Painting the World Purple – with pictures! **Completed**

[Violet Crayon]

First trip report attempt!

Your cast for this wonderful tale:
Me: a 21year old art student (book illustration), obsessed with the color purple, dreamer of dreams, and “cast member” at a familiar store to some of you.

And a photo to illustrate the character of me. Well, it's cheating because I am not actually Snow White.

DBF: a 22yr old English Literature major, my true love who wishes he could have an enchanted rose of his own (without the beast thing), works with a smile at the mom and pop grocery store on the corner.

We have been dating since we were 15, high school sweethearts. Many have felt the need to tell us it would not last throughout our relationship, but we have proved them wrong on several accounts. Made it through high school, entering college, long distance for three semesters, and moving in together (which felt more comfortable and natural than being apart). If it was not for the financial strain of school, and the respect of our parents, we would have married long ago.

Disney History:
Growing up my own family had little money to afford any extensive vacations. Leaving the state (Michigan) went as far as Cedar Point on a few occasions, but mostly we camped around the Upper Peninsula. I often sulked but had a blast venturing the woods and watching animals, and treasured the moments we did have. That did not keep me from missing what every other child seemed to have, a chance to visit WDW every year for winter or spring break. They would all come back to school chatting about Splash Mountain and this and that, of which I had no idea, but knew it was the greatest place on Earth.

The summer I was 19 I had my first chance to visit Florida with my mind set on gracing WDW at some point. To shorten a very long tale, my older half brother pursued a renewing of his relationship with our father, and he lived in Orlando at the time, so our destination was mostly family related (and special). But lucky for me my SIL has family working all over WDW and we had a chance to visit the MK and AK for a few wonderful, but painfully short, hours. I sobbed when I saw the castle while my mom shook her head at me, but I could not believe it. Me? I finally get to be here? I finally get to see all of the wonderful things that I have only seen in pictures and on television? It was amazing and the magic coursed through my veins as no other place had invoked before.

My DBF grew up in the average family. Throughout his childhood they had visited WDW several times, and usually brought their pop-up and stayed at Ft. Wilderness. He would tell me stories of their travels and describe what it was like to be in the parks. The spring we were 16 . he went again and called me daily to wish I was there and discuss all of the fun things they had done. But the spring when we were 20 his parents invited me along on their family trip to visit his older brother (attending Full Sail) and grandparents near Orlando. At this point I had my taste and was longing for the entire day I could spend frolicking around the Magic Kingdom. We had a blast but the parks were crowded, and ride waits were usually 140minutes, and so my jaw drops to the floor when I read many of you discussing 40minutes as too long. His family had their minds set on hitting all of the major rides and that was the majority of our day. I could not complain, we were in the thick of Disney wonder, but I yearned to wander and see the details. On their second adventure to Splash Mountain I asked to sit out and so I wandered around and met Captain Hook, oogled the goodies I could buy, and saw part of Spectro Magic. My trip felt a little more complete, I felt a little more complete, we missed several attractions, but I had met a character, shopped, saw some parade action, and rode the highlights.

And next are the planning details of the trip we start tomorrow morning!

 

[Violet Crayon]

My mom still shakes her head at me about Disney related things, but she started this current living and breathing of planning. Last Christmas she mentioned it would be a thought to have a plane ticket to Florida be my Christmas and birthday gift. DBF and I had always wanted to explore WDW together without others to please and at a more involved pace, but money is the obvious issue most of us encounter. As college kids we tend to not have a lot of spending cash and it's possible *coughstudentloanscough* are covering some of this one.

Last June on a particularily boring and hot day I priced out a vacation during the Value season if we brought a tent on the plane and camped at Fort Wilderness. That is when I realized things would not be so bad for a few nights. Then I thought things are not so bad for 5nights either, might as well add enough time to have fun. Some of you are laughing at the thought of 5nights as an extensive vacation, I know about your 10day visits!, but remember my experience, age, and financial situation. Well, we decided we were going to do it and called to make reservations at Fort Wilderness annnnd there were no campsites available for January 1st-6th.

Why this first week of January? Longer park hours, less heat, my birthday during the vacation, we are on break, and it's the value season, all contributed to the decision. I cannot miss class to skip through the streets of MK even if it sounds like a lot more fun. And Spring Break just does not seem like a good option to ever try, again. We hung up and thought about it, then held our breath, and made reservations for 5nights at ASMo. Things worked out ok when I found out I get a small, but super helpful, perk. Three free one-day tickets! Thank you manager for mentioning that when I told you I made reservations.

