Long Time No See...Pre Trippin' Disney/Universal July 2020

[jagafen]

I have been away from the boards for a long, long, long time. I think our last trip to Disney was all the way back in 2012--DS was still a Disney kid. Granted, we did hold off a bit waiting for Galaxy's Edge to open, but still, 7 years is a long time, and I didn't realize how much had changed since our last trip. But that's ok...I"m a good crammer and I have dived head first into the new information and I'm kinda caught up to speed.

First, our introductions: I"m Jen, the mom/wife/uber planner. I really enjoy getting into all the little details, and hunting out the "best" hidden spots to visit (when we're not in a Toursit Mecca that is.) I'm a pediatric Occupational Therapist during the week, and like to spend my weekends relaxing as much as possible, because work, on a good day, is stressful.

DH is a High School Teacher (English) and 2 sport coach (wrestling and softball). That means I barely see him except on Sundays from Thanksgiving until the end of May. When he's not teaching/coaching, he enjoys couch surfing as well. Our hectic schedules just make us want to melt when we're home.

Together, we enjoy date nights, drinking wine, having dinner with friends, and going to the movies. I realize we probably sound like a boring old married couple, but when you don't see your s/o for 6 moths out of the year, the simple stuff like dinner and a movie is important. We've been together for almost 24 years, married for almost 15. This trip is probably going to be our last trip to Orlando for the theme parks, unless I somehow convince DH to do a couple's only trip at some point. We'll see. We are officially celebrating my birthday and our 15th year anniversary (which are on the same day thanks to my MIL, but that's a story for another time.)

Also in our party are DS, Alex-16, 17 at trip time. He's "meh" about everything. Typical teenaged boy who likes to sing, and got to perform at Disney Springs last February, which was parlayed into a 4 day park excursion plus one day of singing break from school. I don't see much of him either because when he's not working, he's squirreled away in his room. Whenever I try to get him involved in trip planning, I get "I don't care...." as a response. He just doesn't understand that a little bit of planning goes a long way, especially if you're talking about a Disney vacation.

Also joining us is Billy, DS's best friend, and coincidentally, an annual pass holder. We didn't know (or had forgotten) about the APs when we asked him to join us, but his mom clued me in, and I was happy to save some $$ on tickets! Obviously, when it comes to Disney, his family is all in. We had our initial planning get together, and Billy had an actual ANSWER for the questions I asked him, rather than Alex's "I don't care, do what you think is best". Although, in the future, those are probably the exact words his wife will want to hear from his mouth....

So basically, I want to adopt Billy, or at least hope some of his planning enthusiasm rubs off on my too cool for school kiddo. I consider it a great achievement that Alex let me buy him 4!!! new shirts to wear in the parks (as long as he doesn't have to wear them to school, and he doesn't).

Oh, and I played a mom card. Our family tradition is to wear matching T shirts on one day. Since we're bringing Billy and covering his costs, I told him he had to suck it up and wear it too. He's a smart kid so he acquiesced. I cut the teens a break though, they're all in different shades of blue, so they won't look like total dorks when they're in the parks together.

So, our details, which I almost forgot:

We're staying Club level at beach Club for the first time. We've stayed at Beach Club before, it's DH's favorite resort. I love my hubs...since this is "our last trip" he hasn't balked at any expense, since we should "do it right" (within reason, of course). So when Disney released the 25% room discount, it made sense to add a day and upgrade to CL. The price increase was minimal with the discount, and I'm happy with anything "on sale". We'll be at Disney for 4 whole days, and then transfer over to Universal for 5 days. Alex's favorite resort is the Hard Rock, where we'll also be staying club level (I mean, after living the high life at Disney, can I really expect 2 teens to give up free snacks and sodas?). The purpose of our Disney leg is to hit Avatar land and Galaxy's Edge as much as possible. There's lots of new stuff to see. Our arrival day we get in early, so we'll do an Epcot/MK split day there with hoppers. Then we'll have 1 1/2 days at HS (the boys will have 2 full days--DH wants dinner at V&A's), a full day at AK, and on our check out day, we'll probably end up over in HS again.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. BC is one of my favorite resorts. Can’t beat being able to walk to two parks. I have only stayed at HR at Universal and the location can’t be beat - in my opinion .

