The One With All The Birthdays - October 14 COMPLETE

Day 9

It was another early morning today. The alarm went off at 6:25am, I peeled my eyelids back and propped them up with matchsticks and started to get ready We made sure everyone knew last night that we had to be up early and out on time this morning or we would miss our tour (that we had already booked and paid for and that would surely be fully booked for the rest of the trip) but we still ended up leaving late! I was getting my knickers in a right twist that we would miss it, some might even say I was a bit yelly and moany but I'm neither confirming or denying anything... I'll leave it up to your own imagination hehehe

We drove over to the MK car park which was almost completely empty and parked up. Only the resort monorail was running so we hopped on that, we were on with lots of CM's, including loads of Grand Floridian Mousekeeping in their cute peach outfits (I love the housekeeping outfits in GF). Unfortunately the monorail didn't sense my mood and the fact that we were late and halted at the GF for ages not moving! Ahhhhhhh! This was not helping my nerves or stress levels! I quickly messaged JoAnn who was doing the tour same tour along with us to let her know we were still coming. We then we moved on so I lost wifi signal and didn't see if she got my message (nor did I see her reply which said they hadn't even let guests who were on tours into the park yet so we needn't worry). We then paused again just outside the MK station waiting for further clearance = more stressing, ahhhh!

When we did finally arrive we raced our way over to the left turnstile to be let through for the tour. We headed into the park and checked in and we were all given headsets and our name badges. JoAnn and I found each other and had hugs before the tour started, was so lovely to meet her finally after chatting online for so long We waited for a minute or 2 for everyone to arrive and then it was time to start our tour at 8am!

I won't go into huge detail about the tour here (not least cause I'm hoping to write an article about it for WDWFGU's) but also I don't wanna spoil it for anyone thinking of doing it. But what I will say it that it was a BLAST! We all loved it. It's such a good value tour too, worth every single cent. Our tour guide Matt, was from Connecticut and he was a total babe, so knowledgeable and obviously loved his job, if anyone gets him as their tour guide then they are super lucky! We went into parts of MK that weren't officially 'on stage' yet which was neat but meant we had to be careful what we could take pictures of. We rode on the Haunted Mansion along with Matt who pointed things out to us all the way through. We also got to ride Winnie the Pooh (this time without Matt) and then CoP once again with Matt guiding us through.

Here are a few pics I did manage to snap on our tour.

Anne photobombing us hehehe

The tour finished up bye CoP at 11:30am (half an hour over the advertised tour time). We took it in turns having a quick chat with Matt to thank him for the amazing tour. JoAnn and I grabbed a pic too

I managed to nab a fastpass lunch today at Be Our Guest but the only time I could get for us wasn't for quite a while yet, and we were all starving (having had no breakfast. So we headed over that way to ask on the off chance that they might be able to let us in early... JoAnn also had a fastpass for lunch so we all made our way over together.

JoAnn asked one of the CM's mulling around if we might be able to go in early but he said no, so I asked someone else who said yes (I know, I'm very cheeky hehe). To be fair the CM who said no to JoAnn didn't really seem to know what was going on bless him so it wasn't like we went above him to a manager, we just went to someone who looked more like he knew what he was doing (the first CM was on crowd control in the area). But yay! We were allowed in early! Thank you nice CM!

We made our way in, ordered and paid for our food and found a table in the main ballroom (somewhere we have never sat before). Before long our food found us I must remember in future how big the portions are, we all got a sandwich each but I totally could have shared. I went for the good old turkey sandwich, which was as lush as always, and the now discontinued passion fruit puff this has to rank as one of my all time favourite dessert in all of WDW so I'm really sad to see its gone

Once we had finished our lunch we snapped a few pics and then said goodbye to JoAnn, she stayed in MK as she had some fastpasses but we were all shattered from the early mornings so we decided to go back to the hotel for an afternoon nap lol We hopped on the boat back to the TTC and made our way back to Kidani.

Back in the room Sy and I slept for about an hour and a half and woke up at about 4pm. Everyone fancied a quick mooch around the shops so we headed to the 'other' premium outlets at the top of International Drive. When we arrived at the shops we agreed a meet up time and then we all split up ready to shop shop shop! I managed to buy more in the Disney store, Yankee Candle and bath and body works took a hard hitting too. Even managed to grab a few Christmas presents. All in all a successful trip! We met up with the 'rents back by the car and headed off in the search of dinner.

