DON'T Read This TRIP REPORT If You're a Princess Hater!

[TinkerbelleMom]

Katie looks beautiful as usual!! I wish they let adults do BBB!! I will just have to live vicariously through you and Katie since I only have a DS!

They do let adults do BBB, just not the costume part. I did it with 2 40-something friends on our annual girlfriends weekend getaway. We had a blast!

 

[Sydnerella]

Loving the Tiana gowns!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL! And the green dresses appear to have almost identical fabric - great work (again).

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Janet, I LOVE your vintage Minnie hoodie!!!!

Now that I'm back to work, I can actually view all of the pictures (and share them with my colleagues!).

 

[babynala]

Our next stop was Cosmic Rays for an early lunch. It was nice to get in out of the cold for a bit too! We had the Cinderella gown along that day to wear to dinner, but since our fairy godmother wouldn’t be out that late, Katie agreed to put it on for a bit.

If nothing else, that cold weather seemed to make for some stunning blue skies that day!

Our Fairy Godmother always ends all our meetings with "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo...... 3 magical wishes for you!"

After that, Katie was ready to change into comfy clothes. This set was a combination effort between Shannon (revrob) who did the applique for the top and Gretchen (scraps-of-heaven) who did the skirt.

The green Tiana dress is gorgeous. The skirt is so full and the fabric is beautiful. This Cinderella is breathtaking. I love how you created the little wraps and covers for your Princess (and the muff). I love the picture of Naveen wearing it, so funny.

Your pictures of the princesses and the characters at the Castle Show are AMAZING Thanks for posting all your photo tips along the way. Not that I use my camera out of the pre-set modes but learning to use it properly is on my list!

 

[jenseib]

Amazing photos! I really love the one of Captain Hook, he is so sharp and just a nice picture all around. The Cinderella dress is also amazing! Claire is going to wear her Cindy dress to the castle this year too. But not nearly as nice as yours.

 

[mom2rtk]

They do let adults do BBB, just not the costume part. I did it with 2 40-something friends on our annual girlfriends weekend getaway. We had a blast!

That sounds like TONS of fun! I better get to it quick though....... while I'm still forty-something!

Loving the Tiana gowns!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL! And the green dresses appear to have almost identical fabric - great work (again).

Thank you! Finding the right fabric is the biggest challenge with some of these costumes. But I do love the hunt. I'm constantly looking in stores and online for what I want to use next. I ended up taking a chance and ordering the green for Tiana sight unseen on Ebay. I was really pleased with how well it matched!

Janet, I LOVE your vintage Minnie hoodie!!!!

Now that I'm back to work, I can actually view all of the pictures (and share them with my colleagues!).

Thanks! I'm so glad you're up and moving again!

And thanks for the comment on the Minnie jacket. I didn't NEED a new jacket. But as I watched the weather, I had a hunch I was going to be wearing a jacket in the vast majority of the photos from the trip. So I HAD to spring for a new one! I had lots of layers on under it. I still can't imagine wearing my winter coat at Disney. Just WAY too depressing.

The green Tiana dress is gorgeous. The skirt is so full and the fabric is beautiful. This Cinderella is breathtaking. I love how you created the little wraps and covers for your Princess (and the muff). I love the picture of Naveen wearing it, so funny.

Your pictures of the princesses and the characters at the Castle Show are AMAZING Thanks for posting all your photo tips along the way. Not that I use my camera out of the pre-set modes but learning to use it properly is on my list!

Thanks you! The Cinderella jacket was fairly complicated, but the little fur trimmed capes take very little time, and I love the way they complete the look. There are a few more to come still.

And I love that fur muff too. I bought those for my daughter and her friend before our December 08 trip. I got them on Ebay. Naveen certainly enjoyed it!

And thanks for the kind comments on the photos. Put a camera in my hands at a Disney show, and I'm just in heaven.

Amazing photos! I really love the one of Captain Hook, he is so sharp and just a nice picture all around. The Cinderella dress is also amazing! Claire is going to wear her Cindy dress to the castle this year too. But not nearly as nice as yours.

First off.............

That's for being down to 15 days!!! You'll be posting live on your trip, right? So we can all come along?????

And I've seen a picture of Claire in her Cindy gown. It's gorgeous and she's gorgeous in it. I can't wait to see it in action!

Thanks for the comments on the photos. Do you know what shows you'll see on the Dream? Are you going to photograph the shows? That's what I'd love most about a Disney cruise.

 

[jenseib]

First off.............

That's for being down to 15 days!!! You'll be posting live on your trip, right? So we can all come along?????

And I've seen a picture of Claire in her Cindy gown. It's gorgeous and she's gorgeous in it. I can't wait to see it in action!

Thanks for the comments on the photos. Do you know what shows you'll see on the Dream? Are you going to photograph the shows? That's what I'd love most about a Disney cruise.

