Ben and Libby's Happily Ever After - Day 13 - Boardwalk Villas, Epcot and a Proposal!

[oh_darling]

Day 13 - Friday 28th October 2016

We woke up super early this morning, 6.30am, to get ready and organised in good time to get off the ship Super upsetting times!

We managed to get to Cabanas about 7.40 for one final, fairly rushed breakfast which must have been rushed because I didn’t take photos We then went back up to the room for one final time to grab all our bits, then headed down to make our way off the beautiful ship.

Goodbye room!



Somehow, at some point during this final room visit, Ben ‘misplaced’ his Key To The World. Which he needed to get off the ship. He couldn’t see it anywhere and it was a little tense because we weren’t sure if he needed to show it. We cooked up an elaborate plan where I would go first in the queue and they hopefully wouldn’t ask to see his, aaaannnnd they didn’t. Haha! As we were milling about trying to avoid actually setting food onto land that wasn’t the ship/Nassau/Castaway Cay, I took some last snaps. Sob!







THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES DONALD







After not being able to put it off any longer we exited the ship and went over to grab our luggage - this was all very efficient and we were super impressed. Our bags were over with the rest of the WDW resort guests. We hopped onto our designated bus and got extremely excited when the man asked us if we were staying at a Boardwalk resort. You’re darn flippin’ right we are mister! We sat down at 8g.30am and left promptly at 9.00am which was awesome, and I think we were both asleep before that haha! We actually both slept the entire way, not waking until 10.00am which was lucky because it was the Boardwalk and that was our resort! First stop, woooooooo.

Luggage in hand we entered the Boardwalk resort via what seemed to be a tradesman’s entrance as my MUm would say, but it was super cute and now every time we return to the BW we go in via that entrance We’d only ever peeked our heads into the Boardwalk once before back in 2013 I think, I feel like we got a taxi from there? Anyway, we were wowed immediately and we had to pause and take a photo in this beautiful mirror



We headed to the check in area and a lovely CM congratulated us and checked us in. She said out room wasn’t ready yet which was fine, so we went to sit on the sofas for a bit to use the internet and decide our next movements.

Then it was a bit odd, two different managers came over to say hi to us! I don’t know if they thought we were like annoyed that we couldn’t get in our room or something nand were waiting? The first one congratulated us, asked us all about the wedding and what we’ve been up to, then asked for our room number. Then a second manager came up, did the same thing, and asked for our room number too! He then disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later asking if we would like to get into a room now, a new one, or wait for our original assigned room? This threw me so I asked what the difference between the rooms was, I think I had requested a room via touring plans but I couldn’t remember haha so wanted to check! The manager said the original was on a higher floor but the new one was closer to reception. We opted to stick with the original because we didn’t need to get in. It did become clear lagter on why they’d asked for our room number but it was a bit weird! I thought we were gonna get upgraded to a suite or something after being asked all the Qs, but spoiler alert, we didn’t haha. Anyway!

We sorted out our hand luggage and I nipped to the bathroom to change and freshen up. We then checked in our bags and checked on the luggage we’d had sent over from OKW and it was all good Then we headed out for a stroll around the boardwalk! YAY!





I took this beautiful panoramic!



Then, we got an email at 11.30am saying our room was ready, woo! Really unexpected so that was awesome. We headed straight up and our room was SO BEAUTIFUL, we had a nice balcony and view of the pool and it was just lovely









A bellhop bought all our bags up and we unpacked a bit and got organised because we were here for the remainder of our trip. We then went to do laundry! We’d never done it before so it was quite exciting!

We grabbed a bunch of stuff to wash then headed down to the laundry, it was all very high tech and confusing, we paid $1 for a little box of powder but it got stuck, so Benj gave the machine a little shove and we got 2 boxes! Winning! We left one on the top for the next guest

One box was enough to do 2 loads, so we put a bunch of laundry in first for 30 minutes, then headed back up to the room to chill. We then went back down to put it in the dryer for 1 hour. Easy!



Now, we had some big plans for this day. One of our oldest friends Joe had asked us many, many moons ago if we would be okay with him proposing to his girlfriend Lucy on our wedding/honeymoon trip bonanza. First I think I said EEEEEEEEEE and then I said of COURSE, as long as it wasn’t like the wedding day hahah! He said it would be the very last night of their trip, which was this day. So for the next 8 months or so, we were hatching a plan of how he could propose! It was so exciting!

