One of the best aspects of any Disney vacation is the planning, anticipation, and build-up weeks before your departure. There are plenty of ways to get your family excited about what you are about to experience in the near future. Anticipating any vacation is exciting, but there’s something even more special about anticipating a Disney vacation. Not only are you going to leave your troubles behind, but you are also going to a place where fun, excitement, and great scenery surround you.
Our family is always looking for new ways to enhance the excitement of our upcoming Disney vacation. I often look through the forums at disboards.com. Last week I stumbled across a great and educational idea from a family who’s getting ready to take a Disney vacation in the near future in one of the forums. The idea came from Melissa (LissaW16 on the Disboards) and her 4 1/2 year old daughter, Trinity. They both worked together to create a Disney vacation countdown chain.
A Disney countdown chain is a series of connected paper links you create one by one with Disney drawings and stickers placed on each link. The links are numbered and connected corresponding to the number of days you have left before departing for your Disney vacation. Building the chain is a great family activity, especially with younger children who may not quite understand the concept of time.
Melissa started the activity by finding a template on the Internet where she could print out the links on paper. After neatly cutting out 48 links Melissa and Trinity numbered them 1-48. The links template Melissa found already had Disney and Pixar characters printed on them so there was no need for drawing characters or finding stickers to place on the links.
Once the links were ready they both closed them by using a glue stick and intertwining them together one-by-one. Since their Disney vacation is 48 days away they started with link number 48 and tied them together in order all the way down to link number 1. Trinity was amazed at how long the chain had become.
Once they finished the chain Melissa and Trinity decided to hang it over a curtain rod and loop it over a book shelf in her bedroom. It hung down far enough so Trinity could reach it. The next morning Melissa taught Trinity how to tear off a link and showed her the number 47 on the next link in the chain. She explained how number 47 represented how many days they had left until their Disney vacation begins. It would be Trinity’s job each morning after her dad wakes her up to tear off another link in the chain to see how many days were left before they leave for Walt Disney World.
There are several ways to count down to a Disney vacation. Please feel free to share some of yours in the discussion forum below. We’d love to hear your ideas! A Disney vacation shouldn’t be taken for granted. Each day prior to your trip should be celebrated in a way that’s fun for the entire family. After all, you are going on a Disney vacation where family experiences and memories are made everyday!
A special thank you to Melissa and Trinity for sharing their idea and photos with us! Have a magical vacation!
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