 

[jagafen]

So, today was ADR Day!! YEAH!!

With the boys in tow, and DH's request that we try some new restaurants, I had a bit of a challenge. The boys both subsist on burgers, pizza, ribs, and fried forms of chicken pieces. And french fries, and chips. So basically, kid menu type stuff for teenaged boys. DH and I like to be a bit more adventurous, and while we have Disney favorite restaurants, making sure there was something on the menu that the boys would eat kind of limited our selections. What we ultimately decided to do was to have 2 adult only dinners, and let the boys (who will be most likely off on their own in the parks anyway) fend for themselves with quick service fare. They will join us for 2 dinners, so we will get some face time with them. It seemed like the easiest way to appease everyone with the least amount of hassle.

This is what I was able to book this morning:
Arrival lunch: Via Napoli (new to us, and Billy's request)
Arrival dinner: Jungle Navigation Co. for the adults only-menu looks interesting, but not to the boys. This is a new one for us also.

1st day-HS day- Oga's cantina at 1:00. Sci Fi Dine in for dinner. (repeat for us, request from Billy. He said his family has always talked about trying it out, but has never actually made it). I know this is early in our trip, but I was SUPER surprised that the only ressies available were for 4:55 or 7:30. I chose to schedule us early. I was going to do Oga's on our 3rd day, but with the early reservation at V&A's (5:30), I felt like it was pushing it too much to get everyone in at Oga's on day #3.

2nd day-AK Yak and Yeti @Dinner. This is always a hard park for us to eat in. Thank goodness for the ribs on the menu. Both boys are stoked. Billy had requested Tusker house breakfast, but I know my kid will only eat pancakes and waffles. I have a hard time paying $40/pp OOP for pancakes and waffles.

3rd day-HS. Boys are on their own this evening, because.......

I BOOKED THE CHEF'S TABLE AT VICTORIA AND ALBERT'S FOR DH AND I !!!!

This was DH's ONE BIG request. Last time we dined there (probably back in 2012), we hoarded all our Disney Visa Reward dollars and used them to pay for our meal here. It was a fantastic splurge, and not having to pay for it made it even better for a gal like me (I hate to pay full price for anything. I'm a master deal finder. Not quite coupon queen status, just master of my own favorite shopping venues). We're celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary on this trip, so being able to snag the chef's table first thing this morning was a nice surprise. I was really afraid it would be taken by the time I called in. I did start calling their reservation line at 9:57, hang up, redial, ad nauseum, until I got through.

I'm going to try and surprise DH a bit...I might have told him that the Chef's Table was taken already, but we got Queen Victoria's Dining room (where we ate last time) instead. Of course, if you look in the MDE app, it clearly states Chef's Table. Good thing I'm the uber planner, and he's the uber goer alonger. I'll keep up my story for as long as I'm able to. Since it's also my birthday (or will be soonish after our trip), I'm going to get my hair and makeup done in the salon prior to dinner. So, I'll need to leave the park about mid-day to make my 3:00 appointment. I should be finished by 4:30, so that leaves me enough time to change into my dress, and then head over to the GF for our 5:30 reservation time.

 

[jagafen]

So, I had a client cancel on me today, so I have a bit of extra time on my hands. In the mood for the story of why my birthday and wedding anniversary are on the exact same date? Note to any MILs who may read this. I do not hate my MIL, but this is not a very MIL friendly story. My DH doesn't understand why this still bugs me to this degree "after all this time", but it does, and I don't feel the need to apologize about it. I love my MIL, but she has some quirks that drive me (and the rest of the family) a bit batty sometimes. It doesn't help that there was some other drama surrounding the wedding planning (isn't there always?) and I did a lot of swallowing my feelings and biting my tongue for the sake of my future in laws, who are VERY old school Italian.