The planning took off from there. I have print-outs of all of the veggie friendly dishes offered by every place in the "World" along with prices and some turkey options if I feel like it. We shall see later on. I read up on all of the parks, memorized the maps and attractions, roughly planned where we need to go each day. Only one ADR for CRT because I am super picky about what I want to eat and when, and how I feel, and counter service is budget friendly ($20 a day or less). I will be bringing my laptop to dump photos, and bringing it to the front desk for safe keeping while we are in the parks. My cousin is lending us her Pal Mickey (her uncle works in the park and got it cheap for her, I guess). I plan to get a birthday button on the 4th, get a schedule for the characters and find them! and we hope to have enough room for massive amount of stuff we may or may not purchase. Our family gave us a total of $395 Disney Dollars over the the holidays and $145 in cash, so we are set!

All day I have been doing laundry and I have all of our stuff together to wake up at 4 in the morning (7:30am flight). This is our first time on a plane and it was always something that terrified me. I am currently not thinking too much of what is actually going to happen until it is happening.

At this time tomorrow we will be in the Magic Kingdom!

Happy New Year everyone! And thank you for all of the help with the information. Every question I had was answered down to the last detail!

 

[OhMari]

Happy New Year to you too, I hope you had a great trip. Do you go to school in Milwaukee. My dd's friend just graduated from the art school in Milwaukee, I'll just give you her first name, Jackie, long blond hair, big runner.
She graduated with Art Illustration too, that is why I thought I would ask if you know her.

 

[Violet Crayon]

Day 1

The alarm clock went off at 4am on January 1st. Only four hours into the new year and about as long as we had been in bed. Our flight was at 7:00am and would be our first experience with flying. Most of the months leading up to this day had been in denial of what we were about to do, planes were scary and mysterious things. My mother woke up just in time to get our readied bodies to the airport where we smoothly went through the pre-boarding ritual and found ourselves sitting in a nearly empty terminal around 6:10am. My tummy was grumbly so I asked DBF for a few dollars to find something risking the idea of having food in my stomach on my first take off. The problem is we would not be able to eat until we hit Magic Kingdom and that looked to be around 3:00pm.

Our first flight was fine, a tiny bit bumpy and a whole lot of white clouds making a claustraphobic inducing void outside of the windows. We had no issues with the act of flying just not being able to see until we came below the cloud cover in Florida. It was so exciting to squint my eyes and pick out the palm trees below! Palms and greenery are such a welcome sight. The plane was unloaded and we found everything was clearly marked and easy to find our way through to the Magical Express counter. Our greeter was very nice and took our information and wished us a spectacular vaction, which we would obviously have.

When we reached All-Star Movies (around 12:30) I enjoyed the row of palms around the resort. The check-in line was quite the wait but I had figured in a lot of waiting time before the castle would be seen on the horizon. Once we had our Keys to the Kingdom I nervously dropped my laptop off with luggage services (there were so many people going in and out of that room). The man there convinced me it would be ok to keep my laptop in the room and it would be brought to our room once we got our assignment, but it was still hard for me. And then off to the Magic Kingdom we went!

The bus system is super nice (I use the city buses here) and we found it relaxing our whole trip, but I could not help but attempt to pull a cord as we approached the drop-off point, ha, oops. My first stop was Guest Relations to pick up my 3comp tickets and my extra 2-day ticket on Will Call pickup. This also went smoothly, I was worried about the ticket I get through work not being on record. And then we were through the gate and I looked tearily eyed at the plaque "here you leave today..."

The Christmas decorations were still up, as I expected, and it was neat to see the park in holiday attire. We immediately saw Foul Fellow with no line and greeted him and took a quick picture since our hunger was momentarily put aside. Walking up Main Street is always amazing on the first day and we became part of the many snapping the photos you need to have to make a WDW vacation complete.

With the park map in hand I located Liberty Square and told DBF we needed to go to Columbia Harbour House. We both love nautical themes and try to bring that into our little apartment as much as we can, pirates kind of take over, but it's still nautical. From reading these boards I also knew the upstairs tends to be peaceful and it was! There were no other people in the upstairs dining (would not be true the next day) and we sat and enjoyed the view and our food.

