With our first character greeting at Animal Kingdom a complete success, I hoped our scheduled meet and greets in the Magic Kingdom would go equally well. I knew Miss O loved Minnie and Mickey, but I wasn’t sure she was over her uneasiness around costumed characters. I had FastPasses for both days in the park at Fairytale Hall and a park plan that included as many characters as I thought she’d want to see. What I wasn’t sure of were the lines, the weather and our patience holding out.

As we started our first day in the Magic Kingdom, Miss O was all about getting more autographs. Luckily, I was able to score FastPasses for meeting Tiana and Rapunzel at Fairytale Hall mid-morning, right at the same time I had FastPasses for the rest of our group to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I heard the line would be really long and even with a FastPass+, we could be waiting 10 or 15 minutes, so I figured it would be a nice break in the shade and air conditioning. I was a little nervous that the long wait would grate on Miss O, but she did really well waiting for Pocahontas the day before, and that was outside after a very full day in the park. I hoped her excitement would be enough to keep her in line.

We entered Fairytale Hall and walked all the way to the front of the corridor to a little velvet rope attached to a little podium. There was no one else in the line! Thank you FastPass+ Pixie Dust! I knew I needed to be ready to go, so while we waited, I crouched down and dug our autograph banner out of our park bag along with the green marker we chose for Tiana, since we knew she was first. I had barely pulled out the marker when I heard, “Ready Princess?” and realized the cast member was talking to Miss O. Less than five minutes!

I hastily shoved the rest of our things back in our park bag, tucked the banner under my elbow and shoved the marker in my pocket so I could hold the hand Miss O automatically extended towards me. I could tell she was excited, but still a little nervous.

As we walked through the door, I was not prepared for the wave of emotion that hit me. This was a very different experience than the casual meeting with Pocahontas at Character Landing. This was so much more formal and so…magical. Flashbulbs kept going off and the Princesses were definitely showcased in a more formal way. These women and photographers were moving from one interaction to another seamlessly. It was definitely a process, but it hardly felt like one.

Miss O was smiling so big I thought she’d pop. Tiana was ready before I was and was so gracious in telling me to take my time. I’m constantly aware that there are other people around and didn’t want to be that mom holding up the line. Tiana focused 100% on Miss O and had not one care in this world. She asked if Miss O had ever had a beignet and Miss O’s face lit up because she has and she LOVES them. Tiana invited her to make some together next time and Miss O almost died. Her face was priceless and we got some amazing photos. I suddenly wished Hubs was with us so he could share it with us. OMG – this is why everyone loves this!

After dutifully scanning my Magic Band for the PhotoPass Photographer, we were ushered on to Rapunzel’s area about 10 feet over. Rapunzel is one of our favorites and we were wearing the Tangled shirts I’d chosen just for this day. After a very enthusiastic hello, Rapunzel noticed our shirts. She said, “Am I on your shirt?!” Huge smile from all of us. Pascal was on Miss O’s shirt, so Rapunzel launched into a story about teaching Pascal to paint. Miss O was completely rapt and I was trying not to squee out loud and completely lose my composure as a grown woman. Miss O and I left Fairytale Hall giggling madly on what was truly the Best. Day. Ever.

Our visit with Tiana and Rapunzel took way less time than I thought it would, and our family was still on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I didn’t really have a plan for meeting characters the rest of the day, mostly because I wasn’t sure what Miss O would want to do. I had FastPasses for Cinderella and Elena on Friday, our second day in the Magic Kingdom.  I knew if Miss O liked the whole meet and greet thing, she’d definitely want to meet them, but I hadn’t planned on making meet and greets a priority. It turned out Miss O was all about meeting more Princesses.

I let Miss O know that any other meet and greets that day would depend on our moods and how long we were willing to wait. She agreed and we decided to try a visit with Ariel in her Grotto since we were already so close. We checked the Disney App for the current wait and saw a 10-minute wait. We decided to go for it and got into line. I’m pretty sure that wait grew to 20 minutes, but we were in the shade and still had patience. Miss O did an amazing job waiting and we made a game out of finding interesting shells embedded in the floor. Our turn came soon enough and Ariel was definitely worth the wait! She was super cute, kind and, as Miss O said, “her tail was soooo sparkly.” With one more autograph on our banner and a quick “Splash you later!” we said goodbye to Ariel.

We were off to an excellent start with our banner by then and I had FastPasses for more meet and greets during our next day at the Magic Kingdom on Friday, so we took a break from autograph collecting and rejoined our family for some more rides.

I could not have wished for a better day in Magic Kingdom and I was so proud of Miss O! Not only did she hold on to the magic, she was patient while waiting and more brave than I expected. My shy girl really likes meeting Princesses!

The next morning we had a character breakfast scheduled at Akershus in Epcot and a planned visit with Anna and Elsa. With Miss O’s motivation to collect autographs so high, I suspected we’d have to pay a little bit more attention to the other Princesses’ scheduled times in Epcot as well!