Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

charliegirl76 · Apr 28, 2015

OMG, Jenn, I read your entire journal. I love it! Your wedding was SO beautiful!! I laughed, I cried. I'm loving the trip report. I just told Shane that it's making me wish we'd had more people at our wedding and that we'd been able to hang out more with those who did come (most only came for the wedding and didn't even go to the parks). I adore the last photo of Vanessa with her comment of "Ok, I totally get why you guys love this place so much".....I wish I could convince more of my friends and family that it's so worth the trip and the money. If I could just get them there, I'm certain I could make them understand! You are so very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends.

elphie101 · May 12, 2015

edeneye said:
I'm almost relieved you had to take some time out from your honeymoon report - I didn't want to miss anything and once I start going back I keep finding myself backtracking right through yours and rereading the whole narrative every time. Or at the very least I'll go through and look at all the pictures telling the tale. What an amazing record you're creating here. I haven't been back and reread my own planning diary yet but I imagine it is going to be something close to getting photos and videos (oh my, the video) back from your wedding day. Being able to look back and hear from yourself at those times will be such a joy and you've got such meticulous detail it is really going to be like reliving it all.

With all that said though, I hope your hard drive didn't have anything irreplaceable on it! Boooooooo technology! I also hope it doesn't hurt your studies with finals coming up - if you can concentrate at all with another trip to WDW looming! I know I couldn't! Oh & one random thing I keep forgetting to mention - when we viewed our photos on the Roots' viewing site, your gallery link was just above ours (Jennifer & Kevin, Jessica & Benjamin) and it was so exciting to see a familiar face!

All the best for finals and then its on to the really important stuff! Honeymoon report and MORE DISNEY TIME!

Is it bad that I totally do the same thing? I go back and reread things and I get distracted!! To be fair, I also do the same thing with your epic adventure.

Once you posted that I went looking at the galleries, and there you guys are! Now that I think about it I feel like I've seen you (or Jess) pop up on facebook time and again as well.

A friend of ours fixed the computer straight away, and was able to get everything off the hard drive - I hadn't been too worried because the wedding pictures are backed up in multiple places of course, and all the honeymoon pictures are on photobucket (for the TR), but I did get a little nervous when I realized I hadn't backed up any other pictures for over a year :scared1:

Luckily everything is back though!

LC102310 said:
Great report, thank you for sharing.

Your home reception was at one of my favorite places, my baby shower was there and my daughters Christening was there tool. It was in the ballroom as well, they did not have the smaller rooms available and they offered us the entire ballroom for my small group. Love it there!

Lisa

I think I remember you saying that earlier! We loved the space (and MAN was the food fantastic!)

charliegirl76 said:
OMG, Jenn, I read your entire journal. I love it! Your wedding was SO beautiful!! I laughed, I cried. I'm loving the trip report. I just told Shane that it's making me wish we'd had more people at our wedding and that we'd been able to hang out more with those who did come (most only came for the wedding and didn't even go to the parks). I adore the last photo of Vanessa with her comment of "Ok, I totally get why you guys love this place so much".....I wish I could convince more of my friends and family that it's so worth the trip and the money. If I could just get them there, I'm certain I could make them understand! You are so very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends.

Awww Sharli you're so sweet!! I think it takes a special kind of person to be resistant to the pixie dust, I'm sure if your friends and family got to WDW they would get it. :hug:

You know you would have the best someday vow renewal with as many Disbrides as you wanted!

hooplah · May 13, 2015

elphie101 said:
Hi everyone!! I promise I didn't forget about you - it's making me so sad I haven't updated this in so long! I had a business trip this week and I was so excited to get a post or two out with the downtime I had - until I opened up my laptop in the hotel room to find out my hard drive was busted. Needless to say, it's not easy to write an update on a phone, so between my busted computer and finals week coming up it might be a little quite for the time being (though I have been known to procrastinate on the boards ) can't wait to come back and finish the story for you all!

confession: i spent 2 hours last night reading your entire pj/trip report :blush:

your writing is awesome and I loved how you really put a lot of detail as well as your own thoughts into your posts! I really felt like I was there, and I felt the jitters the entire time i was reading about the "getting ready for the wedding bit!"
your wedding was so beautiful. all the hard work you put into it really paid off! :cutie:

elphie101 · May 14, 2015

hooplah said:
confession: i spent 2 hours last night reading your entire pj/trip report your writing is awesome and I loved how you really put a lot of detail as well as your own thoughts into your posts! I really felt like I was there, and I felt the jitters the entire time i was reading about the "getting ready for the wedding bit!"
your wedding was so beautiful. all the hard work you put into it really paid off!

