While a 3:30 am alarm is MUCH better than a 2:15 am alarm, it is still entirely too early. I managed to get my act together though, and was awake enough to answer the door when Stacie arrived. Barely. I don’t know how she manages to be just as happy and wonderful at that time of day as she was during the hair trial, but she pulls it off quite well.
I sat down in her chair and we started the hair process all over again. The good news is getting your hair and make-up done is pretty much always fun.
Animal Kingdom wasn’t originally on our radar for photos, but we decided to add it during the booking process when I found out how inexpensive it is to add a second park, and I’m so glad we did.
We were once again downstairs right on time. This time Stacie and I remembered to take a selfie, but it must be on her phone because I can’t find it. Mike and Mr. Awesome-Assistant-Who’s-Name-I-Have-Forgotten were waiting out front for us, this time with a sleek black SUV.
“We got you guys an upgrade!”
We pulled into the Animal Kingdom backstage area behind Africa in the same route that RunDisney races usually take into Animal Kingdom. However, we didn’t have any Africa locations on our “must do” list, so we started with the tiger trails in Asia.
Sadly, the kitties were not out yet. Some of the deer were though!
The dynamic with the photographers was so much better than the day before. There was none of the stress, and now we had a better idea of how to work together. They knew that Jay just knows how to pose, but you have to tell me exactly what to do, that I can’t do serious to save my life, but, I am oh so sassy. After walking around a cruise ship and the Magic Kingdom, I finally had the hang of walking in the dress, and getting it to fall where I wanted.
It was so much more fun than the day before had been.
I don’t think nearly as many bridal portraits are taken at Animal Kingdom as they are Magic Kingdom. We saw several star struck Cast Members, who were so excited to see us. By the time we made our way over to the Tree of Life, over by the exit for it’s tough to be a bug, there were guests in the park. We saw two families that skirted around us as we were taking pictures, and we had to cut through a crowd of guests that were waiting for rope drop at the bridge to make our way back to Africa. Thankfully people were more than happy to step aside, and I’ve never had so many strangers tell me I looked beautiful.
We had a little time left, so we did end up taking a few photos in Africa. I’ll admit, I don’t have as many clear-cut memories of this day, as I do the previous because it was all a fun, sleep-deprived blur, so I don’t have as many details to share.
I cannot say enough good things about Mike and his assistant, and I can’t tell you how terrible I feel that I don’t remember his name. I put off writing these articles for a while and I should have taken better notes. They went above and beyond for us. They busted their butts and it showed.
They drove us back to the Yacht Club, and we handed them all the cash we had left from the trip.
Now we had to pack up the room and check out before our final reservation at Trattoria al Forna for the Bon Voyage Breakfast, another character meal I’d always wanted to try. It features Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Prince Eric, and Ariel. Changing out of my wedding dress for the last time was easy and a big relief, packing up the room, not so much. I put on the white Castle dress one more time, and Jay decided to just wear his suit without the jacket. I don’t know how we managed to get so spread out in two days, but it was impressive. Then we had to call a bellman in order to get a cart. I waited for him while Jay went ahead to get the car. I had to carry our multiple flower arrangements by hand, since they would have toppled off the cart too easily.
The bellman told me to go ahead and he would meet me, so I did, and I got down to the front just in time to set my stuff down when Jay called.
“Uh, did you know about this?”
“Know about what?”
“The car!”
“What about the car?”
“You need to come see this!”
“Well, I have a lot of stuff to carry, just bring it up here.”
“That’s going to take a minute. Hang on!”
He pulled up about the same time the bellman got there, and I was blown away. Suddenly Tess and Scott disappearing for a little while from the Boardwalk made sense!
Jay started to load the car, and the bellman kept trying to help, even though we told him we had it. I could tell he wanted his tip, and I can’t blame him, but we had nothing to give him because we’d given it all to the photographers. I should have saved a little cash, because that was awkward. I blame lack of sleep for not thinking of that sooner. Oh well.
We could have left our car at the Yacht Club and walked over to the Boardwalk, but I knew we wouldn’t want to walk back after breakfast, so we drove over. Nice thing about having a dining reservation; they don’t give you any pushback about parking!
We made our way through the resort, and had this funny moment when we were coming up alongside a family with teenagers. The dad took one look at us, and moved the whole family out of the way because, we “looked more important.” We laughed and thanked them.
We got to Trattoria al Forna and went up to check-in, only for the hostess to tell us that Flynn Rider was on a secret mission and would not be joining us today. Instead Elena of Avalor would be visiting us. We sat down and I looked at Jay.
“I don’t wanna do this if Flynn’s not here. It’s too expensive. We can meet Elena any day at Magic Kingdom.”
It’s true. Most of the reason I wanted this character meal is that meeting Flynn Rider and Prince Eric is next to impossible. If they’d replaced him with another hard to find character, I might have wanted to stay, but not a princess you can meet any day, from a show I’ve never seen.
We went back up to the hostess and explained the situation. Thankfully, she was very understanding and sent us on our way. I called my mom to let her know we’d be getting back to the house earlier than expected. Dad and Malcolm had already left, but her flight wasn’t until the next night.
We headed back to the house where Mom was happy to see us, the dog was overjoyed, and the cat was angry at us for leaving in the first place. We ended up going out to lunch at Fancy Sushi out in Clermont, which is our favorite place to eat after Big Fin. Then it was time for a nap!
We had Fastpasses that evening at Animal Kingdom for Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, and Flight of Passage. Mom said it was okay if we didn’t go, and Jay was almost begging me not to. However, Lauren was waiting for us at Animal Kingdom, and it was our last chance to see her before she flew back to LA. Plus, it’s not like we get Flight of Passage Fastpasses every day. We missed Dinosaur and Everest, but we made it in time for Flight of Passage!
So, that is the end of our week long wedding adventure! Writing it was harder than I expected. Usually when we’re doing stuff that I’m going to write an article about, I go in with a specific mindset, and it’s hard to do that when you’re also trying to be “in the moment” at your own wedding.
Thanks for going on this adventure with us! I hope you had as much fun as we did! I’m not done talking about my wedding quite yet. I have a couple more articles planned, and I’ll eventually be able to publish Day Seven Parts 1 and 2 so stick around!
