It Tastes Like Rainbows! 3 Generations of Princesses Trip Report! Update x2! 4/12/15

[Nals]

Hello all and welcome to my first trip report for Disney EVER!

This trip includes myself, my 6 year old princess/daughter and my mother. I've broken my trip report down into chapters with links and the introduction to the fam is below in this same post! Thanks for stopping by!



Introductions- http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51429365&postcount=1

Day 1

I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day-Megara
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51429591&postcount=2

For the first time in forever!-Anna http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51435772&postcount=10

For the first time in forever!-Anna Part 2 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51452794&postcount=14

All you need is faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust-Peter Pan http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51528895&postcount=15

You can do magic believe it or not-Fairy Godmother http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51599115&postcount=16

The cold never bothered me anyway-Elsa http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51599309&postcount=17

OOOOOOH Sing Sweet Nightingale-Drusilla http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51704923&postcount=20

Yodal-ay-hee-ho!-Jessie http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51705266&postcount=22

Day 2

I want to shove some chocolate in my face!-Anna http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51706384&postcount=25

I want adventure in the great wide somewhere!-Belle http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51852580&postcount=30

My baby's all grown up and saving China!-Mushu http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51888176&postcount=31[/URL]

You ain't never had a friend like me!-Genie http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52135356&postcount=32[/URL]

Day 3

I'll live here in the jungle all my life-Mowgli http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52444511&postcount=34

Hakuna Matata what a wonderful phrase- Pumba http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52448946&postcount=35

Do you think this water is sanitary?- Tantor http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52599467&postcount=36

Tut tut it looks like rain- Winnie the Pooh http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52599946&postcount=37

Ladies don't start fights but they can finish them- Marie Part 1 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52600197&postcount=38

Ladies don't start fights but they can finish them- Marie Part 2 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52600399&postcount=39

Day 4

Just Keep Swimming- Dory http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52635822&postcount=40

I'm packing an extra pair of shoes and your angry eyes just in case- Mrs. Potato Head
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52636014&postcount=41

If you are what you eat then I only want to eat the good stuff- Ratatouille
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52754198&postcount=42

Speed. I am speed- Lightning Mcqueen http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=52754413&postcount=43


Day 5

I was a girl in the village doing all right- Sofia http://www.disboards.com/threads/it...date-x2-12-14-14.3277063/page-3#post-53166962

The Doc is in and she'll fix you up- Doc Mcstuffins http://www.disboards.com/threads/it...date-x2-12-14-14.3277063/page-3#post-53435959

I took it upon myself to plan this trip in 3 months all because I have horrible ocd and wouldn't have trusted anyone else to do it plus I making spreadsheets and lists and lists for my lists... you get the idea! I made minute to minute touring plans and itineraries and put them all in my custom Disney folder. I'm also a firm believer in the use of lots of exclamation points and parentheses as you shall see going forward.

I had been tossing around the idea of taking my daughter to Disney for a few years and I figured she was a great age right now and wanted her to remember as much as possible since this may be our one and only trip. After deciding on dates my mom asked if she could come too and would split the cost. Sure! More money to shop or buy coordinating outfits! So it was then made my mission to get the perfect ADR's (we did the Disney dining plan) on the perfect park days at the perfect time of year and make the perfect touring plans. Piece of cake right!? Cause everything goes the way you plan in Disney! We arrived on April 26th and left on May 3rd staying at POR.

I was pretty sure I had all our bases covered. I chose a week that was between 3's and 5's on the crowd calendar, ADR's made and changed about 17,500 times, fp+ sorted out including 2 for Anna and Elsa and a "spot holder" just in case Mine Train opened while we were there and highlighted (in a different color of course) touring plans and maps. We started our countdown chain at 60 days so we were more than ready when it was time!

I had originally booked CBR but after checking the website every day for a month I managed to score a reservation at POR for $30 total more then what we were paying so I jumped on it. I liked the fact that POR had the queen size beds as my daughter and I bunked together and she's a restless sleeper.

After what seemed like forever it was finally here!

A little background on our players!

