From Ragged to Royal...Two sisters journey. Sept 2015

[disneyaddicted]

I had left off with us going to sleep the first night but I need to back up a bit so I can include the pictures that BO just sent me.

I had forgotten to mention that we didn't have the typical Magical express bus, we had a Disney Cruise line bus that had taken us to our resort. The inside was the same though.
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They still showed us the welcome to Disney show on the T.V. Bo and I changed seats several times in order to get the best view from the bus window plus of the T.V. We didn't watch too much of the T.V though, we mostly talked and giggled and compared our itinerary books. We weren't the first stop, I think Pop Century was, it was a funny feeling not getting off the bus at Pop, that's my original WDW home, and until I win the lottery, it will always be my WDW home.
Pulling up to AoA was surreal, neither one of us could stop from giggling, I'm sure people were wondering what the joke was but honestly we are just goofy Disney lovers who can't contain their excitement.
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Bo was taking pictures of the outside of the bus when a CM came over and offered to take a picture of us in front of the bus, we were so grateful. I just wish I had thought to put my neck pillow down and out of sight.
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I already posted about our Starbucks visit
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We spent a lot of time in the Lego store waiting out the rain.
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And a lot more time in the big Disney store, I seriously considered buying this
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Back at our resort Bo was just snapping away with her camera, walking backwards "Work it, own it, the camera loves you girl."
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Honestly the walk to our room wasn't so bad, it was long but we always made the best of it. Bo needed to take the following pictures, she didn't care that there were people watching, when you are at Disney you're suppose to let your hair down and be carefree.
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"Scar! What are you doing?"
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NOOOOOOoooooooooo.

people thought it was funny, some stopped to watch. It was starting to get dark when we got back to our building, we took some pictures of the pool area once we got off the elevator
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I remember looking out at everything and thinking, this is just day one, we still have 10 days in the parks and 2 down days at the resort, I'm a very happy girl
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[disneyaddicted]

September 16th, Day 2. Our first full day at WDW. We woke up bright and early with plans to make rope drop. Bo was already showered and doing her make up by the time I jumped in the shower, it wouldn't take me long to get ready, I already knew may hair would be going up in a bun, as a matter of fact I did not wear my hair down the rest of the trip, it was way too hot for that mess. I sang "Part of your world" as I showered, I could hear Bo through the door singing along with me. I don't know why we don't go on the road with that show

Bo and I had spent the year before preparing for this trip, right down to our wardrobe. We would shop together, which let me say is not easy when you live in 2 different states, but we managed, we would try on an outfit in the dressing room, take a picture and text it to each other, then we would call to discuss the outfit in the picture. Bo does not wear "Disney" shirts but she picked up a few for the trip. Today was not one of the days she would dress "Disney"
We were ready in record time, grabbed our park bags that we made sure to pack the night before, we also got our refillable mugs and headed out the door.
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On the elevator, super excited for our first park day.

Down we went to Waves of Flavor. We had packed breakfast bars so we didn't need to waste time getting breakfast, we just filled our mugs, I got my beloved Gold Peak sweet tea and we jetted out the door to the Magic Kingdom bus stop.
We had read on several different Disney websites that September was one of the least crowded times at WDW, so we were shocked to see the line for the bus.
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At this point we had a few concerns about making rope drop. The line for the bus was so long. Oh well, watcha gonna do at this point? We decided that if we missed rope drop we would make sure our next MK day we would not. I had already seen the rope drop show at MK but BO never had so it was important to her. The first bus showed up, we did not make it onto that bus, the second bus showed up, we did not make it onto that bus either, the third bus showed up.
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We made it, we were the last ones on and it was standing room only, but we made it on none theless. We don't mind standing either. We are on our feet all day with our jobs so this was nothing. The ride to MK seemed to take forever. As we pulled into the MK bus drop off I could see the place was already hopping. I have never been to WDW when it was this crowded, the census now is that there really isn't a least crowded time to visit anymore. We walked fast to the entrance, got our bags checked, scanned our bands and our fingers. We had missed the morning welcome show and rope drop by 5 minutes. we did not let this get us down, we were at Magic Kingdom together, a trip that was years in the making, nothing could get us down.....nothing!
We didn't have set plans until afternoon, we had an idea of a plan but we purposely didn't plan that mornings schedule so we could be free to do whatever. Originally we were going to go straight back to Fantasyland and spend the morning there until our 2:20pm ADR at Be Our Guest. I don't know what made us do it, but we headed over for a meet and greet with Tinkerbell first. The wait time was only 15 minutes. We already had a fastpass for this meet and greet for later in the week and like I said I don't know what made us go at this point, but we felt compelled. Have I mentioned that Bo and I are huge nerds, geeks, dorks? We do not take for granted any time we get to spend together, every minute is important, even if we are just taking pictures of our matching shoes.
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Bo's new shoe purchase from the night before. My shoes were purchased during our 2011 trip. I must add that this is the last time my ankles make an appearance, as my ankles left town and my cankles took their place. We talked and laughed until it was our time to venture into Pixie Hollow.
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We're almost there.