Awww you didn't! That really warms my heart to hear :goodvibes

Thank you so much for commenting, and I'm glad you're enjoying the ride (it ain't over yet!)

elphie101 · May 14, 2015

Wednesday October 15th

The alarm went off bright and early this morning, but there was no cronut breakfast for us - today was TRAIL'S END DAY!! Originally I had Kona breakfast booked this morning (because I've been drooling over Tonga Toast since 2012) but after the internet kept singing the praises of Trail's End I decided it would be worth the switch. Switching also helped us in that we were able to schedule a meal with our parents (some of whom *coughmyfathercough* you might remember made it quite clear they wanted to spend more time with us that week) as well as Vanessa & Brian before they took off for home. I made our reservation for 9:25am, to allow for plenty of time for us to get to MK by bus and then Ft Wilderness by boat (the only thing that made me slightly nervous about the reservation). Since Kevin's parents were still at Beach Club, we road the bus to MK with them and happened to arrive right at 9:00am alongside my parent's bus from Saratoga Springs. Almost perfect.....except we were still missing Brian and Vanessa.

The 6 of us headed to the boat dock and saw there was a boat waiting to head to Ft Wilderness. The timing was too perfect to not hop on (not to mention that pesky ADR surcharge I was terrified of being slapped with if we were marked as no shows due to running late) so I texted Vanessa express detailed instructions about which boat to take, and we boarded the boat to the campground while I chewed my fingernails imagining the remainder of our dining party heading to Wilderness Lodge by accident instead.

It was a gray and drizzly morning that day, but we made it to the campground without incident and headed right over to the podium to check in, and waited about 10 minutes or so while I kept anxiously checking my phone for text updates (they were just getting off the bus.......then a boat was pulling up......)

Fort Wilderness is one of those place I know I visited on a childhood Disney trip (thanks to photos of me at Hoop Dee Doo) but somewhere I have absolutely no memory of. It's really quite quaint and I loved the easy boat access to MK - I think the cabins would be fantastic for a friend WDW trip, to split between 6 people and save money!

Our buzzer went off after about 10 minutes of waiting, and still Vanessa & Brian had not yet arrived. We were taken inside and seated right next to the door, and I opened my phone to tell Vanessa where we were only to see that they were approaching the boat dock. In a flurry of "THEY'RE GONNA GET LOST" anxiety, I ended up running down to the boat dock just to make sure they got up to the restaurant in one piece, which in hind sight was almost definitely not needed.

Now, Trail's End. Oh how I love thee. I assume it was because it was after rope drop, or maybe because of the far-out location of Fort Wilderness, but it was probably the most relaxing buffet I've ever been to, by far. We were all served a glass of "Moonshine" juice, which Kevin declined until I told him it was the same as the juice served at Boma - to which he downed half a glass in one gulp! Our server happened to hear me call the Moonshine Juice Boma Juice and chastised me for it, saying "I don't know what you mean, Moonshine Juice is totally different from Jungle Juice and POG juice and Frunch - they're all unique!" (I actually just did some googling to double check the juice names and apparently they do all have slightly different recipes - but they certainly taste the same to me!) We then tackled the buffet - and I loaded up!

We have, from 12 o'clock - legit bacon, breakfast pizza, breakfast potatoes, hash browns, the obligatory Mickey waffle, warm pecan cinnamon buns, pulled pork eggs Benedict and scrambled eggs. I have died and gone to food heaven, and that was WITH leaving the donut holes behind!

