Summer and Steven's WDW wedding SBP Aug 20 2007

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 2, part 5

I come round several minutes later, part of me thinks I may have just fallen asleep while the other part of me thinks I definately fainted. I have a habit of fainting if I get stressed or am in alot of pain, since I knew it wasn't the latter, I put it down to the stress. The worst thing was that neither my mom or Steven realised I had fainted My mom had went back through to her room and Steven had went into the bathroom, I had only been out of it for a few minutes it seemed as my mom came through with the continuing conversation.

"So what are they doing about it"

Totally puzzled, I didn't answer but picked up the phone and dialled reception again to get through to Bell Services.

I get the same guy and he explains that they tried to deliver them but we weren't there to accept them. Really? How could I have not been here, I hadn't left. It dawned on me that we had taken about 15 minutes to find our room in the first place, could they have tried to deliver it then? Seemed probable.

"Well I'm here now"

"Okay we'll bring them up to you".

I hung up, feeling a tad better. My mom starts looking out the window and with every van that passes exclaims "Here's it" then sighs "No it's not" After about 30 minutes or so of this, I grow very tired and my impatience is beginning to wear very thin, I am getting hungry and am still peeved that I cannot go to 'Ohanas. I go out of the door and just lean on the railings of the walkway and take a deep breath, the air calms me and the beauty of the resort envelopes me. I inhale the scent of the flowers below and everything is well. Five minutes later I see the Bell Boy below with our bright pink suitcases and Steven's black one, we wait and wait and 10 minutes later he arrives at my moms door. Finally I can have my shower!

I grab my suitcase and weed out all my toiletries and make up, and clothes to wear for that evening.

I jump in the shower, which was very powerful, however it took about 5 minutes for me to get the temperature set. I like really hot showers but this one was either boiling or freezing. Eventually I fix it and would quite happily stand there all night but realised that it was an impossibility. My stomach was growling and I knew Steven was getting tired too. We had an early start in the morning so I wanted to get some food and go to bed.

I got changed into combat trousers and a top and touched up my make up. It was decided that we would head over to the food court area at CBR and maybe have a look at Shutters.

Now here is where I will apologise in advance. I took pictures of food initially but I ended up taking so many other pictures that I had to end up deleting them, I went through my 1300 pictures and the ones that we could let go were the food ones. I decided that nearly everyone has seen pictures of nearly everything there is to offer in the way of Disney food, and it was more important to us that we keep ones of us or other pictures in general. So again I apologise. However you all know by now how detailed I am so I can describe everything in detail for you, enough so, you can conjure up an image in your head hopefully

So we left our rooms and took a slow walk over the bridge to the food court area. It was now approximately 8pm, it was getting dark so the lights on the bridge were on which made for a beautiful sight. There were lush trees and little lizards running across the wood, I loved it!

We walked past the main pool which looked great, it was pretty full, loads of kids and quite noisy too. The food court looked okay but I didn't fancy anything in particular. I guess I was still disapointed about 'Ohanas because nothing would do. We walked over to Shutters and asked about a table for 3, she said it would be about a 40 min wait, WHAT? I said no and walked away. Steven asked what I wanted and I pouted and said 'OhanasThe adult in me came to kick my childish butt and I said "Okay then, we'll eat at Shutters"

I went back to the same woman and said I would wait for that table if it was still available. She said it would likely be before 40 min, took my name and gave me a beeper. While we waitied I figured we could look in the store and see if they sold Minnie Bridal Ears. I was determined to get these asap. I immediately started looking for them and found 2 high up on the hat rack. I spent 5 minutes trying to decide which one looked better. Were there sequins missing on that one, the bow seemed squint on that one, the veil was uber creased on both of them so that didn't help! Eventually I settled on one and went over to pay. Both queues were pretty bad, so I picked the longer one, I always seem to have better luck. It seemed everyone in the queue had questions to ask, god dammit, why can't anyone just pay and be done with it.

After 10 minutes there was one person in front of me just starting to get served, lo and behold my beeper goes off, some loud Caribbean music and everyone turns to stare, I try to muffle it with my chest and obviously did a good job, except Steven comes up to me and says we better go...but my ears! I tell him they will wait 5 minutes but he thinks they will give our table away if we don't go back straight away...but my ears! "You can get them tomorrow, anyway I'm hungry and I really want to eat"

"Fine, but they better have them tomorrow"

We find mom and tell her we've been beeped and we quickly walk to Shutters.

SHUTTERS REVIEW

She takes my beeper and a hostess comes out and seats us at a table near the window.

Our waiter comes out to greet us and offers us drinks. We all take milkshakes. My mom and I get Chocolate and Steven gets Strawberry, these were delicious, they weren't too thick or too rich, it had loads of whipped cream and a cherry, which I promptly scooped out and shoved into Steven's milkshake. We all agreed that it was the best milkshake we had tasted in a while.

