Tag Archives: merchandise

Shop Disney!

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As Christmas approaches the shops start stocking gifts and goodies that not only do we want to buy for others but also buy as treats for ourselves…The Disney Store is no exception!!

There’s nothing better than preparing for those cosy, winter evenings in front of the Christmas tree than by picking up a new pair of pajamas covered in a cheery seasonal print.

These leggings are currently available on The Disney Store UK website and in The Disney Store shops. There are two tops also available in similar designs but if you’re anything like me you already have several t-shirts from the parks which you can wear with them!

The adult sizes range from XXS to XL on the website, our Disney Store had sizes from XS to XL in stock. You can either buy a size to fit snugly as leggings or buy a size up to have them slightly baggier. The ankles are elasticated; meaning that even if you’re short like me you won’t be tripping over them as you walk around the house!

I really like the pattern, it’s very festive and features on other items available in the range too.

A good quality sleepwear item, and at £10 it’s a treat which will help with those winter daydreams! :)

 

 

Shop Disney!

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My regular readers will be fully aware by now as to how much I like shopping….and how much I LOVE Disney shopping! So this week I’m pleased to finally announce a new category of posts dedicated to shopping Disney! :)

There are many blogs and websites out there which cover recently released Disney merchandise, available at Disney parks and online. My posts will feature Disney items which I have actually bought; whether it’s from a shop, online or from a visit to the parks. It might be something that’s available in the UK or worldwide. I’ll be giving you details of where it was purchased, how much it cost and what I think of the item now that it’s mine!

 

The first ‘Shop Disney’ item I would like to share is this super cute sweatshirt, made by Mango. It costs £22.99 and is available on-line at asos.com.

Now if you’re not into the current trend of wearing your sweatshirts ‘fitted’ just buy a larger size. I picked up a Large and it’s roomy enough to wear over a t-shirt when I need something a little warmer.

The sweatshirt is great quality and definitely worth the reasonable price. I really love the artistic design on this top, it makes it a little different from the standard Minnie and Mickey cartoon designs. 

 

So that’s the first article in the ‘Shop Disney’ feature. I’ll be sharing all kinds of future purchases from collectibles to clothes and kitchenware. If I buy it and it’s Disney….then you’ll get to read about it!!! ;)

 

All fine for the Food and Wine!

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This October will see my first ever visit to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Now this Walt Disney World special event is a huge hit with guests; many making it the reason they return to WDW at this time of year, every year.

As you all know I like to read about Disney A LOT so it comes as no surprise that I’ve spent years reading details about past Food & Wine Festivals and have a pretty good understanding of what actually happens during the event. But do I know how to go about actually attending the event myself AND getting the best out of my visit? With so much information available it can actually make it difficult to know what you need to remember, and know what you can afford to forget!

And that is where the Disney Food Blog and the DFB Guides come to your rescue! These guides are downloadable and can be used at home or on the go. So far the collection includes the DFB Guide to WDW Dining 2012, the DFB Mini-Guide to Epcot Snacks, the DFB Mini-Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks and the DFB Dining Adventures: Magic Kingdom.

 

 

So when I heard that there was a DFB Mini-Guide to the 2012 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival I just knew that this would have the answers to all my questions and more!

Firstly….who knows why it’s called a ‘mini’ guide…with over 160 pages of details and photos covering everything there is to know about the Festival! There’s an introduction giving an overview of all the happenings at the event, then chapters on the International Marketplace Booths, Special and Signature Events, Seminars, Celebrity Chefs, Eat to The Beat, RunDisney events and Frequently Asked Questions.

I found the guide really easy to follow and the linked index at the beginning takes you straight to the information you’re looking for…it’s so much easier than having to spend time searching through several websites trying to piece the information together.

The guide makes you feel like you know what’s going to be happening when you arrive at Epcot and makes you think in advance about how you want to experience the event. I particularly like the Festival Touring Strategies and the World Showcase Booth Crawls….I’m a fan of anything that helps me plan my time!

But do you know? Even if I wasn’t able to attend the Festival this year I think that this e-book would still make a good read for any Disney fanatic wanting to learn more about the different happenings at the World. I picked up the original DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining last year; not because I had started planning my 2012 ADR’s already but because I just wanted to read more about WDW dining!

So there you have it…I have my DFB Mini-Guide and I’m all fine for the Food and Wine!! ;)

 

 

 

Stay on target!

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I decided that it was time to get back to our vacation planning. Last time I left you with ‘the great wait‘…I hope you’ve filled your time wisely because we now have only two months before our trip! ;)

It’s around this time that I like to triple check my passport to make sure it’s in date, double-check my travel insurance has been booked for the right dates and re-visit that ESTA website to check that I’m allowed into the USA!