This place may have supplanted Boma as my favorite WDW breakfast buffet (the fact that it's so cheap doesn't hurt either!) The bacon was better than your average Disney bacon (ie not limp at all!) though not quite as good as the wedding bacon, and the pulled pork eggs benedict got me hooked on eggs benedict now back home, though this version is still the best (love the sweet BBQ mixed with the eggs!) Surprising to me was the pecan cinnamon bun - I expected to love it considering how much I adore cinnamon buns, french toast and the like, but this was honestly too sweet, even for me. Just tasted like pure sugar. Also, the Crystal Palace does do a better breakfast pizza - though next time I go I may save all my eggs for the pulled pork version!

I did go back for a second plate of some light fruit and another Mickey Waffle (because MICKEY WAFFLE!), but I was stuffed to the gills. Everyone agreed that we were all incredibly satisfied and put Trail's End on our repeat list for sure. The best part? The price! I don't know how much our meal was (thanks to the parents at the table snatching the bill from the newlyweds - curse them!) but like all buffets, Trail's End has a range depending on the time of year and day of the week, in this case $17.99-$19.16. If you're like me, and breakfast buffets fill you up till dinner (with a light afternoon snack), that's at most $11.50 a meal for your day (including tip of course), which we often times spend at QS lunches. A total value if you ask me!

We rolled out of the restaurant and I headed towards the boat dock to go to MK, but my traveling companions had other plans. While my cold had virtually vanished, it left behind a nasty sounding, congested cough, and sick of listening to me wheeze/hoping I would get better the group strong armed me over to Pioneer Hall to get some Robitussen. Were it any other trip but my honeymoon, I might have resisted....but I had to admit they were probably right. Reluctantly I purchased some cough syrup and a bottle of water to wash the dosage down, and my mother proceeded to taunt Kevin about what he had gotten himself into as I made a production of taking my medicine (ever since I was a child, I have LOATHED liquid medicine. The worst tasting stuff in the world if you ask me). As nasty as it was and as much as I hate to say it, everyone was right and I stopped coughing almost instantly.

Just before 11:00am the boat to MK pulled up and we set off across Bay Lake, pointing out River Country and Wilderness Lodge to Vanessa and savoring my last few minutes with my MOH before she left (she would be busing it back to Pop Century from MK to await her Magical Express pickup).

Do you think we can swim over?

We landed and made our goodbyes to Vanessa and Brian at the boat dock (and took a truly horrendous overtired and ill photo - which you will not get to see!). Just family remaining now, we made our way through Magic Kingdom bag check and (after stopping for a few train station photos as insisted on by my father) into the park.

Hello gorgeous!

The problem was, of course, that we were just walking into the park at about 11:15am during a not-so-slow week, and while we all had FP+ as three couples none of them were for the same rides. We settled on a bit of an unspoken agreement to just take it easy, enjoy each others company and enjoy the park after the 13 months of craziness it took to get ourselves there. In keeping with this 'glow with the flow' mentality, we decided to wander up to Mickey's PhilharMagic (one of my favorites) which we were sure would have a low wait. Along the way, we passed Cinderella's wishing well, and decided we should all cast coins.

We took a minute of silence, then made our wishes. As I am known to do, I almost immediately turned to Kevin and started badgering him.

"What'd you wish for, what'd you wish for?"

Instantly, without missing a beat, Kevin's mother goes "I wished for a girl".

..........well, that only took about 72 hours after the wedding. Frankly, we're lucky it took that long! Kevin for his part, was instantly embarrassed, shouted "GEEZE MOM!" and stalked off towards Fantasyland. Ah, my husband.

The wait for Philhar was probably about 15-20 minutes, definitely longer than I know I've waited before, but it was inside, it was cool, and it wasn't 90 minutes, so it really wasn't worth complaining over. For a long time this show was my favorite WDW attraction, so it'll always have a special place in my heart.

When we left Philhar we did a little shopping while browsing wait times in the area. Even basic dark rides like Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion and it's a small world were pushing 30+ minutes, so we decided to meander down to Tomorrowland and the reliable, my favorite TTA Peoplemover, while I texted Sinclaire to see where she ended up working that day (while we met during my tenure at Buzz, she's trained in all of Tomorrowland). Kevin and I decided to split up on TTA and each ride with our parents as 3 and 3, which both sets were mildly bothered by, but it ended up being a really nice way for us to reconnect with our respective parents, especially as we ended up splitting off into two separate trains entirely.

