Return to the Scene of the Crime: The Lurkyloos’ First Anniversary at WDW! New VIDEO!

I know how you feel....I had to keep repeating to myself, "thou shall not covet" It is Lent after all. :thumbsup2

cheryl

How true :goodvibes I'm Pentecostal and we don't do Lent, but DH used to be Episcopalian and they follow that idea so I guess I might need to borrow from that faith in this situation!
 
alright now I see you lurking around on the Wedding boards so how about lurking over here and doing your next update!! :laughing:
 
sorry Carrie! I feel like I've totally hijacked your TR. And I only work there on call.. which means, once every maybe 3 months, so don't get too excited!

And yes.. we do sing live! It's tough sometimes, running around with costume changes and puppeteering.. but yes. Its live. There are some parts where there's an underlying track, just to make the sound bigger - but we're still singing. Most of it is live though. 99% of it :) It's tough, but it's possible.

Now back to Carrie's regularly scheduled TR that I don't want to ever end!

Thanks for the response. Life singing - awesome! It must be even harder to do the show when you only do it every 3 months. Wow!

OK .... Carrie....where are you? :rolleyes1 I promise not to ask anymore Nemo questions.
 


Holy cow! I totally forgot about that! :rotfl:

Well, I'll let you continue this one on your own this time ;)

Wha...? You mean I have to write it myself?!! D’oh!

DH says he's going to attempt a surprise at some point, since we shamed into it!

Right on!! I can’t wait to hear what he cooks up (Note to Jeff: a weekend getaway to a toy fair doesn’t count!) ;)




Here's me in my fish outfit...

I love it! I’m also impressed that you guys sing live! It would have expected just the recorded track.


What a wonderful day with all the surprises. Especially the Attic. I'd love to have seen the look on your face!

You know, I would have loved to see the look on my face too – it’s too bad the Roots weren’t there! :rotfl:

Carrie: Um, it's Saturday, shouldn't you be devoting the day to writing your TR? We all want to hear about the DP!

PassPorter owns my weekends, but you’ll be glad when this DVC guide drops and you can learn all about the $18,000 tote bag you bought!

What an awesome anniversary story. :flower3: It sounds like you had an incredible day!

Completely! I dunno how we’ll ever top it!

BTW - I am really sick now. Got some horrendous virus from my son, but your TR makes me feel a bit better. Except it really hurts my throat to laugh! :sick:

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon! I’ll try to make the next installment reeeeeeeally depressing, just for you!

sorry Carrie! I feel like I've totally hijacked your TR. And I only work there on call.. which means, once every maybe 3 months, so don't get too excited!

that’s OK – nothing a few behind-the-scenes glimpses can’t fix! :lmao:

hahaha..poor Carrie will come back and be all..WHA???

WHA???

Ok, i know it was like 2 updates ago but I love the little white ponies pulling the coach. They are too cute!! And, that was an amazing morning you guys had.

Yeah, apparently, despite their cute appearance, they are *nasty* lil’ boogers.


Thread hijacking is a good thing: it keeps this tr on the first page which makes it easier for all of us to find. :thumbsup2

Or you can subscribe using the Thread Tools at the top of the page! :thumbsup2

I did the same silly play by play on our anniversary even though we were actually at home that day and when we visited the World Showcase several weeks before we recreated several of our wedding pictures too.

Whohoo! I’m not crazy!!

Okay, the surprise at the Attic was awesome and I must admit I am a twinge jealous! I tried to get them to do something special at the Coral Reef since we had our reception at LSS and I couldn't even get anyone to return my call! :headache:

Oh no! I hear the woman who did the divers and coordinates cakes and stuff at Coral Reef is swamped, although you’d think she’d be less busy now that they don’t do the divers with signs anymore.


Lovely TR. Can't wait to hear the rest.


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Waiting for the next installment!!

alright now I see you lurking around on the Wedding boards so how about lurking over here and doing your next update!! :laughing:

OK .... Carrie....where are you? :rolleyes1 I promise not to ask anymore Nemo questions.

