Bibbidi, bobbidi, BOO! I now pronounce you a princess! To say our birthday gal had an amazing experience would be an understatement. She woke up on her 6th birthday at a beautiful Disney resort, had breakfast outside on our verandah, and then received this poem:
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
We have one last gift for you
No hair above your face
Will be out of place
Your cheeks will be rosy
We’ll powder your nosey
So that little girl of mine
Will positively shine
Now that you’re six
Put on your kicks
Cause it’s time to get chic
At the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!
Hannah kind of knew this treat was coming, because in the previous months leading up to our trip I had asked her many times “Would you ever want to go to the BBB?” and “You’d really love it, right?” Because as we know it’s not a cheap endeavor, and I wanted to be sure it would be appreciated! BUT she is at the perfect age for it, and ya know, they’re only little once!
The Reservation
There are three BBB’s (I shall now refer to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique as BBB from here on out, hopefully that’s acceptable) in the Disney area. There’s one at Disney Springs, one at Magic Kingdom, and one at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. I had originally booked Hannah at the Magic Kingdom, which I’d still like to experience, but only afternoon appointments were available. After I thought about it for a beat, I decided it would be better to have a morning appointment, that way she could have her princess status all day (along with her birthday princess status haha), as we were headed to Magic Kingdom.
Unfortunately, a morning appointment at Magic Kingdom never appeared. However, I dutifully kept checking back and happened to get one at the Grand Floridian about 2 weeks ahead of our trip for 9:10am, which was perfect. The Grand Floridian is on the monorail line, so we parked there, had the appointment and then just took the monorail into Magic Kingdom. We were able to bypass the Ticketing and Transportation Center that way, which is always nice! The Disney Springs option is also great, because like the Grand Floridian boutique, you don’t have to have a park ticket to have this experience.
The Experience
After arriving a few minutes early, we were greeted warmly with “Good Morning, princess!” The cast members ushered us inside and showed us the package options.
There are MANY packages to choose from, but we did the most “basic” one, and it was perfect for a 6-year-old (or younger, obviously). It was $99.99, and then I gave gratuity in cash after the experience was done (there was no option to add gratuity on the credit card statement). Clearly it is expensive, but it was also magical, and 4 days later, she is begging to do it again. On their website, Disney says to arrive with clean hair and nails, and that the experience will be between 30 minutes and an hour. We were right in the middle, at about 45 minutes, but she does have thick hair!
Our package (called the Carriage Package) included:
- Hairstyling (you are given a travel size bottle of shampoo, as there is a lot of hair gel and spray involved)
- Shimmering makeup and face gem (the extra make up and face gems come home with you)
- Princess sash and cinch sack
- Nail polish (the extra comes home with you)
- BBB t-shirt
TIP: Upon looking at the other two boutiques and their pricing, I have noticed they have a slightly smaller package that is $75. It is the same as the one we did EXCEPT it does not include the t- shirt. The jury is still out on how often she will wear the shirt, but it’s cute and soft so hopefully it will get a lot of use!
I don’t know if it would be possible to get the $75 package at the Grand Floridian, but it’s worth asking, if you wanted it!
After we chose our package we were put into a dressing room, where she chose her hair style (she decided on the Pixie Magic which is described as “adding a colorful touch to your princess look with a ponytail filled with Pixie Magic and matching flower halo.” Again there are many choices, with the option of an up-charge for Frozen hair). Also in the dressing room she could change into her shirt or keep her dress on (we brought our own dress- she’s anti itchy dresses, so I found this one at Kohl’s that worked great- she wore it all day with no complaining). THEN some magic happened…take a look! Spoiler alert- don’t watch if you want to be surprised!
SO COOL!! Where was this when I was a kid?!
After our message from THE fairy godmother, we went back into the main area of the boutique and Hannah was seated in her princess chair.
Her hair was done first, then nails and makeup came last. During the whole experience our fairy godmother-in-training (isn’t that the cutest job title?) chatted with and asked Hannah questions about her likes and dislikes (favorite park, favorite princess, etc).
At the end Hannah was spun around to the mirror in her chair, announced/introduced to the whole boutique, and the smile on her face instantly made it all worthwhile. The cast members are also amazing and completely make the experience. EVERYONE oooo’d and ahhh’d and happy birthday’d (yep that’s now a word haha) over and over again. She was in heaven. Hannah felt special and adored and that’s how we wanted her to feel on her birthday. Not that she couldn’t have felt that way without BBB, but it was really fun.
Tips and Tricks For a Smooth Experience
Now for some tips and facts about the experience:
- MAKE A RESERVATION. If you don’t already have one, make an account on the My Disney Experience website (click HERE to do so). It makes it easy to check back over and over.
- Check all the boutiques! If you don’t get the appointment time you want at your boutique of choice, check the other 2 boutiques. None of them are very far apart from each other (distance wise), and the experience would be amazing at any of them! Just take into account travel time if you have fast passes/dining reservations at any of the parks afterwards.
- Related to number 1, check back OFTEN. People change their plans all.the.time. and you never know when an appointment could pop up at the location you want. I checked daily for about 6 days before getting one I liked. After I signed in to the My Disney Experience website I’d just put Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique into the search box to go to their appointment calendar.
- Consider who you want to bring along. The Grand Floridian BBB is not huge, but we managed to have myself, my mother-in-law and my 3-year-old in tow and it was manageable. There are 3 stylist chairs in the boutique. My husband, son and father-in-law watched the reveal from outside the boutique (there are big windows instead of walls at the boutique).
- The BBB at the Grand Floridian is on the second floor, next to the super fun soap/bath bomb store called Basin.
- A Disney Photo Pass Photographer will take pictures of your little princess (or prince) during the entire process. She/he will give you a card at the end of the experience that you can link to your My Disney Experience account and view all the pictures. Our photographer was amazing- she got a big kick out of my 3 year old just being completely enamored by her big sister!
- The pictures are NOT included in the price of the BBB experience, but you can buy Memory Maker (Disney’s picture package). It’s $169.99 if you do advance purchase (must be done 3 days before you want to have any pictures taken), or $199 for immediate use. (Memory Maker could be an entire blog post in and of itself, which I’ll do soon!)
- One Day Memory Maker: There is sometimes a one-day Memory Maker package that is usually priced around $69 for unlimited downloads for one day. So if you knew you were going to have a birthday celebration or an experience like BBB, it could very well be worth it! You can ask at any ticket window about this package, or check the app. When I wrote this (2/3/2020), I couldn’t find that it is currently an option, but it may be something you just have to ask for…
- Family Photo Session: If you want to do a family photo session after the experience at the Grand Floridian, there is a Photo Pass photographer set up directly across from the boutique that can do that (how convenient!). Disney Springs also has an entire Photo Pass studio that you can just go crazy in!! So those are some super fun options for documenting the princess-ness!
Can you feel the pixie dust and magic?! Our experience at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique was well worth the money, on special occasions. As I typed this Hannah was doing Hope’s makeup that she received from the boutique. So it’s also the gift that keeps on giving! I wish you a magical day! Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest! Feel free to subscribe to my email list as well!
Chantilly
Aww she looks so adorable! What a little princess 👸