I am a person who enjoys sleeping (and sleeping in) – I woke on my own before 7am on this day. I was just so excited! As soon as I woke up, I rushed over to the window, pulled back the curtains – and was met with this beautiful sight <3. As I said – the price of the Pan Pacific was worth it to be able to look out the window at this while getting ready.
Our friends who were on the same cruise had crossed multiple time zones, so they were awake very early – they actually watched the Wonder dock and sent me this picture (they were also staying at the Pan) –
I can’t remember our exact check-in time, I want to say it was 11:45? Luke and I decided to walk to the liquor store, which was only a block or two away. I grabbed a cheap bottle of wine to take onboard – and I didn’t even touch it the entire trip. Luke bought some beer to take onboard. While walking back, we ran into a couple wearing Disney clothing – obviously they were embarking today as well so we chatted with them the entire way back.
Once we were back, we finished packing everything back up and called bell services – they came to our room, and took our checked bags directly to the ship – so handy! We got ready and took some more pictures –
At some point Luke went and grabbed McDonald’s breakfast for everyone (except me – I ate some leftovers they had brought me back from Old Spaghetti Factory). I’m not a breakfast food person, so foods like spaghetti will win every single time over an Egg McMuffin.
While we were still in the room I filled out the required health questionnaire. I also took a screenshot of the countdown in the app showing zero days left!
Screenshot
Check out for the hotel was at noon I believe, so we were able to hang out in our room until it was time to check in for the cruise. We checked out around 11:15 (and I got a picture of the Monday mat in the elevator). The picture of the funnels was from the hotel lobby (the timestamp on that was 11:19am).
When staying at the Pan Pacific, you don’t even need to go outside to reach the check-in areas. At 11:29am I took this picture (and we were not setting any land-speed records haha – we were walking at the pace of a four year old) –
I think our official check-in time was 12? But we were showing our passports and getting wristbands before that time. After that, we went through customs and then another room to put our backpacks through a scanner (like at the airport), and finally found ourselves in the final waiting room. I have these pictures of a happy Jocelyn in the waiting room timestamped at 12:21 (and we’d been in that room for awhile by that point).
When we arrived in the final waiting room, they had already allowed anyone in boarding groups 1-8 to board the ship. We were group 13, so we did have to wait a few minutes but it wasn’t bad at all – I think we were in there for ~20 minutes?
By 12:32 I was taking this picture:
And we found our first photographer of the trip!
And then we were finally onboard and ready to truly start this vacation!
Since our cruise departed on a Monday, we decided to fly to Vancouver on Sunday. This flight is only ~90 minutes for us, and we had multiple options for flight times on that day. We ended up going with a 1:20pm departure, flying with WestJet and their new UltraBasic option. When booking this type of ticket, you do not get a carryon – you can only board with a personal item. Going there, this was fine, but we really could have used the space a carryon would have given us on the way home after buying souvenirs… Luckily, I have the WestJet mastercard, so all four of us were able to check a full size bag for free (saving $50/bag/person each way – so $400 total). We basically needed a full size bag just for Jocelyn’s princess dresses haha!
We had chose to stay close to home since the fall of 2022, as our elderly dog had started showing signs of declining, and we didn’t want to be far away in case something happened. We had someone set up to watch all the pets in our own home while on the cruise, but unfortunately, we did have to say goodbye to our dog in July 2024. Our remaining dog ended up going to hang out on my best friend’s acreage and our neighbours checked in on our cats. All this to say – Jocelyn hadn’t been on a plane since 2022 and it was safe to say she was a bit excited… This was in the car when we arrived at the airport –
Also – within a 24 hour time span, we drove in a car, a bus, a plane, a train and a ship. We all agreed that was pretty cool…
Once we parked our car, we had to take a bus to the main terminal of the airport. Check-in was a breeze, security went very smoothly and before long we were standing by this sign in the Edmonton airport –
Jocelyn chooses her own outfits every single day, and 9 times out of ten it involves a dress. She’s also big on accessories – she had on a ring, a bracelet, a necklace and that giant fancy tiara. She was called “Princess” so many times by airport staff and you could see how happy it made her – she didn’t stop smiling…
We had time to kill, so we grabbed some Cookies by George, drinks from Starbucks and then found a spot to sit and watch the planes.
