It's our Date-A-Versary with Deluxe Dining, DVC and MNSSHP!! 11/13 UPDATE!

[wannago2disney]

yay you're back! can't wait to read what happens next!

 

[ariel1025]

After a fantastic first meal we decided to roam around Downtown Disney for a while. We had discussed going to Disney Quest but after seeing the prices and not having a park ticket for that day we passed. It is something we always talk about doing and never end up doing

Just another reason to keep coming back

While walking around we saw the balloon that everyone has been buzzing about

We walked over to where you buy tickets because we thought it would be really cool to see all the scenery at night, but the ticket box was closed. We assumed it was because they didn’t do the rides at night; however, later on that night we saw the balloon in the air so maybe we just didn’t buy our tickets in time before they closed

It was one of those perfect nights that wasn’t too hot but wasn’t too chilly either – an absolutely perfect way to kick off our vacation!

Eventually we stumbled upon this little gem

It smelled delicious – you could smell all the goodies from outside the door. I suggested we go in and check it out but it was PACKED in there and Candi wasn’t really in the mood to fight a big crowd tonight. Don’t worry he understands there are crowds at Disney World but he wanted this one night to be crowd free

As we were continuing on our way we passed by the window of the Candy Cauldron and saw these little cuties

Caramel apples are Candi’s absolute favorite treat in the whole world and these were almost enough to make him go in and deal with the mile long line of people …. ALMOST

Instead we headed on to my absolute favorite store in all of Disney

I know, I know, I just said we were going crowd free tonight but I persuaded him with my good looks and charm Ok, actually I reminded him that we promised his Goddaughter a special present because she couldn’t come with us and that this would be the BEST place to buy that. I’m pretty sure he knew I just wanted to go in but he bit the bait and the quest for Sophia’s gift began.

While we were in there shopping around I saw this display

I think it is the cutest Halloween decoration ever!!

After circling the store at least once we came across the perfect gift for his Goddaughter

Minnie Mouse is her absolute favorite and she just made the cheerleading squad with the “big girls.” Quick side story: she is 5 years old and they are from a little town so every year the little girls can try out to cheer at the football games with the High schoolers and she is VERY proud that she made the squad. I was a cheerleader for as long as I can remember and she knows this so she loves to talk to me as much as possible about cheering and all the new dances she’s learned – TOO PRECIOUS!!! Anyway, we both decided this would be the perfect gift for her.

While we were standing in line for bobble head Minnie I noticed the ceiling and declared it the cutest thing ever

I know I keep saying it but it really was so cute to see and is that special touch Disney has all over the place that makes me love coming again and again – I am secretly planning our next trip now – shhhh, don’t tell Candi

After paying for Sophia’s gift we ventured back out to enjoy the night. We stopped into a few other places including the sports store – it was Candi’s one request so how could I say no

Candi is majorly into golf so I had to take a picture of this. Plus I almost bought the blue hat you can kinda see in this picture, now I wish I would have

Eventually we were both starting to get sleepy so we decided we would make one more stop and then head back to the Lodge for the night. Can anyone guess where that stop might be?

Why, the world famous Goofy’s Candy Company of course!

I had read so much about the make your own treats that I KNEW this is what I wanted for dessert. This is why we didn’t order anything at Fulton’s plus I had about a million snack credits burning a hole in my pocket

At first Candi was just going to buy a regular caramel apple with peanuts on it but after he saw all the fun everybody was having making their own unique creations he decided to join in on the fun

We grabbed the little cards and started picking out what we wanted. Candi knew for sure that he was going to make an apple of some sort but I couldn’t decide. At first I wanted a rice krispy treat but then I saw the gingerbread men and then I decided on a marshmallow I seriously could not make up my darn mind.

When we put in our order we saw that there 15 orders ahead of ours – WOW! I’m not even kidding I counted them – only because Candi and I had a bet about who could get closer to the correct guess. We are super big dorks and do things like this all the time – winner got a kiss

While we were waiting for our snack we roamed around the shop for a little while just checking out everything else they had to offer. It all looked so good; fudge and cookies and lollipops – it was like a sugar lover’s paradise in there!

