For "Princesses" -- what shoes to wear with costumes?

[metivier]

I am calling in 3 hours to make our ADRs for May 2006 and have been on eBay looking for various costumes to bring with us for character events (lunches, dinners, tea parties ) and started to think about the inevitable question -- what SHOES should DD wear? I don't want her walking through Epcot in those plastic shoes that came with her Princess Belle costume. Do other "Princesses" wear Princess sneakers instead? Something else? Tevas do not seem to match the ball gown "look".

Karen

 

[Shelebeen]

I am calling in 3 hours to make our ADRs for May 2006 and have been on eBay looking for various costumes to bring with us for character events (lunches, dinners, tea parties ) and started to think about the inevitable question -- what SHOES should DD wear? I don't want her walking through Epcot in those plastic shoes that came with her Princess Belle costume. Do other "Princesses" wear Princess sneakers instead? Something else? Tevas do not seem to match the ball gown "look".

Karen

My daughter wore her little sandals.. they were white and had Barbie or something on them. I would go for Tevas or sandals or runners, whatever is comfortable and good for her feet for all the walking.. I mean really - who wants a whiny princess if her feet start to hurt partway throughout the day...

 

[Belle1962]

Plain white tennies--that you can dye to match her dress.

 

[Brina]

my dd, age 2, was very specific, she needed a crown and shoes and dress. The crown was easy, the shoes not as easy. I finally found a pair of ballet slippers with squeins on them. They have a little rubber sole.

 

[winniedapooh]

Yikes... I say go for comfort. DD wore sneakers with her Minnie costume and looked fine. My feet always ache for the little ones I see with their costume shoes on, I wonder if they get blisters etc. with them.

 

[tlbwriter]

You can always "fancy up" some plain white sneakers with a ribbon shoelace, glue on some sequins or glitter, etc.

 

[minkydog]

Whatever is comfortable. There's nothing worse than aching feet

 

[Stacerita]

Definately go for comfort. Even though fancy princess shoes would look adorable and they would choose to wear them, its would be better to wear comfy shoes that give good support. Sneakers would be the best I think. You can decorate them if you want, but ive seen many a little princess wearing sneakers or teva style shoes. Worrying about the princess' feet not how the princess looks.

 

[crisi]

We wore tennis - my daughters are Hello Kitty, not Princesses, but she didn't care or notice. We also changed right after our breakfast - I then hauled the dress around all day in the backpack. If you are going to change, you could use those little plastic shoes as she will primarily be sitting in them. We saw VERY FEW little girls in the parks in Princess dresses, about 40% during our princess breakfast were dressed up. Reading here you'd thing EVERYONE does it, but really most people don't. We were in MK for MNSSHP, even that day there weren't a lot of girls in their dresses - though there were enough princesses that night to populate a whole library of storybooks!

 

[meghan74]

My dd wore tennis shoes and didn't mind one bit. Snow White even told her that she was smart to wear comfy shoes. Most of the princesses we saw were wearing tennis shoes. The ones that were not looked pretty miserable.

Also, just in case you haven't thought of it, tuck a set of regular clothes in your bag. My dd got tired of wearing her princess outfit in the afternoon (it really isn't that comfortable) and wanted to change into regular clothes.

 

[metivier]

Thanks everyone!

I like the idea of the white tennis shoes. Last year DD wore her Princess sneakers (from Target) but I just don't know how comfortable they would be for a day of walking. (Last year she was in the stroller a lot -- I know she'll walk much more this trip.)

And yes, she changed into and out of her costume last year -- we stored the dress in a duffel that we kept in the stroller basket. She liked carrying her "magic wand" around, though.

Thanks again for the great advice!
Karen

 

[MomofKatie]

Our DD wore ballet slippers with her Aurora costume this October for MNSSHP. I packed tennies in our backpack, but she was fine in her ballet flats the whole night.

 

[BevS97]

My dd wore white sneakers with ribbons. She looked great and was quite comfy.
She wears princess dresses to the parks quite often - there aren't 100s of kids wearing them but she certainly doesn't look out of place, and she loves the attention she gets from the characters when she is wearing it. We don't have the dresses from WDW, ours are from the UK Disney Store, and they are less fancy and I think probably a bit more comfortable (less net skirts etc).
I do tend to carry a change of clothes but we don't need them very often

 

[Mulan'sMom]

Not just any flip-flops, mind you. Flip-flops with glitter and a big flower on the strap.

 

[FourFlans]

This is helpful. We leave Saturday and one of the last things on my list is the SHOES! I think I'll try for some pink ballet slippers or white Keds that I can doctor up with fabric paint and ribbons.

Thanks OP!

 

[java]

AAh the shoes.... The big fight of our trip. DD wore her shoes to the dinner at the hotel with Cinderella- but then we had the day in Epcot. I convinced her that she would be much happier in her tevas and Mommy couldn't lug around an extra pair of shoes all day(we have 4 children and had enough stuff with the baby already) Well day of it was fine. She LOVED every minute of that princess breakfast...and then we got the pictures back. She looked gorgeous in all the photos...But there was one photo-outside by the waterfall(beautiful spot for a princess photo by the way) and she looks adorable..but you see those tevas and when she saw that she said "Great I look like a dork"(of course no comment about the big yellow dress she was wearing in the middle of July) I have to crop out the shoes. Now she is normally a very mild mannered girl. In fact not attitudy at all- except about the princess stuff at Disney.

 

[Princesa]

We did tennis shoes all the way! We had a pair of princess tennis shoes from Target that had fancy ribbon laces, and she was fine with that. Yes, they had pink laces, and we wore it with a blue Cindy dress, but who cares?

For Snow White dress to eat at CM, she did wear her white sandals. Again, most people don't notice.
The only time I notice...is when the girls look miserable in their fancy shoes. We saw one poor girl (maybe 6?) in full Belle attire that was limping along trying to walk slowly, and her dad literally came back, took her arm, and drug her along. (Grrrr....) You could tell she was in pain. poor kid. And she didn't look any cuter than my DD who was skipping along in her dress and tennis shoes.

I say comfort wins everytime. Only exception would have been to change just for the breakfast, but even DD said it didn't matter, she'd just wear the comfy shoes...and she's 4! Now she does wear the dress up shoes here at home, but even she knows they're not for "real walking".

 

[WAHMto5]

My DD really wants to wear her "Princess" shoes . So I thought we would pack them in the bag and just let her put them on at CRT and then change into her tennies when we are finished.

 

[FourFlans]

FYI, I found the cutest little shoes at Target for DD5. They are like the Dorothy shiny ruby red shoes, only they are in a soft pink color. She is going to be thrilled. I still plan to have her change into these only for the character meals, and her reliable Sketchers for the actual walking around. Still struggling a little for DD8 but I'm thinking white Keds with pink ribbons will satisfy her.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

We also wore white tennis shoes with ribbons for laces.

BUT----

If you go to Disneyshopping.com you will notice they have changed the princess shoes to soft little slippers! They look so cute and much more comfy than the plastic heels of the past.