Princess for a Day

One birthday down, one more to go. For the youngest's birthday treat her sister and I took her to a Princess lunch at the Akershus in Norway. I mean the Norway in Epcot. If I am unwilling to pay for a resort stay, I surely am not flying the kid to Norway. But I digress.

First off, Epcot was jam-packed. Everywhere we turned there were lines. Mexico, which is a two-snore ride, even had a line. When all else fails go on the Mexico ride, but today they had a line. We fortified ourselves with chicken quesadillas. The saving grace is that the Food and Wine fest is going on so there is plenty of food. After all, the only timing they had for the Princess lunch was 3 pm.

I was naughty. I felt like a margarita and my friend was a good girl. She wasn't going to have one, but I got her one anyway. Anything not to look like a lush. Another good thing was the cute guy in front of me was talking to me until my children came running over. Never heard a peep out of him after that. In fact, I think he switched lines.

I checked in for the lunch at 2:35. They told me to hang out and wait to be called and I was 10th on the list of people who had checked in. It annoyed me. So chances were I wasn't going to get called in at 3 pm either. It was a good thing I checked in, but what was the point of making a 3 pm reservation only to be seated later?

The kids were restless, and my friend's youngest threatened to beat up a mini Snow White who was invading his space. My youngest was run over by a motorized granny, in a hurry to make the FastPass line for Maelstrom. I had to tell her to reverse off the kid's foot.

At 3:30, the Royal Table called our name. By this time, we were all planning to rush the door and tackle Ariel and Belle (they were in view). We were ushered into a picturesque setting and trod on Aurora's gown to grab our seats. No sooner had we sat down, a parade of princesses came to our table. They were in a hurry to get our pictures and autographs taken care of. The girls were enchanted. So enchanted, they did not notice Jasmine had smokers cough and a pierced belly button.

We then hit the appetizer buffet. I was impressed by the selection. Smoked salmon, several other varieties of smoked fish, cheeses, and salads. Who needed the entree? My children stuck to the safety of cheese, bread and a piece of smoked salmon. I offered my oldest a taste of beet salad. She wrinkled her nose.

"It's red?"

"It's beet root."

"Yeah, didn't you roast those things before and try and make us eat it?"

"Yup, have some."

"No thank-you. It looks like a slab of blood."

After that comment, I didn't feel like eating it.

The meal went okay. We managed to get through lunch without any incidents. Dessert was family style. A big bowl of rice cream with strawberries, a dab of chocolate mousse and lingonberry bars. It was attacked and there were no survivors. It was like nobody had ever had dessert before. I was spooning rice cream on a plate and looked up. The only thing left of the mousse was a pathetic chocolate flake.

They gave the youngest a cookie in the shape of a viking hat and a birthday card signed by the princesses, even missing Snow White (whose only previous presence was on the side of a milk carton). What pleased my daughter the most was the other girls didn't have Snow White's signature. Highlight of her evening.

We staggered to our car and prayed everyone would fall asleep.

"Hey, my birthday is in two weeks, can I do this also?"

Sigh.