Hi y'all! I'm back! Wedding was amazing. Honeymoon was magical. Real life is...well, real life is weird right now. I'm currently living out of various boxes and suitcases, mentally in OKC but physically in NWA, while I cover my monthly "week in the office" stint. I was only supposed to be here through last Friday...but hey, punches. We roll with 'em, right? Right. Plus, other than my current mental-physical locational discrepancy, life has finally settled back into something somewhat resembling normalcy. So I'll take it.
I promise I'll be sharing a wedding recap piece soon, but I'd really like to do that when I have some photos to show you (the Benfield's have been a little busy this month, so I'm still waiting on those). In the meantime, however, I DO have photos from our Disney trip - so how 'bout we recap that? Sound good? Good.
Let's start with
We made it to Atlanta fine, were able to convince the gate agent to rework our seats so we could sit together (our seats had somehow managed to move themselves ELEVEN rows apart between booking and check-in), and landed in sunny Orlando right on schedule. Then, the magic began.
For the first hour or so, I had to continually remind myself to be a person on vacation, not a marketer. It is AMAZING how much thought Disney has put into every single piece of your trip. It was almost like we'd flown directly into Disney, bypassing Orlando altogether. They swept us from plane, to bus, to hotel like visiting royalty. I carried my purse and small carry-on bag, nothing else. As long as we had our MagicBands on, we just had to swipe and go - they instantly knew our names, where we were going, where our bags needed to be...everything. Kudos, Disney. Kudos.
When we got to the hotel (with it's adorable "y'all" signage and sweet Southern hospitality), they gave us these little "Happily Ever After" buttons, which, in addition to our MagicBands, would prove to be our best friends for the rest of our stay. More on that in a bit.
If you're curious, we stayed at Port Orleans: Riverside - a Downtown Disney area resort themed around the Louisiana Bayou. It turned out to be a great "couples" environment - quiet, very few kiddos, mellow atmosphere. We weren't adjacent to any parks, which meant for longer bus rides in the mornings, but also came with quite a few perks (see "very few kiddos" above). We loved it. Plus, isn't it pretty? The born-and-bred-Southerner in me was on cloud nine.
We got settled in the room, where our luggage magically appeared later that evening, and spiffied up for dinner.
We'd (well...I'd) chosen Artist Point for dinner that night. It's a Pacific Northwest-themed restaurant located in Wilderness Lodge Resort. It was a bit "frou-frou" for The Boy's preference, but he's sweet enough to occasionally humor my need for "fancy food."
When we arrived, we were escorted to a little sweetheart table by a window and greeted with glasses of champagne (another point to Disney for letting you customize EVERY reservation with the words "It's our Honeymoon!" Magical perks abound).
Dinner was wonderful. We shared an artisanal cheese plate followed by cedar plank roasted salmon (with rainbow cauliflower, root spinach, applewood-smoked bacon jam, and short-rib strudel) for me and a trio of buffalo, venison, and wild-game sausage (with herbed spaetzle, late summer vegetables, red onion marmalade, and berry gastrique) for The Boy. Plus, the service was fantastic (as it would be for the remainder of the trip).
After dinner, which was paid for by a generous wedding guest via our registry, we decided to spend some time exploring the beautiful lodge. On our way back to the lobby, we experienced the magic of the "Happily Ever After" buttons for the first time: as we strolled out, two Cast Members working as hostesses outside of the restaurant saw us (and our buttons) and squealed "Oh look! They're newlyweds! Aren't they ADORABLE?!? Can we take your picture?!? Oh, you're just so sweet!"
Talk about feeling like a princess.
Naturally we let them take several pictures (more than planned because they each had to critique the others' photo taking style and redo it), and recounted the details we'd find ourselves reciting over and over again throughout the trip:
Wilderness Lodge was a fun place to explore - lots of little fireplace nooks and rocking chairs and "this floor guests only" areas which I TOTALLY didn't go into anyway... - but travel-tiredness got the best of us and we didn't stay too long.
There were treats waiting for us back at the room - champagne, chocolate, cheese, & crackers - which we happily enjoyed before turning in. We had our first day in the parks the next day, and it was going to start with an early breakfast. Can't wait to share that day with y'all tomorrow - Pooh Bear, Belle, "the grey stuff," and fireworks from a castle balcony. Come back and see!
