It’s rare that a UK plus size range does a Disney clothing collaboration, so I get super excited when I see one. Imagine my excitement to see that not only have ASOS Curve done a Disney Lion King designer collaboration range BUT they have also made the collection up to a SIZE 30!!!!
You can view the full collection here but these are the items that are available up to a size 30 as they’re the most important ones!
Happy shopping my fellow Disney loving fatties!
Alyssa xxx
Hi Friends!
The spookiest time of year is just around the corner! The smell of pumpkin spice is in the air and we are all digging out our snuggly jumpers and coats!
Halloween sees the release of lots of awesome accessory, clothing and homewear collections so I’m helping you guys out with a round up of some of my faves from this year!
It’s no secret that this is one of my favourite jewellery brands. This year Charlotte has truly outdone herself with her amazing Halloween collection! I had to stop myself from buying everything!!
Here are a few of my faves from the collection that dropped today
You can buy this collection here but be quick as I expect this will sell out very quickly!!
ASOS Curve release a few Halloween items each year, this year the pickings are slim at the moment but hopefully more will be released in the coming weeks!
So far you can buy the following
ASOS Curve items are available here and again, I don’t think they have unlimited stock so it may be worth looking as soon as you can!
I love this time of year at Disney as the villains get their chance to shine! Shop Disney has plenty of Halloween Merch this year, I have picked just a few of my fave things
You can find all the shop Disney Halloween goodies here – my selection has only scraped the surface of what they have on sale l, go check it out for yourself!
A quick search for ‘Villains’ or ‘Halloween’ will find you some awesome bits on EMP although I’m not entirely sure it’s only limited to this time of year. I thought I’d include a few of my fave bits anyway!!
I hope you like the items that I have found for the spooky season!
What’s your fave Halloween find this year?
Lots of love
Alyssa xxx
Hi Friends,
I have been thinking for some time about making a collection of artwork based around a theme. Villains are obviously my favourite of all Disney characters and with it coming up to Halloween the majority of my inspiration ideas centred around villains.
After much deliberation and doodling I decided to do a series of Disney Villains as Horoscopes, not only did I want to depict them in the specific style of the Horoscope signs but I also wanted the ‘negative’ traits of that sign to be representative of the villain that I chose … quite the task I set myself!
The idea behind this Collection is that all of the designs will eventually be added together to create a fabric that will be used to make bespoke border skirts with the entire Horoscope represented and obviously 12 villainous favourites. I will be releasing a character per month in line with the star signs changing, which means that the final design will be August – September 2019 just in time for me to get the fabric made for next Halloween! (didn’t I plan that well)
So, who is the first design you my be asking?
September 23 – October 22 = Libra
Libra negative traits include; Impatient, indecisive, insensitive, complainer, manipulative, Co-dependent, self-indulgent, Gossipy, Fragile, Selfish and Sulky
To me, these traits perfectly represent Yzma
Yzma is shown with her arms in a scale like position to represent the Libra scales with Kronk’s good and bad conscious on each hand for balance.
I have made this design available on my Redbubble on a variety of items, I will shortly have prints available too.
This particular design works well as a standalone and during consultation a lot of non-Libyans asked for me to make it available on its own without the Horoscope so you can purchase Yzma without her Horoscope branding on products here and she looks like this
The next design will be released mid October, I really hope you like this idea and enjoy this series, I have put a lot of heart into this.
Thanks in advance for being supportive as always
With love
Alyssa xx
Hello Friends!
I haven’t done one of these for a while so thought I’d have a look see what the plus size companies have available at the moment to do a quirky little Goofy bound!
These are the items I’ve selected from what’s available right now online 😊
Playsuit – ASOS Curve
Knee high socks – Amazon
Longline waistcoat – Yours Clothing
Green hat – Marks and Spencer
Brown Boots – Simplybe
All links are working and available on the date that this post went live.
I think this looks is perfect for a festival, what do you think?
Till next time!!
Love
Alyssa xx
Hello Friends!
This is a little late but things have been crazy busy since I got back from my last DLP trip!
The last time I was at Disneyland Paris was for the Fandaze event so the clothes that I wore were mostly designed for the occasion!