That path is the path I paced up and down for half an hour calling everyone I knew to tell them I was engaged - the one part of the HUB expansion I am sad to see go (to this day, I am SO annoyed we didn't revisit our proposal spot during the wedding trip while it was still there. Oh well).

While on TTA, I heard back from Sinclaire that she and another girl I had known while working at Buzz were both stationed at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and as that fit our low-stress ride criteria we headed over there next!

I might be alone in this, but I reallllllllllly don't like the Monsters University additions to the show. It's purely sentimental, as I spent SO MANY hours in this room and I can recite the whole preshow by heart - until it switches to the stuff promoting the new movie and just makes me stew inside. Yes, I know it's irrational.

Sinclaire was stationed in the preshow room, so she had a chance to stop and chat with us and our parents (who were super excited to see her again) without having to stray from her job, as she followed us into the theater.

I was so focused on taking a picture of Sinclaire at work for TR purposes that I missed THE MOMENT! You'll see Sinclaire is all excited - if you've been to the Laugh Floor, you know that audience members are spotlighted before the show ("buys everyone churros" guy, broke out of prison" guy if they're wearing stripes, etc). FIL had been put up on the big screen as "Crazy dance move guy" and much to ALL of our surprises, he actually got up and danced! He is very reserved and not likely to draw public attention to himself, so we were all floored and went wild - and I missed it! Gahhhhh. Example #1 why you shouldn't spend your trip behind a camera.

I did get his post-dance reward shot though!

The show was enjoyable as always - definitely not the best I've ever seen, but then again, I've seen this show a looooooooooot, and it's so subjective to the audience/the monsters of the day. Sinclaire and my other friend came up to give us a big hug as we left the theater, and surprised us with a most magical moment - a shower of anytime FastPasses, plus a special FastPass that we could use at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!! We were absolutely floored by their generosity and their kindness. Kevin's parents were especially excited to get to ride the Mine Train, as they hadn't been able to yet.

The tickets - if you can't read, they are good for the mountains, Pirates, Buzz, Haunted Mansion, the Laugh Floor, and the Speedway.

Newly Fastpassed, we decided to head next door to Buzz, which we had previously skipped due to a 45 minute wait (not any more!)

The line we were not waiting in

My score on the right, Kevin's on the left. This picture will forever shame me, as I used to be an automatic 999.999-er during my college program days - look how far I've fallen!

After sulking my way off of Buzz, we decided there was no time like the present to head over to Mine Train, so off we went! The poor CM holding the 'End of Line' sign was practically at the tea cups, so I was soooooo thankful we had a FP. I also noticed a CM about to give out a FLIK card, and I practically begged her to get to be the one to take it - a relic from my cast member days! These cards measure wait times - they get scanned at the beginning of the line and then at some point right before you get on, and that transmits back to *someone* how long your wait was, to update the sign out front. Please be kind to your cast members and make sure they make it back to them!

Rocking my sparkly ears, my DisBride shirt, and my Just Married/Wedding buttons!! My favorite ensemble!

Since it was my second time on the ride, I decided to try taking some pictures - including during the coaster part (which then became a bit of a thing of the day)

Say cheese!

Guess who's coming to dinner....

It was about 1:00pm now, and we decided to split up for a few hours, as all of our FP+s were starting to become valid. We agreed to meet in Frontierland at 2:30pm to get a spot for Festival of Fantasy, which was my only request for the whole day - none of us had seen it yet and I didn't want to miss it. So we parted ways - my parents to the Little Mermaid ride, Kevin's to Big Thunder Mountain, and the two of us to Peter Pan. Like Philharmagic, Peter Pan is one of those rides that held the #1 spot for so long in my childhood, so I didn't take any photos, just snuggled up with the new husband and enjoyed the ride.