It’s coming, it’s coming! I’m burning up the keyboard!! :faint:
 
This is the first comment I will have left you---but I just wanted to let you know that somehow I stumbled across a post in a random thread and through I would check out my first ever WDW wedding TR. Well---I spent the WHOLE WEEKEND (literally I sat around in PJs when we were supposed to be heading to a dinner reservation telling DH "Just 15 more minutes, they're about to get their sixth free dessert!!!") reading your wedding TR, your 2 Haunted Mansions 1 Day TR, your PJ, your Anniversary TR and just about every blog/post/website/etc. regarding the Roots photography---which is great.

AND, at some point or another I remember seeing you posting on the Photography Board (the board I frequent most). I remember LOLing because you were talking about the bad photography and posted up the picture of you standing on the bench next to your DH saying they were going to photoshop out the bench to make you float. :lmao: :rotfl:

Anyhow, now that I am done reading all of them (although ANXIOUSLY awaiting the finale with your surprise dessert party for your anniversary)---I really feel like I'm going through withdrawal.

So that's about it---just wanted to pop in and tell you that I was being a "lurky-loo" when it came to your TRs this weekend and loved them all. They were funny, sweet and definitely had some great pics.

Ann
 
Awww.... thanks you so much, Ann! :cloud9: I am so glad to know that I provided you with an entire weekend's worth of entertainment (almost as glad as I am to hear that you get what was wrong with that floating/bench picture! :rotfl: )

The anniversary report is up next - and then two more days of trip report left! We'll see how long I can milk 'em... ;)
 


All day I’d been sending and receiving scores of emails and text messages as I coordinated the surprise with Tess and the Roots. DH finally said something about it when we got back to the room, and I told him they were “anniversary congratulations from well-wishers” – which wasn’t far from the truth, because I also got a ton of sweet emails and texts about our anniversary from friends and family, including some readers of this report. So, thank you for thinking of us! :lovestruc

We spent an hour or so napping and then started getting dressed up for dinner. The plan was to meet our event guide in the Beach Club lobby at 7:15pm and be escorted to UK Pubside (now the Rose & Crown). Then we’d eat dinner from 7:30pm to 9pm, when IllumiNations started. At 7:12pm the guide called our room from the lobby to say she was there – a nice gesture, but it might’ve blown the surprise for someone a tad more aware than DH... (I’d actually asked Tess to put the surprise in the BEO for the party, so our guide didn’t say anything about it when we met.) When I was sufficiently tarted up, we walked down to the Beach Club lobby and met our event guide, Rosie.

I’d brought a sleeveless wrap-front dress to wear, thinking the weather would be as balmy as it was during our wedding and honeymoon. At the last minute, I’d considered bringing along a dressy coat but didn’t want to squeeze it in my luggage, so I bought a turquoise fake pashmina, thinking that would be enough warmth and look cute. Uh, whoops!

When I found out our dinner was being moved inside due to the cold, I frantically texted Jensey and asked to borrow a coat. What a pal – she said she’d bring two. However, I had to make it from the Beach Club to Rose & Crown in 29-degree weather wearing a sleeveless dress, flimsy pashmina, bare legs and open-toed shoes!

As we stepped out the Beach Club lobby’s back entrance, a woman passing by sized me up and said, “Oh, honey – where’s your coat?!”

The walk wasn’t too bad – I was pretty excited, so that brought my temperature up a bit. We asked Rosie what it was like being an event guide and found out she has a day job as a teacher, and then she stays out til all hours escorting gadflies like us around Epcot. (Bless her heart—she stayed at UK Pubside in the cold until we left that night, which I think was around 10:30!)

Rosie took us to the patio check-in desk for Rose & Crown and then went in to find the manager. I felt kinda self-conscious standing there all dressed up and shivering among the throngs of sensibly dressed tourists. I think there might have been some kind of miscommunication – Rosie did a lot of murmuring into her official-looking earpiece – but eventually we were escorted to our table on the Rose & Crown’s enclosed, heated patio.

