Ok, this worried me a great deal.....the last thing I needed was to have them be told to leave, we simply had too much emotionally invested in yesterday to have it messed up this way. Since we were going to the Castle for BBB, then over to the GF for tea and the photoshoot and then returning to the Castle for dinner, well, I didn't want to try to sneak their costumes in and then later have trouble as we were trying to return for dinner....that would have been a disaster, plus I'm not one to like to try to sneak one by anyone, I much prefer the straightforward approach.
So....I had the girls dress in regular clothes, carried their gowns on hangers, and had no questions asked when we entered the gates. But I was still concerned that once they were dressed up, we might have trouble....so we stopped off at City Hall to clear up the policy. The first CM was quick to say there "should" be no problem. Well, that wasn't quite the wording I wanted, I wanted no part of "should".....so she called someone else to come talk to me. I explained about how we'd made the appointment months ago, and at that time they knew the girls were 11, and they knew we were bringing our own gown, no mention was made of not being ok to wear them in the park. That just the day before a chat board had said I might have trouble and I wanted to be sure there wasn't going to be. I pointed out not only the emotional chaos this would cause, but that financially we were stuck with appointments for both BBB where a no-show would cost us a deposit, and more so that the Castle dinner required even more notice for cancelling.
Tess, the CM I spoke with assured me there was no problem. That the policy didn't have a specific age....it was "adult" and was often misquoted because my girls being 11 meant they had an adult AP/ticket. The policy was simply so that the other guests would not mistake the "adult" as a cast member (she also spoke of the security risk for masked costumes worn by adults). She said it was clear that my girls were girls and not adults, so she promised we'd not have trouble. Knowing that others reading this board might have even older girls than mine, I asked casually how they determined the "adult" versus the "older girl"....thinking also to the fact that if we had a good time with this then it's possible we'd want to do it again when we come back in a couple years and my girls would then be teens. She did say they use a case by case decision process, but that this was one of the reasons that the reservation folks ask the princess-to-be's age and whether they'll be bringing a costume. I didn't pursue this much more because we wanted to get on with our adventure....but I'm not sure how a CM on the phone could determine if a, say, 16 year old could be confused for a real character or not. Looking back now though, I can say that while I saw many teens and adults with the hairdo, I didn't see anyone older than my girls in costume...and honestly not any even slightly younger than my girls. I'm guessing here, but perhaps it's not a big issue because most girls stop wanting to dress up in the Princess costumes before they reach 10 or 11? That may be why there are very very few costumes in sizes about 10-12? Again, that's just guessing on my part, but we have found among my girls' peers that most are "over" the princesses and on to Hanah Montana and High School Musical and such. My girls aren't interested in those, they still love their princesses!
By the way....I'm glad now that this "controversy" came up because it meant the girls got to use the very elegant dressing room to change. Had they worn their dresses through the gate we would have missed this glamorous beginning, and the fun photos we got of them helping each other dress. It was quite a large area too...two girls, grandma and I all fit with plenty of room to move around. I highly recommend carrying your gown in so you can start your adventure getting dressed!
After the BBB session as we walked down Main Street and had Photopass ops done several times, we realized that several people were taking pictures of the girls.....including one very funny man who literally was running around them in circles snapping photos like a paparazzi around Britney Spears, much to the amusement of my girls. They actually asked me if I'd hired that man as part of the surprises I promised them! I wish I'd thought of it,
as it certainly made them feel extra glamorous! I think some of the attraction was because there were two of them (identical twins) and they were older. They got attention everywhere we went...the CMs would fuss over them calling them Princess, several bowing/curtesy to the girls. We weren't positive which boat to take to the GF and the girls asked the captain before we got on to be sure and he told them that if the Princesses wished to go to GF he would make sure to stop there for them!
Strangers would come up and tell them (or sometimes me) how beautiful they were, and many asked questions about where/how, and even why they were dressed up. We turned a lot of people onto the BBB, I can tell you! And while I arrived that morning thinking who would mistake an 11 year old as a cast member, we also had a couple of little ones asking if they were "real" princesses and one little girl maybe 4 years old asked them to sign the autograph book! (which they did after I explained to the mom that they weren't characters! but mom asked them to anyway).
