Tiggerific04's DFTW Trip Report 8/10-8/25

[Tiggerific04]

Hey everyone! I'm still organizing pics and everything, but I thought I could get started on my TR anyway. I've been dying to write one since before I got married and I just can't wait any more!

Here's a little background info:

DH and I met freshman year of high school and got to be good friends in our junior year. I had liked him for a while but he had a girlfriend... they finally broke up at the end of junior year and we got to be really close over the summer and that fall. I finally asked him to the prom in January of our senior year and a couple days later he told me he liked me, and we've been together ever since! We celebrated our 8 year anniversary this past January.

We got engaged last year in the MK. It wasn't a surprise, but all of our friends and family think it was -- I actually helped pick out my own ring and everything! I didn't know how exactly he would do it, but I knew it was going to be in the MK and I knew it was going to be the first night of our vacation. He ended up giving me several surprise gifts that night to trick me, and I finally got my ring in front of the castle as we were leaving the park.

I'm not a very girly-girl at all so I never had a "dream" wedding or anything planned. I hadn't really thought about it much at all so I didn't have anything in mind when we started planning. We were originally going to do an at-home church wedding and reception and then honeymoon in Disney, but we decided against that because: (1)I hate being the center of attention and didn't want a big wedding, (2)DH has a HUGE family and I have almost no one, (3)it's super expensive to have a wedding in NJ.

So, we threw around the idea of a Disney wedding but we didn't know if anyone would be able to come. We decided it would be immediate family and the bridal party only, so we talked to them and they were all ok with it so I contacted DFTW and the rest is history!

We had an Intimate Wedding with 11 guests (plus us) and then went to afternoon tea at the Gardenview Lounge, and then we had dinner at Chef Mickey's.

We used the following vendors (I'll review them all in more detail in my actual TR):

My hair/makeup: Ana from Beaute Speciale (awesome!)
MOH and moms' hair/makeup: Lisa Pena (ok)
Photography: Randy Chapman (haven't seen the pics yet, but he was GREAT to work with!)
Officiant: Pastor Sigfried Jaeger (so sweet!)
Tuxedos: Carolyn Allen's (Sue was amazing to work with and very helpful)
Coordinator: Tanis Armstrong (I love her!)
Floral: Rosie Carabbia (amazing!)
Transportation for MOH: Mears (they were on time and great)

Cast of Characters (I didn't include too much info about DH's side because I'm not sure what he's comfortable with me sharing):

Me: 25 -- I've always wanted to go to Disney but didn't until I graduated from college (DH and I went there as a gift to ourselves)... I fell in love with the place and we've been back every year since. I am an obsessive planner and keep color-coded itineraries of what we are going to be doing everyday. Outside of Disney, I was a website coordinator but I quit that job the day before we left for FL because I hated it. I'm currently looking for something new and different. I'm a vegetarian but I will occasionally eat white meat (you'll see a lot of that during this trip).

DH: 26 -- He went to Disney a couple times with his family when he was younger, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as when he's gone with me, haha. He is not a planner at all and leaves everything up to me. He wishes I would follow through on my promises to leave one day free to just hang out at the resort, but I get so caught up in the Disney magic that I can't stand to sit around a hotel room wasting valuable park time! He is a science and computer teacher but is currently looking to get into his own classroom and get his license.

MOH: 27 -- She and I have been BFF for 19 years. We grew up together and went to college together and she is like a sister to me. She had a really bad diving accident in 2005 that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down, so we weren't even sure if she was going to be able to make it down to the wedding. Tanis went above and beyond helping me get everything organized to make it happen and everything went smoothly for her. She used to be an art teacher and is now an independent artist that paints with her mouth. She's putting on a show next summer which is quite an accomplishment since the doctors weren't even sure she was going to survive!

DBIL #1: DH's older brother, 27, best man

DBIL #2: DH's oldest brother, 30-something, best man
DSIL: DBIL #2's wife, 30-something

Flower Girl: DH's niece/goddaughter, 2 (oldest brother's daughter)
Ring Bearer: DH's nephew, 8 (oldest brother's son)

DM: My mom, 50-something (thinks she's a lot older) -- She is not a Disney fan at all and has never been to the World. She thought it was going to be all-Mickey, all-the-time despite what I tried to tell her. She was pleasantly surprised and is planning a return trip with my dad in 2008.

DD: My dad, 50-something -- He was super excited about a Disney wedding and vacation and was really looking forward to all the food and parks. He is thrilled my mom had a good time and wants to go back.

DMIL: DH's mom, 50-something
DFIL: DH's dad, 50-something

MOH's Date: 27 -- They went to high school together and he has been an awesome friend to her. We told her that she could bring whoever she wanted so that she would have someone on the plane with her, and someone in the room at night in case she needed something. He is amazingly sweet and a great guy.

More to come...

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day One: NJ to SC

The plan was to leave NJ at 6am in order to beat the Washington, DC traffic and arrive in SC around 4pm. We drive because DH doesn't like planes, and we stop in Florence, SC for the night instead of going straight through -- we did that the first year and it was a HUGE mistake. We were dead tired by the time we got to FL and wasted our whole first afternoon and night sleeping!

Anyway, we were up until 3am the night before packing and trying to print out our stupid programs. We had originally bought this pretty pink cardstock and were going to make 6x6 inch square programs, but the store didn't have enough paper and we couldn't find more anywhere, so we bought this sparkly white cardstock instead and figured we would just do 8x11 standard paper size to save time cutting and whatnot.

I got everything set up on the computer and attempted a test -- the paper is too thick for the printer!! It printed fine until the end and then smeared the ink all across the paper. I figured we would get up early, go to my parents' house and try their printer since it might be better.

So, we woke up, finished packing, and started loading my car. I drive a Corolla and it is TINY. We had 2 weeks' worth of clothes and vacation stuff, plus my dress, crinoline, boxes of wedding stuff, and gifts for everyone. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? It was absolutely POURING buckets of rain and it was starting to flood outside! We grabbed a poncho and used it to cover the top part of my garment bag so that my dress wouldn't get wet, but we got SOAKED running back and forth to the car!

Flooding outside our apartment

The backseat of my car (the passenger had to sit straight up the whole time because there wasn't any room to move the seat back!)

Me, drenched (the actual color of my shirt is that lighter pink, the rest is wet)

We finally headed over to my parents'. Nope, their printer doesn't work either! It's now well after 9am and we realize we're going to have to go to Kinko's to get them printed there. So we drive out there, try it and it works! Except I had printed test copies on regular printer paper (back to back) and it was bleeding through when we used the Kinko's copier. So now we have to go allll the way back to my house, reprint everything on its own sheet of paper, go back to Kinko's and print it all out. Ugh, we were finally officially on the road at 10:55am: 4 hours and 55 minutes behind schedule.

We got onto the Turnpike and everything went smoothly... we stopped at the last service area in NJ for a quick potty and snack break: the Burger King here is better than anywhere else in our opinions so we always stop here. I had chicken fries and regular fries, and DH wanted a regular chicken sandwich but they had run out of the rolls... the woman offered him a round roll instead, but that didn't make any sense for a long sandwich so he had something else I can't remember instead.

Everything went fine until we got to VA -- we ALWAYS hit traffic in VA no matter what and this year was no exception. We were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for about an hour or so and then the rest was smooth sailing. Until we got to NC. It was dark by that time and DH was sleeping while I was driving. I noticed that there was some lightning in the sky, and then more and more until it was nonstop... it looked like a camera flash constantly going off! DH woke up and we switched (at South of the Border, gotta love that place!) so that I could rest a little. The lightning continued until we got to the hotel in SC at 12:45am. It reminded me of the movie Sweet Home Alabama, except it's WAY scarier in person when it's just the two of you in your little car on the highway at night!

We checked in, called our families to assure them we were ok, and then passed out for the night.

Next up: Day Two (and lots more pictures, I promise!)

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Two: SC to FL

So, we woke up the next morning at 8:00am and while DF was getting ready, I remembered to take some pics of the room. It looked exactly the same as it always does (we stay at the same place every year), but I like to take pics anyway.

Check out my dress wearing the bright orange poncho

Excuse the unmade bed

I checked out while DF went to check the car and make sure the oil and everything was ok. I met him outside in the parking lot and he informed me that we had ZERO motor oil in the car and we didn't think to bring any extra! Great. No biggie, there's a gas station right down the street and we needed to stop for gas anyway so we'll just pick some up there. Nice plan, but this station didn't sell any car-related products (although they did have snacks and just about everything else you could think of). We drove down the street and found a Wal-Mart so we figured that would work and luckily they carried exactly what we needed. DF went back out to the car to check some other stuff while I paid and then he filled up the car with the oil.

We were starving, so we figured we'd stop at BK to grab something for the road (we never usually eat fast food, but we like to treat ourselves on vacation!), so I ordered while DF went to the bathroom to wash all the car grime off his hands. I got the french toast sticks (yum!) and DF got the sausage biscuit. We both had hash browns and OJ, although I don't think either of us finished the hash browns because they were waaaay to greasy.

Ok, so we're finally on our way at 9:12am and DF drives while I take a nap. There are these bridges in SC that I absolutely HATE because they are so close to the water and have almost no support on the sides of them. I was too busy having a panic attack to take a picture, but I managed to find this online:

BG info: I have this recurring dream where I'm driving a car over a bridge very similar to this one. Sometimes the bridge will have sides, and sometimes it won't. Sometimes it will appear to actually float on the surface on the water. Anyway, I usually don't have control of the car and I always freak out that I'm going to drive off the side into the water. I have a huge fear of plummeting off of a bridge and drowning.

Needless to say, this part of the drive is nervewracking for me. It's even worse on the way home because you're going down the hill on the bridge that way and it looks like you might fly right off into the water.

Back to the story... we made a couple stops for gas and the bathroom but the ride down was mostly uneventful. We made it in pretty good time and went right to Pop to sign in.

Excited to see our exit on I-4:

Woohoo, Pop!!

We had a wonderful CM check us in, although I can't remember her name. She was super excited we were getting married and gave us the Just Married pins right away. I also checked with her about how to handle our second reservation: my travel agent booked us with two reservations, one 10-day, and one 3-day. I didn't want to have to check out and move to a different room for the last few days, so she assured me I could call down on the 18th and tell them we wanted to stay in the same room. Yay!

We headed back to the car and drove around to the 50s parking lot: we were in building 2, room 2365. I had requested building 3 because we loved it last year, but this was good too. We were facing the bowling pin pool and had a view of the lake to our right. If we walked around the corner we could see Spaceship Earth and Illuminations.

We hauled everything up to our room and I took some pictures:

DF took a shower while I called my parents to tell them we arrived safely, and then I turned on the tv to listen to Stacey while I unpacked. I get sick of her by like the second day, but I love to watch her countdown when we first get there because it means we're really in Disney!!

When DF was done, I took a shower and then we headed down to the food court since we were both starving. We hadn't eaten anything since 9am!

As soon as I saw the refillable mugs, I had to have one. They are so cute this year! Plus, since we would be there for two weeks it seemed a worthwhile investment. I got the chicken alfredo and carrot cake, while DF had his fave: meatball sub and a brownie (he talks about these things all year and it's one of the reasons we keep staying at Pop!).

After that we grabbed a mango margarita from the pool bar and debated taking the bus to Downtown Disney to pick up some stuff for our welcome bags (still hadn't finished those...). We voted against this and ended up going to the liquor store instead because the margarita cost us $10 and we figured it was more cost-efficient to buy our own stuff for the room. We ended up buying way too much, but it's vacation, right? We also stopped by Winn Dixie for some cold medicine since I always get sick in FL, and then we stopped at Walgreens for some other last minute stuff.

(I forgot to mention, and maybe it's TMI, but I totally got my "monthly visitor" the night before we left. I knew it was going to happen that way because I have it for every major event in my life, but it still sucked that I was going to have it for my wedding.)

After that we were exhausted and went to bed because we had an early morning at Crystal Palace and the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Three: MK!

Our wake up call came, we got up and dressed and made it to the bus in time to get to the MK for our 8:05am ADR at Crystal Palace -- our fave breakfast!

DF "running" to make it to CP on time

My skirt is wet from the refillable mug

(Note that I wore sneakers today because I thought my Crocs would be "ugly" with socks [I can't wear them barefoot]... my feet were KILLING me by the end of the day and I had two GINORMOUS blisters on my toes. After seeing other people wearing socks with their Crocs, I don't think I wore anything else for the rest of the trip!)

It was excellent as usual, but I didn't eat much because I was so stressed about everything that still had to get done: the marriage license, welcome bags, no one had arrived yet, things were up in the air about how DF's brother was getting there, nothing seemed finalized.

After breakfast we went down to the Emporium to buy our bride and groom ears. I was a little hesitant about wearing them at first because they seemed sooo big and attention-seeking, but I ended up getting used to them.

We put them on and headed over to the Photopass photographer by Casey's and took a couple shots in front of the castle:

Now it was time for some rides! It's tradition that we ride Pirates first so that's where we went.

It was awesome as usual, although we had some annoying people in our boat who were apparently too cool for Disney and kept making stupid comments during the whole ride. GRR. They were college-age kids which annoys me even more because they probably came there out of their own choosing, so why the negativity? Just enjoy it!

Anyway, then we headed over to Splash and I told DF to hold my bag and try to get a shot of me coming down the drop because he NEVER rides Splash. He looked at me and was like, "I'm going too." Umm, ok! There was only a 10-minute wait which was awesome, and while we were waiting, there was another couple wearing the ears waving at us from across the line! I was excited but I'm also SUPER shy and kinda half-waved back because I felt weird. They probably thought we were horribly rude and unfriendly, but we were still getting used to this whole thing!

We get to the end of the line and the CM wants to put us in the front row! I wasn't sure how DF (or I!) felt about this, but he seemed ok so we went for it. It was awesome!! I took a pic of our photo but of course it didn't come out that well... DF is screaming his heart out and I've got my eyes clamped shut and I'm clenching my teeth while I hold on for dear life! We should have bought the photo, but I can never justify the cost.

Continued....

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Three Continued

We made our way over to Fantasyland and rode one of my faves: Small World. I know a lot of people don't like this one, but I think it's adorable and I actually, gasp!, like the song

Then we did Philharmagic (awesome as always) and decided to check out the new Monsters, Inc. attraction. I was so paranoid that we would get picked on because of the ears so I took them off and hid them, lol. The show was really cute, we liked it a lot.

We decided to do some shopping and picked up things for their welcome bags: wine glasses (we actually got these at Pop), a basketball for DF's nephew (RB), an Ariel purse for DF's niece (FG), candy, cotton candy, first visit and b-day buttons, a spray fan (Target), tissues (Target), and a first aid kit (Target).

By this point it was noon and we were getting hot, tired, and cranky, so we decided it would be best to head back to the room and take a nap. When we were walking up the stairs, we heard this really loud and really weird noise. I looked over and there were these huge birds walking around screaming!

We slept for a couple hours and woke up refreshed and ready to go back! We got changed, put on our ears, and we were on our way back to the MK. As soon as we got there we stopped for some more Photopass pics and were excited that we got some direction about cute poses rather than just the usual ones.

There were lines for everything, so we grabbed a FP for Buzz and walked over to Toontown to see how long the wait was for the princesses: 45 minutes. No thanks! We walked through Minnie and Mickey's houses and then went back to Tomorrowland to use our FP. I suck at Buzz so I only got 6900 (which is actually pretty good for me) and DF got 13,000.

DF thought this was mean, lol

We walked all the way around to Liberty Square and through the Christmas store and then sat down for a little bit to rest our feet. DF talked to his brother and SIL and they had just arrived at MCO so we were feeling a bit better knowing someone was here.

We were hungry and had some time to kill before our ADR, so we grabbed a pineapple float in Adventureland.

We relaxed and then headed over to Liberty Tree Tavern.

When we checked in the CM was so excited we were getting married and asked if we wanted the "celebration." Again, being super shy, I panicked and said no because I had no idea what she was talking about and didn't want to be made the center of attention. We ended up waiting quite a bit, but another bride and groom came in and we actually smiled and said hi to them! lol

We were finally seated and then we had to wait quite a bit again for our server to come over. Once he did, he was very nice. DF ordered an iced tea thinking it was going to be Nestea, and it wasn't so we switched drinks and I think the server got upset, which I thought was odd.

Continued again....

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Three -- Part Three

Anyway, the food was good, but I don't know that I'd go back again. The characters were cute, especially Chip and Pluto. Chip came over and grabbed my hand to see my ring and pretended to faint. Then he showed our server and pointed from DF to me and made a confused gesture. Our server goes, "Yeah, she said yes, can you believe it?" and Chip shook his head NO! haha

After dinner, we went to stake out a place to watch Wishes in front of the castle so that we could record it. It was fantastic as usual. We walked around a little and DF's SIL called to tell us they were at their hotel finally. We had wanted to drop off their welcome bag today, but we told her we weren't going to be leaving MK until at least 11:30pm so we would just drop it off in the morning before they left for AK.

We also wanted to tape SpectroMagic and it was showing twice that night, so after the fireworks we grabbed a seat on the curb on Main Street and watched the parade. We were exhausted after that and headed back to Pop for a good night's sleep because we had to get up at 6am the next morning!

(As an aside, you can see the monstrous zit on my chin that had developed by this point. I was really upset about it because I knew it would never be gone for the wedding pics. I told Anna [Beaute Speciale] about it and she said not to worry... keeping my fingers crossed that Randy was able to make it "disappear" for our photos.)

 

[oneyodafan]

Great start! Love all the pics, looking forward to more!

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Four: Marriage License and Epcot

In all of my panic about the programs before we left, I had completely forgotten to print out directions to the courthouse so that we could get our marriage license. We were originally going to do it through the mail, and we had started the process, but with moving and everything else it got too close to the day we were leaving and I didn't want to risk it.

After I showered on Saturday (when we first arrived) I pulled out the phone book and looked up the Osceola County Courthouse and tried to figure out how to get there. I called my dad and had him Google it as well, so I finally got directions and we seemed good to go. I figured we would just borrow the phone book and bring it with us in case we needed the map as a reference.

So, we woke up at 6:00am on Monday so that we could get ready and then drive over to DF's brother's hotel (Vacation Village at Parkway). We didn't have directions here either, but I found the number in the handy-dandy phone book and they had an automated phone system with directions from I4.

We tried following those, but we were already too far west on I4 so we got off at the next exit and tried to get to 192. Luckily it wasn't too hard and we made it to their hotel right as they were getting on the shuttle to AK. I ran across the parking lot and showed them the bag and made them take the buttons and the spray fan for the park and we said we would meet up tomorrow to give them the rest of the stuff.

After that we headed to the courthouse, which was kind of on the way so it worked out nicely. We were looking for North Bermuda Avenue according to both the phone book map and Google maps. Driving, driving, driving, and no Bermuda Ave of any kind. I remember we have the phone book so I pull it out and realize we have gone a couple blocks too far. We make probably the most illegal turn in history and head back the way we came. Still no Bermuda Ave, but there is a John Young Parkway where the phone book says Bermuda should be. We decide to turn there and it turns out we were right. We find the courthouse, circle the parking lot a couple times, and then finally get a spot and head inside.

We got through security fairly quickly, grabbed an elevator and walked into the marriage/passports office -- no line! Score! We walked right up with our already-completed form (thanks Maggie for the tip and link!) and we were done in less than 20 minutes. The couple that came in after us was getting married at Disney as well. I poked DF and told him to say something to them, but neither of us knew what to say without looking like stalkers, lol.

Marriage license in hand, we got back in the car and headed back to Pop. We did fine until we got to Disney property. We've never really gotten lost there before because the signs are pretty good, but we could not for the life of us find Pop! We ended up at the MK!!

From there it was easy to find our way home. DF dropped me off in the front and I grabbed a chocolate croissant and chocolate chip muffin and then met him in the room.

We relaxed for a bit and then headed out to Downtown Disney so that we could buy some welcome bags gifts. We made a quick stop at Ghiradelli for a snack since we've never been and the pics on the food porn thread always look sooo good. I got the very berry sundae and DF got the brownie sundae.

They look yummy, but as DF said, "Ghiradelli sucks!!" He was not pleased with his ice cream at all and whenever something was bad the rest of the trip, we would look at each other and say, "Ghiradelli sucks!!" Silly little inside joke I guess Anyway, he said that there was not enough brownie and it wasn't warm and the whole thing was just bad. Mine was ok, but nothing spectacular.

We wandered around and ended up buying a Donald pin for my mom and a Pirates pin for MOH because she loves Orlando Bloom I also found a cute keychain for my dad so we got that too. I bought myself the "Happily Ever After" shirt because I've been craving it ever since I saw it on the DIS. It was $30 and DF rolled his eyes at me, but it was totally worth it because I love it!

We walked over to the West Side to look in the music store, but I was starting to feel really yucky so DF walked all the way back to get the car and then he came to pick me up. We went back to the room so I could rest and then MOH called.

(We also noticed that we had a towel animal! It's a dog.)

As I mentioned, she is paralyzed and needs a nurse and aide for assistance with bathing and personal hygiene stuff. We had looked into several agencies down in FL and ended up going with one that my mom found and made arrangements with.

MOH called and said that someone had called her and was asking about what she was going to need since she was going to be arriving shortly and they hadn't received any confirmation yet. What?? This didn't sound right so I told her I would talk to my mom and call her back. Turns out it was an agency that we talked to a lonnnng time ago and ended up not liking because they were kind of flaky and unreliable. My mom assured me everything was set with the other agency and she had all the documents with her in case.

My parents had arrived by then and were using Happy Limo to get from the airport to the Doubletree in Downtown Disney. They were raving about it on the phone and it occured to me that we had not arranged for any kind of transportation for DF's family on the 15th!! At this point, his parents were still flying down and his brother was undecided, so I called Happy Limo and made the reservation.

We drove to the Doubletree to give my parents their welcome bag (they loved it) and find out how their flight went. My mom doesn't fly, but my dad said there was no way he was driving when he had all kinds of airline miles accumulated from work -- I think they were able to fly first class almost for free!

We left them so that we could go back to Pop and grab the bus to Epcot because we had an ADR at Nine Dragons that night. We got to Epcot and stopped for the obligatory Photopass pics before heading to Mousegears to look for more gifts.

We bought some candy in Mousegears for DF's mom and then decided that his brother would get candy from some of the countries. While I paid and chatted with the cashier (she congratulated me on getting married and the guy behind me in line asked her how she knew... she looked at him like he was crazy and pointed at my ears and said "Bridal ears?"... he goes "Oh, that's what those are?"), DF talked to his brother on the phone. It was determined that he would definitely be driving and his parents were going to drive down with him as well.

We then ran to our fave place: Club Cool! I loooooove the VegitaBeta from Japan and DF loves the one from Israel (sort of like Sprite I think). I was so disappointed to find out there was no VegitaBeta in the whole place! But there was a new one from Mexico that was super yummy, so that almost made up for it.

We decided to try out the new El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico and I have to say I did not like it at all. I'm glad they updated the film, but I really felt like adding Donald cheapened the whole thing and took away from the fact that it's supposed to be about Mexico.

On our way out we stopped to get a mango margarita from the little stand. The CM (Gerta) was soooo excited we were getting married and said congratulations as soon as we walked up. We said thank you and ordered and then when DF handed her his rewards card to pay, all she said was "Congratulations!" and crossed her arms. It took us a minute to understand that she was giving it to us for free!! How awesome is that?! Our first wedding-related freebie!

DF didn't care for it, so I ended up drinking the whole thing myself as we worked our way around the world. We tried to stop and catch some of the Chinese acrobats, but it was too crowded so we went to Italy and bought candy for DF's brother instead. I was starting to really feel the margarita but I had to keep my composure because my dad called wanting to know what the plan was for tomorrow morning (we were going to MGM with my parents). I think I kept my cool and told him we would meet them at their hotel at 8:30am and then drive over.

We decided we still had some time before dinner so we went to Japan and bought some Pocky for DF's brother and some green tea for MOH's guest. We literally ran back to China to make it to our ADR on time and by this time I think I was totally gone (it doesn't take much, lol).

The pics are kind of dark, but you can sort of see the interior of the restaurant. It was really pretty, even though we were practically sitting on top of the people next to us.

DF had an iced tea and I had an iced green tea.

I had the shrimp appetizer and DF had the dumplings. Both were realllly good and we were feeling optimistic about the meal.

DF ordered General Tso's chicken and a side of fried rice, while I ordered the shrimp fried rice.

They first brought him the sesame chicken by mistake but they quickly brought him out the correct dish and apologized profusely. I tasted his chicken and it was sooooo good! My rice was ok, but it wasn't the kind of fried rice that I like. It tasted more like Korean-style fried rice to me, but it was ok and I ate a lot of it because I was hungry.

The people next to us ordered chocolate cake for dessert and we thought it looked tasty so when it came time for us to order we asked our server what they had. She told us either ginger or red bean ice cream. DF asked about the cake and she said they didn't serve any cake. Umm, what? When our neighbors were offered dessert, their server listed the ice cream and the cake. I didn't feel like questioning or arguing so we skipped dessert and left. We decided at the end of the meal that we definitely wouldn't go back here, or if we did, we would go for lunch and split something.

We left as Illuminations was going on, so we ran to the exit trying to beat the crowd. We weren't fast enough and we got caught in the masses anyway and then I started to feel really sick like I was going to throw up. I suppose alcohol, heat, chinese food, and running aren't such a good combo.

Pastor Jaeger called as we leaving and he told me that he had tried emailing me his homily for the ceremony but he got an auto-reply saying I was no longer with my company. I had already told him before I left not to use my work email anymore since my last day was the day before we left, but whatever. He really wanted me to read it before the wedding, but I told him I had absolutely no access to email and trusted him that it would be fine. He was really sweet and told me how excited he was to meet us and perform our wedding. Aww!

The bus ride back to Pop was HORRIBLE. I was still nauseous and we had to stand on the bus, and the bus driver thought he was driving for Nascar. When we finally got back to the room I just took a shower and collapsed on the bed!

Up next: MGM with my parents, first tux fitting, LOTS of rain, and am I getting a cold?!

 

[Tiggerific04]

Day Five: MGM and LOTS of rain

We woke up this morning and drove to the Doubletree in Downtown Disney to meet my parents so that they could follow us to MGM. I had never been on RNRC, and my dad had recently gone on the Hulk at Universal, so he had been talking for months about how we should try RNRC together.

This was my first time being in a park with anyone other than DF and it was kind of weird at first because I'm usually in my commando-tour guide mode, but I had to go much slower and be more relaxed with my parents. It was a little frustrating, but I tried not to let it bother me.

Really bad pic of us next to my car in the parking lot

As we were walking to the entrance, we were chatting about DF's brother and parents and how they were now driving. My dad reminded me about booking the car for them last night. Duh! I've been so scatterbrained with all of the wedding stuff and trying to keep everything straight that I completely forgot I had booked the car! I called Happy Limo (again) and had them cancel it.

As soon as we got in the park we stopped for some photos:

We split up so that my dad and I could go get FP for RNRC while my mom and DF were going to find somewhere to sit I think. I have never seen such a long FP line! It must have taken us 20 minutes just to get the stinking FP because every person in front of us was getting like 10 of them! Anyway, FP in hand, we headed out to find DM and DF. Big shocker: they were in the smoking area right outside of RNRC (my mom smokes nonstop and I absolutely hate it). We stood around debating TOT, but my dad said he didn't think he was up for it so I still haven't done it. I don't want to go on by myself, but DF doesn't do thrill rides so this was my one chance. Oh well!

We were hot and had some time to kill, so we decided to do the Magic of Disney Animation since we get to sit down in air conditioning. As we were on line waiting for the doors to open, this woman behind us taps me on the shoulder and gestures that she would like a picture with me and DF. She points at our bride/groom ears and smiles and then points to her husband (?) with the camera. Umm, ok? I didn't know what to say so I just said ok and we smiled and she said thank you. I didn't realize we were picture-worthy! After that interesting experience we were let into the attraction and we all liked it. DF and I wanted to do the drawing class afterward (it's our fave thing at MGM) but my parents weren't interested, so we started walking back to RNRC since it was almost time for our FP.

I was kinda nervous about RNRC because of the fast take-off. I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect and once I saw the cars in front of us FLY away, my heart started beating really, really fast. It was our turn to board so I just held my breath and hopped in. My dad turned to me and said, "Should we really be doing this?" and then we pulled ahead to the part right before you take off. Too late now! As soon as we started moving I closed my eyes and screamed my head off... my dad was laughing the entire time! In our picture, I've got my head down and my mouth wide open and he's just sitting there smiling like he's out for a Sunday drive! It was hilarious. We both ended up really liking the ride and wanted to go again, but we had other things to do.

We started heading back to where we left DF and my mom and we saw the characters come out to pose for pics around the big hat. My mom is a HUGE Donald fan, so when we saw Donald and Daisy I told my dad to get in line and I would go get everyone else. I put my mom in line and then DF told me that while he and DM were waiting for us to get off the ride, someone stopped and congratulated them on their marriage!! DF had been wearing his groom ears and DM had bought the princess ears so I guess it looked like they were together! DF corrected the person and told them DM was actually almost his mother in law, lol. That is precisely the reason why I took my bride ears off when it was just me and my dad -- no need for embarassing mistakes!

DF took this pic of "Thumper" while they were waiting:

It was getting really hot and DF and I had a lot to do, so we split up with my parents and headed to the Star Tours gift shop to get something for MOH's guest. He's a huge Star Wars fan, so we ended up getting him a cute Yoda mug to go with his green tea from the other night.

We grabbed a bus to the Contemporary and walked to MK to pick up these picture frames we saw the other day when we were there (we wanted to give them as gifts to our parents -- they were glass and had a bride/groom Minnie & Mickey engraved on them and we got our names and wedding date engraved as well). As we were going through bag check, the security guard asked us if we had just gotten married and we told him that we would be on Thursday. He asked if we were coming back on Thursday and I told him we'd be back at MK on Friday. He said to make sure to look for him or ask for Kevin when we come back. Ok!

We were intrigued but we had things to do so we didn't really think too much about what our new BFF Kevin had in store for us. We got to the picture frame store, picked out what we wanted and the CM told us to come back around 1:30pm and they would be done. We tried to find a ride or something to do, but everything had HUGE lines so we grabbed a Dole Whip and sat down for a little while. This big group of people by Aloha Isle congratulated us and after we told them we were getting married on Thursday, one of the guys told DF, "It's not too late!" His mother slapped him in the head, lol.

We were bored and hot so we went to Hall of Presidents to sit down and cool off, and then we realized we should go to Exposition Hall to watch old cartoons instead. Once we got there I started to feel really, really tired and really sick like I was getting a cold. My nose was runny, my throat hurt, and I had chills. Great.

It was about time to check on the frames so we went back there and found out that one of them had to be redone twice because the frames were chipped on the edges so it was going to be a little while longer. We went next door and decided to have a "little" snack:

OMG, this thing was gigantic!! And delicious, yum!

We realized that it didn't make sense for us to just wait around so we were going to go to MGM to pick up the car and then come back to MK later. We walked back to the CR and after I had a quick potty break inside, I decided to send DF on his own to get the car, I would get the frames, and we would meet back at Pop. I took the monorail not knowing that it didn't go from the CR straight to MK. Instead I went allll the way around, which ended up being good because it took up time and by the time I got back to the store the frames were ready to go.

I hopped on the bus to Pop, fell asleep on it, and then dragged myself back to the room. I downed some Tylenol, fell asleep, and waited for DF to get back with his brother and nephew for their tux fitting at 5pm.

I couldn't sleep, so I started putting the welcome bags together when it hit me: I never made plans to get my nails done for the wedding! I pulled out my trusty phone book and tried to find somewhere, but I don't know the area well so it was useless. I called the front desk but they were reluctant to recommend anywhere off-property so I was stuck until I remembered that it was a weekday and I could call Tanis' (my wedding coordinator) assistant for advice. She was able to tell me where she goes, and right as I hung up the phone with her, Sue arrived with the tuxedos. She and her niece came in and they also gave me a couple recommendations for nails as we waited for the guys to get back.

My dad called and said he was in front of the lobby so I directed him to our building/room and then DF got back with the guys. They tried their stuff on and then my dad went in. Luckily everything was mostly ok: DF needed a shirt with longer sleeves, and his brother needed a jacket with shorter sleeves and a shirt with a bigger neck.

I was concerned about the tux fitting the next day because we didn't know what time DF's father and other brother would be getting in. The fitting was scheduled for 5pm, but I was worried about what would happen if something didn't fit. Sue said that she could do minor alterations or depending on the time, she might be able to get a replacement from the warehouse. She tried to tell me it would be fine, but it didn't sound very reassuring. I refused to panic or stress about it since there wasn't much I could do anyway.

It was at this point that everything started to feel real: there were now tuxedos in the room for the wedding, we had met Sue already, things were coming together. Everyone else would be arriving tomorrow, the rehearsal dinner was tomorrow night, it was so weird! All this stuff that I had been planning for months was happening and it was all working out ok so far.

My dad left and DF and I drove his bro and nephew back to their hotel. We hung out for a little bit talking to SIL and giving everyone their presents, and then we had to leave to get to MGM for our ADR at Mama Melrose. It was POURING rain outside when we left, I mean like buckets of water falling from the sky. We headed to MGM and it seemed to clear up until we actually parked the car and then the sky pretty much OPENED up and there was a downpour. We debated skipping dinner and just eating at Pop instead, but we decided it was our wedding/honeymoon trip and we were going to eat everywhere we planned no matter what! We grabbed the umbrellas in my car, I wrapped the Bagallini around me and clutched it to my chest and we ran. The parking lot was flooded and we seemed to be the only people foolish enough to be running towards the park instead of away from it.

We were drenched and I was starting to panic about the camera, cell phones, etc in the bag but there wasn't really anything we could do at that point so we just kept going. They had part of the park blocked off for construction, so we had to go back the way we came and alllll the way around, but we finally got there. We took turns trying to dry off in the bathroom but it was useless. There were actually puddles of water in my Crocs.

We enjoyed dinner, but I was freezing and really feeling sick. Running around in the rain and then sitting in the AC was probably not such a good idea after all. But it was worth it all for the dessert...

Vegetarian minestrone soup (my app)

Calamari (DF's app)

Four cheese flatbread (my entree - yuck)

Chicken parm (DF's entree - not enough spaghetti)

Chocolate gelato (DF's dessert)

Warm chocoate truffle cake (my dessert - aka The Best Dessert EVER or The Only Reason I Booked Another ADR at Mama Melrose)

By the time we finished dinner the rain had stopped, so we were able to calmly walk back to the car. We got back to Pop and I filled up our mug with hot water at the food court so that I could make myself some Theraflu and go to bed. I passed out before I even finished it and I think DF watched a movie or something before falling asleep.

Next: Day Before the Wedding!

 

[Maddiesmum03]

Congratulations!!!!
enjoying your report so far and cant wait to see more. I love all your food photos, I think this is going to be a super long report!!!!

oh and those bridges would scare me too.....

 

[Pomlover2586]

I'm loving your TR!!!! Patiently waiting for more!

 

[Tiggerific04]

Congratulations!!!!
enjoying your report so far and cant wait to see more. I love all your food photos, I think this is going to be a super long report!!!!

oh and those bridges would scare me too.....

Haha, yeah, it's probably going to be long but that could be good, right?

 

[Tiggerific04]

Great start! Love all the pics, looking forward to more!

I'm loving your TR!!!! Patiently waiting for more!

Thanks girls! There should be more up tonight because I'm working on the next one now

 

[audisight]

Your TR rocks! The pictures are fantastic. You and your new DH look so cute together. I can't wait to read more

 

[PRINCESSAJ]

I'm loving your Trip Report!!

I think all your pictures are great!!

I'm exactly the same with my itineraries - I like things to be done properly and get disapointed if it doesn't go to plan!!

 

[Lizby]

Subscribing...your TR is great and I am looking forward to the rest! I am in suspense waiting for the wedding day pics

 

[Missy H]

Cant wait to read more! Keep it coming

 

[Maddiesmum03]

Haha, yeah, it's probably going to be long but that could be good, right?

the longer the better
this is a settle down with a nice cup of coffee kinda report

 

[Blueeyes101817]

LOVING this report so far--im waiting not so patiently for the next installment!

 

[KQAN]

I am so excited you started a trip report! I loved reading your PJ. I am from NJ too - northern NJ, Morris County. Where are you from?

Also, I love the VegiBeta (sp?) (japanese soda in club cool), too, and I was also so disappointed when I went to Epcot a few weeks ago and I saw it was gone!

BTW, those huge birds you saw are sandhill cranes, in case you were wondering. I've been living in Orlando for about a year and I've gotten acquainted with some crazy new wildlife we definitely don't see in Jersey!

Anyway, love your TR and can't wait to read the rest!