Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck - these are all characters you think about when you think Disney. We went to Walt Disney World when Ashlyn was 18 months old and she ran in front of at least 20 people to give Minnie Mouse a hug. Because she was cute with a headband bow and a pink pacifier in her mouth no one gave her dirty looks. I will never forget that. She was so excited, when most at this age would be scared. This memory is one of the main reasons I wanted to go back again while Ashlyn is so young. She believed that every character she saw was real. Trey never let on that he did not think they were real either. (The only thing he questioned while we were there was the Easter Bunny, since Easter was in a few days.) So, anyway, I could not wait to see how she would react this year. And, she did not disappoint me.
The first day we were at Magic Kingdom we saw Buzz Lightyear. Nana had made Ashlyn and Trey autograph books, so Buzz used his autograph stamp to be the first in their book. We saw Minnie, Pluto and Goofy after waiting in line for an hour. As cranky as Ashlyn got, the frown gave way to a smile the minute she saw Minnie. She laughed at Goofy and kept her hands in Pluto's "mouth" to pretend he was biting her. It was funny. Trey was a trooper, he got his picture made and got the autographs. I am glad he did not think he was too big for this. As a mom, I love capturing the memories through pictures. (A lot of pictures.)
At Hollywood Studios we saw Chip and Dale. They saw Emma in the stroller and went over and waved at her. Ashlyn thought that was funny. They had actually closed the line for Minnie and Daisy, due to time constraints, but somehow I managed to sneak myself into the back of the line while the character "guard" was talking to someone. Some things never change with me. I guess I will always be sneaky :). Daisy Duck is a hard one to get pictures with so we were lucky that I am sly like that! Trey opted out on this one but that's okay.
Back at the Magic Kingdom we saw Mrs. Easter Bunny, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. These characters were funny and would mess with the parents to make the kids laugh. At the Animal Kingdom we finally got to see Mickey Mouse. That was the main goal for that park. We had not seen the main mouse and I was determined to find him. He was dressed in his outdoor attire. I made my mom get in this picture. The last park was Epcot. Here we saw Donald in Mexico land, Dopey (Ashlyn absolutely loved Dopey, she acted so silly), Mary Poppins, Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. I was satisfied with the character greetings. I wanted to see as many as we could and we accomplished that.
The great thing about these character greetings is that they don't rush you. Every child can interact and get autographs and the parents can take all the pictures that they want. (The flip side of this is that the lines don't move quickly.
We have autograph books and pictures to remind us of this fun experience with the characters that bring Disney World to life.
1 comment:
Finally! I love the pictures!! I will look at the myspace pics, too. Anna was so impressed that Ashlyn's mom let her take one of her babies - and that it was one of her scary ones:)
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