 

[disneyaddicted]

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The giddiness is growing
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I loved all the little details of Tinkerbells place
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Eyeglasses for windows, very clever and cute
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A pocket watch for a wall clock, that little Tinkerbell sure is innovated.

There was a family in front of us finishing up with Tink and then it was our turn, right away the photopass photographer began snapping away and the CM there was taking pictures with Bo's camera, I wanted to get a video of Tink saying hi to my mother whose name is Pixie.
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I posted it to facebook so Mom could see it.
Bo was getting all the characters autograph on this trip, I had done that a few years ago so this time I was just getting pictures. We had a nice little chat with Tink and then made our way out to main street.
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We took our time on main street basking in the atmosphere, inhaling the excitement, sniffing up all the good smells and posing for pictures
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We met the Mayor
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He was super friendly and more than happy to take pictures with us, he chatted us up a bit asking where we were from and if we were celebrating anything special. If you have not met the mayor yet I suggest you do on your next visit.

we had been in the park roughly 45 minutes and still had not made it to Cinderellas castle, we wanted a close up of us, we slowly walked our way there stopping to take pictures of everything. Like I had said we weren't in any rush that morning, our ADR's weren't until 2:20pm and all of our fast pass times were for after that.
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We loved the fall decorations, they were subtle, not in your face Halloween. It was just enough to remind you that even though it was a hundred degrees, it was also Fall.
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We are getting closer. From this point it still took about 15 minutes to get to the very front of the castle. Bo was on a mission with her camera, tons of pictures of the horse that pulls the trolley.
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Pictures of ducks, balloons, food, statue of Walt etc...etc...We finally made it to the very front of the castle. We were trying to get us both into a selfie on Bo's phone when we were approached by a CM who asked if we would like for her to take the picture for us. Of course we accepted the offer. She took a few pictures of us and then started asking us questions. If we were friends or family, did we have our spouses with us, where were we staying and for how long, she asked us if we had seen the new Festival of Fantasy parade, we told her no but it was on our list of things to do. She then asked us if we would like preferred seating for the parade. "Yes"!!!! we both said at the same time. We were so excited, our first hour in the park and we were all ready getting some Pixie dust. But that wasn't the end of it. She told us that she needed us to do something for her first, my first thought was we had to answer some Disney trivia or something, nope, she made our day when she told us that she would like for us to be the Grand Marshalls for the parade. Bo and I both burst into tears of happiness, we were jumping up and down screaming yes, we would love to. Bo and I hugged each other and then we hugged the CM, her name was Mindi. She took our information and told us to meet over by Pecos Bill at 2:00pm. Bo and I said nothing to her about our BOG ADR.

 

[BoBippity]

Ty, I'm getting such a big kick reading the report...reliving those memories. You are our story teller, no one could do it better! (After the scrapbook is done, we need to start planning the next sisters only trip) love you bunches sister! So glad we did this trip...

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! Grand Marshalls - wow how exciting! Anxious to see pictures!

 

[disneyaddicted]