DD 6 Ella:



Occupation: Princess/Kindergartner/ maker of messes and light of my life
1st trip to Disney World!
Favorite things: Belle, Frozen, Pizza we had it 3 times on this trip, dressing up, dance class talking, soccer
Favorite ride: Peter Pan and test track, Soarin, Enchanted Tales with Belle
Least favorite: Tower of Terror (still having issues with this) Expedition Everest, going home

Mom Vicki age as old as she feels:



Occupation: Retired/Grandma/Cause of my gray hair but we love her
3rd trip to Disney World. She told everyone that would listen that she went 6 months after it was open on her honeymoon and took me in the early 80's when I was 6 (I told her she could leave that part of the story out from now on)
Favorite things: Is driving me crazy a thing? Talking to people, the Prince at 1900 Park Fare (yes she stalked him) Akershus, apple cranberry cake from Liberty Tree Tavern
Favorite ride: Soarin, Test Track
Least favorite: Narcoossee's

And last but not least Moi!



Me: 30ish (or 29 plus a few)
Occupation: Social Service worker/mommy/ ocd planner/ maker of many lists
2nd trip to Disney but first since I was 6
Favorite things: Akershus, Wishes I cried... a lot, Princesses Aurora and Ariel, shopping, I loved Downtown Disney and Epcot, orange dole whips (Heaven in ice cream form)
Favorite ride: Pirates of the Caribbean, Test Track, Peter Pan, It's a Small World
Least favorite: Narcoossee's Tower of Terror

Now that we're all acquainted let's get this report started shall we!

 

[Nals]

Day one: D-Day or Disney Day!

I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day-Megara

Ella and I woke up and were on our way at 6:30am to pick up my mom. WE of course had been fully packed for at least a week as I had made and printed off a packing list and meticulously had been crossing things off as I packed. The drive was pretty uneventful. It's your standard 4 hour drive from our house to the airport long term parking lot. We were in Denver on a shuttle to the airport by 11:00am, through security, had lunch and were sitting on our Southwest flight ready for takeoff by 2:30pm. See doesn't she look enthused!

It was her first plane ride ever so I had been trying to prepare her for it a bit. No worries she loved it! She spent most of the 6 hours exclaiming "I can see the whole world from up here!" Oh you just wait little one! I thought to myself that if she was this impressed by the plane ride her mind is about to be blown by Disney World.

We had an hour layover on the plane in Atlanta and were landing at MCO at 8:00pm collected our luggage and were ready to go! WE decided not to use the luggage service and take our own bags as we were landing later and I didn't want to stay up and wait for them. I ended up being awake for a completely different reason though. Now I'm not a newbie to flying and have been in quite a few airports but I found this one so confusing. We went all the way to the wrong side before we finally found the bus. Make sure you go to Side B not A. Our magic bands (which were a huge hit with the glitter nail polish) worked perfectly and soon we were zooming off to the magic!

We got to POR about 10:00pm and were starving, tired and wired. Check in went quickly and smoothly thanks to Laura from Ohio and grabbed Ella's first visit button and my mom's birthday pin. I had faxed a room request 4 days before asking for the Magnolia Bend section and if they had a little pixie dust we would love a royal room even though I had just paid for a garden view regular room. I got our room assignment grabbed our bags and off we went! And went... and went... we couldn't find our room! It was so dark and not very well lit I was having a hard time reading the map. At about the time we were ready to give up and go back to the lobby Tim from bell services zoomed by and asked if we needed help. Why yes! He heaved our luggage onto a cart and guided us up to the room which felt about 7.2 miles away from where we were at the time he rescued us. We opened the door and what do I see!
We got a royal room! It was amazing. The details were outstanding, something new to look at everywhere you turn. Now as our knight in shining golf cart brought in our bags and then offered to take us back to the main building to grab dinner and pick up the water that I had shipped from Staples. That would be most magical thank you! He asked Ella if she wanted to ride up front on the best ride in Disney beside him. She threw her hands up like she was on a roller coaster and we were off! Seriously he was fantastic and just the start of the friendly people we met that worked there.