Now, with pleased tummies we ventured out to full list of rides and things we could enjoy. Splash Mountain was a must as it would be closed the next day, but first we wanted to work into the ride experience. We hit several rides with low wait times (20-30minutes) and it was my first time for many! Mad Tea Party even had a short line in which we only had to wait through 2 runs before it was our turn. I got a lavender tea cup! The crowds were NOT as expected on the 1st, but maybe that should be kept secret.

DBF wimped out on spinning but I had a blast.

After riding POTC we met Peter Pan for the first time on our trip. He is one of my favorite literay characters which I guess is not the same as the Disney version, but I like to lump all Peter Pan together. He was enthusiastic and talkitive and probably spent 5minutes with us, and made fun of DBF for wearing his sunglasses as the sun was going down.

Then it was dark in the Magic Kingdom and we continued around experiencing PhilharMagic for the first time. It made me cry! I was excited about being there but seeing Ariel, and Jasmine and Aladdin singing, just put me over the edge and my emotions had to escape in some form. One of my favorite attractions for sure. And then we had to do It's a Small World which took all of maybe 5minutes to get on.

Splash Mountain time came and we decided to wait the hour. We ended up in the front row moments after I told DBF I did not want to be. I laughed and took my seat. Just after we started going up the first hill we stopped and the lights came on. Yay, we got to experience a stoppage. But after 5minutes the lights went back out and we were on our way. I feel bad for anyone that may have been on that last hill, because I have heard stories from those people on these boards.

Then we enjoyed the night.

We stayed until 1:30am (we woke up at 4am!!) with EMH and the last half hour it was chilly but we enjoyed our first pineapple floats. They ARE heaven. I had read some people saying they tried them because everyone raved about them, and did not think they were that special. I had not planned on going out of my way but we were thirsty for juice and there they were.

Once in our hotel room (our baggage was all safely there) we decided the next morning we would get to the Magic Kingdom when we get there. I had wanted to wake up for the opening ceremony and to get to the rides, but after riding what we wanted so freely we did not care anymore, and needed sleep.

 

[Violet Crayon]

Magic Kingdom- Day 2

We ended up waking up at 8:30am feeling rested. We got ready, snacked on some granola bars, drank a juice box, put something warm and rain gear in our bags, and headed out the door. The bus dropped us off a little before 10:00am and our first entire day of the trip started. There is something more magical about walking into the park in the morning, everyone is more excited and upbeat and the energy flows from person to person. We had fun the previous day, but walking in at 3pm was really mellow.

I looked at the times guide and saw Belle's Storytime was starting and I wanted to get a peek.

It was packed, as expected, but I stood near the fence outside and watched a few minutes before giving our place to another person wishing to observe.

There is that castle again!

And the base of the "well" on the way up the path.

We decided since it was more crowded this morning, and we had done all of the rides we wanted, we would go to Tom Sawyer's Island and explore. DBF said his family had always skipped the island when they went so he was curious as well.

On the way we saw some characters.

And we saw Peter Pan again and he yelled a "hey, I know you! I saw you yesterday!" to us. We waved back and he bounded back to the family he was with.

Then we made it to the island.

from the bridge, on the way to the fort

Thunder Mountain was broken so we watched the people walking around on the tracks looking at the train for a bit. We declared it "soak up the magic and atmosphere" day, and it felt so good to feel that way. My previous trips had left me feeling like there was so much left to do, and here we were feeling comfortable.

But then it started to rain, and rain it did all day, in a very busy park. We hid in the caves, which were surprisingly empty, and played with our cameras.

the actual lighting

They are kind of scary and dark, and how can you not think of snakes and critters hiding in them, especially when rain comes down? I'm a paranoid person. A little boy wandered through on his own and I thought about telling him how brave he is. When we emerged it was still raining and we headed for the nearest shelter to decide if we wanted to stay longer or head back to mainland.

In the end we took a raft back and wandered about, rode Barnstormer in the rain, did the Enchanted Tiki Room, and met Jasmine and Aladdin.

We are pretending it isn't raining. They told me I looked like Ariel and had the same exact shade of hair and had to meet her, and Aladdin told me "have a great day Princess Ariel!"

Most of the day we walked around and avoided rides because the wait times were all 50minutes or more (and as I said, we had enjoyed the freely the night before). But we did check out the steam boat and ended up next to a really loud family that likes to yell random things to people on the streets below. We stuck it out to keep our spot on the railing.

as we passed the Thunder Mountain area.

