Consider this a warning. This trip report is going to be a little long (though, certainly not the longest). But if you're like me and enjoy reading other people's long trip reports, you won't mind. This trip is a bit of a big deal for me, for a few reasons. The first is that this is my first time back to the World in 3 years. This is the longest I've gone between trips, and I've been aching to get back. The 2nd reason is that this trip is a graduation present for my girlfriend, Vicky. Three years ago (my last trip) was our first real vacation together, and Vicky's first real trip to Disney. She'd gone a long time ago with her family, but doesn't remember a whole lot from that trip. Our first trip was a great one, but I was afraid I overdid the "tourguide" thing, showing her everything I knew about the parks. In retrospect, I wish I had let her do all the guiding, map in hand, and discovering things about the parks for herself. Anyway, she completed her Master's degree this month, and when I asked her where she wanted to go for a graduation present, imagine my surprise when she said she wanted to go back to Disney! Finally, the third and biggest reason this trip is a big deal is that I'm planning to propose to Vicky during the trip.
First let's do some introductions. This is me, Dave (28, right) and Vicky, my girlfriend (22, left)
Our trip was 12 nights, May 4th - 16th, staying in Port Orleans French Quarter. I'll warn you now, our trip was long, and I honestly don't remember everything we did each day, but I'll do my best. Our trip started out perfectly. We arrived on the night of the 4th at POFQ around 8PM. After checking in and unpacking, we both felt the need for food so we hopped a bus for the Magic Kingdom, and jumped on the resort line monorail heading for the Kona Café. We shared some crab cakes and the fondue dessert, walked around a bit (she'd never seen the Polynesian before), and then mono/bussed it back to our hotel.
Now, I mentioned earlier that this trip report includes a proposal, and a fairly elaborate one at that. There are a few surprises involved, and because of them I won't be proposing until the night of Saturday the 8th. There was no way I was going to carry the ring around with me for 3 days straight, so the next morning I told Vicky that I had to run to the front desk and sign another form (specifically, the room key charge agreement). I explained that we had to sign one for each room key that we could charge with, and we had only signed one. It seemed reasonably believable, and it worked. I got out of the room with the ring and deposited it in one of the hotel's safe deposit boxes. After I got back and we had breakfast (we split a breakfast platter and Mickey waffles virtually every morning), we set out for the Magic Kingdom. Although Epcot is both of our favorite park, no trip can truly begin until we walk down Main Street. The Magic Kingdom turned out to be a great choice. We arrived around 10AM, and the park was about as empty as I've ever seen it. We walked onto The Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, and Philharmagic. Space Mountain turned out to be one of the longer waits of the day at a whopping 10 minutes. We finished up Tomorrowland with the TTA and the Laugh Floor, and then headed back to the French Quarter to relax a bit. I'll be honest, I don't remember what we did that night. I'm pretty sure we ate at the food court at the French Quarter, but neither of us remember how we spent the night (for once, alcohol wasn't a factor! I think…)
Train station on a gorgeous day.
A very, very empty view of Main Street.
Us.
Crystal Palace. I haven't eaten here in years, but I'm thinking I need to go back.
One of the best land entrances.
Briar Patch?
More to come later. Writing these takes a lot longer than I thought!
This morning started out like so many after it would - the Sassagoula Float Works and Food Factory's breakfast platter and Mickey waffles. Given how much of a staple this breakfast was to our trip I really should have gotten at least one obligatory picture. C'est le vie. After breakfast we headed out to the Animal Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom was a place we really wanted to do thoroughly on this trip. In previous trips, I never spent much time here because it's the park I'm least familiar with. Vicky and I both wanted to get to know the Animal Kingdom on this trip, so today we were going to spend however much time it took to do everything we wanted. We arrived at the park around 10AM or so, and went right to the KJ Safari (The most recent software release my group at work is releasing was codenamed Kilimanjaro, so I got a small kick out of it).
Happy Rhino has run out of happy.
