Long time, no blog. Life with two children is definitely busy and exciting. To add to that, we decided we HAD to get our princess to Disneyworld while it was all so magical for her (and before Little Man became a toddler and wanted to run in all directions). The grandparents were gracious enough to go with us as adoring kid-helpers, and I highly recommend having 2x as many adults as children.
We flew out on a Wednesday, first thing in the morning. Heidi was excited to get to the airport and see the planes out the window (even if Papa did try to pull her leg by telling her our airplane had a flat tire). We loaded on board and of course Heidi insisted on sitting with Grandma and Papa since parents are such old news. Here is the point where I emphasize: my children are awesome travelers. Obviously I was a bit worried about taking a 4.5 month old on a trip like this--not knowing how he'd react on the airplane or in the parks. Forrest did awesome. Heidi Jean did amazing. We were even complimented by random strangers on the plane, they were that good.
We arrived in Florida around 1pm on Wednesday and Heidi was a bit disappointed that the plane didn't drop us off right at Disneyworld. She was appeased by being able to swim in the hotel pool. We stayed at a Staybridge Suites and highly recommend it. We had two full bedrooms, two full baths, a full kitchen, and a livingroom. It was perfect for the six of us. The beds were comfy, the hot breakfast was a great perk (scrambled eggs, sausage, waffles every day=yes, please), the pool was almost always empty, and the staff were super.
Thursday was the BIG day. The first day at Magic Kingdom. The day we had lunch with the princesses. We got to the park right around opening, got Heidi a "First Visit" pin, and headed back through the castle to Fantasyland. The crowds were surprisingly manageable and within the first hour we'd ridden Winnie the Pooh, Tea Cups (girls only as the boys don't like spinny rides), Dumbo, and the Great Goofini (twice). We headed back to the other side of Fantasyland and hopped on It's a Small World (where I thought of my Grams--it's her favorite), we grabbed Fastpasses for Peter Pan (what an ingenious thing, the Fastpass, we got one any time the wait was more than 20 minutes) and headed to the Haunted Mansion at Josh and Steve's request. Heidi was leary about it and after being closed in the dark room didn't want to ride the ride, but we convinced her that the room was scarier than the ride. She survived it but stated emphatically upon exiting that she did NOT want to go on that again. Finally, we headed to Frontierland where the waits were a bit longer, but having an hour or so before we could go on Peter Pan we sent the boys with Heidi to wait for Splash Mountain (the stated 40 minute wait ended up being more like an hour).
Then it was almost time! Heidi had an appointment at 1:10 at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to get all princess-ified. We had about 20 minutes and debated if that was enough time to use our Fastpasses for Peter Pan--it was, we walked right on and were on and off within 10 minutes. Heidi was so excited to get her Tiana dress on and then her fairy godmother called her back to her chair and let her pick which hair and make-up she wanted and off-to-work they went. It was comical because Heidi just sat there stone-faced, even as the goofy photographer tried to get her to smile. I knew inside she was enjoying it, but she looked like she was sitting in a torture chamber. Probably partially because getting her hair put up is painful. But at the end, she was a princess! We hardly recognized her with her hair all pulled up in a tiny bun, a tiny pink tiara, and make-up! After a Cheetos melt-down and a few minutes in an air-conditioned shop, we were off to lunch with the princesses.
First we got to get our pictures taken with Cinderella. She was beautiful and graceful, what an amazing moment. It was Heidi's first character experience and we didn't know if she'd be shy, but she went right up to her and smiled happily for pictures. We were ushered upstairs for dinner and throughout the meal four more princesses came to our table: Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle. The food was wonderful, the princesses were so sweet, and we all agreed it was worth the money, especially for a princess-loving girl like Heidi.
We rode a few rides in Adventureland (the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Magic Carpet, Pirates of the Caribbean, and walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse) and then it was off to catch our bus (or rather, catch the metro-train to the bus parking lot, miss the bus, take another bus to Animal Kingdom, finally catch a bus to our hotel, go back to the hotel and crash hard).
To be continued...
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