And now….it’s time to start thinking about packing!!!! Yes, yes, I know that you think that I’m a little bit loopy but I like to occupy my time with these things and I can assure you that this is a tried and tested practice….go with me here…..

Your luggage restrictions will be dependent on your airline; you may be allowed one or two suitcases per passenger, hand luggage allowances vary but nearly all airlines these days are strict on weight limits for bags.

Now if you are a crazy Disney shopper like me you may have experienced that sinking feeling on the last day of your vacation; looking at everything in your hotel room that needs to go back in that suitcase which was perfectly suitable for the job on the way over to Florida but now you’re hoping that somehow when you zip up that case the items will weigh half as much as when you squeezed them in.

Combine that with the fact that I never travel light when it comes to make up, hair products, medicines etc. I can guarantee that at the beginning of the trip those toiletries were taking up as much room in my suitcase as my clothes for the two weeks!! And you know those cute little travel sized bottles you can get, there’s never enough in those for two weeks!

And so, over the last few years I have come up with a two-fold fail safe packing method! Firstly I have my digital luggage scale. How did I ever travel without this amazing gadget?!  Simply hook it onto your suitcase, get someone strong enough to lift the handle plus suitcase, wait for the beep and then pray that the digital screen is showing less than your airline’s weight limit :)

 

The other part of the packing method comes into play about two months before my trip. When I’m out doing my regular shopping I’ll start picking up the toiletries which I need for my trip; just the everyday stuff like shampoo, conditioner etc. But instead of buying just the one I buy two of each item….that’s why it’s good to start a while before your trip, you can spread the cost out that way.

So let’s use shampoo for this example. I will have already worked out approximately how much shampoo I use in two weeks….I know it’s more than can ever be contained in a cute travel bottle!! I will start to use one of the bottles of shampoo at home and once I have roughly that amount left in my bottle it goes into the ‘vacation’ storage. I then start to use the other unopened bottle at home as normal. I then repeat this process for all the toiletries I need to take on my vacation, bearing in mind that this only works for things that will not perish in the time between opening and vacation.

When you are ready to pack for your vacation your toiletry items will weigh less than full bottles and can be thrown out when you pack for your return journey home, as the product should just about be finished and you know that you have another bottle waiting at home which you can continue to use until your next post-vacation trip to the shops. Therefore creating more space and less weight in your luggage for all those Disney goodies….and you’re not throwing away unused product in the desperate hope of meeting your weight limit!!

Okay, so I’ve shared my bizarre packing routine….what do you do to make sure all that Disney shopping comes home with YOU???

 

 

The great wait….

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So we’ve researched, planned, booked and now what? ….We…..wait…….

My planning posts have been about us Disney fans who plan and book our trips to Walt Disney World months and often years in advance. It’s great, I love it that way, the build up is totally part of the vacation process for me.

At first it’s all about the researching and making decisions on when to go and where to stay. Once the vacation is booked we research dining and the parks, awaiting the release of the park hours and our ADR window. At the same time as booking our ADR’s we set up our draft daily itinerary and book behind the scene tours. There’s a flurry of activity and it finally sinks in that we are returning to the World.

And then….comes ‘the great wait’….

I’ve spoken to others who have experienced the same. There is a period in our WDW countdown when all we can do is wait it out. Once all the plans have been made around the 180 day mark, and maybe you’ve tweaked a few of your ADR’s, there’s nothing else to do until you get to a month or so before your departure date.

Sure you keep reading the daily Disney news, re-checking park hours, special events and restaurant menus but there is a time where you cannot actually do anything other than wait.

News might come out about special events but they will be over before your trip, news might come out about merchandise being released in the parks but you can’t get too excited as it might be gone before you get there. News about future changes to attractions might be released but often the dates are so vague you don’t know if you need to take the changes into account until a few weeks or even days before your trip.

Now I’m not saying that this wait is necessarily a bad thing…it just seems to be a natural stage of the WDW planning process, something that many of us have experienced….a time when we have to be patient ;)

But don’t worry, the great wait will end. And then the real countdown begins. Then we’ll be able to start thinking about printing off that final itinerary, preparing our vacation clothing, buying our toiletries and magazines for the plane….and soon enough it will be our time to travel to the magic :)

So what about you? Have you experienced ‘the great wait’ whilst waiting for your Disney vacation to arrive???

 

 

Oh….THAT Phineas and Ferb!

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So in last week’s post I admitted to not really knowing a lot about Phineas and Ferb, and how I thought I had better change that before my next trip to Walt Disney World.

It was great to get so many comments from Phineas and Ferb fans…and yes, it’s clear that adults are the biggest fans out there!!

