*I'm Back!* We're getting married..at Disney World!!! Jeff & Kathy's PJ! UPDATE: Let's Party! (9/18)

[kanadar]

Well congratulations and I'm super happy for you! I can't wait to see the pictures once it's done!

Tiffiny

Thanks!! I can't wait to start planning!

But are you really excited? I couldn't tell hahaha!

CONGRATS! An official countdown has begun!

Nope, I'm not excited at all!! Haha. Thanks!

Wonderful news!!! Congratulations!!

Thank you!

*happy dance*

Thank you! That's about what I was doing when I found out!

Yay! Congrats on your date!

Thank you!

Congratulations on getting your date! That is always super exciting!

I'm really enjoying your trip report and all of the pictures. We were actually down there that same week, but left the day before the showcase. And we didn't get to go into the parks at all.

Thank you! It was very exciting to finally know! An extra 4 days of waiting as our 1 year fell on a Friday, not fun! But it turned out fine! And thank you for following my trip report! Its funny finding people on here that are at the park at the same time, so fun. I enjoyed my mini dismeet with emmebear, her daughter was adorable and so friendly and she was so nice! The day before the showcase was a bit of an adventure for me!

 

[kanadar]

We're getting our engagement pictures done tonight! One of my really good friends is going to be taking the pictures. I'm really excited. We were going to last Sunday but the weather was not pretty. The sun is hiding right now but I'm really hoping it decides to come back out soon! I'll post some of the pictures once we have them! She is also going to help me create our save the dates.

 

[Seia]

Hi! I just caught up with your PJ. Love your venues and your bridal showcase TR so far. Can't wait to see more!

 

[kanadar]

Hi! I just caught up with your PJ. Love your venues and your bridal showcase TR so far. Can't wait to see more!

Thank you!! Thanks for following along! I'm really excited for our venues. I've always liked the Boardwalk and years ago fell in love with the croquet lawn. I can't wait to see what we come up with for there! There will be more of my TR to come soon!

As for engagement pictures, the weather turned out to be FANTASTIC!!! The sun decided to come out, and warmed things up! I was wearing a short sleeve dress for some of them so I was very happy about that! My friend also got a bit "snap happy" and took A LOT of pictures. She doubled, almost tripled what she normally takes! Can't wait to see them! I'll post a few as soon as I get some. She actually just texted me to say that I should have a few sneak peeks soon as she can't fall asleep and her husband and little girl are asleep! So excited!

 

[kanadar]

Here are the previews she sent to me! I am so excited to see more! Once she sends me the rest I will post some more.

I LOVE this one. It turned out so cute!

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I am so glad I decided to get that sign. I think it turned out great in the pictures. I'm in love with it and the bridge, of course with us in the picture too!

 

[EpicBilynn]

I am so glad I decided to get that sign. I think it turned out great in the pictures. I'm in love with it and the bridge, of course with us in the picture too!

That sign turned out perfect! I love it. The pictures look great, can't wait to see the rest when you get them!

 

[edeneye]

Thank you so much for following along! I knew I wanted to make this pretty detailed, especially the showcase portion for those on here that were unable to attend. Australia is probably my favorite booths! I've never been to Australia so I don't know how close it is to food their, but it definitely tastes good!

I'm glad to hear it! The food there is interesting, it is certainly inspired by some gourmet Australian chefs but there's definitely some translation happening too. I remember in 2012 they had a 'lamington' for example which was pretty similar to what we'd have at home, except it was the wrong shape and the coconut was shredded instead of desiccated. So it's very similar, but there's tiny little insignificant changes here and there (like how Australians don't actually say 'shrimp', I didn't even know what a shrimp was until my first visit to the US!).

Oh & congrats on getting your date! Such a relief to get the venue and date you were after, now there's some forms to sign and it's absolutely on! And your pictures are fantastic, they're so bright and happy and brilliantly composed. Looks like you got a really great day for it and the sunshine and happiness just radiates off the pictures so far, the rest of them will definitely have that same energy.