We drove along I Drive and found a Longhorns about half way down so decided to stop in there for dinner. As we had just been to the Outlets we decided to take all of our shopping in with us, I've read a lot of reports online about people being followed from there and cars broken into to steal the shopping so didn't wanna take the risk. It was a bit snug at the table with 6 of us big people in the booth and all of our shopping but we managed

This pic shows what we were all feeling like lol

I apologise for the next pic, I was told off on fb for having so many kissy pics lol I can't help it though I just love my hubs!

Our server was very.... strange, she didn't seem to understand what we were saying at all - like we were speaking in a foreign language all the time. Unfortunately this meant that she got a few of our drink orders wrong and my meal was completely wrong when it came and as we were on a bit of a time constraint we didn't have time for them to remake it so she took it back and took it off the bill but it meant I had no dinner. Everyone else enjoyed their meals though

We paid the bill sharpish and made our way back to MK for our Wishes Fastpass. This was a big mistake honestly, we were already later than planned and arrived on a very busy main street with 2 scooters (mine and mum's) and no where to go as it was rammed with people. I had dragged everyone back there so we decided to push through it and fight our way down Main Street to the fasspass area with the thought that at least there it wouldn't be busy... We got separated on the way so I told Sy to stay with his parents and just meet us in the fastpass area. I wasn't 100% where that was so I asked a CM who was really short with me, he told me it would have closed already and I should have got there earlier (we were still within the fastpass window) and just shrugged and pointed towards the hub, so we tried to fight our way there which was in the complete wrong direction from where we were. We ended up getting stuck as it was so busy there was no where to go with the scooters. And then of course I started to have a panic attack and to top it off, I started to cry This wasn't in the plan! I messaged Sy to say we were stuck, he was in the fastpass area and said there was plenty of room there and they were still letting people in but by this point I didn't know how we were going to get there or where it was.

My dad managed to make a path through to get me out, I followed behind and managed to get out somewhat till we found a nice CM who guided us the rest of the way, people really didn't wanna move though (they could see we weren't about to stop in front of them, not sure why they were so opposed to letting us through). I sobbed all the way out. I'm not good in crowds, it was stupid of me to even attempt Wishes tonight after seeing the crowds but I didn't want to let everyone else down when we had gone there especially to watch the! Once we were out of the main hub we were able to move we made our way to Tomorrowland Terrace as it was empty. We went up to the seating area and got dad a seat right at edge so we could see some of the fireworks. Sy was in a bit of a panic as he had messaged me and didn't get a reply and he knew I was panicking and upset, I had a stream of messages when I looked at my phone. I messaged him once I'd calmed down a bit and told him where we were. I said to stay where he was as the view would be good there but he insisted on coming over to us along with his parents. I felt better after some cuddles with Sy.

The view as it happens wasn't too bad. They don't play the music over here though so we couldn't hear much but we did see Tink fly overhead. After Wishes had finished we sat for a while waiting for the crowds to thin before we attempted to move. While we waited the second showing of Celebrate the Magic* came on so we moved down to the side of the plaza so we could see as there were trees in our view from Tomorrowland Terrace.

*After writing about this I've just put it on youtube and currently sat watching it now

When it had finished we waited a few minutes for the crowds to die down before making our way out to the front of the park, heading back to the hotel. Most of the crowds had in fact gone so it wasn't too bad making our way down Main Street.

Once we reached the end of MS, the Main Street Electrical parade was starting. Cliff wanted to watch so Sy and I said we would watch as well while Anne, Sian and Bill got the bus back to the resort (they got the bus and we took the car as they wouldn't have been able to lift mums scooter into the car being just my dad there and no other strong man ). MSEP was lovely and it was great to watch it with hardly any crowds too.

After it finished we made our way over to grab the boat back to the TTC, we were in luck as one was waiting right there! Woohoo! We were straight on the boat but we then sat/stood for 20 mins before we left which was a bit annoying as it was busy on the boat and a little chilly too (not to mention all those damn mosquitoes that are always on the boats at night). I'm not exactly sure what we were waiting for, it didn't look like we were waiting for a boat the other end but I'm sure we were waiting for something We moved off eventually and we were back to the car in no time.

