Becoming A Real Princess

This will forever be known as the day my daughter became an official Disney Princess!

I managed to snag us a spot for the coveted Royal Court Royal Tea Party, and one could not simply just arrive at a tea party with princesses in normal attire. Oh no! One must arrive in her very best, and that meant one thing... reservations at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!

To start off our Mother/Daughter day we went to a Frozen gathering to meet Anna and Elsa, and then it was right upstairs to the boutique! We got there a little early and immediately began the transformation process.  First we had to chose which package. Katura's closet is full of princess gowns, but with this being such a special trip I decided to leave her dresses at home and let her pick out a new gown on the ship. Well obviously you need new glass slippers if you have a new princess gown, right?!? Next was hair. What style - a Frozen hairstyle with fake hair, or real styling with her own hair. We chose real hair. The Frozen hair just looked corny to me.

Now that we had it all settled and paid for we walked through the boutique looking at all of the dresses. She kept saying yes to every dress, and then she found THE dress and we all knew THIS was the one she truly wanted. The two of us went into a fabulous dressing room (see the photo at the top) to get her into her new proper attire.

Up in the chair, and on with the shoes... they light up, too!

Virginia, from Italy, was her Fairy Godmother In Training. We all really liked her, especially Katura! Virginia kept Katura's back to the mirror, getting her in the official salon cape, and started working on her hair. Katura chose what she wanted - a bun, with the back of her hair still down and long.

To get the bun started Katura was temporarily a unicorn?? She thought this was hilarious, but said this is not how a princess looks and she couldn't go out like that. Funny girl.

On went the donut over the unicorn spike, and down came the hair. I always wondered how they mode those buns look so perfect. Now I know -- and I still have the little donut so we can do this at home on our own!

With the hair all done naturally she needed her little tiara. Not only did she have that in front, but she also had a sparkly Mickey Mouse clip on the back of her head. There is nothing they didn't think of.

Next time for nails. Katura loved everything Virginia did and said, and getting her nails done was a highlight. She took very good care of them and wouldn't touch anything for a very long time after. Why can't she do that at home when I paint her nails?

Make up - all the girls in the boutique seemed very giddy about having their own makeup that they got to take home.  With a variety of colors to chose from, Katura wanted green and pink for her eye shadow.

She was loving this. She says "all of it" was her favorite in regard to our epic vacation, but I really think this experience was probably at the top of her list.

Now lipstick. She chose red. Good girl!

And last but not least, a little pixie dust to finish it all off! It was during all of this that she and her Fairy Godmother In Training had some semi-private, serious conversations. Notably Virginia let her know that princesses don't kiss anyone until they are 35! It was then that Katura let it slip that she kissed Beckett -- something she has later denied doing. We may never know!

Virginia also let Katura know that she cannot wish to be beautiful, because she already is. Awwww. It was during all of that that two complete strangers walked through and got the sappy mom tears with me when they saw the big reveal. At the tie of this photo Katura was excited, too nervous to smile, and unaware of what she looked like.

Time to turn around.... and she was actually speechless! She just smiled, almost seeming to be in disbelief that she was a real princess now!

We couldn't leave without a photo of Katura and her new favorite person!

And she wanted to show off the sparkly bow face gem she picked out. Those gems last an impressively long amount of time. Katura was sent home with her nail polish, eye shadow, lip gloss, face wipes to remove the make-up, face gems, a pumpkin carriage necklace, the pink sash, an Elsa purse, fancy snowflake/icy headband and some shampoo - all put in a pink cinch sack back pack.

Let the photo shoots begin! We took advantage of the beautiful decor on the ship because really, how could we not?

I love this staircase! Katura, however, wasn't really feeling like giving me her princess pose. She wanted to get to the kid's club!

One more photo on the way to the room first!

We went around the corner on our way to the stairs and we found Donald Duck! His line was done, no more meet and greets, so she just patiently watched him with other kids. He kept looking at her. She just wanted to wave Hi as he left. Well Donald had other plans! First a big hug, and then he grabbed her little had and they went for their own walk just the two of them. Seriously?? Dang Disney Cruise Line, you did it again! So many sappy mom tears from me!

This dress came off pretty quick. In that photo with Donald you can see her Elsa purse she got with her dress. As part of that dress and the package we chose she also got the very nice, sturdy headband you can see in the finished outfit photos. I'd say all of the items we left with her top quality! And these all came back on later in the day for the tea party, but you will have to wait and read about that one next time!

DCL: Embarkation Day - Let the Fun Begin!

Welcome back! Ready for this? I promise lots of photo and not too much talking .... I hope! We left off last time with getting in our cabin. So here we are - testing out the porthole accommodations. Quite comfy, and I promise Katura wasn't the only one to spend time sitting in that window! After taking photos of every inch of our room we were ready to head to a meet and greet for those of us in the private Facebook group for this sailing. I was taking my girl to yet another bar!