Technically with an UltraBasic ticket, you board last. However, we were travelling with a child under the age of five, so we were allowed to use family boarding which was nice – gave us time to get situated! We gave Jocelyn the window seat, and she loved watching outside before drawing some pictures and then settling in with her tablet for the rest of the flight. She was so well behaved – I’d fly with her any day <3
Before long, we had arrived in Vancouver! It’d been a long time since I’d been at that airport – the last two times I’d been to this city, we’d drove. After collecting our checked bags, we walked over to catch the skytrain.
We got off the train at the Waterfront Station, and somehow got swung around the wrong way… we took the wrong exit up to ground level, and had to drag our suitcases a few blocks – if we had taken the correct exit it would have been a few steps *facepalm
But, we made it! And saw our first docked cruise ship!
The Pan Pacific is such a fantastic location if you’re in Vancouver for a cruise. It was expensive, but I’d stay there every single time, the convenience was worth the cost (plus the view from our room window was amazing – especially the next morning ;)). When we arrived to check in, our room was not ready yet – the receptionist kept apologizing and ended up giving us coupons for drinks in the lounge in the lobby. This was completely unnecessary, but greatly appreciated!
A friend of mine who lives in the Vancouver area wanted to come say hi – so we went and found a couch in the lounge to wait for her. Shortly after my friend arrived, Jocelyn started melting down, as four year olds do. Luke and Mom decided to take her up to our room which was now ready, letting me spend some time catching up (Mom also had some work to do). They ended up taking Jocelyn to the Old Spaghetti Factory – by the time they returned our friends we were meeting on the cruise had found me, and we had supper together at the restaurant at the Pan Pacific. I took zero pictures during this…
There was an actual meetup of people from the cruise (organized through the facebook group and whatsapp chat that had been set up for our specific sailing) – and it was in the same lounge/restaurant we were in. We quickly said hello to that group, I said goodbye to my friend who lives in the area (I’ll see her again next year when I’m back in Vancouver for a book signing event) and then headed upstairs to our hotel room.
I loved the day of the week mat in the elevator – the simplest things make me happy haha.
Our room for the night had an amazing view of the floating Chevron – this also made us irrationally happy haha…
We watched so many seaplanes taking off/landing this evening and the next morning – it was really cool. I’m also just realizing I didn’t take a single picture of the room itself – it was nice, but nothing special. Just a standard hotel room with two queen beds – one for Luke and I and one for Jocelyn and my Mom.
We tried to get a good night’s sleep, but we were all pretty excited! Tomorrow was the big day!
It has been quite awhile since we have traveled for Disney – our last trip to Land in California was back in June 2018, and our last trip to World in Florida was in May 2019. So in the summer of 2023 when friends mentioned an Alaska cruise for 2024 and asked if we wanted to join – we quickly put a deposit down!
Going on a cruise (specifically to Alaska) was something that has been on our radar for awhile, and we even had a deposit down a few years ago with a different company (that we ended up cancelling for a multitude of reasons). Now that we have a princess-loving daughter, we figured Disney would be the best bet for us (and our friends who invited us were already booked with Disney – and had previously sailed Disney).
Our cruise dates were August 26 – September 2, 2024 on the Wonder. The cruise departed and returned to Vancouver, British Columbia – as Albertans, this is extremely easy to get to for us, and is only a short flight for us. We decided to fly in the day before, on August 25th, and booked one night at the Pan Pacific. We don’t typically splurge on hotels, but we figured it would be worth it for this, especially since we were traveling with a four-year old – it was worth every penny!
We chose to book all excursions direct through Disney (I know you can save a few dollars booking through third party vendors, but when I priced things elsewhere it was only a few dollars in savings – we didn’t do any of the big ticket excursions). We had three ports of call – Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, and we did end up booking for all three. For some reason, we thought you could cancel 24 hours in advance if we changed our mind – this is not correct, which we found out when my Mom tried to cancel her Ketchikan excursion. If booked with Disney, they must be canceled 3 days before boarding – the charges for all excursions hit our account on embarkation day. Not a big deal, but something we’ll keep in mind for the future.
