Disney World - Part 2, Princess for a Day --- April 2018

Wednesday April 4, 2018

Day 2 – Magic Kingdom –Princess Day

Lesson learned from Day 1: go to the park early before everyone else arrives and it’s not so incredibly hot.  So, on Day 2 we were up and out the door early.  We got to the park around 8 am and headed down to the kid rides in Fantasy Land.  

One our way to Fantasy Land we happened to walk by Merida’s visiting area and she was there with a short wait. So, we started off the day with a Princess visit. 

We headed to the Spinning Tea Cups.

We drove the cars at Tomorrow Land Speedway (my driver was a bit WILD).

Then, on to Dumbo.  We waited maybe 30 minutes to get on this ride and it was our longest wait that morning.  It wasn’t too bad because they have a play area in the middle of the line and the kids thought it was very fun. 

From Dumbo we went to Peter Plan’s Flight.  Luckily we had a fast pass for that ride because the stand by line was never shorter than a 90 -120 minute wait the entire time we were there.  I loved this ride. The kids were completely enchanted by it. 

Mid morning break was a giant cinnamon roll and fruit plate from Gaston's

We had a lunch reservation that day at Cinderella’s Royal Table.  Since we were not able to get our kids into the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for makeovers we let them pick out a crown to wear with their dresses (we brought the dresses as part of the Christmas surprise gift).  

While we were waiting for our lunch reservation we happened to see Cinderella’s step sisters signing books so we waited in line for a picture and autograph with Anastasia and Drizella.  

Then, we got the girls dressed up in their gowns, shoes and crowns.  I did a little make up and hair on them and we did a photoshoot in the store (we had purchased the Photopass option and I was happy that we did).  

Princess Cinderella / Anikka

Princess Aurora / Elin

Then off we went to eat lunch in the Castle after a sprinkling of glitter.

The girls were so cute with their pretty dresses on.  I could tell that they felt beautiful.  

When you first come in to the castle everyone gets a personal greeting, autograph and picture with Cinderella.   When Anikka walked up to Cinderella she said "Did you get a dress out of my closet because we are dressed the same!" Then she said "Oh, you are not my size!".  Anikka thought it was the funniest thing.   The look on their faces with Cinderella is priceless.

Then you go up 2 flights of stairs into a beautiful round room with lots of stained glass windows.  "The room with all the colored windows"  is what Anikka called it.

Princesses come around to each table for pictures and autographs. 

We met:

Princess Ariel

Snow White

Princess Jasmine

Princess Aurora

The girls were thrilled and had the best time.  The food was excellent and we enjoyed the entire experience. 

There was one moment at lunch that was a bit interesting.  When they announced that Jasmine had come in Elin turned to me and said “We don’t need her to sign our books because she signed them yesterday.”  I said “we can just take a picture with her then”.  Jasmine was across the room at the time and no other cast members were around.  When Jasmine got to our table she said to the girls “Do you want me to sign your books again?”.    Uhhhh…what?   James and I looked at each other.   I should also point out that Elin mentioned that Jasmine’s voice sounded different from yesterday (likely not the same person).   The girls think that she remembered us from the day before. I’m wondering if they have little microphones at the table or if they tracked us with of our magic bands. In any case…it was a bit of Disney MAGIC.

Cinderella’s  Royal Table was such a fun experience and I’m glad we did. Yes, it was expensive…but I thought it was worth it just to let our girls feel like they truly were princesses in a castle.  Anikka REALLY thought we met Cinderella and that we were in her castle.  

After lunch we went to ride the Barnstormer.  Good thing we had a fast pass and only waited 5 minutes for this ride.  It was over and done in 30 seconds.  The girls liked it…but it went too fast.  

Our last fast pass for the afternoon was for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.   It was also a good thing we had a fast pass for that ride or we would not have been able to do it.  The lowest wait time we saw while in the park that day was 240 minutes.  We all really loved this ride. Even Elin.  Anikka sat with me and laughed through the whole thing. 

By then it as 4:30 and we were all tired so we opted to take the train from Fantasyland back to Main Street to cut down on our walking.  It was lucky that we did. As we were waiting for the train (under cover) it started pouring and it rained for about 10 minutes.  By the time we got to Main Street Station the rain had stopped and we walked to our bus without even getting wet.

Back at the hotel the kids did a quick swim and we had leftover pizza for dinner then about 8 pm we headed back to the park to see the fireworks. The kids were really tired and didn’t really want to go back so we bribed them with a promise to rent a stroller so they wouldn’t have to walk so far.   

We got a spot on Main Street to see the castle and watch the fireworks show called Happily Ever After.  It's hard to describe how amazing the show is.  It was pure magic.  The most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen.    Everyone loved it, even the tired kids.   (PS: These are not our pictures. I found them the web)

We spent a little more time in the park waiting for the crowds at the bus stop to clear.   While we were waiting we went on It’s a Small World 

and then Mickey’s PhilharMagic show since there was no line.  

We headed back to the hotel around 10:30 pm and both kids fell asleep on the bus ride home.  It was a very long day.

And yes, Elin loved it!  THIS day was what she was expecting.

Day 2 - complete.

Maija

Disney World, Part 1 - The Happiest Place on Earth? --- April 2018

For Christmas we surprised our girls with a trip to Disney World for Spring Break.  

After many month of discussion and counting down the days on our Disney calendars…the big day finally arrived. 

On April 2, 2018 we started our journey cross country to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Florida is a LONG way from Seattle. We had a 4 hour flight to Houston…

then a 2 hour flight to Orlando.  We got in a little late due to a mechanical issue with the plane in Houston.  We finally got to Orlando around 8:30 pm and headed on Disney’s Magical Express to our hotel at Port Orleans Riverside.

Our resort was very nice and after checking in the girls and James headed straight for the pool. After a quick swim we all headed to bed. Traveling makes everyone tired and we had to be ready for an early day in the park.

This is what our room looked like. The girls were very happy with our Royal Princess room.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Day 1 – Magic Kingdom 

“It wasn’t like I though it would be.” Elin, age 7

We were up bright and early and a the park by 9 am for a day at Magic Kingdom

We started our Magic Kingdom experience with a Fast Pass to Pirates of the Caribbean.  Elin was less than impressed and said that she only sort of liked the ride.

We planned to spend the first day in Frontier Land and Adventure Land so that we could segment the park over the 3 days we would be at Magic Kingdom and not be walking back and forth all day.  After Pirates we watched the show in the Tiki Room then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  I had to force Elin to ride it.   She is not a fan of roller coasters or spinning rides due to motion sickness.  She closed her eyes the whole time but did say that she liked after we were done.   We learned on this trip that Anikka will ride ANY ride and loves them all.   The faster the better.  She is definitely our roller coaster child.   Elin….probably not.  After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad we rode the Tom Sawyer raft over to the island but when we got over there the kids didn’t want to walk around so we just took the raft back over.

Our 3^rd Fast pass for the day was Splash Mountain.  Elin got one look at the waterfall and drop at the end of the ride and REFUSED to do it.   Since I had forced her to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that day, I decided to let her choose.   She didn’t want to do it so she and I sat out.  Anikka rode it with James and loved every minute of it.  Even the one hour fast pass wait.

We had a quick lunch then rode the Disney train all around the park for a little break to see if it might help Elin's disposition.   Luckily, it did.

In the early afternoon I waited in the line to meet Princess Jasmine and Aladdin while James and the girls went to the Bear Country Jamboree.

After meeting their first princess, we finally got a smile out of Elin. She had been not very pleasant (read lots of whining and crying) for a good portion of the day.  We later found out the reason why…(more on that later).   We had a dole pineapple whip...

and watched a parade while waiting for our Fast Pass to ride Aladdin’s Flying Carpet.

We headed out of the park around 5 after quickly stopping by Fantasy Land.  We were trying to get the girls an appointment for Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for the next morning, but we were not successful.  They have been booked solid for months.  Since the Carousel line was short, we did a quick ride before heading out of the park.  I felt like Mary Poppins on the carousel (those of you who have seen the movie will understand the reference).

It was a very hot day…87 degrees, full sun and very humid.  Both of my girls were very hot in the afternoon and I thought Elin might have had heat stroke because she was acting so ....not happy.  After discussing it with her later I realized that is was a combination of a couple of things

1) she was hot, tired and hungry
2) she thought Disney World was going to be all Princesses and she was not impressed with Frontier or Adventure lands.

After seeing Fantasyland and realizing we would be there the next day, she got a little more excited about coming back.

When we got back to the hotel we ordered room service pizza then headed to the pool.

Elin

Anikka

Elin doing the splits a the bottom of the pool.

Anikka doing a hand stand on the pool floor.
 She will do this for hours on end in the pool.

Both girls practically passed out when they finally went to bed. In fact, Elin was in the middle of telling James that she couldn’t fall asleep in an unfamiliar bed and she literally fell asleep in the middle of a sentence.

Day 1 complete.

Maija