A Cancellation, A Proposal and A Lot of Food - Marathon Weekend 2017 COMPLETE!

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I gnu you were going to post that.

Once we explained what the pictures were of that we were missing, the Cast Members assured us that they would find them. It only took them a few minutes to locate our missing pictures, and then they even printed one off as a 5×7 for us free of charge - pixie dust!

Phew! For a second there I thought you were going to say "But they lost them"!

We had called our immediate family, but we decided to start texting extended family and our friends to let them know we were engaged.

Awww... :)

our phones were going crazy with text messages of congratulations. It was a really amazing experience, sitting beside my fiancé in one of our favourite places in the world, feeling such an outpouring of love from all the important people in our lives.

:goodvibes

We decided we still wanted to do a few more things in the park, so we put our phones away and headed over to catch the train out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

Engagement, schmagement. Disney beckons!

As we were walking by, we realized a Birds of Wonder show was just about to start, so we headed in and watched.

I like that show. :)

We jumped in the stand-by line for Primeval Whirl, which was only about a 20 minute wait.

Why? Just.... why????

I don’t love this ride, but I don’t hate it either.

I hate that ride. soooo painful!
 
After our Safari, I kept checking the MDE app but our pictures of Luke proposing had not shown up yet, so we headed out to the Photopass store located by the main gate. Once we explained what the pictures were of that we were missing, the Cast Members assured us that they would find them. It only took them a few minutes to locate our missing pictures, and then they even printed one off as a 5×7 for us free of charge - pixie dust!

Nice! So glad they were able to recover them for you. You wouldn't want to lose those! And a nice little bonus of pixie dust, too.

It was a really amazing experience, sitting beside my fiancé in one of our favourite places in the world, feeling such an outpouring of love from all the important people in our lives.

:lovestruc
 
January 10th, 2017 - Engagement Day - Part Three

Tri-Ceratop Spin was practically a walk-on, and it was something we’d never been on before, so we headed there next. It’s basically just the Dumbo ride with dinosaurs.

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I have no idea what is going on in this picture, but it makes me laugh….

We were getting a little hungry by this point, so we went to check out Flame Tree BBQ. The review can be found in my dining report.

Also, this sitting area is so pretty!​

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We stopped for more Tree of Life pictures since there were no lines…

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Our third Fastpass was to meet Mickey and Minnie. We had originally planned on doing the Wild Africa Trek today, which is why this Fastpass was so late in the day – we didn’t want to be rushed. After cancelling the tour, we decided to just leave our fastpasses as they were.

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Minnie was so excited when she saw our Just Engaged buttons. She started gesturing to ask when we got engaged, and started jumping up and down when we told her it had happened only a few hours earlier. We ended up with cute pictures from this meet and greet

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We checked the MDE app for wait times in the park, and headed over to Expedition Everest and hopped in the stand-by line.

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A wait time under 20 minutes for Everest is a huge yes from me every single time!

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We also grabbed a Fastpass for the Safaris a little later, so that we could go on it at Twilight.

This was pre-Pandora and pre-Rivers of Light, so most people were still treating Animal Kingdom as a half day park. By this point, it was after 5pm and the crowds were thinning out. We checked wait times again, and headed back to DinoLand to get into the stand-by line for Dinosaur – I believe it was under 10 minutes until we were loading the ride.

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We then noticed a 10 minute posted wait time for Expedition Everest, and since it’s my favourite ride, we headed back over to Asia (we were putting some kilometres on today!)

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We got off, and immediately decided to get back in line haha.

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Luke didn’t think his stomach could handle three rides on it back to back to back, and that was our fourth time on it that day, so we said goodbye to my favourite ride and walked back to Africa to use our Twilight Safari Fastpass.

My review of that – meh. Most animals are already in their enclosures, it’s hard to see the ones that are still out and it was pretty underwhelming. I wouldn’t go out of my way to ride the Safari at that time of day.

While we were walking back through Africa, Luke’s dad called him (Luke had tried calling earlier to tell him we were engaged but his dad was working). Luke sat down on a bench to talk to his dad, and I went to check out Zuri’s Sweets Shop and picked out some treats for us.

