Trip Report COMPLETED! The "Where's Mom?! I thought you had her!!" April/Disney Wedding

This is a bit overdue but I busted up my ankle and am stuck on the couch and this trip was too magical not to share with everyone, so here it goes....

The Party People:


My family of 5, I'm in the middle (Beth for those that don't have the pleasure yet), husband Lucas in red, kiddos Alexa 9, Liam 7 and Brielle 4. And the couple on the right is getting married on the Boardwalk 4-14-14!!! My sister, Allison and Jeremiah.


Lucas and I, bet you can all guess where we are in this pic from last August!


Another of the children, Brielle is 4 and has been to our 2nd home of WDW 5 times, 16 days until her 6th!!


Allison and I at another one of our happy places, DMB show last summer. She's my little sis and best friend in the world. I was so excited for her Disney wedding it was silly!!

There will be pics of the rest of the crew along the way; my mom and dad, brother and gf and her daughter (thank goodness he’s in the process of breaking up with this nut-job right now), as well as some of Jeremiah's family. Oh and "little Beth", my sister's bestie who surprised her and bought a ticket to join us the week before. Love that girl!

Our Crib:

Saratoga Springs Resort Treehouse; my mom travelled with us, her first Disney visit!!! Then Bride and Groom join us for a few nights before switching to Yacht Club. MOH, Mother of the Bride and bestie Beth get to stay with Bridezilla the night before the big day!



Posting this here now because I’m having trouble finding the rest of my resort pics anyway….this might be it!!!

Be prepared for a butt load of wedding pics and a bit lighter on everything else...go figure! There will also be quite a bit of foolish immature shenanigans.
I would have started with more of an intro but I'm a rookie and lost so much of this part way through and had to start over!!

Bare with me friends and have sympathy...

 

[joshsprincess921]

sorry about your ankle! looking forward to reading your report!

treehouse, very cool!

 

[Jessica Meier]

Boo. To the hurt foot. But Yippeee for the TR!!!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Treehouse!!! I'm so jealous.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

YAY for a TR! No yay for your ankle though

Treehouse Villa looks way cool!

 

[bmarkelon]

I going to go backwards for a quick minute just for a little bit of wedding buildup! I won't bore you with a long story about how we got to the Disney wedding but in summary....
They started planning a much larger traditional winter wedding and it got totally nuts with family drama and nonsense and they called that off. It didn't take long after to start the new plan to take off to our favorite family vacation destination. So April Disney wedding it was and the guests' attending kept growing from just my family of 5 and the bride and groom to a ceremony/dinner party of 17! Magical!!!


This is Allison and Jeremiah on the night they started officially dating Halloween 5 years ago, Indiana Jones and Peyton Manning, hehe. They'd been working together at Michael Jordan's Sports Cafe in Mohegan Sun for years and became close friends.


"Little Beth", Allison and I at her wild and crazy Boston Bachelorette party that I put so much love into planning.


The surprise bridal shower I threw for her at a cute little Wine/Fondue Bar. It was small, just her besties, I got her good with the surprise too, awesome!!


My girls were into the chocolate fondue, surprised?


Love this girl!


And this is her reading Little Beth's flight itinerary, SURPRISE!! Love that little Bethy, she wouldn't miss Allison's wedding day...not a chance!

Okay....I'll get back to WDW now.

 

[mrdrift]

Sorry about the ankle, but nice start to the trip report. Following along.

 

[bmarkelon]

Our first MagicBands….magical!


A heart shaped blue chip on our JetBlue flight down, a sign? I ate it, I love those chips!


Always next to me, my Brie. She’s happy here with her headphones, Nick Jr and Doritos. She drove me quite nutty during this trip, don’t let her sweet little face fool you.


I love lamp.

I am still hunting down my Treehouse pics but might give up, so frustrating! I know I took more of the kitchen and the tree-hugging art work that I really dug. But there’s a lamp guys…LOL. It was super cool though; we’ve hesitated staying here before because of the location. We usually stay at BLT and are spoiled by that walkway to MK and the monorail being ours!

