The morning of Thursday, September 6th, was probably my favorite part of our trip. Cory decided to take a chance, and called to see if there was an opening to have breakfast with the princesses in Cinderella's castle. Just so happened, the woman he talked to said if we could make it there by 8:30, we could get in. Of course, it was about 8:15, we weren't quite ready, we had the drive into Disney World, then we had to park in the transportation center and take either a shuttle (fast), or a ferry (slow) over to the Magic Kingdom Park, and finally we had to walk to the castle. Well, we decided to try our best, and it was looking like we weren't going to be too late until we got to the transportation center only to find out the shuttle didn't start running until 9:00, so we had to take the ferry (reminder: slow).
At this point, we were going to arrive much later then 8:30, so Cory called them again from the ferry. This woman also told us to keep going and head over to the castle as soon as we could get there. We made our way to the castle, but no one at the check-in desk had our name, or knew what was going on. Fortunately, they were very polite and managed to get us a table. It was a really fun experience!
First, we took pictures with Cinderella before we walked up a spiral staircase to the main dining room.
Once there, we were seated, and a waitress approached our table right away. She had worked at that restaurant for over 25 years. Before we knew it, our glasses were being filled with orange juice and coffee, and a beautiful plate of pastries was sitting in front of us. We ordered off a menu of very few, but very enticing options. While we waited for our food, our waitress brought out another plate of pastries, and then our breakfast arrived in less then 10 minutes. I had steak and eggs with breakfast potatoes and roasted tomatoes. It was wonderful! The kids all had french toast sticks with eggs and bacon. As we were eating, five of the different princesses entered the dining room, one at a time. After a brief introduction over the speaker system, they made their way around the room, stopping at each table to give signatures and take photos. The girls were so excited, especially to see Ariel!
While we were there, they also did a Wishing Ceremony. The girls got to keep a magic wand and their wishing stars, while Grant got a plastic sword and his wishing star.
On the way out we were given our Cinderella pictures.
It was a great start to a great day! We spent the whole day inside Magic Kingdom.
Everyone tried their hand at the sword in the stone, but no luck.
We went on a "safari" boat ride, but after going on a real safari in Animal Kingdom, this one just didn't seem as exciting with it's robotic characters and animals.
The girls were excited to receive a sprinkling of sparkly fairy dust in one of the gift shops.
We got stuck in another down pour later in the day, and decided to make the best of it by buying some ice cream. We sat down at a table, and tried to squeeze under a big umbrella while rain drops were dripping down all around us (and a few on us) to eat our Micky Mouse ice cream. Yummy!
I was able to talk Cory into getting some rain ponchos so we could move about the park without getting totally soaked. Dad and Grant made a run for a gift shop and picked us up five lovely ponchos. We were able to get on a few rides before they closed everything down due to lightening.
After a short time, the rides openend up again and we were on our way! Fly Dumbo, Fly!
Eew Mom and Dad!
We staked out our spots on the concrete curb for the electrical parade about an hour ahead of time. That gave me plenty of time to head into the sweet shop to buy us all a little treat. We had to do something to pass the time, right? That place was a sugar dream land! I managed to escape with only some white chocolate Micky pops for Dad and Grant, and cake pops for the girls and I.
Let the parade begin! I saw the parade when I was a little girl with my family at Disneyland. It was still as magical as I remembered.
