Disney traditions

As a little background about me, I am a major planner and I like to stick to a routine. Therefore, I do a lot of the same things over and over again and I don't do well when someone or something throws a wrench in my plans. That being said, I thought today I would share a few of the traditions that our family has when it comes to Disney World. We have a few things that we do every year to get ready for our trip, and a few things that we are always going to do while in the World.

First thing I do after booking my trip, is I get out a spiral notebook and folder and label it with all of our information (dates, confirmation #, hotel, etc). I then use this and note every phone call I make, every reservation I make, all park hours for our trip, and eventually our daily itinerary. This folder and notebook will then make the trip with me so that I have all of my notes in case there is an issue while we are on our trip. Next I purchase the newest copy of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and read a few pages of it every morning with my coffee.

About 200 days out from our trip I make a countdown calendar for my refrigerator. I also mark the weeks on my calendar so that I can look at it at any given time and see exactly how close (or far) we are to our next trip. About 100 days out, my daughter and I create a countdown chain using construction paper links that she uses to countdown to our trip. She loves this as she can visualize how much closer we are getting to our trip and she doesn't have to ask me daily, "When are we going to Disney World".

At exactly the two month mark, we change out the CD in our car to the official Disney World music. We bought the CD several years ago and it has songs from the various rides and shows in the parks. It is all we listen to until we hit the road for our big trip (I do have to admit that this year the song from Splash Mountain is getting played a little too much, but it is my daughter's favorite this year so I will continue to listen to it ten times a day just to be able to hear her quietly singing in the back seat).

Around the one month mark, give or take a week, my husband usually does some kind of countdown for us as well. The year before last he emailed us a different image from the park every day with a countdown number on it. Last year he made Mickey heads with the countdown number on it and hid them in a different place every day. On the last day he had a larger than life Mickey head printed up and covered the front of the car with it. It was an exciting image to see as we prepared to pack the car. This year he had a very large poster made with an image of Mickey and the castle, along with all of my daughter's favorite characters on it. He cut it down into 40 different puzzle pieces, which he has been hiding, with the countdown on it. We are about halfway through the poster right now, and it is so much fun to see the image come together. We are once again loving our countdown.

This year we also are doing one more thing to get ready for the trip. My husband has a big velvet "Mickey bag" that is full of about 80 pins for trading in the park. Each Saturday my daughter is able to reach into the bag and pull out one pin. The ones that are not chosen will stay in the bag until next year. It is the little things like this that help pass the time each year to help our annual trip get here just a little faster.

Once the trip gets here, there are a few things that we do every year in the parks. Now of course there are a lot of rides that we have to ride, or certain restaurants that we have to eat at, but that is not what I am talking about. Every year, we always try to start our trip at Magic Kingdom. A few years we got there midday and thought we would go to Hollywood Studios first. It was nice, but no where near as exciting as starting at Magic Kingdom. I think it is safe to say that won't happen again :) There are several places that we have to take our annual pictures while we are at the parks. In Magic Kingdom I always get a picture of my husband and daughter riding the TTA, and I used to get a picture of my daughter on Pooh's playground (she was there the day it opened so it was always a special place for us until they closed it this year). At Epcot we always get our picture with the characters in the VISA meet and greet area. At Animal Kingdom we always get a picture of my daughter with the dinosaur car at the entrance to Dinoland. In Hollywood Studios we always get a picture of my husband and daughter "riding" the star wars racer thingy (sorry honey I don't know the name) out in front of the Star Tours ride. Last year they had taken it out for a few weeks, so we missed that annual picture last trip. One other tradition is we always try to have Giordano's pizza at least one time during our trip. One year when we flew we had it delivered, but when we drive we try to make our way there at least once.

I am sure that there are other traditions as well, but right now I am drawing a blank and I have written enough. What are your traditions for either getting ready for the trip or while you are there? I would love to hear them.