How we fell in love with WDW - Oct 1-15 2009 - Update 05/18 -Day 14 - DHS/DTD

[torsie24]

Index

Day 0 - Saying goodbye to Bella
Day 1 - Travel and arriving at AKL
Day 2 - Part -1 - The Magic Kingdom - Part 2 - Animal Kingdom
Day 3 - Part 1 - Hollywood Studios - Part 2 - Spectro Magic and Wishes
Day 4 -Shopping and Suites
Day 5 - Wedding Planning Day
Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach
Day 7 - Universal Studios
Day 8 -EPCOT Part I - FW - Part II - WS
Day 9 - Part 1 - MK & WCC - Part 2 - MNSSHP
Day 10 - Boma and DHS
Day 11 - DTD, Disneyquest & EPCOT
Day 12 -Part 1 - Typhoon Lagoon - Part 2 - Fantasmic
Day 13 - MK & Jiko
Day 14 -Part 1 - Animal Kingdom - Part 2 - DHS & DTD

 

[torsie24]

The Cast

In case this is the first you’ve heard of me…

Hi! I’m Victoria (or Torsie to everyone who knows me), I’m 24 and live in Surrey, England with my Fiancé Jack (also 24) and our furry cat babies Bella and Boo. Jack proposed to me in January in Disneyland Paris, and we are in the process of planning our WDW wedding, which of course needed a research trip!

Here we are on our engagement trip:

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for 2 weeks, (Oct 1st-15th) and met with our wedding consultant and wedding photographers during our trip. And had loads of Disney fun during the rest of our stay!


Day 0 - The Journey Begins

After a very long (and exceptionally slow) day at the office, 5 O’Clock arrived and Jack and I headed home to finish up packing the last couple of bits we needed, to tell our neighbours we were off, and to have dinner.

At 8pm I said a teary goodbye to Bella (we hadn‘t adopted Boo then, he‘s new!), and my Dad came and drove us to our hotel.

We stayed at the Travelodge at London Heathrow Airport, and for £35 ($50) we thought the room was very good. We were by a stairwell which originally I thought could cause some noise, but it didn’t at all.

We watched some TV and I did some final Disney-forum chatting, and then at about 10.30pm we decided we ought to call it a night.

 

[DWGal210]

I'm here! What a great start so far!! We also stayed at AKL when we went just a few weeks ago, I'm interested to compare notes about what you thought!

Can't wait to read more!

- Katie

 

[torsie24]

Day 1 - It’s finally here!

I slept pretty well considering that the night before our trip to Disneyland Paris last summer I didn’t sleep a wink. And at 5.07am I woke up, and decided as the alarms was set for 5.15 I may as well get a head start on the day.

We got showered and packed up, and got a cab at 6am to Terminal 4. We flew with Delta from London to Detroit and then onto Orlando.

Although we’d checked in online the day previously, when we got to the Delta check in zone, the line for bag drop was huge, and didn’t appear to move for a good 10 minutes. Eventually we dropped our bags off, and went through security, which was very smooth and fast.

We were both starving by this time, so we headed to the first restaurant we came across, where Jack had Bacon and Scrambled Egg on toast, and I had a Cheese and Ham toasted sandwich. It was really tasty and just what we needed! Afterwards we popped into WH Smiths and I got a puzzle magazine and we got some water and some sweets.

We then hit Duty Free, where we both bought new perfume, I got one of the new D&G ones (No. 3) and Jack bought a new Bulgari one which is really lovely too.

Soon enough it was time to board the plane and in no time we had taken off.

Our seats were the best Economy I think I’ve been in, with plenty of room and good Seat back entertainment. Straight away breakfast/brunch was brought around, but all I ate was my roll and little side salad as I was still full from breakfast. I spent some time playing my new DS game (Rhythm Paradise) which is great fun, and then I watched The Proposal, which was very funny! Soon enough more food came round, a super yummy pizza and a caramel, cookie type thing.

With about 2 hours left until landing I started to get ants in my pants, and kept looking at the sky map thingy, which is one of the best ways to make a flight feel even slower!

