Meryll83's SBP/Citrico's/Morocco TR - And they lived happily ever after...

[shippedtosea]

i'm still following! I missed some last time I love your park pictures! especially haunted mansion! I've never seen anyone do that. they are so great!

 

[Ali_in_wonderland]

Congrats! I love all your pictures! Especially your park pics, they were stunning. I loved the ones by the Haunted Mansion too!

 

[Sarah84]

Your park photos are gorgeous, infact im not Epcots biggest fan but they make me want to book the MK & Epcot shoots myself

 

[Summer-Caitlin]

meryll your park pics are beautiful, I just love the black and white ones, you really got some stunning ones in Epcot too. I so wish that was offered when we got married too, I would have loved some bridal ones in Epcot.

As for the staining of the dress. I so wish I had complained as my dress is stained too, happend on the MK Shoot. My dress has also been dry cleaned three times but that stain is still there. I am annoyed as I awanted to sell it but I have been told that it wont sell as the stain is quite noticible in person. It makes me a bit concerned for the Trash the Dress shoot too, I might have to get Randy to photoshop the stain out if its that noticible.

I checked into adding another night at Disney, but it would have ended up costing us about £300 more, plus hubby can't get any more time off work I am about to book MNSSHP so I am rescheduling dinners just now. Once I have my final plan I will let you know where we plan to be.

 

[figmentfan814]

I'm not sure how I missed your last few updates, but I am definitely still following along

I love some of your shots at MK, the ones in the arch of the castle are some of my favorites and the ones at Haunted Mansion for something unique. I was so excited when we were able to get BTM in ours, so am always looking for something different!

Your Epcot shots are beautiful too, there are so many fantastic backgrounds there. They are all great, I can't really pick a favorite. I like some of the unusual shots you got in China with the one window and of course Italy is beautiful as usual.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[meryll83]

Lol I'm still here!! looking forward to more pictures and updates!

Emma xx

Ok, wait!! How the heck did I miss all these posts?!?!?!

I have subbed but I don't remember getting any e-mails!!

OMG!!! Your pics are sooooo good! I wanted to comment and say stuff, but there are so many and they're all so beautiful that I'm actually speechless!!!

Ok, here's a word.....


WOW.

Your park photos are awesome!

I'm glad I haven't bored you all away yet, I wonder why so many of you seem to have missed my last couple of updates? Bizarreness! But it's all good, coz you're back!

Just read your report from start to fnish. All I can say is how fantastic! you look like you had such a magical time.

Randy looks like such fun to work with. So glad i booked him for our wedding.

Would you recommend Morocco as a DP venue? I am thinking of having one here.

For our party size (13 including a baby) it was ideal really.
I had ummed and ahhed about whether to see if we could switch to a UK or France location, which Kathleen told me might have been a possibility nearer the time, but in the end we decided just to go with it. The islands with the trees on are in your line of vision, but it didn't really matter, it was the whole experience that counted.
That said, if we'd have had a larger group size, I think we would have gone with a different location...

What beautiful pictures!!! You and your husband are such a beautiful couple, and the pics are just gorgeous!

you two look stunning in your pictures!

Thanks ladies I wonder if they airbrushed us?

i'm still following! I missed some last time I love your park pictures! especially haunted mansion! I've never seen anyone do that. they are so great!

Congrats! I love all your pictures! Especially your park pics, they were stunning. I loved the ones by the Haunted Mansion too!

These turned out pretty cool actually, even though it was the carousel I'd been after initially...

Your park photos are gorgeous, infact im not Epcots biggest fan but they make me want to book the MK & Epcot shoots myself

Epcot does have some really pretty scenery that you don't necessarily notice in a crowded park when you're on a mission to go to a certain shop or food outlet etc. It was so peaceful at that time in the morning as well.

meryll your park pics are beautiful, I just love the black and white ones, you really got some stunning ones in Epcot too. I so wish that was offered when we got married too, I would have loved some bridal ones in Epcot.

As for the staining of the dress. I so wish I had complained as my dress is stained too, happend on the MK Shoot. My dress has also been dry cleaned three times but that stain is still there. I am annoyed as I awanted to sell it but I have been told that it wont sell as the stain is quite noticible in person. It makes me a bit concerned for the Trash the Dress shoot too, I might have to get Randy to photoshop the stain out if its that noticible.

