After writing about our recent wonderful character experience with Stitch, it reminded me of one of our most memorable Character experiences.
It was my husband’s and 2 oldest kids first trip to Disneyworld (I had been before and they’d been to Disneyland several times – We were there for our Daughter’s 5th Birthday!). Back when we only had 2 kids! We were walking around Epcot and spotted Sleeping Beauty with no line. SWEET! A Princess without a line?!?! (she was kind of hidden, and if you didn’t know already, Epcot is the BEST place to meet characters, little to no lines with most characters!)
My daughter is Autistic (was? She no longer shows signs educationally speaking! YAY! She is now in 8th grade and no educational signs of Autism!) and at that point didn’t really know/understand how to respond to questions, especially open-ended questions. She had a hard time communicating with people who didn’t understand how she communicated. This wasn’t a problem with the full costume characters, like Mickey, Minnie, etc., but the Princesses can actually talk to the kids. I was a bit nervous since she started to ask her some questions, I thought I would have to step in and explain that she didn’t understand how to communicate to questions.
The magical thing was, I didn’t have to step in. The Princess figured it out and improvised. She simply smiled and started dancing with our daughter. She was so happy – dancing with a Princess! To this day, it still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. It was one of the most magical memories we have at Disney. Out of all our Character encounters, this is one that I can remember most vividly (I think the Stitch one will be like this too). Part of me wishes I had taken video of it, but I am happy I can remember it so well (and we do have pictures at least!). I doubt this Sleeping Beauty knows what a magical memory she made for us by simply understanding, not freaking out over a kid that wouldn’t communicate, and just embracing her and dancing away with her.
I think it is things like this that keep us coming back year after year. Not only do we have a fun time together as a family, but we create magical memories that we a cherish for a lifetime.
