Everyday Favre: The Magic of Disney

Have you ever tried to do Walt Disney World in a couple of days? We did. I wouldn't recommend it. In retrospect we should've taken a week-long trip to fully enjoy the Disney experience. Instead, we chose the whirlwind approach. Imagine leaving the hotel at 8:30am and not returning until 9:30pm the same night with no nap and no rest (other than meal and bathroom breaks) with a 4-year old. It was exhausting! But, it was well worth it!

We were gone for 4 days, but truly only had two full days at Disney after all the travel time on the plane, taxis and shuttles. Here's a quick timeline of how it all went down.

We left MSP, had a layover at O'Hare and then arrived in Orlando. There was nothing exciting about all the flights. Keira did enjoy a hamburger from Burger King as we flew from MSP to O'Hare.

Notice the symmetry in which she ate her burger

After arriving and checking into our hotel (we stayed at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista - nothing exciting - a normal hotel room. We never did see the pool area so I can't comment on that) we ventured out to Downtown Disney. That wasn't there when we last visited Disney 20 years ago! It was high-energy with lots of places to eat, explore and of course, shop.

We were up bright and early the next day and arrived at the Magic Kingdom right when the gates opened. As we came in from the monorail Keira was over the moon in seeing Cinderella's castle in the distance. It was going to be a great trip! Our first day was spent meeting princesses, going on as many rides as we could and catching a couple of the parades and street shows. Keira's highlights were riding the spinning teacups, the Peter Pan ride and above all else, meeting Rapunzel. After meeting Rapunzel she was grinning ear to ear and telling us all about how Rapunzel said they were princess friends and that her favorite colors were pink and purple just like Keira!

We aren't sure about the boob grab, but meeting Rapunzel was Keira's favorite part of our first day.

Excited for the adventure to start. It was chilly in the a.m., but became warm and sunny later.

I think her smile speaks for itself as we spun in the teacups.

Crossing the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island

The end of our first day at the Magic Kingdom

After working through a snafu and getting over the disappointment of not eating lunch at Cinderella's castle, we started our second day bright and early with an 8am breakfast at Ashersus over at Epcot. This was no ordinary breakfast. Oh no! This was a breakfast hosted by the princesses. Keira donned her own Sleeping Beauty gown and we were off. It was pricey - about $115 after tax and tip for the three of us. But, I will say this. It saved us at least 2.5 hours of having to stand in line to meet the princesses, Keira got to be in a princess processional through the restaurant and we received souvenir 8x10 and 4x6's of Keira and Princess Belle that were included in the price. To me, that was worth it and the breakfast was pretty good - all you can eat bacon - need I say more? Keira got to meet Belle, Sleep Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White. Cinderella even picked Keira to walk hand-in-hand with her during the princess processional! I was worried she'd be too scared to do that, but I was totally wrong. One question from Cinderella and she turned around and took off without looking back. Thank goodness Cinderella brought her back to us afterwards.

After breakfast we spent some time wandering through the various countries at Epcot and getting more autographs with princesses including Jasmine and Mulan. If we weren't short on time and if Keira wasn't with us I would've enjoyed exploring more of Epcot. But, this trip really was about Keira so after lunch we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Then we set off to make the most of the evening we had ahead of us at Magic Kingdom.

We got on more rides, met Tinkerbell, watched the electrical parade on Main Street and finally enjoyed the show and fireworks over Cinderella's castle to end our Walt Disney World experience. It was, all in all, an amazing trip and I know Keira loved it!!