A Grown Woman Crying--Our First Trip (Finally Posted!) - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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ok...on to the end of day two and day three. this was literally the longest day of my life (minus one very jet-lagged 40 hour period between NYC and london, i have never slept so little!)
after leaving AK i had to go back to the beach club to get my convention stuff and then get back on ANOTHER bus to go to CSR where the bulk of the convention was held. i won't bore anyone with the details of that, just know that it involved just as much walking (sometimes running!) as a day in the park.
i returned to the resort around 5:30 and had a mojito at the Stormalong Bay pool bar--it was much needed and well deserved! after a quick shower i started fielding text messages from both my husband and from a friend who lives in the tampa area--she was coming to visit us at the resort for the evening. they--the friend and my husband--arrived at exactly the same time (about five minutes after i emerged from the shower) so with dripping wet hair i met them at the pub in the yacht club.
my husband incorrectly thought this was a brew pub, as i believe it had 'brew pub' in the title--no special disney microbrews here. just regular beer, which he made due with quite well! we stayed there until a bit before our dinner reservations across the lake at flying fish cafe. thinking it would take us longer to walk there than it actually did, we ended up at some sports bar (not espn zone) next door to flying fish at the boardwalk--my husband was happier with the beer selection here (i know you are all heaving a sigh of relief!)
flying fish cafe had a lot to live up to, as friends of mine who visited last year said it was the best meal they've ever had. now, to be fair, these friends are not huge food snobs--i am--and these friends have not made it their job in the last few years to travel around and eat (i have!) but i was very disappointed with my meal--so disappointed, in fact, that i sent it back. here's where the disappointment ended. you see, i NEVER send food back, but this was just so bad that i wasn't going to eat it anyway (gummy scallops and crunchy risotto). it must be a disney thing, but the waiter was SO NICE about taking the food back and he insisted he bring something else out for me to eat. i wish i knew this guy's name because he deserved a phone call to the manager to compliment him on his extremely amazing service. he brought me a salmon dish that i can't even describe--it was in some kind of amazing white sauce that i'm thinking was made, at least partially, of angel's tears and diamond powder. it was that good.
i also must mention that the spicy salmon roll appetizer and the calamari were both quite good.
after dinner we walked out onto the boardwalk to find illuminations going on--yet another moment that i could never have planned had i tried. it was beautiful.
upon returning to BC, my husband decided he needed to sleep (all of the beer, maybe?) and my friend and i--who had not seen each other in almost ten years--stayed up until almost 2am in the solarium (great public space!) talking and drinking a bottle of wine.
the alarm went off at 6am for day three--a full day of convention going followed by a full night of epcot!
Photos: 1. browsing the convention program, poolside with mojito! 2. Appetizer at Flying Fish--spicy tuna roll.
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I'm glad the waiter at FF turned the experience around for you! I love that place and can't imagine what went wrong with the first dish--crunchy risotto? Oh, dear.
Glad the server was able to salvage the meal - such a shame you were disappointed with it. We were like that the first time we went to the Flying Fish and now it's one of our favourites.
Just joined in on your report, so glad to hear you fell in love with Disney this trip! Your report is loads of fun to read! I'm definitely going to try for a Safari ride first thing in the morning, the animals always seem to be out of sight or far off in the distance when we ride later in the day. I'm glad you did it's tough to be a bug, it's also one of my favorites.
Can't wait to hear some more!
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Offsite May 2005, POR September 2006, POR August 2007, POFQ December 2008, POR February 2010,
Pop Century April 2011,
Just found your trip report and I am enjoying it so much. I am right there with you on all of the tears at WDW. My husband even had chills during our first MK rope drop. We are both hooked now (along with our 3 year old DD)!
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here:
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I cannot say this enough--I love that everyone here understands my crying reaction to Disney. I felt silly at the time, but now feel empowered to sob away during my next trip. Thanks everyone!
I can't believe this report is taking me so long to write, but fortunately I'm on the final day (sort of). Day three dawned very bright and far too early, considering I was up until 2am catching up with my high school friend. I feel I'm doing the convention a disservice by not talking about it--and it really is a great convention--it just isn't very Disney-ish. i will share this--i was able to ship home 50 pounds of advanced release young adult books for my 8th grade students. they were thrilled!
but after a LONG day of convention-going--and the carting around of said 50 pounds of books--my husband and i arrived at the world showcase gate of Epcot around 3:50pm. i know it was 3:50pm because we had to sit there and stare at the gate for ten minutes until it became 4:00, as we had 'after four' convention tickets. well--he had after 4 convention tickets, and i was being a good wife and waiting for him.