Anyways, we got in pretty late that evening so we checked in and put our groceries away and it was pretty much bedtime.

We found out that we would not be able to use our APs that my sister and Jeremiah gave Lucas and I until they were with us to show ID at Guest Services. So, there would be no parks for us that first day. But we did have a breakfast at Kona Café…


Tonga Toast for me, duh. I could drink that strawberry sauce, oh yeah!


I don’t remember what anyone else ate, I was in Tonga Toast land, it’s a happy place where you sort of forget the world around you. I think there were kids with pancakes and other adult diners with eggs of some sort? Lucas and I split the Kona French Press coffee, which was fabulous.


I had requested a Treehouse by the pool, right across the street from ours. We had this to ourselves most of the time, which was awesome.

Up next some family arcade time, feature pool and then DTD!

 

[bmarkelon]

After a little of our private treehouse pool time, Lucas took the bigs up to the feature pool while I went back to the room to try to get cranky Brie to rest. When she fell asleep I left my mom there with her to explore and find my pool crew.


It took me a little while to figure out these resort grounds since the Treehouses are off away from everything else but I didn’t mind walking across the golf course/resort area here. It was quiet and a bit relaxing. Oh and I’m happy I didn’t find out about the giant black snakes that slither around the course until after these walks. Snakes and me aren’t cool.


Lucas always has to keep beating scores in Hoops. He’s obsessed and he’ll be mad that this is the picture I got and not of his high score of fifty whatever. The balls kept getting stuck (ummm, twss) and I had to bump into the machine with my booty so he could keep shooting. Good times, but I had my Hendricks and tonic so it was all good.


Like Father like Daughter, Alexa playing Little Hoops.

Liam and I played Air Hockey and I kicked his little butt!! Kidding, I let my little dude score a few times. Hehe. I played some hoops too, I never played basketball growing up but I love this arcade game and whenever there’s a double hoop for a shoot-out I LOVE beating Lucas in it….he gets slightly fired up about it. After a little arcade time the 4 of us went off for a little more resort exploration.



What’s wrong Liam, water cold? He actually ran away squealing when I told him to get in the pic with Donald and his sister. I told him to get back and smile, haha!

Time to head back to the Treehouse to await the arrival of the bride and groom, woot woot. I was pumped up for this. I actually found a hip hop remix of the “Here comes the bride” tune to play for her when she showed up. We, my mom, Lucas and I, were sitting on our deck enjoying a beverage together while we waited. Lucas actually got my mom to take a sip of Bud Light which was comical as she gagged. I hooked her up with her Riesling like the good daughter I am.


There she is!! Let the party begin.


“Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life”. Cute shoe bag that Disney Weddings had sent her for her fancy wedding shoes to travel in. Oh and you can get a little glimpse of the stone like floor that was in our Treehouse, haha. It was neat but dirty as hell, YUCK!


Can you tell my dude loves his Uncle Jerry? They’re buddies, such a good guy for my sis! Yay!!

After hanging out a little bit more, my party of 6 was off to DTD for our dinner at Fulton’s. Allison and Jeremiah had reservations with my dad at Hoop Dee Doo. You will see that there was quite a bit of splitting up during the trip. My parents are divorced and not too sweet to each other….it’s better this way.

I don’t have anymore great pics from the rest of the night, I get tired and lazier with the picture taking as the night goes on.


I will end this day with my meal, the king crab legs of course. Fabulous. Lucas got them too. My mom got some fried seafood platter that she enjoyed and I sampled, yummy!

Next up is, finally a Magic Kingdom day!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

You're making me sooo excited! Keep it coming

 

[roropatches]

Sweet!! You stared the wedding trip report.... I am following along.... too bad you had the injury though... I hope you are walking better by the time you go back to WDW.....