We caught a bit of the Tree of Life Awakening, before heading out of the park and catching a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our late supper reservation at Saana (<click to follow the link to my dining report).

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After our meal, we called an Uber to take us back to Saratoga Springs.
 
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I have no idea what is going on in this picture, but it makes me laugh….

Ahaha this is great! We had a teacher in school who used to do this motion and called it "Quiet Coyote," when she wanted us to settle down. Sometimes I still do it to Nathan now. :laughing:


This is so cute! I love your sunglasses.

My review of that – meh. Most animals are already in their enclosures, it’s hard to see the ones that are still out and it was pretty underwhelming. I wouldn’t go out of my way to ride the Safari at that time of day.

I'm kinda with you on that one. If the wait is short and I have nothing better to do, okay, I'll ride it. But I wouldn't rush to it or anything. I think the daylight safari is much more enjoyable and impressive. We liked seeing the lions up and moving about after dark, so that was kind of neat. But it was the only thing that I really liked about it. Also...the lion was "roaring" on our after dark safari...but I've heard reports on several other TRs before and after that where they were raving about how the lion roared for them...and now I wonder if this might be a "Disney real" thing, versus an actual real-life roar...like...do they just play a lion's roar on a hidden speaker somewhere or something? :confused3
 


We have a FP for Safari right before sunset ... I'm hoping that we get to see the animals right before they go into their enclosures for the night. That's why I booked it for then - I figured the animals might be active right before bedtime (like a little kid who doesn't want to go to sleep).
And if they're not out and about - at least I know now to expect that. So thanks for the heads up!

Other than the disappointing safari, sounds like you guys had a good time. I don't at all blame Luke for not wanting to go on Everest a third time in a row. That's a lot. I don't know that I could do it twice in a row. (Although I did once do California Screamin' twice in a row ... but that made my sister a little queasy)
 
Tri-Ceratop Spin was practically a walk-on, and it was something we’d never been on before, so we headed there next. It’s basically just the Dumbo ride with dinosaurs.

And one I will probably never ride. At least I wouldn't think so. Dumbo has the nostalgia factor that this one doesn't.

I have no idea what is going on in this picture, but it makes me laugh….

Getting ready to barf. ::yes::

Also, this sitting area is so pretty!
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Yes it is! Nice photo.


Awww...

She started gesturing to ask when we got engaged, and started jumping up and down when we told her it had happened only a few hours earlier.

:laughing: I love that!

A wait time under 20 minutes for Everest is a huge yes from me every single time!

::yes::

We also grabbed a Fastpass for the Safaris a little later, so that we could go on it at Twilight.

Interesting. Never thought of doing that.

Dinosaur – I believe it was under 10 minutes until we were loading the ride.

Wow! You practically have to go!

We got off, and immediately decided to get back in line haha.

:laughing: With wait times like that, I can see why!

My review of that – meh. Most animals are already in their enclosures, it’s hard to see the ones that are still out and it was pretty underwhelming.

Well... poop. I was hoping you'd say the opposite. "Guys! This is the time to go! All the animals are active and out!"

Shoot.
 
Ahaha this is great! We had a teacher in school who used to do this motion and called it "Quiet Coyote," when she wanted us to settle down. Sometimes I still do it to Nathan now. :laughing:

Ahaha! I love that name for it! I'm going to use that now hahaha

This is so cute! I love your sunglasses.

Haha, thanks. I have great health coverage from work, so I always buy expensive brand name prescription sunglasses that I would never typically buy if I had to pay for them myself :rotfl:

I'm kinda with you on that one. If the wait is short and I have nothing better to do, okay, I'll ride it. But I wouldn't rush to it or anything. I think the daylight safari is much more enjoyable and impressive. We liked seeing the lions up and moving about after dark, so that was kind of neat. But it was the only thing that I really liked about it. Also...the lion was "roaring" on our after dark safari...but I've heard reports on several other TRs before and after that where they were raving about how the lion roared for them...and now I wonder if this might be a "Disney real" thing, versus an actual real-life roar...like...do they just play a lion's roar on a hidden speaker somewhere or something? :confused3

I can see them creating an artificial roar haha.

