Wishes in Catsablanca: 7.22.13 Epcot Wedding PJ&TR! Updated 03/09/15

[LittleKittyMarie]

So I don't have a huge update, but there are a few little wedding updates.

We got our date and locations from Disney! We are getting married on July 22, 2013! We haven't signed the contract yet, but I assume barring on any acts of God it's pretty much a lock. We also got our room block info package, which is even more intimidating than I expected it to be.

Next we have put in requests to rent DVC points for our own hotel accommodations before the wedding. DF and his Best Man will share a room before the wedding (Boardwalk studio), which should save us around $300-$400. My parents are going to rent a two-bedroom suite at the Boardwalk for them, me and my two Maids of Honour. It doesn't really save us much money (besides the fact that my parents have agreed to pay for it, instead of DF and I) but having the extra space to get ready on the wedding day will be nice, and we will use it for our little meet-and-greet party on Sunday afternoon, the day before the wedding. I'm pretty excited about solving that dilemma!

Lastly, we signed the contract and sent in the deposit for the venue for at-home reception. Our contact still hadn't got back to us, and only sent the contract to our house after badgering from us again (to which she said, "oh but I sent it last week." Post mark of course confirms she sent it that day.) My dad received it and opened the contract while we were away, and it needed to be returned (signed and fees) on the day we were supposed to return home from our trip. I asked my dad if he could try anything to make it work out so that we wouldn't lose yet ANOTHER date. He called her, got through on the first time (DF called her a good 5-6 times and she was NEVER there) and got us an extension, like it was nothing. Maybe she finally realized she wasn't being very professional in her dealings with us. Sigh.

Anyway, long story short we got it. And now we have a meeting with the caterer on Thursday. It's all finally coming together!

And only EIGHT DAYS until we go to Disney, meet our consultant and have our site visit! I cannot wait!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

yay! you got your date

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Just made it back from Disney World and our site visit! I'd never been in August, so it was an interested change (although not that much different from July, it's still summer after all) and overall it was an a very fun and exciting vacation! While working on a photobook of our trip pictures, DF convinced me I should write try my hand at a TR.

Without further ado, I have a (mini-ish) trip report!

Day One:

As I mentioned awhile back, DF booked the site visit trip as a Christmas present. He chose the Caribbean Beach because we were thinking we should choose it as one of our room block hotels. Neither of us had ever stayed at Caribbean Beach or even a Disney moderate hotel, so it was a nice new experience. At the time of his booking, they were also offering free dining for Canadians, so we also tried out a lot of restaurants we'd never been to before. Fantastic!

When we arrived on Tuesday at the Caribbean Beach it was around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. So it was raining, as per usual. We checked in and found we were going to be staying in Aruba. I had heard prior to our trip that Caribbean Beach was really big, but when the lady told us we had to wait for the internal bus to pick us up and take us to our "island" I was pretty surprised. I had done some reading about Caribbean Beach, but I guess I'd somehow managed to miss that little nugget of information.

My first impression of the resort wasn't great. I didn't like having to wait 20 minutes to just get to my room. I also didn't like how far away you are from everything (the Custom House and Old Port Royale) once you get to your island. We got free refillable mugs included with our dining package, which I was interested in using, having never done it before. Buuut, it was such an inconvenience to go refill our mugs we didn't use them as much as I would have liked.

The room itself was pretty good. It was clean, which is an improvement on a report we heard from one of DF's young cousins who said there were cockroaches in the room when he stayed there. The theming was only okay. There were pineapples and the Finding Nemo touches, but since I'm not a huge Finding Nemo fan, it wasn't really a huge plus. The actual location of our building was quite close to the bus stop, which was a real perk. It's probably the closest we've ever been to the buses. And for whatever reason, many of the other rooms in Aruba were empty, so there were never too many people waiting for buses from our stop.

