Pirates, Pixie Dust, Lucky and HOPE!!

 

 Remember that blog I wrote a few weeks ago? About my Birthday wish? The way I was going to use my Disney Vacation Planning business to help St. Baldrick's Foundation Conquer Kids' Cancer?? The one that started like this... Since my business' name is Pirates and PIXIE DUST Vacations and I LOVE helping people to create MAGICAL Disney memories I thought it only fit to do something for my birthday that can spread Pixie Dust to families, like mine, that need it.

Well, I wanted to share with you my new friend... LUCKY!! Look at what the Graphic Artists at St. Baldrick's Foundation made for me to use with my Birthday Pixie Dust Promotion!! :) The St. Baldrick's Foundation Mascot is Lucky the Leprechaun and this is the best looking Lucky I've seen (and I've seen more than 70 of them!! lol)!I mean really, is it any wonder that I support them as much as I do?? On top of working daily to Conquer Kids Cancer for my son, Michael, and the 46 kids diagnosed with cancer every single weekday, they made this absolutely adorable Pirates and Pixie Dust Lucky JUST for me to use with my promotions!! :)

For any of you that haven't read my Birthday Wish Pixie Dust blog , I'll give you some info!! :) The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. St. Baldrick’s Foundation currently funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government. As a Volunteer Event Organizer (VEO) I, along with a committee of amazing family and friends, run an event in Rockaway Beach, NY. Last year our event raised over $128,000! I like to tell people we raised over 128,000 glimmers of HOPE for us and the other families who are in this battle with us. St. Baldrick's Foundation is best known for their world-wide signature head-shaving events where individual event where volunteers get bald to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer and raise money to support life-saving childhood cancer research.

I run one of these events in September along with the support of our wonderful family and some amazing friends. Our event is called Hope is in the (h)Air. This year we are holding our event on 9/15/2012 at Bungalow Bar & Restaurant in Rockaway Beach, NY. It's going to be another awesome day full of love, support, hope and in honor of 5 amazing kids! These kids are Mikey and his friends, Emily, Eddie, Ty and Evan. Evan passed away on April 16th so our day is not only in honor of these amazing 5 kids but in memory of Evan as well. So, in honor of my birthday (that has, by now, come and gone) I've decided to give myself a birthday present!

To spread some Pixie Dust and HOPE to our families... and to help St. Baldrick's Foundation make my WISH come true, here's my birthday present to me: For every Disney Vacation booked through Pirates and Pixie Dust Vacations between June 1st and August 30th, not only will you get my booking and planning services at NO cost to you but, I will donate 10% of that trip's commission to St. Baldrick's Foundation! I will get to do what I love, helping people plan MAGICAL Disney Vacations, while helping Mikey, his friends and all of the kids diagnosed with cancer have just a little more HOPE!

Don't forget to 'LIKE' my Pirates and Pixie Dust Vacations Facebook Page

With love & HOPE... and a little bit of Pixie Dust,

Chrissie

Fun WDW Parks Souven-EARS Gift Bag Giveaway!

Before I left for Disney World I spoke to quite a few of the other agents that I work with through Fairytale Journeys. I offered to do some shopping while I was in the World (not exactly a chore for me, as you all well know ;)) and bring back the purchases that I made to be able to offer a Sounven-EAR Gift Bag Giveaway to all of you! Check out our raffle here... you can enter to win 14 times! :) Be sure to enter... and tell all your friends about the awesome prizes included in our giveaway!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you all so much!! Good luck to all of you that enter! Have a MAGICAL day! ~~Chrissie

Foodie Fridays Disney Style... Birthday Cakes!!

While I will go into greater details about celebrations at Disney at a later time, today it's all about being Foodie Friday so we're going to talk about birthday cakes at Disney!! :) 


Birthdays are special days for everyone! They are days to celebrate us as individuals... and NO ONE does celebrations like Disney does!! See that cake? Yes, that yummy looking chocolate cake with my favorite Mouse on it wishing my daughter a happy birthday :) That's a 6 inch celebration cake! We had this cake sent to our table for her 7th birthday celebration at Cinderella's Royal Table a few years ago. It was delicious and she LOVED the fact that everything (except the candles) was edible! Yep... she ate that chocolate screen printed disc with Mickey's picture wishing her a Happy Birthday with her name written in CHOCOLATE FUDGE icing!! lol 


Did you know that six-inch cakes just like this are available at most Disney full serve restaurants for birthdays and anniversaries?? The six inch celebration cake comes in either chocolate or vanilla and costs $21.00 (plus tax and gratuity.) These do not require advance notice! Yep... if you want to make sure this is the cake for you and not pre-order it you can request one at the podium of the full serve restaurant when you check in for your ADR and the cost will be added to your bill! 


