My Disney Engagement Trip: Days 1-2 (LONG!)

[whimsysoda]

I'll start by confessing I'm a lurker, but the DIS played a big role in helping me plan my first adult Disney vacation with my boyfriend! Figured I'd post a trip report in thanks to all the posters whose suggestions I took, and as a memento for myself. ;-)

DBF (soon to be fiance!) and I stayed at CSR from Nov 11-15.
First of all, what a beautiful resort! We checked in Thursday ~11:30am, and our room was ready – it was a King-bed room, but it was in the Ranchos section. Oh well… We were driven to our room and it was so nice! The room was a good size, and we even had a fridge. Loved the decor. We changed quickly and headed out for MGM Studios.

As soon as we got there, there were already character greets going on. We saw Snow White, Aladdin, Perla, Mary Poppins and a penguin, Megara and the devil dude from Hercules, and Pinocchio. After taking a few pictures, we walked over to Tower of Terror and got a Fastpass, then walked over to Disney Animation to meet the Incredibles. We got a picture with Mr. Incredible and Elasti-girl, after watching Magic of Disney Animation. We then lined up for Who Wants to be a Millionaire – so cool! I’d never done it before, so I was pretty excited. We waited about 15-20 minutes, then got into the studio – we were seats 66 and 67. For the first fastest finger question (placing schools in order of attendance), Eric and I both got on the board! I think we were 5th and 6th (but I beat him … hehehe). We played along with the 2 contestants who got up, did a little shopping, and on the way found Sully & Mike Wazowski, with no line! Sweet! So we got a picture with them, and then looked some more for the Toy Story characters before heading over to Star Tours to stake out a spot for the Stars and Motor Cars Parade. Eric wanted to show off our teddy bear, Superboo, all dressed up in his Buzz Lightyear costume. When Buzz and Woody’s car approached, I held him up, and Buzz got all excited to see our bear dressed up as him! Eric got it all on tape. After the parade, we went to ride ToT. So much fun – I like that it’s a surprise how many times you go up and down. It’s still one of my favorite rides. We walked back around the park trying to find Al’s Toy Barn to get a picture of Buzz holding Superboo. Finally found them and good thing we got in line quickly, because about 5 people after us was the end of the line. Eric was getting nervous because the line was taking long, and our PS for 50’s Primetime Café was at 5:15. We finally got up to meet them, and the cast member took pictures for us. When Woody saw Superboo Buzz, he got mad at Eric and turned his back on him. Buzz, on the other hand, was super excited and kept trying to show Woody our bear. It was very funny. After taking pics with all of them, we literally ran to 50’s Primetime for our dinner.

We were seated in about 10 minutes and our waitress was Annoying Little Sister Amanda. She was very cool though, and was very entertaining! She teased Eric a lot and got mad at him for tattle-taling on me all the time. Eric had the meatloaf and I had the fried chicken – YUM! I also got the “electric drink” (something like that) in a souvenir cup with an “electric” ice cube. The food was very good, and Amanda was awesome. After dinner, we walked over to the Amphitheatre to get a seat for Fantasmic. It fills up super fast!! We got there about 6:20 and the only seats left were in the Hades section, towards the left. The show was amazing though – projecting film on a wall of water is incredible! I was excited and since I underestimated the show, was totally amazed. After the show, we tried to make our way back to the Streets of America to take pictures with all the lights, but a security cop was back there and wouldn’t let us go. So we just took a few pictures of the lights we could see, and a few of the Sorcerer’s Hat Stage, then headed back to the front of the park for some shopping before catching a bus back to CSR. We got back to the room at about 9:30 and went to the whirlpool, but there were so many kids that we only stayed about 20 minutes before getting some sleep. Early day Friday!!

Friday
Mickey woke us up at 6:30 am to get ready for Animal Kingdom. We walked to El Centro to catch a bus, arrived at Animal Kingdom at about 7:30, and waited in line to enter the park. Then we waited in front of the Tree of Life for the rope drop at 8 am. Minnie, Goofy & Donald came by in a truck to do a welcome celebration thing, and then Mickey popped up in front of the Tree. It was cute… as soon as the rope dropped, the CM led us through Africa and to the Safari. SO COOL experiencing Kilimanjaro Safari first thing in the morning – so many of the animals were already up, and doing things. Eric and I rode in the first seat, and took lots of pictures/video. We even had to stop the tram because a whole family of some animal (can’t remember now what they’re called) was crossing the road. Very cute. After Safari, we came back around to watch It’s Tough to be a Bug – so cute, but man, I hate bugs. The posters in the holding area were priceless – Beauty & the Bees, My Fair Ladybug, A Cockroach Line.

After that we went to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur – no wait! We practically walked on to the ride. It was okay, but I did get a little scared, esp. at the end. We circled back to the front to Island Mercantile to find Lilo & Stitch (2 CM’s at MGM the day before had told us where to find them). After taking pics, we then walked back towards Kali River Rapids, but on the way there they were filling seats for Festival of the Lion King so we went and saw that show. It was really good!! We hadn't planned on waiting in line for it, but after seeing it, I’m glad we went in and watched. Pretty impressive. Afterwards, we went to Anandapur, Asia, to ride Kali River Rapids. We didn’t get too wet the first time around, so we got back in line and rode it again. This time, we got a little more wet. By then it was about 11 am and we decided we were done with AK. On our way out to the bus stop, there were a bunch of characters out, signing autographs. There were a few characters out, but we lined up to see Chip and Dale, and after the picture, Chip held onto my arm and wouldn’t let me go with Eric. Eric walked away without even realizing I wasn’t with him, so I had to call him and say I wasn’t going with him. He gave Chip a sad face, so Chip let me go then high-fived Eric. It was very, very cute! Next, we took a picture with Launchpad, who was just as tall as Eric! We got on the bus for Epcot and got there before noon.

We rode on Mission: Space, but before we lined up, we got to meet Space Mickey and Space Goofy! M: S was intense!! I don’t think I will ever ride that again, but I guess it was a good experience to do it at least once. We got our Fast pass for TT, and it wasn’t until 7pm!! Craziness!! So we walked up to World Showcase to start eating around the world, since it was the International Food & Wine Festival. We had potato pancakes with kraut from Eastern Europe, kielbasa with pirogies from Poland, Serrano ham and manchego cheese on warm bread, and paella valenciana from Spain, and lunch at Yakitori House in Japan. We saw the double decker bus in front of the lagoon a little after 2, so we hiked back to the front so we could take pictures with Minnie, Pluto, Timon, Rafiki, and Baloo. We were getting very tired (Epcot is a very big park to keep criss-crossing!!) so after taking pictures of the Finding Nemo sculpture in the Living Seas and walking through Innoventions West (?), we got our Mickey Bars and Mickey sandwich and left for a nap at CSR.
We went back to Epcot to ride Test Track a couple hours later. Awesome!! It was definitely worth a 6 hr wait. We walked back to the World Showcase to watch Illuminations and eat some more. Eric had Anticuchos with Papas Huancaina-Peruvian from Peru, knockwurst with weinkraut from Oktoberfest, then an Italian Gianduja Torte. Oh my goodness, that was the best dessert I’ve ever tasted in my life. We rode Maelstrom, then ate dinner in France, at the boulangerie. Illuminations was okay, but Fantasmic was better. Actually, I miss the Illuminations from back in 1997, last time I went. After the show, we went through the International Gateway to catch a boat launch to Boardwalk, and then caught a bus to Pleasure Island. We got there about 10ish, and went to BET Soundstage. We watched the fireworks go off at midnight, then went back into BET and danced. We went home after 1 am -- and we had to be up at 6:30 for MGM early entrance!

Sat (proposal day) - Mon coming soon!

 

[pumba]

sounds like you are having a great time.....thanks for your report and the food and wine reviews

 

[fizz13]

You're making me jealous and hungry..... oh well, next installment please, this is the romantic part right?
Claire

 

[rasnlms]

Looking forward to the next part!

 

[whimsysoda]

So hard to get up this morning!! But we were up at 6:40 to get ready for MGM early entrance. I was really tired, but excited to see what Super Soap Weekend was like. We got on a bus to the Studios and were there by 7:30 AM and it was PACKED! Wall to wall … the lines were already backed up from the bag check. Eric and I were standing there just amazed. The girl in front of us was telling us that we should be fine to ride the rides because all the people were interested in soap stuff (which I was too, sort of, until I saw the lines to try to meet them!). She also told us that Greg Vaughan, Tyler Christopher and Natalia Livingston (from General Hospital) were at Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk the night before. Should've stayed at Boardwalk instead of Pleasure Island! Oh well...

Anyways, at about 5 to 8, they started letting people in, in small batches. Eric was watching as people got through the gates and they were all running for fast passes!! When we finally got in, we turned down the street for Tower of Terror and there was NO ONE in sight. There were maybe 2 other families walking with us, but otherwise, everyone was in the main park area waiting for Super Soap Weekend stuff! We got on the very first ride of the day for ToT. They let us go straight into the car and pick whatever seats we wanted. Craziness! ToT is much scarier in the morning when it’s quiet and not a lot of people are around. Eric and I sat in the front row, and went up and down 3 times. So much fun! From there, we walked onto Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, which was fun, but made me a little dizzy. Since the ride was pitch black, Eric got queasy and sick and we had to take a break from rides. So we walked around the park looking for other early entrance attractions. There wasn’t much, so we did Muppets 3D (cute, but exactly the same as before… getting kind of old) and then Eric wanted to go back and use our ToT fast pass. So we got in line and pretty much went straight on the ride (by this time there was a longer stand by line). We rode in front again (this time on the right side) and I could kind of see Eric start to look queasy again. Great. After, we really need to go and get fresh air. Eric’s pretty much done with rides by this point, so we go watch Voyage of the Little Mermaid (so cute!) and then the Great Movie Ride. After that, we decided to hunt for soap stars and get pictures since we couldn’t get autographs. We find Natalia Livingston and take some pics, and a CM is handing out pre-autographed pictures. Sweet! Then we go hunting for Greg Vaughan, Rebecca Herbst and finally Tyler Christopher. Got pre-autographed pictures and took pics of all of them.

By this time, about ~noon, I was really getting cranky from the insane amounts of people and the pushing and shoving to meet soap stars. So we left to get food from Pepper Market and take a nap.

We decided we would take a bus to Magic Kingdom, walk around for a little bit, then monorail to Contemporary, because I thought our dinner was at California Grill at 5. We get inside the gates at Magic Kingdom, and I point out the monorail, because it’s about 4:30, and I thought we should get to Contemporary to look around first. But Eric, who has the video camera out, says no, let’s go to the park. I look at him, like “Why?” and he says because we’re not eating at Cali Grill, and I say, “I knew you had something up your sleeve!” So we walk in and, oh my gosh, it’s that feeling of “I’m AT Disney World.” MK is just the epitome of Disney World to me. So I’m looking around at all the places we could possibly be having our anniversary dinner, and Eric just keeps walking me up Main Street. We stop to take a picture in front of the castle, and then see Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration is going on. We watch it, and it’s cute, and I’m so excited because I’m in the Magic Kingdom!! After the show is over, Eric asks what time it is (it was almost 5) and asks if I enjoyed the show. I say of course, because it’s Cinderella, and he goes, “How would you like to have dinner in her castle?” My jaw drops, and he leads me around the castle to check in for our 5:05 PS at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We get inside and are seated in about 5 minutes. We got a seat right by one of the windows, overlooking Cinderella’s Carousel. After looking over the menus, the hostess comes by our table and says, “The fairy godmother told me it’s your anniversary and to give you some extra pixie dust!” It was adorable.

Our meal was really good – we had a lobster and shrimp ceviche type appetizer, then the airline chicken for eric and the pork tenderloin for me. After dinner, we ordered a Crown Sundae and our waiter brought us an anniversary present – complimentary CRT champagne flutes! It was all so magical. After dinner, Cinderella was signing autographs and taking pictures in the foyer, and we lined up to meet her. As we got up to her, here’s the conversation.

