Jess & Ben's Wishes Wedding 11/18/14 Sea Breeze Point/Backstage Prop Shop
- Thread starter edeneye
- Start date
edeneye
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
Please excuse me while I still continue to adjust to normal life. I'll throw in some stray thoughts today before I rejoin the trip report - I believe I left off in Vegas, WDW was such a crazy time my choice was 4hrs of sleep or blog and knowing that it usually takes me about an hour to post something it was really hard to commit to once we got to Orlando. My memory of some days won't be as sharp as it would've been and I really hoped to do it all as it happened so I could have a nice diary to look back on but we were just GO GO GO.
As of this past Friday, all of our guests are now back in their respective homes. Many of them stayed on after our wedding, some went to New York and others stayed in the Bahamas. Figgers, one of my groomsmen (you might've seen him mentioned on the Roots' post, he's a memorable guy that one) even road-tripped across the USA all the way from Orlando to LA. He was the last to return and I was so jealous of his trip, mainly because I had to come home and he was still having a blast in the States!
This particular homecoming has probably been the most flattening ever after a holiday (#firstworldproblems). We knew it would be though, I'd love to think it possible but I don't know that we'll ever get back to the Most Magical Place on Earth with 19 of our closest friends and family ever again! The most different part I think however is that every other time we've been to WDW, by the time we get home we know when our next trip will be. Our first visit was in 2012 and we were literally looking at flights and booking accommodation on the plane. That's how much we loved it! The next trip the following May ended up also being our site visit for our wedding. We knew it was going to be roughly 18 months, but we'd be back. This time we want desperately to go back again but we have no idea when that'll be and we have an inkling that life is going to start getting in the way. Jess has basically made up her mind though this time, she says that in the next 5-10 years we are not only going back but we'll be staying put.
And a couple of random things again from the wedding day! Firstly, I haven't got to the videos of the dance yet (having trouble getting one of them and the other has no sound - it kinda needs sound!) so for now here is the ride video of us on the ToT. I had no idea that this happened with photopass now! I've been downloading our photopass photos from the whole trip (Disneyland and WDW) and my face hurts from smiling so much. I love that it tells you where you were and what time it was too, that'll come in handy as I go through the TR.
Oh & remember how I mentioned we were collecting selfies? The wedding day was a blur but it didn't go by so fast that we couldn't keep at it!
Thanks! I'm finding that it was even more of a blur for Jess, I'll mention something that happened or a song that came on and she will have absolutely no recollection of it. We were saying earlier we wish we could've videoed the whole thing so we could watch it back and just enjoy it. You spend so much time going through the various motions of the day you really wish you could just sit back with your guests and just enjoy the party you spent so long planning!
Every time I look at that ToT picture I like it even more. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos from the day and also the portrait session we had with Disney Fine Art Photography a couple of days later (but mostly the Roots' photos). The converse were a much more comfy touch! It's impossible to tell but Jess had on her sparkly silver cons as well though her dress still made it pretty hard to dance! She wasn't at all precious about her dress though once the ceremony was over, we both stepped on it SO MANY TIMES. I think they chose well with the bridesmaids, it was going to be tricky to come up with something that everyone would feel comfortable and pretty in but they actually got there and it just happened to be Jess' first (and only) preference!
Thanks! We really squeezed as much as we possibly could out of the day and we're so happy with how it turned out. The mix-in was so much fun, our group was letting loose screaming and laughing and just loving it. We got taken through the whole thing completely by ourselves, they kept the shop open just for us in case anyone wanted to buy anything and they were so generous with letting us take pictures around the 'hotel' itself. All through the planning we were going to choose either ToT or Rock n Rollercoaster - and closer to the day we started thinking maybe even Toy Story Mania just because of how close to the Prop Shop it is, giving us more time to party - but we're SO glad we went with ToT, it just went perfectly. And our guests got a free Disney's Hollywood Studios backstage tour!
We got so lucky there! I don't know when it was, but at some stage on the wedding day Jess was told that she'd be allowed to wear her wedding dress on the ride. Until then all we knew was that we'd have to wait and see. It was really special getting to walk through the park in wedding attire and get on one of our favourite rides in the world with our friends. It was always going to be a bit of an interruption to the reception but it was just amazing and we didn't mind leaving the party one bit as it was all going on.
Thank you so much! I continue to be inspired by yours and the detail you have and your tone and delivery and presentation and it's all just amazing - I'm just trying to keep up. We loved being on the Roots' blog, Jensey writes such beautiful things. I kinda miss those guys now - we've got nothing to work on with them and I was so enjoying emailing back and forth with Nate! We're really enjoying the surreal feeling of being married and having someone to call 'wife' and 'husband'. I hope your married life is every bit as magical as your wedding!
We were so blessed that the media guide was so generous with us at TOT. We never (seriously, not at any point) knew what we'd be allowed to get, we had no guarantees we'd be able to take any photos at all. The way the ushers were rushing us through the queue area and onto the ride we didn't think we'd be allowed any photos at all - or at the very best they'd be sneaky ones on the run back to the bus - but I guess while we were on the ride the Roots must've been able to talk to the guide who led us around places we were allowed to use and we really got a good little mini portrait session out of it! That's not to say that's what is always allowed of course, we just got lucky.
We decided early this year that photos were probably the most important thing for us, I found myself at the Roots' blog just falling in love with their work and we pretty much decided it was going to be them at any cost. If cuts were needed they'd have to be elsewhere!
haha That's awesome! We were sat there for a few hours too, surrounded by our luggage, waiting for our evening flight. We wore our bride & groom ears most of the day and night and you get such a big reaction with those on! People react a little to the buttons but everyone seems so excited by the idea that you're just married, especially when we say it was at Disney World. One more reason I wish we could've stayed longer is so we could've had more time to enjoy the congratulations and goodwill from people, it was so nice!
As of this past Friday, all of our guests are now back in their respective homes. Many of them stayed on after our wedding, some went to New York and others stayed in the Bahamas. Figgers, one of my groomsmen (you might've seen him mentioned on the Roots' post, he's a memorable guy that one) even road-tripped across the USA all the way from Orlando to LA. He was the last to return and I was so jealous of his trip, mainly because I had to come home and he was still having a blast in the States!
This particular homecoming has probably been the most flattening ever after a holiday (#firstworldproblems). We knew it would be though, I'd love to think it possible but I don't know that we'll ever get back to the Most Magical Place on Earth with 19 of our closest friends and family ever again! The most different part I think however is that every other time we've been to WDW, by the time we get home we know when our next trip will be. Our first visit was in 2012 and we were literally looking at flights and booking accommodation on the plane. That's how much we loved it! The next trip the following May ended up also being our site visit for our wedding. We knew it was going to be roughly 18 months, but we'd be back. This time we want desperately to go back again but we have no idea when that'll be and we have an inkling that life is going to start getting in the way. Jess has basically made up her mind though this time, she says that in the next 5-10 years we are not only going back but we'll be staying put.
And a couple of random things again from the wedding day! Firstly, I haven't got to the videos of the dance yet (having trouble getting one of them and the other has no sound - it kinda needs sound!) so for now here is the ride video of us on the ToT. I had no idea that this happened with photopass now! I've been downloading our photopass photos from the whole trip (Disneyland and WDW) and my face hurts from smiling so much. I love that it tells you where you were and what time it was too, that'll come in handy as I go through the TR.
Oh & remember how I mentioned we were collecting selfies? The wedding day was a blur but it didn't go by so fast that we couldn't keep at it!
Thanks! I'm finding that it was even more of a blur for Jess, I'll mention something that happened or a song that came on and she will have absolutely no recollection of it. We were saying earlier we wish we could've videoed the whole thing so we could watch it back and just enjoy it. You spend so much time going through the various motions of the day you really wish you could just sit back with your guests and just enjoy the party you spent so long planning!