We did book the photo package, even though it was pricey (I think it was $300USD for our 7 night cruise). Since this was our daughter’s first introduction to a Disney trip, we knew we’d want the memories. I think we ended up with ~150 photos – some of which are fantastic – so we would buy that again.
Now on to the WHO:
I’m Fallon, and my husband is Luke. We are Disney Adults through and through, even though our first trip to Disney was a bit of a fluke back in 2015. We went on to get engaged at Animal Kingdom in 2017, did engagement photos at Disneyland in 2017 and then we had a Disney wedding in 2018. This was the first cruise for both of us. Here’s a picture from our wedding day, taken at the Old Key West resort at WDW in Florida –
Joining us on a Disney trip for the first time ever – our four year old daughter, Jocelyn <3. She is smart and sassy and fancy, and she loves all Disney Princesses (leading up to this cruise, she told us she was most excited to meet Cinderella, even though that is far from her favourite movie). She loves dressing up, and we came prepared with multiple Princess dresses for her to wear during the week.
Also joining us was my Mom! She’s the only family Luke and I have who lives in the same city as us (Luke and I are both imports to the province we live in, and my Mom decided to move here as well a few years after I did). Her and Jocelyn are extremely close, and it was so nice to have her with us! Her only trip to WDW was for our wedding, and she had to cut her trip short due to a family emergency back in Canada, but she did come with us to Disneyland later in 2018. It won’t be difficult to get her back to the parks or on another cruise with us in the future.
We also met up with friends who we hadn’t seen in person since 2019 (we live in different provinces). We were seated at the same table for supper each night, but did different excursions/events during the day. I’ll introduce them once they appear in the trip report 🙂
I’m notorious for starting trip reports and then taking years to finish them – so fingers crossed I can finish this one quickly!
We had split into two reservations for this meal, one under my name and one under Luke’s name. We arrived a bit late, but luckily my Dad was there on time so he was able to get them to hold our reservation.
I don’t know what everyone at Luke’s table ordered, and I don’t have pictures of anything, but I do know the chefs made Larissa a vegan dish that she loved.
At my table of eight, seven of us ordered the Le Cellier Signature Poutine – fresh-cut fries, Canadian Cheddar, truffles and red wine reduction, $10 (the current cost as of November 2021 is $14). I’ve had this before, and really enjoy it – but a few people complained that it was too salty. This is not like a traditional poutine we get as Canadians, it is definitely elevated with the truffles and red wine reduction (a bit of a step from the classic brown gravy typically used haha).
I also ordered a bowl of the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup – made with Moosehead Pale Ale and Neuske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon, $11 (current cost as of November 2021 is $13). Again, I’ve had this before and Luke has even made it at home – we’re fans.
I wasn’t in an alcohol drinking mood, and just had a Root Beer, $3.49
Other dishes ordered at my table included the Mac and Cheese – provolone, fontina, asiago, parmesan, Laura Chanel goat cheese, $10 (I took this description from the current menu but I feel like it might have been slightly different at the time, I don’t know if the person who had this would order something with goat cheese…), a Seasonal Poutine, $13 (no idea what it was, I didn’t take a picture of the menu that day, but I think it’s the one you can see in the background of my picture above), the Wedge Salad – marinated toy box tomatoes, edamame, applewood-smoked bacon, Artesian blue cheese, buttermilk ranch, crispy onions, $14, a Meat Appetizer – I only have a picture of my receipt with no description, but I think this was a pork belly, $15 and the Maple Glazed Brussel Sprouts, $9.
I love the bread service here – the pretzel bread is fantastic! I could probably make a meal just out of that!
I ended up not being able to finish my meal – my eyes were bigger than my stomach! I missed eating at the same table as Luke, as we typically would have shared the two dishes I had ordered. If I was thinking, I probably should have shared with my Mom instead of both of us ordering a poutine. Oh well!
We had the bill for our table of eight put onto one bill, and then used my Tables in Wonderland card for a discount. The total for our table (including the 18% gratuity) was $179.04. We all pitched in and left more cash on the table for a tip, since we had all just ordered appetizers and the server could have had tables ordering steaks.
I have no idea what Luke had, but I did write down in my notes that the total for his meal was $31.95. I’m guessing he also ordered the soup and poutine, and probably an alcoholic drink of some kind? He didn’t take any pictures, and he was sitting on the other side of the restaurant so I have no idea.
Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $0 Savings this Meal: $34.70 Total Saved: Full cost of card + $125.99
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $83.08 Actual Cost: $20.86 (Fallon) + $31.95 (Luke) = $52.81 Over/Under: Under by $30.27 Remaining: $1093.09
My Mom had to wake up really early this day – she still had no luggage so she took an Uber to a nearby Walmart just to buy some clothes/toiletries. She was back to OKW, dropped off her stuff, showered and changed into new clothes, and was still standing in our room before Luke and I were ready for the day haha.
Everyone actually had an early start today, and we all met up at Animal Kingdom. Luke and I had also bought custom t-shirts for everyone, and this was the day we asked them to wear them. Plus – Luke’s youngest sister Callie and her daughter, our five month old niece Isabella, had arrived in Disney that morning (they were living in Cancun, Mexico at the time). We were very excited to see them! Luke and I ended up spending very little time together on this day, so I’ll do my best to detail his day. We actually don’t have a single picture together from this entire day haha.
When we left our room, we had just missed the bus, we watched it drive past us. Luckily, Steph, Lauren and Ryan were on that bus – and the girls were wearing shirts that said “Bridesmaid” on them. They told the bus driver he had just drove past the Bride and Groom, so he actually stopped and let us on haha.
When we arrived at Animal Kingdom, Luke led everyone over through the second entrance at Rainforest Cafe, while I went with my Mom to get her Canadian resident park tickets activated. Once we were good to go, we entered my Mom’s first Disney park ever!
I was messaging a few people, and pretty much everyone was in Pandora – so that’s where Mom and I headed. It was looking as beautiful as ever!
We had set up Fastpasses at either Flight of Passage or Navi River Journey for everyone in our group – for some, this would be their only chance to see Animal Kingdom, so they had FOP. For the rest, we had another AK day planned for later in the week with FOP Fastpasses that day, so today was for Navi River (remember – this was back in Pandora’s early days, it wasn’t even a year old and you could only reserve a Fastpass for one or the other).
I was in the Navi River group on this day – and it was actually my first time riding it! It was…underwhelming. The Shaman animatronic is extremely impressive, and the ride itself is really pretty – but it feels short and lacking a “wow” factor like Flight of Passage has. I also can’t really remember who was on this with me – Mom for sure…maybe Ashley and Mike?
Luke had a FOP fastpass, but he actually ended up giving his MagicBand to his sister Callie so she could go on it – we hadn’t planned on her coming to AK after her super early morning flight (I think her flight left Cancun at 5am) and had booked some Epcot FP+ for her later in the day.
We all just hung around Pandora for a bit, taking pictures and enjoying the anticipation of the week ahead. Our entire group of invited guests (minus my cousin who lived in Florida) were now here, and it was only two more days until the wedding! We were also excited to see the baby – Luke and I had only met her once before this. She was so cute in her Minnie Mouse outfit <3
I took some pictures with my Sister-in-Law, Callie –
And also got a few with my Mom in the same spot –
We decided to leave Pandora, but we found a Photopass Photographer on our way out so of course we had to stop!
Of course I needed more pictures with my Momma –
I think this is actually the first time I’ve mentioned the custom buttons we had made for our wedding! You can see it pinned to Mom’s sweater in the picture above, but everyone received one. I had mine on my backpack most days. They were nothing fancy, but they were cute – and I ordered way too many and have an impressive stack of them at home to this day haha –
Now back to the Photopass Pictures – Luke got some with his family – from left to right, that’s his sister Callie, his sister Jill, Luke (of course), his mom Laura and his aunt Cathy –
Our plan was to meet up in Africa, we all had a Fastpass for the Safari together. We had told/messaged everyone a time to meet up, and pointed them in the general direction. Devin and Larissa, and Ashley and Mike stopped for Photopass pictures on the bridge leading into Africa , which is such a great spot for pictures!
