Walt Disney World Anniversary Trip Synopsis!

We had an ABSOLUTE blast at Disney World. What a magical vacation! Kevin and I went to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary and thought what better place to celebrate than WDW?!? Get ready, this may be long….

September 11 – We flew into Orlando and arrived at about 7:45PM. We booked a room at the Courtyard at MCO (since our reservations at the Grand Floridian didn’t start until 9/12). We were exhausted since we had been up since 5AM. Once we checked into our hotel, we walked over to Friday’s and got a very quick meal. We were in bed before 10PM to rest up for our first day!

September 12 – Yay! We get to go to Disney World today!! We woke up at 6:30 and got ready. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and got on the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch the Magical Express. Since we were at the airport before 9AM it was only us and another family of 4 on the bus. We sat up front and talked to the driver the whole way to the Grand Floridian. He was so nice! The only bad thing was that as we were getting close it started pouring. I was just hoping this wasn’t going to be the case the entire week! Once we got to the Grand Floridian, we got our bags and checked in. I went to use the restroom, and when I came out, the girl was just starting to tell Kevin that we were upgraded to a Magic Kingdom view room. I was so excited! It was amazing!


Yep, it was wet as we pulled into the resort!

The view from our balcony!


We got unpacked and caught the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom (with ponchos in tow…). Although the first half of the day was VERY wet, it started to clear up in the afternoon. We rode all our favorite rides, and by 6PM we decided to go back to the room and freshen up a bit before going back to MK to catch Spectromagic and Wishes. As we were walking back to our room there was a hotel staff member in a golf cart pulling up to our building with a GORGEOUS vase of a dozen roses. I said “aww” and he got out with the vase and followed us into the building. We all got on the elevator and my husband asked him which floor he needed. He said 4, which was also our floor. Kevin and I got out of the elevator and walked to our room. I walked in and looked back and Kevin was standing in the doorway, all of a sudden he said “I thought that was perfect timing!” the roses were for me! What a sweetie! The card was amazing too... it was addressed to “Belle” He wrote that he didn’t want to wait until “the last petal fell” until he told me how much he loved me…and he signed it, from your “Beast” Kevin. He also had printed out the story of Beauty and the Beast and gave it to me. SO SWEET!





Then, he also had a beautiful (Mickey-shaped) basket of chocolate truffles, champagne and Mickey champagne flutes delivered to our room. In addition to all that, the Grand Floridian had a small bottle of champagne and a card from Mickey and Minnie also delivered to our room! It was so amazing!



After all the excitement we decided to split the small bottle of champagne and freshen up. We needed to get back to MK for Spectromagic at 9! We get back to MK and grabbed dinner at the Columbia Harbor House. They have a hummus and broccoli coleslaw sandwich that is wonderful! After that we staked out our spot for the parade and and Wishes! Both were amazing! It was such a great way to end the day. Even though it was soggy for a good portion of the day, it didn’t matter. It was such a magical day!

Kevin waiting for Spectromagic/Wishes


Me waiting for Spectromagic/Wishes


Spectromagic


Wishes



September 13 – Day 2 we decided to go to Epcot. This is Kevin's favorite park.



He is obsessed with Spaceship Earth (which of course we had to ride first!).



It was actually a beautiful morning, so we were excited because it was quite soggy the day before. We got Fastpasses for Test Track and while walking back to Spaceship Earth, we saw the Jammitors. Kevin was so excited because he was made an honorary Junior Jammitor. We have the stickers to prove it!



We then went and rode Spaceship Earth and Test Track and then headed over to The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. We walked around the exhibit afterwards and saw some of the dolphins swimming in the tank. By this time it had started raining again, and we walked briskly over the The Land. We still had about 15 minutes before our Soarin’ fastpasses were valid, so we grabbed a quick bite at the Sunshine Season’s café (very good, by the way). After that we headed to Soarin’. We were lucky enough to get to sit in section B in the first row, which are Hands DOWN the best seats! You don’t really notice the people on either side of you, and there are no feet hanging above you!

