**This Relaxation Thing Looks GOOD On Us!-Our July 2012 Honeymoon**NEW TR LINK!!!!!!!

[CAStevens218]

Wow! Discovery Cove really looks likes you are on a tropical island somewhere. It's been in the back of my mind for a while now. It looks like the perfect way to relax. My friend said it was the best day of her honeymoon.

We swam with dolphins when we went to Riviera Maya last year and it was so much fun, especially since it was just my DH and I, the dolphin and the trainer.

We absolutely LOVE Discovery Cove. It is so beautiful and relaxing!

Your dolphin swim experience sounds great! We would love to do something more private like that some day!

I wish I was there right now . . . but instead I'm just reading about it at work We went swimming with dolphins on our honeymoon in Hawaii and it was awesome, but not as nice as it is at Discovery Cove. Great update!

HAHA...definitely a great work passtime!!!!

Hawaii...how awesome!! I would love to get there some day!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Friday was one of the days I was most excited for on our trip! We had plans from morning until late at night…well, actually…until very early morning the next day!!

We were up bright and early with an alarm at 7:00AM, although I hit snooze until 7:20AM and Ben until 7:45AM. We got ready quickly and walked out of the room shortly after 8:00AM.

We made the quick drive to our destination…Hollywood Studios! We walked up to the gates around 8:20AM and joined the lines. There were many more people than I expected…the lines at each turnstile was about 30 or 40 people deep! I took a quick survey of our options and we made our way to the turnstile at the far left, where there were only about 15 people in line.

We didn’t have long to wait once we got settled…I had read that Hollywood Studios had been typically opening a bit early and that held true on this morning. The gates opened at 8:45AM and we headed inside.

Our first mission was Toy Story Mania in the standby line. We had never been through it before, only riding through the fastpass line in the past, so I was pretty excited to check out the themeing of the line.

This line is so nostalgic to me! It completely brings me back to my childhood.

Mr. Potato Head is so much fun!

I love the lights hanging from the Tinker Toys!

We got a Wheezy car! So cute!

Here we are, ready to go! I was psyched up to kick Ben’s you-know-what!! I can never win at Buzz Lightyear but I have a shot at TSM!

We had so much fun….but….Ben won! Booo!

As we walked out, we debated grabbing fastpasses for later, since the return time was awesome, 10:30AM-11:30AM. We decided against it in favor of fastpassing Tower of Terror or Rockn’ Roller Coaster instead.

We made our way over to my favorite area of the park. I was so excited!!

Ben went over to get fastpasses for Rockn’ Roller Coaster while I waited near the entrance to Tower of Terror.

I spent the time just gazing at my love!!!

Ben was gone for SO LONG. I started to get very impatient. He was wearing orange on this day, and every time somebody would approach wearing that color I would get all excited but it was never him. Who knew orange was such a popular color!??!!

I heard people walking past saying that the roller coaster was down, and floods of people were heading toward Tower of Terror. I started to get annoyed at this point…what was taking Ben so long?? Didn’t he know what was going on? Why wasn’t he hurrying back to beat the crowd??

He finally made his way back, fastpasses in hand. He said that he couldn’t decide what to do when he saw the situation at the RRC. Since it was down, the lines at the fastpass machines were crazy long. He didn’t want to give up though because he knew we were only staying until lunch time and might not get to ride if he didn’t get those fastpasses! He said he knew I would be getting annoyed so he was so torn!!!! This cracked me up and my annoyance disappeared.

We jumped into the ever-growing line for Tower of Terror. I know I saw this every time, but I love everything about this ride.

I sooo wish I could have the chance to walk through the roped off areas and check everything out up close!

I love the library and I would love the chance to explore it with the lights on as well!

Finally, we were through to the boiler room!

Blurry but excited!

Finally, we were standing in front of our elevator waiting to get on! People seemed to have a lot of trouble with the numbering concept on this trip…I’m not sure why. But it took a while for everyone to get sorted.

Waahoooo!!

We walked right out of the gift shop and made our way around for a second ride!

...continued in next post...

 

[CAStevens218]

...continued from previous post...

The wait was a lot longer this time. The first ride we had moved through very quickly and not stayed in one spot for very long. This was the longest we had ever waited for this ride.

