Trip report - "Dreams do come true" (video complete - pg 45)

[Mary626]

The boatride takes about 20 minutes or so (it travels at about 5 mph or something, it is very slow), but it is an enjoyable ride and we have plenty of time to get there. We deboard around 6 pm. As we’re walking off the boat I get a text message from Jo & Jim. It says “we’re at MGM”, right as I read it, I look up and there they are! Me, Jim, and Jo & Jim all sit on a bench near the “far right turnstyles closest to the ATM” where we told everyone to meet us. Everyone else in my family goes into MGM since we got there an hour early.

While we’re sitting and talking, we notice they keep playing music to different movies, most of which were Universal or WB, like the theme to superman, ET, or a bunch of others. Seemed very strange to be playing the competition’s music at a Disney Theme park.

We chill and talk for a while as we wait for people to arrive. Around 6:30, some of Jim’s friends are the first ones to arrive. I say hello to Aris and Autumn and am introduced to Aris’s new girlfriend Sarah (her and aris were such a cute couple!). Jeff, Corey, Stevie, and her fiancé Kurt are there too. We talk for a bit and catch up on things. Soon after that, Jenny & Kevin come out of MGM and Kevin gives Jim a gift he bought for him at the shop by Indiana Jones – it’s a ball & chain and a handcuff to symbolize our union together. Very funny, thanks Kevin I thought it was pretty sweet of Kevin to buy that for him actually, it was cute.

On board the Friendship heading to MGM

we meet up with Jo & Jim

Me, Jim, Jo, and Jim take some pics while we’re waiting

The ol’ Ball & Chain gag

Kurt, Corey, Stevie, and Aris (shaking his fist at Jim)

While we’re talking, this little girl comes up to me, who was probably around 3 years old and asks what kind of ears I’m wearing, I tell her that I was getting married and they were bridal ears, and I tell her I like her ears too. The little girl kept talking and talking, and after a while I’m like “where are your parents?” She said something like “oh they’re over there”… “do they know where you are?” “yeah I guess”… I’m like “why don’t we go find them they might be worried about you” “oh they’re not worried about me”, then I hear her mother call her over to her, and off she goes. Very odd. She came back a little while later and was talking to one of the other guests for a good five minutes all by herself. That’s great parenting there!


A few minutes later more of our guests start arriving. It’s nice at first because they seem to “trickle in” so I have a chance to say hello and catch up with everyone one at a time. Jim’s uncle and aunt arrive – the ones that I couldn’t get ahold of earlier, so I was glad to see that they came early enough to go in with us!! Then Clare & David arrive, they had come straight from the airport. I was so glad they got the message and could make it in time!! I would have hated for them to fly all the way from London on Saturday just to miss the welcome party.

I continue to talk to people and socialize. A few times when I would be listening to someone talk and just nodding my head politely, I started to feel really faint like I wanted to pass out. That happened twice , where I was really scared that I might pass out. That’s just great, I kept telling myself. I was just so exhausted. I kept thinking to myself “if you passout I am going to kill you!”. It was okay as long as I kept moving or talking though.

Pretty soon everyone else comes in at once, and there were a lot of people I didn’t have the chance to say hello too. Luckily Jim is there talking to some people while I am talking to others. Jim starts to wonder where his family is, I tell him “Don’t worry, I bet they’ll arrive about five minutes to”, and they do… am I good or what lol.

Allie & nene,, me talking to Jim’s uncle in the background trying not to pass out

Jenny, Kevin, Jo, and Jim relaxing

Yay Clare & David made it all the way from London!

Josh, Janiece, Gracie,, and Chris, they’re all wearing the shirts too!!

Around 6:55 pm, the MGM guides come out with their “lightsabers” and ask how many people they should be waiting for, I think everyone’s there, but I’m racking my brains trying to think of who we’re missing, sue tells me donna bob and Erica arent’ there yet, glad she was paying attention. I don’t think I could have added five plus five and come up with the right answer at that moment in time! We queue up into two lines – one line with admission tickets and one without admission tickets (there was a “pay on consumption” viewing fee for those without tickets). While we are lining up when donna bob and Erica arrive, woohoo everyone made it!!


While we were in line to get in to MGM, Jim introduces me to his half brother bo and his wife and 3 children, I was really looking forward to meeting them for the first time, but couldn’t’ really say much to them other then “nice to meet you” since I had to insert my ticket into the machine and do that stupid biometric thing that never worked a single time I was at WDW.