We made it the Aruba pool one night. It's great that each island has its own pool. There were only a few people (5 or 6) at the time, so it was nice and empty. But it was also a bland experience compared to some of the other resort pool experiences. The Old Port Royale looked a lot more fun, but it was hard to justify the longer walk with the Aruba pool being so much closer and it already being after 9:00 or 10:00pm. The beaches were a little underwhelming, and we never saw anyone using them. That aspect was a little disappointing, actually. Granted, the grey and rainy weather we had for most of our trip didn't help improve the atmosphere.

Overall, it was not my favourite Disney resort. I'm still not sure I've found my favourite resort, but I'm relatively certain Caribbean Beach won't ever be it. That being said, I still think it's a good choice for our room block. It's close to Epcot, which is an important factor, but aside from that the beach and island theming (while not as well integrated as it could be) is still appealing to many of the people we are inviting who we predict will stay there.

After we quickly settled everything in our room, we headed over to Downtown Disney followed by Epcot, which has come something of a little first day at Disney ritual. We had a late lunch at Earl of Sandwich, which was awesome. At first the sandwiches seemed a little on the small side for a restaurant on Disney property, but they turned out to be the perfect size and more importantly delicious. It's definitely a place we'll recommend to our guests in our invitations/newsletters.

I had the "special edition" Chipotle Chicken Avocado sandwich.

While doing some shopping, we unexpectedly got our single most desired pin at random. DF was in a stupor for the rest of the day and proclaimed we should pack it up and head home because the trip wasn't going to get any better!

Shopping out of the way, we headed to Ghirardelli for some massive sundaes, that we could not have possibly finished in a million years. Next time we will definitely be sharing one, and anyway its more romantic that way!

After that we hopped on a bus to Art of Animation, to switch to an Epcot bus. It was nice to see some of the theming of the new resort. Looks really fun! We didn't too much at Epcot, because it was getting late and the long day was catching up with us. We rode a few rides and took some photos of World Showcase at night, and by then everything else worth doing was closed.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Excellent review!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Excellent review!

Thank you and thank you so much for sticking with me!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

So I JUST received our LOA via email. ...My goodness. I'm not sure whether I'm more excited or frightened.

In other news, this past Monday was DF and my 6th year anniversary. We already celebrated it in style when we had our dinner at California Grill (which I'll get to eventually in the TR), but rather than let the day go totally unnoticed we had a mini-Disney party. While we were in Prague this summer, we found this in the grocery store:

Disney non-alcoholic "festive drink". So we decided to pop that open, make our Disney princess-shaped pasta that we bought at Disneyland Paris and for dessert we ate some crazy Disney candies we found at the local grocery store. And we watched the Reluctant Dragon, because I'd never seen it before. It was quite the little celebration. Especially because it was all DF's idea!

Anyway onto the TR:

Day Two:

At the parks, our mission was to try as many experiences we'd not tried on previous vacations, so as to be as authoritative for our wedding guests as possible. Our first full day involved a trip to Animal Kingdom, and we spent most of our time in and around Dinoland. We went to the Finding Nemo musical, rode the ironically retro carnival rides, and even ran into Dug and Russell from Up, so we're that much closer to that character-meeting merit badge. Lunch was eaten at Restaurantosaurus, coincidentally on the first day of a new menu. That was pretty exciting, although I think the cast members would disagree. Let's just say, it wasn't a perfectly smooth transition. DF had the chili hot dog with jalapenos and some tortilla chips for crunch, while I had a mac 'n' cheese dog complete with bacon and bread crumb topping. Overall, it was a tasty if heavy start.

In the evening, we went to DHS for our reservation at '50's Primetime Cafe. Another dining first for us. I'll admit, I was a little ambivalent about going to this restaurant. I'm shy and not at all into the idea of being forced into acting out some kind of show. But I was pleased to find our experience wasn't like that, it was just nice, fun and comfortable like a real family dinner at home. Albeit, with a lot more food! I had the fried chicken. Our "cousins" from Wisconsin at the next table told DF he had to try the pot roast, so he went for the mixed plate to get a taste of everything. For dessert I had the apple crumble, which was too saccharine for me to eat more than a bite or two and DF got a fruit plate that "Mom" had to grudgingly pick and prepare especially for him.