 

[bmarkelon]

Yay! Day 3 and we’re heading into MK. There are 8 of us. Jeremiah works for ESPN and got him, Allison and my mom in. My crew of 5 had our Aps all set to go. First up was our Crystal Palace breakfast but I have to start with a quick description of the crowds. NOPE!! I seriously wanted to turn around and run when my I laid eyes on Main Street, never have I seen it this bad. I’m a TA and experienced WDW traveller so I knew that Easter week was going to be bad but trust me, I won’t ever see that again. I was in a bit of shock; otherwise I would have taken more pictures to share better proof. I took a deep breath though and knew this trip was so much more about my sister’s Disney wedding than us slaying the parks. And….I’d be back in August.


I think I see a castle that I love through just beyond this traffic jam of people. The spot I wish I took a photo was later in Fantasyland, I almost had a panic attack.




I actually like these guys, I have fond memories of watching the old Winnie the Pooh shows/movies with my brother and sister. He’s a silly old bear!


Pig


Gotta love this fun guy, the 4 of them bounced together of course.


Donkey

"Hey guys, let’s see if we can’t hit up some rides/attractions in MK today….um, yeah not so much." So, our FP+ dilemma was that because my mom, sis and Jerry were on those CM tickets I was not able to book FPs for them ahead at all, lots of splitting up and serious thinking to figure out how to really enjoy the parks together, especially with these gross crowds. And it was around right now that @blackthidot got a text from me filled with very bad words about how I was feeling. I needed to vent and decided it was inappropriate to express these feelings out loud to the Lucas and the kids. Thanks buddy.



Our first FP for my family of 5!! Foolish Mortals.

Time for the gang to split up. Lucas and Jeremiah took Alexa and Liam to hit Splash Mountain, the wait was just under an hour and they went for it with the promise to grab a rider swap card for my sister and I to ride later. I had to haul over there to give the friendly wave that I was indeed staying off with my scaredy cat Brielle. I promised Brie that I would get her over to Fantasyland for one of her favorites. This was where that panic attack nearly occurred


I’m such a mean mom, dragged this poor kid on a ride that she doesn’t like at all…happiest kid ever! My sister and mom sat on the sleigh behind her.

Time out here before I get into some shenanigans with Gaston and sisters hit Splash. Oh and we might lose mom soon.

 

[bmarkelon]

Alrighty, so at this point I got the text that they were about to get on Splash already so us girls sat down for a water break. My mom was impressed with how take charge I was and how I knew where absolutely everything was no matter where we were. We told them to meet us at Little Mermaid since the wait wasn’t bad. No pics from me here for some reason; I think my sister was taking a bunch of pictures. After Little Mermaid Lucas told me to take my mom and sister over to Splash for our turn to ride. They headed over to Dumbo, another of Brielle’s favorites.

On the way out of the new Fantasyland my sister saw a line forming by Gaston’s Tavern and asked what it was for. She demanded we get in the line, bride’s orders. This was my first meeting Gaston and I didn’t have any of the kids with me. While waiting in the my mom was entertained by our usual crazy sister silliness. The two of us are ridiculous together, strange sister connection and we just make each other laugh until we’re crying no matter where we are and what we’re doing.


Oh my goodness, this guy was good….he was really putting on the charm for us and when my sister told him she was visiting for her wedding in a few days he went nuts. I wish I could remember exactly what he was saying here. But of course he made the “I’m roughly the size of a barge” comment.


Is she in love again, or what?! She’s a nut.


I had to crop myself out of this prom picture. I picked on her for the rest of the afternoon for the way she was all over this dude. So funny! Gaston asked her all serious, “if you are about to get married in a couple days…why are you in line to see me?”

Okay, I had to peel her off the meathead and tell her it was back to game plan….off to my MK favorite, Splash Mountain!! It was so hot and so crowded so it took some time to get over there. My mom decided to pass on the ride, she has some mobility issues and was too worried about getting down into the log and back out again. Her only request was a seat in the shade and some type of icey fruity treat. I knew just what to get her and where to go, so….”Allison you take mom to find a bench in the shade down by the Splash exit, I will be right back with her frozen lemonade.” “Sure!” says Allison. I scurried off all speedy and trusted the situation I was leaving behind. Grabbed the ice and had an extremely awkward conversation with the guy selling them and was off like a flash to find my girls. I find Allison quickly sitting in a relatively shady spot by herself, fooling around on her phone.
Me: “Where’s Mom?”
Allison: “I thought you had her!”

Seriously dude, was she just still floating somewhere after meeting Gaston?! Why would I have dragged my mom over to the Lemonade cart and back when she needed to chill. I told her to stay put and I would find her, brief moment of panic. My mom has never been in WDW and was anxious about that and the crowds?! Forget it!! Fortunately it didn’t take long, my mom was paying attention and knew where I had pointed for my sister to bring her. She was sitting in a shadier spot by that play area off Splash in a fantastic proud momma conversation with another mom. She was talking up this wedding to anyone that would listen.
Me: “Oh thank goodness!!”
Mom: “I don’t know where in the world your sister went!”

It was highly comical, I was instantly laughing about it, that is SO Allison!! Classic!!!!

My mom was happy in her spot so I grabbed flighty sister and headed for the FP return with my Swap card. Woo!!


Splash Sister Selfie!!! Everyone’s got a laughing place and my favorite is right by this girl’s side!! AWE

I knew there was no way I was getting my mom back to the front of the park fast, she was DONE. So we hopped on the Railroad which was delayed due to the start of the parade. EEEEK!! I had to see this parade. All good, the 3 of us sat on the train and relaxed and laughed about Gaston and losing mom. And how freaking magical, train rolls up to Main Street just in time for us to see the whole thing!! I was jumping up and down, shouting, waving and singing along with my sister. So pumped and it was so good! I love Festival of Fantasy!!

I’m not posting all of my parade pics, everyone else has posted the same photos and that’s boring.


This guy.


Allison and I are laughing too hard about the mime at this point, I had only seen Tangled once or twice so I was confused.

I’m stopping here. Next up is our night at Epcot “around the world” double date. Still on the same day!!! Yikes!

 

[bmarkelon]

Okay, so we got out of the park at this point. We were all tired and the crowds were just awful really. Um yeah, you counted right….I got on 4 rides, but we met Gaston who was just a dream! Swoon.
No reservation tonight, we had decided to get a little grill action going at our Treehouse, might as well since we had the grill and it’s nice to have a “more like home” family dinner on vacation. We grilled up burgers and bbq chicken.
So, our plan, Allison, Jeremiah, Lucas and I, for the night was to go around the world in Epcot since they had evening hours. Of course Brielle did not like this plan at all, she gets super mad at me if I ever have the nerve to leave the house without her for some alone time with friends. I don’t think we actually left until after 8 which was a bit frustrating. The boys were already a bit buzzed up and Allison and I were trying not to be too moody about that. We actually got there just in time for Illuminations which I love.



We made it!!!

Took this blurry one by accident on our way over to World Showcase. It gives you an idea of how fast I was making these guys walk/skip to get there in time for the show….and after a loooong day!

I want to say too many cheesy things to caption this one like in a bad Austin Powers kind of way. But I’ll resist, we made it….almost! Lucas was just as giddy about it as I was; bride and groom were dragging booty way behind us two older cats.
Of course we start this party in Mexico, I LOVE me some frozen margaritas. Our plan of attack, which I highly recommend, is just 2 drinks each stop for sharing. My sister and I hooked ourselves up with an original with some splash of something special, pomegranate liquor or something. Dudes just got the original.
Let me take a moment to apologize for the quality of these photos from this night as well as really the whole trip. I am not a photographer, wish I was, maybe someday when I have more time for all that noise? Hmmm.

Ole! Oh snap, is my Disney pack showing?! Caught out.
Next recommendation, you don’t really have to have a drink in EVERY country. I was flabbergasted when I found out that Allison and Jerry had never rode Maelstrom. So we all pounded the frozen margs and chose to for-go a Norwegian beverage in lieu of a quick ride. Holler!!

