My first ever TR! Two jam packed days in DLR! 3/13-14 [Proposal Posted!!!]

[Malroy]

Hello everyone!!! I am excited for you to join me on my first ever TRIP REPORT!!! My name is Mallory, and I am a 24 year old lady who loves disney movies, knitting, baking, cats and my boyfriend Bret!

People in this TR:

Me:

As stated previously: I am 24, I am a FT college student and a PT student employee at my university. I expect to graduate in May of 2014 with my BA in Sociology with a minor in psychology and this is my last semester as a full time student!! I have no idea what I will do with my degree, but I've got my fingers crossed to continue working at the University once I graduate.

Bret:

My sweetie. 25, Loves Alabama Football (Roll Tide!), Pixar movies, and collecting vinyl. He sells paint for a living.

Us: We have been dating for four years coming up this May. We met online through a message board of a band we both liked, and were friends online for 3.5 years before I got up the guts to go visit for the first time. We dated long distance for a year before he moved to Fairbanks, AK to be with me. I was born and raised in Fairbanks, and he had never been to a state that didn't touch Alabama. Needless to say, it was a HUGE move and a very serious life changing event, but it has certainly turned out well for both of us!

This trip was kind of a spontaneous one. Bret had been to WDW twice as a teenager, and last summer we went on a trip organized by his mom. She and his niece and nephew drove down from AL and met us there for a week. This kind of sparked it for me, as I hadn't really gone as an adult to either WDW or DLR. Back in January, we decided to spend my spring break visiting my sisters at their university in Tempe, AZ. When Bret realized it was only about a 6 hour drive from Tempe to Anaheim, we began to scheme about spending a couple days in Disneyland. And then we were able to make it happen!


I was not as great as documenting as I had hoped, and my photos are a collaboration from my iPhone, Bret's iPhone, and my digital camera. But, I do have some form of documentation of most of our trip!!! Also, my apologies for the lack of a consistent photo size...It has been a REALLY long time since I have been doing this kind of photo-dealing-with and I am not all that great at it..Either way too huge or way too small!

The trip details

We flew into Phoenix on March 9th
Drove to CA on March 12, stayed at the Fairfield Inn for 3 nights.
Did Disneyland on March 13, California Adventure on March 14, and drove back to Phoenix on March 15. We are leaving for home on the 17th.

A little bit of my sister Dana will also be included in this TR, as she spent the day at Disneyland with us! Our second day she opted to spend with a friend who lives in SoCal instead of accompanying us. She is 22, attending Arizona State University studying Art and Business. Not to be confused with Kelsey, her twin, who also goes to ASU but couldn't come with us to CA. She will be mentioned a little bit as well!

ANYWAYS. A little bit about what we did in the phoenix area before heading to Disneyland.

We went to see the Coyotes play the Dallas Stars!
I had never been to an NHL game and it was awesome. Bret and I are big college hockey fans, as I go to a D1 hockey school, so this was a great experience.

Plus, the Coyotes won!

We also went to the Zoo and spent a day shopping. Being away from the cold of Alaska is great! Even if it was 40 above the day we left...It is back down around 0 now, I think.


TR Index
Day 0.5 Driving and then Downtown Disney
Day 1 Part 1: Our first Pre-Rope Drop morning, and walking back and forth across the park all. day.
Day 1 Part 2 More DLR
Day 1 Part 3: The rest of DLR
Day 2 Part 1: DCA and WE GOT ENGAGED!!!!
Day 2 Part 2: The rest of DCA
Final thoughts and WOC Pictures

 

[Malroy]

Day 0.5: The drive and Downtown Disney

Here we are in Dana's car..She is the driver.

And the wind farms...I love these things. They are so cool looking to me, haha!
It was a generally uneventful drive, other than a little traffic once we got into more populated parts of California.

Dana headed off that evening to have dinner with a friend in LA and Bret and I went to Downtown disney.

We looked around, shopped, and got dinner at the Earl of Sandwich. I was excited about this because last trip in WDW I did not really think about where we would eat and it was nice to have some idea at least of what was available.