They had the mist machines going and it felt really good to walk through them…it was a hot one!!!

I had a ton of time to take pictures of the amazing details in this line since we were standing still quite a lot.

Has anyone ever noticed her before?

Front row this time! I love the view from here, but I actually prefer the middle or back for a better stomach in throat feeling during the drop!

After our ride we spent a few minutes in the gift shop. Ben bought me a Hollywood Tower Hotel pin and I got a tshirt I had been eyeing.

Now for a shock. This was the line for Tower of Terror when we walked out.

It was about 10:15AM and our Rockn’ Roller Coaster fastpasses weren’t good until 11:00AM. Obviously, Tower of Terror was not an option, so we decided to go to the Animation Building to see if we could get into a drawing class.

We watched the show, which was very cute and entertaining, we both really enjoyed it!

We got in line for the drawing class at 10:45AM and were able to get into the 11:00AM class, which was great.

I loved the art on the walls in the little waiting area.

The class was so much fun! I seriously could have been happy doing that over and over again!

We got to draw Tinkerbell, which I was very excited about. It was kind of tough, but I was pretty proud of my results. Ben thought his was terrible, but I think it is better than he says it is!

Mine:

Ben’s:

Now, it was Rockn’ Roller Coaster time!!!

As we made our way over, we stopped to watch some performers. They were doing a skit where the guy standing up had to pay a dollar to ask a question and the other guy kept giving him answers that required more questions. It was pretty entertaining and funny!

Rockn’ Roller Coaster was amazing, as always!

I love watching the cars take off! That part is too much fun!

Our next mission was a cupcake from Starring Rolls. This was our last “to-do” for our morning at Hollywood Studios. We jumped in line and chose a Red Velvet Cupcake. When we were there in January they had to-go boxes, so we asked for one since we didn’t plan on eating it right then, but they said they didn’t have any and never had. I told them I had gotten one in January but the guy just looked at me. Okay then.

We took the cupcake on a plate and Ben went into the candy store next door to ask for a box, which they happily gave him.

Here is our glorious cupcake!

Next up? Lunch! We had plans to eat outside of the park, so we walked back to the car and headed on our way. We arrived at our destination, Downtown Disney, at 12:30PM and had a really hard time finding a parking spot! We did eventually find one and entered Downtown Disney near the Lego Store, which meant we had a bit of a walk to our destination, Earl of Sandwich.

We were both hot and hungry and ready for a break, so we didn’t stop anywhere along the way. We just wanted to get our sandwiches and take them back to the hotel to eat and relax in our air conditioned hotel room!

The line at Earl of Sandwich was surprisingly short! I chose their special, the Chipotle Chicken Avocado and Ben got his favorite, the Earl’s Club.

We got everything bagged up to go and made our way back to the hotel room. We ate comfortably in bed watching TV. Everything was SO good, as always!

Here is my Chipotle Chicken Avocado. It definitely had a bit of a kick to it!

And here is Ben’s Earl’s Club. He loves this sandwich and has talked about it constantly since he first had it whenever we first ate at Earl of Sandwich!

After lunch we knew we had to rest up for the long night we had planned, so we napped from 2:00PM-3:30PM. We showered and got ready after our nap to head out for a night of excitement, which I will tell you all about next time!

 

[scottny]

Can you believe we stayed at the Beach Club and never tried Beaches and Cream?!?

You must try it.

Great updates and pics.

I would love to got o Discovery Cove someday.

That line for TOT was crazy.

Earl is a great place to eat.

 

[DisneyFanDC]

Our next mission was a cupcake from Starring Rolls. This was our last “to-do” for our morning at Hollywood Studios. We jumped in line and chose a Red Velvet Cupcake. When we were there in January they had to-go boxes, so we asked for one since we didn’t plan on eating it right then, but they said they didn’t have any and never had. I told them I had gotten one in January but the guy just looked at me. Okay then.

We took the cupcake on a plate and Ben went into the candy store next door to ask for a box, which they happily gave him.

Brilliant! I love taking Starring Rolls cupcakes back to enjoy in the room, and they are always smooshed by the time I bring them back b/c Starring Rolls never has boxes. This is the best tip, thank you!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I love, love, love the drawing class! Both of your drawings are great.

Sounds like you had a productive morning and definitely needed that nap!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

You must try it.

Great updates and pics.

I would love to got o Discovery Cove someday.

That line for TOT was crazy.

Earl is a great place to eat.

I hope you get to go to Discovery Cove one day soon! It is amazing!

The Tower of Terror line was INSANE! I’m so glad we got two rides in before it got too crazy.

Yumm, Earl of Sandwich, I wish I had some right now!

Brilliant! I love taking Starring Rolls cupcakes back to enjoy in the room, and they are always smooshed by the time I bring them back b/c Starring Rolls never has boxes. This is the best tip, thank you!

This was a great solution! I think we had to put the cupcake on its side, but at least it was all in one piece!

I love, love, love the drawing class! Both of your drawings are great.

Sounds like you had a productive morning and definitely needed that nap!!!

The drawing class was so much fun! I love things like that, can’t wait to do it again some day!

We had an awesome morning…and the day gets even better, just wait!

 

[GraceMonica]

Just joining in!

First off Congratulations!!

I'm LOVING all of the pictures! Sounds like your first few days were just lovely!

I'm looking forward to future updates!

 

[CAStevens218]

Just joining in!

First off Congratulations!!

I'm LOVING all of the pictures! Sounds like your first few days were just lovely!

I'm looking forward to future updates!

Welcome, thanks for reading along!!!!!

We had a fabulous time this entire trip, from beginning to end! I can't wait share the rest!!

 

[jc040404]

I cannot believe people were waiting in that line!! Yikes! Glad you were able to get a couple rides in before. That was insane. (But anyone who rides that one probably is, too.. You know I'm kidding!)

Lovin the pictures! I've never seen some of this stuff before, so it's nifty to check it out on your TR. I think Ben's Tink pic looks great! I'm afraid to try that drawing stuff. Nice that you were able to get into a class so fast!

Earl of Sandwich must be good!

 

[CAStevens218]

I cannot believe people were waiting in that line!! Yikes! Glad you were able to get a couple rides in before. That was insane. (But anyone who rides that one probably is, too.. You know I'm kidding!)

Lovin the pictures! I've never seen some of this stuff before, so it's nifty to check it out on your TR. I think Ben's Tink pic looks great! I'm afraid to try that drawing stuff. Nice that you were able to get into a class so fast!

Earl of Sandwich must be good!

That line was too crazy! I couldn't believe anyone would get in it!!!

You should give the drawing class a shot...its a lot of fun! The guy did go kind of fast though...I got flustered a couple of times.

Oh man, Earl of Sandwich is so so sooo good!!!!

 

[CAStevens218]

When I left off, we had napped after a fun filled morning at Hollywood Studios, and were now ready to head out for the evening. We left the room a little before 5:00PM and drove to the Transportation and Ticket Center so that we could take the monorail to our first destination, EPCOT.

We had a 5:30PM reservation at Teppan Edo, and we arrived at EPCOT at about 5:25PM, so we took a very speedy walk toward the World Showcase. A Friendship boat was just docking as we arrived at the lagoon, so we jumped on for a ride across.

The boat dropped us off in Morocco, and we jumped off and hurried to Japan.

It was a bout 5:45PM when we checked in. I found the check in a little confusing because it was outside, but Ben was on it and spotted it right away, so we avoided any frustration. If you are going, just be aware that the check in area is at the bottom of the big staircase that leads up to the restaurant!

We were given a pager and directed upstairs to the restaurant. The second we stepped inside, the buzzer went off and we were taken to our table.

We were seated with 3 other couples, two of the couples were around our age and the other looked to be a mother and son. No one at the table was very talkative except with the person they came with, which was fine for us. We would have enjoyed conversation if it had happened but we were just finding talking to each other as well.

Very soon, the waitress came to take our drink orders. I ordered the iced green tea and a strawberry smoothie and Ben ordered a coke and a Mt Fuji.

This is when we discovered that the mother from the mother/son couple was a little out there. The poor waitress just wanted to take our drink orders and she started asking a million questions about the food. “How’s the steak? Can I have a fork? What is miso soup?” Oh boy, here we go.

The waitress finally got her drink order and went away to get everyone’s beverages. While we were waiting and checking out the menu, I looked at the table across from us and saw a drink that looked like Windex…I pointed it out to Ben and told him how disgusting it looked. Sure enough, when the drinks came, he was handed a glass of Windex!! If you take one tip from this trip report, DO NOT ORDER A MT FUJI!

My smoothie, on the other hand, was fabulous!!

The waitress took our food and appetizer orders next. I ordered the edamame as an appetizer and Filet Mignon for ,my entrée. Ben also got the Filet Mignon.

Our appetizer came quickly and the it was a HUGE portion! I started eating before I remembered to take a picture, but picture all the beans on one plate!

The chef was soon at the table and started cooking our dinner. He was a lot of fun and we had a great time munching on our edamame and watching the show!

Of course, this whole time, the woman next to us was asking crazy questions. She somehow asked about my edamame enough to convince me to offer her some…she didn’t know what it was or how to eat it and I think I just wanted to shut her up?!!?

Once dinner was served the lady finally quieted down and we were all served. This food was AMAZZZZZZZINGGG!!!!!

The steak was just as good as what we had gotten at Narcoosee’s on our first night! The noodles and vegetables were fabulous!

I had always been skeptical about the food here for some reason. I never thought the pictures I had seen looked very appetizing. If you are skeptical…give it a try!!! I SERIOUSLY enjoyed this meal, and so did Ben. Everything was absolutely perfect! (Except for the Mt Fuji!!!)

We took our time eating, and enjoyed eating every last bite with our chopsticks! (Ms. Inquisitive did receive a fork and put it to good use, in case you were wondering!)

We weren’t really interested in the dessert choices, but we decided to try since it came with the dining plan. We got a green tea pudding and a chocolate ginger cake to share.

Both were surprisingly good!! We truly enjoyed this entire meal experience and can’t wait to go back again some day!

We headed out of the restaurant around 7:10PM. We took a moment at the top of the stairs to enjoy the view and make a plan.

We decided to take a few minutes and walk around the shop in Japan. We had never been inside and I was excited to check it out. There is SO MUCH to look at in there! I saw so many things I wanted to buy, but I decided to hold off because I didn’t want to have to carry it around all night…we had big plans!

At about 7:40PM, we decided it was time to make our way to the front of the park so that we could take the monorail to our next destination. We were able to enjoy the gorgeous views in World Showcase as we made our way out. It was the perfect evening!

We made one stop along the way, at the shop at the beginning of the World Showcase. My sandals were killing me and giving me terrible blisters, so I knew I had to buy some new footwear if I didn’t want to be miserable for the rest of the night. I ended up finding some cute black flip flops, which were better but not perfect…my feet were still bothering me. I ended up with some pretty terrible blisters by the end of the night. In hindsight, I should have gone back to the hotel to get sneakers. Oh well, live and learn. But, for my second public service announcement of this update…don’t wear new sandals to Disney World unless you are sure they won’t give you blisters!!

The good news is, Ben found a great new look while I was shopping!

With the show mission accomplished, we continued on our way out. With a quick photopass picture, we said goodbye to EPCOT for the night!

Up next…a delicious and magical night!!!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Teppan Edo looks good! We have a hibachi restaurant near our house, though, and it's amazing so we never make it a priority to go to Teppan Edo. (It's not Bennihana either!) It also bothers me that it doesn't seem like you can have fried rice in substitution of the white rice. I love fried rice! I'd love to go there if we ever take a trip with a group.

Blisters in Disney are no fun! That happened to me a couple years back and I learned my lesson NOT to bring new shoes. I also come prepared with blister spray and plenty of band-aids!

Loving your report, can't wait to read more!

 

[CAStevens218]

Teppan Edo looks good! We have a hibachi restaurant near our house, though, and it's amazing so we never make it a priority to go to Teppan Edo. (It's not Bennihana either!) It also bothers me that it doesn't seem like you can have fried rice in substitution of the white rice. I love fried rice! I'd love to go there if we ever take a trip with a group.

Blisters in Disney are no fun! That happened to me a couple years back and I learned my lesson NOT to bring new shoes. I also come prepared with blister spray and plenty of band-aids!

Loving your report, can't wait to read more!

