This trip was purely for fun, too. Last time, I was in Orlando for a conference (albeit a super fun one) and only had about a day and a half there. This time, one of my friends was celebrating her birthday and impending graduation from a Library Science master's program. She asked for advice a couple of months ago, and I, excited over any excuse to go to Disney, offered my services as a traveling companion. Fast forward a couple of months, and it was the perfect end to a somewhat busy and stressful semester. And it was nice to get away and just have a girl's weekend.
I'll break down my trip in more detail in later posts, but I wanted to blog first about yesterday's most exciting moment -- one which was probably the highlight of the trip.
We met Elsa and Anna at Princess Fairytale Hall:
And it was absolutely magical. The most magical part, though, was probably the wait. There have been horror stories about the wait time/line to meet Elsa and Anna -- both here in Orlando as well as at Disneyland in Anaheim.
And, to be fair, there was some truth in the rumors:
I took this at about 9:45 in the morning -- the park had been open since 9:00 a.m., and the line was already 3.5+ hours.
So we talked to a cast member, and she said to check the app periodically and if it was ever about 2 hours, that's the best you could hope for. The only problem is that the app doesn't show wait times for characters who are there throughout the day. But the cast member did mention that if you were in line before 5:00 p.m. (when the line closes), you would get in to see them, however long it took.
So we came up with a plan: our last FastPass was for Jungle Cruise at 3:45-4:45. We would ride Jungle Cruise then head back here, grab some food, and wait in line. We had no dinner plans, and nothing that we really wanted to do before the Main Street Electrical Parade at 9.
We got in line about 4:30 -- the first 15 minutes were a little uncomfortable since we were outside in the full Florida sun -- but we soon passed into the shady part of the line and by 5:05, we were in the air-conditioned part of the hall.
And by 5:45, we were in the room. And it was so great. Anna comes forward to meet you first, introducing herself and asking to know your names. She's so bubbly and outgoing -- and Elsa just kinda hangs back a little bit. (VERY in touch with their characters in the film.) Like most Disney princesses, they're super nice and friendly; and the great thing about meeting characters in Disney is that you never feel "rushed." It's not, walk up, smile, snap a photo and then get pushed out the door; they let you chat a bit and snap lots of candids. Like this one:
...in which you can clearly see not only how excited I am to meet Anna and Elsa, but also how alike Elsa and I are. Same stance, same posture, same personalities.
Lesson? I would make a great Elsa. :)
To cap it all off, when we walk out of the Princess Hall, we headed to Cinderella's Castle to look at the mosaic mural. There's a Cast Member outside the castle and he's kind of exclaiming, to no one in particular, "Why does no one want this reservation?!" So we walk up and ask if everything is okay. He says, "Well, no. I have this reservation for dinner tonight and no one will take it!" I look, puzzled, at my friend and ask, "Here? At Cinderella's Royal Table?" Because those reservations are notoriously difficult to get. And he says "yes" -- that's exactly where the reservation is for -- and its ours, if we want it.
Sadly, we passed on it -- it's $75/person and, even though you get a free photo with Cinderella and get to eat upstairs with a view overlooking Fantasyland, we had just eaten with the princesses Friday night.
It was still a magical afternoon though!
