A Private, Romantic 30th Anniversary Trip- Just Ask My Friends! Last Afternoon: EP p. 37 9/19

[amazingact21]

If it's any consolation, I love seeing all your animal photos on Facebook. It's springtime in my village and the kids see a new baby farm animal every day. And thus, ive become quite fond of farm inhabitants.

Oh no! Sorry to hear about the EMH mix up. And then about RNRC being down. I've been watching the wait times lately, and that attraction seems to be down a lot lately. Bummer.

Your cupcake and coffee looked delicious.

Oooh, a fireworks cruise. That sounds like an exciting change of plans.

 

[afwdwfan]

Mark was blown away by the Halloween fireworks. He loved, loved, loved them!

Awesome! I'm glad he enjoyed them so much!

This was our 2nd full day at Disney and it was a FULL day!

Yes. Yes it was...

As it turns out, it was NOT an early extra magic hour morning. It looked like there were a few guests in the park, so I think it was actually one of those paid access things. I'm pretty sure at one point I knew the park was not opening until 9 and there were no morning extra magic hours scheduled that day and thought “Oh, good, we can sleep a little longer the morning after the Halloween Party”. But then I forgot and I never double-checked the schedule. I just assumed since we were going to HS, it was the early open park. GRRRR!!!!

Well that was some poor planning on your part...

I'm sure it has happened to all of us. It was EMH for months during planning and now it isn't... hard to reset that calendar that had the days mapped out in your head.

Then, shortly before we were let in, a cast member came over and told us that RockNRoller Coaster was down.

Crap! Our plan had been to ride that first since we didn’t have a Fast Pass.

Nooo!!! Seriously, this is the one park where one ride being down at RD can seriously screw up your entire day.

What time is it when it is lunch time at Hollywood Studios?
Time to get out of Hollywood Studios!

 

[natebenma]

We changed an entire day of plans last May and it led us to have best surprise. We changed from and Epcot day to a MK day. We were walking on Buzz and I hear "Mrs. Hill". I turned to see my daughter's best friend from college and another classmate standing in the regular line. He said that he was hoping to see us (we had no idea he was going to be there). We had them join us for lunch and even took pictures in front of the castle with them.

 

[natebenma]

Oh man a nice early morning and then no EMH. That sucks but at least you were at he front of the crowds to get into DHS. I haven't done EMH in so long now that I don't even factor it into my plans.

Great picture with Buzz and Woody!

That is so awesome that not only Dee's corner made an appearance but you brought a sign!

Getting to the EMH is never difficult for us, but it was a pain that we had to wait so long for the park to open.

Thanks! The Toy Story characters are special to me because they were so important to my boys when they were little.

Still not sure Mark understands that Dee's Corner is a "thing", but he humored me by taking the picture.

 

[natebenma]

The meet and greet looks like it was fun. Mark must be a good sport about meeting the characters. I dragged my husband to the Monsters, Inc meet and greet. It was just before they closed it down before construction started. He agreed that it was fun.

We don't do many meet & greets, but this was a good time for us to do this. The queue for the meet is super cute and the scenes are all familiar to me as a fan of the Toy Story franchise.

I love this picture of you in the corner. You look so happy to have some time alone during the school trip.

I love it too! That trip presented a lot of challenges, but that moment was a bright spot on the trip. It cracked me up when others mentioned seeing "Dee's Corner" or took pictures there. I am so pleased that the story and place have endured!

I did something like this on our trip to WL in March. We wanted to get to MK for rope drop because we didn't have any fastpasses for that park. WL has both a bus and a boat to MK. So we decide to take the boat rather than the bus and I told everyone to meet at the boat dock at 8am. (MK opened that 9am that morning.) We're the first ones at the bock and the only ones there. Finally, after about 15 minutes someone notices the sign that says that the boat starts running a half hour before park opening. So we race off to the MK bus and end up just beating the boat by about five minutes. I felt like a failure for not checking on the morning boat schedule and for making everyone get there early. As it was, we still managed to make it into MK before rope drop. But I still felt bad about it.

It is tough when you are the one making all the plans and others have so much trust in you that they don't bother to double check the details!

 

[natebenma]

A beautiful walk indeed! Love the pictures.

It was a very pretty morning and unlike our summer trips, we didn't feel like we were walking through a furnace.