Pizza and fruit was on the menu this evening and not having eaten since about 11am MST it hit the spot. I tried to take pictures of the food when I remembered, I really wanted to do a dining report as well but I slacked off after a bit. I will post the pictures that I have. We picked up our refillable mugs and headed to bell services to inquire about our water. After sending someone to look for it and telling me it would be 15 minutes I went back up 1/2 hour later. Now it was close to 1:30am and we were all starting to get sleepy and still had to get ready for our first park day. They couldn't find it. They said Staples never delivered it and to call them in the morning. Bummer. Ok well we headed back to our newly dubbed "Princess room" and did what any sane exhausted person would do, I took pictures.

URL=http://imgur.com/xzmIERZ]

[/URL] My daughter loved these fountains! We unpacked some of our things, packed our park bags and finally drifted off into a restful slumber at about 1:30am. By the way, I had brought an over the door shoe organizer to put our bathroom stuff in pure genius! I got that off the packing post on the Dis. Lifesaver! Anyway! Here we come Disney are you ready for us!!

 

[stackyallred]

Great start! I am an avid exclamation and parenthesis user myself!!!! It must be an OCD thing. We don't want to leave anything out!

 

[annie170]

Reading along!

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person who finds MCO confusing. I've been there at least a dozen times and 75% of the time I end up on the wrong side. I think I'm a fairly intelligent person, but that airport makes me feel like an idiot.

Love the princess rooms at POR!

 

[~Fisharefriends~]

Reading along! I'm another person that can never use enough exclamation marks!!! And I'm a big planner and list maker . Looking forward to reading all about your trip

 

[deedee2177]

Following along from the April 2014 FB Group (Sandy). Great report so far. The link to my TR is in my signature...since you mentioned you would like to follow along. You all arrived the day we left :-(

 

[disneyjunkie11]

Following along from the April fb group!

 

[annegirl]

Following!

 

[Nals]

Great start! I am an avid exclamation and parenthesis user myself!!!! It must be an OCD thing. We don't want to leave anything out!

You know I had never thought of it that way I do hate to leave stuff out! Fantastic now this is the reason I shall give from now on!

 

[Nals]

Reading along!

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person who finds MCO confusing. I've been there at least a dozen times and 75% of the time I end up on the wrong side. I think I'm a fairly intelligent person, but that airport makes me feel like an idiot.

Love the princess rooms at POR!

I seriously felt dumb in that airport. I fly at least 3 or 4 times a year and this is the first time I've really gotten all turned around. I'm sure every employee there is trained to say "the bus is on the other side"

 

[Nals]

Reading along! I'm another person that can never use enough exclamation marks!!! And I'm a big planner and list maker . Looking forward to reading all about your trip

Yay for exclamation points!! Thanks for reading along!

 

[Nals]

Hello everyone else! Thanks for following from the April group! Sandy I'm just starting your report too! I'm looking forward to telling everyone about our trip. It was amazing. Thank you all again for reading along

 

[Nals]

For the first time in forever-Anna


Good morning Disney World! Someone was bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. Ella woke us up by singing Frozen songs to get us in the mood so she said. We showered, got dressed, watched some Stacy (boy is she perky for 6am!) and ate some cereal that we had brought with us. I had filled our mugs with milk the night before and this came in extremely handy. We were out of the room by 7:45am and headed for the bus stopping to take a few pictures of our beautiful resort! We couldn't fully appreciate it last night in the dark so here are a few pictures of POR and a little girl




I think we waited about ten minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus and we were off! I wanted to make sure we saw the welcome show and had a good spot. We ended up front and center with a smaller crowd than I thought would be there and perfect weather. We took a few photo pass pictures and it was time to be welcomed by Mickey and the gang!




After the show we filed in on the left, picked up a few maps and kept Ella as close to the buildings as we could since I wanted to see the castle reaction. And then!!! Castle!!


It was more magical then I remembered. Ella was in awe. If you were there and saw a girl bumping into people staring at it with her mouth open she belongs to me We stopped for at least 3 photopass people on our way up main street.


