If you've been following along on my blog recently, you may have seen the post I made about my experience at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando. While that was an absolutely amazing trip (that I will be talking more about in the near future), it was a little strange for me to go down to Orlando and only go to Universal. I had been to that park three times before, and they were short follow-up trips that followed a much longer trip to Disney World. Granted, this was before the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a thing (and well before I actually cared about Harry Potter), but still. I feel like going down there and not going to Disney has only made my withdrawal for actually going there more pronounced.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I've been posting a lot of Disney-related pictures. I've been listening to Disney music nonstop. Living on the Disney Store website and the Shop Disney Parks app. It's been getting kind of bad.
The last time I was in Disney I went down with my University for our senior trip after graduating. That was eight years (and about 50 pounds) ago. Lots of things have changed since then, in the parks and in my life. Namely being that I have a job to support myself (and the hundreds of dollars I want to spend on merchandise) and an amazing boyfriend who gifted me a trip to Universal and Disney! It's just a matter of time before I'm able to get down there and use the other half of that gift. I'm hoping to go down there some time next year, but until then, here's some things I've been doing to keep the Disney magic alive and well!
Live Vicariously Through Social Media
YouTube is seriously one of the greatest inventions of life, right? You can find anything on there, including videos from the various parks. In the past week, I have watched ride along videos from rides in Florida, California and Shanghai. Shanghai! I doubt very much that I will ever get over there to actually go to the park in person, but now I don't even necessarily have to! I can ride the rides right in my living room and not have to take a crazy long flight to get there. I also have been enjoying some shows and parades. I watched the Star Wars fireworks show that they have in Hollywood Studios and was absolutely blown away by the entire thing. That I know I'll be able to see in person and I cannot wait!
You can also always search all of the social media outlets for pictures and videos from the parks! I don't think you'd ever be able to catch up on all of the posts since there are always more that seem to be popping up every second!
Disney Parks Subscription Boxes
My friend Samantha found a subscription box called Main Street Creations which is personally curated by people who go to the parks and buy up a bunch of candy and sweet treats for the monthly boxes. The two of us, plus my friend/her sister Noelle split the biggest box you could buy since they're both big Disney fans as well. We missed the cut off for August so we'll be getting it in September. It's nice that they have an option to do just a one-time purchase since the biggest box ends up being $90 with shipping. That would be a steep price to pay every month for candy! But I understand why it costs a little more than the average box.
And this box is far from the only Disney subscription box that gives you merchandise from the park, although Disney itself has yet to jump on this bandwagon (which kind of boggles the mind). Head over to this post on Disney In Your Day for a list of other Disney subscription boxes you can subscribe to bring you a monthly dose of magic!
Find A Disney Podcast
I follow an incredibly talented photographer called Mark Willard on Instagram who mainly takes pictures from the Disney parks. He posted one day that he was going to be on a Disney podcast called The Mad Chatters to talk about his trip to the opening of Disneyland Shanghai, which I was interested in hearing about. I found the podcast on iTunes and downloaded it and instantly fell in love with it. I've been listening ever since! These guys are so much fun and post a new episode every week, which is a perfect cure for my withdrawal! Plus there are a ton of back episodes that I can listen to as well. Their focus is mainly on the parks, which definitely helps, but they talk about other Disney-related things as well.
If you want to find one that talks more about movies or merchandise or whatever other niche you're interested in, you can head over to DisneyPodcast.net, where you can find a pretty comprehensive list of the other podcasts that are out there! I would definitely recommend giving the Chatters a listen, though. They just posted their 100th episode this week!
Have A Disney-Themed Party With Your Friends
Odds are, if you're into Disney, you have some friends that are equally into Disney. Why not get together and have a Disney day? You can watch all of your favorite movies and create some fun Disney themed food and drinks and make a whole day of it! You're able to find all sorts of recipes that are inspired either by movies or the parks so that shouldn't be too hard. Then you can just sit back, relax and enjoy your Disney day!
Or you can even take it out to location! For instance, Noelle, Samantha, their sister and I are going to a tea room by us and having princess tea! It's not an event they're holding, we're just wearing tiaras and going to have tea. Like princesses do! Because who cares what people think of you, as long as you're having a good time. And it certainly doesn't hurt to have a group of people doing it with you!
Disneybound
If you don't know what Disneybounding is, it is subtly dressing like your favorite Disney characters! It can be really simple, or really literal, it's all up to you! For me, I don't feel like I can wear yellow without feeling like Belle or turquoise without feeling like Jasmine. In fact, I have a turquoise dress that I always wear with gold accessories to make me feel even more Jasmine-like. Throw that into your Disney party to step it up a little bit!
Catch a Touring Disney Show
Disney has shows touring all the time. Between their Broadway shows, their Disney on Ice shows, and their stage shows, there is always something in the works. I've never seen any of the Disney on Ice or stage shows (at least not as an adult), but I love to catch the Broadway shows when they tour. I love Broadway to begin with, and even though I live fairly close to New York City, it's a pretty expensive thing to be interested in. Between the train tickets and the food and the Broadway prices, it gets a little out of hand. I live right outside of Philadelphia and the shows always make a stop there.
Earlier this year, my Mom and I went to see The Lion King for the first time and it was amazing. I was crying just during the opening. It was also really cool because I was in a community theatre production of Footloose with the actor playing Simba while I was in college. He's now the Simba on Broadway, which is even cooler! I was happy to have the chance to see him before he left the tour.
And those are my tips for combatting your Disney World withdrawal. What are some things that you like to do when you're missing Disney World too much? Make sure to share this with your Disney loving friends so you can get together and make not being in the parks all the time suck a little less!
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