The waiter then comes out with the sourdough bread which again was beautiful, we all love our bread in this family and it was nice to have some warm slices with melted butter.

My mom decided to go for Caeser Salad and Herb Chicken.

I went for French Onion Soup and Herb Chicken and Steven went for the same.

Our Appetizers came very quickly, my mom looked at hers and said "where's the chicken?"

I asked if it said Chicken Caeser Salad and she said no. Well I guess that's why you didn't get any chicken I thought. I explained to her that caeser salad is just that, no chicken unless it says chicken.

"But I got chicken in another caeser salad"

"Well that must have been a Chicken Caeser Salad then" I sighed.

"Oh"

Steven rolled his eyes at me then smiled. I told my mom not to worry she could get a nice dessert, it felt like I was talking to my child

Steven hated his French Onion Soup, declared it was way too greasy and he loves cheese so I was surprised. I initially thought I liked it but unfortunately agreed with Steven by the middle of it, there was way too much cheese and the bread had loads of cheese on it too, there wasn't actually much soup but what I did try of it was nice but defiantely not on my list of must have French Onion. Steven left over half and so did I. My mom did actually finish her salad.

We all had ordered Herb Chicken, which was 2 large legs and breasts of chicken, herbed It looked nice on the plate, but one of my legs was inedible really, it was so fatty and the skin was swimming in fat. The other piece I had was really nice and dry, exactly the way I like chicken to be, the herbs made it spicy but not overly so. Steven also complained that his was greasy, we both ate the Sweet potatoes on the side which I personally adore and cook all the time. Mom quite liked hers, I guess she had a fit chicken.

For dessert Steven and I ordered Cheesecake with berries and mom ordered the Baked Apples in phyllo pastry. Mom had looked at the menu for 5 minutes complaining and stated she doesn't eat stuff like that but decided to order anyway.

The desserts came within 5 minutes and the cheesecake was very nice, I scooped off the berries and added them to Steven's and let the cheesecake melt on my tongue, I love cheesecake and this was a very thick one that makes your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, in other words it was perfect. Steven also thought it was good but was quite full so left some. My mom ate half of hers claiming it was too sweet.

We put it on my card and took all the DDP of of my one, it seemed alot easier than us handing over 3 keys.

The bill came to $100.49 which was on DDP but for our first night I was very disappointed. I hadn't wanted to eat at Shutters and hoped that our first dining experience was going to be a positive one, it made me even more upset I had missed 'Ohanas.

We got up and went to he food court to buy some milk for our coffee in the morning then took a slow stroll over the bridge and back to our rooms. My mom was very quiet and obviously grumpy, Steven looked exhausted and I felt sad. I had such high expectations and I worried that things couldn't possibly live up to it.

We said goodnight to my mom and told her we would leave her sleeping as we had to get up early to get to the courthouse. Steven had a shower before bed and I cosied up to the pillows and thought about the next day. My thoughts drifted to Morgan in his kennel and I hoped he was doing well and having a good time. Steven fell asleep almost immediately when he came to bed and I gazed up to the ceiling and prayed tomorrow would be a better day...

Coming up

Woo hoo our Marriage Licence, Animal Kingdom and Coral Reef and did I miss our diver?

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 3, Part 1

Steven and I awaken at 7.00am, we both had slept really well and it was obvious we really needed it. I jump out of bed and go to have my shower, I was filling with excitment, we were going to get our marriage licence, finally this time had arrived.

I showered and used some of the Mickey soap that had been left for us, but used my own shower gel, Curious by Britney Spears, she may be a bit crazy at the moment but the perfume and shower gel was fantastic!

I immediately went to the coffee perculator and started the coffee, Steven jumped in the shower while I started my make up. This was to be our first full day in Orlando, so I was kinda worried about how my make up would hold up, and worse yet my hair. I decided to do as I normally do, and wore my hair down and applied my make up carefully. The coffee was ready quickly and I got the cups ready and poured the milk. As soon as Steven was out of the shower, I poured us the coffee.

Now I know alot of people don't particularly like the coffee in WDW, but I was floored, it was the best coffee I had tasted in a long time. Over her we have the instant coffee, I used to have a perculator but it was way too strong for me so I got rid of it. This coffee however was smooth, and oh so tasty, I gulped it down and poured myself another cup of Joe! Steven agreed and said we must buy a perculator at home and have this every morning, it really woke us up!

Steven quickly got ready and I decided to wear my long yellow skirt and black vest top.

It was now nearing 8.00am and we were ready to go, I told Steven to grab the camera and we left and walked over to the Custom House to get a cab. It was a beautiful morning, the beach was so peaceful, Steven decided to get a few pics.

