Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Dinner with Our Princess

Today we set sail for Disney World, beginning our five-day adventure and starting it on a wonderful note. It was smooth sailing down there to Orlando, and only once did Daddy make a wrong turn - that was all because of "Doris," our navigation guide in the car. Of course, she did manage to redeem herself a little later - but the point is, we made it safely to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and checked in without any problems. Just take a look at our room when we opened the door!

Arrr! You'll see another picture of Madison in her pirate outfit, but as you can see, we had a pretty awesome room. Each bed was a boat in shape, with a steering wheel and a mast. Crates stacked haphazardly were in fact dresser drawers, and a large barrel against the wall opened up to reveal a mini-fridge. That's a picture of Jack Sparrow on the wall there, and the floor looked like wood paneling - though it was really carpet. Pretty sweet room, huh?

We didn't spend too much time at the resort - we'd do that later. For now, it was off to Epcot for the start of a wonderful day! I told everyone we're in no hurry - it's a day to relax. But that's when I saw the Epcot bus coming in, and had to change strategies: run! We hurried to catch the bus, and then we relaxed.

We arrived at Epcot by bus, with Daddy telling Madison to look out the window for the big ball. "Ball!" she cried, and those nearby us on the bus smiled. We were there.

We entered the park and decided to visit "the ball" first, otherwise known as Spaceship Earth. Madison enjoyed it, pointing at everything from our little blue car. She especially enjoyed the journey back down from the top, where the ride took our images and had us visiting underwater and elsewhere.

Next, Daddy and Mommy took Madison to a special spot nearby where Disney Visa Card holders get to visit a secret person all to themselves. I guess you've figured out who that is by now... anyway, it was neat: we waited in line and one at a time wandered into this room that was reserved for just the three of us, just for a few moments. Madison walked in first, and suddenly had this huge grin that exploded across her face. Her eyes lit up and she ran up to Mickey Mouse, who crouched down to give her a big hug. What a special moment! Pluto was also there, and the two of them posed for pictures with Mommy, Daddy and Madison, who gave each of them a big kiss on the nose.

Next, we decided to head over to the Living Seas, because we were looking for Nemo. Actually, we found him pretty quickly on "The Seas with Nemo and Friends." No line whatsoever! We hopped on that ride, and soon found ourselves inside the Living Seas, checking out their huge aquarium inside. Madison pressed her face up against the large aquarium tank walls, checking out the dolphins and schools of fish swimming by. We saw a few manatee taking a nap, and enjoyed exploring the different areas, looking for fish and sea creatures.

Our next stop was Journey to Imagination, where Figment reigns and that crazy little theme song gets stuck inside your head: "Just one little spark..." Daddy predicted they'd be bringing back "Captain E-O," and sure enough: they are bringing this 3-D movie to Journey to Imagination. Watching it recently on Youtube, it looks so ...dated! But it has Michael Jackson in it and it's apparently cool to like Michael Jackson again!

We explored the "What If Labs" area, where Madison conducted her own orchestra, and did a few other activities, but soon it was time to leave Future World altogether. We were heading off to the World Showcase area next.

First off, Daddy wanted to buy a CD by the band that regularly performs in the Canadian pavilion. They're called "Off Kilter," and they have a great sound mixing bagpipes, fiddles and electric guitar. Lots of fun. We stopped over in England next, because Mommy is on a quest to find Crunchy bars. These candy bars are suddenly very hard to find. They are more popular in England, so we thought we had a good chance here - but evidently there is a world Crunchy Bar crisis. We used to find them at this pavilion all the time, but not today. And not in the grocery stores down here either. Hmmm... have to look into this!

Next, we went to Mexico. Which was awesome. Madison loved the ride there, featuring Donald Duck, Panchito the Rooster and Jose Carioca, a parrot. She's been watching "The Three Caballeros" lately, so this ride was a lot of fun to hop on. Madison boarded the boat quickly and was looking and pointing everywhere all the way through. Daddy asked her if she liked the ride afterwards, and she responded: "Yeah!"