Side note it smells amazing on Main Street. I'd read about it but it's much better in person! We finally made it through the castle and checked out the murals a bit while trying to shield her from the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique as that was our first surprise stop for the afternoon. But her princess skills were in tune with the Disney vibe and she honed in on it right away. "Mommy what are those girls doing?" "They're being made into princesses by the Fairy Godmother's in training." Excitedly! "Can we do that too!" Now after getting the planning dvd and falling asleep to it many times throughout the last couple months I knew she knew exactly what it was. We had discussed that you have to be invited to go and I reminded her of this as I wanted to keep it a surprise. Bad idea. First meltdown of the day. "But mommy I want to be a princess too!" Tears. "Maybe the invitation got lost in the mail..." Tears. "Are you sure you didn't leave it in the room?" Tears. So I gave in and told her that we were going at pm that day. I was once a hero again! We continued on much happier but asking every 5 minutes if it was 2pm.

Our first stop? Why Enchanted Tales with Belle of course!


We had a 5 minute wait and checked out all the cute things in the cue. We were called in and stepped through the enchanted doorway which is absolutely amazing if you haven't seen it yet.


Ella must have been feeling a little dramatic as she nailed the part for Maurice by shivering her whole body.





You will find out as the trip report progresses that Ella is a very interesting child. She has no fear (well until the tower of terror but that comes later) and she loves people. She must be the center of attention and has never met anyone she doesn't like. This led to her trying out for every part even after she was chosen for one She loved Enchanted Tales with Belle and vowed that she would be the Beast before the trip was over!

Our touring plans had us going to Undersea Journey of the Little Mermaid for our first fp+ of the trip. We swung past the Mine Train and asked the guard, er, cm if they were accepting riders today. We were told it would be open in the spring so we moved on.

We had no problem with our fp+ and got right on. This ride was super cute. Make sure you look up! Ariel is my favorite princess and we sung and grooved in our seashell through the ride.

 

[Nals]

For the first time in forever!- Anna part 2

Since we were already under the sea we popped over to meet Ariel in the flesh or tail if you will! The line was about 15 minutes long not bad but it is so humid in that line! Even more then normal for Florida I thought. I guess it's because of the cave feeling of it? Speaking of humidity, we have none, zip, zilch, nada in western Nebraska and boy was it noticeable! I don't know how you east coasters do it! Anyway, Ariel was lovely albeit a little quick. Ella asked her how she can go from her tail to legs so quickly and so often. Ariel told her that King Triton changes her whenever she wants to see her sea friends and that was that. She seemed satisfied with that answer.

Our plans had us going on the teacups next but Ella wanted more characters. Now that she had a taste she couldn't get enough! I consulted our map and we all agreed we'd head to the circus to see some friends. There was a 5 min wait for Goofy and Donald at Pete's Silly Sideshow which ended up being no wait at all as there was only one family in front of us.



I had explained to my dd that some of the characters don't talk and she seemed to have a hard time with this at first and didn't know how to interact with them. WE got some good hugs and pictures and some hugs and went to the other side of the tent to meet Minnie and Daisy.

There was about a 10 minute wait as they had to take a quick break to gaze into their crystal ball. Daisy was up first. She was great! Ella was wearing a headband with a tiara on it and it wouldn't stay standing up. Daisy tried and tried to put it up for the picture. She was so happy when it finally worked she jumped up and down and motioned to take the pic quickly!



Minnie was another quick character. A twirl a curtsey and away we went. (See her tiara had already fallen)


I was ready for our first Disney snack and popped into Big Top Treats. Everything looked and smelled so good but I was vetoed by my mom as it was too close to lunch time. I sadly made my way past all the yummy goodness and went back outside.


Next time lunch and then we fly!

 

[Nals]

All you need is faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust- Peter Pan

I had decide (see I had all the control... I mean did all the planning) that we'd eat at Cosmic Rays at around 11am and we still had a few minutes so we did a ride I knew I couldn't do after lunch. Teacups! There was no wait in standby and soon we were spinning!





My mom and Ella both put their hands up and let me spin. I spun and spun and spun. I've never heard Ella laugh so much. I love the teacups. I saw Alice meeting on the other side but she had a pretty long line and Ella hasn't seen the movie yet, I know bad dis mom. Time to eat!



Cosmic Rays was pretty empty when we went in. We were approached by a gentleman with a menu when we walked in but I stalked all the online menus for months so I knew what I wanted already. I ordered the 1/3 lb angus cheeseburger with fries, an orange slush with no whip cream and carrot cake.



My mom decided on the chicken sandwich with the cucumber salad, an orange slush and the chocolate mouse. Ella had the kids chicken nuggets, fries, milk and a chocolate chip cookie. I made a bee line right to the condiments bar and loaded up on sautéed mushrooms, a mountain of pickles, tomatoes and possibly a side of cheese for my fries My mom grabbed a few things for her sandwich as well. The food wasn't remarkable but it was hot and fresh and good. I did really enjoy the carrot cake. We hit the ladies room and 45 min after we walked in the door we were back at it.

We had our next fp+ window coming up for Peter Pan so we meandered over in that direction. We checked out the line for Merida and it seemed a little long so we passed. We were walking over the Tomorrowland bridge and noticed the Dream Along with Mickey show was on so we stopped in a nice soporific and watched it.





It was cute we all loved it! Around this time I realized I needed to loosen up on my plans a bit. This was something I hadn't scheduled but I was really happy we stopped to watch so from now on the plans I had made were just an outline.

Peter Pan is one of my favorite rides. I remember riding it quite a few times when I was a kid. I was hoping Ella would feel the same way since she really really likes the movie.



The fp+ got us right in we were pixie dusted an I was off to Neverland! I still enjoyed this ride a lot! We floated over London and saw the crocodile and promptly started singing Never Smile at a Crocodile! Yelled for Captain Hook to "Look out!" and came to a quiet landing back in the room. We all agreed that we wanted t go again and again. With the standby at 50 minutes we decided to check back later and jumped in the line for It's a Small Word.

The standby line was 10 minutes and it took every one of those to get to our boat. Here are just a few pictures of the ride since no one ever posts any





My mom and I were singing the song and trying to teach it to Ella, she caught on quickly. (I just realized I sing on a lot of the rides hope no one minded) It was about 12:30 by now and it was definitely snack time. Ella was hot and getting a tad grumpy which we can't have in Disney! We stopped at Friar's Nook and got some ice cream and a soda for Ella and my mom and a frozen lemonade for me.



It was delicious and definitely needed as it was starting to get pretty hot. I decided to call Staples while we were resting about the water issue. I got through to customer service in about 5 min and they verified that they delivered it and it was signed for. The representative gave me the name of the person and I called the POR front desk. I spoke with a manager who said she'd look into it for me and call me right back. At least the wheels were starting to turn on this. Next we become a Queen!

 

[Nals]

You can do magic believe it or not!- Fairy Godmother

We didn't have much time before our BBB appointment so I decided to do a little shopping. We stopped in the stores right in front of the castle where I bought a pair of earrings and a Frozen book for Ella. This was when she started begging me for a new princess dress, Ariel in particular, for her boutique appointment. We'd booked:

The Crown Package (starting at $59.95 plus tax)

- Hairstyling
- Shimmering make up, face gem
- Princess sash and tote
- Nail polish

This does not include a dress! Little did Miss Ella know that I had scored a Frozen Elsa dress a few weeks before and was getting ready to spring it on her!



We checked in at the frond desk of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and waited for them to call our name. Our wait went something like this: "mom, mom, mom, mom, mommy, mommy, can I have a dress? Can I please have a dress? And shoes? And maybe this purse? Mom, I like this one too, are you listening to me? MOM! PUHLEEEEEAAAASE!!!!" I told her we'd have to wait and see what the Fairy Godmother had for her in the back. Our name was called and we headed to the changing toom. I told her that she had to close her eyes while I put it on her.