 

[twinkybel81]

Love the sneak peeks! They turned out great!

 

[kanadar]

That sign turned out perfect! I love it. The pictures look great, can't wait to see the rest when you get them!

Thank you!!! They turned out awesome! She actually posted a few more sneak peeks, but I'm going to wait to post more pictures until I have the disc. I'm curious to see how many we get, she said she got a bit snap happy and took almost 500 pictures, usually she takes 150-200! (several of those were lighting test shots)

I'm glad to hear it! The food there is interesting, it is certainly inspired by some gourmet Australian chefs but there's definitely some translation happening too. I remember in 2012 they had a 'lamington' for example which was pretty similar to what we'd have at home, except it was the wrong shape and the coconut was shredded instead of desiccated. So it's very similar, but there's tiny little insignificant changes here and there (like how Australians don't actually say 'shrimp', I didn't even know what a shrimp was until my first visit to the US!).

Oh & congrats on getting your date! Such a relief to get the venue and date you were after, now there's some forms to sign and it's absolutely on! And your pictures are fantastic, they're so bright and happy and brilliantly composed. Looks like you got a really great day for it and the sunshine and happiness just radiates off the pictures so far, the rest of them will definitely have that same energy.

Yeah we definitely go in knowing its similar to the food you will find there but not necessarily exactly.

Thanks! We are pretty excited to get our date and everything! We were pretty sure we would getting close to it but you still never know what will happen! Thanks for the compliment on our pictures I'm so excited about them. I'll be getting more probably Friday. I should probably get my TR finished before then! The day for the pictures couldn't have been any better! For several hours before the sun decided to hide, and it was kinda gloomy out. But about an hour or so before we were planned to start the sun decided to come back out! Which I was grateful for as I was wearing a dress with short sleeves!!

Love the sneak peeks! They turned out great!

Thank you!! They turned out fantastic! I can't wait to see the rest.

 

[kanadar]

When we last left off, Mary and I were changing after the tasting and heading out to HS for Dapper Day! We made it to the park and of course had to park in the last parking lot, towards the end of the aisle. But while on the tram we noticed lots of people in their dapper outfits, it was so exciting! Once we got into the park we knew exactly where we were headed!

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It was time for us to check in! Luckily we had a fp because one of the sides went down so they standby line was pretty long.

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We of course had to get some picture of ourselves in this dapper hotel! After checking in, we decided to head over to the area of our next fp. Now...we had decided to wear shoes that would complete our dapper outfits. While this was a good idea, in hindsight, it was not! Even with taking them off for the showcase, our feet were already starting to hurt! So we spent some time on a bench people watching. It was actually pretty fun. We saw several Itty Bitty babies, really itty bitty like I'd say 2 months or younger.

Our next stop was TSMM. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of it, I blame the shoes! But this was fun as always! Mary beat me for the first time, so I guess I'll have to get my revenge in a few weeks! Mary had been following Dapper Day's on instagram, and saw they were doing a dapper ride on the Great Movie Ride at a certain time, we decided to head over there. That's when we found this.

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That would be the end of the line for GMR. We thought about getting in line, but decided to just hang out and take some pictures. The line was about 45 minutes, and then the ride. We were afraid we would be late to check in for our ADR.

Loved this girls skirt!





Matching dresses? Of course we needed a picture!

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We spent a good amount of time hanging out, looking at all the dapper outfits. Finally, it was about time for us to check in for our ADR at

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When Mary saw there was an ADR available here for Dapper Day, she snatched it up pretty quickly! Had we known our tasting would be so much food, we might not have but it was nice to just sit for a while as our feet were hurting a bit. We spent some time contemplating what we wanted to eat. But first we started with some drinks.

Mary had the Honey Darling martini. After trying this one in the flight on a previous trip and liking it the best, she decided to just get a big one.



