Wait! Where's your wedding ring? An Oct. 2013 Disneymoon TR Updated 5/7!

Welcome back friends! Sorry it’s taken me so long to check back in. But I have a pretty good excuse! You see, since I started editing full-time at my newspaper, I haven’t really had time to write articles (writing was my first love). But one of our reporters was on vacation last week, so they asked me to write an article for the Sunday NBA package in our section. And since the NBA is my absolute most favorite sport on the planet, I just couldn’t say no! Here’s the article if any of you are curious about it. But, long story short, the time I was going to devote to TRs over the Thanksgiving weekend, ended up going toward my story.


Missyrose, thanks for sharing the link! Nice Work!

I teach 8th grade Language Arts and Social Studies and I also have a Journalism degree so t was interesting to read your article. My husband and son are into professional sports and of course many of my students are so I try to keep current on some things happening in the sports field so I talk to them about it.

I might have to use your article as an example of how to cite within a writing piece. I will be teaching research skills and how to cite sources within your writing in January and Feb. I like to use mentor texts to illustrate the skill to my students and this article would catch the interest of many of my students.

Please keep us posted of any other articles you write; I will also keep checking the Washington Post website for your work.
 


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I just love the International Gateway entrance!

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Love those shots of the International Gateway

Your Bride and Groom ears and Mr and Mrs shirts are AWESOME!!!

The view from the Chase lounge is really cool. We haven't been during F&W, but it just occurred to me that we could use that lounge. Is it also available at any other times of the year like Flower & Garden fest?

All of the snacks from the F&W booths looked amazing. I have heard raves about the kimchi hotdog. Kimchi is one of the very few foods I detest, but I am intrigued enough that I would have to give it a try.



A great way for anyone getting started with photography is to read the book Understanding Exposure. That will help with explaining how each setting affects the photo. For all the beginners out there listening, this will help you take better photos than a new camera or other gear.


Thank you so much for the book suggestion. I agree with your belief that you don't necessarily need an expensive camera to take great pictures (but it doesn't hurt to have one, either) :)
 
Congratulations on the wedding! You looked amazing.

I took a small break from the dis and just came back since we are planning a new trip! Ya!!! We are Disney Chase card holders and new to all things Disney. I knew about the picture in Epcot but not the lounge. Could you fill me in please?
 


Thank you! The plans are coming along pretty good. I have everything "major" - the dress, venue and caterer, photographer, and DJ.

Six months to go! Which means I just made my ADRs this week! SO exciting!

Sounds like you had a nice relaxing Disneymoon! I have a lot planned for ours, but I did leave a lot of time open to just spend together, relaxing. :lovestruc

Food and Wine sounds delish! I hope to make it back to Disney for that sometime. It's on my ever growing list of things to accomplish!!

I love your matching t-shirts. I bought some Disney-inspired Mr and Mrs appliques for t-shirts as well. I'm not totally sold on the ears though, I don't like the headbands, they tend to hurt. I'm making us baseball caps with ears instead. Fingers crossed they turn out looking good!!

Can't wait to read more!! :hyper:

Sounds like you've really got things under control for the wedding! Where did you make your ADRs? I made my ADRs for my may trip a little bit ago, now the wait really begins until there's anything else to plan for that trip.

We got lots of compliments on our various bride/groom shirts. As far as the ears go, I wear Minnie ears almost every day in the parks, so the bride ears didn't bother me. I can't wait to see how your ears turned out!


Great job on your article in the Post! Chicago makes news all the way East!! How about that?!

Loved the update! Food and Wine is a great time to be at WDW. Beautiful weather (most of the time), great food, wonderful atmosphere, music. It's a favorite time for me as well. Your food choices look interesting. Somehow, I can't get past my old faithful's!! :lmao: Stuck in Canada, US, and Germany.

Sometimes skipping the rides in favor of the atmosphere is a good idea! There are so many other things to do at Disney. We discovered this the summer before last when we didn't even go into any parks. We just enjoyed all the resort areas and all they had to offer.

