Trip Report It feels like the first time... Feels like the very first time *completed*

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[DryerLintFan]

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[MegRuss626]

When I first had the idea to do Disney, I wasn't sold on it at all. I'd never been there, I didn't know what to expect and I don't do well when I don't know what to expect, but most of all, crowds make me panic and feel claustrophobic. I started doing research, and of course I started Pinteresting... And I came across that shirt. For whatever reason, it tipped me over the edge. I didn't want my daughter to be a princess. I rarely even put the in girls clothing .. but that's just her personality. So if she's going to be a princess, then she's my favorite princess ever.

I hope your trip is amazing!! The shirt is super soft and comfortable!!

I am the same way about things when I don’t know what’s going on and what to expect but opposite on the Disney thing...my first trip was at 6 years old and I’ve loved the magic ever since. (And at 31, I still love it just the same as my 6 year old self!) Except I’ll probably get the tomboy that you ordered since I love everything about Disney Princesses! haha I even bought my husband the shirt that says “My favorite Disney Princesses are my wife and daughter”.
Thank you....I cannot even wait for our trip and hope my daughter has a great trip like yours did! And that shirt is rediculously soft!

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[dclfan]

It's hard to gauge her intelligence because all the kids her age develop different things at different times. Like, A is verbally advanced and she makes jokes and she's mouthy, but she can't crack an egg successfully yet or dress herself like some of her friends can.

I never once in my life imagined I would have a little girl who needed to be in princess dresses 24/7, but here I am. The universe has a sense of humor, lol
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Although today, for the first time in months, she didn't wear a princess dress.....

Spoiler: Spoiler

because she wore a Rainbow Dash dress instead
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LOL the universe does tend to have a sense of humor doesn't it. I grew up in NYC a total city kid and then met my fiancé and now we live in rural NH?! I couldn't have predicted that in a million years. Still though A is seriously the cutest little girl ever. She really cracks me up. Thanks so much for sharing those Princess photos with us and your trip report. Looking forward to the conclusion.

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[Songbird76]

Day two - Epcot continued

The Morocco pavilion was incredibly charming. The delicious smells from the Tangerine Cafe wafting over us as we explored the mosaic "mosque" was enchanting.
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It didn't feel like we were in Morocco, per se, or the Middle East; it felt very much like we'd stepped into Agrabah. The details were stunning at every country we visited, but they all felt this way to us. Not disingenuous, necessarily, but..... They felt like movie sets. Disney obviously brought all the best and most iconic things about each country to it's pavilion, which I totally understand, but it all felt like we were walking through a Fairytale, not a country. The pavilions lacked the soul, and depth, and chaos of their countries. I'm not sure what Disney was going for when they built the World Showcase, but if they were going for a story book romantic feeling, they nailed it. If they were going for realistic, they probably need to add street markets and street food kiosks (Germany, for example, has some of the best street food carts I've ever tasted).

It was lovely strolling through this idealistic version of Morocco though. And we did stroll through it three or four times before we finally stopped and asked someone where the heck was Jasmine It turned out that she wasn't meeting until 11:45, which was a twenty minute wait. I didn't want to backtrack, so even though it put us behind "schedule" we decided to wait by the blue door. While we were waiting, a friendly cast member came out to invite A inside to color.

One of the details that most impressed us about Epcot was how they staffed each pavilion with cast members from that country/region! We had expected the guys in the Moroccan pavilion to be Central or South American, because that's who they use in most of the movies when they want to portray Arabs. But we were pleasantly surprised to find that they were genuinely Moroccan/Middle Eastern and spoke Arabic. And the ladies we met in the French pavilion spoke French beautifully. This was a very thoughtful and deliberate touch, in my opinion.