So, back in 2004, our neighbor in our apt complex had a devastating fire. DS was 9 months old at the time, and we were displaced because of the fire for about 2 weeks before we could find a new place to live. It was a crazy hectic time in our lives, and having a new baby only compounded the stress. The final result of the fire was an insurance check, which was more money than either DH (who was DBF at the time) or I had been handed over at once. Due to the stress of the fire fiasco, I went into Post Natal Maternal Nesting Mode. Talked it over with DBF and said that I wanted to get a house and use the insurance check as part of the down payment. This was right when the housing bubble was peaking, just before it popped. It was very hard for first time buyers to find a house, especially in our higher COL area. We were getting outbid by cash bidders left and right, and it was a very frustrating process which we finally gave up.

So, I suggested to DH that we get married instead. By this time, we had been dating for 8+ years, and had a baby together.When I found out I was pregnant, I told him I purposely wanted to wait to get married until DS was a bit older (my baggage from my parent's horrible marriage). The timing seemed right, we had some funds to spend on a wedding, although not a huge extravagant one, and if I wasn't going to get a house, I was going to get our relationship nice and formally documented in the legal sense. DH has always been a planner, wanted to do things "the right way". I'm a bit more free spirited in general, and firmly believe that God laughs at those who make (too many rigid) plans. Heck, just the face that we were dating shows him how wrong he can be when he insists on doing things his way. We worked together waiting tables for several months and were very good friends. During the "friend period" he told me that he'd never date anyone he worked with again. Cool. Wasn't interested in dating him at that point either. Then one day, DBF bent over in front of me to get a bottle of ketchup off the bottom shelf (I'm convinced the store manager put them there to check out the girls' behinds doing the same thing).

Well.....lemme tell you......dat ***!

It got my attention. I knew I was an *** girl, but I had never noticed HIS ***. I thought to myself....why the heck are we just friends? We get along, we find each other hilarious, we enjoy spending time together outside of work (just as friends), and now my hormones are telling me that I might be kinda attracted to this guy. So, I flirted my *** off with him for the next few weeks, hoping he'd get the hint and ask me out, because I'm kinda shy when it comes to making the first move. He didn't get the hint. So, I opted for Plan B, which was wait until he was really, really busy at work, and ask him out mid-shift, because if he was distracted and not paying full attention, I thought I'd get an honest answer out of him, rather than "I don't want to date anyone I work with". I did, he was, and his answer was "Um, Yeah, I guess so." At least it was affirmative, but I thought I just got the mercy date. I won't bore you with all the relationship details, but basically, whatever long drawn out plans he may have had about how our relationship was supposed to progress, the exact opposite happened. We moved in together before I started my professional coursework, I got pregnant within a month of graduating from college (oops!), and we finally got married a year and a half after that. His plans got tossed right out the window.

So, needless to say, I had been waiting a very long time to get married. Trying to be patient so as to not make him feel pressured (because before DS came into the picture, the timing of the marriage wasn't really a priority). I knew we weren't going to be able to afford a huge grand affair (because we were both starting our careers, and because my family's idea of what a wedding should cost were still stuck back in the 70s when they got married), so the majority was going to be up to us, and we had to make that check stretch. Since we had been together so long, and because I am pretty much anti-organized religion (more childhood issues), I didn't want a big church wedding. I also didn't want to invite everyone we had ever shared oxygen with. He has a huge Italian family. I have a smaller Irish Family, but with his side, things could get out of hand quickly, guest wise. So we settled upon getting married on the Caribbean Princess (coincidentally, it was the original Love Boat, a show I grew up watching and loving). The price range was something we could afford, and if we kept the guest list intimate, we could swing this.

In looking into our wedding options, I really wanted to do something "different". Getting married by the captain in International Waters with just our parents with us on the cruise was really, really appealing, especially since neither one of us wanted a huge wedding blow up. So we ran the idea by our respective parents. Everyone was on board except MIL, who "knew that his sister would be heartbroken if she couldn't come to the wedding". His sister's husband was deployed at the time, and she was living stateside in MO. We/our families were in PA/DE, and wedding is in FL. MIL said that there wasn't a way that SIL could afford the cruise for her and the 3 kiddos (all under the age of 10 at the time), and would I reconsider.....which, of course I did for the sake of future family relationships. THAT part really wasn't a big deal, until everything played out. So we opted to get married on the ship before it took off for the cruise, and several family members joined us. It's what we wanted...our families to spend some time getting to know each other and having fun. So, we invited our parents, our siblings, our grandparents, our Aunts and Uncles (no cousins), and 2 close friend couples (2 for him, 2 for me). Including us and DS, we had 33 people at our wedding. 13/30 joined us for the cruise too, and it was fun having them along.