The guy was smoothing out the sand for the morning ahead, and I thought it was a nice touch.



This is a beautiful shot, it captures CBR perfectly that morning.



We walked along the path and all these cart with staff came out of nowhere, the first cart stopped and this Jamaican sounding woman, handed me 2 necklaces, one purple and one green and said "Welcome to the islands", I thanked her and they drove on, about 6 carts filled with about 15 staff each went past, all of them shouting out their welcomes. I felt so happy at that moment, I felt I had been transported to another world. This was the Disney I had been dreaming about!

We walked over the little bridge to the Custom House and Steven decided to get a few pics of me.



You can see the necklaces I was given by the staff.



Steven loves taking pics of me walking away...



Another beautiful shot



We arrived at Custom House and asked the Bell Services at the door about getting a cab, she whistled and a cab appeared from around the corner, how neat!

We told the driver we needed to be taken to the nearest Courthouse to obtain our marriage licence, he was from New York and I adore a New York accent. He wasn't sure which one was the closest, so he said he would make his way out of Disney and call through to his dispatch to find out. He radioed through and it seemed to take forever for him to be answered, we were driving slowly, making our way out of Disney. He knew of Orange County Couthouse, but I asked about Osceola, I had thought that one may be closer but I wasn't really sure. After 10 minutes or so of him bantering back and forth with dispatch, it was agreed that Osceola was closer, she gave him the address and directions and signed off. Great we were on our way!

He was a really nice cabbie, not too talkative but very polite. He asked about our wedding and I was only to willing to oblige. The cab journey probably took about 30 minutes and I was surprised to see that the far was only coming up to $30, had we been in the UK the fare would have easily been about �50 ($100). We bypassed loads of little stores, some boarded up and the streets became tiny, I wondered what area the courthouse was going to be in! We bypassed a sign but I think the cabbie missed it and I said to him

"I actually think it's over there, he did a u turn and went back slowly and yes, there it was, a beautiful building, an amazing courthouse! We stopped and the fare was $34.00, we gave him $40 and he handed us a card to call for a cab back and we went on our way.

I was in awe about the size of the building, Steven was stunned at how beautiful it looked. Over in Aberdeen, the buildings are all grey and granite, which I think looks depressing, I love colored buildings and I for one was used to them after living in Australia. Steven wanted to stop and take pics but I said he could do that after we got our licence.

We went up the stairs and entered the building. We had to go through security and Steven had to remove his belt, money and wallet. My purse had to go through too. We collected our things and I asked the woman on security if she knew how I could find the marriage licence dept. She did and gave me directions, she was so friendly!

We took the stairs and bounded up them. We saw a huge door on the left that said EXIT, but it also said the words Marriage and Passports, so I thought 'Oh well then'

We both slowly went through the door and everyone turned to stare, 'oh, oh wrong door I think' We decided we were almost in anyway, so we continued.

The place was packed, there was a bride and groom along with all their family and there were several other couples too, probably looking for their licence.

I joined the queue with Steven and waited patiently. I saw others come enter through another door and motioned to Steven that we had indeed entered through the wrong door. I looked around and noticed forms on the wall. I knew we had to fill out a form, but I assumed we would get one at the desk. Other people were taking forms so I told Steven to go and have a look and I would hold our place. He came back with a form and I realised that we were to have filled this out before. We left our place and went over to the desk to do so.

The form was simple enough and although I made the mistake of filling out the bit for 'ORLANDO RESIDENTS ONLY' (I wish) it was pretty easy.

We rejoined the queue and waited. We were called upon about 5 minutes later and at this time the bride and groom were called also, they were ushered in along with there family to another room. There was a couple next to us, he was from the US and she was from Croatia, they were also obtaining the licence, they seemed such a cute couple, they both worked in Iraq and that is how they met.

We were asked some questions and asked for our passports, it was all so simple, I can't believe I worried about it for so long. We heard whooping from the other room and I assumed the couple had just been married, several minutes later they exited and the bride was glowing, they ran out of the room and there families followed. I smiled and Steven said "You mean we could have got married here?" I rolled my eyes at him and he smirked!

Then the clerk came over and told us to raise our right hand, we swore and that was that. She printed off our licence told us we could marry today if we wanted and that was it. We had it We paid our $98 and left.

I found a payphone in the corridor and called the cab company to get one to CBR, he said he would get one asap, so we went to wait outside and get some pics.





and marriage licence obtained, I'm pretty happy:



We wait about 30 minutes and the sun is beating down on us, it's now almost 10.00am and we are both getting pretty hungry. The cab pulls up and we get in. We get into a conversation with him and he says "Not a great place to be starting out your vacation, did you guys get a parking ticket or something?"

"No we picked up our marriage licence"

"Oh, wow congratulations, I have to remember that sometimes you can be there for nice things too"

We smiled, settled back and gazed out the windows. He started to tell us about Disney, Seawold and Universal after he realised we were gonna be there for 3 weeks.

The journey was over quickly and it was $29 so we gave him $35. He wished us all the best for Monday and told us to have a magical time. We exited the cab and held eachother tightly, hopefully this would be where our luck turned around...

Coming up...

Animal Kingdom, and the heat gets to us and tempers fray.

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 3, Part 2

So we arrived back to the room and although we were supposed to eat at Old Port Royale for breakfast, it was nearing 11.00am and I really wanted to get to Animal Kingdom. I decided I didn�t mind skipping breakfast and just grabbing lunch at AK. My mom had been awake for over 2 hours and was ready to go, I was grateful that she seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday and I thought that things were beginning to look up now.



We headed down to Barbados to catch the bus as we wanted to show mom some of the grounds. We waited at the bus stop and every bus came bar AK, it was over 20 minutes before our bus came but I had already heard that AK buses were less frequent so it didn�t really bother me. The bus journey was fine, it was air conditioned so that was terrific. I started telling mom about our journey to the courthouse and she listened with interest.

The bus dropped off people at Typhoon Lagoon first before heading to AK. 20 minutes later and we were finally at our first Disney Park.



It was now past 12 and we still had to get into the park and find Flame Tree Barbecue. I was not willing to compromise on lunch here as I had heard fantastic things about the food. We did the fingerprint thing and inserted our keys into the machine and was greeted with �Enjoy your day� displaying on the LED screen. �I sure intend to� I thought!

I grabbed a map when I entered and we looked at it and searched out Flame Tree. Located in Discovery Island we made a bee line for The Tree of Life as we knew we would find it easily form there. We bypassed the majority of the Oasis Exhibits as I figured we could come back and view them later.

FLAME TREE BBQ REVIEW

We found Flame Tree, no problem and it seemed reasonably quiet. I already knew what I wanted to order. Pulled Pork Sandwich with Key Lime Pie, mmm!

I told Steven how much rave reviews the pork sandwich had so he agreed to go for the same, including the Key Lime Pie, we both love Key Lime Pie so it was an easy choice!

My mom ended up going for the Smoked Turkey Breast Sandwich and we got a basket of fries to share between us. My mom also went for Key Lime Pie. The total bill was $40.66 we used 3 CS credits and 1 snack credit.

We grabbed our lunch and went to the seating area. We found a lovely little table set off to the side, under shade and enjoyed by many ducks. I thought this was so cute and proceeded to feed my new found friends, pork, bread, and even a little dessert. The Pork sandwich was really tasty, quite salty and packed with meat; the BBQ sauce was not overpowering and added just that perfect taste of sweetness, it really was tasty! Steven liked his but at this moment in time; he was more of a chicken man, it was only later on in the vacation that he would be a convert to meat! However he did eat most of it and fed the ducks his leftovers. My mom loved her Smoked Turkey Sandwich and said it tasted really fresh and was full of crispy salad.

We all devoured our Key Lime Pies; mom had never tasted this before but said it was really nice. I thought it was a bit tart, but as key Lime Pies go it was pretty good, albeit a bit warm for my liking. Steven picked the whipped cream off (he has never been a fan of cream) and I grabbed it and added it to mine. Share and share alike!

We finished our lunch and said goodbye to the ducks and decided to head over to It�s tough to be a Bug! Now Steven and I had seen this before in California and really loved it, I knew my mom would equally love it so I though this would be a good first attraction.

The queue was short and we didn�t wait more than 5 minutes to get in. To get to the attraction you had to follow this long winding path which seemed to go on forever!

Well we got there and obtained our 3D glasses, I told mom she would have to put them on top of her glasses as otherwise she wouldn�t be able to see! Steven did the same and although I do have glasses I didn�t take them to Disney as I don�t need to wear them much, only very long distance. We were seated quickly and we got the perfect row, about 5 rows back and right in the middle. I always hang back and quickly work out how many are going into each row so I know we will get the middle, silly to some I�m sure, but it works for me.

Anyway, the show didn�t disappoint, it was every bit as funny as I had remembered it and my mom loved it. My mom screamed at the bit with the bugs running under the seats and that made me laugh even more.

Upon exiting my mom kept going on about how good it was and how much she loves 3D things, I told her there was plenty of them and we would see them all.

I had decided the next best thing would be to head over the bridge into Asia. We took a couple of pics:



I love this one Expedition Everest in the background:



We were all very hot by this time, it was nearing 1.30pm and it seemed a good idea to cool off, we agreed to do Kali River Rapids. The Stand By queue said 25 min, but I was quite willing to wait as it was under shade and I wanted to get soaked!