Mmmmm Canada's F&W booth! I love it so much too! It's funny, Franklin and I have become so laid back about rides on our trips that when we bring other people with us, we have to push ourselves to do a "normal" trip with lots of rides.

Missy & Franklin - congratulations on the wonderful wedding! I love how amazingly happy both of you look! I've read most of your reports but don't think I've ever commented - but your encounter with Wanya of B2M was so sweet and I found myself getting all emotional and whatever... I love music lyrics and writing like you do, Missy and I'm a sports fan also - I'm more NFL but writing and sports? What a great job! Can't wait to read the rest - wishing you both a future of wonderful trips and countless blessings!

gina

Thanks Gina! It was a wonderfully happy wedding day for us both. Thanks for reading along with all of our adventures (and for coming out of lurkdom to say hi! :wave2:). My job is awesome, I grew up loving sports and also writing and editing. So getting to merge those loves and do this for a living makes me a very lucky gal.

Loved the update!
The pictures are amazing!

Thank you!!! :goodvibes

I love your reports! Looking forward to more updates!!

Thanks, and your wish for more updates is my command. There's one going up soon!


We visited F&W for the first time this year; mostly due to your incredible trip reports and pictures! What was our favorite snack?? So hard to choose. Loved the Steamed Green Lip Mussels and the Lamb Meatball at New Zealand. And the Seared Scottish Salmon at Scotland. My favorite drink was the Sparkling Pomegranate Kir at France. Great way to spend a leisurely afternoon, visiting the booths, eating our way around the world.

I am so glad you got try F&W, it is easily our most favorite time to be at The World. And actually, it's killing me that we have trips planned for May, Aug. and Dec. 2014. Yes, I know, I'm lucky I get to go three times in a year, but I can't believe we're going to miss F&W for the first time in five years?!?!

Franklin loves the mussels from Belgium, I wonder how the New Zealand ones compare? The French drink sounds delicious!


well, a bit late to the party, but joining!

What a lovely looking wedding - you looked beautiful and the shots of your ceremony overlooking the capital were amazing. Also, I bet that is not the last time the guys figure out a way to get dressed up like that ;)

That story of meeting Wanya from Boyz II Men i such a Pixey Dust moment!

Glad you enjoyed California Grill - I was really worried about it for our past trip after hearing the less than stellar reviews following the redo - but we too had a great meal. Cool that you like the new view - definitely get what Franklin is saying about the angle of the view to the castle

Great start to your F&WF adventures - we went twice during our trip and the difference in the lines b/w Saturday and Thursday was just incredible.

I actually think my favorite thing I tried was the Mongolian Beef in a Steamed Bun from China, but very closely followed by the Pork Belly. We also really liked the items from Scotland - including the Vegetable Hagis :thumbsup2

Thanks for joining in! There's no such thing as being late around here. ;) I'm glad you guys had a great meal at CG. Even with the spotty service we encountered, it's still one of our favorites.

Ooohhh the Mongolian beef bun was so yummy last year, I never got a chance to get one this year though. Wasn't that pork belly incredible? It was so tasty and juicy, even from those little kiosks!


Missyrose, thanks for sharing the link! Nice Work!

I teach 8th grade Language Arts and Social Studies and I also have a Journalism degree so t was interesting to read your article. My husband and son are into professional sports and of course many of my students are so I try to keep current on some things happening in the sports field so I talk to them about it.

I might have to use your article as an example of how to cite within a writing piece. I will be teaching research skills and how to cite sources within your writing in January and Feb. I like to use mentor texts to illustrate the skill to my students and this article would catch the interest of many of my students.

Please keep us posted of any other articles you write; I will also keep checking the Washington Post website for your work.

Thank you! I've been editing full-time for years now, so it's fun when I get the opportunity to write again.


popcorn:: joining in popcorn::

Thanks for joining in! :goodvibes

Love those shots of the International Gateway

Your Bride and Groom ears and Mr and Mrs shirts are AWESOME!!!

