Princess Day cont. - Town Square Theater

After breakfast we went over to the Town Square Theater. A different line-up of three princesses are there daily to meet and take pictures with. We were hoping to find Jasmine and Tiana (since neither was at breakfast), but instead found Cinderella, Belle and Aurora. We almost skipped going in, but when we found out that Belle was in her yellow dress (rather than her blue town dress that she was in at breakfast) Carolyn just had to see her. It turned out to be a favorite stop for us all.

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Princess Day cont. - Cinderella's Royal Table

Cinderella's Royal Table is the character meal that takes place on the second floor of Cinderella's castle. From everything that I read, in order to get a seat you have to make your reservation 180 days in advance. Since we didn't even decide to make this trip 180 days in advance, that wasn't possible, and sure enough, every time I looked online to see if there were open spots during our stay, everything was booked. We knew that it never hurts to ask, so after our time with Rapunzel we went to Cinderella's castle to see what kind of magic Daddy could do. He asked the woman at the reservation desk if there were any cancellations and she said no, she could not fit us in. He persisted a little and she asked how many in our party, but then said that he needed to speak with someone else. The second woman asked him a few more questions (he also presented Carolyn as a reason we'd love to get in) and voila, the next thing we knew they were escorting us into the castle. Cinderella was there to greet us for a photo op. Carolyn was speechless.

Then up the stairs we went into the dining hall.

We managed to get Carolyn to eat this cinnamon roll before she turned around and spent the rest of the time watching for which princess would next approach our table.

The line-up can vary from meal to meal, but all of her favorites were there that day.

Auntie NeNe's childhood favorite was Snow White. James couldn't stop smiling at all the lovely princesses.

Sir James (the girls' favor is a magic wand and the boys are all knighted and presented with swords).

It was a wonderful experience! We were so thankful that Daddy (and being in the right place at the right time) got us in!

Day 8 - Princess Day - Rapunzel

Day 3 at Disney was the day we finally did what Carolyn had been hoping for, we met Rapunzel! We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just before it opened. Once Mickey and friends opened the gates, Desi ran ahead to get a spot in line at the Fairytale Garden. When we caught up to him, he was fifth in line and they had yet to open the garden.

Once inside the garden, kids can color pictures of scenes from Tangled while their parents wait in line around them. Since we were so close to the front we didn't have time to color, but grabbed a coloring sheet.

Pascal was with one of Rapunzel's attendants and both kids took a turn with him.

Finally, it was our turn with Rapunzel.

Carolyn twirled for her, chatted about hair bows, flowers and ribbons, and at moments was too overwhelmed to speak.

They hugged goodbye and,

after a family picture (in which James refused to take his eyes of Rapunzel),

it was time to move on to our next stop: Cinderella's Royal Table.

Day 7 - Hollywood Studios and Pool Time

Our park of choice on our second day at Disney was Hollywood Studios. After a cute Muppet movie

the kids got to meet Lightning McQueen (this would have been more greatly appreciated this week since we've watched Cars a million times during recent illnesses).

Then it was off to see some shows. Beauty and the Beast,

which the kids loved (although Carolyn isn't a huge fan of Gaston or the Beast). This was followed by a forgettable Little Mermaid show

and ice cream sandwiches before heading back to the hotel.

The water was cold, but that didn't stop the munchkins (and Daddy) from jumping right in.

We had dinner at the hotel's sports bar where James did some awesome dancing (videos to come) to the music of a zany DJ/karaoke singer and Carolyn watched some "Scooby Dooby" with her cousins.