I watched a few episodes and I enjoyed how colourful and fast paced the stories are. There were a couple of times when I thought ‘huh, why did Agent P do that?’ but then I reminded myself that this is all about imagination…it’s okay to forget logic for fifteen minutes!!

And just like it was planned to link into my blog post, on May 16 the official Disney Parks Blog posted an update regarding the Phineas and Ferb experience coming to Epcot’s World Showcase this June. I am looking forward to seeing how this new game is introduced to World Showcase and whether a newcomer to the Phineas and Ferb storylines will be able to enjoy the experience as much as the ‘serious’ fan!

I feel that I should also add that because of this little ‘adventure’ for my blog I have also discovered another new cartoon character in the last week….and yes, I know it’s been around since 2010 but bear with me!!! Whilst checking the programme listings for the Disney XD channel the title of a cartoon caught my eye….Kick Buttowski…. With such a clever and cool name I knew I had to check this programme out…and now I am hooked!

I love the rockin’ theme tune and the fact that Kick keeps throwing the horns (non-rock fans may want to ask a teenager for reference)! Now…if this guy was appearing in the parks I would be super excited……anyone know of any hidden merch?!

And this is why I’m so passionate about Disney. We all get interested and hooked on different things. Why does one thing click with one person and not another? It might be a song, a character, a reference to something in your ‘non-Disney’ life which you can relate to…who knows? But with Disney in our lives we can discover new and simple things everyday…and yes, it also helps us to not take life too seriously ;)

 

 

Just who are Phibeas and Fern?!

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Okay…so I know that it’s really Phineas and Ferb….but who are they???

I spend so much of my time (yes, probably TOO much of my time) reading Disney related news and trying to retain as much knowledge as I can for my next trip to the World. I know which attractions have changed since my last visit, what time fireworks and parades will occur (and not just at 3 o’clock), which snacks are now on sale in the parks and all kinds of other useful information!

But just sometimes there will be changes made in the parks that leave you a little puzzled about your next visit….and this is where Phineas and Ferb come in!

Being a big kid myself means that I have a pretty good grasp on what’s cool (is it even okay to say ‘cool’ anymore?) and what’s not….I also now have an 18 month old nephew who I can rely on to educate me on the cartoons all the kids are watching. For example the other day he introduced me to Jake and the Neverland Pirates…well, he sat on my lap whilst I watched my first ever episode…Jake is one pretty cool pirate :)

During 2011 I had read about Phineas and Ferb ‘meet and greets’ being introduced to the Disney parks, nothing unusual there…we’re all used to seeing new characters being brought into WDW for the younger generations. But along with the abundance of Phineas and Ferb merchandise on sale in the parks, earlier this year Disney announced that Kim Possible would be leaving her World Showcase Adventure in Epcot  and Agent P would be taking her place.

The official Disney Parks Blog posted the following:

“Coming this summer, ‘Disney Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure’ is based on the wily secret-agent alter-ego of Perry the Platypus – faithful pet to the title characters from Disney’s animated series ‘Phineas & Ferb’. Although just a simple pet to Phineas and Ferb, Perry turns into Agent P in each episode to help stop the misguided plans of his nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz.”

So this is the point where I ask not only who are Phineas and Ferb, but should I know who Agent P is too?!

And so, in the interest of daydreamingdisney.com…and perhaps my sanity as a Disney expert….during the next seven days I will be watching several episodes of Phineas and Ferb.

Will I love it and want to buy all the merch I can find at WDW? Will I hate it and run screaming from the Phineas and Ferb characters in Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Watch this space and you’ll find out next week….. ;)

Retail therapy Disney style!

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Shopping at Walt Disney World is great. Shopping at Walt Disney World for Christmas is AWESOME!!

There are a couple of shops on property which sell Christmas items all year round (Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Magic Kingdom, Days of Christmas in Downtown Disney) but in November and December nearly every shop in the parks and resorts is bursting with holiday goodies.

I especially like picking up Christmas items which have a year on them, this way each Christmas when the item is put on display (or worn) it will remind me of my WDW trip that year.

This is a dated Vinylmation which I picked up last December, produced for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.

This is my favourite tshirt from my WDW collection. Although red isn’t my usual colour it’s just so festive, I like the play on words and the fact that it reminds me of my trip in 2005.

And then I have my mug from 2001. This was originally filled with soda and bought outside the Fantasmic area. Retro yet?

I tend to go a little bit crazy with shopping when I’m visiting the World and with all the Christmas merchandise I find it difficult to know when to stop! Unfortunately I’ll miss out on my WDW shopping this December but the Disney Parks Blog kindly published a ‘Disney Theme Park Merchandise Holiday Guide’ this week. It appears you can even phone them quoting the product number and they will ship it to you…..yes….the little voice in my head has already told me to put down the guide and step away from the phone!!!