts in 4 different colors for DH, DD, and me. We also purchased custom made t-shirts that had our family name and the dates of our vacation. We did the same for the next few years including whatever island shirt was being offered that year in the Disney Store. This method was cost effective until we had Twins and now outfitting the family from the Disney Store was cost prohibitive. In 2007, I discovered how to make my own t-shirts with iron on transfers. I became a crazy woman and designed a bunch of t-shirts and made them for each member of the family. One of my friends discovered pillowcase dresses and made inexpensive matching outfits with Disney Princess material and animal print material. In 2010 we found the most cost effective way to coordinate 4 girls. We purchased Disney t-shirts and coordinating shorts at Target and Wal-Mart at the end of the summer season. We were able to buy t-shirts with Dumbo, Marie, Bambi, Tinker Bell, Cinderella, two Minnie t-shirts and five pairs coordinating shorts for 4 girls (48 pieces) for under $100.

Here are a few layouts from my MouseScrappers Gallery.

Matching t-shirts and shorts from the Disney Store

Custom made t-shirts from the Disney Store

Pillowcase Dresses/Tops and Homemade t-shirts

Matching Disney Island Shirts, Iron-ons and Homemade t-shirts

Princess Coordination

T-shirts and coordinating bottoms purchased at the end of the summer season from Target and Wal-Mart

Thanks to the CT team for all the feedback. All of the layouts featured are in the MouseScrappers Gallery and you can find the credits there. You can check out this thread for more ideas:
http://www.mousescrappers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=105221#post105221

I hope you enjoyed all the Matchy-Matchy!

To close, I will use more of Cynthia’s words because sums it up well:
“What other time in your life will you take the time to take pictures in front of such amazing backdrops! Take advantage of it!!