Turning Five in Orlando

It has taken me so long to write this post because it is so bittersweet. My sweet Aubrey Grace turned 5 this year and I'm still in a little bit of denial. Since Aubrey was born, we've planned to take her to Disney on her 5th birthday. It seemed like such a long time away when she was born, but before we knew it, it was July 2013 and time to start booking the trip. We kept the whole thing a surprise until a few days before  when we told her we were going on a trip to Florida for her birthday, but didn't say what we were doing in Florida. We made the looong drive down there the day before her birthday and told her we were going to a big park the next day. So, on her actual birthday we woke her up and this is what happened.

(Short version, she wasn't very excited at first, but warmed up over time.)

We got to the park and got on the monorail and of course, Mason was in heaven since its so much like a train. Aubrey still wasn't too sure about the whole Disney thing until we got into the park and she laid eyes on Cinderella's castle. This was my 5th trip to the Magic Kingdom and I was still excited, but nothing beats watching a child experience it for the first time. We got to enter the park before it opened since our breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table was for 9:05. We got to take a few pictures in front of the castle before the park opened and then got sprinkled with "pixie dust" (AKA, a crap ton of glitter that will survive the apocalypse since it took 4-5 washings to come out). We walked into Cinderella's castle at 9:00 and before we knew it, Cinderella herself walked out. We still weren't sure how Aubrey would react to the characters themselves, but she surprised us completely by giving Cinderella a huge hug and even talked to her. She got a glimpse at some of the other princesses before we sat down and was disappointed when they left before she could meet them. We ordered breakfast (which they were amazing with Mason's dairy issues by sending out the chef to discuss what he could and couldn't eat) and then they re-introduced each princess and Aubrey was in heaven. Each princess walks to every table and spends a few minutes with the children before moving on to the next table. She got to meet Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, and Jasmine and I thought she was going to break their necks hugging and loving on them. The Disney princess absolutely rock at their jobs and they treated Aubrey and Mason like royalty. It was just as amazing as we hoped and worth every single expensive penny we paid for that breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent most of our day in Fantasyland since that was where most of the rides for Aubrey were.  We did spend some time in the other "lands" during the day, but with our Fast Pass schedule, we spend most of our day running back to Fantasyland for our ride times. We met Cinderella and Aurora again in the Hall of Princesses, participated in and met Belle in her show, and met Ariel again (this time as a true mermaid). We thought our day had been topped in best experiences by Cinderella's Royal Table until after we met Ariel. As we were leaving Ariel's Grotto, these 3 Disney staff members come up to Aubrey and start talking to her. They asked her if she had done everything she wanted to do on her birthday and she looks at us very confused by their question. They reworded their question to ask what she had done over the day and she told them about the rides and meeting the princesses. They asked her if she'd met all the princess and she said all of them except Rapunzel. We wanted to see Rapunzel earlier in the day, but chose the wrong line in the Hall of Princesses and by the end of the day the wait was over an hour to meet her. So, the staff asked if she would like to meet Rapunzel and Aubrey nodded yes so they asked us to follow them. 2 of the staff grabbed Aubrey's hands and she talked their heads off the entire walk. Todd and I were still a little confused and shocked about this whole thing. We weren't sure what was happening but we were curious what they were planning for Aubrey. They led us back to the Hall of Princesses and basically fast passed us through the line to meet Rapunzel. Then, they gave Aubrey an autograph book (yes, we were super slack and forgot about that earlier in the day), pen, a Cinderella collectible pin, and another Fast Pass for us to use on another ride of our choice. Todd and I were almost in tears at this point. We couldn't believe they were so sweet and doing this for our little girl. So, we got to go through the Hall of Princesses again and meet Rapunzel and Snow White (again). It was just amazing and awesome to see Aubrey get her wish for her birthday and I can't thank those unknown Disney staff enough. She used the Fast Pass to ride the Peter Pan ride, which she said was her favorite ride of the day. After dinner, we had to dodge a few rain showers before we watched the Electric Parade. Another magical moment happened during the parade. We were a little late getting to the parade because of dinner so we were standing about 3 rows back when the parade started and it was hard for Aubrey to see. This very sweet mother was sitting on the front row and noticed that Aubrey was struggling so she asked us if it would be ok if Aubrey sat on her lap to watch the parade. So, Aubrey got front row for the parade and was so excited to see more characters in front of her. After the parade, they used Cinderella's castle as a backdrop for movie clips and fireworks and it was amazing. We finally left Magic Kingdom around 8:30-ish, completely exhausted from such a fantastic day.

We got back to the condo and sang Happy Birthday to Aubrey before letting her dig into a cupcake (yeah, I understand the hype about Publix' cupcakes now. They are good.)

We originally planned to spend our 2nd day in Animal Kingdom, but late on Sunday we decided to change to Hollywood Studios so Aubrey and Mason could do some of the Disney Junior things. We met Sophia the First right off the bat and then watched a few shows, including the Disney Junior puppet show. That was another magical moment of the trip because Aubrey and Mason were both fascinated watching the characters in person that they see on tv everyday. There weren't quite as many rides for the kids at Hollywood Studios, but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. We did meet Minnie and Mickey Mouse at the end of the day and both kids enjoyed that.

Our 3rd and final day of the trip was spent at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. This was more for Todd's benefit because he really wanted to visit the Harry Potter attraction. There was a Dr. Seuss attraction that both kids enjoyed, but the rest of the Islands of Adventure park is really geared for adults. I will admit the Harry Potter area was awesome, though. Todd rode the castle tour and we all drank some awesome, yummy butter beer. I wish we had had one more day to do the other side of Universal Studios so that is one of our priorities when we go back for Mason's birthday.

Wednesday, we had to drive back following the ice/snow storm in Georgia, SC, and NC. We had so many people try to convince us to delay our trip another day after the drama in Atlanta, but I had to go to work the next day so that wasn't an option. The drive back was not too bad and we didn't see any snow until we were almost in Columbia, SC.

So, it was a whirlwind trip and we learned quite a few things for our next trip. I can't wait to go back in 3 years and do it all over again.