I chose to try the Citizens Take Flight margarita flight. This was a pomegranate, mango, and a classic margarita. I think the pomegranate was my favorite but by the time I got to it, most of the ice had melted so it was a bit watered down.​

We knew for sure we wanted the Cobb Salad to start with but we weren't sure what else we wanted to have. Both of us were not super hungry since we'd eaten so much only a few hours earlier. We decided whatever we got we would share. So now our decision was between sharing a couple appetizer and the lamb entree. We enjoyed some bread while we made our decision.

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We knew we wanted the meal to drag on a little bit, so we tried to stall the waiter as best we could. But we finally made up our minds and ordered. We had...

The Cobb Salad of course. We ordered the appetizer portion, not realizing it would be SO small. So sharing it was not as big of a portion as I thought it would.



We also had the Blue Lump Crab spring rolls. These were very good. There were 2 or 3 on the plate. Mary really like the spicy miso aioli on the side. I thought it was good but a bit spicy for my taste, so a small amount went a long way. And last we had



The andouille crusted prawn over black diamond cheddar grits, wilted greens, and ancho oil. This was really good as well.​

This was all really good. But once they arrived at our table, we realized we probably should have ordered more than one, at least of the prawn. Our waiter was not the best we've had. He wasn't rude, but he wasn't as nice as some other have been. I'm not sure if this is because we ordered 3 appetizers or what. Once he realized we would be ordering dessert, he became a bit nicer. For dessert, HBD has the choose 3 tasting portions of dessert (These are actual tasting portions! haha)

Mary chose to order 2 of the warm berry cobblers, and 1 double vanilla bean creme brulee's.



I chose 2 of the vanilla bean creme brulee's and 1 of the Banana toffee cake on cocoa crunch with strawberry banana pearls.​

OMG! That banana toffee cake was so good! I was a little hesitant because of the pearls but I thought they were good and complimented the dessert well. I was surprised when Mary didn't order this as she LOVED the banoffee tart that was served at F&W last year and this seemed similar. She was a bit unsure about it too so she went with the cobbler. She also loves blueberries so this worked out well too. I think she wishes she had ordered 1 cobbler and 1 banana cake.

Now we have been to HBD several times before. We were a little disappointed when they changed their dessert menu. Mary and I are big creme brulee fans, and the double vanilla bean creme brulee is the one we compare every other one to. I think we like it so much because it is normal vanilla to us! Our mom always used a double strength vanilla in her baking (plus a little extra splash) so double vanilla bean is our normal vanilla!

When our waiter brought the check, he said somehow our desserts didn't end up on the check. So we was kind enough not to charge us for them. Since we had only ordered appetizers and drinks, this was very nice of him. So, we settled the check and decided to head out of the park since our feet were hurting. Next up, "Hey look! It's my girlfriends!"

 

[Disneybride2015]

Here are the previews she sent to me! I am so excited to see more! Once she sends me the rest I will post some more. http://s849.photobucket.com/user/ka...yCharleyDaniellepreview1_zps7bb6238e.jpg.html I LOVE this one. It turned out so cute! http://s849.photobucket.com/user/ka...yCharleyDaniellepreview2_zpsd4a5a78b.jpg.html I am so glad I decided to get that sign. I think it turned out great in the pictures. I'm in love with it and the bridge, of course with us in the picture too!

I'm so happy you got your date!! We got our date too & we will be same weekend disbrides since we will be getting married on October 11th! We are doing wedding pavilion at 2:30 and Atlantic dance hall. I love your engagement pictures! We did you get the disney love sign? Oh are you doing anything after your reception? I'm trying to see if there is a way to see the illuminations even though our reception ends at 8:30.

 

[kanadar]

I'm so happy you got your date!! We got our date too & we will be same weekend disbrides since we will be getting married on October 11th! We are doing wedding pavilion at 2:30 and Atlantic dance hall. I love your engagement pictures! We did you get the disney love sign? Oh are you doing anything after your reception? I'm trying to see if there is a way to see the illuminations even though our reception ends at 8:30.

Awesome! Another October disbride! Maybe we'll run into each other at some point! Thank you! Our pictures turned out great! We couldn't have asked for better weather. As for the sign, I ordered it from Etsy. The site is linked there for anyone who's interested! I just sent her a message asking if she could try to match my wedding color from a picture. It's pretty close to our color and came relatively quickly. She offered to put our date on it, but at the time I ordered I wasn't sure we'd get our date and didn't want to jinx it.

We don't have anything in particular planned for after our reception since we can't do a dessert party on Saturdays during F&W but we were kinda thinking of just telling our guests we were going to go change real quick and watch Illuminations if anyone wanted to meet us, since I doubt they'll let me in the park in my dress without having a dessert party. So we won't have anything planned, it'll just be a "come if you want" kind of thing.

Congrats on getting your date and locations! Yay for ADH and October brides!

 

[kanadar]

I am going to try to finish this TR before we leave next week for our W&D half marathon trip. Also I want to put up some more of our wedding pictures but it's so hard to choose which ones! She ended up giving us 64 pictures! So lets get on with the report.

As we were making our way through the park, or trying to, the Frozen fireworks were going to be starting. So they had those of us wanting to exit the park go through the shops. We were able to see a little bit of the fireworks as we were waiting for the parking tram. There was no way I was walking all the way to the car in my shoes! We got to the car and headed back to the resort. Since this post will be picture light, I'll post a few pictures Mary took the day before.

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We got back to the resort and decided we weren't quite ready for bed yet. So we changed into our swimsuits and had a very nice soak in the hot tub. It was so nice to sit and relax after our very long couple days. There weren't many people in the hot tub, the day before when Mary was wandering around the resort she found the second hot tub that was somewhat hidden. It was very nice! We did meet an ADORABLE little girl and her mother. This little girl was at Disney to celebrate her 3rd birthday which was the next day. She told us some cute and interesting stories, while her mom told us they either happened months ago or were untrue She asked us our names, so we told her and asked her what her name was. She was adorable and told us her full name haha!

Not much later, she decided she wanted to go find her dad so they left the hot tub. A while later, Mary and I decided to head back upstairs to get ready for bed. As we were walking back all the sudden we hear "Hey, look! It's my girlfriends!" It was that adorable little girl again! Mary was on a role with this trip. She made friends with emmebears daughter Emme the day before, and now this little girl!

The next morning we decided to sleep in a little bit. Since the sun was up this time, I ran to the balcony to see if we had any friends, and we did!

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This giraffe was chasing the truck around the reservation. It was so funny. The truck stopped for a minute and it was able to grab a branch from the truck before it started moving again. It took the driver a minute to realize the giraffe had stolen some food, but once they did they backed up and took the food. Then the truck took off, with the giraffe not far behind! We named this giraffe Susan. She was a very hungry giraffe After Susan disappeared, we decided to go get breakfast at...

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Mary got in line for the grill while I wandered around for a minute trying to decide what I wanted. I looked at the pastries, and while they looked good, they weren't what I was wanting. So I joined Mary in line. Once we saw what was on the special menu we knew what we wanted!

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We decided to share the breakfast flatbread pizza. It had sausage, bacon, gravy, eggs, and cheese. It was sooo good! I can't find the picture of the other plate we shared, it was biscuits and gravy. This was also very good, but the flatbread was definitely better!

The night before, we decided we wanted to just hang out at the resort in the morning. So we went back to the room to get ready for a morning relaxing by the pool. When we got down to the pool, the clouds had moved in. It wasn't rain clouds, just enough to hide the sun.

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Mary decided she wanted to go down the waterslide. It was a bit awkward because at the time there were around 4 or 5 dads just standing by the slide. They were waiting for their kids to come down, but it was just weird when an adult would come down and they were still there. Since they were staying there, I thought it would be funny to stand with them and wait for Mary to come down

While we were hanging out in the pool, I told Mary that once the pool bar opened I was definitely getting a drink. We discussed back and forth what time we thought they would opening. Finally we started hearing some noises coming from the bar. I turned around at one point and it was open! So we went to the seats and I went to get us a couple drinks!

