Dreams Really Do Come True

 

Because we were only planning to do one day in Disney (I hope to take the whole family back later for a longer Disney vacation when all of the the kids are old enough to truly enjoy and appreciate it.  This day in Magic Kingdom was just to hold them me over for the next 5 years or so) I didn’t even try to pretend we’d be able to do or see it all in one day.  I e-mailed a friend who frequents the place and she sent me an itinerary for the day which would allow us to maximize our time and capitalize on what was important to us.  I then printed her message and pretty much followed it to the T.  (Thank you Aimee… you can totally get a job working for Disney!)

The day was packed and I can honestly say I don’t remember my feet ever hurting so badly before.  But, it was all I hoped and dreamed of.  You know how sometimes you’ll remember things from your childhood and when you try to recreate them with your own kids, they often don’t turn out as good as you remember?  I was so afraid of that with Disney World, but I had NOTHING to fear.  It was just as magical and way more wonderful than I could have hoped for.  I think going as a parent just might even be better than going as a kid. 

High’s of the day included the Buzz Lightyear ride (hands down the kids most favorite ride), Goofy’s Barnstormer (the kids all thought this was WELL worth the wait in line) Mickey’s 3D show (Scott and I laughed out loud watching the kids try to reach out and grab the things they thought were flying through the air at them) the girls getting their pictures with their favorite princess, my oldest meeting Peter Pan, watching my 3 year old twirl around while we ate lunch in front of Cinderella’s castle, the Main St Electric Parade, and the fireworks over Cinderella’s castle.  We all unanimously agree that our low was the afternoon rain which last edabout 2 hrs.  It was quite the downpour and left us rather cold and wet.  But, it didn’t spoil our day.  (If it had continued all evening, it quite possibly could have).

We brought in our own snacks (which greatly helped boost spirits while waiting in line) and also brought in our picnic lunch.  Then we splurged and had dinner at Tony’s Italian restaurant ( a place I had remembered eating when I was there as a kid and also a restaurant fashioned after the restaurant in Lady and the Tramp).    Our wait to be seated provided some much needed down time for the kids to color, watch Lady and the Tramp and for me to feed the baby. 

My 4 year old had said she wanted to wear her Snow White Dress and meet Snow White.  No problem.  I knew where Snow White did her meet and greets and we set off to find her in the afternoon.  What I didn’t know was that the fair princess was only there for certain hours and when we arrived she was done for the day.  Scott saved the day by explaining to our daughter that Snow White left b/c she had heard that another Snow White was there to pose for pictures.  He then took pictures of my daughter where Snow White was supposed to be and we proceeded to address her as Snow White the rest of the day.  She took it in stride.  I however, was close to tears.  I had so wanted to get that picture of her with her favorite princess and we missed it by a mere 30 minutes.    Later in the day we were walking by the castle when a fire cracker went off, we ran to see what was going on and suddenly Snow White and Prince Charming as well as Cinderella and her man (is he also Prince Charming?) and a host of other characters came out to pose for pictures (for only 10 minutes).  Can you believe we just happened to be in the right place at the exact right time?  We were able to get her picture with Snow White and after much, much work even scored a picture of my son with Peter Pan (his one character request of the day). As cheesy as it sounds, I couldn’t help but think, “Dreams really do come true.”

One of my favorite moments was watching my 3 year old’s face as she went up and posed with the princesses.  She was truly enchanted.  Here she is with her favorite, Cinderella. 

As we slowly made our way down Main St after the fireworks, I noticed one of the crew had fallen asleep.  Seems she had had all the fun one girl could squeeze into a day.

Just before reaching the gates, we ran into friends of ours from church.  We knew they’d be in Disney that week, but didn’t think there was much chance of running into them on the one day we were there.  I couldn’t believe it when we saw them standing there in the midst of hundreds of strangers!

When we finally took the ferry and then the tram back to the parking lot, we were one of the last cars left in the lot.  I think we got our money’s worth out of the day!  We left tired and happy.