So A goes in the shop to color with D and the cast member was incredibly sweet with her. He played with her, and helped her with the markers, and told her about the history of the decorations on the wall, and even wrote her name in Arabic on the back of the bear she was coloring. And he helped her find the first ornament for our chip and Dale game card!!
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Around 11:35 a cast member opened the blue door and ushered us inside the meet and greet area. The line behind us by now was incredibly long and we were glad we had waited because we would have had a much longer wait if we had back tracked. The only thing was that they made us pull her away from coloring TEN minutes before we could expect to see Jasmine.

The only way we could keep her quiet in the queue was to break out D's phone and fool around with snap chat filters
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And Jasmine was late. Over five minutes late. The cast member made up this story about how she was flying her magic carpet and couldn't find a parking space it was really cute. So keep in mind that there are a million people behind us, we've all been waiting forever, and Jasmine is really late. Of course, in a situation like that, this was bound to be the time A would spend the MOST time with the character....

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Obviously she started by showing Jasmine her shoes and telling her about her Tinkerbell shoes back at the hotel "and I like to STOMP in them and splash water on you and get you all wet!! And I'm going to climb up the tower in your castle and STOMP MY TINKERBELL SHOES!!"
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"Your dress is so pretty! I have a pretty dress too, but I don't have your dress. I want a Jasmine dress, and an Ariel swimsuit. The mailman has to bring me an Ariel swimsuit. You can't be on my swimsuit, but the mailman has to bring me a Jasmine dress. And a Tinkerbell dress! And some cookies!!"

"Okay, A, she's not Santa Claus, she's Jasmine...."

"Oh, it's quite alright! I'll tell my friend genie all about your wishes! He makes wishes come true! Perhaps he can bring you a Jasmine dress!!"

"NO!! THE MAILMAN HAS TO BRING IT!!"

(side note: I feel really bad for our mailman. A figured out pretty early in that the mailman brought packages and her princess dresses always came in those packages. Now whenever she sees his truck, she hunts him down and interrogates him about where her dresses are )

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Fun fact about the Moroccan pavilion: The King of Morocco actually sent people to design the mosaic tiles and stuff so it would be accurate and I think I also read he paid for it himself. It's supposed to feel like the real thing.

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[amjt660]

While I appreciate your take on the world show case country pavilions I hope you understand why that are “sanitized”

Having a country pavilion with crime , homeless, and sounds of sirens or fighting or offensive smells would not be the most attractive

All pavilions are run by the host country ( hence why the CM are from that country) so they want to present the most picturesque version of their country to attract current Epcot customers and future tourists

Max

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[DryerLintFan]

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[21stamps]

Quick pop in.. just checked the weather and thought of you.lol

I don’t know what your temps are in Columbus, but if they’re anything like a tad South here...I hope that you’re staying inside and warm! My crazy kid went sledding for a bit today.. on a strict time limit. Did you go out frolicking in the snow?
I cancelled my plans tonight because it’s just too darn cold to wear anything besides pjs.

Happy New Year!!!

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[DryerLintFan]

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[21stamps]

Day three - Magic Kingdom night continued

Based on reviews, trip reports, and food blogs, I went into Cinderella's Royal Table with extremely low expectations. I had read the food was meh, the portions were tiny so you left starving, the princesses took forever to come out and then rushed through your table, and the whole ordeal ate up 90-120 minutes of valuable park time. But hey, going into this trip we had no idea if we'd ever be back again, so why not go for the whole shebang?!

After checking in, we were led inside the castle to a royal chamber where Cinderella was meeting her guests.
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I was really impressed by something that happened here..... There was only one other family who was waiting for their table, so when they left it was just us, Cinderella, the photographer, and a cast member. Cinderella had already met with us, so her obligation to us was over. Another cast member came in and started having a casual conversation with her....... And she didn't break character. He had asked her what she did with her family for Christmas, like you'd ask a friend or a co-worker, and she answered something about the castle and the prince and a fifty foot Christmas tree. I'm sure that was annoying for the cast member who asked but A had been listening and later told me that next year we needed a tree as big as Cinderella's so that was just a really impressive job by her!!