After the jumping and screaming was done we called our DH's. Mine did not answer so I left a very cryptic message, he would need to call me to get the scoop. Bo's DH answered right away. He was excited for us. He gets our love of Disney, he knows how much it means to Bo. We can always count on him for Disney support. We thought about calling our mom but decided against it thinking it might upset her to hear how excited we were, so we posted it to Facebook instead, on both of our pages plus the Disney Fall Alumni Facebook page then we went straight to BOG to see what we could work out with our ADR's.
We explained to the young man our dilemma of having a 2:20pm ADR but needing to be some where else as we were that days GRAND MARSHALLS. He told us to come back in half an hour and he would see what he could do, we used that half hour to go see if Gaston was out. He was not, so we swooned over the statue of him instead
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We went back to BOG to explore the grounds, a PP person came over and asked us if we wanted a picture, why yes...yes we do. Then he asked if we wanted a magic shot. YES!!!! we shouted in unison, cause we're sisters and we share brain waves and the same excitement for any kind of Disney magic.
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And there it is, we then swapped sides so that Bo could get a magic shot, so to save time just picture her doing the same thing and me being ever so surprised. he took a bunch of pictures actually and once we were home we added borders and stuff to them.
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I'm a believer in the photopass and will purchase it for every trip from here on out.
We kept checking our watches as we hung around the entrance to BOG,
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honestly we had another ADR for BOG for dinner on another night so we told ourselves if they weren't able to accommodate us it would not be the end of the world, I mean we were invited to be Grand Marshalls, the trade off was totally worth it.
Finally the time came to find out our lunch fate, would we be eating French cuisine in the Beasts castle or hotdogs at Casey's Corner (nothing against Casey's...I love that place) we approached the check in for BOG, the young CM we had originally talked to was not there so we had to explain again. "Hi, we are hoping you have something sooner, or even later, we have ADR's for 2:20 today but we can't make them because WE'RE THE GRAND MARSHALLS FOR TODAYS PARADE." The CM first congratulated us then looked down at her computer, did a little typing and then she asked, "Are you hungry right now?" We were totally in, I think being Grand Marshalls gave us some clout. We followed another CM into BOG
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We ordered, paid and then went to find a table in the west wing, Beasts private room, we were told by him to never go in there, but being Grand Marshalls went to our heads and we went in anyway.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Bo picked us a great table next to the wall, not too far from the "Rose"
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We tried getting pictures in there, it was so dark and the flash tended to blind people, neither one of us could find the right settings on our cameras.
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I had ordered the Croque Monsieur, or the Crock Monster, however you wish to say it, Bo ordered the carved Turkey sandwich, We shared, mine was better. For dessert I ordered the lemon meringue and Bo had heard from the dishes that the grey stuff was delicious, so she ordered that. I tried it, the dishes were correct, it was delicious but a little too rich, I like tangy more than sugary.
We snapped off a few pictures around BOG before heading out into the heat again.

 

[xoprincessmomxo]

Yay for a trip report!!! Can't wait to hear more! We were there in October (surprised the girls last minute as babysitter issues came up). Pretended we planned on taking them the whole time. Hoping to upload video soon of the reveal. Be Our Guest looks amazing! Can't wait to follow along vicariously! I love my sister (absolute best friend) but we did Disney together once with our families and it was a disaster! She would want to sleep in, then get coffee when we got to the parks and go back to the resort early to "avoid crowds". Ugh...never again.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Yay for a trip report!!! Can't wait to hear more! We were there in October (surprised the girls last minute as babysitter issues came up). Pretended we planned on taking them the whole time. Hoping to upload video soon of the reveal. Be Our Guest looks amazing! Can't wait to follow along vicariously! I love my sister (absolute best friend) but we did Disney together once with our families and it was a disaster! She would want to sleep in, then get coffee when we got to the parks and go back to the resort early to "avoid crowds". Ugh...never again.

I'm trying so hard to keep up with this TR, I only have the weekends to do it and even then time is scarce. It's good to see/hear you on the disboards, it's been a long time. This was by far the best Disney trip I ever had, I'm so afraid the rest will suffer in comparison.

 

[Steppesister]

Uhhhh.... didn't know you had a thread going!! EEK! You should have sent a PM!

I'll catch up this evening, K?

 

[princessemsmom]

Loving your trip report!! What a great trip this is starting out to be!!!

 

[KatherineDisney]

Following along, what a special trip so far!

 

[Steppesister]

I did it! I caught up and relished every tiny detail!

I'm staying, as you know, at AoA too, and am SO darned tootin' excited! Holy moly, I didn't know the pool is salt water! WOOT! How cool is that??

I LOVE that you were chosen as Grand Marshalls. totally uber awesome!

You two are having such a marvelous morning- I think the whole trip is going to be just so much fun!!!

 

[disneyaddicted]

I know....I'm sorry....I will get back to this. I promised Bo I would be the trip historian, this story needs to be recorded. We were discussing it again last night and still can't believe how amazing this trip was. I will start a new update.