We arrived back at the hotel by 12:20am and we were in bed by 12:45am. It had been another long and busy day

Day 10

I've found today hard to write, I don't want to go into it in too much detail however suffice to say the day didn't really go too smoothly.

I was up at 7am after being in bed for 6 & 1/2 hours, now this might be enough sleep for some people however its totally not enough for me. So why was I up so early I hear you ask? My husband's snoring. I wrote in my notes 'Sy's sleeping on the sofa tonight ahhhhhhhh!!' We all got ready and had breakfast in the room. Most of us were ready so we headed out to HS, with Anne and Cliff getting the bus once they were ready.

Unfortunately we had missed our first fastpass so we used the DAS card to get a return time on Great Movie Ride and made our way over to our second fastpass of the day, Frozen Singalong! Yaaaaaaaay!

My mum isn't much of a movie watcher so she still hadn't seen Frozen but she loved the show never the less. I thought it was fabulous, I so wanted to watch it again before we came home but we couldn't make it happen, but there's always next trip

Half way through the show my mum felt a bit ill and went out to the bathroom (she didn't actually tell us she felt ill, just said she needed the bathroom), one of the CM's helped her and told her to come back to him and he would let her back in so she could watch the rest of the show. He was just really kind and helpful, my mum was so touched she took his name (Corey) and we went to find his manager after the show to give him some recognition. Mum felt fine again after the show thankfully

Once the show was over we headed back over to GMR, stopping on the way to watch a bit of Mulch, Sweat and Shears whom I love <3 <3.

Then it was time for Great Movie Ride! I *love* this ride, I know its old but its a totally classic to me and HS wouldn't be the same without it, I can't tell you what it is I love exactly, it just feels like old school Disney at its best. The tram guide can totally make or break your show though - a bit like Jungle Cruise - ain't nobody got time for a crap guide Luckily though ours was a goodun'

Anne and Cliff arrived while we were on the ride and we met outside after and then headed over to TSM.

Scary Flash!!

Sy won, booo! Nothing new there though, he always wins.

After we had to head to the Grand Floridian for afternoon tea at the Garden View Tea Room. This usually is one of my favourite things to do in Disney. We valet parked and headed inside, I knew my friend Tabitha was getting married here today so I was super pleased to see her out the front getting pictures!! I snapped a pic of her and a selfie of us both (I won't share the pic though as I haven't asked, she looked awesome though, trust me!).

We headed inside and checked in for our tea, it was actually really busy inside the tea room so we had a little wait in the hotel lobby but that was okay as it meant we could listen to the pianist We didn't have long to wait though before we were taken inside. Our server was Rachael and she was amazeballs! She was so attentive and chatty, she even swapped out my jam tart for another scone and gave us more cream and jam

Mango Oolong tea (I am totally in love with this tea, and I can't get it ANYWHERE!)

My standard sandwich selection lol

Normal sandwiches

The guys went for a different tea which they liked.

Strawberries and Cream (LUSH!)

Cake selection (no longer a choice of cakes which I think is a real shame, half the fun was seeing the cake tray and choosing)

Sy being the awesome hubby that he is had a little something arranged for me to celebrate my birthday. (I may have dropped a hint or 2 when I was researching cake ideas )

I totally couldn't manage to eat it all after all that cake so everyone helped me out. It was so scrummy though. I hope I get to have another at some point (you reading this Sy?!)

After we paid up and handed Rachael a load extra tip on top of the 18% on TiW card cause she was so awesome. We then headed back to the hotel.

Sy decided to have a half hour nap but the fire alarm went off in our room, I went outside to the hallway and it wasn't going off anywhere else. It was LOUD and we all jumped out of our skin! No idea what caused it (well no idea at the point, we find out after a few more alarms going off, including one at 3am), but after that he wasn't getting a nap.

Tonight we were off to MNSSHP! The party I've been planning and waiting for, the costumes I had spent hours and hours making were finally getting their outing Anne and Cliff didn't sort out outfits before they came away and we hadn't been able to find them any (we did try stopping at a few fancy dress shops but didn't find anything), so they were undecided if they were coming tonight. They did finally sort outfits out that afternoon though, Cliff made an outfit out of a Hawaiian shirt he bought in Key West and shorts and I lent Anne my Minnie Mouse dress. We were all ready and waiting in the room so we took some pics.

