The Diamond Adventure: Pretrippie to trippie (arts, crafts & photos galore)

[Guest]

Hi

So I figured with less that 2 months to go til my trip I should get a move on and start the latest trippie. I've written a few before and I like to include lots of pics and crafts.

Right, let me start by introducing the cast. Firstly there is me:




I'm Helen, I'm 39, single (looking for my prince), have two spoilt cats and I work in the UK for the mouse himself as a Disney Ambassador, Visual Merchandiser and Senior Cast. I guess this gives me a different perspective on all things Disney related because I am both very critical and a HUGE fan of how they represent the magic that Uncle Walt began. I've worked for Mickey on and off for over twenty years and I've had some amazing times and met some amazing people. I am a very proud cast member. Having said that I do need to point out that the comments, adventures, opinions etc posted here are all mine and do not reflect those of the Walt Disney Company. I'm posting as me, the traveller, not as an ambassador. Ok, with that bit out the way let me continue.

Besides working for the mouse I also have a small filming company recording anything from weddings to documentaries. I'd like to do this more but in the current climate it's a bit hit-and-miss hence the two jobs. I used to teach audio post-production at Salford Uni but quit that a few years ago.

I have several partners in crime on this trip. The first is Graham:







Graham will be 26 when we go (yep, I'm the oldest by miles but you wouldn't know that lol). Graham is an ex-cast member that I worked with for a few years. We've been friends for years and travelled to WDW together last year. Graham now works in HR, not for Disney but remains a massive fan. His favourites are Olaf and Maximus.

Next we have Steph





Steph also travelled with Graham and I to WDW last year and is also an ex-cast member. In fact, she's another of the cast I trained. Steph now works in the carer profession. She will be 25 when we go and she is a massive Minnie fan.

Finally we have 'the boys', Darren and Eddie (Darren is the darker-haired one):





This is one of those 'just clicked' moments. Eddie used to work for Disney but not with me. I met Eddie and his boyfriend Darren as guests and got talking. Over a few months we just bonded and I added them on f'bk. As a throwaway comment one day I said 'well you should come to California with me'. Next thing I know, we are all planning and booking a trip lol. We've not travelled together but we've spent a lot of time hanging out on day trips, etc and we all get on great *touch wood* lol. Eddie is now back working for Disney, this time with me, and Darren works for his father's company…although he used to work in the theatre. Eddie is a Belle fan and Darren loves Oswald.

Oh I don't think I said but I'm a massive Pocahontas fan as I was lucky enough to work on her movie promotion back in 1995.

The others have never been to California, in fact Eddie's never been to the USA, but I've been fortunate to visit several times. I've been up and down the whole west coast and I just LOVE it. I lived in the USA for a year when I was younger and still have a twinge of accent. I'm also lucky enough to have a lot of friends stateside. None of that diminishes how excited I am to be returning

So, that's the motley cast. Now…for the trip

[Guest]

Assuming all goes to plan, we are flying from London on October 3rd. Not entirely sure how we are getting back from London yet but it was £200 cheaper than flying from other airports, so we are going from there. We are going down there by train which was £26 each. We should return on the 19th (leaving LA on the evening of 18th).

We have flights, car and hotels booked but that's it so far. I like driving in the USA on roadtrips and should be doing all of the driving but I'm putting one of the others on the booking too as back up. Our plan is as follows:

• Day One: Flight, hopefully land with no issues, pick up the hire car and head down to Anaheim. We are debating having a meal at Goofy's that night.
• Day Two: Disneyland Parks (hoping for Fantasmic!). It's a sunday and gay days so we expect it to be busy but we wanted to see Fantasmic!
• Day Three: Disneyland Parks (hoping for a Halloween Party)
• Day Four: Disneyland Parks (probably CA so we can see WOC)
• Day Five: Drive north to LA and sightsee. I have a whole list of places and directions for us
• Day Six: Visit the Disney Studios in Burbank and a couple of other places before driving north to Fresno
• Day Seven: Driving north to Carson City via Yosemite National Park
• Day Eight: Driving to Oakland via the edge of Lake Tahoe and Sacramento
• Day Nine: San Francisco (Probably the Walt Disney Museum and Alcatraz in the evening)
• Day Ten: San Francisco sightseeing before heading on to Monterey
• Day Eleven: Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway as far as Solvang, with many stops on route
• Day Twelve: Driving the rest of the coast via Santa Barbara, Malibu and possibly the Ronald Reagan museum so we can see Air Force One. Staying in Anaheim that night
• Day Thirteen: Disneyland Parks (whatever we've missed)
• Day Fourteen: Drive out to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park before heading back to LA
• Day Fifteen: Probably Universal Studios. Some of the group want the halloween party, some of us are too scared
• Day Sixteen: Flight home in the evening. Thinking of popping to Walt's barn and/or Warner Studios tour in the day
• Day Seventeen: Hopefully land back in the UK with no issues

So that's the basic plan. I have much more detail than that, which I'll share in the future posts. I'm also planning a few arts and crafts things which I will also share. We have planned to do disney bounding for our disney days (possibly meeting up with two friends out there too). I'm making autograph books and mickey ears for us and I'm setting a photo challenge. All of which I will share here in the following posts. When it gets to the trippie itself I should warn you I'm a photoholic!

