Jelly Rolls!
So, the plan was to meet up at Jelly Rolls at 8pm. Lots of friends and family had told us they were likely coming, but we had no way of knowing how many actually would. We were running late after our rehearsal dinner and werent able to get good directions from anybody at MGM as we were leaving. It probably would have been smart to take the boat, but instead we walked. So we were late, it was raining very lightly, I was wearing (typical for me) 3 1/2 heels, and I was still a little grumpy from dinner. A couple friends called while we were walking, and I assured them wed be there soon.
When we arrived at about 8:30, we were still the first ones there. I spotted a few tables up front and we grabbed them. Some people went off to get drinks, and a waiter came over to ask us how many were in our party. I said, I dont know. Maybe 20 or 30?? He told us we wouldnt all be able to sit together, but I wasnt worried. I figured wed deal with it later. As it turned out, there were only about a dozen of us (so I felt a little silly about the 20-30.) Oh, well. No way to know
Now, for once I have the opposite problem: TONS of pictures!!! We had SO much fun at Jelly Rolls. Perhaps a little too much fun... I dont think we were a very Disney appropriate group. We were probably pretty close to getting thrown out through much of the night. There were always CM watching us very closely. Which really surprised me. I just assumed that since it was a dueling piano bar, and one of the few places at Disney thats 21+, that rowdiness would be welcomed. I mean, they still allow smoking there! And most piano bars love groups like ours: wedding parties, bachelorette parties, etc. I thought that if anything, we would get made fun of a lot. I didnt at all expect it to be such a wholesome place.
In the beginning, the piano players were teasing us a bit, asking where we were from, making fun of our requests for Country Music, that sort of thing. (We just said Texas! Since saying Texas/New Jersey/California/New York/Arkansas seemed unnecessarily complicated.) But as the night went on, and the shots kept coming, and we all got drunker, they started just trying to pretend like we werent even there. I probably would have felt bad about it (annoying the piano players with our rowdiness and maybe aggravating some of the other patrons), but I was having too much fun to care too much. And besides, its a piano bar!!
O.K., enough description
Here are some pictures that probably tell the story better:
View of the stage from our up-front seats:
The happy couple, working on a few Miller Lites:
Cute picture of another happy couple. My youngest brother Andy and his girlfriend Krystal:
Chuck, my oldest brother (2 years younger than me), being Chuck:
My (middle) brother Theo, being his charming self:
Quite the ladies man (with Krystal, and my friend Tasha, from Arkansas):
One thing I learned this trip is that Krystal goes into cheering mode when she gets drunk. (BTW, I totally love this girl and hope that shes my FSIL!!)
I must be drunk, if Im singing! (Im totally tone-deaf, so I usually dont subject friends to my awful voice

)
Neither Tasha nor Chucks girlfriend, Rebecca, is doing too well at this point:
Little funny story about Chuck and Rebecca here. Rebecca drank a LOT at dinner. Maybe she was nervous about the big, family dinner. Who knows. And then she continued at Jelly Rolls. At one point, Chuck and Rebecca disappear for a really long time, and somebody reports that theyre in the bathroom together. Uh, oh. This is definitely not Disney appropriate. But as Chuck tells the story, they went out for some air, and then got something chocolatey (not sure what) to eat. Next thing he knows, Rebeccas got chocolate smeared all up and down her arms. So he has to take her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. (So it wasnt that scandalous after all!) Anyway, she didnt last too much longer after that, and Chuck had to take her back to the WL. Back to the pictures
I just love this picture, for some reason:
And another:
O.K., let the rowdiness begin. Krystal trying to get Theo to dance while Andy looks/laughs on:
The Disney staff was NOT happy about the dancing:
Actually, I think it was the dancing they minded most. Nobody else was dancing. Everybody was just sitting quietly and politely watching the show. Sure, there was a good deal of singing, but no other group was being nearly as loud as us.
Well, we did actually make it through the night. I think we left at about 1:30am. We all piled into several taxis and made it home safely. We felt badly for poor Tasha, though. She was really, really drunk and was staying with her mom :shock: So we just sort of walked her to her door and pushed her inside. I wouldnt have wanted to come back to my mom in that condition!