After a while we headed back over to see if they had gotten around to making our treats yet because I wanted to watch them.

Yep, ours was next. The girl at the counter was reading our order right as we walked over. I felt SO bad for her because a little bit later she asked a customer what they wanted their apple dipped in and he said caramel. Well, they don’t dip them in caramel at the time you order them so you have to dip them in some sort of chocolate for your candy or what not to stick to it and the customer was VERY angry about it. He told her off very loudly – I really hate rude people. It’s not her fault, it’s just how they do it. When she brought us our treats I made sure to tell her thank you and how yummy it looked. Hopefully this made her feel even a little bit better!

We asked for our treats to be bagged up and then headed to the bus. We were at the peak of sleepiness and knew we had a HUGE day planned tomorrow so we were ready to call it a night. We only had to wait about 5 minutes before our bus arrived and the trip back was peaceful and quick. Yes, I said bus and peaceful in the same sentence. There is something so Disney and calming about the buses to me and I cannot lie I quite like them?!?

When we got back to the room we grabbed our refillable mugs and headed down to Roaring Forks to fill them up and then stopped over and grabbed a movie from the rental stand in the gift shop. With these two essentials in hand we took our time strolling along back to our room. Once there we popped in the movie and opened up our yummy treats.

Candi had the caramel apple dipped in white chocolate, sprinkled with peanuts and drizzled with more white chocolate. He hates chocolate but LOVES white chocolate?!? Crazy kid! He said it was delicious but probably would stick with the “original” from now on as it became too sweet after awhile. I had a bite and thought it was just ok, but I don’t like white chocolate so my opinion doesn’t count too much!

I had the pretzel rods, yep I changed my mind at the last minute, they were dipped in milk chocolate and peanut butter chips and then drizzled with more milk chocolate. They were FANTASTIC!! The perfect combination of salty and sweet and I was super happy with my choice!

I was still so full that I could only enjoy one pretzel rod so I wrapped up the other two and put them away for a later time. I’m pretty sure we didn’t even make it 20 minutes into the movie before we were both out cold and dreaming about our first full day at Disney!

** Coming up Next - Our first full day and we actually go to a park!!

Money Spent So Far:

Bobblehead Minnie for Sophia - $16.99 including tax

Create your own apple / Create your own pretzels - $14.33 including tax (The apple was $8.95 and the pretzels $4.50 before tax)
* Side note – the pretzels no longer count as a snack credit and I accidentally got charged $1.00 for an extra topping so the pretzels should have only been $3.50 but oh well!

Movie Rental- Free for us because we are DVC ($4.99 per night if you are not)

Refill in our mug - Free if you have the refillable mug or $2.49 each for a 20 oz beverage if you don't

 

[ariel1025]

yay you're back! can't wait to read what happens next!

Yep, I'm back and hopefully in full force this time Work and life in general have been crazy hectic lately and I need the happy memories to keep me sane

 

[wannago2disney]

Great update Those pretzel rods looked YUMMY....chocolate and salt...when I was pregnant i would get crazy cravings for kit kat and hickory sticks...together....My DH thought I was insane .... so that sounds like heaven to me!

Life can get very crazy sometimes....take a deep breath and enjoy your disney memories!....and the wishful next trip planning.

 

[bballdiva]

joining in!!!

 

[ariel1025]

Great update Those pretzel rods looked YUMMY....chocolate and salt...when I was pregnant i would get crazy cravings for kit kat and hickory sticks...together....My DH thought I was insane .... so that sounds like heaven to me!

Life can get very crazy sometimes....take a deep breath and enjoy your disney memories!....and the wishful next trip planning.

Thanks!! The pretzels were delicious, I honestly wish I had some right now I already crave salty/sweet all the time so I wonder if the craving will get worse when I'm pregnant?!?

The wishful trip planning is this close to being "real" trip planning

joining in!!!

Welcome and thanks for joining

 

[heaven2dc]

I am so enjoying your TR! You are a beautiful couple (loved your wedding photos in your siggie!)