The view from the Chase lounge is really cool. We haven't been during F&W, but it just occurred to me that we could use that lounge. Is it also available at any other times of the year like Flower & Garden fest?

All of the snacks from the F&W booths looked amazing. I have heard raves about the kimchi hotdog. Kimchi is one of the very few foods I detest, but I am intrigued enough that I would have to give it a try.



Thank you so much for the book suggestion. I agree with your belief that you don't necessarily need an expensive camera to take great pictures (but it doesn't hurt to have one, either) :)

Thanks! We just plain LOVE the International Gateway, it's such a pretty way to enter a park. Thanks for the compliments on the ears and shirts, we were pretty decked out in cutesy couples gear all week. I don't believe the Chase lounge is there year-round, though it would be awesome if it were. It's a lovely place to get a quick (and cool!) breather from the parks! And I'm with you and Franklin on expensive cameras don't always make the photos. I'm living proof that even expensive can take terrible pictures! :lmao: All my pictures are blurry, no matter how expensive the camera!

Congratulations on the wedding! You looked amazing.

I took a small break from the dis and just came back since we are planning a new trip! Ya!!! We are Disney Chase card holders and new to all things Disney. I knew about the picture in Epcot but not the lounge. Could you fill me in please?

Thank you!! When's you trip? Where are you going to stay? The lounge, I believe is a F&W-only thing.
 
Welcome back! We had last left off with a tasty tour around the world, grazing on about a billion Food and Wine Festival goodies.

We next headed for Future World, we had a FP+ date with Test Track. We stopped dead in our tracks when we saw the FP line.

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I thought maybe it was just a hold-up at the MagicBand scanners, but nope, the line came straight out the door. We reluctantly got in line (against my better judgment when I saw the single-rider wait time was 35 minutes). We waited and never moved. A frustrated couple worked their way out of line and said to no one in particular, “we waited 45 minutes and never got further than just inside the door.” That was enough for us, we bailed.

Franklin and I split up at that point. I needed to go to guest relations to get the new version of the Guest Assistance Card (now called a DAS). I have Crohn’s Disease and unexpected symptoms can wreak havoc with my touring ability in the parks. Franklin had a special project he wanted to work on while I was stuck in line.

It took a bit of time to get through the line at GR (between these new DAS cards and the kinda-sorta rolled out FP+, those poor CMs were dealing with a lot. You could see the relief on their face when someone walked up to the desk and asked about dinner ADRs). But the CM I had was wonderful, asked what I needed to be accommodated with the DAS and once I explained, she took my picture and printed out the card.

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Franklin was still working on his secret project, so I hopped over to the photo store to turn in our PhotoPass+ voucher.

Franklin met up with me there and we decided we needed to ride SOMETHING and since Spaceship Earth was right there…

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We were stopped just after Steve Wozniak’s garage, so Franklin was able to shoot a backwards angle of that scene. You can see his face!

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How appropriate for newlyweds, right? Work sure looks fun in the future.

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The Disney universe knows how much I love newspapers!

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While I waited in line at GR, I had swapped our Mission Space FP+ for Character Spot, we wanted more photos in our bride and groom ears! It was just about time for that FP+ reservation, so we strolled over there.

First up was the big cheese himself. He was very excited about our newlywed status.

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Rings!

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Next was Goofy and we ended up taking my favorite Disney photo of all time.

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And finally we met my girl, Minnie. I told her that if Franklin and I finally got married after 10 years together, it was clearly time for her and Mickey to get hitched. She totally agreed.

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Me and my Disney bestie.

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We headed for the Festival Center next, because we had another new experience to try. We had signed up for our first culinary demonstration. We checked in at the podium and they gave us our tickets. The line had just begun, so we hopped in.

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I was excited to learn how to cook the dish. We’d just been given all this fancy shmancy new kitchen stuff for wedding gifts and I’d been collecting new recipes to try on Pinterest. So adding a new dish from Food and Wine sounded awesome.

