Why have I called Friday Day 1, even though we landed in Disney the day before? Because June 20th was the official start of our Disney vacation, the day I had been so looking forward to for months, the day we would wake up and breathe the rarified Disney air! (It also follows better from Wednesday as Day -1).
We woke up, a little later than anticipated, only to find out that our dates for Magic Kingdom (Angelas older sister, Melissa, and her four year old son, Christopher) hadnt even left Angelas parents house yet (about two hours away). Angela fretted a little about our Crystal Palace reservations (11:40 AM), but I wasnt worried. We were in Disney, with all of our luggage! What could go wrong now?
I gave Angela the shirt Id made her on Zazzle (I didnt get any pics of the back, but it says, Being a Disney bride is Tiggerific! I got married at the most magical place on Earth, 6/22/08.) The front, in all its glory:
Angela loves Tigger, and I gave her the shirt to wear on Friday so that she could meet Tigger in the shirt. Great photo op, believe me.
We went to eat breakfast at the ASM cafeteria, and I was pleasantly surprised by the selection, the unlimited drink refills, and all the condiments (I love free condiments). Only downer: no whipped cream for the Mickey waffle! Whats the point of a Mickey waffle without whipped cream? And Disney, for all its baking prowess, doesnt make a very good bagel. After we noshed, we dropped off the welcome folders at the concierge desk, along with my helpful reservation number spreadsheet.
As we were dropping off the folders, who do we meet but my grandparents! Its kind of weird to see people you know from other contexts in a different place. I couldnt believe my grandparents were in Disney World. They werent thrilled with the ASM, but they figured it was only for a few days. We gave them their welcome packet and suggested they go to Downtown Disney. I cant imagine them at a park (not least of all because the admission fee is kind of high if you dont like going on any rides), but my grandmother does love to shop.
Angelas family got in just as I said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. Because we had wanted to surprise him, we got to inform Christopher that he was going to Disney World. At first, he wasnt sure what Disney World was, but as we drove closer to the castle, he started to get really excited. Angelas dad dropped us off at the transportation center, and Chris rode the monorail for the first time.
Coolest part of WDW, in my humble opinion:
Angela and I exchanged our annual pass vouchers for real, live annual passes, and dashed into the park in order to make our reservation time (thankfully, Angela managed to get to the restaurant without hurting herself or others). We waited for a few minutes outside the Crystal Palace in the sticky heat, and then we were in!
I had put honeymoon on all of our ADRs, so we were greeted with some pixie dust:
Angela proceeded to throw pixie dust everywhere, including down my shirt and in my purse. I still have some, and it tends to escape from my purse whenever I try to pay for something. I guess Im just spreading the Disney magic.
Some ads do a remarkable job of lodging themselves in our psyche. Im going to Disneyworld! is one. So is the Mastercard commercial. I cant resist: One-day Magic Kingdom tickets for mother and child, $100. Lunch for four at the Crystal Palace, over $100. Seeing Christophers Tigger dance, watching him lead the Winnie the Pooh parade, and getting a pic of Angela meeting Tigger in her Tigger shirt, priceless. The food at CP is so-so, but it is really cool to meet the characters; especially for Christopher, because at 4 years old, he still knows that theyre real.
First, we met Eeyore, who reminds me a lot of Angelas dad:
Then we waited for Tigger to come.
Christophers Tigger dance:
Finally, the feline, the legend, approached our table:
And last, but certainly not least, Pooh:
Christopher also got to lead the Winnie the Pooh parade, but when it ended, Christopher was not ready to be done, so he decided to continue marching around the restaurant. Beyond cute.
Let me just note that I come from a long line of child-corrupters. My mother delights in giving bubble gum to small children, teaching them annoying songs, and otherwise making them impossible to control. And in so many ways, I am exactly like my mother. I blew giant bubbles for Christophers amusement, then gave him gum on the sly. I showed him how to blow bubbles in his drink, only to have it spill over onto the table. Angela, as she often does, threw her straw wrapper at me, and of course Mickey confetti was flying. Well, I always wanted to be the fun aunt. Poor Melissa.
After we finished helping ourselves to dessert, we went forth into the park. We rode Pirates (Id never been, because it had been under renovation the last two times I was in Magic Kingdom). I couldnt believe how realistic Jack Sparrow looked (by which I mean, exactly like Johnny Depp), but I was disappointed that the ride was so short. We got fast-passes for Splash Mountain, and decided to wait in line for Thunder Mountain. The wait was about 40 minutes, and it was hot.
Mickey confetti sticking to me:
Christopher loved the ride and wanted to go again, but we were dying for libation. I bought Christopher a Mickey bar (I really wanted to see him eat Mickey ice cream), but he ended up giving most of it to Melissa. Ange and I split a popsicle and water. Yummy.
Angela tried her hand at a shooting game (shes scarily good at marksmanship), and we decided to go to my favorite part of MK, the cheesy rides. First stop: Small World. Angela and Melissa have horrendous memories of being stranded on the ride, listening to the dulcet tones of the childrens chorus intone Its a Small World After All nonstop for an hour. I, however, love the pure corniness of the ride. The wait wasnt long, but
I had other things to preoccupy me.
Namely, my mother called to say that they had landed. Yay! But no, she wanted me to book dinner at Downtown Disney. For the entire family. 11 people, Downtown Disney, Friday night. Great idea to wait until 3:30 PM on said Friday. I called the Disney reservation line, but nothing was available at Wolfgang Puck or Rain Forest. And when I say nothing, I mean no reservations at all. Not for 2 or 12, at 5 PM or 10 PM. Portobello Yacht Club, however, had an opening at 5:20. Which meant no Splash Mountain (our fast pass time was 5:15 to 6:15), and we had to run after the ride. Fine, it was our only hope; I took the reservation, and called my mom back. She says, oh, but we have to invite the couple that we flew down with (family friends), and my sister, who had just called to say shed arrived, but she was really mad at my great-uncle, so we cant invite them. So, we went from 11 to 14, and pissed off my great-aunt and uncle in the process. And even though my mother had specifically asked me to get an early reservation, she was thinking that 5:20 would be too early.
I had made ADRs for almost every meal during our Disney trip, but I had purposefully not made one for Friday night because my mom didnt want me to. She wanted to play it by ear. Let me give some context: in the town of Norwich, CT, reservations dont exist. You dont need reservations to eat at any of the fine restaurants in Norwich, mainly because we dont have any fine restaurants. And Im pretty sure McDonalds and Subway dont take reservations. My parents are vaguely aware of reservations as a concept, but they definitely dont come across them on a regular basis. So for my mother, making plans for 11 people or adding in three people at the last second are not big concerns. Living in Princeton, I am now aware that some restaurants will not accept you without reservations, and they dont take kindly to number-switching at the last second.
Meanwhile, Angela was chatting it up with a friendly honeymooning couple from Ireland behind us in line. They were so nice, and all I wanted to do was talk about my wedding dress and our honeymoon plans. Instead, I spent the entire line on the phone, playing the cruise director I was determined not to be. We rode through the small world (Christopher was dragging a little at this point, and it had a decidedly slower pace than Thunder Mountain), and then headed out to the buses. We figured wed take the bus to Saratoga Springs and then walk over.
Unfortunately, Florida weather disrupts even the best laid plans. No sooner had we disembarked at Saratoga then the skies opened, dropping torrential rain and hail. Angelas parents, whod picked up my grandparents to take them to dinner, were stranded in their car at Downtown Disney. And it was 5:15. By the time a Downtown Disney bus came for us, it was 5:30. We got off at Downtown Disney and waited under the bus stop, a few rows down from where my parents were trapped, also waiting for the rain to let up. Finally, at around 5:45, the rain lessened enough for us to run across the parking lot to the McDonalds, where Angelas parents greeted us with towels. We figured that the rain might have deterred other customers, so we would have a shot at eating at the Portobello Yacht Club, even if we were by now 40 minutes late for our reservation.
Sure enough, they let us in, bedraggled and damp. The fourteen of us had a wonderful dinner, courtesy of my grandparents (more cheese-less pizza for me, plus the excellent marinated strawberries). Like a stooge, I didnt take any pictures, but I do have one of my family taken afterward (of course, the sun came out during our dinner).
Dad, Noah, Moi, April, Mummy (holding her welcome folder):
After dinner, we split up. Angela wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom to see the parade with Melissa and Christopher. I wanted to take my dad to see Get Smart for his Fathers Day gift. My sister and brother came with us, and everyone else caravanned back to the ASM.
We loved the movie. My dad and I were huge fans of the original show, and we were glad that they didnt try to make the movie into a mere full-length retread. Oddly enough, my sister left the movie after about ten minutes and didnt come back, the start of her weird behavior, but the rest of us enjoyed ourselves.
The movie ended around 11, much later than I thought, but the night was not over yet! Most of our friends had arrived in Orlando, and they insisted that we go clubbing. Neither Angela nor I had been to Pleasure Island, and even though we were exhausted, our crew would not take no for an answer. After a day at Magic Kingdom, though, we were sweaty and gross. Back to ASM to shower (Angela got back from the fireworks a few minutes before me; apparently, Christopher absolutely loved the parade, and was totally excited to finally meet Mickey). I cut myself shaving (great idea to shave my underarms in the darkness of an ASM bathroom at 11:30 PM when I was exhausted), but it didnt stop us from getting dressed in clubbing finery (ok, were not that good at dolling ourselves up, but we try. I wore black capris and a white shirt; Angela wore white capris and a black shirt. Sorry, no incriminating pics.)
Noah, who turned 18 on Sunday, our wedding day, was technically not allowed by law to accompany us to Pleasure Island. So I wont say for sure if/how he managed to come with us into the clubs and/or consume alcoholic beverages
We had a blast. PI was pretty clean and smoke-free, and the plethora of police officers made us feel safe. We did a little club-hopping, but spent most of the time at Mannequins. Id say the funniest part was that so many guys kept trying to dance with Angela and me when we danced together. We had gone clubbing exactly once before, so we werent exactly experts at rejecting people. I was very glad that we had so many friends around us, though. We stayed until the club closed, at 2 AM.
At that point, there was a little room-hopping (we had purposefully set up one of our bridesmaids with one of our guys, and the plan worked, perhaps a little better than anticipated). We all headed back to one room or another, ready to wake up in 6 hours for tux fittings and dress steamings.
Of course, now that weve found a club that we like, Disney is closing Pleasure Island. Im not that upset about it, because Im really psyched for the private party room at Goofys Candy Co. (my 24th birthday party, perhaps?), but I do feel bad for PI devotees.
Up next: Day 2: When did I become such a sap? 
Can't wait for more! Glad you got the tiara fiasco worked out!! Now im wondering....will it make it to the resort? will her head be bare on her wedding day? will Sungela get everything they dreamt of?? Ooooooh....i HATE to be continueds
Love your info letter!! How funny, and original!! What a great idea!!
Hope the bump/bruise wasn't visiable during the wedding!
I was happy in my own little world. I decided on a Grand Marnier orange slush from France on the recommendation of my favorite travel guru Samantha Brown- WOW it was strong---
I'm glad you guys made it to Orlando ok and your tiara was there! You did a great job on the welcome folders by the way 
She was amazing. And I can't wait to see the final product!