 

[disneyaddicted]

[GALLERY=][GALLERY=][/GALLERY][/GALLERY]Leaving BOG we decided to keep rolling with Beauty and the Beast and headed to Belle's house for some story time.[GALLERY=][/GALLERY]
Right off the bat Bo was put to work. She was more than happy to be given such a task, she was determined to not let Disney down. She took her role of time marker very seriously.
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BO was trying to get a close up shot of her precious red card but it kept coming out blurry...this makes me think back to the days of 35mm film, we would have never dreamed of taking a picture of something like that and chance it being blurry and wasting a frame, I was very selective with my picture taking back in the day, now I will snap off 10 pictures of the same thing from different angles because I can, I love this feeling of knowing I can just delete from my memory card the blurry and not so great shots. so anyway, we kept trying to get a shot that worked when the couple in front of us suggested Bo change her settings on her camera, "Huh?, I have it set to auto, shouldn't it just do it for me?" the lady took Bo's camera and pretty much gave her a lesson on how to use it. We struck up a conversation and it helped pass the time. They were DVC members and told us all about the perks of being members. Bo and I were intrigued, very intrigued. They were such a nice couple, I remember her name was Lauren, I forgot her DH's name, we'll just say it was Doug. Before we knew it we were inside of Belles house, very quaint, lots of books and invention blue prints.[GALLERY=][/GALLERY] Our new friends took this picture for us. We were all herded into another room where a CM began to fill us in on the magic around us including a mirror that the Beast had given to Maurice so he could see Belle whenever he wanted. In a fairytale setting that sounds so perfect, but in reality I don't know how I would feel knowing that at any time I could be being watched. Hopefully there's a filter on that mirror. It's ridiculous that I would even have a thought like that, we all know if there was such a mirror it would be controlled by the FCC. But forget the real world, lets get back to the magic of Disney, we chanted something to the effect of, take us back to the time before Belle met the Beast. that's not verbadem so don't quote me on this. Music started play, and before our very own eyes the mirror....became a door.
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We went through the door and was met by the wardrobe and another CM, they had planned to surprise Belle by retelling the story of how she met the Beast, parts and props were handed out to the crowd, Bo and I were to play the parts of the audience, that's just a more exciting way of saying we didn't get picked to be in the show. We went into the library and took our seats. Limier was there.
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He was fun to watch, you have to ask yourself, how does Disney do it? then you have to quickly push that out of your mind cause we all know it's magic. Belle was quite surprised when she came into the library and saw all of us.
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After the initial shock Belle was game for acting out her story. I really enjoyed this,, and the little boy that played the par of the Beast was so cute, he was not shy in any way and at the end of the show when they danced he was such a perfect little gentleman and had kissed her hand and bowed to her.

We enjoyed the show and the air conditioning. We never really noticed the heat until after we had been in AC for so long. we filled up our water bottles and still having some hours to kill before the parade we made our way to the Haunted Mansion.

 

[BoBippity]

Ty...i think we need to plan another sister's trip, I don't know if we can top this one, but we sure will have fun trying. Let's start planning as soon as we get back from the one with our DH's.

 

[disneyaddicted]

The wait for Haunted Mansion was lengthy. The Cm's kept telling everybody to move forward and fill in all the empty spaces, people were not doing that, they were pretty much single file, then the CM said it's not cutting if you move forward to fill in the spaces if the people in front of you do not, so Bo and I made the decision to move up but not cut, we probably shaved a good 10 to 15 minutes off our weight time by doing so, we gave the people in front of us a chance to move forward, their lack of following the rules was our gain.
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It was really hot in line but there were a lot of things to do to keep busy, the issue I had with taking pictures, I didn't. I don't know why I didn't, I broke the number one rules for scrapbooking and for Disney vacation, I didn't snap a bunch of pictures, Bo got a few pictures, they were all of my rear end though,
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thanks Bo.
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Seriously we really let ourselves down when it came to capturing the moment here, we realized this later that evening when going back through our pictures, we said we had to make up for it on our next visit to the mansion. I think our minds were on the parade because I don't remember a whole lot of this ride, it's one of my favorites, I know we enjoyed it and we searched for hidden Mickeys, I know we had a hitch hiking ghost on our doom buggy, we tried to get that picture and failed miserably. We also spent quite some time searching for the ring that's supposed to be in the cement outside, we failed miserably at that as well. Finally we gave up looking for it and started to make our way to Frontier land. We stepped into a few shops but didn't make any purchases. spotted a hidden Mickey
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It actually wasn't too hidden, it was pretty big right there in the open.
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A random picture of me....
one thing we did that I had never done before was watch the entertainers, the frontier banjo people, they were just playing and singing away, a lady and her 3 daughters had stood a ways out from them while the Dad took their picture, I guess she wanted the banjo people in the back ground, what was so funny was while they were posing the banjo band walked up behind them and posed for the picture, when the picture had been taken they walked back to their post never once missing a beat.
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After the show we walked to our meeting spot, they had already started to tape off areas for the parade, we waited patiently for Mindy, then my paranoia set in, what if this was a joke, what if Mindy wasn't really a CM, I shared my fear with Bo, she assured me I was being ridiculous, Mindy was legit, she had a tablet and everything. After a while some other CM's came over to us and said we looked lost, we told them we were waiting for Mindy, they congratulated us and told us we were in the correct spot. huge sigh of relief.
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It wasn't too much longer before our friend showed up. We were so excited to see her, she asked us what we had done so far so we filled her in on our BOG meal and how we told everybody we made eye contact with that we were the Grand Marshalls, we were pretty sure there would be epic crowds for the parade cause after all we were celebrities (in our own minds) and who in their right minds would miss out on seeing us in the parade and be able to yell. "I know them!" Mindy said that we needed to look the part for our very important job and presented us with a gift.
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Our very own mouse ears, stitched on the back was Grand Marshalls in Gold and below that Magic Kingdom in red. We were also presented with our very own personal photographer. Andrew
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Bo was smart to get his picture. Andrew whisked us away to get in some magic shots before the parade.
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Had I known that I was going to be Grand Marshall in a parade and be gifted mouse ears, I would have worn my hair different, I love (not really) how the ears just kind of float on top of my head, big ole messy hair buns do not work well with hats.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Ty...i think we need to plan another sister's trip, I don't know if we can top this one, but we sure will have fun trying. Let's start planning as soon as we get back from the one with our DH's.

