A Little Disney Romance...

[yourMaire83]

Jeremy drove us to the airport for our 10am flight and 2 time zones, a couple of naps and 4 1/2 hours later, we were in Orlando. I booked our airfare long long ago so we could get direct flight with Delta for cheaper than a non-direct with Southwest - I don't do layovers... We picked up our rental car (found one online for $150 total for our 10-day trip), and headed to Port Orleans Riverside!

We had reserved a basic room, with no view... and here's the view we got:

Here's the building we were in:

We checked "Lines" from my phone (m.touringplans.com) and saw that Epcot was open late that night. They closed to the public at 9pm then had EMH 'til midnight. We quickly unpacked and organized our room. I called my bestfriend (she just moved from BYU to Orlando) and told her to meet us at the Boardwalk for dinner. Greg and I parked at Epcot and walked to the Boardwalk (the path is between England and France, I believe) to meet Amanda, her DH and their 2yo daughter. Greg and I shared a sandwich from the Boardwalk Bakery even though we were both starving... and we were glad we didn't get 2. They're HUGE! We walked around with them for a while and made plans for the next evening, to meet at Port Orleans to see our room and ride the boat together to Downtown Disney. It was their baby girl's bedtime so they went home and Greg and I went to explore my favorite park - Epcot!


I think it was about 7:30 or 8pm. Greg has only been to Magic Kingdom, before this trip, so he's really really excited at this point. He has a serious sweet tooth, so before we even get back in the park he asks what's for dessert. I'm not big on sweets or having dessert (I grew up with a diabetic father so we never had anything like that in our house), but I know just the spot... the bakery in France Greg got the chocolate mousse, and man was it good.

Then he headed over to Soarin'. Our wait time? MAYBE 5 minutes. We only had to wait for the show before us to finish. This set the precident for the wait times the rest of our stay. Definately the slow time of year! We literally walked on to almost everything the entire week. That night, we rode Soarin' twice, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and the rides at Mexico and Norway. Although there were no waits for anything, I think that's all the rides we did our first night. We are definately stop and smell the roses Disney fans. We stop and look at everything/play all the games, sometimes wander around in shops after each ride. We did a lot of holding hands, that's for sure.

We left Epcot after 11pm and went back to our room to go to bed. Up next: our first ADR, and yes went back to Epcot the next day!

 

[redlight]

Your pictures are so crisp.

 

[heaven2dc]

Great update and the pics are great! Your view from the Mansion is so pretty I love the slow time of year and 5 minute wait times don't really even seem like a wait at all. What a great way to start your trip!

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Great pics of POR. Nice "no view" room!

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

I'm here for the show! Don't be stingy with the pics, can't wait to hear more about your romantic trip...

 

[lynn71092]

Subscribing but what did you do different with your pictures once you got to Disney. I was enjoying the pictures of you and your pets and now I can't see anything. I know our company blocks out Photobucket pics so maybe that it. But I'll still be reading anyway!!

 

[lynn71092]

Oops, never mind, maybe there was just a delay issue, I can see them fine now.
Just waiting for the next installment!

 

[yourMaire83]

First of all, I have to tell you guys that this update is very timely for me today. I just checked Facebook and my husband's status is something to the effect of "I miss Epcot!" I'm glad he's finally admitting that he's caught the Disney bug... or that he drank the Disney Kool-aid (that's in Club Cool, right?). Also, my best friend (not the one that got engaged last week) had a baby boy today!!! They moved to Orlando after Christmas and in this TR update, I get to reminise about one of my visits with her!

Epcot! again!

So, before we went to bed Friday night, we agreed to sleep in just this once so we wouldn't be too grumpy/jetlagged all day. Remember, waking up at 7am in Florida is 5am our local time.

I popped out of bed about 8:30am and (no alarm) and started happily getting ready. When I was about halfway done, I woke Greg (mostly) up and turned on the TV to Stacy talking about some of the awesome rides that were waiting for us. Before going to the park, we strolled around Port Orleans for a little bit. Here's a sleepy pic of us :

There were so many animals out this morrning. I saw this huge bunny right by our buiding and managed to get thse 2 photos before he saw me and hopped away.

We saw him again later in the week, so we figure he lives very near our building.

