Dapper Day occurs twice a year at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. I usually only make it to one a year, just because I usually have too much else going on, but this time around I actually made it to back to back events! We had an amazing time last fall when Mickey Mouse’s birthday fell on Dapper Day, and I was super excited for another fun day of photos on the spring Dapper Day outing.
Normally I try to Disneybound for Dapper Day, but an impulse buy at the Disney Dress Shop brought an adorable dress into my possession a few months ago, and I justified it with saying I could wear it to Dapper Day. I picked up a new pair of flats on sale, and with a last-minute run to Target for a hat, since I’m terrible at hair-styling, my outfit was complete. Jay had changed up his outfit from the Fall, when he did the Yensid Disneybound and switched out everything but the shirt. If we’d been able to find his red tie, it would have been a great Donald Duck, but no such luck.
Since our Fastpasses weren’t until the afternoon, we hit the Ticket and Transportation Center right around noon. Security was extremely backed up, so we decided to walk over to the Grand Floridian through the Polynesian, instead of waiting for the monorail. For the first time, they were having a miniature version of the Dapper Day Expo found at Disneyland. Smaller in scale, and lacking the admission fee, it was a bunch of pop-up shops selling vintage clothing. They were handing out free miniature buttons and there was a cool photo backdrop I’ve seen in photos from the California Expo. There was also a “Retro Disneyland Slideshow” you could buy tickets to, but we passed on that.
We took a few photos with the Dapper Day backdrop and we were on our way.
Rather than heading up to the monorail, we wandered through the resort to the boat transportation and took a few photos along the way. The Grand Floridian is incredibly photogenic, and the perfect setting for Dapper Day photos!
We hopped on the boat and were at Magic Kingdom in no time. Honestly, this might be my new favorite way to get to the park on days the Ticket and Transportation Center is super backed up.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just in time for our first Fastpass, and headed straight in to see Mickey. I have a sneaky suspicion this will be our last time meeting talking Mickey since he’s rumored to be leaving next month!
After getting our photo with Mickey, we headed towards Storybook Circus to get pretzels. In typical Chelsea and Jay fashion, we hadn’t actually eaten yet. We cut through Tomorrowland and found a Photopass Photographer stationed at the famous Purple Wall. We were too hungry to wait in line then, but we’d never actually taken a Purple Wall photo, so we vowed to come back before the day was over.
By the time we were done with that, it was time to head for Fairy Tale Hall for our next Fastpass. As we passed through Belle’s village, we happened to stumble upon a proposal in front of Gaston’s Tavern!
We made our way over to Fairy Tale Hall. We always see Rapunzel and Tiana, so this time I made our Fastpasses for Cinderella and Elena. Cinderella told me how lovely my dress was and asked me to twirl with her.
Elena told me how much she liked all the stars and started talking about the stars from Avalor. I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, so I just smiled and nodded.
After the princesses, I talked Jay into waiting in line for Pooh and Tigger. They’re some of my favorite characters to meet and you can’t Fastpass them, so it’s usually at least half an hour. It is always worth it, however! Tigger gives the best hugs!
Our last Fastpass was for Ariel. I sat down too quick because she wanted to see me twirl in my dress, so I had to hop back up.
We had to make one quick trip to the amazing picture spot we discovered on our last Dapper Day adventure, on the side of Cinderella Castle next to the wishing well!
After Jay took plenty of pictures of me with the castle, we finally got our first ever Purple Wall photo. The Photopass photographer was amazing, and thanks to his posing suggestions, we got some really cute pictures I never would have thought of.
Our final stop was my favorite place in the entire Magic Kingdom, the Hub Grass. There was a Photopass photographer there with no line, while the ones going down Main Street were about twenty people deep.
Dapper Day never disappoints. I saw a ton of amazing outfits, and some brilliant Disneybounds. We didn’t get as many compliments as we did in the fall, but I wasn’t rocking a one of a kind dress this time! We still met plenty of happy people who loved our outfits. It wasn’t as long of a day, but we still got tons of cool photos. As of right now, I have plans that conflict with the fall Dapper Days for this year, but that could change. In the meantime, I’m working on a plan for Disneybounds for whenever we do Dapper Day again! You can find future Dapper Day dates here.
Cost: Park admission.
Value: It’s fun enough I’ve done it three times.
Duration: All day.
Add Ons: You could do both days, and they usually have an event at Disney Springs on Friday. They also had the pop-up shop at the Grand Floridian with the Retro Slideshow you could do!