I'm **sooooooo** happy with how our outfits came out! I thought Sy looked amazing, he actually looked like a little boy!!

Car selfie of make up

Eventually everyone was ready so we headed over to the Poly to pick up a Lei for Cliff to complete his outfit. We tried to buy one in the shop but they didn't have any however we were told to ask at the front desk as they may have one, they did and it was a gift from them to Cliff - how sweet! I have to admit, had I been staying at the Poly I would have been SO annoyed at the state of the lobby, work has to happen to make it better, I get that, but boy that lobby was a mess.

We made our way over to MK via monorail (we had valet parked at the Poly), we were there much later than we wanted, all of the shops along main street were closed as they were trying to hurry non party guests out of the park. We found our party bands were checked loads more than we have noticed the past couple of years, which is only a good thing - I don't want guests who haven't paid hanging around when I've paid loads on top of our tickets to be here!

Lots of selfies tonight

Anne wanted to get some Minnie ears to complete her outfit so she and Cliff walked back to the front while we waiting on main street and took yet more pictures lol

You can spot my dad in that last one on my scooter, he has had 2 new knees lately and his legs were playing up so I insisted he take my scooter for the evening as I was feeling ok and he wasn't. Standing for long periods really hurt his knees and knowing we would be spending the evening standing for parades/shows/fireworks I wanted to make sure he wouldn't be in too much pain.

First stop was the Villain's show, we have never managed to catch this show in all of the parties we have previously been to so we wanted to make sure we saw it today. We got a spot right up near the front so mum would be able to see on her scooter without people standing in front of her. The show was ok, it seemed to be over really quickly, I mean I did enjoy it but it just could have gone on for a bit longer. I'd love to watch it from a little further back as we were so close we couldn't see it all but couldn't do that with mum as people would undoubtedly stand in front.

Next up was the only non-Halloween thing I wanted to do, Monsters Inc. Having done this in other parties I knew how funny it was so wanted to make sure we headed there.

I have tried everything I can to turn this pic up the right way but it keeps going back to upside down

The show was really funny and made better by Sy being picked on to be 'That Guy'

We then went to find a spot for the fireworks. We set up my parents with the scooter beside the Plaza and took their trick or treat bags over to get some treats from Tomorrowland terrace, there was no queue so we kinda just went round and round and round and round... you get the picture we got a lot of sweets

Sadly there was no music for the fireworks where we were but we could kinda hear it on the breeze, it was still good

Afterwards we headed through Tomorrowland for yet more sweets and to find Lotso.

It was getting near the time we had to find a spot for the parade so we went through to Liberty Square to find the disabled area and watched the parade. Pics didn't come out that well cause of the lighting being right opposite

Selfie on the way, as you do

After the parade had finished we went to find some more characters however most of them had finished already, there was still an hour to the party! I was a bit annoyed I gotta admit. Got pics by the Haunted Mansion though

One of my fav pics of the holiday from Cliff, love it cause it totally wasn't posed or anything he was just messing around and the photographer happened to catch it at the right moment.

We got yet more sweets before making our way out of the park. Sy and his mum had words on the way out and Anne got the bus back to the hotel on her own :-/ Not gonna lie, it was awkward. I was staying well out of it though lol. We were hungry as we hadn't really eaten anything but sweets all evening so we headed to Wendy's for take out on the way home. Anne was there when we got back so I went to hide in the bedroom and avoid any confrontation I'm a wimp lol

In bed by 1:30am, it had been another long day!

I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty horrific I'm sure you know where i'm coming from saying it's no picnic travelling by scooter sometimes. But it was a lovely day the rest of the time!

That's so cool he did your tour too!! I like the sound of the steam train tour, thinking of maybe putting that into the list for December did you enjoy it?

Yeah it was the Marceline tour. I once got a bit rude in a crowd and I still feel bad about it, again I was on the scooter but I was trying to get out and no one would move, I ended up telling someone to stop so I could get past, I heard her being quite rude as I got past and tbh I totally deserved it as I was rude in the way I asked, I was right on a panic attack at that point and wasn't really functioning properly. I did shout sorry after her but no idea if she heard. sometimes things happen though, its not like either of us are rude people in our daily life!

