Let’s face it—some of us have developed a severe case of the Disney Shakes.
No, I don’t mean that Peanut Butter and Jelly Milkshake you nailed last week—we’ve explored the phenomenon known as the Disney Shakes before here on Theme Park Tourist. You may be familiar with its many symptoms: insatiable cravings for Dole Whip… the sudden urge to pin trade with the Publix cashier… uncontrollable hum-singing the Fantasmic soundtrack… subconscious swaying in your home office chair to make it feel like the Pirates of the Caribbean boat…
It’s a weird time for Disney parks fans.
Disney parks regulars are no doubt experiencing some withdrawals from visiting the Most Magical and Happiest Places on Earth. Reading up on the latest news about the parks is great, but what is a Disney fan to do when that just isn’t cutting it?
If we’re all stuck at home anyways, what’s say we take this problem on with some style. It’s time to make like Figment and use our imaginations, Disney fans. Here are some of the most innovative, out-of-the-box, borderline wacky strategies we found for getting your Disney parks fix when the Disney shakes strike during this season…
1. Zany virtual rides
Video: YouTube, Nicole Skidmore
Throwing up a few YouTube videos of Flight of Passage is for amateurs—fortune favors the bold!
One of the most delightful phenomenon to come out of the COVID-19 lockdown has been Disney superfans cooking up home versions of their favorite rides. Some approaches have been simple, like this family’s laundry basket version of Splash Mountain…
Video: YouTube, Little Learning Lab
Or this family who used desk chairs, cardboard, and random props to recreate Toy Story Mania, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Soarin’…
Video: YouTube, Madison Flynt
Or these folks who DIY’d ten different kids rides using household objects (right down to the “pull the yellow strap” seatbelt check!)…
Video: YouTube, Streaming the Magic
There are so many of these to enjoy that we actually did an entire article on them. The sky is really the limit on how far you can go with homemade rides, but some of the ideas are positively brilliant. I’m still waiting to see a DIY’d Injun Joe’s cave made of butcher paper, glowing skulls, and existential horror…
2. Lights! Sounds! Smells!
Part of what makes Disney parks so mesmerizing is the way Imagineers manage to engage all of your senses. Wherever you go at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, you can be sure that your eyes will be dazzled with illusory wonders, your ears soothed by ever-present ambience, and your nose treated to enticing smells.
Clearly, we must find a way to replicate this at home.
First, we need some sounds— music and ambience is everything at Disney parks. Fortunately, if you’re reading this article, you probably already have access to an enormous databank of Disney park sounds on YouTube. I’m particularly fond of this playlist, but you could really look up anything you want from ride and parade audio to old timey ambient soundtracks from the parks. Check!
Now, we need some proper lighting. Sure, you could invest in some fancy smartlights (I actually use pictures from Disney parks to program scenes into my Hue Lights all the time), but if those aren’t an option due to budget constraints, we have to get creative. Throw up some lamps or Christmas lights and tint them using scarves or colored plastic—you could even drill some holes into ping pong balls and pop them onto Christmas bulbs to get a nice dithery, Hollywood glam effect. For the ultimate cheap light show, sugar up your kids on Grey Stuff and Mountain Dew and set them loose with glowsticks and colored flashlights. Check!
Finally, we need the smells. If you’re into baking, you can definitely get that intoxicating Main Street Bakery scent by just throwing some cinnamon rolls to cook, but what if you don’t have anything to bake with? You could try the trick of baking two tablespoons of vanilla extract in a dish at 300 degrees for twenty minutes to fake it. Some essential oils also give a distinctly Disney vibe, like how Sweet Orange brings to mind Soarin’ Over California or Rose might remind you of the gardens at the Grand Floridian.
For the most authentic Disney smells, you may want to check out companies that specialize in replicating park scents in candles and wax melts like the Magic Candle Company (I’m personally fond of the “Rome Burning” fragrance from Spaceship Earth). For a little too authentic, you could just leave the shower on and fog up the house to match Florida’s humidity…
Nailed it!