Bret got the Cannonballs! And I got the Earl's Club. We both thoroughly enjoyed them, and I would totally go for another right this second. So good.

Bret's

Mine

Again - sososososo delicious.

After dinner we mozied back to the FFI, shopping some more along the way and thinking it would be good to get a good night's rest in before the day ahead of us tomorrow.

Continued in next post

 

[Malroy]

Day 1: DISNEYLAND!!!

This was our first morning doing a Disney park before rope drop. As I may have stated previously, the first time I came to Disney as an independent adult was a trip to WDW last June, where I let Bret's mom call the shots. We kind of arrived at the parks around opening, but not specifically.

We left FFI about 815, showed up at the esplanade at like 825, and then realized that Dana's one day ticket said California Adventure, not Disneyland Park. Dana had told the CM like four times DISNEYLAND but the CM was busy being excited that we are from Alaska, haha. Dana and I freaked out about it a little, so Bret went up and asked someone at the gate, and then Dana headed to the ticket window to see about getting it fixed. It was a quick fix and she was back in line with us! At 830 they counted down and started letting people in through the gates.

We noticed no delay due to photo taking, however it must have been just because everyone in line either already had photos taken or had 2 day tickets or less. Since we only had two day tickets (and Dana just one) we did not have to have pictures taken.

We took a picture (I LOVE the train station tarp, haha!) joked with Dana that we only brought her along to be our photographer, and then went on our way.

As I said, this was our first time being in park before rope drop so we weren't 100% sure what we wanted to do. We had a vague plan of what we wanted to do, but nothing firm. We ended up heading to the mass of people in front of Adventureland, because Bret was most excited about riding Indiana Jones.

We stopped and took a few pictures along the way..

Dana made a friend along main street..

When they dropped the ropes, we went straight for Indiana Jones, were the ride proceeded to stop about halfway through! Luckily, the other people in our car were friendly. When the lights turned off again and we watched the other cars resume motion, ours did not. So they again turned up the lights, came and looked at ours, and after about a total of maybe 20-30 minutes, we started up again. When we got back to the beginning, the CM asked if we wanted to ride again, so we stayed on to get the full experience. Bret LOVED this ride! I love it too because I grew up watching Indiana Jones.

After that we went straight for Pirates, because it was another one high on Bret's list, as he wanted to check out the difference between the WDW and DLR versions!

At this point we were trying to hit up as many rides as we could early in the day, before the waits got long so we went grabbed FPs for Splash Mountain and then hopped in line for Matterhorn, which I believe was about a 20 minute wait at that point.

Here are Dana and Bret looking THRILLED to ride it...This is Dana's signature photo pose (emotionless)

And here are Bret and I in our bobsled!

After this we trekked to help Buzz Lightyear fight Zurg! Dana and I shared a car and Bret rode on his own. The ride stopped at one point and Bret SWEARS I cheated by taking advantage of a stopped ride by hitting a target over and over and over again..But I disagree

Dana's score is on the left, mine on the right..I don't recall what Bret got, but I know I won out of the three of us!

Then we trekked back ACROSS the park (our day was not very well thought out in terms of going back and forth across the park multiple times) for lunch before we rode splash mountain...I will stop here for now so as to not bore anyone for too long!

Continued in next post

 

[mommy2mrb]

Mallory....I'm here! from the March thread...

you and Bret make a very cute couple!

great start to your TR! this is too funny we have some similarity to our lives....My DH Jim lived in Anchorage from 15-26 and he went to ASU! small world! and we had a long distance relationship for 4 months when we first met!

looks like you had fun in AZ and on the trip over! we stay at the Fairfield most of the time and love it!
happy you were able to the Dana's ticket fixed and not miss rope drop! nice you got to stay on Indy for the second ride! hey good job getting extra points on Buzz...I do the same if the ride stops

looking forward to the rest of your TR and the BIG surprise you got!

 

[mysteriouspnai]

Love your TR so far! I also came from the March thread. I can't wait for the next installment!