A tricky photo to take one handed.

I can really see my parents (especially my dad) loving a place like this and really getting a kick out of the 1950's nostalgia. So it's definitely a recommendation from us in our invitation.

Afterwards we wandered around DHS, going through the shops, going on a few rides and attempted to take about 50 photos of ToT, to get that perfect combination of spooky and "Hollywood glam" ambience. I think it's somewhere between these two photos:

I think I'll probably keep at it. Anyway! We decided to line up about an hour early for the second showing of Fantasmic. I'd never seen Fantasmic before and I was quite looking forward to the experience. Once we managed to push our way in we got good seats in the middle of the Hollywood Bowl on the aisle, maybe 8 or 9 rows back. I tried taking photos, gave up, tried again, gave up and so on throughout the show. This was my favourite of the many attempts:

I have to say, Fantasmic was not my favourite show, at least compared to the other Disney fireworks shows. There were some really fantastic moments, but some things that could use some changing or updating. For example, I'm really confused about the whole Pocahontas part. It was good on its own, but I'm not sure I understood how it fit into the overall arc of the show. Nevertheless, it's a good show and we are really glad we decided to join that line and finally see it!

 

[CinderALLIE]

Mmm, you are making me hungry, I want that hotdog.

Love the pic of Mickey in Fantasmic.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Love the update!

 

[Freckledginger]

Hi Nicole!

Just wanted to pop by, and tell you how much I'm enjoying your TR! You write a great narrative!! Looking forward to reading the rest!

Oh, and what a good idea to stay in one of your room block resorts! Really smart idea! Wish I had been able to do that!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Mmm, you are making me hungry, I want that hotdog.

Love the pic of Mickey in Fantasmic.

Every time I look at that hot dog it makes me hungry too!

Love the update!

Thank you!

Hi Nicole!

Just wanted to pop by, and tell you how much I'm enjoying your TR! You write a great narrative!! Looking forward to reading the rest!

Oh, and what a good idea to stay in one of your room block resorts! Really smart idea! Wish I had been able to do that!

Thank you!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Just got an email that our LOA (and deposit) was received by DFTW along with the promise of being assigned a wedding planner in the upcoming weeks! I'm so excited to book our planning session and really start getting down to all the nitty-gritty.

Everything feels a bit at a stand-still at the moment. Now that the LOA is officially taken care of DF and I will start mass-producing our invitations so that we can get those out to our family members soon. I heard whisperings among my family that there is someone else (of which I have no acquaintance but most of my mom's side of the family does) planning on possibly having their wedding on the same day as our at-home reception. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be any issue, but of course the family that will have the conflict are the ones that I already know won't be going to Florida for my actual wedding. Essentially the people that this whole at-home reception thing is for. Obviously I can't get too hung up on this right now, because the at-home reception is a much lower priority, but I can't help but feel like "why didn't I see that one coming". Anyway, we need to get those invitations out as soon as possible, just for my own peace of mind.

So, next up is Day Three of the Site Visit Trip:

Our third day started with us in the Magic Kingdom, lining up to try the "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" game. Collecting cards for this game became something shy of an obsession, and one day we even went to EPCOT by way of Magic Kingdom just to get a new pack that day. From Caribbean Beach. Yeah.

It was fun. I'm not sure we actually loved the game itself. It's very similar to that game on the DCL, which we tried out. I guess I read online that there are more difficult levels of the MK game, but they were "shut off" so there could be more crowd control testing on just the easy level. I think we look forward to trying the game on more difficult levels once those are re-enabled.

