We drove from Sarasota over to Disney on a Sunday. We left fairly early, and went directly to Downtown Disney to walk around, play, and have lunch.
Malcolm loved this little fountain where Mickey pours the water from the top and it flows into each of the other pots. The pots with plants are sitting in a shallow ring, so they are continually watered from below.
There's a lot of construction going on there right now and the kids liked the murals on the temporary walls to hide the work being done.
This was outside the Bibbidy Bobbity Boutique where little girls get all princess-fied. I'm way too cheap (and don't care for the finished look at all) to let her do it, but she certainly noticed all the little girls who were glittered and done up. Honestly, I thought she looked cuter in her little dress and braids, but I'm not five.
The Lego store was a huge hit. There were several Lego sculptures to admire, including this sea monster in the lake. Dorothy and I were partial to the dragon from Sleeping Beauty, but it was way too big to get a photo that did it justice.
Just outside the store, the kids could build cars to race. They were very serious about their building. I didn't mind waiting for them since each time the doors to the store opened, I was blasted with air conditioning.
After lunch, we took some time to take cheesy pictures with some of the life sized characters throughout the park.
Malcolm, checking Buzz's inseam.
Even I got into the action.
The kids each had their silhouettes cut. It was one of the few things on my "must do" list because I have wanted silhouettes of them for a while now. It was great to take care of it on our first day so that we didn't have to stop inside the park to have them done.
While waiting for the silhouettes to be finished, they rode the carousel.
We finally headed over to our hotel, The Grand Floridian. The kids found it very fancy.
Our room wasn't quite ready yet, so we picked up our drink mugs (included in the package we did), relaxed, and Dorothy even got a balloon flower. We were about to let them change to go swimming, but our room was ready, so we settled in and changed in our room instead.
The monorail went right above the pool, which was pretty neat.
Dorothy had a blast in the pool. She made a little friend and splashed around with her until her friend had to leave. Malcolm made a friend too and they rode the slide over and over and over.
The pool had some semi-organized games that Dorothy wanted nothing to with until it was time to start. She did well with the first one where they collected little plastic critters from the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. We snagged Malcolm to be her partner for a water balloon toss, but it was just too much for her and she left him alone near the start of the game. The staff member MC-ing jumped in to be his partner and juggled the microphone and the water balloon surprisingly well. They came in second place.
We made the mistake of letting the kids fall asleep, then they were groggy and crabby for our character dinner at the hotel. Malcolm was not enthused about it from the time we first mentioned this dinner, months ago. This photo sums up his level of excitement very well. He did however, like the buffet very much.
We brought Dorothy's Rapunzel costume I had made her for Halloween to wear since it was just at out hotel, and not at the park itself. It still fit, but was quite a bit shorter and I needed to make sure she had decent shoes since they could easily be seen. At Halloween, it just brushed the ground.
At various times during the evening, Prince Charming and Cinderella dance together. I had read that sometimes the prince would ask little girls to dance as well. I had talked to Dorothy about it beforehand, and she agreed that she would dance with the prince. This time, he had chosen a little girl sitting closer, but she and a couple of others were up close, watching. He gave each one of them a little spin and sent them back to their tables.
Prince Charming was the first character to come to our table. He and Dorothy talked for a minute or two, but I don't think she quite knew what to make of him. I don't think she actually said anything to him, but he had a standard banter that he kept up for her.
Malcolm is
thrilled to be in this photo.
Dorothy was less sure of the step-mother, Lady Tremaine. She did a good job of harassing the obviously sulking Malcolm and asked him why he was, "Sitting way over there?" We were at a table for six and he had chosen the farthest seat he could from us.
Kevin was more enthusiastic about Lady Tremaine, and she was a good sport.
Dorothy was much more thrilled with Cinderella. She asked if Dorothy also had a fair godmother who made her dress, and Dorothy nodded. I'll admit that it ruffled my feathers a bit because I had put so much work into her dress.
It's too bad that my picture of her hugging Cinderella turned out blurry. The lighting isn't the best in there, and I only had a few seconds to take each picture. I did my best, but many of them didn't turn out so well.
Malcolm was much less thrilled to meet Cinderella.
Dorothy was nervous about meeting the step sisters because they were so mean in the movie, but I assured her that in real life they are more funny then mean. I'm not sure she was fully convinced, but she played along well.
Kevin was excited to pose with the step sisters, but Malcolm is still not so sure about this whole thing.
This step sister had been around to every table but ours, so I mentioned it to her handler before she moved on to the next section. She was very nice and was probably the best at engaging everyone at the table (including flirting with Malcolm). She got right down to Dorothy's level to chat for a second before taking pictures.
Dorothy warmed up to her more than the first step sister to come by.
Malcolm is still thrilled.
She came by a second time when we were just about the leave and talked to us for just a second before moving on.
While we were waiting for our bill to be returned, Prince Charming and Cinderella did another dance (seems like about ever hour or so, they do it). This time, Dorothy was the only little girl to go up close. The prince asked a different girl sitting at a closer table to dance, but she wouldn't do it, so he danced with Dorothy instead.
Twirling.
Bowing at the end.
Thanking her for the dance.
Just as we were leaving, he passed our table again and I asked for a picture. I had forgotten to get one the first time, and when else was I going to get a chance to pose with Prince Charming?
There is live music every night in the lobby of the hotel and Dorothy wanted to sit and listen to the band playing. She is actually enjoying it. This is just her concentrating face.
Twirling in the garden on the way back to our room.
It was a great start to our Disney stay. We decided to put the kids to bed at their regular time, but if the fireworks woke them up, we would take them down to the dock (not far from our room) to see them. The water parade kept them up, but they didn't tell us. They slept right through the fireworks.
Kevin and I sat out on the balcony and had some champagne we had brought with us. Luckily, it was cool enough in the evenings, and not too humid, to enjoy the balcony while the kids slept.
Up next...The Magic Kingdom...
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