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Until they handed us the four-page recipe. Oof, the recipe for the garnish took up nearly a full page, THE GARNISH! So I chose to kick back and enjoy the show (and the wine -- a super-yummy rose, not too dry and not too fruity either).

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As the chef, Matt Carter from Arizona, juggled six or seven pots on the stove, I remember thinking “I would burn down my house if I tried to make this.” What was this, you ask? Red wine braised pork belly with lavender-apple caramel and chive pomme puree.

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Yes, it tasted every bit as good as it sounds. And the demonstration was entertaining.

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That pure yumminess is where we'll leave off for now, but stay tuned because we have a full night of food and music ahead! Have any of you run into the FP issue we ran into at Test Track? Over on the Theme Park board, people are reporting it's an ongoing issue!

 


Bummer about the Test Track FP line! Not cool!

But it sounds like the rest of your time was fun and productive.

The Spaceship Earth pictures perfectly demonstrate one of the things I love about Franklin's pictures. As many times as I have been on this attraction, I have never noticed all of the details that are in the photos you posted. There is so much incredible theming, but it is impossible to take it all in just riding.

Very, very cute character pictures, ESPECIALLY the Goofy one. :lmao: And you can't go wrong with the ring closeups

4 page recipe??? I love to cook, but "Ain't nobody got time for that kind of foolishness!" It does sound delish, though.
 
Just read your article- it was really interesting! You must be happy that you got to spend some time writing again. Let us know if you do more, especially anything football-related. ;)
 
Our original dates were October 6-11, but my husband is in one our best friends weddings in April. They are only 1 1/2 hours from Disney so we thought it made more since to go then. So as of right now the dates are April 20-25. I think I'm going to rent DVC points this time and stay at one of the villas at animal kingdom lodge. What are your suggestions? It's just my husband, son (he will be 4 in May), and myself going. This is only my 4th trip ever at Disney World so I have a lot to learn. Thanks for all your help!
 
Holy hell that FP line is INSANE!!! We didn't even attempt FP for TT on our trip, just did Single Rider.

I'm glad you didn't have any trouble getting your DAS. I see they gave it to you for a few days though, which is different than what was originally posted when this was being rolled out about having to go to GS each day to get a new one. So much better that you are able to get one for your whole trip, it looks like! I don't need one, but that really seems like such a hassle for those who do need one.

Oh my goodness. I LOVE ALL YOUR CHARACTER SPOT PICTURES!!! Mickey holding out your rings, Goofy covering his eyes, Minnie needing to get hitched...they all came out so great!!!

The demo looks like a lot of fun. Holy cow, a 4 page recipe!? That's insane!!! But the finished product looks really good. :thumbsup2
 
Great update! :goodvibes

Thank you!

Following along :) We did a Disneymoon 4 years ago, and it was great!!

Thanks! I see you're going to Disney in early May, we were there around that time last year and it was an amazing time to be there.

Bummer about the Test Track FP line! Not cool!

But it sounds like the rest of your time was fun and productive.

There is something fishy going on with TT. My cynical take? Disney knows it has a capacity problem at Epcot. There are basically two rides that everyone wants to ride: Soarin and TT. The problem is neither is a particularly quick loader, so capacity has always been an issue. I really think they've bumped up the number of FP+ reservations they're taking for TT. And between that increase and the clogging at the design-a-car kiosks, the queue movement has become a disaster.

But luckily for us, this trip wasn't really about the rides. So surprisingly enough, we were satisfied with our SE ride and were good for the day. :lmao:


The Spaceship Earth pictures perfectly demonstrate one of the things I love about Franklin's pictures. As many times as I have been on this attraction, I have never noticed all of the details that are in the photos you posted. There is so much incredible theming, but it is impossible to take it all in just riding.

Very, very cute character pictures, ESPECIALLY the Goofy one. :lmao: And you can't go wrong with the ring closeups

There are so many details in SE that you could ride it for years and not notice everything. I always tease Franklin about the number of pictures he takes on that ride, but they are all so interesting!

4 page recipe??? I love to cook, but "Ain't nobody got time for that kind of foolishness!" It does sound delish, though.

