Sam & Paul - A Disney Fairytale Wedding - Week 1

[Fantasia Sam]

I didn’t make any notes but I do tend to have a good memory – also be warned I am not a woman to summarise – so here is the start of our “pictorial” Fairytale Wedding Trip Report

I left for Orlando and my 4 week stay with Disney (be it on land or at sea) on Friday 30th April. When I checked in at the Virgin Atlantic desk I was told that I had been upgraded to Upper Class – woo-hoo !!! I checked my 2 pieces of luggage in and told the woman behind the desk about my wedding dress which was in a suit carrier – there was just no way I was gonna be putting it in the hold. She gave me a tag for it so that I wouldn’t have any problems getting it through security etc. After I had checked my bags I went to meet my family over at the North Terminal as they were flying out on British Airways:

David – Brother – 4 years older than me we’re born on the same date
Liane – Sister in Law – she’s a Disney Addict just waiting to get out
Cameron – Nephew 17years old – he’s at the age where he likes to act cool and certainly doesn't want to be seen with parents let alone his nutty Aunt
Ashley – Nephew 14years old – a real pain of a teenager but good-hearted

It was gonna be tough breaking the news to them that I had been upgraded when they were all flying coach/economy !!

Paul and I had arranged a car service to pick them up from their home and drive them to the airport we thought this would help to make life somewhat easier for them on their first family holiday abroad. They were really impressed by the car service we had laid on. We were concerned about them checking in as Ashley has a habit of cracking the wrong jokes at the wrong time so he was expressly told to keep his mouth shut. After they checked in we went for some breakfast at Garfunkels – I was too excited to eat lots so I just went with toast while the four of them tucked into cooked breakfasts.

I then took them to their line for their departure lounge – we said our goodbyes and I told them that a car would be waiting for them at the airport and I’d meet them at the hotel.

I then headed back to my terminal and went to my departure lounge where I waited for a couple of our guests Penny and Simon who were coincidentally on the same flight as me. When they came through they told me that they had been semi-upgraded – they were getting the Upper Class seats too but not the food and the service – I then thought that maybe that is what I was getting too and getting that huge seat is a huge difference whether or not you get the service to go with it.

I went for my second breakfast of the morning I stuck with toast again. We then hit the shops to do some tax free shopping and then before we knew it, it was time to head for the gate. We were chuffed as we got to pre-board ahead of others – great great feeling. It still amazes me that everyone crowds the area where you’re supposed to board when you have to wait for your row of seats to be called anyway and then you have to push past those that are in the way whose rows haven’t been called – why do people do this – they’re not gonna get on the plane any quicker ?

Once onboard I noticed that we were in a new plane – the Upper Class downstairs cabin had a bar in the middle of it – very cool. Penny & Simon had to go upstairs but I got to to stay in the downstairs cabin and with the Upper Class service woo-hoo. My seat was really big and at the touch of a button stretched out into a bed, amazing, however I never got to sleep as I was too excited

The plane also came with "view on demand" movies for everyone regardless of where they were sitting – I’d never seen this before it was really good and I cannot wait for all the fleet to have this facility. I managed to watch Mona Lisa Smile and Finding Nemo. The cabin crew were great and the hung up my wedding dress in the wardrobe at the front of the plane.

The food was also very good but LOL I don’t remember what I had. I could have had as much as I wanted to drink but I was trying to be good as I’d had some recent health scares with my blood pressure so I had one glass of champagne and then stuck to water oh but I did have some port with my cheese course, yup that’s right I had a cheese course – loving this upper class travel. The service was really good and the 9 hour flight seemed to whisk by. The gentleman next to me was really nice and chatty so that made this flight even more bearable. Penny and Simon were sitting upstairs and she had come down to see me once but the other people in the cabin and the flight attendants didn’t make her feel very welcome sooooo I went and visisted them a couple of times more later in the flight which was fun and helped to break up the journey. As you can imagine I was extremely excited so I need lots of distractions to get me through the flight.

At the end of the flight the cabin crew presented me with a bottle of champagne, which was so nice of them I was really touched. I actually never got around to drinking it and so insisted David and Liane had it one night during their stay.

Once we landed we were held on our plane for a little while as the Immigration hall was busy with other flights – I was thinking that my brother’s would have been one of them. Finally after a delay they let us off the plane and we went into a fairly busy immigration hall. The lines were OK and I think I had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes. I could actually see my luggage going around the belt and I could also see my brother waiting to pick up the final part of his luggage. So as soon as I got through immigration, who incidentally wished me congratulations for my forthcoming nuptials, I whizzed over to pick up my luggage and then caught David’s eye. So we all went off to Baggage Reclaim together. Penny and Simon were in one of the lines behind me so I had time to spare to spend with the family.

