Part 2: A Sh!t Ton of Princesses

On Saturday we woke up before the dawn to make sure we were on time for our breakfast date with Cinderella. Those that know me will find the next statement hard to believe: we arrived at the park BEFORE IT FREAKING OPENED. I don’t think I’ve ever been at the door waiting for anything to open in my life. Early riser, I am not.

But there we were. Ready to go, and dressed to the nines.

Well at least Ella was.

We were there in enough time for the boys to run over to grab a Fast Pass for Space Mountain, and for a fortuitous meeting with a certain fairy godmother.

As we rounded the corner heading towards Cinderella’s castle, we spotted this lady with a smattering of people around her. I was thinking ‘who is the crazy lady and what’s with the pink bow?’ SIL-E was saying ‘ohhhh looooook Ella. The Fairy Godmother!’ Holy cow! She was right.

I was kind of prepared to be underwhelmed by her. After all, we were on our way to meet Cinderella, the REAL DEAL. But in the end she was my favorite character we met. She was insanely nice. Even though a huge line was forming behind us, she took her time to gush over Ella’s dress and even come over to where I was standing with the camera and Sofia to say hello to me, er Sofia. Plus she could spell. More on this later.

So after our Fairy Godmother interlude, and finding the boys, we proceeded to breakfast. I’ll try to set the stage for those who aren’t aware. Little girls love princesses. Disney knows this. Or maybe Disney created this. It’s all a little foggy to me. What I do know is that someone somewhere is making a ton of money off of this phenomenon. And it’s not me. The Mecca for all this princess worship is Cinderella’s castle in the Magic kingdom where little girls (as well as some big girls and boys) can meet Cinderella herself, eat breakfast, and visit with all the rest of the princesses in the Disney arsenal. To say that it is expertly done, is an understatement. The wise folks at Disney have it all down to a science. First up: meeting the big lady herself.

“Hey Cindi! What’s up? Nice shoes. Mom made me wear these more “sensible” ones. Gotta protect those arches, ya know?”

“Look we’re twins!”

“Geez Belle. A little cas', don’t you think? You couldn’t bust out the yellow dress for your guests? I mean you don't see my girl Cindi traipsing around the castle in her pre-ball attire, do you? A little effort here please”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! There is a girl who knows how to dress! Although you’d think you’d be able to crank a dwarf or two out of bed to greet some guests. I got my Tia out of bed for this, and she’s the Sleepiest dwarf of all!”

“Oh man Jas, my Tia almost wore the same thing! THAT would have been embarrassing.”

Ok we have to take a little break from Ella’s thoughts to give some adult commentary on this particular princess. Aurora. You might know her as Sleeping Beauty. One thing that little kids can do in the park is carry around an autograph book and get characters they meet to give them an autograph. It’s neat for the kids, and fun for the adults to watch Mickey try to master a pen with those big mitts on. When we met the Fairy Godmother I was impressed with her autograph and wondered if that was part of the audition process. It might be, but spelling is clearly not a prerequisite since Sleeping Beauty misspelled Aurora. No lie. I mean seriously lady. You have a limited scope of responsibilities here. Smile, have your picture taken, AND SIGN YOUR NAME! It’s not like you were caught off guard by my niece’s request. There were about 100 little girls in the room, all armed with a pen and autograph book. In this economy, you’d think she’d at least try to guarantee her job security by mastering A-U-R-O-R-A.

Even with the spelling mishap, I think we all enjoyed the princess breakfast. Even the HSH. More so because the food was good, but whatevs. To each their own.

More later, after a costume change.