Smith Family Weblog

Meeting Tinkerbell was on the top of Ava’s Disney to-do list. She’s been a big fan for quite a while, even dressing as Tinkerbell last Halloween. She insisted that we pack the costume my mom made for her, and she donned it the morning of our first full day in the park.

We arrived at the entrance to Pixie Hollow relatively early that morning, and there wasn’t even a hint of a line. So, when Ava wanted to take time for a bit of face painting, I didn’t argue.

It was at this point that I realized I had been looking at the exit to Pixie Hollow—not the entrance—which explained the lack of a line.

As we made our way around to the entrance, we found a line filled with toddlers and preschoolers that appeared to be at least 2.5 miles long. (Disney has mastered the queue–Bryan and I debated if queuing was an art or a science, but either way, there must be a significant amount of research that goes into how people determine that 75 minutes is indeed a reasonable amount of time to meet a fairy.)

I don’t have any photos of the wait, mostly because I spent the entire time trying to prevent Olivia from ingesting the hand sanitizer provided at every turn in the queue. She had disinfected every inch of exposed skin she could find, not stopping at her own. (By the way, Doug bestowed the nickname Stinkerbell on Liv this weekend–pretty appropriate, don’t you think?)

After almost an hour and a half, we reached the first fairy in Pixie Hollow. None of us could remember her name, but the mere sight of a Disney character made us feel as though we were making some progress. The girls hugged her in celebration.

By the time we rounded the next bend, Olivia could hardly contain herself. When she caught site of Tinkerbell, we literally had to hold her back so she didn’t crash through the rest of the people in line.

Finally!

In the end, Olivia was too shy to commit to a hug. Ava, on the other hand, would have listed to Tinkerbell preen over her costume all day.

Olivia warmed up just as we were ready to move on and allow the 1,200 people behind us a chance to meet Tinkerbell.

Ava, who had been on the lookout for pixie dust all morning, received just enough from Tinkerbell to find herself on Cloud 9 the rest of the day.