If feels like we have waited forever to celebrate Halloween in all of its glory that we are accustomed too. This year, since we were unsure how the cruises would be operating, we opted to still sprinkle in the Disney magic with our usual Halloween loving madness. We have had our reservations for the Fort Wilderness Cabins (Halloween weekend had long been booked) since April or May of this year. To say we are excited is an understatement. Here are just a few of our bags and by a few I mean just the decoration bags ::cue face palm emoji.
We are doing the Boo Bash the night that we check-in so between decorating the cabins, decorating the golf cart and getting ourselves ready for the ngiht's festivities, it is bound to be a VERY busy and exhasting albeit super fun day.
How it started...this one lonesome bag
Obviously when one travels for Halloween they bring a light-up Darth Vader Pumpkin. We also have lights for the railing outside, I have had the mylar balloons from Target (Bullseye of course) for years, the Zak plates for the kids are from Target and the fun lights in the purple packaging are from the Dollar Tree. Please note the outside extension cord with multiple outlets ::cue facepalm emoji::
What can be found in the second 'decorating' bag below....lets all take a collective sigh for me, huh?!
Obviously the movie projector, the movie screen kit is for the inside of the cabin, I am not really sure if it will work, but it was only $30 and looked super fun and I have plans for indoor 'camping' nights' at our house regardless if my plan does not work. That dirty grill pan is exactly for what you would imagine, the Halloween sticker and coloring books were from the Dollar Tree (it is Florida so you never know if it is going to rain or if the kids need a second something to occupy themselves with), The Haunted Mansion golden book and 5 minute Halloween stories are both from Target (they are doing a big book sale now). I thought it would be fun to read Disney Halloween stories at night. Also as mentioned, I had gotten extra paper decorations from the Bullseye that I packed that we could decorate the kitchen with.
The Booing kit is for the Glow-In-The-Dark halloween buckets. Although the Boo Fairy has already visited, I did get them some treats specifically for the cabin.
No matter the Holiday or Celebration, I always get them new pajamas, so the above are for the first two nights that we are there. The Mickey ghost pajamas (HERE) I got off Amazon but were ShopDisney last year (I bought them full-price then), but on Amazon, they were only $15 (crazy, they are now $35) and are the real deal and the Mickey and Minnie below (HERE and HERE) are from Target.
I got the stake for the ground for only $1 at the Dollar Tree and the Flashlights and Playpacks (my kids love these) are from Target. Parenting Tip: remember to bring batteries if you need them. I always have four of each AA and AAA just in case in a ziploc bag. I also bring travel scissors and tape. These things are normally the first things I pack since they are the most easy to forget as why would I ever pack those things normally?!
Fun light up headbands. I figure for nighttime and walking around the campgrounds they would be fun as well as I would be able to easily spot my kids. Unless other parents have the same idea and well then just be prepared that EV is at the age that she talks NON-STOP. I will have her cabin number written on her t-shirt if you need to return her post-haste. There is also our Amazon Firestick because that is what our projector uses as well as our Bluetooth speaker....watch out Dune...we are coming for you strong.
How the bags have begun multiplying...and collecting...yes, that Mickey bat backpack is my purse (I have been waiting a year to use as I bought it in November last year and have been saving it) and yes, it glows in the dark...
vs. How its going...
Why yes are those two adirondack chairs and a table for kids that we got over the Summer from Bullseye?! Are these really essential and necessary are you asking yourself?! Don't you worry...you will see why in one second.
This does not even include our actual bags with our actual clothes of which there is one for each, an activity backpack that goes with the diaper bag in the stroller or our food/snack bag ( we plan to order Wild Forks to grill why we are at the cabins), an ear bag because EV and I are extra or room essentials (this contains all of the diapers, a big thing of wipes, cleaning products for the room, emergency kit, an overnight kit, travel fans and other travel essenials (cutlery, bento boxes, packing cubes, laundry bages, etc, masks.). Please note the ever important refillable popcorn bucket.
If you are interested in what this 'typically' looks like, here is a sneak peak into the bag.