Jim’s father, half brother, his 3 kids, and Chris.. aww they’re all wearing the shirts!

Us queueing up

You don’t want to mess with those cast members, those were real lightsabers they were swinging!

 

[Mary626]

One by one we all enter MGM, I’m near the back of the line. Finally we’re all in and we follow the Lightsaber Ladies down Hollywood Boulevard. I hadn’t been to MGM yet this trip, so I was rubbernecking while walking. I was so excited, the dessert party had finally arrived, and everyone was there! I’m trying to record with my video camera while walking and talking to people. Finally, Sue rips the camera from me again and says she’ll take over and that I should just enjoy myself. God bless her! Still, I continue to snap a few pictures along the way with my camera, but they were almost all blurry.


We’re walking down Hollywood boulevard, and then wetake a left at the end of the street, heading in the direction of star tours. I was a little confused because for some reason I thought the private room was closer to the amphitheatre, but that’s okay. I’m trying to take it all in and I was just too excited!! On the way, I mostly talked to Sue’s lifelong friends Donna & her husband Bob, who I’ve only met once or twice before, and who I hadn’t had the chance of saying hello to yet.

We’re in, we’re in!

Jim rolling the suitcase with the 10 huge dasani bottles in it

Sue recording some video while we walk

We head to a room right across from star tours and, I think, right next to the Drew Carey’s “sounds dangerous”show. I was pretty much the last one in to the room and saw that almost everyone had found a seat. A few people asked me where they should sit and I just kind of said “wherever”. My family occupied the front/first table and left two seats for me and Jim.


Jim talking to Erica. I have no idea where we’re heading, but it looks like we’re getting close!

OO this is it!! We’re going in!!

I look to the right and there’s the dessert table, wow!! It looked beautiful and delicious!!!
I can’t tell you how many times I imagined the dessert party and what it would look like, I couldn’t believe I was there, it was one of those moments where you think you’re going to wake up at any second and you find out you were dreaming, it was all so cool and there was so much to take in. It was already going by so fast!!

I find a table to the side and start frantically preparing a few things before we start the party. I was unpacking my dasani bottles onto a table on the side of a wall. One of the cast members sees me and tells me that they also have water available by the coffee station if we wanted . I told him I had been told there would be no water, he kind of looked like he didn’t think they were supposed to have water but they had it anyways. I think since they had moved the location inside they did it as an added bonus, it was very nice of them! I decide to put 2 bottles at each table, that way people wouldn’t have to keep getting up to refill their cups – so they still worked out great! I got out the mickey and Minnie wedding plush dolls and was looking for a place to put them, the same cast member came and asked if I wanted to put those out and I said yes, so he kindly found a great place to put them on the dessert table, and they just looked too adorable I thought! I was doing all of this as quickly as I possibly could and was getting very sweaty, that with the humidity, I must have stank lol.

That took just a few minutes, and then the Lightsaber Ladies tell me we have about an hour to eat and at ten past we would all walk to the amphitheatre to watch the show. Then a very professional looking man comes introduces himself to me and tells me about the schedule again and so I ask him “so fantasmic is a go?” and he says yes it is a “go”, and this is kind of embarrassing, I was so happy that I actually hugged him – I’m sure he wasn’t very happy about that lol. But who cares, I was happy, they were going to show Fantasmic!!!

Blurry picture of everyone finding a seat

I look around for Jim, I thought I would say a little something and figured Jim should be at my side when I did so. Someone tracks him down for me, so I lead him to the top of the stairs by the entrance and try to get everyone’s attention. Everything that happened here was completely improvised – I had no idea that I was going to say something or what I was going to say, I just went with it. So I get everyone’s attention and made a little ‘speech’.. I said something like “Just wanted to thank everyone for coming! They just told me that Fantasmic will be shown, so the show will go on! It’s about 7:20 now, and we have till 8:10 to eat whatever we want here, or do whatever we want. There’s some water and coffee over there, and some dasani water over there if you like. So thank you all for coming, it really means the world to us that you could make it!” … and here I almost started to cry, but thankfully didn’t! “we hope you have a wonderful time, so enjoy!”… Not too bad for an off-the-cuff speech, I thought!

Jim then added: “I have nothing to add.” I kind of told everyone that the first table (being my table you’ll notice lol) would line up first, then the second table and so on, and added “I’m sure you all can figure it out”. I let my family get in line first and took a few pictures with my camera. Then I got in line and grabbed a plate. I thought I would try a little bit of everything, I wasn’t sure if they replaced the food if it got low or not and I wanted to make sure I at least tried one of each. (Turns out they did replace the food when it got low, many times!). We had chosen to “make your own menu” and chose 4 items – “Fruit, spongecake, and fondue sauces”, “baklava”, “chocolates & Truffles”, and “apple bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream”.