While I planned out our Sorcerers route through MK, we lined up to meet Merida. I have to say, I really loved Brave. I know it's not a lot of people's favourite, but something about it I just love. I saw it twice in the theatre before going to WDW, and then it was an option on the plane on the way home from Florida, so I watched it a third time. Two days before leaving for WDW, I bought one of these for myself:

So I am a fan. In the line DF convinced me I should do a Merida costume for Halloween. I quite liked the idea. Anyway, I was excited, we waited an hour probably but I didn't really notice. I really like how they decorated the area where they have the Merida meet and greet, and the whole experience was great. That being said, I'm a shy girl so I didn't really hold much of a conversation or anything once it was my turn. Just said "hi" and got my photos and was happy.

After that we did a couple rides until 11:00, when we headed over to Pinocchio's Village Haus for lunch. For some reason we both had it in our heads that we didn't care for the menu there. But since we were very close we decided to pop in and see if we could order anything. Maybe the menu's changed or something, but the flatbreads sounded great at the time. We took a bunch of photos of the many Figaros painted around the restaurant and ate a pretty decent quick service lunch.

After that we went over to the new circus area and rode Dumbo for the first time at Disney World. As a disclaimer, we did ride Dumbo in Disney Paris where we waited in line for maybe two hours, while people blatantly cut in front of you in line and many (some more successfully than others) entered the ride from the Exit gate. So all of the (new?) measures that are in place to really make the Dumbo line more efficient and quick-paced were greatly appreciated for us given our past Dumbo experiences.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing the Sorcerers of Magic Kingdom game, grabbing a Dole Whip and doing most of the rides in Adventureland until it was time to head over the Polynesian for our reservation at Ohana. We made it to the lobby at an ideal time too, because we got to go out front and watch this. Very cool.

We had never been to Ohana. I've always heard amazing things about it and it is a place we are considering for a rehearsal dinner the day before the wedding. I really liked the atmosphere of Ohana and the Polynesian on the whole. I know there are a lot of people who really adore the Poly, but I've never really understood it until now. It's really is lush and gorgeous, and there is that feeling of family and coming home when you're there, even when you're being surrounded by hundreds of strangers. The food was great. It was perhaps a little sweet for me, I don't usually care for anything but my desserts to be sweet, but in this case I still enjoyed it. We had Lapu Lapu drinks with our meal, which was mandatory. One of the few memories I have from going to Disney for the first time was having a drink out of a Pineapple at the Polynesian and then Goofy was there. I have no idea what restaurant that was, but it was the early '90s if anyone out there is able to hazard a guess.

While we were eating a lady with microphone came around calling for the children to play a coconut game with brooms. Our table was apparently the starting line so a lot of coconuts got stuck under our table. I think usually this sort of thing would annoy me (I'll be the first to admit I am not good with kids and not a kid-person in general) but the sense of family and fun had me just laughing and going with it. After the game, she gathered everyone up for a hula lesson and not to miss an opportunity I jumped and my DF surprised me by jumping in too! Everyone who participated was given a flower lei.

And then after a bit more eating until we were stuffed to the hilt, they brought around this:

And I was waaaaaay too full to eat more than a few bites, but I'm pretty sure this needs to be at the dessert party. (I hope that's possible!) This is probably my favourite dessert on Disney property now. Love. Overall I loved Ohana and I think it's going to be a new favourite of ours! After dinner we headed back to CBR and decided to try out the Aruba pool, it was a nice relaxing way to end the day.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Excellent updates! Really, really good. I'm almost 100% certain that other people have had Ohana bread pudding at their DPs, so I would bet you can have it. How much it will be I don't actually know...

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Excellent updates! Really, really good. I'm almost 100% certain that other people have had Ohana bread pudding at their DPs, so I would bet you can have it. How much it will be I don't actually know...

Ooh, I am so happy to head it can be done! There's always the pesky price issue... but I can just be blissfully unaware for a little while, I think

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

We got confirmation that our LOA and deposit was received, so now it should be 7-10 days until we hear from our planner! I'm so thrilled!

