The part of our trip that I was the most excited about, was Disney World, and it didn’t disappoint! Our days spent at Disney were some of my absolute favorites from the whole trip! We made our plans, we had our ideas, and then we just went with the days. We were a large, slow moving group, but we had the BEST time. We spent our first day at Magic Kingdom, the 2nd day split between Animal Kingdom and Epcot (we basically did Epcot for Frozen), and then the 3rd day, we spent at Hollywood Studios. Each day was epic in its own experience, but Magic Kingdom is always my favorite. Also, this is the only picture we happened to get of all of us. It took us 3 days to realize that we could just go up and ask a Disney photographer to take our picture…so, Galaxy’s Edge for the winning backdrop (it made Uncle Jarrett happy). 🙂
At Disney, we were given what is called a Genie Pass, that, well, basically lets you go to the front of the every line. It identified Brynna as a Wish kid, and brought a lot of extra joy (and made up for how sloooow moving we were around the parks, haha). Because of this gift, Brynna got to ride her FAVORITE ride, Slinky Dog, 5 times in one day. 🙂 Also, that little boot she wore? Well, it was a big fat boot for her broken toe. It gave her the exact amount of height she needed to ride Slinky Dog (and a few other rides). I was heart broken when she broke her toe mere days before we left, but it never bothered her, and ended up being a blessing in disguise!
The Genie Pass also let characters know that she was a Wish kid, and we just had some special one-on-one time with some of them because of it. Towards the end of our Hollywood Studios day, we were getting ready to head out to the car, when Brynna saw Jessie (from Toy Story) and wanted to meet her. We were standing close by, and I saw the huge line of kids waiting to meet Jessie, with the line winding around the corner. I knew we were running out of time, and just told Brynna to wave at Jessie and we would try to see her next time…and then I had a tap on my shoulder and turned around to Jessie’s “handler” (for lack of a better term), who had seen Brynna (and the Genie pass and Wish kid button), and asked if Brynna wanted to go up and meet Jessie. These were some of my favorite pictures of her from the entire trip, she was so giddy and excited!! I had been hesitant to “cut” in line with so many people waiting, but Disney (and all of the theme parks!) truly go out of their way to make the Wish trips an extremely magical experience.
Brynna’s absolute favorite part was meeting her princesses, and she had a cute little fannypack that she carried her notebook and pen in, and watching her pull it out for each autograph is one of my favorite memories. She was just so earnest and adorable and shy and excited and my momma heart was just so, incredibly touched by the way they loved extra special on her.
Snow White was another random, lucky meet. We were wandering around, looking for something, and I happened to wander up where she was standing. Her handler saw the Genie Pass, then Brynna, and said that Snow White was about to leave, but if Brynna wanted to come in, she would stay…and it was the sweetest interaction, and Brynna’s first princess!
My favorite, by far, was Anna. Anna and Elsa were the last 2 princesses we met, and 2 that Brynna had looked forward to for so very long. She was so excited to meet them, and got their autographs, talked with them for a bit, and got some pictures. I thought we might be done when Anna reached into her basket to pull out her own piece of paper and turned to Brynna and said, “You are the bravest, most courageous girl I have met. Now can I please have your autograph?” It was completely unexpected, and so incredibly sweet, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the room (you can see this scene at the end of my dad’s princess video, at the end of the post).
Our days were as messy and chaotic and wonderful, as you can imagine with a total of 5 kids, 6 and under. Brynna’s first day was a rough one for her, and she ended up sleeping through the entire parade. She laughs about it, and my dad recorded it for her, so she (and the boys) love to watch it whenever they get a chance!
Going into the trip, Brynna knew there were 2 things she desperately wanted from Disney – a stuffed Tangled doll, and an Aurora wand. That was it. Nothing else! We found the 2 items together at the end of the first day, and they never left her side after that. She never asked for or wanted anything else and Tangy (her name for the Tangled doll) still sleeps with her every single night. She will forever be a favorite!
The first morning, Brynna came out of her room wearing her Elsa dress…and the second morning, wearing her Ariel dress. She just knew she needed to dress like a princess to meet her princesses! And then she wondered why everyone kept calling her princess. 🙂 It was pretty adorable!
The boys absolutely loved it all too! Wyatt had his first roller coasters, and did SO amazingly well! We had ridden Space Mountain, and he LOVED it. As we were getting off, he excitedly asked if we could ride it again. Then he heard his friend say that it scared her and he immediately said, “Nevermind! Let’s do something else.” Seriously, this boy is something special, and has the biggest heart. His absolute favorite ride was the Yeti roller coaster that we did at least 3 times. 🙂 And Cole just wanted to meet Goofy. 😉 It was so cute watching him wait in line to meet Goofy, just him and Babu. Then all the other kids ran over to join, but Coley just knew Goofy was special. 🙂
My sweet friend Angie made our matching shirts, that said, “A dream is a wish your heart makes,” and we LOVED them!
Overall, our 3 days spent at Disney were as magical as we had hoped. My dad put together 2 videos if you’d like to see them below!