I slipped on the Elsa dress and counted to 3. She was florred! We hadn't seen many Elsa's running around the park and she was so happy! She twirled and pretended to shoot icicles out of her hands in front of the mirror. Her reaction was definitely worth the wait to give it to her.

We waited about 5 more minutes and our Fairy Godmother in training came out to get us. I had been looking forward to this interaction since I booked the appointment. While she was nice, our Godmother was rather quiet. Ella had a hard time hearing her questions so eventually she just stopped talking to her all together. I saw other girls having AMAZING interactions but she was happy and that's all that matters.







Now my daughter's hair is insanely thick. It's like 3 heads of hair on hers. We were in the salon for over an hour before they sent a 2nd Godmother to start working on her makeup and nails. Ella chose the Disney Diva and the white and blue extensions to have "Elsa" hair.





It turned out perfect and when they were finally done and had waved over a photo pass person she was speechless!







After paying and tipping both Godmothers we headed over to get official pictures done as Queen Elsa!

Quick picture of Cinderella's pink dress!

URL=http://imgur.com/ucPaT6d]

[/URL]

Then on to our photo shoot!








While we were getting our Princess on, the front desk from POR called and left a message saying they found my water and it would be in our room when we got back!

 

[Nals]

The cold never bothered me anyway- Elsa

So I had made sure through some very strategic walking and maneuvering that we hadn't walked close enough to Princess Fairytale Hall to see the signs showing that Anna and Elsa were there as the week that we went was the week the fp+ for them seemed to be disappearing on the app. Just in case we had problems I never mentioned to her that she could meet them.

We had about 10 minutes until our time that we could get in line so we took another spin on the carousel. (Anyone else love that the little ones get called Princess? She couldn't get enough of it all week)



We walked over to the fast pass entrance for Anna and Elsa where we scanned our bands. They worked!! With our fp it took about 15 min to get through the line and it was our time to meet the girls.

For weeks Ella had been telling me if she saw them she would ask if Elsa could give her powers and she wanted to build a snowman with her and she wanted to ask Anna why she loved Hans since he was mean... well all that went out the window. She stood there silent. Awestruck if you will!





My mom nudged me and asked why she wasn't talking. I told her it'd be like meeting Mick Jagger at the height of his career for her, she nodded and said "Ah, I totally understand now".

I'm sure A&E are used to this reaction as they had a spirited conversation with each other and asked Ella if she had powers too. She nodded. (I'm sure she would have said yes to anything they asked her at this point) They told her they'd love to have a snowball fight with her but she'd be on Anna's team to make it fair. They took a few pictures, exchanged hugs and we were shuffled off to Aurora!



Oh Aurora! She was fantastic! I spoke to a few people throughout the trip who said the same thing. I figured she knew most of the kids weren't initially there to meet her so she was full on! Ella talked about this interaction more than A&E after we were done.

As she walked up Aurora shivered and said that she was cold so it must be Ella's magic! She pointed to a spot on the floor where Ella had walked and exclaimed that she saw a snowflake!



They chatted about her love of pink and that the fairies would change her blue dress to pink and back again. Ella asked her how she spoke to animals and she explained that they love singing and their favorite song is Once Upon a Dream and she should try it with the birds outside when we got home. She got a huge hug and we went back for one more for good measure.





As we were walking out Ella took my hand and pulled me down until we were face to face. She squeezed me tight and whispered in my ear "Mommy I think dreams really do come true. Thank you!" Melted my heart. This was the first, but not the only time I cried on this trip.

We had a 6pm reservation for dinner and it was about 4:30pm right now, just enough time for one more attraction. Ella expressed some interest in seeing Philharmagic and the next show was starting in 5 minutes so we filed into the theater.

This was so cool! I loved all the effects and we all got slightly wet, I wasn't anticipating that! Scared me a bit The show didn't last long and we walked over to the Rapunzel bathrooms to go quickly and take a few pictures.





Ella was sort of disappointed that you really couldn't do anything in the Rapunzel section and so was I. hopefully some day they'll expand that part and include a ride or something.