But, we still had to choose a wedding date. At that time, MIL was the head lunch lady at her school. DH was a young teacher, and also taught summer school during his "summers off". By the time summer school ended, we had 3 free weekends in which to get married before school started up in the fall again. So I'm talking to MIL about dates, and suggest the last weekend in August (27th). She starts hemming and hawing..."what happens if they bring us back to school early (meaning, in late august, before labor day, which never hardly ever happens in the northern states. I think in DS's 11 years in school so far, it's only happened 1x). "I'd be so afraid that they'll bring us back early, and then we won't be able to go to the wedding). No problem. How about August 20th? She starts in with the lamentations again, and that she's 'so afraid' they'll have to go back to school early...seriously...going back on August 29th was UNHEARD OF, let alone AUGUST FRICKIN 22nd!! I told her that our only day left was August 13th, and that was my birthday. Her response: "THAT"S PERFECT!!! That's SIL's and BIL's wedding anniversary too!!"

You've got to be kidding me....the only date that happens to work for you and your unrealistic work based fears is if we get married on MY BIRTHDAY, which also happens to be my future SIL's wedding anniversary? The same SIL that I changed tones of the wedding for so that she could attend with her kids (not a problem. Totally get that request.)

I was ready to chew glass I was so ticked. I am in no way a bridezilla, but I had waited a really long time for this wedding to happen, and now if I want it to happen this year, I have to have it on my birthday AND SHARE a wedding anniversary with my SIL for the rest of our married lives?? Of course it's perfect....for her. But, for the sake of family peace, I gave in again. Some things are more important than dates.

But, before you think that everything's hunky dory with the wedding story, there are 2 addenda. First, due to the nature of our wedding on a cruise ship, Princess needed everyone's DL #s 30 days prior to the wedding. As I'm getting all my info together, I realize I don't have SILs....so I call MIL to see what's up. Remember, we're about 30 days prior to the wedding at this point. "Oh, didn't anyone tell you. SIL can't come to the wedding. She can't afford to fly her and the kids to FL."

(OMG...what???) SIL can't afford the flights to FL (let alone the cruise portion), which is why I changed the whole wedding to one that was on debarkation day rather than being married at sea for the sake of family peace which USED to be totally fine. So, if SIL can't afford flights to FL, she certainly couldn't afford flights to Philly if we were to have a more traditional wedding, so in all likelihood because she's living in MO, she WOULDN"T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GO TO THE WEDDING REGARDLESS of where or how we had it. ANNNNNNNNDDDD, to top it off, SIL didn't RSVP to the wedding, MIL/FIL knew she wasn't going to be able to go to the wedding, I'm not sure if DH knew at the time or not, but NO ONE THOUGHT I MIGHT NEED TO KNOW THAT SIL COULDN"T GO prior to 30 days before we get married?? I was totally put out by how those events played out (if you couldn't tell by my CAPS ON EVERYTHING). I was royally PISSED.

