One thing to know about me is that I am a huge Disney fan and have been my whole life. Sometimes people don't seem to understand my love for Disney and that's totally fine, but Disney truly is my "happy place" and I try as hard as I can to make it down there at least once a year. It keeps me sane and I love getting swept up into the magic of it all.
To start off our trip we went to Downtown Disney Marketplace and got to spend quality time with two of my friends that I haven't seen for 15 years. We hit it off as if no time had been spared between us and Arley warmed up to them immediately which is kind of unheard of for her.
I took her to Once Upon a Toy where I bought her some Disney themed Mr. Potato Head pieces that I had been eyeing online for months. (Thank you Auntie Debbie!) And we had a bite to eat at my favorite joint Earl of Sandwich. I was very disappointed to find out they no longer make their "Cannonball" sandwich (meatball), however I did find a brand new love for their BBQ chicken sandwich.
We then went shopping at their Christmas shop and I purchased some new ornaments for our tree and even got one personalized for Arley. After a while we went back to our resort to watch the Pretty Little Liars Christmas episode, munch on some pizza and then went to bed to prepare for our first park the next day...
...While waiting to be picked up by my long time family friend George, and to head off to Universal, Arley and I hung out in the lobby until he arrived and watched as a group of young girls stood in a circle and tossed around a stuffed Stitch as if playing a game of hot potato.
Arley watched them very closely and one of the girls asked her if she wanted to play to which she replied "No I'm fine." After a few more minutes of playing the girls stopped and crowded around Arley and asked her her name, how old she was and interacted with her. Cue the instant water works.
One of the moms announced that their bus had arrived and one by one the girls each hugged Arley goodbye. This made me cry harder and one of the moms had the brilliant idea of taking a photo of the girls with Arley in front of the lobby Christmas tree. Another mom came over to me and said how beautiful Arley was and I told her that all of those girls were beautiful because Arley has cancer and usually kids stare at her and make her feel awkward because she doesn't have any hair or they ask whats wrong with her, but none of the girls did that, just treated her like a normal 3 year old.
One of the girls overheard me talking to the mom and came right up to me after their photo and told me how adorable Arley was and that she is sorry she is sick, but that she looks great and she hope she feels better soon. How brave of that girl to do that. Warmed my heart even more and just made me cry harder on the inside. I hope those girls know just how truly wonderful they are to have shared such an immediate bond with Arley...
Not too long after that George arrived and we headed off to Universal Studios to spend the day there to explore Diagon Alley and the rest of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Admittedly I am not much a fan of Harry Potter, and even I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the hard work that George and his team put into bringing the stories and movies to life. You all should be proud of yourselves!
(Side note: I think I am going to start reading the series before I start with the movies because I am truly intrigued now that I have seen everything up close)
We had a blast walking around between both parks and took a break to watch the Macy's parade and Arley got to go on her very first park ride, ET! Which just so happens to be the last remaining original ride at Universal.
It was a great visit as it was Arley's first and had been six years since I was there last. Thank you so much George for your generosity and for being a fabulous host! We appreciate it so much!
Day three of our trip consisted of going to Magic Kingdom which is always my favorite park out of all of them. Especially since there are more rides for Arley to enjoy at such a young age than any other park. The number one ride she had been dying to go on for weeks was Dumbo. Thankfully we scored a FastPass for it so she didn't have to wait too long.
Then we were off to lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant which is absolutely fabulous if I do say so myself. The spaghetti and meatballs were delicious. After lunch we headed to some meet & greets with the characters. We met Anna & Elsa from Frozen, got to have a conversation with the new talking Mickey, met Tinkerbell and Buzz Lightyear too.
Further along into our day the second tear jerker moment occurred. We were having dinner at The Crystal Palace which is a character meet & greet with Winnie the Pooh and friends. While the food wasn't as good as Tony's the experience itself was something to cherish for a lifetime.
After Arley met Winnie, Tigger, Piglet & Eeyore, I asked the waitress for our bill. She came back with a card signed by all the characters and a note left by someone wishing us a "Merry Christmas and your bill has been paid for in full." I was completely rendered speechless as to someones kindness and generosity to do that for us especially since The Crystal Palace is an expensive meal. The waterworks began to overflow again and I hope that wherever in the world this person is that did this for us, is showered with tons of good karma!
At this point I am completely blown away by all the magic that has been surrounding us since we got here. It's as if people have been holding onto special Pixie Dust and have been sprinkling it all around wherever we go.
Next we went on a few more rides and did a few more meet and greets before it was time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We didn't stay for the whole event because it was extremely cold that night and we missed the entire parade because of it, however we did see Mickey & Friends perform as well as Elsa lighting up the castle.
Our last day consisted of a trip to Hollywood Studios so that Arley could meet some of her Disney Jr friends and have dinner with them. We got FastPasses to Toy Story Mania which turned out to be her second favorite ride and we went on it twice back to back. Seeing her face light up as we spun around and played the game made it all so worth it.
Then we went over to the Disney Junior sound stage and watched the performance of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc Mcstuffins and Jake & The Neverland Pirates. Arley was so mesmerized by seeing her favorite TV characters come to life and sing the songs they do on the show.
After that we got in line to meet Chip & Dale and then Pluto. As we were waiting in line for Pluto we were told that he was leaving and wouldn't be returning, but was being replaced by Donald and Daisy. As we were gathering up our things to head off somewhere else, a cast member approached me and told me to follow him where he took us to a private area to meet Pluto since we had been waiting in line.
I then got to talking with one of the cast members about how we were supposed to have a character dinner meal with Doc Mcstuffins and a few other Disney Junior characters when she informed me that they are only available for breakfast and lunch not dinner. Needless to say I was a little heartbroken because we were originally going to have dinner with Cinderella, but because an opening for Hollywood & Vine popped up I took it without realizing that the Disney Jr characters wouldn't be there.
I went over to Hollywood & Vine and spoke to the manager because I wanted to cancel our reservation and not get charged for it and asked if she could call over to the Grand Floridian and see if we could get our previous reservation back and thankfully she did, but we had to make our way over there asap.
(Now this is where the major waterworks and the true Disney magic came to life)
We made our way over to the Grand Floridian and their character meal with Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare. Once inside we noticed that Prince Charming was making his way close to our table.
He fell completely head over heels in love with Arley and it was the most sweetest thing I have ever witnessed. He told Arley that she was the most beautiful princess in all of the land next to Cinderella of course. He taught Arley how to dance (on his feet) and spun her around and even dipped her.
He even went to find Cinderella and bring her over so that she could meet the new Princess in town. That wasn't it though, Prince Charming had a few other ideas up his sleeve too. One of the cast members came over and said that Cinderella and Prince Charming were requesting our royal presence outside on the balcony and Arley had her own special private meet and greet with them.
Once back inside I was told that Prince Charming had one more special thing awaiting us and he brought over the chef and a special dessert just for us.
To know that everyone went above and beyond to make Arleys night special is amazing. I plan to print out some of these photos and write a letter to the President & CEO of Disney to let them know just how truly touched we were for this visit and how we were literally treated like royalty wherever we went. Again, I have been to Disney many times in my life time, but this visit seriously takes the cake on all of them. I sincerely hope that Cinderella and Prince Charming know how much of an impact they made on both Arley & I. It was all she could talk about to anyone she came in contact with at the resort and airport.
I am so impressed and literally don't have any more words to express with how magical this vacation was for us. It came at just the right time and offered just the right amount of magic to last us until our next visit. Thank you so much to everyone who played a role in allowing Arley and I to have this vacation and to create these everlasting memories.
Absolutely amazing and so deserved Ashley!
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