We did have a FP+ for Seven Dwarfs after Peter Pan (the earliest I had been able to get it in our trip at 60 days out) but since we had just ridden it with our parents Kevin and I both decided we could skip it, and instead moseyed down to Adventureland for two new-to-us favorites that we picked up during our Disneyland trip the year before: Dole Whip and The Enchanted Tiki Room. I had never seen WDW's version (Under New Management or otherwise) and it seemed like a great way to relax and escape the heat and long lines of other nearby attractions. Kevin for his part was thrilled to learn that like California's Tiki Room, Dole Whips are allowed inside.

The girls!

After the show we heard from Kevin's mother that my father had secured a spot for the six of us by the Frontierland Shooting Gallery, but it was starting to get busy so we should probably hustle over. That we did!

Coming up next: About 1287563 photos of Festival of Fantasy (kidding........kind of. Not as many as the wedding, I promise).

Disneyducks12 · May 14, 2015

Glad your back! As always I love your style of writing you really seemed to enjoy your trip and how lucky to get all those FP!!! Can't wait to hear more :goodvibes

elphie101 · May 15, 2015

Disneyducks12 said:
Glad your back! As always I love your style of writing you really seemed to enjoy your trip and how lucky to get all those FP!!! Can't wait to hear more

Glad to be back!! I missed everyone

Those FP were the gift that kept on giving - we actually never used them all and left some with MIL/FIL when we got on the Fantasy (they stayed an extra 3 days). Pixie dust makes everything more magical!

elphie101 · May 21, 2015

October 15th Continued

We met both sets of parents over by the Frontier shooting gallery, right up against the tree planted in the side walk. I kid you not, my dad had grabbed literally the ONLY shaded spot of sidewalk in all of Frontierland. Best of all, we we right against the rope/tape line, and it was only about one person deep, so no fighting anyone for space! We settled in on the ground, but not before I darted across the street to grab a favorite Disney snack -

Mmmmmm churros.

The Main Street Band and the Grand Marshalls of the parade came through, and then it was parade time! I was cautiously excited about Festival of Fantasy - I used to pick up several shifts working Celebrate a Dream Come True during my college program as a way to earn a little extra money, so the old parade is near to my heart. I did notice right away that there was some kind of sound issue with the parade - while the music was being broadcast out of each float, the speakers in the surrounding area of Frontierland seemed to be broken and silent, so the parade soundtrack would fade in and out with every float that went by. But now, pictures!

Definitely my favorite shot from the parade!

Ok so verdict - I've actually fallen more in love with this parade in the time since we saw it. In the moment, I just thought it was OK - I don't like how they evicted Aurora from the first float for Elsa and Anna (which is obvious in the soundtrack, as they play Once Upon a Dream for that float and nothing from Frozen), but the costumes and design elements are absolutely STUNNING. We may catch this again in our August trip, but it's not a priority for me (only parades that are: Soundsational in Disneyland and Boo to You during the Halloween Party).

After the parade, we split off with Kevin's parents (who decided to do their own thing) and went over to Big Thunder Mountain with my parents - both of them! This is HUGE as my mother has historically sat out on this ride for as long as I've been alive, and is definitely not a coaster person. However, 7DMT awakened something with her, and she found that as long as she was riding in the same car as my dad, and he prompted her with which way to lean so she could lean into the curves, she actually liked it, and so she decided to give Big Thunder a try!

Success!! Victory is ours!

After my mother's brave coaster experience we branched off on our own for our last Fast Pass of the day - Enchanted Tales with Belle. Neither of us had ever experienced it before and I had heard it wasn't worth it if you didn't have a FP due to long waits, so I grabbed one early on so we could check it out.

I won't spoil it, but this preshow is BY FAR the coolest thing I have ever seen in a preshow.

I did warn Kevin as we visited the Beast's castle that while predominatly children were picked for story time with Belle, there were two suits of armor who were typically adult men. He made sure to stand alllll the way in the back and make himself as small as possible - luckily for him he was not chosen.

LOVED Lumiere, what a fantastic addition!

I thought the show was really cute, and a fresh original idea for Disney (especially in the land of endless meet & greets), but not something we'll do again any time soon unless we were traveling with a child. Just our personal preference, as we aren't huge character people in the parks.

