Walt Disney World & Scrapbook - Part I

Hello there!

Few weeks ago, after some hesitation, we decided to go to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. 

I am super excited!

I have never been to Disney World. We have been to Universal Studios in Orlando after Minecon 2013 and at Disneyland Paris, after Minecon 2012. 

Disneyland Paris 2012

So when Nathan asked me if I would like to go I was not so sure. I said: But I have been to Disney already. He looked at me and explained.

Disney World is not Disneyland. And here is some fun facts about WDW:

• It is 100 square kilometers big (40 sq miles) - that is as big as San Francisco or 1/3 of Wroclaw area. (Disneyland is 19 square km)
• It hires 60 000 employees, who are called cast members, as they are "in character" while they are at work.
• There is four separate theme parks and two water parks. The oldest park - Magic Kingdom was opened in 1971!
• It has internal transportation system that includes buses, monorail (!) and boats. I have read somewhere there is around 200 buses!
• Lost and found: Every year, the park finds an average of 6,000 cellphones, 3,500 digital cameras and 18,000 hats.
• If you were to stay in a different room every night at the Disney World resorts, to sleep in them all would take you 68 years.
• And more here: http://www.statesman.com/news/travel/40-fun-facts-for-disney-worlds-40th-anniversary-1/nRh6J/

"That is so cool" I said, after Nathan told me all that and more. 

We planned and calculated, checked flights and vacation days left, I asked if I can take some time of work and BOOM! We are going.

The trip is in 24 days. After watching tons of videos on YouTube it seems almost crazy. 

People plan this trip for months in advance. Well, I guess we'll just see how it goes.

We even managed to get a table at Be Our Guest - which is apparently insanely hard thing to do, not even taking into account the super late decision to go.

Have you been to Disney World? Would you like to go?

What are your favourite things about WDW? Share your stories folks!

As a preparation for the trip I am also making two scrapbooks, small and big one.

I will update on my progress, as it makes me more likely to finish it!

I started on the small scrapbook some time ago and finished outer and inner covers. 

It will be used for travel, so the big one stays cute and precious!

You can see a little plane bookmark sticker in the top right corner.

Small scrapbook for traveling.

The small scrapbook looked like the big on the picture below. I used Geometry PaperPad from Panduro and I picked light pink and white pattern. 

Size does not matter.

 I actually used the inner cover as a front for the big scrapbook, as it was already almost entirely white, and I didn't have to worry about cutting out the small binder holes. That makes the cover look a bit more neat. I used one of the sheets from that Geometry PaperPad, with a pattern I didn't like, because it had a nice pastel teal colour at the back. It will be a border for the centerpiece. 

Tools are important.

Initially I imagined Ariel in the center, as she is one of my favourite characters. However the 3D-ish Ariel sticker I ordered was way too small for the size of the book. So I will replace it with another 3D of 5 princesses all together. I hope it will look nice!

Hands scratched by cat. Meow.

I used plastic straws as a center for this very delicate tissue paper sheets. I glued them together on the longer edges. I had a plan to make them look like waves and be placed under Ariel. But since she is no longer in the picture, I used a different color tissues. I am not sure if this idea will actually work. 

In progress.

I used colored straws as they were the only ones I had on hand. The colors will pop more if I replace them with white straws. I am not sure if I will keep them there or remove them. If I remove them, the tissue paper will become flat and it will not give the dimension detail to the book. However straws make it a bit too puffy and they will be hard to cut to shape and covered.

For now I ended up with maybe 15 straws. Since the princesses have different dress colors I will look for more suitable tissues. I actually found some in flower store (used to wrap bouquets) but I haven't got time to pick them up yet. I will most likely do that this Friday so I can work more on the straws during the weekend. 

Ariel will most likely end up on a wrinkled teal and turquoise tissue paper, since that was the original idea. This way I can keep my favourite princess with me during our travels. 

I hope you enjoyed it a bit and thanks for reading!