We have a hibachi that we love around here as well, but it is nothing like Teppan Edo. We can get yummy fried rice at that one as well. You are correct, there isn't fried rice at Teppan Edo, but, shockingly, I didn't miss it. Everything just tasted so fresh and clean and pure.

Blister spray...I've never heard of that, but I sure wish I had some! I ended up layering bandaids on and taking Motrin to dull the pain.

 

[jc040404]

The sky is gorgeous in these pictures! I love the way the sun is shining through!

This sounds so yummy! Well, minus the Windex! That was almost funny. I'll be sure to avoid it when/if we go back. You definitely have me craving the scallops I had there!

That woman sounds.. interesting. I laughed when I read you'd shared food with her. That's nuts!

Excited for the rest of this night! Delicious & magical? Can't wait!!

 

[CAStevens218]

The sky is gorgeous in these pictures! I love the way the sun is shining through!

This sounds so yummy! Well, minus the Windex! That was almost funny. I'll be sure to avoid it when/if we go back. You definitely have me craving the scallops I had there!

That woman sounds.. interesting. I laughed when I read you'd shared food with her. That's nuts!

Excited for the rest of this night! Delicious & magical? Can't wait!!

It was such a pretty night!

Oh man, that drink was so disgusting! Windex might be better!

The woman was definitely interesting, to say the least. Absolutely no idea of how to behave appropriately in the situation. I'm really not sure how I ended up sharing food with her...I think I just wanted her to stop asking me about it!!!

This was an amazing night, I can't wait to write about the rest!!!! Hopefully I'll be able to sit down and do it in the next few days.

 

[CandleontheWater]

Wow, that drink does look a little gross. I don't like anything with blue curacao in it, so I would have avoided the drink like the plague anyway!

Glad you guys enjoyed Tepan Edo! I wasn't all that impressed the last time I was there, but maybe I should give it a second chance, it might have been an off night.

Looking forward to hearing what the rest of the night holds, EMH maybe?

 

[livsmom04]

When I left off, we had napped after a fun filled morning at Hollywood Studios, and were now ready to head out for the evening. We left the room a little before 5:00PM and drove to the Transportation and Ticket Center so that we could take the monorail to our first destination, EPCOT.

We had a 5:30PM reservation at Teppan Edo, and we arrived at EPCOT at about 5:25PM, so we took a very speedy walk toward the World Showcase. A Friendship boat was just docking as we arrived at the lagoon, so we jumped on for a ride across.

The boat dropped us off in Morocco, and we jumped off and hurried to Japan.

It was a bout 5:45PM when we checked in. I found the check in a little confusing because it was outside, but Ben was on it and spotted it right away, so we avoided any frustration. If you are going, just be aware that the check in area is at the bottom of the big staircase that leads up to the restaurant!

We were given a pager and directed upstairs to the restaurant. The second we stepped inside, the buzzer went off and we were taken to our table.

We were seated with 3 other couples, two of the couples were around our age and the other looked to be a mother and son. No one at the table was very talkative except with the person they came with, which was fine for us. We would have enjoyed conversation if it had happened but we were just finding talking to each other as well.

Very soon, the waitress came to take our drink orders. I ordered the iced green tea and a strawberry smoothie and Ben ordered a coke and a Mt Fuji.

This is when we discovered that the mother from the mother/son couple was a little out there. The poor waitress just wanted to take our drink orders and she started asking a million questions about the food. “How’s the steak? Can I have a fork? What is miso soup?” Oh boy, here we go.

The waitress finally got her drink order and went away to get everyone’s beverages. While we were waiting and checking out the menu, I looked at the table across from us and saw a drink that looked like Windex…I pointed it out to Ben and told him how disgusting it looked. Sure enough, when the drinks came, he was handed a glass of Windex!! If you take one tip from this trip report, DO NOT ORDER A MT FUJI!

My smoothie, on the other hand, was fabulous!!

The waitress took our food and appetizer orders next. I ordered the edamame as an appetizer and Filet Mignon for ,my entrée. Ben also got the Filet Mignon.

Our appetizer came quickly and the it was a HUGE portion! I started eating before I remembered to take a picture, but picture all the beans on one plate!

The chef was soon at the table and started cooking our dinner. He was a lot of fun and we had a great time munching on our edamame and watching the show!