 

[Malroy]

Mallory....I'm here! from the March thread...

you and Bret make a very cute couple!

great start to your TR! this is too funny we have some similarity to our lives....My DH Jim lived in Anchorage from 15-26 and he went to ASU! small world! and we had a long distance relationship for 4 months when we first met!

looks like you had fun in AZ and on the trip over! we stay at the Fairfield most of the time and love it!
happy you were able to the Dana's ticket fixed and not miss rope drop! nice you got to stay on Indy for the second ride! hey good job getting extra points on Buzz...I do the same if the ride stops

looking forward to the rest of your TR and the BIG surprise you got!

That is too funny!! I've lived in AK my entire life with the exception of two years away for college. Both my sisters chose ASU randomly but seem to love it! We had a GREAT trip..Coming back to reality sucks. Neither of us was ready for it. And I ignored some HW while we were gone that was due on Monday and Tuesday..But I'm caught up as far as schoolwork goes and kinda feeling back into the swing of things.

The second ride on Indy was definitely great, because we could experience it as a whole ride and not two halves haha. And as far as the extra points on Buzz, Bret says it is cheating because I was blocking him (unintentionally, I couldn't hear him telling me to move my arm haha) from doing the same!

Love your TR so far! I also came from the March thread. I can't wait for the next installment!

Welcome!!! Glad you are along for the ride!

 

[Malroy]

Day 1 part 2! Disneyland cont'd

So as I said, after we fought Zurg with Buzz, we were ready for some lunch. I had known that I wanted to eat at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, after reading some reviews on here, so we hoofed it back across the park to Frontierland. I think we had Splash fast passes that were going to be valid soon as well..I don't really recall.

Anyways, we headed to the Hungry Bear, grumbling along the way that we didn't plan out our day better and were walking completely across the park for like 2nd or 3rd time by this point.

I got the chicken sandwhich, Bret got the chili cheeseburger, and dana went for a regular cheeseburger with onion rings. We were all STARVING, especially because I was the only one who had eaten any kind of breakfast.. It was all delicious. Bret and I also shared this monstrosity...

This cupcake is amazing. The flavor is just right, it is HUGE, and TONS OF FROSTING!

After eating we still had a few minutes to kill, so Bret wandered off to find a churro while Dana and I hung out (and probably went to find bathrooms!)

Then we rode splash..I was a little nervous, as I am not into the huge drops and I've heard the drops on splash mountain in DLR are much bigger than the ones at WDW. Dana and I were both also VERY paranoid about our purses getting wet..But, being way too prepared I had made sure to pack a plastic grocery bag so we could protect our belongings..This ride, it wasn't really necessary. We all got a little damp, which was nice in the mid day heat, but our stuff wasn't wet at all.

I was very pleased with myself about putting my arms up - this is kind of huge for me. Most of the time I look in ride pictures like I see death standing in front of me - and although I do look kind of terrified at least my arms are up! And Bret's hair CRACKED ME UP.

While standing in line for Splash, I realized that I really didn't feel good. I had an AWFUL headache and was feeling a little nauseous/dizzy. We ended up chalking my illness up to dehydration. I would normally carry a water bottle with me and refill it, but I left it (full!) sitting on the counter at Kelsey's apartment when we left phoenix. So I went back to Hungry Bear, asked for a cup of water, and sat down. What made me realize just how bad I felt was when the CM said to me as he was handing me water, "Make sure to come back and get more if you need some, it's really hot today!" Sheesh, I didn't realize that I LOOKED dehydrated too. After we had all sat down and drank a bunch of water, I went to the bathroom and realized how pink my cheeks were! After that I bought a bottle of water and we made sure to keep it refilled for the rest of the day - that combined with some advil for the headache and I was fine the rest of the day.

After this my photos become a bit sparse, but I am fairly sure that we rode Haunted Mansion (a first for all of us) where dana rode in a doom-buggy by herself and then made a VERY hilarious face when the chunky hitch hiking ghost showed up with her..I wish I had had my camera out for that. And then Bret and I went to ride some of the classics and dana opted out, spent some time in the shade and got Space Mountain FP's for all 3 of us.