Cinderella: Is this your princess?
Eric: Yes it is.
Cindy: And he’s my Prince Charming.
Cinderella: Are you on your honeymoon?
Eric: It’s our anniversary.
Cinderella: How many years?
Cindy: Three years of dating. So how’s Prince Charming? Has he given you a ring yet?
Cinderella: Oh yes, but it’s so big, I can’t wear it out! (turns to me) Next time I see you, I better see a ring on your finger too!
Eric: We’re going to be here for breakfast tomorrow morning, will you be here?
Cinderella: (hesitates slightly) Of course I will be! It’s my Castle!
(CM motioning for us to take the picture)

So yeah, then we leave and ride on her carousel. It’s all still very romantic, but we start to feel a little chill in the air and a rain drop or two. We head over to fast pass Philharmagic, then walk around to Tomorrowland to try to ride Stitch or Buzz Lightyear but Stitch is closed and the Buzz line is really long. So we get on Tomorrowland Transit Authority instead and take a leisurely ride around Tomorrowland. When we passed through Space Mountain, all the lights were on, and you could see the track! Eric said he heard a CM saying “We apologize for the technical difficulties…” uh oh! Afterwards, we walked back around to the Castle and took pictures in the moonlight. We watched Philharmagic (SO GOOD!) then went to stake out a spot for Spectro. We finally settle on a spot in the very front of Main Street, by Tony’s Restaurant, and I sit down. Eric gets up to look for a restroom, and leaves me to hold our spot. While I’m sitting there, the rope line gets moved and I realize we won’t be in a viewing spot for Spectro. When he finally gets back, we decide to walk over to Adventureland to find a spot there, since the parade ends in Frontierland. We take one of the last available spots near Liberty Square, and sit down.

As we’re watching Spectro, it starts to drizzle a bit, then it goes away. I love the music for Spectro!! We watch the parade, and after it’s done, Eric piggy backs me all the way back to the Castle Courtyard to get a spot for Wishes. My knees hurt so bad that I could barely walk. So we’re standing pretty much right in front of the castle. Wishes gets ready to start, and Eric whispers, “So what are you wishing for tonight?” And I want to tell him I’m wishing for a ring (haha) but instead I say, “I’m too embarrassed to tell you, too shy.” He says he’ll tell me what his wish is after the fireworks, and asks if we can stay for the Kiss Goodnight. I say of course and we watch the show. The first strains of the music, and I’m already tearing. The show is *beautiful* and as soon as it’s done, it starts to rain. People started leaving before it was even over, and Eric asks if we can still stay, so I say yes.

He takes me over to the bench around the courtyard, blindfolds me, and asks me to hold something. I hear him walk away and I’m nervous, because I think he’s going to propose. (I didn't know this then, but he had given his video camera to 2 CM's to videotape his proposal.) He comes back over, takes his bag out of my hands and whispers in my ear, “I love you so much.” He takes off the blindfold, and I see him getting down on one knee and I start to cry. I clap my hand over my mouth and the tears just start rolling. He asks me to marry him and then holds out the ring box. (I’m tearing typing this all up!) As he’s slipping the ring on, I can hear people clapping and flashes going off, and 2 CM’s giggling and saying, “Did she even say yes yet?” and so I nod my head because I can’t talk I’m bawling so bad, and I just hug Eric.

So many people saw us get engaged that night! It was the best anniversary of my life.

Sunday and Monday coming soon! Thanks for reading!!

 

[kathymc]

awwww! I have tears in my eyes - what a romantic proposal, youve got a keeper there!

congratulations and thanks for sharing such a special moment with us!

 

[leahannpen]

Aw man how sweet! I'm just reading this a month later, but I've got tears in my eyes reading this. I rushed through your whole day waiting...I thought it would happen at Cinderella's...LOL!

 

[shatzjsl]

Absolutely beautiful!!! Congratulations.

So, contacted the WDW Wedding Planners for the wedding yet?