DH still didn’t really know what was going on, cuz it wasn’t like we’d walked into UK Pubside with a private table all set up by the fireworks, so he was more confused than anything else.... until the Roots appeared, and then I got the reaction I was hoping for. He was SO excited to see them!


“So the surprise is that we’re eating dinner...?”
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“OMG – it’s Nathan!!!”
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“OMG – it’s Jensey!!!”
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It was very exciting – Nathan & Jensey were darting around taking pictures, our planner appeared and reintroduced herself to DH with her true identity, and the restaurant manager, our server, an Epcot lead, and some other guy were all there to introduce themselves and wish us a happy anniversary! Plus everyone at the tables around us was trying to figure out why there was so much hubbub over two such inappropriately dressed persons as ourselves. (One woman goes, “My husband would NEVER do anything like that for me!”)

There was confetti on our table and there were two personalized Rose & Crown menus for us....

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(Sorry about the crummy iPhone pic!)
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And, of course, the cake. Which looked AMAZING! It was exactly as I’d requested, and the fact that the color was dead-on (after the disappointment with our wedding cake colors) was, uh, the icing on the cake (ba-da-bing!). This time I’d requested the hot pink color with the decorations from the orange top layer of our cake, plus the S-shaped “handles.” I thought DH would raise an eyebrow if I brought our cake topper back to WDW with us, so I’d asked the pastry chef to create something appropriate out of fondant, and boy oh boy, did the he or she deliver!



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Just to refresh your memory, this is what our wedding cake looked like:

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I couldn’t have been happier with our anniversary cake. In fact, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am by the little embellishments they added this time, which you’ll be able to see better in the “morning after” pix I took in the daylight. There were the handles, of course, and intricate scallops, the teardrop shapes, and tiny gold dots stenciled on the top. And then there was the topper, which was made entirely out of gold-dusted fondant and took who knows how long to create. It fit the design perfectly!

Inside, the cake was chocolate with peanut butter cup mousse, and there was chocolate frosting under the fondant. I didn’t know you could do that until I saw a birthday cake on the DIS cake porn thread. Apparently they discourage it for wedding cakes cuz fondant is slightly translucent, but when you’re dealing with hot-pink fondant, I don’t think having chocolate underneath is a problem.

After our coterie of paid well-wishers departed and we’d sent Nathan & Jensey off on their hot date (at Liberty Inn – rrrrrrrrow!), the Rose & Crown’s chef came out to introduce himself and see if we had any requests or requirements. When I started planning, Tess had offered me three private party options: 1) Make my own ADR someplace and then have dessert at UK Pubside, 2) Have a catered dinner in a private room at the BoardWalk Inn and then go to UK Pubside, and 3) Have a dinner catered by Rose & Crown at UK Pubside, followed by dessert. (I should note that Option #3 has since been suspended during the “What Will You Celebrate?” campaign. You can still have a dessert party, but no dinner. Apparently they’re trying to come up with a new alternative for small groups at UK Pubside.)

I wanted to go with Option 3 so we could spend as much time on our private patio at Epcot as possible, but I was not a fan of Rose & Crown’s menu. I looked into having Epcot cater the dinner, but that would have required setting up a temporary kitchen to the tune of $800! So eventually the chef at the Rose & Crown offered to make us dishes from other menus around Epcot. I was really impressed that he came to our table to check with us before they started sending out our food!

As we waited for dinner, who should I spot inside Rose & Crown but Lacey & Eric! This wasn’t really a surprise, considering they’d been shamelessly stalking us our entire trip. I ran in to get a picture with Lacey for my blog, and we got to have a really nice chat with them. We were having so much fun that DH and I asked them to come to our dessert party when they were done with dinner – a pretty big favor, when you consider how cold it was outside, but they graciously agreed.

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At this point DH went off to wash his hands, and on his way back he was flagged down by Disney brides Tracy (of Finding Nemo: The Musical fame), Dawn, and Christina, who also goes by “Rachael,” and possibly “Steve.” At first he thought maybe he was supposed to remember them from high school, but then they told him they were stalking Lurkyloo on the DIS, and he realized he’d just been “recognized”! (This is all secondhand from DH, who also tells me that at the time he had a mop of luxuriant auburn hair—so I apologize if events are not as anyone else remembers!). DH asked them if they wanted to see me, and the next thing I knew I was meeting three, count ‘em, three of my virtual Disney bride buddies in person – talk about exciting!

Tracy, Christina/Rachael/Steve, and Dawn
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And then.... DINNER!

My appetizer was Le Cellier’s Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup.

Why did we let the Roots leave – WHY?!!!
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DH had the Rose & Crown’s Mixed Greens Salad with Warm Break Croutons, crispy Bacon, Roasted Onion, Irish Cheddar, and warm Bacon Vinaigrette.

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For dinner, I had the Rose & Crown’s Tamarind-glazed Pork Loin served with their Irish Cheddar Potato Gratin and Epcot’s Baby Green Beans.

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DH had Epcot’s Lava Salted Salmon with Coral Reef’s Pepper Jack Cheese Grits and Epcot’s Baby Green Beans.

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I’d taken a chance on some Rose & Crown dishes when their menu changed right before I had to submit my request. The pork loin was not great – again, I think it’s just a case of Disney’s using lower quality ingredients at the in-park restaurants – but DH loved his salmon, and I got to steal tons of his cheese grits. I was too excited to be really hungry anyway, which is a shame considering I could’ve been gobbling up buckets full of Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup the way FigmentFan wisely did at her private Grand Floridian anniversary dinner!

Alistair the server was fabulous – he was so attentive and accommodating. When we decided we wanted to brave the cold and have our desserts and cake served outside at UK Pubside, he made it happen and then popped down there frequently to continue serving us. After we finished dinner, we rounded up Lacey & Eric and dashed down to our private patio. Everything was all set up and the one heat lamp was flaming its little patootie off.

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Say, that’s where we were a year ago tonight!
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Even better, Nathan & Jensey were there, and they’d brought us coats! First of all, Jensey brought me two coats – one dressy but not-as-warm one and one warm but not-as-dressy one. I took them both! What’s more, she very kindly shared with all of us some of her precious handwarmers, which are next to impossible to find in Orlando and were given to her as a gift by one of her brides. Awwwwwwww!


We also discovered Rosie down at UK Pubside, and she gave us some special 3D glasses that show you Mickey heads when you look at light sources – like IllumiNations!


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I asked the Roots to just take pictures of the show, since goodness knows there are enough shots of me and DH smooching in front of IllumiNations already. The view from UK Pubside (and, I’d imagine, the Rose & Crown) is a-friggin-mazing! The fireworks are HUGE and breathtakingly beautiful. Definitely the best viewing spot anywhere.

Now, for your viewing enjoyment, I give you IllumiNations, the way the Roots see it....

(Click here to watch/listen along at home!)

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This was when I realized that UK Pubside is THE bestest place ever to watch IllumiNations
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(The boring part, if you’re Nathan)
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These ones are “our” fireworks, just so you know...
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[sniff!] OK, let’s see, where was I....

Ah, yes!

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So then we got to cut the cake! We were supposed to have vanilla ice cream with it, but they’d forgotten. That’s OK – I didn’t remember either until about three days later...


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DH cut us all huge slabs...

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Let’s see that again, shall we?
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Oh yeah, and we also had these other dessert party treats!


Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares, Panhandle Pecan Tarts, Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
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Butterfinger Bread Pudding with Vanilla Bean Sauce
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Maybe it was because I had a piece of cake in my tummy the size of a dictionary, but the marshmallow squares weren’t as good as I remembered. Also, the Butterfinger bread pudding was just weird – dry and fake-tasting. But DH loooooved the chocolate-covered strawberries. (What about the Panhandle Pecan Tarts, you ask? I didn’t get to try one til the next day, after it had been smooshed to death in the bottom of our backpack. Not the optimal eating experience...)

Nathan, Jensey, Lacey, Eric, DH and I all huddled around the table drinking hot chocolate and regaling each other with hilariously inappropriate stories for a dessert party. We shared the story of DH puking around the world, Lacey and Eric had their own story about food poisoning on their honeymoon (jeez, you’d think WDW was a third-world country or something!), and Jensey passed along some cast-member scuttlebutt about a Brazilian family (or possibly Downtown Disney pin sharks—the story varies) who won a stay in the Castle Dream Suite during the (Two) Year(s) of a Million Dreams and expressed their elation by pooping everywhere in the suite BUT the toilet. And then they won a stay again a few months later and did it again.... [this story will be important later on in the trippie...]

(Since then, I’ve been told that it was actually a group of the diehard pin sharks who hang out in front of the Pin Station at Downtown Disney who won the two stays, but I can’t confirm either account... [that story will not be important later on in the trippie...])

Once again, I was reminded that it’s the guests who make the party — it was so nice to share our anniversary with our new friends! But eventually the one heat lamp was not enough to keep all of us from turning into peoplesicles, so we parted ways.

Farewell, UK Lochside & Pubside!
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Our hardy event guide Rosie had been outside the whole time but was as smiley as ever and insisted on escorting us back to the International Gateway. When we got back to our room, DH gave me a sweet card, silver earrings, and a gift basket full of goodies from Lush! Of course I had to try out one of the bubble bars immediately – wheeeeeeee!


Next up: Wait - where are you going...? Don’t you want to hear about our last two days at WDW? There’s more cake...!
 
I'm first.:cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:
I sooooo want to do this now. How awesome is that view of Illuminations. I will have to remember this & somehow sneak this in sometime on Eric.
You looked beautiful & Patrick ever so dashing for your special evening. Thank goodness Jensey came to the rescue with a coat for you.
Thanks so much for sharing your very special anniversary with us.:goodvibes
P.S. I'm not going anywhere...........ready to hear all about the rest.:worship:
 
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I love this picture..it is so "you and Patrick". Can I say that after only meeting you once?

TRACY!! Come post your great pictures of that night!!
 
Awww!!!! What a great anniversary! Also, thanks for providing the link to listen to Illuminations to listen to it while looking at the pictures. It actually brought tears to my eyes! :laughing:

I'm sure you'll still have lots of viewers for your last two days (and most of us wishing you could spend every day in WDW to write about it). :goodvibes
 
Carrie what beautiful pictures! You and Partick are both so photogenic. It looks like the surprise really paid off, and what a bonus that you got to share your party with friends. I can't believe that you only have two days left in your report :sad1: , what are we gonna read until you go back? Can you make up a report for us?
 
I'm just stunned by all the great stuff you got to do. From Narcoossee's to the dessert party at R&C you pulled out all the stops. I wish I could get my DH to surprise me the way you surprised Patrick. (He's like Patrick, not big on surprises- planning or receiving.)
Great shots of the fireworks from both shows!
 
i am going to hijack..er, BUMP your thread

You husband collects pins? Look what I found in DH's jewelers box
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In 1997 Central Florida had crazy wildfires and as a thanks to anyone who came up and volunteered, they gave them free tickets and cheap rooms in the Contemporary ..and I guess this pin...it is 2x4 and in MINT condition and even has a little foot on the back to make a stand...pretty cool rare pin!
 
Awesome update, incredible pics!

Cheese, Meat, Cake and Illuminations. That's like the holy grail of Epcot right there.
 
That update was SO worth the wait! It was everything I'd imagined it to be (the photos were better, of course!). Such a great surprise! I'm going to show the entire thing to Jeff and then say 'hint, HINT' - really loud!

I promise to stick around and nag you to finish the final two installments (not too quickly! Now that the end is approaching, I want it to last longer!).
 
It looks like you had an amazing 1st anniversary Carrie! Your party looked like so much fun despite the freezing cold. And you got some awesome IllumiNations pics. Now I am getting really excited about my dessert party.

Ok, now hurry up and get to the part where you meet me :)
 

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