Trip Report Livin' La Vida Local

LisaBelle · May 26, 2019

I

blgauger said:
Friday, April 5

On trips in the past, I had gotten postcards signed by characters and then mailed them to my niece and nephews from Main Street. So when we got engaged, I knew that there was only one place for my wedding invitations to be mailed from.

Brooke and I started at guest relations where I asked if I could get my invitations stamped so they said that they had come from Magic Kingdom. The CM who assisted us was named Biff and she was amazing! She went on and on about how cool it was and how she had never had anybody do that before. She gave us two stamps and an ink pad and set us up off to the side of the main desk area. We began stamping the stacks of invitations and soon, Biff was back with a third stamp and asked for a pile of envelopes to help us. She was so sweet and friendly and I was grateful for her willingness to help put!

Here’s a picture of what was stamped on the back of each of my invitations.
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We finished up and headed out to Main Street to put them into a mailbox.
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Our main task for the evening taken care of, we continued on to find some dinner. Brooke and I rarely venture away front Friar’s Nook, and tonight was no different. Typically the mac and cheese comes with tots rather than the fries, but they were out of tots. It’s essentially the same thing, but I do prefer the tots.
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The last thing I have a picture of from this night is dessert... The Lost Princess cone
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This is the lemon flavored one and it is INCREDIBLE. I can’t recommend it enough.. definitely my favorite of the three cones.

I love that you mailed your invitations from MK! The stamp is awesome!

Captain Barbossa · May 26, 2019

^^^ Completely agree with @LisaBelle! That's sooo cool! To be quite honest, I didn't realize that you can put mail in the box on Main Street.

PrincessJasmyn · May 26, 2019

Captain Barbossa said:
^^^ Completely agree with @LisaBelle! That's sooo cool! To be quite honest, I didn't realize that you can put mail in the box on Main Street.

SAME!! I didnt realise its a real working mailbox that they actually collect from! Ill be posting some things back to Australia when I am there in September. Such a cool idea!!

MerMom1981 · May 26, 2019

What a fun idea to stamp your invites! You must be in the final few weeks of your wedding countdown. Such a thrilling time!

blreinsel · Jun 3, 2019

MerMom1981 said:
What a fun idea to stamp your invites! You must be in the final few weeks of your wedding countdown. Such a thrilling time!

18 days to go

Doc Disney · Jun 5, 2019

blgauger said:
they replaced the sausage with steak and it was SO GOOD. I really don’t care for the sausage, so I hope this is a permanent change.

Oh! I hope that is a permanent change that sounds so good!

blgauger said:
Everybody enjoyed their food! I had the Cafe Sandwich and a Tropical Splash to drink.

Your Cafe Sandwich looks 100000 times better than the one I had

blreinsel · Jun 8, 2019

Saturday, April 27

For those of you that are familiar with The Lost Bros, you are probably also familiar with their annual "celebration," The Kingdom Classic. I was largely unfamiliar with both of these until Equity Ben announced that he would be doing stand up comedy at Kingdom Classic. My friend and I were all in and bought our tickets right away!

The Kingdom Classic is mostly specialty food, drinks, and pop up shops selling Disney merch. The Lost Bros did a Q&A and also performed some of their Disney covers, but like I always say, "I'm just here for Equity Ben."

We did partake in a specialty drink and it was tasty.

As we were wandering around, passing the time until Ben performed, we saw him and his husband walk by. I'll spare you from reliving our reactions when we caught sight of him.

We then proceeded to awkwardly follow him at a distance until we saw an opportunity to go say hi. And then, my friends, my life was made.

We stood and talked to him for a good 10 minutes and he was just so... real. He and his husband were both incredibly genuine and were a true joy to talk to! He's hilarious as Erik, but he's even more of a riot as Ben (if you can imagine such a thing). I just love him so much.

He did about 10 minutes of stand up and it was everything I hoped it would be.. we did not stop laughing the entire time he was on.

