Have you ever had a vacation that you couldn't wait for? Have you been so excited that you felt like you were floating? And once you got there, felt like it was a dream? That is EXACTLY how I felt about our Disney cruise vacation. I booked this vacation for our little family way back in January and you seriously would have thought I was a kid on Christmas morning the way I was jumping around the house once I clicked the button that said "book it" - HA! It wasn't just that we were taking a Carribean cruise on a Disney ship, but we were going to celebrate
Halloween on the High Seas! I have to say that if you have ever considered a cruise, I would highly recommend Disney. No detail is forgotten and it really is magical for everyone. This trip was everything we expected it to be and so much more. So let me share with you a couple "crafty" items I made to make our trip a little more personal.
This is a glimpse of our dream vacation aboard the Disney Dream!
The internet is full of blogs with helpful information about what you'll need to know when taking a Disney cruise. Over at
Fab Chick Gets Fit, Valerie does an amazing job of detailing her family vacation on the Dream with these posts
here,
here and
here. This awesome lady happens to be a personal, real life friend of mine too! At
Dixie Delights, I found a wealth of information that you can find
here. At
Insider Tips Disney, they detail the boarding process for the Dream
here. I however cannot vouch for how well this works since our family received the prestigious honor of being
FAMILY OF THE DAY and were the first people to board the ship. We almost fainted!
One of the things that I knew I wanted to do for our family was to make a keepsake we would have to remember our trip by. This is a mat I had in my craft supplies (still can't remember what I bought this for) and decided I would follow the lead of Christy over at
Harvard Homemaker and spruced it up with some customization.
As you can see, I used my Silhouette machine to personalize the frame. Once on board, I dropped it off at guest services with my colored markers to have it signed. I was so excited the last night of our trip when it was returned to our room with all the signatures. Awesome!
Now, next on the list were our lanyards. Yes, I know you can buy those but this family is always looking to save a buck or two so I decided to make ours for a fraction of the cost. A trip to Hobby Lobby and I purchased a 3 pack of lanyard necklaces and a 4 pack of the plastic holders. Using red vinyl I already had, I created our lanyards that held our key to the world cards.
This is pure genius. When they say that this card is the "key to the world" they really mean it. It is used for literally everything! This lanyard made keeping up with it simple.
My last craft project was our pirate shirts for Pirate Night. My son had pirate accessories that we brought along (eye patch, sword, and glow in the dark skull rings) and we knew the ship would provide us each with a bandana so all we needed were Disney inspired pirate themed shirts. Check out what my Silhouette and I dreamed up for us.
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| Pirate Mickey |
This is my son's shirt. I wanted something simple and fun, what could be better than a pirate Mickey.
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| Pirate ship Mickey |
This is my shirt. Can't celebrate Halloween on the High Seas without a shirt that says so, right? The shirts were purchased from Hobby Lobby for under $5 each. Daddy decided he didn't want one so it was mommy and son all the way!
By far this was one of the best vacations I've ever had. The only other that comes close was my time spent in Hawaii.
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| Pumpkin port |
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| Trick-or-Treat |
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| Pirate Night |
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| Castaway Cay |
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| Halloween Tree |
There was something aboard for everyone in our family -- time alone and time together.
To me that spells the perfect vacation!