The first night we went for a fabulous meal at Inventions restaurant in the Disneyland Hotel for our friend Gaëtane’s birthday. I wore a dress I had made myself …
This is a Princess vs Villains dress which I made from an old Primark duvet set! One single sized duvet cover made this entire dress which I was most impressed with!
I teamed it with a black cardigan from Yours clothing which is seasons old and a set of hand made Ariel vs Ursula crystal ears that I made myself.
I love this dress and can’t wait to wear it again on the cruise I have coming up!
The following day was Fandaze!!
For this momentous occasion I designed my own fabric and made myself a dress with it! My fabric had all my fave Saturday afternoons characters on it, you can see it up close in the photo below …
I do wish I had worn a belt with this dress on the night as it did look a bit shapeless as the design is so fussy, I did get lots of lovely compliments though and it was nice and cool in the heat.
I made myself matching crystal ears featuring the characters on my dress.
The following day we had further Fandaze events as part of our package and I had another bespoke dress to wear to this too! This time Mark had designed the fabric, sadly after making his shirt there wasn’t enough for me to have a full dress but this was the compromise
I really liked this dress and although I wish I’d added some detail to the skirt it is really flattering to wear and got me so many compliments on the day! I used the last bits of fabric to make myself matching ears!
The final day I went to visit my good friends Captain Hook and Mr Smee. I was wearing my Donald Duck dress, once again I made this for the trip!
I had purchased this amazing Daisy AP holder from Tokyo and wanted a Donald fabric dress to wear with it! I decided the fabric was a bit too fussy for an all over dress so made a bodice and border skirt dress. I should have made it a bit shorter though!
I also made matching ears to this too 😊
Which is your fave outfit from my trip?
Lots of Love
Alyssa xxx
Hello Friends!
Thanks for joining me again to hear my thoughts on the inaugural Fandaze Party at Disneyland Paris.
In this post, I am going to do a review of my evening at the event. I will be doing a more in detail blog of our full package in the very near future.
So, let’s talk about everything Fandaze …
First, let me share my expectations going in to this event. Realistically, I thought that I’d possibly meet 3/4 characters, see all the shows and parades and do our package meet and greet during the party. This was based purely on the fact that we knew NOTHING going in to the event. We didn’t know how long the parades and shows were, we didn’t know the amount of guests attending, how many panels were booked etc … so I was conservative in my expectations and this faired me well.
I hate to start my review of the evening on a negative, but for me, the worst part of the night was getting into he event. We met our friends at 5pm at the Fantasia gardens entrance to Fandaze, our queues were sorted by package, green/orange passholders and non package snake lines. We were obviously near the front as we had arrived so early. This part of the process was fine and ran smoothly.
Once inside the front of Studio One we were held at the door to the Studio One hanger. The plan was obviously that we would watch these strange men with cameras for faces walk around .. but everyone just wanted to get to their priority location! The doors opened to Studio One for us to all be herded down to the Stage to watch the opening ceremony.
It soon became evident that people had other priorities and a queue formed on the right for people (mostly) wanting to go for pins and character locations first. This was a shambles. Everyone was held there in a massive scrum until the show finished then a small gateway to the left was opened and everyone herded through it, it was quite a tussle and as it went past the Kuzko queue that filled up super quickly, we initially joined it but then saw Roger Rabbit roaming and decided that we would rather meet him.
The free sets were only stopping briefly to grab photos and unfortunately the CM who took our photos didn’t do the best job, but we met him and that was something Mark had definitely wanted to do so was a big tick off our character list!
We walked past heroes and villains alley at this early point in the evening and the queue was very long. We had taken the decision before the event to likely avoid this experience as the fact it was multiple meets in a small area made us think it would likely be a bit chaotic, turns out we made the right decision.
We then went around to Toon Studios. My priorities for the night were Rescue Rangers and Talespin and Mark was excited to meet Darkwing and Launchpad. We joined the end of the queue for Max and Goofy knowing that we were likely to get near the front for the change over. We queued for around 20 minutes and met Darkwing and Launchpad – which was amazing! They loved seeing themselves on my dress and were super interactive even in the short time we had 😊
We then crossed over into the next queue and joined the end for Talespin characters, this queue was not long, had we paid more attention we could have met them sooner as people were letting other pass as they were waiting for Rescue Rangers – if we hadn’t been having such fun chatting with friends then we prob would have only queued for 5 mins! That’s ok though, we were having fun! In total we probably waited 20mins for Rescue Rangers and this meet was again incredible! I had the characters on my dress and once again had fab engagement!