I promise I'll be sharing a wedding recap piece soon, but I'd really like to do that when I have some photos to show you (the Benfield's have been a little busy this month, so I'm still waiting on those). In the meantime, however, I DO have photos from our Disney trip - so how 'bout we recap that? Sound good? Good.
Let's start with
Monday - Day One
If you recall, it snowed (and iced) the day after our wedding. Thankfully we were smart (read: cheap) enough to purchase our plane tickets for that Monday, so said snow and ice did little to delay our trip - it just made for a very interesting ride to the airport.We made it to Atlanta fine, were able to convince the gate agent to rework our seats so we could sit together (our seats had somehow managed to move themselves ELEVEN rows apart between booking and check-in), and landed in sunny Orlando right on schedule. Then, the magic began.
For the first hour or so, I had to continually remind myself to be a person on vacation, not a marketer. It is AMAZING how much thought Disney has put into every single piece of your trip. It was almost like we'd flown directly into Disney, bypassing Orlando altogether. They swept us from plane, to bus, to hotel like visiting royalty. I carried my purse and small carry-on bag, nothing else. As long as we had our MagicBands on, we just had to swipe and go - they instantly knew our names, where we were going, where our bags needed to be...everything. Kudos, Disney. Kudos.
When we got to the hotel (with it's adorable "y'all" signage and sweet Southern hospitality), they gave us these little "Happily Ever After" buttons, which, in addition to our MagicBands, would prove to be our best friends for the rest of our stay. More on that in a bit.
If you're curious, we stayed at Port Orleans: Riverside - a Downtown Disney area resort themed around the Louisiana Bayou. It turned out to be a great "couples" environment - quiet, very few kiddos, mellow atmosphere. We weren't adjacent to any parks, which meant for longer bus rides in the mornings, but also came with quite a few perks (see "very few kiddos" above). We loved it. Plus, isn't it pretty? The born-and-bred-Southerner in me was on cloud nine.
We got settled in the room, where our luggage magically appeared later that evening, and spiffied up for dinner.
We'd (well...I'd) chosen Artist Point for dinner that night. It's a Pacific Northwest-themed restaurant located in Wilderness Lodge Resort. It was a bit "frou-frou" for The Boy's preference, but he's sweet enough to occasionally humor my need for "fancy food."
When we arrived, we were escorted to a little sweetheart table by a window and greeted with glasses of champagne (another point to Disney for letting you customize EVERY reservation with the words "It's our Honeymoon!" Magical perks abound).
Dinner was wonderful. We shared an artisanal cheese plate followed by cedar plank roasted salmon (with rainbow cauliflower, root spinach, applewood-smoked bacon jam, and short-rib strudel) for me and a trio of buffalo, venison, and wild-game sausage (with herbed spaetzle, late summer vegetables, red onion marmalade, and berry gastrique) for The Boy. Plus, the service was fantastic (as it would be for the remainder of the trip).
After dinner, which was paid for by a generous wedding guest via our registry, we decided to spend some time exploring the beautiful lodge. On our way back to the lobby, we experienced the magic of the "Happily Ever After" buttons for the first time: as we strolled out, two Cast Members working as hostesses outside of the restaurant saw us (and our buttons) and squealed "Oh look! They're newlyweds! Aren't they ADORABLE?!? Can we take your picture?!? Oh, you're just so sweet!"
Talk about feeling like a princess.
Naturally we let them take several pictures (more than planned because they each had to critique the others' photo taking style and redo it), and recounted the details we'd find ourselves reciting over and over again throughout the trip:
- When? Saturday (cue: awwwww!)
- Here? No, back home.
- Where? Arkansas
- Having fun? A blast!
Wilderness Lodge was a fun place to explore - lots of little fireplace nooks and rocking chairs and "this floor guests only" areas which I TOTALLY didn't go into anyway... - but travel-tiredness got the best of us and we didn't stay too long.
There were treats waiting for us back at the room - champagne, chocolate, cheese, & crackers - which we happily enjoyed before turning in. We had our first day in the parks the next day, and it was going to start with an early breakfast. Can't wait to share that day with y'all tomorrow - Pooh Bear, Belle, "the grey stuff," and fireworks from a castle balcony. Come back and see!
Sounds fabulous. Just don't tell us everything....
ReplyDelete