Forever Could Even Start Today, Wedding & Disneymoon Sept 17 update 10/1: Last Day, Budget recap

So my mistake has given us an extra day on our trip! Which means we can do more Christmas-y things! And now we can see @Raeven and Josh! And have even more time to cross paths with @ChunkyMonkey! :) Best mistake ever.

Best mistake ever!! I'm sorry for all the frustration and stress, but it sounds like you really did turn your lemons into lemonade!

and check in so we can slum it at the Disney Springs Hilton for the rest of the trip :laughing:

Haha yes! It's hard to downgrade when your first hotel is so nice!

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Holy cow! That's one serious tree!
 
Did you like Antjitos? We ate there on my TA training trip in Feb. and I thought the food was great.
Ah, I know you're young but how can you have never seen E.T.???? I think I saw it in the theater 6 times alone! Get with it lady, movie before the ride lol
If you go back to Universal you should catch the horror makeup show! I can't honestly say I'm a big Universal fan but I've seen that show 3-4 times and I think it's really, really good :)
I don't know how I've never seen ET! The only thing I can come up with is that maybe because when I was about six my mom told me I should watch Gremlins one day when it was on tv "because it's a cute movie..." and I spent the next two years looking into the floor vents before I would enter a room. Why floor vents? I'm not sure, I don't recall them being in vents in the movie, but it seemed like a likely place to hide to a six year old.

We enjoyed Antojitos. It wouldn't have been my first choice probably, I was looking at Cowfish, so if someone in the group hadn't been craving Mexican we might not have made it there. But it was really good! We'll have to catch the Horror Makeup show next time - and yes, a next time has already been discussed :rotfl:
I kind of agree. The theming of Kali is much better in my opinion, at least in the queue, but it's a short ride, and often I've gotten off of it without getting super wet. Popeye always leaves you SOAKED though, so if you're not prepared for that I could see why people might not like it. I had to wring out my shoes last time.

Haha this is how I felt writing my report and including everyone's whereabouts also!
Ha "Here's a bunch of people you probably don't care about..." :rotfl:
I know some people really hate getting wet on rides. My only rule is that it can't be too late where I won't dry off for the night, because wet shoes on day 5 at Disneyland after the sun goes down make my already tired feet ache soooo much!
Loving all your universal stuff. I'm pretty oblivious on all things over there so its a great education for whenever we finally go.
We were pretty oblivious overall until we walked in the gate :) Minus @Raeven's TRs, that was my only research...
I didn't know that either we've never been :laughing:

Me too the last time we saw them at F&W he was still having trouble adjusting to all the food :rotfl:
The map description for Poseidon's Fury isn't very helpful :laughing: We try to do everything once, usually. Zack wanted to do this 2-3 times. I feel like now I really need a recap of Jordan's dining adventures :rotfl:
Funny how that works our right? I'm glad it ended up being a positive mistake!

Yay! It sounds great! We will head back from DHS after Fantasmic! so probably around 9:30-10pm is when I'm thinking considering how crowded the boats may get or we may walk back if it's nice out. We'll go crash @Raeven and Josh's dinner and be troublemakers...:laughing:

We'll be at Epcot for most of the morning and then we have San Angel Inn lunch at 1:20pm so most likely we can meet up before or after your Biergarten lunch.

I really love EMH at Epcot - so I think we will be there watching Illuminations plus hope to do a few rides on TT or Soarin.

Wow huge tree! Looks awesome!
It worked out better than our original plans! Last January we went to Epcot for EMH after MK. We grabbed QS at Mexico and sat on that patio for a bit, and then wandered World Showcase :goodvibes

I was going to say it was too bad about the sold out Christmas party tickets, but any chance to meet up with @Raeven and @chunkymonkey would be worth it! (Even though I've never actually met Su-Lynn!)

Oh, and when you come out to SoCal are you doing any Disneyland visits? Or just family/6 flags?
It definitely is!

Right now our Socal plan is to go to Disneyland when we're there for the wedding. We might just do a weekend trip sometime next year for Six Flags. The wedding is between San Diego and LA April 6th, so we haven't figured out if we're going out early to do stuff (worried about Easter weekend) or staying after to head up to DLR.

WOW! That tree is huge! The nice thing is that it probably gets off a great pine scent that fills the whole house!
It sure does! Haha at least they (mostly) have room for it!