Day Four:

We started the morning off in Epcot. We headed straight to the Land to grab fastpasses for Soarin', because neither DF nor I had ever been on it before, and we'd heard good things about it. While in the area we hopped on Living with the Land, which DF loves and then we spent a lot of time looking at fish in the Living Seas. As you may have noticed we occasionally carry around one or two stuffed animal cats with us as sort of pseudo-mascots, but we also find it really amusing to take photos of them around the world (both the Disney World and the actual world). So we also spent a lot of time taking photos of them looking at fish in the Living Seas. To the point that I actually have no photos of us from that morning and only our cats. (I suppose I'm a crazy cat lady. But, that's okay, because I'm marry a crazy cat man.)

So as we exited the Seas, it was after 11:00, it wasn't time for Soarin' yet, and we were starting to feel peckish. We started walking towards World Showcase. Originally we had been planning to try using our snack credits around the World Showcase for "lunch". Nothing in Canada or UK was open yet so we kept trekking to France. But first we stopped to watch O'Canada in the Canada pavilion. I'd never seen it before. It was quite nice and naturalistic, I guess. And Martin Short, national treasure, is definitely entertaining. Not sure I saw the Canada I know in there, but I enjoyed it. Anyway, back to our trek, along the way we stopped to try out the new "Agent P's World Showcase Adventure". We started out the first mission in France while we snacked on an éclair.

And then Marie showed up. While waiting in line none of the people ahead of us actually knew who Marie was or what movie she was from. One kid declared knowingly it was the cat from Strawberry Shortcake. Sigh, oh well.

And then it was time for our Soarin' fastpass. DF was looking eager to skip it but I insisted we go back. When DF and I go to Disney World, I usually go on any kind of thrilling rides on my own because DF gets motion sick. While waiting in the line for Soarin' I was starting to get worried for him. He has the desire to go on rides and sometimes will go despite better judgement, and that's why I was more worried for him than he was for himself. The actual ride really is amazing and I have to say I didn't enjoy it too much at all because I was worried for him the whole time. Afterwards he said he was fine, so I was happy enough it all worked out that I didn't mind not really getting into the experience of the ride.

By this time it was started to get really hot, and we were still hungry having only had that one eclair which we shared. We walked back to France again and started making our way around World Showcase. I got a nice photo of Morocco sans people.

I'll probably show this one around if anyone asks about our ceremony location.

After we spent a lot of time in Mitsukoshi, which is admittedly one of my favourite places in World Showcase. After the shopping spree DF started an Agent P mission in Japan and I was starting to not feel too well anymore. I think I was starting to feel something like heat exhaustion. I was standing in Epcot and all I wanted to do was leave and go lie down. I never feel like that in WDW. But at the same time I didn't want to go. So DF was starting to get annoyed with me because I wasn't really interested in playing the Agent P thing anymore and I was started to walk really slowly.

We kept walking, looking unsuccessfully for things we wanted to eat that we could use snack credits on. Finally we made it to China where we gave in and bought some food. DF got pork buns and I got a "Tipsy Duck" minus the tipsy. I drank that thing so fast I didn't get a photo. And the after one bite of the pork bun I was ready to never eat food again. I didn't care for it too much so that was no great loss.

DF looked at me, totally wrecked and said let's just go back to the hotel now and take a rest. Thankful that he had made that decision, I agreed and we left Epcot for the day.

Later on that evening, after a long nap, we headed over to the Boardwalk. We took the bus from CBR to Hollywood Studios and then took the boat to Boardwalk, but we got off at the Swan/Dolphin and just walked. We had plans to go to Beaches and Cream for dinner so we slowly made our way towards the Beach Club. Luckily when we finally made it over there we didn't have to wait more than a minute or so for a table. We got burgers and sundaes and there were about five Kitchen Sink sundaes ordered while we were there.