Mary got a Yuengling



And I got one of the specialty drinks at the bar. I can't remember what it was but I know it was yummy!​

While drinking our drinks, we decided what we wanted to do for lunch. We had tickets to MNSSHP that night so we knew we wanted a little bit of a later lunch to tide us over. So Mary hopped on MDE on her phone and made us some reservations for around 1 (I think). We had a little longer to hang out before we needed to get ready for lunch so we went to the hot tub for a little bit. Next up, our lunch with a view!

 

[kanadar]

After spending a great morning hanging out by the pool, we went to the room to get ready for the rest of our day. Tonight was my FIRST MNSSHP!!! I was so excited! My sister got us the tickets for my birthday present. Mary had been once before with my dad but I never had the chance to go. So we were looking forward to the party. But first we needed to have some lunch! We headed over to

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We were staying at Jambo House so we decided to just walk over to Kidani Village. It only took us about 5 minutes to walk over. We realized that we could see Sanaa from our room so we had a great view!

George the Giraffe. We could see him from our room but he was RIGHT by Sanaa laying down. It was pretty cool.





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We waited about 10 minutes before we were called to our table. We didn't have a table that was right up against the windows, but we still had a great view!

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This was our second time eating here. We loved it the first time! We went at night that time though so we couldn't see anything. We decided we wanted to have a glass of wine with lunch as we would be at MK and wouldn't be having any drink tonight! We were interested in having an African wine but we knew nothing about them. Our waitress was nice enough to bring us a tasting of a wine.

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These tasting glasses were so cute! I can't remember what type of wine it was but we decided to get a whole glass of it. Mary's more of a red wine fan but she thought this one was pretty good.

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This was more like 2 glasses! I love that they bring the small carafe of the wine. Since we'd been here before we knew exactly what we wanted. We decided to start with the bread service of course.

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We went with all of the dips. I like more of the ones on the right, as their the more mild flavors. Mary liked the ones on the left with a little more spice. She did like combining the spicy ones with the white dip (can't remember which one it is!) Our only complaint with this is we wish they gave you a card with the names of each dip, like they do with most cheese plates. That would make things much easier! But no matter what it was all so yummy! We got the 3 naan's go to with it. For our entree's we both chose the same thing

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We both go the Butter Chicken and Beef Short Ribs with basmati rice. Jeff and I got this dish the first time we went and LOVED it! In fact, I was sending him pictures and he was very jealous! Mary had gotten something from the tandoor oven. But this time she wanted her own plate of the slow cooker food. I showed her the correct way to eat, dumping everything out of the bowls onto the small plate. We tried our hardest, but neither of us were able to finish our food but it was soooo good!! Jeff wanted me to bring my leftovers back to him

With our bellies sufficiently stuffed, we headed to the bus stop to make our way over to MK. We were ready for some rides! Remember at this point we'd only been on 2! So we were off to a party that's really not so scary!

 

[kanadar]

So I've been a bit MIA lately, school has been bust and we just got back Tuesday from another trip to Disney. My dad, sister, and I did the Wine and Dine half marathon. It was lots of fun but I won't do a report on it, we were not very good about taking picture this trip haha. I will finish up my other TR soon but I wanted to update everyone a bit.

We received our Letter of Agreement at the end of October, got it signed and sent off before we left for our trip. The best news though, yesterday we were assigned our wedding planner!!! I got an email from her Friday afternoon, her name is Carol Mikles. I'm excited to start working with her. Michelle was fantastic to work with so I hope Carol is just as wonderful.

I'll try to get some updates from our previous trip soon!

 

[lthiesfeld07]

Joining in the fun!

I'm an Illinois bride too!

 

[kanadar]

Joining in the fun!

I'm an Illinois bride too!

Thanks for following along! Where in Illinois?

