Dining with Cinderella & friends, etc.

Yesterday, I talked about our trip to Florida and some of the fun people we met along the way. Today, I’m going to share about our first day in Florida ---
We arrived in Kissimmee, FL last Saturday.  We met up with my dear friend Becky and her family (no pictures from that meeting, unfortunately, but I’ll share others later), then went to check into our hotel.  Because we were going for business purposes later in the week, my boss had arranged for us to be in a resort from Sunday – Sunday.  That meant we only need to spend one night in a hotel.  I chose the Day Inn Main Gate (beside Old Town) because we have stayed there in the past and I’m familiar with the area/location.  We were sorely disappointed!  The hotel is very rundown – paint is peeling on the doors which makes you wonder what you might find inside – torn carpet, holes in the sheets and bedspreads (which I always remove immediately anyway), and just all-around-dirty.  Ugh!  Needless to say, we were all pretty thankful that we had schedule a character dining experience for Saturday evening!  We couldn’t wait to get cleaned up and get out of there! 
We had a 7:10 reservation at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.  Ashley picked this meal, as she’s always been impressed by the G.F. and Cinderella is her favorite princess.  As is the case with all Disney dining we’ve done, we were pretty impressed!
We arrived at the Grand Floridian early – that was the plan – because we wanted to look around a bit and take some pictures.  This place is just beyond gorgeous!  We’ve always been impressed when we’ve seen it from the monorail, and it’s even more impressive up close.

We decided we would just pretend – for the evening – that we were staying here!  Fun!  We enjoyed looking around the lobby and browsing the gift shop.  I even let down my guard a bit and allowed Ian to try on some hats (the majority of my pictures are posted on my FB account – if you’re a FB friend, you can see more pictures there).

We checked in early and were glad to be seated right away.  Some of the characters were making their way toward our table so we ordered our drinks and waited before checking out the buffet.  Prince Charming was the first to make it to our table.  What a nice guy!  The kids were excited to pose for their first character greeting this year, and anxiously awaiting meeting Cinderella, who was coming around next.

Cinderella was just as pretty and sweet as you would expect her to be – a real princess in every way.  And doesn’t my Ian look like a little prince?!
The wicked stepmother – aka Lady Tremain – didn’t think so.  She gave him a stern talking to about using better table manners.  He listened too!

We’re all wondering how long it took her to get that evil stare down!  Seriously, though, under that nasty exterior, she was a very pretty person!

Drizella and Anastasia were the last to come through to meet us.  They were hilarious.  Very friendly and funny.  We got a kick out of meeting them.

Though we probably wouldn’t do this particular character meal again, I’d definitely recommend it.  The food was delicious – their menu is made up of various items from around the world. They had an amazing strawberry soup, but it’s not as good as those big, juicy and sweet Florida/Disney berries (love those!)  Surprisingly enough, I think my favorite thing was the Asian Beef Stir-Fry.  Gracie loved the Chicken Coq Au Vin from France, while Ashley liked the good old fashioned Mashed Potatoes from the Kids’ Station (LOL).  What do you think Ian enjoyed most?  Even the iced tea was among the best I’ve tasted in awhile.
Disney just does everything in an amazing way!  I want to work there.  And, I’ve filled this post with just the character meal alone.  I guess I’ll post about the rest of our first evening later. 
FYI: To those who are interested in participating in the Destination Disney meme, Becky and I have a nice line-up of topics and plan to start the meme back up this coming Monday, June 7th.  Be sure to stop by and take part in this fun meme!