3. Have yourself a homemade Disney feast
Don’t think we forgot taste. Many of us have taken up a little more cooking than usual—that means a prime opportunity for some Disney parks favorite recipes!
There are so many Disney parks recipes available online. Some of these are official recipes from Disney cookbooks, the D23 fan club, or the Disney Parks Blog, though I personally think some of the recipes Disney releases are doctored (Dole Whip, for example, is vegan in the parks, whereas the recipe Disney released is not). Most of the recipes you can find online were simply figured out by creative home cooks with a lot of talent and time.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel—we covered 8 of our favorite Disney parks sweet treats you can make at home, as well as 8 amazing savory recipes you can make yourself! Some of the highlights include Dole Whip Floats (including the vegan version), School Bread, Epcot’s Berbere beef, and Flame Tree Barbecue’s famous sauce and rub!
4. WFH Disneybounding
Never been brave enough to take up Disneybounding? Your time has come…
For those unfamiliar, Disneybounding is sort of like cosplaying without actual costumes. Disney parks have fairly strict costume policies for guests over the age of 14– namely that you can’t wear costumes, lest you be confused for a cast member. Disneybounding works around this by using modern and vintage clothing pieces to put together outfits inspired by Disney characters. There’s also a Star Wars-specific version of Disneybounding that was introduced with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that fans sometimes call “Batuu-bounding”—it’s basically putting together regular clothes (think vests, natural fibers, boots, tunics, etc.) to look like a native of Batuu.
Want to really make that next brain-numbing Zoom meeting sparkle? Subtly introduce Disneybounding into your work-from-home ensemble. Bonus points if you throw in a Disney parks Zoom background!*
Disneybounding is great because you really can make what you want of it. You can go as low-key as throwing on a scarf that reminds you of Mulan to fully color-coordinating your outfit after the Red Queen. I once accidentally Disneybounded as Mary Poppins when I wore a black trilby and raincoat with red lipstick and a Sherlock-style scarf—two different toddlers confused me for the famous nanny. If you’re lucky enough to work from home without obligatory video meetings, even better—go all out!
*That is, dear reader, if your job will permit such shenanigans. Mr. Banks might not approve. I know the saying goes, “You can be anything you want to be,” but we’d prefer you don’t end up in a disciplinary meeting in a red wig, seashell bra, and mermaid tail wondering where you went wrong…
5. Take on a Disney DIY Project
Got a load of extra time on your hands and a whop-ton of creativity? Time for some Disney DIY! Sure, you could keep things simple and make a scrapbook, but we’re going for style, remember?
Like sewing? Hop onto Pinterest and make your own Mickey ears for your next trip—the more unabashedly, wonderfully you, the better! You can be math-whiz Mickey or biochemist Mickey or Historical-European-Martial-Arts Mickey or I-only-drink-from-mason-jars-and-wear-scarves-in-the-summer Mickey. Your choice!
Not much of a sewing fan? Maybe it’s time to dump out that bursting box of Disney trading pins and make something EPIC. A wall-art montage using pins as constellations? Go for it. A pin-trimmed crown and cloak worthy of King Stefan? Why not?
DIY is such an insanely huge category, you really could do anything you want. Have fun with it. Make-up fans can recreate popular character make-up looks. Gardeners can take a crack at Disney-inspired topiary art or flower arrangements. Got a weird doll collection? Crank up the speakers and make your own house-wide version of It’s a Small World!
…
On second thought, let’s not do that last one. That’s how people end up in the special holding cell for people who went insane working in the doll factory…
6. Catch up on Disney history with vintage videos
Video: YouTube, Central Florida Sights and Sounds
Disney+ has been something of a delight during this pandemic. For Disney parks fans, the series The Imagineering Story is worth the cost of subscription alone. You can definitely get a pretty good Disney parks fix just noodling around on Disney+ for a few hours.
…but what if you’re in the mood to really dig for some gold?
If you’re a fan of Disney history, you have to take the time to watch some of Walt Disney World’s weird vacation planning videos. We dove into these in depth in our Retro Rewind series as well as our exploration of favorite Disney memories from the 80’s, and they are pure cheesecake magic. Why is this little girl in red wandering in an empty Magic Kingdom? Why does it seem so creepy? Did the barrels on Pirates of the Caribbean actually used to explode?!