Hope you'll come along for the ride!

[Guest]

Right, so hotels and car.

We booked a car through the Alamo Brits link. I like that it means everything is included straight away and I have to deal less with the hard sell at the desk. They'll still try for the extra insurance probably but that, from what I understand, only covers flat tyres, lost keys etc and I'm hoping we don't need that. If anyone has comments/suggestions on this, please let me know.

I went for a 7-seater minivan when booking because there's five of us plus luggage. I'm hoping as well that the back will be blacked out a bit so we can hide our stuff in there. Obviously we're not going to be leaving things in the van over night or in crazy places but we will have to occasionally leave it while we are looking at places (Mann's theatre, etc). None of us pack very lightly and we are bound to spend a fortune at Disney lol so we need the car space. If we were desperate we could probably leave some luggage with friends in LA while we are driving the road trip part (might do that anyway) but I didn't want us to HAVE to leave things. So I guess I'm driving a minivan again. I've driven them before on three occasions. The first was in Vegas when they didn't have a car for us for an hour and upgraded us. The second was in Orlando when they told us it would be a half hour wait and I joked 'In vegas they gave us a minivan instead of waiting' and the guys said 'they did? then I will too' and finally last year when they let u pick from a large lot that included the minivans. I know it's possible we'd get a free upgrade again but with five of us I didnt want to take the chance, so we pre booked it.

Hotels are also done. We were basically looking for clean places with reasonable reviews and in ok areas. If the reviews said bugs or unsafe we discounted them immediately, otherwise they were considered. None of them are posh places because we're only there to sleep and didn't want to spend a fortune. I think we've got the car, flights and hotels for about £920 each ($1300-1400), which considering the flights are nearly £500 ($750) of that, I don't think it's too bad.

We've got the first 4 nights at a Super 8 ten mins walk from Disneyland. Then we've got a night in LA, one in Fresno, one in Carson City, one in Oakland, one in San Fran itself (most expensive), one in Monterey, one in Solvang, then it is back to the Super 8 for 2 nights and the LA one again for 2 nights. In all cases we have two rooms with 2 double/queen beds in each and some include continental breakfast. The only irritations I have is that one of my bookings says '2 people' for each room, and I booked 2 in one, 3 in the other. I've contacted various people about it and they're all saying it'll be fine, so if it's not I'll kick off. I have their email replies to me. And the LA hotel does not guarantee a hairdryer. It says 'available on request' so I tried requesting it beforehand but they said I have to request when I check in. Which is so annoying cause my hair becomes like Monica in Friends if I don't wash and straighten it every day. I don't bother at home but on holiday with pics being taken I definitely do! So Eddie said he'll bring a hair dryer (I have an American one) if I bring my straighteners (again I have American ones). Just annoying to bring them for a couple of nights. Oh well.

So that's the transport and sleeping quarters. Now for the fun stuff….

[Guest]

One of the first silly things we decided to do as a group was 'Disney Bounding'. I'm sure you guys all know what it is but just in case you don't, it is where you dress to 'represent' a disney character rather than dressing as a character (which you are obviously not allowed to do during the day in the parks). My friend Andy and I tried this out for the first time in 2013 and here are our attempts.

The first was as Pinocchio and Pocahontas:





We went to Goofy's Kitchen that night and Mulan picked up on it straight away and introduced us to Dale as Pinocchio and Pocahontas.

The second one we did was as Mickey and Daisy (excuse the unflattering pic):





Donald picked up on these and kissed me for being Daisy.


This year we were hoping that with 5 of us it'll be more obvious what we're doing.


So next came the discussion of 'who' shall we go as. Obviously we wanted to do 'groups' of characters so that we worked together so we decided on the following groups: Fab 5, The Avengers, Princesses and Toy Story. We wanted groups that we could add our friends into if they decide to join us on the days too. We've each picked characters and are going as follows:

FAB 5 (extended to include other classics so the LA friends could join in if necessary):
Darren: Oswald
Eddie: Donald
Graham: Mickey
Steph: Minnie (Naturally)
Me: Daisy

THE AVENGERS:
Darren: Thor
Eddie: Scarlet Witch
Graham: Iron Man
Steph: Hulk
Me: Captain America

TOY STORY:
Darren: Alien
Eddie: Toy Story 3 Barbie
Graham: Woody
Steph: Jessie
Me: Buzz Lightyear

PRINCESSES:
Darren: Snow White
Eddie: Belle (Naturally)
Graham: Rapunzel
Steph: Ariel
Me: Pocahontas (Naturally)


Eddie did a mock up for my outfits here (I wish I was this sassy and skinny lol):

[Guest]

I'm not going quite like that but it gave a fun starting point. I've obviously got outfits I can use for Daisy and Pocahontas but I haven't for the others yet. I don't want to buy too much cause I'm trying to lose weight before the holiday, so I've only bought bits so far.