After the safari, we made our way over to Asia. On our last trip Asia wasn't finished (they were building the Yak and Yeti), and on the couple days we went to AK, Expedition Everest was down! We were both very excited to finally get on it, and the wait was only 20 minutes! We both loved it, and thought the queue was fantastic. For those of you curious about which effects were working - there was one waterfall, no mist, and I saw a cheesy looking bird "flying" while the train was waiting at the top of the mountain. The Yeti was facing oncoming trains in a sort of menacing pose, but no movement. After EE we walked over to Dinoland USA to ride Dinosaur. I have to be honest, Chester and Hester's Dino-rama makes me want to cry. It feels like they transported a section of Six Flags right into the Animal Kingdom. We both liked Dinosaur - I think it's a solid D ticket. I went on it once or twice when it was Countdown to Extinction, but I can't really recall what they may have changed, except for the story. After Dinosaur we were both pretty hungry, so we went on a mission to find food.
I can't quite recall where we were going (Flametree BBQ?), but we passed by the Yak and Yeti on our way. I should probably make something clear at this point. I made exactly 2 ADR's for Vicky and myself - for the entire trip. In over 40 trips spanning 15-20 years, we've never made dining reservations before getting to WDW. Even then, once on property, we'd always make reservations same day (even for shows like the Hoop Dee Doo). The frequency of my trips may have trailed off since going to college in 2000, which is right around when the dining plan was becoming popular (I may be off by a couple years in either direction), but I'm really having trouble adjusting to the near impossibility of getting reservations at popular restaurants even days in advance. It's an incredible inconvenience, and my #1 (of only a very few) thing I don't like at Disney. Still, I'm a realist, so I knew what to expect. Our attitude toward dining without reservations was one of acceptance. We knew walk up seating was unlikely, and were overjoyed whenever it was met with success.
Back to our story…On our way to find food, we stopped into the Yak and Yeti and asked if they were taking walk-ups…SUCCESS! They said the wait was 5-15 minutes, and we were happy to wait. There wasn't anything especially appealing about eating here - we didn't know what was on the menu before stopping in - we mainly wanted an air-conditioned place to sit and eat. It turns out the Y&Y was a great choice. We split the lettuce cups and lo mein combo. The lettuce cups were fantastic, and the lo mein was better than average (except for the quality of the chicken, that was below average, but who's keeping track?). After lunch we hit the Kali River Rapids and It's Tough To Be a Bug. Although we did ITTBAB on our last trip, Vicky got a sit in the theater that had very few effects working (mainly, the stingers and bugs), so she didn't get why everyone else in the theater was screaming. Well, this time you could say she…got the point. (Yeah, I should be a skipper.) After that we headed back to the French Quarter, relaxed for a little bit, then headed out to Epcot.
We had a 7:30PM ADR for Kouzzina (we're wannabe foodies and watch way too much Food Network, so trying an Iron Chef's restaurant was high on our list), and we got to Epcot around 6:00 or so. Spaceship Earth was a walk-on, so we felt compelled to ride it. Spaceship Earth is my (and, as it turns out Vicky's too!) favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World. Our last trip was in June 2007, less than a month before SSE closed for it's major-but-not-quite-finished refurb. I knew what to expect from the narration and score - I'd listened to it many times online since the refurb - but I didn't know quite what to expect from the rest of the work. All in all, I think most of the changes they made are quality, which is all you can really hope for when you disagree with the premise it's being built on. I still love SSE, it's still my favorite, but I do prefer the previous narration and score. Irons did it with more drama, the score felt more balanced (the new one is too loud at times, other times awkwardly soft), and the script seemed more mature. Specifically, it said less, and let the scenes in the ride say more. I could go on, but I won't. I still love it and I'll leave it at that. After SSE we leisurely walked through Epcot to the Boardwalk for our Kouzzina ADR.
We both summed up Kouzzina the same way - We loved it, but wouldn't rush to get back. The food was good, the service spectacular, but not quite the amazing we were hoping for. Except for dessert, that is. I had the greek doughnuts drizzled in honey. They were incredible. If you haven't had them, ignore the word "doughnut", it'll just give you the wrong idea. They're munchkin sized squishy pastries balls, drizzled in warm honey, served with raspberry and vanilla dipping sauces. Unreal. After dinner we went to Jellyrolls, had a blast, and after a while decided we needed to get *some* sleep, so we bussed it to DTD, and then on to POFQ.
Stay tuned! The proposal scheme will start to be revealed tomorrow.
I totally agree with you on the need for reservations at the restaurants, it used to be so easy... Anyway, loving the report and I'm glad it's going to be long!
Day 3: Epcot, how we love thee. Except the Soarin' queue. We hate you. A lot.
EPCOT CENTER. I miss the old you, I still love you. We hit up Epcot today, after the breakfast platter and Mickey waffles. It's important to note that this day - Friday, May 7th - was very much unlike the two previous days. The Magic Kingdom on our first day was empty. The Animal Kingdom on our second day was largely empty. Epcot, on this day, was mobbed. Vicky picked up on the reason first, and I credit her "teacher" sense. It's the end of the school year, and a Friday. School. Field. Trips. Let it be known: I don't really like school-age children. When surrounded by large groups of them, my right leg spasms beautifully upward in a way that would make David Beckham ask me for advice on technique. Suffice it to say, today was going to be rough. Seeing how bad the crowds were, we hightailed it over to the Land to get Soarin' fastpasses. I'm sure I'll mention this again later, but I hate the Soarin' queue, even with the new projector-based "games" (though, they feel more like social engineering experiments). The running joke is that the Soarin' queue is themed like a line in an airport, and strives for the same kind of misery. Anyhow, back to SSE! We hopped in line (30 min?), eagerly awaiting our time capsule.
I'm faaaaairly certain I said something inappropriate right before taking this, because I remember deserving that look.
It's a Bucky Ball!
After SSE, we continued on over to the Universe of Energy. I haven't done this ride in a while, and Vicky had never done it before. We're both science geeks, so we enjoyed it, but agreed it was looking pretty tired. Oddly, I found myself liking how long the ride was. So many rides nowadays end much too quickly, and UoE is quite the opposite. After that, we got in line for Mission: Space. We'd both done it before, and despite Vicky not feeling so great after our previous trip's Orange Team experience, went the more intense route again. I loved it, and Vicky had fun, but made it clear she was doing the Green Team next time. Right about then we hit our fastpass overlap time, so we grabbed some Test Track fastpasses, and then went over to Sunshine Seasons to grab lunch (we both had chicken Caesar salads). By the time we were finished, the line for Living with the Land was about 25 minutes, so we hopped in. This ride is old school EPCOT, and we loved it. The ride just gets cooler and cooler with every new research project they have on display.
Pretty fountain! <ducks>
My favorite view of the Tower of Terroco.
After the LwtL, our Soarin' fastpasses were up, so we jumped on that. Queue aside, Soarin' is great. I'm impressed by its simplicity every time I go on it. After Soarin', we jumped over to the Seas. It shouldn't be a surprise at this point, but I don't want Nemo in the Seas. I wish they instead updated the Seabase Alpha concept, but we can't all have what we want. That aside, the queue is a gem, and the clamshell portion is cute. Inside is, well, the inside. We did turtle talk with Crush for the first time, and I was pretty impressed (I liked it more than the Laugh Floor). After the Seas, we went over to Imagination, which had a line for the first time in a long time that I can remember. After our brief time with "teenage Figment" (that's how I justify his behavior) we made it over to Test Track to use our fastpasses. Test Track was alright. I've never been its biggest fan, but I was just happy it was working.
If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!
After walking off of Test Track, we determined that we didn't want to rely on quick service for dinner, so I called the dining line to see what reservations were available as we made our way into World Showcase. The first call to dining gave us Akershus as our only option, and we declined. I made myself feel a little better by getting some school bread in the Norway bakery. I don't know who named it "bread", but they're a genius. It's like a Boston Crème doughnut masquerading as a sprinkled dinner roll. We wandered around more, and my second call to the dining line opened up the Rose and Crown (as well as Akershus again) as an option, and we declined that as well. There's a very authentic British pub in Redmond (where I work), and neither of us were in the mood for it. Third try…SUCCESS! Chefs De France! We killed another couple hours exploring World Showcase and made our way over to France for dinner. I should have mentioned earlier that because of the length of our trip, and my…insistence, we're now annual passholders, and part of that justification was the Tables in Wonderland card. I calculated that by the end of the trip the TiW card paid for itself more than twice over.
Chefs was good. We shared the pate and chacuterie plate and lobster bisque. I had a steak (don't remember which), and I don't know what Vicky had. I think we both got dessert, but I only remember the chocolate cake I had. Everything was good, even if we were served a bit fast. After dinner we waddled out of France, and were able to make it as far as the lower Illuminations viewing area by the International Gateway before our bodies needed some recovery time from dinner. We're really not used to eating that much food (And I'm not good at limiting myself when lobster bisque, steak, and chocolate cake are in front of me). We parked ourselves for about an hour, watched Illuminations, and then made our way back to the resort for some much needed rest.
