Early Mother’s Day Magic – Braving the Heat for Merida’s Royal Coronation in Disney World

We were fortunate enough to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration this year. Disney always manages to pack plenty of magic into the conference and this year was no different. As part of our conference package, we received an invitation to Merida’s Royal Coronation. The spunky princess from Brave became the 11th official Disney princess and we were there to see it happen. The event was open to the public, but we had a VIP location close to the castle.

On the morning of May 11th, we grabbed a quick breakfast before boarding buses over to the Magic Kingdom. Our conference badges let us into the park before rope drop and it was both cool and kind of scary watching the crowd rolling in through the front gates! We zipped as fast as we could to our VIP viewing area and waited. And waited. And waited.

Now, I was excited. This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day. But Big Guy was less than impressed. And hot. But I’ll give him credit – he kept the grumbling to a minimum. While we waited. It wasn’t really THAT long, but did I mention that it was hot? And sunny?

Finally it was time to begin. After a lovely speech by gold medalist Gabby Douglas, accompanied by her mom, the princesses took their places on stage. Merida arrived on horse, riding through the crowd accompanied by Scottish dancers and bagpipes. She strode onto the stage with determination.

But there was another surprise… Merida’s mother, Queen Elinor was introduced. She faced her daughter and said, “Merida, in you I see the best of our past and he best of our future. I’m proud of all that you are and all that I know you’ll become. I’m proud of you, my daughter.” She placed the crown on Merida’s head and hugged her. I cried. That’s just what you want to hear from your mom… and just want you want to be able to say to your own daughter. Sniff.

Merida stepped forward and said, “I am strong! I am brave! I am Merida.” And then she threw her arms wide and shouted, “I am a princess!”

I may have cried a little bit more. I just love Merida.

If you want to see the highlights, there’s a great video from the Disney Parks Blog. It’s just like being there, minus the heat. And the waiting.

And here are few more pictures:

Disclosure: The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration includes a package of lodging, meals, tickets, and events at a discounted rate for attendees. There was no additional compensation and the opinions in this post are my own.

Related posts:

Some Quirky Disney World Magic We’re Going to Disney World for Disney Social Media Moms Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Roller Coaster Comes to Disney World Disney On Ice Presents Treasure Trove–Magic, Tears, Princesses, and More It’s a Small World and Family Dynamics Walt Disney World Gets Touchy with New Technology – MyMagic+ Jiko – Grown-Up Food at Disney World Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2015

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