Finally our most magical trip had arrived!! We left the Wednesday before Labor day, August 31st, after Adam got off of work. We made great time, even with traffic and arrived at the hotel around 11:30pm. We stayed at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort, which is a hotel on Disney Property. It is not technically a Disney hotel, but it was super close (we could walk to Downtown Disney), there is bus service to all the parks, the pool was great and there was a character breakfast. Plus the price was AWESOME!
Friday looked like rain and was the day we were checking out, so I did not want to risk going to Magic Kingdom that day. Even though we got in so late, I figured it would be better to go Thursday to the park. When we pulled up to the hotel, Lyla woke up and yelled "We here!! DISNEY WORLD!! Yay!!". Can you say excited?? I got butterflies in my stomach and was beyond excited myself! We got checked in, the hotel was really great. I would definitely stay there again. When we got up to the room, there were two double beds, one of course for Adam and I and one for Lyla. Lyla looked around and said "Momma, you have dis bed. (pointed to one bed) Daddy you have dis bed. (pointed to the other bed) I sweep in my sweeping bag on de floor. (points to the floor inbetween the two beds)" So sweet. I had to explain to her that she got a whole bed to herself, but that I appreciated her thoughtfulness.
I brought some food, so that we could pack a lunch for the park, and was able to keep it in the room since it had a nice little refrigerator.
I really debated about the whole character meal thing, this time around. I knew we would be back, and didn't want to take time away from our one day at the park. But it ended up that our hotel hosts a character breakfast on certain mornings during the week, and Thursday happened to be one of those mornings!! Perfect. We did not have to travel to get there and we could run eat and then head to the park at opening time. I got up early to get ready and then I woke up Adam and Lyla. The park opened at 9am, and I wanted to get there as close to 9 as possible. I mean we had one day, we needed to experience it!
We got down to breakfast between 7:45-8am. The restaurant was pretty much EMPTY, which totally worked to our advantage. Pluto and Goofy were the characters of the day. We got Pluto all to ourselves for the most part. It was awesome and Lyla loved it! Buffet style breakfast was served and Pluto hung out with us while we ate.
Meeting our first Disney character!
Can't believe we are FINALLY here!
Like, seriously, how great is this! Pluto all for us!
After we finished eating, Goofy came by and we visited with him for a bit before heading out to catch the bus.
It was a perfect start to the day. It eased us in to the Disney experience and set us up for a magical day. We caught the bus immediately as we walked outside, which was great to not have to wait.
Ready!!
We asked Lyla whether she would prefer to take the Ferry Boat or the Monorail over to the park and she chose the Ferry. It was the perfect day weather wise. Sunny, not too hot.
Classic picture ready to walk in the park!
Castle Picture. She LOVED the fact that it was Cinderella's castle. Cinderella was really the only Disney movie she had seen leading up to this trip and was by far her favorite princess. Every time she sees the castle, she says, "Cinderella's castle! We went there!!".
So happy to be experiencing this day with my family! It was magical. It was wonderful. It was beyond what I could have ever dreamed up. I had to keep catching my breath and holding back tears, because the day was literally perfect. My happy place. Memories that will always be in my heart.
We started off meeting Tinkerbell and her friends. This was our first wait of the day and actually one of the very FEW things we had to stand in line for. We waited about 20 minutes.
We haven't really done the whole "fairy" thing, so she was a little unsure of who she was meeting. My plan for our next trip is to watch as many Disney movies as possible, so that she will recognize and know who everyone is.
Next, we walked right on Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride. Lyla loved this one.
While in Adventureland, we also walked right on Pirates of the Caribbean. Like literally no wait time. Lyla was a little unsure of this one, and as soon as we got in the boat, asked to get out. She kept asking about Jake and Captain Hook. She was not the biggest fan of this ride. The Jungle Cruise ride was closed, so we did not get to do that one.
Next we walked over to Frontierland and watched the Country Bear Jamboree. Lyla was of course too little this time around to ride Splash Mountain.
As we finished walking through Frontierland, we were able to catch the show at Cinderella's Castle. Lyla LOVED this and literally it gave me chills! The singing, dancing and all the characters together, experiencing the magic. No words.
After the show, Lyla was dying to meet the Princesses. I did not realize that the were back at the front entrance of the park in the Town Square Theater and so were the FastPasses. So we headed back that way and were able to grab both a FastPass for the Princesses and for Mickey. We had about an hour before we could get in a see them, so we headed over to Tomorrowland.
We hit up Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. I was worried Lyla wouldn't like it, since it wasn't actually a ride and we had never seen the movie, but she loved it. Adam and I were dying, it is so funny!! Definitely worth it! We did not have to wait long for this one either. I am telling you, perfect day for us to go. No waits, the rides that looked like they might take awhile in line, we grabbed a fast pass for, and went to do something else while we waited for our time to head back and use the Fastpass.