I made these two lovebirds get in with the troll and it looks like Jerry wasn’t too comfortable there like he’s getting goosed or something. Naughty troll dude!!
Drink!! Next up China, we stopped at a kiosk and Lucas orders this chicken bun thing that was so de-lish!! I’m chatting up the nice lady to figure out what to drink because the Loopy Loopy or whatever did not sound great. She talks into this iced coffee/tea drink. I order two, she asks if I want whipped cream on top and I said “no thanks, more whiskey on top please!” Everyone thought that was funny, but I was serious. Everyone needs to get that drink, wow! It might have been a special one for F&G but I’m going to find out soon enough.

Hakuna Matata! Sis laughed when I chose Pumba for a photo stop.

“What a beautiful little LADY” A childhood favorite of ours.

I LOVE The Muppets and really anything Jim Henson

“Because I’m Happy!” Snow and the other 7 were all there in bush form but I only took his pic, he’s kinda my favorite.

You tell him Batman….ugh!

World Showcase party to be continued...

 

[bmarkelon]

I know some of those topiaries are out of order, because Lady was totally in Italy and we’re not there yet, apologies….

We had absolutely no problem finishing that delicious coffee drink before Germany. Where of course we had beers. The guys got a Beck’s I think and we chose some other Pilsner or something that the handsome Polish lad suggested. My sister and I are Polish, 50% baby, and were chatting this dude up for a minute while the guys were waiting for the next libation.



Prost! Beer was a nice change from the mixed cocktails we’d been drinking.



Forgot to throw Rafiki in here….”Asante sana squash banana”. My sister does a good Rafiki impression.

So, I guess we skipped the next three countries for beverages. We just had a nice leisurely stroll and then a potty break in America. My sister and I were up to our usual giggly shenanigans as we walked out of the bathroom, no idea what was so funny, but the guys thought it would be a good idea to make fun of us and how we laugh all the time together. We didn’t find it funny and kind of just said that we were just sorry they didn’t enjoy laughing as much as we did. Moving right along; I wanted sake in Japan but nobody else was too into that idea so we skipped.

I LOVE Morocco. Another thing my sister hasn’t really seen, did I ever mention that she joins us every few trips? Nowhere near the freak that I am. I bought us each Sangrias, I think the guys maybe got the Casa beers? I told them that I would be spending some time there. And maybe I was feeling the magic at this point too because I decided that I had to buy Alexa and Liam something there. I chose an awesome wood camel for Liam and a pretty genie lamp for Alexa. Brilliant!




A Moroccan Sister selfie. Some cutie Moroccan dudes said something sweet to us about how everything is so beautiful in Morocco. Whenever my sister and I were exploring countries the guys were being boring up against the rail of the lagoon. Lame.

My favorite drink in the World Showcase is next and I think we might have all got one; Grey Goose Citron Slush. Boom!




Sweetness. August 13th is our 9 year anniversary….we’ll be back in WDW to celebrate it as per usual.



This was Take 1 of that pic. Silhouettes in Paris, ooh la la!



My sister is goofy and I love her for that!

I needed to shop again in the UK and use the little lassies room, so we split up again. Boys went to Rose and Crown to order our last drinks in Epcot. I bought the Cheshire cat with the LONG tail because I had to have him. “We’re all mad here” Sis got an awesome “Hey Jude” tank for herself that we knew my mom Judi would love. I think I bought Brie a stuffed animal too…hmmm. And I got my mom a cool Beatles travel mug.



I look hand-cuffed here with Tik Tok, no explanation.



So, she’s trying to make a hook with her finger but of course we giggle about how it looks more like she’s insulting Captain Hook! Oh dear!


We went into Rose and Crown and I thoroughly enjoyed my Guiness. YUMMY. Then we decided to walk over to the Boardwalk and check out the ceremony spot and then end our night at ESPN Club.




Awwwwwe. Such a beautiful spot, I’ve always loved the Boardwalk.

We went to ESPN and were all so tired and feeling our activities in Epcot, we all ordered Yuenglings, Nachos, wings and something else. Everything was delicious but that joint reeeeeeeked like a sweaty gym locker filled up like puke. Or maybe some dude was wearing Black Panther but I didn’t see Brian Fantana (Anchorman anyone?). Taxi home and na-nights for everyone! Such a fun night with no kiddos which is so rare!!

