"There's the Cashmere Cat" - A Very Sparkly Dec. 2021 TR! *NEW 4/23

[the2ndstar2theright]

*continued from previous post*



After Spaceship Earth, we decided to split up. Wesley and I wandered through the Creations shop for a bit before heading back toward World Showcase. We wandered through the trading post shops that are right there at the entrance first.

I was in desperate need of caffeine at this point, so we walked over to the Starbucks that is right there by Canada, and I got an iced blonde white chocolate mocha. I quickly drank my coffee as we walked over to Mexico to go ride the Gran Fiesta Tour.





After our ride, we met back up with Wesley’s parents at the big Christmas tree right at the entrance to WS for some pictures!




The photographer was really great and really got into it after finding out that we had just gotten engaged!




​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Then, we made our way back to the front of the park, stopping to take some pictures along the way.




I made a quick restroom stop to change my tshirt, and then we headed up to the monorail station. It was around 6:10 or so when we were getting on the monorail blue to head back to TTC. We had a night full of holiday fun ahead of us! ​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Sounds like a nice relaxing morning at EPCOT.

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Sounds like a nice relaxing morning at EPCOT.

It really was!! A great start to the day!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

RL Update: Hi friends! There's nothing like another trip in the works to make you hurry up and finish a TR, huh? I'm so excited to announce that my mom & I are headed back to WDW in just 26 DAYS!! We've had this trip in the works for a while, but we weren't totally sure until recently that it was actually going to happen.

Now it is very much my goal to finish this TR before I leave on this trip, but that also means I will be trying to finish a TR in the chaos of the weeks leading up to finals for my grad program...so we'll see how that goes haha.

Now, back to this TR!

Day 3, Part 2 - Very Merry After Hours!
Thursday December 16, 2021

We made it to TTC and then got on a ferry to go over to MK—we had tickets for the Very Merriest After Hours Party! This was something Wesley & I had really wanted to do this trip, and we were so excited!

We were still a little early, so we had to wait a few minutes before we could get into the park. When we finally were let in…it was mass chaos. There was no real line to get your wrist band, and I was honestly a little terrified for the CMs passing out the wrist bands. People were pushing and shoving and acting a fool, and I was starting to get worried that someone was going to get hurt. Thankfully, we were finally able to get our wrist bands without injury, and we made our way into the park.

We had planned to split up until we were ready to find a spot for the parade and everything, so Wesley and I practically ran back to BTMRR as soon as we got in the park. It was basically a walk on, which had us pretty excited about how the night was going to go!

From there, we went over to Space, but when we got there it was down, so we headed over to Dumbo instead (which was also a walk on).



Then, we got on the Barnstormer since it didn’t have a line, either. After we went around the first time, they just let us stay on and ride again since there wasn’t anyone waiting! Enchantment was going on while we rode, and it was so fun to see the fireworks from the ride! We tried to take pictures, but...

LOL.

Next, we were off to 7DMT which was (are you ready for it)…a WALK ON. I honestly couldn’t believe it, but we walked straight onto the ride. Our ride photo from this time around seems to be missing though.

At this point, we were kind of hungry, so we decided to stop at Friars Nook and get some bacon macaroni & cheese tater tots, which were really yummy!


After our snack, we walked over to Space again, but it was STILL down. So we headed to Buzz instead, which was a walk on. I won this time, and even had a fairly decent score (for me anyway lol).



After Buzz we hopped on the PeopleMover, and then headed over to the cookie stop at Cosmic Rays. Those snickerdoodles were actually quite delicious!

We decided to go ride 7DMT again, and this time we still only waited about 10 minutes and ended up in the back row, which is always a lot of fun!

And here is Wesley once again not knowing where the camera is hahaha


​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Then we stopped to take some pictures over by the castle walls.



One of the photographers even had the Tink lantern out, which ended up being some of my favorite pictures from the trip!




After our pictures, we decided to try Space again. Thankfully, it was back up now, and we walked right on! Then when we got off, we turned around and walked right back on!

We made a quick stop at the snack spot in Tomorrowland for popcorn and drinks (a nice perk of the After Hours) before heading back toward MSUSA.
We stopped for some pictures on Main Street.







Then, around 10:45 or so, we found a spot on the curb for the fireworks and parade, and called Wesley’s parents to let them know where to find us.
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[the2ndstar2theright]

I think the fireworks started at 11:30, and they were absolutely amazing!










Then we only had a little while to wait before the parade at 12:05. The parade was absolutely magical, and it was so fun to actually see a real parade again!




​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Once the parade was over, Wesley and I hightailed it back to BTMRR to get one more ride in. We ended up walking on twice, and the second time we got the back row, which is my favorite! We met back up with his parents right around 1:00, and it started snowing on Main Street!


We made our way out of the park and onto the ferry and made the long trek back to the car. We all crashed not long after we made it back to the resort!


This number was really more like 26k-27k because the count rolled over into the next day!


​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom
Friday December 17, 2021
My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, and it was slowwwww going after our late night. We had every intention of being at AK for the 8am opening, but we didn’t even leave the resort until a few minutes after 8. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising after our day yesterday! It was around 8:40 when we got to AK.


We headed back to Dinosaur first and walked straight on!


From there, the boys decided to head over to EE, and Wesley’s mom and I went to the little viewing area to watch for them.



After their ride on EE, we decided to head to Kilimanjaro Safari, which had a 45 minute posted wait time. We ended up waiting about 40, but it wasn’t too bad. Our safari guide Rachel was absolutely wonderful!









It was around 11 when we finished up with our safari, so we decided to try to get a seat in the 11:30 FotLK. It was definitely a little strange to see this show without the Tumble Monkeys and everything, but the performers were absolutely fabulous as always!





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[the2ndstar2theright]

After the show, we were all pretty hungry, so we decided to get something to eat. Wesley’s parents wanted to go to Restaurantosauras, so we all made our way back over to Dinoland. I ended up getting a bacon cheeseburger that wasn’t half bad.



From there we made our way over to Pandora to get in line for FoP. It had a 95 minute posted wait, which is a line I would not normally get in, but it’s Wesley’s favorite ride, and we weren’t willing to pay $10/each for the Lightning Lane (I have since changed my tune on that one, but I digress). We ended up waiting about 70 minutes, which really isn’t that bad all things considered.

I ended up buying a Pandora pin in the gift shop that I’m a little obsessed with!



Then, Wesley and I went over to Pongu Pongu to get drinks. He got a Rum Blossom, and I got a Mo’ara Margarita, which was good but nothing overly special.


We also stopped for some Photopass pictures!














Then, we got in line for Navi River Journey and probably waited about 30 minutes. I was so glad to finally check this off my list—it was stunning, but I probably wouldn’t wait any longer than we did for it. All of my pictures turned out pretty blurry, so I will spare you all from those.
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[the2ndstar2theright]

After Navi River, Wesley’s parents wanted to do It’s Tough to Be a Bug, so they did that while we wandered through some shops.

I think we may have stopped to take these pictures on our way toward the front.















While we wandered through gift shops, I spotted a pin trading board outside of one of the entrances, so of course I had to head over and make a trade. I ended up getting a Club Penguin Puffle pin and one that looked like one of the parking lot signs!


We met back up with Wesley’s parents after they finished with It’s Tough to Be a Bug and took some pictures with the Tree of Life.





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[the2ndstar2theright]

We were all pretty wiped out at this point, so we made our way out of the park and back to the car.



It was a little after 5 when we were pulling out of the parking lot.

When we got back to the resort, I laid down for a bit while we tried to decide what we wanted to do for dinner. We ultimately decided to go down to the restaurant by the pool at our resort called Copa Loca.



I got chicken nachos that were really yummy!

After we ate, we wandered around the resort a little bit and looked in the gift shop. We also stopped to take a picture with the Christmas tree.



Then we made our way back to the room, took showers and got ready for bed.

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[snikki]

It looks like you guys did so much without G+. It shows that with a plan you can accomplish a lot. You guys were troopers after the late night!

 

[Barbara C]

Congrats on your engagement! Very romantic!!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

It looks like you guys did so much without G+. It shows that with a plan you can accomplish a lot. You guys were troopers after the late night!

We really did! There were only a few times I found myself wishing we had it (and we did end up getting it the last day), but in general it wasn't too bad.

Congrats on your engagement! Very romantic!!

Thank you so much! It really was

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 5 - Disney Springs
Saturday December 18, 2021

We slept in this morning and had a pretty slow start, which was kind of nice after the last few days of going basically nonstop. We didn’t leave the resort until 11:15, and then we were off to Disney Springs! I have to say, the traffic and parking at Disney Springs was one of the few times I really missed being on property and being able to take a bus.

We parked in the Lime Garage and then headed toward Earl of Sandwich for lunch. We were getting there right around noon, so we ended up waiting a good bit to order and get our food, but I wasn’t that surprised by that. They have rerouted the line to go in through the side door and made the front door exit only which is SO much better than it used to be!

I ended up getting a Cannonball sandwich (aka a meatball sub) and a frozen lemonade, both of which were really good!




Wesley got the Hawaiian BBQ, which he really liked!


After we finished eating, Wesley and I headed over to the Days of Christmas to look for an ornament. We had been talking about getting an ornament personalized to commemorate our engagement, so we looked around for a while until we found one we wanted and took it over to the personalization desk. They said they would text us when it was ready to pick up in a couple of hours, so we headed off to wander through some more stores.

We went into the Star Wars store so Wes could look around for a bit before heading over to the Pin Store. I got a 50th anniversary pin while we were in there because I really hadn’t seen much in the way of 50th pins, and I didn’t want to miss out!

From there we headed into World of Disney, where I actually ended up running into a friend from back home who was working there on her DCP. It was fun to catch up with her for a minute before she had to get back to work, and we got to our shopping. This was one of the few times I really felt the crowds this trip—WoD was absolutely packed, and after a while I was ready to get out of there. I got a couple reusable shopping bags, a pair of the EARidescent ears, and a Mickey shaped notice board.


We had seen the notice board in Epcot the other day and didn’t get it, but we had kept talking about it and decided to get it when we saw it today. I have since packed it away for our future house!

It had been pretty hot in WoD, so we stopped at a cart outside to get a drink to share before heading over to Basin. I ended up filling a regular bath bomb tube for myself and filled two of the mini tubes for my best friends’ Christmas presents. While we were in Basin, we got a text that our ornament was ready for pickup! So we started back toward the Christmas shop. We stopped in the Tea and Spice Exchange along the way because they usually have a lot of mugs, but they hardly had any—which was actually something I noticed across the board this trip. I hardly saw ANY mugs anywhere, which just seemed really unusual to me. I don’t know if it was just an example of COVID-related supply shortage or what, but it was a little frustrating!

Then, we walked over to the Days of Christmas to pick up our ornament—it turned out better than I could have imagined, and I am absolutely OBSESSED!

It’s actually one of the musical ornaments, so it sings “See the Light” when you push a button on the bottom. This is probably my favorite souvenir ever, and I can’t wait to hang it on our Christmas tree!



After we picked up our ornament, Wesley wanted to walk down to the Columbia store so he could look around in there. I don’t think he ended up getting anything, though. We wandered through a few other stores on our way back toward WoD, and then I decided to go by Starbucks for a drink. Drink in hand, we went to sit on a bench by the stage to rest for a little bit. Wesley decided he wanted to go back into WoD, so he did that while I sat and talked to my mom for a bit.

Wesley’s parents called us not long after he came back out of WoD and told us to meet them at T-Rex. They went to put our names on the list and were told that it was about a two hour wait, so Wesley and I decided to head down to Guest Services to ask a quick question about Genie+. The CM outside was able to answer our question about whether or not we could get G+ for just me and Wesley or if all 4 of us had to get it), so we headed back to T-Rex.


While we were waiting, we realized that Wesley’s MDE profile wasn’t connected to mine like we thought it was, and nothing we tried worked, so we ended up going BACK to Guest Services. They were able to fix it, no problem, and the CM chalked it up to some strange system glitch. I didn’t care as long as it was fixed, and we headed back to T-Rex.

We ended up waiting about two and half hours to be seated, and we were finally shown to a table around 8:00. Wesley and I both ordered a drink called a Calypso Punch, which had mango rum, Sprite, sweet and sour, and I think something else in it that was absolutely delicious. His mom also got a drink (I can’t remember which) that she said was really good, as well. I ordered the chicken alfredo, which was very good! (But I apparently took no pictures while we were at dinner -- sorry!!)

Apparently the drinks we ordered came with a new glass like the one that they are served in, which Wesley was super excited about (he loves souvenir cups lol).

It was around 9:30 when we were leaving Disney Springs. We got back to the resort and played a game we had brought with us before taking showers and getting ready for bed.

Anndddd I'm now remembering that this was the day my watch randomly died in the middle of the day, so I didn't get a step count. Oh well!​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 6 - Mini Golf & Disney Date Night!
Sunday December 19, 2021

We slept in again this morning. It was actually close to 10 when I finally got up, which is really late for me even when I’m not at Disney. When I got up, Wesley surprised me with a peppermint mocha from the Starbucks that was in the main building of the resort. <3
We all slowly started getting ready to go. The others decided to go pick up lunch from the poolside restaurant, and I ate my leftover pasta from T-Rex. After we all finished eating, we left the resort and headed toward Blizzard Beach to go play Winter Summerland mini golf! There was about a 20 minute wait to start when we got there, which was no big deal. We decided to play the winter side, and I had a really great game and won!

Winter Summerland is super nostalgic for me, and it was fun to get to play with Wesley and his parents.

We stopped at Publix on the way back to the resort for some more waters and things. Then, when we got back to the resort, Wesley and I both ended up falling sound asleep for a while before we had to get up and get ready for our Disney date night! This was something we had talked about doing pretty early on in the planning process for this trip, and we were so excited.

We got ready to go and took some pictures out on the bridge before we left.








His parents had offered to drop us off and pick us up, so that we could both get a drink at dinner, and they dropped us off at Disney Springs right around 6:30. We had a little time to kill before our reservation, so we decided to go into the Co-Op to look for a phone case for Wesley. He ended up getting one of the 50th anniversary cases, and he also picked up one for his mom to give to his dad for Christmas. We wandered through Uni Qlo for a few minutes before we needed to be on our way to our reservation. We had a 7:15 ADR at Terralina! We checked in around 7 and were seated right away.

Our waitress’s name was Yari, and she was absolutely wonderful. We decided to order a glass of wine each, and she ended up giving them to us on the house since we were celebrating our engagement. It was such an unexpected sprinkling of pixie dust, and we were so grateful!

We got the fried mozzarella and rice balls as an appetizer, and they were absolutely divine.


For our entrees, I got chicken parmesan, and Wesley got shrimp scampi.


Everything was so delicious! My plate was huge, and I ended up taking a good bit of it back to the resort. It was a little bit of a pricier meal, but we also got an appetizer (and I ordered a second glass of wine), and honestly we thought it was so worth it. We will definitely be back!

After we finished our date night dinner, Wes wanted to wander through Under Armour, and then he ended up going back into WoD to pick up a few things he had seen earlier. We called his parents to let them know we were about ready to leave, and then I made a quick bathroom stop while Wesley wandered around Tren-D and the Co-Op. When I met back up with him, he had bought me a sticker for me car, which was so sweet.

His parents picked us up a few minutes before 10, but there was a wreck that caused major traffic on the way back. As soon as we got back, we took showers and crashed!​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 7 - DHS
Monday December 20, 2021

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, and it was a little slow going at first—at least until I had had some coffee haha. We all got ready to go, and we left the resort right around 7:55. We were off to DHS!

It was 8:45 or so when we got through the tapstiles. The number one thing on the boys’ list today was RNRC, so they headed off to do that while Wesley’s mom and I went off to Toy Story Land to ride TSM. RNRC had a 60 minute posted wait, and TSM was posted 50, so we figured it would probably take about the same amount of time for both. I have a note that says I won, but I guess I didn’t take a picture of the scores!

It ended up being perfect timing because Wesley called me to tell me they were done right as we were walking out of Toy Story Land.


We met back up with the boys, and then we decided to split back up to shop for a bit before the 11:00 Beauty and the Beast. Wesley and I stopped at Sunset Pins first, and they had the Mickey & Minnie 50th pin, so I snatched it up quick!

I also traded for a pin in the little trader box, but I didn’t make a note of what I got, so it must not have been anything I planned to keep.

After that we walked through a couple shops before deciding to stop for a snack. We went over to Anaheim Produce and got a pretzel and a drink. Wesley had really wanted a churro, but they were out. We found a wall to sit on to eat our snacks. By the time we finished, it was 10:40, which meant it was time to meet back up with his parents to go see B&B. We sat on the right side down toward the front a little bit and could see really well!

















The show was fabulous as always—it was definitely a little weird at the very end since Belle and the Beast couldn’t touch each other (thanks COVID), and there were definitely fewer dancers on stage than normal. But I will say it was really impressive to see the dancers do their kick line without being hooked up to one another—I’ve been a dancer for most of my life, and I know how hard that is!!​

 

[PAsFab5]

Enjoying your report so far! So fun!!!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Enjoying your report so far! So fun!!!

Thank you so much!!