But then what only felt like an hour or two after taking off we landed in Detroit 45 minutes early. And were through Customs and bag check, and re-checked in for our MCO flight within half an hour! We were both keen to stretch our legs, so we had a walk through the awesome light tunnel that connects the two halves of the McNamara Terminal. I must say it’s the best tunnel I have ever been in I think!

Then we headed back to the main half and rode the monorail down to the far end, as I had been checking the flight stats website and knew that for the last couple of weeks our flight had been going from gates down the very far end. (The terminal is over a mile long, so the little monorail was very welcome as my hand luggage, although super cute, was super heavy!) Whilst riding the monorail I saw a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and pretty much shrieked, as when I was at UCLA I lived on Coffee Bean and thought it was only a West Coast place. So I made that our first stop once we were off the Monorail.

I ordered my Decaf Vanilla Ice blended with Soy Milk, and we headed down to gate A77 to wait for the 3 hours until our flight. About an hour later we were getting a bit hungry, and my Taco Bell deprivation was getting to a high level, plus I wanted Jack to experience it, as he has never had TB before. So I went and got us a Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme to share. Needless to say, he fell in love, and ate most of it, but I was happy to see him realise why I miss Taco Bell, and want them to open branches in the UK.

After an hour or two more, with me exploring the terminal and buying Jack his first pack of Big Red Gum (which he is also very fond of now) it was time to board our flight to MICKEY!!!!! We had a bit of a wait for take off, but were soon going at break neck speed down the runway, in a very rickety and noisy plane. The flight was pretty uneventful, and went by fast, and we were soon landed at MCO.

After waiting in a pretty unpleasant baggage collection area, we set off to find ME, and got checked in and were directed to lane 1.

A bus was just leaving, but another pulled up right away so we went ahead and got on, and then had to wait about 20 minutes to leave, as not too many people were joining. The journey to WDW went so fast! I think it was the fun video! But before we knew it we were through the gate (I could not get a decent photo as it was night time) and our first stop was Pop (even though it wasn’t on our sign?!) where most of the people on our bus got off, next stop was CSR, which looked lovely from what we saw, and then finally our turn!

When we got off the bus the heat really hit us! It was lovely! We headed straight up and into the lobby, and as the doors opened for us an African drummer was stood there with kids all around him and they started singing and dancing as soon as we walked in, it was such amazing timing and so exciting! Rather than heading straight over to reception we stood with our mouths open for a while and took in the lobby. Wow it does just blow you away!

We checked in, and found out we’d been upgraded to a Savannah room! I was sooo excited, and then even more excited when I found out we were on the Zebra trail! And only a short walk from the lobby and the pool! We literally could not have got a better room if wed have been given the choice ourselves! We stopped off at Bell Services who had our GG order, so we asked for the to be brought up to our room, and then we hurried off to find our home for the next 2 weeks!

We were there in a flash and I was so excited to open the door! I was so impressed with the size of our room! And we had a Mickey head towel on one of the beds! Eeeee that made my day!

Next thing I did was run to the window and open the curtains! And we were both blown away, our view was stunning, and we could not have felt luckier! To have booked standard, and to have gotten a room this good was just too much to expect! Once we sat down in the room, the 21 hours of travel really caught up with us, so we unpacked as fast as we could, and then I headed down to the Mara (Jack had a bad headache) and bought him a yogurt parfait and myself some carrots and celery with ranch dip. When I got back we each had half a bagel, some potato chips and we shared the celery and carrot. Then we gave in and went to sleep at 10.30.

 

[lynn71092]

Subscribing

 

[torsie24]

Day 2 - Part 1 - Magic Kingdom

I was awake at 4am (thank you jet lag) having tossed and turned most of the night, and so moved over to the spare bed and spent a couple of hours on the internet and looking out of our window. At about 5.30 I woke Jack up by shrieking very excitedly about 2 Kudu that were eating the grass outside our room, he wasn’t impressed, especially as by the time he found his glasses and pyjamas they’d both gone.

We both lazed around for another hour or so, and got to see a huge Ankola Cow come over, and then we got washed and dressed and headed out to explore the resort and get some hot chocolate in our resort mugs which I’d bought the night before. We had a paddle in the pool while we were down there, which was lovely, and looked awesome as it had all mist rolling over the top of it.