Bret and I rode Snow White and Toad's Wild Ride - We enjoyed Snow White but were exceptionally underwhelmed by Toad's. I don't recall why at the moment..

After this we met back up with Dana and rode Star Tours!! Star Tours is far and above my MOST FAVORITE RIDE EVER. Last summer in WDW we rode it back to back like 3 times during evening EMH - I could have kept going but the 3d makes bret a little queasy after that many times. I freaking love this ride people. I think some of it has to do with the being enclosed - I think I feel safe! Anyways. I just love this ride. We had kind of been telling dana about the spy thing, but she had a hard time getting it for some reason. And then SHE WAS THE SPY! Her picture was hilarious up there, and I was really excited because we had literally JUST been telling her about it.

After this there was a bit of time to kill, so Dana and I went in search of a bathroom (again) and Bret wanted to spend time looking around the Star Traders store. Dana and I met up with a Storm Trooper on the way back..

And then we found Bret and headed off to space mountain!!! It was a great ride that resulted in one VERY hilarious ride photo..More on that later!

Continued in next post

 

[julydeya]

Love your trip report!

 

[mommy2mrb]

that cupcake looks yummy! sorry you didn't feel good, dehydration is not good!
fun photo from Splash, you're lucky you didn't get wet...seems like any water ride I go on I get soaked! always bring a Ziploc just in case!

haven't been on Star tours in years...to rough for my neck! cool Dana was the spy! hey I've never seen stormtroppers at DL must be something new!

 

[Jaina]

Enjoying your trip report! It is so fun to "experience" Disneyland through different ages, stages, and touring styles!

 

[Malroy]

Love your trip report!

Thank you!!

that cupcake looks yummy! sorry you didn't feel good, dehydration is not good!
fun photo from Splash, you're lucky you didn't get wet...seems like any water ride I go on I get soaked! always bring a Ziploc just in case!

haven't been on Star tours in years...to rough for my neck! cool Dana was the spy! hey I've never seen stormtroppers at DL must be something new!

I think they were headed to the Jedi Training Academy...There was a CM with him saying "The StormTroopers need be at their next destination in 4 minutes...Please walk and take photos if you want to!!!"

Enjoying your trip report! It is so fun to "experience" Disneyland through different ages, stages, and touring styles!

Thank you!!! We really need to refine our touring style, I think! Too much back and forth across the park, haha! that comes from me not wanting to COMPLETELY structure our day though...

 

[Malroy]

Ahh, where did I leave off? Space Mountain! Again, Dana was excited for this because she is into the more grown up rides.

I have to say, that having recently ridden Space at WDW this past summer, the one at DLR is noticeably smoother! We told the CM at the gate we were a party of three, and he split us up into two cars, which was disappointing for the pictures.

Here is Bret and myself, with Bret looking like a total goober and me looking like I'm actually enjoying myself! My dad had been teasing me via text all day about trying to look happy in ride photos, so that may have been my focus..
And here is Dana.

She does this scowl in pictures all the time..And said she did this THE ENTIRE RIDE to make sure it ended up in the picture, since we didn't know where the picture would be taken.

After this we headed over to Toon Town to fulfill Dana's one and only request for the day - meet at least one character. We decided we were gonna go for Mickey or Minnie, whoever had the least wait. And Mickey it was! We waited for about a half an hour, enjoying the air conditioning while we did! And here is Dana and Mr. Mouse himself.

Then we headed off to Village Haus for an early dinner (it was seriously like 430, but we were so hungry!) - Dana wanted another hamburger - and we were all so starving I didn't bother taking pictures of any food. After that we headed back through the castle, stopped to get Bret and turkey leg and grabbed a spot to get ready to watch the parade.

Dana was thoroughly disgusted by the Turkey Leg - and Bret thought it was hilarious.

And then he pulled this on me...isn't he a sweet heart?

I took a few pictures of the parade, but they weren't that great. I LOVE Disney parades and Mickey's Soundsational was no exception! Afterwards we booked it back to Splash Mountain because we had gotten FP's for right after the parade sometime earlier in the day. This was at Dana's request because she had a great time on this ride the first time around. By this point, the sun was setting.

