Ready for our first day at the park
The girls both had things on their list that they definitely wanted to do. Staley had been talking about the Seven Dwarves Mine Train since our last trip and wanted to do that first. Check! She and I headed over for that ride while Zach took the littles to do the carousel and Little Mermaid. After that, we spent the rest of the morning riding rides (It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, teacups, Little Mermaid) and meeting characters (mermaid Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Elena).
Adelie's favorite princess! Check!
Elena enjoyed her card from Adelie. Since Elena wasn't at Disney for our last trip, she was at the top of the list for both girls to meet. Check!
Briggs wasn't sure about the princesses at this point, so he was pretty serious about meeting them. However, he was pretty sure he didn't want to be put down.
Another Disney lesson we had learned was that it works best to eat meals at off times to avoid crowds and lines, so we ate a quick, early lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. After lunch, we did Enchanted Tales with Belle, where Staley was the enchanted wardrobe and Adelie was a plate...and Briggs was scared. Briggs then decided that he was ready for a nap, so Zach walked around the park while Briggs napped in the stroller. The girls and I rode the Little Mermaid ride again, met Tinker Bell and Chip and Dale, and then staked out a good spot to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.
It was overcast all day and it sprinkled a little as we were waiting for the parade. That was the only rain we got all week, so no complaints here. We just snuggled under our umbrellas for a little bit, but the sprinkles were done by the time the parade started.
Briggs woke up in time to enjoy an Olaf cake pop while watching the parade. He really enjoyed the parade until the fire breathing dragon appeared. That's when he decided he REALLY needed to go to the bathroom right at that moment...or at least until the dragon was gone.
Briggs was scared of many of the activities on our first day, but he had one and only one request. He wanted to ride the "red train", which is a steam engine that pulls a train around the park. It was the very first thing he saw before we even entered the park and he had been talking about it all day. After the parade, we finally accommodated Briggs's request. He was thrilled!!
So excited to FINALLY be on the train.
We then had time for one quick spin around Dumbo before racing to the Monorail and heading over to the Grand Floridian for our Happily Ever After dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella. It was one of our favorite meals from our last trip. I don't know if part of the fun was the novelty, but I didn't enjoy it as much as last time. I didn't think the food was as good as I had remembered. And although we still enjoyed the character interactions, they were not my favorites this time either.
Obviously, the kids still enjoyed spending time with the different characters.
Lady Tremaine asked me if I had made the autograph books. When I told her that I didn't make them, she retorted, "Oh, I thought you were the kind of mother who took time for her children."
Briggs had warmed up to the characters by this time and was more willing to pose with them.
Cinderella had initially missed stopping at our table, so we had to ask our waitress to send her back out to our table. She didn't spend much time with the girls, so that was a little disappointing. On the plus side, we met Cinderella 3 different times, so we had plenty of other opportunities.
Checking out the HUGE gingerbread house.
Exploring the Grand Floridian gardens
Checking out Cinderella's glass slipper.
I'm pretty convinced that Adelie was trying to see if she could knock it over. While Staley was gently touching it, Adelie kept trying to pick it up and push it over. Sigh.
It was a fun and full first day. We had already checked many things off our list, and our trip was just beginning. An early bedtime and a good night's sleep was a good thing...we had lots more check marks to accomplish.