Wilderness Lodge is so beautiful! I would love to stay there sometime (I grew up in Oregon and went to Timberline Lodge up at Mt. Hood and loved the beautiful wood used. My cousin worked on upgrading the huge fireplace and when they reset the stone, he engraved him name & date behind a stone.) The rooms at VWL are so rustic and pretty

 

[ariel1025]

I am so enjoying your TR! You are a beautiful couple (loved your wedding photos in your siggie!)

Wilderness Lodge is so beautiful! I would love to stay there sometime (I grew up in Oregon and went to Timberline Lodge up at Mt. Hood and loved the beautiful wood used. My cousin worked on upgrading the huge fireplace and when they reset the stone, he engraved him name & date behind a stone.) The rooms at VWL are so rustic and pretty

Thank you so much for reading and for the picture compliments - that's super sweet

WL is one of the most beautiful resorts in my opinion! That's awesome about your cousin!!

 

[ariel1025]

The next morning had us up bright and early - it was our first park day and we had a special breakfast to make it to. I got up first and allowed Candi as many minutes of beauty sleep as possible - ok, ok, more like minutes of "less grouchy sleep"

Much to my surprise we were ready and out the door ahead of schedule!!

We decided to grab the boats - and since we weren't running late we took our time walking the grounds of Wilderness Lodge. If you ever stay here it's really worth it to wander around - it is honestly so breathtaking!

These little guys were already wide awake and enjoying their morning swim!

As you can see the humidity was already out in full force today Oh well, we expected it and planned our days accordingly. Not to mention, since I'm from Kansas I'm used to the humidity. Candi, however, swears he can't breathe with even .05% humidity

A few more pictures of our stroll to the boat docks

A boat arrived about 5 minutes after we arrived at the dock and we were on our way to the Contemporary

This was the first hotel I ever stayed at - back in 1996 - and I can still remember exactly what it looked like and where our room was! I also commented to Candi how I would love to stay at Bay Lake during one of our trips.

Now the plan was to grab the monorail to our final destination but while we were walking towards the Contemporary Candi tells me "Let's just use the walkway" HUH? You wanna do what?? I seriously asked him twice to make sure he wasn't kidding.

Here's the proof that he wasn't! I can't really explain why, but I was so excited about this. I love being able to take everything in and it was just so serene and peaceful being able to walk hand in hand with my Husband as we made our way to the Magic Kingdom

It only took about 10 minutes before we made it to our destination. I know most people say it takes around 5 but we really took our time - plus Candi has a bad foot/ankle/knee so I am always trying to make sure he doesn't over-do it!

I was really excited to see all the fall decorations - it is my favorite time of year!

This morning made me especially excited because we had "before park opening" reservations for breakfast. I had read so much about how special these reservations make you feel and how empty Main Street is - it was pretty much all I talked about leading up to the trip!

With big smiles on our faces we walked up to the first cast member we saw and asked where we check-in for breakfast. He pointed over to a line off to the side and within minutes we were through the turnstiles. WAIT! WHAT? You don't need to see my confirmation or scratch my name off of a list or anything?!?!? I have to admit this bummed me out and I got bummed out even more when I heard several people talk about how easy it was to sneak into the park early by lying about having reservations This did not seem very special to me and I was majorly let down

Candi lifted my spirits by suggesting we go into City Hall to get our Anniversary buttons since they didn't have them at check-in the day before.

And I have to admit - this helped!!

Since we were still early for our reservation we decided to just walk around Main Street and soak up the atmosphere.

He is so super cute - my favorite decoration in all of Magic Kingdom!!

He was Candi's favorite!

Ahhhh, my happy place! I honestly don't think I will ever lose that feeling I feel when I walk onto Main Street and see the castle for the first time each trip! I truly feel like a little kid and cannot stop myself from grinning from ear to ear. It is exactly why I know we will always come back to Disney World - by ourselves, with our kids, with our grandkids......

Ok, so it wasn't the super empty Main Street I had expected but ya know what? WHO CARES!!! I realized right at that moment that just BEING here was a bigger blessing than most people are allowed and I quietly started to cry. I cried a little over letting myself get so self absorbed but mostly over how lucky I knew I was!

