Southern California 2013 Part 7 - Princess Day!

Princess Day! 

Saturday afternoon Shandra had to fly back home because she had to work, so we decided to spend the morning doing whatever she wanted.  Imagine my delight when she said that she wanted to try to get autographs and pictures will all of the princesses in the Park!  Hooray!  Tasha and I both LOVED that idea.  We left the guys at the condo to sleep in and meet us later, and we got to the park before opening.  Our plan was to be the first ones at the Princess Fantasy Faire and then spend the rest of the morning searching for other princesses.  While we were waiting in line, Shandra braided Tasha’s hair into a beautiful ‘do - she got quite a few compliments on her talent!

So excited to see Princesses!

  We were successful in getting to the Fantasy Faire before anyone else and were soon ushered in to meet Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel from The Little Mermaid.  We think that Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) may have still been a little tired, because she was very quiet and didn't seem very excited to see us, but the others were fabulous!

 
 

  
 From the Fantasy Faire we rushed over to Pixie Hollow to see Tinkerbell and her fairies.  While we were waiting we were entertained by one of the cast members as he explained how he not only got to be an assistant for the fairies but he also had the opportunity to dance as one of the chimney sweeps in the parade.  He was tons of fun and made the waiting time go by quickly.

First we met Rosetta:

and then Tinkerbell herself.  Shandra was most excited since her personality quiz said that she was most like Tinkerbell!

 

 Shandra really wanted to find Belle from Beauty and the Beast, so Tasha asked one of the cast members if she could find out if Belle would be in the Park that day.  The cast member was extremely helpful and even called to the main desk to find out the schedule.  We learned that Belle rarely does pictures or autographs, but that she was going to be at the Main Gate shortly.  We raced to the Main Gate just in time to see a marching band led by The Mad Hatter and accompanied by Alice, Cruella DeVille, and none other than Belle herself!  We followed the parade as it gathered together at the Main Gate where The Mad Hatter led the rest of the characters as well as some kids from the crowd into some simple and fun dances.  Belle was beautiful, Alice was tons of fun, but Cruella stole the show with her “diva” attitude.  She saw Shandra and told her that her hair was “Fabulous”, except that if Shandra would just do it half and half then she would be a true diva!  It was fun.

Since we couldn’t get autographs from Belle we headed over to Adventureland and to see if we could find Jasmine.  Luck was really with us, we found Jasmine and there was no line to see her.  She was cute and told us that her ladies in waiting did her hair for her every day.

We then headed for New Orleans and got there just in time to see Tiana before she took a break.  Shandra and Tasha asked her about frog slime, and she told them it is really hard to get the slime out of her hair, but that her mother helps her quite a bit.

As soon as we finished with Tiana, we decided to see if by chance Aladdin was there with Jasmine.   Jasmine was no longer there, but we were excited to get a picture and autograph with Aladdin – even though he wasn’t a princess.

Our next stop was to Snow White’s wishing well.  We were hoping that she would be there but she wasn't.  However there was a professional photographer that had us pose while she took a ton of pictures of us at the well.  It was kind of fun, made us feel like we were super models! 

At this point the boys called and said that they had finally arrived at the park.  Since we had found pretty much all of the princesses we decided to meet the guys at the front gate and then head over to California Adventure so that the crazy kids could go on the Tower of Terror again.  We were so excited when at the gate Shandra shouted, “Look, it is Snow White!”  She was just standing at the Main Gate taking pictures and signing autographs.  She didn't have a cast member assisting her, and when a lady walked in front of the camera while reading a map, she said to her(in her high, squeaky voice), “Please excuse us, don’t you know you shouldn't walk around with your head in book.   Belle learned that the hard way!”  It was SO cute!  We were so excited to get her autograph and pictures since we thought that we wouldn't be able to.  It made the morning pretty much perfect!

Zane took our tickets and ran over to get fast passes for Tower of Terror.  On his was back he passed a red trolley driving down Hollywood Ave.  He said that a young kid, probably about 14 years old, was being a smart alec and jumped out in front of the Trolley.

The trolley driver immediately jumped out and threw the kid against the trolley and got right up in his face and angrily said, “Don’t EVER jump in front of a trolley again!” and then the funniest thing, the trolley driver stood up and started clapping and in a high, happy voice said, “safety first!”  I understand that the Disney employees must maintain a happy attitude and the trolley driver needed to get her point across, but yet still remain happy!

While we were waiting for Tower of Terror we got pictures with Frozone and Sulley from Monster’s Inc.  Kalel refused to get a picture with Frozone, but he couldn’t wait to get one with Sulley.  Soon we found out why – when he got up to Sulley he pointed and shouted, “Look out, there’s Randall”.  Sulley immediately turned and looked.  When he realized that Kalel was laughing, he put his hands (paws?) to his mouth and started giggling.  He looked as if to say, “You really got me!”  It was really cute!

After one trip on Tower of Terror – which Kalel LOVED (much more than Tasha!)

we went to see the musical “Aladdin”.  It was really good, the genie was fantastic!  I had been looking forward to the show all week but unfortunately all of the running during the week had worn me out and I found that I had a really hard time staying awake.  Dang!

We left the park and Kim and I drove Shandra to the airport.  I can’t believe how hard it was to have her leave!  Disneyland was GREAT!  But honestly the very best part of the whole trip was that we were all together as a family, having a great time together.  With Shandra gone it just felt as though something was missing.

After a nap, we decided that we were didn't feel like going back into the Park, so we just headed to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping ,  Kim found some fun Grumpy shirts so he was happy.  Tasha bought herself a couple of really cute fedora hats.  She looks so adorable in hats!

Our days are Disneyland were all finished - except for the memories we will always hold dear.  We had an absolutely fantastic time and I know that I speak for all of us when I say that we can't wait for next time!