For a very late lunch we fought the crowds in Columbia Harbour House (the other CS places were beyond packed with people sitting on the floors). We had to walk around with our food glaring (no, not really) at all of the people saving tables with no food and ended up sitting on a bench in a nook upstairs. DBF wanted to guilt some person without food into giving us a table (not likely going to happen). I just told him to relax and eat since there was only two of us and a bench worked fine.

When night fell we sat on the curb and waited for Spectro.

it started sprinkling and he took shelter.

That pretty much ended day 2. Our feet were soaked and squished when we walked, and it was getting a little chilly. A new park was coming for me tomorrow, a day at EPCOT!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Fun report! Did you end up meeting Ariel?

 

[Violet Crayon]

Fun report! Did you end up meeting Ariel?

Stay tuned to find out! ha.

 

[Violet Crayon]

Day 2 add-on

How could I forget? Instead of placing this into what I have already posted from day 2, this will be a side story.

We had not watched a full performance of Dream Along With Mickey at this time. The ending, a little bit of a middle, but never then entire performance so we decided to head over the castle for the next show. Because of the rain there was a team of people trying to frantically dry down the stage with rags. Then, to the dismay of the gathered crowd, a booming voice announced the performance had been canceled. Everyone flooded out of the area but we stood near the railing to the left. Fireworks exploded out of the castle and everyone stopped to "ooh" before we were blanketed with smoke and ash. A round of claps rose and people yelled "ok Disney, we're good!" and "Thank you! that makes things better!"

After another minute or two the booming voice returned and lights flashed across the stage. The remaining crowd was told their dreams had come true and we could meet all of our favorite characters! Snow White and her prince came waving down and a row of characters followed. Who did I want to meet? Obviously, Snow White and a chance to meet her prince was enough for me to figure my way through the running mob. Several groups of people were standing around making the situation crazy to decide who was actually trying to meet a character or not. I internally apologized to any people I may be cutting because there was no order to the situation. DBF could see over everyone to where the characters were (I could not see a thing) and eventually I ended up 5 groups back from the rope while a CM was yelling and walking back and forth trying to keep a line in form. My turn finally came while parents started shoving little ones in front of me from the sides, I let the first two go, but then the CM had seen me waiting and leaned forward and pointed and waved me up, holding off the others coming. Thank you!

It was one of the unique experiences I can treasure from this vacation.

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

What an enjoyable TR! I can empathize with the *coughstudentloancough* thing...my DH and I lived like that for a year or two. It gets better.

The photos from the caves are great. I can't even go into the caves on Tom Sawyer Island. I find the walk IN too dizzying. Pitiful, isn't it?

 

[NurseW2Kiddies]

Your title caught my attention. When we go out I call it 'Painting the Town Purple'. Great trip report. You two are too cute!!!! Keep writing my purple sister!!!!!

 

[Tinkerbell's Mom]

Oh I'm so excited to be getting in on pretty much the beginning of your trip report, can't wait to read more!

 

[JCandKT]

I'm enjoying reading this --- since we were there at the same time!

 

[Violet Crayon]

Day 3 - EPCOT

Around 7:30am we woke up for what would be my first ever visit to EPCOT. I was curious and excited to see what I would think. After the usual morning rituals we made it to the gate where I felt a little lost (DBF had not been there since he was 10ish) stepping off of the bus. We had to play "follow the crowd" until we could see signage for bag check. Once through I pulled out yet another 1-day ticket, the last of my 3comp tickets, and we made our way into the park. Soarin was our destination and main goal for Future World. Some of you may shake your heads but we decided the majority of the rides we would skip so we could wander and soak up the sights. There will be more trips for us to check off every attraction. We grabbed a map and determined that we were following the stream of people to the right location. Getting the ride started was fun because we got to experience technical difficulties. After being loaded we all had to get up and file back out into the queue area and wait a bit. A lot of people were grumbling but I found it kind of fun, and it prolonged our adventure. When the ride finally started I found it mild and relaxing. The note of "sudden drops" had made me think there would be some more surprising situations. Loved the smell of the orange grove!

After Soarin we headed over to the Seas With Nemo and Friends. The queue was pretty much empty. I had heard how fun it is to read the signs along the way but everyone was quickly walking all of the way through so we missed out on a lot. I enjoyed some of the effects, and some of the instances when the screens were entirely camouflaged, it opens up a new realm for dark rides. Unfortunately two shells in front of us a person was using their video camera with the night light on so a spot light was shining on everything a few feet up from us (a little distracting).

