So, it was a no-brainer to want to take Sophie to Disney World. I hadn't been myself since 1994. To make it even more fun, I thought the Grandparentals could come with us and we could combine the trip with a Thanksgiving visit to my mom's sister, my favorite aunt, who is now disabled and unable to travel.
Disney Highlights:
First sighting of Cinderella's castle, or as Sophie calls it "My Castle."
Pluto!
The castle looked gorgeous in lights!
We spent lots of time taking buses from our resort, Shades of Green, to the parks.
Sophie loved the bus rides as much as anything else! Here she is with the Grandparentals.
Sophie loved the bus rides as much as anything else! Here she is with the Grandparentals.
My favorite part of the Animal Kingdom was the safari!
Sophie loves Chip and Dale, so we were glad to see them!
The main man, Mickey!
I loved riding in Spaceship Earth at Epcot!
Sophie loved the bubbles the Disney folks were blowing for fun!
Sophie loved the bubbles the Disney folks were blowing for fun!
A Francophile like me was very excited to visit the Paris section of Epcot,
but we were especially excited to encounter Marie
from one of our favorite movies, The AristoCats!
from one of our favorite movies, The AristoCats!
Everything we did was leading up to this...
Sophie in her Cinderella costume going to meet Cinderella
and eat dinner in the castle at Cinderella's Round Table!
Cinderella with her lord and lady in waiting.
Cinderella and her favorite subjects, Papa and Nana.
As we waited to be seated, Sophie really hit it off
with this little girl Grace who was dressed as Ariel!
with this little girl Grace who was dressed as Ariel!
Sophie and Grace were fast friends...they were so adorable
and this was one of my favorite moments of the trip!
and this was one of my favorite moments of the trip!
Princesses have to twirl!
Sophie was totally starstruck when she met Cinderella!
The blue crew...Cinderella commented that we were all wearing her favorite color!
Still stunned when meeting Snow White back at our table.
Still in disbelief meeting Belle. Not sure why Belle isn't wearing her yellow princess dress.
By the time Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, came by, Sophie was warmed up and ready to chat!
Excited to meet Ariel!
It was such a magical night and Sophie is still talking about all of it months later!
Oops...Sophie turned into a pumpkin on our way back to the resort!
She was so tired she didn't even wake up as we changed her into her PJs and put her to bed!
Eating dinner at Cinderella's Castle was the fulfillment of the dreams I had of living in the castle as a little girl, but the experience was made even more amazing by how much Sophie loved it. It was worth every penny we spent...everyone there was so nice to us, the princesses were so sweet to my shy, starstruck little princess, the food was amazing, the pictures turned out wonderful...I just can't say enough good things about it. And Sophie still talks about it, so I hope that it's a memory she treasures forever. I know I will.
Overall, I think the trip was fantastic...we had some moments where we all had different ideas about what we wanted to do and everyone got on each other's nerves a little in the interminable waiting in line for rides, but despite that, our party of five had a really great time!
After we finished up at Disney, J and I took a side trip over to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which was super fun and deserves its own post, and then we all headed to my aunt's house to spend a few days with her and celebrate Thanksgiving, which was wonderful.
I'm so glad we did this trip when Sophie was this age. It was the perfect combination of Disney magic and family together time!
What are your favorite things to do at Disney World?
Seems like Sophie is the perfect age to still believe in the fantasy of Disney, but old enough to have fun and *get* what she's doing. Sounds like it really was a magical trip!
ReplyDeleteGiven that the last time I went to Disneyworld was BEFORE Epcot was built, you could say I didn't really grow up in a Disney family. I sort of loathe the day when we have to bring Gavin there, but Sweets and I agreed we'll bring him there once. =)