When we got back to the room we had our breakfast on the balcony and then got ready for our fist day in the parks!

At 8am we headed out to the bus stop (where we saw a HUGE butterfly!),

and after a minute or two our bus arrived to the Magic Kingdom! We were there in under 15 minutes as the roads were pretty quiet, but as our driver was nice he did drop a few people off at the Contemporary, who I assume had breakfast reservations. We both agreed that BLT looks awesome. We pulled away from CR and were at the MK stop in no time. The first thing I did was run over to the side of the lagoon and get my first glimpse of the Wedding Pavilion. I was blown away by the beauty of it, and the GF next door. And Jack was too, as he just said “That’s it, I’m sold!”, we both knew we were making the right choice for our wedding, but to see how beautiful this part of WDW is in real life was just magical.

We then headed through the gates and waited for the opening ceremony, which I just loved and we had a great view right in the centre.

We then headed into the park, and had that magical first glimpse of the Castle!

We stopped for some photo pass photos and then headed over into a deserted Liberty Square. We were both really impressed here with the attention to detail, a few people who are DLRP nuts like me, have said that the WDW MK isn’t as impressive as the one in Paris, but I couldn’t fault it at all, and if you add in the extra attractions and the CMs who are a million times more magical, I actually think that WDW comes out on top.

While in Liberty Square we saw Donald was all alone, so we headed over and gave him a hug, (and I got a kiss too!) and he gave us a round of applause when he saw our engaged buttons. I love Donald so it was a little sign it was going to be a great day that he was there waiting for us.

We then headed over into Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain, which was a walk on. We both loved this, and got very wet! I must say the final drop is a lot scarier than it looks! Afterwards we also walked onto BTM, which we were both worried wouldn’t be as fun as it’s newer French counterpart, but we had an awesome time, and thought it was just as good.

We headed through to Adventureland, had a quick bathroom break, and then went on Pirates. We loved the Davy Jones at the start, and thought the addition of Capt Jack was awesome, but the ride seemed to be over so quickly, and was our first little disappointment compared to DLRP. Considering how much older it is though, I cannot fault it at all, and it’s still an awesome attraction. It was getting really hot out by then, and I knew what I wanted! Dole whip! We walked up to Aloha Isle and I got a pineapple, and Jack got vanilla. Our server was so sweet and said loads of Congratulations to us on our Engagement badges. And then she said we could have one Dole Whip for free!! We thanked her profusely and then sat in the shade with a little lizard to keep us company, and enjoyed our treats.

When we were cooled off and rested we headed over to the Jungle Cruise, which was super funny and we had a really good skipper. And then we went on over to the Haunted Mansion. We both loved the WDW version, and though it was better than DLRPs. I loved the room with all the stairs, and I like that the Grim Grinning Ghosts have more of a part. After that it was on to Fantasyland, which was definitely the busiest section of the park! That being said none of the lines were long (except PP and Dumbo of course) and we headed over to ride Winnie the Pooh. We both thought this was great, and loved the dream sequence! How awesome is the smoke ring!! After that we walked onto Small World, which obviously shows it’s age compared to DLRP, but was just as charming and I love it just the same.

Then it was time for Philharmgic. Which to me was the best Disney attraction I have ever encountered. I just loved every second of it! It was like all of my childhood wishes of being in my favourite moves were real! And I love Disney music so much, it was like the imagineers made the ultimate show for me! If you didn’t realise already - I LOVED IT! And Jack thought it was awesome too.

Next up we hit Tomorrowland, we got some Fps for buzz, and then took a ride on the TTA.

It was a great ride, and we got to go inside Space Mountain with the lights on! When we got off we were both starving, so we got some food in Cosmic Ray’s and sat outside with it and watched the world go by for a bit. By the time we were done it was time for Buzz. I had a hard time getting a good score on this one compared to Paris, but it was still as fun, and I liked that it was a very different layout and stuff.

It was SO hot out by this time, and we were getting pretty tired, so we headed back out to the bus stop, collecting our MNSSHP tickets on the way. Soon we were on the bus and back to AKL, it is so amazing have such a fantastic resort to come back to! And we had a little friend waiting!!

 

[torsie24]

Day 2, part 2, Animal Kingdom

We spent some time at the pool, and had some food in the room while watching some animals out on the savannah.