I checked into adding another night at Disney, but it would have ended up costing us about £300 more, plus hubby can't get any more time off work I am about to book MNSSHP so I am rescheduling dinners just now. Once I have my final plan I will let you know where we plan to be.

I didn't realise there only used to be the MK shoot offered.

Was it your flowers that stained your dress too Summer?
I'm sure your photos will turn out great, the back of my dress was pretty filthy in no time at all, but I don't think you can tell in any of our photos.

That's a shame you can't stay an extra night, but still if we can catch you on the 24th that would be great (we're still planning on heading to Epcot for evening EMHs)

I'm not sure how I missed your last few updates, but I am definitely still following along

I love some of your shots at MK, the ones in the arch of the castle are some of my favorites and the ones at Haunted Mansion for something unique. I was so excited when we were able to get BTM in ours, so am always looking for something different!

Your Epcot shots are beautiful too, there are so many fantastic backgrounds there. They are all great, I can't really pick a favorite. I like some of the unusual shots you got in China with the one window and of course Italy is beautiful as usual.

Looking forward to reading more!

It's inspired me to get more camera creative on our next trip - we definitely need to take more pictures next time as it is!


Okay, the photos are now all uploaded, on with the show!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

What an absolutely gorgeous wedding you had!!
Can I ask how many you had at the Chef's Domain?
Were you allowed to discount the whole bill with your TIW card - I believe you can include up to 10 people, is that correct?
Thanks

 

[meryll83]

When we got back to our room at Pop, we had an answerphone message saying we had an item to collect at reception, but as it included alcohol, we would need to bring some ID along to collect it. (Slightly takes away the element of a surprise gift, doesn't it?!)
Still, we had no idea what this might be, and wondered if it was another Disney perk of some sort

It turned out that 4 of our friends from home, Pete, Gemma (one of my original bridesmaids who couldn't make it in the end, remember?), Charlee and Adam, had all clubbed together and got us this beautiful Mickey hamper!

It contained champagne, Mickey glasses, Lindt chocolates and some yummy biscuit type creations, as well as a signed, framed Mickey and Minne picture
We were really touched they'd thought of doing this and it was nice to feel like we had them there with us in that moment and they were part of the wedding.

Despite being up at 4am, there's no rest for the wicked, and we'd arranged to meet Si's family for lunch at the Sci Fi Dine In.
Not wanting to waste an opportunity, we headed over to MGM early and I think we went on Star Tours, but much else I can't remember (Forgive me, I'd been up for far too many hours for this time of day already!)

We had planned to go to the Sci Fi as Si and his family had been there when the boys were kids, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip.
I know this place always gets mixed reviews, but you can't really go that wrong with burgers and fries in my eyes!

Here's what entertainment my big face provides:

And all of us in our car:

I can't really remember what I chose to eat here, but I do remember having an Orbiting Oreos cocktail - delish!
Simon's parents were kind enough to treat us all to our meal

Unfortunately my memory is hazy again here, but I think we may have all watched Muppets 3D (darn my lack of pictoral evidence again!) before heading over to DTD to check out the shops.
From the one shred of evidence I do have, it would seem we went to DTD via the Boardwalk (I'm sure there was method behind this madness!)

Now that I think about it, I think we took a boat here, and I remember seeing another wedding at SBP, which slightly disappointed me, as although I know weddings can happen there 4 or 5 times a day, I thought it might have ruined the illusion for everyone else that we were as unique as they thought we were!

It was obviously decided that the shops at DTD would provide a good opportunity to try the latest fashions out on an unsuspecting Izzy, and here are the results of us kick-starting her modelling career:

I bought a Mickey diamond ring charm for my charm bracelet (given to me by Julie when I was her bridesmaid) from World of Disney as a wedding trip reminder and I think we got a large photo frame for Si's parents too with our AP discount.

Other than that, we mooched around a couple more shops, but didn't really buy anything else. I quite liked a lot of the stuff in TrenD, but it wasn't especially cheap, so I decided I'd see if we had any spare dollars nearer the end of our holiday.

Whilst this photo was being taken...

