Walt Disney World and Me

We had an AWESOME time in Disney! Ten days of GO GO GO (and a little downtime — naps are necessary to survive in Disney!)

I DID end up with two Vera Disney bags. What you need to know about them if you go is that NOT every store that carries them has every Disney pattern. Our first night I went to Downtown Disney, which is like a big shopping place with restaurants. We took the boat from our hotel right to it. I found some Vera there, and then later also at Epcot, but since I had already bought two, I didn’t get anymore. Getting everything we bought home was hard enough!

I got two Midnight with Mickey items, the Smartphone wristlet (I have another in a different pattern, and LOVE it!) and a Mini Hipster:

I saw the laser cut Mickey bag, but didn’t see the pink quilted one anywhere. But we were so busy, I didn’t have a chance to really look. SO MUCH to see!

Yeah, I bought pink and sparkly Minnie ears. What about it?

We also visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal. While we didn’t love Universal in general as much as Disney, HP was AMAZING. Best part of the park, IMO.

The dragon on top of Gringott’s breathes fire every once in awhile. And even on the ground, you can feel the heat. Awesome! I bought my own wand in Ollivanders!

And… BUTTERBEER!!!

We had a great time, the magic of Disney and Harry Potter were definitely in force. Didn’t want to come home, and now that we are we want to go back.

Have a Magical Day!

Hasta la vista, Babies!

Well, we’re off! By now, we’re probably high in the air, Orlando-bound. Take care of each other, be nice, and I’ll see you when I get back. Enjoy the posts I’ve scheduled for your enjoyment.

I’ll probably post pics on the Twitter and FB feeds, if you’re interested!

More Vera Bradley Disney bags???

When Vera Bradley announced that it would be doing a Disney line in 2013, I was really excited! I love Disney, and I love Vera. My husband would say I have a bag addition. Well, maybe, but I need something to carry around my books in, right?

I actually got a Mousin’ Around hipster online to take on our vacation:

Which has since been retired, by the way, so I’m glad I got it. I went looking to see what else they have now. OMG, guys. There are NEW patterns!

Laser cut– not my thing, but very nice. A sophisticated, grown up Disney bag.

This one’s more my style — because it’s PINK. It comes in Black, too, though. Still, a more subtle pattern than most.

Mickey’s Perfect Petals. I don’t know about the color, but the pattern is super cute! I can’t remember if Disney Dreamin’ is new or not, but it’s also cute — almost like Mousin’ Around, but in Blue:

Midnight with Mickey and Where’s Mickey? are still around, haven’t been retired yet. I see a couple that are on sale, though, so they might be retiring this year.

I am going to Disney next week, and Downtown Disney is our first stop. Maybe I’ll come home with a new bag…. And did I mention that the new outlet mall opening near me will eventually have a Vera Bradley outlet??? Yikes, I may be in trouble!

This is what going on vacation looks like — A Family Disney Adventure

I’m giving you all a break from posts about CURSE — don’t worry, I have more scheduled. Since I am getting ready to go on vacation.

To Disney.

In July.

Being in education, there is really only one time to go on vacation. Summer. And my son earned his Disney vacation by getting Honor Roll every marking period for four straight years. He really did. And he’s leaving elementary school and starting middle school, so this is like a graduation present, too. When I started planning this expedition, I thought it would be easy. The travel agent we used DID make it simple — she did the itinerary, made the dining reservations, hooked up our stuff to Disney so that we can just relax.

Now we have to pack. Again, I thought it would be simple. We just pick out our clothes, pack all our stuff, and go. Then I started reading the sites and watching the videos about how to pack.

How. To. Pack. For. Disney.

This is like a cottage industry, folks. And people really spend TONS of time thinking about this. Way too much time. But hey, it helped me to feel like I needed to be way more nervous. So I, too, started strategizing about how to attack packing for this vacation so that we would get maximum enjoyment from our trip.

Here is what my dining room table looks like.

There are mini spritzer fans, collapsible water bottles, hand wipes, rain ponchos, cooling towels, sunscreen, first aid kit, batteries, chargers, powder, and a ton of other stuff that I can’t even begin to list. Most of this is JUST for taking into the parks. I bought two cinch bags for us to use as well, as that was what was suggested.

I take less stuff when I go to a con. And I pack 2-3 costumes for those. Including corsets.

I did get some good tips from the sites, mainly to put all the small stuff in ziploc baggies. Great way to keep everything organized and dry. I feel like I’m going on safari and we haven’t even started packing regular stuff like clothes yet.

So, while I go crazy making sure my luggage isn’t over the weight limit for the plane and that the TSA isn’t going to want to do a strip search because I accidentally left a liquid in my carry on, you guys enjoy the posts I have scheduled for when I’m away.

Have a great week, lovelies!