 

[kanadar]

I have been slacking on finishing this trip report, I'm so sorry. I want to get some of our engagement pictures posted so my goal is to finish this TR this week. So without further ado...back to the TR!

When we last left off, we had finished our awesome lunch at Sanaa and were headed to MK. For my birthday Mary surprised me with tickets to MNSSHP. Now I was SUPER excited because this was the first one I would be going to. Last year I watched the disunplugged's video of the Boo to You parade sooo many times so I was looking forward to seeing the parade in person! We arrived a bit early and used our AP's to get in the park to fit in some rides. Remember at this point we had only been on 2 rides! For us, that was just crazy! Well, we made up for it in the next couple hours!

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Now I don't remember what exactly we went on before going back to get our MNSSHP wristbands. But I do remember what we went on after. We had a fp Big Thunder, but the wait for Splash was short so we went on it first. Then we headed over to Big Thunder to use our passes.

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While we were waiting in line for our train, it started POURING down rain. We were already queue for our train car, so no turning back now! We didn't get wet at all on Splash, but we got soaked on Big Thunder.

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As you can see we are drenched! And of course as with most Disney storms, the rain disappeared by the time we got to the other side of the park. I believe we went on Space next, but I can't remember at this point Next, we headed over to check out the line for SDMT. I think the posted wait time was 40 or 50 minutes, but we decided to go ahead and give it a try. We ended up waiting less than the posted time!

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This was our first time on the ride, we thought it was super cute! I really enjoyed it! I can see how it could be a bit uncomfortable for some people, but it is meant to be more of a kids coaster. By the time we got off the ride it was after 7 and the park was officially open for just MNSSHP! As we were walking to our next activity, we saw these cuties!

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We are not the character meeting type, so I was fine with trying to get a picture before the next family. The line was crazy long to meet them! Especially when all you get is a picture with them! So after snapping a picture, we went on Philharmagic before the castle show's started. There was hardly anyone waiting for this, even just before the doors opened. In fact, the CM who worked inside the theater started her usual shpeal, ya know "Please continue moving all the way across your row to make room for everyone." She made it most of the way through when she realized there were only about 30-50 of us total and said "Oh wait never mind, sit where you want!"

After leaving the Philharmagic, we headed to the caste so we could see the Villian Unleashed show. I love watching show's like these and thought this was very good. We knew the first parade was going to be starting soon, and decided we wanted to watch the second parade. Of course, we all know it's easier to find a spot for the second parade, and its less crowded normally. So we decided to go on rides and trick or treat! We did stop to watch for the headless horseman, as he was due to come past any minute. So COOL!!!

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Sorry, this was the best picture I got. It was awesome getting to see him! My sister told me that the rider can't see at all through the costume so he has to rely completely on the horse. This is why they make you move your feet and stuff off the walkway. After seeing the horseman. we chose to go ride our obligatory ride of Haunted Mansion during the party. It was pretty cool seeing all the CM's made up!

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Once we got off the ride there was a performer sitting in front all dressed up as a ghost. She was soooo funny! I could have stood there and listened to her talk for a while!

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Of course we had to do some trick or treating! We brought back a pretty good haul! Our first stop was pretty sad, it was just welches caramels which are good but we don't want a whole handful! Our next several stop sure made up for it though!

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One of our many stops. We went on the treat trail, and were able to score a lot of candy! Next up was Hallowishes! I had never seen these from in the park so that was pretty exciting for me! Now one of our biggest mistakes I would say, was not getting some dinner earlier in the night. By the time we were really hungry and ready for food, most places were closed. So we settled for some popcorn while waiting for the second parade. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Looked at our watches, and were like hmmm the parade should be starting anytime now. Then they make an announcement, that due to weather in the area the parade has been delayed. And not 5 minutes later, they announce the parade has been cancelled!!! I was soooo disappointed! I know my sister felt so bad because I've been wanting to see this parade, but I would have waiting for the second parade anyway. So we headed over to ride Peter Pan's flight. Turns out we probably should have just headed out of the park. Once we got off we saw that it was POURING down rain again! So we waited for it to let up a bit, which took a long time! This rainstorm had settled in. It finally let up enough for us to get to the front of the park. Unfortunately the bus line for AKL was probably the longest line we had waited in yet! Including SDMT! It was a bit ridiculous, and just shows one of the negatives of staying at a resort with only bus transportation. We regretted not driving at this point. So we were both kinda hungry and grumpy at this point. So we went back to the room and headed for bed, with how late it was no where was open :/

Next time, our 3 park day!

