For Disney Day 2 on Sunday, it was time to hit the Magic Kingdom! We'd planned a complete princess extravaganza for our first day in the park. We got to the park nice and early at 9:00 and spent the entire day in Fantasyland! Katie Anne has been wishing for months to visit Disney World, meet the princesses, and do all the special girly things in Fantasyland, so our first day in the park was dedicated to just making her dream come true!
Waiting for our bus to take us to MK ... Katie Anne was so excited!
On our way to the Magic Kingdom!
Our first stop was the stroller rental area. We loved renting a stroller - so much easier than lugging ours from home on the bus! Plus, we liked not worrying about our nice stroller being unattended while we were on rides. It worked out perfectly for Katie Anne - she walked sometimes and rode sometimes, and it kept her from being too tired.
Now, it was time for the real fun to begin - here's the view of Cinderella's Castle that greeted us as we strolled down Main Street!
Here's the look on Katie Anne's face the moment she first laid eyes on Cinderella's Castle ...
As soon as she recovered from her moment of magical shock, the cheering began! She called out, "We're here, Disney World, we're here!" over and over!
Katie Anne was so appreciative and thankful for her big birthday trip to Disney. We were amazed at the number of times she told us, "Thank you so much Mommy and Daddy for bringing me here!" and "I love this! This is the greatest trip ever!" We were very proud of her grateful heart and thankful attitude - she was definitely loving every minute of her special trip, and we more than got our money's worth out of this big present for her! Watching her experience the magic of Disney World was absolutely incredible for both of us parents!
We were lucky that we didn't have to wait in many lines to meet characters. We had lots of character dining opportunities planned, and many characters sought Katie Anne out to wish her "Happy Birthday!" because of her birthday button! We did wait in a few short lines to meet a couple of characters who weren't involved in our character dining meals, but we never waited longer than 15 minutes for pictures with anyone.
Here's Katie Anne meeting Cinderella's evil stepsisters - they were hilarious!
Our first ride of the day - the classic Dumbo ride! Katie Anne loved being in control of Dumbo's flying, and she loved the view of all of Fantasyland!
Katie Anne was proudly sporting her giant Disney birthday button that she'd received at our hotel, and Disney goes out of their way to make birthday guests feel so special. Her button got her lots of special attention, tons of birthday wishes, and happy surprises! Her first big birthday treat was when the Cast Members at the carousel heard how much she'd been looking forward to this ride. They told her to stay on and ride the carousel as many times in a row as she wanted!
She couldn't believe that she didn't have to get off when the carousel stopped!
She switched horses between each round of the carousel - we rode FOUR times in a row!
After all that carousel goodness, it was time to hit some more Fantasyland favorites. With a tiny bit of planning and a lot of luck, we never waited longer than 30 minutes for any ride, and usually it was much less than that. Even for some of the "biggies", we used our FastPass and walked right onto the ride with no waits! We rode Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Prince Charming's Regal Carousel, It's a Small World, and Dumbo. Here we our in our flying ship on the Peter Pan ride!
Here's KA on Snow White's Scary Adventure:
Time for that classic - It's a Small World!
Some people may think it's cheesy (*Daddy*), but KA and I loved it!
We sang the song for the rest of the day!
KA and Mommy in our Small World boat:
KA and Daddy in It's a Small World:
After we'd ridden all the Fantasyland favorites, it was time for a Mickey Mouse ice cream cone break!
After our ice cream, we headed back to our locker so KA could change into her beautiful princess dress for our lunch in Cinderella's Castle. Katie Anne really doesn't like regular "dress up" dresses ... she can't stand the itchy material for longer than a few minutes. Gigi found this beautiful pink dress for Katie Anne to wear to lunch, and she loved it!
After the costume change, we had a few minutes of time to spare before we could check in at Cinderella's Royal Table. We decided to hit Mickey's Philharmagic, a 3D movie that was a short wait and only 12 minutes long. It turned out to be fabulous - KA loved it so much that we went back the second day and did it again!
Finally, it was time to go into Cinderella's Royal Table! First, we had our audience with Cinderella. She was stunning in a huge sparkling blue ballgown in the regal castle room - she definitely looked the part of the regal princess at the ball! Katie Anne was totally starstruck by her. KA loved sitting down with Cinderella on her throne, chatting, and getting their pictures made together! We got an 8x10 and 4 smaller prints of the two princesses together:
Then, we had to wait a few minutes before heading upstairs into the castle for our lunch. I asked KA to stand up so I could make a full-length photo of her dress since her photo with Cinderella had been a close-up. She took that opportunity to show off her best modeling moves!