Of course, this whole time, the woman next to us was asking crazy questions. She somehow asked about my edamame enough to convince me to offer her some…she didn’t know what it was or how to eat it and I think I just wanted to shut her up?!!?

Once dinner was served the lady finally quieted down and we were all served. This food was AMAZZZZZZZINGGG!!!!!

The steak was just as good as what we had gotten at Narcoosee’s on our first night! The noodles and vegetables were fabulous!

I had always been skeptical about the food here for some reason. I never thought the pictures I had seen looked very appetizing. If you are skeptical…give it a try!!! I SERIOUSLY enjoyed this meal, and so did Ben. Everything was absolutely perfect! (Except for the Mt Fuji!!!)

We took our time eating, and enjoyed eating every last bite with our chopsticks! (Ms. Inquisitive did receive a fork and put it to good use, in case you were wondering!)

We weren’t really interested in the dessert choices, but we decided to try since it came with the dining plan. We got a green tea pudding and a chocolate ginger cake to share.

Both were surprisingly good!! We truly enjoyed this entire meal experience and can’t wait to go back again some day!

We headed out of the restaurant around 7:10PM. We took a moment at the top of the stairs to enjoy the view and make a plan.

We decided to take a few minutes and walk around the shop in Japan. We had never been inside and I was excited to check it out. There is SO MUCH to look at in there! I saw so many things I wanted to buy, but I decided to hold off because I didn’t want to have to carry it around all night…we had big plans!

At about 7:40PM, we decided it was time to make our way to the front of the park so that we could take the monorail to our next destination. We were able to enjoy the gorgeous views in World Showcase as we made our way out. It was the perfect evening!

We made one stop along the way, at the shop at the beginning of the World Showcase. My sandals were killing me and giving me terrible blisters, so I knew I had to buy some new footwear if I didn’t want to be miserable for the rest of the night. I ended up finding some cute black flip flops, which were better but not perfect…my feet were still bothering me. I ended up with some pretty terrible blisters by the end of the night. In hindsight, I should have gone back to the hotel to get sneakers. Oh well, live and learn. But, for my second public service announcement of this update…don’t wear new sandals to Disney World unless you are sure they won’t give you blisters!!

The good news is, Ben found a great new look while I was shopping!

With the show mission accomplished, we continued on our way out. With a quick photopass picture, we said goodbye to EPCOT for the night!

Up next…a delicious and magical night!!!

We ate at Teppan Edo on our honeymoon this past August. It was awesome!!! The only shoes I wore were my reef flip flops and Nike shoes.

 

[CAStevens218]

Wow, that drink does look a little gross. I don't like anything with blue curacao in it, so I would have avoided the drink like the plague anyway!

Glad you guys enjoyed Tepan Edo! I wasn't all that impressed the last time I was there, but maybe I should give it a second chance, it might have been an off night.

Looking forward to hearing what the rest of the night holds, EMH maybe?

Oh man that drink was terrible! We really did enjoy Teppan Edo...maybe you did get an off night...give it another shot!

Ohh, that's a quite accurate guess!!

We ate at Teppan Edo on our honeymoon this past August. It was awesome!!! The only shoes I wore were my reef flip flops and Nike shoes.

I'm glad you enjoyed Teppan Edo too! Congrats on your marriage and honeymoon...sounds like we were celebrating around the same time!

You were smart about your shoes...don't know what I was thinking.

 

[CAStevens218]

Before I continue with the trip report…I have a little aside. I got a free dining pin for January-March…and I am trying soooo hard to make a trip happen! We had kind of decided to wait until 2014 to go again so that Fantasyland would be complete….but a short trip at the end of February is looking promising! Ben was funny when I brought it up…he was like “I want to go…but that ride on the Magic Express back to the airport is so sad…I don’t know if I can take it!!”

I am looking at Feb 26 or 27 to March 3 or 4 right now…no guarantees but I sure am hoping!!! I think I might start stalking for a Be Our Guest reservation just in case…although the menu doesn’t look that appealing to me, I want to eat there anyway…for lunch AND dinner! Oh well, we’ll see what happens!!!


Anyway, back to July….

When I left off, we had just finished dinner at Teppan Edo and were on our way to our next destination of the night.

We headed out of EPCOT and onto the monorail to begin our journey.

I just love riding the monorail! I love the view…especially when the view is this:

Clearly, we were headed to the Magic Kingdom! Tonight we were going to the Dessert Party AND staying for extra magic hours!! We were so excited!

We walked into the park at about 8:25PM and headed straight to the dessert party. Main Street was looking amazing and magical as always!

We checked in at the Dessert Party, were given our bracelets, and led to our table. I had booked the 1st day reservations became available, and it paid off…we had the best table in the house! We were right up front with absolutely nothing blocking our view! It was perfect! I tried not to get too excited about it though, because the CM who seated us explained that people could and would go to the railing, so we wouldn’t be able to see from our table if we stayed seated.

The buffet was all set up and ready to go, so we headed over to grab some goodies. We spotted a photopass photographer on our way, so we stopped for pictures. I’m not thrilled with how these came out…I think the flash was way too strong and it just doesn’t look right. Not the picture I was hoping for, but still a nice memory.

We loaded up our plates with the huge selection of goodies they had available.

To be perfectly honest, some of this was really good…but much of it could have been better.

The mango shooters were great, and the cookies and brownies were fabulous. Ben loved his ice cream sundae! However…I felt like much of the other offerings weren’t that great…mostly because they were too warm. Everything tasted like it should have been cold and had been sitting out too long, which just really turned me off. Once I had finished my plate I went up and got us some fresh fruit to share, which was fabulous!

We relaxed, enjoying our food and the view, waiting for the parade to start. It was scheduled for 9:00PM but was delayed until 9:35 due to a storm. If you look at the following picture and the last few above, you can see the storm clouds.

We got a little bit of thunder and lightning and a light drizzle, but it moved on quickly and the parade was able to begin!

We went up to the railings during the parade because others did and we wanted to secure our view. This was a fun and unique place to watch the parade. I definitely don’t recommend it for a great view, but since we have seen it multiple times it was fun for us.

Halfway through the parade, Ben stepped back to our table to grab my extra camera battery. I moved over to fill both our spots to save it, and he was back seconds later. Without my noticing, a boy of about 8 or 9 had slipped right under my arm into Ben’s spot! We were torn here because, of course, we always want the kids to be able to see, but this kid knew he was in the wrong because he kept looking back at Ben, who was now standing behind me. If he had asked to stand there, I would have been more than happy to give him the spot. We weren’t sure who or where his parents were, but there were plenty of spaces along the railing where he could have fit, but no where the two of us would have fit, so we didn’t have the option to move. We left him, of course, to watch the parade…but we sure did wish his parents had watched him better. He moved away after the parade anyway, so it all worked out. Ben just wanted a comfy spot to lean on the railing!

Anyway, moving along with the evening, they skipped the first showing of the Magic the Memories and You since the parade had started late and moved right on to Wishes, which started just a little after 10:00PM.

We thought this was an amazing spot to watch Wishes! Nothing will ever beat a straight on view of the castle for me, but this was a very different and beautiful view!

I can’t imagine a better spot to see Tink! She flew right at us and over us!!

I loved the reflections of the fireworks on the water.

I LOVE Wishes! Writing this part of the trip report definitely makes it seem like a no brainer to book that February trip!

As soon as the fireworks ended, the dessert party cleared out. We went back to our table to finish our drinks and relax for a bit in hopes that they would put the Magic the Memories and You on. The CM said we were welcome to stay, so we got comfortable and enjoyed the wait.

The show DID come on, and it was fabulous as always! This show is DEFINITELY best from Main Street, but we still enjoyed watching it. The summer additions were a lot of fun, I especially liked the sand castle!

To me, this show would have been just fine as projections only and no photos…I could never see them anyway. But either way, we loved it!

My final thoughts on the dessert party are that I’m thrilled that we did it but I wouldn’t do it again. The desserts just weren’t good enough to make me want to go back for them. The view was great, but since you have to stand up anyway when everyone goes to the railing, I figure I might as well stand somewhere for free! This would be much more enjoyable if they made it a seated event. I would definitely say try it once though because we did enjoy ourselves…it just wasn’t ideal.

When the show was over, we gathered our belongings and headed on our way. Extra Magic Hours were until 2:00AM and I had no intention of leaving until they kicked me out!!!!!