Welcome Back!!!your wedding photos look so amazing I really love the TOT that is one of my favorite rides and the black and white photo just looks so awesome with that backdrop! Your food seems like it was amazing its always a good sign when guest go back for seconds
also your bridal party looked amazing the outfits looked really good I love the converse such a unique touch! Can't wait for more and too see more pictures
and can't wait to see the youtube video!
Every time I look at that ToT picture I like it even more. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos from the day and also the portrait session we had with Disney Fine Art Photography a couple of days later (but mostly the Roots' photos). The converse were a much more comfy touch! It's impossible to tell but Jess had on her sparkly silver cons as well though her dress still made it pretty hard to dance! She wasn't at all precious about her dress though once the ceremony was over, we both stepped on it SO MANY TIMES. I think they chose well with the bridesmaids, it was going to be tricky to come up with something that everyone would feel comfortable and pretty in but they actually got there and it just happened to be Jess' first (and only) preference!
Thanks! We really squeezed as much as we possibly could out of the day and we're so happy with how it turned out. The mix-in was so much fun, our group was letting loose screaming and laughing and just loving it. We got taken through the whole thing completely by ourselves, they kept the shop open just for us in case anyone wanted to buy anything and they were so generous with letting us take pictures around the 'hotel' itself. All through the planning we were going to choose either ToT or Rock n Rollercoaster - and closer to the day we started thinking maybe even Toy Story Mania just because of how close to the Prop Shop it is, giving us more time to party - but we're SO glad we went with ToT, it just went perfectly. And our guests got a free Disney's Hollywood Studios backstage tour!
We got so lucky there! I don't know when it was, but at some stage on the wedding day Jess was told that she'd be allowed to wear her wedding dress on the ride. Until then all we knew was that we'd have to wait and see. It was really special getting to walk through the park in wedding attire and get on one of our favourite rides in the world with our friends. It was always going to be a bit of an interruption to the reception but it was just amazing and we didn't mind leaving the party one bit as it was all going on.
Ben, your recap was phenomenal!! I love seeing your ToT picture after seeing the gorgeous preview The Roots did on their blog. Such an amazingly perfct day
Hope you both are enjoying the first few weeks of married life!
Thank you so much! I continue to be inspired by yours and the detail you have and your tone and delivery and presentation and it's all just amazing - I'm just trying to keep up. We loved being on the Roots' blog, Jensey writes such beautiful things. I kinda miss those guys now - we've got nothing to work on with them and I was so enjoying emailing back and forth with Nate! We're really enjoying the surreal feeling of being married and having someone to call 'wife' and 'husband'. I hope your married life is every bit as magical as your wedding!
We were so blessed that the media guide was so generous with us at TOT. We never (seriously, not at any point) knew what we'd be allowed to get, we had no guarantees we'd be able to take any photos at all. The way the ushers were rushing us through the queue area and onto the ride we didn't think we'd be allowed any photos at all - or at the very best they'd be sneaky ones on the run back to the bus - but I guess while we were on the ride the Roots must've been able to talk to the guide who led us around places we were allowed to use and we really got a good little mini portrait session out of it! That's not to say that's what is always allowed of course, we just got lucky.
We decided early this year that photos were probably the most important thing for us, I found myself at the Roots' blog just falling in love with their work and we pretty much decided it was going to be them at any cost. If cuts were needed they'd have to be elsewhere!
Welcome backI have enjoyed reading your posts so far! I confess that I saw you both at Orlando airport on the day you were heading back and told my friends that there was a celebrity sighting
haha That's awesome! We were sat there for a few hours too, surrounded by our luggage, waiting for our evening flight. We wore our bride & groom ears most of the day and night and you get such a big reaction with those on! People react a little to the buttons but everyone seems so excited by the idea that you're just married, especially when we say it was at Disney World. One more reason I wish we could've stayed longer is so we could've had more time to enjoy the congratulations and goodwill from people, it was so nice!
edeneye
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
Thanks! It was such a quick impromptu session around the ToT lobby but it's such a well designed area and the Roots do such great work that I really can't wait to see what we get out of it! We had our in-park session at DHS as well a couple of days later and we really weren't worried at all about it after this happened, we never thought Disney would let us have the time we got (and you never know, we might get that and the next couple might be told 'no way', its pure luck). I'm so looking forward to seeing more pictures!
And now - as it is later than I expected, here's a few screen captures I took from our camera (we had it recording the ceremony and our first dance). One thing we were so happy with at the reception was the white sparkle dance floor, an unexpected but very nice effect of which was that Jess' dress seemed to twinkle when she was on it.
There's our sand ceremony, green sand for me and purple for Jess - our favourite colours. As I've mentioned, we used those colours around the ceremony and saved the Mickey palette for the reception/his Birthday Party!
Now pronounced Husband & Wife. There was a lot of laughter that day. Partly out of nerves and partly because we're just a little bit mad (all the best people are).
The reverse angle of the preview shot the Roots posted. Just married.
You really need to see it in action, but the way the lights interacted with Jess' dress was simply magical.
And, of course, our first dance took a turn for the silly. I'll show you when I can get the right audio in the right spot.
And now - as it is later than I expected, here's a few screen captures I took from our camera (we had it recording the ceremony and our first dance). One thing we were so happy with at the reception was the white sparkle dance floor, an unexpected but very nice effect of which was that Jess' dress seemed to twinkle when she was on it.
There's our sand ceremony, green sand for me and purple for Jess - our favourite colours. As I've mentioned, we used those colours around the ceremony and saved the Mickey palette for the reception/his Birthday Party!
Now pronounced Husband & Wife. There was a lot of laughter that day. Partly out of nerves and partly because we're just a little bit mad (all the best people are).
The reverse angle of the preview shot the Roots posted. Just married.
You really need to see it in action, but the way the lights interacted with Jess' dress was simply magical.
And, of course, our first dance took a turn for the silly. I'll show you when I can get the right audio in the right spot.
Aschenputtel
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2013
Your pics are beautiful and it really looks like you had an amazing day!
And yay for the glitter dance floor dress
And yay for the glitter dance floor dress
edeneye
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
Okay! So where was I?! I thought I must've left off in Vegas because once we got to WDW we scarcely had a quiet moment but it looks like I managed one brief-ish post that night before getting what must've been about four hours sleep. This being the night after leaving our hotel room not long after 3am. It was early in the trip and we were already running on barely any sleep.
Our first look at Orlando through the windows of the Magical Express
So at 5:30am our alarm goes off. I'd installed an app where Donald Duck more or less yells at you to wake up, figured that'd be an appropriate way of waking up in this part of the world. Not long after that we get a phone call, Jess answered and I never heard it but I understand it was the operator putting us through to the Goofy welcome message. It was a bit quiet and not the surprise it was on our first trip when we had a message waiting on our phone when we checked in, but as we'd come to find in the coming days - organising these phone calls seems to be very VERY difficult.
Alllllmost there!
Jess' parents got the same call, but again it was too quiet for them to really understand what it was. I don't know if the operator was holding the phone up to a recording of it but over breakfast (MICKEY WAFFLES! YES!!) we assured them that must've been the Goofy message.
YESSSSSSSSSS! Welcome home, indeed.
This was the first full day of our trip in Orlando and it was an early warning of what we had to expect. A wedding trip is VERY different to the vacations we'd taken previously. Sure, we were awake before 6am and totally ready to head out by 7 but we were not going to be getting any park time in. This first morning - most of the first day, in fact - was reserved for important wedding business. The beginning of which was getting to the Car Care Centre to pick up our transport for the next 15 days.
Our chariot awaits. First order of business was to tune to WJRR - we love that station and our guests never stopped remarking at how great it is.
As we had got to our room later in the evening the night before, we hadn't been able to call and confirm a shuttle time to pick us up and as the first available one would've been at 9am we got a taxi so we wouldn't waste precious Disney Time waiting around doing nothing. Besides, the food court was getting very busy by this point, we learned that first day that if you are still there at 7:30 you better like crowds. It was 'free dining plan' time and the resort next door was renovating their food court, putting double the strain on ours. Urgh.
We picked up our car and as Jess was quite deliriously tired it was decided that I would drive into town (this becomes a theme, Jess wound up driving on only two occasions such was her lack of sleep the entire time). We had an 11am appointment with Patricia LeJeune but our early start meant we could get another formality out of the way - our wedding license! We drove out to the Orange County Courthouse which was significantly bigger than I expected (I don't honestly know what I was thinking there). Security was tighter than any airport I'd ever been to and the whole process was a little nerve wracking but quite painless and simple in the end. We even bought a nice souvenir certificate to go along with it and filling out the forms really drove home how serious this was all getting. I don't know what the norm is in the USA but down here the bride & groom will frequently sign this document during the wedding ceremony so we were caught off-guard doing so right then and there. And to be current for just a moment - our completed certificate arrived here just yesterday making things nice and official at last.
After this we headed off to Patricia LeJeune's salon for hair and makeup trials. Obviously it's not ideal that we did this together but all things considered we really weren't sure how else to work it out. We spent a couple of hours there as Jess & Patricia discussed different inspirations and Jess' thoughts on every little detail. Patricia was great, always ready to offer her opinion but also confirming every time that she is entirely happy to do anything we want - even if we were joking and suggesting ridiculous things! We had fun chatting with her and Randy and it really put us at ease with this part of the wedding day. It took a little while to arrive at exactly the look for Jess but I really recommend the whole experience.
Despite our early start, we had a lot to get done which kept us out for much of the day. We stopped at Wal Mart on the way back to WDW and picked up cereal, water, juice and other necessities to keep at our room in order to limit our spending. That part of the trip alone somehow took over an hour! It was late in the afternoon by the time we returned to All-Star Movies and by this time Jess was exhausted and took a desperately-needed nap. I took a sneaky picture on her phone of Jess in full bridal hair and makeup absolutely passed out, sleeping with her mouth wide open and face pressed hard against her pillow. If I can get it from her I'll post it on here, it made a nice example of how 'glamourous' the whole process really can be.
Once Jess could finally drag herself out of bed after well overshooting her attempted 20 minute nap it was time to get ready to FINALLY set foot in the Magic Kingdom - it was already after dark by the time we arrived! We got all dressed up and got a lot of stares from guests who were probably wondering who we were, we definitely looked overdressed for the occasion! We went and visited our dear friend Pooh Bear and then it was near enough to our reservation time that we thought we may as well check in - we were dining at Cinderella's Royal Table no less. We mustn't keep a Princess waiting.
As we were nearing time for the fireworks, the Castle is cordoned off. Only those on official business may enter! Great time to get a picture and enjoy having some personal space!
And I so wish I could say this was as magical as we'd hoped. We'd gotten dressed up, we arrived half an hour early, we had our buttons on and I'd called Disney Dining to tell them to put a note on our reservation that it was our Disney Wedding that we were celebrating. Could we pretty pretty please have a table by the window? Of course, all you can do is ask - the nature of Cindy's is that you get seated in waves and based on availability. When someone from the previous seating leaves, you - or someone matching their table size - takes their place. Unfortunately, noone by the window was leaving this side of the fireworks.
We overheard a family rudely refusing to wait to be seated, having also arrived early. It disappointed us that not only did they not have to but they were seated significantly closer to the window than us. It's a shame that you can put on a happy face and do everything with courtesy and manners and yet it's the people who bully the staff and ignore the rules that get looked after. This isn't a Disney problem of course, this happens everywhere (I see it every day in my job), but already by this point Jess was sensing a serious lack of pixie dust in the way our many varied plans to that point had all gone wrong. Be it the Goofy message, that we had no buttons, that our room block had our guests staying on opposite ends of the resort from each other and that our every request both at the hotel and on this night had been flatly refused.
Jess shed a few tears at the table, thinking of her overall disappointment and her worry that this trip is already turning out so different to our hopes and dreams. And even to our previous ones. And then, something that could only happen at WDW, Snow White arrived at our table and noticing that my Princess was distressed she sat with Jess and listened to her and, of course totally in character, did what she could to cheer Jess up. All Jess really wanted was to feel like someone at Disney was listening and cared and it took Snow White to come to the rescue, but it certainly helped.
Thank you, Snow. Yes of course I'll look after her.
After dinner it was getting quite late and MK wasn't far from closing up for the night. But as Jess & I were looking rather fancy we thought we'd brave the line for Anna & Elsa, regardless of the posted 90 minute wait time. We couldn't secure a fastpass for these two (quick note; we do not like fastpass+, we credit the new system with many of the problems we would face in the coming weeks) and thought we may as well try and squeeze some magic out of a long, draining day. And as luck would have it - some pixie dust! The 90minute wait time? That was just to scare people off so they'd leave. We waited around 20 minutes.
SELFIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE
Things were looking up? We hoped so, our guests would begin arriving in two days time and there was a lot to organise in the meantime - we were at square one with our room allocation, our time was no longer our own and we didn't know how we were going to get everything done with the schedule in front of us.
But I'll leave all that for another time, hopefully I can be more concise in future because this is way too long!
Our first look at Orlando through the windows of the Magical Express
So at 5:30am our alarm goes off. I'd installed an app where Donald Duck more or less yells at you to wake up, figured that'd be an appropriate way of waking up in this part of the world. Not long after that we get a phone call, Jess answered and I never heard it but I understand it was the operator putting us through to the Goofy welcome message. It was a bit quiet and not the surprise it was on our first trip when we had a message waiting on our phone when we checked in, but as we'd come to find in the coming days - organising these phone calls seems to be very VERY difficult.
Alllllmost there!
Jess' parents got the same call, but again it was too quiet for them to really understand what it was. I don't know if the operator was holding the phone up to a recording of it but over breakfast (MICKEY WAFFLES! YES!!) we assured them that must've been the Goofy message.
YESSSSSSSSSS! Welcome home, indeed.
This was the first full day of our trip in Orlando and it was an early warning of what we had to expect. A wedding trip is VERY different to the vacations we'd taken previously. Sure, we were awake before 6am and totally ready to head out by 7 but we were not going to be getting any park time in. This first morning - most of the first day, in fact - was reserved for important wedding business. The beginning of which was getting to the Car Care Centre to pick up our transport for the next 15 days.
Our chariot awaits. First order of business was to tune to WJRR - we love that station and our guests never stopped remarking at how great it is.
As we had got to our room later in the evening the night before, we hadn't been able to call and confirm a shuttle time to pick us up and as the first available one would've been at 9am we got a taxi so we wouldn't waste precious Disney Time waiting around doing nothing. Besides, the food court was getting very busy by this point, we learned that first day that if you are still there at 7:30 you better like crowds. It was 'free dining plan' time and the resort next door was renovating their food court, putting double the strain on ours. Urgh.
We picked up our car and as Jess was quite deliriously tired it was decided that I would drive into town (this becomes a theme, Jess wound up driving on only two occasions such was her lack of sleep the entire time). We had an 11am appointment with Patricia LeJeune but our early start meant we could get another formality out of the way - our wedding license! We drove out to the Orange County Courthouse which was significantly bigger than I expected (I don't honestly know what I was thinking there). Security was tighter than any airport I'd ever been to and the whole process was a little nerve wracking but quite painless and simple in the end. We even bought a nice souvenir certificate to go along with it and filling out the forms really drove home how serious this was all getting. I don't know what the norm is in the USA but down here the bride & groom will frequently sign this document during the wedding ceremony so we were caught off-guard doing so right then and there. And to be current for just a moment - our completed certificate arrived here just yesterday making things nice and official at last.
After this we headed off to Patricia LeJeune's salon for hair and makeup trials. Obviously it's not ideal that we did this together but all things considered we really weren't sure how else to work it out. We spent a couple of hours there as Jess & Patricia discussed different inspirations and Jess' thoughts on every little detail. Patricia was great, always ready to offer her opinion but also confirming every time that she is entirely happy to do anything we want - even if we were joking and suggesting ridiculous things! We had fun chatting with her and Randy and it really put us at ease with this part of the wedding day. It took a little while to arrive at exactly the look for Jess but I really recommend the whole experience.
Despite our early start, we had a lot to get done which kept us out for much of the day. We stopped at Wal Mart on the way back to WDW and picked up cereal, water, juice and other necessities to keep at our room in order to limit our spending. That part of the trip alone somehow took over an hour! It was late in the afternoon by the time we returned to All-Star Movies and by this time Jess was exhausted and took a desperately-needed nap. I took a sneaky picture on her phone of Jess in full bridal hair and makeup absolutely passed out, sleeping with her mouth wide open and face pressed hard against her pillow. If I can get it from her I'll post it on here, it made a nice example of how 'glamourous' the whole process really can be.
Once Jess could finally drag herself out of bed after well overshooting her attempted 20 minute nap it was time to get ready to FINALLY set foot in the Magic Kingdom - it was already after dark by the time we arrived! We got all dressed up and got a lot of stares from guests who were probably wondering who we were, we definitely looked overdressed for the occasion! We went and visited our dear friend Pooh Bear and then it was near enough to our reservation time that we thought we may as well check in - we were dining at Cinderella's Royal Table no less. We mustn't keep a Princess waiting.
As we were nearing time for the fireworks, the Castle is cordoned off. Only those on official business may enter! Great time to get a picture and enjoy having some personal space!
And I so wish I could say this was as magical as we'd hoped. We'd gotten dressed up, we arrived half an hour early, we had our buttons on and I'd called Disney Dining to tell them to put a note on our reservation that it was our Disney Wedding that we were celebrating. Could we pretty pretty please have a table by the window? Of course, all you can do is ask - the nature of Cindy's is that you get seated in waves and based on availability. When someone from the previous seating leaves, you - or someone matching their table size - takes their place. Unfortunately, noone by the window was leaving this side of the fireworks.
We overheard a family rudely refusing to wait to be seated, having also arrived early. It disappointed us that not only did they not have to but they were seated significantly closer to the window than us. It's a shame that you can put on a happy face and do everything with courtesy and manners and yet it's the people who bully the staff and ignore the rules that get looked after. This isn't a Disney problem of course, this happens everywhere (I see it every day in my job), but already by this point Jess was sensing a serious lack of pixie dust in the way our many varied plans to that point had all gone wrong. Be it the Goofy message, that we had no buttons, that our room block had our guests staying on opposite ends of the resort from each other and that our every request both at the hotel and on this night had been flatly refused.
Jess shed a few tears at the table, thinking of her overall disappointment and her worry that this trip is already turning out so different to our hopes and dreams. And even to our previous ones. And then, something that could only happen at WDW, Snow White arrived at our table and noticing that my Princess was distressed she sat with Jess and listened to her and, of course totally in character, did what she could to cheer Jess up. All Jess really wanted was to feel like someone at Disney was listening and cared and it took Snow White to come to the rescue, but it certainly helped.
Thank you, Snow. Yes of course I'll look after her.
After dinner it was getting quite late and MK wasn't far from closing up for the night. But as Jess & I were looking rather fancy we thought we'd brave the line for Anna & Elsa, regardless of the posted 90 minute wait time. We couldn't secure a fastpass for these two (quick note; we do not like fastpass+, we credit the new system with many of the problems we would face in the coming weeks) and thought we may as well try and squeeze some magic out of a long, draining day. And as luck would have it - some pixie dust! The 90minute wait time? That was just to scare people off so they'd leave. We waited around 20 minutes.
SELFIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE
Things were looking up? We hoped so, our guests would begin arriving in two days time and there was a lot to organise in the meantime - we were at square one with our room allocation, our time was no longer our own and we didn't know how we were going to get everything done with the schedule in front of us.
But I'll leave all that for another time, hopefully I can be more concise in future because this is way too long!
Gracefulskinny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
Awa such a sad start.
LadyD
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2014
You and Jess look like you had an absolutely amazing time on your wedding day!! Her dress is gorgeous! Every picture you post just looks like everyone is having a fantastic time. Sounds like quite a fantastic wedding! That is such a bummer the pixie dust was lacking for this trip for the two of you at that point. I hope Disney bestowed more pixie dust for the duration of the rest of your trip.
Aschenputtel
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2013
I think that's maybe the only problem with being on the boards: if you read something very magical, you want all these experiences for yourself … I sometimes wonder if it's even more magical not knowing? DF was totally thrilled by everything during our time in DLP and I was like "I know, I know" (of course I still cried during Dreams).
Thanks for sharing everything with us - since we're planning our first trip these WalMart and "everything before the parks"-parts come in handy!
Thanks for sharing everything with us - since we're planning our first trip these WalMart and "everything before the parks"-parts come in handy!
Seia
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2013
Ben! Your wedding photos look so beautiful! I just can't wait to see more. You both look so happy and everything looks so fun. Your selfies with the Fab 4 are amazing!
I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a magical time at Royal Table. But it's awesome that you didn't have to wait long to meet Anna and Elsa!
I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a magical time at Royal Table. But it's awesome that you didn't have to wait long to meet Anna and Elsa!
edeneye
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
Friday November 7
11 days to go
This one isn't going to be very image intensive, I don't think I actually took any pictures at all (which is VERY strange for me). There's a good reason for this though - this was the day we did the Backstage Magic tour and as we would find out, you can't take photos in backstage areas. But I'll back up a bit and we'll see how much I can remember of a day that about an hour ago I couldn't recall at all! Seriously - I looked through our photopass dates and times (I love that feature) and when I saw we had almost nothing from the 7th and what we had didn't start until almost 5pm I was just wondering 'where on Earth were we?!?!'
As promised, here's Jess wiped out after the hair & makeup trial the day before. Napping has never been so glamourous.
So as with ALL Disney days, this one started early. As with all days on this particular trip - not as early as we would've liked! As was becoming the custom at this early point, we ambled through getting up and getting ready, gathering Jess' parents and going for breakfast at the resort's food court (nope, not MICKEY WAFFLES!!! this day, I tried out the equally nutritious chocolate chip pancakes as I wanted to audition other foods to have on the wedding morning knowing that I had waffles coming later). We hurried through breakfast as it was again quite busy and Jess, her Mum & I rushed off to our car so we could get to EPCOT where the tour meets up.
We met the rest of our group just outside EPCOT Guest Relations - the one outside the gates, the very same place we started our Disney journey this time in redeeming our Annual Pass vouchers and purchasing Tables in Wonderland (side note: Tables in Wonderland was awesome for us, it might not always work for every party but we had a big group every day at the parks and did a lot of table service dining with them - including our rehearsal and farewell meals with the whole crew. If you're only around for a couple of days, have a small group or are just keeping to yourselves for the most part it might not work out but we really got a lot out of it). It was a surprisingly big group, we were sortof expecting maybe 5-10 people like we had for the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour but this was much bigger. So much so that we very nearly filled the bus that took us around that day.
So once everyone meets, the tour guides distribute lanyards with ID on them identifying who you are and what tour you're with. And then we were away! Our first stop on the bus took us around the back of World Showcase and let us off at the rear of the American Adventure. Our group split in two in order to reduce numbers and we were taken separately from the backstage area out into an empty World Showcase and then into the backstage part of the American Adventure show itself and shown its inner workings. At that early hour and in our location I couldn't help but think of all the Epcot weddings and that this must be a very similar trip to what they encounter, being bussed backstage and brought in through the surprisingly nondescript gates. It was explained early that Walt was a big believer in keeping 'the money in the show' and therefore backstage areas really aren't all that much to see, a very simple array of functional buildings that are very sparsely decorated - if at all. I liked this, we've been a lot of places where crazy amounts of money is budgeted to things that aren't at all part of the guest experience or related to the function of the destination itself but WDW is absolutely the opposite.
From EPCOT we went to the area where they tend to the various topiaries and other greenery features for all the parks and learned about how they are constructed. As it was early November we also drove past each park's giant Christmas Trees, disassembled at the time as they awaited transport to their designated positions around the resort.
After that we went to Animal Kingdom - again backstage of course! We were shown how the other three parks, beside MK, were designed so that Cast Members can be easily transported around the perimeter in order to get where they need to be without crossing through the park itself. It was something we already loosely knew about of course but it was interesting to see and to get taken through those areas. To see various staff waiting for their bus pickup to go to their particular area and to see costuming and all the other vital day-to-day services. This of course is part of why they don't allow photography, not everyone wants the lid lifted on all the Disney magic! If that is you, maybe skip the rest of this one, there'll be a few experiences throughout that maybe you'd rather not hear about (but worry not, there's no sneaky spy shots).
At Animal Kingdom we were led out from near Kilimanjaro Safaris through the gate the parade used to take (*sniff*, we enjoyed that parade). We had some representatives of the Wild Africa Trek talk to us about conservation and the park and just answer any questions we had and then we were off again. I'm sure I'm missing stops and details but it was a big big day! We left around 9am and didn't get back until shortly after 4pm.
From Animal Kingdom we did something of particular interest to Jess & I - we went backstage Hollywood Studios. On the bus we wondered if this was the same route our guests would take on our wedding day (answer: yes). This was the one backstage area that had actually been dressed up - obviously because throughout its history this backstage area had actually been part of the guest experience and even an actually functioning studio backlot. Driving around backstage DHS reminded me a lot of the Warner Brothers Studio tour we'd taken in Hollywood, seeing cast members riding bikes around the area was a great touch that lent some authenticity to the studio backlot feel. We were shown into the costuming department here that designs costumes for various shows/parades/etc and saw a lot of interesting concept art and examples. One thing was on our mind though and as we boarded the bus we asked our guide 'are we near the Prop Shop right now?'. And yes we were, he pointed it out just further on down the road and also made mention of it as we drove past on our way to another area we would see again - backstage Tower of Terror! They told us all about the Tower, how it differs from the versions built since at Disney Parks around the world and how the ride itself works. Jess loved this, as I've said its her favourite ride in the world so it was great that this was part of the tour.
From there it was on to lunch! I don't think I realised what lunch actually comprised in advance but as it turned out we were driven to Fort Wilderness - somewhere we had heard about but never been before so that was very exciting. As with all our times in the bus, they told us a lot about the design and history of the resort and things to look out for once we were there. We were brought in to the Whispering Canyon Cafe which is something we've never looked at doing before and I'm so glad it happened because that was so much fun! It is obviously a little out of the way but we recommended to all of our guests that if they found some time they should go visit there because the atmosphere was a great experience and we really enjoyed the food and the service (and the servers!).
It was such a great spot and there was a special moment there because it happened that there was a wedding party at the Cafe for lunch! They had the Bride & Groom get up during lunch and perform their first dance - to the tune of the whole room singing 'you are my sunshine' which was just beautiful. If you're having a Memories or Escape collection wedding and want something a little fun and different for your reception you could definitely have a great time with a group booking at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We weren't present for it but we understand the group was announced in what would've been true Whispering Canyon style and I bet they would've had a great time.
Once we were done with lunch we were on the bus again, this time just down the road a bit further from MK to a great big almost industrial area where a lot of important services are based. We were let out and led through the workshop where various features and vehicles etc are painted/repaired, through a major costuming department where they were designing, creating and repairing a massive range of garments for both the parks, the resorts and the cruise line. It was really interesting to get this tiny look at the scope of the parks, you hear about how there's roughly 68,000 Cast Members and we really got an idea of how broad an operation it is and what all those people are up to every day.
And from here it was obvious where we were headed next. We'd been to EPCOT, AK & DHS. We were right up near Fort Wilderness. It was quite clear we were edging closer to the part Jess & I were particularly looking forward to, the Utilidors of the Magic Kingdom! In case there is anyone not aware; while the other parks have a perimeter road allowing Cast Members to get from one point to another quickly and without being spotted somewhere they don't belong (while in a Bug's Land at Disneyland we saw CMs in 4 separate uniforms at one time), the Magic Kingdom has a tunnel system underneath the park itself. This was really really interesting to experience. We were led through the front gates of MK and around past the Crystal Palace and through a Cast Member Only gate there which took us backstage. This looked much the same as the other parks, signs all around for the staff and even a mirror on the wall near the park entrance to make sure your 'Disney Look' is exactly right. But from here we were led down the stairs into the Utilidors.
The utilidor system is as nondescript as the rest of the backstage areas. There are maps placed at regular intervals so you can always see where you are and what part of the park is directly above you and also things like noticeboards announcing various pieces of info the CMs should know. Also interestingly, there was an internal radio station playing over the PA system which would periodically make important announcements such as what what time certain things are happening, what shows or rides are currently down etc. And the music that was playing was refreshingly NOT Disney music - not that we don't love Disney's various soundtracks but it gives the CMs a nice break from hearing it ALL. DAY. LONG. We were shown all around, saw the station where CMs can get buttons for pin trading, various commissaries and staff areas and I even noticed a couple of characters sheepishly hurrying past trying to avoid notice by the group (their Disney Look wasn't quite ready yet so to speak).
This stop, as was the whole tour, was really fascinating. It wouldn't be for everyone of course but being as interested in the inner workings and loving Disney as we do, Jess & I really got a lot out of it. But that being said, some people probably wouldn't find concrete corridors and backstage lots all that exciting. It was interesting throughout the day how some backstage areas are hidden in plain sight. For example have you every been backstage at WDW? If you answered 'no' but have been on Test Track then that is the wrong answer. Next time you go on TT and the track banks around that big turn, take a look around - directly beneath you is backstage EPCOT, part of the staff car park and you're right near costuming and the CM bus stop. Because it is a car park it just suits the theming of the ride so you hardly notice if you're not looking for it!
After the utilidor journey, we were lead to a preferential viewing spot for the Festival of Fantasy parade which was great because that was something we hadn't managed to fastpass and we never got to stand still long enough to watch it on any other day. And then the tour was all done! Those who wanted to stay behind at MK or take a bus back to their resort or onward to wherever they wanted to go were welcome to do so and the rest of us piled into the bus one last time back to EPCOT. The guides talked to us some more and told us stories about Walt Disney, one of which made the guide speaking quite emotional which was a really nice moment to see how connected to it all he was.
We arrived back at EPCOT and met up with Jess' Dad who had spent the day exploring on his own, going at a leisurely pace that would have suited him much more and just taking pictures around the resort and even getting on buses at random to visit other areas he hadn't been (such as Port Orleans). We spent the rest of the day at EPCOT, booked in a dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh, had a stroll around the stores and World Showcase (Food & Wine was in its final days) and ended the night with a ride on Test Track. Jess & I made a typically horrible contraption that was absolutely awful for the environment but had the third highest capability all day (so that's something I guess).
Our unspoken goal each time is to make the ugliest hunk of junk we possibly can. Mission: Accomplished.
Yeah it sortof brought us back down to Earth a little. We had such a magical trip our first time to WDW and we took for granted how lucky we were and just thought that's how it must always be. This time big things were going wrong quite regularly, we were wasting a LOT of time talking to the concierge trying to sort out various mistakes and really losing out on our vacation for one reason after another. Regardless of that though I was quite positive, I always just said 'well I'm at Disney World so I can't really complain'. Even when we were standing in the lobby day after day, literally spending hours trying to organise things that never happened, I knew that I'd trade my worst day there for my best day here in a heartbeat. Jess, naturally, was quite upset and stressed out - this was our wedding and so much had gone into the planning over a two year period so it was quite taxing finding that somehow so much still went wrong that we just couldn't have helped.
Thanks! As you will be finding out right this minute, it is such an amazing and unique adventure gathering people together for a Disney Wedding and we had the time of our lives. Yeah it's true there was a lack of pixie dust at times, Jess' main concern - particularly around CRT - was that when things were going wrong that the CMs just didn't seem to care. By then we had already spoken to numerous people about various problems and noone seemed to empathise or even so much as apologise for the inconvenience. Obviously it's a legality and culpability thing so CMs tread on thin ice in these instances but it really sucked the magic out for Jess.
Yes that's a brilliant point! We'd been twice by that point and we'd researched and watched and read and just knew everything about everything. But of course one person's experience is just that and there is never a guarantee that anything will happen twice. We wanted so desperately for our first trip to be replicated both for us and for our guests with simple things like buttons and welcome messages, floral deliveries (I'll get to that soon) and other assorted things that have since been compromised by Fastpass+ and it was just disappointing it couldn't happen. But still, we made our own magic this time and there were some rougher days but all in all it was so special! And I'm glad it's coming in handy for you! WalMart wound up being a regular stop, more of our guests visited that than went on Test Track! I even suspect we spent more time there than we did at Animal Kingdom!
Thanks! I can't wait to see more pictures from our reception, the Roots haven't yet revealed anything with the characters and that part was SO MUCH FUN! Jess & I were lucky, the characters who visited had a brief, brief crossover (it was meant to be longer but Goofy was having a wardrobe malfunction, apparently his hat wasn't cooperating so they were running late) and we were the only ones who got a picture with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all together. I haven't seen the picture yet, but I already know we'll be printing a big canvas of that one for sure!
And yep, the Royal Table was a little marred - more so by how we felt we were treated than anything. Of course, noone can expect to get a good seat for the fireworks so that'd be silly, Jess just had some trouble with a particular Cast Member there who couldn't have been less interested and none after that person showed a great deal more engagement either. It was really a culmination of things but it was nice that we could offset that by cutting about 160 minutes off what we originally expected we'd have to wait for Elsa & Anna!
11 days to go
This one isn't going to be very image intensive, I don't think I actually took any pictures at all (which is VERY strange for me). There's a good reason for this though - this was the day we did the Backstage Magic tour and as we would find out, you can't take photos in backstage areas. But I'll back up a bit and we'll see how much I can remember of a day that about an hour ago I couldn't recall at all! Seriously - I looked through our photopass dates and times (I love that feature) and when I saw we had almost nothing from the 7th and what we had didn't start until almost 5pm I was just wondering 'where on Earth were we?!?!'
As promised, here's Jess wiped out after the hair & makeup trial the day before. Napping has never been so glamourous.
So as with ALL Disney days, this one started early. As with all days on this particular trip - not as early as we would've liked! As was becoming the custom at this early point, we ambled through getting up and getting ready, gathering Jess' parents and going for breakfast at the resort's food court (nope, not MICKEY WAFFLES!!! this day, I tried out the equally nutritious chocolate chip pancakes as I wanted to audition other foods to have on the wedding morning knowing that I had waffles coming later). We hurried through breakfast as it was again quite busy and Jess, her Mum & I rushed off to our car so we could get to EPCOT where the tour meets up.
We met the rest of our group just outside EPCOT Guest Relations - the one outside the gates, the very same place we started our Disney journey this time in redeeming our Annual Pass vouchers and purchasing Tables in Wonderland (side note: Tables in Wonderland was awesome for us, it might not always work for every party but we had a big group every day at the parks and did a lot of table service dining with them - including our rehearsal and farewell meals with the whole crew. If you're only around for a couple of days, have a small group or are just keeping to yourselves for the most part it might not work out but we really got a lot out of it). It was a surprisingly big group, we were sortof expecting maybe 5-10 people like we had for the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour but this was much bigger. So much so that we very nearly filled the bus that took us around that day.
So once everyone meets, the tour guides distribute lanyards with ID on them identifying who you are and what tour you're with. And then we were away! Our first stop on the bus took us around the back of World Showcase and let us off at the rear of the American Adventure. Our group split in two in order to reduce numbers and we were taken separately from the backstage area out into an empty World Showcase and then into the backstage part of the American Adventure show itself and shown its inner workings. At that early hour and in our location I couldn't help but think of all the Epcot weddings and that this must be a very similar trip to what they encounter, being bussed backstage and brought in through the surprisingly nondescript gates. It was explained early that Walt was a big believer in keeping 'the money in the show' and therefore backstage areas really aren't all that much to see, a very simple array of functional buildings that are very sparsely decorated - if at all. I liked this, we've been a lot of places where crazy amounts of money is budgeted to things that aren't at all part of the guest experience or related to the function of the destination itself but WDW is absolutely the opposite.
From EPCOT we went to the area where they tend to the various topiaries and other greenery features for all the parks and learned about how they are constructed. As it was early November we also drove past each park's giant Christmas Trees, disassembled at the time as they awaited transport to their designated positions around the resort.
After that we went to Animal Kingdom - again backstage of course! We were shown how the other three parks, beside MK, were designed so that Cast Members can be easily transported around the perimeter in order to get where they need to be without crossing through the park itself. It was something we already loosely knew about of course but it was interesting to see and to get taken through those areas. To see various staff waiting for their bus pickup to go to their particular area and to see costuming and all the other vital day-to-day services. This of course is part of why they don't allow photography, not everyone wants the lid lifted on all the Disney magic! If that is you, maybe skip the rest of this one, there'll be a few experiences throughout that maybe you'd rather not hear about (but worry not, there's no sneaky spy shots).
At Animal Kingdom we were led out from near Kilimanjaro Safaris through the gate the parade used to take (*sniff*, we enjoyed that parade). We had some representatives of the Wild Africa Trek talk to us about conservation and the park and just answer any questions we had and then we were off again. I'm sure I'm missing stops and details but it was a big big day! We left around 9am and didn't get back until shortly after 4pm.
From Animal Kingdom we did something of particular interest to Jess & I - we went backstage Hollywood Studios. On the bus we wondered if this was the same route our guests would take on our wedding day (answer: yes). This was the one backstage area that had actually been dressed up - obviously because throughout its history this backstage area had actually been part of the guest experience and even an actually functioning studio backlot. Driving around backstage DHS reminded me a lot of the Warner Brothers Studio tour we'd taken in Hollywood, seeing cast members riding bikes around the area was a great touch that lent some authenticity to the studio backlot feel. We were shown into the costuming department here that designs costumes for various shows/parades/etc and saw a lot of interesting concept art and examples. One thing was on our mind though and as we boarded the bus we asked our guide 'are we near the Prop Shop right now?'. And yes we were, he pointed it out just further on down the road and also made mention of it as we drove past on our way to another area we would see again - backstage Tower of Terror! They told us all about the Tower, how it differs from the versions built since at Disney Parks around the world and how the ride itself works. Jess loved this, as I've said its her favourite ride in the world so it was great that this was part of the tour.
From there it was on to lunch! I don't think I realised what lunch actually comprised in advance but as it turned out we were driven to Fort Wilderness - somewhere we had heard about but never been before so that was very exciting. As with all our times in the bus, they told us a lot about the design and history of the resort and things to look out for once we were there. We were brought in to the Whispering Canyon Cafe which is something we've never looked at doing before and I'm so glad it happened because that was so much fun! It is obviously a little out of the way but we recommended to all of our guests that if they found some time they should go visit there because the atmosphere was a great experience and we really enjoyed the food and the service (and the servers!).
It was such a great spot and there was a special moment there because it happened that there was a wedding party at the Cafe for lunch! They had the Bride & Groom get up during lunch and perform their first dance - to the tune of the whole room singing 'you are my sunshine' which was just beautiful. If you're having a Memories or Escape collection wedding and want something a little fun and different for your reception you could definitely have a great time with a group booking at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We weren't present for it but we understand the group was announced in what would've been true Whispering Canyon style and I bet they would've had a great time.
Once we were done with lunch we were on the bus again, this time just down the road a bit further from MK to a great big almost industrial area where a lot of important services are based. We were let out and led through the workshop where various features and vehicles etc are painted/repaired, through a major costuming department where they were designing, creating and repairing a massive range of garments for both the parks, the resorts and the cruise line. It was really interesting to get this tiny look at the scope of the parks, you hear about how there's roughly 68,000 Cast Members and we really got an idea of how broad an operation it is and what all those people are up to every day.
And from here it was obvious where we were headed next. We'd been to EPCOT, AK & DHS. We were right up near Fort Wilderness. It was quite clear we were edging closer to the part Jess & I were particularly looking forward to, the Utilidors of the Magic Kingdom! In case there is anyone not aware; while the other parks have a perimeter road allowing Cast Members to get from one point to another quickly and without being spotted somewhere they don't belong (while in a Bug's Land at Disneyland we saw CMs in 4 separate uniforms at one time), the Magic Kingdom has a tunnel system underneath the park itself. This was really really interesting to experience. We were led through the front gates of MK and around past the Crystal Palace and through a Cast Member Only gate there which took us backstage. This looked much the same as the other parks, signs all around for the staff and even a mirror on the wall near the park entrance to make sure your 'Disney Look' is exactly right. But from here we were led down the stairs into the Utilidors.
The utilidor system is as nondescript as the rest of the backstage areas. There are maps placed at regular intervals so you can always see where you are and what part of the park is directly above you and also things like noticeboards announcing various pieces of info the CMs should know. Also interestingly, there was an internal radio station playing over the PA system which would periodically make important announcements such as what what time certain things are happening, what shows or rides are currently down etc. And the music that was playing was refreshingly NOT Disney music - not that we don't love Disney's various soundtracks but it gives the CMs a nice break from hearing it ALL. DAY. LONG. We were shown all around, saw the station where CMs can get buttons for pin trading, various commissaries and staff areas and I even noticed a couple of characters sheepishly hurrying past trying to avoid notice by the group (their Disney Look wasn't quite ready yet so to speak).
This stop, as was the whole tour, was really fascinating. It wouldn't be for everyone of course but being as interested in the inner workings and loving Disney as we do, Jess & I really got a lot out of it. But that being said, some people probably wouldn't find concrete corridors and backstage lots all that exciting. It was interesting throughout the day how some backstage areas are hidden in plain sight. For example have you every been backstage at WDW? If you answered 'no' but have been on Test Track then that is the wrong answer. Next time you go on TT and the track banks around that big turn, take a look around - directly beneath you is backstage EPCOT, part of the staff car park and you're right near costuming and the CM bus stop. Because it is a car park it just suits the theming of the ride so you hardly notice if you're not looking for it!
After the utilidor journey, we were lead to a preferential viewing spot for the Festival of Fantasy parade which was great because that was something we hadn't managed to fastpass and we never got to stand still long enough to watch it on any other day. And then the tour was all done! Those who wanted to stay behind at MK or take a bus back to their resort or onward to wherever they wanted to go were welcome to do so and the rest of us piled into the bus one last time back to EPCOT. The guides talked to us some more and told us stories about Walt Disney, one of which made the guide speaking quite emotional which was a really nice moment to see how connected to it all he was.
We arrived back at EPCOT and met up with Jess' Dad who had spent the day exploring on his own, going at a leisurely pace that would have suited him much more and just taking pictures around the resort and even getting on buses at random to visit other areas he hadn't been (such as Port Orleans). We spent the rest of the day at EPCOT, booked in a dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh, had a stroll around the stores and World Showcase (Food & Wine was in its final days) and ended the night with a ride on Test Track. Jess & I made a typically horrible contraption that was absolutely awful for the environment but had the third highest capability all day (so that's something I guess).
Our unspoken goal each time is to make the ugliest hunk of junk we possibly can. Mission: Accomplished.
Yeah it sortof brought us back down to Earth a little. We had such a magical trip our first time to WDW and we took for granted how lucky we were and just thought that's how it must always be. This time big things were going wrong quite regularly, we were wasting a LOT of time talking to the concierge trying to sort out various mistakes and really losing out on our vacation for one reason after another. Regardless of that though I was quite positive, I always just said 'well I'm at Disney World so I can't really complain'. Even when we were standing in the lobby day after day, literally spending hours trying to organise things that never happened, I knew that I'd trade my worst day there for my best day here in a heartbeat. Jess, naturally, was quite upset and stressed out - this was our wedding and so much had gone into the planning over a two year period so it was quite taxing finding that somehow so much still went wrong that we just couldn't have helped.
Thanks! As you will be finding out right this minute, it is such an amazing and unique adventure gathering people together for a Disney Wedding and we had the time of our lives. Yeah it's true there was a lack of pixie dust at times, Jess' main concern - particularly around CRT - was that when things were going wrong that the CMs just didn't seem to care. By then we had already spoken to numerous people about various problems and noone seemed to empathise or even so much as apologise for the inconvenience. Obviously it's a legality and culpability thing so CMs tread on thin ice in these instances but it really sucked the magic out for Jess.
Yes that's a brilliant point! We'd been twice by that point and we'd researched and watched and read and just knew everything about everything. But of course one person's experience is just that and there is never a guarantee that anything will happen twice. We wanted so desperately for our first trip to be replicated both for us and for our guests with simple things like buttons and welcome messages, floral deliveries (I'll get to that soon) and other assorted things that have since been compromised by Fastpass+ and it was just disappointing it couldn't happen. But still, we made our own magic this time and there were some rougher days but all in all it was so special! And I'm glad it's coming in handy for you! WalMart wound up being a regular stop, more of our guests visited that than went on Test Track! I even suspect we spent more time there than we did at Animal Kingdom!
Ben! Your wedding photos look so beautiful! I just can't wait to see more. You both look so happy and everything looks so fun. Your selfies with the Fab 4 are amazing!
I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a magical time at Royal Table. But it's awesome that you didn't have to wait long to meet Anna and Elsa!
Thanks! I can't wait to see more pictures from our reception, the Roots haven't yet revealed anything with the characters and that part was SO MUCH FUN! Jess & I were lucky, the characters who visited had a brief, brief crossover (it was meant to be longer but Goofy was having a wardrobe malfunction, apparently his hat wasn't cooperating so they were running late) and we were the only ones who got a picture with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all together. I haven't seen the picture yet, but I already know we'll be printing a big canvas of that one for sure!
And yep, the Royal Table was a little marred - more so by how we felt we were treated than anything. Of course, noone can expect to get a good seat for the fireworks so that'd be silly, Jess just had some trouble with a particular Cast Member there who couldn't have been less interested and none after that person showed a great deal more engagement either. It was really a culmination of things but it was nice that we could offset that by cutting about 160 minutes off what we originally expected we'd have to wait for Elsa & Anna!
Aschenputtel
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2013
Wow, Ben, the tour sounds amazing! I have to be sure to do it once on our trips - we already thought of doing some of the tours, since we loved the two in DLP so much (by the way, if you ever visit DLP there's a tour only for ToT, but unfortunately for us, it is only hold in French).
And please tell Jess that she looks as beautiful as Sleeping Beauty - I always wondered if a real person could ever look so good sleeping.
And please tell Jess that she looks as beautiful as Sleeping Beauty - I always wondered if a real person could ever look so good sleeping.
Seia
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2013
Wow, your tour sounds amazing! Doing one of the tours is on my Disney bucket list for sure. Sounds like you guys had a great experience!
And I chuckled at your Test Track vehicle. Last time we rode it, I tried my hardest to design something that looked like the Batmobile... and instead it just looked really ugly and clunky. Haha!!
And I chuckled at your Test Track vehicle. Last time we rode it, I tried my hardest to design something that looked like the Batmobile... and instead it just looked really ugly and clunky. Haha!!
Gracefulskinny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
Glad you had fun on your tour!
edeneye
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
And now for a brief pause in proceedings for a present-day update. Late last night (about 1:10am) I got a tweet from Nate Root saying I'd be receiving an email shortly. I was so glad I was still awake! It wasn't our photos just yet, apparently they're 'almost done' but it was a wonderful slideshow of 90 images (including those we've seen thus far, as well as the ToT lobby picture in colour). I woke Jess up so we could watch it together and I'm not sure we've been that happy since the day itself! We laughed a lot and thanks in part to the accompanying sounds of 'The Rainbow Connection' there were a few happy tears as well. Just like Walt talks about in the piece I lifted and put in our reception entrance.
So without further ado - here's some early favourites!
We really were in our own little world
Gratuitous product placement - we love Goofy's Candy.
We've been waiting for this one. Moments later, on a silly impulse I rushed forward as if to charge. Unfortunately so did Jess. A brief head clash, some laughter and a possible mild concussion later we're at least happy with the photo!
We never got to see this in person (it was during the cocktail hour) so we're so glad the Roots captured it before it was taken away - our cheese display! What else would you expect at a Birthday Party for a Mouse?!
My family has one great tradition - toward the end of the night at all weddings everyone forms a circle, arm in arm whether you know your neighbour or not, and sings along to a particular song. With my family absent it meant a lot to me that we got to do it anyway to honour them and make them present in that moment. I'm so happy the Roots were still around to capture it so I can show everyone.
It really was a great experience! That Tower of Terror tour sounds like something we absolutely must do - we definitely intend on going to DLP as I've always wanted to go to Paris and now that theres a Ratatouille Attraction (our favourite Disney movie, we love Remy) it's only a matter of time. And thanks, I will! That's so nice of you to say!
haha We often don't even look at our vehicle until the end - we're so busy playing with the stats and trying to get it done before the timer runs out that we never check it out until we're finished and then get a good laugh every time at how awful it came out! We've never been on any tours before and then on this trip we did three of them and thoroughly enjoyed each (we've already decided we're doing Walk in Walt's Footsteps again)! They all have vastly different appeals and there's so many more too, it's definitely worth doing one day. Oh & a bonus, you get a discount being a passholder so we saved a good 10% on the WDW ones thanks to our annual pass vouchers from DFTW.
We really did! It was so exciting to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff, especially as Jess & I would both love to be Cast Members one day. It was amazing to see how truly massive an operation WDW is because they do so great a job at hiding the strings so to speak.
So without further ado - here's some early favourites!
We really were in our own little world
Gratuitous product placement - we love Goofy's Candy.
We've been waiting for this one. Moments later, on a silly impulse I rushed forward as if to charge. Unfortunately so did Jess. A brief head clash, some laughter and a possible mild concussion later we're at least happy with the photo!
We never got to see this in person (it was during the cocktail hour) so we're so glad the Roots captured it before it was taken away - our cheese display! What else would you expect at a Birthday Party for a Mouse?!
My family has one great tradition - toward the end of the night at all weddings everyone forms a circle, arm in arm whether you know your neighbour or not, and sings along to a particular song. With my family absent it meant a lot to me that we got to do it anyway to honour them and make them present in that moment. I'm so happy the Roots were still around to capture it so I can show everyone.
It really was a great experience! That Tower of Terror tour sounds like something we absolutely must do - we definitely intend on going to DLP as I've always wanted to go to Paris and now that theres a Ratatouille Attraction (our favourite Disney movie, we love Remy) it's only a matter of time. And thanks, I will! That's so nice of you to say!
haha We often don't even look at our vehicle until the end - we're so busy playing with the stats and trying to get it done before the timer runs out that we never check it out until we're finished and then get a good laugh every time at how awful it came out! We've never been on any tours before and then on this trip we did three of them and thoroughly enjoyed each (we've already decided we're doing Walk in Walt's Footsteps again)! They all have vastly different appeals and there's so many more too, it's definitely worth doing one day. Oh & a bonus, you get a discount being a passholder so we saved a good 10% on the WDW ones thanks to our annual pass vouchers from DFTW.
We really did! It was so exciting to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff, especially as Jess & I would both love to be Cast Members one day. It was amazing to see how truly massive an operation WDW is because they do so great a job at hiding the strings so to speak.
Gracefulskinny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
Beautiful photos!
elphie101
Left my heart in Tomorrowland
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
Forgive me Ben for falling behind!! I've got to stop reading posts unless I have time to properly respond to them, otherwise I forget 
I'm so sad your time in Florida started off so unmagically, especially for Jess - my heart broke when you told us how upset she got. Thank Walt for Snow White; I'm so happy she was able to cheer her up and I'm so glad you guys got some real Disney magic finally - I think Walt would have been proud to see that.
Thank you for posting your Backstage Magic experience! I've never really looked into any of the tours (as Kevin's taken most of them and well, I basically LIVED in the utilidors for 7 months when I worked in Tomorrowland!) but I really think that's one I'd like to do someday, especially to see backstage at Studios and Animal Kingdom (as those are new to me!) I hope Jess knows you posted that picture of her - don't let your PJ get you in husband trouble!
Those photos are completely stunning. I'm so glad you used The Roots, they seem like the perfect fit for your day. I can't wait for you to get more!
I'm so sad your time in Florida started off so unmagically, especially for Jess - my heart broke when you told us how upset she got. Thank Walt for Snow White; I'm so happy she was able to cheer her up and I'm so glad you guys got some real Disney magic finally - I think Walt would have been proud to see that.
Thank you for posting your Backstage Magic experience! I've never really looked into any of the tours (as Kevin's taken most of them and well, I basically LIVED in the utilidors for 7 months when I worked in Tomorrowland!) but I really think that's one I'd like to do someday, especially to see backstage at Studios and Animal Kingdom (as those are new to me!) I hope Jess knows you posted that picture of her - don't let your PJ get you in husband trouble!
Those photos are completely stunning. I'm so glad you used The Roots, they seem like the perfect fit for your day. I can't wait for you to get more!
Aschenputtel
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2013
Those pics are great! I love the big cracker on the cheese platter! And the cake! And Goofy! And everything! All is very well themed, but also so elegant! Can't wait to hear the whole story.
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