We also did the Buzz Lightyear Ride, which, again I was not sure how Lyla would like it. We hadn't seen Toy Story at this point and the ride was dark. But she LOVED being able to shoot the gun! Such a fun ride!
We took a drive on the Tomorrowland Speedway. Lyla loved driving!
Absolutely love this picture of her and Adam together!
After we finished driving, we headed back to the entrance (yes poor planning on my part!! We definitely got our exercise) to meet Mickey and the Princesses. This time around, we did not do the autograph book for Lyla, but I am thinking next time we will.
We walked right in with Mickey. Those FastPasses are no joke, the greatest thing ever!! The wait time was over an hour for Mickey and over an hour for the Princesses and we just walked right up for both!! Why would you not use them??
Mickey was great! Lyla loved meeting him...even though she does not look happy in any of these pictures.
Next we walked around we walked right in to meet the Princesses. We did have to wait a few minutes, but no where near the amount of time that some had to stand in line. It gave us a chance to see how it worked and get our cameras ready. THIS WAS THE BIG MOMENT of the trip. Like, we could have gone home after meeting the Princesses. They had three princesses in the same room and you get to meet one right after the other. Cinderella was first. All of our dreams had come true. And yes, I DEFINITELY teared up! She was so excited but also shy at the same time. I have videos, but I need to load them, so I will update the blog when I do that.
These Princesses are AMAZING! I mean, everything at Disney is amazing, but BY FAR, meeting the Princesses is my absolute favorite (Lyla's too!!). They give you all the time in the world and never make you feel rushed. You feel like you are the only girl in the room with them and they make you feel SO incredibly special. I am not sure how else to put it in to words. I am not sure that there are words to describe the way they make you feel. You are the only one they care about in those moments you have with them. And those moments stand still.
Meeting Cinderella!! When asked what her favorite part of the entire day is, THIS IS IT. Meeting Cinderella.
Showing her her Cinderella shirt.
LOVE.
Next up, Aurora. She was AWESOME. I loved her and how she engaged Lyla. She came over and got Lyla, she talked to her the whole time and made her feel so comfortable.
Talking about how they both have flowers on their shoes.
I just LOVED how warm and friendly she was!
Last, we met Rapunzel. She was literally TOO CUTE for words. She was the MOST outgoing of all of the Princesses. She was SO bubbly and SO full of personality. Lyla loved seeing her dress.
After we left the Princesses, we had to walk through the gift shop to get out....great marketing Disney. Every.Single.Ride and Attraction is that way. We knew we would let her pick out a couple of things, and while I thought she would go for the 'big ticket' items, all she wanted was Cinderella earrings, necklace and bracelet. She wears them all.the.time. Best $20 ever spent.
We were starting to get hungry, so we decided to head to Fantasyland to eat lunch and finish out our day there. We took our lunch in to the Pinocchio Village Haus Restaurant to cool off and eat. It really started warming up! So glad we had a fan for the stroller, packed lots of water and had the hand-held fans. We ate our packed lunches and it felt good to sit down. Totally worth bringing our lunch. Saves money and saves time waiting in line to get food.
We used a FastPass on Mickey's PhilharMagic, which Lyla HATED. She does not like the 3D/4D movies. So she covered her eyes the whole time. FastPassed it on Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan (that line is NO JOKE!!...we walked right on!). Walked right on to It's a Small World.
(I know these pictures are a little blurry!)
The wait time said 20 minutes to meet Ariel, which we were ok with, but literally walked right in to see her! Lyla loved sitting and talking to her.
She loved showing off her new Cinderella jewelry.
We did the Ariel ride. No wait. Needed a snack break and grabbed some frozen lemonades and a shady place to sit. I got a frozen lemonade for Lyla and I to share. Never again. I will always spend the extra money to get that girl her own! She drink more than her half, for sure! Haha. After snack, Lyla and Adam rode the Tea Cups. That ride makes me sick, so I sat out for that one.
We also rode Dumbo and The Barnstormer, which Lyla LOVED! After that we went to try and see Minnie Mouse and Daisy, but Daisy was taking a break and we did not want to miss her, so we headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle. This was most definitely in my top three moments of the day. We got in line and it ended up being our longest wait of the day (45min) due to the fact that during one of the groups right before us, they had some technical difficulties. So we waited and waited and waited, and never seemed to move! Then finally, they let the next group in and they cut the line off right before us. Adam asked if the wait would take as long this time and the cast member told us they were doing a run through to make sure everything was working the way it should be. Luckily, we did not have to wait long, before we were called in! Lyla did great waiting in line.
I had never done Enchanted Tales with Belle, so I had no idea what to expect. When they started handing out parts for the experience, Adam was picked to be a soldier, and Lyla was picked to be the Beast. I did not know it then, but getting to be the Beast was by far the most special part.
Basically, everyone in your group that wants a part can have one. They give out all the roles and then move you in to another room where you get to re-enact the night that Belle and the Beast fall in love. It is a surprise for Belle. So Belle comes in, everyone shouts 'Surprise!' and we do the little play. It is really cute.