We're going to see his full hour-long stand up show in August and I am SO excited.

We've had conversations with him a few times since that night via social media so I think it's safe to say that we're well on our way to being "in" with Equity Ben.

blreinsel · Jun 8, 2019

Sunday, April 28

Block out dates were finally over and there's only one place I could possibly be... it had been a long 2 weeks without some tumble monkeys.

I needed some lunch first, so I of course opted for pulled pork mac and cheese from Flame Tree. Also, these onion rings are phenomenal.

Brooke & I had a FP for FoLK, but we still had a bit of time before our window opened. We decided to grab a drink to cool off in the meantime! We both got the Flying Yak (Mango Purée blended with Pineapple Juice) and added a shot of coconut rim. Oh. My. Tumble Monkeys. This honestly runs a close race with a Pina Colava for my favorite Disney drink. It was SO GOOD and so refreshing!

It was finally time!

I was thrilled to see one of my favorites was performing today.

He was actually super wound up lol.. I'm thinking that he probably had somebody that he knew in the audience. Wild is really the only way I can describe him.. I have a 2 minute video of him just running all over the place that I watch when I need a good laugh.

They put on an incredible show, as always!

His performance continued even when he wasn't supposed to be the center of attention lol.

Another attempt at the interactive Simba picture.. I at least got him looking this time! We have since learned that the animals on the floats are some sort of puppet. I'm still trying to understand how it all works, but I'll report back when I find out. We have sources.

After FoLK, I think that we had another FP for something, but I don't have any pictures. I do remember killing time by walking one of trails, at which point we stumbled across the CUTEST baby meerkats.

We stood and watched them for a long time! There were some zebras grazing nearby, and they kept inching closer to where the meerkats live. They were NOT having it and kept scurrying to the top of their little lookout and making noises, presumably in an attempt to scare the zebras away.

LOOK AT THE BABIES.

krisri18 · Jun 9, 2019

blgauger said:
Saturday, April 27

For those of you that are familiar with The Lost Bros, you are probably also familiar with their annual "celebration," The Kingdom Classic. I was largely unfamiliar with both of these until Equity Ben announced that he would be doing stand up comedy at Kingdom Classic. My friend and I were all in and bought our tickets right away!

The Kingdom Classic is mostly specialty food, drinks, and pop up shops selling Disney merch. The Lost Bros did a Q&A and also performed some of their Disney covers, but like I always say, "I'm just here for Equity Ben."

We did partake in a specialty drink and it was tasty.
View attachment 380142

As we were wandering around, passing the time until Ben performed, we saw him and his husband walk by. I'll spare you from reliving our reactions when we caught sight of him. We then proceeded to awkwardly follow him at a distance until we saw an opportunity to go say hi. And then, my friends, my life was made.
View attachment 380144

We stood and talked to him for a good 10 minutes and he was just so... real. He and his husband were both incredibly genuine and were a true joy to talk to! He's hilarious as Erik, but he's even more of a riot as Ben (if you can imagine such a thing). I just love him so much.

He did about 10 minutes of stand up and it was everything I hoped it would be.. we did not stop laughing the entire time he was on. We're going to see his full hour-long stand up show in August and I am SO excited.
View attachment 380143

View attachment 380141

We've had conversations with him a few times since that night via social media so I think it's safe to say that we're well on our way to being "in" with Equity Ben.

So jealous!!! Our August trip ends the 16th

. If we didn't have a family wedding to attend the 17th, I would totally have added days to our trip just to see EquityBen's standup show!

Rista1313 · Jun 9, 2019

Ben posted a picture of a little boy the other day that had on a T-shirt that listed all of the characters he had seen Ben as. I replied that I’d only seen him as Six bits. Ben told me I needed to step up my game! Lol

Songbird76 · Jun 10, 2019

krisri18 said:
So jealous!!! Our August trip ends the 16th . If we didn't have a family wedding to attend the 17th, I would totally have added days to our trip just to see EquityBen's standup show!