My thoughts exactly! ::yes::

Just read your article- it was really interesting! You must be happy that you got to spend some time writing again. Let us know if you do more, especially anything football-related. ;)

Thanks, if there's one thing we have plenty of, it's NFL writers. So I don't think I'll be dipping my toe in that pool anytime soon.

Our original dates were October 6-11, but my husband is in one our best friends weddings in April. They are only 1 1/2 hours from Disney so we thought it made more since to go then. So as of right now the dates are April 20-25. I think I'm going to rent DVC points this time and stay at one of the villas at animal kingdom lodge. What are your suggestions? It's just my husband, son (he will be 4 in May), and myself going. This is only my 4th trip ever at Disney World so I have a lot to learn. Thanks for all your help!

You get to go to Disney sooner, that is always good. It will be busy with Easter visitors and spring breakers, but you'll still be able to get plenty done. And you will LOVE AKV. I rented points before I bought into DVC, so let me know if you have any questions. AKV is one of the bigger DVC resorts, so it doesn't sell out as quickly as the others. But with it being a holiday weekend, don't wait too long to rent the points.

I'm joining in. Loving your story and all the beautiful pictures!

Thanks! I need to go back and read your solo TRs. I'm going to Disney solo for the first time May, got any good starter tips?

Holy hell that FP line is INSANE!!! We didn't even attempt FP for TT on our trip, just did Single Rider.

I'm glad you didn't have any trouble getting your DAS. I see they gave it to you for a few days though, which is different than what was originally posted when this was being rolled out about having to go to GS each day to get a new one. So much better that you are able to get one for your whole trip, it looks like! I don't need one, but that really seems like such a hassle for those who do need one.

It was an insane line, I felt bad for the people who stayed in it.

Things went much smoother than I imagined they would with the DAS. I had none of the issues that others reported having when getting it. And the nice thing is, on future trips, they'll just scan the barcode and print out a new one for me.


Oh my goodness. I LOVE ALL YOUR CHARACTER SPOT PICTURES!!! Mickey holding out your rings, Goofy covering his eyes, Minnie needing to get hitched...they all came out so great!!!

The demo looks like a lot of fun. Holy cow, a 4 page recipe!? That's insane!!! But the finished product looks really good. :thumbsup2

The Character Spot was really fun this time, GREAT character interaction! :thumbsup2 The demo was also really fun, but yeah, no chance I ever cook that recipe. We did learn the key to creamy, French-style mashed potatoes is to use one third potatoes, one third cream and one third butter. Yum!
 
As Missy mentioned, we parted ways after the Test Track queue. Off I went to work on a photo project. I decided to try something new for this trip. Actually, I never really tried this technique before. So, it will be fun to try and learn something new, from scratch. What was I doing?

Cinemagraphs

These are still photos with a minor moving element. If you look away too quick, you'll miss it!

For my first attempt, Mission Space.
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How about the Monorail.
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See what I did there? ;) I hope you guys enjoy these.


Disclaimer: You have to be on a computer (or internet browser app on phones) to view these. These photos won't move if you are using the DisBoards App on Android or iOS (iPhone or iPad).
 
Wow, what an insane FP line! Test Track always seems to be the worst with that in my opinion. They are such a low capacity ride and that tends to wreak havoc on it I think.

OMG, I love that Goofy picture! That's so cute.

Wow Franklin, I LOVE the Cinemagraphs!
 
Franklin loves the mussels at Belgium? Aww, there were none this year. Only Belgian waffles. I agree with him - the mussels in Brussels are to die for....served with some amazing sauces!!

We did a culinary demonstration as well - it was a great beef dish with a pinot noir from Monterey Coast. Very good and very entertaining. The chef from Raglan Road was there one of the days we were in the Festival Center. He was making trout, which looked delicious, and he was quite funny, telling stories from Ireland all the while. We want to sign up for his demo next year.

Franklin, your cinemagraphs are incredible!

Thanks again for all these amazing trip reports!
 

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