I couldn't think of a better place to celebrate the first anniversary of our adoption than at WDW. We were not subtle about it. We all wore matching shirts and I made buttons for us that said, "Today is our Gotcha Day."
From the time we got to MK, we were surrounded by magic. The security guard asked what Gotcha Day is and when we told him, he said that he needed to do something special for us... a front of the line pass for Splash Mountain! WOW!
Instead of heading directly to Frontierland, we decided to hit Space Mountain first. The was about a 3 minute wait and again the CM's asked about our buttons. When the ride ended, everyone was directed to the exit except for us. We were told to go up the other hallway so we could ride again since we were celebrating.
The same thing happened when we went on BTMRR. By this point, our son had figured out that he was getting extra special attention, so he asked if we could ride twice. When they heard what we were celebrating, they told us that our second ride would be at the back of the train.
After that, we went to SplM and used our front of the line pass. The line was about a 40 minute wait, so I didn't expect that they'd let us go twice, but they did. They told the people behind us to exit the log and we rode by ourselves and we have the picture to prove it!
At the one-year mark of the kids being ours, 3 pm on October 22nd, we had lunch in Cinerella's Castle. The kids were so excited when Cinderella kissed them on their cheeks and left her lipstick mark. We have video of how excited our DS was. I can't wait to show that to his future girlfriends.
The characters were all over the place and they were so nice. Mr. Smee even wrote "Happy Gotcha Day" in their autograph books. When the characters heard what we were celebrating, the kids got extra hugs and fuss.
The best character for remaining in character was Captain Hook. He was a riot in person and on our video.
We rode in the front of the monorail to get back to Epcot so we could cut through to get to BWV. The kids loved that, too.
We had dinner at the Flying Fish that night. That has our vote for the best restaurant on property. When dinner was over, the kids didn't want dessert, but Mom and Dad did. The waiter brought them a special dessert that had "Happy Gotcha Day" written in chocolate syrup on the plate.
The day was truly magical from start to finish. What a difference a year makes! Last year the kids were in Russia with us and didn't speak English. This year, they no longer speak Russian and were in Disney World!
From the time we got to MK, we were surrounded by magic. The security guard asked what Gotcha Day is and when we told him, he said that he needed to do something special for us... a front of the line pass for Splash Mountain! WOW!
Instead of heading directly to Frontierland, we decided to hit Space Mountain first. The was about a 3 minute wait and again the CM's asked about our buttons. When the ride ended, everyone was directed to the exit except for us. We were told to go up the other hallway so we could ride again since we were celebrating.
The same thing happened when we went on BTMRR. By this point, our son had figured out that he was getting extra special attention, so he asked if we could ride twice. When they heard what we were celebrating, they told us that our second ride would be at the back of the train.
After that, we went to SplM and used our front of the line pass. The line was about a 40 minute wait, so I didn't expect that they'd let us go twice, but they did. They told the people behind us to exit the log and we rode by ourselves and we have the picture to prove it!
At the one-year mark of the kids being ours, 3 pm on October 22nd, we had lunch in Cinerella's Castle. The kids were so excited when Cinderella kissed them on their cheeks and left her lipstick mark. We have video of how excited our DS was. I can't wait to show that to his future girlfriends.
The characters were all over the place and they were so nice. Mr. Smee even wrote "Happy Gotcha Day" in their autograph books. When the characters heard what we were celebrating, the kids got extra hugs and fuss.
The best character for remaining in character was Captain Hook. He was a riot in person and on our video.
We rode in the front of the monorail to get back to Epcot so we could cut through to get to BWV. The kids loved that, too.
We had dinner at the Flying Fish that night. That has our vote for the best restaurant on property. When dinner was over, the kids didn't want dessert, but Mom and Dad did. The waiter brought them a special dessert that had "Happy Gotcha Day" written in chocolate syrup on the plate.
The day was truly magical from start to finish. What a difference a year makes! Last year the kids were in Russia with us and didn't speak English. This year, they no longer speak Russian and were in Disney World!
