Magic of Magic Kingdom!

So to start where Roger pretty much left off, Charlotte did, indeed, wake up at about 2 AM. Rather, she was awake when I went in to check on her. We read some books and I struggled to keep my eyes open but about 3:30/4 AM she was asking for chocolate milk and wouldn't you know we hadn't stocked up before our evening ended. Roger was a saint for going out to Wally-World (that gift card we just got sure came in handy) and getting needed supplies.

I went back to sleep for a bit but we were rarin' to go by about 8:30. I just hoped that she wouldn't melt down before lunch. We picked up Beth, our paparazzi for the day, and navigated our way to the Magic Kingdom.

Once we got there, we immediately got on the train and journeyed over to Mickey's Toon Town Fair. This was where we got to meet Mickey and Minnie and see their houses. After looking through their houses (a self-guided tour), we got to the the line for "THE MICE" and immediately our super-duper-ooper-schmooper GKTW access passes kicked into action. The Disney employee ushered us into the secret passageway and we had a much shorter wait. When we went in to see Mickey and Minnie, they were so sweet and spent so much time with us and Charlotte. Roger and I both got very heartfelt hugs from Mickey. You could tell that even though he doesn't "talk", he was empathizing with us and sending his good wishes. So sweet! After many pictures and the signing of autographs, we made our way to the next area of characters. We had the choice of seeing the princesses or the fairies. Since we knew we would be lunching with the princesses, we selected the fairies. Again, access is a good thing. There was over an HOUR wait to see the fairies but we got in after about a 15 minute wait. We took Charlotte out of her stroller as we made our way into "Pixie Hollow" and as soon as she saw the fairies, she let go of Roger's hand and went straight to SilverMist. The three fairies there today were SilverMist, Rosetta, and (of course) Tinkerbell. If you don't know these characters, you better brush up on your Tinkerbell movies! Charlotte talked to all of them and she was immediately a little chatterbox. Roger and I were just kind of left in the background to watch. I, personally, saw how happy she was and just started crying. I couldn't help it. The tears were just flowing. I'm not sure how long we got to visit with the fairies but it seemed like forever. They really took their time with her and made every effort to make her feel special. It was so great!

After that, I almost felt like I could leave and be happy. It was that good!

Then it was off to Fantasyland where we rode many rides, got to meet Ariel in her grotto (again, a fabulous meet and greet) and see a smokin' brass and drum marching ensemble play Disney favorites. Those Disney musicians are the best! We pretty much saw all of Fantasyland before it was time for lunch at Cinderella's castle. We had a brief meeting with Ashley, the mom who arranged our Princess lunch. It was nice to meet her in person and be able to thank her. Their family is vacationing at Disney this week as well and gave us their reservations to Cinderella's table. We feel so blessed!

We went through to another meet-and-greet with Cinderella and then up to our lunch. The meal was true fantastic Disney cuisine: I had a mixed green salad with pan-seared salmon, craisins, and blue cheese. Roger had the same salmon but with jasmine rice, and Beth had the pork tenderloin. (Charlotte had a hot dog: fine cuisine, indeed!) Dessert was a cream cheese-chocolate torte that was DIVINE. During the lunch, all of the other princesses (Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Belle) came around to each table and talked, took pictures, and signed autographs, We also had a fabulous view of Fantasyland from our table. All of the princesses gave Charlotte smooches, leaving their lipstick imprints on her cheeks. By the end of lunch, she was covered in kisses!

After lunch, we made it downstairs but Charlotte was asleep after less than 20 minutes in the stroller. We decided to walk a little bit (if for no other reason than to burn off some calories). Roger and I took the opportunity to ride Thunder Mountain and then we headed back to the entrance. We did get to see a little bit of the parade. We headed back to GKTW and Charlotte just woke up about 7 PM.

I can't even begin to express what a great day this has been. It's so nice to be able to enjoy the park with Charlotte and see the joy on her face when she meets the characters. Another nice thing is that since Roger and I have "done Disney" many times before, neither one of us feels the need to see every aspect of every park. We're just kind of taking it at HER pace. Tomorrow will be another day at the Magic Kingdom and my cousin Sarah and her husband and daughter plan to join us.

I apologize that there are no pictures to post (yet) but I promise that there will be some coming. Beth took over 300 (!!) pics of us today and I've already seen a few that are great. We will be posting pics and video soon although much of it I'm sure will not get downloaded until the end of our trip.

Thanks to everyone continuing to keep up with our story. We promise to post when we can but if we don't, it's just cause we're having too much fun!

Rachel