We have a FP for Safari right before sunset ... I'm hoping that we get to see the animals right before they go into their enclosures for the night. That's why I booked it for then - I figured the animals might be active right before bedtime (like a little kid who doesn't want to go to sleep).
And if they're not out and about - at least I know now to expect that. So thanks for the heads up!

Other than the disappointing safari, sounds like you guys had a good time. I don't at all blame Luke for not wanting to go on Everest a third time in a row. That's a lot. I don't know that I could do it twice in a row. (Although I did once do California Screamin' twice in a row ... but that made my sister a little queasy)

How is your trip?! I've seen a few pictures on Instagram, looks like you and your sister are having a great time!
 


And one I will probably never ride. At least I wouldn't think so. Dumbo has the nostalgia factor that this one doesn't.

Haha, Disney Parks nostalgia dates all the way back to 2015 for Luke and I, so we view things a lot differently than most people. I can totally understand where you're coming from though!

Getting ready to barf. ::yes::

:rotfl:

Yes it is! Nice photo.

Thanks!


:goodvibes

:laughing: I love that!

I loved how special everyone made us feel that day! Proposals happen all the time at Magic Kingdom, but I think they are a lot fewer and farther between at Animal Kingdom.


Best ride in the park!

Wow! You practically have to go!

You know what's up!

:laughing: With wait times like that, I can see why!

With Pandora, I don't know if/when we'll see wait times like that again...

Well... poop. I was hoping you'd say the opposite. "Guys! This is the time to go! All the animals are active and out!"

Shoot.

Yeah, not so much.
 
I'm almost finished this report - the post below will be part one of our final full day (only took a year and a half to get to this point :rolleyes1). Thanks to everyone who has stuck around and continued reading! I really appreciate it!

I also will be starting the trip report for the wedding trip (which happened 6 months ago - I'm not really on top of this trip reporting thing, life keeps getting in the way). I will post a link in here once I get that up :)

And now, one to our final park day...

January 11, 2017 - Part One
Today was our final full day in Florida, and our last park day. We were awake extremely early, and took an Uber to the Contemporary, then walked along the path to the Magic Kingdom. I love that little path, and that security entrance is never too busy. The park wasn’t opening until 9am, but we had a breakfast reservation for 8am at Be Our Guest, so we scanned our Magicbands and entered the park. The previous year we had also made a PPO ADR at Be Our Guest, and ended up getting amazing pictures in front of the castle with no one else around. However, this was right after they changed the welcome show, and were allowing people to enter the park and crowd the Hub for the welcome show (I think they were doing renovations on the train platform or something?). Anyways, it was really crowded, and there was no way we could get empty castle pictures again :sad2: - we ended up with ok-ish pictures....

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(Can you tell we were only a little bit exhausted by this point?)

We fought our way through the crowd to the cast member that was checking for dining reservations (you couldn’t leave Main Street or the Hub unless you could prove you had a reservation). It was around this time that Luke realized he had forgot to pack my wallet (it’s his job to make sure our park bag is ready to go each day – also, he was super weird about that on this trip, because he’d been carrying around my engagement ring waiting to propose to me). We try to stick to cash only on our Disney trips, and of course the majority of our money was in my wallet, which was sitting in the safe in our room at Saratoga Springs. At least we had Luke’s credit card.

We arrived at the Beast’s castle, and checked in for our meal. If you haven't read this review on my dining report, you really need to hop over to that right now. Luke actually wrote it, and he is hilarious.
By 9:10 we had already been on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Flight and by 9:16 we were standing in the stretching room on the Haunted Mansion (all without Fastpasses - the importance of being there at rope drop, people!).

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We decided we wanted to do some character meet and greets (which is strange, I was having a terrible day with my skin - later diagnosed as severe psorasis on my scalp, so I hadn't brushed my hair that day since it was so painful to try), so we headed over to Ariel’s Grotto to meet everyone’s favourite Mermaid.

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We then headed over to the Storybook Circus area for the meet and greets there. We decided to start with the ladies, and joined a pretty much non-existent line to meet Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse.

Daisy was adorable! She immediatedly noticed our “Just Engaged” buttons and was so excited when we let her know it had just happened the day before :love:

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Daisy checking out my ring - I love this picture!

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Next was Minnie Mouse in her adorable pink outfit!

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After meeting the girls, we noticed the line to meet the boys was very short, so we hopped in line to meet Donald and Goofy!

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Disney Parks nostalgia dates all the way back to 2015 for Luke and I

"all the way back"

:laughing:

I loved how special everyone made us feel that day! Proposals happen all the time at Magic Kingdom, but I think they are a lot fewer and farther between at Animal Kingdom.

You may be right! I hadn't thought of that.

You know what's up!

::yes::

With Pandora, I don't know if/when we'll see wait times like that again...

Not until the next latest and greatest.
 
(only took a year and a half to get to this point :rolleyes1).

Well I for one am certainly not going to complain!

life keeps getting in the way

:hug:

Today was our final full day in Florida, and our last park day.

Ugh... why does there always have to be a last day?

(Can you tell we were only a little bit exhausted by this point?)

Nah. You guys look great. :)

(you couldn’t leave Main Street or the Hub unless you could prove you had a reservation).

As it should be.

At least we had Luke’s credit card.

Phew! I thought you were going to tell me that you had to go back!

If you haven't read this review on my dining report, you really need to hop over to that right now. Luke actually wrote it, and he is hilarious.

I did! Thanks!

(all without Fastpasses - the importance of being there at rope drop, people!).

::yes::

later diagnosed as severe psorasis on my scalp

:hug:

we headed over to Ariel’s Grotto to meet everyone’s favourite Mermaid.

::yes::

Daisy was adorable! She immediatedly noticed our “Just Engaged” buttons and was so excited when we let her know it had just happened the day before :love:

Yay! Glad you had a good interaction with her.

Daisy checking out my ring - I love this picture!

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Me too! :)
 
I love those early mornings at the park when you can get so much done before the masses show up. It's well worth the early wake-up call and pre-park ADR. You guys got some great stuff done that morning!

How is your trip?! I've seen a few pictures on Instagram, looks like you and your sister are having a great time!

It was hot, humid, and rainy, but other than the weather (and some huge crowds at Epcot on the 4th of July), it was great! Toy Story Land is amazing!
 
(only took a year and a half to get to this point :rolleyes1)

I soo feel this!! I'm aiming to get mine done by the one year mark...we'll see how that goes... :confused3

(Can you tell we were only a little bit exhausted by this point?)

Your pictures came out nice, and you don't look super exhausted, but I can totally relate to exactly how this feels! By the end of a long trip, I'm always dragging my feet...self-care becomes a thing of the past, and if it passes the smell test, I wear it, etc.

By 9:10 we had already been on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Flight and by 9:16 we were standing in the stretching room on the Haunted Mansion (all without Fastpasses - the importance of being there at rope drop, people!).

Couldn't agree more!! We tried to impress this upon Nathan's family for the one day they did a park (Epcot) on our wedding trip. We told them to get there before opening, and do all the things while it was still reasonably temperate weather and the crowds were still in bed. That did NOT happen. :headache: I love how much we can get done at rope drop!!
 
You and Luke are just too cute!!! I love your pics with all the characters and how adorable they are celebrating your exciting engagement!!!!

Also, this: "This came across as more negative than I’d like it to. I’d like to reiterate this. Ultimately a bad meal at Disney World is irrelevant. Because you’re still at Disney World. Life is pretty good when that’s the case. Nobody gets there by accident. So gulp down your standard sausages, ride a roller coaster, use your credit card and have a great dang day. That’s what we did. It was great :)

P.S. if you’re one of those people who makes a pre park open reservation then just buys a 69 cent Mickey straw so you can take advantage of the Mine Train loophole – you’re the problem and if this were the Oregon Trail you should probably get dysentery."

is why I absolutely LOVE when Luke "guest stars" in your TRs and PTRs. He is so incredibly talented and I love his writing style!!!! Also, I am an avid Oregon Trail lover, and am constantly wishing people who do me wrong "dysentary" or "typhoid!"
 