I met up with Steph, Lauren and Ryan after they used their third Fastpass for Haunted Mansion, and we set off to see some of Magic Kingdom. I don’t have many pictures from this evening, but we did wave to some Country Bears as they passed by –
We just walked around the park, enjoying each other’s company. I hadn’t seen Steph and Lauren in a few years – they live on the other side of the country of me. They live in different provinces from each other, so they don’t even see each other very often (and actually – at this point Steph and Ryan were living in different provinces from each other). We spent quite awhile just taking in the ambiance of Magic Kingdom, walking around the different lands. At one point, we stopped at Peco’s Bills so they could grab a quick bite to eat – I don’t remember what was ordered, but I think all three of them shared one meal – we had a late reservation coming up and no one wanted to ruin their dinner. Eventually we decided to actually do more than just walk around.
The first Fastpass the three of them had earlier in the day was for Peter Pan’s Flight, but due to a flight delay they had missed their window. However, the ride just so happened to be down during part of their window, so their Fastpass had changed to an unlimited experience pass – which meant they could use it for any ride in MK they wanted to that day. They decided to stick to their original plan, and used it for Peter Pan (which still had a huge standby line). I didn’t have a Fastpass for it, so I told them to enjoy and I’d wait for them by the exit. During this time, my Mom had texted that she had finally arrived at Old Key West – without any luggage. It was lost, and the airline had no idea where it was.
I lost it. Here I was, standing alone by the exit to Peter Pan’s Flight bawling my head off – like I’m talking giant tears streaming down my face, sobbing, the whole nine yards. A concerned cast member came over and asked if I was ok – that poor man. I think he was expecting a generic I’m fine, or I’m just so happy to be here or I’m just overwhelmed. Yeah… that’s not what he got from me. In between sobs I told him my Mom had no luggage, my uncle was in a coma, I was getting married in 3 days, I was happy to see two of my best friends for the first time in 2+ years, and I had realized that morning I didn’t pack enough underwear for the trip (yup, I told this poor cast member that). He just looked at me with wide eyes, gave me a little pat on my shoulder, said “there there” while he backed away slowly haha. It’s been almost 4 years since this happened, but in the moment it was a lot to handle. I definitely needed that cry.
My friends gave me a hug when they got off, which helped a lot. I pulled myself together, and got onto the app. I was able to grab a Buzz Lightyear fastpass, and the window opened in 10 minutes. So off to Tomorrowland!
When we arrived, the ride was a walk-on – so we decided to enter the standby line first, and then circled around and used our Fastpass. We waved to animatronic Buzz, and Lauren and I got on together…and of course my gun didn’t work. I’m not amazing at Buzz, but I’m definitely not this bad! Luckily the gun did work the second time around haha.
Our on-ride photos for this make me laugh so much! I was looking super pleased with my broken gun, and my face was still all blotchy from crying, my hair was all disheveled from a busy day – and Lauren was living her best life haha. We have so many photos together over the years with Lauren giving me bunny ears – always “gettin’ me good!” And Ryan was so intense haha.
The castle was looking very pretty – I love the Christmas lights they put on it –
By this point, it was time for us to head out. We said good night to the park, and headed out to catch the monorail. While we were riding the monorail, we actually saw the Electrical Water Pageant, which was a really unique viewpoint. We exited the monorail at the Polynesian, where we met up with 9 others from our group – and the 13 of us had a great meal at ‘Ohana!
We all Uber’d back to our hotels and crashed – it was almost midnight by this point..
I also need to show this screenshot from Luke’s FitBit haha – he actually took this right after he finished his marathon – he had even more steps by the end of the day haha.
After reaching the Ticket and Transportation Center on the monorail, we got off. I asked the group if they wanted to catch the other monorail to get us to Magic Kingdom, or if they wanted to take the boat – group consensus was boat. This was something I’d never actually done, so I was looking forward to it. It was really busy, and had a huge line (which was a bit surprising since it was early afternoon by this point) – but we still got on the first boat that came by. It was my first time on the boat from the TTC – and I took zero photos. Oops.
We entered the park, and… I don’t remember what we did. I have terrible notes from this afternoon, and not many pictures. I think Laura and Cathy were hungry, and Jill went with them (I think they ended up eating at Tortuga Tavern?). I do have this picture of the Adventureland sign?