So, we got in the car and headed for Epcot again - last night really wet our appetite for exploring this park. We got there about 11am and from the crowd level, you might think the park wasn't open yet ! We stopped at guest services and got our anniversary buttons. Our actual anniversary date had past a couple of weeks before, but we were going to celebrate again today. We had a 1pm reservation for Les Chefs de France. I picked this restaurant based on the menu (I think allears.net was where I saw it). We did a few rides - I saw the new Figment and it's not as good as the original but MUCH better than the one they had a few years back! Then decided to head to France early. As we were approaching, we saw this character coming out to do pictures :

I told her, "My name's Marie too!" She got very excited and wanted to do a special photo with us. She bent our arms into a heart and popped her head through the opening. It was so cute and totally made my day. Here's what was going on nearby in front of Les Chefs at the time:

We watched a little bit and then checked in at the podium. We were about 20 minutes early and they seated us 5 minutes later.

We had just missed Chef Remy, so we didn't see him for this meal. We had a cute little table for 2 by the window. It was just starting to sink in for me how amazing this trip was going to be for us. Greg and I have completely different work schedules. I leave for work about 6am and he comes home from his job about 9 or 10pm. (He's in the food industry and I'm in engineering) He and I are best friends who fell in love and got married shhorty after. Just having 10 days of Greg-time was AMAZING! I have to admit, I got totally caught up in that romantic feeling.

Greg tried the Orangina (it's like a mix of pop and juice) which I love. I ordered the escargots. I haven't had them since I was a kid and I have been cravg them since I saw them on the menu months before. They did not disappoint! I'm craving them right now.... We each got soup and that was amazing too. Our main courses were not very impressive (my cheese macaroni was actually really awful - tasted like nutmeg), but the desserts were incredible!! I got the creme brulee and although it had too much carmelized sugar on top for my liking, I would love to have this every time I go back to Disney. We will definately come back to Les Chefs, but will not get an entree... just appetizer, soup and dessert. After we left I realized they never aknowledged our anniversary... bummer.

Next: More Epcot, Downtown Disney with friends and Yehaw Bob

I couldn't finish my whole post cause I am feeling really sick right now... more tomorrow. With lots of pictures!

 

[redlight]

I love the sleepy picture of you two.

 

[Dugette]

Joining in! We were at Port Orleans Riverside shortly before you (left on Jan. 25th). What a beautiful view you had from your room! We used the "Lines" app on our trip too (DH was somewhat obsessed with winning titles for reporting times on it). Looks like you had a good start to your trip! There's so much to do in Epcot. On our September trip, we caught those performers with the stacking chairs you saw...amazing what they can do! Beautiful panaramic shot of world showcase you took!

Looking forward to more!

 

[momof2blondes]

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[yourMaire83]

Your pictures are so crisp.

Thanks! Our old digital camera was pretty bad, so Greg got me this one for a trip we took to California (my DH is from San Luis Obispo originally, so we stayed at Pismo Beach). We got it at Wal-Mart for about $125. It’s 10.2MP Kodak and it’s light green. I love the pictures I take with this camera! We got a really cool camera case at the Port Orleans gift shop and I had it clipped to my belt loop our entire time at Disney and could pop it out to take pictures whenever! I didn’t have to worry about losing it on rides, etc. too. It’s like one of those waterproof cases you can use at a water park for your money. We got a black one and it was the best $8 we spent the entire trip.

Great update and the pics are great! Your view from the Mansion is so pretty I love the slow time of year and 5 minute wait times don't really even seem like a wait at all. What a great way to start your trip!

We would have enjoyed this view a lot better if Port Orleans rooms had balconies, but they don’t. We can't afford to do Deluxe rooms yet. With Moderate, we can come back twice as often .

I'm here for the show! Don't be stingy with the pics, can't wait to hear more about your romantic trip...

I took about 900 photos, I just need to work harder to figure out how to fit them into my TR. Wait til I get to the Wednesday update, when we did Kilimanjaro Safaris! I got so many good pictures from that!

Joining in! We were at Port Orleans Riverside shortly before you (left on Jan. 25th). What a beautiful view you had from your room! We used the "Lines" app on our trip too (DH was somewhat obsessed with winning titles for reporting times on it). Looks like you had a good start to your trip! There's so much to do in Epcot. On our September trip, we caught those performers with the stacking chairs you saw...amazing what they can do! Beautiful panoramic shot of world showcase you took!

Looking forward to more!

I have a handful more panoramic photos that we took. I will share them as the story unfolds. I just wish I would have done one at Magic Kingdom and Port Orleans…

 

[reyasmommy]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your photos. I know I've said this before, but you guys make such a cute couple. And you're very photogenic.

Congrats to your friend and her baby boy..... My sweet baby turned 11 weeks yeserday.

Thanks for sharing your report....i'm looking foward to more.

 

[burly]

Looking forward to more.....