After our visit to Belle, we had about two hours before our dinner reservation at Ohana that evening, so we figured we'd hit up one more ride before catching the monorail over to the Poly. So we wandered over to Little Mermaid, which I will always love on the basis of my love for Ariel and the movie, even if the ride itself is a little boring (isn't that queue fantastic though?)

Being that we were all the way in the back of the park, we figured it'd be prudent now to make our way out and catch the monorail, and decided to stop at the Contemporary along the way since a) the resort monorail would stop there first and b) Kevin had heard they had a decent Vinylmation selection there and wanted to try our luck at completing a series. We had no such luck on the Vinylmation front, but we did get to see this really cool model of the Fantasy - just 3 days till our sailing!

Before long we were at the Poly, or land of a million walls. This was before the great unveiling of the lobby, so a lot of these pictures are moot now, but they were super documentary at the time. (In hindsight, I'm also really glad I changed our Kona ADR to Trail's End just so dinner was a change of scenery!)

Not a beautiful lobby

Construction as of 7 months ago

Since we had gotten over a little early, we figured we'd check in and start the waiting process already. Of course our table wasn't ready yet, so we were invited to have a seat - and being honeymooners and alcohol lovers, we chose to visit the Tambu Lounge!

Kevin had the Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale, and I had the Kona Longboard Island Lager. The beer was sooooo refreshing after a long day of touring in the parks and the sun.

We relaxing, drinking our beers, not caring that we didn't have a table yet. This moment is one of my happy memories of the honeymoon - us just enjoying each others company, not a care about what was going on around us, just having a drink and a good time and enjoying being in our favorite place together.

We closed our bar tab a little early, which I'm glad about as we used our Tables in Wonderland card (heck yeah 20% off beer!) and this was the first time we realized that every swipe of a TIW card requires the CM to call over a manager to approve the transaction. It was a bit of wait, but our table still hadn't been called, so we were in no rush.

We ended up being seated an a tiny two-top right next to the shiny wooden coconut racing track, though we didn't know it at the time. Neither of us had ever been to Ohana's dinner, so we were really excited to try it and see what all the fuss was about. Our assistant server (not the title, but closest thing I can think of to describe them) came over and took our drink orders, explaining that someone else would be taking care of serving us our food throughout the night. We ordered another round of our beers from the bar, and I enjoyed our (heavily zoomed in) castle view:

Sunset castle!

Bread was served, quickly followed by lettuce wraps. The bread was pretty standard to my memory, it did the job but I'm not remembering it being outstanding. We both enjoyed the lettuce wraps (and I can tell you I like the idea of lettuce wraps more than a salad - sorry old-menu Ohana fans!) but agreed that PF Changs does them better.

Every now and then I insist on getting a human in my photos - Kevin usually agrees, begrudgingly.

Our drink server came by to tell me that the bar was actually out of my beer on tap, and offered to bring me something else or the same beer in a bottle. If memory serves, I believe I ordered a Yuengling or something generic they have across property. It didn't matter though - a few minutes later he returned with both of our original selections! It turns out they have a second set of taps in the kitchen and there was still some Kona in that keg (or maybe the tapped a new keg and just didn't want to say anything. Who knows. I'm not complaining!)

We next got our skillet of pot stickers and chicken wings, followed very closely behind our veggies and noodles

Holy mother of Mickey those pot stickers. I think I ate about 10. I think I could have kept eating them all night, they were amazing. By far the only thing on the menu I asked for refills of during the night. Kevin isn't crazy about bone-in meat, so he didn't really eat the chicken (I thought it was ok - just average) but thought the pot stickers were good. The veggies were veggies, certainly not bad but nothing special, while the noodles delicious, if not a bit bland, which disappointed me - I am a lo mein addict so I was looking forward to these for awhile.

Our meats came around, first steak (not bad), then pork (pretty meh, but I don't love pork to begin with) and then after a bit of a delay, shrimp (good, but not worth the wait. I probably would have liked it more had I not have to wait for it and built it up in my head). While we were eating and waiting for shrimp, the coconut races started - and you'll see how close we were:

We certainly didn't mind, but some people might.