As I am packing this and for the first time ever, I am kind of embaressed about the amount we are bringing and that is when Sean meanders in and drops the suggestion that we bring our inflatable movie screen since Dune will be released while we are there. Want to see what our inflatable movie screen looks like?!
No joke, it is half the size of our house.
He is dead serious about bringing it...and then proceeded to add that this is why we got a Pacifica, so that we did not have to hinder what we brought with us to Disney...this is why...the man who is the king of minimalism is all about now bringing an inflatable larger than life screen to the campgrounds...
How can I complain about his one request (although not really a request) when right now these are our bags that are housing our clothes which does not even cover the 'costumes' which are in the ever so famous 'costume' garment bag and by our clothes, I mean strictly mean mine and the kids. There was a miscommunication between my MIL and myself over Boo Bash Costumes vs Halloween. She is planning to do Agatha All Along which is adorable and I had already purchased Wanda and Vision costumes from the always amazing Taylor Joelle Designs for the kiddos to go with her. However, she kept referencing Halloween, so I thought she meant that we were doing it for actual Halloween and I had gone ahead and planned a Beauty and the Beast theme for us for Boo Bash. Come to realize that Halloween WAS Boo Bash to her and then had to reconvene new ideas with Sean to cover up the mishap and pronto.
We are now taking the Beauty and the Beast outfits (seen below) for our Capture Your Moment since I still love the idea of theming our Capture Your Moment as the Halloween edition.
Since we had very little time at this point to throw something together (thank goodness for Amazon Prime), Sean and I decided that rather than go the Avenger route, we would take the Disney Plus route and do our takes on Variants from Loki. I found THIS dress on Amazon for $10 and I am absolutely amazed (UPDATE: it looks like it has gone up to $20, but it is still an amazing deal). The quality and the fit are fantastic (TTS: I got an XS- I am 4'11 and weigh 105 pounds) and the color is spot on. I actually love it enough that I see myself wearing it again (I love vintage rockabilly type dresses) and think it would be perfect for Christmas pictures as well. I also ordered THESE lady Loki (Sylvie for those who watch it) horns. Again, I paid around $25 for these, but with it being so close to Halloween, it looks like the price has raised to $33 (which seems to be the normal price on Amazon and I was just lucky to get them at the lower cost of what I did). They are pretty comfortable and I found them worth the price. The caveat being that if you wear glasses, it does take some finnagling and it doesn't lay as flat as I would like on one side because of my glasses, but I think once I do my hair and play with the positioning, it should be fine and if not, I am in a really cute dress and the horns will look lovely on the stroller. Just to give you an idea of what we put together...
I made Sean a Variant shirt using THIS shirt from Target and THIS SVG and it came out really cute. I also had to purchase THIS HTV to make sure the coloring was to Sean's specifications and I put the TVA logo on the front of the shirt. I felt really satisfied with how it all came together (and considering how stressed the change of plans made me) considering we had a 2-3 week window to make it work. It may seem like a lot of time, but you will notice that although Prime is attached to a lot of items on Amazon that not everything will get delivered in 'prime' timeframe, which was the case of both the horns and dress. Most importantly, I wanted to make sure that I had enough time to readjust if necessary or if I hated the way everything looked. Luckily, everything worked out.
Pay no mind to the usual heaps of clothes behind me that I needed to pack.
As mentioned, for our Capture Your Moment at the Magic Kingdom (I am still shocked we were able to get this) we went with our initial Boo Bash outfits of Beauty and the Beast. Sean's Gaston t-shirt came from HERE (I do not think this is the exact one we got since ours does not have chest hair lol, but same concept), Commodore and EV's of course came from Taylor Joelle Designs and my dress is a super old Mrs. Potts DressShop dress from the Character Warehouse (it is actually a children's size) that I believe I had gotten for around $25.