More pictures to come in the next post...

 

[Mary626]

It was a hard room to get a good over-view picture of, so here it is in segments..

To the left of the room, there were about 5 tables

in the back corner

In the opposite corner (look at those big tv’s)

Looking back at the entrance, the lightsaber ladies standing guard

Sue recording some footage of the dessert table

and… the desserts!
An overview of the dessert table.. coffee station to the right. Couches & planted tree next to the big screen tv lounge area..

The fruit table
The big pots had three kinds of fondue sauces in them – chocolate, caramel, and a some white flavor I can’t remember what it was. There was fresh whipped cream next to the slices of spongecake, and two big trays of sliced fruits or berries

Mickey & Minnie at the elbow of the table

The warm apple bread pudding and dozen scoops of cinnamon ice cream, delicious!!!

Chocolates and truffles on the bottom and baklava on the top

the coffee station in the back, with flavored syrups, chocolate and cinnamon sticks, and whipped cream

My family getting in line at the buffet table

 

[Mary626]

I sit down to eat my food.. I am determined that I will actually get to enjoy this food!!! At ohana I was more worried about passing out gifts and making sure everyone else was enjoying themselves that I barely got to eat a bite of anything. I had been looking forward to the fantasmic dessert party for over a year, it was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for all the dieting I had been doing. And the food was delicious!! The apple bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream was by far the best, it was absolutely scrumptious!! The fruit & spongecake with fondue sauces and whipped cream were equally as good. My sister Jenny had made fun of me for picking the fruit option, but I love fruit! And I noticed that almost everyone had some fruit on their plate, so ha! I had a little bit of baklava and some truffles. The baklava was amazing, but I didn’t want to fill up on it because I knew I could bring some of the left overs back to the hotel, but I wouldn’t be able to bring back the bread pudding or fruit and fondue sauces. The truffles were good but not really what I was expecting. They were kind of like the chocolates you get in a box of chocolates – some are good others not so good. But at least it added a bit of variety!

The plate I made for myself with a little bit of everything

Me enjoying my food (picture facing the entrance, with the dessert table to the left)

Our table in the opposite direction

Me and Jim enjoying ourselves

another shot of the lightsaber ladies guarding the door

My dad staring at my food

Sue brought me some flavored chocolate coffee with whipped cream and a chocolate stick to try, it was delicious!

Some more people getting dessert

I hope the kids were able to sleep that night with all that sugar in their system! Their poor parents..

I was so impressed with the MGM catering team. I kept noticeing all these little things they were doing to help out. They went up to the 2 mothers in the group and asked if their kids wanted any apple juice or anything, so thoughtful! They were so good about replacing the food trays when they got low, and they were completely unobtrusive! I gave them the highest marks possible for service!

While I was eating, my coordinator came in to say hello and to make sure we were having a good time. That was really thoughtful of her, I knew she didn’t have to since it was technically an MGM catering event and not a wedding event, but she did it anyway. Very sweet!!

Meanwhile Sue still had the video camera and was interviewing people to “say something to Jim and Mary” – had no idea until we watched it later, it was so sweet. The videographer was going to do too, so I’ll be curious if people said the same things or not when I get back his footage. But Sue got some really good stuff!! I heard someone ask why she was recording with our video camera or something and she said “because if I don’t keep recording, mary will start”…. how true, she knows me so well.

I went to get a few more “seconds” and Aris was in line with me and asked “who thought of this?? Was it Sue or you? It was you wasn’t it!” And I was like “yep, all me, one year of planning!” He seemed to be really enjoying it was impressed, I was so glad people were having a good time!!!

There were a bunch of big screen TV’s in the room and a few couches off to the side. I overheard one of the guests ask a cast member about it, and I think they mentioned that the room used to be owned by Sony for private events or something. It was a nice room! Some of the kids were watching a show on one of the tv’s near the back, I think it was Power Rangers.

This room was adjacent to the coffee station and dessert table

I had thought ahead, because I knew there were going to be a lot of leftovers and the coordinator had told me they weren’t allowed to package any of the food up for us, so I brought a whole bunch of those really good ziplock bags (which are among the best invention on earth – I use those things for everything – especially when I’m packing!). Towards the end of the party when noone was going for seconds anymore, I’d go pick a few up and pretend to secretly put them in my purse. I knew it was obvious – but I knew they wouldn’t say anything to me about it lol. But then one of the lightsaber ladies said “we can give you some to take home”. Wow they were good lol.