To make matters worse (and I didn't find out about THIS until after the wedding)...FIL wanted to work a full day the Friday before the wedding, and take a late flight to Ft. Lauderdale the night before the wedding. I begged him, and MIL, to take an earlier flight. What if something happened? What if their plane was delayed? Couldn't MIL talk to FIL and help him see that they needed to leave earlier? (That answer is no. Old school Italian macho type FIL, meek and subservient MIL. It was a no-go). Wouldn't you know it? They booked the last flight to leave Philly for Ft. Laudy) and their plane was GROUNDED because the crew had too many hours in the air!!! The closest they could get to Ft. Lauderdale that late at night was Orlando. I was oblivious to all of this going on, and was distracted by family (intentionally, to keep me from losing my mind) to wonder too seriously why DH kept leaving to go talk on his phone. MIL and FIL, after all the bending over backwards I did to ease every little concern or stress they had about the timing/location/venue of the wedding, ALMOST DIDN"T MAKE IT TO THE WEDDING. They landed in Orlando at whatever time, had to rent a car, and got into Ft. Lauderdale at about 6 am. We had to be at the ship at 10:30am for the wedding. Luckily, I found out about this last bit after the wedding and honeymoon were over. And yeah, I still have some very strong feelings about how everything played out. But I do love my MIL, FIL, and SIL. I married into a great family. But DH knows better than to bring up any of my many bones of contention surrounding our wedding plans and the acquiescing I did to make the ILs happy. He just doesn't get it. I think it's due to the fact that he has a Y chromosome. Probably the same bone-headed Y chromosome his father has.

 

[mdsouth]

HI! jagafen! I am happy I found your Pre-TR. I am planning a trip back myself for June/July 2020. My last trip to WDW was six years ago. So, I am trying to get my head around all the new changes and what we can really accomplish in the five days we are there.

We have a few things in common. I am a middle school teacher, so I totally get your DH schedule and how stressful your and his jobs can be. I, too, have a sixteen year old who will be 17 when we go this summer. I had to laugh at your description of your son and his reactions to the planning and how he is most often "squirreled away" in his room! That part is totally my daughter! I mean I will be talking to her about sitting down and watching a movie or tv show of her choice together and then next thing I know she is not even in the same room as me but back in her room.

Also in our party are DS, Alex-16, 17 at trip time. He's "meh" about everything. Typical teenaged boy who likes to sing, and got to perform at Disney Springs last February, which was parlayed into a 4 day park excursion plus one day of singing break from school. I don't see much of him either because when he's not working, he's squirreled away in his room. Whenever I try to get him involved in trip planning, I get "I don't care...." as a response. He just doesn't understand that a little bit of planning goes a long way, especially if you're talking about a Disney vacation.

I am actually surprising my DD with this trip on her birthday in March. We will be going to both Disney and then a few days at Universal, because she has been wanting to go to Universal for years to see the HP stuff and was originally scheduled to go to Universal in Dec/Jan with her marching band but the band trip was cancelled. So, I decided to plan this trip for us. Right now my older son, 23 is planned to go along too but might not get to if he cannot get off of work.

Anywhoo,

I appreciate hearing about your backstory and how you came to have the same birthday and anniversary. Unbelievable!!! What an angel you must be with a lot of patience!
Your plans for the Chef's Table at Victoria and Albert sounds perfect for your anniversary!
So exciting that you were able to get the reservation!

Happy planning! Today, I am home sick . The flu is going around and I had to leave school yesterday when I became sick. I think what I actually have though is a bad sinus infections since last night I was feeling much better. I decided to stay home today just to make sure before I am back at school around all the germs.

So, I told myself I would use the time home today to work on my lesson plans/grading. But somehow, I found my way to the DIS instead.

 

[jagafen]

I am actually surprising my DD with this trip on her birthday in March.

I appreciate hearing about your backstory and how you came to have the same birthday and anniversary. Unbelievable!!! What an angel you must be with a lot of patience!
Your plans for the Chef's Table at Victoria and Albert sounds perfect for your anniversary!
So exciting that you were able to get the reservation!

Happy planning! Today, I am home sick .

So, I told myself I would use the time home today to work on my lesson plans/grading. But somehow, I found my way to the DIS instead.

We do have a bit in common, don't we? When is your DD birthday? I only ask because DS's is March 12th...so right around the corner!

I appreciate the support with MIL and the birthday/anniv issue. DH truly does not understand why it was such a big deal, and why it continues to bother me to this day.

I'm super excited about the Chef's Table too. I just hope I"m able to pull off my little white lie with DH until the night of...of course, the reservation shows up as "Chef's Table" in the Disney App, so we'll see.

I'm sorry to hear you're feeling under the weather. It's an inservice day at work today, and I just finished with my madatories, so that leaves the rest of the day for the Dis...