When we got to the front of the line, and the CM put us in the front of the boat I got a little nervous about how wet we would get..But I just stuffed everything in a plastic bag from shopping and got over it..And oh my god did we get wet. But first we got a classic ride photo..And you guessed it, this was Dana's idea.

The funniest part of this one was that I sent it to my dad and his response was "Mickey is going to get mad if you don't start having any fun!"

Anyways...the front seat on splash, with one small adult and two larger adults behind, GETS SOAKED. Dana's shorts were not dry the next day. Her purse was still damp the next day..I was also pretty wet. It was a little ridiculous.

I took a pic to send to my parents..You can't really tell, but she was pretty wet!

Wet enough to warrant buying a sweatshirt so she wouldn't freeze while we watched the fireworks. We did a bit of shopping (and Dana bought a sweatshirt!) and then secured a fireworks spot.

I did fireworks with Bret's phone, because my camera battery DIED and so did my phone. We had a good view, but there was a tree a little bit in the way (that mostly only affected my pictures!). Bret thinks we saw Wishes in WDW when we were there last summer, but I am not sure. Whatever the case, all three of us loved it and Bret and I were been singing the song all last week!

some of my fireworks favorites

After the fireworks, Dana headed back to the hotel, and Bret and I booked it to ride Star Tours again. After that, we went so I could FINALLY get my dole whip!!! We had tried twice throughout the day, but the line was too long and we had places to be. Bret got some as well, and we sat on a bench and enjoyed the ambience for a while.

After that we mozied our way down main street, through the shops, picked up ear hats and had them embroidered (both a first for me!) and said goodbye to Disneyland and headed back to the hotel.


Disneyland Summary:
-Back and forth and back and forth across the park. We could've planned better
-Crowds: totally doable! We walked onto everything except for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and Star Tours. Busier as the day went on, but not surprising.
-I should have documented every churro we ate. I think Bret had at least 3 and I had 3-4 as well.

Overall, an awesome, busy, long day! Our feet were so tired at the end of the day, but we had a great time.

Continued in next post: PROPOSAL!

 

[DisneytheKid]

Loving the trip report so far! Looking forward to reading more

 

[crmom7054]

Great trip report, I love the fun ride pictures!

How was the Fairfield Inn? And the walk to the park from there? We are considering staying there in June for our first trip to Disneyland. We are Disneyworld Veterans, but Disneyland Virgins!

 

[Jaina]

I don't even like Dole Whips, but those look amazing! Love the funny ride pictures!

 

[Malroy]

Loving the trip report so far! Looking forward to reading more

Thank you!! Glad you are liking it

Great trip report, I love the fun ride pictures!

How was the Fairfield Inn? And the walk to the park from there? We are considering staying there in June for our first trip to Disneyland. We are Disneyworld Veterans, but Disneyland Virgins!

We liked FFI - My family stays almost exclusively in marriott hotels so I am kind of used to them, haha! It's about a 10 minute walk to the parks and we thought the room was nice and large, comfy beds, etc. I think the lack of free breakfast is lame, and the pool is pretty small, but we were so pooped from our park days we didn't use the pool.

I don't even like Dole Whips, but those look amazing! Love the funny ride pictures!

Oh man I LOVE dole whips! I was getting a little worried we wouldn't be able to get one - the line was insane!

 

[Linda67]

Great TR
When do we get to the proposal part

 

[mommy2mrb]

looks like you had a fun day at DL...love the fun photos!

 

[Malroy]

Great TR
When do we get to the proposal part

Tee hee! Probably in the next update (hopefully I will get to it today!)..happened pretty early in the day at DCA!!!!!

looks like you had a fun day at DL...love the fun photos!

It was so great!! We are itching to be back already..

 

[Malroy]

I am totally staying up late and avoiding some homework to write this Trip Report tonight But you know, I am including MY ENGAGEMENT in this section. So I think I can handle it.....

ANYWAYS.