Because characters are a goal of our trip, we ran to Character Connection the second we were off. It really is almost empty in there! We decided to start a PhotoPass card, but had our own camera used as well. There was nobody behind us and the interaction was great for that setting (I have learned from this trip to focus on "street" characters rather than those in set up areas at the MK).

My first Mickey meeting!

he had a very firm grip on my shoulder, ha.

Minnie was my favorite. I told her I liked her new dress and she spun around and gave me a HUGE hug. Then she presented herself to DBF (who was not paying attention) we dismissed him with our hands for being a man. But then she grabbed him and kissed him after our first photo.

We also saw Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Mary Poppins. The CM at the exit was super nice and spent some time talking with us. He must have been bored, and someone who likes to be friendly of course! It was a little early but we headed over to the World Showcase and got some iced mochas from a cart on the way. It is so peaceful over there before things really open up. If you are not frantically trying to get FPs and to hit up the big rides in Future World wander over some trip.

Canada, and our first blue sky of the trip.

UK

Another super friendly CM talked to us in this area. He asked us about our trip and told us to feel free to ask anyone to take our photo.

Around this time people started to find their way back into the area. We headed over to France because I had my mind set on meeting Belle and the Beast together. After watching a squirrel dig and finding the BEST drinking fountain in WDW (seriously, the one near France does not have the funny taste, and it was ice cold) we gave up for the moment. But it was good we wandered when we did because Aurora was standing on the path.

I talked to her about Prince Phillip and she said he was out riding, and we chatted a little more.

When we stepped away from her a PhotoPass guy around our age was standing and told us Belle was coming out soon and we could wait nearby. He offered to take some random pictures of us but we laughed, the sun was really harsh at the moment so we wanted shade. After 10minutes she came out, I learned princesses are fashionably late a lot.

Our tummies were grumbing at this point so we headed Norway where I decided to munch on Schoolbread instead of a proper lunch. DBF had the smoked salmon open-faced sandwich. Filling. Since Maelstrom was right there we hopped in line, and after we continued our way through the world.

The Mexico pavilion is so romantic. We ended up sitting on a bench inside for a bit listening to the music. Our next stop was back in China where I debated a purple umbrella ( did not get one, but they will always be there).

Mulan was out, but not Mushu, we asked and she told us to wait and he would be out. We did and she was another character to tell me I resembled her friend Ariel. She wanted to know if I swam from home.

random walk through Future World. We stopped at Club Cool and tried some interesting beverages.

We went back to Canada and watched O' Canada. It made me excited because I am going on my biggest (and farthest) trip this coming summer with my grandparents. They got a bunch of money for their anniversary towards another trip to Alaska (they went 10years ago) and they invited me along. I went with them when I was a little girl on a loop out west to Colorado, and I was invited to their first Alaska trip but my parents did not have the money to help. It has been in their minds to finally get back and I had always been included in this (I had no idea!). The scenery of Western Canada was gorgeous on the screen and I can't wait to see it up close and for real. My DBF plans to play video games all summer while I am gone.

As we approached France we saw Beast was out with Belle. We picked up our pace but a CM was telling the line Beast was leaving any moment and soon he was escorted away. I shuffled over to the CM when she returned to lean my ear towards some parents that approached her about whether he would be out again. She quietly told them he would be appearing once more in the old book store, so I grabbed DBF and we headed over to the courtyard we enjoyed earlier in the morning. I think I NEEDED a photo with Beast at this point. Collecting character photos had leaked into my veins but autographs did not interest me as much (keeps the line flowing for those behind us). We watched people peek in and walk in and out of the area, clearly waiting as we were, but a lot of people seemed to give up. When the PhotoPass photographers showed up (same as earlier in the day) we got up and wandered over to where they were placing two families that had been sitting inside the room. They were really nice people talking to eachother and occasionally shooting some comments/conversation back to us. By the time Beast appeared with Belle the line wrapped out and down through France.

mission accomplished!

Around this time the darkness started rolling in. Rain darkness.