Oh, and as far as planning and catching up on things, for us the only MAJOR change was fastpass+ and how to schedule them to the most benefit. I"ve found a site that's new to me for this trip that I really like...called mouse hacking. They have fastpass+ strategy guides for each park that I"ve pinned for reading a bit closer to our trip. I can't remember if we're allowed to post links or not, but I think it's

www.mousehacking.com

 

[mdsouth]

My daughter's birthday is March 25th. So our kids are about two weeks apart in age.

It will be interesting to see if your hubby doesn't realize you will be eating at the chef's table until the day of. If not the day of, he might not figure it out until you are at Disney and he is looking more closely at the app.

Thanks for the tip about mousehaking. I will have to check it out!

Have a nice day!

 

[jagafen]

Persistence pays off....we had a really early for dinner ADR at Sci-Fi on our first HS day...I've been checking at least 1x/day to see if we could switch it, but available times were only at 4:30 and 7:10. Today I lucked out and was able to bump our 4:55 to 5:30!! We have Oga's at 2:00 previously--I just changed that to 1:30, one of the boys will be at Savi's at 3:30, and with a 4:55 ADR, I was concerned that if our future boarding pass for RotR was called at 2:00, we or the boys would have had a tough time making it. It's also a good chance to practice working reservations around, prepping for our FP+ day!

 

[mdsouth]

Nice work! I have been juggling around my ADRs too. I can't imagine how much pressure I am going to be under when my fastpass date arrives. I need to try to figure out a game plan on what ones I am going to try for first.

Smugglers RunMillenium Falcon (This ride is a big one for my brother and his boys),

If I will just be getting fastpasses for me and my two kids than our priorities will be different.
I am thinking Flight of Passage first, Ratatouille (iif it is open and will have fastpasses)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Slinky Dog Dash

and then our regulars
Test Track
Peter Pan
RockNRoller Coaster

What will be your top fastpasses to get?

 

[jagafen]

I can't imagine how much pressure I am going to be under when my fastpass date arrives. I need to try to figure out a game plan on what ones I am going to try for first. What will be your top fastpasses to get?

I am keeping my fingers crossed BIG TIME that any of this will be available come FP+ day. If I come up empty handed for any of the "big ones" our plan is to rope drop those sections of the park and secure FPs for the other attractions. Big on our list are:

FoP or Navi (AK is our 3rd park day, so not sure if it'll even be available)
Smuggler's or SDD (we have 2 to 2 1/2 HS park days, 3 of which are mornings, so I'm hopeful that something is available. It'd be great if I could get one of each for different mornings!)

That's basically it for our "big FPs". Other than that, we're looking for Soarin', Test Track, Mission Space, RNR, TSM, Startours, TOT, EE, Kali, and Safari. I don't forsee any of those being an issue. The fun part will be booking our party of 4 as 2 parties of 2 for some of the FPs. And I really love the kiddo we're bringing with us, but he wants FPs for shows, but I'm not booking FPs for shows for him. There are enough showtimes that they can work those into their day around rides and meals and whatnot.

 

[jagafen]

So....guess what? I was able to sell DH on the idea of the CL FP program, and it looks like we're going to bite the bullet and spring for this for our upcoming trip. As a gesture of good will, I cancelled my hair and makeup appointment in the spa for our V&A dinner. I can't justify (to myself) spending that kind of money on my hair and makeup when we're talking about throwing a hefty chunk of change at CL FPs. Our trip is relatively short for us at Disney, and as a bonus perk, the regular FPs we book on the days we use the CL program can also be booked by DSS at roughly the 90 day mark (From checkout) as well! So, out of our 4 1/2 day trip, 3 days will be covered by the CL FP program, which will take a huge weight off my shoulders regarding securing high demand FPs!

 

[mdsouth]

The CL Fastpasses will be a huge advantage and definite stress reliever. And I agree, I think the benefits will out way the cost of giving up your spa appointment.