Then got ready and headed out for Animal Kingdom PM emh. When we arrived we had a look at some of the animals on the way into Discovery Island and then headed on into Dinoland USA.

We rode Dinosaur first, which was very impressive and is now Jack’s all time favourite ride! He hasn’t stopped talking about it yet! We had a slow walk around the park, and headed over to Everest which was a walk on. This coaster was a lot more intense than we were expecting, but super super fun. We loved all the subtle warnigns about the Yeti around the Everest area!

After escaping safely from the Yeti, we did some more exploring (sadly both Maharaja and Pangani were shut though) and then rode the Safari, we were so lucky with animals and saw absolutely loads.

We both enjoyed every second and it rates super high with us! It was also exciting having just ridden Jungle Cruise for the first time the same morning, and seeing Walt’s dream come to life so well. After the ride we walked around some more and took some photos. The theming in AK is absolutely flawless, we both love it.

Before we left we watched Tough to be a Bug, which we really thought was excellent! When we got back to the resort we were absolutely wiped out. So we had a snack and watched some Disney channel before getting a much needed night’s sleep!

 

[McLeach]

Subscribing...

Thanks Torsie....great so far!

 

[TokyoDina]

Great so far Torsie!! I'm on board can't wait to read the rest you make me excited for my up coming trip!!

 

[torsie24]

Day 3 – Part 1 – Hollywood Studios

We were awake before 6 so still early but not too bad today!

By the time we had a bath and got sun creamed and insect repellanted up it was time to head out for the bus to DHS. We were at the gates about half an hour before opening and it was pretty busy already.

We got through and made it almost to the front of the crowd on Hollywood Blvd and had to wait and watch a nor very amusing spiel with a film director and some other weird people. Once the rope dropped we (and everyone else) headed straight over to TSM and got into the FP line. We got some FPs for 10.45am which we thought was pretty good going, and so went of for an explore to wait for our time.

Our first ride was the Great Movie Ride, which was totally empty, and a although a little unusual we did both quite enjoy it. Our gangster wasn’t the best though, maybe she was new? After the ride we had a good walk around, and enjoyed some time on the deserted Streets of America. If you look closely you can see Jack in this photo:

We rode Star Tours, which was really good in English as in DLRP the vast majority of the ride is French so we usually don’t know what is happening!! And Jack is a big Star Wars fan so we had a good look around that whole area. Then we headed over to the Backlot Tour, but it hadn’t opened yet, so we looked in the store nearby which is all sort of outside, and jack tried on a fetching hat:

Then we got in line for the tour, and set off on the first one of the day. We really enjoyed it, and it is certainly a lot better than it’s Paris counterpart! The poor man and 2 women who did the water show part first though!

After the tour it was finally time for TSM. I was surprised that the FP line was still quite a wait, but boy was it worth it. What an amazing ride!!!!! Jack beat me by a lot, but we both did OK and had loads of fun.

When we got off we looked but all the FPs had gone for the day. After that we went into One Man’s Dream, and as we are both HUGE fans of Walt we were in there for ages. I loved everything in there it is possibly the best part of DHS, we also watched the movie which was great.

After about an hour and twenty minutes we had to tear ourselves away to go to our reservation at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. We checked in at the podium and only had to wait a minute or two before being taken into the Restaurant. It was very different to how we were both imagining. It is pretty weird how you have to walk all round the backstagey bit to get to the cars! We had a really wonderful server, he was super friendly and funny. We shared the onion rings to start, and both had the burger for our main. Jack drank an Oreo milkshake and I had cherry coke. Mmmmm. Jack also had the peanut butter cake for dessert which he loved. But I was way too full!

Once we were done we waddled out with full bellies and walked back to the hat. The high school musical 3 show was on. So we watched it and sang and danced along. It was pretty awesome, but I am biased as I love HSM3. We then kept walking to help our burgers digest, so headed down to explore Tower of Terror, although we didn’t fancy it after such a huge meal! After a while we were in need of some AC, so went into the Art of Animation, which we loved and then waited to meet Sorcerer Mickey, who was very fond of my engagement ring and told me if it didn’t work out with Jack that I could marry him! Hee hee.

