goody bags, autograph books, and the trip down???

[jacksmom]

We are leaving in 17 days and I am starting to panic! Does anyone have any tips to share re: goody bags? I have a 6yo.ds! Also, would like tips on making autograph books, will be going to dw and us ??? Also, any tips for a 10 hr. drive would be great??? Thanks!

 

[mickeysaver]

May I suggest you take a look at the www.disneydollarless.com site? They have several nice downloads for kids as well as links to printable puzzles and stuff to keep the kids busy on the road. http://www.disneydollarless.com/articles/mickeysaver070402.shtml I hope this helps. Mickey

 

[bobcat]

First take a deep breath. DO a search here and on the budget board and you will find many ideas.

Here's what I do for my kids each trip. I usually buy things on sale year round so I get really great deals. I pick up disney themed pary bags ad supplies on clearance and fill them with goodies. I add stickers, some candy, disney pez dispensers, usually a small disney beanie and any other disney themed items I find. For a couple of trips I have made up a bag for each day and suprised them in the morning. The dollar store is a great place to pick up items. Mine even had packages of glow sticks which saves a ton of money when they want them in the parks.

I usually make an activity book for the drive down. Last trip I found a great notepad/folder combination that I filled with activity pages I printed off the internet. I make wordsearches at www.discovery.com , go to the school section. They also have great mazes.

As for autograph books I made ours for our last trip and they were a huge hit. I purchased a small unlined spiral notebook and added stickers and clip art to the pages for each character.

 

[momof2OH]

I made my two kids activity books for our trip last year. I found web sites with outlined coloring pages of Disney characters (like a coloring book). I printed several of these 2x for each. I went to other sites and made word searches up and printed off many different activity type pages. Of course everything was x2. They both had the exact same 3 ring binders. They also each had their own cd players with their own cd's. My son had his gameboy advance. They also each had plain white paper, crayons, colored pencils. It made it much easier when there was 2 of everything, there was no fighting and screaming about what each other had and didn't have. Hope this helps.

 

[Ratpack]

Jacksmom,
Hello from just down the road. We made DD's autograph book last year and it was easy. We bought a 5" x 5" spiral notebook with heavy paper. Then printed photos from the internet of each character and pasted them on each page leaving the back of the previous page open for a photo of DD getting the autograph. Then we printed a Disney logo and mog pogged it onto the front. The characters absolutely loved having their own page to sign and most drew extra little things along with the signature.

Can't help you with the ride down, we have built in TV/VCR in the van and we just pop in Disney movie after Disney moivie and it is a very realxing drive down.

 

[jacksmom]

Ratpack Thanks so much for the autograph book idea! It is great! Is Michaels a good place to look for the notebook? Also, do you know any sites to find clip art for universal studios? thanks again, Jacksmom

 

[Ratpack]

Jacksmom,
I think Micheals is where we got ours. As far as clip art, I just did a search. I have a file that has most of them if you want to PM me with your email. I can send it to you.

 

[Reminisce71]

We just got back from our trip with 4 boys. We bought at the last minutes a VCR in a bag for $170.00 from Big Lots. It is an Audiovox and absolutly the best purchase we ever made. Well worth the money for not having to hear arguing and fighting. lol

We had about an 16 hour drive there and back. We also drove at night so the kids slept a lot.

If you have a Dollar Tree or other dollar store around, you can get lots of good stuff there! I got 4 packs of the glow in the dark things that the kids made into braclets and necklaces. These are quite expensive in the Parks and they were only $1.00 a pack at the Dollar Tree! There were enough for 2 kids in each pack.

I also bought some pipe cleaners for $1.00 a pack there and the boys had a ball playing with those.

For the autograph books, I picked up 4 small photograph albums and some Disney stickers. The boys each decorated their own book with the stickers. I then got the larger sized index cards and these fit perfectly in the album pages. The characters signed the index cards and I slid them into the pages leaving every other one empty for the picture that we took of the kid with the character.

I also taped their copilots license from riding in the front of the monorail and their Park tickets on an index card and slid them into a page.


Lots of good stuff to be found in the dollar stores!

 

[Snow Brite]

Wrap up the various activites into presents (Disney wrapping paper would be perfect). Then write on them instructions. Things like:

Open after lunch
Open when you see the ocean for the first time
Open when you go up a big mountain
Open when you get on I(whatever) highway
Open at midnight
Open at 12:34pm
Open after you have not fought with your sister for one hour straight
Open after you have let you brother choose any CD of yours to listen to he wants.
Open after you pass the sixth Waffle House restaurant.
Open when you cross the Florida state border.
Open after you tell your mother how much you love her and appreicate all the time and trouble she went to to plan this vacation for you.