After my moment with the castle it was Candi's turn

Now, I have to tell you a secret about him - he HATES his teeth and most often will just not smile in a picture because of it. Sometimes he will do the "no teeth" smile but it looks fake so then he does the "no smile" and he looks mad. Well, obviously, he went with the "no smile" route here and as I took the picture a super nice lady yells to him "Geez! Smile! It's not like you're at Disney World with your wife or anything" which resulted in this picture

Awwww, much better!!

The lady, who's name I sadly didn't get, was completely joking with her comment and it was totally obvious which made Candi crack up laughing. We spent a few minutes talking to her afterwards. She congratulated us on our one year anniversary and we told her that we also came here for our honeymoon. We found out her and her husband came for their honeymoon many years ago (sorry, I can't remember how manY - and that they have come back EVERY year for their anniversary! EEK, it's a woman after my own heart! We parted ways soon after, but it was so nice to be able to talk to a complete stranger and yet feel like we had known her for years. If by any chance you are the nice woman who made my Husband smile and you are reading this - thank you for making our first morning extra special!!

At this point it was almost time to check in for our reservation so we made our way closer to the castle but not before stopping for a few photopass pictures

Coming up Next:

Breakfast and our morning tour of Magic Kingdom!!

 

[wannago2disney]

love the lady who made your DH smile...he has a great smile! The morning looks absolutely beautiful....Your walk to the boats looks very welcoming and peaceful. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day!

 

[ariel1025]

love the lady who made your DH smile...he has a great smile! The morning looks absolutely beautiful....Your walk to the boats looks very welcoming and peaceful. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day!

Aren't the people at Disney just fabulous Thanks for the compliment on DHs smile - I love it too - he is self conscious because he still has two baby teeth and thinks you can tell The walk to the boats was my favorite part of the morning

 

[ariel1025]

After beginning to fill up our photopass CD we headed off to the castle for breakfast.

From any angle - it's just absolutely breathtaking!

I'm sure, by now, you've already figured out that we were eating at

We got a last minute reservation here on our honeymoon for our first park day - many thanks to the concierge level staff at Wilderness Lodge!!! - and declared that it would be tradition from now on! We both spent the last year craving the cream cheese stuffed french toast and couldn't wait to get our eat on!

While waiting in line for our picture with Cinderella I found these little guys

and I was beyond excited!!

At this point they also did a really cute opening ceremony for the first family to be seated for the day. There were two little girls with their parents and they were so happy and excited - you could tell it made their day!

Immediately after the ceremony it was our turn to take our picture

I was much happier with our picture this year than last year and I LOVE how it's included in the price of the breakfast - even when you do the dining plan The photo package comes with an 8x10 of the castle and an 8x10 of the photo as well as 4 4x6 images of the same photo. The photographer took 3 or 4 images and since I bought the photopass CD I was able to view these images as well. In this case they all looked the same but I saw them doing several poses with smaller kids and larger families.

After our picture we were led up the staircase to breakfast and brought to our table. We were, once again, lucky enough to receive a window seat and I was back in my own little heaven. It was completely surreal to be sitting inside the castle eating breakfast while overlooking Magic Kingdom slowly start to "wake up" and start the day.

I have to admit, that I almost didn't enjoy being one of the first seated for breakfast - it seemed like everyone was still trying to wake up and didn't feel quite as magical as it did when the restaurant was full of people and energy However, the food was just as good as before.

All the fruit was fresh and juicy - exactly how we like it.

We both just kind of nibbled on the different pastry offerings - the OJ in the background was super yummy though and tasted fresh.

Mmmm, yummy, hot, bad for you, goodness on a plate. Of course, the french toast was my favorite part with a close second being the potatoes!

While enjoying breakfast the princesses started coming around. They do a little presentation of each one coming out - telling a piece of their story and then at the end all of them are out together roaming around the tables.

Snow White - and those are the two little girls that got to be the first seated - they were so cute and giddy with excitement!

Princess Aurora - she was friendly but you could tell she had a hard time with dialogue with adults - she spent much more time at tables with children. No biggie!