As we came down the escalators I saw Gregory who own’s the Town Car company Quicksilver – I had used Gregory in the past so it was nice to see a friendly face and he had come to pick up David, Liane and the boys – LOL I rushed to give Gregory a hug, he got confused for a moment as I think he thought I was already in WDW. He offered me a lift but I was gonna be waiting for Penny and Simon so I waited for them whilst Gregory whisked the family off to the Caribbean Beach Resort where they were gonna wait for me before checking in as I didn’t think we’d be far behind them.

However Penny & Simon got really held up at immigration so it was about 30 minutes after I had said goodbye to the family that Penny and Simon made into the Baggage Reclaim Area. They still had to pick up their car and their luggage but luckily enough as Frequent Virgin Travellers it meant that they could fast track the rental car long line and so we were in the car quite quickly after they picked up their luggage. Of course we had a struggle getting all the luggage in the car but we made it. I got to the CBR check-in area and David and family were no where to be seen – so I went to check-in and asked if they had checked in. The CM I was checking in with said yes then another CM came over and asked me if I was the Bride to Be and I said yes, thinking to myself "uh-oh" but it turned out that this CM had checked in my family. So I started asking check-in questions like “were our rooms were near each other” and “did David and Liane have connecting rooms with the boys” and “how close were we to the Food Court and Old Port Royal”? Well both ladies laughed as these were the exact same questions that Liane had asked when they checked in LOL I had trained her well – All requests had been honoured. So off I went to my room by the time I got there David, Liane and the kids were nearly totally unpacked and Liane was already ironing shirts.

My friend Bob, from Lakeland, stopped by as he needed a signature from me to pick up some goods that had been shipped to me at his address. We chatted for a while and made plans to meet up later in the week.

David and Liane then helped me with some unpacking and then we were trying to decide on where to go eat when the heavens opened up on us – a stormy night of lightning came upon us. None of us had any wet weather gear so I advised that we all wear clothes we didn’t mind getting wet in and we just made our way over to the Food Court we got drenched on the way but at least it was warm rain not the kind we are used to in the UK

I showed them the food court and we all picked up our refillable mugs and then we sat down to eat. I was very tired and emotional by this time which meant I was snappy and tearful at my brother. I told him I was stressed and he said that he was stressed too well LOL not that I needed to make a competition out of it but I kinda figured my stress was WAY more important than his bearing in mind I had not only been planning a wedding from thousands of miles away but I was also planning my brother’s first family vacation out of the UK and etc etc …….. need I go on – I made my point which my brother took and later hugged me so it was all good by the end of our meal.

We did buy rain ponchos at the shop but it wasn’t raining nearly enough for us to justify wearing them back to the rooms but ofcourse on the walk back the heavens opened again real heavy so we got wet again LOL and by then we were already too wet to put the ponchos on. We were all pretty tired and so called it a night but I think it was about 10 (3 in the morning UK time and to my body) by the time I got my room sorted and hit the sack.

We were all up early (time difference playing havoc with us)the next morning so after breakkie, which we got from the food court, we headed for Animal Kingdom. It was so great to see everyone's faces when we walked into AK and they saw the tree for the first time.

Our AK family photo

I dragged them off to Kilimanjaro Safari first of all as I wanted to ensure that they saw all the animals before it got too hot, they all loved it and it really helped to get them in the mood. I think from there we did Tough to Be a Bug, they had a few shocks in there and I loved listening to their screams – it gave me pleasure. We donned our ponchos for River Rapids (I know we’re losers) Liane forgot to put her hood up and still managed to get drenched. We saw the Tigers and also managed to get my brother on Primeveal Whirl he was really really scared and thoughout the whole ride he just kept screaming “this is wrong, this all wrong!” we then went and had a look at the where they are building the new Everest Ride – it looks like it’s gonna be a great coaster but sadly I really don’t think we’d get David on there for love or money. The heat and humidity soon got the better of us so we decided to leave the park and vowed to go back on another day so that they could see The Lion King show. On the way out there were characters outside the park so had some obligatory photos this was one of my favourites :

Ashley and Terk

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We split up as I had to go and pick up my rental car from the Dolphin, Cameron decided to come with me so we arranged to meet back at our village pool. I had booked a mid-size car but gosh it really felt big to drive – my car at home (Corsa) is so small by comparison and not nearly as much power – still it didn’t take me long at all to get used to the controls and of course driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Spent a couple of hours by the pool chilling out before getting ready to go out.

The family had decided to go to Planet Hollywood for dinner and I headed out to The Polynesian for a DisneyMooner Meet. What a great time we had. It was fun to meet other past and future Disneybrides. A fellow Disneymooner had brought along leis for us to wear and we all just chatted. It was great to meet everyone. One of my girlfriends who I had met through the Disneymooners, Dossie, bless her, had also gotten me some pressies – The Mickey & Minnie Bridal salt & Pepper shakers which I inadvertently dropped and chipped – can you believe I did this – but they are both fine and I like that they have a story attached to them, she also gave me some Mickey icon wine glasses and I’m definitely gonna be starting a set of these glasses soon as another Mooner later on in the trip surprised me with some icon champagne flutes

The meal was really good and it felt like my wedding rehearsal dress rehearsal. I was sad to see that they no longer offer the BBQ sauce but there was this new sauce that went with the steak really well. After the meal some of us decided it was too early to leave so we went down to the food court place and chatted some more – it was great fun and it made me wish I didn’t live so far across the pond. I then headed off as I wanted to go meet with another Disney Bride to Be who couldn’t make it to the meet, so I toodled off to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to meet up with her. We had drinks in the bar and chit chatted and I didn’t leave there until way past midnight. I was deffo over any jet-lag.

The next morning, Sunday, I took the family to EPCOT Future World.

Ashley, Liane, David & Cameron


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I was really disappointed that the Wonders of Life pavilion was closed that sucked I hate it when Disney make cuts like this. The family wanted to do Mission Space and I was glad to wait for them (simulators make me hurl) but no sooner had they gone in then David was by my side, he chickened out at the last minute. But when he heard how it wasn’t so bad from Liane he vowed to go back later on in the trip. We rode Test Track, Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Spaceship Earth, Honey I shrunk The Audience and took in some of the topiaries for the Flower and Garden Festival.

Interesting story in Ellen’s we had got to the middle car and were getting one side whilst another family had got in the other so we we were gonna meet somewhere in the middle but they came right over and had room behind them but we didn’t have enough room to get Liane in so I asked the father if he minded scooching back a bit – he told me he wanted to be in the middle for the best view so I told him in my most polite strong but subtle voice “well you know what Sir every seat in Disney is a good seat” – oh yeah he moved – my brother nearly wet himself he hates confrontation.

Later on Liane and Ashley also started to buy pins – this was gonna be a huge mistake and I could see straight away where my brother’s money was gonna be spent for the next 2 weeks. We decided to head back to the resort pool as we were hot and tired again. There was also a package for me left at reception – I’d had my “Soon to Be” hoodie shipped to my EM and he had delivered it to the front desk – it was white with pink embroidery, on the front it has my name and on the back it says “Soon to be Mrs Byrne”. I loved it but it was just sooooo damn hot I couldn’t wear it that often LOL and I forgot to get a piccy of myself in it, so sorry. We went to Jungle Jims at Crossroads for dinner it was OK but nothing special I don’t think I’d rush back there. Whilst we were there the heavens opened for another lightning storm but by the time we came out of the restaurant it was just sort of spitting with rain so we decided to go to the Marketplace for some shopping. We took Liane to the House of Pooh and she was in her element as Pooh is her favourite character – I don’t think my brother was too happy with me – I was costing him a fortune.

Monday we knew it was gonna be a rainy, cloudy, stormy day so we decided to go shopping. We went to Golden Corral for breakkie, again the family had never seen a buffet so huge so this was a little treat – Cameron and Ashley got a bit “boyish” and “troublesome” and we decided that we wouldn’t let them have ice-cream and M&M’s for breakkie again. I then drove us to the Florida Mall, I love this mall and this was the first of a couple of visits I made here. The boys got themselves tropical shirts for the Rehearsal Dinner. Liane came with me into Lane Bryant (I wish we had one in the UK) and chose me some great clothes that I probably wouldn’t have tried on so it was a successful shopping trip already for me. We then had to concentrate on getting Liane some shoes for her wedding outfit – we finally found a pair at Nordstroms – I love this shop for shoes alone, I got my own wedding shoes at a Nordstroms branch in CT. Later that afternoon David and Ashley went to DisneyQuest. I had to go meet with my Disney Event Manager/Wedding Co-ordinator (EM) to just check on a few things so Liane came along – we left Cameron at the pool. I was still undecided where everyone would get ready so we were talking this over with my EM we finally decided on David & Liane’s rooms at the Caribbean Beach as there would be 6 men and this seemed easiest. We chatted a little while longer but everything seemed to be all organized so there wasn’t much to discuss. For dinner that night we headed to The Olive Garden on International Drive, this is one of my favourite off-site restaurants again we don’t have these in the UK so I love to go here. The dinner was good quality and excellent value, we were all happy.