I won't be able to post from the ship. I not going to pay for the expensive internet service and my phone won't work. I do plan to make facebook updates from my phone before and after the ship though. It's hard to manuevar the phone to get on dis, so I doubt I'll get on here while gone. I think we have free wifi at the Residence Inn, so I may try to pop on real quick, but we will be busy too. I do plan to try and get some show pictures. But I'm not guaranteeing they will turn out. They have 3 shows, Golden Mickeys, Villians tonight and Believe. We might skip the Villians one though. It will depend how busy the day was and if we need a nap, and how Claire feels about villians as well. I do want to get to the other 2 for sure though.

I have been playing in camera raw (with jpegs) today and reading up on it more. I really like it and wish I would've been using this a long time ago.

 

[stephielela]

They do let adults do BBB, just not the costume part. I did it with 2 40-something friends on our annual girlfriends weekend getaway. We had a blast!

Wow! Good to know!! I will have to file that in my memory for later...

 

[Caretames1]

Love your pics of the princess's bloomers! I got almost the same photo when we went. Kadence thought they were sooo funny. But I guess you'll wear anything to keep warm!

Your Cinderella dress is AWESOME! You must just look at your DD's pics and sigh I know I look at Kadence sometimes and wish she'd never grow out the princess stage.
I never had the chance to experiance anything like this with Samantha when she was young, ( not that she would have let me if I tried. I could barely get a brush through her hair without a rebellion

 

[mom2rtk]

I won't be able to post from the ship. I not going to pay for the expensive internet service and my phone won't work. I do plan to make facebook updates from my phone before and after the ship though. It's hard to manuevar the phone to get on dis, so I doubt I'll get on here while gone. I think we have free wifi at the Residence Inn, so I may try to pop on real quick, but we will be busy too. I do plan to try and get some show pictures. But I'm not guaranteeing they will turn out. They have 3 shows, Golden Mickeys, Villians tonight and Believe. We might skip the Villians one though. It will depend how busy the day was and if we need a nap, and how Claire feels about villians as well. I do want to get to the other 2 for sure though.

I have been playing in camera raw (with jpegs) today and reading up on it more. I really like it and wish I would've been using this a long time ago.

Well, what a bummer that you'll be leaving all your DIS friends behind like that. Just not worth it, huh??? I mean it's Disney......and it's at sea....... how expensive could it be?????????

Love your pics of the princess's bloomers! I got almost the same photo when we went. Kadence thought they were sooo funny. But I guess you'll wear anything to keep warm!

Your Cinderella dress is AWESOME! You must just look at your DD's pics and sigh I know I look at Kadence sometimes and wish she'd never grow out the princess stage.
I never had the chance to experiance anything like this with Samantha when she was young, ( not that she would have let me if I tried. I could barely get a brush through her hair without a rebellion

I just love princess gowns, so I loved the way the dresses moved in those photos. But yes, the bloomers were funny to see!

Thanks for the comments on the Cindy gown. I scoured Flickr photo looking for pictures of Cindy's winter gown. Flickr definitely has been a huge help for researching Disney costumes.

Katie's close to outgrowing all the princess stuff. It's certainly been a while since she wore anything with princesses on it anywhere but Disney. Thankfully she's been slower to outgrow it there. But it's been TONS of fun, and I do love looking back at the photos and when I get those moments where I feel melancholy about how fast it went....I dig out the photos and do another scrapbook page. It's very therapeutic.

Kadence is young enough that you can have lots of princess fun still. She looked so pretty in her Belle costume. Soak it for all you can and take TONS of pictures!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Thanks! I'm so glad you're up and moving again!

Thanks!

And thanks for the comment on the Minnie jacket. I didn't NEED a new jacket. But as I watched the weather, I had a hunch I was going to be wearing a jacket in the vast majority of the photos from the trip. So I HAD to spring for a new one! I had lots of layers on under it. I still can't imagine wearing my winter coat at Disney. Just WAY too depressing.

Especially since you had just left the cold... That's what I'm afraid of for this year!

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks!


Especially since you had just left the cold... That's what I'm afraid of for this year!

Well, as long as I don't end up back there at the same time, you'll be fine. I seem to be the extreme weather attractor!

I'll still take record cold over record heat. But NO WAY was I getting my picture taken in front of the castle in my winter coat!

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

I'm loving your trip report and all of the beautiful pictures! You have me so excited for my trip to Disney with Eve in August.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm loving your trip report and all of the beautiful pictures! You have me so excited for my trip to Disney with Eve in August.

Thanks Amy!

Sorry to leave everyone hanging for so long. It was a crazy week. We were down to 1 car for the week, and my crazy car MOM schedule went NUTS when combined with having being a car WIFE too.

My middle son is on the track team and has practice every day after school, and follows that up with working out at the Y most days too..... which wouldn't be a BAD thing if he would just RUN to the Y. I never dreamed the parent of a RUNNER could spend so much time RUNNING. On the up side, he turns 16 next week and is optimistic he'll have a full-fledged license by this time next week. He won't have his own car, but can use mine part of the time, so that will be a HUGE improvement!

