Disneybounding Family-Style
One of the many benefits of living in beautiful Central Florida is its proximity to Disney World. (if I’m honest, it’s part of why we chose Kissimmee and not somewhere along the coast). We love that we live close enough to swing by for a couple hours (though the two years we had to go without passes, thanks to my braces, were pretty hard on all of us).
Over the past couple years, something called Disneybounding has become more and more popular amongst avid fans.
If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s kind of like dress-up for adults. Instead of costumes, we use normal clothes that give you the impression of a specific character. It depends a lot on color schemes and little embellishments.
(one way I like to describe it is: this is how the character might dress if s/he was a 21st-century person).
Common elements are hats…
…and bowties. Unless it’s Dapper Day (which I’ll write about another time), almost anyone wearing a bowtie is likely Disneybounding.
From what we’ve heard from numerous Cast Members, we’re one of the only families where the whole crew dresses in Bounding outfits. We find it a real boost to our recognizability: if one of us is a strongly recognizable character, people can figure out the others.
Some hints if you want to jump in with this:
- thrift stores are the way to go. Not only are you saving a bunch of money, but you’ll be able to get colors/patterns that aren’t necessarily this season’s styles.
- I highly recommend Pinterest for getting ideas of outfits. Look up “Donald Duck Disneybound” and be inspired by the combinations people have created. Once you’ve done it for awhile you won’t need that and can just do a Google image search for what the characters looked like in their movie, but to start, Pinterest has been the thing that got us figuring out how to dress.
Peter Pan is one of our favorites.
First attempt (Peter, John, and Smee)
Alice in Wonderland is full of rich characters. (Alice, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat)
Josh and I were the Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter. We had to go meet Alice, who was thrilled to see all the people she knew! (Cast Members are the biggest fans of Disneybounders, but a million times more when you’re dressed like them)
Other fun combinations include the “big five” (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald)
…Beauty and the Beast…
(Gaston, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Belle)
…Toy Story…
(Woody, Evil Dr. Porkchop, Bo Peep, and Jessie)
…Star Wars…
(Han Solo, Leia, Darth Vader, C3PO, and Luke)
…and Winnie the Pooh
(Pooh, Christopher Robin, a Heffalump, Piglet, and Owl)
Seriously, the sky’s the limit. We have a fantastic time coming up with new combinations featuring clothes we already own (see how many of the same things we wear for different characters?), and it’s SO much fun to get recognized. But more than anything else, we enjoy the family feeling that comes from dressing in a theme. It adds a touch of magic to each visit and makes them unique, which is quite a feat considering how often we visit!