Tuesday we headed to MGM for Early Entry and by the time we got there, there were already lines for both Tower of Terror and Rock’n’Roller Coaster. David decided he didn’t want to do either so I decided not to do ToT I don’t mind the drops so much it’s the anticipation of it that kills me and what with my recent high blood pressure I decided not to put myself through it LOL. Whilst Liane and the boys rode ToT we got fast passes for Rock’n’Roller Coaster but when the others came off ToT the line wasn’t so long so we decided to join the standby line – but we didn’t tell the others we had fast passes. Liane and the boys got a real rush from Rock’n’Roller Coaster and David and I teased them a little by saying wouldn’t it be good to do it again and they were like “yeah but it’s now a 25 minute wait” – then we produced the fast passes “ta-dah” so off we went and rode it again whilst David waited for us – this time Liane and I got front row, super rush! We managed to get the Muppets and Star Tours under our belts before I left them to go do some wedding shopping. I drove up to Super Target opposite The Mall at Millenia I love Super Target it’s so clean and organized. A fellow Disney Bride to Be was shopping in their and recognized me from pictures so I chatted to her for a bit, such a small world. Anyway I shopped a little bit in Target for all my welcome bags and some goodies for me and then I went over to David’s Bridal to pick up the Bride & Groom baseball caps. Then it was back to the hotel with all my wares. The guys were just getting off the bus when I drove into Bermuda, so I was lucky that they were able to help me with my bags of shopping. I’d given David & Liane tickets to go see the UK band Stereophonics at House of Blues they were doing a warm up gig here in preparation for supporting David Bowie on his US tour – David & Liane said it was awesome – the boys were staying in and ordering pizza. I did have a ticket for Stereophonics but to be honest I wanted to have some alone time and I thought it would be good for David and Liane to have the same so I went off to the Flying Fish – I knew I wouldn’t have trouble getting a table at the counter. The food in here is very good. I decided against my usual “peeky toe carb cakes” and went for a special of Asparagus Soup followed by Pan Roasted Golden Tilefish – the fish was pure white and quite light it was served with Roasted fingerling potatoes and wild mushrooms with a sherry-shallot vinaigrette. It was very tasty and actually I wasn’t as stuffed as I usually am so I thought what the heck and ordered a dessert as well – Pistachio Cake with a chocolate center, pear sauce and vanilla ice-cream – it was truly yum-scrum !!! I chatted with some of the other customers and it made for a pleasant evening and some nice alone time.

Finally on Wednesday we made it to Magic Kingdom – my most favourite place on earth. Liane’s eyes lit up and within a very short time she was really really hooked and even purchased an autograph book and pen so that she could collect autographs, yes this is my 39 year old Sister in Law – I loved how she got into the whole Disney spirit. I frog-marched everyone to Space Mountain which we did twice, then over to Buzz – I still cannot work out how you get a good score, I always end up just a Space Ranger. I think we also went on the TTA whilst we were here in Tomorrowland. Then it was over to other mountains, we rode Splash first and I got everyone to put their arms in the air for the drop – I don’t have the piccy but I’ll get it off my brother and then scan it in. David wouldn’t ride Big Thunder Mountain until I promised him that Paul had been on it, it seems both Paul and David have similar ride thresholds, I promised him that Paul had, which was true although he won’t ride it again which I didn't tell David at the time We also managed the Haunted Mansion and then I put the family through pain by making them do the Tikki Room, well Small World was now down for refurb – the park was starting to get quite busy so we started to hit the shops until it was time for our PS at The Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends. Pooh is Liane’s most favourite character and I have to say she was somewhat excited about the whole thing – it was so cute.

Liane with Pooh


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She even bought the whole "Pooh had to go and be in the parade" as would all the characters so they couldn’t be out for a while. It was the first time I’ve eaten lunch here, I’ve had breakfast many times but never lunch and it was really good. A nice selection of salads as appetizers then a wide selection for entrees including some prime rib oh and I especially loved the chicken curry they have and the Thai Vegetable one too, they were scrummy. All in all we were in the Crystal Palace for nearly 2 hours – Pooh came to Liane twice and signed her autograph book both times, the first time he just wrote Pooh and the second time he wrote to my bestest girl (or something like that) she was on and I was so glad to have been a part of it.