The neat thing about Florida is how you can see borders between rain and non-rain. You can literally skip into the rain and back out taunting it if you wish. As we walked through the world we began to see people scamper a distance in front of us and it took a moment to realize they were being rained on while we were perfectly fine. Then the roar of rain on water as we crossed a bridge approached our ears and we met the rain. It was a bummer because we were actually heading towards the Electric Umbrella for early dinner and now we knew people would be flooding into the doors. And it almost seemed to be warning us when we approached a pocket of pouring rain right around that area. In seconds my feet up to my knees were completely soaked through, almost like I had been wading through water that deep. I wore my flats that day because my purple Converse were still wet from the previous day.

Inside the Electric Umbrella the lines were not too bad but people reach the area around the same time as we did. The tables filled within seconds as families sent a parent and the kids to take a seat. We made a face, having dealt with this issue the day before, and noticed the upstairs was still roped off and empty. I bet they would open it at some point so we relaxed and got our food. The rope was still up when we got done but a woman and her husband were standing and looking lost at the bottom of the stairs. We walked over and stood behind them and I said "maybe if we just stand here a CM will open it up, because there is no way anybody is getting seats for 20minutes." It didn't take long and we saw someone upstairs unstacking chairs and making things ready. A little waiting paid off and we had a place to sit and look at Mouse Gear.

By the time we were done all of the rain had ended and we wandered back out into the night. The lights were so pretty we spent over and hour taking photos of the area and walking around, and then we decided to find a seat for Illuminations. With everything being wet we were hoping it kept people from sitting down too early, and to be safe we took a spot on a bench just past Canada. I know heading further to Italy area is considered the best viewing spot but we could see the water and we go with the flow. It took an hour of nervously hoping nobody would stand along the rail (do you know how many people tried but were asked to leave by other families?).

quiet after the crazy.

Our third day ended and I was satisfied with my EPCOT experience. There is more to do for another vacation, but I do not feel like there is something I should have done. We hugged and waited for crowds to thin before heading out. I stopped and glanced back at everything as I left saying a silent goodbye. For a year is all, I hope.


The next day would be my 22nd birthday and we had to wake up early for a big breakfast at CRT!

 

[Violet Crayon]

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

It's my birthday! Well, it was my 22nd birthday, and I got to spend the whole day in one of the best places on Earth. It may be THE best place but there are so many places I have not visited yet.

A good morning as we waited at the gates of the MK to enter for our 8:15am reservation. To makes things more special we had decided to eat at CRT (don't worry we figured this out months in advance). After hearing a lot of negative reviews I was worried about my choice but I reallly wanted to eat in the castle, and I am a super picky eater so breakfast had the best options for me. We were held up getting into the park early because the maintenance crew was still out with trucks and security told us it would ruin the magic. But it was fun waiting because Pinocchio ran out of the right side and we all exclaimed his name in adoring voices and he motioned for us to be quiet and he vanished. And when we were let in we passed Geppetto and he also motioned for us to be quiet. It was amazing to see the empty streets and covered vendors everyone seemed to be skipping along. And there is the obligatory picture in front of the castle without worrying about people tripping over you.

Oh yeah, the decorations were still up. We were told they were supposed to be up through the 6th this year, and from the boards I had been expecting them to be down (no complaints). When we reached the ramp for the castle we were held up again and told the first family had stayed in the castle and they were leaving with their luggage. Did anyone hear anything about someone being able to stay? I know they are not awarding people the dream until later this month, but maybe they were special in some way and it was kept secret? or I missed the news.

But we made it to the restaurant and to our table, which was near the window, but they were painting outside and had curtains drawn. I peeked outside anyway. Because we probably looked fun, and they knew it was my birthday (DBF must have let them know), we were given the wand and sword the children get. A simple plastic wand, but how I did enjoy waving it around all day, and tapping things. Our server was super nice and said she would bring me the cold healthy breakfast as well as the danish, because I wanted the best of both worlds. And those bowls are huge!!! The strawberries and carmelized bananas were delicious on the yogurt and bottomless granola. Mmmm, I want some now. I was also given a Magical Moment certificate for my birthday that the princesses were supposed to sign.

an unflattering moment with my large bowl of breakfast.

They made their rounds but only stopped for a brief hello and picture with us. Shortly after every character had been by (Snow White, Belle, Mary Poppins, and the Fairy Godmother) our breakfast was finished and we were FULL. Our server told us we could not go yet and she brought out a little mini-cake thing with a candle and sang happy birthday. It was so nice but I could only manage to put away half of it before we took off.