The moment we walked into the dining room, trumpets started playing!! We thought "wow! What a royal treatment!" But really it was for Aurora, who entered at the same time as us They sat us in the right wing (it's not really a separate wing but it's elevated, like a balcony almost, and there is one in either side of the main dining section) and as we settled in and got those pocket pet toys out for A, Snow White was announced!! Shortly after that, Ariel came waltzing in on her human legs!

I was so excited because we got exactly the three princesses I'd hoped we would get, and we had perfect timing in that all the princesses started their circulation right when we got there so we wouldn't have to wait on anyone! I was leaning over to tell D how great our timing was, when princess Jasmine came in! We got a bonus princess!!

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Hey smile for the camera, A...
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No, A,... Give me a pretty smile....
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Can we talk about Aurora for a minute....? The young lady who was our Aurora was a saint. An absolute saint. A was on princess overload an had a hard time concentrating on just the princess at our table because three others were so nearby. So when A grabbed her pocket pets to show Aurora, we just rolled our eyes, apologized to Aurora, and prepared to just roll with it.

Guys. Aurora played with A and her "little forest friends" for over five minutes. She knelt down by our table, and played with our kid.
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This woman created so much magic for A, who now grabs one of the kitties away from me and says "no mommy, you can't play with this kitty, she's Aurora's kitty..."

And the timing was so perfect, that when she walked away from our table, it was time for food,...

Wow. This is the too sweet! What fantastic memories being made!!!

I had to drive 2.5 hours north for Christmas with the in-laws. They do this thing where each person opens one present at a time, in a circle, until they're all opened. They also do this thing where they wrap all kinds of things as presents, like towels left at the other person's house, or beef jerky. So the festivities are fun and I'm so grateful to be included, but they take forever. I was so exhausted when I got home, that I didn't have the energy to let A play in the snow.

So I'm currently watching Jaws and eating stocking candy I have tomorrow off though, so I told her we'll build a snowman tomorrow. She can even dress like Elsa

Happy New year!! I hope this coming year brings you back to Disney! I do so love reading your trip reports!

No family Disney this year. Mayyyybbeee a rescheduled girls trip to replace the cancelled ‘17 trip due to Irma, maybe.

Good luck in the snow tomorrow! I’m waiting til temps reach at least 28

 

[Bullseye1967]

I just went thru so many emotions reading this post. I’m so glad that A was able to do the M&G!!!.. and Wow, what a great thing to give your FPs to that family. Hope you wore a Santa hat the rest of the day!

I am not going to say I cried, but pretty sure some dust blew in my eyes and made them water a bit. Random acts of kindness are the best!

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[Figgy1]

Temps that high are not even remotely in our extended forecast

{{HUGS}}

 

[DryerLintFan]

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[Zipadeelady]

I don't know what story is better... the cute Aurora story (she's my daughters favorite princess) or the missing husband story! Sometimes I think my husband has lost it but 3 times around the carousel..priceless. That's so us!

 

[21stamps]

Day three - Magic Kingdom night continued

It pained me so greatly to give up our fastpasses for the Jingle Cruise. @amjt660 really sold me on this ride and I was looking forward to both the holiday overlay and the nighttime run. My favorite jokes are corny dad jokes. Like, tonight at Christmas dinner with the in-laws, they were discussing making their own buttermilk and I chimed in with, "were watching our weight, so we've started making margerine milk..." The Jungle Cruise was made for people like me.

But I didn't want to waste another fastpass for another toddler freak out, so after the boat fiasco at Epcot I changed our Jungle Cruise fastpass to Rapunzel and Tiana. I know we've already seen them, but I thought ending the trip with A's favorite princess would be a high note for her.