We left MK about 4ish and went back to the hotel and to the pool then I quickly got ready for dinner. My friend Bob, from Lakeland, was coming over to deliver all my wedding stuff that I had ordered on-line and had shipped directly to him. It was like Christmas unwrapping everything – seeing the Unity Candle for the first time and the guest book pen and our toasting glasses, oh and the little pewter place card holders as well as other goodies – everything had turned out wonderful and I was really glad with all my choices LOL it would have been tough if I wasn’t !!

Bob and I decided to eat in a restaurant that neither of us had been to before so we chose The Coral Reef at Living Seas, Epcot. I remember when I first started visiting WDW in 1996/98 that this place used to get a lot of criticism so I wasn’t sure what to expect. OMG I soooo loved just walking into the main restaurant and seeing the huge aquarium or whatever it’s supposed to be called. LOL I did think about making the joke about "do I get to choose my own fish" but decided our waiter didn’t have that sort of sense of humour. We both ordered drinks I tried the Key Lime Martini: Ketel One Vodka, Key Lime Juice and cream it was very interesting but I won’t be ordering one again a little to sickly. We skipped starters and went straight into entrees I chose the Grilled Mahi-Mahi served with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Shiitake sauce it was very nice. Bob went for the Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon served over sautéed corn, onions and asparagus and a tomato broth, he said it was also very good. During our meal there was a behind the scenes diving tour happening in the tank which was really exciting and we got to wave at all the divers that was fun and it must have been really cool to be one of the divers looking at all of us stuffing our faces.

NOTE : now if you are having an Under the Sea theme or something similar – the butter patties here have shells monogrammed on them – I was too late for my wedding but just to give a heads up that you should be able to suggest having these rather than the Mickey butter if you want.

We then decided to indulge in some desserts, and I’m so glad that we did. I went for “The Chocolate Wave", OMG this is a chocoholics dream- warm dark choccy cake with white choccy Grand Marnier center served with chocolate panache and chocolate sorbet – all to die for. Bob went for the “Chocolate Adrift” which was a Frozen Chocolate Malt Mousse Raft, with white choccy oars – I got to taste that too and it was delish. So all in all I would recommend The Coral Reef and look forward to returning there in the future.

When I got back I went and sat by the pool and made some calls to my US friends – I have a US Virgin Pay as You Go Cell phone and it certainly saves me a lot of money and is very convenient.


Thursday was a really quiet day. The first thing I did was to call my EM – he’d left a message the day before asking me if I could change my trial hair & Make-up session with Disney Cosmotology from Saturday to Friday afternoon, I told him I couldn’t do that as I would be at the airport but was free all day today, Thursday – he said he’d get back to me – well we went through lots of "to-ing and fro-ing" on times and in the end he said that Cosmo would stick with the original plan of Saturday afternoon.

After that I drove the family to Blizzard Beach and dropped them off as I was going shopping AGAIN !! I started off at World of Disney Store and then decided to go back to the Florida Mall. It was great to just shop without anyone else – I was looking for a new outfit for my shower but sadly didn’t see anything I really really liked but I still made a few purchases. To be honest it’s really hard to shop for clothes for my size in the UK there isn’t a lot of choice so when I come over to the States I go a bit mad. Then I went back to the resort for some pool time, the family were back already and had a blast at Blizzard Beach – all the boys did Summit Plummit. I was a bit p’d off though that they only got lunch when they got back which was late afternoon so I was wondering what would happen about dinner – David and I had a little snap with each other – I sort of snapped that it looked like I’d be eating on my own as they had eaten junk food late and he snapped back at me that they couldn’t afford to eat out every night. So I said I understood but sort of went back to my room in a little huff, LOL the Bridezilla coming out in me. I decided to have a bath and had all the lights off so that I wouldn’t be disturbed and I could pretend I wasn’t there. Not long after the bath there was lots of knocking at the door – it seemed that David and Liane’s and the boy’s rooms hadn’t been cleaned properly, the bed had only been half made etc etc. So I got on the phone to Housekeeping, David had to walk out of the room as he hates conflict and things like that, I didn’t show I was angry on the phone just more disappointed , I told them that I was not used to substandard service from Disney in all the times that I have stayed with them in the past including Caribbean Beach Resort. I told them I understood that mistakes like that happen I wouldn’t have been so angry but the maid had taken the tip that had been left and I told them that this was not right when they hadn’t even finished the job. Management called me back and were very apologetic but it did take a while before someone got over to the room to sort it out.