After one last pot sticker, we gave the OK for our plates to be cleared and out came dessert - bread pudding and a celebratory cupcake!

Kevin was absolutely stuffed (and doesn't like bread pudding anyway) so he refused to touch either. I have to be honest - I didn't sample the cupcake at all. I was waaaaaaay too focused on that bread pudding in all it's warm, cinnamon-y, delicious ice cream-y wonderfulness. If you couldn't tell, it was really, really, REALLY good. I was so bummed I could only manage a few bites - next time, I'm going easy on the noodles and (gasp) the pot stickers so I have more room for this wonderful concoction.

As we waited to settle the bill (thank god for Disney Visa rewards) I asked Kevin what he thought of the meal, and surprisingly he said it was the best of the trip! I really hadn't known what to think since a lot of the menu items (lettuce wraps, pot stickers, bone-in chicken, pork) are items he doesn't usually like to eat back home, but the food really impressed him. I have to say I loved the meal too, and I would happily dine here again, were it not for the outrageous price. We saved a whopping $19.25 with our Tables in Wonderland card, and the bill (2 meals plus 3 beers total) came to $99. That's just plain absurd for a restaurant where kids race coconuts a foot away from your table, and definitely at a non-signature at Disney. So will we be back? Yes........someday. No time soon, and absolutely not without TiW.

It was about 8:30 by the time we left Ohana, and I had been begging Kevin to see Wishes at 9:00pm even though he was exhausted, as it was our only night with a chance to see MK's fireworks. Reluctantly, he agreed, and we hopped on the monorail over to MK and began to make our way to the turnstiles. Something didn't seem right to me though, and I pulled up My Disney Experience - only to find Wishes didn't start till 10:00pm. As much as I love Wishes (and I LOOOOOOVE Wishes) even I didn't want to stay that long, so we kept walking past the tapstiles over to the buses to find our way back to the Beach Club.

Goodbye MK! Thanks for a lovely evening.

Tomorrow was a big day - we were finally venturing over to the Dark Side - and most importantly, to Diagon Alley!

Seia · May 21, 2015

Great update -- you make me really want to try 'Ohana now! We had it scheduled for our recent trip but ended up canceling it. Do you think the bread, veggies, and noodles would be enough for the whole meal? The fact that I won't eat any of the meat is my only hesitation about going there.

$99 though.... yikes! Josh and I always get the dining plan so sometimes we don't notice how absurd some of the bills are. Of course, it's not like you don't end up paying that same crazy amount, you just do it upfront. :laughing:

elphie101 · May 22, 2015

Seia said:
Great update -- you make me really want to try 'Ohana now! We had it scheduled for our recent trip but ended up canceling it. Do you think the bread, veggies, and noodles would be enough for the whole meal? The fact that I won't eat any of the meat is my only hesitation about going there. $99 though.... yikes! Josh and I always get the dining plan so sometimes we don't notice how absurd some of the bills are. Of course, it's not like you don't end up paying that same crazy amount, you just do it upfront.

Ohana is all you can eat of all the courses, in any order, so you could stuff yourself on noodles, veggies and lettuce wraps! (And that fantastic dessert, unless it's not your thing..........but I recommend it!). They brought me more pot stickers even after we were in the "meat skewer" course, so you don't have to worry about asking for say, more lettuce wraps once you've "moved on" from the lettuce wrap course. Especially if you're on the dining plan I think it's a fantastic deal. If you decide to try it I'd be interested to hear what you think!

LadyD · May 22, 2015

Finally catching up on reading about your wedding day! Everything looked so gorgeous and so perfect. I adore your photos. Your photographers did a fantastic job!

Amanda132 · May 22, 2015

As a Disney cruise junkie, I am impatiently waiting for you to get on to the cruise part of your honeymoon! :rotfl:

Also, I am now really wanting to eat at Ohana! I ate there a few years ago and have been wanting to go back, but I couldn't justify the price. But your photos make it seem like it would be worth it!

lthiesfeld07 · May 24, 2015

Best trip report ever! Can't wait to read more!
Jenn- I sent you a message on Facebook about your wedding programs and buttons.

edeneye · May 25, 2015

Really enjoying the Honeymoon TR so far (naturally)! Your pictures are really great, especially the on-ride ones! They came out so detailed, you'd think you're sitting still. I'm somewhat in awe of your camera! Especially the Tink picture in Festival of Fantasy (the theme to which is now stuck in my head). Oh & I love the wishing well moment - that's such a mum thing to say!