We re-joined the queue for Talespin and again probably waited 20 minutes or so to meet them. This might have been my fave meet of the night, they were so much fun! Dancing and playing before the guests came in and then engaging with us all in a super fun way. I loved this meet! 💜
We then headed to get a parade spot for dance your ducktails, on the way we bumped into the lovely Catherine Powell who was absolutely delightful. I am so honoured and flattered at the compliments she gave me on my ears and my dress and was shocked that she wanted to have photos taken with me. This was such a highlight of my evening.
Dance your ducktails … what an incredible show!! High energy, fun, colourful, exciting and duck filled. I LOVED it. Is anyone else feeling the need to make themselves nephews dungerees? 😍
The Max show was the next stop for us and what a show stopper it was! Now, I’ll be honestly, I’ve not seen the goofy movie, so when the first song started I was concerned that I wouldn’t know the songs and the show might be wasted on me … but once other characters started joining Max/Powerline the show came to life for me 😊 The production of this show was incredible, the outfits, the choreography, the characters, the water and fire effects … it was all AMAZING!
Now was the start of the next sets, it was obvious that some of the park had cleared out by this point as it felt a lot less crowded. We decided to go meet some big hero 6 characters as we hadn’t seen them before and it’s a film we both love. We joined the Wasabi queue line just before it opened and were the first guests to meet him.
We then crossed next door into the Fred line and waited the 30mins until his set, in this time Mark went and met Honey Lemon and took photos with several of the meet the Robinson’s characters who were roaming near our queue-line. The queues were once again really friendly and nice with everyone chatting and letting each other back in after popping to see the roaming characters with no issues. We then headed to join the queue for GoGo and probably waited about 15 minutes in her queue.
After this it was nearly time to dance with the Ducktales guys again! We got our spot and Mark ran off to meet Clara Cluck as she had NO QUEUE. This was also the case with Lady Yaya so they were additional last min bonus meets.
This time for the parade I had established the moves and was boogying away which got amazing interaction from the dancers and made it so much more fun than watching from behind a camera. Apparently I appeared on the live stream at one point so I can’t wait to watch that back and cringe 😂 I would LOVE for this parade to be added to one of the season as it is so high energy and awesome. I was blown away.
We then had an appointment as part of the package that we purchased, I don’t want to go into this too much as I will cover it fully in my next post but this photo should tell you how incredible it was …
Following this meet it was time to get a slot for parade, we decided to walk down past rock n rollercoaster to a quieter part of the park to catch the parade on the end of its route. What fun the parade was, the array of characters was reminiscent of the 25th anniversary and it actually allowed us to interact with so many characters that we hadn’t had the chance to meet which was incredible! It’s the closest I’ve got to Sully ever .. though I’ve still not touched him😂 I got hugs from Peter Pan and so many high 5s and quick poses for photos on front of me It really was amazing! A special shout-out has to go to the main mouse who was incredible in the car and pulled some awesome poses for us!
That was our experience of the night and I am super super happy with it.
Were there some organisational fails on the night? Yes. However, due to the decisions we made and the characters we wanted to meet, this did not impact us and therefore our experience was incredible. I understand that doesn’t take away from the disappointment of those who did experience these organisational fails, but hopefully DLP will learn from these and make improvements/remove the failed elements next time.
Unfortunately due to some spiteful comments I have received on social media I feel the need to clarify the following. Myself and Mark paid for our exclusive package ourselves, in full. We did not receive any perks outside of those listed in our package, which we paid for. We waited fairly in lines like every other guest and were not fast passed any queues.
Would I book again? In a heartbeat. Would I book the same package? Possibly not, but I’ll cover than in my next blog post.
This event was groundbreaking for DLP and for me personally, a huge success and highly enjoyable experience. It is exciting that as fans we are being offered such exclusive and privileged opportunities – a character worldwide debut at DISNEYLAND PARIS?! That’s phenomenal stuff! Teething problems are to be expected, long queues for certain experiences were to be expected and there will always be people who are unhappy in any situation, I just hope that the majority of people had a positive experience like we did.