 

[happybratpack]

Just found your report and loving it so far! Can't wait to read more...you're an adorable couple!

 

[JenAusty]

Marie, I'm finally here! Sorry it took me so long.. I am swamped right now with school work and working. I promise to try my hardest to keep up!

-So lived in Florida growing up? or still do? I am soo jealous of you. Moving to FL is one of my future goals but since I'll be a teacher- idk how the employment for me will be. But I am going to try. I have been to FL besides disney many times. My best friend moved to FL about 3 years ago- she lives in Fort Myers, and my Gma lives near Orlando in Mt. Dora. So I guess when it comes time for me to be searching for cities and locations I can come to you for inside help and suggestion! hehe What area of FL did you live (if you don't mind answering)? Like southern, panhandle, central?

Also, you are verrrryy lucky to have went to disney twice a year growing up. I only went once in 3rd grade with my family and didn't return til I was 21. It's sad I know.. I always wanted to return but had to wait til I could pay for it. hehe My hopes are that I can eventually go at least once a year.

DH packs the same way. He waits til the last minute, and then texts me the entire day at work the day before, or the day of letting me know what he needs. I actually end up packing most of the things for him ahead of time just to reduce the stress.

It seems that you had a pretty awesome view for "not having a view" room.

That picture of you guys and Marie is soo cute.
Les Chefs sounds really good.. I need to try that sometime in the future.

 

[yourMaire83]

Marie, I'm finally here! Sorry it took me so long.. I am swamped right now with school work and working. I promise to try my hardest to keep up!

-So lived in Florida growing up? or still do? I am soo jealous of you. Moving to FL is one of my future goals but since I'll be a teacher- idk how the employment for me will be. But I am going to try. I have been to FL besides disney many times. My best friend moved to FL about 3 years ago- she lives in Fort Myers, and my Gma lives near Orlando in Mt. Dora. So I guess when it comes time for me to be searching for cities and locations I can come to you for inside help and suggestion! hehe What area of FL did you live (if you don't mind answering)? Like southern, panhandle, central?

Also, you are verrrryy lucky to have went to disney twice a year growing up. I only went once in 3rd grade with my family and didn't return til I was 21. It's sad I know.. I always wanted to return but had to wait til I could pay for it. hehe My hopes are that I can eventually go at least once a year.

DH packs the same way. He waits til the last minute, and then texts me the entire day at work the day before, or the day of letting me know what he needs. I actually end up packing most of the things for him ahead of time just to reduce the stress.

It seems that you had a pretty awesome view for "not having a view" room.

That picture of you guys and Marie is soo cute.
Les Chefs sounds really good.. I need to try that sometime in the future.

DH and I live in Utah right now and his family all lives here. I grew up very close to Ft. Myers!! In a city called Naples. I would recommend to anyone wanting to visit Florida on a non-Disney trip to stay on Sanibel or Captiva island. It's about 30 minutes from Ft. Myers. Unlike Disney, tourist season is in the "winter" months, so it is cheaper and less crowded in May then it is in Feb, for example. It doesn't get as cold in the "winter" or as hot in the summer as Orlando does, because it's near the water and it is in a different climate zone (Tropic zone). And unlike the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico water is pretty warm year-round. PS- send me a PM if you have any questions about planning a trip to FL. I know a lot of great activities, spots, and restaurants!

 

[yourMaire83]

After our lunch, we went on exploring World Showcase. Greg fell in love with it! Prior to our trip, I showed him what it looks like in Google Earth 3D and he seemed so bored.

We got to Morocco as it started to rain. I was very happy that we had brought a $1 small umbrella in the backpack. We took so much time in Morocco, looking in all the shops and enjoying the music. Had it not been raining, I believe we would have been the only folks in there. Even with the rain, it was almost empty! I found the bongo drum section and was delighted to find a good drum. The drums in Morocco are so much louder than the ones I had tried in Mexico the night before. As Greg was buying me my favorite drum, I struck up a conversation with a CM. I asked him about the music they were playing, and did I ask the right guy! It was his favorite artist, Amr Diab. I had a great time talking to him but Greg seemed a little jealous and we left to explore the other countries. The rain was gone, so I took the camera out and took this picture:

As we passed America, we saw a bunch of lonely characters... Donald, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Rafiki, Mickey amd Minnie. There were a couple of families taking pictures but no lines, so we walked right up and got this picture:

...then took this picture:

As we were leaving WS, I noticed that the were a ton of animals wandering around.

(I will edit this post later... I need to figure out why my pictures aren't working. Then I will finish.)