Oh & the fastpasses! Actual. Paper. Fastpasses! My heart is warmed just knowing that they still *kinda* exist. And you very well deservedly got quite a nice collection of them. I love the caption on the Buzz line, that's priceless. And even if you're a little down on your previous average, I don't think I'd see *either* of those scores on that ride unless there was a stop while I was on it. I feel like I should be good at that ride but I just can't get it. Plus I'm always looking for the camera and as yet haven't managed to spot it before the picture is taken.

We've still never been to Ohana (nor the Poly itself, not even the beach) but I've heard often of the famous bread pudding! But I'm a bit of a veteran now when it comes to the celebratory cupcake, I think next time I go it's gonna be weird not getting one for one reason or another. I think we'll certainly have to check it out next time! Hopefully we'll still have Tables in Wonderland then ourselves - how good is it?! I'm so grateful I found out about TiW before our trip, getting our passes and our TiW cards was literally the first thing we did when we arrived and it saved us SO MUCH on our trip. We're so jealous about Disney Visa, one day when we live in Orlando I think the first thing we'll do is getting Disney passes and Disney Visas, the perks seem so good.

Can't wait to hear about your day at Universal and I'm really looking forward to the cruise too!

Doodlebug25413 · May 30, 2015

Holy cow where have I been???!!! Finally catching up on your TR. You're making me want to plan a trip now.
You look so happy!!

edeneye · Jun 3, 2015

DISNEY WEDDING PODCAST! I still download it every week & I just saw who is on this one! Looking forward to hearing it. Hope your trip is going awesomely, it's WDW so how can it not?!

elphie101 · Jun 3, 2015

edeneye said:
DISNEY WEDDING PODCAST! I still download it every week & I just saw who is on this one! Looking forward to hearing it. Hope your trip is going awesomely, it's WDW so how can it not?!

You caught me Ben!! I was just as surprised this morning when I opened my app and saw our names! For those that didn't follow, this week our wedding is featured on the Disney Wedding Podcast! It's wildly exciting and was a total blast to record, and I'm so excited to share our story even more so with other couples planning (just like I did here!)

We got back from our whirlwind trip to WDW late last night, and in about 2 hours I'm hitting the road for a work conference for the rest of the week. I'm sorry to leave you all hanging, but I'll be back soon with the rest of the honeymoon (dangit I want to get to the cruise already!). See ya real soon everyone

twinkybel81 · Jun 3, 2015

elphie101 said:
You caught me Ben!! I was just as surprised this morning when I opened my app and saw our names! For those that didn't follow, this week our wedding is featured on the Disney Wedding Podcast! It's wildly exciting and was a total blast to record, and I'm so excited to share our story even more so with other couples planning (just like I did here!)

We got back from our whirlwind trip to WDW late last night, and in about 2 hours I'm hitting the road for a work conference for the rest of the week. I'm sorry to leave you all hanging, but I'll be back soon with the rest of the honeymoon (dangit I want to get to the cruise already!). See ya real soon everyone

How cool! I hadn't gone to download this week's episode yet, but I definitely will now.

Did you have to apply to be interviewed? I'm still a long way out, but would love to eventually be on the podcast.

Doodlebug25413 · Jun 3, 2015

I am going to go listen now! (Hopefully it's available, lol)
That's super cool!

she's_a_funny_girl · Jun 4, 2015

I'm only on page 3 of your report, but I recognized the small, local shop where you tried on your dresses (I'm planning my own wedding right now and tried on some dresses there, too!) and had to say "hi!" to someone who's so nearby!!! :flower3:

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report and I'm loving it so far!!

Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

Mouseketeer

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

Earning My Ears

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

DIS Veteran

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

DIS Veteran

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Left my heart in Tomorrowland

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

they can't order me to stop dreaming

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