No. More. Food.
I should point out here that during the last few days I'd been texting back and forth a lot with a close friend of mine, Sean. Sean's one of my best friends (since kindergarten!) and somehow I was lucky enough to grow up down the street from a friend whose family were Disney nuts too! Sean was in the World for part of our last trip, but couldn't make it this time. Vicky and I were really bummed, because we have the greatest time when Sean's down here with us, so we were texting frequently so he could live the trip vicariously through us. I had an idea that we should buy a stuffed Mickey and treat it like a traveling gnome, taking pictures of it in all sorts of places around WDW. As we go, we'll send Sean the pictures, and at the end of the trip we'll send him the stuffed Mickey. I mentioned to Vicky that I wanted to eat lunch at the Earl of Sandwich at some point, and if we're getting a stuffed Mickey (we wanted a basketball playing Mickey - Sean's a college basketball coach) we should go to downtown Disney the next day to get it.
At least, that's why Vicky thought we were going there… ; )
Today's the day. We slept in today, which was nice. I made sure I got up and showered before Vicky, and once she was in the shower I offered to go get her tea from the food court. This was a sure bet to get me out of the room without her. Vicky drinks ~8 cups of tea on a normal day, so an offer to go get her some will never be turned down. I got the ring from the safe deposit box, got the tea, and headed back to the room. The ring box was pretty bulky, so keeping it in my pocket all day wasn't an option because I'm sure she'd notice it. Everyone, meet my camera case:
The vertical barriers are configurable, and my camera lens doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the case. Before the trip, I reconfigured the barriers placing one along the bottom of the case, essentially creating a false bottom where I put the ring box. Unless you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn't realize there was anything beyond the barrier. I was confident that should Vicky ask to use the camera, or go in the case for any reason, she wouldn't find the box. After securing the ring and returning to the room, we got a later breakfast (if you don't know what we had, go read the earlier parts of my trip report), and headed out to Downtown Disney via boat. Let me rephrase that last bit. We ROARED to Downtown Disney on the Magnolia Blossom, the loudest ship I've ever had the pleasure of being on. Despite that, the boat rides are wonderful. We hopped off and began shopping for Sean's stuffed Mickey. We didn't find a basketball Mickey we liked, so we bought a small Sorcerer Mickey because, as Vicky put it, "It looks the most like a gnome." It was about 12:30 or so and I suggested we shop for a Christmas ornament while we're here. It took a long time finding one we liked, and we finally left the Christmas shop by 1:10 or so. I asked Vicky where we should take the first photo of Mickey, and she suggested the Earl of Sandwich, because it was Sean's favorite lunch spot. Here's the shot:
I was having some trouble getting my phone to send it to Sean. After a minute or so, I looked up, looked at Vicky, grinned and said "Or, because this isn't working, we could just show him the photo now." She looked at me oddly, and then I pointed to right below the Earl of Sandwich sign, where Sean and his girlfriend were standing.
Vicky freaked a little bit, in a good way, and we spent some time catching up. For those wondering, it was much easier pulling this off than I thought it would be. Sean and I planned this for a while, even meeting at 1:15 at the Earl of Sandwich, but Vicky made it easy. This was a good sign, because this surprise was complete misdirection. If Vicky got suspicious of me planning anything for the trip, I wanted this to look like it.
We grabbed lunch with Sean and his girlfriend at Cap'n Jack's, and hung out for a while. They weren't hitting the parks with us today because they had plans with Sean's family (his parents moved to Orlando a few years ago), but we'd see them in Epcot tomorrow. Once we'd separated Vicky and I headed out to the Hollywood Studios. The studios was moderately crowded (35 min ToT, 65 min RnRC). We grabbed some fastpasses for Rock n' Rollercoaster and then hit up the Great Movie Ride, one of my all time favorites. The ride looked great, and we had a female gangster commandeer our ride vehicle. Who knew that would happen! Just goes to show, anything can happen in the movies!
