raph_b
<font color="red">Proud Redhead</font>
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,006
I've done this in 2 parts, as there is so much I wanted to write, but lots of content = lots of time and I know a few people who, well lets just say they aren't the most patient people in the world 
, so I thought I'd get the first part up asap
The pre-trip can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1850893
and the earlier installments:
Day 1
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1982340
Day 2
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1985151
Day 3
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1991243
Day 4
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2012346
Day 5
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2057774
Day 6 - Part 1 - The Day
So - the big day had finally arrived! 10 months in planning and it was finally here!
We had a bit of a lay in today, as we were already ahead of our schedule - today the spreadsheet told us to go to Aquatica but we had managed to fit in an afternoon there on Friday (as avid readers will remember!) so Em had decided that today was a good chance to do some serious shopping followed by an afternoon at one of the Disney waterparks.
As we were getting ready I was thinking to myself that I really should be feeling more nervous, but I was surprisingly calm. Don't worry - some serious panic will kick in later
We decided to head over to the Premium Outlets which was about a 10 min drive from our hotel.
As we had the Brit's guide to Orlando we headed to guest relations to pick up our free discount booklet and my oh my, what a booklet it is! Usually those kind of things are pretty crappy but this one was brilliant, I cant remember exactly but I'm sure they were mostly along the lines of 15 - 25% further discount when you spend around $100 in store. Definitely worth getting. Although my Epcot t- shirt from the Disney store for $6 was the bargain of the day
However, this wasn't the best part of the day so far - Guest relations was in the food court, along side a Taco Bell!!
Emilie was very excited about this, she is in love with Taco Bell!
Every day Em kept asking why we hadn't passed a Taco Bell anywhere - and we were starting to wonder if the sunshine state actually had any of these little Mexican paradises - but here we were, accidently walking right into a Taco Bell!
I love Taco Bell, its just so cheap, but so good. Tacos for 79 cents! I think I had a crunchwrap supreme and a volcano taco and Em had some kind of Chicken fiesta soft burrito. It all came to less than $5 - bargain.
Our luck in finally stumbling across a Taco Bell made me think today was going to be a good day.........
.........until it started pi55ing it down!
Yes, our day was going fine, I was nice and relaxed, there was no panicking, then it started torrentially raining! The only day on our whole trip it rained had to be the day I was planning to propose from the 18th floor of the Contemporary!
It wasn't just raining, the sky was totally grey and full of cloud
Okay, it was time to panic a bit - was this a sign that I shouldn't ask her today? or was it a sign I shouldn't ask at all?! Ever the optimist, I decided to worry about this later - I had to maintain a cool exterior to make sure I didn't give anything away, so I put it to the back of my mind for now.
We decided that Blizzard Beach wouldn't be a great idea in this storm so we decided to head out to the Florida Mall. We had a look around but the main reason for going was to visit Abercrombie & Fitch We wanted to get home at a decent time so located Abercrombie and headed straight for it, as we thought we could return to this mall again before we left. An hour later, and about $400 lighter, we left A & F and headed home, to get ready for dinner at the California Grill. 
An hour in Abercrombie can really damage your ear drums - why oh why do they play their music so loud?!)
Em had been really excited about going to the CG since she first heard about it, as she absolutely loves sushi, and the sushi chef at the California grill is renowned as the top female sushi chef in the world, that combined with the fantastic views of MK and the surrounding area made this the perfect spot for the proposal.
On the way back we had to make a stop - now here is where I really thought the game would be given away. The ring was commissioned by White Flash and was delivered to a local Fed Ex for me to pick up. I figured this was the best way to ensure I had the ring for as little time as possible before the proposal. I told Em I needed to pick up tickets for the Halloween Horror Nights evening hence the reason for going to Fed Ex. She asked why they couldn't just send them to the hotel but I made up some nonsense about Universal only using Fed Ex.....
Anyway, I picked up the ring, and it was in a massive box, I'm talking 50cm x 50cm! a lot bigger than anticipated. it turns out they put the ring in a box inside another box inside another box for security reasons. It was kinda hard getting back into the car and explaining why our tickets had arrived in such a big box!
I had to think fast in the 10 seconds it took to get from the door to the car, and the best I could come up with was there was a free t shirt inside for us to wear. Not my finest work I admit, but it seemed to work!
We drove back to the hotel and the weather was still awful
When we got back was when I really started to panic, just before Em got into the shower she came up with a great suggestion
"Seeing as part of the reason we're going to the California Grill is for the view, shall we just cancel tonight and go somewhere else?"
I'll be honest with you - it wasn't really what I wanted to hear! the restaurant were all on board ready for the proposal plans and expecting us - we couldn't cancel!!!
I played a long with it a little bit, as I didn't want to make it obvious that we had to go there tonight. So I acted like we could go somewhere else but dropped in a few reminders of how good the sushi is supposed to be, and the fact we probably wouldn't be able to get another ADR later on etc. In the end my Jedi mind tricks worked and Em made the decision herself that we should still go there
So we got ready, I sneakily put the ring in my pocket and we got a taxi over to the California Grill.............
Sorry about the lack of pics. To make up for it, here a few of the ring (and don't worry, there are tons of pics of the evening!)
Day 6 - Part 2 - The evening is next up Will it go to plan? will the weather ruin our night? Will I have the courage to actually ask? Will she say no?
All these answers and more will be revealed in the next episode
, so I thought I'd get the first part up asapThe pre-trip can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1850893
and the earlier installments:
Day 1
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1982340
Day 2
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1985151
Day 3
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1991243
Day 4
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2012346
Day 5
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2057774
Day 6 - Part 1 - The Day
So - the big day had finally arrived! 10 months in planning and it was finally here!
We had a bit of a lay in today, as we were already ahead of our schedule - today the spreadsheet told us to go to Aquatica but we had managed to fit in an afternoon there on Friday (as avid readers will remember!) so Em had decided that today was a good chance to do some serious shopping followed by an afternoon at one of the Disney waterparks.
As we were getting ready I was thinking to myself that I really should be feeling more nervous, but I was surprisingly calm. Don't worry - some serious panic will kick in later
We decided to head over to the Premium Outlets which was about a 10 min drive from our hotel.
As we had the Brit's guide to Orlando we headed to guest relations to pick up our free discount booklet and my oh my, what a booklet it is! Usually those kind of things are pretty crappy but this one was brilliant, I cant remember exactly but I'm sure they were mostly along the lines of 15 - 25% further discount when you spend around $100 in store. Definitely worth getting. Although my Epcot t- shirt from the Disney store for $6 was the bargain of the day
However, this wasn't the best part of the day so far - Guest relations was in the food court, along side a Taco Bell!!
Emilie was very excited about this, she is in love with Taco Bell! Every day Em kept asking why we hadn't passed a Taco Bell anywhere - and we were starting to wonder if the sunshine state actually had any of these little Mexican paradises - but here we were, accidently walking right into a Taco Bell!
I love Taco Bell, its just so cheap, but so good. Tacos for 79 cents! I think I had a crunchwrap supreme and a volcano taco and Em had some kind of Chicken fiesta soft burrito. It all came to less than $5 - bargain.
Our luck in finally stumbling across a Taco Bell made me think today was going to be a good day.........
.........until it started pi55ing it down!
Yes, our day was going fine, I was nice and relaxed, there was no panicking, then it started torrentially raining! The only day on our whole trip it rained had to be the day I was planning to propose from the 18th floor of the Contemporary!
It wasn't just raining, the sky was totally grey and full of cloud
Okay, it was time to panic a bit - was this a sign that I shouldn't ask her today? or was it a sign I shouldn't ask at all?! Ever the optimist, I decided to worry about this later - I had to maintain a cool exterior to make sure I didn't give anything away, so I put it to the back of my mind for now.We decided that Blizzard Beach wouldn't be a great idea in this storm so we decided to head out to the Florida Mall. We had a look around but the main reason for going was to visit Abercrombie & Fitch
We wanted to get home at a decent time so located Abercrombie and headed straight for it, as we thought we could return to this mall again before we left. An hour later, and about $400 lighter, we left A & F and headed home, to get ready for dinner at the California Grill. An hour in Abercrombie can really damage your ear drums - why oh why do they play their music so loud?!)Em had been really excited about going to the CG since she first heard about it, as she absolutely loves sushi, and the sushi chef at the California grill is renowned as the top female sushi chef in the world, that combined with the fantastic views of MK and the surrounding area made this the perfect spot for the proposal.
On the way back we had to make a stop - now here is where I really thought the game would be given away. The ring was commissioned by White Flash and was delivered to a local Fed Ex for me to pick up. I figured this was the best way to ensure I had the ring for as little time as possible before the proposal. I told Em I needed to pick up tickets for the Halloween Horror Nights evening hence the reason for going to Fed Ex. She asked why they couldn't just send them to the hotel but I made up some nonsense about Universal only using Fed Ex.....
Anyway, I picked up the ring, and it was in a massive box, I'm talking 50cm x 50cm! a lot bigger than anticipated. it turns out they put the ring in a box inside another box inside another box for security reasons. It was kinda hard getting back into the car and explaining why our tickets had arrived in such a big box!
I had to think fast in the 10 seconds it took to get from the door to the car, and the best I could come up with was there was a free t shirt inside for us to wear. Not my finest work I admit, but it seemed to work!
We drove back to the hotel and the weather was still awful
When we got back was when I really started to panic, just before Em got into the shower she came up with a great suggestion
"Seeing as part of the reason we're going to the California Grill is for the view, shall we just cancel tonight and go somewhere else?"
I'll be honest with you - it wasn't really what I wanted to hear! the restaurant were all on board ready for the proposal plans and expecting us - we couldn't cancel!!!
I played a long with it a little bit, as I didn't want to make it obvious that we had to go there tonight. So I acted like we could go somewhere else but dropped in a few reminders of how good the sushi is supposed to be, and the fact we probably wouldn't be able to get another ADR later on etc. In the end my Jedi mind tricks worked and Em made the decision herself that we should still go there
So we got ready, I sneakily put the ring in my pocket and we got a taxi over to the California Grill.............
Sorry about the lack of pics. To make up for it, here a few of the ring (and don't worry, there are tons of pics of the evening!)
Day 6 - Part 2 - The evening is next up
Will it go to plan? will the weather ruin our night? Will I have the courage to actually ask? Will she say no?All these answers and more will be revealed in the next episode
.
Then an hour before when the sun came out, dried everything & it all turned out perfect - these things are sent to try us. 