We got a bit scared of meeting Mr and Mrs Incredible as they are HUGE, so we had a long look in the store and then headed back out into the scorching heat. There was a really awesome PP Photographer in front of the hat, so we had some fun with him:

And then headed back to the bus stop to relax at the Resort – we had a busy evening ahead of us! We also had a really cute towel creation waiting for us this day too!

 

[linnell]

Great TR - I was there the same time as you! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[torsie24]

Day 3 – Part 2 – Back to the Magic Kingdom!

After having a swim in the amazing pool, relaxing in the room for a while and enjoying some AKL snacks.

And watching the AKL CMs feed the animals:

It was time to head out to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

We only had a short amount of time until we needed to reserve a spot for Spectromagic and I was keen to ride the Carousel of progress so that's how will filled it. Jack calls it 'the longest ride ever' but I really liked it, especially the song! Hee hee. Afterwards we walked back to main Street and nabbed an awesome spot by Caseys. While there we talked to the loveliest couple who were on a trip for their anniversary, and they were excited to hear about our engagement and Disney wedding. If you guys are DISers and happen to read this then this was the 3rd October. I always forget to ask if people are on the DIS.

Pretty soon it was Spectro time, we loved the show!!

Then it was time for one of the events I was most excited about the whole trip!! Wishes!

It was so magical, and of course me being me I had a few Disney tears throughout.

Once the fireworks were over we battled through the crowds heading the opposite way to 90% of the guests and into Frontierland. I wanted to ride BTMRR in the dark! The line was 45 minutes but the FP return time was on an hour, so we got FPs and then had a walk around, and rode the Haunted mansion (we cant get enough of HM, although i still hang onto Jack every time the stretching room goes dark!) then we headed over to BTM.

We enjoyed it even more in the dark! As tempting as it was to re-ride or to go on Splash, we were getting really tired, as it had been another long, very hot day and we were still not quite on Florida time, so we headed out of the park and back to AKL where we were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

 

[torsie24]

Day 4 - Shopping and Suites

We didn't actually visit any parks today! Shock horror! I had wanted to go to EPCOT as we hadn't visited yet, but we didn't want yet another early start and we knew F&W would make a weekend very busy (today was a Sunday).

So instead we had a slow start, come cereal in the room, and then went to get a bus to DTD.

This is my only moan about AKL buses, it just seemed that we were always waiting agaes for DTD buses, and the journey felt SOOO long!

In any case we got to DTD, and had a good look around every shop there! I didn't buy anything on our first look though as we were comign back later in the trip. Once we'd looked around we got a cab from the parking lot over to the Premium Outlets. We weren't really blown away with the selection of stores, I got a couple of bits in Gap, we got a pair of converse each as there was a good offer on them (2 pairs for $30) and I got loads of Pins in the Disney outlet as they had packs of 4 2009 ones for $4 a pack! SO I think I bought 6 packs - it certainly covered us for lots of good trading for the rest of the trip! Oooh, and I bought a fliashing orange mickey head necklace to wear to MNSSHP later that week.

We weren't at the outlets long, and headed back to DTD as I was SO excited to visit Earl of Sandwich, as I read a lot of dining reports leading up to our trip and I jsut knew I'd love the hawaiian bbq sandwich! As bbq sauce, cheese and pineapple are 3 of my favourite foods! So I had the Hawaiin BBQ and Jack had the Jamaican Jerk, we were both in love with the Earl on first bite!! Jack also had a brownie which he took back and had later that evening if I recall.

At this point you may be wondering why on earth there are no photos in this installment - I found out too late that I forgot to put the battery back in the camera! Sorry!

But I did make sure not to eat any of my Goofy snacks until I was back in the room and had taken a photo for the DIS and because I was still stuffed from EoS!

Jack wasn't as considerate and ate most of his whilst waiting for the bus back to AKL. He had the rods too, with Reeces Pieces, Peanut butter cups, and crushed oreos.

When we got back we have a lovely relaxing swim and sunbathe, we loved laying round the pool with a cold rootbeer from the Mara and reading our books. We also learnt the joys of sitting in the hot tubs. It was so hot out we;d avoided getting even hotter on the first day. But the tub was so empty and inviting that day that I tried it and we got a bit addicted to the hot tubs from then on! Once we stated feeling a little sunburned we returned to the room, showered and enjoyed the view for a while I also ate a pretzel rod as all the 'swimming' had helped the sandwich go down a little.

