Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Day 1: The Magic Kingdom (Part 3)

We wanted to begin our Disney World adventure in the most magical way possible, so we opted to spend Day 1 in The Magic Kingdom, of course.  Even with less than 5 hours of sleep these little girls were ready to go:

These first pictures were from when they were wide awake soaking in all the details of their "Royal Room" in their new Sofia gowns at 2 a.m.


Notice the framed princesses beside their bed. Exhausted as she was, it took Addison awhile to fall asleep each night as she longingly gazed at her heroines.
And here they are the next morning, at 7:30 when we were about to go catch the bus:

This was a quick pit stop as we crossed the bridge over the river of our beautiful resort.

We got to The Magic Kingdom about 30 minutes before it opened, and I am so glad we did so we could capture moments like this:
And so that we could see Mickey and his gang arrive in on the train. There were tears. Many happy tears.
When we got in the park, the first thing we did was purchase Minnie Ears and take this photo:
From there we headed straight to Fantasyland to Ariel's Grotto to meet this princess at Addison's request. She is a totally Ariel-obsessed little girl. She will say that Ariel and Belle are her favorite princesses, and while Belle was her first love, Ariel has her whole heart. Can you tell she was loving it???
Since we went there first and there was no wait, Ariel completely made over my girls and made them feel so, so special. She talked about how they could fit into her family since their names begin with A and she and all of her sisters' names also begin with A.  Ansley wasn't too sure at first since it was her first character meeting, but she quickly warmed up!




We had reserved a FASTPASS for the Under the Sea ride, but since we didn't need it, we cancelled it so that we could reserve another one later. Under the Sea was a great first ride. It was fun, musical, and not scary at all. These were Addison's two favorite scenes:

Our next FAST PASS was for the Peter Pan Ride, but we had some time to kill, so from there we went to ride "It's a Small World" and "Winnie the Pooh." They were Ansley's favorite first rides, so we were lucky to get to ride them a couple of times with no wait.




 When we came out of the Winnie ride, look who we saw: Even though we knew we would eat with them later on during our trip, we couldn't resist this photo op, and it ended up being one of my favorite character pictures of all. Both of my girls got hooked on the recent Winnie the Pooh movie where Zoey Deschanel sings the "100-acre-woods" song, so they were EATING THIS UP!
 We crossed over to ride the Mad Hatter Tea Party Ride, and while I usually HATE spinning rides, I let the girls spin as fast as they wanted.

 After the Peter Pan ride (which I have not idea why there are no pictures of that), we went over for Enchanted Tales with Belle.  I LOVED this--Belle is definitely MY favorite princess--booklovers are kindred like that! ;)
 I especially loved that all of my family got to participate. Patrick was chosen as a guard, and the girls were plates.
 When Ansley hugged her, she asked if she could sit by her at dinner. Belle, staying true to character, said, "Oh, I am so glad you will 'be our guest' at the table. Melted Ansley's heart--and mine--for sure.

From there we went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. This was our first dining experience, and I was so moved by how accessible it was for me to have help for my food allergy girl.  We had heard from friends that Disney cast members just go above and beyond, and, in doing so, creates these "Magic Moments." Our dining experience with them--every single one of them--served as "Magic Moments" for me. One of my biggest worries was finding suitable food for Ansley. With her severe anaphylactic dairy allergy, we are EXTREMELY careful about what she eats.  We have to be. At every restaurant we visited, whether it was a sit down or quick service meal, we were greeted by the chef who informed us about dishes that Ansley could eat. Often, the chef would offer to make something special for her, and he or she ALWAYS gave her extra dessert. That's the hardest thing to find in dairy-free land. It really was magical, and it made our experience all the more enjoyable here.  Patrick and I ordered bacon cheeseburgers here; Addison had chicken fingers; and Ansley had a pb&j uncrustable sandwich with allergen free fries and grapes. We ALL especially enjoyed the mango sorbet for dessert.



From there, the girls' request was for MORE PRINCESSES-- which was no surprise to us.  Thinking ahead, we had used one of our FASTPASS+ reservations to secure a spot at the Princess Meet and Greet at Town Square.  There, they got to meet Rapunzel, Aurora, and Cinderella.

 Ansley was a total ham with the characters, and here she is showing Princess Aurora that she has Sleeping Beauty Light-up shoes by stomping her feet, demonstrating, and chirping, "Wasn't that a cool trick?



 We took a heat and snack break in this gift shop, and I love how Ansley is loving on Minnie here.
 When we exited, who should appear but Mary Poppins!!!  Patrick said I might have "geeked out" a little about meeting her. What can I say? I love me some Mary Poppins!


Right across in town square was Snow White, and while Ansley is just entering into her "princess love" stage, she has loved Snow White from the beginning. I have no idea WHY she chose Snow White, but it has been a pure, unadulterated love. She kept telling Snow White how beautiful she was.


Next, we took a little break and decided where to go. It wasn't hard. More characters! Next up was Pluto and Tiana.

 Ansley loved ALL of the characters EXCEPT Pluto and Goofy. You will notice that I am holding her in ALL of the photos with those two. Hilarious.


We caught a castle show, and there were more happy tears.


 Then, we caught a parade next, and we were all LOVING it.




 In case my words don't describe my emotions, maybe this picture does.  I cannot believe I didn't delete it and actually POSTED it, but it was hilarious. My other favorite part about this picture is that it captures Ansley mid-bootie shake. That bootie NEVER.STOPPED.SHAKING.

 After the parade, we headed over to Adventureland to do Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, Pirates of the Carribean, and to meet Tinkerbell. She was awesome.
We wanted to do the Jungle Cruise, but it was closed down for maintenance, so, instead, we enjoyed some Dole Whips--these refreshing pineapple floats of goodness and my favorite snack credit treat of all times.

The park shut down early that evening for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, so that made it easier for us to leave and head over to our Chef Mickey's reservation at 6:45. This is my favorite meal from when I was a little girl,

 and I think no matter how big my kids get, we will ALWAYS eat here.


We finally got to meet all of the classic characters, and the girls couldn't have been more thrilled!





 We were fully stuffed after a delicious meal, and after our late night before, it didn't take the girls too long to look like this:


Sleeping kiddos just MELT me--especially these two. And it was a good thing too because they were gearing up for our Day 2 at Epcot.  Hopefully, I will follow through and be back to post on that later.

Read about Part 1 of our planning here.
Read about Part 2of our big reveal here.


2 comments:

Amy said...

I'm enjoying reading your Disney recap. We took Amelia a couple of years ago (she was just about to turn four), and we had a blast. I know what you mean about the happy tears. I totally cried during the "Welcome" when the park opened, and I also got teary-eyed just walking on Main Street!

Keep writing about it...I want to read more about your trip!! :-)

Haley said...

I love Disney posts. That is all. #tears