...a guy with lots of DVC stickers came by and gave a strip of them to Izzy, then casually asked if we knew about Disney Vacation Club.
Having done a bit of research on this I said yes I did, to which is reply was, do you know how much it costs? (obviously a direct sales technique or something!)
I just blurted out, well let's say approximately $12,000 one off fee, depending on how many points you go for, with a small annual maintenance fee...
He was speechless for a couple of seconds, then obviously decided we knew enough already, made a little more small talk then was on his way!

We also sampled a creation from Goofy's Candy Co., Lady and the Tramp stylee.

Then I decided this wasn't going to work, so had the rest myself

Then guilt set in...

So hubby was allowed some more too!

I don't think we did much more today, perhaps a swim at the hotel and had some people round to collect more cake, but I know we passed out on top of the bed at around 6pm - the day had finally caught up with us!

An early night was probably a good thing though, as we had another full day at Universal with Julie and Steve lined up...

Meanwhile my parents, party animals that they are, were living it up with a night of the Fantasmic Dinner Package:
Thursday we had Hollywood and Vine booked (with Fantasmic seats). It wasn't the original choice but Mama Melrose's was full and H & V was the alternative. It has very mixed reviews but I can only say good things about it and I know it was one of Mum's favourites. It's a serve yourself buffet dinner and you'd have to be very picky not to find enough items that you like because there is a big choice available. There were lots of salads and cold meats and a very good selection of hot meals (I remember the beef being particularly good - sort of a mini-steak), pasta, fish and a very nice creamed corn bread (corn bread was something I got to really like in Florida - it's more cakey than bread really but very tasty). Lots of desserts and again there would be something for all tastes - bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce, chocolate mousse, fruit cobbler, trifle, ice cream and more. Fruit and fruit salad as well. If I had to mark anything down it would be that the server wasn't very attentive - if we got a drinks refill (and I don't think we did) it was only after we reminded her.
And following that we went to Fantasmic which we hadn't seen before and were really impressed with for a free show. Dinner at H & V was non-character which wouldn't please a lot of people but was actually a bit of a plus for me! We did go back the following week for lunch though so I didn't get away scot-free...

 

[meryll83]

Another bright and early morning to ensure we got to Universal for opening, we had agreed to meet Julie and Steve out front by the taxis:

We amused ourselves with a bit of photography whilst we waited for Julie and Steve, practicing the moves Amy had showed us in our Bridal Portrait!:

Our main missions of the day were to tackle more of Islands of Adventure, and I had booked Si and I on to the Halloween Horror Nights Unmasking The Horror tour that afternoon.
However, first we had unfinished business!

Yes, the beast was open this morning, so we went for our first experience of Rip Ride Rockit.

I wish we had bought the video of us on this - it was absolutely hilarious! I'm there freaking out all the way up the lift hill - you could see me going "Ohmigod, ohmigod" all the way up, then I let out a huge scream as we go over the top, then after that I'm all smiles!!

The train loads pretty quickly and I wasn't quick enough to select my own music choice, so got some random techno pap, which was disappointing.
However.... as the queue was still pretty short, we went straight back round for another go and I chose Kayne West's Stronger. This time we were throwing some shapes on the way round, creating our own very cheesy music video - a lot of fun!

This was a great coaster and we all loved it, but we vowed to tell Tim and Jackie that it was "just okay" so they didn't feel they'd missed out when it was closed the other day (hope they're not reading this!!)

Mission accomplished, we headed over to Islands, stopping for a quick snap with Shaggy and Scoobs on the way. Scooby seemed to take a bit of a shine to me and proceeded to headbutt me with his nose (actually quite painful, who knew dogs had such hard noses?!):

We went on the must-dos of Hulk and Spidey, here we are modelling the specs:

We decided not to do the water rides as we passed through Toon Lagoon, but Julie and Steve (having learned from their last visit) had brought a spare change of clothes, as they intended to sample these rides later on, and did not want to be caught with wet undies for the rest of the day!
For now, we just took this as a photo op...

As we got round to Jurassic Park, I was hoping the River Adventure would have a long wait (that high drop just scares me!!), but alas, as per usual, 5 minute wait, so no excuses would be accepted.