Things I have got are a Captain America t-shirt and some accessories (all via ebay and all only about £2-3 a piece, just cheap). I bought a Cpt Am shield bracelet so I could raise my shield to protect myself



I then bought two pendants on dog tags because I couldn't decide what to wear. I bought these two:
and


I think I'll probably wear the star so Eddie can wear the A necklace. I also already have a badge here:




I don't have pictures yet but I also have a round red badge to wear as Buzz (for his push button) and another one that says 'To Infinity and Beyond'. And I have a hairband with a bow on it, that my friend Clair made, in either purple or pink (for Daisy). It's only small because I wanted subtle but now I'm wondering if I should have gone for huge lol. Clair's also picked up some loom bands so I can make everyone bands in their character colours. Oh and she made a green headband for Steph so she can push her hair back but still be Hulk and a red one to help represent Ariel's hair.

So…I've made a start.

[Guest]

Other things I gathered for the trip so far include a transmitter so we can play iPods in the car, new cases, fold out California map and pop out maps of LA and San Fran and a driving guide to Yosemite. And don't laugh but I saw someone else do this and thought it was a good idea. I've bought some small plastic pots for each of us (might need slightly bigger ones):




The idea of these is for each beach we go to that has a special meaning we can gather a tiny bit of sand. Then, when we come home, we can put them together in a sand art tube or similar and see the different types of sand from different places. It's only a small amount but a fun holiday memento.

Besides the Disney bounding we are hoping to go to a Halloween party at Disneyland. They've just announced and the dates fit (yay) so assuming we get tickets (slight glitch on them but think we're booked for oct 5th) we want to go dressed in something fun as a group. So…we've decided to try and sort costumes to go as Cinderella's mice.





So far we have Graham going as Gus, Steph and I as Suzy and Perla and Eddie and Darren as the twin mice Bert and Mert. We're hoping our friends will join us as two to three of the others (including Jacques). And we're of course hoping we can meet Cinderella that night.


We figured the costumes were more unusual, weren't too complicated and would be cool if it's hot. If it's cold we can put something under them. My friend Kathy said she'll make them so *fingers crossed* she will or this plan could all fall apart. I'm leaving them til nearer the holiday in hopes I have lost weight. We won't wear noses etc but will prob paint noses/whiskers on.

[Guest]

One of the things I wanted to do was to encourage the others to pause and take things in on this trip. So I thought I'd give them, and me, a photo challenge. They know I'm doing it but don't know what I'm asking them to photograph. This is the list I came up with:

• American Flag
• Animal / Bird
• A Sign
• A Street
• Balloon(s)
• Bridge
• Castle
• Close Up (Anything)
• Clouds or Sun Flare
• Clock or Time
• Feet (group or own)
• Hotel / Room
• Food
• In Jail/Prison
• Liquid
• Love
• Luggage
• Luxury
• Map
• Movement
• Music
• Numbers to make ‘2015’
• Out the Window
• Plants or Trees
• Reflection of Something
• Relaxing
• Scary / Halloween
• Self Portrait
• Shadow (Anything)
• Skyline
• Something Glass
• Something You Want
• Souvenir
• Strangers / Locals
• Sunrise/Sunset
• Technology
• Tickets
• Transport
• Walt Disney
• Your Choice / Memory

I wanted it to be fun not too difficult so all these things could be found in different places on our trip. The point is I want them to think about what they are looking at/photographing and maybe try to take unusual photos. When we're back I intend to put together an album that shows all of our interpretations of the different requests. Maybe we'll all end up with the same but I'm hoping we get some fun and creative differences.

I've printed off the list in a small format and I will laminate it so they can keep it in their bags/wallets as reference. *fingers crossed* it'll be fun.

[Guest]

The other thing that was bugging me was…much as I love the idea of disney bounding…it meant I couldn't wear Mickey Ears. I obviously can't as Daisy but I couldn't with the other outfits either so…I had an idea. I've discussed it with Eddie but the others have NO clue that I'm doing this I've decided to make, for two days, themed Mickey ears.

I started off with trying to design something I thought I might be able to actually make…cause I'm hardly an amazing crafter…and then thought about how to make them. I'll discuss how I'm making them in a later post and show you a photo of the one I've done so far but for now, here are the designs:

The Avengers Ears I wanted to create a uniformity too. Thor can actually be other colours and there are two designs here for Scarlet Witch - I gave Eddie a choice




For the princesses I intend to add bows. Graham, however, won't want a bow and I'm not sure about Darren yet, hence the two SW options




So…whatcha think? This is what I'd like to achieve but it prob will be a messier, basic version lol

[Guest]

I finished the autograph books…took me 3 days but I got an offer on snapfish so wanted to get them done lol

I started by adapting the cover design someone else had done. I filled in the ears with characters and added the name badge. I don't know if I can link to their original image as it's on another forum.

For the background characters and the disney images on the pages I just searched online. Most of the character gifs though were from disneyclips.com.

So the covers now look like this. Obviously one each.

[Guest]

I left a white trim on the pages themselves, especially on the left as I had them printed and bound and needed space for the spiral binding to go. I went with the diamond theme . The pages are (in the order that follows):