I do remember I had been texting my Dad, and he was on his way to MK to meet up with me. I seem to recall I found a bench close to the front of the park, and just sat there by myself people watching for quite awhile. It was nice, and sometimes you just need some alone time. Eventually I realized that Dad’s phone wasn’t receiving my texts, and I had no way of getting in touch with him to let him know where I was. As I was sitting there trying to figure out how I’d find him, I heard my name – I looked up and Lisa was standing there! She let me know that her and Trevor had ran into my Dad at the MK entrance (lucky bounce!).
It was close to time for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, so Main Street was getting pretty busy. We were able to weave our way along the sidewalk and reach the Hub. We walked past a few people holding giant foot-long hotdogs – and Lisa, Trevor and my Dad decided they wanted one too. So off to Casey’s Corner! Read about it here.
After everyone was full, we continued into the park. We decided to stop at the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the four of us went to see the show.
Earlier in the day, I had grabbed a Fastpass for Splash Mountain for a few of us – it was the last day to ride it, as it was going down for a refurbishment beginning in the morning. We were now in the window, so my Dad and I headed in that direction. I have no idea where Lisa and Trevor went after the Tiki Room – they might have come with to say hi to Luke’s family?
It’s probably a good thing there weren’t any children in our boat on Splash haha – my Dad was yelling a few obscenities as we made our way down the big hill hahaha. He was white-knuckling that bar in front of us, and told me I was so brave for putting my arms up haha. (Spoiler alert – at the end of the week he declared Splash Mountain his favourite ride so I guess he wasn’t that scared of it). Despite the look on Jill’s face, she also enjoyed it. Laura hates heights, so she wasn’t a huge fan – but I’m happy she tried it! Cathy had been on it before.
Around the exact same time, Larissa and Devin were over in Hollywood Studios braving the Tower of Terror. I have no idea if they made it to their other two Fastpasses, or exactly what they did after we split from them, but I do have this Photopass picture of them on the ride –
After Splash, we went for a snack at Aloha Isle. There was talk about going on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride, but the line was too long (??) so we headed over to Fantasyland so Cathy could go on the Carousel (apparently they are her favourite). I was a huge grump and refused to go on it with everyone – I think even my Dad might have even gone on it? I took zero pictures. The group decided to head back to OKW and take a bit of a break before our super later diner reservation, so they all headed out to catch a bus together. I have no idea if they went straight to the buses, or if they stopped along the way – it was probably for the best that they left, I don’t think I was the best company at that point. Sorry to those around me that evening!
I spent a few minutes alone, trying to shake the miserable mood I was in. I was texting my two bridesmaids, they had arrived today and after checking in to their room at OKW, they had come straight to Magic Kingdom. Their flight was a bit late, so they were later than they thought they’d be getting to the park and had missed their first fastpass – but they had made it in time for their Splash Mountain one –
In the very front is Lauren, who I met in 2007. She is one of the funniest people I know, and always makes me laugh – we’ve had some adventures over the years haha. She was one of the few who had been to Disney before, but it had been years prior – and she hadn’t stayed on property before. This trip renewed her love for Disney, and she actually booked another trip shortly after getting home – she went in 2019 with her Mom and one of her sisters, and had another trip booked for 2020 (which obviously she had to cancel due to the pandemic). She’s been asking me when my next trip to WDW is, so I know she’ll be joining us the next time we go 🙂
In the second row is Steph, who I met in 2006 during our freshman week in university. Beside her is her boyfriend at the time, Ryan (they are now married). Steph has always been the responsible, smart one of our friend group – but she was always willing to join us on our crazy shenanigans’! This was the first time to a Disney Park for both her and Ryan, and I’m sure they will join us again one day (when we take our children together)!
Our first big group meal was at ‘Ohana. We had made the reservation pretty late, at 9:45pm so everyone could enjoy their day. Luke and his family, along with my Dad took a Minnie Van from Old Key West to the Polynesian. This was back when the prices were actually fairly similar, and with five of them it just made sense to order a van. Luke actually doesn’t remember any of this, he was exhausted – but we looked at his Lyft ride history and found that they had called their ride at 8:14pm.
Since they were there so early, they headed outside to the Tiki Terrace for a drink, and they watched the Electrical Water Pageant. Luke had… this to drink? I’m assuming it’s the Spikey Pineapple – Barbancourt Pango Rhum blended with Pineapple Soft-serve. He seems to recall my Dad buying it for him? Look – I’m writing this almost 4 years after it happened so the little details are a bit blurry haha.