After that we stepped outside and it had stopped raining. We headed over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and rode that. Kevin loves that ride as well! Then we walked around for a bit and decided to head over to the World Showcase.





We started in the UK (as usual) and headed around the lagoon. We kind of went at a quick pace because we had an reservation at San Angel Inn at 5PM. We grabbed one of the much acclaimed Grand Marnier Slushies to split (YUM!) and headed towards Mexico. As we got to the Outpost it started POURING! We ducked into the Outpost and watched the kids play with the steel drums. One of the kids was actually really good! The rain let up a bit and we went over to Mexico for dinner. We’ve eaten there twice before and really enjoy it. I had a veggie meal that consisted of tortillas, beans, and roasted veggies. Kevin had some kind of steak.

Inside the Mexico Pavilion


After that we went and rode the Maelstrom in Norway, and went to the show inside the American Adventure. While we were waiting for the show to begin, one of the CMs (Cast Members) working the exhibit came over to us and asked us to come with him. Kevin and I were so confused, we wondered if we had done something wrong. He brought us to this “hidden” phone in the entry and said to dial a number, because we had a message waiting for us. Kevin dialed the number and held the phone up so I could hear it. It was Mickey and friends wishing us a Happy Anniversary! It was the cutest thing ever. He also came back out and handed us a little card in which he wrote our names in calligraphy and ‘Happy 4th Anniversary’. It was such a cool little surprise!



After that we headed in to see the show (which we loved). We were planning on seeing Fantasmic that night so we decided to hop on the boat over to Hollywood Studios. Fantasmic was AWESOME. We had never seen it before, and were so happy we decided to see it this time. So cool. If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend it!



After the show was over we caught the bus back to the resort. Kevin was hungry since we had eaten dinner so early (and it was after 11PM), so we went over to the quick service and he got a personal pizza and I got a yogurt parfait. We ate them while sitting out on the balcony looking at the Magic Kingdom and Cinderella Castle all lit up. It was a perfect end to a great day!

Here are a few more pictures from Day 2!
This is a crazy picture of a typical 'Florida downpour'!


Kevin drinking a beer in Morocco with a confused look on his face:


My favorite Photopass picture of Kevin and I that day (in the World Showcase)


September 14 – I told Kevin that I didn’t want a wakeup call this morning, and he agreed! We ended up waking up on our own around 8:30. It was really nice to sleep in a bit. We got going at a slower pace, grabbed a quick breakfast, and we were off to Hollywood Studios for the day! We caught the bus over there, and ended up arriving around 10:30.

Here's a picture of us right by the entrance:


Other pictures of Hollywood Studios:



We went over to the info board to see what the wait times were for all the rides. Our plan was to grab a FastPass for Toy Story Mania and head over to Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Well, Toy Story Mania was down, so we went straight for Rockin Roller Coaster. On our way over there, a guy walked up to us and asked us if we wanted his Fast Passes for Rockin Roller Coaster that were valid for twenty more minutes! We (of course) said yes, grabbed them, went over to Tower of Terror to grab two FastPasses, and headed back to ride the roller coaster. We were on in 5 minutes…Front Seats! It was awesome…it’s such a fun roller coaster!





When we were done, we only had about 20 minutes until our Tower of Terror FastPasses were valid, so we headed over to some of the shops and looked around. Then we went on Tower of Terror. I have a love / hate relationship with this ride. I love the effects so much, I just hate not knowing when we’re going to drop. It was so much fun though! I screamed my head off (as usual!)




We then went over and checked the board. It looked like Toy Story Mania was back open. We headed that direction to grab a few FastPasses. They weren’t valid until 4:45, but it gave us plenty of time to do other things. We went next store to the “One Man’s Dream” exhibit. It was so neat to see the museum. Kevin and I both loved it (for some reason we had never been through it before). The movie was great too. It was so neat how they had Walt actually voicing a portion of it!






When we were done there we went on the Backlot Tour. Kevin got a great shot of the waterfall crashing towards the tour:



After that was over we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed over to see Indiana Jones. We missed the first couple minutes, but both of us thought it was a great show. I’d definitely recommend it! When we were done there, we went on the Great Movie ride, which we always enjoy. We then went to see what time the next showing of the American Idol experience was, and we ended up having about 30 minutes to kill. So of course we went back on Rockin Roller Coaster! We grabbed a quick ice cream and headed over to American Idol. We both thought it was really cool how they did the show. The guy Kevin voted for won! After American Idol was over we went on Tower of Terror one more time and then headed over to Toy Story Mania. This ride was a lot of fun! We loved the little Alien guys and the noise they made when you got the ring around them. Kevin kicked my butt though!

After that we decided to call it a day and head back to our resort to rest for a short while and get ready for our reservation at Narcoossee’s. We got back to the resort and grabbed a drink at the pool bar. Our bartender, Mark, was great (we saw him a few times throughout the week)!

Pool at the Grand Floridian


Kevin and I at the pool bar


We then changed and headed to the lounge inside the Grand Floridian for a glass of wine before going to Narcoossee’s. We checked in at Narcoossee’s at about 8:20 (our rez was for 8:30), got our pager, and went to (of course) the bar! I got a glass of wine, and Kevin got a Yuengling. Kevin told me he’d be right back, and when I looked back he was talking to the hostess. When he came back I asked what he was doing and he told me he tried to score a table with a view of the Magic Kingdom (Wishes was at 9). Whatever he said worked…we had a perfect table! Dinner was wonderful! We split the crab cake appetizer and then we heard the Wishes music start. Kevin asked the waitress if it was ok if we stepped out on the deck to watch the fireworks. She said it would be no problem to hold the food for us. It was a great place to watch the fireworks! When we went in we enjoyed the rest of our meal. It was wonderful! I had the Tuna and Kevin had the Red Grouper. I would totally recommend this place…It’s definitely worth the 2 dining credits! We walked back to the room and enjoyed a little time out on the balcony before bed. Another end to a great day!





September 15 – Despite the fact that Kevin and I have been to WDW twice together, we have never seen the opening ceremonies at any of the parks. I really wanted to make it a point to at least catch the Magic Kingdom ceremony. We decided to get up at 7:30, get ready, and catch the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We ended up getting over there at about 8:45, which was perfect timing! It was already quite warm, so poor Kevin was already sweating (the poor guy lived in sweaty t-shirts all week!). The opening ceremony was great! We loved the music, dancing, and atmosphere. The family of the day was adorable as well…a dad and his two little blond kids. So cute!








After that was over we went into the park and headed straight for Kevin’s favorite ride in all of WDW – Pirates of the Caribbean! Here's a picture of Kevin excited to be walking into Adventureland:





We pretty much just walked right on and Kevin was excited because we were in the front row of the boat. After getting off Pirates, we realized we were hungry. We went to the Bakery on Main Street. I got a strawberry yogurt parfait, and Kevin got a Blueberry Muffin (both were very good). Kevin was able to snag a table right out on Main Street while I paid for our breakfast. It was so cool to sit out there and just watch people enter the park!




After breakfast we decided to hit a few more rides, and then we were going to go to Blizzard Beach for the day. We took some great pictures by the castle before we headed over to go on a few more rides.








We also saw Goofy over in Frontierland and stopped to get Photopass Pictures with him. Even though Kevin and I are 30 and 31, we turn into 5 year olds when we see characters (funny story about that later in the week)!



We decided to head back to the resort to change and go over to Blizzard Beach. We’ve been to both water parks, but Blizzard Beach is definitely our favorite. So many fun thrill slides! Once we got over there, we hit Summit Plummit! I love this slide, but it is very daunting. I just go down and shut my eyes as hard as I can! Kevin and I both made it down safely and went to the tamer slides. I love the double tube slides (that we can ride together)…although Kevin has a habit of flipping the tube when we hit the bottom and kneeing me in the head (yes, this has happened twice!). I will give him credit, we made it down a couple times this day without incident!! We then decided to take a ride around the lazy river, and to our surprise there was a Photopass Photographer taking pictures!



After a nice ride around the lazy river, we decided to take a break and get a Rum Runner and split a bag of chips at the wave pool bar…nice lunch, huh? :) We called it a day after our second run on Summit Plummit since it was about quarter to 5. We had to get showered and changed for our reservation at Artist Point that evening!
On the bus we met a really sweet family from Indiana who took their whole family (Mom, Dad, seven kids, and grandparents) to WDW to celebrate one of their kids’ birthdays. They were having her birthday dinner at the Grand Floridian Café, and weren’t sure where it was, so we took them over there on the way to our room. There was a Grand Floridian Cast Member at the door who told us that he didn’t know we were the new tour guides of the resort. Kevin kidded with him that we would be expecting our checks at the front desk!
We got ready and took the monorail to the MK, and then caught the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge. Right as we got over there, it started drizzling. Luckily, we got inside before it really started raining! We found the restaurant and checked in. They seated us right away. We started looking through the menus and then one of the hosts came over to our table and gave us our own personal menus with our names and Happy Anniversary on them. I was so surprised because I never even told them it was our Anniversary trip! We figured they must have looked at our main reservation or something. Again, one of those special touches only Disney has! Our waitress, Sandrine, was awesome! She was so friendly and helpful. The food was great as well. I had the potato and chive potstickers, and Kevin had the buffalo. Kevin also had the smoked Portobello soup…which is UNREAL! I kept dipping my bread into it :) Once we were done with dinner, she brought us our dessert menus. I got the berry cobbler (YUM!) and Kevin got the Rosemary/Honey Crème Brule. It was very interesting, but he enjoyed it! The best part of the meal was when Sandrine brought us two glasses of champagne and a card from her and the whole staff staying ‘Happy Anniversary’. It was a great meal! I’d definitely recommend Artist’s Point.
After we left the restaurant, we walked around the Wilderness Lodge a bit. I LOVED this resort. It is so beautiful. I told Kevin that we’re going to have to stay there on a future trip!






We caught the boat back to the Magic Kingdom and got to see the fireworks from the monorail station. Once back at the resort, we filled our mug with soda and went out on the balcony for a little while before retiring for the night. Another fantastic day :)

September 16 - This was the morning that Kevin got his (one day early) anniversary gift. We were going to Epcot for the “Around the World at Epcot” Segway Tour. He was very excited about this….I, on the other hand, was very nervous! Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t exactly have the best driving record, or the best coordination, so getting on a Segway was VERY daunting. We arrived at Epcot at about 8:15, and checked in at the front gate. It was really cool being in the park with almost no one in it! Kevin got some cool pics of Spaceship Earth without anyone around!



Here's Kevin excited to get on the Segway!


The 2 hour tour actually consists of a 1 hour video / training class (in the Innoventions Building) and one hour of riding the Segway through the World Showcase, while learning a little bit of info about each pavilion. The training part was the worst for me. They had us practice getting on and off the Segway, and doing some obstacles (like going up and down “hills”, over obstacles, and zigzagging.) I think our instructor, Lamonte, was definitely nervous about me. I had a tough time getting the hang of going up and down hills. Finally we all “finish” the training and hit the pavement. One interesting thing about these Segways (if you have never ridden one here) is that they have them max out at 6.5MPH. If you start going over 6MPH it pushes back on you…very uncomfortable feeling! Getting outside was definitely a good thing. I didn’t feel that there were very many obstacles, and I actually got the hang of it. Now, I don’t really think I learned much more about each pavilion because I was concentrating so hard on the Segway, but I did end up having a good time. Kevin loved it! We even got cute pictures of us holding hands and kissing on the Segways!






After we were done with our Segway tour, we went on Spaceship Earth (of course) and headed back to the Grand Floridian to change and go to Animal Kingdom for the day! We pretty much walked into our room, freshened up, and headed down to the bus stop. It was a little before noon, so Kevin was hungry. I asked him if he wanted to grab something before we left, and he said no, let’s just get over there. So we hopped on the bus and headed over.


Baloo (from the 'Jungle Book') and I

Kevin and I in front of the tree of life


We got inside and grabbed FastPasses for the Safari. (By the way, it was PACKED that day). Since we were hungry and had some time, we decided to grab something for lunch. Bad idea! The place was mobbed and poor Kevin almost passed out from the heat. Luckily, we did finally end up getting our food and went over to the Safari. I love this ride! We actually had to stop a few times because there was a Rhino-obstruction (a Rhino was walking on the Safari path).

Here are some pics from the Safari:





We went on Dinosaur for the first time after that, which we both enjoyed. We got your picture taken outside of the ride. I love the Dinosaur in the background!



We also went through the Jungle Trek, and over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. While we were over there, we saw the Extreme Home Makeover family! (If anyone watches that show, they’ll know what I’m talking about!) So, that was pretty cool. Believe it or not, that’s all we got done from 12-5:30. The park was nuts, and we kept getting lost and turned around. We saved Expedition Everest for Extra Magic Hours that day (the park stayed open three hours later for guests staying on Disney property)because we thought the lines would be smaller. Boy, were we wrong! We got there at 5:45 and it was a 75 minute wait. We couldn’t wait because we had to be at Boma at the Animal Kingdom lodge for our reservation at 7:10. We decided that we would come back Friday morning just to ride Everest, and slowly made our way out of the park.
We arrived at AKL at about 6:30 and just sat on some porch chairs that look over the Savannah. It was so peaceful. Then we decided we should probably make our way over to the restaurant. We got there, checked in, and got our pager. We decided to sit in the lobby on the comfy sofas. It was nice to just sit for a bit. Our pager went off, and we went to the restaurant and were seated. It was very crowded! Our server came by and took our drink orders, and we went to the buffet. Now, I don’t remember everything I tried, but I LOVED the ginger/carrot soup. So good! I also loved the Hummus and the curried pasta salad. This place was definitely veggie friendly! Although, I do eat fish, I was too enthralled with all the great veggie entrées to even try any. Kevin had some meats…although, I can’t tell you what they were. The only bad thing we had was the Watermelon Rind salad. Yuck! I wouldn’t recommend that one! Kevin grabbed a plate of desserts for us to split. They were really good…especially the Zebra Dome! :)
After dinner, we caught the bus over to Epcot to check out IllumiNations. When we got over there, I started digging for my ‘Key to the World’ card, and couldn’t find it (which is the keycard you use to get into all the parks and your room). I think I may have left it in a FastPass machine at Animal Kingdom. Kevin kept a cool head (contrary to my normal reaction) and told me that we just needed to go over to Guest Relations and they could fix it. He was right :). We had no problems getting a new card and cancelling my old one. We then went into Epcot, and got a few nighttime pictures in front of "the ball".



We then went over to the World Showcase, grabbed a Carlsberg, and staked out a great spot to watch the fireworks! It was an amazing show (as usual). After it was over, we caught the monorail back to our resort. We decided to crack open the bottle of champagne Kevin got in the gift basket, and enjoyed a glass on the balcony before bed. Another wonderful day!

Here's two other PhotoPass pictures from Animal Kingdom that I loved:




Here's a Tiger pic from the Jungle Trek!


September 17 – It’s our anniversary! We woke up at 7:30 (because we had a 9AM reservation at Chef Mickey’s). We exchanged cards, got ready, and headed over to the Contemporary. Kevin and I have been to WDW twice before together (on our honeymoon, and once last year), and have never been to a character breakfast. We weren’t quite sure what to expect. It was actually a lot of fun!



You can't beat a restaurant that has a monorail running through it!


We sat next to a really nice family from Brazil (Dad, mom, and son), and made a deal with them that we would take pictures of them with the characters if they would do the same! We got some food and sat down when we noticed Mickey starting to come around. He stopped at the table next to us and then went to the table to the other side of us. Kevin (who, by the way, really is a 5 year old trapped in a 31 year old’s body when it comes to anything at Disney World!) was sitting at the end of a booth type seat, and he was scooting over to try and not be a part of the picture that was being taken. All of a sudden I looked over and he was on the floor! He wasn’t paying attention and scooted right off the bench! I kept teasing him that he got so excited to see Mickey that he fell on the floor. We joked about that for the rest of the trip (and I still am teasing him, LOL!) The rest of breakfast was fun. We even got a little cupcake with candles in it for our anniversary. Very cute!



Here are pictures of Kevin and I with the "Fab Five" - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy:









We left there and decided just to spend the day hanging out at the resort since we had been running non-stop. We hung out at both pools and had a mango margarita in the afternoon. It was so nice to just chill out for the day.






Around 4PM we had actually scheduled a PhotoPass session at our resort. It was really cool. We got some great shots of us, and we had a great time! Here are a few of my favorites from that session:






We were channeling Cinderella and Price Charming; although I don't remember it being a glass flip-flop!


When that was over, we headed back to the room to relax for a few minutes, drink a glass of champagne on the balcony, and get ready for our dinner at Victoria and Albert’s.



Victoria and Albert’s was AMAZING. Such phenomenal food and service. We arrived and the host (who has been there every time we have), greeted us, wished us a Happy Anniversary, and showed us to the table. We always get the wine pairing with the meal, because it truly does enhance the experience. We had a fabulous meal. Mine included Tuna, Grouper, Potato Gnocchi, Mushroom Tortellini (which was my favorite!), white chocolate gelato, and a lemon mousse encased in a white chocolate pillow. So good! Kevin had the Tuna, Salmon, mushroom stuffed chicken, Kobe filet, white chocolate gelato, and the Grand Marnier Soufflé. They also gave us our personalized menus and gave me a red rose. The Maître D’ even offered to take a few pictures of us before we left! It was another great experience!




After dinner we decided we needed to walk off the meal a little, so we went over to Downtown Disney. We had a good time walking in and out of the shops, and even picked up two Mickey Mouse collars for our dogs! After walking around for a bit, we decided we were exhausted and headed back to the resort to rest up for our last full day. It was a wonderful anniversary!






September 18th - We had another wake up call at 8 this morning so we could get ready and head over to Animal Kingdom and ride Expedition Everest first thing. We grabbed a quick breakfast and caught the bus over to the Animal Kingdom. Once we got there, we went straight to Everest, and pretty much walked right on.




I realized right before we got on the ride that I forgot to put on a new motion sickness patch (I have prescription patches I put behind my ear that last for three days. They really help!). I told Kevin that and was like, “Oh well…I’m sure I’ll be ok”. WRONG! I should have known better since we’ve been on Everest before, and going backwards and spinning / going in tight circles really bothers me. So, we got off, and I was sweating and not feeling well at all. I tried to hide it from Kevin because we had such a busy day planned, but he knew that something was up. So, we ended up making a pit stop back at the resort so I could lay down for about an hour. Kevin was great though, and went over and got me a big mug of Sprite. I was good after that, and we headed over to do our favorites over at the Magic Kingdom!
We were at the Magic Kingdom for a few hours (long enough to do Pirates, Haunted Mansion, TTA, and some other rides). Here are some of my favorite Magic Kingdom Pics from that day:

One of my ABSOLUTE favorite pictures - Kevin and Buzz (this is actually his Facebook profile pic right now!)

The Haunted Mansion

Kevin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

Me on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

Inside the Entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean!

Kevin outside his favorite ride!


We even got a great picture of me holding my mouth and stomach (pretending I was going to be sick) in front of the Teacups! (Yes, this is staged! :-))


Around 3PM we decided to head over to Epcot. We hadn’t really had a chance to explore most of the shops in the World Showcase in detail, so we wanted to spend a few hours doing that. When we got to Epcot, we rode Spaceship Earth and went over to the World Showcase.

One last picture with Spaceship Earth behind us!


Here's us headed over to the World Showcase with the Monorail Line behind us:


Here's a gorgeous shot Kevin got of the World Showcase from Future World:


We started at Mexico and started making our way around…grabbing a quick picture with Mexican Donald Duck on the way!
This picture cracks me up...mostly because of the look of absolute confusion on Kevin's face!



When we got to China, Kevin said he was starving and grabbed some pot stickers at the counter service restaurant, while I grabbed a water. (We still had almost 3 hours until our reservation at Les Chefs de France.) When we got to Japan I decided I was starving (I hadn’t really eaten anything since the Everest "incident.") We found a California roll in the little stand in the Japan Pavilion and I was nice enough to split it with Kevin :).

As we were leaving the Japan Pavilion, we saw this drum show. They were amazing!


Here are some of my favorites from the World Showcase that day (we got a LOT of pictures on our last day!)
Germany:


Morocco:


France:



We went thorough most of the other Pavilions, and decided to walk over to the Boardwalk for a little while. We went through some of the shops (including the candy store with the amazing looking chocolates and fudge) and took some pictures.



Then we decided to catch the boat back to the World Showcase. When we got on the boat, Kevin asked the captain if she had any boat “trading cards”(yes, he had already scored some Monorail trading cards earlier in the week). When we got to the stop at the World Showcase, the captain gave him a “Honorary Co-Captain” boat card. He was so proud!



We went back into the World Showcase, we went into the shops in the France Pavilion. Then we checked in at Les Chefs de France for our reservation at 7PM. We didn’t end up getting seated until almost 7:30, but that was ok. We were just enjoying sitting outside the restaurant and people watching.



We got seated and our waiter, Charly came by and took our orders. We were interested to see if our waiter from last April was there, Lidio. He was so memorable to us because he walked up to our table last year and said “Oui!” really loud, and looked at us...we looked at each other like, what did we do wrong, I guess that means we're supposed to order now?!? We were so taken aback by his demeanor, but were cracking up at the same time. By the end of the meal, we laughed and joked with him so much that he started smiling and even told me that I reminded him of his daughter. …So fast forward to this trip. Once Charly walked away, I heard this loud voice. My eyes got huge and I looked over and it was Lidio! We got our salads and our entrees. I had the Veggie Lasagna and Kevin had the Mac and Cheese. Both were excellent. When we were done with our entrées, we were waiting for our dessert menus, when Kevin noticed Lidio walking past our table. Kevin caught his eye and gave him a little smile. All of a sudden, Lidio stopped in his tracks and said “You’ve been here before”. Kevin and I started cracking up. He came over and we talked for a little bit. He remembered what table we sat at and everything. We were blown away that he remembered us! He even told us that we made his day. So fun!

Here's a great picture of Lidio and I!


We ended our last night watching IllumiNations, and headed back to the room to pack up for the trip home. This picture of the fireworks came out really cool, it almost looks a little bit like Mickey!


When we got back to the room, Kevin noticed there was something on the armoire. We walked over and there was a bottle of wine, some chocolate covered strawberries, and a card from two of our friends from home. It was so sweet! We ended the night by packing while enjoying a glass of wine and some strawberries. What a great last day!
Thanks Brandon and Lexi!


September 19th – It’s our last day :(. We got another 7:30 wakeup call, got ready, and headed out the door. We grabbed a quick breakfast, then went back to the room to grab our bags. We checked our bags with Bell Services, and went to the business center to ship the Mickey basket and the champagne flutes home. Then we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for one last ride on our favorites, and shopping. We ended up buying so much at one of the gift stores, and had to ship another box home too!

Here's some last Magic Kingdom pictures:








We left the Magic Kingdom around 12:30. We had to catch the Magical Express at 1:55. We got back to the GF, went into some of the shops there, and grabbed one last Mango Margarita at the pool bar. At around 2PM our bus showed up and the trip to the airport was actually pretty uneventful. The flight kinda stunk. We flew Southwest, and hadn’t checked in online the previous day, so Kevin and I actually didn’t get the chance to sit together. When we got off the plane, he told me that there was a lady a few rows behind him that was so motion sick, and kept “utilizing the airplane bag” if you know what I mean. Then a guy behind her ended up losing his lunch too. Then, another lady thought it would be a good idea to change her baby’s poopy diaper on her lap. Poor Kevin! I had no idea, I had a very uneventful flight!

It was great to be home, but we had such a wonderful time, neither of us wanted to leave! Our pets were definitely happy to see us though :).

Sorry this was so long! Kevin took almost 1200 (yes, 1200!) pictures, and that doesn't include the 225 we got from Disney Photopass! :) I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to include!