David and Liane then helped me get all the welcome bags ready. Paul and I were giving each set of guests a Welcome bag which had lots of goodies and travel necessities in:

After this we then we decided to go out for supper so I took them to Beaches and Cream. We sat at the counter and had a real pig-out – I had my usual classic burger and fries and a chocolate malt – scrummy. We saw 2 Kitchen Sinks being made and the family were mesmerized by them – if you haven’t seen them before here’s a picture from a previous trip of how big they are :

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After dinner I dropped the family off and then drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see my friends Penny & Simon I hadn’t seen them since they dropped me off at the Caribbean Beach Resort so it was good to have a catch up.

I had everyone up early on Friday morning so that I could drive the family to Islands of Adventure so they’d be there in plenty of time to purchase their tickets before the park opened. Ashley had been going on and on about Fire and Ice and the Hulk all week so I was hoping that this would shut him up. I had stuff to do so was not going in with them. I gave them strict instructions on where to get a cab from and my cell phone number should they have any problems. Then I went to the Wyndham at Downtown Disney for fills for my nails at the Spa there. It did look like a nice spa, I especially liked the look of the little lap pool outside but I had already booked into the Grand Floridian for the day before the wedding and didn’t want to muck myself about so decided to stick with the GF. They did a great job on my nails and I sat for a while outside in the sun whilst they dried. It was a really hot sunny day and I was starting to feel a little thirsty and peckish so I popped over to DTD and went to MacDonalds – LOL now in all the years I have been coming to the States I have never eaten at a MacDonalds for the simple reason that I can get it at home – but I have to say it tasted sooooo good – you guys even do Big Macs better than ours LOL After my snack I drove out to the airport to pick my girlfriend Carol up. This was quite exciting for me. I only got my license last June and so to be able to do all this driving was great fun and a wonderful feeling of independence – LOL I know I’m 35 but I really felt so “grown-up” driving to the airport oh and not getting lost LOL. After I parked up I made some calls whilst I waited for Carol’s flight I then fancied some water so I headed off to Starbucks when I bumped into Carol. Then we picked up her luggage and headed back to the car and to the resort and to my room where she would be sharing with me for a few nights. We got her unpacked and then headed to Old Port Royale for some food and Long Island Iced Teas at the Pool bar. David and Liane met us there and then Carol and I had to get back to the room to shower and change as we were off to dinner that night in Epcot.

We got back to the room to find a message from Disney Cosmo saying that they had waited for us for 20 minutes outside our door and that I needed to re-arrange with them - errrrrr it was supposed to be Saturday not Friday - so I left a message on Tony's VM (I think he's the head Cosmo honcho) saying that as far as I was concerned it was supposed to be Saturday and that I just hoped that I would still get the same person on my wedding day and for the trial. I rang my EM just to keep him in the loop - he also had it in as Saturday. Got a message back from Tony full of apologies etc etc and that everything would be fine. I was sure it would be so wasn't that worried more annoyed at having to sort it out.

Anyway Carol and I then left for Epcot we got the bus as we knew we'd be drinking - Carol took a self-portrait of us on the bus which I was sure wasn't gonna come out LOL but here it is:

Sam and Carol on the Epcot Bus

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We'd got to the park far too early for our dinner PS so we had a nice leisurely walk around – people watching. We visited the wine cart in France and I got myself a glass of champagne then we sat and watched one of the entertainers. Finally it was time to go for our PS at Bistro de Chef – upstairs from Chefs. I had never eaten here so didn’t really know what to expect. We dined on Duck foie gras with a crunchy salad of artichoke and red cabbage with a vinaigrette and fig chutney, this was OK but the Scallops baked in the shell with sliced truffles and tarragon butter was melt in your mouth heaven. Then we shared a Grilled Bahamian lobster tail with herb butter, risotto with chives and bacon served with tomato and eggplant finely chopped – I thought the lobster tail was a little dry as was the risotto – we also shared the roasted tenderloin with Emmenthal gnocchi served with mushroom jus and green asparagus. The tenderloin was good but I’d certainly had better at other Disney fine dining establishments but overall the dish was really good. For dessert, yup we were really pushing the boat out, we decided on the Pistachio crème brulee, macaroon with passion fruit mousse, lime basil sorbet – Carol’s a crème brulee nut but we thought it was just OK – we also tried the Crepe Suzette’s (thin pancakes flamed in orange juice, butter, sugar and brandy) they were to die for and we loved the table side attention:

Our waiter cooking our Crepes



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I introduced Carol to the after dinner drink of Cointreau on the rocks – she was hooked. After dinner we headed off to the Boardwalk Belle Vue Lounge to meet up with our friend Dayna from OK – we had more Cointreau and sat and chatted until Dayna and her hubby were too tired to talk so it was into a cab for us and back to the room. We went to bed with me thinking it was still ANOTHER whole week until the wedding LOL I was gonna be exhausted.

