( 
)Coping With The Disney Blues
I discovered long ago when planning my own Disney vacations that there was this unspoken specter looming even months before the trip happened! I found that I was getting so excited, I felt that I was a kid again waiting for an exciting event! I found these tried and true activities will help kids of all ages to cope with the "Pre-Trip Blues".
1. Watch Disney Movies
Watching Disney Movies sounds simple, but you can make it more interesting. For example, if you will be visiting Epcot park at Walt Disney World, you can try and watch a Disney movie that corresponds to one of the countries you can visit there. (I had a tough time with Norway, though!) But for example, you can watch The Three Caballeros to correspond with the Mexico Pavilion, Beauty and the Beast for France, Alice in Wonderland for the United Kingdom, the Pinocchio for Germany, etc. And if you have kids that are old enough to contribute to the list of movies, it makes it even more fun! If you're having trouble finding a particular movie, consider getting a movie subscription service like Netflix, they tend to have even the most obscure movies at a very reasonable price.
2. Watch the Disney Planning Video
Many people don't realize that many of the Disney Parks around the world will send you a planning video to help with planning your vacation. They include a lot of helpful information about the parks, hotels, entertainment, dining, etc. And all of this is sent to your address for FREE! Hard to beat free!
3. Listen to Live365 For Actual Disney Park audio, from rides to music!
This little gem was something I stumbled upon while doing an internet search for various soundtracks to the Disney theme parks. This is a live-broadcast internet site where you can listen to the radio right from your computer using your internet connection and speakers (or headphones). This website includes many genres, but if you do a search for "Walt Disney World" or "Disneyland", several radio stations will come up as playing several audio tracks from those particular parks. My personal favorite is MouseWorld radio for Walt Disney World. And best of all, most of these stations can take FREE listeners!
4. Play Disney Games
There are so many Disney games out there on the market today that it's almost hard to name them all. But many of my family's favorites are the many "Theme Park Edition" versions of popular games. For example, Twilight Zone Clue, Haunted Mansion Clue, Candy Land, Monopoly, and several other unique games specific to the parks themselves, Adventureland, Fantasyland, The Monorail Game, etc. but the personal favorite of our family is called The Magic Kingdom Game. If anyone in your family has played the game "Mall Madness", you will have an idea as to the premise. You are dealt various attraction cards from the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World and the goal is to be the first to visit all of your attractions and make it back to the front gate the fastest! It's a great game for anyone over 5 or 6 (although a rather devoted 4 year old was in love with this game!)
5. Make a Countdown Chain
Many people have heard of countdown chains before, and this follows the same guidelines with a few additions. Depending on how far in advance your anticipation starts to sink in will determine when you start this chain. In our family, we're notorious for planning things months (if not years) in advance so our anticipation kicked in about 4 months in advance. We decided to divide the remaining time in half. The first half (2 months) were spent adding one link to the chain each night. It was a family activity that consisted of coming up with "Disney-themed" activities or discussion questions to do or answer when we took off the chain later. For example, we had "Who is your favorite character? Why?" as one of the questions we would ask when we took off a link in the chain and it created a great conversation, surprising many of us! It gave us great insight into what the little ones were thinking about. We also had activities such as making maps of the park(s), making decorated sheet music to match a favorite song from a Disney movie (many didn't have any notes on the page, just the written words or an interpretation of the song), drawings of favorite Disney movie scenes, etc.
You'd be surprised how much easier the wait can be when you have these little activity times to look forward to each night. The wait flew by for us!
I hope this guide has helped give you some inspiration to make your own anticipation a little easier.
Oh, and by the way, there's also a dreaded specter that looms on the return visit, lots of these same activities help with the transition from Fantasyland back to reality.
For links to specific games, movies, etc. visit:
http://jaksaenterprises.com/disneyblues.aspx
I discovered long ago when planning my own Disney vacations that there was this unspoken specter looming even months before the trip happened! I found that I was getting so excited, I felt that I was a kid again waiting for an exciting event! I found these tried and true activities will help kids of all ages to cope with the "Pre-Trip Blues".
1. Watch Disney Movies
Watching Disney Movies sounds simple, but you can make it more interesting. For example, if you will be visiting Epcot park at Walt Disney World, you can try and watch a Disney movie that corresponds to one of the countries you can visit there. (I had a tough time with Norway, though!) But for example, you can watch The Three Caballeros to correspond with the Mexico Pavilion, Beauty and the Beast for France, Alice in Wonderland for the United Kingdom, the Pinocchio for Germany, etc. And if you have kids that are old enough to contribute to the list of movies, it makes it even more fun! If you're having trouble finding a particular movie, consider getting a movie subscription service like Netflix, they tend to have even the most obscure movies at a very reasonable price.
2. Watch the Disney Planning Video
Many people don't realize that many of the Disney Parks around the world will send you a planning video to help with planning your vacation. They include a lot of helpful information about the parks, hotels, entertainment, dining, etc. And all of this is sent to your address for FREE! Hard to beat free!
3. Listen to Live365 For Actual Disney Park audio, from rides to music!
This little gem was something I stumbled upon while doing an internet search for various soundtracks to the Disney theme parks. This is a live-broadcast internet site where you can listen to the radio right from your computer using your internet connection and speakers (or headphones). This website includes many genres, but if you do a search for "Walt Disney World" or "Disneyland", several radio stations will come up as playing several audio tracks from those particular parks. My personal favorite is MouseWorld radio for Walt Disney World. And best of all, most of these stations can take FREE listeners!
4. Play Disney Games
There are so many Disney games out there on the market today that it's almost hard to name them all. But many of my family's favorites are the many "Theme Park Edition" versions of popular games. For example, Twilight Zone Clue, Haunted Mansion Clue, Candy Land, Monopoly, and several other unique games specific to the parks themselves, Adventureland, Fantasyland, The Monorail Game, etc. but the personal favorite of our family is called The Magic Kingdom Game. If anyone in your family has played the game "Mall Madness", you will have an idea as to the premise. You are dealt various attraction cards from the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World and the goal is to be the first to visit all of your attractions and make it back to the front gate the fastest! It's a great game for anyone over 5 or 6 (although a rather devoted 4 year old was in love with this game!)
5. Make a Countdown Chain
Many people have heard of countdown chains before, and this follows the same guidelines with a few additions. Depending on how far in advance your anticipation starts to sink in will determine when you start this chain. In our family, we're notorious for planning things months (if not years) in advance so our anticipation kicked in about 4 months in advance. We decided to divide the remaining time in half. The first half (2 months) were spent adding one link to the chain each night. It was a family activity that consisted of coming up with "Disney-themed" activities or discussion questions to do or answer when we took off the chain later. For example, we had "Who is your favorite character? Why?" as one of the questions we would ask when we took off a link in the chain and it created a great conversation, surprising many of us! It gave us great insight into what the little ones were thinking about. We also had activities such as making maps of the park(s), making decorated sheet music to match a favorite song from a Disney movie (many didn't have any notes on the page, just the written words or an interpretation of the song), drawings of favorite Disney movie scenes, etc.
You'd be surprised how much easier the wait can be when you have these little activity times to look forward to each night. The wait flew by for us!
I hope this guide has helped give you some inspiration to make your own anticipation a little easier.
Oh, and by the way, there's also a dreaded specter that looms on the return visit, lots of these same activities help with the transition from Fantasyland back to reality.
For links to specific games, movies, etc. visit:
http://jaksaenterprises.com/disneyblues.aspx
Guide created: 07/25/09 (updated 07/25/09)
Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our 
