How to Save on turning your Princess into a Disney Princess at WDW Published September 3, 2012

Published September 3, 2012 for WWT

Before I start into my topic “How to Save on turning your Princess into a Disney Princess at WDW”, I would like to take a moment to admit that I do not have children of my own. My husband and I do have several nieces and nephews that we adore and a ton of friends with children, and I do my best in helping these wonderful people plan their WDW trips and get the most out of their budget.

I can shop all day. I love retail therapy, I won’t deny it, but I will be getting the best deal for my dollar while at the retail gym. That is why when I am at WDW I tend to go into a glittered shock when looking at Disney Princess dresses and accessory prices. I mean $80+ is just about meal plan for the day for Hubs and I, so I started trying to think up ways my nieces, and the other princesses we have in our lives, could do a total transformation at the parks without totally deleting the King and Queen’s treasury. So here is a list of some of my tips to keep the kingdom’s gold balance in the black, while still ensuring your princess is the bell of the ball.

 

1- The Dress. Princess Dresses are not WDW exclusives. They can travel with you. I am a huge supporter of pre-buying your princess dresses, especially if you will be traveling with more than one little girl, or with a little girl that needs to wear a different princess dress each day. There are several ways I suggest to save on that wardrobe. DisneyStore.com tends to have great costume sales a few times a year, that way you can order your dress, take advantage of the sale and any discount coupons/codes you have, and put the dress up until your trip. Also Halloween is just around the corner. That means those super cute dresses at Target, Walmart, and your local Halloween costume store will be on clearance in about 2 months. Take advantage of those sales. Buy a size bigger if you know you aren’t going to the parks for 6-8  months, and make sure you put the dress up where the princess can’t find it but you don’t forget it. Pack the princess dress in a space bag to contain any loose Pixie dust when you pack, and throw in a can of that great hair spray glitter and you are set to go out fit wise. But, what is a Princess Dress without the accessories?

2- Princess Shoes. Shoes are a girl’s best friend, I don’t care how old that girl is. At the parks and costume places they sell the “Jellies” style shoes, AKA the plastic sliding shoes of doom. I have seen more princesses slide in the rain, or just on slick surfaces in those shoes than I wish to admit to. I have also witnessed many a crying Cinderella because she has been in her “Glass Slippers” for hours and her feet are killing her and she just wished midnight would come already so she could go back to her resort’s pool for a foot soak. So I will say this loud and proud, skip the Princess Jellie shoes! For the $16+ you would spend on these shoes if you bought them today on DisneyStore.com, I can tell you how to find/make shoes that go with your princesses’ outfit that are unique and character grabbing, comfortable, safe and occupy your child for awhile with a pre-trip craft that will get them even more excited about their upcoming trip, and hopefully skip the Cindy shoe meltdown.

Go to the store and get canvas sneakers or flip flops, these can be the same color as your Princess’ dress or a coordinating color. For sneakers get glitter, bedazzles, paint etc. Find an online coloring page that has the silhouette of the princess in question, and scale the drawing down in your printers settings to “fit” the sneaker. After printing carefully cut the princess out of the paper. Now you have a stencil and can paint the silhouette of the princess on your sneaker, and decorate her and the rest of the sneaker with glitter, bedazzles, and whatever else your Rapunzel wants to glue on her art project. For flip flops you have a lot more creative options, in my opinion. You can attach hair bows to the straps, you can tie ribbon all over the straps, you can “fuzz” up the straps with yarn and a crochet hook. They make flip flop decorating kits at art stores that contain strips of gems, and I have recently found directions on how to decorate flip flop straps with uninflated balloons thanks to Google. Regardless of what shoes you use and how you decorate them you now have something unique, special, fun and comfortable for your child to wear.

 

3- Jewelry/Accessories. Like with dresses you can stock up at post Halloween sales, the dollar section at Target, the Claire’s clearance area etc. I also recommend Charming Charlie’s if you have one of these nearby. But once again I totally support and encourage the creative method. Bottlecap necklaces and Scrabble tile jewelry is always fun and easy to make, and you can find pastel ball chain necklaces in small or large quantities on Ebay at really great prices. But, the best idea I can give you for this comes from the House of Mouse themselves, Disney Family Fun Magazine.

I hope these ideas give you some great ideas on how to customize an original princess look, and occupy your princess with some great craft ideas for your upcoming trip, while helping you protect the treasury.