I read somewhere that Spielberg got to get off before the big drop, but figured I probably wasn't important enough to get away with the same treatment!

Having survived the attack of those pesky velociraptors, we foolishly decided to take on a similar looking species at Dueling Dragons. We took the advantage of this to get some sneaky snaps of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter under construction, really looking forward to this in September!

We'd booked into Mythos for lunch - just had to try "the world's best theme park restaurant" for myself. It was pretty yummy actually, but with all the fantastic restaurants Disney has to offer, I'm not completely sure how they managed to snag this title.
Once again, we have successfully managed to take no photos of the food, only the cocktails, but they were scrummy!

Time for a lazy walk round to Suess Island to complete the circuit, before Si and I needed to get over to the Studios for our tour.

Julie stopped for a photo with the Cat in the Hat....

...but was a little more reluctant about the next character we happened upon. Apparently she had been mistreated by this creature on her last visit, as he had most rudely indicated that she smelt. I told her we would not stand for that and....

...Here we are, taking our revenge upon The Grinch:

We also had to see what was going down in Whoville by having a little eavesdrop...

We then parted ways whilst Simon and I headed off to see what goes on behind the scenes of those Nights that had Horrored us just some days before...

 

[meryll83]

Okay, so I suppose I should warn the more squeamish of you that, yes, I am going to post lots of gruesomeness right about now!

Our tour started with us receiving HHN lanyards for our tour passes and then.... torches.
Uh-oh, I didn't realise we had to go through the Haunted Houses in the dark again!! As it turned out, the lights are on as you go through the mazes, the torches were just for some of the areas that are in shadow, so you can get a closer look at the details.

We started with a look at some of the models and blueprints from this years event, and the model of the theatre foyer used on the HHN teaser website:

Next we had a look at some of the details that go into creating the street scarezones.
Our guide was very knowledgable and told us stories and answered a lot of questions as we went.

As we made our way to our first maze, we got to walk right under Rip Ride Rockit which was pretty cool. It's impressive how quiet this coaster is, even when you're right underneath it's tracks.

The first house we were visiting was that of Wolfman. Unfortunately, as the film had not yet been released at this time, we were not allowed to take photos inside this house.
We learnt about the hand and foot pedals that the scareactors use to create sounds to synchronise with when they pounce and the "boo holes" they hide in.
Our guide pointed out a huge amount of details we'd never noticed on our evening escapades through here.

The next two houses, we were allowed to take pictures, Frankenstein and Dracula. I'll just posted a selection of bloody goodness here for you all to enjoy! Actually no, I'll try and keep it a bit tame(ish)!
These were the backstage notes that show which scareactors appear in each scene:

You can see how fake most of the stuff looks in these pictures, but in the dark it is so realistic! The level of detail they go is really quite amazing...

 

[meryll83]

This was a cool little set up - the actor's real leg goes down through a hole in the table, but on the fake leg there is a small metal coil, so when the scareactor moves a saw up and down across this, it sound really like he is sawing through his leg bone!

And here's our guide volunteering herself for electrocution!

This was one of a couple of areas where they actually pump through a manky smell to add to the experience:

Okay, I'll stop subjecting you all to grossness now, but it was a really interesting experience, and there were a ton of other photos we managed to get!

We met back up with Julie and Steve, and probably went on a couple more rides, before heading back through Citiwalk to make our way home.
They were setting up a stage for some sort of concert, we never did find out what though...

Here's Julie, finding some shade!

Okay, you can look again now, we're going back to the Wonderful (Non-Gorey) World of Disney!

As it was Adam and Anna's last night, Si's parents offered to babysit Izzy so they could have a bit of a night out, so we asked them what they'd like to do. Their preference was something to eat at Planet Hollywood, or House of Blues as a backup, so I called Disney Dining to see what was on offer...

 

[disneybarbie]

Looks like a fun day! Not sure I'd like the horror nights stuff... we went to London Dungeon last year & I really don't like it when the actors jump out and you & stuff lol!

Btw is that and Anchorman tshirt your DH is wearing?! I keep looking at those for my DF - he loves that movie!

We went to Mythos restaurant back in 2002 for dinner, it was a nice meal but like you say, I'm surprised they have that sign above the door!
After our meal there, I remember watching the fireworks at IoA.. don't think they've done fireworks there for years now!