Next we made our way over to Star Tours, which was a walk on, and got our Endor on. Then we made our way over to Toy Story Midway Mania. We didn't have fastpasses, and even though the line claimed it was 60 minutes long (yeah, it was) we decided to give it a go anyway because we were hot, and the queue was inside. I liked the queue, but it was miserably long, and it felt like there were far too many fastpasses given out (driving the standby line to a standstill). As for the ride itself, let me give you some background. Vicky and I are gamers, and competitive gamers at that. We always talk trash to each other, and she generally beats me in anything that involves shooting (I'm not bad, I swear, she's just really, really, really good). Well, I WHOOPED HER GOOD. Vicky, if you're reading this, go read that again, k? Gloating aside, we both REALLY like it, but agreed we'd never wait that long for it again.
I did want to vent about one particular thing though, but it wasn't the ride or queue, it was other guests. I'm a nice guy. Really nice. But I can also be very direct (or belligerent, based on your perspective). The TSMM queue fails in one big way: It caters to little kids, is really long, and doesn't make it easy for one parent to take a kid to the bathroom 45 minutes into the line. I don't have kids, but I'm empathetic to those that do. There were at least 4 separate occasions while we were waiting for TSMM where a single parent with a small kid would be trying get through the line to get back to the rest of their family (3 out of the 4 times, I watched the parent and kid leave the line initially). The family in front of us (parents+kids) were militant about not letting people by them in line. They'd form a blockade, and ignore the person's request to be let by. After they tried doing this the 3rd time, I lost it. I confronted the mother and asked her what she thought was more likely, that they were cutting the whole line, or the 3 year old in the guy's arms had to go to the bathroom at a bad time? And why couldn't she give the guy the benefit of the doubt? I'd rather let 9 cheaters pass me than block 1 guy that's taking his kid back to the rest of his family after potty time. I don't know if she was embarrassed, or if she got my point (I doubt it ), but the 4th time it happened she just let the kid and parent by. Thank you for letting me vent.
After TSMM, we were still a little early for our RnRC fastpasses, so we waited in the (35 minute advertised, 15 minute actual) line for Tower of Terror. That ride is always a home run for us. After using our RnRC fastpasses (aside: that ride is way too short), we decided we wanted to head back to the resort for dinner, and wanted some downtime before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the night. However, we realized on our way out that the Indiana Jones Stunt Show was starting in a few minutes (this was one of the big things Vicky wanted to do on our last trip but we didn't get to it), so we ran over to that and caught the last show of the day before heading home. We decided to go over to the Riverside Mill for dinner, and shared a "create your own pasta". If anyone's curious, we got pesto with chicken, and it wasn't something we'd get again. Not inedible, but not far off. But hey! At least we weren't hungry anymore.
Doctor Who fans? Don't blink.
Yeah, I stopped this part of the report for suspense. Guess what comes next? If this felt kind of like the smaller drops on Splash Mountain where you put up your hands and yell like it's the big one hoping to trick the people in your boat, then good. It worked.
After getting dinner at Riverside, we grabbed a bus to the Magic Kingdom. It was a Saturday night, so it was moderately crowded, but I was too nervous to care. We started off in Adventureland and went on Pirates and Thunder Mountain. After those two, we strolled through Frontierland, and got in line for the Haunted Mansion. After discussing which one of us should get to be the 1,000th resident of Gracey Manor, we decided to check out the Hall of Presidents. I couldn't remember the last time I'd watched this show, but I loved it. I love American history, and this show delivered more than I expected. It was about 8:30 when we got out of the show, and we figured that we might as well just plop down here and wait for SpectroMagic. SpectroMagic is an important parade to me. It replaced the Electric Parade a year or two before my parents let me start venturing off into the parks with just my sister or friends that we'd bring along (I was 11 or so). If there was a soundtrack to my own feeling of "coming of age" or "becoming independent" or "chasing girls in the Magic Kingdom", SpectroMagic was it, so watching it with Vicky is always an emotional experience for me. What? My eye? No, it's dust. In my eye. That's why it's a little red and teary. Dust.
Because we watched SpectroMagic in Liberty Square it was actually around 9:30 or so by the time it finished going by, so we decided to stake out a spot for Wishes at 10. I parked Vicky on the Liberty Square bridge because I wanted to hit the bathroom at the entrance to Fantasyland before we found a spot. Once I was back (Vicky said it felt like a long time, because people were starting to crowd her spot on the bridge) we decided the bridge was an awful spot for Wishes, and made our way into the hub.