Commodore's t-shirts are pretty much all SVG's that I got on Etsy and made myself. The only one that is not is the one with just the Jack Skeleton head and that was from Target that I ordered online. EV's Hocus Pocus dress (HERE) and Nightmare Before Christmas (HERE) are also from Etsy. I have been on an Etsy streak and cannot get over all the cute inexpensive comfortable dresses that I can get for EV to wear in the parks (we know Princess dresses that have tulle or sparkle of any kind whatsoever are out).
I made Commodore's Prince Philip shirt with an adult sized SVG and truth be told, making this toddler appropriate was one heck of a feat. The Maleficient dress is also an old DressShop dress that I had scored at the Character Warehouse, THESE Mickey skeleton shirts are from Target and they glow in the dark and the Halloweentown and Chill is a crop shirt from the Wild Fable line at Target and I used THIS sublimation file from Etsy.
Apparently at the cabins on the 24th they are doing a Halloween event, so Sean and I are just going to wear the Mickey skeleton shirts (still in awe that he agreed to this) and I am planning on the Nightmare dress and the shirt for Commodore and EV. The Prince Philip Shirt and Village Aurora (TulleandMagic) are just extras like the Maleficient dress so if we wear them great, if not, no biggie.
If you can believe it, this is just in the garmet bag...we also have these suitcases (EV's matching lunchbox I use for her hair accessories and extras).
I am a pro at packing and there are a multitude of outfits for whatever reasons and because somehow I was able to convince Sean of an extra two days in Disney (we are moving to the B Resort for this as I got a phenomenal rate of $60 a night with us being VIP Priceline members)
Commodore's Star Wars suitcase is below. I promise that I tried to get us into two suitcases and not three, but it did not work out as planned and I wasn't about trying to cram everything in and not being able to fit everything or ruining the suitcase, so three suitcases it is. My suicase is actually the bigger version of the Commodore's.
In the zip part is the kids shoes since as you know, I do not like them touching the clothes. This is where I keep mine as well, along with my toiletrie bag, hairbow bag (yes this is different than my ear bag), my Revlon hairstyler which I am taking for the first time in forever and my lingerie bag.
Mama's suitcase....
Without fail our favorite PARC ear bag from MainStreetPress comes with us every trip. Because I had the celebration ear hats with us the last time, I used another ear carrier that I had and all I can say is never again (I talk about it below). I would rather go less ears and have the ear hats with us.
The small backpack is EV's and we got it from Primark at the Sawgrass Mall.
We keep our magicbands at all times in here so we never forget them. I also keep any Disney giftcards that we are given as well as you can see that my Loki horns are carefuly placed on top. I love that this bag although structured is also soft and mallable so the horns are protected but resting softly against the top, so I know they will not get destroyed.
There will forever be ForeverDreamDesign ears for the kiddos in the bag....
Yes, I realize this bag is expensive, but we use it EVERY single time we go and NOTHING compares. Okay, I take that back, ThisDFLove's is AMAZING, however, hers comes out few and far between and are character specific (I scored the haunted mansion for EV last year and I adore it), plus there are no compartments. The Parc bag has all the room you could want and everything packs into it comfortably and safely. Yes, I did pay more and I ordered the guitar strap to go with it and I do not regret the purchase one bit. With the amount of times we have used it, it has paid the price several if not 100's of times over. Plus, I have a brand that is just an expensive that will go unmentioned and is well known in the Disney community and you actually have to spread out your headband of the ears to fit it on to the trolley part and that to me is a no go. I actually end up using the ear trolley part for headbands and put the Minnie ears on the side of it which defeats the purpose if you ask me. I have a little head (a turnip head as Sean fondly refers to it) and stretching out ears that will end up not fitting on my head when many being rare and hard to get is a hard pass for me. So moral of the story is yes, the bag is expensive, I know many people balk at it, but it has been a 100% worth its cost, ten times over and I stand by that statement.
As anyone else experienced Boo Bash yet!? The cabins at Fort WIlderness (we stayed, but over a decade ago and sans kids)?! Anything we shouldn't miss?!
Anyone know what the heck is taking place the 24th at the cabins?! I am finding nothing about it online. Anyone want to tell my husband he is crazy for packing a ginormous inflatable move screen?
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