Emma x

 

[rachy]

I like the sound of the unmasking the horror tour as we have been to HHN every year and i am not brave enough to go in any of the houses so it seems like a waste of money to just go on a couple of rides.

Would you do the tour again?

Rachel
x

 

[meryll83]

What an absolutely gorgeous wedding you had!!
Can I ask how many you had at the Chef's Domain?
Were you allowed to discount the whole bill with your TIW card - I believe you can include up to 10 people, is that correct?
Thanks

Hmmmmm.... We had 13 in total with the baby, but I can't say I noticed whether they gave us the discount off the full bill or just 10 peoples worth. I'll have to check whether we kept the receipt...

Looks like a fun day! Not sure I'd like the horror nights stuff... we went to London Dungeon last year & I really don't like it when the actors jump out and you & stuff lol!

Btw is that and Anchorman tshirt your DH is wearing?! I keep looking at those for my DF - he loves that movie!

We went to Mythos restaurant back in 2002 for dinner, it was a nice meal but like you say, I'm surprised they have that sign above the door!
After our meal there, I remember watching the fireworks at IoA.. don't think they've done fireworks there for years now!


Emma x

Haha, good spot, yes it is an Anchorman referencing t-shirt!

No I've never seen fireworks at Universal since I was a child I think, think it has been a good many years now since they did them...

I like the sound of the unmasking the horror tour as we have been to HHN every year and i am not brave enough to go in any of the houses so it seems like a waste of money to just go on a couple of rides.

Would you do the tour again?

Rachel
x

The thing about the tour is you don't know which houses you'll get to see until you get there, I was hoping for the Saw house to be included.
So, depending on the houses this year, I'd think about doing it again and hope we got the ones we're most interested in, but I can't say it would be a must do for us...

 

[Sarah84]

With your MK & Epcot photos did you get a disk or photo album included with cost? or just a certain amount of photos?
wondering if its the same for US & UK brides, or like with the Escape package photography photos we get the photos included on a disk

 

[meryll83]

With your MK & Epcot photos did you get a disk or photo album included with cost? or just a certain amount of photos?
wondering if its the same for US & UK brides, or like with the Escape package photography photos we get the photos included on a disk

We got an album with about 8 photos in from the MK, the same for Epcot and then a disc with all the images on and the copyright release. This us just a UK/international thing, US brides have to pay extra for the disc but I believe they get bigger albums...

 

[meryll83]

Whilst I was seeing what either Planet Hollywood or the House of Blues could offer us for a timeslot, my parents were already getting down to business at Epcot...

Friday we went to Nine Dragons for dinner. We turned up an hour early - we happened to get to China earlier than expected and were quite hungry so we thought no harm in asking and it was no problem to them. The meal we chose was a special set meal for two including starters and desserts and I was quite surprised it was on the dining plan as it was quite an expensive one. Unfortunately we can't remember the details and it isn't on the internet menus but it was very good indeed. The server was really good, very helpful and attentive and this was one of my favourite meals. We had some iced raspberry tea by the way which we'd never had before and was very refreshing on a hot day.

...For us it transpired that the only reservation I could get for Planet Hollywood was around 9pm, so we opted for House of Blues instead.

After the 4 of us were ready and changed, we hopped on a bus to DTD.
I can't remember what we ate, although I have a feeling I had some sort of pasta perhaps?

I think the food was probably pretty similar to stuff we've had from Planet Hollywood before, and also Hard Rock - maybe not the exact same menus, but it's a big chain and you kinda know what to expect.

Just a couple of weeks before we left for our holiday I decided I quite liked a couple of Paramore songs and then cursed myself for not booking tickets to see them at the House of Blues while we were there, because when I'd seen them listed on the website I didn't think I knew who they were!
I'm always on the lookout to see if there's anyone we can see in concert while we're in Orlando, maybe next time!

