day two with a large group is still fun!!!

[suevee]

Sunday, June 3, twelve of our group hit WDW. We were 9 adults (20 to 51 years old, and one of us is 7 months pregnant!) and 3 kids (4 to 8). On this, our first real day in WDW, we decided to do Epcot in the morning, lunch at Garden Grill, pool in the afternoon with dinner at SoG, and evening at MK for the fireworks.

We started out around 8 am for Epcot. On arriving we gave all our passes to our intrepid runner to get fast passes for Test Track. Then we double checked our watches and decided to meet at Garden Grill at 1pm for lunch. I was insistent everyone was to be on time as I had a surprise for the newly weds in our group. At anyrate, my husband, pregnant daughter and I took the two girls (4 and 6) and went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (big mistake! should have listened to the boards on this one!) while the others went to test track. We left Honey I Shrunk the Audience when the mice crawled over our feet with two distraught children. We then went to the Ice Station to try sodas. Much better. Then we went to the Land and went on all 4 of the attractions there, then we went to the Sea attraction. We found some others of our group after the sea attraction (girls LOVED this). We went back to the Ice Station to introduce them to the Italien soda!!!!Then we found some water sprinklers to play in. After we bought new clothes to replace the wet ones (didn't want the girls soaked in an air conditioned restaraunt), we went to lunch.

At the Garden Grill the interaction of the characters was great, the food was good. Definiately sit on the lower tier to get the benefit of the rotating dining. The upper level made some of our party a little queasy (course, she is pregnant). Then at dessert we had the HITCHING CEREMONY!!! for our newlyweds!!! Heard about this on the DIS boards. It was great! It was a very big surprise to our DD and new SIL. We had another great time at WDW. Then we went back to the hotel for a break and it started to rain.

That evening we didn't go to MK because the thunder and lightening really freaked out the girls. We still saw some of the fireworks over the hotel from MK. We still had a great time hanging out at the Evergreen Grill and swapping stories and sipping Pina Coladas, looking forward to the next day. The rest of our group joined us bumping our number to 15. On day 3 we planned ee morning at MK, breakfast at Chrystal Palace and Cindy's (for a lucky few) and dinner at Chef Mickeys with an evening at Epcot.

We had a great day and everyone was still talking to each other!!! Marwan's shoulder was doing well. He even tried test track. The only disappointment I had was that the dancing fountains was turned off. That put a damper on things for me as I love it so, and really wanted the children to feel the music. The park was not very crowded and our waits were minimal. We saw what we wanted to see and enjoyed our friends and family.

 

[snuggles]

Please share about the Hitching Ceremony. I havent heard about that one! Thanks for posting.

 

[suevee]

If you always wanted to be married at WDW but could never afford it - this may be your solution!! Well, sorta..
The Re-Hitching Ceremony is repeating your marital vows with Mickey and presiding CM. You have a bouquet of paper towels and a paper towel veil courtesy of the CM performing the service. You can have members of your party stand up for you, in our case it was the younger members (ages 4 to 8). You also get a wedding license from Mickey. I can't remember the exact wording because we were all laughing so hard. The CM's at the Dine number don't always know about this, but if you ask to be transferred to the Podium at the Garden Grill the CM's there can help you. When I made my PS for our family I asked for the re-hitching ceremony for our newlyweds. It took 3 calls to find someone who knew what I was talking about, but it was definitely worth it!!!!!! My DD and new SIL were so surprised!!!! We have it all on Video. Priceless!!!!

 

[Beanie]

I keep reading about the Hitching Ceremony and it seems a lot more people are doing this...sounds like a lot of fun!! Thanks for posting!

 

[Kermit]

That rehitching ceremony sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing!