Tag Archives: Disney World

We’re Marrrrrried!

We’ve passed our 3^rd month of marriage, which means we’ve made it longer than some Hollywood marriages! After all the craziness of our Disney’s Fairy Tale Wedding, everything leading up to it, the trip and entertaining in Disney World afterward, and the holidays right after that, we are finally in a much needed lull and totally fine with that! I thought I would share a few photos to tide over my long hiatus and fill in all the gaps along the way! Enjoy!

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Married on November 8, 2013 during a 10:00 AM ceremony at Disney’s Sea Breeze Point on the Boardwalk!

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

We were so happy so many of our family were able to travel to Florida to be with us for our special day.

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Our overall theme was Vintage Atlantic City from a Child’s Point of View (i.e. bright colors, fun patterns-stripes, dots, and swirls, candy, childhood books, and popcorn!).

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

We had a brunch reception at the fabulous Atlantic Dance Hall!

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Photo credit: Jason Angelini Photography

Top Ten Must Tries at Food and Wine

Our Walt Disney World trip is QUICKLY approaching! We could not be more excited! We planned this trip around Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival as I’ve never been (insert shocked face here) and Mark has been dying to share it with me. Always having been an adventurous eater, nothing is off limits; I will try it all! But with there being 29 unique booths (24 countries or regions and 5 specialty items or beverages) this year, it will be quite the challenge to try something from each; challenge accepted! We will check in at the Food and Wine Welcome Center when we first arrive to get our wrist band cards (basically a gift card on a coil cord-apparently the easiest way to pay when you have no extra hands) and our passports! Each booth we go to will stamp our passports as if we have visited that country! I love this concept and it just makes me WANT to go to all the booths so I can collect all the stamps (smart marketing, Disney).

Since I couldn’t possibly describe to you all the wonderful things I’m planning on trying I’ve created a Top Ten Must Try list and in the next ten days (which just happen to be the same number of days leading up to our trip!) I will share them all with you. When I get back I will give you a full review of each! Warning: mouth watering may take place while reading these posts.

Disney World, Here We Come!

5 weeks until Walt Disney World!!! Let the countdown begin (as if we hadn’t already been counting)! Mark and I have been in planning overload mode. Meticulously planning every day of our trip and even going so far as to plan “relax” time! Yes, we have an excel sheet of our plans; where we will go at different times of each day, dining reservations, which parks have extra magic hours when, projected crowd levels for each park each day. Yep, we’re those people. Not ashamed, just prepared! Here’s a quick rundown of the experience highlights we will have during our trip!

Dinner at Kona Café in the Polynesian Resort on the first night before heading over to Magic Kingdom for the Main street Electric Parade (a fantastic nighttime parade featuring all the favorite Disney characters) and Wishes firework show over Cinderella’s Castle!

First morning we will monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort to have a gourmet breakfast of possibly Lobster Eggs Benedict or Maple Vanilla French Toast at the Grand Floridian Café!

The International Food and Wine Festival in Epcot will be our host many times during this trip as there are 30 countries for which our goal is to sample something from each; impossible to do in one trip!

Who doesn’t love them some dueling pianos?! I do! Mark’s never been to a dueling piano bar but lucky for him there’s one on Disney property! We will have a fun-filled night at Jellyrolls at the Boardwalk! Can’t wait to request “Mmmbop” and “Man or a Muppet!”

Drive-ins are becoming a thing of the past, right? Nope! There’s one right in the middle of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant and we’re going there for lunch! We’ll be treated to some 1950’s finest movie trailers while dining in retro “cars!”

We’ll have a “free day” when we’ll be stopping by the Festival of the Masters, which is an annual outdoor art festival in Downtown Disney! We’ll possibly squeeze in a game of mini golf or boat ride too that morning!

Our BIG highlight will be our last night in the parks at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! This is a special event for which Magic Kingdom is closed but to those with event tickets! We are SO excited to see “snow” fall in Main Street while nibbling on cookies and sipping hot cocoa and having our first taste of the Christmas season!

Just a sampling, I’m sure we’ll have more surprises than even we know. Once that Disney magic starts, it never stops!

Finding Balance In a Whirlwind

I’m missing Disney recently which has sparked an interest in my otherwise forgotten quest to blog consistently! So where were we? Ahhh yes, five months ago we sailed home from our most recent Disney adventure and that’s where I dropped the ball. Let’s start picking up where we left off piece by piece; starting with my indulgent experience with Disney-level spa treatments!

Pushing it full pace, walking more than any human should for days at a time in the parks, you get sore and tired. What better way to relieve this than by visiting one of Disney’s fabulous spas? I had the pleasure on our second to last day in Disney taking advantage of the spa at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. Just a short, lagoon trimmed walk from the massive, Victorian Resort and across from the Princess-like Wedding Pavilion, lays a gorgeous, white, prim and pompous building blanketed with a bold red roof and surrounded with palm trees and hosta plants. Once inside, a peaceful feeling of calm is exuded from every pore; from the soft lighting to the soft voices that greet you.

I chose a Swedish Massage which I was surprised to find can be customized to include your choice of aromatherapeutic oils. After being led to the changing room I quickly engulfed myself in a fluffy white robe and slippers and sipped on lemon water while I waited for my masseuse. She was equally as calming, ushering me to the oil choices and then to my private massage room. Soothing music and perfect temperature control including warm towels completed the near-Nirvana experience.

My masseuse then led me back into the private lounge where I was encouraged to continue relaxing my senses with unlimited complimentary use of the sauna, hot tub, fresh Florida oranges, and lots more lemon water (to flush the toxins). The only negative here was listening to some snobby women complain about and openly reject a male masseuse. Rude. Anyway, aside from that it was Heavenly. I could have spent all day there and next time hopefully I will! It is certainly a splurge worth doing again and again.

Let’s Get it Started…

So how many of you just started humming a Black Eyed Peas song from 2003? If you did not, you are one luck person! Unfortunately, that is not the case for me after working at water park in central New Hampshire during that summer which had a musical playlist that only consisted of top 40 music. I’m pretty sure lyrics to every Nsync, Backstreet Boy and Britney Spears song from 1999-2004 have been embedded into my cerebellum. Okay, well thanks for taking this ride in the sidetrack train, now back to the story…

So after the little history lesson you got from the last post you can see why we will be embarking on the magical Florida swamplands for our first vacation together. What’s next you ask? Well since we both have way more knowledge of the Mickeylands then any one person should acquire we have hit planning overload. There are so many questions, so many choices, and so many things we have learned from previous trips that planning one together adds a whole new dynamic of I know more then you know. It’s not that anything we suggest is a bad idea, it’s just we have both had very different vacations over the years, but we will get into that more later.

Our easiest decision was where where we going to go. Not that there are not a lot of options: You could go to the classic and original Disneyland in California, the immense and wonderful Disney World in Florida, any of the parks outside the U.S., or on a Disney Cruise. Since Disney World was pretty much a given for this first trip, now we need to determine when to go. This can be an easy choice for some and a difficult one for others depending on personal circumstances. Those who have kids or are in school are limited to school breaks, whereas those with more flexible schedules are able to choose from any time of year to experience “The World.” Since we are clear and free of shortys and we are not in school, we’re in the latter boat, which means we have a lot of things to consider while picking a departure date.

We are pretty sure we know the answer for our trip but we want to use a lifeline early and ask the audience. So when are your favorite times to go to Disney World?