one of the reasons we were so early was because we left our hotel room at 3:45, thinking it would take at least fifteen minutes to walk to the turnstiles. nope--less than five minutes from our first-floor patio at the beach club to the gates of epcot. have i mentioned that i love the beach club resort?
upon entering the park, i made the husband jog with me all the way to future world. my goal? soarin. unfortunately, all of the fastpasses had been distributed, and the wait was over an hour. so we decided instead to visit the seas with nemo. i was very excited about this ride--perhaps because i love the movie, and i liked the word 'clammobile'. it was only ok--we really thought there would be more real fish, though i have to say i once again loved the queue and it's wave-like shape. fortunately we discovered the actual seas after exiting the ride. i stood, transfixed, for quite some time, watching the manatees play. there was definitely some cuddling, too (that is, the manatees were cuddling, not us!) i cannot think of a more adorable creature--koala bears have nothing on the manatee.
by this time my husband was all but dragging me by the arms into world showcase--he came to eat and drink around the world, and that's what he was going to do, darn it! we figured we could return to the rides in future world after illuminations--after all, it was an extra magic hour night, and the park was open until midnight.
our first stop--the mexico pavillion. i decided to give all decision making over to the husband--this is VERY unlike me--and had a seat in the amazing seating area outside of cantina san angel to wait for whatever he brought me to eat. we ended up with guacamole and chips, and a frozen margarita for me--and some sort of mexican beer for him. the sun was just setting over the lake. it was a great start to the evening.
we wanted to do the boat ride in the pyramid, but sadly i couldn't finish my margarita quickly enough, so we continued on...but not before i spied donald duck, wearing a sombrero and poncho, with virtually no line. now it was my turn to drag my husband by the arms.
i wanted at least one picture with a character, and i'm particularly fond of donald--he's probably only third in line for my favorite characters of all time, after eyore and pooh (in that order). so i'm now the proud owner of a photo of myself looking thrilled, donald looking like a duck, and the husband looking super annoyed. i still love the photo.
We then traveled around world showcase, stopping in each country to eat. we had: school bread in norway, which was AMAZING! nothing in china--we were still full from the guac and school bread. sausage and riesling in germany, at an amazing table right in the center of the square, directly next to the fountain. some sort of red wine in italy and a turkey leg in America (i'm not including a photo of the turkey leg because no one looks attractive eating one--my husband included!) i window shopped in japan, watched belly dancers in morocco (at this point we were REALLY full), and had a glass of just-out beaujolais nouveau in france. despite my general dislike of france after the paris trip this past summer, i really enjoyed the france pavillion.
by this time it was long past dark, and we had exactly enough time for my husband to get a cider in the UK (his favorite thing EVER) before we found our spot for illuminations.
the best part about illuminatinos was the couple we met standing on the bridge between france and the uk. they were local and had been to epcot many times. the husband explained the show to me--he told me that it was really three acts, the past, present, and future, and explained each part. this was before it began, but even after it started he quietly said 'now this is act two'--and it totally made sense! i would have had NO idea had we not met this awesome couple--it made the experience so much more amazing. dare i say...it was magical.
that was probably the highlight of my admittedly very amazing trip. i'm crying again as i write it...but that's ok, because i've learned here that crying is normal!
after illuminations, we tried to revisit soarin, and had i known that a 40 minute wait was NOTHING, we would have waited. but we didn't, mainly based on how exhausted i was at this point. instead, my husband made me go to captain eo. this was another one of those'because i love him' things--like dumbo--and it made him SO happy. he still occasionally does the little captain eo dance in regular life. it is very funny (and embarrassing!)
at this point it was around 10:30 pm. i was so tired. so very, very tired. but the husband wanted to ride mission space. my reply--honey, i love you, but i just can't blast off right now. so i sat--half dozing--on a bench while he did mission space. he loved it, and wished he had opted for the orange side. next time dear, next time.
i'm so glad there will be a next time. actually, there will be several 'next times'. there are so many things i didn't get to do--especially in epcot. i can't wait!
we made our way back to the beach club, and even in my hyper-exhausted state, it took less than five minutes. the plan for the next day? a very anti-climactic final day--more convention, and downtown disney.
Photos: 1. The husband in Mexico with snack number one. 2. Donald! 3. Sausage at great seat in Germany. 4. Me in France
Great update! I agree with you about Illuminations. The show is spectacular without knowing the meaning, but with the back-story added in is so much more moving. I'm glad that couple was standing next to you! I love the Donald photo!
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We were like that the first time we went to the Flying Fish and now it's one of our favourites. 
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