We snapped this pic while waiting in line:



The queue dispersed quickly and it was no longer than 15 minutes. My mom loves these rides so was excited about going on it. It was hilarious, we got pretty wet, not soaked as I had wanted but wet all the same. Steven was the worst, his shorts were completely drenched, he obviously sat on the right side of the boat, I was sitting next to my mom and we weren�t too bad. I thought the ride was over quite quickly and it didn�t go as fast as I had hoped, there weren�t too many drops either, although Steven said there were enough for him!

Steven took this pic of me after the ride:



You can see that my skirt is pretty wet and my hair got soaked on one side, I wore my sunshades on the ride as I didn�t want to mess up my eye make up, lol. Hey, it worked.

We then moved on to Maharajah Jungle Trek and managed to get a few pics:

Here is a Komodo Dragon I got, I quite like this pic:



Some cute frogs in a cubicle:



Some bats, and I absolutely hate bats so I gave Steven the camera for this one:



And a beautiful Tiger, it was sleeping but it was a beautiful shot I got all the same:



We really enjoyed the trek, but it was difficult to see some animals because they were in shade or sound asleep (don�t blame them really) my mom seemed to enjoy it but was anxious to get on the Safari.

Coming up�

Kilimanjaro Safaris, loads more pics and back to CBR before heading to Coral Reef!

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 3, Part 3

We walked over to another animal viewing location after leaving the trek; there were 3 monkeys and a cute baby one attached to its mother. We managed to get a few shots of these limber creatures before they quickly disappeared for feeding time:







We then moved on to Africa to go on the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I was really excited about seeing this, I had read some good reviews of this ride so I hoped it would live up to my expectations. We waited 10 minutes if that and boarded our open-air safari vehicle. Our driver was pretty funny and informative. We saw Hippos, Giraffes, Elephants, Zebra, Lions, Gazelles, Rhino and Ostrich. I was somewhat disappointed as many of the animals were far away and we didn�t ever stop so most of our viewing was in passing. We did manage to get a few pictures however, but I don�t think any were particularly great, we have managed to get better pictures in the past, and especially when we went to San Diego Zoo. We managed to rescue the baby Elephant from poachers as I�m sure everyone manages to do, and I must say that was the best part of the ride as it�s where it got a little bumpy and I really began to feel like I was on a Safari, bring it on�











My mom seemed to enjoy it but was upset that she didn�t get any clear pictures of the animals, her camera wasn�t as good as ours. We had spent months debating which camera to get for our Honeymoon, we both love taking pictures and we thought we should get a decent one for a 3-week trip. My mom had always used simple cameras before and we decided to buy her a digital one for Christmas, so she could take it on the holiday. She initially thought it was too complicated but eventually got used to it, however she still insisted on taking pictures of things at extreme distances and often commented at how when she printed them they would actually appear closer, �um no, that�s not the way it works mom�

We then moved on to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. To be honest I can�t remember being that impressed with this either. The main attraction here was the gorilla, and Steven managed to get a good shot of him soaking up the attention:



Then we moved on to the Meerkats which are always willing to pose:



There were other things here like the Hippo underwater viewing area, but once you�ve seen one Hippo, well, I guess you�ve seen them all:



It was now nearing 4pm and we were all pretty thirsty, although we often stopped at drink fountains when we passed them by, I really wanted a frozen coke. We stopped at Dawa Bar and I got a frozen coke and Steven got a frozen raspberry Fanta. My mom has a love of soft serve ice cream so we continued on to Tamu Tamu Refreshments and she got herself an Ice Cream tub. We all enjoyed our snacks and I began to realise how hot and sticky I felt. As we would be dining at Coral Reef that evening I really wanted to go back to CBR and have a shower and change. I had planned a surprise for Steven with the personalised menu and diver plus the chocolate strawberries for mom. I couldn�t wait for this reservation!

So we slowly walked back through Discovery Island to the front of the park. I saw Guest Relations and decided it would be a good time to go over and pick up our �Just Married� pins, I wanted to be prepared to wear them as soon as we were married. I went in with my mom and the CM congratulated me and asked when the big day had been. I told her it wasn�t until Monday and she handed over the 2 pins and wished me all the best.

We walked towards our designated bus stop to get back to Caribbean Beach and only waited about 10 minutes; we boarded and stopped off at Typhoon Lagoon to pick up some wet passengers then continued on to CBR.

