Cinderella's Happily Ever After

One reservation that we did not get was to Cinderella's Royal Table (at the Magic Kingdom). At first I was disappointed, but after our wonderful experience at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian I didn't think about it for even a second more.

On Kyrie's birthday, we left the Animal Kingdom mid-afternoon to make our dining reservations at the Grand Floridian. This hotel is gorgeous, and I immediately felt out of place in my day-worn clothes. Thankfully, I had brought a change of clothes for both the kids. Soon more families gathered in the lobby and most of the parents were in typical tourist garb, but many of the girls were done up fancily with up-dos, princess dresses and glitter everywhere. (I had considered bringing Kyrie's princess dresses, but opted out as our luggage filled up quickly and the dresses would take up more room than their practicality.) Kyrie was wearing a sweet, yellow dress and didn't even comment that she was not wearing a princess dress. (Whew!)

The Happily Ever After dinner featured most of the main characters from Cinderella, including: the evil step-mother, the ugly step-sisters, Prince Charming and, of course, Cinderella.

Kyrie was first in line for this parade around the restaurant and had lots of fun dancing with one of the step-sisters!

Each character was announced as they came to the dining floor and began to travel from table to table. I was highly impressed with how much time and attention each character gave to each table. When they came to see us, I never felt rushed or like they had to rush off to attend to other tables.

When the first characters started coming around Degen was only interested in his food, but as soon as Prince Charming said good-bye to Kyrie he said, "Hug, too. Hug, too." So, I took Degen over and got this quick picture of Degen getting a hug from Prince Charming. It was very sweet! After that, he wanted to be in on all the character interactions.

Everyone spent a lot of time talking to Kyrie and made the interaction personal and meaningful. This was an absolute wonderful way to end her birthday!

Kyrie got her kiss from Prince Charming, and Degen got his kiss from Cinderella! (Actually, she gave each kid a kiss!) It was super-cute because Degen went toward her looking for a lip-lock and she had to grab his little head and plant one on his forehead.

She was absolutely ecstatic by the end of the meal!

Our meal ended with giant, birthday cupcakes and a huge banana split for us all to share! Celebrating your birthday(s) at Walt Disney World is a lot of fun! Everywhere we went, people told us 'happy birthday' and almost all our meals included a birthday cupcake.

Kyrie added candy to her already delectable birthday cupcake!