I’m writing this in the car on the way home with the Fandaze blues 😭
Lots of Love
Alyssaxx
Hi Friends!
It would appear that not everyone is as well planned outfit wise as me for Fandaze weekend … so I thought I’d lend a helping hand to those who may still be wondering what to wear!
I have found that Redbubble have the best selection of items as they carry a lot of fan art, so here are my fave items …
Ducktales Design
Magica Design
Duckberg Design
Louie’s Design
Higher for Hire Design
Darkwing Design
Monterey Jack Design
Rescue Rangers Design
Kuzko Design
No Touchy Design
Roger Rabbit Design
Mike Design
Oswald Design
Just a few selections of my faves to give you an idea.
The majority of these designs are available across a variety of items, T Shirts, Hoodies, Vest Tops, Dresses, Scarves etc .. just search through from the links.
Redbubble often have discount codes and offers so make sure you’re subscribed to the mailing list!
Are you outfit ready for Fandaze?
Lots of Love
Alyssa xx
Hey Friends!
We have previously discussed how Plus Size Disney clothing is limited in the U.K. and how annoying this is, especially as customs charges are so high to ship from the US.
Well, over the past few months EMP have made a huge impact on the Disney online community as a company offering Disney clothes from American brands like Hot Topic and Torrid in the U.K and the best news is that those shops make clothes for fatties!
Having now placed a few orders with EMP I wanted to share my experience, so hopefully other Plus Size shoppers can get an idea what they need to look out for when buying from EMP.
The primary shops that EMP offer plus size Disney clothing from are Torrid and Hot Topic. Now, both of these shops do offer plus sizes, however, Hot Topic is Plus Size Junior/ Girls which is a slightly smaller measurement and definitely a different cut than the Torrid range which is standard US plus size.
Below are the two sizing charts of those stores …
Hot Topic sizing Chart
Torrid Size Chart
As you can see there aren’t huge differences in sizes, but the fact that Hot Topic only offer bust sizes in their size 6 shows that they stop making dresses and trousers at a size 5XL. Also, as I said above, I find the cut of Hot Topic items to be slightly different and I think this is because it is aimed at a more ‘teen’ market.
EMP However, offer sizing up to a 7XL – of this very same clothing! The EMP size chart differs once again!
EMP Size Chart
So, for comparison on EMP a size 7XL bust measures 53inches – 55.5inches … which is considerably less than a 6X in Torrid or Hot Topic 😱
Basically, the EMP size guide is rubbish. I have purchased multiple items from the site in sizes 6XL and 7XL which have the same measurements as a 6XL on Torrid! Sooo … working out the plus sizing is a little hit and miss.
The vast majority of items on EMP are still live on the other websites, I find that it is best to compare between the sites and try to work out what sizing you would be from that. If it’s a Torrid item, the 7XL on EMP is usually a 6XL on Torrid, so you can work back from there to figure out your size.
Another issue I have with the website and app is that it’s not easy to find the plus size Disney clothing. The ‘plus size’ search is RUBBISH! Don’t bother using it. I follow this route to search from the home page …
Categories > Women > Clothing > Show all Products > Filtering and Sorting > Size > select 6XL and 7XL ( for my personal size preferences) > Finish > Apply
It’s pretty long winded but it’s the only way I’ve found that works!
I have purchased quite a few items from the EMP app and have been happy with them all. I knew I would be as the quality from Torrid has always been something I have been happy with. I’ve mostly purchased casual/ chilled clothing so far though so don’t have any photos of me in any of it 😂
Instead, here is my current wish list from EMP of items available in my size
I would order each of these in a size 7XL to allow for my chest, but do sometimes find I could have purchased a 6XL.
Do you have your eye on anything at EMP at the moment? Have you had similar issues with the sizing charts?
With Love
Alyssa xx
Hello Friends!
Welcome back and thank you for joining me again if you are doing so on the back of my last blog post about this topic!
Today’s post will mostly be covering rides. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of rides, I have the ones I love to do (Phantom Manor and ToT are my faves) but rides are not my priority on a Disney Trip. Having said that, I have been going to DLP long enough to know which rides do and do not work for fatties, so let’s hop to it!