I am so bummed! We leave orlando on the 12th, I think it is, and I have to be back to work on the 16th.

blreinsel · Jun 11, 2019

Rista1313 said:
Ben posted a picture of a little boy the other day that had on a T-shirt that listed all of the characters he had seen Ben as. I replied that I’d only seen him as Six bits. Ben told me I needed to step up my game! Lol

I saw that! I’d love to catch him at HDD.. and also on the Pirates and Pals Cruise, but it’s soooo expensive!

blreinsel · Jun 14, 2019

Saturday, May 4

Dylan, Brooke, and I were headed to Epcot mostly to check out Minnie's Garden Party, but also to avoid the May the 4th HS crowds.

We arrived and were disappointed to learn that we had missed meeting Minnie in her party dress.

We were still able to take a picture with the pretty backdrop, though!

We continued on toward WS to grab some festival food. The skies were a little scary, but we didn't have any trouble with rain!

We decided to stop in America for some BBQ.

I had the Pulled Pig Slider, which was just as tasty as last year! Dylan had the Frozen Simply Lemonade with Firefly Blackberry Moonshine and let me have a taste.. it was okay but I couldn't have drank a whole glass of it.

I had the Tropical Mousse Cake from La Isla Fresca for dessert - Layers of passion fruit cake, coconut mousse, and a tropical fruit glaze with fresh pineapple. It was very good!

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11

Since Dylan and I got engaged, I thought about how awesome it would be to have my bachelorette party at Disney. As much as I wanted that to happen, I never thought that it would actually come to be. After all, most of my bridal party lives in different states... not to mention the costs that would be involved when you combine airfare, park tickets, food, etc. And then out of nowhere, my matron of honor asked what I wanted to do for my bachelorette, because she was thinking we should do it in Disney. Everybody else happily agreed, so the planning began!

Fortunately for me, Dylan has maintained his position at WDW Golf even though he got a teaching job. Because he still works there a few times a month, he continues to get all of the perks that come with being a CM. That being said, we started accumulating all of the free tickets that he earned and before long, we had enough for everybody to get 2 park days! It also helped that a few people in the group have annual passes.

Everybody flew in on Friday and we hung out at our house for the evening. Saturday was MK day, and Sunday would be Epcot! We started out at MK early Saturday morning, stopping for pictures on Main Street when we arrived. There are a few other faces that will join us later, but most of the group was present!

Dylan had to be with us for everybody to scan in (he has to scan his CM pass before they can scan the comp tickets), but he only stayed with us long enough to get a few pictures. This is him and his little sister, Rose.

Our niece and flower girl, P.

And now some introductions.. from left to right:

Jasmine (work friend), Brooke (bridesmaid), Dana (matron of honor), me

, Rose (bridesmaid), Jessi (bridesmaid & P's mama), Monika (work friend), and the little lady in the front is P!

Our first FP was for Big Thunder, so we were off to Frontierland! We attempted a group selfie.

We had a wild ride in the wilderness, but we were ready for more adventure! Pirates had a short wait, so that was our next stop.

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

Our next FP was for Space Mountain.. the rest of the group had arrived so we waited outside the queue until they made it over. Another group selfie!

P was SO excited to ride SM.. last trip she was like an inch too short to ride and she was heartbroken. I prepped her as much as I could because I was worried that she would get scared when she realized how fast and dark it is.

P did great and LOVED it! She asked to go again (that's my girl). Her mom, however, did not.

She was so worked up because she had it in her head that P was gonna fall out or somehow get hurt.. I felt bad laughing at her because that's a mother's love, but I was just surprised that she reacted the way that she did.

We had worked up an appetite so decided on Cosmic Ray's for lunch. I had this burger monstrosity that had mac and cheese on top, not to mention the cutest bun you ever did see.

One of my favorite pictures from the whole weekend... Payne with all her friends.

We all finished up lunch and then decided it was time for some competition. Brooke had created a photo scavenger hunt in which teams earn points by finding and photographing each item on the list. We split off into two teams and set some ground rules.. a meeting time/spot and requirement that all team members must be in the picture for it to count. And we're off!

TEAM BRIDE

Wishing well

Purple wall

Bride and groom ears

Disney ducks - the lady that took this was NOT amused by us

she was very confused when we requested that the ducks be in the background and honestly was just kind of grumpy about the whole thing. Regardless, we got the shot!

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

TEAM BRIDE cont.

Mickey balloons

Roy and Minnie

Bubble wands

Princess selfie - getting creative so we didn't have to wait in a meet and greet line.

Mosaic selfie

Next up was getting pixie dusted - we learned that this no longer happens in the barber shop, but rather at BBB or the gift shop next door. At first we just requested that they do it to P, but then we explained what we were doing and they ended up pixie dusting all of us!

We ended up getting a 2 for 1 deal here because these guys counted as a character picture! They were an absolute riot.. when we asked them for a picture, the guy said "oh good, I've never been a bridesmaid before!" The lady next to me talked to me about my ring and asked if it was Captain America's shield.

She also asked if we would be moving into a castle together and I said yes of course! She said that when you get married, all of your prince's things become your things. Can't say I disagree.

We had so much fun interacting with them, but we had to keep moving so we didn't fall behind!

We asked a random dad with a sleeping child in a stroller outside BBB to take a picture of our pixie dusted heads.

Hidden Mickey in Pinocchio Village Haus - as you can see, P was done with the scavenger hunt.

Sorry dear but auntie refuses to lose!

Wedding ring in the queue for HM - this was was TOUGH. We asked the CM at the queue entrance where exactly the ring was located and she explained that it was kind of deep in the queue. Dana explained what we were doing and she called the next CM (standing where the second FP touch point is) and told her we were coming and just wanted to get a picture. We pushed our way through the line, apologizing and explaining that we weren't cutting line to ride and would be exiting again as soon as we got the picture. Most everybody just smiled at us as we passed by, but there's always one in every crowd.

A middle aged man made some comment about how it must be nice to not have to wait in line and I said "we're just getting a picture for our scavenger hunt, I promise we're not even riding!" He says, "yeah that's what I always say too." So me, being the princess that I am, turned out, put the scavenger hunt card right in his face and said "HERE'S THE SCAVENGER HUNT... WE'RE NOT RIDING" and then continued on my way.

After much drama, here it is! You obviously can't see the actual ring here, but we did take a video where you can clearly see all of us as well as the ring just in case the other team tried to dispute it.

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

TEAM BRIDE cont.

And now, the most difficult part of the scavenger hunt - find a CM named Dylan and a CM named Brittany. Each of these were worth 25 points, so we were determined! We had been watching as we ran all over the park photographing the other items, but now we only had those two left so we were ready to be more intentional. We decided that the best odds would be on Main Street since there are so many CM's in that general area. We started at one end and walked through all of the shops until we finally found one in The Confectionary!

Dylan was washing dishes in the back, but a helpful CM went back and got him for us.

And a close up for proof! He was such a good sport and we enjoyed standing and talking to him for a few minutes!

We thanked Dylan and bid him farewell... we needed to find a Brittany! For as popular of a name as mine is, we had a really hard time finding somebody who shared it.

Every shop we went into, we asked any CM we saw if they knew anybody that worked there named Brittany. You would be shocked how many times we heard "actually yes, but I think she's off today" or "yes but she doesn't work until this evening." OF. COURSE.

We were feeling discouraged as we walked into Town Square Theater, as we had been through every other store on Main Street and only had about 10 minutes left. We talked to a lady over in the gift shop and somebody at Tony's (Brittany works later tonight), but nobody could help us. Dana and I were walking toward the doors and at the same time (literally) SCREAMED. Dana grabbed this poor girl by the arm and I yelled BRITTANY, successfully terrifying her.

She looks at us and says, "Do I know you?" We're cracking up at that point and regained our composure long enough to explain what we were doing. She was happy to take a picture with us once she realized she wasn't in danger.