After a while we wanted to stretch our legs, and I was falling so in love with AKL that I said to Jack we should ask if they have any honeymoon suites. So we walked the 10 feet to the lobby and a lovely CM called Gillian on the concierge desk said there weren't Honeymoon suite, but the Vice Presedential Suite was free, would we like to see it?! She also said she could show us a King Room and the CL Lounge, so off we went.

The suite was absolutely amazing!!! It had a gorgeous living room, and the bathroom was out of this world! Oooh, it was lovely. I've only been in a few suites in my time, but this one is definitely in the top two! (the other is the Suite that Catherine Zeta Jones stayed in the night before her wedding to Michael Douglas - our housekeeper was kind enough to show us the room as we started talking to her one day! The bath has a golden tap shaped like a swan!)

She then showed is a King room, and the CL lounge, and it might not surprise you to hear that we definitely be spending some of our wedding trip back at AKL! Not in the $2k/night suite though sadly! She said we might be interested in seeing a 1 bedroom DVC unit, but they were all full in Jambo. She checked with Kidani and some were free, so we had a lovely (but humid) walk over to Kidani while the sun was setting, and enjoyed the little quiz about animals on the way.

We both really liked the feel of Kidani, and the 1 bedroom there was really great! I think if we buy into DVC we would definitely consider AKL, but I would choose Jambo just to have the choice of CS and because I didn't think the Kidani pool was as good. Beautiful rooms though.

After our grand tour we walked back to Jambo, but both got a bit scared when the hugest cricket was sitting on the path. We both froze with fear for a while, but mustered up enough courage to run around him! Jack has a fear of them since one jumped onto his face in Slovakia and stared him in the eye! *shudder*

We crashed in the room and watched some Hannah Montana and Suite Life with a pizza ans salad from the Mara and then headed to bed for the day I was most excited for, and the whole reason for the trip! Wedding planning day!

 

[torsie24]

Day 5

Today was the day that warranted the entire trip!! Wedding Planning day!

We were up bright and early as our appointment with our Wedding Co-ordinator was 9.30 at the Wedding Pavillion. So we got on a bus to the Magic Kingdom nice and early. We did a loop on the monorail, and admired to beautiful views all around Seven Seas Lagoon.

No matter how many times we saw the pavillion it was still as beautiful as the first time!

We got off at the Floridian and still had 45 minutes to kill, so we had a good look around the resort, we loved the lobby so much, I think partly because it reminded us of our hotel in Disneyland paris (which is a copy of the floridian, lol)

Floridian:

Disneyland hotel (smaller, but just as wonderful):

Being on a beautiful beach does give the Floridian an extra loveliness though!

We enjoyed the beach, and also check out Sago Cay Point, which is the location of our wedding firework party -

Then it was finally an acceptable time to head over to meet with our Planner.

Inside the wedding office is amazing! There is so much amazing wedding stuff to look at!! check out this HUGE cake! (It feed 250 poeple!)

Once our meeting started we sat and chatted for a while about what we want for our big day, and went over decoration, food and transport options, and then it was time for the super fun part - location viewings!

We started at the Floridian where we saw the Whitehall Room and Patio in the Convention Centre, it really is beautiful, and wsa beign set up for a wedding that say so was great to see it decorated.

After that we headed over to the Contmporary and up to the California Grill private rooms. The view was breathtaking! And Jack was a little dissappointed he decided he didn't want me to make a CG ADR once he'd seen the restaurant.

We were ages in the CG enjoying the view, it was awesome to be the only people up there too.

Following that we moved over to EPCOT, where we got to go in the staff entrance and behined the scenes! Our first stop was at the Living Seas, where we saw private room there, it was really amazing, and very odd to be in a parking lot one minute, and then pop round a fence and appear into a busy Future World. The Living Seas Salon was awesome, but sadly a bit too big for our wedding party.