Enjoy a single blurry photo of the Electrical Water Pageant haha –
Devin and Larissa arrived separately, after spending a few hours at Hollywood Studios that afternoon they had gone back to their room at All Star Music to freshen up before catching an Uber to the Polynesian. I arrived with Lauren, Steph and Ryan, the four of us took the monorail over from Magic Kingdom. And my best friend Ashley and her husband Mike took an Uber from Old Key West. This was actually the first time I got to see Ashley in Florida (I was at her house the day before we had flown down, she was the one who watched our dogs for the first 3-4 days of our trip). Ashley and Mike had spent the day at Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure so they could see the Harry Potter land – I can claim responsibility for getting Ashley hooked on the Harry Potter books years prior haha.
I believe we had originally made this reservation for 20 – at the 180 day mark when we made our ADR’s, we didn’t have a 100% accurate guest count, or know the exact dates/times of everyone’s flights. When we checked in, we just let them know we were actually a group of 13 – this happened numerous times over the next few days, and it was never an issue that we showed up with fewer than expected.
Since it was so late, the restaurant was not 100% full, but it was still fairly busy. They weren’t able to sit all 13 of us at one table, but they were able to get us tables side by side – Luke’s table had 6 (Luke, Laura, Cathy, Jill, Devin and Larissa), while my table had 7 (Lauren, Steph, Ryan, Dad, Ashley, Mike and I).
This was an easy meal with a large group, since it’s a set menu that is served family style. We did have it noted on our reservation that Larissa was vegan, and one of the chefs came over to talk to her. She gave them complete control and told them to make whatever they’d like for her – I didn’t see it or take pictures of it, but they apparently brought her a giant stir-fry filled with lots of veggies and tofu, and she said it was delicious. So never be afraid of any Disney restaurants if you have a special diet – the chefs will always take great care of you!
Almost everyone at Luke’s table just went with the soft drinks included in the cost of the meal, but my table went fancy haha. I can’t remember exactly who had what, but someone (I think Lauren) ordered a Lapu Lapu – Plantation Original Dark Rum and Tropical Fruit Juices served in a fresh Pineapple topped with Bacardi 151 Rum, $14.25 (I just checked, and this same drink now costs $18 as of October 2021). There was also a Whiskey Breeze – Jim Beam Black Extra-aged Bourbon, Cointreau, and Lime Juice with flavors of Guava and Mango, $11.25 ($14 as of October 2021), and a bottle of Stella, $8.25 (I believe that was Ryan’s), and a bottle of Coors Light, $5.25 (sounds like my Dad’s order). Two people decided they wanted Frozen Pina Colada’s, $9.25 – but they wanted it served in a pineapple. Turns out this is something they can do, it’s just a $5/pineapple upcharge! I was really exciting and ordered a Coke. As for pictures of the drinks – I have this single blurry odd-angled one which you can kind of see a pineapple…
On to the food! This was difficult, I hadn’t conditioned everyone to let me take pictures first, so as soon as the platters were placed on our table everyone started digging right in haha. This meal starts with the Pineapple Coconut Bread – which I always find to be really dry, and not even butter can help it. Don’t waste valuable stomach space on this! The appetizer salad is nice – nothing special but I appreciate some vegetables while in Disney since I never eat enough healthy things on vacation.
I took a photo of my sad looking plate for some reason? A single chicken wing, a single potsticker, some dry bread, one piece of broccoli and a small pile of noodles – I guess I was on a diet to make sure my wedding dress fit? I must have ate more than this…
They did bring us out a second main platter, and I managed to get a decent picture of it before everyone started digging in – Honey Coriander Chicken Wings, Pork Dumplings, Teriyaki Noodles and mixed vegetables –
The stand-out item for me are the noodles.
The servers also came around skewers of chicken thighs, steak and shrimp – I probably passed on all of them. I don’t eat seafood, the steak is typically cooked around medium and I’m not a fan of dark meat chicken. Basically – this meal really isn’t worth it for me (but I’ve ate there 3 times now for supper…)
Of course, the meal finishes with the amazing ‘Ohana bread pudding – this is my favourite part of the entire meal haha. The caramel sauce is so good – I believe Jill was loving it over at Luke’s table too.