After what seemed like not enough sleep our alarms were going of to get up and start our day at California Adventure! We were both very excited about this day, because it was going to be just the two of us! The day with Dana was great, but we were REALLY looking forward to enjoying each other's company in the happiest place on earth. I remember being ready and anxious to go before Bret was, and sorting through our pins while I was waiting on him. This trip was also my first foray into trading. I watched Bret's mom and niece trade endlessly on our WDW trip last summer and never thought I'd get into it..But I let Bret talk me into buying a starter set with a lanyard. It is fun, and I enjoy looking up the sets at the end of the day to see what other pins go with the ones we've traded and such!

Anyway, we headed off to DCA and got there around 825 or so. Again, just a couple minutes of waiting, they counted us down and started letting people through the turnstiles. We had a bit of delay getting in because people in front of us had to have their pictures taken, but it wasn't more than a couple minutes.

Once we got in we followed the crowd and made it into the line for RSR FPs. We started chatting with the woman in line in front of us (who had two ADORABLE children, OMG) who was an AP holder, and she said this was the farthest up the line she had ever been, and she had done this 3x since they opened Carsland. We were at the end of the Carthay Circle building heading if you are heading down towards the turn to the Aladin theatre..If that makes any sense to anyone.

Our new friend snapped this cute picture of us looking dorky in our ear hats!

The wait was not bad at all. During it, there was a CM walking up and down the line explaining what line we were in, etc and we heard a rumor that RSR was actually down. We had planned to get FPs and then we were thinking about booking it to try and get on first thing. The CM confirmed that it was down at the moment, but should be starting up shortly after park opening. We decided against our original plan at this point.. Promptly at 9am, the line started moving and we got our FPs by about 915, for two different times! Only by 5 minutes, but what I think is really hilarious about this is that I didn't realize it, until the end of the day when I was looking through my pictures! We were both REALLY excited to have these - I knew there was no way we wouldn't get them with our place in line, but we were SUPER pumped for Carsland.

After that we ran up to GRR to get WOC passes (blue!), and then Screamin' and all of a sudden I felt like the FP queen!

Then we got in line to ride TMM. We waited probably around a half hour, with a miserable kid in line behind us, who I decided was miserable because his parents named him Neville. I love Harry Potter, and puberty certainly did Neville Longbottom some serious good, but that just does not strike me as something I would want to name my kid. ANYWAYS. Judging of people's child name choices aside...

Bret kicked my BUTT at TMM. I am so not good at that game! But it is such a great ride. We both love it.

After that, we took a bathroom break, and then went to use our Screamin' FPs. I was a little apprehensive about this. As I may have mentioned previously in this TR, I tend to be a bit of a weeny when it comes to the scarier rides. I had ridden Screamin' before, and that was mostly out of family pressure, and afterwards I was MAD, like MAD MAD and stayed grumpy for a while. I do NOT enjoy being scared, and have a bad attitude about roller coasters. This trip I was determined to be a brave big girl and to not abandon Bret on the scarier rides. So I somewhat reluctantly got on the ride.

As we pulled around the corner I had to shake Bret's hand away from mine (he was trying to hold hands!) so I could grip the handlebars. I love me some NPH, and tried to pretend his voice was comforting..but it was not. I was TERRIFIED. I knew how the ride shoots you off all quickly, but I was totally not prepared. I spent the entire first uphill screaming BRET I DONT LIKE THIS I DONT LIKE THIS!! I could tell by his response that he felt really bad, which made me feel bad, so I tried to buck up a little bit. After that, the rest of the ride was really not bad at all. I actually kept my eyes open during the upside down loop (which really is seriously huge for me!!) and afterwards I was shaky but I had fun.

Bret is a little hard to see, and we both have NO idea where on the ride they take the picture, but Bret is convinced it is right at the beginning, where I was shouting I DON'T LIKE THIS!! hahaha

After that we had a bit of a debate over what to do, but we ended up going to ride Ariel's Undersea Adventure. The Little Mermaid is far and above my most favorite movie of all time (Red heads gotta stick together!) and I had been looking forward to this ride. We hop on, and right away the ride stops. Sebastian kept telling us it was probably that evil sea witch, and I bet he was right! Ursula is crazy. Once the ride started up again we went on our way, while I was happily taking pictures with my phone and singing along.

