Potty for the Princesses

DW isn’t one to break a promise. Soon after her 2nd birthday, he promised our girl Disney World,  Mickey Mouse and the princesses in exchange for potty training. He kept true to his word, even when her momma suggested we take the cheaper route and take her to Mickey’s Halloween party or to a character dinner at one of the resorts and skip the park all together. :) I was just trying to help the bank account and my swollen pregnant “cankles.”

On Sunday we headed for the Magic Kingdom. The day did not disappoint, either… it really was MAGICAL, and so worth having swollen cankles by the end of the day!

This was the first time we’ve ever been and not gotten a hotel. I was a little nervous about how AB would do without having a place to go take a break and get a nap. I don’t know why I worry, because in her true normal fashion, she did great ALL day long. The park closed at 7:00 that evening and we ended up staying until then!

My parents went with us, too, this trip. My mom said she just couldn’t hardly stand the thought of AB getting to see “Tangled” (AB doesn’t know her as “Rapunzel”) and them not being there to see it! We were so glad they were there, too, to help with everything…it certainly took a lot off of this oh-so-pregnant girl (& DW who would have been chief pack-mule for the day since I’m not much help these days) and AB loved having Grammy & Pop there!

We got to the park so early that we didn’t even have to ride the tram in! We parked THAT close! We bought our tickets and jumped on the mono-rail. The park was decorated for fall with lots of pumpkins and fall colors everywhere.

We made it in plenty of time to see the “Welcome/Opening Ceremonies,” which was so fun! AB loved getting to see all the characters ride up on the train!

The neatest thing about it, though, was we literally walked into the park WITH them! So fun…

See Alice to the left of DW & AB? And to the right is Chip & Dale.

The crowd couldn’t have been any better. It was unbelievable. Wait times for the rides looked like this:

CRAZY!!! I’ve never seen a wait time that short! Some rides were even no wait AT ALL!

Our first destination, though, was to meet Tangled! AB LOVES the movie and will watch it OVER AND OVER AND OVER if we let her. Meeting Tangled, was a top request of AB’s and I had a feeling the line would get pretty long, since she’s the newest of the Disney characters, so we headed there first.

This ended up being the longest wait of the day and it was about 20 minutes. They had a big round “table” set up with coloring sheets and Tangled crayons for the kids to color while the parents stood in line. SUCH a great idea! One of the workers was also going down the line with a stuffed “Pascal” for the kids to have their picture taken with. So fun!

After coloring and waiting in line, it was finally our turn! AB ran right up to “Tangled” like they were long lost friends and gave her a big hug. She surprised us all day by how much she loved seeing all the characters and how comfortable she was with all of them. She wasn’t shy at all! Tangled asked her if she knew her friend, “Pascal”- to which AB replies, “Yea! Where’s you’s horse, Max?” Rapunzel was so sweet and played right along, “What?!! YOU know my horse, Maximus? Well he’s with Eugene back in the kingdom!”  How precious is that?

The whole crew with Tangled… I think we’ve ALL seen the movie at least 15 times. Ha…

Next, we thought we’d ride some rides. AB & DW headed for the teacups, but AB quickly changed her mind and decided she didn’t want to ride that! She DID want to meet Alice & White Rabbit, though.

 

When we first got into the park, we bought an autograph book and pen so she could have all the characters we saw that day sign her book. We had them skip pages and I’m planning to put her picture with them beside their autograph. I’m thinking that will be fun to do from year to year and look back on one day.

Little Miss DID want to ride the “horsies,” so she & Daddy rode Prince Charming’s Royal Carousel.

We all rode on “It’s a Small World,” and of course AB had to throw some coins in the water again.

We rode on the Liberty Belle Riverboat Cruise, which we’d never taken the time to do before, and we were 5 of the 9 people on board for that trip!

While in Frontierland, we went to see Frontier Donald! AB was SO excited to see The Duck!

DW & AB watched the “Dreams Do Come True” show in front of the castle while Mom, Dad & I sat on the benches and watched from a distance.

This was the back of the crowd. Usually it’s backed up all the way back to Mainstreet!

We were the only ones on either side of the “road” sitting on those benches… It was unreal how great the crowd was!