 

[kanadar]

This morning, we woke up and decided we needed an AK morning. But before we left we needed to get some breakfast. So we headed down to Mara again. We were hoping they would have the same special they had yesterday. This morning we had

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YES! They had that delicious breakfast flatbread. Mary and I still talk about that flatbread to this day. It was so good. We shared the flatbread, as well as the cinnamon roll. Apparently we didn't learn our lesson from the day before. We weren't able to finish either of the breakfasts between the two of us, but they were both good. Then we headed off the AK. We rode all of your typical rides; Safari, Everest, Dinosaur. But our favorite thing, and what we couldn't WAIT to see was

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This was our first time in their new theater. It's so nice for it to have its own home. We were cutting it pretty close for the next show, if fact I believe we got in line about 2 minutes before the show was to start. As we were walking into the line, the CM asked how many we had. So we told him 2 and he told us to come through the fastpass/wheelchair line. We get into the theater and they seat us in the second row! No one of us, where the wheelchairs and their family sit. Fortunately for us, this show didn't have very many so we got to sit here! This was our view

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And the magic didn't stop there! Before we knew it, this was happening!

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Yep, that's right! Mary got picked to be the warthog! I don't know how many times I've seen this show, but none of us have ever been picked for this. So this was very exciting! She was a pretty cute warthog too! And then my favorite show started

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After enjoying the best show at Disney, maybe the best ever in my opinion haha, we decided we were in need of some lunch. Normally we would eat at Flame Tree bbq, but today we had our sites on something else. So we headed to Epcot for some festival booths! Our first stop

Here we enjoyed



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The pork slider, and the aulani sunset. Both we delicious. We always enjoy the slider. This year they changed the drink, and I liked this one just as much. I think they just changed the rum haha. Then we were off to our next booth!

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This booth was so cool. I really liked how it was off the path, on its own. It allowed for more people to be up there without it feeling overly crowded. This is what we got.

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This was the carne guisada con arroz blanco; slow-braised beef with puerto rican grown rice, tostones (fried green plantains with mayo ketchup), and the sangria. All three of these were so good. The sangria was our favorite we've had at Disney. And those plantains, delicious. After enjoying our Puerto Rican food, we strolled around the world showcase to our next stop. I thought I took a picture of the booth but I guess I didn't. We stopped at Ireland next for

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The cheese plate. My sister LOVES cheese, so I was not surprised when she wanted this. It was really good. There were three types of cheese. Our final bites for lunch came from France! Here we got

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The Boeuf bourguignon: Braised short ribs in cabernet with mashed potatoes, Tartelette aux escargots: Escargot tart with garlic, spinach, bacon and parmesan, and La Passion Martini Slush: vodka, Grey Goose Le Citron, cranberry and passion fruit juice. Mary got the escargot, but she was not a fan. She liked the previous years version so much better! This one she said was kinda gross. She ended up digging out the snails and eating them. We always love the boeuf bourguignon. And of course I found out the first night, the slush was so good! It goes down very quickly though!

I'm going to leave this off here because I think I'm at my photo limit. 3 park, 1 day part 2 tomorrow!

 

[kanadar]

Our last stop for lunch was at France, so I believe we made our way over to American Adventure for a little break, and a nap! We love this show, and of course the Voices of Liberty before hand, but we tend to use this as a little refresher nap. It's still so good! After our nap, we headed back towards France. I had a specific place in mind!