No, not yet. ; ) We watched Wishes, and then went on into Tomorrowland and got in line for Space Mountain. After Space Mountain, we did the Peoplemover and the Laugh Floor, and then decided we wanted to end the night going on Thunder Mountain over and over. It's worth noting at this point that the park was originally supposed to close at 11PM, but they extended it by 1 hour and added another SpectroMagic at 11. We started going on Thunder Mountain around 11:30 or so, and got in a good 4-5 rides or so before the park closed. One of the things I told Vicky I wanted to do on this trip was take some late night photos of the park at its emptiest, a la our very own WDWFigment (thanks for the inspiration Tom!). We walked very slowly through the Frontierland and Liberty Square, stopping frequently to take pictures. We got to the Liberty Square bridge around 12:15, and we stopped and waited on a bench for a bit while people left because I wanted a picture of the castle without anyone in front of it.
After 10 minutes or so I decided it was time. There were still a few people in front of the castle, but not many, so Vicky and I walked over and I asked her if she wanted a picture of us in front of the castle. She said yes, and I saw a guy there with a tripod taking a photo of the castle and I asked him if he'd mind taking our photo. I figured a guy with a tripod has a good chance of knowing what he's doing and could handle the task I was about to throw at him. Vicky and I got into place and then I pretended I needed to show him something on the camera. I walked back over to him and whispered "I'm proposing, so just start taking pictures." He had a brief look of panic on his face, but I didn't linger long enough for him to protest his task. I walked back over to Vicky, took out the ring box (I had transferred it to my pocket earlier in the night when I went to the restroom), and, well, I'll let the pictures say the rest.
If you couldn't tell, Vicky was beaming. If the guy I handed my camera to is reading this. THANK YOU. I thanked you afterwards, but these photographs are treasures. I honestly cannot thank you enough. So, we're engaged! And a small group of teen girls cheered and clapped for us afterwards! We started to walk away from the castle, and I told Vicky she should probably call her mom (her mom has wanted to us to get engaged for a while). Vicky said she'd call her in the morning, but I told her that her parents knew I was proposing tonight , and her mom was probably waiting up for the call. We're walking slowly through the hub toward Main Street, we've been engaged for 2 minutes, and right as Vicky puts the phone to her ear to talk to her mom, she stops.
Running up to her, holding a bouquet of flowers, is her older sister. Followed by her mom. Then her dad. Her brother-in-law. My parents. And my sister and brother-in-law. I'm pretty certain her brain just stopped processing things at this point. Vicky is extremely close to her family, and I knew that the one thing she would want would be to share the moment with them. Back in January, when I decided I was going to propose, I took a chance to do it the way I'd dream about it. I asked both of our families (her sister and brother-in-law have been my good friends since high school) if they'd fly in for a few days to be there to surprise her, and as ridiculous as the request sounded, they all jumped at the chance to be there. I think these pictures also speak for themselves.
My family
Her Parents
Her sister and brother-in-law. Both are my close friends.
After much hugging and picture taking, the 10 of us walked down a beautifully lit Main Street on a night that felt like a dream come true. Everyone went off to their separate resorts to get as much sleep as possible before our big group breakfast at the Kona Café (no, this isn't the 2nd ADR I mentioned. This was under someone else's name so that Vicky, and you the reader, wouldn't find out about it until the surprise was sprung!).
A couple notes on the logistics: - I originally planned on proposing at 11:30, but when they extended the hours of the park, I had to text the waiting family and put them in a holding pattern until 12:15 or so. Apparently this made them restless. - Because the families are only here for a few days, they didn't have park hoppers. I didn't want them to burn a whole day on coming into the Magic Kingdom for an hour or two (they met and entered at 10PM), but I also didn't want to pay for 8 1 day passes. I told Magic Kingdom guest relations my plan months ago, and they agreed to let them all in for free as long as they entered after 10PM. - I was told that all they needed was my friend's (Vicky's brother-in-law) ID, and they'd be able to pull up the ticket reservation because I put them under his name. Sure enough, when they arrived, the reservation was nowhere to be found. The reason I took so long "going to the restroom in Fantasyland" was because I called them to see if everything was OK, and right about then was when they were dealing with this. Justin, a CM at guest relations that night, decided to just let them in regardless of the missing reservation. He also gave them 2 "Just Engaged" pins to give us. Justin, you rock.
- All communication between me and the families were via short text messages under the auspices of me texting Sean about going to Epcot on the next day.