Our next stop was City Hall to pick up a birthday button. Our tummies also felt a little too full to be active so we took things slow until I decided I really wanted to stop into first aid and get Tums (a few hours later). The woman there almost asked for a parent to sign until I told her I turned 22 that day. Ha, I do look young. While waiting to feel a little better we wandered over to the area Peter Pan often appears. Like Beast in EPCOT I reallly wanted to meet Wendy so we sat on the wall near the walkway to the bathrooms. And as I had hoped they appeared! While getting in line Peter saw us (the same Peter as the first day) and he waved. When we finally got up he wished me a happy birthday and said something about seeing us again. I explained we wanted to meet Wendy and she kindly greeted us. They were my favorite characters of the trip, so talkitive. I think I might send a copy of the picture to them with a letter of appreciation.

After that I felt much better but the park was quite crowded so we headed towards the castle instead of rides. My mind was also set on meeting Phillip with Aurora. We were in time to see the start of Let's Have a Ball and waited until the end (let several kiddies run to the front of the line) and then stepped in to get our pictures taken. I did not mention earlier that we had seen them out 3 times on the previous days but the line was always closed. We now had Belle, Aurora, Jasmine, and Snow White, with their prince. If only Prince Charming was out and about with Cindy. To keep in the character mode we headed to Toontown and saw Ariel had been relocated there so I jumped in line to meet her. I was only following the request of the other characters, and I was curious if my hair matched hers. Being told I look like Ariel is not new to this vacation, little girls tell me at work all of the time, as well as a few of my classmates.

here we are. It is almost exactly the same color.

Then we wandered more.

Tried the magic technique, did not work. Guess I was not meant to be queen.

One of the most magical things of the trip also occurred this fine day. An announcement was made in the park that it would be open an additional hour!!!! And there would now be a later parade after Wishes so everyone could enjoy the rides during the first parade if they wanted. Happy Birthday to me. When the sun went down the ride waits also went down to an average of 30minutes and we began making the rounds for the last time. Does it sound crazy we rode It's A Small World twice this trip? or is it ok since it was the first two times ever in my life? Still working through the childhood absence of WDW. We also grabbed our last pineapple float and walked through each world. Spectro was just ending as we reached the castle and I leaned against a railing and started to cry. I could not look at the castle without my body shaking with sobs. These were the last moments in the Magic Kingdom I had until next year. DBF hugged me and told me we were going to be walking through a lot of people and I should not be crying, it's Disney World, and we still had a day at Animal Kingdom. But right now I go back to the feeling, and the feeling of not being there. My farewells needed to be made and we made our way down Main Street. When we left the gate DBF turned to me and told me "Happy Birthday!" and it was.

Next stop: Animal Kingdom

 

[JCandKT]

Oh I know that feeling too!

When we were watching Philharmagic, I started to cry at the magic of all of it. Being at WDW is like being in a fantasy... and it's tough to leave and come back to the "real world".

I've been back home for a little over a week and man, do I miss it. I cannot wait to go back... hopefully soon!

I'm loving your TR!

 

[PKWallaby]

Thanks so much for sharing...love the beautiful pics!!

I also get that "it's our last time in MK feeling" at the end of our trips but something tells me there will be many more trips to WDW in your future.

PS Nothing against the Ariel you met, but you have her beat hands down!!

 

[Liberty Belle]

Wonderful TR so far. You take beautiful pictures and you and your BF make a lovely couple.

 

[B&Lmom]

Love your trip report! You would make the most perfect Ariel---then you would never have to leave Disney!
Can't wait to hear more (and love the pictures).

 

[Violet Crayon]

Thank you for the kind words everyone!

PKWallaby, B&Lmom: Thank you for the Ariel comments. I have started to ponder trying out for a face character position (I wonder who they really would suggest for me, if they see anyone I match) so I could spend a lot more time there and add magic to that experience. I could still be an illustrator as well.

a side note: DBF and I are serious about moving to Florida when we graduate. He is interested in teaching and we have heard Florida needs teachers?

 

[joiev98]

Thanks for the great reviews!!
I have never been to WDW and now this May, at age 32 I will have the honour of sharing this great experience with my husband and 4 children. I know I will not be able to hold back tears either. I am so excited to be able to fill my own childhood dream.
You should consider a position as a Character. You have a beautiful, kind smile.
Can't wait to hear about Animal Kingdom!