After that we headed around to the UK Pavillion, and we were the only ones there as WS wasn't open yet. We found it really amazing that we had just suddenly appeared in the centre of EPCOT - especially as we'd not been to he park porperly yet, so all we'd seen was the entrance and interior of the Living Seas and the UK pavillion. How many people can say that.

We headed back to the Wedding Pavillion where I got to see the spot where I'll become a Mrs - I have seen hundreds of photo of the wedding pavillion, but going inside for real was absolutely breathtaking. I welled up immediately, and even Jack got a little misty-eyed. It is so stunning.

After a little while back in the office going over some menus etc. We headed back out into the heat, and caught the boat back to the MK from the Floridian. It was a hot wait but the journey was lovely, and it was great to see the Poly up close.

We headed back to the resort for some lunch, a swim, and then a freshen up and change into smart clothes. As we had a booking with our wedding photographers for an Engagment Session at the Poly and Floridian. Back on the bus to MK we went, and then back on the Monorail round to the Poly. We had a bit of a wait in the lobby, as I'm always early everywhere I go! And as we sat the sky got greyer, and rain started to fall. The only rain of our whole trip and it was on our photo shoot afternoon!

Jack waiting in the Poly:

A couple of our photos - luckily we made the rain work for us. And it did stop during our Grand Floridian half of the shoot.

Once we were done with our awesome photographers we spent some time in GF store before getting the monorail once again, for another almost full loop round to the Poly. For our ADR at Kona Cafe!

The lobby was SO busy with people waiting for dinner that it was pretty hectic, but we didn't have long until our buzzer went off. We got seated (after a tour of the desserts which made my sweet-toothed-husband-to-be very glad I'd chosen this restuarant!) and browsed the menu.

As Jack was certain he was not going to miss the White Chocolate Cheesecake we decided against having a starter, for our Main I had the Miso Glazed Mahi-mahi served with soba noodles and baby bok choy, which was very tasty! And he had panko breaded shrimp and pan-seared scallops with sticky rice and ponzu, spicy guava-passion fruit and wasabi cream sauces which he absolutely raved over. I was way to full for dessert, but jack had his cheesecake,

and I was brought a lovely surprise celebration dessert. (Which Jack ate most of too! He loves desserts!

After dinner we had a wonderful walk around the resort, and got the boat back over to the MK before heading home for a good nights sleep.
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[tashybea]

What a lovely trip report so far. I'm subbing with avid interestas our honeymoon is in November and it will be our first time in WDW and DF and I are huge DLRP fans!!!
You are such a cute couple and your engagement photos are stunning!

 

[torsie24]

What a lovely trip report so far. I'm subbing with avid interestas our honeymoon is in November and it will be our first time in WDW and DF and I are huge DLRP fans!!!
You are such a cute couple and your engagement photos are stunning!

Aww, thank you so much. The perfect honeymoon choice!

 

[carps09]

Hi Torsie! I'm glad I found your TR. Remember we met on the Pangani Exploration Trail at AK? You took this picture:

I look forward to reading more of your TR and maybe you'll inspire me to finally write mine! By the way, your engagement pictures are beautiful!!!

 

[kate_wdw]

I'm really enjoying your trip report - getting the inside scoop on wedding planning at WDW is especially interesting.

Also, I really like your nickname - it's so cute. Is Torsie a common nickname for Victoria in the UK?

 

[torsie24]

Hi Torsie! I'm glad I found your TR. Remember we met on the Pangani Exploration Trail at AK? You took this picture:

I look forward to reading more of your TR and maybe you'll inspire me to finally write mine! By the way, your engagement pictures are beautiful!!!

Yes!!! I wasn't sure to put our meeting in my TR or not as I didn't have a photo, but can I add your photo in? That's the next day I'm putting up! How was the rest of your trip?

I got Scribblenauts at the Airport on the way home in the end - kept me busy on the long flight!!

 

[torsie24]

I'm really enjoying your trip report - getting the inside scoop on wedding planning at WDW is especially interesting.

Also, I really like your nickname - it's so cute. Is Torsie a common nickname for Victoria in the UK?

Thank you

I've never met another Torsie, my parents made it up as they didn't like 'Vicky' as a nickname for me. Everyone I know calls me it. I only get called Victoria by new people I meet or if I'm in trouble!