Cinderella was laughing at Katie Anne's modeling! Of course, she wanted to come over and get in on the full-length posing action herself!
Once we got to our table, Katie Anne was presented with some special prizes. This is her Wishing Star:
She also got a Magic Wand:
During the Wishing Ceremony in the restaurant, each girl is asked to close her eyes and make one special wish on her Wishing Star. Then, she was supposed to wave her Magic Wand and say, "Bippity boppity boo!" to make her wish come true! What did this sweet birthday girl wish for?
"I wish that, when SJ is older, I could bring him back to Disney World with me."
(This is also what she wished for each time she blew out a birthday candle in Disney World.)
What a great big sister to spend her birthday wish on her brother!
Watching the blinking lights that signal the magic's working at the end of the Wishing Ceremony!
Mommy and the birthday princess
After the wishing ceremony, it was time for the princesses to visit our table! We started our visiting with Snow White. Katie Anne told her that we'd all dressed up as characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for Halloween, and Snow White thought that was hilarious!
Then, Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose) made her way to our table! She was very sweet to Katie Anne and talked a lot about her special birthday.
Next, it was time for one of KA's favorites - Ariel! When they were talking about Prince Eric, Ariel asked if Katie Anne was going to get married in 12 years or so (haha). Katie Anne told Ariel that she wasn't getting married because "I don't want a boy to bring germs into my house." Ariel thought that was pretty clever! She told Katie Anne that Prince Eric was definitely germy!
Katie Anne hugged Ariel so hard that she almost pushed her over!
Next, Belle came by. Belle loved Katie Anne's dress and asked her to twirl in it, but Katie Anne was a little disappointed in Belle's. She didn't tell Belle herself, but after Belle left, Katie Anne said, "I really wish she was wearing her big yellow dress!"
Belle is one of Katie Anne's favorite princesses, but she didn't like meeting her best. Belle seemed a little rushed and didn't spend a long time chatting with KA like the other princesses did. Katie Anne said, "Belle seemed a little harsh to me." Haha!
After meeting all the princesses, Katie Anne decided her favorites were Ariel and Cinderella. Then, after we finished our lunch, it was time for KA's birthday cupcake and make-your-own sundae!
Decorating her cupcake:
The finished masterpiece!
When we left Cinderella's Castle, it was just in time to snag a great seat for the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade.
We had wonderful seats - the first row on the circle, right in front of the castle!
While we waited, Katie Anne got to interact with Push the Talking Trashcan from Tomorrowland.
She thought she had the remote controlled trashcan all figured out - she guessed that there was a little man inside driving it and talking. When she went up to meet Push, she peeked into the lid. Then, she came back and told me that it was a real trash bag inside! So, the mystery continued for her.
Beautiful girl waiting patiently!
Time for the parade!
Donald Duck came right over to shake KA's hand and wish her happy birthday!
Alladin called out happy birthday wishes to KA from the top of his float and blew her a kiss!
The Mad Hatter wished Katie Anne a very happy birthday as his float rolled by.
Cinderella's Evil Stepmother had to make a visit to KA, too.
She told Katie Anne happy birthday and added, "You have a really nice gown!"
Even the Fairy Godmother called out, "Happy Birthday!" to Katie Anne. KA loved all the special birthday wishes during the parade!
It was almost dinner time and everyone was winding down. Plus, we'd done everything on our Magic Kingdom list in our very first day! So, we decided to head back to the hotel for a little downtime before tomorrow's early morning wake-up call. We bought a big princess balloon for the birthday girl, then we headed out of the park!
The sleepy princess took a snooze all the way back to the hotel room. When we got there, all 3 of us took a nap until about 6:00 pm.
That evening, it was time for one of KA's most wanted activities - swimming!
Yes, the Fantasia-themed pool definitely called KA's name. She kept asking to go swimming, so we spent some time in the pool on Sunday evening playing and splashing around.
The water was a little chilly!
Who goes to Disney World and just wants to swim? This cute girl!
1 comment:
She looks like a Disney princess too. Reading your post made me more excited to take my vacation in the Magical kingdom especially now that I won't be bringing stroller along knowing about Airport Stroller Rental. Thanks for sharing your vacation.
Post a Comment