Back in January, Graham and I decided we wanted to take Carrie to Disney World for her 4th birthday. If you know her, you know she is about as obsessed with princesses, fairies, mermaids, etc as a girl can be so we did not want to miss taking her during this phase. It was a long 8 months of waiting, but we went last week and had a BLAST! I was not sure what to expect...I am not one who loves crowds, lines, etc, but it was so much fun! We decided to leave Hayes home (no brainer) as she is too little to remember and still relies heavily on her daily nap. So last Tuesday, my mom, Graham, Carrie and I left for Disney! We did 3 days in the park and have so many pictures, I knew they wouldn't fit on just one post so this is going to be a post of our arrival day and day 1 in the Magic Kingdom!
We got to Orlando around 10 Tuesday morning. We had a Disney trip planner help us plan our trip and she told us if we can't get into the park first thing in the morning to not go that day. So we planned on spending the afternoon at the pool and then eating in our hotel at Chef Mickeys. Carrie wanted to get in the pool right when we got there, but we had a couple issues. No one else had a bathing suit handy to get in with her and I had forgotten her goggles. So without thinking all that through, we told her to go down the water slide. Well it was long enough for her to think through that she did not want to go under without goggles on and Graham was not at the bottom to catch her. So she did not want to swim and had no one to catch her so basicially she freaked out when she landed. She has never done a big water slide where you land in a whirlpool at the end and it was a disaster. She immediately started scream which made the lifeguard jump in. By the time he got to her, she had calmed down and was up and floating on her back. I was glad to see her swimming lessons paid off in a time of fear, but was also really embarassed and felt bad for her that we had not handled that better. So that was the end of the water slide! She had fun in the hot tub and playing on the splash pad, though so we did that for a little while until time for lunch. If you can see, here is a pic of the terror on her face at the end of the slide...
So after that wild pool time, we went to lunch at our hotel. We stayed at The Contemporary and ate at The Wave there. Here is our little Minnie Diva ready to go eat...
She wore her birthday button all the time so she got cupcakes everywhere we went...this was an exciting revelation for her!
She also loved the glowing Tinkerbell lemonade she got! It was a fun start to all the magic!
After lunch, we rode the monorail around to see the Magic Kingdom. We got off at the Grand Floridian and walked around. Carrie got a Belle cookie and we all got some wine and enjoyed the music they had playing. It was a nice slow afternoon to prepare us for the madness to come!
That night we had dinner reservations in our hotel at Chef Mickeys. It was our first character meal and C was in heaven!! Here are her and dad before dinner...
Once we sat down, Pluto came to our table almost immediately! Carrie was so excited to get his autograph and use her book for the first time!
Next it was Goofy...
Then they stop to sing and dance...she got down and danced some! So cute...
Then Mickey came!
And Donald...
And finally, her favorite of them all, Minnie!
At the end, she got another birthday cupcake. Think she liked it??
We took her in to get a good night's sleep. We had an adjoining room with my mom which was so nice because when she went to bed, we went over there and had wine and watched the fireworks from the balcony.
The next day, this girl was ready to hit up Magic Kingdom. She has on her Snow White headband that her sweet babysitter gave her. And you can kind of see the blurry castle in the background from our balcony.
I was worried it was going to rain that day, but we were so lucky! It was just cloudy which was perfect because it kept it from being too hot! We were in a group to test the new "Magic Bands" which were bracelets that we used for everything! Hotel key, to get in the park, to buy stuff, for our dining plan, for fastpasses, etc. It was a huge help! As was our trip planner...we accomplished so much in just a few hours with no waits!
First up...Ariel's Under the Sea ride. I think this was Carrie's favorite. We did it 3 times while we were there. I tell you, seeing her face on this first ride, I knew the trip was going to be amazing. She was absolutely amazing and awed by all of it!
Then we got to meet Ariel in her grotto! Since we were early, there were not many others so Ariel spent a lot of time with her which was so fun!
Then we went and rode Peter Pan before that line got really long. She loved that ride as well!
Up next was the much anticipated appointment at Bippity Boppity Boutique! Carrie had been looking forward to this most of all and it did not disappoint. This was my mom's birthday gift to her and she got to pick out a dress, get her hair done, her nails done and her makeup done! She loved it...some girls were upset getting their hair done saying it hurt...we would not have known if it hurt C...she was too excited to care I think!
Getting her fairy dust! That was one glittery head!
Pageant girl look complete!
Seeing herself...
Then she got to do a photo shoot. Hilarious.
After that, we had a little time before lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table so we did a couple rides including the Mad Hatter's tea cups. She LOVED this one...
Then we saw some Pooh characters walking through...
And got a picture in front of the Alice in Wonderland greenery...
Then we rode on Dumbo!!!
We also squeezed in the Winnie the Pooh ride and another ride on Peter Pan!
Then it was time for lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table. She was so excited to meet the princesses!
She got a wand and a wishing star...
And then we met Snow White, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and saw Ariel again. The food was also really good so we had a really fun experience!
And then it was cupcake time yet again...
Then it was time for more rides!!
Carousel.
We asked Carrie if she wanted to go on the Barnstormer which is a small rollercoaster and she did! I told Graham to ride with her because I was scared she would freak out, but no! She LOVED it! We were all shocked! Look at this face!
With our bands, we had a fast pass plus to do Enchanted Tales with Belle. It was so nice to skip this long line!! They assign roles to people and told Graham to be the guard, haha.
Carrie got to be Chip and loved it!
At the end, she got to meet Belle. They were twins!
We went at a great time of year since most kids are in school so it was not super crowded. However, the character lines were what took time. There are no fastpasses for most of them! So we let Carrie get a snack and we waited in line so as not to miss anyone! Here we are waiting to see Merida from Brave...
Worth the wait...she was great.
Then she got to practice Archery. She didn't hit the bullseye, but she did get it to hit the target circle and she was thrilled with that!
Then we went to the next line and waited to meet Tinkerbell and Terrence. Also worth the wait...this was a must for her!
Then we did a little shopping, rode on Jasmine's Magic Carpet ride and went to wait to eat dinner at the Beast's Castle at "Be Our Guest".
She got a big, glowing pink lemonade! It was foaming on top which freaked her out at first, but she loved it once she tried it!
And yet another cupcake!
She also met the Beast here, but Graham has that picture on his phone so I will post it later. I want to post it because there is also a video of her and the Beast dancing! There happened to be no line at the time so she got to dance with him and it was so cute! Then when she came back to the table, she said she didn't want to see the Beast again because she was scared she would hurt Belle's feelings if she knew. Haha, so sweet!
After dinner it was time to find a good spot for the light show and fireworks!
It was a perfect night!
The light show on the Castle...so pretty.
She loved the lights show and seeing the fireworks as we walked out!
It was such a magical first day (excuse my cliche) but we did so much and she had so much fun and was so good! We were the 12 hours that day and she did not have a melt down once and waited in line so well. We were so proud of her and excited for the next 2 days! I will post part 2 sometime this week!!!
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