After dinner we were going to go to Atlantic Dance Hall. But they wouldn't let us in because we didn't have our passports with us as ID. We had our driver's licenses with us but the bouncer lady refused them. This made me pretty upset, because I'd done a little research about Atlantic Dance Hall and had never once read that anyone from outside the U.S. needed passports to get in. DF, who was less angry than me steered me towards Jellyrolls so we wouldn't have to end the night at like 9:00pm. We were able to get in there with no issue.

I resisted having fun for awhile because I was still too upset about the passport thing. But eventually I really started to enjoy myself and Jellyrolls and I really loved it. Those guys are really amazing! I can't wait to go back there again; Atlantic Dance Hall, not so much.

 

[CinderALLIE]

Mmm ice cream!!

Great update, that's stupid about the passport. Yes, I am going to take my passport with me where I may potentially get drunk and lose it or have it stolen and have to worry about organising an emergency one while on holiday to be able to get home.

I think that lady was on a power trip

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Mmm ice cream!!

Great update, that's stupid about the passport. Yes, I am going to take my passport with me where I may potentially get drunk and lose it or have it stolen and have to worry about organising an emergency one while on holiday to be able to get home.

I think that lady was on a power trip

That is exactly what I said! I always leave my passport locked up in the hotel safe while I'm at Disney (or anywhere, for that matter). Carrying it around, especially to a nightclub, just feels irresponsible. Oh well.

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Day Five:

Around today is when we started to hear a lot more things about the approach of Hurricane Isaac as I recall. My memories of all this is a tad bit hazy. It was coming and it was supposed to hit on Monday - the day of our site visit - obviously. It was already shaping up to be the rainiest trip I'd been on in quite a long time and the prospect of yet more rain - heavy, heavy rain - was not really all that pleasing. Nevertheless, I tried not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the trip as it happened, come what may.

That day we started out in Hollywood Studios. I rode Rocking Roller Coaster while DF went to get Toy Store fastpasses and then we both met out front of Tower of Terror. I rode it twice in a row while DF took pictures of, yes, our yeti kitten - among the theming. My favourite ride, I think I may have rode it again later in the day, but I'm not positive. Can't get enough!

Right around now is when the Halloween decorations started to really come out in full force. Although, it really is subtle how they put them out slowly that you almost don't notice they're there. Anyway, I was glad to get the little sneak peak to tide me over until I can eventually make out to WDW during the full Halloween season.

After that we wandered around DHS in the direction of Star Tours. The park was still pretty empty and it wasn't unbearably hot yet, so it was nice to just sort of stroll along and take in some of the theming. I rode Star Tours on my own, so DF had to take my word for it that I was the "Rebel Spy" on my galaxy tour. Which was awesome! But I had enjoy it on my own, which I think we were both disappointed about. And of course, no photo either, because I'd already stowed my camera along with my Ewok.

After that DF wanted to meet Phineas and Ferb. We both love the show and the last time we were at Disney there had been no Phineas and Ferb merch in sight.

DF wants to be Doofenshmirtz for Halloween. He thinks I'm going to make him a lab coat (Ahaha! no).

We did this thing on the Backlot Tour, which was such a loooong wait.

By the time we got out the wait time was 10 minutes. We had to have been in there at least 45 minutes. So, obviously the new time wasn't based on our... card thing. Yeah.

I often think to myself if my family has only one day to go to one park which one should I recommend to them. I have to say I always want to say Magic Kingdom, but I think that Hollywood Studios would probably be the more realistic choice. No one in my family loves Disney in any way close to the way I do. They do like thrill rides and special effects and actions movies. They have so many of those things at Hollywood Studios. Anyway that's a thought I've been having a lot while working on these invitations. That is, what sort of additional questions they may spark.

