Meeting Disney Characters and dining with the princesses!

When I first told the girls we were going to Disneyland  their first questions were can we meet Belle and Ariel?  I told Jocelyn we would try our hardest to meet Belle and told Katelyn unfortunately we were unable to meet Ariel because she was not at Disneyland, but at the park next door.  I think she understood, but would randomly say....with her sweet little 4 year old voice...that it would sure be nice to meet Ariel.  I felt so bad.  I looked into ways that maybe I could just spend a little more to buy the park hopper pass...but that was out of my budget...and then to try to do 2 parks in one day...yikes...and then I found out the only way to meet Ariel was to dine at Ariel's Grotto restaurant...which was way out of my budget.  I just kept apologizing and telling her that it wasn't going to happen this time around.  Sean said that if I was going that far to California, I shouldn't just leave something out and regret it...but then I didn't want to leave our friends alone at the first park....anyways...it just wasn't going to happen.  So a few days prior to leaving my friend Emily mentioned...hey didn't I tell you that we were going to be buying park hopper passes?   What!?  Are you kidding me?  She left out that little detail!! I was soooooo excited!  Katelyn was too.  We were able to get hopper tickets for over 1/2 off due to some very special connections that Emily had...very special...so away I went...going way over our budget and reserved the girls' and I a lunch with the princesses...we then wouldn't have to wait in a long line (of sometimes an hour long) to meet Belle and then find out she wasn't the one that was greeting people.  The lunch was WONDERFUL!  The girls were able to meet Ariel.  Were were the last one's of the day, so she spent a little extra time chit chatting with the girls.

Waiting to meet Ariel

 We then were seated on the outside patio ($9.00 cheaper to do that for some reason)... they started us off with a 3 tiered plate of appetizers... YUM!  We all devoured that.

We then had our meals...the girls barely touched theirs...they had chicken on skewers and mac-n-cheese sea shells.  They liked the fruit and fish crackers...I should have gotten a picture of theirs...but here is mine..NY Strip...YUM!

and then there was this dessert tray...it was to die for.  See the sea shell...that was white chocolate...I am still sick to my stomach...because we were so full, we put most of this dessert tray in a to-go box and then I left it the bathroom...and then by the time I remembered the place was closed....ugh!! Oh well...I enjoyed the molten chocolate cake and few bites of the other things...

and then there was this....the 4 other main princesses visited our table...the girls gave them their little cards that they had made...and got to visit with each of the princesses.  They also got their autographs.  This experience was a bit pricey...but I think it will be something the girls (and I) will remember for a long time! 

and then there were other characters...we waited in line to meet Minnie Mouse and Alice....we waited for Pluto and he just walked away...so I snapped a quick photo of him.  Many of the character's have extremely long lines...even if you have been waiting in the line for over an hour...you are still not guaranteed to meet that character...for example with Minnie we waited for around 20 minutes and her handler announced that she would be leaving in 5 minutes....luckily we were the last one's to meet her...Here are a few pictures of our encounters...enjoy!