The bus takes you to your resort (we stayed at All Star Movies--one of the "value" resorts on Disney property--the room was small, but it was worth it to us to save the money on the room, since we were only going to be there to sleep--and that was really the case!). We checked in, but our room wasn't ready, so they take care of your stuff for you. Next we found the bus to the Magic Kingdom, where we were going to spend the rest of the day.
Driving up to the Magic Kingdom you pass under a big sign that says "Magic Kingdom" and has a picture of the castle on it. Rachel was clapping, so thrilled to see this. And as we drove further, we caught a glimpse of the top of Cinderella's castle, which she's been dying to see forever. She started laughing and cheering, so excited to finally see it!
We made our way into the Magic Kingdom, took lots of pictures on the outside,
and then finally went in, where we finally saw this:
It was 12:30 or so when we arrived, and we were hungry, so we got some lunch and planned our afternoon. We took advantage of the free Disney Dining Plan that was offered during certain dates, which was great. You can eat anywhere in the park using the plan, including the character meals. We did three of those--but more about those later.
After lunch we headed closer to the castle. A parade started as we were heading down Main Street, so we stopped to watch that. Rachel LOVED it. We saw that same parade three times over the course of our two days at Magic Kingdom, and she loved every minute of it.
At the end of the parade they shot out streamers from the floats. She grabbed some and started dancing to the music, completely oblivious to what was going on around her.
I wish I was able to post the video here of her dancing--it was quite the sight to see!
We headed through to Fantasyland and she decided to ride the carousel first. This was the first time she wasn't scared at all on a carousel. She loved it. (I'll probably be writing that sentence a lot....she loved just about everything!)
Next came Dumbo. We had to wait around 30 minutes to ride it, and it was almost 90 degrees and she was exhausted.
But it was worth it once we finally got on the ride. She loved moving Dumbo up and down herself.
Next we saw Mickey's Philharmagic, a 3-D movie. At one point it looks like the water is coming out of the screen onto you, and you actually do get splashed with water, falling from the ceiling. When she got wet, Rachel started crying because she wasn't expecting it. We got her calmed down quickly and she watched the rest of the movie. When we came out she said she only liked a little bit. But now if you ask her what she liked best at Disney, she says Mickey's Philharmagic! Go figure....
That afternoon we also rode a riverboat, climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, rode Aladdin's flying carpet (exactly like Dumbo), saw The Pirates of the Caribbean, and floated through "It's a Small World," which Rachel really liked. We called it a day before dinner because we were so tired from getting up so early, ate dinner at our hotel, went swimming briefly (because Rachel was begging and begging to go, but then she was terrified of the big pool!) and we were all in bed by 8 pm! Rachel was asleep before her head even hit the pillow, and my husband and I were still talking and watching a little bit of TV!
The next day we were at The Magic Kingdom before it opened because we had reservations for breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle. This was the part Rachel had been anticipating for months--having breakfast with Cinderella. When you enter the castle you get your picture taken with Cinderella
then they call you upstairs (by calling for the Royal _____ Family--insert our last name in the blank) and take you to your table.
As soon as we sat down Rachel said, "When is Cinderella going to come sit down at our table and have breakfast with us? I had failed to explain, apparently, that having breakfast with Cinderella and the princesses meant that they would be there, but not that they would be sitting down at our table with us. She was rather disappointed by that realization, but rebounded quickly, enjoying the ambiance.
One by one the princesses were introduced and began milling around the tables. Rachel would get so excited each time one of them would get close to our table, but as soon as one would come over she would get tongue tied and have nothing to say. This is rare for our social little girl! So in addition to Cinderella she met Snow White
Ariel
and Sleeping Beauty.
There was a "wishing ceremony," which she loved (in the second picture below she's making a wish with her eyes closed!)
Just before breakfast we saw the fairy godmother.
And just after breakfast we did some souvenir shopping, and Rachel picked out this hat as her souvenir.
And then it was on to another day of rides at Disney World. We tackled the rest of Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Tomorrowland. We went back to our hotel for a bit to rest, and returned later for the Electrical Parade and the fireworks. This was my favorite night--I thought the Electrical Parade was amazing, and Rachel loved it all, of course.
The next day we went to Hollywood Studios. It rained much of the morning. It was nice that it wasn't 90 degrees that day, but I could've done without the rain! But mid morning the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful day in the upper 70s. The best part about Hollywood Studios was Toy Story Mania. We all loved this ride/game and would've loved to have ridden it again, but the line was over 40 minutes long all day, so we only rode it once (and because we had Fast Passes we only had to wait a few minutes that time). Otherwise, I wasn't thrilled with Hollywood Studios--it was confusing to get around, I thought. But of course, Rachel loved it--she loved it all!