So.....Saturday came and much to Carol’s displeasure I had everyone up early again and we headed back to Magic Kingdom to do all the attractions that we had missed the other day. We went straight to Fantasyland and went on the Winnie the Pooh ride Liane chastised me for not telling her about this ride sooner. After the ride there is another Pooh shop – I could have sworn that David gave me the evil eye ! Liane bought a T-shirt and insisted that she change her top but I insisted we get going and get our butts on Peter Pan before the crowds grew after all it was a Saturday and the park was bound to get busy. We all rode Peter Pan in two’s – when we got off Liane showed us she had changed her top – but when ?……….. no she couldn’t have, could she?………….. yup she had swapped them on the Peter Pan ride OMG the Disney Police were sure to be after us !!! We then did Mickey’s Philharmagic – this is one the best things that the Disney Imagineers have engineered in a long while it is one of my most favourite attractions . Then we went on Pirates, Aladdin’s Carpets and Jungle Cruise we now had done all the major attractions that we needed to do cool down – Pineapple Dole Whips here we come – the family weren’t too sure about these but for fear that my American friend Carol think them weird for not trying, everyone was game and they all enjoyed them. By now I’d had enough of being in the park so Carol and I decided that we should split we were thinking of lunch somewhere – Cameron didn’t want to stay either so we said he could come with us. David, Liane and Ashley stayed and had a blast, they saw the parade went over to Tom Sawyer Island and had lots of fun. Carol, Cameron and I went to Wolfgang Pucks at Downtown Disney, I just love their sushi – our waiter it turned out was also getting married and was trying to find an Officiant of course I gave him some names LOL Lunch was superb, the service in Puck’s is so hard to beat and I love the variety of the menu. Then it was back to the hotel pool for more chill out time before I had to be back in the hotel room for my trial with Disney Cosmotology.

Bang on time at 4.00pm Serena and Lili from Disney Cosmo turned up and almost turned our room upside down. I was firstly disappointed that I hadn’t got Irene or Rex, as I had heard that they were really good, but to be fair I had never asked for them specifically, anyway within 5 minutes of these ladies in my room I knew that it didn’t matter who I had. I described to them how I wanted my hair and showed them a couple of pictures that I’d seen but that I wanted a cross between the two – Serena quickly got to work. Lili and I had a chat about make up, she wanted to see the dress which I obliged – there were ooo’s and ahhh’s which was nice, I then told her that I loved make-up especially MAC so I was in heaven when I saw all her wares. Carol came in from the pool to watch and we all had a giggle. The ladies were quick to tell me that this was a trial but on the day everything would be a little more secure and more time would be spent making me perfect. At the end of the trial I absolutely loved my make-up but I wasn’t so sure about my hair it seemed a little flat and needed more oomph, so I discussed this with Serena and then Lili must have got the telepathic thoughts from me and she played around with my hair a little more to show Serena how she thought I wanted it on the day, she hit the nail on the head and we were all happy. Carol really enjoyed watching all the proceedings and asked if I could organize for her and others to have Disney Cosmo on the morning of the wedding and I said sure just let me know how many.

So then it was time to get ready for dinner – yes it’s true all I seem to do in WDW is eat I can assure you that I can definitely down 3 full meals a day at Disney with no trouble at all Carol and I drove over to the Boardwalk – other guests had arrived and I was keen to meet up with them and deliver welcome bags. A whole gang of us decided to go to Bongos (not my most favourite restaurants, but I go with the crowd). On the way my cell phone rang – it was my future BIL – he and his 2 kids had just arrived and he sounded a little stressed as he didn’t know what to do about bedding for the sofa bed in the suite they had at the Hotel Royal Plaza. So I told him to look around for sheets and blankets and spare pillows and if he couldn’t find any he should find the button on the phone that said housekeeping and ask them. A little later I felt bad that I should have gone to check that they were OK but I was told by the men in the group that I had told him exactly all he, as a man, needed to know to solve the problem. This made me feel a little better. We had a nice meal at Bongos, this restaurant is a favourite of my friend Frank’s, and I only there go because he likes it and I like to spend time with him – the food is generally OK and the past 2 occassions I have been there the service has been good but I’ve been there when the service has really sucked.



Afterwards we went back to the Boardwalk to pick up my car then Carol and I left everyone to head over to the Dolphin to meet with my friend Astrid who had just flown in from the UK. We chatted in the lobby for a while but Astrid was getting very tired and jetlagged so we left her, then headed over to the Swan to deliver some more welcome bags then it was back to the room – I seemed to have tired Carol out, bless her.