If the 6-inch celebration cake isn't doing it for you, other cakes are also available and must be ordered in advance. I've seen pictures of some of the cakes that the Disney Pastry chefs have made for friends of mine and they do AMAZING work!! You can order these custom made personalized cake by calling the Cake Hotline: 407-827-2253. This requires 48 hours advance notice.


If you don't have advance dining reservations on your birthday and you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort, you can order a Celebration Cake to be delivered to your room through room service or through the resort guest services. 


Even if you have a birthday cake to celebrate your special day in Disney, don't forget the Disney Celebration buttons!! They are a great way to celebrate all day long!! 


If you have pictures of a personalized Disney cake and you wouldn't mind sharing please send them to me at piratesandpixiedustvacations@gmail.com :) 


Have a MAGICAL day!! :) And if today is your special birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :) 

Surprise!! We're Going to Disney!

If your kids are anything like my kids you can’t tell them ANYTHING a long time in advance. The number of times you may hear, ‘Is it time yet?’, ‘Are we going today?’, ‘Is it time to go to Disney yet?’ and other equally annoying variations of these questions can be as grating to a parent’s nerves as nails on a chalkboard to a kid in school!

Last year my husband and I decided to surprise our kids with a trip. We thought of different ways to drop hints along the way and other things to do to make ‘the big reveal’ something that we would remember for a LONG time. As the time got closer and we were planning our dining, itinerary for park touring and all of our other ‘magical touches’ we decided to just wait until the morning of our departure, wake the kids EARLY for our flight and surprise them with packed bags waiting for them with all sorts of Disney touches. Yes, those are all dolls that our kiddies have had at home that we had to sneak out of rooms in the middle of the night and thanks to a friend, those Mickey Ears hats were all embroidered with our names! 

We knew that our oldest daughter, who was 9 at the time, had pretty much figured it out by about  a week before the trip and our youngest son (who was just about 17 months old) didn’t really get it. You know who did get it? Our 5 year old! He LOVED it and was so thrilled that we put his Muppet Friends and his Disney friends with the bags that we had to pack them all and bring them with us! lol To be honest, I was surprised he was so excited… I expected a little hesitation given how he reacts to change! That’s always something to keep in mind if you decide to surprise your kids with a ‘same day Disney vacation’!

Here are a few other ways to SURPRISE your kiddies (or anyone!) with a trip to one of Disney’s MAGICAL Destinations!!

**Have a friend, relative, co-worker that’s going to a Disney Destination before you pick up a postcard, write a note about how excited everyone is to have you visit,  have it autographed by a favorite character and drop it in the mail in Disney so that the postmark is Lake Buena Vista, FL!  If they are going a REALLY long time in advance of your trip and you don’t want to share the secret that early just make sure you collect the mail so that you get to it first and hide it until you’re ready to share! Drop it in that day’s mail pile and SURPRISE! 

**This next one can take a lot of planning but can be SO much fun! When you’re ready for the kids to find out, set up a scavenger hunt! Set up clues that all lead to a hidden Mickey Mouse doll, a Disney Autograph book a packed suitcase or some other Disney surprise with a sign saying “We’re going to Disney on…. “

**Order the FREE Disney Vacation Planning DVD!  This is a simple, free way to let the person you are trying to surprise in on the MAGICAL secret! 

**Get a Mickey Mouse Balloon, a Tinkerbell balloon or any other Disney balloons from a local party store. Have them inflated and when you get home tape a sign that says, ‘We’re going to Disney on (the date you’re traveling)!’ and put them in a box. Seal the box! (For even more fun, put that sealed box in another sealed box and then in another sealed box… you know what I mean… lol It’s fun for them to open and even more fun for you to watch their anticipation as they open box after box!! )  When your kids open the box the balloon and sign announcing your trip will fly to the ceiling! 

Those are my ‘Surprise! We’re going to Disney!’ ideas!! I hope you get to use them to surprise someone you love!

Have a MAGICAL day!
~~Chrissie