Happy On the Way.com: Princessing First: Epcot Day 1

Monday, March 29, 2010

Princessing First: Epcot Day 1

You may not think of the word "princessing" in the title of this post as being a legitimate verb. After all of the work it took to make this princess event happen, I can assure you...princessing is very much in the predicate category!

We had a dream...at least I did. My dream was to spend a day at Epcot, strolling around the lake in the warm sunshine, perusing the different shops, tasting the cuisines of many countries and generally taking an easy break from the hyped up Disney jazz, as well as our effort to carry our food in and NOT buy treats. Epcot was going to be the exception. I had my wallet ready. It was a lovely plan. The first wrench in my scheme was when I couldn't get a character breakfast reservation with the princesses in the castle at Magic Kingdom, but could only get one at the Norwegian Hall in Epcot. This meant that our day at Epcot was going to have to include meeting lots of characters...mostly princesses. But that was ok. It would be something for Lily to appreciate since she would probably grow bored with our many-cultural meanderings.

(Note....please remind me never to stand like this for a picture again. Yikes.)

Wrench number two was the weather! It began to rain as we waited to get into the park....

just a sprinkle at first, but it was a preamble to the deluge to come.

Our brunch with the princesses was at 10:40, which meant that we had get to our target ride (California Soarin') and a couple of others before that.

So we were first in line. We were big on that. Ok...I was. I made everybody else be too.

All went quite well during the morning, now that I think about it. We rode "California" (loved it) and got fast passes for later, did "Turtle Talk with Crush" ( from Finding Nemo) and headed to Norway with Lily in all her princess attire.

We were first in (a long) line here, as well...good thing too, because each "princess" got to meet Belle BEFORE her party got seated and served. We were hungry and damp. It was good to be first!

Having got the idea of character greetings the previous day, Lily was finally able to relax and enjoy the encounter.

It helped that Lily was decked out in royal garb herself....

I think she felt a lot more respected.

And did I mention we were first?

Can you imagine doing this 100 times?

Six times a day?

More on that later.

The Royal Family

We probably got the last reservation available for this time slot, which was brunch (cheaper than lunch or dinner). Because of that, we were back in a corner by a staff only door, but it ended up being a great thing...because guess what! We were FIRST to be greeted by the princesses as they entered (ok technically second because there was one table closer to the door than we were)! That meant we were free to be done when we wanted, and we didn't have to wait for the princesses to get to us.

A note about God (keeping you on your spiritual toes!): Look, I know there are real problems and tragedies abounding in the lives of many. God is present in those big things. I don't want to ingore that. But I want to also attest and thank Him for the little gifts and blessings He bestowed on us during our week. It happened all week long...I'd have a plan and He'd provide a better one. This breakfast was one small example...I was stressed out that it wasn't in the castle, that we would get a "bad" table, that we wouldn't get our money's worth, etc. etc...and it ended up

working out better than I

could have ever planned.

He is present in the little things as well as the big.

First we got to go through the "cold foods buffet." There were berries, yogurts, toppings, smoked salmon and other Scandinavian preserves, pastries...

Lily ate 50 raspberries. I'm sure the person refilling the buffet wondered where they all went in the first five minutes of the buffet being open. I can answer that.