I love those early mornings at the park when you can get so much done before the masses show up. It's well worth the early wake-up call and pre-park ADR. You guys got some great stuff done that morning!

It was good we knocked off some big stuff that morning, since we took it pretty easy for the rest of the day!

It was hot, humid, and rainy, but other than the weather (and some huge crowds at Epcot on the 4th of July), it was great! Toy Story Land is amazing!

Have you/are you going to be doing a trip report? I miss your reports!

I soo feel this!! I'm aiming to get mine done by the one year mark...we'll see how that goes... :confused3

I keep trying to catch up on your wedding report, but last I looked it was like 65 pages and that terrifies me because I love multi-quoting things haha. Having it completed by your anniversary is very ambitious!

Your pictures came out nice, and you don't look super exhausted, but I can totally relate to exactly how this feels! By the end of a long trip, I'm always dragging my feet...self-care becomes a thing of the past, and if it passes the smell test, I wear it, etc.

We left our hotel room so early that day, nothing I had on matched, I hadn't brushed my hair - I was past the point of caring hahaha

Couldn't agree more!! We tried to impress this upon Nathan's family for the one day they did a park (Epcot) on our wedding trip. We told them to get there before opening, and do all the things while it was still reasonably temperate weather and the crowds were still in bed. That did NOT happen. :headache: I love how much we can get done at rope drop!!

Families-in-law are so hard to travel Disney with!
 
You and Luke are just too cute!!! I love your pics with all the characters and how adorable they are celebrating your exciting engagement!!!!

Thanks! We did so many character meet and greets on that day, it was kind of insane haha. I'd like to do that again, maybe on a day when I've put myself together a bit more and actually have a bit of makeup on or something haha.

Also, this: "This came across as more negative than I’d like it to. I’d like to reiterate this. Ultimately a bad meal at Disney World is irrelevant. Because you’re still at Disney World. Life is pretty good when that’s the case. Nobody gets there by accident. So gulp down your standard sausages, ride a roller coaster, use your credit card and have a great dang day. That’s what we did. It was great :)

P.S. if you’re one of those people who makes a pre park open reservation then just buys a 69 cent Mickey straw so you can take advantage of the Mine Train loophole – you’re the problem and if this were the Oregon Trail you should probably get dysentery."

is why I absolutely LOVE when Luke "guest stars" in your TRs and PTRs. He is so incredibly talented and I love his writing style!!!! Also, I am an avid Oregon Trail lover, and am constantly wishing people who do me wrong "dysentary" or "typhoid!"

I laughed so hard when I read his review of Be Our Guest! I love his writing style so much! He's actually been writing a lot on my personal blog lately - no trip reports or dining reports, but it's all been Disney related!

That's hilarious that you wish people dysentary :rotfl2:
 
I keep trying to catch up on your wedding report, but last I looked it was like 65 pages and that terrifies me because I love multi-quoting things haha. Having it completed by your anniversary is very ambitious!

I know, I can't believe it's gotten so long!! I've only got a couple days to go at this point, so I'm hopeful I'll get through it!! I also like to multi-quote, so it was really difficult for me to allow myself to just read and "like" for a while with some of the reports I was behind on.
 
I know, I can't believe it's gotten so long!! I've only got a couple days to go at this point, so I'm hopeful I'll get through it!! I also like to multi-quote, so it was really difficult for me to allow myself to just read and "like" for a while with some of the reports I was behind on.

I think that's what I might have to do - so if you start getting a crazy amount of notifications over the next few days, it's probably just from me liking everything in your trip report haha

With only a few more days left of your trip, you'll probably be able to finish it before leaving for your next trip! And then you get to come back and start a new trip report! How many nights are you guys going for to celebrate your anniversary?
 

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