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Adventureland Girls

Sharing our love of all things Disney

Trip Planning: Working with non-planners

One question I see a lot and I happen to be at an expert with: Planning around a non-planner, and planning for a group. In this article I’m going to address the non-planner aspect including challenges, strategies, and best tips that I’ve been using for 20+ years!

The first thing to address is the trip basics:
• Agree on when you’re going/approximate duration
• Agree on the general pace/theme of trip
• Know the people and their general preferences

Before you try to plan a trip for any size group, you need to know the who/what/why aspects. Knowing some basic information is going to go a long way! For example I know thanks to 20+ years of travel with him what my husband generally enjoys and what he considers to be torture. I know what our family likes with regards to hotels and transportation, and what stresses us out. [Read more…]

Countdown to Disney Calendar

From dining reservations to making payments on a cruise – as the main planner of the family I always have a calendar with dates, sticky notes, and reminders. But what about when the trip starts to get close? When you can really get excited? That’s when a Disney countdown calendar comes in handy!

First let’s talk DIY options – here are a few we have done:

  • Countdown “chain” – make loops of cardstock, chain them together, remove a link each day until it’s time to go!
  • Countdown sign – make two sets of 0-9 numbers and “count down” moving the day down each new day. Not a favorite but it works
  • Printed calendar to hang on wall (DIY tutorial for this option in this post!)
  • Simply marking the important countdown dates in a planner/family calender

Our favorite is a colorful and visual “countdown” calendar. You can use a ruler to draw your own, print a template, or what we did was to print 5 rows x 7 column EXCEL sheets to create approximately 95 days of counting down fun. This was by far the fastest easiest option to give us a blank template to play with.

note: we did make one whooooops (see above: there is only 1 square for 11 & 12…) but we left it. These things work out!

Once printed the “how-to” steps go like so:

  1. Tape together the sheets (if multiple used) so the squares line up.
  2. Add the numbers for countdown (hand drawn, stickers, stamps, etc)
  3. Add stickers and decorative elements
  4. Hang it up, and count it down!

We created a short YouTube video to share this process as well.

What we like about this is that it is fun, easy, and quick as well! It also lets us use up random crafty stickers and have a visual reminder of the vacation we are excited for.

You might notice this countdown is to Europe – we’re very excited to be in the final months before our trip to Disneyland Paris and a Disney Cruise! We have a lot of videos and blog posts planned about that trip including packing, character meals, and everything in between.

For this project one more thing I will note: If you want you can also include “Disney themed days” or plans. For example 101 Dalmatians, or watching Frozen 32 days (aka freezing!) prior. 7 days to go Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs… you get the idea!

If you have your own countdown traditions or ideas we would love to hear them. Share here!

Aulani: DVC room options

While guests at Aulani we have tried the standard hotel room, studio, and 1 bedroom villa. We don’t think you can go wrong – we’ve yet to have a bad stay. Today I will go through the options and show you some photos as well.

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Disneyland Paris: Planning part 1

We are counting down to our first trip to Europe where we will begin in Disneyland Paris. After the trip we will of course share our tips, tricks, and reports! For now, I want to share how we began to plan, sort, and decide what would work well for us and our family.

Step #1: Visit Disneyland Paris website 

This gave us a baseline: what special events are happening? What rides are available? What are the restaurants? Hotels? No decisions are being made at this point – we just tried to get to know this new to us park. Some basics we learned:

  • the hotel rooms booked online come with length of stay 2 park tickets
  • you get 1 fastpass (can’t use between 1-4pm) per night of your stay + there are regular fastpasses to get as well
  • you can call (France) + put a deposit down. Otherwise if booking online must pay 100% of the package
  • The 25th anniversary will still be going on when we visit
  • They have “half board” which is breakfast + 1 other meal/night of stay and not just the full dining plan like Disney. MUCH better system in my book as it doesn’t limit you nearly as much.
  • Dining can be booked (by calling) 60 days in advance at most

photo credit: DisneylandParis.com

Step #2: Visit Google Maps

This will show you the best views of the area – and give you a great idea of “off site” places to stay as well as restaurants, where the hotels really are in relation to parks, etc. It showed us the shopping mall/area just one train stop down from Disney, towns around the area, places to get to from said RER train (more on that another time!), and more. It also helped firm up our hotel choice.

Step 3: Decide how long & how much money to spend

You can do a single day whirlwind tour, or you could spend a week in a suite overlooking main street. What will it be? Whatever you do – don’t ask random internet folks what you should do because it will depend on your family, your love of Disney, your budget, and more! We decided 2 nights in the Disneyland Hotel. While more expensive, it puts us literally at the entrance to the parks and since this is likely a once of a lifetime trip – we decided it was worthwhile.

Ah, curve ball. The offer was “buy 2, get 2 free” meaning 2 free nights + 2 free park ticket days so the price of 2 nights was the exact same as 4. What to do? We will have kids miss last few days of school and are adding on days to come a bit earlier! We will also do some 1/2 day trips with that extra time – more on that in another article!

photo credit: DisneylandParis.com 

Step 4: Find some good resources 

It is tougher to find info vs Disney World… but it is out there. I follow a facebook group (Daniel Potter) that is absolutely FILLED with kind helpful folks many of which are annual passholders who happily share the most random details. I’ve learned a ton from them – and continue to do so just by checking in a few times a week, seeing what’s being asked, and asking my own questions. I also found some Disneyland Paris official and unofficial accounts to follow on Instsagram, and I do look for blog content including the official Disney Parks Blog as well.

Step 5: Work out your itinerary/details

This is where we are now. Working on what restaurants we “must” go to, sorting out our ride priorities, deciding on the details.

If you have any questions or things you’d especially like to know about or for us to cover – do tell! We are excited to bring you more planning, coverage, and details from our own adventures.

Akershus: Epcot Princess dining

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner time you can find assorted princesses dining at both Cinderella’s Royal Table (Magic Kingdom) and Akershus (Epcot: Norway pavillion). Which one to choose? On our last visit to Disney World we ended up having a meal at each place and our consensus was unanimous.

For lunch or dinner, either one is wonderful!

While both offer breakfast, we aren’t big breakfast eaters and far prefer to have a mid day (or evening) “sit down” break for an hour or so and we find that often it works in lieu of a “back to the hotel for a rest” break. So how does it work, and what do we like about Akershus? In this article I will dive into the ins and outs of the experience. What do the girls think? Here is a link to their YouTube video.

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