I'm working on my next installment right now and will post soon. I guess it's just fitting that it's taken over a week to finish this one day..... after all.......we WERE at the park almost 16 hours........

 

[mom2rtk]

I recall from our trip in 09 that the 3:00 parade started near the entrance of the park, and ended in Frontierland. I think it still does, but this day it went the other direction. I read somewhere they do that in bad weather, so maybe because of the cold??? If anyone knows the answer, I'd still like to know.

Katie had our blanket down on the ground while we were waiting for the parade, but stood up by me so she could see better. Chip (or was it Dale???) apparently was in need of a rest and headed our way..........

.........where he promptly plopped himself right down on the blanket!

One of my favorite shots from the parade this day! But then I've always been partial to Mary Poppins........

Drizella noticed Katie's skirt set. The skirt had something like 7 different appliques relating to the story of Cinderella..... but no Drizella......... a fact that didn't escape her attention!

Of course we always love this float. I didn't even realize until we got home that the Fairy Godmother gave us a big thumbs up. The sad part? I'm not even sure why...... I can't imagine that she could see from all the way up there that she WAS on Katie's skirt.......

I was mostly happy with my pictures. I did find that having the parade go the opposite direction really hampered some photos but helped others. As the characters came toward me, many of their faces were in shadows. But of course the ones on the backs of the floats did much better. That Mary Poppins photo would have been shaded going the opposite direction.

You suppose they'll clear it with me next time they want to change parade directions on me????

 

[basketkat]

Can't wait!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Can't wait!!!

Thanks for sticking with me! If I don't get the day finished tonight, I'll finish first thing in the morning. This was our first night at the Christmas party, so lots of fun still to come!

 

[Caretames1]

Love the update! Our first trip to Dsiney I shot the parade and had awesome pictures because the parade went in the wrong direction! If they would have come the right way, I would have had major sun glare on the lens.
I love the chipmunks! When Sam and Kadence first met them, they spent a lot of time with them. The played keep away with the girls autograph books, and when Sam dropped her pen, Dale sat on it and wouldn't get up! Chip finally tackled dale and they rolled around and Sammy got her pen back! I shot the whole sequence, it turned out great!

 

[mom2rtk]

Love the update! Our first trip to Dsiney I shot the parade and had awesome pictures because the parade went in the wrong direction! If they would have come the right way, I would have had major sun glare on the lens.
I love the chipmunks! When Sam and Kadence first met them, they spent a lot of time with them. The played keep away with the girls autograph books, and when Sam dropped her pen, Dale sat on it and wouldn't get up! Chip finally tackled dale and they rolled around and Sammy got her pen back! I shot the whole sequence, it turned out great!

That crazy FL sun really does cause some havoc with camera lenses, doesn't it???? I shot it from Main Street on our last trip, and really disliked the strong sun/shade lines in the photos. It was too hard to get it all exposed properly. I guess next time I'm going to stake out a spot early up on the train platform. That should get full sun with no shade issues. And maybe with shooting down, the glare won't be an issue. I just hate that I have to devise these plans then wait a year before I can try it out again!

We love Chip & Dale too. My soon to be 16 year old (not the Disney hater) was along in 09. He waited in line when we were seeing the 'munks in Epcot, but quietly started to wander off when it was our turn. I had told him he didn't have to do character photos. But Chip (or was it Dale???? ) would have NONE of that. He chased him down, and literally DRAGGED him back to the group.......and held him for the photo. I'm sure glad the kid has a sense of humor.

Then as we started to leave........ Chip (or was it Dale?????) picked up my backpack to carry FOR me......... but then started to wander away with it. We had a BALL with them!

 

[mom2rtk]

With the parade over, we had just a bit of time left before our early dinner ADR. We were staying in the park for the Christmas party that night, and I like to have a nice table service dinner before a hard-ticketed party. We can be in the park all day, but then have a natural break before the party and a chance to get off our feet and regroup for the night ahead.

So let's see...... we were in the Magic Kingdom. We love characters........ We wanted a nice table service meal.......... where to go........ where to go........... ok FINE....... twisted my arm....... we chose CRT for that night. After all, it was just the 2 of us, so not nearly the extravagance it would be if we were a big group.

We had a little time to kill, so Katie got to pick what to do. She wanted to do the carousel again.

Soon we walked over to the Podium to see if she could use the restroom inside to change back into her Cindy costume. I was happy to find Cinderella in her dress and jacket, just like Katie. We were seated at the same table as the day before. It was fun to sit inside, all toasty warm, and plan our evening at the Christmas party!

Cinderella wanted to compare shoes:

And my favorite shot from the set:

Katie loved feeling so grown up at dinner!

We stopped for a moment on the way out to admire the beautiful stained glass window on the stairs: