WDW Weekend Trip

My mom and I recently spent four days in WDW to celebrate her birthday weekend.  Here is the recap…

Thursday was a long day – I had class in the afternoon, and then our flight ended up being delayed due to weather.  So by the time we landed, rented our car, and drove over to WDW, we didn’t check in to Pop Century until 1:30 am.  Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted.  When we finally made it to our room, my mom’s Magic Band didn’t work to unlock the door, so I had to go back down to the front desk and get that sorted out.  They couldn’t figure out what the issue was, so they gave me a plain band for her to use to get into the room.  I was a little annoyed, because we had customized our bands, and I wanted my mom to be able to wear hers!  Mine was orange with the name “Merida” and hers was green with the name “Elinor.”  For those of you who don’t know, Queen Elinor is Merida’s mom, and both characters are from the Pixar movie Brave.  The resolution to the Magic Band issue was that my mom just wore both bands and actually, at some point over the weekend, her Elinor band started working on the room door.  So it all worked out in the end.

our Magic Bands - personalized and color-coded

our resort

the Mickey balloon bouquet for my mom's birthday

Friday was my mom’s birthday, and we got up early because we had a breakfast reservation over at the Grand Floridian.  It was a character breakfast buffet at 1900 Park Fare where Alice, Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Pooh, and Tigger come around to your table as you’re eating to visit and interact with you.  The characters are really great; the “face” characters are incredibly witty and chatty, and the costumed characters are adorable.  I had a conversation with Pooh about being “rumbly in my tumbly” and my mom got a birthday cupcake and special placemat. 

entrance to restaurant

birthday cupcake

birthday placemat

When Tigger came over to the table, my mom began singing “The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers” to him.  It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  Tigger bounced up and down and clapped while she sang to him, and I was transported back to my childhood when my mom sang Disney songs to me all the time.  All the time!  Such wonderful memories!

After breakfast, we headed over to Magic Kingdom.  We heard the Dapper Dans perform right outside of the Emporium, which was great, and then as we got to the end of Main Street, we heard "Maple Leaf Rag" on the piano and realized that the pianist at Casey’s Corner was performing!  We hurried over to listen and were as entertained as always.  Once he finished that song, he chatted with some of the guests near him and upon noting my mom’s birthday button, he played and sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  It was fantastic!

this sign always makes me so happy

and so does this one

Dapper Dans

pianist at Casey's Corner

In addition to other favorites, we were able to ride the new attraction, "Seven Dwarfs Mine Train," which just opened recently.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, because I make a point to not read spoilers on line, and it was REALLY cute.  We stopped for a couple delicious snacks from Cheshire Café and then we saw "Enchanted Tales with Belle," which I had not seen before.  I thought it was awesome.  Around that time, it started raining, which was the perfect excuse to wander around shops and go to "Mickey’s Philharmagic."

Cinderella Castle

White Chocolate Rabbit cake cup

Queen of Hearts Strawberry Shortcake cake cup

Prince Eric's castle

attraction sign

the Dwarfs' cottage

the Wardrobe from Enchanted Tales with Belle

Mickey's Philharmagic

Cinderella's Fountain

It was finally time for dinner, which was the event we were both looking forward to most because we had reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table.  For those unfamiliar with it, it is inside Cinderella Castle.  INSIDE the castle!  We met Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty, and again, I was shocked at how clever and humorous they were!  I loved having them come around to our table and make a fuss over my mom because it was her birthday.  The atmosphere was phenomenal and the food was delicious.  It was also great fun to watch the princesses interact with all of the little girls in the restaurant, many of whom were wearing their own princess costumes.  To those little girls, these were not actresses dolled up to look like princesses – these were real life princesses stopping by their tables inside a magical castle.  So very sweet!  For my mom and me, the highlight of the meal was dessert – we both ordered “The Clock Strikes Twelve,” which is named after the moment that Cinderella lost her glass slipper in the movie.  It was certainly one of the best desserts I have ever eaten, and as you can see from the photo below, it was beautiful to look at.  (And obviously, my math nerd side delighted in the use of Roman numerals.)