I'm game, I'll start that Disney fund just as soon as we get back from our December Trip. I think you should start a pre trip for that one...and not let it die, this is your chance to redeem yourself.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Uhhhh.... didn't know you had a thread going!! EEK! You should have sent a PM!

I'll catch up this evening, K?

So sorry, I have really dropped the ball.

Loving your trip report!! What a great trip this is starting out to be!!!

Thanks for following, I'll be better at updating.

Following along, what a special trip so far!

It only gets better, I mean yes, Grand Marshall was the cherry on top, but the whole trip was amazing.

I did it! I caught up and relished every tiny detail!

I'm staying, as you know, at AoA too, and am SO darned tootin' excited! Holy moly, I didn't know the pool is salt water! WOOT! How cool is that??

I LOVE that you were chosen as Grand Marshalls. totally uber awesome!

You two are having such a marvelous morning- I think the whole trip is going to be just so much fun!!!

You were great to get caught up and here I left you hanging, I am sorry, but I promise I will be better at updates and I will finish this trip report.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Andrew had taken a lot of great pictures of us before we headed back to our post, Mindy gave us a lot of insider info, she never said we had to keep it a secret so I will tell you something she shared with us, maybe you already know this, but the Pirates of the Caribbean ride actually goes outside of the park. How cool is that? When they decided to put the ride in they didn't have the room for it, so that's when the plan to go underground and outside of the park came into play. I'm sure there is more to the story but that's basically what I took away from it. Mindy has worked for Disney forever, starting at an entry level position in retail and working her way up, she told us about when she was a float driver for Spectro magic years ago, she was one of the bumble bee ones and her favorite thing to do was make the float spin, but there was a 2 spin rule. They watch a small TV inside to see where they are going. Bo and I were so intrigued with all of her knowledge we hadn't even noticed when our Grand Marshall car pulled up. It was amazing, absolutely breath taking. we gasped, "We get to ride in that?" Andrew took a bunch of pictures of us in and around the car.
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Our driver, I'm sorry I don't remember her name, informed us that Andrew would be following us on the parade route and that she would let us know which side of the car he was on at certain times so we could pose for pictures. Then all of a sudden they announced that the parade was close to starting, Bo and I had tears of joy streaming down our faces, we gave each other a big hug and then scooted to our own sides of the car. Do you know how surreal it is to hear your name being blasted over the loud speakers at Magic Kingdom?, people waving to you and taking your picture?! we waved and waved, nothing could bust our magic bubble, not even when one guy shouted to me, "You wave that arm flap." I pretended I didn't hear him, I've always been self conscious of my hi Helens, you know that extra skin that sags below your arm when you wave to 'Hi to Helen' I just kept on waving, laughing, smiling, crying all at the same time. Bo and I made sure to acknowledge the little princesses in the crowd, and the birthday button wearing people.
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It seemed to go on forever yet it was over way too soon. We met Mindy at the end of the parade route, we disembarked our car and gave Mindy a huge hug, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, this was an absolute dream, you made our whole trip." Mindy gave us each an ice cold bottle of water. My mouth was so dry and my cheeks hurt from smiling. Bo and I thought that that was the end of all our pixie dust, but no, Mindy then led us to our very own parade viewing spot, Andrew was waiting for us there, he would continue to take pictures of us watching the parade and any thing else we wanted him to take pictures of.