This is just one of Disney’s old-timey vacation videos. There are so many to choose from, like A Day at Epcot Center, A Day at The Magic Kingdom, and A Day at Disneyland. Grab some popcorn, get lost in a little YouTube freefall, and see how many you can find!
7. Watch ALL the Fireworks
Video: YouTube, The DIS
Okay, we are shamelessly milking the entertainment power of YouTube here, but there’s good reason for that—it’s probably become one of the most complete public archives on Disney history in existence. The mountains of park footage available on YouTube make it possible to take on a very special watch party… if you dare.
Marathon watch all of Disney’s fireworks spectaculars that you can stand.
Now, this enterprise can be as simple or complicated as you want. For example, Fantasmic! fans may enjoy watching the various versions of the show over the years, from its arrival at Disneyland, to the somewhat toned-back Walt Disney World version, to Tokyo DisneySea’s airy, giant-hat centered version, and finally to Disneyland’s amazing 2.0 update.
The Magic Kingdom and Disneyland have both had enough versions of their fireworks shows to make it challenging to track them all. Magic Kingdom is a little easier since it started with the popular Fantasy in the Sky fireworks which lasted until 2003, followed by Wishes which lasted until 2017, finally bringing in the mind-bending Happily Ever After fireworks beloved by fans today. Disneyland’s fireworks history is much more complex and could involve quite the YouTube dive to pick through Fantasy in the Sky, Remember… Dreams Come True, Disneyland Forever, Mickey’s Mix Magic—you get the point. You will need to do some research.
If you’re sticking to Walt Disney World only, you may as well throw in some of the other park’s spectaculars like the various versions of Illuminations, Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular, and Rivers of Light. We could easily write an article just collecting all of these shows into videos—for now, you’ll just have the enjoy the journey of seeing what you can find yourself. Hey, we have the time! Speaking of that galaxy far, far away…
8. Take up the shadiest game in the galaxy
This one will specifically appeal to Star Wars fans, but it’s just zany enough to make this list. If you really want to claim your Star Wars superfan card, you may as well become a master at the game that won Han Solo the Millennium Falcon.
Sabaac.
I write a lot about the Star Wars elements of Disney parks, and so I will admit, I straight up giggled for glee when Disney started selling Sabaac decks in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In proper Batuu style, these decks weren’t just sold—you could straight up play a few rounds on the marketplace corner with the shopkeeper. Rumor has it, some fans have even made off with a rare kyber crystal after winning. Sign me up!
Sabaac is, admittedly, both a simple and weirdly complex game—the geek is strong with you if you decide to learn it. I don’t know enough about cards to compare it to another game (Blackjack? Poker? Bears vs. Burritos?), but your goal is essentially for your cards to add up to as close to zero as possible at the end of three rounds. Green cards add to your score and red cards subtract from it. This would be a simple math game if not for two added elements—for one thing, if you use the Galaxy’s Edge cards, all of the numbers are written in symbols and Aurebesh, meaning there is a learning curve to figure out what they mean.
The second twist is that after each round, two dice are rolled. If those dice match, everyone has to scrap their hand, even if its at the end of the game. While I’ve seen some of the dealers in Galaxy’s Edge skirt around this, it inserts a certain level of chaos theory and means even with the perfect hand, you can get obliterated right before laying your cards down.
Once you get hooked, it’s a positively addicting game.
We got a set for a friend over Christmas and ended up playing Sabaac to decide everything from where we went out to eat to who got which Christmas cookies. The game is a great time-passer, especially if you add some of your own rules and variations.
If you want to try your hand at Sabaac, you can either track down some of the official Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cards on eBay or you can get the cheaper version of the game that was released for the movie Solo. Conceivably, you could even DIY your own cards if you are determined. Either way, if you intend to take on Batuu’s Sabaac dealer (once social distancing settles down), it can’t hurt to brush up on your scoundrel skills.
What other wacky ways can you think of to get your Disney parks fix?