Cinderella Castle

entrance to the restaurant

inside the restaurant

inside the restaurant

our view of the Prince Charming Regal Carousel

dessert - "The Clock Strikes Twelve"

We spent Saturday at Epcot and Sunday at Hollywood Studios.  Both days were great – we just lazily made our way around to see things we liked and eat delicious snacks.  We encountered Pluto at Epcot, which resulted in an embarrassing moment.  I gave my mom the real camera while I went up to meet him, and I asked him if I could take a selfie with him.  He nodded, and apparently I was so excited and star struck that as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, it went flying up in the air.  It was like a slow motion scene from a movie as I watched it flip over and tumble to the ground, and all the while I was screaming a silent “noooooooooo” in my head.  When I picked it up off the ground, the Disney photographer called over, “Oh, no!  Is it broken?”, to which I shouted, “It’s an Otterbox!”, referring to the case.  What?  Why would I say that?  First I dropped the phone, and then I yelled about the great case it was in.  Thankfully, my love of Pluto allowed me to overcome my embarrassment.  We also met Stitch the next day at Hollywood Studios, and while I don’t make a point of standing in line to meet characters, he was just too good to pass up.  I loved watching him interact with all of the kids in front of us; he was quirky and goofy with three rambunctious little boys who appeared in awe of him, and then he was sweet and gentle with a little girl with special needs who was shy about approaching him.  Seeing her hug him after he won her over is a perfect example of the Disney magic that I love.

Br'er Rabbit, Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie ;-)

croissant donut

Spaceship Earth

Mary Poppins topiary

Troll Horn from Norway Pavilion

my mom and Stitch

Butterfinger cupcake

chocolate peanut butter cupcake

chocolate ganache Mickey

The funniest quote of the trip was something I overheard while shopping in Mouse Gear.  Let me preface this by saying there was not an Elsa doll to be found anywhere.  In any park.  Believe me, I looked.  I wanted to bring one for my goddaughter, so I looked in every gift shop imaginable, and could never find one.  Based on the conversation I had with other guests who were also on the hunt for an Elsa doll, my effort would not be rewarded, no matter how many shops I went in.  Being an optimist, I continued to look over the course of the weekend, but to no avail.  When I was in Mouse Gear, a girl (about nine years of age) and her parents came over the section filled with Frozen merchandise.  After a quick scan of the dolls, her mom said, "Honey, we are not going to find an Elsa doll."  The daughter was undeterred by this comment and began looking through the MANY Anna dolls that covered the shelves.  While she frantically searched, I heard her say in an exasperated voice, "Ugh, Anna has NEVER been more annoying than at this VERY MOMENT!"  I happen to love the character of Anna (although I could certainly relate to her frustration about the Elsa doll) and I had to giggle quietly to myself so that she wouldn't know I had overheard her.

On another note, I don't participate in the pin trading craze, but I do buy pins that I like.  My find of the weekend was a fairly new release and it depicts the scene in Up where Ellie and Carl are painting their mailbox.  Love.  Love.  Love.

On Sunday evening, we headed back over to MK because we had dinner reservations at Be Our Guest.  Those in the know will recognize how fortunate we were to have dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be Our Guest on the same trip.  C and I had eaten lunch at Be Our Guest once before, but neither my mom nor I had been there for dinner, so we were very much looking forward to it.  Dinner was amazing, the theming and décor of the restaurant makes you feel like you are actually in the movie, and we got to meet the Beast.  So fun!  Once again, dessert was the headliner; we had “The Grey Stuff.”  As in, “Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!  Don’t believe me?  Ask the dishes!” from the song “Be Our Guest.”  And those lyrics are correct – it IS delicious!

the Beast's castle

gate at Be Our Guest

rose napkin

chandelier and ceiling of main dining area

enchanted rose and mirror

The Grey Stuff

LeFou's Brew

Olaf caramel apple

Orange Bird caramel apple

So that brings us to Monday, which was a day I’d been looking forward to for about six months.  This coming December will be our 20^th wedding anniversary, and last year, C and I started thinking about how we would commemorate such a milestone.  Well, fast-forward to Monday, and my mom and I were headed to a meeting with our event planner at Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings!  C and I are going to have a ceremony to renew our vows in December and Monday was a planning sessions for food, music, flowers, and entertainment.  We got to go “backstage” at the Grand Floridian Convention Center for our tasting session, which was very exciting to me!  It will surely be a fun and memorable event and I am looking forward to finalizing our plans over the next few months.  I’ll write about all of that in future posts as things unfold.

Finally, I’m sharing one of the awesome hair bows I purchased before the trip from Mad Happy Studio. I love Merida!

Merida

So another Disney trip in the books!  Neither the heat nor the thunderstorms could dampen our fun, and having that time together, just the two of us, was priceless.

<3

Happy Tails to you!