I think everyone really liked this meal – at least we didn’t hear any complaints, and my table finished off two of the main platters haha. Lauren actually returned to WDW the following year with her Mom and sister, and they ate supper at ‘Ohana twice that week haha.
I had let the server know at the beginning of the meal that I had a Tables in Wonderland card, which was supposed to give a 20% food and beverage discount for up to 10 people. When they brought me the bill, they had actually applied the TIW discount to all 13 of us! This was awesome! I paid for the meal, and everyone just gave Luke or I some cash over the next few days.
This was by far the largest restaurant bill I’ve ever paid for haha –
Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $34.11 Savings this Meal: $125.40 Total Saved: Full cost of card + $91.29
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $91.60 Actual Cost: $73.27 (just Luke and I counted here) Over/Under: Under by $18.33 Remaining: $1145.90
After Test Track, Laura and Cathy decided it was time for a coffee. They found a Joffrey’s stand close by and found a spot to sit down to enjoy. The other four of us – Jill, Devin, Larissa and I – went and jumped into the standby line for Mission Space: Green side.
After our trip to Space, we went and watched marathoners for awhile, cheering them on. We were predicting Luke to finish sometime between noon-1pm, so we still had time before he’d be making his way into Epcot, so we decided to grab some food and headed over to Sunshine Seasons. When we got down there, Cathy made a comment about Soarin’, and how it was one of her favourites from her previous trip years ago – I had intentionally not scheduled a Fastpass for that for anyone, as we had a special surprise planned involving that ride so I just made a nonchalant comment about the long wait time haha.
After checking out the menu, Laura and Cathy decided they weren’t hungry, and left to go wander around. The rest of us ate though – Larissa is a vegan and Sunshine Seasons had decent options for her, which is why I suggested it. You can read about my meal over here.
Once we finished eating, we noticed that Living With the Land was a walk-on. I knew that Larissa would love this, so I led the way over. Laura and Cathy had rejoined us, so all 6 of us went on this.
While we were riding, Luke texted me. He was unfortunately not going to finish the marathon, and been swept from the course around the 32km mark for not maintaining the minimum speed required. He was currently being loaded onto a bus which would take him to the finish line (just past Epcot). While training, he had a knee injury that set him back (he was actually diagnosed in 2021 with severe arthritis and a torn meniscus in his knee – which I’m sure dates back years), and he was sick in December which derailed his final month of training – so he knew this would be a possibility. However – he still ran 32km that morning! 32! I was so proud of him! There’s no way I could have accomplished something like that today.
The 6 of us set off to go meet him by the finish line. Once we exited Epcot we were basically walking just beside the actual race route, so we watched dozens of people in the final km of their full marathon. By this point all of the true athletes had long since finished, so these were just regular, everyday people accomplishing one of the greatest achievements – I always find it very motivational to be near the finish line of an event like this!
The walk was actually farther than I thought it was going to be – but there was no way I was about to complain while seeing all these people who were about to finish a full marathon!
Eventually we found the area just past the finish line, where Luke had been dropped off. Even though he didn’t finish, he still received the medal and the special marathon ears, and we made him pose while we all took pictures of him haha
Also – I can’t seem to find any of Luke’s Photopass pictures from the marathon, and now I’m questioning if I ever downloaded them – major fail on my part. I feel terrible if that’s the case… He didn’t really stop for any of the characters though because he felt like his pace was off right from the beginning, and he wanted to make it as far as possible, but there should have been photos of him actually running. The only picture he has on his phone is this one – Richard was out cheering on the racers so Luke stopped for a selfie. For those who don’t know, Richard was a long-time greeter at the Grand Floridian, and he was a very well-known man in the Disney Wedding community. He sadly passed away a few months after this trip, at the age of 92.
After congratulating Luke, we all split up. Luke went alone to catch a bus back to Old Key West so he could shower, eat and have a nap. Devin and Larissa headed back into Epcot, walked over to the International Gateway and exited the park. From there, they caught a boat over to Hollywood Studios (this was their only real option to see that park, so I had set up their fastpasses for that park). Laura, Cathy, Jill and I went in a different direction, and hopped on the monorail. It was time for us to park hop, and introduce Luke’s family to their second Disney park!