So we head out of the castle and it's just a quick hop over to Princess Fairytale Hall, which is great because the crowds behind the castle are intense and chaotic. I'm excited at this point because we're early enough to hit the fastpass and then hop around the castle for the Frozen stage show. We step up to the queue and I'm about to scan in for our fastpass when I notice that my husband, who was right behind me only a second ago, is nowhere to be seen. There's no D, anywhere,... Just a million strangers milling around, going this way and that. I'm trying not to panic, reminding myself that D knows where we were going, we've been there before, he knows the plan and he'll meet us at the Hall. I check my phone and I have no signal. Okay,... Maybe he went to the stroller parking, even though we don't need our stroller. I scan stroller parking behind the carousel and don't see him, and I don't see the stroller, either. I check my phone again, and I have a tiny amount of signal so I dial his number.

Relief flooded over me when he picked up, and then annoyance. He said he had told me he was getting the stroller and then peeled off, thinking I was right behind him, but he had parked in a different stroller parking before dinner and now he didn't know where he was or where we were. He could see the castle and the carousel, but all the other buildings looked the same to him and very much different in the dark and the mass of humanity than it did the morning we visited Rapunzel before.

People stop to stare at me as I'm yelling at him on the phone (yeah, that person who caused a scene.... It was me.... ) to just walk around the freaking carousel until he sees us (it's round!! If you walk around it you'll find us eventually!!), because we're standing right out front of the hall. And he did, THREE times. The area was so swamped with people going this way and that, that the first two times around he didn't see us and we didn't see him. Finally we find each other, ten minutes later, which means we would for sure miss the Frozen Holiday Wish show. I was so frustrated, I couldn't even talk to him except to say very sternly that he scared the crap out of me and next time he needs to physically touch me before peeling off to make sure I got the message. This is how they trained us in the Army, but I guess they didn't train them like that in the Marines

We're waiting in line, now, both adults hugging each other and trying to calm down, when A finds a friend: a little girl who turned four today, wearing a Tiana dress and talking excitedly about seeing "Tatiana". You would think they would have a lot to talk about, based on all that, but instead.... A tells the little girl that her mommy is so mad at her daddy, and the little girl starts telling A about the time her mommy was mad at her daddy for forgetting milk and her mom and I are just getting more and more embarrassed kids are the worst Finally, I gave the little girl my magic wand from dinner, and her and A start playing fairy godmother. D and I apologise to each other, and before long it was time to meet the princesses.

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The little snitch is telling Tiana again that I didn't paint her nails before the trip....
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She was so excited that her and Rapunzel were both wearing the same dress, that she forgot to tell Rapunzel about her Tinkerbell shoes. When she was saying goodbye to Tiana, she suddenly remembered this, and ran back to Rapunzel to tell her. Thankfully Rapunzel was about to go on break, so there were no other guests over there getting photobombed by her.

From there we grabbed the stroller and "kitted up" for nighttime. We put on our Christmas bulb light up necklaces, and outfitted the stroller with some glow and the dark bracelets. I had bought a bunch more glow in the dark jewelry, too, but none of it had survived the baggage handlers. We looked at each other and laughed. We looked ridiculous, but we certainly were not going to miss each other in a crowd, now!! We strapped A into the stroller and headed for the Rapunzel bathrooms. Halfway there, D says,... Hey if you see a bathroom let me know, and I reply "we're actually going to a bathroom for our next attraction"

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The bathrooms were pretty, and A loved seeing all the paintings that Rapunzel did on the walls and the ceilings, but the real reason we hoofed it over here was for the Tangled lantern photopass.

Because this was a busy and tiny courtyard, this photopass stop had two extra cast members who were in charge of keeping the little area they were talking photos in clear. When it was our turn we knelt down by the lantern and were so focused on the photographer that we didn't see the scooter about to run me over. One of the crowd wrangling cast members did, though, and would later save A from a scooter too.

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It was 7:00 pm now, and we had twenty minutes before our 7DMT fastpass window opened. I told D we could walk around and maybe try to find a snack cart, or we could brave the crowds all the way back to main street to see if Tinkerbell was up and running yet. He chose Tinkerbell, so into The crowds we went once more.

Oh this entire post, such a Disney World moment.

I don’t know about that photopass spot. Great photo!