Whether you are planning your fifth trip this year or a once in a lifetime experience, you want your Disney trip to be as magical as possible. While Disney does a tremendous job sprinkling pixie dust on everyone but if you’d like to take the magic into your own hands, here are five affordable ways to make your Disney trip extra magical.
- Matching shirts
They are everywhere at Disney World! Families in matching shirts with cute sayings and custom designs have taken over the Disney Parks. It may seem weird to think about walking around with your entire family in matching shirts but when you get there, you’ll feel weird that you aren’t in matching shirts. Everyone is doing it–join in and have some fun! Bonus: it’s a lot easier to keep track of your kids if everyone has the same shirt on. Tons of Etsy shops sell iron on decals you can add to your own shirts at home. Check out my shop and shoot me a message if you are looking for a design that you don’t see currently listed.
- Decorate your hotel room window
If you are staying at a Value or Moderate Disney resort, decorating your window is a great (and cheap!) way to add some magic. When you are walking across the huge, sprawling Disney resorts, it can be hard to remember which room is yours. Decorating your window helps everyone spot your room and makes it stand out from the crowd. There are rules about this, though. No tape or anything of that nature. Not even sticky tack. But you can use Disney themed window clings and display your favorite stuffed animals on the window ledge. So much fun for the kids to be able to spot your room as you trudge back at the end of a long day. Note: the deluxe resorts generally do not have a window. They have a solid door on an inner corridor and a sliding glass door on the outside. Some deluxe resorts may ask you to remove your window decor. But the value and moderate resorts allow it!
- Enjoy visits from Tinkerbell
Did you know that Dollar Tree is FULL of Disney themed goodies? There is everything from wash cloths to puzzles, word searches to coloring books, small toys, and on and on and on. A super fun way to add extra magic to your Disney trip without spending much money is to buy each child a gift for each night of the trip from the dollar store. Leave it out for them to find each morning and tell them that Tinkerbell came to visit! Bonus: you might just get away with not buying pricey souvenirs if they are getting gifts from Tink every day!
- Choose a theme song
We always choose a theme song (or two) for each of our Disney trips. This is a FREE thing to do (well, I guess it costs a dollar to download it from iTunes). Some of our theme songs have been The Good Life by One Republic (which was used in Disney Parks commercials for awhile), Jim Brickman’s version of When I See and Elephant Fly, On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons, and Best Day of My Life by American Authors. And now whenever we hear any of those songs, we immediately start talking about our memories of that trip. It brings some Disney magic into our every day lives! (I also use the song as background music for our Disney vacation video).
- Collect character signatures on a unique item
This one is so easy! You are going to get character signatures anyway, why not get them on something more interesting than a notebook? All you really need are fabric markers and then whatever you want the characters to sign–a shirt, a pillowcase, a hat, etc. One year we all bought plain white canvas shoes and had the characters sign those! They were so fun to wear at home after the trip. Good to know: characters WILL NOT sign something you are wearing. If you want them to sign a shirt or shoes, it can’t be the ones you are wearing that day.
Pro tip: For fabric items like shirts and pillowcases, use an embroidery hoop to hold the fabric tight when the character signs. It’s hard to sign in some of those costumes, make it easier on them!
None of these things will cost you very much money but all will add lots of magic to your vacation–and that magic will even follow you home! How do you sprinkle extra magic at Disney World? Have you tried any of these ideas? Share in the comments!