First things first: THE ANIMATRONICS ON THIS RIDE ARE MIND BLOWING. Seriously, sooooo incredible. Here is a pictures before I got a little bit distracted

Even HER HAIR MOVES to make it feel underwater.

As we round the corner, I hear the 'Kiss the Girl' song playing. Bret says to me, "Do you think you will cry during the wedding?" And I am like uuuhhh, I dunno! presuming he is talking about the wedding scene during the ride (which I didn't even know was there!). Then he says, "I want to kiss a girl!" So I kiss him, turn back to the ride, and then hear him say, "Will you marry me?" and as I am turning to him I automatically say "Yes!" because we have this kind of back and forth conversation sort of regularly, but jokingly. I turn around and there he is HOLDING A FREAKING RING! Immediately I am freaking out. "ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU REALLY SERIOUSLY SERIOUS?" And he says yes, really, I am serious!!!! And then I say, "IS THAT RING REAL???" By this point, the tears are flowing strong and I am a shaky, crying mess and we have to get off the ride!!! I have totally missed the last two scenes of the ride and barely manage to gather my purse and get off the ride without falling!

We get off the ride and I am still in total disbelief, and he's like well, I need to send a picture to my mom, because she is the only person who knew I was going to do this, and she's been bothering me about when it's going to happen for days! So we took this picture to send to his mom

And then I was like OH MY GOD I NEED TO SIT DOWN. We walk up around the corner from GRR and I batter him with questions and gathered the following information:

1. He had bought the ring BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY!!! He had had it for like a month and a half!!!
2. He had been planning it for a while (obviously) but told no one other than his mom
3. He traced one of my other rings one night while I was in the bathroom so he could have the ring sized so I could wear it right away
4. We had joked (A LOT) about him previously missing "golden opportunities" to propose (last summer in WDW, last winter in Hawaii), and he said he finally decided it was time to seize the opportunity! Every time I said but why now?? He responded "Because I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you!"
5. He did a lot of ring research and ended up going with a round cut, 3/4 carat diamond on a thin 14k white gold band. It is PERFECT. I am very picky about jewelry and he got it sosososo right.
6. He had compared some DCA options - we had previously joked about (seriously, this topic came up a lot!) getting engaged at Disneyland, and I made a comment about not wanting it to be around a lot of people - and he said his two most serious thoughts were during WOC or on the Ariel ride. His words: "I wanted to be able to actually WATCH WOC and not have you freaking out during it, so I went with Ariel." He youtube'd the ride so he could choose which part of it he wanted to propose during!

Like I said, we had talked about getting married a lot, knew that we would eventually, but I DID not see this coming!! Not even a little bit!!! Quite a few hugs and kisses follow, then I call both of my parents (and cried some more!) and begin the crazy texting. The amount of all caps texting I did that morning was a little bit crazy! After my phone died at DLR the previous day I had vowed to use my phone less to make sure it wouldn't die at DCA. I jokingly scolded Bret that now there was no way my phone was going to stay on all day - I had to tell people about the proposal! I was very right - It went from 60 or 70% to less than 30% in like two hours.

After that we ran up to Guest Services because I wanted to see if they had the "Just Engaged" buttons, but sadly they no longer carry them. The woman at the desk gave us "I'm Celebrating!" buttons instead, and I got Bret's First Visit button as well. Then we went to Carsland to visit Sally's Cozy Cone Motel for some lunch..More on that later

I took this picture while I was waiting for Bret to bring the food..

I've decided we will have similar buttons for everyone attending our wedding! (Another Disney touch at our wedding - our first dance will be "I see the light" from Tangled!)

And here is a close up of my ring - Bret took this the next day as we were driving back to Arizona. I still find myself (two weeks later!) staring at it, incredulous that we are actually engaged and thinking about how much I love Bret and how I can't believe the ring is so perfect. I seriously love that guy.

The rest of our day was just pure bliss. In Disney California Adventure, with the love of my life, my best friend, who ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM! Ah, I am tearing up now just thinking about it!!!

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