Congrats! Leading up to a wedding can be super stressful! Enjoy the bachelorette in Disney! That will be SUPER fun!
This sounds right up my alley. Yum
This also looks good. Vegan gets a bad name sometimes.
Mini Sanaa Bread Service! how could you go wrong?
I am so made at myself for not getting this when we were there on our last trip!
I was so glad that India was back at the festival. The dishes at that booth were awesome! And yeah, those pork nachos are worth a special stop in at captain cook's! There's always next time
Oh no! Not another David level experience! That is so unusual there as usually are better than that. That tiramisu is good!
Yeah... it was a mess! Having been a server in the past, I do feel bad when our servers are running around and overloaded, but sometimes there is just no excuse!
I can't wait to get this at Citricos, your description just makes it sound even better
I would be worried I'm overselling it, but everyone I've ever taken there (or to Mizner's, where it's also available during Citricos hours) has never been underwhelmed!
I'm sorry I am so behind on your reports. I am working through them slowly and surely and saving yours for a nice relaxing night possibly with a glass of wine and a bubble bath... lol
mini vacay with Raeven!
Yeah it is kind of tough to see pictures of all that yummy food when you're not sure if you'll ever be able to enjoy anything again! But I'm so happy with the outcome... it has been a little tough getting back to normal (my body seems to think being fed 7x per day is normal now, but I've been strong and back down to my normal 3 meals and afternoon snack) but I am very happy with how much better life is without being physically limited. I'm mostly low carbing and I've got some awesome keto recipes, I should pass some on to you. Keto is a lot easier when you're eating super yummy things!
I actually got the kiddo to agree to try some festival foods (F&G) but then decided at the last minute to go to MK for the afternoon instead. You'll see all that in the report.
Haha my child keeps telling me how he just "LOVES the lodges".... he includes great wolf lodge in that, lol. We'll give it a try if I can get it at 7 months (I think I will, it's still open all of January including marathon weekend) and we're going to enjoy the resorts a bit more and go at it a bit less hard this time. I'm planning a late morning/early afternoon horseback riding/brunch at trail's end/archery at Ft. Wilderness for our next trip so that should be fun!
Boardwalk is my home and I really miss it... we stayed half our trip there last time and we'll do half this time. I just love being able to walk home after illuminations at night. to me that's my "aaah I'm home" moment. I just can't seem to choose just one anymore so split stay it is!
I'm going to have to go find your wedding planning, how exciting. The BF doesn't like Disney, which is ok by me because it's become sort of the "mommy and son" thing that I cherish. I think he'd like it how I did it but I also think the prices would give him a heart attack, lol.
Okay I meant to quote this in multiple parts but that did not work out for me. Oh well, here have a couple paragraphs!
Your weight loss is amazing, you look so great in the photos you posted! I am sure it has been a challenge "training" your body what to eat and when... I definitely struggle with either wanting to eat all day long or getting overwhelmed and stressed and not remembering meal times until I'm HANGRY!! Speaking of which, I did not eat my afternoon snack... scuttling off to get that now... low carb/keto is the only diet I have ever been able to stick to. I have added back in a few things (yogurt, berries) after reading Julia Ross' "The Diet Cure" and started taking a lot of vitamins/supplements. I honestly feel like a different person. Clearly I have enough energy to be back on the boards, so I guess that's a win?! haha. Recipes welcome for sure!
Your son seems so sweet. He definitely looks like an amazing travel buddy and I love that he watches food vlogs and is open to trying different things at least some of the time! With all the festivals going on throughout the year I am sure y'all will hit one together after skipping F&W. I love that description of your son's love of the lodges... I haven't met him but can almost hear the inflection! hahaha. That wilderness plan you hatched sounds like so much fun! If I wasn't allergic to horses I would love to do a trail ride there. Trail's End continues to be a favorite for us. I think I have a report coming on that, not sure which trip we did it on (oh waah wah I know, what a problem
)
We have only stayed in a regular Inn room at Boardwalk and for some reason netiher of us cared for it much. The DVC rooms look much more our style but they certainly are hard to get! I have a friend that seems to always have extra points and she's a BWV owner so maybe she can hook me up one day with the 11 month window so we can give it another shot. The reason why you love Boardwalk sounds like the reasons we love the Swolphin so much!
My wedding planning has been totally offline, we are not doing a disney wedding with the exception of throwing in a few disney songs (mostly from the Dave Digs Disney album and Lava). We are going low key at a local restaurant here in Atlanta, trying to keep things on the smaller/more chill side. No attendants, no walking down the aisle, ceremony and reception all in one place, etc. R's mom seems to be kinda struggling with the non-traditional elements but otherwise it has been almost completely stress free ever since we booked our venue. 74 days...
Cant wait to read about brunch at Calif Grille
I hope you enjoyed it! You guys definitely spurred me to crank that one out faster
I hope it was all you dreamed of, just writing it made me SOOO hungry!!!
Yay, you're back! Can't believe your wedding is getting so close--how exciting!
That does sound heavenly
YASSSS! Back and gif-ier than ever.
I highly recommend tiramisu from just about anywhere in just about any bed. But it's definitely better at Disney! We may or may not
have done that two nights in a row during our MLK weekend trip a couple months ago...
So excited to try this brunch in April. Thanks for the review.
You are so welcome! I hope you come back with a review of your own so we can compare experiences!
Where did you get your floral ears? They're fantastic!
Thank you so much!
I make them, and I have an etsy shop but have not had time to open it since the fall. My etsy and insta handle is mindiemouseshop
That brunch tho...it just looks like the best thing ever. I am so excited to finally go during our next trip in April and I will be there come hell or high water this time! If they try to do anything silly again like cancel because of a hurricane, I will break the doors down and just help myself to some charcuterie and sparkly.
I’m glad to see you were able to have them hold the orange juice, I will be requesting the same as more than one mimosa is too much juice for me. And that chicken dish is right up my alley, I thought the description sounded awesome and you have confirmed. If it’s still on the menu I will get it. We shall see.
Um yeah, nothing like a hurricane to ruin your dang boozy brunch! I can't wait to see what you think of it when you are able to go in April. I finally caught up to your Narcoossee's catastrophe night, and I gotta say, Narcoossee's brunch kinda ruined me on that place. Between your story and someone else (Lisa F? can't recall) story about goldfish, I am starting to equate goldfish with sickness! Poor little guys. Crossing my fingers for plenty of bubbles and sunshine for you!
I tried to be artsy with my mimosa, and it was a fail. Yours looks much more artsy.
These were so good!
I really wanted to try this, although I think we're going to wait till later in the year to do the brunch again, but now that makes me really want to go to the GFC
I know.. the vanilla bean french toast at GFC is the stuff of my dreams, for real. If I could just get a tub of their vanilla bean butter that would be the BEST souvenir. I've even tried to recreate it at home, but no dice.
I am so insanely jealous of that brunch! And OMG your friend's expression facing down the dessert tray...
Um yeah, I didn't even notice it at all until I was writing the report installment and when I saw her expression I was like OH YEAH this is going in! Sorry, friend. It's just too perfect.
we are booked for the brunch on May 6 so very happy to see your pictures. They let you order pancakes for the table? that sounds great!
Also, love your ears!
We have had hit or miss experiences with different servers advertising whether or not we could get multiple entrees, but we've never been told no. Especially if you are nice and excited about trying something, it can't hurt to ask! I hope you looooove your brunch. I can't choose between it and Jiko for favorite "special" meal but it is certainly up there. And thank you on the ears
so close! Right after we got engaged, we booked a restaurant as our venue and THANK GOODNESS they are taking care of most everything - we booked a DJ, photographers, and an Airbnb to get ready in (our condo is teeny tiny and would not have been suitable), and the venue is handling basically everything else. They have a day of coordinator who we will be heavily relying on! I bought a dress... and I just now bought another dress... I know I shouldn't have even looked back after I got the first dress but it was not at all what I had in mind, I mean, it's gorgeous and it looks great on, but I was really wanting a 1950's-1960's vintage flair and the dress I bought was more 1920's or 1930's type styling. So if the second one fits, I guess I will just wear the first one to the rehearsal or something... haha. I decided that I would buy an off the rack dress since the dress is not all that important to me, so the second one can be returned if it's not PERFECT. The first one will work just fine but I'm sure every bride wants to be absolutely in LOVE with her dress. I hate being wishy washy but I also want things to be perfect. 
Every day that countdown freaks me out a little!
It is perfect for sharing since you can get a few bites of all those different flavors. We stay the most at WL and AKL - they truly do feel like a vacation inside a vacation for me, so I agree with your son's VWL demand, haha. You can't beat Boardwalk for location (well, okay, I could say that about probably 5 resorts) but there's just something about the ambiance at the lodges that I can't get enough of. 
Citricos makes arancini like I've never had it elsewhere. I'm sure y'all are tired of me reviewing this dish, but I cannot resist it. When I'm at home, I crave it. I try to order it other places, cross my fingers, and wish, but it's never *this* arancini. It's incredibly moist - maybe due to the mascarpone? While it is flavorful and cheesy, it still manages to be light. And the tomato sauce is fresh, flavorful, and slightly spicy without being overly acidic. It's simply perfection. Did I mention fried? Because it is. NOM!
) but by golly we were gonna make the most of it. This was the morning that the bus situation REALLY irked me. We had to wait 45 minutes at the Grand Floridian bus stop for a bus to Animal Kingdom as the expected arrival times just grew farther and farther away. We watched Magic Kingdom and Epcot buses come, pick no one up, and go (I was under the impression that monorail was your only option, but apparently they sometimes run buses?) and still no AK bus. I strongly suspect they were all filling up at the Poly and not making it to us. So just as I was about to go raise hell, a bus shows up. 