After our meal, we pined for the loss of the Adventurer's Club and went over to Paradiso 37 and sat outside for a drink whilst listening to an acoustic performer, he was really good!
I tried a Strawberry Daiquiri, but unfortunately, my sweet tooth is so bad that it really wasn't sweet enough for me, so I didn't enjoy it all that much, but hey, I wasn't going to let it go to waste!
We met Julie and Steve there, as they'd come out for a couple of drinks, and suggested we go over to Jellyrolls again, as Tim and Jackie had decided to go there for their last night.
I wasn't really bothered to stay out much later, and we knew we were already going back to Jellyrolls again sometime with the parents, so we decided against it, although Julie seemed a little disappointed

We could see the Characters In Flight balloon swaying ominously in the wind - I can't decide whether or not I'd like to do this, as I'm not a huge fan of heights!

Adam and Anna decided to call it a night and get back to Izzy, and we left not much longer after that ourselves with Julie and Steve.
We agreed that we would go with Adam and Anna in the morning to help them check in at the Virgin DTD check-in, and said our goodnights - almost half way through our holiday now!

 

[meryll83]

When we got up this morning, we went next door to have a chat to my parents and discovered they were going to go to Animal Kingdom today. We decided we'd come along too, so we could take my dad on Expedition Everest, but first we needed to help Adam and Anna with their DTD check in.

We wandered down to reception with my mum whilst my dad finished getting ready, but when we got to the foyer, Adam, Anna, Izzy and Si's parents were literally like "We're going now, right this second" and started jumping in a taxi. Commotion followed as we thought we were going and not right then and my dad was still missing and all hell broke loose!!
After much kafuffle, we jumped in the taxi too, and told my mum we'd be back for her and my dad soon, then we'd go to the Animal Kingdom.

To this day I still have no idea why, but what then followed was 7 of us standing in a queue at DTD for 2 hours, just to check 2 people and a baby in!
Anyway... after saying our goodbyes, Simon and I finally managed to catch back up with my parents, who'd just settled down by the pool. No worries, they were soon back in the game and we were on our way to the Animal Kingdom!!

We went to get Fastpasses for the 3 of us for Everest (no way was mum going on that thing!!) and just timed it right to see Finding Nemo The Musical while we waited for our timeslot to come around.
I love love LOVE the music in this show, in fact we bought the CD last time, so I had a good time miming along, and I think my parents enjoyed the show too.

I was pretty impressed that we managed to get mum on Dinosaur (wasn't sure if it might be a bit too motiontastic for her), but she lived to tell the tale and actually preferred this to the gentle swaying of Soarin' I think!

When I mentioned earlier that Soarin' became my dad's new favourite ride, equally I think Everest became his new most unfavourite!! He's not a huge coaster fan, although does enjoy a bit of Big Thunder Mountain, and I think it was the going backwards giving you that upside down sensation that did it for him on Everest
I was concerned for 10 minutes or so afterwards that we might have made him ill, but all he needed was a good spot of lunch!

This next picture is from our 2007 trip, but I feel I have to give you at least one thing to look at in this post - sorry! It was a much sunnier day in 2009 incidentally...

My parents had already started to realise they were going to have an excess of Counter Service credits, so they treated us to a burger lunch in Africa, before we went on Kilimanjaro Safaris. I managed to talk everyone out of the Kali River Rapids after seeing how soggy everyone looked coming off (I'm such a wimp!)

I don't remember what else we did on this day, all I know is we wouldn't have wasted it doing nothing, but that's all my memory is giving me right now unfortunately!

Tomorrow we would be checking in to the Poly for our complimentary room night, so we will have done a bit of bag packing for that, however my dad can save the day, as he knows they went to Fort Wilderness to use up 2 Table Service credits on the Hoop De Doo Review, and here are his thoughts on the experience...

Saturday was the only real disappointment - the Hoop de Doo Revue. Maybe we just weren't in the right mood for it I don't know (I know it's meant to be corny and slapstick so you know what you're getting) but for us it just didn't work. Maybe if you've still got kids of the right age it would work? The food was so-so the only highlight for me being the corn bread and for 2 TS credits each we didn't think it was value compared to say H & V plus Fantasmic ( better meal and better show for 1 only TS). But that said plenty of people obviously were enjoying it so it's maybe just us! Anyway that was the one and only poor experience over the whole trip.

Luckily my memory serves me better for Day 9, with the aid of some photos (hurrah!) - we had an appointment at a Palace frequented by a certain Hunny loving bear, would say Aloha to a new resort, and Julie and Steve hired a car for a couple of days and offered to take us out and about!...