This was a wonderful experience! FGIT Amanda, did both my girls (I had specifically asked that the girls go one after the other because I wanted to videotape the whole thing for each girl. I do think my request kinda threw them as there was a bit of fluttering about to figure out how to do this, and twice while my second daughter waited a FGIT asked her name amid concern that she was just waiting and not being done up, but they were totally gracious about letting me have my wish...and we got the perfect chair for it....it was a back corner near a door to the outside. I was able to stand by this door and not be in FGIT's way, but also not be in the aisle or on the parents' seats having our video interrupted by the many people that walked by, so that location was just wonderful). Amanda was so patient with Meghan, who went first...the girls have a LOT of hair, down to their waist and she had to twice roll up Meghan's hair to get it just right, and Amanda was worried about Meghan sitting there so long, apologized several times. Meghan & I were just thrilled that she cared enough to be sure it was perfect! When it was Jessica's turn, Amanda joked that now she knew what to do with that long hair! So it was probably good that Amanda did them both, as Meghan took about 35 minutes, Jessica only about 15....if Jessica had had another FGIT she too may have gone long.
Something I noticed...we had 11am and 11:20 appts....when we arrived about 10:40 it was jam packed. Trying to go to the back to the dressing room involved a lot of manuevering around parents watching (which is when I started my concern about videotaping with people walking by, lol). Every chair was full, the front lobby was standing room only and it was a bit noisy and chaotic. By the time Amanda was half way through with Meghan it was definitely quieter, less crowded and there was plenty of opportunity for Grandma sitting on the parents seats to get some still photos. I would guess this might be because a lot of girls were being done up for lunch????
And a word about how wonderful the FGIT's are even after your session is over. As I've said, we did BBB mid morning, then went to GF for tea, a photoshoot, came back to MK changed our Castle dinner appointment to later (that tea is very filling!) and went on some rides. Jessica reached up to scratch her head and ended up pulling a chunk of hair out of her bun. I tried tucking it back in, but it was obviously not perfect, but still cute. Meghan later lost her face jewel somewhere (we think maybe inside Philharmagic brushing the glasses across her face). Meghan was in tears over this loss. So I decided to head over to BBB and see if I could purchase another face jewel (we did have the extras in our BBB bag, but it was in a locker wayyyy up there and they were already starting to shooo people out of Fantasyland because of Wishes prep so my legs appreciated that I didn't want to walk that far and my excuse was the Wishes prep, lol). Anyway....when I explained what happened to Meghan and offered to buy another jewel, two FGIT's rushed away and came back with more jewels and put them on Meghan, and refused payment. I then figured, hey, why not push a good thing....and asked it I could have a little hair spray or goo to fix Jessica's bun. A FGIT whisked Jessica away while I was still trying to pay for the jewels...by the time I got back to the chair they were taking her bun OUT and planning to redo it. I quickly said I didn't think they needed to do that and was firmly (and sweetly) told by FGIT that HER princesses would be perfect! So they took all the little bands out, redid those, put the bun back, more pixie dust, and a quick short reveal. Then they resprayed Meghan's hair too, adding more pixie dust and then FGIT winked at the girls and said "yes?" and apparently I'd missed some cues, next thing I know "I" have pixie dust all over my hair! I am forever grateful for the FGIT's who took my tired babies and fixed them both up so they felt as good as new for our dinner at the Castle....it was definitely above and beyond what I was expecting. I had just hoped for a small spray of goo to hold the wayward hair in place better, not redoing half of her hair! I'll admit that I kinda figured that they'd replace Meghan's jewel, but I was fully prepared to pay for them if necessary.
This was a magical day for the girls....something they'd planned, and I had filled in with a few surprises, since last Spring. They'd saved their money to pay for it, and this day quickly took on a center-stage aura for our entire trip. We spent the first 2 1/2 weeks of our trip anticipating this day....I hope the remaining 11 days aren't a let-down,
without it to look forward to!
Ok...time to go wake the Princesses and see how their dos held up to a night of sleep.
We'll just get the crown packages!
