Today was only Day 3, Sunday, but Friday felt soooooo long ago. I packed so much into my trip that each day felt like a week (which is maybe why its taking me that long to tell about each of them!).
I got to sleep in a little bit and then got up and put on The Hat and yet another too-fancy-for-Disney dress (but not in that order). The story with the dress is, I wanted to wear something cute for PassPorters birthday party, so I went sundress shopping. There was nothing! Everything I found was either a baggy maxi dress or a baggy mini dress. The day before I left town, I went to the mall to get Jenseys Butterscotch Squares at Sees and had to walk through Macys to get in from the parking lot. What I didnt have to do was ride the escalator up to the dress department... But thank goodness I did, cuz I found the cutest black-and-white polka dot sundress, which you will never really get a good look at cuz I didnt have anyone to take a picture of me in it! Well, there was the leering manager of Tutto Italia, but lets just say he wont be putting Disneys PhotoPass out of business anytime soon....
Anyway, The Dress + The Hat = a lot of unexpected attention for Lurkyloo this day. Even walking to my car at Pop Century I felt self-conscious as people gaped at me like Id stepped outta the 1950s collage in the lobby.
On the way to the parking lot, I noticed this:
So if you can see the welcome sign from here, does that mean part of Pop Century technically isnt inside Disney World?
I took some pictures of my car (another weird thing to see a girl in a polka dot sundress and huge hat doing), which were in the first post of this trippie and which I will not post again because DBORah the Ford will get a swell head. Then I did a bad thing....
I cant figure out a way to write around it so Im gonna have to cop to it: I parked at the Yacht Club to go to the parks. My excuse is that the beginning of my day was to be spent at Epcot and the end was at Hollywood Studios, so leaving my car halfway in between seemed like a really good idea. And my case is special and I can break the rules and blah blah blah... Im going to Disney hell and I know it.
But enough about that lets talk about the hat some more, shall we? I walked from the Yacht Club to the Beach Club, where the ladies at the Cape May check-in desk oooohed and aaaahed over my outfit when I stopped to ask for an ATM. They were so sweet I busted out my story of how I discovered a fabulous hat at a Flower & Garden gift kiosk and encouraged them to check it out (cuz Im sure what you wanna do after working at WDW all day is go into the parks and spend money....).
Then, as I entered Epcot through the International Gateway, a woman came over to tell me how much she loved my dress! Suddenly I felt like one of the Disney face characters, or at least a Streetmosphere entertainer, as I sashayed toward Future World in my cute little outfit (Look, Ma, its one-a them characters! ...I dunno her name you know, the ginormous pasty one!). When I saw an adorable little 5-year-old trying to take her familys picture in the UK, I stopped to help them get a shot of the whole family and then blew them butterfly kisses as a rainbow appeared and bluebirds carried the camera back to them on a wave of song (for some reason, the children didnt ask me to sign their autograph books....).
This carpet of flowers magically unfurled beneath my feet as I skipped toward Future World
As I passed the Magic Music Days stage, the band segued into Thats How You Know from Enchanted, but I think they may have been contractually obligated to play that one...
When I got to the Seas with Nemo & Friends, harsh reality set in. It was hot and we were standing around outside waiting to be let inside the private room, Living Seas Salon. Even the liberal application of Model in a Bottle couldnt save my makeup at that point. Worse, I was
majorly overdressed for the party and felt like a goof! Eventually Disney opened some kind of anteroom for the PassPorter group to wait in I didnt recognize it from any of the Living Seas Salon wedding pictures Id seen.
Being all crammed together in there gave us a chance to get to know each other, and fast! As I was meeting more of the friendly folks who make up the PassPorter community, I bobbed and weaved to avoid ending up in any photos pretty much an impossible task in a room full of Disney message board members!
Eventually we were ushered up some stairs and into the long hall Ive seen in so many Disney wedding photos.
What, no backlit bride and groom smooching in front of the sign?
Living Seas Salon has a reputation for being dim and hard to photograph, and boy howdy, is it ever trueits darker than Shulas Steakhouse in there! I sure tried, though. Usually Im the first in line at any buffet, but this time I was running all over snapping blurry, underexposed pictures.
The invisible piano is included with the venue; the invisible pianist costs extra
I was surprised to see that there were five windows into the giant tank of the Living Seas. All of Disneys info makes it sound like theres only one, and since they all look the same, its hard to tell in pictures.
This one is Window #5, a.k.a. Myrtle
Eventually I was persuaded to put down the cameras and grab some food, mostly because of that pesky aversion I have to picked-over vittles. Thanks to my fellow shutterbugs, I actually have a photo of me grabbing some food!
(Note: Pretty much any pic you see of me in this update was taken by PassPorter author Cheryl Pendrythanks Cheryl!)
These are before food shots:
California mixed greens layered with cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots, served with lite zinfandel vinaigrette and avocado low-fat Ranch dressing
Maryland seafood pasta salad with dill and lemon vinaigrette, plus sweet cream coleslaw
Buttermilk mashed potatoes, oven roasted corn on the cob, vegetarian Texas barbecue Beans
Kansas City-braised pork shanks with crisp onions, plus Southern fried chicken
Kentucky bourbon bread pudding with vanilla bean sauce, next to strawberry shortcake
I ended up sitting at a table full of wonderful ladies to whom Disney food photography is second nature, so we all passed our cameras around the table to get shots of each others meals. See if you can guess which plate is mine!
I was pleasantly surprised by the meal. I know people are always raving about the food at Disney weddings, but I tend to write that off because most wedding food is so terrible that just about anything would taste better. And when we were planning our wedding, we werent exactly knocked out by the stuff at our BoardWalk Convention Center menu-tastingin fact one of the reasons we ended up serving only brunch food was that we knew Disney couldnt screw it up. But the picnic-style food Epcot rustled up for PassPorters birthday party was pretty dang good, and a few items (buttermilk mashed potatoes, vegetarian baked beans) were standouts.
On my second pass at the buffet, I stuck to my faves.
Symphony of Starch!
Because the event was only scheduled to last two hours, things moved at a brisk paceanother plus in my book. (I am the type who will spend an entire four- or five-hour wedding reception wondering when the meal will start and then wondering when cake will be served.) As we finished eating, Jennifer and Dave made a nice speech thanking everyone for their support, we took a couple of group photos, and then it was cake time!
Believe me, no amount of fancy photography or photoshopping can make that look better than it was!!
It is both completely sensible and soooo silly at the same time! 
You and Patrick wouldn't want to hang around me!
It was our first stay there but won't be our last.
I didn't know there were so many wedding venues available - so many beautiful choices! You are sharing the best pics, too! Don't write too fast - I don't want it to be over.
I knew there was a reason I took that shot! 
Whohoo! I'm holding you to that! 
Anyway... more trippie coming up!
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