Day 11

Woke up at 9:15 this morning and got dressed, we had more of a relaxed day today so there was no rush to go or be anywhere. This morning we were heading to Celebration for breakfast.

We parked up in Celebration and mooched around some of the shops including of course Woofgang Bakery where we all bought some dog treats (I bought one for my friend Jane's dog, we often go walk her together ). There was the cutest little pooch in there, a little girl Pug called Pepper, omg I want one!!

We then walked over to Market Street Cafe for breakfast. I'd read about it online and thought it looked good. We headed in and were shown to a table, it wasn't very busy but then it was mid week in a non touristy area. Our server was an English woman called Helen. I think she at first cast us off as 'those' Brits (most Brits unfortunately don't know much about tipping as we don't do it in the same way at home, then you get those who DO know but just won't do it cause they are crummy people).She was quite aloof with us at first and not really friendly at all but after we engaged with her and basically let her know that we weren't the usual tourist and knew what we were doing she warmed up and was a lot friendlier and chatty.

Dunno what Sy was doing in this one...

I had the BEST pancakes I've ever had there, I wanna go back just so I can have them!! Breakfast was a steal price wise, $13 each including a heafty tip.

We then headed back to the car and made our way to Publix, we needed a few things for our Vow Renewal tomorrow. The guys dropped us off and went in search of a golf shop. This was my first time at the Publix in Celebration, I'm a fan! It was really nice inside. Got all the things I needed (Prosecco lol) and then we headed outside to wait for the guys. They were back only a few minutes later but they hadn't managed to find a golf shop

We took the shopping back to Kidani and put it all away. I went to get a shower and realised the blue stuff all over the walls in there was actually crayon (I assumed it was marker or something) so I asked for the bathroom to be cleaned properly as it obviously hadn't been before. I mean seriously, who lets their kids in the shower with crayons and then lets them draw all over the walls??

It was then time to head out for our girls spa afternoon and the guys golf afternoon. We took the car and headed over to the Mandara Spa at the Dolphin Resort. I had an email about a week ago saying my nail treatment would be taking place in another room as they were doing work on the nail room however we arrived to a total refit! Bathrooms and changing rooms were out of order, steam room out of order, no where to sit and relax. It was terrible. There was no 'spa' to speak of, there were treatment rooms still but it was a lot of money for just treatments and no where to sit and relax together. I was really upset as I had booked this as a present to both mums and it wasn't right at all. We decided that we weren't going to have the treatments and so we went to the front desk to let them know. They were really gracious and didn't charge any sort of fee for cancelling, they were almost embarrassed of the state of the place themselves. I was really disappointed and to think I changed from the Grand Floridian to Mandara! We hadn't given up all hope though so we drove over to the Grand on the off chance they might be able to fit us in for some sort of treatments but they couldn't We were at a bit of a loss as to what to do so we ended up going to Downtown Disney, we needed petrol and I knew there was a Hess garage there.

Car filled with petrol we crossed over and headed into the parking lot at the Marketplace. It was surprisingly easy to park! I mean, I know it was the middle of the afternoon but even so, we drove straight in and parked right away, and there were loads of spaces. I guess everyone was keeping away cause of the work they were doing.

We were a little peckish so we got some food from the Animal Kingdom food truck, mum got the sampler and I got the butter chicken. They were a little disappointing, but I think mainly cause they had been sat there for hours, the rice was crunchy lol. I bet they are amazing fresh though.

We then went for a wander round some shops, not that I bought a single thing though. Saw some stuff that I wanted to buy nearer the end of the trip though - anyone else do this? I like to wait till the end so I know how much money I have left to blow on merch we then left and headed back to the room.

Mum and I put up some of the decorations I had made for the next day and we waited around for the guys to arrive home from their golf. We did start to get a bit worried when they hadn't got home and it was dark outside, surely they can't be golfing in the dark?! We were supposed to be heading back out to Epcot for a meet up and dinner but couldn't a they weren't home yet. They did finally get home at 8:30pm, we were all too tired to head out for dinner now so the guys went out to get take out from Wendy's again. I had a chicken burger with a baked potato, it was really yummy! Sy and his mum had words again and he ate his dinner in the bedroom awkward. Perfect timing too, night before our vow renewal.

The guys were telling us about their golfing over dinner, they said it sounded like a much better idea than the actual reality, at one point Sy even refused to play as he was doing so badly hahahaha, he had a tantrum and sat in the golf buggy hahahaha. They had to let lots of people play through them as they were taking so long to get round and they actually had to skip the last few holes cause it was dark. They did say the wildlife on the course was amazing though - they saw alligators, deer, all sorts of birds. Sy went to retrieve his ball at one point and according to his story he then realised that there was an alligator 2 ft away so he left it, my dad however said the alligator was about 8 ft away and sleeping lol either way, I'm not sure I would have got that close but funny listening to my hubs being a drama queen hahaha. That evening Sy said he wished he never bothered but a few days later he admitted it was quite good and he would do it again (after more practice at home).

We were in bed by 11pm tonight, big day tomorrow, prepare for photo overload lol

Kristen I have it framed already! I love it too

Afraid that was the dog biscuit! It looked good enough to eat though

Sy is such a drama queen, I've ribbed him about it ever since

Thanks re the pics, I have them up now and I got a 2015 calendar made with them in! Everyone who comes over admires it

Day 12

I did give y'all a warning on the last post, prepare for photo overload LOL I've tried cutting the pics right back but not sure it worked haha Feel free to skim through them if you get bored

I couldn't sleep the night before, probably nervous excitement - well either that or Sy's snoring... The day was finally here! When we started arranging this day all those months ago, we had decided to keep it quiet and spring it on our family the day before, but there was only one problem with that idea... neither of us could keep our mouths shut haha. We ended up blabbing a few days later and then told the rest of the family and friends a few weeks after that.

We both bounced out of bed and got dressed. Breakfast was booked at the Grand Floridian Cake this morning. Last night we warned everyone that we needed to be out the door on time by 9am... We dragged everyone out of the villa kicking and screaming - and we only managed to leave 5 mins late! I take that as a victory compared to most mornings We drove over to GF and valet parked, we arrived at the GFC, checking in bang on time.

The lobby was FULL of people, I'm not gonna lie - I was a bit worried on seeing that. The restaurant was only about 2/3 full so I asked at the check in desk how long the wait would be roughly, I explained exactly why I was asking - this girl has a wedding to get ready for! The girl looked around and at the computer before telling me it would be about 10/15 min wait. 40 mins later I was really stressing out. I went back once after about 25 mins to explain again why we were in so much of a rush, but after waiting 40 min I went back to the desk again to say that we didn't have the time to wait anymore - just as our ticket came out, so we decided to stay.

Our server was called Shelley, she wasn't particularly great nothing wrong exactly just not very friendly or chatty, she wasn't forthcoming with refills etc.

We ordered our food and after yet another 40 min wait, it arrived. Of all the days for things to be running slowly!!!

And it gets even worse, 3 of the meals were fresh and 3 had been sat there so long that the plates were red hot and the food cold Sy's scrambled eggs had a skin on them as did Cliff's hollandaise sauce! (You might be able to see the skin on the eggs in the pic above).

It really wasn't our morning was it?! The manager happened to be walking by so I quickly grabbed her, told her about the meals which she got sent back right away, I then explained how long we had waited for them and how long it took to be seated and why today of all days was not the day to be hanging around... She apologised. I know this is gonna make me sound like SUCH a spoilt brat here, but I did kinda expect she might do something, *anything* to try and turn it around for us. She did nothing but apologise, she was genuine with it but I dunno, I just kinda hoped she might do more. If it had been any other day that would have been more than enough but as it was such a special day I thought maybe she would do something as we had a sucky experience... A rose, a happily ever after pin, offer to discount one of the meals, glass of bubbly, a cupcake with a candle in it? Anything. I know I sound like such a brat. She did apologise and I was grateful, but you know, it just didn't feel like it was enough, a shine had really been taken off of the morning.

Anyway, moaning over now We paid the bill and headed back to Kidani to get ready (we arrived back at 12pm so that will tell you how long breakfast took!!)

I got ready while the guys put the last of the decorations up, Anne steamed my dress and Sy's jacket and Sian sorted the food.

I was a bit rubbish with my make up, I had bought false eyelashes with me but I couldn't get them on no idea why! I've worn them a few times before. It didn't help that I was running a bit late so my hands were shaky, my mum had a go but in the end I had to just give up It didn't matter in the great scheme of things but I was a bit upset at the time - first world problems eh?