You get the idea. Vary it to suit your family and trip. This way the goodies are spread out during the whole trip instead of having them rip through them in the first hour. Vary things so that there are treats (Disney fruit snacks and Mickey Juice), coloring books or pages with crayons/pencils, Pez, disposable camera of their own, make your own edible necklace kits, diaries/travel journals, new Gameboy game, homework etc. And make sure each "gift" is different and exciting as well as something they will spend the next 30-60 minutes doing.

The anticipation of the gifts, the keeping track to see if you get to open another one yet, and keeping it all spread out over a period of time can be quite fun. And if you include a few "be nice to your siblings" incentives its amazing how good they can be!

 

[Maude4Disney]

I have also been trying to come up with things to keep our DS9 and DS2 busy on the ride down. For DS9 it has been pretty easy, CD player, gameboy, activities printed online, books to read. DS2 on the other hand has me a little scared. LOL He's not exactly the best rider. However, we've also planned on a handheld game (even though he hasn't quite figured them out). For both we've purchased the crayola wonder markers. No marks on the boys or the vehicle! Also a trip to the dollar store and DH is planning on taking his laptop computer, so DS9 will have some card games to play and we'll have a DVD player for some movies (I think this will be our lifesaver w/ DS2) I've also been saving the little toys that come out of the kids meals from the fast food resteraunts. I figure they have enough toys at home for now, and these will be a surprise gift along the way. And DS2 loves balls, so we will be throwing one of those in for the stops at the rest areas where we can get out and blow off a little steam. I can't wait until we get to a state where it is warm enough to get out and just enjoy the fresh air!

 

[Aubrey]

I borrowed an idea from Gifts of a Lifetime and made home-grown "pixie balls". I had collected lots of odd colored rolls of crepe paper streamers from the local goodwill stores and took the little disney themed gifties that I had collected (candies, charm bracelets, stickers, small toys, etc) and wrapped them into layers and layers of different colored streamers. We presented the balls as a gift from Tinkerbell thanking them for having helped find Hook's hook in the Family Magic Tour. The kids opened them at Pecos Bill's over lunch and found little treasures in each layer/color. By the time they were done, there was a rainbow of streamers covering the table and everyone nearby was in awe, asking where to get the pixie balls. The total cost was less then $15 per ball and they were a lifetime memory because of the colors. Also, it made for great pictures, draping kids in rainbows of streamers.

 

[luvflorida]

We have driven from Maine to Florida several times with our kids. The first trip our son was 8 and our daughter had just turned 5. They brought several of their favorite toys, (a few stuffed animals and books), and I made sure we had snacks and drinks in the car with us. I also gave each child a map of the United States that I had copied from some travel book. It was geared toward kids and was simply drawn, (just an outline of the states with the name of each state written on it). Every time we entered a new state they would locate it on their maps and color it in. They could track our trip and see that we were gradually getting closer to Florida. The kids really did well travelling and we had a wonderful car ride. When we drove to Orlando our second time around, we had three kids, ages 16, 12, and 5. We tried the map idea with the youngest, but she wasn't the least bit interested. Of course she wanted to do everything the older two did, like using their CD players and gameboys. Thankfully, they were very patient with their younger sibling and the trip went smoothly. The last time we drove down to Florida our oldest was in college and couldn't go, so it was just our two daughters, ages 16 and 10. This time my husband brought his laptop with him and the two girls spent a good portion of the trip watching DVD's. They were interested in musicals at the time, Fiddler On The Roof and Oliver being two that I remember hearing more than once. They also had their own CD players, CD's, and books.

Of course, on every trip we had the usual arguments that you have with every kid, (no, you can't color on your sister; no, you can't have another soda; yes, you must pick up the crushed crackers scattered on your side of the car; no, you can't stick your feet out the window, etc., etc. But we would do it all over again. Our last trip to Florida we only had our 12 year old with us, since the older two are in college, and we decided to fly. She wanted to bring a friend with her but we're not ready to go that route yet. Maybe next year.

Believe me, your kids will grow up way too fast, so if you're thinking of taking them on a long car trip, I say go for it. The two most important things to bring with you are a lot of patience and a really good sense of humor. Have fun!

 

[2tinksmom]

I've also done the opening small gifts along the way but did it according to a map. I gave DD a simple map with cities/ landmarks that were about 2 hours apart. Each time we drove thru one, she would put a sticker on the map and open a gift. Worked great because she could see how far we'd gone and the coloring book,etc. entertained her 'til the next one!

 

[staylor]

Thanks for posting this. I too have got some great ideas. We decided to drive (16 hours with 3 kids 9,7,3). I printed a travel journal for the 9 & 7 on disney dollarless. What a great idea. The journals look great, I had them bound at Kinko's. Also, got lots of coloring pages and other items on the same website.