An Afternoon Fit for a Princess

On Sunday, November 28, we went to a special showing of the movie Tangled at Disney's El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.  Rebecca had a beautiful navy blue new dress to wear, and Rebecca doll had gotten a blue dress for the occasion also (of course, Rebecca doll was going to accompany us!).  So of course, Grammy and Mommy had to also wear blue. 

  

 The day before, we realized that Hollywood's Christmas parade was going to be the same afternoon and that the street in front of the theater and surrounding side streets were all to be blocked off!  This induced a bit of panic for me, because driving in Hollywood isn't something I do every day, and parking and walking for blocks or miles wasn't really one of the things I'd had in mind when I planned the day.  I talked to someone from the El Capitan's customer service, who assured me that there would be plenty of parking for El Capitan guests across the street.  I'll admit that I was dubious enough of this information that I ended up leaving our house before 10:00 a.m. to get there for the 1:30 show.  We arrived and parked by 10:50 a.m. without incident, which surely indicates that I should trust people more. 

This ended up actually working out perfectly for us!  We went into the Disney Soda Fountain and had a nice lunch and cupcake and Rebecca picked out her Tangled souvenir (some Rapunzel shoes). When we got there, the place was empty and we were able to pick out her souvenir with ease and didn't have to wait for a table.  By the time we left, it was a madhouse, and people were waiting in a line down the street to get in!  We had VIP tickets, which got us very nice seats on the front row of the balcony.  This was a mixed blessing. Good because we knew we had good seats. Bad because Rebecca freaked out about the height (I know that I have induced a fear of heights in my daughter. I can't help it. I'll refer her to a great therapist for some cognitive therapy for phobias).

 Before the movie began, we received our collectors edition popcorn buckets, drinks, and groovy shades for the 3D movie.  Once in our seats, Rebecca hid her head on the armrest so she wouldn't have to see how high we were and I contemplated how much we'd spent on these tickets for my daughter to watch the freckles on my arm and to take a nap.  However, once the pre-movie stage show began and she heard them announcing the introduction of the Disney princesses, she faced her fears and looked out and had no more height worries. The stage show had a lot of singing and dancing from Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Princesses Belle, Jasmine, and Tiana, and some professional dancers.  At the end, they introduced the new Princess Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  Then we saw the movie in 3D.  Incidentally, I get a migraine from the traditional 3D movies, but the new digital 3D is awesome!  Rebecca loved the movie!  She is officially obsessed with Rapunzel.

After the movie, we got to attend afternoon tea with Rapunzel.  As a gift, Rapunzel gave her (and all the other little girl attendees) a crown to wear.  Princess Rebecca colored a picture to give to Rapunzel and was so excited to present it to her.  She also got an autographed photo with her.  Rebecca absolutely loved the whole day, and, in turn, so did we.