As soon as we got off the boat, we put our plan into action. We stopped for a few pictures of Cinderella’s castle, grabbed a fast pass for the Winnie the Pooh ride, and made a b-line for the princesses.
Our timing was good, and they were just getting ready to open the part of the park where the princesses were. After a short wait, Emma and Ashlyn were shown into a room where Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Bell (Emma’s favorite) each had their own little areas for greeting kids. The girls got a little one-on-one time with each princess. They got autographs in their notebooks and had their pictures taken with each princess.
After our royal introduction to Disney World, we went back to the Winnie the Pooh ride with our fast passes. The fast passes are really a great idea. They give you a ticket with a time to come back to the ride. And when you come back, you don’t have to wait in line with everyone else. You get to jump right to the front and get on the ride with no waiting.
The girls loved the Winnie the Pooh ride. They also loved meeting Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, after the ride, and playing in the Hundred Acre Woods playground. I’m pretty sure the playground was Ashlyn’s favorite part.
Before lunch, we joined Belle and her helpers for story time. Belle came out on the open-air stage and began telling her story of Beauty and the Beast. But before she could tell much the story, she needed some help from kids in the audience. Emma was picked as one of the kids to go up on stage and help play a role in the story.
She played the role of Lumiere—the candlestick holder in the castle. She was pretty excited, not only to get to be chosen to go up on stage, but to get to be with her favorite princess again.
We took a short break to eat the picnic lunch we had brought, before heading for more rides. By mid-day the lines were a little longer, but were still not unreasonable.
Early in the afternoon, we hit the Small World ride. I remembered this as being one of my favorites when I was a kid. And after a 20 year absence, I don’t think they changed one thing on that ride. Emma tried to dance along with several of the dancing dolls, and Dakota was impressed with the cohesiveness of the music from one room to the next.
Even though FL has been experiencing a colder-than-usual winter (who hasn’t?) it was still MUCH warmer than what we were used to in IA. It felt SO good to be out in the warm sun and get to do so much walking. Even though we were in long sleeves and had light jackets with us, the weather was still a treat.
Around mid-afternoon, we saw a sing and dance show in front of the castle with several dancers and Disney characters. At the end of the show, they let off a few fireworks, and then everyone scrambled to find a place to watch the big parade.
We spent the later part of the afternoon checking out the Swiss Family Robinson’s tree house, and running around Tom Sawyer’s Island.
By the time we left the park, we all had red faces (we underestimated that FL sun!), and the girls had lots of character autographs in their books.
Ashlyn fell asleep in the stroller shortly before we left. This was her introduction to power-naps. Before exiting, we hit a souvenir shop, where Emma bought some pink mouse ears with a tiara, using her “princess credit card” (a gift card grandma had given her for her birthday).
A quick trip on the monorail (or “mommy-rail,” as Ashlyn called it) brought us back to our car. Then it was on to dinner, baths, and crashing for the night.
1 comment:
Those are the same Belle and Aurora I met last June when we were there for our honeymoon! We went at the end of the night when they canceled the light parade and only had to wait 20 minutes to see them and Cinderella (but it was a different one).
I'm SO glad the girls had fun! :)
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