See what a little Wishin' can do? A very ENGAGING January 2015 trip! *COMPLETED 10/9*

[DisneyKid4Life]

Yes, they are VERY sneaky with the posted waits on the Journey of MY Little Mermaid. I've heard that they rarely, if ever, show less than 20 minutes. So what happened here proves that point. You really never know the true wait time for this ride. But no matter... WAIT TIME CARD!!!!! I truly believe that acceptance of that duty is akin to becoming a CM.

Joe's only memory of Dumbo goes like this...when he was younger, he and his family waited in line for close to three hours to ride it. Once they were near boarding Joe decided he didn't want to ride anymore and forced one of his parents to take him out of the line.

So how did Joe like his new family?

I've only eaten at BOG once, for lunch, but in the Ballroom. Frankly, this is the only place I wanna be. The other rooms are fine, but they're no Ballroom. Sadly I haven't tried the Grey Stuff though.

I have heard about the no re-admittance policy, so that was great someone was there to tell you that. I may prefer the Ballroom, but I liked seeing the other rooms as well. But my one goal for dinner dining is simply... Beast.

 

[Cando86]

Can I Say Something Crazy?

After our amazing dinner, we headed to watch "A Frozen Holiday Wish." I know, enough with the Frozen - I am RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!

But I do love the movie and this was my first time being at Disney since its release so I had to see what I could!

It was actually pretty neat. I took a video of some of it. It's two and a half minutes long but it's pretty cool - fast forward to the end to see Elsa light up the castle - it is actually pretty awesome.

Next, we headed to grab a seat for Celebrate the Magic and WISHES! Wishes has always been "it" for me at Disney. By far my favorite thing in all of the World. It's always held a special place in my heart. Throughout my life, Disney has always been the place where I can come escape and just be. And Wishes just takes those feelings to a whole new level and reminds me that there is a place that I am really able to do those things. I NEVER miss it and I try to see it multiple times on every trip. My sister and I watch videos of Wishes and post on each other's facebook wall "so...watching Wishes and crying..." way too frequently. It's just always been the epitome of Disney to us.

So, needless to say, even though I already did, I was very excited. And even more excited to share this with Joe. I hoped he loved it as much as I do.

We ended up with a great seat on the curb right outside of Casey's. It was perfect.

We had had such a great day. We did so much, had so much fun and just had probably the best meal we've ever had together. AND this was just the beginning of our trip! We had our whole trip ahead of us. I just remember being so happy and thinking nothing could beat this...

I was wrong.

Something could.

But first we had to Celebrate the Magic! And celebrate we did...





One of my favorite people and my favorite mouse.

Always tear up at all things Walt. Tearing up looking at the pictures now.

And tearing up thinking about this moment and what was to come. And I had no idea.

Now, remember I was REALLY excited to share this with Joe. I remember excitedly pointing out EVERY thing. And not really getting much of a reaction from him. Looking back, I should've realized he was distracted by SOMETHING but I was too in the zone to even think about it too much.

It kind of went like this...
Candace: "JOE! LOOK! DID YOU SEE THAT?! IT'S MICKEY!"

Joe:

Candace: "But Wreck-It Ralph!!! Did you see?!"

Joe:

Candace: "WALT!!!!!! Joe it's Walt!!!!!!"

Joe:

Oh I should also mention, right before Celebrate the Magic Joe said he had to run to the bathroom. I was like "but...but...it's about to start!!!" He would have none of it and said he'd be really quick. Okay... Didn't really think too much about it at the time except "BAD TIMING JOE."

He made it back in time. Phew.

And then...

"Starlight...star bright..."

Ugh I can't. I guarantee you the tears started right at the line...I just can't handle it. They're probably starting now.

I was standing up on the curb so I could see...#shortpeopleproblems...and Joe kept insisting I stand down by him.

And I kept insisting "no, it's okay, I can see better here"...way to help, Candace.

I had my head on Joe's shoulders, we were watching Wishes, in Disney World together...could it get anymore perfect? Spoiler alert: YES, THE ANSWER IS YES.

So...Wishes ended and we went home and went to bed! Great day!



So there I was up on the curb, with Joe probably cursing my stubbornness in his head...

When Joe looked at me and asked me what I wish for...

So what do you think I said?

"To be with you forever"? "To have you be mine always"?

No. I ruin the moment and say...

"TO LIVE HERE!!!"



Way to ruin a moment Candace.

Joe saved the day and said...

"well I wish for you to be my princess..."



and then he gets down on one knee...



and asks me to marry him

It was, by far, one of the most special moments of my life. I will never ever forget how I felt.

So did I say YES?!

Kind of...I said "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" on repeat... Way to go again, Candace.

Apparently there was a group behind us watching and one of the guys finally yelled "DID SHE SAY YES?!"

And Joe said he really wanted to say back "well, she said 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!'"



OF COURSE I said yes

If you watch the video below of Wishes (not mine, I hope it's still okay to post!) it happened right around the 3:45 mark.

And we watched the rest of Wishes with our heads on each other's shoulders, smiling like idiots.

And I was doing this internally...
http://giphy.com/gifs/excited-frozen-Oi6tJtKNThC6I

So remember all that talk about Wishes being my favorite thing in all of Disney, how excited I get to watch it, etc.? Yeah, I don't remember anything past that 3:45 mark.

After the show ended, the guy behind us from earlier came up to us and shook our hands, told us congratulations and said "well, you know you've got about 60,000 people here you have to invite, right?!" It was very cute.

We excitedly decided to go take some Photopass pictures. We were SO excited at this point. Just like back and forth "seriously?!" "omg" "WHAT!" ... okay maybe not so much back and forth. Mostly from me. Joe also took this opportunity to say to me "you have no idea how much I've lied to you over the past couple months" and then proceeded to tell me the whole story of getting the ring. Which was adorable. He put so much thought into it, it was really really sweet. And he did such a good job.

So rewind. Remember that dingy hotel we stayed at in Macon on the way down that Joe didn't like and I kind of snapped at him for not appreciating the reservation I had made? Well...he didn't want to stay in a shady place with the ring on him. Made him nervous. He ALSO told me the ring was literally sitting inches from me on the car ride down.

And remember being at the wishing well by the castle earlier in the day? He said he *almost* did it right there but knew he had to do it at Wishes.

That strange bathroom trip he took right before Celebrate the Magic? That was to take the ring out of its little pouch. That he had been carrying around with him all day. On rides. Poor guy!!! He kept saying how glad he was that he did it in the beginning of the trip...can't imagine having all that stress on my shoulders!

OKAY where were we? That was just a representation of how my brain was working at the time - it was all over the place. On to the Photopass pictures!









The proposal pictures were obviously recreated but we had to do it!

I took about a million pictures of the ring this night but I think the best one came a few days later so I'll include it here...



Boy did a good job.

Here's what we posted on Facebook the next day...



It honestly was one of the greatest days/nights of my life. I mean, WITHOUT the proposal it would have been. With it? Absolutely perfect and without a doubt the most special moment of my life.

 

[Lady Marie]

And now I'm blubbering at work.... What an AWESOME proposal!!!! Love the Facebook post-- that pic of you two in front of the castle is just perfect! Can't wait to read more!

 

[KathyM2]

LOVE your engagement story!! So awesome and such an experience that you will never forget. So amazing that he rode around all day with the ring...I would have been so nervous!!! What an amazing guy you have!! And a perfect whole day before it...your dinner sounds so yummy and the atmosphere was perfect too!! We wend to BOG for lunch only - couldn't get in for dinner. But loved it too.

You asked how old my DD was (the one that wouldn't go on 7DMT...) yeah...she's....9 lol. You probably expected me to say 5 or something lol. She does not like fast rides. She likes the teacups and spinny rides...but wouldn't go on Splash or any of the mountains for that matter. So I wasn't surprised when she bailed on 7DMT...BUT...at least we didn't wait in line for it first lol. She decided before getting in line. I HAVE been that person to wait in line though and have a kid bail after...but thankfully never the type of lines you see at 7DMT!!!

Congrats again on your engagement and am very happy for you that the day turned out so well!!

 

[Cando86]

Mission: Get Engaged - ACCOMPLISHED

We called Joe's mom on the way to the bus stop. I had about 5% battery left on my phone...so I couldn't call anyone which was torture. BUT, looking back, it actually was kind of nice to just have that moment to ourselves (and Joe's mom).

Oh! I almost forgot. We had one thing we had to do before we left the park...and that was to get JUST ENGAGED buttons!!! WHAT?! No "Happy Birthday"...No "Happy Anniversary"...No "I'm Celebrating"...JUST ENGAGED. Joe had literally just made a dream come true. We went to a little shop outside the park entrance where a CM had directed us...and she opened her drawer and said..."it doesn't look like I have any of those..."



But then! She said "oh wait! Here they are!" PHEW! And she pulled out two of these beauties.



Once we put these on...the congratulations from others NEVER stopped. And it was AWESOME! So many guests and CMs congratulating us left and right for our whole trip. When we got home we both commented when we'd go out..."why is no one congratulating us?!"