We wandered around a bit more after the Backlot and made our way to Fairfax Faire. We usually decide on which Quick Service places we're going to go to way ahead of our trip. Sometimes we don't keep to the plan, but since last time we were in DHS at lunch (a year ago) we skipped our QS pre-choice and regretted it. Today I was adamant we keep to the plan.

DF had the salad (inasmuch as it was lettuce in a bowl, since it had taco meat and cheese piled on top, making it just barely definable as a salad) and I had the hot dog, mostly because I wanted the coleslaw. By the end of the trip I'd had my full of hot dogs for a long while. Of course the day after we got home, my parents invited us to have dinner all together and what did they make? Yep.

Finally it was time for the Toy Story fastpasses. I quite like the ride though I can't imagine ever waiting 120 minutes to ride it (yet I've seen the wait time length frequently for this ride). It is a little twirly and jarring, but DF isn't as affected because of the concentration involved in the video game aspect. Pew pew pew!

I don't know how good we are compared to the average rider, all I know is that I can never beat DF. One day, though. One day....

After TSM we went in the Magic of Disney Animation. I love this attraction. DF oogled happily at "Wreck it Ralph" production materials. He's gonna wreck it!

Then we did one of my favourite things, the "Which Disney Character Are You Most Like" Quiz. Every time I play this I get a different character. I've gotten Belle, Ariel and Nala. Every time DF plays he gets the same character...

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

Day Five - Part Two

After a quick rest back at the hotel, we headed out to Magic Kingdom to have some fun before our res at California Grill. DF and I decided we would celebrate this meal as our 6th year anniversary, so we dressed up a little. I really love dressing up at the parks, but I always wonder why I get strange looks from others when I do. Seriously, is there something wrong with dressing up on vacation? Anyway we got on a few rides, got a few character photos and a few photopass photos. It was a very nice early evening.

Then we headed over to the Contemporary, wandered around gift shops a bit and then headed up to check into the restaurant.

It was our first time at the California Grill, and given the upcoming renovations, our last in its original incarnation. Our server was amazing: very cheerful and very knowledgeable with many recommendations. We went early to try to get a table by the window, but they were already all accounted for. Nevertheless we got a table that was still quite a good view of the castle. (Especially once the two tables in front of our view cleared out).

We ordered champagne because was our anniversary, and I can never say no to champagne. The Fairy Tale Cuvee was a bit dry for my liking, but certainly not the driest I've had.

Okay, I didn't expect this trip report to get quite so long, but unfortunately I can't start cutting it shorter at this point. This was definitely the most amazing meal we've ever had at Disney World. Both DF and I hadn't tried out California Grill before because we thought, really, how fantastic can it be? But it was. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was lovely, and just the whole thing was perfect. I am very interested to see what they will do to improve on this once the renovations are completed. Even though we were doing the Dining Plan we both decided to go for appetizers. DF is the kind of person that will always choose an appetizer over a dessert, so I know he feels a little forced to eat things he doesn't like with the dining plan the way it is currently structured.

I had the Summer Lobster Salad. Avocado plus watermelon (plus lobster), this is a combination made in heaven and the taste was fabulous. I loved all the different ways to eat this and get different flavours with every bite.

DF had the Spicy Kazan Roll, because I told him that California Grill was known for sushi. I think he was skeptical. But those rolls were amazing. (I admit, he took the tuna out of the one I tasted - because I don't eat fish - so I didn't get the full effect, but it was still some of the best sushi I've ever had.) It was also a surprisingly large portion.

For the main course, I had the scallops with corn risotto. It was amazingly good too. Though if I had to choose I would say it was the weakest part of the meal. It seems to me there isn't enough contrast in flavour between scallops and corn and rice, and it's all quite rich. But it was still great and I tried not to lick the bowl clean.

DF had the Veal Chop. He said it was great, perfectly cooked, though the plate could have used a some kind of tart flavour to cut the savouriness. But that's what champagne's for!