We sat down in the Tony's lobby with 10 minutes to spare... would we be the winners?

And now for the other team's pictures!

TEAM CENTRAL (the name of the school we all work at)

Wishing well

Disney ducks

Two more Disney ducks

Mosaic

Purple wall

Princess selfie - they also got creative with this one

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

TEAM CENTRAL cont.

Bride and groom ears

Bubble wands

Mickey balloons

Character pictures

Roy and Minnie

Hidden Mickey - they found several hidden Mickey's, but all of the pictures are just of their fingers pointing to it so I won't include them lol.

They found the same Dylan, but we found him first.

They didn't find a Brittany, so we were pretty proud of ourselves!

They wandered into Town Square Theater a few minutes after our set meeting time, and we told them that they should get points deducted or be disqualified because they showed up late.

We started sharing our pictures and tallying up our points... so, who won?

We don't know.

According to all of the nearby CM's that we polled, Team Bride won, but the other team didn't want to accept that answer. Here's the confusion... Team Bride's argument was that we found EVERYTHING on the list, meaning we earned all possible points. Team Central's argument was that they found several of multiple items, so they wanted points for each picture (i.e., they found 4 hidden Mickey's so they wanted to earn 4 points). We disagreed because we could have just ran around and taken hundreds of pictures with ducks and balloons and won, but that's not the intent of a scavenger hunt. We ended up just ending the argument and moving on because nobody wanted to give in.

But let's be honest, Team Bride is clearly the winning team.

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

We had planned to meet at Town Square Theater because I wanted to get pictures with Mickey and Minnie. Fortunately, the wait was pretty short so we hopped in!

Minnie was making a big deal over my ring and our PP photographer sucked.

Brooke kept trying to get her attention so she'd take a picture, but she wouldn't. Brooke was at a kind of bad angle but snapped this one so we'd have something. WHY are so many of them like this? You're literally being paid to take pictures. With that many people in a group, there is constantly something happening with both characters that could be photographed.

CANNOT handle their cuteness.

Minnie of course started giving Mickey a hard time and he made a show of going over and trying to open one of the drawers in the room, saying he had her engagement ring hidden in there. He couldn't propose because the drawer was stuck.

We all squeezed in for a picture with the most iconic couple there is!

P was loving it.. taking after auntie in all the best ways.

We were all ready for a snack and agreed that ice cream was the way to go. Most of the group decided on something from The Plaza, but a few of us decided to hold off for a different treat. We sat for a bit while everybody enjoyed their treats.

Next up was a spin on the People Mover! Our selfies are improving.

We continued on toward Fantasyland where the rest of us grabbed our sweet treats. I want one of these soooo badly right now!

blreinsel · Jun 16, 2019

Saturday, May 11 cont.

We had some time to kill, so we opted for a ride on the carousel! Dana and I separated from the group because I insisted on riding the horse with red roses on it and it wasn't near the one that P wanted to ride.

Next, we hopped in line to meet Pooh and Tigger. Monika is OBSESSED with Pooh... she had already cried twice earlier in the day because we saw them walking back and forth to their meet and greet.

We knew that we couldn't leave MK without her getting to meet them. We were some of the first people in line when they returned from their break, so we didn't have to wait long!

She cried... FULL tears.

We were DYING just watching her interact with them. Pooh took her off to the side and shared some honey with her and she was beside herself lol.

Then we all joined in for a group shot! Tigger was being a goof and leaning on everybody around him, nearly knocking us all over lol.

It was finally time for our Mine Train FP!

We had to head out of the park soon, but I wanted to circle back around and get a full group shot at the purple wall since we were split up for the scavenger hunt. P was, again, tiring of our shenanigans. Watch the progression in these two pictures.

All because she didn't want to wear her ears.

Life is hard.

We made our way toward Main Street for the last of our pictures before heading out for more evening fun!

Trip Report Livin' La Vida Local

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