Belle walked in to the room and Lyla got to dance with her!! It was so magical. She loved getting to meet Belle and dance with her and hold her hand.
During our experience, Lyla was the only one who got to meet, talk, and get her picture taken with Belle. I am not sure if it was because they were still having difficulty or what, but it was SO special that Lyla was picked and that she had that experience. I do not think there is any other place at Magic Kingdom that you get to meet Belle, so it was a perfect experience and well worth the wait.
We were starting to get hungry for dinner and wanted to go ahead and get a good spot for the Electrical Parade, but while we were on the back side of the park, we headed back over to meet Minnie. Daisy still was not there, but we figured it would be worth it to get a picture with Minnie. The line moved SO slowly and took FOREVER!! Goofy and Donald were in the same room, but you had to stand in a separate line to meet them and there was no way we were doing that. We were tired, we were hungry, the line seemed to not move hardly at all. This was the first time in the day that Lyla started falling a part. It was hard to entertain her. We finally made it up to the front of the line and the cast member told us to wait. I was worried Minnie was about to take a break and we would have to wait even longer. Instead, a few minutes later, Daisy came out and we were the first people that afternoon/evening that got to meet her!! It could not have been more perfect timing!
We got to meet Minnie as well and all was right with the character meet and greet world.
We wanted to find a good spot to watch the Electrical Parade, one that we could SIT. We also wanted to find a spot where we would not get caught in all the crowds getting out. yeah. right. We decided to eat dinner back in Frontierland, closer to the front of the park and the castle so we could see the fireworks as well. We thought that the parade started over where we were, but instead, it actually finished where we were which still worked out well, because the fireworks started as we were heading out of the park.
We grabbed dinner at Pecos Bill, which was actually really yummy. I had their Taco Salad which I thought was great. I think Adam had their pulled pork? Lyla still had food left that I had packed which worked out great.
After we finished eating we found a nice spot to sit and I pulled out all of the fun glow-in-the-dark stuff I had brought for Lyla. Easy way to save money. Stock up on that stuff when it is in the dollar section at Target! She had a fun light up wand, we were able to make tons of bracelets, necklaces and I even found her this fun hair piece that lit up. She loved it! While we waited for the parade to start, I went to do some last minute shopping while in the park. I grabbed our Christmas ornament, and a couple of other special treats for Lyla. I got back just in time to rest my feet before the parade started.
Second to meeting the Princesses, this was the other most magical moment of the day where I had to hold back tears. The day had just been so perfect. Adam and I loved watching Lyla take it all in. It made me feel like a kid again. It filled my heart with SO much happiness. Not to just be at the most magical place on earth, but the have spent the ENTIRE day alone with the two most important people to me. My heart was full at that moment.
Lyla, of course was so excited to see Cinderella and the Prince come by in the pumpkin carriage.
It was truly the perfect way to end the day. As we were walking towards the entrance, Lyla asked to stay and see the fireworks. You guys, we had gone to bed the night before after midnight. We were up at 7am, we had been at the park since 9am. We had only had one minor meltdown...mainly related to low blood sugar! It was close to 10pm at this point. But you know what, we figured sure, let's stay for these fireworks!! We stood on Main Street as the Fireworks show started. I was holding Lyla in my arms. I felt her head against my shoulder and her body relax. I knew what that meant. Even though this sweet princess wanted so badly to keep her eyes open and watch the fireworks in her final minutes of being in the most magical place, she was just too tired to hold on. As I felt her falling asleep, I laid her down in her stroller. Did not even phase her. She.Was.Out. Adam and I decided we should head on out to beat the crowd since she was already asleep. During the fireworks that night, they were only running the ferry back to the parking lot, so we had to wait on the ferry. It took FOREVER! Like the fireworks were finishing as we got on the boat. Then we had to wait on the bus. I guess it is all just part of the Disney experience, but I was just ready to be back at the hotel in bed! We left the park around 10pm, but did not get in bed until 11:30pm or so. We. Were. TIRED!!
We slept in the next morning and then got up and checked out the pool. It was awesome! I wished we had another whole day to just spend relaxing by the pool because it was heaven. It was zero entry, it had a fun play structure and slides and the weather was just perfect for a relax by the pool day.
Unfortunately we had to check out, so after playing at the pool for a bit, I went back in to get ready and pack everything up. Lyla and Adam got a little more pool time before they headed back in. The great thing was, even though we were checking out of our magical Disney experience (one that I will NEVER forget), we were not done with vacation!! We packed up the car and headed to Bradenton just 2 hours away to Adam's grandma's house. We were spending Labor Day weekend there with her and Adam's parents. Jonathan, Kara and Dalton were also driving up that night to spend a few days with us as well. So while our feet where tired and achey, our hearts were full and we were driving towards a weekend full of sandy beaches, crystal pools, food, shopping, fun and relaxation!