The highlight of the day for all of us happened in China. Before we went to Disney World Rachel had to make the difficult decision of what princess dresses to take with her for her breakfast and dinner with the princesses. For a long time she couldn't make up her mind, but finally a couple of days before we left she finally decided on her Tiana blue dress (she has two Tiana dresses) and her Mulan dress. She wore her Tiana dress when we saw Cinderella at the castle, and she had her Mulan dress for our princess dinner at Epcot. But earlier in the afternoon we were coming up to the China exhibit and I told my husband that if Mulan was there we'd have to let her put her Mulan dress on and go meet her (you have to wait in line to meet any of the princesses, and up to that point we hadn't waited in any of the lines, since we knew we'd be seeing most of them at our character meals). Just as we were walking up to China, Mulan was walking out to a line of excited little princesses for a meet and greet. So we got in line, Rachel put her Mulan dress on, and couldn't wait to meet her. When it was finally our turn, Mulan was so excited to see someone dressed like her. You see lots of little girls dressed up as Cinderella, Belle, or Ariel at Disney World, but we didn't see a single Mulan, and I'm sure she's not used to seeing someone dressed up as her. She took an extra long time with Rachel, giving her hugs and kisses, talking to her, and even showing her her little cricket who she keeps tucked in her dress. We forgot to take Rachel's autograph book with us on our trip (she didn't really care--she doesn't even know what an autograph is, so I didn't bother with buying one once we got there), so Mulan had her Disney helper give her an index card so she could give Rachel her autograph. I'm sure the people behind us were probably a little annoyed that Mulan took so long with our little girl, but for us, it was so special. It brings tears to my eyes when I think about it and look at those pictures, because it made Rachel so happy and feel so special. What she kept talking about was the lipstick that Mulan left on her cheek when she gave her a kiss!
I was worried about Rachel at Epcot--it's a big park and lots of it seems aimed at older kids/adults. But I didn't need to worry. She loved it all! It helped that in each country they had a "Kidcot" station where kids received a bear to color and a stamp from each country. She was so excited to go to each new country because she could continue coloring her bear and get a new stamp.
That night we had reservations for dinner in Norway for another princess meal. It was similar to the Cinderella breakfast. We walked in and Rachel got her picture taken with Belle (this time in her yellow dress, which excited Rachel to no end!),
After dinner we finished up the rest of the things we hadn't seen, did a little shopping, and staked out our spot for watching the fireworks/laser light show. It was pretty late, but Rachel was doing so well--right until the fireworks started. It was as if someone flipped her switch and she couldn't handle being awake anymore. She sat in her stroller during most of the fireworks, kind of staring into space, so tired (Speaking of the stroller--we debated and debated about whether or not to take the stroller. Everything I read said that you should have one for children under 6, but we didn't want the hassle for a girl who hadn't ridden in a stroller for almost a year, but in the end we decided to take it just in case, and we were SO glad we did. She ended up riding in it quite a bit and it saved us hours because we could walk at our own pace and not her much slower pace!) When it was over and we were walking out with the rest of the exiting mob of people, she fell asleep in the stroller. We had to wait in line for our bus, but when a bus came, we had to fold up the stroller, so I had to pick her up and she continued to sleep on my shoulder. But then we couldn't fit on that very full bus and had to wait for the next one, so I had to hold my limp, sleeping 4 year old daughter for a good 20 minutes or so--she is HEAVY!! She slept the whole way back to the hotel on my lap, and after we got off the bus my husband opened the stroller up again and I put her in. Then she halfway woke up and had a huge fit. She doesn't do well when she wakes up in the middle of the night (and to her, 10 pm is the middle of the night!), and she was crying, kicking, and really, really upset, and not fully awake, just like when she has her night terrors at home. She can't be reasoned with or consoled in this state, and it was long walk back to the room. She finally woke up when I was putting her PJs on her, and then she was fine.
The next day was our last day. We had to check out in the morning, but our flight didn't leave until late that night, so the hotel kept our stuff and we set off for our final park, Animal Kingdom. We had breakfast reservations before the park opened at Tusker House, at a safari breakfast with Donald and friends. Breakfast was delicious and Rachel met Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Mickey. It was a fun morning.
Then we explored the park, which is really a glorified zoo, but is very nice. We enjoyed the Kilimanjaro Safari, where we saw all kinds of wildlife.
It was a fun day, and we left right after the afternoon parade, in order to get back to our hotel in time to catch our bus back to the airport.
Our flight left at 8:30 pm (past Rachel's bedtime--bad idea on my part, but it was the only way we could spend that extra day at the parks), and we landed around 10:45. Rachel had another one of her fits on the plane. She had been sleeping on my lap, but when we were getting ready to land I had to put her back in her seat and fasten her seatbelt, so she halfway woke up again and cried and kicked carried on. Everyone was staring at us--it was definitely not a very happy ending to our happy vacation. But when we got into the airport she settled down, fully woke up, and was fine. She was excited to see Grandpa when he picked us up from the airport and when we got home she talked and talked to Grandma about the trip. She didn't get to bed until midnight because she was so wound up. I didn't send her to school the next day because she was so tired. She slept in and took over a three hour nap. She seems to be caught up now, though. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep, though. I didn't sleep very well in the hotel, and we were so busy each day, and I was just wiped out. I took a two hour nap on both Saturday and Sunday, and so far today I finally feel more like myself. We'll see if it continues.
So it was a very fun trip--tiring, but really fun. Definitely Rachel's dream come true! It was so fun watching her enjoy everything so much. Everything was just so magical to her, and she really was the perfect age to go. Hopefully when Rebecca is this age we will get to go again (Rachel's already planning on it!).
Here are some other random shots--mostly from our hotel, which Rachel loved. We were in the Herbie, The Love Bug section, but she especially liked the Toy Story and Fantasia sections.