After freshening up, we started down Main Street popping into stores here and there on our way out of the park. Where were we headed all gussied up for our first dinner?

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining. Sounds like you guys had an amazing trip.

Ella looks awesome after her BBB transformation. And lucky you scoring an Elsa dress! It sounds like she was just elated.

 

[Nals]

I'm joining. Sounds like you guys had an amazing trip.

Ella looks awesome after her BBB transformation. And lucky you scoring an Elsa dress! It sounds like she was just elated.

welcome! Thank you for joining! Our trip was amazing! I'm going to post an update or two hope you like the rest!

 

[Nals]

OOOOH sing sweet nightingale- Drusilla

1900 Park Fare was our next destination! We just missed a ferry so we had about a 15 min wait. It was pretty hot at this point so we camped out on the one bench on the dock. Ella however was practicing using her new found powers and singing "Let it go" at the top of her lungs. That child has more energy than 50 kids I swear! The boat pulled up and we had a pleasant ride over to the Grand Floridian. This hotel is out of this world! It's amazing. It looks like it's completely made of marble. My mom told me this would be her dream place to stay. She loved it.

We went to go check in and it was only 5:30 pm. Our reservation wasn't until after 6 so they gave us a pager and told us we might be waiting until our reservation time. That was ok, we'd go look around the hotel a bit. We walked away from the counter and it went off. Good timing! They took our picture in front of the mural and we were led into the dining room.



No characters were in site so we headed up to the buffet. My favorites that we had was the salmon with mango chutney and the mashed potatoes. That was pretty much the standouts of the night. The food was good but not entirely memorable.







The desserts were meh, I was expecting more from them. But, we were there for a lot more than the food! Around 2nd plate time the characters were announced!

Prince Charming was up first. He bowed to Ella and then knelt by the table and took her hand. He told her it was very nice to meet such a pretty princess and it would be his honor if she took some pictures with him.



I have never seen Ella be shy.... Never... it's just not in her nature. Well obviously there's a first time for everything! She blushed the entire time he was with her. He twirled her around and she sat down. I noticed after he moved on to the next table that Ella was watching him. I asked if she was ok and she said "Mommy, he is so handsome Cinderella is one lucky girl!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing. During this time my mom had been messing with her camera trying to get a good shot of the Prince. She was standing up, leaning over, pretty much laying on the table. She said he was her type and she had to get a picture with him.

Cinderella was next. She really didn't stick around too long. All of Ella's questions revolved around the Prince. She asked Cinderella if she and the Prince were going to dance later and she said possibly and winked at her. She took a few pictures with us and away she went.



The Stepmother was waiting to visit with us right after Cinderella left. She bowed to Ella and asked how she became a queen so she could give her daughters some pointers. Ella told her to go to the boutique and talk to her Fairy Godmother About that time there was a huge crash in the kitchen and it sounded like someone dropped a huge tray full of food in the kitchen. Without missing a beat the Stepmother cups her hands around her mouth and yells "Cinderella!" and points to the kitchen. It was hilarious the whole dining room laughed. She excused herself to go find "that girl" and then it was the Stepsisters turn.



Anastasia was the first sister who came to the table. She was a hoot! She curtseyed the way only she can with her behind in the air and she told Ella she'd never met a real live queen before. She asked if she had any brothers but if she did not to tell Drusilla.



Drusilla followed shortly after and said hello to queen Elsa posed and left. That was ok, the rest of the interactions had been fabulous.



The music picked up just then and the Prince and Cinderella started to dance. Ella clapped her hands and stood up to watch. This has always been her favorite part of the movie where they dance at the ball. The Prince then walked over and bowed to her again and asked if he could have the pleasure of this dance. Of course! She was beaming. They twirled and laughed and spun for a few minutes. She was in heaven. Not to be outdone though my mom swooped in for her picture (which I don't have a copy of yet) for a picture before he could wonder off too far.



1900 Park Fare was great! It's definitely on our must do list for next time. I really enjoyed the interaction with the characters and loved that you could meet the Prince as I don't think there's another place in the parks you can meet him. We will be back.