As you know, we had dinner reservations at a very special place, but we had just enough time for one more pavilion, and this one was pretty important: China. Madison knows the word "China," now, and in fact calls it out when she sees it. And boy, did she see it!

"China!"

We didn't have as much time to look around the shops and such, but we've done this so many times in the past. We've spent a lot of time in this pavilion before, but that was all before we met Madison. Now, we finally had her with us. Before, we'd spend so much time there just imagining what it'd be like to go to China, where we'd meet Madison. We'd be sniffling a little bit when watching the movie at the China pavilion, "Reflections of China." It's a 360 degree movie, and you can see it looking all around you. Of course, we took Madison inside to see the movie as well. We also spent time watching some children performers out in front of the pavilion, some very talented acrobats. Madison sat on Daddy's shoulders and watched as the acrobats balanced and tumbled to music by the "Twelve Girls," which is music Mommy and Daddy know very well. We've got all their CDs, and even went to one of their concerts - but that's another story.

Soon it was time to leave China, and head back to Norway. Yes, that's right: I said Norway. That's where our dinner reservations were, at the Akershus Dinner Banquet Hall. Mommy packed a very special dress for Madison - her Cinderella dress, and soon Madison was getting all decked out for dinner. As she twirled outside with the other girls all dressed up as princesses, she didn't know what she was in store for inside. Actually, none of us really knew what dinner was going to be like. It turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip for us.

The first thing she did when she walked through the door was see Belle, from "Beauty and the Beast." Even more than when she saw Mickey Mouse, Madison's eyes widened and her smile beamed and lit up the room. Madison anxiously ran up to Belle, but was very shy from that point on. A photographer took a special photo of Madison with Belle, and this is actually our favorite photo of the trip as well.

But that doesn't mean it was downhill from there. No, it was only just getting started. First, the food. It was incredible. Daddy likes salmon, and you could imagine a Norwegian restaurant would have just a little of it there...! The food alone made me want to eat there more often. But soon a door would open, and out of that door came none other than:

Aurora came out first, and Madison's jaw dropped. She was in absolute bliss! It was difficult waiting for Sleeping Beauty to actually come to our table, but somehow Madison managed. She had her autograph book ready - we brought it along from our last trip. When Aurora came to our table, Madison hopped down out of her chair and skipped over to her for a big hug. This was a big deal! Can you believe that Sleeping Beauty was actually right here at our dinner? What are the odds of that? We posed for a quick picture, and just then, someone else walked through the door!

Cinderella! What an amazing night! Madison was blown away, so incredibly happy she could hardly sit still. Randomly, she was kissing Mommy and Daddy for what might have been the greatest night of her life! Looking down at our little girl and seeing her so happy, it was certainly one of the most joyous nights of our lives as well. She hugged Cinderella, who complimented Madison on her lovely dress - look at these two shimmering beauties. Madison could hardly contain her joy: I've got so many great pictures of these two, but my second favorite picture from the entire trip is this next one, when yet another princess came to visit our table.

It was Ariel, the Little Mermaid. See how Madison is looking at her? She is so happy at this moment. Madison was playing with her necklace and the two were snuggling right there, and at that moment, we couldn't be happier parents. What a perfect night! But the parade of princesses was not over yet:

Next, Snow White came by to visit, and by this time Madison was completely too excited to eat any more food. Really, character dining does that to a person. You become so excited about the characters that you completely forget about the food. Can you believe it? Five princesses in one restaurant? No wonder this place books up over a month in advance. How incredibly blessed we were to have an opening appear for us, so that we can take Madison to such a dinner. Before we left, we were handed a gorgeous photo of Madison with Belle, and suddenly this was indeed the happiest place on earth. Dessert was delicious, and as we walked outside, we were greeted with Epcot's incredible nightly fireworks show, Illuminations:

Madison watched the whole thing, and really enjoyed it. But afterwards, it was a little late for her to be up, so we marched along with all the others and began our long exit of the park. Daddy picked up a photo of Madison and Pluto at the gate - one from our earlier visit, and soon we were waving goodbye to the great big ball. It was a marvelous day, but our trip to Disney World was quite literally just getting started...!