Ugh, I hate when plans are foiled by ride shut-downs.

It was really disappointing, especially since this was the only time we were planning on riding at Hollywood Studios. No RocknRollercoaster!

I still think this picture is awesome!

Thank you! "I am eternally grateful!"

Yay! Excited to hear about it.

Coming up! Eventually.

 

[natebenma]

If it's any consolation, I love seeing all your animal photos on Facebook. It's springtime in my village and the kids see a new baby farm animal every day. And thus, ive become quite fond of farm inhabitants.

Thank you! It actually is a great consolation to hear that you are enjoying the farm pictures. I am trying to stay positive and counter all of the political news (and my strong opinions) with cute animals. A few people have been telling me how much they enjoy seeing Sky the baby goat and Roger the donkey so prominently featured.

I love that your kids gets to see baby farm animals!

Oh no! Sorry to hear about the EMH mix up. And then about RNRC being down. I've been watching the wait times lately, and that attraction seems to be down a lot lately. Bummer.

Your cupcake and coffee looked delicious.

Oooh, a fireworks cruise. That sounds like an exciting change of plans.

Shortly after my trip, RnR was shut down for refurbishment. Sounds like they still may have some bugs to work out.

I'm not a huge cupcake fan- this one was ok, but not one of the best I have ever had. The coffee was fantastic!

Yes, a great way to see the fireworks is from the water. I will describe it in greater detail, but let's just say Landon would really enjoy this outing!

 

[natebenma]

Awesome! I'm glad he enjoyed them so much!

Mark was OBSESSED with seeing Hallowishes again!

Yes. Yes it was...

Of course, that would not be our only full day on the trip.

Well that was some poor planning on your part...

I'm sure it has happened to all of us. It was EMH for months during planning and now it isn't... hard to reset that calendar that had the days mapped out in your head.

I haven't gone back to see if they changed my EMH to the pay event or if I just miscalculated. Seems like Disney has been doing a lot more last minute hours adjustments lateley than they have in the past.

Nooo!!! Seriously, this is the one park where one ride being down at RD can seriously screw up your entire day.

Don't tell anyone, but there is a happily ever after wrt RnR. You will be pleased.

Yeah, no question about where to get lunch between HS and EP!

 

[natebenma]

Food, Friends & France


We left Hollywood Studios and got onto a Friendship boat, which we took all the way to EPCOT.


We were pretty hungry by the time we arrived and we wanted a little more than the sample-size tidbits from the Food & Wine booths.

We returned to a place (sort-of) that was a memorable part of the first trip to Disney for Mark and me:

Flashback…

My first trip to Disney was on our high school class trip in April 1983. I was dating Mark at the time- he had been to the World a couple of years before with family. At the time of the class trip, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT were the only two parks.

The trip was arranged by a travel company. We were pretty loosely supervised on this trip. I can’t remember if there were chaperones, but I do know that a couple of the kids on the trip were of legal drinking age. On one night of the trip, the boys were drinking. Mark was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, the next morning, he was feeling less good. We dragged ourselves around EPCOT that day and when it was time for lunch, we tried “Yakatori House” in Japan. Emphasis on the “Yak”

In all of our subsequent trips, we avoided eating at Yakatori House, but the location has since undergone a renovation and has become “Katsura Grill”

It was time to give it another try.

The menu there is interesting- sushi selections, tempura, teriyaki, udon, ramen and other Japanese favorites.

YUM!!!


While we were eating, I got in touch with Nannette.

We had booked the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise for the next night (Thursday) and we also changed our dining reservation from Yak & Yeti to one of our favorite restaurants: Boma.

Mark suggested that I invite Nannette to join us for dinner and/or the fireworks cruise since she would be solo at that point. Janet was flying out on Thursday afternoon.

I extended the invitation, and initially Nannette accepted to join us at dinner, but subsequently decided she wanted to head into Animal Kingdom that night and take pictures instead.


Nannette and Janet were in the World Showcase as well so after lunch we met up with them as they were finishing a snack at the Brazil booth.

Mark had not seen Impressions de France in over 20 years, since before the boys were born. Nannette and Janet were interested in joining us for that.