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I had been wanting to try the Cinnamon, Caramelized Apple, & Cookie Crumble ice cream. It's a mouthful to say, but sounded so good. And it was! I really really liked it! I wanted to get it again in our most recent trip but unfortunately I wasn't able to find the time, or the room!

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Mary got her typical Profiterole. She loves this flavor. She had intentions of branching out on this trip but the profiterole was just to enticing to her! We found a nice spot outside to enjoy our ice cream, when all the sudden we started feeling drops of rain. We were luckily able to make it into the bakery seating area before it really let loose and became packed with people taking cover from the rain. We kept an eye on the radar, and were a bit worried. There was a huge rain cell right over Walt Disney World. We had reservations we wanted to make, and didn't really want to be soaked for! Luckily the rain let up enough for us to head to the front of the park to leave. It was still raining but we decided to have a drink at the Polynesian so that we would be closer to our dinner reservation. We debated on our way out, riding Spaceship Earth but decided not to risk it raining harder when we got off. So this trip we rode 0 rides at Epcot. Very unusual for us. On our way out we made a quick stop a guest services. I wanted to get this little beauty!

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The person who handed me the pins gave us kind of an odd look, since it was my sister and I standing at the counter. I don't think the CM was sure what to say/do As we walked out we were joking we should hold hands, or that we should wear the pins haha. We made our way out of the park and took the monorail to TTC and ran over to the resort monorail. It was early enough that we were able to find a seat at the bar.

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We both decided to get Lapu Lapu's. This was the first time I'd had one, and it was delicious. While sitting there, someone next to us ordered a few things including the bread pudding from 'Ohana. It looked so good! But we had big dinner plans so we knew there would be no bread pudding for us. We also kept an eye on the rain, it poured while we drank but let up in time for us to head over to MK. We had a reservation to make!

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Somehow Mary snagged a dinner ADR for Be Our Guest a couple months before! I was so excited! We had eaten lunch here in 2012 but never got the chance for dinner. We checked in an waited for our table to be ready.

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This was Francios, he is Lumiere's cousin and he showed us to our table. He was so cute!

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Mary posing with her menu and pretty napkin. I've thought about seeing if we can get this napkin fold for our reception. But who knows what I'll decide haha.

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We both decided we might as well enjoy a drink while we could. I can't remember what we each decided, but they were both really good. Our server was really nice but I felt a bit rushed, not too bad though.

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Mary started with a bowl of the french onion soup. She thought it was really good. In fact when we were back in November, we had a lunch fp for BOG and she got the soup again. Our entree's came next.

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Mary got the pork. The pork itself was very good, but that cauliflower puree thing on the side was so gross! Haha. But that's ok, we planned on sharing my side so it worked out well.

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I got the New York Strip. This steak was very good. I really enjoyed it. My dad owns a meat distribution company and a butcher shop so I have a pretty high standard for steaks. I must say this one met my standard. I would definitely get it again! And those pommes frittes, soooo good! I loved them. I didn't want to share with Mary but I knew I should. We finished up and decided to pass on dessert, we had something else in mind!

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We enjoyed our yummy Dole Whip Floats with vanilla/pineapple swirl. This is my favorite combination. The vanilla just adds another level of flavor in my opinion. After finishing our dole whips, we headed for the exit. We planned on not stopping to watch Wishes since it had already started, but we ended up grabbing a spot between CP and Casey's. Then it was back to AKL for some relaxation and some hot tub time!

The next morning was our last few hours at Disney. We decided to spend it at HS. My travels home were only a tiny bit better than my travels TO Disney. First my flight was delayed about 3:30 hours or so. If you don't remember, I drove to Jeff's mom's place because she lives near O'Hare. This is about 2 hours and 15 minutes away from where we live. So with that delay, I didn't get into Chicago until about 9:00 which was about when I would have been getting back to Champaign! So by the time his sister picked me up, and we drove to get my car, I didn't leave until about 9:30. I got home a little before midnight, and had to be at work the next morning. Overall, even though traveling to and from Disney was difficult it was a very fun sister trip!