We just returned from our trip. While we were inside of Castle Couture DH got talking to one of the cast members while purchasing a Minnie dress and shoes for littlest DD. She was telling him that all day long parents will come in and drop in the neighborhood of $500 on a costume and all of the works. Why???? Because they promised little Sally that she could go inside the castle and get made up to be a princess, then when they walked over with their excited little child they were told they needed to book a reservation and there were no openings. So they have a distraught little teary faced princess on their hands and out of guilt they drop a ton of money at the store across the way to make up for it.
I'm sorry but there is no difference between little Sally missing out on BBB because Mommy, Grandma, or cousin Sarah booked ahead of time or if everyone else's little Sally got the spots because their mommy or daddy made reservations. The only difference really is the parents can not blame it on adults or teens now.
Have I been on the missing out end of the stick with my DC because I was not prepared......Yup. Did I blame it on other people who knew better than me what to do........Nope. Did I teach my children that it was other peoples fault that they did not get their wish? What do you think? Of course for some reason I'm still working on this with DS who still gets mad when his big sis gets special attention from someone and he does not.
My older DD did the BBB at age 9 (when it first opened in DTD) ages 10, 12, 13, and 14. She loved it every time and was quite sad when she found out they changed the age limit this year. I joined her on one of the trips and became a princess with her. On another trip I became a pirate with DS. DD also did PL before and this year became a mermaid and received a ton of compliments. She was actually very excited to buy a skirt to wear over her shorts with a T. She purchased a tiara with a mermaid seashell on it from the glass shop on main street several trips ago and has since then purchased the matching ear rings, necklace, and wand. She wears the tiara on every trip every single day. I had a tiara and glass slipper delivered to my room by DH for my 40th birthday and wore the tiara every day on that trip. I know my DD was upset and I did feel bad for her but the reality that I kept reminded her is that she got to have the experience a few times and instead of being sad about it not happening again she should be grateful she had those memories. She understands this and kept saying she would love to work at Disney as a FGIT or character princess when older.
If adults can wear ears, hats and other silly fun things in the parks why not a princessy hairstyle with a tiara. What I would love to see them do, even if it is only as an experiment during
MNSSHP is to have some place where older girls and women can get made up Disney style. They could use more shimmery make-up instead of pinks, purples, blues and sea green. They could use real nail polish, sell the tiara's from the glass shop with rhinestones, sell jewelry, higher quality tops or even for the party (gasp) adult size costumes. They could also charge a ton more money and you just know that people would still pay it.