Randy Chapman arrived at 1:30pm just as I was finishing getting ready. He took a few pics of the room and then he took me and Sy away for some pictures on our own round the resort.

A cute phone pic Anne took.

Tim Herring, our officiant arrived next followed by the lovely Carrie who had our cake! I didn't mention the cake disaster in yesterday's post. I had it made by a lady I found online, I had read reviews and was really pleased seeing her previous cake pictures, her emails were lovely and I felt confident. Well Carrie picked the cake up for me the night before and it slid the moment she got it in the car The lady hadn't used any dowels in it to hold it together and given its height and weight it certainly needed them and to make it worse, it had frosting on the outside so it messed up. Luckily Carrie's hubby Mark is a chef and he made good as much as he could. Then there was the colour, I had asked for pastel yellow and it was bright yellow, and then the cake itself was so heavy, more like pound cake - no one liked it or ate any more than a bite! Ah well. Its just a bit of cake I guess I learned my lesson, next time I'll stick to Disney It wasn't the end of the world or anything.

This was the best side but you can still see where the petals have been messed up.

We had a few pics in the room and then it was time to start the ceremony out on the balcony. We had booked through Carrie for Tim to conduct a non religious ceremony but he had a chat before with Sy (when I wasn't around) and when he found out we got married in a church he thought we would rather have a religious... Not a big deal really but it threw me a bit having prayers. The ceremony was still wonderful and Tim was such a sweet and funny guy. I remembered shortly into the ceremony that I hadn't asked anyone to film it so I asked my dad to pop inside to get the camcorder and film the rest. The cutest thing happened during our ceremony but I didn't find out till after, I had invited Carrie and Mark but sadly Mark had to work, well he facetimed Carrie while he was at work so he could be there with us! He had taken his break at the time we were having our ceremony so he could be there with us in spirit It meant so much to us

Quick selfie with Carrie

We had yet more pics in the room and some food that we had prepared a while earlier. I hadn't got the days quite right with our DVC mousekeeping schedule and the maid came into clean while we were milling around having some nibbles and drinks, whoops! I did offer her a drink (prosecco or soft drink in case she wasn't allowed to drink while working) but she declined, she was a real cutie though.

We got some cutting the cake shots and ate the 2 mouthfuls out of the cake that actually got eaten (the rest went into the bin the next day), we then went to get some more pictures! At the front of Kidani and then over at Jambo

After many, many more pictures we said goodbye to Randy and headed back to Kidani for more nibbles and drinks.

The plan next was to head over to the contemporary resort to hire a boat out on the lake but we arrived just as they closed so instead we found a nice spot to sit and drank the prosecco we had brought with us to have out on the lake. Was actually really nice to be sat out on the dock with no one else around, it was really quiet and peaceful.

We started to walk in for our ADR at the Wave but stopped to get a pic on the Mickey statue. Sudden this crazy lady started running towards me - it was only Tabitha who I saw on the 21st on her wedding day! She wanted a pic of me and a selfie of us both in return lol. Was so lovely to see her How funny that we both bumped into each other on our special day!

We then went inside to the Wave and checked in for our table. We were still a little early so we grabbed a seat in the bar. The cutest little boy about 5/6 years old came up to me while we were sat there, he said 'excuse me, congratulations, you look really beautiful' and trotted off again! OMG! *awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww*

While we waited, our friends Karen and Iain and their 3 children arrived They were having dinner with us too. Well in the end only the eldest did, it was their first day and they were still jetlagged so the littlies ended up sleeping through almost all of dinner in the pushchair, bless them!

We were then shown to our table, I had it noted on our reservation that we were a wedding party so I kinda thought they might make a fuss of us, plus being dressed up like we were they could see we were celebrating, but no no confetti on the table or anything oh well. We were smiled at and congratulated all the way to our table though by other guests which was really sweet!

Our server was called Brie, she was awesome I had the chicken (shocker!) and Sy had the shortribs.

Some of the meals were a bit like this morning, hot plates and luke warm food, no where near as bad as GFC though. I however ate nearly all my chicken before realising it was completely raw in the middle, not just a little pink I'm talking cold and wobbly like raw chicken is. I thought it looked pink as I ate it but I assumed it was probably the type of chicken breast it was - sometimes it can look pink but be fully cooked. I called Brie over but she said the same as I assumed originally - it was the type of chicken it was, she did take it away though. I felt immediately ill so went to the bathroom (I'm sure it was just psychosomatic), while I was in there the manager came out to see me but instead spoke to Sy and my mum, he said it was definitely raw and he was astounded as to how it had happened. As I came back he arrived with a replacement but I kinda didn't fancy it now lol (go figure) so he took it away again. He and Brie were so apologetic, she said as soon as she took it into the proper light she could see how raw it was, I could tell she was genuinely embarrassed. The manager said he was launching a full investigation to find out how it happened so that it wouldn't happen again. I wasn't cross, I was a bit panicked I was going to be ill - I have to be so careful of tummy bugs etc, but I wasn't cross or moody with the CM's which I think they appreciated (no point getting cross, not their fault). The manager did take it off the bill which was nice of him. I wasn't doing very well with food today was I?? lol

Afterwards we made our way over to BLT. We were a little late and I was panicked as JoAnn was waiting there for us in the lobby, so I practically ran there to meet her and everyone else caught up a few mins later. We checked in and made our way up to TOTWL. This was a highlight of the day for me (apart from the ceremony of course). We arrived in the lounge and we were greeted right away and shown to the curtained off area that they had reserved for us (I didn't know they were doing this). Our server was called Marissa, she was a total babe!! She took our drink orders and then headed off to get them made, I got a virgin daiquiri which was lovely.

As I said in my Pre-Trip report, I had arranged with private dining to have our very own mini 'dessert party' up there. The food soon started arriving, out first came our fruit and cheese plates. O.M.G. They were HUGE. I have never seen so much fruit! We ended up eating fruit the rest of the trip and we still had to throw a load of it away.

Then came out the chocolate dipped strawberries, followed by the mini pastry selection. I only had 1 pastry (a mini creme brulee which was scrummy), didn't get round to having anymore for a while and when I remembered there were only banana things and cheesecakes left, neither of which I was a fan of.

They had doubled up on our order but only charged me the original quoted price, I don't know if it was deliberate or not, either way we were thankful! Last out was our mini cake It was a vanilla cake filled with passion fruit mousse. I had run down to the front desk while it arrived, luvalldisney and her hubby were coming to join us so I had gone down to wait for them as they would need a DVC member to get access up to the lounge. The DVC guy said not to worry about waiting there, just ask them to give my name when they arrived and he would send them up - super nice of him!

Window selfie on the way down, I thought the way the windows all had my reflection on looked funky.

Anyway, I missed the cake arriving so I was a bit confused as to why it looked like it was wearing a chicken on its head LOL I asked Marissa and she got the receipt out to have a look what it said about the cake... Apparently it was meant to be a turret from the castle? LOL who knows! It tasted freakin' AWESOME. I know because I ate pretty much the entire thing to myself...

It was then time to head outside to watch the fireworks. It was Hallowishes tonight so they were on at 9:30pm. Carrie, love her, she didn't really watch the fireworks, she was too busy snapping pics of me and Sy with the fireworks in the background. She really is so lovely. They came out wonderfully.

Karen and Iain's youngest had woken up a little while earlier and come out for the fireworks but she didn't like them She didn't mind watching from inside the lounge though where it wasn't so loud.

While the fireworks were on Spook and Mr Spook and Luvalldisney and Mr Luvalldisney arrived! Yay! (I haven't used your real name guys in case you didn't want me to!). We chatted inside and I force fed them desserts and fruit haha. Karen & Iain left shortly after as they were still really jetlagged, we would be seeing them again later in the trip though

We stayed chatting for a while longer but our parents were starting to flag. We asked Marissa for some boxes to take some of the left over desserts and fruit back and paid the bill. Private dining had told us that the food wouldn't be eligible for TiW discount however it had all been discounted! That was a fab surprise

Our parents then headed down to pick the car up from the Contemporary valet and we got some pics of all the WDWFGU gang outside. We stood chatting for ages, whoops! It was 11pm when we left TOTWL. Our parents were waiting for us when we got down there.

We headed back to Kidani and chilled out in the room, we were in bed by 12:30am. The day may have not started off the best way (Grr GFC) but the rest of the day was amazing!