We had a pretty late reservation. I think it was 9:00pm, although we were seated early. As soon as the mains were cleared it was about time to go out and watch the fireworks. Going out and watching them was the highlight of the dinner, it was really amazing, and it had both DF and dreaming about staying at the Contemporary or Bay Lake Tower one day in the future. I resisted taking photos until the very climax of Wishes, so I could just enjoy it, but I needed a least one from that spectacular view!

After the fireworks we went back in for dessert. I had the Valrhona Chocolate Cake and DF had the cheese plate. My dessert was nothing short of heavenly, and even though I was entirely full of food and champagne I ate every last bite and it was glorious.

After that we made it all the way down to the front entrance and took a cab back to CBR. It was a bit of a wait and a bit more money than we'd expected, but it was entirely worth it to end the day being delivered to our room door and not crammed on a Disney bus. Also, taking cabs at Disney is pretty addicting, I'm trying to not let it become a habit.

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

We heard from our planner/assistant on Friday! So excited that we are finally moving to the next stage! And hey, we've past our 10 month mark, so only single digit months left to go! Haha!

Also, I promise I actually did have a site visit on this trip, it's coming up in the next post!


Day Six:

We got up late and decided at the bus stop we were going to Epcot, but if the MK bus came first we'd go there first and get Sorcerer cards. Lo and behold the MK bus DID come first so off we went. We got our cards and then took the monorail to Epcot. Despite the travel time, it was nice and relaxing to do something spontaneous. When we got to Epcot we headed straight to Sunshine Seasons for brunch/lunch. It's pretty easily one of - if not our - favourite quick service restaurant at WDW.

And I really love the strawberry shortcake! After lunch DF got fastpasses for Soarin'. They were for us to use when we came back later for our dinner reservation, but I'll come back to that later.

We rode the Journey into Imagination ride, which is just so insane, but it was a walk-on, so why not! Apparently journeying into your imagination is not something a lot of people care to do. That, or they find Figment to be shrill and abrasive. Or both! Then we went to Innoventions. We really always skip this, but we were keeping the day relaxed and slow and trying to do a lot of unique things. We did the piggy bank game (awesome, and we learned stuff), tried out the Brave video game, starred in our own video game (that was very cool!) and then designed our own roller coaster, which I rode alone.

While we were in Innoventions there was a torrential downpour happening outside. So we headed out when the rain calmed down a bit and went back to CBR for a rest and a shower before dinner.

Originally we had made a reservation for Bistro de Paris. We got an email a few months before the trip because the Bistro was going to be closed during our trip so they made us a new reservations at Chefs de France for the same time, same day. While we were in WDW, DF pointed out we'd never planned to eat at Chefs de France, so maybe we'd rather cancel that reservation and make our own somewhere else. I decided I wanted to eat at San Angel Inn. I love the atmosphere of being right next to the ride, and it's the Three Caballeros ride, and I love the Three Caballeros... we made the change.

For this trip I actually made a green polka dot dress which was inspired by Jose Carioca from Three Caballeros. I was excited to wear it at San Angel Inn once we made the decision. I even had a yellow blazer to wear with it, but in the end didn't wear it, because I didn't want it to get rained on.

The food and drinks (avocado margarita and jalapeno margarita for DF) was fabulous. There are no decent Mexican restaurants near where we live and the ones that are here don't have any of similar offerings to the San Angel Inn menu. After dinner we rode the Three Caballeros ride a few times (no line!) and then headed back to CBR to call it a night.

On the way out we got a few photopass photos and had a fun discussion with our photopass photographer about why Tokyo Disney has so much more cute merchandise than the American parks. And this is what sparked the conversation...

DF gave this to me for my birthday (more or less) and he bought it off Ebay. Disney could easily have had that money directly from us if they sold this super cute stuff at WDW. Also Shellie May. Heaven help my wallet whenever DF and I manage to plan a trip Tokyo Disneyland. DF's scared. He should be.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Fantastic update!