EDIT: Allison read this and told me to add the crazy little story of how at the end of the night in ESPN she actually took sips off of some sketchy woman's drink that was all about us. She is a total germaphobe and was traumatized right after. I declined the sips of this lady's Peppermint Schnapps, GROSS! Allison was all mad at me for letting that go down, haha!!

 

[coachwnh]

A fun read so far. Loving the humor in the posts

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Yay!!! Happy to see you posted this report!!! Looking forward to it!!!!

hahaha I loooove how you guys swooned over Gaston! He's one of my favorites to meet!!! Hilarious!!!!

Sure sounds like you guys had a fun night around the world!!!!!

And I agree about the boardwalk too

 

[bmarkelon]

Up and at ‘em! Next up was a day off for my mom to chill out at the Treehouse, she ended up doing our laundry! We were heading to Hollywood Studios with Allison and Jerry and meeting my dad, brother, the gf and daughter. My family of 5 was starting with breakfast at Hollywood and Vine because my little girl had to meet Doc and Sofia.

I am a big fan of the breakfast buffets; this one has the burrito bar that makes me so happy. Salsa and cheesy eggs, yes!!



Happy Brie!



Handy Manny gets a peace sign and thumbs up from my kiddos, haha!



Jake! Pretty sure we hadn’t met this Disney Jr dude yet either.



They didn’t really cooperate for this last one and I wish I could remember what Lucas kept calling her….he always messes up the Disney Jr character names.



Well, Doc looked right at might me for the picture…Brie, not so much.

After breakfast we hit up Tower of Terror and then the Voyage of the Little Mermaid before it was time for our Toy Story Mania FP. Of course that’s a family favorite. Then a face painting stop.



Love this sweet face, and she LOVES posing to have her picture taken.



My beautiful Alexa.



And then there’s my little dude! Haha!!

Next up in Hollywood, Brielle loses it and Mom requires a few cocktails to get through it. Oh dear!!

 

[bmarkelon]

sorry about your ankle! looking forward to reading your report!

treehouse, very cool!

Thank you! The treehouse was super cool, we'll definitely stay there again.

Boo. To the hurt foot. But Yippeee for the TR!!!

Thank you, it's gotten much better...definitely not ready for Disney again in 9 days though!!

YAY for a TR! No yay for your ankle though

Treehouse Villa looks way cool!

Thank you, the treehouse was for sure way cool! It's cool to have your own little house off the ground! Way better than the FW cabins. Haha.

Sorry about the ankle, but nice start to the trip report. Following along.

Thanks so much and welcome to the party, should be a good time.

You're making me sooo excited! Keep it coming

This is making me so excited too! 9 days, eeeeeek!

Sweet!! You stared the wedding trip report.... I am following along.... too bad you had the injury though... I hope you are walking better by the time you go back to WDW.....

Thanks so much! I'm already getting around better on it but I know Disney will be tough. I'm usually so speedy on my feet in the parks.

A fun read so far. Loving the humor in the posts

Thanks! I love to laugh, it's my favorite!

Yay!!! Happy to see you posted this report!!! Looking forward to it!!!!

hahaha I loooove how you guys swooned over Gaston! He's one of my favorites to meet!!! Hilarious!!!!

Sure sounds like you guys had a fun night around the world!!!!!

And I agree about the boardwalk too

Ha, Gaston was a good time, no doubt! I am hoping to actually finish it somehow before my next trip and than not be as delayed with the next report.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I LOVE your trek around the world! You are too funny! I have always wanted a sister and I love reading about how you two can make each other laugh for no reason at all. I feel the same way about my best friend, when we were in Disney we were both cracking up laughing for no apparent reason.. it's just a metal connection of funniness.. Haha!

Love your Gaston pictures! He is such a great character! I really enjoyed meeting him and your pictures prove how much he hams it up.. LOL...

Loving it