Disneyland Park
Town Square/Main Street/The Hub
There are often vehicles and horse drawn carriages available to hop on to take you up and down Main Street. The majority of these vehicles have a step up to get into them and then a wooden benchseating system, I have been on a couple of these and had no issue at all with getting on/off or the seating so I’d say they’re all pretty fat friendly.
Disneyland Railroad is accessible from Town Square and then each and every land throughout the Disneyland Park. There are stairs to the platform in Town Square but there is also a lift if you have mobility issues with staircases. The seats are very comfortable on the train and although it often has long wait times is a cute and comfortable way to travel between lands or do a tour of the park.
Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant/La Taniere du Dragon
These are both walk though attractions, to see the sleeping beauty story in the stained glass windows you have to go up a small staircase, it isn’t many stairs and they are fairly wide. I can use them no problems.
The dragon is under the castle and has step free access from the side, again this is a walk through attraction. Please be aware that it is very dark, if (like me) you have very light sensitive eyes then you may find in the brighter months you struggle to see for some time while your eyes adjust to the darkness.
Discoveryland
Buzz Lightyear laser blast – The turnstiles for getting into the queue line for this ride are the biggest issue, they are tiny. I am able to do them if I stand on tippytoes and go through sideways – you can ask the CM at the front to let you through the gated entrance though. The ride vehicle is big enough for both me and my partner so there are no issues with that whatsoever.
Orbitron – The rockets on this ride are very small, my sister is a size 16 and her and my niece fitted but she said that the vehicles are very small and I wouldn’t have fit in them. Not such a bad thing as she said all the going round in circles fast made her feel a bit sick anyway 😂
Autopia – The cars on this ride are all perfectly fine for people of size, I had no problems fitting into one when we took my nieces.
Space Mountain – This is a firm no. The coasters which have over the head seatbelts mechanisms in DLP are not designed for people with large chests. I believe that the maximum chest width is 50″ but cannot find anything to support that, it may have just been what I was told. I have also been advised that Plus Size/muscular or wide shouldered men on the taller side may have issues with this ride too.
Star Tours – This is a simulator with chairs and a lap seatbelt. I have no issues at all with fitting on this ride … I just can’t deal with the motion sickness afterwards 😂
Fantasyland
Small World – large boats with bench type seating, they allow you to say how many will be sitting on each bench so I usually make the party split so I feel more comfortable the boat is balanced (that’s just my paranoia though as I have done it with 4 of us in the front row squished in like sardines with no issues too – that’s a story for another time though) This is a ride that you have to step down into and step back out of as well.
Mad Hatters Tea Cups – This is a seated spinning ride, the actual hole that you get into the cup through is really small and a bit of a squeeze but once inside it’s snug but not uncomfortable for me. Handy tip, if going on with a child, hold the middle to prevent them spinning it so much you end up feeling sick 🤣
Carousel – The horses involve a reasonably high step up and you need to be able to hook your leg over the back of the horse, adults do not need to wear the safety straps though (they definitely wouldn’t fit me) if you are worried about the transfer on to the horse there are carriages that you can ride in too.
Alice’s Curious Labyrinth – This is a standard walk around maze, there are some smaller doors you can go through in the maze part but I have never had any issues with any part of this attraction. The end allows you to go up the Queen of Hearts tower, the steps are narrow and steep but the view at the top is amazing. I only tend to do this on less busy days as it can be tricky passing people in the stairwells of the castle when you are larger and there aren’t many crossing points.
Les Voyages des Pinocchio – Wooden bench style ride vehicles with a lap bar that comes down. I fit in these absolutely fine, what I would say as with all of these type rides is if you are going on with a small child the bar will be too high for them so I do not do these kind of rides with my nieces for that reason.
Blanche neige (Snow White) et les sept Naine – Wooden bench style ride vehicles with a lap bar that comes down. I fit in these absolutely fine, what I would say as with all of these type rides is if you are going on with a small child the bar will be too high for them so I do not do these kind of rides with my nieces for that reason.
Peter Pans Flight – The flying boats are suspended from the ceiling, they are a bench style seat once again with a bar across you. I fit in these absolutely fine, what I would say as with all of these type rides is if you are going on with a small child the bar will be too high for them so I do not do these kind of rides with my nieces for that reason.