I showed Steven the pins while on the bus and he rolled his eyes. He would later come to realise how important these pins truly were and would eventually never want to take them off�

I have decided that at the end of every day where I have visited a park I would give some final thoughts. It is interesting to me how my thoughts have changed, as I visited these parks more than once throughout this trip. However after this particular visit, I had come away quite disappointed. I had very high expectations of Animal Kingdom and thought that past reviews had made both the Safari and Jungle Trek sound amazing. Granted we maybe visited these attractions at the wrong time of day and many animals were resting in the shade, but despite this, I still felt that we hadn�t seen much and although we had no intentions of trying Expedition Everest, the big headliner, we had seen the attractions we had hoped to see, and these were overrated in my opinion. Animal Kingdom is a huge park and requires a lot of walking, it is clearly laid out and we never had any problems finding things. There were plenty of Counter Service available but no Table Service, which I know will be rectified by the end of the year. I loved the added touch of having ducks and other tame birds wander about and there was a beauty at Animal Kingdom that wasn�t available at other parks. We didn�t have as much time to �stop and smell the roses� as I would have liked, but Steven and I knew that we would be coming back again, alone, dedicating a whole day to Animal Kingdom. My mom was happy with the attractions she saw, but had hoped for more character interaction. Little did we know at this point, that we had missed Camp Minnie Mickey, which my mom would have loved Steven and I did however manage to go there a week later and felt guilty that we had not managed to see it with my mom.

Coming up�

Coral Reef reviewed and wait a minute� that�s not the menu I requested! Have I missed my diver? Illuminations.

[kaboomba]

oh know wheres the rest?

[Summer-Caitlin]

Originally Posted by kaboomba

oh know wheres the rest?

See more...

Posting more just now, hope you are enjoying it.

[Summer-Caitlin]

Thought everyone might be interested in seeing the complete wedding video which is still on STVS website.

stvsweddings/speciale...aleffects.html

It is called Stylize Edit 2 (bottom right hand corner) and it is the whole wedding video.

User name and Password when prompted is

user name - blu-ray
password - magic

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 3, Part 4

We arrived back at CBR and took some pictures of the walkway to our room and the view of our courtyard. It was so peaceful and pretty:




We entered our room and found a little friend had been left for us:


I don�t really know what he is but I took him home with me all the same, lol.
I was glad to have a shower. My hair had curled completely by this point and I knew I didn�t have enough time to wash and straighten it so I decided I would leave it the way it was. I changed into one of my favourite tops and my grey combats. My top albeit bright and multicoloured was so cool to wear and was pretty loose so it was really comfortable.
I redid my make up as it had been smudged from Kali and waited on Steven to shower and change. My mom was pretty much ready to go and I made sure everyone had their camera and room key before we left.
Our reservation was for 7pm and it was almost 6pm, as we had never taken the bus to Epcot before and we didn�t know how far Coral Reef was, we decided to leave as soon as we were ready, just to be safe:



See, Steven taking more pics of me walking away�

CORAL REEF REVIEW

The bus to Epcot was quite crowded but we still scored a seat. The journey was quick, less than 10 minutes, so we were in Epcot by 6.30pm. I knew Coral Reef was in The Living Seas, so we just followed the signs and arrived at 6.45pm. I went up to the desk and gave my name and she told us to take a seat and we would be called for when our table was ready. I was really nervous by this point, I had planned the menu and diver about 6 months before but had touched base with Debbi about 1 month or so before we left with my confirmation. Loads of guests were being seated and at 7.10pm Steven asked me why we were waiting so long for a table. I assumed that we were waiting on an aquarium seat, but I just said that maybe they were waiting for a smaller table for the 3 of us

At 7.15pm our host comes to get us and seats us at a large table right beside the aquarium. We have a great view of the whole restaurant, but more importantly the tank. She goes to hand Steven a menu, and then hands out the normal menus to the rest of us. I look down at the front cover of the menu Steven has and think, �this doesn�t look to special� He opens it and on the left hand side it states �Happy Honeymoon from all at Coral Reef�, the date at the bottom says August 17th 2007 and on the right hand side is just the normal menu. I try not to show my disappointment and Steven asks if this is one of my many surprises I had planned for him. I say �Not exactly� and claim I need to use the restroom. Steven and my mom look at me suspiciously as I leave the table, but inside I am fuming. I had planned this for such a long time and now I was really worried about the diver and strawberries. I rush up to the desk and explain to the girl the problem. She confirms that on the reservation she has a note of the diver and strawberries but the menu isn�t noted. I tell her that the menu says �Happy Honeymoon� and that this embarrassed me because we weren�t even married yet! She apologises and calls a manager down who I then have to repeat my story to. I tell him I had spoken with both Debbi and Alicia and have also sent countless emails to confirm my menu. I had sent 4 pictures and also planned on having the lyrics to our first dance printed on the menu along with a special message from me. I was completely gutted that this hadn�t happened. He advised me that both Debbi and Alicia were off and he would see what he could do. I told him I needed to go back to my table, as I know the diver is at least booked and I didn�t want to miss him.

