Dining with the Princesses

Everyone who goes to Disney has a dream or wish that they would like to eat in Cinderella's Castle and dine with the princesses.  It is a fun magical experience, but also not a cheap one.  If you are on the dining plan it requires 2 of your table service credits.  The first time we ate at Cinderella's Royal Table was on our first trip to WDW and it was a truly magical experience and we enjoyed every minute of it.  We did not use our table service credits- we did a breakfast and paid out of pocket (2 adults and 1 child our youngest was only 7 months old) and we paid about $95.  I know that is an expensive breakfast, but keep in mind you are paying for the experience and we calculated that paying for it made more sense than giving up 2 table service credits each.  We have dined here several other times, but have also tried the Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus in Norway at Epcot and have found we enjoy the food here better and the Princess interaction is the same (the one downside is Cinderella may or may not be here).  The breakfast at Akershus is only one table service credit which is one reason we tried it.  You get a free photo package with both meals at Cinderella's Royal Table it is always with Cinderella and Akershus it seems to usually be Belle but I have also heard that sometimes it is Princess Aurora.  Both of these restaraunts also do lunch and dinner with the princesses if you are not interested in breakfast.  We prefer to do breakfast it just seems to fit with our schedule better.  The girls get dressesed in the princess attire we head to breakfast then when they get tired of wearing the dresses we go and change into the change of clothes I brought them and hang the dresses in a bag on our stroller.

My girls with Cinderella at Cinderella's Royal Table

My girls with Belle at the Princess Storybook breakfast at Akershus

the photos above are the pictures that were taken by the Disney Photopass photographer and included with the price of our meal


they take the photo on your way to your table and then towards the end of the meal they bring your photo package to you at your table you will receive a 6x8 and 4 4x6 of the photo that Disney decides looked the best

if you are still trying to decide if you want to do this experience or which restaurant to choose click here to read another bloggers review of their experience at Cinderella's Royal Table

Flower and Garden Festival

Just wanted to let everyone know that Epcot's annual Flower and Garden Festival kicked off this past week and will run until May 16th.  This is a really fun time to visit Epcot.  Our family has been twice during the flower and Garden festival and my 2 girls have loved it.  It is so much fun just to stroll around and see all the different topiaries of Disney Characters.  Each year they have a different theme and several different topiaries (I have noticed that some are also the same from year to year however still fun to see again!)  There also several very innovative playgrounds set up around the park, a butterfly garden and last year they added a Pixie Hollow tinker bell garden which I have heard has been expanded this year. We would be going again but they have changed to dates this year to where the festival has started earlier so it will end earlier and there is just not a good way to go with out my daughter missing school.

If you are interested in more details about this years Flower and Garden Festival be sure to go and check out Allears and right on the main page you will find some great links to all sorts of information and pictures.

Cupcakes- Mickey birthday party

As you probablly know if you read this blog much that we are pretty immersed in Disney. We travel to WDW a couple times a year, we love Disney movies, pretty much anything Disney we like. My 4 year old wanted a Valentine Mickey birthday party this year (she was born on Valentine's day). These are the cupcakes I came up with this year! I thought that they turned out pretty cute so I wanted to share them. The Mickey ears I made out of dark chocolate by putting wax paper over a template I had printed from a disney font I use and then used a piping bag adn piped the chocolate onto to wax paper and put in the fridge to harden. The hearts are sugar cookies with a royal icing. I make some shape of these cookies every year for my daughters birthday parties it is a birthday tradition at our house. The polka dots are made from the same icing as on the sugar cookie they were piped onto wax paper and I let them harden for 2 days.


Here is a picture of one of the cupcakes I made for her birthday last year.  We did a mickey only theme last year so I did not have the pink incorporated.  This would be a good one to make if you had a little boy who wanted a Mickey Mouse party.  The star is a sugar cookie the same as the heart on the cupcake from this year except I used a mini cookie cutter and the Mickey ears on this on I used a Mickey craft punch and glued a toothpick between to punch out Mickey ears.  The polka dots are the royal icing again as on the sugar cookie This cupcake I would say is a bit simpler just because the Mickey ears are much less time intensive and the cookies are smaller so not as much icing to be done.

I think both cupcakes turned out very cute and were definitely a hit at the parties.  However if I had to choose a favorite it would be the valentine mickey one I really love how the heart cookie turned out and the chocolate mickey was just a fun extra touch.  My Daughter who is turning 7 in the spring has already asked to have a Minnie Mouse party so I have begun brainstorming her cupcakes and I am thinking red icing with white polka dots just like Minnie's dress.  I am excited about them I will definitely post pictures up here in April after the party!


Also if you want recipes for any of the parts just leave a comment and I will get them to you

Disney Deals

I have not done extensive research on the current deals but while I was looking through an e-mail from mouse savers it looks as if there are some deals out there for some date through out the summer.  If you are interested you should go check out mousesavers.com I will say this site is sometimes hard to navigate and figure out I am hoping to have time in the next day or two to look more closely at the deals and booking codes and get a post up here for you.

Just wanted to get the info as quickly as possible to you in case you did not want to wait on me......

Disney Birthday

There is nothing like having a birthday at Disney.  I spent my 30th birthday at Disney this past October and had a lot of fun.  It was also the first time my Husband and I had done Disney World together with out our kids.  I will touch on that aspect another day.  You will feel so extra special when you walk around the Disney parks and hear birthday wishes all day long.  Cupcakes, candles and singing at your dinners.

 I really enjoyed this trip, but did not realize I could go on a more exciting birthday trip to Disney until we took my youngest daughter who was turning 4 on a Disney Birthday trip.  She loved it!  She kept thanking us over and over for bring her to have a family birthday at Disney World (which is one of her very favorite places).  She loved wearing her birthday pin with her name on it and hearing everyone wish her happy birthday she was always surprised when they would say her name- it was so cute.

  We decided not to go on her actual birthday we took her the weekend before- we wanted the cheaper prices and less crowds.  Her birthday is on Valentines day which is Presidents Day weekend (one of the worse weekends to go to WDW- they say almost as bad as Christmas and New Years Day)  When making our dining reservations I treated the weekend as if the Sunday we were there was her birthday and booked a Princess Breakfast and dinner at Chef Mickey's (this would be my number one tip if planning a birthday at Disney especially for kids book Character meals for their birthday)  At the breakfast Mackenzie received a birthday card signed by all the princesses.  Then that night at dinner Mickey came out and helped "sing" a birthday song and was right there next to her after she blew out her candle.  Such a magical birthday experience.

I definitely recommend having a Disney birthday sometime!

Disney Outlet Deal 20% OFF

They are already doing it again - here is a code for an additional 20% off all Disney outlet items- BARGAIN20
is the discount code be sure to go check it out and see what you can find- I did notice that things are pretty picked over since they just did a sale in past week or so, but you never know what you might find at a good price you just have to take the time to dig.  The e-mail I received did say they have added some new items-  Good Luck and happy shopping!

deal has expired

Disney Outlet Deal

DISNEY DEAL ALERT

Kids T-shirts and sweat shirts starting at $2.99 and there are also great deals on adult T- shirts- they have a full size run of both Goofy and Donald t-shirts and they are only $4.99 and then the 20% off a great way to get in the Disney spirit for your trip is to where some Disney T-shirts

This deal has expired- will keep you posted about new deals