Princess Jasmine! She is one of my favorites! She was very friendly and talkative and I loved our interaction with her - almost the most.

It was sooo funny - because Candi couldn't stop staring at her and she noticed so she turned to him after our picture and said "I must get a picture with my admirer - just don't tell Aladdin"

This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip - he is trying so hard to act like this didn't make him happy

Lastly, was Belle and she is my absolute favorite! I even made Candi stand up to take the picture to try and get a better angle - still don't like the way I turned out - but the interaction was awesome. She stayed at our table for close to 5 minutes talking to us about all sorts of stuff and even told Candi he better shave or she might mistake him for the Beast

After Belle left the waiter - who was incredibly attentive the whole time - brought me a magic wand and a sword for Candi. Well, we decided to have a sword fight with these little items and before I knew it Belle came to my defense and joined in on our sword fight - I SOOOO wish I would have had my camera ready! We stayed for the wishing ceremony and then left so that another family could enjoy such an awesome table.

Bye, bye perfect view of the park - hopefully I will see you next year

After an amazing breakfast we decided we would head out and stop to ride whatever sounded good at the moment - no plans just lots of spur of the moment stuff - perfection

Our first stop was Peter Pan's Flight

This was a first for me and the first time Candi had ridden it at WDW. I thoroughly enjoyed it but honestly don't understand why it usually has lines so long it needs a fastpass

From there we just enjoyed the sites and we roamed around and decided what to do next

And then we ran into this guy

First character that ever made me feel like I needed to squat down so I didn't feel so tall and I'm only 5'

The line up for Donald was a little disorganized and a couple accidentally walked up ahead of us - we honestly didn't mind - but the photographer was very rude about it. We kept saying it was ok and we would go next but she basically yelled at them about their manners and I felt really bad. I told them not to worry and we didn't mind but I think it hurt their feelings and I hope it didn't ruin the rest of their day.

After hanging out with our favorite duck we decided to jump in line for our favorite ride ever.......

 

[ariel1025]

JUST GOT HUBBY TO AGREE TO A MEMORIAL WEEK TRIP FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY

DVC has already confirmed our one night studio stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo house for May 29. Now just waiting on confirmation for a 1BR at the same hotel for May 30-June 5!
:

 

[wannago2disney]

I understand the photographers deal with line jumpers all the time, but if you were not worried about it and the family was apologetic, they should have just left it at that and moved on....sometimes I would think that it is less likely that people are meaning to be rude but just don't think or realize what they have done...and if the line was not organized to begin with, well

Your CT pictures are great. I love that you had great character interation. I am hoping that we will have lots of charater interation at our Princess storybook breakfast in january...our reservation is for 8:30am on our very first park day. My DD is soooooo very excited about it! DS not so much, but when you are a 6 yr old boy the princess are just not that exciting I guess...although he was very interested in watching Xena last night and couldn't explain to me why it was such a good show

Yay! you are going in again! I am so happy for you!

Tosh

 

[ariel1025]

I understand the photographers deal with line jumpers all the time, but if you were not worried about it and the family was apologetic, they should have just left it at that and moved on....sometimes I would think that it is less likely that people are meaning to be rude but just don't think or realize what they have done...and if the line was not organized to begin with, well

Your CT pictures are great. I love that you had great character interation. I am hoping that we will have lots of charater interation at our Princess storybook breakfast in january...our reservation is for 8:30am on our very first park day. My DD is soooooo very excited about it! DS not so much, but when you are a 6 yr old boy the princess are just not that exciting I guess...although he was very interested in watching Xena last night and couldn't explain to me why it was such a good show

Yay! you are going in again! I am so happy for you!

Tosh

I can understand where they have constant line cutters as well, but I felt the CM was a lot more rude than was necessary - especially since we stated that it wasn't a big deal. Oh well - by gones!

I will cross my fingers that you get awesome interaction at your Princess breakfast next month. Are you doing the one at MK or Epcot? It is so perfect to be able to do it on your first park day - I hope this is something we can always do

Thanks for the banana dance

 

[ariel1025]

After stopping to get a photo op with Donald we decided to head over to our favorite ride in all of the world

I actually got to ride this for the first time last year and I fell absolutely in love - it is by far my favorite ride and I make it a point to ride it over and over again!