Best mistake ever!! I'm sorry for all the frustration and stress, but it sounds like you really did turn your lemons into lemonade!

Haha yes! It's hard to downgrade when your first hotel is so nice!

Holy cow! That's one serious tree!
I'm so glad it all worked out, and even better than our original plans. That tree took some coordination to get in the house... 1 2 3 PULL! 1 2 3 PULL! :rotfl:
 
The map description for Poseidon's Fury isn't very helpful :laughing: We try to do everything once, usually. Zack wanted to do this 2-3 times. I feel like now I really need a recap of Jordan's dining adventures :rotfl:

No it isn't. :rotfl: And yes definitely!
 
Sorry your plans got messed up, but gotta admit it sounds like an extra day is worth a little bit of torment :-) Definitely get to MGM at night if you can. It was my favorite Xmas park at night
 


Found your TR and following along! Your trip looks awesome, and I can't wait to hear about your wedding and the rest of the trip. And have an amazing time on your upcoming trip!!!
 
Sorry your plans got messed up, but gotta admit it sounds like an extra day is worth a little bit of torment :-) Definitely get to MGM at night if you can. It was my favorite Xmas park at night
We're planning to go there Sunday now. I'm so excited to see it, I've seen a few pictures and it looks so great! We've had one more change to this trip now, so I'm going to call it Disney magic and that this trip was meant to be pixiedust:

Found your TR and following along! Your trip looks awesome, and I can't wait to hear about your wedding and the rest of the trip. And have an amazing time on your upcoming trip!!!
:welcome:
Thank you! Glad you're here! I'm going to try and throw out one more day on here before we leave for this weekend. I'm getting anxious to get through these next two days, partly because I'm lacking in pictures and partly because that means it's time for wedding day :)
 
Christmas Trip Update
One last update before we head out - tomorrow! I changed something again... I've been checking every day on my credit card portal looking at the hotel options. I was secretly hoping that another night at the Dolphin would show up discounted, like our first night. That didn't happen... but Pop showed up! It was about $150 more in points than our room at the Hilton, but the Hilton was charging us $100 in resort fees for three nights, we'd be able to take DME back to MCO :sad1:, the hotels would then transfer our luggage for us, I would expect the buses to be better... Plus how do you put a price on on-site magic? :rolleyes1

I've chalked it up to Disney magic, because it was the last day I could cancel the Hilton reservation with no penalty pixiedust:

We also decided that for luggage we will take a carry-on suitcase and two backpacks... we could probably get by with just the backpacks, but are going to put them (empty) into the suitcase... because I want this if I can find it:

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Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Universal Day Three
I'm just going to try and bust this out because I'm pretty sure I've only got about two pictures for you...

So this day Zack's best man, and my cousin and his wife, joined us. We also thought we'd meet up with Zack's brother, but they ended up doing the parks opposite of us again. We'll call his best man N, my cousin Al, and his wife Aly (mainly because I feel weird putting their names up here).

N met us at our hotel and walked to the parks with us, where we met Al and Aly. They had purchased their tickets online the night before and picked them up at the kiosks - this is what you want to do, if you're in that situation. The actual ticket counter line was sort of long, but moved really slowly. N still needed to get his ticket, and Zack and I had previously decided that as our gift of appreciation for these three wonderful people spending their money and vacation time to come celebrate with us (along with being overly helpful with everything, including my crazy family drama - which reared its ugly head again just yesterday...) we were going to buy N's ticket, and get Express Pass for all three of them. I went through the gates while Zack waited in line with N, and when we realized how slow that line was I took Al and Aly into the photo store at the entrance to get their passes.

After that was settled (and everyone bought a lanyard :p) we headed into the park. I'm going all off memory here since I don't have any photos. I know we stopped by Terminator 3D but it was 45 minutes until show time, so we kept going. Our last chance to see it...

I think we headed around and hit the Simpsons and Men in Black, then headed to Diagon Alley. Everyone was really excited because to see it because they are all Potter fans too. I should mention here, N is a big guy. So we went to ride Escape from Gringotts... and he didn't fit :worried: They told him the lap bar wasn't going down far enough. After we finished we met him back outside, and he goes, "Man it wasn't even my gut, my legs are too big!" :rotfl: Disapointing though because I know he was really looking forward to the Harry Potter stuff.

After that we had some butterbeers and showed them the magical drinking fountain :rotfl: After we hung out for a bit, we headed out and hit Transformers next. This caused a bit of an issue. N and Al pretty much never went to theme/amusement parks growing up. Zack gets excited and carried away when he's in one, like running to the next ride and nothing is too intense for him. So the screen aspect was a little much for N and Al, and it cut their day short a bit. After this we hit about everything else in the park, except the Jimmy Fallon ride :duck: Zack and I weren't overly impressed, and you seemed to wait a long time even with the virtual queue, so we thought it was better to skip it so everyone could see/do more rides since they only had one day.

N and Al skipped the Mummy, and toughed it out for Despicable Me and Shrek. Next we hit Rip Ride Rockit. They sat that out, and I rode once, before letting Zack and Aly go through a few more times. After we hit ET and then caught our train to school!

We, or really, my cousin, did document the day with two photographs:

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When we got to Hogsmeade, we stopped for lunch at the Three Broomsticks. I think around the table we had Fish and Chips, the Roasted Chicken Meal, and the Beef Pasties. I had the Pasties and thought they were good, but you only got three and they were awfully small. I was also disappointed when I went to steal Zack's corn, because it looked grilled, but definitely was not :crazy2:

After lunch we explored a bit and rode Forbidden Journey. Al sat out Flight of the Hippogriff, so we let Zack and N sit together in those tiny seats :rotfl: Then we worked our way around the lagoon, with River Adventure, Kong, and Toon Lagoon. We all got a little wet on RA, so we figured Toon Lagoon wouldn't hurt us. N and Al did set out Ripsaw Falls. N took a look at the log out front and was like, No way! But we took most of a raft on the raft ride. After our soakings, we found a great photo op:


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my cousin is photobombing them in the background

We hit the Marvel area, where N and Al waited us out. Spiderman - Does it have screens? Drop ride - nope. Hulk - heck no! I did the Hulk once and then let Zack and Aly ride a few more times. I went to find N and Al where they were waiting by the lagoon, where the Hulk goes over the water. They kept asking me questions - did you notice the roaring sound? Did you see the water cannons? I was like Are you kidding me?? My eyes were closed the whole time! :rotfl:

After that, Zack was determined everyone needed to experience Poseidon's Fury, though I'm not sure they appreciated it as much as he did... After that we met up with Zack's brother and boyfriend in Hogsmeade, and all attended class together. Maybe two or three classes ;) It was around 7pm at this time, so we soaked up the atmosphere for a few more minutes, before heading to the gate. We saved the city once more with Spiderman on the way out (I really liked spiderman :))... then made our way back to RPR to get our bags. All 6 of them. And we (me, Zack, N, Al, and Aly, and our 6 bags) caught an uber to the Dolphin!

:tinker:Time for the Disney magic to begin!
 


Plus how do you put a price on on-site magic? :rolleyes1
The Magic is Priceless

because I want this if I can find it:
I wanted one too. I think I only saw it at DHS and at the time wasn't hungry so didn't get it. I never saw it again after that. At MK all I saw were the Mickey and Minnie Christmas popcorn buckets. Not as cute.

Hope your enjoying your present vacay.
 
Hope your trip is going well and you are loving all the Christmas Magic. Can't wait to hear all about it
 
We're baaaaackkk! We had a great time but were very sad to come home. And no Pluto popcorn bucket :sad: But I'm so glad we got to go down and see all of the Christmas stuff!

I ended up with some good news and some bad news here. The bad news(es - there's multiple): I was on my way out the door to leave work on Wednesday when my boss told me... my coworker quit. So with my job, when someone is off, the other people work 12 hours to cover, because my business runs 3 shifts. So when someone quits... there are a lot of long days in my future until we hire and train someone. And they will probably be starting at 3am. :crazy2: And Zack, being ever so helpful, pointed out to me that I am going to have to come in and work at 3am on Christmas Eve, until sometime between 7am and 11am. :sad1:

The good news is... I should have more time to work on this TR?


Arrival at the Dolphin
Magic Kingdom with the Group

When we left off, we were catching our Uber to the Dolphin. This time I got an XL because we had N, Al, and Aly with us. We fit, somehow! And after a 20ish minute ride, we pulled up to the Dolphin! Apparently I took no pictures of the Dolphin on this trip, so I'm going to steal a couple from this past weekend.

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I had booked a standard room with points here, but I was hoping to get upgraded because I noted on the reservation that it was our wedding/honeymoon. I mentioned this on the boards here, and someone very kindly upgraded our room for us a few weeks out and sent me a PM about it (thanks again!). We had been upgraded to a fireworks view room, and because we had arrived just before 9pm... we hustled everyone up to find our room (such good sports helping with all of our luggage!) and check out our view!

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We checked out the room a bit too, but by then everyone was starting to get a bit hangry. It had been a long time since the Three Broomsticks!

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I guess no bathroom photos... :confused3

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We had a little gift of fruit, cheese, crackers, and wine from the hotel.

We then met up with Zack's parents and aunt, and both of his brothers and their SOs in the lobby. We headed over to the boardwalk to grab some dinner. It was around 10pm by this time, and no one really wanted to choose anything, so we ended up at Big River Grille since it was closest. What I remember from dinner is:

  • being really hungry
  • being very happy they had mac and cheese on the menu - kid at heart!
  • Zack's mom and aunt both getting quesadillas, and his mom stealing a piece of his aunt's... and eventually giving it back because she never noticed :rotfl:
  • helping Aly buy her and Al's Disney tickets at the table while waiting for food :scared1:

I felt bad about that last one... I just got so busy going up to the wedding that I didn't get with them on getting tickets and FPs. She bought the tickets on her phone and we made them some FPs. I had gotten 7DMT, Peter Pan, and Space for us, but those were all gone. We got them a Pirate's FP and something else... maybe Space at a different time or Haunted Mansion. I can't quite remember. I do know she only scheduled two, which caused problems later.

After dinner, everyone was pretty worn out and we were headed to Magic Kingdom the next day, so everyone headed off to bed. N, Al, and Aly were at off-site hotels, one of Zack's brothers was at POFQ, and one at AKL, so they all caught ubers back.

The next morning, I had an appointment to get my dress steamed at 7:30am. MK opened at 9am, and I sent Zack off to rally the troops and just planned on meeting them there since I didn't know how long it would take. It was just over an hour, and while they were working, I arranged all of our wedding things out on the dresser so they'd be ready for the next day.

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I caught an uber to the Contemporary and walked to MK, quite proud of myself for getting there just after park open. I called Zack to see where he was, because the plan was to RD 7DMT so people could ride twice and since we couldn't get Al and Aly FPs... but we were still waiting on one of Zack's brothers. And apparently the TTC was a bit of a mess that morning for N, Al, and Aly because the monorail was down. Soooooo no 7DMT for rope drop.

We made it through a lot of things in the park, I think. Maybe we were overthinking it, but we just wanted people to get to do a lot since they had spent time and money to come down there with us. Al and Aly split off a couple times to use their FPs, or to jump in a standby line if it wasn't too bad. We started in Fantasyland, then to Tomorrowland. Made sure to take everyone on the Carousel of Proress and the Peoplemover :thumbsup2 At some point we rode the Little Mermaid, and I got a time card.

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As I was midway through writing this, I remembered I had ride photos, so here's a few of everyone.

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Us, Zack's brother and bf

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Zack's other brother and fiance, and his mom and aunt

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Zack's dad and N

We had our 7DMT FP just before lunch, and Al and Aly had one for Pirates, so I sent them this handy dandy map to help them find our lunch spot after, which was Skipper Canteen!

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Zack and I ate here in January, and really enjoyed it. We had a great skipper and had the Tastes Like Chicken and the Beefy Pasta. So we were really excited to take everyone here. We were just bummed that we didn't get to ride the Jungle Cruise that morning first, so people would 'get' it more, because Irma put it out of commission for the week. Unfortunately this ended up tying for my least favorite meal of the trip, for a couple reasons.

I'll start with the food, because this is just my personal preference. Back in January Zack had ordered this and so I got the chicken so we could try different things. I definitely should have gotten the chicken again.

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Skip's Beefy Baked Pasta - Egyptian-inspired dish of spiced braised beef, pasta, and bechamel sauce served with seasonal vegetables $21
Zack loves this, I'm just really picky about my ratio of sauce to noodles and this was way too much sauce for me. Otherwise, I thought it was fine. So others may have liked it a lot! But I'm pretty sure I read that they took this off the menu within the last month. Also I was maybe a little sad they got rid of the bread service :) I :lovestruc bread.

I have a photo prop for another issue. The picture is from the WDW Magic site. I know I couldn't explain this well without a photo.

We had 12 people in our group this day. Originally we thought there would be 14, and that my grandpa and uncle would be there, but their plans changed. 10 or 12 is the limit for making ADRs online, so we had booked them for 8 and 6 people. We got there about 20 minutes early for our 1:20pm ADRs, and explained our situation to the hosts. That we had the two reservations, but were only 12 total, and was there any way to get one large table or tables close together? We would wait a bit longer if needed. They get on their headsets, and someone goes back and forth a bunch of times, and eventually they tell us they can put us at two tables next to each other. Ok, that will work. We figured it might be a long shot because we expected the restaurants to be really full because of Free Dining.

After we wait a bit longer, they take us into the main dining room. We had the six top in the middle there, and where the red arrow is they had moved that two top over to make a table for 8. And then they tell us the other 4 will be at the table with the blue arrow...


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Now, if it was busy, I get it. I also get that they like to try and keep groups at separate tables with the same waiter at most places. But the tables with the green arrows? Empty.

So we ask, Is there a reason that other four top can't be added to make a table for 12?

No, because that's a different server. You guys will have the same server over here.

Oooookkkk..... So I sat with Al, Aly, and N at the four top while Zack sat with everyone else at the big table. We were all confused, because it wasn't just that those tables were empty when we were seated. There were maybe a quarter of the tables filled in the main room. Other than a group in the first half booth on the left of that photo, that whole side of the room was empty. :confused3 Then the waiters come out, and our tables have different waiters. While we waited for our drinks, they seat a family at the table next to Zack's table, and they get the same waiter as Zack's.

Our waiter did not make one single joke. I was really disappointed by that. The Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides for the jokes, and to me that's a huge experience for Skipper Canteen. It'd be like going to 50s Prime Time and the waiters not calling you cousin or telling you to keep your elbows off the table. You might as well go to Applebee's...

I might sound harsh, but I was really looking forward to this meal as it was the only non-wedding meal with half of our group, because they would be leaving Wednesday morning. They made it seem like such a big deal to get tables near each other so I figured it would be really busy. It was empty. It was still like that when we left. They told us wrong about the server sections. Our server wasn't into it at all. Also, service for 4 vs 8 runs differently, so we were done and paying when the other table had barely gotten their entrees. And last but not least, this day was Zack's parents' 30th anniversary. They didn't want a big deal made but we had asked at check in so we could maybe surprise them with a dessert. We didn't get to be part of that being at a separate table.

On the bright side, they let us use my TIW card at both tables even though N paid at our table and Zack paid at the other (for him, parents, and aunt)? Zack said their skipper was good, so they had a much better experience at their table.

Anyways, I'm now done complaining about our Skipper Canteen experience. After lunch we hit some more rides, and I was able to grab 4th and 5th FPs for everyone but Aly and Al (our accounts weren't linked, def should have done that) at Haunted Mansion and Pirates. Aly tried to get the Pirates one too... but couldn't because they'd only ended up booking 2 FPs and Pirates was one of them. We went to do some other stuff, so we booked them a FP for the Magic Carpets because I thought if they missed the whole window it would let them book a 4th FP? It wasn't working though, it was letting her do a 4th for Al but not her :confused3 Was I missing something? We ended up booking Al in the same window as the rest of us and then explaining to the cast member at the FP entrance, and they let us all on. No one knew about the camera except Zack and I, but this was our first ride with it.

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I believe after Pirates we split up for just a bit, for people to shop/eat/etc. Though most ended up following us to Friar's Nook for some mac and cheese for dinner... yummmmm. And then we took our liquid gold to the hub and found Zack's brother and bf, who had plopped down and saved us some seats for Happily Ever After.

After the show (no pictures, just wanted to watch for the first time!) we headed down Main Street - but stopped for some Mickey balloons for pictures the next day :goodvibes We took the bus back to the Dolphin with four of them, so that was a bit of an adventure. :rotfl: Now you might think we all tucked into bed in preparation for our early morning - but no.

First, Zack checked in for his room with N for the night. My friend B arrived. Her family had driven down and arrived in the area midday on Saturday, so they dropped her off. I had two missions to accomplish before I could go to bed: hair and nails. I had been instructed to blow dry my hair decently straight by the hair stylist. This is like my worst nightmare... my hair is long, curly, and thick and I never mastered the skills of blow drying it straight. I could actually count on one hand the number of times I use a blow dryer in a year. My other issue was nails... I had debated trying to fit in time to get them done somewhere in Orlando, but I didn't trust myself to go into the park without ruining, so I ended up picking out a set of fake nails at Walgreens. Super fancy :rotfl: But then when I started losing them in the parks I wasn't as upset as I would have been chipping an expensive manicure. Did I mention I'm a klutz?

B and Aly helped me with my hair and nails, while the boys decided they needed to go to Jelly Rolls and have a few drinks. Honestly I think they were up later than we were! I showered and then it took a while to do my hair. Aly collected Al (and got hit on on the way there, because there was a Cracker Barrel convention going on at the Dolphin most of the week) and promised to be back at 5:15am the next morning with muffins, because hair and makeup was supposed to be there at 5:30am. And everyone went to bed and got 3-4 hours of sleep. Oops... but hey, no one looks tired or hungover in photos, so it's okay!


Food Budget
Budgeted $186
Actual $144

TIW Savings: $37 (estimate)

Mostly under from N covering my meal, TIW estimate based on them letting N use my card too.
 
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We had a great time but were very sad to come home.

Same!

And no Pluto popcorn bucket :sad:

Aw :sad: but I don't know what to do with one of the popcorn buckets we have at home.

I was on my way out the door to leave work on Wednesday when my boss told me... my coworker quit. So with my job, when someone is off, the other people work 12 hours to cover, because my business runs 3 shifts. So when someone quits... there are a lot of long days in my future until we hire and train someone. And they will probably be starting at 3am. :crazy2: And Zack, being ever so helpful, pointed out to me that I am going to have to come in and work at 3am on Christmas Eve, until sometime between 7am and 11am. :sad1:

Ugh.

We had a little gift of fruit, cheese, crackers, and wine from the hotel.

Ooo yummy.

confused, because it wasn't just that those tables were empty when we were seated. There were maybe a quarter of the tables filled in the main room. Other than a group in the first half booth on the left of that photo, that whole side of the room was empty. :confused3 Then the waiters come out, and our tables have different waiters. While we waited for our drinks, they seat a family at the table next to Zack's table, and they get the same waiter as Zack's.

Our waiter did not make one single joke. I was really disappointed by that. The Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides for the jokes, and to me that's a huge experience for Skipper Canteen. It'd be like going to 50s Prime Time and the waiters not calling you cousin or telling you to keep your elbows off the table. You might as well go to Applebee's...

That's so dumb! I don't get why they did that either, and I understand it doesn't sound like a good experience. The atmosphere is important to certain restaurants and not having that kind of ruins things.
 
I was sad to come home too but it was a great trip!! I think you left at a good time. It actually got so crowded yesterday at AK we left early since there wasn't any more rides we could do without at least a 45 minute standby.

Sorry your lunch at Skipper Canteen was not as you expected. That is weird about the tables. They were probably just all over the place it seemed. Sad your skipper didn't act very skipper-ish! That's whole point of eating there!! We ate there once and had a good skipper but our food was only ok. I think they have changed the menu though so we may try it again. I wish there were more restaurants in MK with good food.

Can't wait to read more about wedding day!!!
 
And no Pluto popcorn bucket :sad:

Oh no!!

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We had a little gift of fruit, cheese, crackers, and wine from the hotel.

This is so nice!

I arranged all of our wedding things out on the dresser so they'd be ready for the next day.

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Wow, your flowers came out so great! And I love your shoes.

Also I was maybe a little sad they got rid of the bread service :) I :lovestruc bread.

I know! I can't believe this!! I don't even eat bread, and I was sad! :P When we were there last time we asked them about it and they said they didn't have it anymore, but they brought me some gluten free rolls with some plain honey anyway. The server told us she wondered if they might be planning to add some kind of bread service to the menu like they do at Sanaa, but that was just her guess.

Now, if it was busy, I get it. I also get that they like to try and keep groups at separate tables with the same waiter at most places. But the tables with the green arrows? Empty.

So we ask, Is there a reason that other four top can't be added to make a table for 12?

No, because that's a different server. You guys will have the same server over here.

That's soo frustrating!

There were maybe a quarter of the tables filled in the main room. Other than a group in the first half booth on the left of that photo, that whole side of the room was empty. :confused3 Then the waiters come out, and our tables have different waiters. While we waited for our drinks, they seat a family at the table next to Zack's table, and they get the same waiter as Zack's.

Wait...what!?? Oh my gosh.

Our waiter did not make one single joke. I was really disappointed by that. The Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite rides for the jokes, and to me that's a huge experience for Skipper Canteen.

This is soo disappointing! I love Skipper Canteen and have had 3 good experiences there in a row, and this would be so upsetting for me. We're booked there in a couple weeks and I really hope it's a good experience. I'm sad your meal wasn't as you hoped!

And everyone went to bed and got 3-4 hours of sleep. Oops... but hey, no one looks tired or hungover in photos, so it's okay!

Hahah oops! We had a similar sleep schedule the night before our wedding and everyone was okay, so no hard in the end!

I can't wait to see your wedding posts soon!
 
I can't wait to see you wedding post! So close!
It's up next!
Aw :sad: but I don't know what to do with one of the popcorn buckets we have at home.
Yeah, that's why ours from September didn't make the cut and got left behind before we got to the cruise... lol. But this one I would have kept for a Christmas decoration!

Ooo yummy.
I skipped the fruit but enjoyed everything else. Zack's mom tracked down the wine and got me some for Christmas :drinking1

That's so dumb! I don't get why they did that either, and I understand it doesn't sound like a good experience. The atmosphere is important to certain restaurants and not having that kind of ruins things.
Yes. At least it was a small blip in our trip. I'd almost forgotten it until I sat down to write that!

I was sad to come home too but it was a great trip!! I think you left at a good time. It actually got so crowded yesterday at AK we left early since there wasn't any more rides we could do without at least a 45 minute standby.
We ended up going to AK on Sunday morning, and waited 45+ minutes for the safari, Dinosaur, Everest... All of our FPs were at DHS later, and AK was not in the original plan. Those are probably the longest times I've waited in line! And we ended up doing Toy Story Mania standby after JBJB, because we went in the Frozen show and missed our FP for it :sad2: I'm so ashamed! :rotfl2:

But we saw Equity Ben! He was who we saw in September too, and we thought he was great. I looked him up in the airport on the way home so I could see if he was who you were talking about. He's the best!

Sorry your lunch at Skipper Canteen was not as you expected. That is weird about the tables. They were probably just all over the place it seemed. Sad your skipper didn't act very skipper-ish! That's whole point of eating there!! We ate there once and had a good skipper but our food was only ok. I think they have changed the menu though so we may try it again. I wish there were more restaurants in MK with good food.
Yes! Last Monday we ended up at Columbia Harbor House for lunch. MK was so busy and we had to fight a bird for a table outside :rotfl: But I was like, eh, this is okay... I think I would have preferred the fish breading type on the shrimp too, that's just me. I would have been happy to pay for TS, like LTT was coming up on the app - I could have gone for the corn fritters! But we did spontaneously walk-up to Tiffins on the trip (so much for budget :rotfl2:) so we survived.

Can't wait to read more about wedding day!!!
Brace yourself, here it comes!

Wow, your flowers came out so great! And I love your shoes.
Aw thanks!

I know! I can't believe this!! I don't even eat bread, and I was sad! :P When we were there last time we asked them about it and they said they didn't have it anymore, but they brought me some gluten free rolls with some plain honey anyway. The server told us she wondered if they might be planning to add some kind of bread service to the menu like they do at Sanaa, but that was just her guess.
I guess that might help... :P

This is soo disappointing! I love Skipper Canteen and have had 3 good experiences there in a row, and this would be so upsetting for me. We're booked there in a couple weeks and I really hope it's a good experience. I'm sad your meal wasn't as you hoped!
It was just so strange! I was upset that day, but in the grand scheme of things, not the end of the world.

Hahah oops! We had a similar sleep schedule the night before our wedding and everyone was okay, so no hard in the end!

I can't wait to see your wedding posts soon!


Here and caught up and so excited to see your 3,750 wedding photos! And thoroughly enjoyed all the text posts to boot!
You might be the only person to ever say that... :rotfl2:

Glad you're here! Here they come!
 
Getting Ready:
The Morning of

After our late night, it felt a bit surreal when the alarm went off. I think it was right at 5am since we were expecting H&MU at 5:30am. I hopped up, brushed my teeth, and changed my top. I had realized at some point after getting to Florida, that I hadn't packed anything to get ready in! I didn't buy or receive any Bride clothes, and it just didn't cross my mind in the last minute scramble. But I had a zip up hoodie I'd recently purchased...

So I present to you, my wedding morning outfit:

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Hogwarts Railways hoodie and Disney Tsum Tsum sleeping shorts.

Hey, I never claimed to be conventional! :rotfl:

Anyways, that is Maegan, the H&MU artist. She was super sweet and I was really glad I ended up with her. I went through a vendor on a FB group, and Maegan was like a contractor who picked up jobs from different vendors, so it was definitely a random match. I dropped the ball here (and only booked about 6 weeks out), and on some other things - just so busy going up to the wedding with non-wedding stuff, and then some stress-causing wedding related things, but it ended up all working out just fine.

Maegan showed up a little early, about 5:15am, since she hadn't been to the Dolphin before. While she set up Aly arrived, and she set my hair in rollers. While she then did B's hair and makeup, I sat on the bed with Aly and picked at my muffin. I ate about half, just because I knew I needed to eat something. Aly also took over my phone at this point and fielded all of my calls and texts (like when I forgot to tell the photographer our room number - d'oh!).

So Aly had talked to Zack about her plan to order us mimosas this morning. So she calls room service around 6am... and they told her they don't serve alcohol until 7am :confused3 That never would have crossed my mind! I mean, not that I often order alcohol from room service in the wee hours of the morning, but... I think they told Aly that like she should have known that already. They said they could bring them up after 7am. But lo and behold, at 6:30am a knock sounds on the door, and here are the mimosas! Wedding magic, perhaps? pixiedust: Maybe they saw the note on our reservation about our wedding? I don't know if they'd be able to see that, but Aly didn't say anything on the phone to them. Or maybe they just thought, we need to shut these girls up with some booze... :drinking1 They were very pretty mimosas, with huge strawberries on the rim (that you couldn't really drink around).

Soon, it was my turn to begin hair and makeup. I don't have any makeup pictures since photo showed up just as Maegan started my hair. Rollers out...

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Check out those curls!

Oh, have I mentioned my hair is naturally curly?

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So, anyways...
this post is about to get photo heavy!

I'm sure you all were like, shut up and put some pictures in here already! :rotfl:

Curlers removed.

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Photo and video arrived and started snapping away, taking some photos of all of the little details.

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The boutonnieres, which I was making an hour before we left for the airport - I almost forgot to do them!

Here's a few more shoe photos, in case you weren't on my PJ. I got them custom made from Pixie's Tiny Things on Etsy/FB.

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My jewelry came from Kohl's, and was about $13 for the set. Unfortunately an earring clasp broke later in the trip, but I plan on fixing it/switching it out. I searched high and low for jewelry and found this last minute, and it matched the lace design on my dress perfectly!

Speaking of...

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This was probably my last drink of mimosa, before I decided 1/3 of a chocolate muffin + 1 whole mimosa wouldn't be the best idea. While I was getting my hair done, I was playing with my nails - a bad idea as I knocked one off! Aly and B to the rescue:

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Meanwhile...

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Soon it was time for the finishing touches...

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A look of concentration as I try not to flash anyone as I pull my bra out from behind my dress :rotfl:

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And eventually, I was ready!
I sent a few photos beforehand to Maegan for hair and makeup ideas. I wasn't too picky, I just didn't want all of my hair up and I wanted natural/light makeup. I don't have the skills to do anything beyond basic with my hair and makeup, so I'm usually happy to let others take the reigns with this :) Just like with my dress, which I never would have picked myself because of the sparkly top, but the sales girl picked it out. Maegan said she had this great sparkly pink eye shadow! And I was like, sounds good! I would never pick it up myself, but it looked great! I was very happy with my hair and makeup. I think the photos I sent her had the hair more centered in the back, but I think the side was better with the heat.
I felt like the morning was very short/went very fast, though it was several hours. We were aiming to do a first look around 9am, and I think we were pushing it a little, though I'm not sure since I didn't have my phone. I have a lot of hair and it took awhile to roll it and then pull the rollers out and pin it. Other than starting to feel like we were pushing our time a little when she was finishing my hair, I wasn't terribly nervous this morning. I was worried I would be just in general, or maybe over some family drama, but I was pretty calm. My only worry was leaving the hotel and forgetting something important, like the rings or boutonnieres. Otherwise I felt happy and excited for the big day!



Eventually, It was time to head off to our first look!

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