I quickly leave and go back down the stairs towards my table. I see my mom motioning for me to come quickly. I look up towards the tank and see the diver pretending to sleep. My mom is pointing towards me to let the diver know I am this person. I quickly sit down and the diver shows the sign for the second time. I am disappointed that I didn�t get to see Steven�s face when he first displayed it, but the sign was perfect and it was what I had asked for:




The diver throws confetti in the air and blows a huge kiss on the glass and everyone cheers. Steven is stunned and gives me a big kiss, and hey, he is not one for wanting attention, but he agreed that this was a really nice thing to do. He loved the sign and was touched by the words. He told me that just after I had left the diver appeared and had pointed to my mom and him and drew a big heart on the glass, my mom shook her head and motioned to the empty chair and the diver shrugged, then looked at his watch, tapped his foot then eventually pretended to sleep while he waited for me to come back. Steven had thought it pretty funny that the diver thought he may have been with my mom and I thought it was hilarious! I really had wished I had been there but it certainly makes for a funny memory for Steven when he looks back on it now. The diver stayed for another 5 minutes and was swimming round our tank while the waiter took our drinks order. The diver would now and again throw confetti and hold the sign up every so often. As he was going he waved goodbye to us and blew another kiss. It was definitely the best free surprise I had organised.

We all ordered diet cokes to drink along with some iced water and we began to scan the menu. I decided I would try the Creamy Lobster Soup, Steven ordered the New England Cod Cake and my mom ordered the Mixed Greens Salad.

The Creamy Lobster Soup was to die for; I love Lobster and hadn�t eaten it in years. The soup was so creamy and there was just a touch of Brandy added. There were huge chunks of Lobster and if I could compare it to anything it, the texture was somewhat similar to a milkshake, very thick and oh so creamy. It was also quite sweet, which was surprising but definitely not overpowering.

The New England Cod Cake, well Steven devoured this. It was quite a large portion set on Micro Greens and Remoulade. Steven loved this, he finds it hard to describe the taste but from the small morsel I tried it was very meaty and the sauce that accompanied it really brought out the flavours. I am not a huge fish fan but it was some of the nicest fish I had tried, not dry at all with a slight nutty flavour somehow! It was presented well too.

My mom liked her Mixed Greens Salad but said that there wasn�t enough of the bleu cheese dressing. Her salad looked pretty boring to me, but I hate bleu cheese and am not particularly fond of plain salads.
For our Entr�e I ordered Grilled New York Strip and my mom and Steven ordered Grilled Chicken Breast.

I ordered my steak medium-well thanks to the tip from Tiffany, and my steaks throughout my trip were always perfectly cooked. This one was no exception but the piece I received was very fatty. I also found that it was way too salty and I ended up leaving about half. Now the Potatoes Au Gratin were very creamy and very moreish but the portion was too small so I really could have been doing with more. A pet peeve or rather it became a pet peeve was the vegetables in nearly all of the restaurants I ate at were severely under cooked. Now I love vegetables and eat them all the time, but I can honestly say that for 3 whole weeks I hardly ate any at dinner, anywhere! The broccolini that I received with my steak was practically raw. I love firm broccolini but this was stuff you could chip a tooth on. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there any way I could combat this, like ask for my veg to be cooked longer? I know the longer you cook your veg the more nutrients are lost, but I would rather eat some than none at all, and that is how it was for the majority of my trip, NO VEG!

Steven�s Grilled Chicken Breast looked quite nice and he made the mistake of eating the chicken separate from the rice. At this point he labelled the food quite bland. However towards the end he tried the chicken and rice together and exclaimed it was lovely. Unfortunately he had eaten most of it so didn�t have much left to do this with. My mom enjoyed her chicken but it was just that, chicken and I was hoping that both my mom and Steven would become more adventurous throughout our trip.

Our waiter cleared our plates and a few minutes later returned with a huge plate of chocolate covered Strawberries and 3 plates. He put it in front of mom who was very surprised. There was well over 30 Strawberries and I had only paid for 12, so I was happy that we had received much more. Stevens name had been spelt StePhAn which I chuckled at but all in all, the wording was correct. They looked gorgeous:


Unfortunately I don�t like Strawberries so I had no intentions of eating any all I wanted was my dessert!
Steven and my mom tucked in to them and my mom stated they were much better without the chocolate, hmph! Steven said they were the nicest Strawberries he had tasted, WITH the chocolate! I told them both to save room for dessert. I had been advised that the Strawberries would be served after dessert, which I would have preferred as I knew mom would be taking them back to the resort anyway and by this point I would have had my dessert.
15 minutes went by and I tried to get the waiter�s attention. Eventually I managed and asked if we could have a box or something and the dessert menu. I think they served the Strawberries first hoping that we wouldn�t want dessert, but uh, uh, no way, I wanted to try the Chocolate Wave!