My last time seeing the movie was more recent, but surreal. It was during the August 2015 Beach Club meet trip. Nannette, Rebecca, ~Ninja, and I watched the movie when we were in EPCOT, on the day Teena’s husband Bob passed away. I remember being in the waiting area, sad, exhausted and in shock from the news.


After the movie, we took a moment to let one of our friends know she was in our thoughts:

With that, we parted ways and Mark and I returned to the Yacht Club for a swim and our afternoon break.



Next Up: La Hacienda

 

[annie170]

Those 1983 photos are priceless! Where does the time go?

Loosely supervised! My, how times have changed!

Katsura Grill is a great counter service in Epcot. My husband is a sushi lover, so we've eaten there several times.

That's great that you were able to meet up with Nanette and Janet and send some love to Teena!

 

[Wood Nymph]

My first trip to Disney was on our high school class trip in April 1983. I was dating Mark at the time- he had been to the World a couple of years before with family. At the time of the class trip, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT were the only two parks.

You guys look so young. Epcot would have been fairly new then.

Mark had not seen Impressions de France in over 20 years,

DH still won't go to see it, even though I told him that they have regular seats, not like the 360 theaters.

My last time seeing the movie was more recent, but surreal. It was during the August 2015 Beach Club meet trip. Nannette, Rebecca, ~Ninja, and I watched the movie when we were in EPCOT, on the day Teena’s husband Bob passed away. I remember being in the waiting area, sad, exhausted and in shock from the news.

That was a very surreal day. We had gone back to the Yacht Club by then.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm glad that Mark had a better reaction to Katsura Grill than he did to Yakatori House.

Very nice that you got to meet up with Nannette and Janet for a little bit! I know the day that Bob passed away was hard for all of you, and it's great that you got a chance to re-experience Impressions de France without having that sadness and shock around you.

 

[rteetz]

Love those old photos!

Nice that you got to meet up with Nannette and Janet!

 

[rteetz]

Love those old photos!

Nice that you got to meet up with Nannette and Janet!

 

[JanetMom]

Great update! Love that you have those old pictures to remember your high-school trip. You haven't aged a bit!

One of the best things about having Disney friends is being able to bump into them for a quick meet up in the parks. I hadn't seen the France movie before so it was a great way to spend time together.

Food and Wine Festival is awesome. Can't wait to experience it again, and sharing it with you would be even better!

 

[afwdwfan]

Don't tell anyone, but there is a happily ever after wrt RnR. You will be pleased.

It never seems to work out that way for me...

Here's how determined I am to make sure I ride it this time... I booked RnRC for our DHS Tier 1 FP. If everybody else wants to ride TSMM (and they do) they'd better get their butts in gear so we don't miss rope drop because I'm done letting RnRC be the sacrificial lamb!

In all of our subsequent trips, we avoided eating at Yakatori House, but the location has since undergone a renovation and has become “Katsura Grill”

It was time to give it another try.

Well, that was a brave move. I'm glad it seemed to go better this time around.

It was nice of Mark to offer the invite to dinner at Boma. Too bad she couldn't join you.

 

[glennbo123]

One of the best reaction shots EVER!

We encountered something weird when we arrived at the Hollywood Studios gate. There was only one group at the tapstiles in front of us and they weren’t letting anyone in.

Huh?

As it turns out, it was NOT an early extra magic hour morning.

Oh no!! What are you, some kind of Disney rookie??!

Then, shortly before we were let in, a cast member came over and told us that RockNRoller Coaster was down.

Are you kidding me?

And we met this guy:

Can you imagine the clogged shower drains from that guy? (Chewbacca, not Mark.)

My first trip to Disney was on our high school class trip in April 1983.

My senior year also. But you've got me beat by a few months on the first trip to Disney. Mine was Christmas day, 1983.

 

[wdwnut61]

Aww I love the pics of you and Mark

 

[amazingact21]

I love the old photos. And it seems only fitting that you guys finally retry the restaurant on your anniversary. You all were celebrating your life together, after all. And what's a walk down memory lane without reminiscing over the younger and less-wise years.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Aw love all the old photos of you and Mark. Proof indeed that young love can and does last
Great update and how lovely of you all to brighten a friend's day by letting them know they were in your thoughts
Glad your dinner was more successful this time around. Looking forward to hearing all about the cruise