Sunday was Mother’s Day – Carol was going off to her mum’s who lives near Tampa I drove her over to the Dolphin to pick up her rental car. Then I went to deliver some more bags I still needed a Hurricane Lamp so I decided to head to Walmart on the US192 – I have been there before but I have to say since being in a Super Target I find Walmart quite scary – I walked in and realized that “I wasn’t in Kansas anymore” everything looked so disorganized so I checked for lamps – they had none so I promptly left. I was meeting some more wedding guests for lunch who had just arrived that morning. My friend Jody and her mum and our friend Karen who was celebrating her birthday that day were going to be staying at Old Key West they were gonna have lunch at Olivia so I crashed. They had pooled points together for a 2 bed villa and oh wow it was huge!! We had lunch at Olivias and it was really nice they were running a mothers day special of shrimp and crab cakes and angel hair pasta, followed by a special chocolate mousse dessert – it would have been rude not to indulge and it was very tasty. The waiter brought out cup cakes for Karen and sang Happy Birthday - it was fun. After lunch I decided to head over to Target again as I really liked that store – I picked up gift bags for the wedding party and some other bits. I was gonna then just go back to the hotel but then I remembered that Paul would be arriving tomorrow and that would be the end of my shopping so I then headed to The Mall at Millenia just opposite the Super Target. I just wanted to go into Macy’s – I picked up some more really nice clothes and managed to get an outfit that I was happy about for my Shower. From there I decided to check at Michael’s for a Unity Candle but I still couldn’t get one that was large enough for the candle itself, so I gave up – I went with a glass base and glass taper holders. I then drove to the Premium Outlet Center to get a few more bargains then it was time to head back to the hotel, did I mention that I like to shop. More guests were arriving and I was keen to see them. A few of us were eating at Kimonos that night for Karen’s birthday and as this was my last night before Paul got there I decided I was gonna “large” it up so I decided not to drive. I was meeting everyone at the Belle Vue Lounge at the Boardwalk and to be honest I think I was a bit stressed with so much going on in my head and everything and everyone wanting to chat to me. Two Martinis later and I seemed to chill out a bit. We were splitting into 2 groups the majority were eating at Spoodles and joining us at Kimonos later.

I’d left my family to fend for themselves that day – Liane was really pleased as she got more Mother’s Day cards (we had already celebrated Mother’s Day in March in the UK) - the family spent the day doing all the attractions they hadn’t done so that they could chill out more during the wedding week. I heard from them the next day that they had managed to see Spectro and Wishes on Saturday night and so now just had the Lion King show and Fantasmic to get under their belts so they were fine on their own and my brother had wanted to actually do Mission Space this time – which he did.

Kimono’s was a hoot – I was a big lush that night and loved every minute of it. I sang a couple of numbers and then also sang LoveShack with Astrid’s boyfriend Pete (whom I'd just met that night LOL) we closed the place and then walked back to the Boardwalk with everyone to get a taxi back to the room – I started to panic about how I was gonna get everything packed up and moved to The Yacht Club and spend the day at Typhoon Lagoon the next day all before Paul arrived, Carol assured me that I would.

Pete and I (Loveshack)


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Wedding Week to follow ...... HERE

 

[scarlett873]

whew!!

excellent detail!! off to read the next part!!

 

[KayleeUK]

Sam

You can't imagine how excited I was when I saw all of these reports from you this morning.....I couldn't wait to get home from work to start reading them

 

[Hilary]

Crikey, Sam - I'm absolutely exhausted just reading about it! ... and that's only the first week

I'll have to build myself up a bit before heading off to read the next bit

 

[Miffy2003]

Fantastic reports Sam!

I always love all your food reports especially

 

[MsPennieLane]

Wow Sam, sounds like you had a fantastic week! I really enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for sharing.

Anz

 

[squitty]

Wow Sam

Thanks for taking the time to write that. I've really enjoyed hearing all about it.

Photos are great

 

[boston1029]

I'm loving your report, but I can't see the pics. Can anyone help me?

 

[Astrid]

OMG Sam!! I can't believe I've only just got around to reading your report (and I'm reading it at work can you believe!!).

Roared out loud and made everyone in the office stop working when I saw the piccie of Pete - you never told me you'd posted that!!!

It's been lovely to read all about your first week - you did so much sweetie, I had no idea! It was so lovely to see all the photos of David, Liane and the boys too - didn't they just have the best time!

Thanks for a fab report and humble grovelling apologies for taking so long to read it.

Astrid xx (and Bryn and Carys .... oh and Pete!)