 

[meryll83]

We got up bright and early (see a pattern emerging here?) as today we had an appointment with a bear of very little brain!

On our last trip I had a fascination of getting a photo with Stitch, and it transpired the best way to do this was to visit him for breakfast at Ohana.
This year however, Pooh Bear was my target (I'm yet to decide who I will stalk down in September!), so we stuck to what worked best for us last time, and had booked an ADR for breakfast at Crystal Palace.
Now I know we already caught up with Pooh and Tigger at Epcot, but still, we weren't going to let that be an excuse not to have another encounter whilst being able to stuff our faces too for good measure - we were going to make Pooh Bear proud!

Our reservation was at 8:05am, and it was nice to see the Magic Kingdom looking very peaceful, having not yet opened to the general public.

Waiting to check in for a table, however, was actually quite chaotic - the place was packed!
The staff had gotten a little festive upon learning of our celebration:

And before we could even move from our table to sample what delights were on offer, we had our first friendly encounter.
You know, he doesn't seem half as depressed in real-life, I think he's been misportayed!

No food porn I'm afraid as, once again, we were not nearly as snap happy as we should have been!
The fare was very similar to that at the Yacht Club, except of course there was an additional flavour of yogurt - honey flavoured of course!
There was also a section in the centre of the restaurant where a chef would cook you an omelette to order.

Disaster struck, as upon returning to our table this is what we saw:

It was time for a napkin twirling Pooh Bear parade, and he couldn't disappoint his fans, so we sadly watched him potter further away...

Next up, Si showed a bit of love for a familiar face....

And hurrah!... I finally got my hands on that bear!
(Remind never to stand at this angle again, I look almost as round as Pooh! )

Piglet was around somewhere, but we couldn't wait all day - if you're gonna be shy, then you'll miss out little one!

As we left, we were presented with a Magical Moments certifcate signed by all the Hundred Acre Wood gang

We had a lazy stroll round to Frontierland and I found my lookalike:

As I put Dale back down, a cast member called over "I've seen ya!" and I thought Uh-oh, what have I done wrong?! What she was actually referring to was our Just Married pins, and she wrote us out our second Magical Moments certificate whilst imparting some pearls of wisdom about marriage on us - she was a very sweet lady really!

I'm sure we must have gone on a couple of rides before we left, but Julie and Steve had rented a hire car for a couple of days, and we had a date with them to do some shopping, so we needed to get back to Pop to catch our ride.
Here is a fascinating photo of me waiting for the bus - see why we have photos like this but none of food or certificates or anything more exciting than this is beyond me!!

Meanwhile, the parental units were heading over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a late breakfast:
Sunday was Boma for a "brunch" at 11am - everything you could want from a breakfast and and a lot more besides. We tended to go for the traditional American breakfast items (sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles etc) plus some really nice fresh fruit . We also had fruit yoghurt, pastries, cinnamon bread, french toast. The fruit juice was particularly good although I couldn't tell you exactly what was in it - just that it was good. But if you were brave enough to experiment there were quite a lot of African items as well - I did intend to move onto them but sadly I had pigged out a bit too much on the stuff I've already mentioned and had to admit defeat. We had a wander round Animal Kingdom Lodge afterwards and there were lots of viewing areas where you could see the animals, the pool area was very good and if your budget runs to it this would be a great resort to stay at. Only problem with Boma is that it did seem to take longer to get to and from here than anywhere else we ate at so it will take a fair bit out of your day (unless you are staying at AKL).

Back at Pop, we were checking out our sweet ride!

There was just one... slight... problem....
Erm.... "It won't start"
No really, it's got no power... nothing...

Steve had successfully driven the car in to the resort last night, and just could not figure out the problem. Soooo, he made a looooooooooong call to the hire company and eventually it was agreed someone would come out to look at it, we should just stay there.
So we hung around and surveyed the situation...

Oh yes, this was just how we all wanted to be spending our holiday....

 

[brer rabbit 28]

Oh no! We had car trouble TWICE on our last trip! Ended up waiting 3 hours for a new car to be delivered. Hope you got it sorted quickly.