Our dessert menu came with 2 boxes to put the strawberries in and we all decided to get The Chocolate Wave. I asked if we could have 2 sides of ice cream too though as I love the contrast between hot and cold with desserts, so even though I knew I would have to pay OOP for the ice cream I still thought it was worth it. Our desserts came out and we dug in. I left the brandied Cherries, as I hate Cherries and started in on the Wave. My first bite was quite dry but tasted okay, the second bite I plunged into the middle and got the gooey centre, but when I tasted it I thought it just tasted undercooked. I have had plenty of Souffl�s and melt in the middle cakes before, but this one tasted just okay. The chocolate was very rich but was better balanced with the Vanilla Ice Cream, but it looked like it had been severely overcooked, very runny, and not even that hot. I was disappointed again as I had heard rave reviews about this dessert. Steven ate all of his which surprised me as he isn�t that much of a chocolate fan, my mom also finished her one but agreed that it was really rich and needed the ice cream. Maybe I received a bad one, who knows, but I would be willing to try another one.

We paid for this meal using our TS credits but were stunned to see we were charged $7.70 for 2 scoops of ice cream, WHAT? Hmmm, my dessert wouldn�t have even been edible in my opinion without the ice cream! We grabbed our Strawberries and passed the manager I had spoken to about the menu. I didn�t know whether he had asked for extra Strawberries to be added to our plate as compensation or not as he had not come to talk to me again. We noticed it was 8.45pm, and I thought we might as well see if we can catch Illuminations while we were here�

Coming up�

Illuminations and an evening stroll on a Caribbean Beach

[Summer-Caitlin]

Day 3, Part 5

We rushed out of Coral Reef hoping that we would be able to catch the beginning of the show. I told Steven and mom that we would have to hurry if we planned on getting any spot to view the fireworks from. Steven realised but my mom said she wanted to go and use the restroom, WHAT? Now? We found one as we were exiting The Living Seas and I told her to hurry. She slowly walked over and stopped to take a drink from the water fountain.
�MOM, you just had a drink�
I start tapping my foot and she hurries into the restrooms. She appears a few minutes later and we resume our dash to World Showcase.

We enter at 5 minutes left to spare and head right for Showcase Plaza. I knew we weren�t going to get a brilliant view, but I thought we had done pretty well considering this was only an afterthought. We secured a spot right at the front of Showcase Plaza, there were hundreds of people, some sitting, most standing. We heard the loudspeaker state in a few moments Illuminations, Reflections of Earth would begin. I began to get excited; this would be the first Disney fireworks show we had seen. At 9.00pm on the dot, it began. Fireworks lit up the sky and the lights went down. A spinning globe began to show pictures from around the world and flames seemed to come out of the water. The lights around the pavilions main buildings went on one by one and it was a beautiful sight. The sound of the fireworks echoed in my head and I began to feel the vibrations surge through my body. The heat from the flames hit me with great force and I felt boiling hot all of a sudden. The music screamed from the speakers and the fireworks ceased as everyone focused on the globe. Eventually the fireworks exploded in one huge finale and the sky was filled with sparks of light, illuminating everything below.
Suddenly it was silent and the lights came back up and people started to run.

I wasn�t going to charge out of the park, I knew there was no point and that we would end up losing each other, or worse, getting hurt. So in an orderly fashion followed the less eager guests to make our way to the bus stop.
We stopped and snapped this beautiful sight:


Within 15 minutes we were out, we found our stop no problems and noticed our bus sitting there, waiting. Woo hoo!
We chatted about the show and all agreed it was a beautiful sight, we didn�t have the best view so didn�t get to appreciate the globe much, and after all aren�t we all just there for the fireworks?
Our journey came to an end and we slowly walked back along the path. I noticed the hammocks were empty and had been desperate to try one out so I ran across to get in one. They were so comfy:


I convinced Steven to try it also and although it was simple enough to get in, it was pretty difficult getting out. The weather was beautiful, the humidity had subsided and all that was left was a warm breeze. I swear I could have fallen asleep, gently rocking in that hammock.
We were all tired and crossed the beach to get to our room. The resort looked beautiful all lit up but our photos didn�t do it justice:



We collapsed in bed and said goodnight to mom, I wanted to be up early the next morning as I had an ADR booked at 8.30am for Kona Caf�. I couldn�t wait to try that Tonga Toast! I set the telephone for 6.30am and switched on the TV. We fell asleep in each other�s arms while in the background the TV whispered through the night.

Coming up�

Kona Caf� and the long awaited Tonga Toast!

[disneydreamer]

Aw Summer just watched your wedding video it's lovely. Brought a tear to my eye.

Jackie