Jim’s nephew William wante d to go try out Star Tours, so Una (jim’s half brother’s wife) was going to go take them. Jim told her he didn’t think they were allowed to leave the room (which I don’t think we were), but somehow Una managed to get through and she went and took William on Star Tours. A few minutes after she left, her 3 year old daughter Mia starts screaming on the top of her lungs “I CANT FIND MY MOMMIE!!!!” It was one of those things that was so sad but so adorable!!!! Her dad calmed her down and she was fine, but it really was adorable lol.

 

[Mary626]

With about 20 minutes until time to go I go around and socialize. My mom wanted me to introduced her to jim’s family and friends so I went around to different tables and tried to talk to everyone a little bit. I got to socialize with a few people but not everyone. At one point, Jim’s friend Aris asks him “Do you want to see my bagel?” Jim’s like “what?” and he shows him his bagel…

It was kind of gross but funny. When I saw the picture later I really thought he was holding a bagel, weird!!

When Jim and I were talking to clare and david and asking them about how their recent wedding went, the Lighsaber Ladies come by and start telling people that we’d be leaving in a few minutes and to use the bathroom if they needed to. Wow that went by too quickly!

Some pics of us socializing

I love this picture because it looks like i was going to take a picture of corey and larry and then Jim runs into frame gives the thumbs up and then runs away

There was still a ton of food left and Lisa remarked that it was a shame it would all go to waste. I told her about I had brought some ziplock bags and she could use them if she wants, and she’s like “heck yeah!!” I give Lisa and Janiece the ziplock bags, and they completely clean up shop!!! They put so much food in those bags!! She gives me maybe a third of the food bags and gives the rest to other people – not sure who got some and who didn’t. I quickly pack up our things, including our plush mickey and Minnie, but decide to leave the dasani bottles behind.

Two things I didn’t remember until later – my mother had forgotten to pass out the remaining t-shirts to the few people who didn’t have any, and I had forgotten to put out the copies of the bus schedule I had brought in case anyone had needed them. No big deal though

At about 8:15 we are already to head to the fantasmic amphitheatre. The Lightsaber Ladies have us speedwalking really fast so we can make the show in time. They take us past Mickey Avenue and then into the backstage area. I’m socializing with people as we walk. I didn’t get to see Jim much that entire evening. He would be talking to someone in the front of the line, and I would be in the back of the line. I’d go up to the front of the line to find him, just as he was going to the back of the line to find me. Oh well lol. Lynne comes up and tells me my aunts and a few of the older people are having a hard time keeping up, so I go ask the Lightsaber Ladies to slow down, so they stop and give everyone a chance to catch up and catch their breath. I know we only have a few minutes left until the show starts and we were still pretty far away, but I didn’t want anyone lagging behind!

Walking past the sorcerer mickey hat. I was remarking to Matt how weird it was that they blocked out the fake Chinese theatre. Matt brought up a good point though, about how the Chinese theatre used to be privately owned but was bought by WB and by Paramount, and how he assumed they didn’t want the iconic figure of the Chinese Theatre that they now own to represent the rival company of MGM. That actually made a lot of sense. I never thought about it before.

We all catch up and they resume walking through the backstage areas.. The ladies tell us that we weren’t allowed to take pictures back there, oops. Aris and a few others seem to be really loving the chance to see some behind-the-scenes things.

We get to a set of really high stairs, and they ask those in ECV’s or who couldn’t make it up the stairs to follow them to the elevator. The rest of us climb the stairs, I can hear the crowd cheering on the other side of the wall and I knew the show was going to start in a matter of seconds…

 

[Mary626]

We all get to the balcony and find a seat, and the lights go out and the show is about to start. I was going to put my video camera on the tripod I had brought, but it was really hard to do with the lights out, and the first 2 minutes of the show I am fidgeting with the camera. I couldn’t screw the camera into the tripod, so I finally just carefully place it on the top and hope it doesn’t fall….

Us finding a seat

Me trying to record everything

Right as the show is about to begin

A very flattering picture of me and jim

I am just so excited though!! I hear the music start and I almost want to cry. After all the worrying about the show being cancelled it was finally here! One minute into the show, someone thinks to move the chairs forward so the railing isn’t in the way, and we all rearrange our chairs, and that is MUCH better!

And we watch Fantasmic. I absolutely LOVE this show!!! I knew about half the people in my group had never seen it, I knew they were going to love it too!! In the beginning, Jim kept taking pictures of the show. He’s never seen the show in WDW either, so I tell him he should just enjoy the show and let someone else take the pictures (which everyone else was doing!), so he stops and just watches the show. I can tell he’s loving it too.

I love the part where Pocahontas shows up, with the light shining on her, and that whole scene just gets me. Pocahontas is one of my favorite Disney movies and I had just watched it like five times a few weeks before the wedding.

The part where Ariel & Eric, Beauty & the best, and snow white and her prince come out on the floats and sing a few verses of their respective songs had me choking up too.

About 10 minutes into the show, I accidentally kick my tripod and my camcorder that was balanced on top fell to the concrete floor. Eek! I pick it up, prepare myself not to worry if it’s broken, but I turn it back on and its fine. Phew!! For the rest of the show I just manually hold it and record.

Dig and dig and dig and diggity dig

It’s john smith! (no picture of Pocahontas, darnit)

During one part of the show, Jim tells me to look on one of the chairs where one of the kids, Krysta, was leaning forward. There was a frog just sitting behind her on her chair, it was cool! We tell her to look behind her, and she looks and the frog jumps away. Oh well, back to fantasmic!

 

[Mary626]

I pretty much stayed focused on the show the entire time, but Jim told me a few times he’d look around to see how everyone was reacting and that they almost all just had a look of complete awe on their face, with their mouths wide open. Especially the kids, he said, they were transfixed! I had warned Una ahead of time that some parts might scare her younger children, but I was still a little worried when the dragon and snake were out. Chris was holding 3 year old Mia and says she did get a little scared, but was okay. I was glad the show lasts about 25 minutes or so, it gave me enough time to enjoy the show and to just sit there and think about how cool it was that I was there with everyone watching the show. I was having an amazing time!!

Oh no he’s going to get mickey!

run mickey run!

Ooo scary!

use your sparkler thingie, mickey!

yay happy ending!

In the end, Mickey’s imagination triumphs over evil!

The show ends and we all applaud. A few people in our group were like “wow that was amazing!!” The ligthsaber ladies tell me that our guests can go into the parks if they want, even those without admission tickets, as a special treat from our coordinator. Awww how sweet!!! I announce to our group what they had just told me. That was really cool!!

 

[Mary626]

We head out and walk down the stairs to the backstage, and enter MGM and are right next to Rock n’ Roller coaster. Una and Bo (jim’s half brother) are carrying their 3 year old and 5 year old on their backs and look exhausted. Una spots a 2-seater stroller, the kind you rent from the theme park,and she looks and sees that “there’s no name on it”, and takes it. Me and Jim are cracking up that she just “stole” a stroller. Sue kindly asks if I wanted her to take my suitcase and bag. I thought she was heading back to her hotel right away, so I give them to her and thank her profusely.

Jo & Jim were among the ones that didn’t have admission tickets for that day, so we all decide to take advantage of it and head to Star Tours. On the way out I notice that Rock N’ Roller coaster has a 20 minute wait and tower of terror only has a ten minute wait, but everyone thinks it would be cooler to go to Star Tours, since Star Wars was how most of us had met each other. That was true. I had met Jo on a star wars messageboard back in 2000 and found out she only lived 20 minutes from me back in Michigan, and we had quickly become good friends. I knew Jim on the star wars messageboard from back in 2000 too, but didn’t meet him until December 2001, since he lived in California and I was living in Michigan. He flew in to meet me just as a good friend, but of course we really hit it off. And then Jo had also met her fiancé Jim on the same messageboard, and moved to Arizona to stay with him as I was moving to California to stay with Jim. And then Jo and her fiancé later moved to Georgia, and soon me and Jim will be heading back to Michigan. Crazy where life ends up taking you!! Jim had also met most of the friends that were there with us in in front of the Chinese Theatre in hollywood during the first star wars prequal back in ’99. So anyway, yes, Star Tours did seem the most appropriate place for us to head.

So some of us start heading towards Star Tours, but it was such a disorganized group this time. First we were waiting for his aunt and uncle who wanted to join us, then my sister jenny was going to join us, but everyone seemed to keep getting sidetrack. It was taking forever! I finally just tell everyone to meet us in the gift shop. Jim wants us to wait up for his mother. We wait a few minutes. Where is she? Jim still wants to wait. After another minute, I’m like, Jim just call her and tell her to meet us at the gift shop!! The park was closing in less then an hour, I didn’t want to just stand there for a half an hour! So we continue to head to star tours in a completely disorganized fashion.

We get to Star tours and wait around for a few people to catch up. We go through the queue line and Jeff insists we take this picture of us “going to endor for our honeymoon”. I’m glad he took it – it’s very cute I think!

Jo & Jim about to board Star Tours

Finally we all get on the ride and sit in the front row. Darn, we never do seem to get to Endor. They should really stop erasing that poor droid’s memory after each flight. We all file into the gift shop, and this is where everyone starts really geeking out. I’ve had my fill of star wars merchandise for my life, so I just kind of mosey around and take some pictures. I’m getting exhausted.

I go outside to take some more pictures. It’s about 9:50 and the park will be closed soon. At the ewok village, they have lights flickering so it looks like the ewoks are in their huts sitting around a fire, and they have the “sounds” of the ewok playing. I don’t remember them having that the last time I was at MGM – it was really cute! I guess they’ve kind of fleshed out the area a bit since they started doing the star wars weekends there.

Tatooine traders

Everyone shopping

Jo bought a shirt that says “I love darth vader”

ewok village – yub yub

I meander around the area taking pictures, and the cast member near the entrance asks if I’m going to ride. I was like “just rode it, now I’m exhausted and want to go to sleep, thanks though.” He asks if I’m having a good night, and I end up having a really pleasant conversation with him. I told him I was there with my wedding guests and that I was getting married in 2 days, he shook my hand and congratulated him. I ask if he was a part of the college program, he said he was and had only been working there a few weeks. I asked how he liked it, he was kind of like “ehh”, I could relate. I told him how I was a part of the college program and that I would come home exhausted every day from working and how I really didn’t like my roommates, but how my favorite thing by far was working with the guests at WDW, everyone was always in a cheerful mood because they were on vacation. It didn’t seem like fun at the time, my feet always hurt and my face always hurt from smiling all day, but I look back at it and think about how much fun it was. Weird. Anyway, I tell him to have a goodnight and go back into the gift shop. As I was in the gift shop, I thought about how when I was doing the college program how I was kind of lonely all the time since it was the first time I was away from my family, and I wasn’t friends with my roommates, and thought maybe he might be in the situation. I thought I would go out and talk to him somemore and ask him some more questions, but when I went out there he had left and gone home for the night.


The “geeks” finish buying their merchandising and we all go over to the speeder-bike prop and take pictures of each other on it.

Jeff sitting by a moisture vaperator

me and jo

me about to fall asleep standing up

Everyone slowly starts to mosey towards the exit and head towards the Chinese Theatre, I was thinking they were all heading home, but they actually wanted to look around at the fake Chinese theatre, so finally I plead with jim to take me back to the hotel! I literally felt ready to pass out – I don’t often get that tired. Lack of sleep and lots of adrenaline and excitement the past few days had just worn me out. The next morning we both vowed to sleep in as late as we needed, and to turn off our cell phones! Stevie tells Jim to “take Mary home, go!!” So we head back to the Friendship boat. We are still pretty far away and we see the boat about to depart, so we start running in the hopes that it would wait for us – thankfully and mercifully they did.. thank you!! We get on board and hear our names from the back. Lisa, Lynn, Chris, Una & Bo and their children, and a few others were all on the boat with us. There’s no room to sit so me and jim stand, and lisa comes in to talk to me. We had a long conversation and I can’t for the life of me remember what we talked about, I was pretty much asleep standing up at that point. I do remember having a good time and was glad we got to talk about the night with her a little bit.

 

[Mary626]

We finally get to the hotel and we all head in our separate directions. Jim & I go back to our room and decompress. I know we are going to sleep in as late as we want tomorrow so I relax for a while before going to sleep. I watched a little bit of the video that Sue took while at the dessert party and watched what people had to say as a “message to Jim and mary”. Most of them were really sweet, and some were really funny. Jim’s dad’s message almost had me cry, he was being so sweet. He was like “Mary, I’ve come to know you and love you like a daughter and am so glad you and Jim have chosen to get married.. Now jim.. you’ve been one of my favorite people for the last 26 years and I expect you’ll continue to be one of my favorite people for the next 26 years, if I live that long, I love you both and wish you a great life together”. It was so sweet! I watched it again and this time I notice that Chris is sitting behind Barry making the funniest faces. I can’t listen to what Barry is saying anymore without cracking up at what Chris is doing – he’s completely stealing the scene lol. (I’ll have to find a way to put some video up of that maybe). I liked Larry’s advice, he was like “mary’s going to see this tape right? No.. no advice for them, I have nothing…” and then silently mouths and mimes “Jim call me!” I browse through a few more really sweet messages before getting ready for bed.

Some of the ziplock bags with truffles or baklava – good thing the hotels had refridgerators!

Some Piccadilly Biscuits that Clare & David brought us from the UK

Jim bought me these at the star tours gift shop – thanks jim!

I talk to Jim about the night. It was just one of the most amazing nights I’d had in my life. That made two of the possibly best days thus far in my life that I’d had in the past 3 days. I was so happy and having so much fun, I didn’t even know how to begin processing it. But for now, I needed sleep! We told our family that we were turning our cell phones off, and if they absolutely needed us to call the hotel room, otherwise leave us alone. We turn our cell phones off and get into bed. We would be incommunicado until we woke up, and we had no set plans as to when we would wake up.

The only things we had planned for the next day was Disneyquest around 4 pm - we had told our friends & family that they could join us if they liked, so we knew we had to be there in case anyone showed up (and jim really really wanted to try out disneyquest), and we needed to prepare everything for Monday, when we would be getting married! I couldn’t believe how quickly it was approaching.

 

[princessblueeyzes]

Another great installment Mary- I just love reading your tr- I'm hooked.

 

[scarlett873]

Well now why did you stop there? You think that you need to stop to actually work??

Can't wait for more!!!

 

[jackdis]

Another great report! All the details are part of what makes it so super. I was wondering what was in the light blue tin on the table at your dessert party.....thanks for including that at the end....I would have kept wondering...LOL....Can't wait for your wedding day!!!!!

 

[angel*lady]

Great report! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[ktink]

Great report, Mary. Still enjoying it all. Those desserts looked delicious.

 

[TexasCourt]

Awesome report! Looking forward to the big day!!!

 

[hookedondizney]

Great report Mary!!!! Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your wedding and sharing all of the details with us! Great pictures too....BTW what kind of camera do you have? It took some really great pictures at Fantasmic, especially in the dark! Awesome job! My camera produces too much blurr to use at night. YUK
I can't wait to get the next report!huuuuuuurrrryyy! We are waiting patiently.........
Hookedondizney

 

[Mary626]

Great report Mary!!!! Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your wedding and sharing all of the details with us! Great pictures too....BTW what kind of camera do you have? It took some really great pictures at Fantasmic, especially in the dark! Awesome job! My camera produces too much blurr to use at night. YUK
I can't wait to get the next report!huuuuuuurrrryyy! We are waiting patiently.........
Hookedondizney

Thank you hookedondizney!! The pictures from Fantasmic were actually taken by my brother-in-law. I knew he'd be taking pictures so I concentrated on taking video and enjoying the show. I think it's a Nikon digital SLR. I will try to ask him what model it is next time I talk to him. If my camera breaks I think I'll be getting one of those instead, I get way too many blurry photos with my cybershot!

 

[Cinderella Fan]

Great report!! Glad you were having such a great trip!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Mary626]

Sunday, 4-23

I slept in until about noon the next day, which gave me a good 9 or 10 hours of sleep or so. I had woken up a few times earlier and thought about waking up to go swimming or something, but decided the best thing for me would be to sleep since the wedding was bright and early the next morning, and best not to go swimming – I didn’t want to get sunburned before the wedding either! So I kept falling back asleep. Jim woke up around 12:30 and we both just lounged in the hotel room and watched some cartoons on the tv.

Around 1 o’clock the front desk called and said they had a delivery for us, but the don’t disturb sign was up, I told them they could bring it up. I asked Jim if he knew what it was, he said “maybe”. Hmmmm.

**** if you don’t want any surprises ruined for you that Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings may or may not do, skip to the next post***
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They quickly bring up the package and it is a beautiful bouquet of pink flowers from our WDW florist, how very thoughtful!! They were beautiful!!!

Here are some links to the pictures:
http://static.flickr.com/52/145254783_2065d91654_b.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/54/145255057_71bdb73661.jpg


But since they weren’t from Jim and he had seemed like he knew something was coming, I guess that meant Jim would be sending something to me too at one point. Very interesting…

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[Mary626]

We got dressed and got on the bus for downtown Disney at 2:30. We had told our guests that if they wanted to join us at DisneyQuest we would meet them at the entrance at 4:00 pm. We had asked around after the dessert party though, and most everyone said they would probably skip it. That was fine with us, I wanted to give people the “chance” to hang out with us if they wanted to, but I was perfectly fine with everyone doing their own thing. I just didn’t want people to think we were ignoring them before the wedding or something. I had chosen DisneyQuest as a place to possibly meet up with people because I thought it would be fun as a group to go there, especially since Jim’s friends were into things like video and arcade games. (Jim’s bachelor party was held at an arcade to give you an idea of why I thought that). Most of Jim’s friends decided to head to Universal and go to Islands of Adventure and hang out at “Marvel Super Hero Island” all day though.

Unbeknownst to Jim, I was taking him there on May 1st. Jim thought May 1st was when we were going to the airport and heading back to California, but I had actually arranged to stay an extra night at his favorite hotel (hard rock hotel) at universal. We had gotten 3 day park hopper passes a few years ago, and still had 2 days of use on them. Jim’s best man, Matt, had kept asking Jim and me to come join them at Islands of Adventure , and I kept trying to decline without being obvious as to why. I kept saying “no we want to stay in Disney, we’ll do Universal on another trip”. Jim, being the too generous guy that he is, wanted to give our tickets away to one or two of his friends, since he figured it would be a long time before we would use them. I was like “Umm no!!! They can buy their own tickets it’s not like they’re all poor or something!” He didn’t understand why I was getting upset about it LOL

Anyway, we head to Downtown Disney and our bus driver announced “first stop, Disney’s Marketplace, next stop, Disney’s West side”. The bus stops at the Marketplace and then all of a sudden the bus driver announces “this is the end of the line, please exit and transfer on the next bus that comes”. That was weird, it was like he all of a sudden decided to take his lunch break or something lol. We were hungry anyway so we decide to grab a bite to eat and look around at the shops around the marketplace.

Boarding the bus to Downtown Disney

The entrance to the marketplace

The brooms from Fantasia, with flowers in their buckets

While planning for this trip the last year, I had read up on Goofy’s Candy shop and saw that you could “make your own dessert” and thought it sounded like fun, so we head there. I hand Jim one of the worksheets and asks if he wants to “create a dessert” and show him how to do it. You choose a base – like a rice krispie treat, a pretzel rod, a marshmellow kabob, gingerbread cookies, or a caramel apple – then you choose if you want it dipped in chocolate or caramel or anything, and then pick some candy to stick to it. Jim was taking it very seriously and thinking long and hard about what kind of dessert he wanted , it was cute lol. He picked a rice krispie treat, with the ears dipped in chocolate, packed with oreo crumbs. We hand the worksheet to the lady and she gets to work making Jim’s creation. Jim was watching her put it together and was like “I’m going to need a defibrillator after eating that”.

I’m being a dork and getting everything on video, I’m just weird like that. I was recording the lady when she was packaging up the dessert, and so she asks if I want her to “announce the dessert”. I was like “umm.. sure?” and she talks into her mic and says over the speaker “Jim, you’re rice krispy treat dipped in chocolate and crushed oreos is ready!” so I could get it on tape, I thought it was cute that she did that for us.

Me in front of Goofy’s candy shop

Goofy’s Candy shop

Create your own dessert station

Jim taking the creation of his dessert very seriously

The lady creating someone’s dessert

Jim’s rice krispy treat bathing in oreo crumbs

Both Jim and I were really hungry, it being after 3 o’clock and not having eaten all day, but after the dessert party the night before we wanted some “real food” to eat before delving into the rice krispy oreo goodness. I had read rave reviews about “Earl of Sandwhich” on the DIS dining forum, and really wanted to try it out. Jim didn’t want something with so much bread in it so he wanted to eat somewhere else. Well I was going to get my sandwich, it was on my itinerary, darn-it! We went into Earl of Sandwhich, I was going to get something and Jim could find something somewhere else. The restaurant was a cute little place, nicely designed with a fireplace (I think it’s fake, not sure), and book cases filled with books, and playing classical music, etc.. Nice theme-ing. I order an “all American turkey sandwhich”, which had turkey and cranberries on it. I still wasn’t really used to “bread” either, not having had it for the past year, but wanted to try the sandwhich while I was there since it had gotten such good reviews. Well, maybe I ordered the wrong kind or maybe I just wasn’t that used to bread yet, but it tasted like toast & jam to me. Which is fine if you’re in the mood for toast & jam. Oh well.

Jim waiting for me to get my sandwhich and go

My sandwich

I try a bite of jim’s creation – it is delicious!