The wait time was listed at 15 minutes but we didn't even have to wait - by the time we walked through the que area there was a log already waiting for us. Score!!

This is my favorite scene in the ride

Such a smart lil rabbit!

Ahhhh - love it from start to finish!!

And I am the person that takes a picture of the screen with our picture on it. I was already shelling out cash for the Photopass CD so I refuse to buy a picture that has a group of strangers in it with me

Even though it doesn't scare us we still think it makes the ride more fun to scream!!

After conquering splash mountain we decided to try our luck with another

This is my favorite nighttime ride and it's another one I just can't get enough of!

The wait time here was also posted at 15 minutes but once we walked through we saw this pulling up

And we didn't even have to wait to get a seat in the back - our favorite. SCORE AGAIN!!

This round of Thunder Mountain was a little scarier than most - I wasn't paying attention and when it went to whip around a corner I almost flew out Ok, I probably didn't really "almost fly out" but it sure felt like it - enough so that Candi grabbed my leg and pushed me down! Who says WDW doesn't have scary rides

Candi stopped to tie his shoe for the hundredth time and sadly this wouldn't be the biggest pain caused by forgetting his other pair of shoes. While he did that I took this picture

I honestly can never get over Disney's attention to detail. Every time I'm in an area of a park I always forget what the rest of the park looks like.

We decided that we were done with Frontierland for the moment and walked over to another favorite - yep, we have a lot of favorites

Since we had recently been to Disneyland we decided to try and pay careful attention to all the differences. Well, we didn't have to wait long because we got to walk directly into the stretching room. SCORE TIMES THREE!!

Some of the most obvious differneces are in the area you walk through after the stretching room - I must say that DL has WDW beat on that portion However, the ride itself is SO much better at WDW!!

I reminded Candi when we walked past here on the way out that we HAD to come back and take the special image picture during the Halloween party.

After grabbing our ghostly pal we decided to take him with us to ride

I can never leave this ride without singing this line over and over and over again! Candi was in a super great mood and he even started to sing along with me as we walked through what was, yet another, non-existent line. We couldn't believe our luck with the crowds this day. At this point Candi decided I was a big storyteller when I told him that we waited over 45 minutes for most rides when I came with my parents

I haven't mastered taking dark pictures without a flash yet but I tried my hardest to get my two favorite scenes

This scene cracks me up every time!!!

Do I really need to explain why this is one of my favorite scenes???

After Pirates we decided to form some sort of a game plan. We had lunch reservations at the Plaza at 2 but it was only 10:30 and we had already knocked out 5 of the rides that usually have long lines.

So what did we do???

 

[acejka]

YAY for another set of Chiefs fans! My DH is a diehard Chiefs fan, he's from KC.

I love yout TR, and I'm especially fond of the money rundown at the end of the night

Your wedding pictures are beautiful!

And tell DH not to be so shy about smiling, from one person who still has a baby tooth to another... but really his smile is nice.

Splash is one of our faves too. I'm sad its going to be under refurb during our next trip

 

[wannago2disney]

oh NO what happened to all the pictures?

 

[ariel1025]

YAY for another set of Chiefs fans! My DH is a diehard Chiefs fan, he's from KC.

I love yout TR, and I'm especially fond of the money rundown at the end of the night

Your wedding pictures are beautiful!

And tell DH not to be so shy about smiling, from one person who still has a baby tooth to another... but really his smile is nice.

Splash is one of our faves too. I'm sad its going to be under refurb during our next trip

GO CHIEFS If only they'd give us more to actually cheer about But I was born and raised in Kansas so I will cheer for them through the good, bad and ugly

Thank you for reading and for all the compliments

oh NO what happened to all the pictures?

All fixed

 

[wannago2disney]

Great pics!! i love splash mountain but last time we went it was closed for refurb. and apparently it will be again this year....that is such a bummer I sooo wanted my kids to do this ride. But just another reason to keep going back i guess.
i hope you decided to do something that you wouldn't normally have done with your extra time!