Dumbo – I have no issue fitting into the elephants for this ride and they still go up and down with my weight
Casey Jnr – I have not ridden this, so I have no idea if I will fit to be honest. The carriages don’t look particularly small though.
Le Pays des Contes de Fèes – These boats have plenty of room, again bench style seats and you do need to be able to step down and out of the boats to access.
Adventureland
Pirates of the Caribbean – The boats are similar in designs and accessibility as small world. They are wide bench style seats which you need to be able to step down into and up out of. Please be aware that it is very dark in the queue area, if (like me) you have very light sensitive eyes then you may find in the brighter months you struggle to see for some time while your eyes adjust to the darkness.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril – This is another rollercoaster with an overhead seatbelt system, so I am unable to do this ride.
La Cabane des Robinsons – The Robinson’s treehouse looks lovely from a distance and I’ve been underneath it, but frankly I do not fancy walking up all those steps to see the top. I’m assured that it’s not too bad as they aren’t steep and that the view is worth it, but it’s not something I can be bothered to do 🙈
Aladdin’s Enchanted Passage – This is a walk through attraction, it’s cute and accessible to everyone.
Frontierland
Big Thunder Mountain – The wildest ride in the wilderness! The seats on this ride are bench style with a pull down bar, myself and my partner fit in this ride together fine, I have even ridden this wearing my huge petticoat underskirt and still fit ok.
Phantom Manor – The doom buggy’s are nice and wide and have a pull down bar which stops no where near your body so this ride has loads of room. It’s also one of my faves 💜
Molly Brown – huge boat that you can wander around or sit on while it floats around the lagoon. No access issues at all.
Walt Disney Studios
Flying Carpets over Agrabah – Ride vehicles are plenty large enough for me, similar to dumbo sizing.
Crush’s Coaster – I haven’t tried this ride as I was advised by the cast member at the front that it was unlikely I would fit in the vehicle and nobody wants to wait as long as the crush’s coaster queue just to not fit at the end of it 😂 . I understand that it is a tight lap bar. My friend is a size 22 and quite tall, she said she struggled with this ride but fit with help from a CM forcing the bar down.
Cars Rallye – The back seat of this ride is larger than the front. I can fit in this if I sit in the back and my nieces sit in the front. This ride makes me feel a bit sick though 😂
Ratatouille – wide bench seats in your rat-mobile I found that I fit easily, bar comes down over you. The CMs usually notice you are larger and don’t add a single rider with you, if they do then I can be a little snug, but not unbearable.
Toy Soldiers Parachute drop – this ride is fine, has a lap belt and a bar that comes down. The bar was tight on my legs and stomach but fitted over me, I didn’t find this comfortable though and wouldn’t do it again.
Slinky Dog – I haven’t actually tried this to know, the vehicles don’t look particularly small though. I would try it but my nieces didn’t want to queue for it so I wasn’t going to do it on my own. 😂
RC Racer – This is an overhead seat belt which I cannot fit in. There is a plus size seat in the front row which has a blue headrest to identify it. This chair is used for anyone who may need more room so you may have to wait longer for it.
Tower of Terror – very narrow turnstiles again like buzz. If you go up in the lift to the right there are less steps once you come out, the lift to the left has a few flights of stairs to walk up to get to your lift. Once on the ride there is a lap belt which fits me with plenty of room to spare … word of warning about TOT it would appear the larger you are the more ‘air’ you get in the drops! I come out of my seat to full extension of the seat belt 😂
Armageddon – This is a walk through attraction so is accessible to all.
Rock and Rollercoaster – This is an overhead safety harness so once again I am unable to ride this rollercoaster because of my chest.
I have found that the cast members are super helpful on the rides, so if you are at all unsure whether you will fit then please ask them and they will advise you accordingly.
Well, that was another long blog post so it looks like there will be a Part Three. I will cover Plus Size shopping at DLP, The Disney Village and Access to shows and parades as well as any other little tidbits I can think of 😊
Thanks so much for sticking with me on this blog and for all the lovely messages on Twitter about the first part – I’m glad people are finding it useful
With Love
Alyssa xx
** This blog is entirely made up of my personal experiences and opinions, you may find that your experience differs from mine as we are all different shapes and sizes. I have been as transparent as I can be about my size and shape but please do contact me if you have any further questions **
Queen Ursula 