A bit of background info; Lucy did the CRP and worked as a CM in Epcot for 1 year back in 2013. She is a huge Disney fan and Joe thought proposing to her where she used to work, in a spot that holds such fond memories for her, would be amazing. And we all agreed! We were so excited! SO. The Plan. As you’ve seen throughout this trippie, we met up with our friends quite a few times during the trip and this evening was Joe, Lucy and Jason’s last night in Orlando so obviously we all wanted to get together. The evening had been planned for ages, we’d all meet up in Epcot and have some food and drinks togrther to say goodbye. What Lucy obviously didn’t know was that Joe was going to propose! Her and Joe were going to ‘Pre Fest’ down in Tampa for the 2 days prior to us all meeting up, driving back that morning then heading to Epcot. The loose plan (Joe isn’t a planner haha and we basically had to make him make A plan just so we’d all know what we were doing! ) was to make our way over to the UK pavilion, find a photopass photog to get a photo of us altogether, then at the moment of the photo being taken, the rest of us would pull out paper letters that spelled out ‘Marry Me’ behind them! And hopefully she’d say yes haha! Let’s find out if that happened…

So mid-laundry we texted Kat and Sean to come over for some drinks on the balcony before we all headed into Epcot together as we were in our room so early (We’d planned to just meet at Epcot but this would also be easier for them as they were at MK and could get the hotel bus). They were super up for so me and Benj finished tidying up, got all dolled up for an afternoon at Epcot and then they arrived! It was so good to catch up and hear all about what they’d been up to while we were on our cruise. We went to grab some ice from the ice machine and all enjoyed some rum and diet cokes on our balcony



A little bird popped up so we offered him some chips! You can just see him on the balcony!



Mid-afternoon we walked into Epcot together, constantly keeping up with the rest of the gang’s movements via our main Whatsapp group, and also the secret proposal one haha! SLIGHT spanner in the works was the Lucy was not feeling so great from the festival and said she didn’t want to come to Epcot! I had a minor heart attack and we all had to casually support Joe via Whatsapp and explain to Luce how much we all wanted her there and how much fun it was going to be, without making her suspicious! Which I don’t think she was at all but we were proper laying it on thick hahaha. Eventually she came around, I think just to shut us all up, and said they’d come. PHEW. Knowing what an important day this was, me and Kat checked in with Luce oin our girls only Whatsapp group and just laid the foundation that we both had nice dresses on and what was Luce planning to wear because we didn’t want her to feel underdessed haah! Luckily she put a gorgeous 2 piece outfit on and she was so grateful to us afterwards when she realised!

So. Me, Benj, Sean and Kat started off in France and got slushies because you just have to, and we had these gorgeous photos of us all taken which I just love





We then just wandered round, popping into the shop in France to try on some hats



We watched the acrobats perform and got more slushies. At some point I got the Hummus Fries as this photo shows - we were all a bit obsessed with this as a group and I swear at most times of this day, at least one of us was chowing down on hummus fries!



We also did some rides, these were our FP for the day which lots of us had booked for the same times!

[oh_darling]

Jason, Tom, Victoria and Ian met up with us and then we were just waiting for J and L, which was good as it gave us a chance to fill everyone in on the plan and make sure we all knew what order we needed to be in etc.

Here’s a sample of our Whatsapp group for this day that just really made me laugh...clearly I’d been on the bevvies! I so love Whatsapp for keeping all these memories for me



We then met up with Joe and Luce finally and we caught up on Joe and Lucy’s festival and our cruise and everyone else’s activities! But then it was time to get down to business.

We had Lucy’s ring with us in my little bag (STRESSFUL, we’d had it the whole time! ) so I surreptitiously gave it to Benj and took Lucy and Kat off to the loo to distract her while the boys began to hatch the plan. It was really funny because Joe kept disappearing to try and find a PP photographer in the UK area who could help us but he was really struggling to! Lucy was getting really stressed because he just kept vanishing, sometimes on his own and sometimes which one of the boys, and we had to keep making super lame excuses! It honestly went on forever and I was starting to think we’d just have to grab a random stranger to take the photo haha but eventually Joe reappeared and slyly signalled to Benj that it was go time. He’d managed to find a PP photog and explain what he was about to do.She was super up for helping but she had to go and find her manager to explain that she’d be busy for a bit, which is why it had taken so long. We were ready. Well, I wasn’t really because it all felt very underplanned, Ben still had all the paper letters and I didn’t know where I needed to stand!

So Joe pretending to Lucy that he hadn’t been AWOL for the past 45 minutes hahaha and obviously she was a bit miffed! One of us, I think me or Kat as would be most believable, then shouted out ‘Shall we get a nice group photo?’ we were just walking through the UK and into the nice garden area at the back where the band performs so it was very scenic and I think (hoped! ) believable. A photopass photographer was there waiting, so it was time. We all tried to super casually get into a line and as we walked up, Ben pushed a bit of paper into my hand and whispered ‘stand next to me!’ so it really was so last minute for me haha but I guess the guys had sorted it during all the times me and the girls were in the bathroom, so well done them!

We then even more casually pushed Lucy and Joe into the front like ‘you guys go in front’! Which MUST have seemed really weird to Luce ha but she didn’t say anything, I think she was just focusing on looking nice for the photo!

So the photographer said ‘smile!’ we all smiled, then Ben whispered now!’ and we all got our bits of paper out, unfolded them and held them up! She literally looked round the second they were all up and she looked SO SHOCKED, and then Joe got down on one knee next to her and unfolded his piece of paper which just had a question mark on it! She was so so shocked, I burst into tears! And then she said ‘YES YES YES’ and we all clapped and cheered and everyone around us clapped too which was so so nice! PROPOSAL SUCCESS! Ahhhh amazing. The photopass lady then took a few more photos of the two of them

Here is the full sequence of events, as they happened! Just love these photos soooo much!

We were a bit of a shambles to begin with because it all happened so fast and me and Sean were late to get our letters up! Sean also accidentally did his upside down bless him which really didn't matter but he was so gutted! Stressful times!







Obviously, I cried.











The ring!



After we all hugged and congratulated them, I shouted out ‘CHAMPAGNE’ and we all made our way over to the champagne F&W booth. This was something we’d decided to do aaaggesss before as I thought it would be the most perfect way of celebrating in a special way. En route Lucy called her Mum and family so that was cute, and the rest of us were just excitedly chatting about the proposal It was amazing. She was soooo surprised, she was shaking!

Cheers!



I loooove these photos so much!





It was such an incredibly special moment and we were so honoured to be involved to help our best friends get engaged, it was the most perfect ending to an amazing trip! After this we just kinda headed round the WS celebrating, getting snacks and lots and lots of drinks!

At one point I got this prosecco or sparkling wine flight which looks incredible but I can’t find any info about online! A thousand apologies!



We also went en masse to the Germany pav and spent slightly too long dancing to the band. I’m trying to insert the video but I can’t get it to work, so here’s a lame still!



We then decided to nip out of the park before watching Illuminations to try and beat the crowds as we wanted to go to Jellyrolls. Unfortunately Luce wasn’t feeling too great at this point plus her and Joe wanted some alone time so they decided to bow out and head back to their hotel to chill So the rest of us headed to the Boardwalk in search of MORE ALCOHOL! We decided we couldn’t walk past Boardwalk Joe’s so some of us got margaritas, me and Joe wanted Magical Star cocktails instead and in an amazing stroke of luck, the CM had run out of glow cubes so we got them for free! I honeslty don’t thinnk I’ve ever been so happy in my life. Free cocktails. OF course when we went to our little seating area to recount our tale to the gang, everyone else wanted free cocktails too haha but I think Tom went up and they were wise to his game and said they weren’t doing Magical Star cocktails!



Ben’s glasses broke



We all got some pizza to share from the Boardwalk Pizza Window, then we headed into Jellyrolls! It was super super fun but mega busy, we didn’t get a table so sat around at the bar which was cool! It was really fun though, a few of our requests got played so I was happy





We eventually left about 1.30am! Me and Benj were the last to leave haha, everyone else had slowly flitted away throughout the night but we were just having the bestest night! We WALKED back to our hotel (LOVED that so much) and were greeted with this beautiful set up in our room! From one of the managers we spoke to earlier in the day! How thoughtful we were super chuffed.










And... the last few Whatsapps of the night...and the morning after! Hahah!



And that was that! The end of an absolutely incredible day full of love, laughter, and friendship Thank you for reading everyone!

[EJSakaAnna]

What an exciting day ! So lovely to be involved in your friends proposal.

And how cute is the congrats set up in your room! xx

[Floridaagogo]

Fabulous ❤️❤️❤️

[am15476]

What a lovely day! 🙂

[mick]

Great day


Joan

[yellowrose78]

What a fab day, proposal pics are great 😀

[MrsSilverStar]

what a brilliant day! Such a cute proposal. Lovely little set up in your room too.

[disneypars]

Brilliant day!

[mobeckwith]

wow what a brilliant day, sooo good xx