Thursday: Day Five – “So, we hear you tap…”

This morning, we got up super early to go back to Magic Kingdom and meet the Tangled characters, which was successful. Other than the whole “Flynn/Finn” thing. So, we’re standing in line and this guy comes up to near where we are in a motorized wheelchair thingy and the title on the front says “Rick”. I don’t know why we thought this was funny, but, because Dad couldn’t remember the names of the characters we were meeting, he kept calling them, “Flynn, Finn, Eugene, Handy Bob” and then added, “Scooter Rick” to the end of that list. Anyway, we left Magic Kingdom to go to Epcot, where the plan was to meet characters for the day, so that we could actually enjoy Epcot on Friday (when we had brunch there). Mom decided that she was celebrating her birthday starting on Thursday, so she wore her button and everybody told her happy birthday. We took the Monorail to Epcot, where we whisked around the world to meet Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Jasmine, Mulan, and Snow White. Marie, the cat from the Aristocats, was also out; her handler said that kids either tend to think that she’s the Easter Bunny (yup, in December) or Hello Kitty. We then got in line to see the Candlelight Processional, narrated by Jodi Benson… yes, for those of you un-Disney initiated, that’s the woman who voiced Ariel of the Little Mermaid. The show was stunning. We left the park to change clothes and go to dinner.

Our dinner was at another restaurant at the Grand Floridian resort called 1900 Park Faire. Here, you can meet various Cinderella characters, which was super exciting for me. We were the last dinner seating, at 8.50pm, so, we’re pretty sure that the people who were dressed as characters were just thrilled to be almost done. We get seated and Mom, Allie, and I go to get food, thinking, well, there aren’t really any characters around at the moment. Before we can get back Druisella, one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, makes it to our table. She hung out for a long time, just chatting, bad mouthing Cinderella. We learned that Allie is most like her, as she is bossy, the youngest, and clearly the perfect child, and that Allie and I have a bit as we often answer questions at the same time. She left and Dad went to get food. Cinderella showed up while Dad was gone. Then Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s stepmother, came by. Anastasia came by, the other stepsister, and we told her some of the less flattering things her sister had said about her, which she vehemently denied. And she asked who we were waiting on to meet. Prince Charming, was our obvious answer… to which she said it wasn’t worth it. Not much going on upstairs. She left and, while we were waiting, Druisella came back by. We’re pretty sure she was just glad to have adults to talk to, because she just hung out for awhile. She told us to ask Charming, when he came by that we’d heard that he was an excellent tap dancer. Prince Charming finally makes it around to our table and, I’m getting ready to stand up to get my picture taken and these bells go off. He says, “Do you hear those bells? I must go waltz. Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” I sat. There was waltzing. Then Charming came back. We get ready to start taking pictures and Dad goes, “So, we hear you tap.” The guy’s face goes absolutely blank. Then he asks who told us that. It was hilarious. We took pictures and almost immediately decided that that’s the way to begin any awkward conversation.