We let her be our guide down the hallways. Aww, I miss that hall already. I'm happy they are narrow - because when you mix a girl with Meniere's Disease and a ship in the ocean - well I was all over those walls! But it was also fun so I totally didn't care.

Here's a photo of a cute girl and a cute mouse.

We visited Pub 687 for the private meet and greet gathering for those of us in the Facebook group for this sailing. Our time there was pretty brief since we wanted to explore the ship and get ice cream! But I met a couple people, helped them with their Bingo game, collected our bracelets and got some photos -- all while these two played checkers!

Back in the atrium we stopped to look at - and SMELL - the gingerbread house. So delicious! And who came by? None other than Katura's Disney bestie, Pluto!

We also made it a point to go to the open house for the Oceaneer's Club. This is where Katura could go play with other kids without any parents around. She loved it! She had a lot of fun during open house and then made multiple visits throughout the cruise. Here are some photos of just parts of it. It takes up so much of deck 5, its super cool!

The kids cannot even start their play time until they have washed their hands. Check this out - they just put their hands into those holes and it does all the washing for them! Then they dry them off and they are good to go!

Is that not the cutest bathroom? Those sinks are so low, and so are the toilets!

The Oceaneer's Lab is connected to the Club and has slightly older activities that happen. She was able to freely go back and forth between the two. She could NOT, however, leave the Oceaneer area without one of us. We had to scan our card - which brings up our faces, cabin number, names AND a secret word. We had to give all of this info and then we were allowed to go collect her. Also, as a parent I couldn't go into the bathroom with her until they did a sweep of it and made sure no other kids were there. No adults alone with kids in the potty! Very cool!

She LOVED the hula hoop and cool floor. I had no idea she was so good at hula hooping. She gave a performance for everyone, too!

I had to get in on the fun, too, while the two of us piloted the Millennium Falcon!

Goofy even made an appearance for a dance party!

I'm so sad we never made it back here during our sailing - but there's always next time. Vanellope's! We love Vanellope and she had her own sweet shop up by the pool. It looks and smells so yummy in there!

What we DID make it to was the ice cream machine!

The fun had to come to a pause ... for the mandatory safety meeting. We were lucky and got to have our meeting area be the Walt Disney Theater. Sitting inside versus standing in the sunshine? Yes, please! No photos during that either, but basically we learned how to do our life jackets.

Once the drill was done everyone made their way to the upper decks for the official Sail Away Party! Katura doesn't like things that are loud (I hear ya, girl!) so she didn't want to be down where the party was. Basically the characters come out and dance and kick off the cruise, with the culmination being the loud horn playing a Disney song. It was cute, but you won't die if you miss it. A lot of young people being forced to wear awful fitting, pleated khaki shorts and dance - there, you've watched it.

So I watched the show and wandered around.

Katura and Shawn, believe it or not, did sports things the entire time! 

I tried to insert the video so you could hear the horn. Blogger said no. Let me try to upload to YouTube. Hold please.... 

 I'm officially sailing!! We've left the dock!

 And now that I'm officially on a moving ship... you KNOW a Titanic moment HAD to happen!

And then it was time to join my family in a sunset round of miniature golf - or should we call it Minnie Golf??

And finally the sunset. I knew right then this was going to be a fabulous trip!

Back in our room we found a towel animal wearing my sunglasses - and chocolates! Than, our stateroom attendant, was so cool and very sweet.

I had us change into nice clothes for dinner every night even thought it was not required. It felt appropriate! So we changed and went down to the atrium just in time for the official Christmas tree lighting ceremony!

Rapunzel was coming out after the party, so we slipped into that line for a quick photo!

And then the moment I loved .... forcing them into family photos. They all came out so nice. I was really happy!

Next it was dinner at the Royal Palace. You can read about that here!

After dinner... another photo shoot! The photographers were great. We just stood there and they would tell us how to pose!

Yeah, I did that. How could I not climb in a window??

Another event we happened to end up at was the welcoming of Santa and Mrs. Claus! We had good timing. Katura was able to get very close by sitting in a zone marked off just for kids. She had fun with that and we snatched her up at the end so she didn't feel lost in the sea of people. SEA of people - get it?!

The atrium was VERY excited when two sisters arrived to make it snow!

And finally it ended with dancing. Katura finished off her night dancing with Dale AND Pluto! She's one lucky little girl!

And that's the end of day 1. Walt Disney World. Traveling. Boarding a ship. Deck parties. Sports. Desserts. Drinks. Dancing. Characters. Snow. What more could we ask for? OH!! And remember that post about delivering our Fish Extender gifts? That happened after allllll of this!! Talk about a busy day!