We had decided to get a Fast Pass to see Mickey & Minnie and the Princesses for later that afternoon. While DW & I went to get those, Grammy & Pop took AB to see Ariel (“Ariel Mermaid”) & Prince Eric.

We’ve never done the FastPass thing, but WOW is that the way to go! The wait was only 25 minutes for Mickey & Minnie, but we decided to get passes anyway…I was so glad we did! We were to return between 12:15 & 1:15 to see them, so we got some lunch at Cosmic Rays Café, changed AB into her Minnie Mouse outfit and then headed to the MainStreet Theatre to catch up with our favorite Mice. We made it to Main Street just in time for the Celebrate! Street Parade…

We got to the theater to see Mickey & Minnie, handed them our fast passes and the girl led us down a hallway where we were all by ourselves.

Everybody giving the FastPass a thumbs-up!

Within minutes we were in the room with Mickey! Minnie, sadly, was “out buying new shoes,” so we missed her. We also forgot the autograph book for Mickey to sign, so we decided to go back later in the day to see Minnie & have them sign her book. The really crazy thing is, that the lady forgot to take our Fast Passes, and we didn’t know she was even supposed to take them from us until we went into the Princesses and they took ours there, so we got to use them again later in the day to see Mickey & Minnie!

After we left Mickey, we went straight to the Princess line. Since we had our fastpasses for that too, we thought we’d get right in. We ended up having to wait a couple minutes, but when it was our turn, they let JUST US in the room! It was just us and all three Princesses; Cinderella, Belle & Sleeping Beauty. Cinderella came walking toward us, and we thought she was going on break (aka “going shopping for new shoes”), but she was just coming to greet AB and lead her over to her spot to have her picture taken!

 

So sweet! They were all so sweet with AB and took so much time with her… it was precious!

After all the excitement of meeting Mickey & The Princesses, we decided we’d take a ride around the park on the train and maybe AB would fall asleep and get a power nap in. We got to see the new under-construction part of the park, too! I can’t wait to go back next year to see it open! After two trips around the park, AB’s eyes were heavy, so we stopped in Frontierland, put her in her stroller and just a few steps later she was out! We found a spot in the shade and rested for about an hour. It was glorious for our girl and her pregnant momma.

When AB woke up from her nap, it was time to pick a spot for the parade! We got our spot and waited for the parade! I LOVE the parades…AB does, too! They’re always a favorite part of the day!

Once the parade was over, we set out to find Woody & “Cow-Jessie,” more favorites of AB’s. We were the first in line when they made it back to their spot for pictures and they were SO MUCH FUN when they got there! My parents were sitting on one bench with AB and DW and I were sitting on the other. Mom & Dad, thinking they were sitting in their spot, jumped up when they got there, and Woody goes over and shakes my Dad’s hand. It was so cute… the benches aren’t where they taking the pictures, but Jessie sat right down and pulled AB in her lap and hugged her. Then Woody came over, and they took AB over to the spot where they did pictures. They spent so much time with her, I was feeling bad for all the people waiting in line! It was just the neatest thing ever…

Pop insisted that we find Goofy next, since he, too, is one of AB’s faves. He stopped and asked one of the Disney workers where Goofy could be found, and we headed for Pirates of the Caribbean to meet Pirate Goofy. As soon as it was AB’s turn, she walked up to him and said, “You really tall, Goofy!” She even kissed him goodbye!

We headed back to see Mickey in hopes that Minnie would be back, and as luck would have it, she was! We were the only ones in the room again, and we spent at least 5 minutes with them. In the past, we’ve waited close to two hours, and only gotten what felt like 30 seconds to get a picture with them. It was so awesome this time! AB was so excited that Minnie was back from “shopping”  and asked her, “you’s got you’s new shoes on?!?!”

We ended the day by visiting Tomorrowland, where we’ve never really spent much time. We saw the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor show and then headed back to Fantasyland for a couple more rides.

The carousel was a must, again. This time, though, AB wanted Grammy & Pop to ride with her. After that, she wanted to ride “Bumbo” with Daddy & Grammy.

Our last stop of the day was to shop for some souvenirs, of course! But more on that, later.

It was such an awesome day. There is nothing better than seeing your child enjoy something so much. Disney is such a magical place and to see it through the eyes of a child, ESPECIALLY your own, is almost too much to take. It’s a day all of us will cherish always.

~amw~