Williams Family: Grand Marshals of the Family Fun Day Parade at the Magic Kingdom

During our third visit to the Walt Disney World Resort, our family was selected to the be the Grand Marshals of the Family Fun Day Parade at the Magic Kingdom. Here's how it happened. . .

In September, 2008, Disney was in the middle of the Year of a Million Dreams celebration. We were visiting for a week and were on our second day to the Magic Kingdom. We were just about to leave the park having started with Adventureland and made our way around the park. We had just visited Stitch and Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland and were making our way to the hub when the husband eye-spied a character handler hovering in the hub. He approached curious about what character might be showing up next. The handler indicated that he was on the look-out for a family for the Fun Day Parade and asked if we would be interested. "Sure," was our reply.

We were asked to wait in the hub for a few minutes. Soon, the antique fire truck came along with some characters. Pluto spent a lot of time with us. There were a handful of guys in the "suits" (which at Disney means long sleeve button oxford shirts rather than uniforms), character handlers, and our own PHOTOPASS photographer, James. Click here to read more about Disney's PHOTOPASS service. James took our photos throughout the parade down Main Street.

Interestingly enough, James asked where we were from and when we told him he said he had photographed another family from our hometown. We told James it must have been in July and that the family had opened Magic Kingdom. James could not believe that we knew the other family he had photographed in July, but we did! It is a small world after all!