 

[jagafen]

Since most of our pre-planning is done, outside of me incessantly tweaking preferred FP times in prep for booking (April 30th, so I have plenty of time to obsess about the details!!), I've been trying to insert a bit of magic here and there for the trip. And, by Magic, I mean I've been doing a bit of shopping!! Here are some of the items I've picked up in preparation. A huge shout out to Etsy, as I've been perusing the wares, and loving the selection of unique items!!

To perk up our magic bands, mickey head decals. I'm going to bling mine out with AB crystals. DH's patronus is Yoda, so that was an easy decision. DS is a typical Slytherin, has always rooted for the bad guy, so the Death Star was an easy choice. To balance out the Empire, I got Billy the resistance symbol for his.

 

[jagafen]

Since we're piggy backing a trip to Universal onto this one, we'll be using lanyards on that half of the trip. We all have lanyards from our last trip (Ravenclaw for me, Slytherin for DS, Avengers symbols for DH, and I bought a Groot one for Billy) Even though I like the idea of Magic Bands, in general, I don't like a lot of thick clunkiness on my wrist.

Billy's favorite Marvel movie is Guradians of the Galaxy. He LOVES Starlord! So I bought him this Groot Lanyard, and paid less than $4.50 for it to boot!

 

[jagafen]

I found a seller on Etsy who makes "magic band buddies", that'll go PERFECTLY for our dual purpose trip! You simply unscrew the mickey head center, and secure it in here, and wear it around your neck rather than on your wrist.

DH's favorite Marvel Character is Hawkeye, and it's a bit on the tougher side to find Hawkeye "things" than it is the other characters. So when I was window shopping, and saw that this seller had Hawkeye stuff, it was a no brainer. DS wanted something bad guyish, and I wanted it to coordinate with his Slytherin colors, so he chose the empire symbol over darth vader. Billy, of course, needs Groot in his life, and I just went with a blue minnie head to coordinate with my Ravenclaw colors.

 

[jagafen]

Since I'll bling out my Magic band, I of course needed matching accessories:

The necklace is the one on the right, but I had it customized to match the earrings (which matches my magic band icon), with clear AB swavorski crystals for the ears and head (no black). Of course, then I needed the perfect first day tank top, which I found and bought in hot pink.

 

[jagafen]

The last finishing touch was matching scrunchies for some of my park tank tops:

 

[jagafen]

And of course, I needed to up my jewlery game for Universal. I already have Raven claw earrings and neckalce (if I decide to wear them). But since Hawkeye stuff is so hard to find, in general, these were a must have once I found them! The necklace is a tip of the hat to the one Black Widow wears.

 

[mdsouth]

I like how you think! I, too, am at that tweaking the details part of planning. The part of planning that really can get me in trouble with the budget, tee hee!

I like how you have modified the magic bands and matched lanyards for each personality of your family. I have our magic bands already, a few custom ones with the ten dollar upgrades and a few plain ones. We still have our plan ones from our last trip, so I am thinking about decorating the bands. I have to make sure the new Mickey head pucks fit our old bands first. I haven't gotten them out to really look at them. I think they are since I think when we went in 2014, it was when they were first releasing the new pucks and I remember all the talk about whether people would be getting the old or new bands for their trips. We got the new ones. Since it has been six years now, I am sure the batteries are not active any longer. Maybe I will have a quiet weekend this coming weekend to have some fun playing around with them.

Your posts have inspired me to start planning my outfits and accessories! It has been too long since I was last there. I have my t-shirts still but I think I need some new t-shirts, don't you?

 

[jagafen]

Your posts have inspired me to start planning my outfits and accessories! It has been too long since I was last there. I have my t-shirts still but I think I need some new t-shirts, don't you?

OF COURSE you do!! Although, I'm a HUGE shopping enabler, so if you weren't looking for a "yes", you might not want to ask me next time! I try to not go too crazy, but Disney and Universal are the 2 places that it's totally ok to geek/nerd out on the daily. I have a couple of tank tops that I'm reusing from our last trip to Universal, but my Disney stash needed to be replaced (I've lost a bit of weight, and am slowly trying to re-size my wardrobe). In general, I don't sport Disney wear in my regular wardrobe, but I will wear Star Wars and Superhero stuff to work (I work with kids). In the florida summer though, I want TANKS, not Ts!