Once we got back to the room, we finally had a pretty darn good excuse for popping that bottle of champagne my friend had sent us (sneaky little friend...she knew all along - I would find out later that apparently EVERYONE knew except me).

And took WAY TOO MANY pictures of the ring. I would soon discover there is no such thing as too many ring pictures. To me anyway.





Notice the Mickey champagne flute in the background

We were up way too late making way too many phone calls...worth it? WORTH IT.

It was so funny hearing the story from everybody else and what they knew. Apparently everyone was texting each other throughout the night and stalking Disney's website to see what time Wishes started and then getting confused when, after 8pm, they still hadn't heard anything from us! Because my phone was dying. Haha

I slept like a baby tonight. Like a just engaged...baby? Wait what?

 

[redheadedmermaid73]

Just joined in. Congratulations on graduating and getting engaged!

 

[Vernie822]

I am DYING at your story Candace!!! I love it!!! Omg. We got engaged in September in the Plaza Rose Garden, and my phone was also at like 5%, haha. Seriously great to just have that us time though I can't wait to read more about your trip.. Amazing start!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I enjoy Frozen as well, but I'm still not on board with Frozen taking over the Castle Lighting. I've said it before, I'll say it again. It's Cinderella's castle, NOT CinderElsa.

Wishes... Is... Disney!! Period.

Oh Candace, , what a memory. I can't even imagine what was going through Joe's head knowing this was coming and just being too unable to focus on anything else... even Wishes. You know it's a big deal when Wishes can't distract you. To propose, in Disney, DURING WISHES!!!! Absolutely perfect. Well done Joe. Well done.

 

[NJlauren]

Amazing update!!! So exciting that really makes such an amazing memory and I think it's so perfect that he waited till wishes!!!

Congratulations and now you can be an obsessive planner for a wedding!!!

 

[tinabina919]

Congratulations!! So exciting!

My now husband proposed to me by Cinderella's wishing well....we went back for our honeymoon and it was closed for refurb glad to see its back up!

 

[SarahDisney]

Okay, so, I discovered your TR and stupidly decided to start reading it right before I have to turn off my computer and leave the house, so I don't have time for detailed comments, but here are a few brief comments:

A) You're awesome and I'm really loving reading about your trip
B) Congrats on grad school!
C) Totally with you on BOG ... love it!
D) Super congrats on the engagement. And kudos to Joe on what sounds like a great ask - getting engaged during Wishes is so special! The ring is beautiful.

I can't wait to read the next installment!

 

[sailored]

THERE IT IS! THERE IT IS! I've been waiting for this moment! Congratulations! I'm SO happy for you!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement and bravo to Joe for an excellent proposal! Wishes AND a proposal?! Brilliant, Joe!

Even though people were dying that you weren't calling immediately, I think it's nice that you had some time alone with the life-changing news.

I hope Joe was able to see Wishes a second time when he could actually pay attention to it without distractions!

 

[LindseyJo22]

So awesome!

My now fiance proposed after we had a fabulous fancy dinner at Chefs de France last May It was totally perfect!

We also did some post-engagement pictures in front of the castle because they are awesome.

This just sounds like so much fun! I wish we had thought to get buttons, but we were mostly just excited; glad you were able to have such a great trip so far

 

[crepemyrtle]

Oh my lord! That was completely worth the wait. Let’s face it - the spoiler alert was in the title of the report, and yet I was still scrolling ever so slowly so I wouldn't spoil the surprise. Congratulations and best Wishes!

 

[jennynyholm]

Congratulations!!! That was seriously the sweetest engagment story! Wish you and your fiancée lots of joy and happiness! Thanks so much for sharing your magical story with us.

 

[ashw100]

That is an awesome story congratulations. What a way to make something you love so much and make it that much better. It sounds like you had the most perfect day and then you had the whole vacation to enjoy your engagement.

 

[DisneyPsycho]

Love love love!!! (Candace's mom here...they are so perfect together!) And more please!!!

 

[saintstickets]

Okay....first of all - CONGRATULATIONS!!
Next....I'm hurting from laughing so much at your story! I can totally relate. If anyone tried to take my attention away from the castle during Wishes I would be upset!
I can only imagine how he felt but it all ended up fantastic with a story that you can tell forever! Congrats again!

 

[Hardheadedwoman]

Congratulations! I teared up reading the proposal - so sweet and romantic.

My husband and I are staying at Pop for the first time next month - I'd love to hear what you thought about it (especially the food court).

Can't wait to read more

Lissette