Sorry the posting took so long. Coming home from a vacation is exhausting and any leisure time I have had I just wanted to spent resting or hanging out with my husband whom I hadn’t seen for a week. There was so much fun and good times it will be hard to sum up the rest of our trip, but I’ll try.
One of the hardest things to do at Disney (for me at least) is to sit still. There is always something to do and I feel like I have to experience everything during the vacation. Serenity was right there with me wanting to get up early and stay out late. One of Serenity’s favorite things was to talk to Mickey in our morning wake-up call. No one else was allowed to answer that call. My mom frowned each time we asked for an early morning wake-up call. (6am or 7am depending if a park had early hours that day) She could not understand the need to be there as the park opened. Mom just did not understand that the best hours are when the park first opens. By the middle of our vacation as my feet were screaming at me that I had tortured them enough, I looked down at Serenity, my five year old that has been keeping up with me step for step and ride for ride. I realized that maybe she was tired as well. I could tell she was not going to give in first and suggest she rest. So it was my job as the grown-up and utters the words that I never thought I would speak at Disney World, “Do you want to go back to the hotel early and rest.” It was heart breaking for her to think that there was all this fun there was to be had and us going back to the hotel to rest, but my poor worn out child looked up at me and just nodded. I don’t think she could even form the words. One thing that helped was staying at a Disney Resort. Serenity felt like she was not leaving Disney when we went back to the hotel. Towards the end of our vacation she was ready to stay late to make sure she got everything she could in before we left.
I was glad that I remembered that many of the little girls dress up as Disney Princess at the parks. I made sure to pack all her Disney Princess outfits. At first she was just excited to be allowed to wear her dress-up stuff in public, but once in the park everyone address her as princess or your majesty. They would bow and sometimes she would be given Disney pins for free. (The Disney souvenir pins are big at Disney right now; we got her more to be a surprise for her birthday in April) Serenity got a little bit of a big head about it, but luckily she did not bring it home with her. She even tried to proclaim that it got a little annoying to be called princess. I told her I would tell everybody to stop then if it was so annoying, she then decided to shut up about it being annoying.
Serenity was real nervous about the rides in the beginning but by the end of the week her favorite rides were Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. She loved the roller coasters. Her most exciting and favorite event had to be the Disney Princess Lunch. She enjoyed that even more than the Mickey Character breakfast. The princesses are the thing almost every little girl dreams of and to meet them and talk with them (something Mickey and friends are not able to do) was heaven for her. Getting her to stop talking to them was hard, she liked having their attention. I tried explaining that the princess had to greet all the other little girls here, but the look she gave me said “I could care less about those other little girls at this moment.” She did not say it out loud but trust me that was what she was thinking.
I wish that I could convey the excitement, enthusiasm, and joy that I witness in Serenity, but I would not be able to do it justice. This trip is my best Disney World vacation. To watch your child see Disney for the first time was for better than any of my own experiences there. She cried as we left that Saturday afternoon. I wanted to cry with her. Serenity is already planning her next trip there. She was just asking me last night how long I thought it would be before we went back. I told her it would probably be after Savannah turned five and we could all go together. She was horrified. Serenity told me she could not possible wait that long.